When you look up into a clear night sky the more distant the star the farther back in time you are seeing it. This is a simple consequence of the finite speed of light but it has profound implications for astronomy. By studying far away galaxies we can look back almost to the dawn of…Read more Far Skies Deep Time
Album of the Month
A Humdrum Star
For as long as the human race has existed we have tried to understand our place in the universe. It's a question that goes beyond "where are we?" to the deeper mystery of "who are we?". And scientists have given us some of the answers. We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a…Read more A Humdrum Star
But Wait … There’s More!
For this Album of the Month I was tempted to say simply, "see last month's post". You see, this is another review of a progressive rock live album by a band that has been around for more than 40 years and has recently found an astonishing new vitality. This time the band in question is…Read more But Wait … There’s More!
Radical Action …
The Buddha described the way our thoughts constantly nudge and jostle us as like a troop of drunken monkeys swinging from branch to branch. As each chattering simian swoops by its toothy grin mocks us for our failings. Behind us, it says, lie broken dreams, ahead of us endless trials and tribulations. And, as one…Read more Radical Action …
Burning Shed Free EP
Back in March 2017, in my Album of the Month post on Moroccan Roll by Brand X, I opined that the latest incarnation of the band had fully rekindled the energy and enthusiasm of their early albums. As evidence I cited a live version of Malaga Virgen recorded on their reunion tour just a few…Read more Burning Shed Free EP
A Kaleidoscope of Rainbows
Before we get into the new year in earnest here's a belated Album of the Month post originally scheduled for December 2017. The album in question is called A Kaleidoscope of Rainbows and it was one of my first forays into the hinterlands of jazz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImHQwOKyL5s I must have bought this record in the late seventies…Read more A Kaleidoscope of Rainbows
Earthworks/All Heaven …
Sit up straight and pay attention, everyone, because if you don't what follows will be terribly confusing. For this Album of the Month piece I'm going to review two albums by Bill Bruford's Earthworks. Yes, Smithers minor, this is cheating but it provides a partial solution to a difficult problem. You see, I am very…Read more Earthworks/All Heaven …
Feathers
As promised in the previous post, here is my review of Feathers, the 2014 album by Poppy Ackroyd. It will be brief, not because the music is dull but because no dictionary in Crotchety Man's extensive library has adequate words for the soothing, susurrating sounds that emanate from the hi-fi when it is commanded to…Read more Feathers
Strange Angels
Crotchety Man has been on holiday - one week in Devon with the missus and a tottery old man I call Dad. The weekly blog for 3rd September was written in advance, the draft was called up on the phone as we sat in the holiday cottage watching the rain stream down the windows and…Read more Strange Angels
Finale
A new album by Pentangle was released last year. Given that the band had split up shortly after I saw them in Oxford back in 1973¹ and, more pertinently, that two of them have died, it couldn't be a new recording. But it's not just another compilation, either. The original line-up reformed in 2008 and…Read more Finale
Crotchety Man 