The al-Shaheed Monument, Baghdad Credit goes to my Spotify-curated Release Radar playlist for this week's topic. Item 28 in the list was a track by Portico Quartet called On the Light. It comes from Monument, the second album released this year by the band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Eos6c-MPA Live at the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, Camden, London. 3 February…Read more Monument
post-rock
Order! Order!
Looking through my recent 'likes' I see several pieces worthy of a mention in these pages. So it's time for another playlist, methinks. But how do you choose the order of the tunes? Are there any rules? Or does it just come down to personal preference? And what happens if you get them horribly out…Read more Order! Order!
End VII
Can the ends ever justify the means? Take lying, for example. Are little white lies sometimes the morally correct thing to do or is it always wrong to be untruthful? Should you tell a seriously injured woman that her new-born baby was killed in the car crash that put her broken body in a hospital…Read more End VII
Manic Moonlight
On Friday Crotchety Man took his camera to the Crich Tramway Village in picturesque Derbyshire. He spent several hours the following day sifting through the photos, cropping them, straightening them and adjusting them for exposure and contrast. A selection was then published as an album on the photo hosting website, flickr. In doing so the photographer…Read more Manic Moonlight
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
Archipelago
In my last post I gave you a glimpse of ten islands strung out like opalescent pearls across a monochrome ocean, the Archipelago album by Hidden Orchestra. It was a deliberately tantalising glimpse and, before we go off to explore the rocks in that necklace, I'd like to take a moment to examine what made a simple listing of track…Read more Archipelago
Crotchety Man 