An article in New Scientist about the Voyager 1 space craft caught the Crotchety eye the other day. It reports that the primary thrusters that keep Voyager's antenna pointing towards Earth are beginning to fail. Voyager does have backup thrusters but they had not been fired since 1980 so NASA's engineers did not know if they would…Read more The Fairie Round
Track of the Week
August & September
Donning his pith helmet and carrying his elephant gun Crotchety Man went out hunting for tracks on the theme of autumn. It proved to be a disappointing expedition. To my mind autumn is a gloriously uplifting time of year and yet all the songs relating to the third quarter of the calendar seem to…Read more August & September
To Luminous Scale
A few days ago I was reading an article by Thomas Hatton on proglodytes.com titled "Some of modern prog's best frontmen are ... women". It makes the point that the progressive rock genre is usually regarded as something reserved for the male of our species, a decorative accessory to the boys' toys that we use to…Read more To Luminous Scale
The Brief and Neverending Blur
One entry in my Release Radar this week stopped me in my woozle tracks. The ears pricked up automatically when I heard something very much like the soft call of a Hidden Orchestra. The eyes opened a little wider when I saw the contrary title, The Brief and Neverending Blur. When I saw Richard Reed…Read more The Brief and Neverending Blur
The Lesson
Do you believe in formal education or are you a proponent of the school of hard knocks? Was your schooling a good preparation for your adult life or did it squeeze every precious drop of creativity from your soul like the juice of the lemon in a lemonade press? Did you leave school/university a rounded…Read more The Lesson
Tears in Heaven
While idly browsing the Web the other day, with my Release Radar playing in the background, my thoughts were hijacked by a bluesy bass solo. I knew immediately that it was something by Colin Hodgkinson. It had to be him because nobody plays bass like Colin Hodgkinson. Switching to the Spotify window I saw the…Read more Tears in Heaven
Starless
For those who are unfamiliar with the British folk music scene The Unthanks are a five-piece folk group led by sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank. The band was formed in 2004 as an all female group called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. After lineup changes that brought Adrian McNally into the band as pianist, arranger, producer…Read more Starless
Purinjiti
Today Crotchety Man is venturing off the beaten tracks, out into the trackless wastes of the Australian desert. He is the dark-skinned messenger carrying news of a recent performance of an atmospheric piece by the British composer David Warin Solomons. The message is both verbal and symbolic. As he walks barefoot over the sun-baked earth…Read more Purinjiti
Corner Painter
Q: What's small, female, Australian and brilliant? A: Tal Wilkenfeld. No, it's not a joke. It's what I asked Mrs. Crotchety the other day after reading a blog post by CirdecSongs. The article was a personal appreciation of Jeff Beck and it just happened to mention Beck's bass player on his Live At Ronnie Scott's…Read more Corner Painter
Bolek i Lolek
Nearly a year ago now Crotchety Man got very excited about a band/project called Hidden Orchestra. Regular readers will remember my review of the album Archipelago in which I introduced the term "orchestral beats" to describe the music of Joe Acheson and his collaborators. Since then there has been one other post in these pages…Read more Bolek i Lolek
Crotchety Man 