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Thread: Canterbury Binge: 2021

  1. #1
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Canterbury Binge: 2021

    It is the 27th of December. After much merrymaking and yuletide capering, I awaken leisurely and inchmeal to a hushed, milky snowscape lit by the gleaming sun of a new winter. A glance through my window reveals foggy-minded townsfolk strolling without apparent purpose, unsure of responsibilities in this surreal week betwixt seasonal observances. Murky wisps of steam belch forth from my mug of strong, freshly-brewed java, its porcelain emblazoned with artwork featuring two moles (who happen to match).

    A dreadful and unfortunate year has nearly drawn to its merciful close, and as the comforting notes of Soft Machine's Live At The Baked Potato CD flutter forth from my stereo, I ponder the uncertainty of the new year so soon upon us. But in this 'rosy-fingered dawn', I am reminded that music remains a treasured and constant companion, perhaps never more essential to me than this moment, right here and now. It hoisted my spirits during the gloomy goings-on of 2020, and it occurs to me that it shall continue to do so, without complaint, and I am rather suddenly more hopeful. How lucky I am - we are - to have this gift. Our cup runneth over.

    Welcome, one and all, to the feast of Canterbury for the year MMXXI. Partake of its restorative properties. Gorge yourselves.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

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  2. #2
    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    Cheers Lornester....I'm in

    I have to ad it that I cheated by listening to The Rotters Club and Blind Dog at St. Dunstan's yesterday, but Soft at the Baked Potato sounds like a great "official" kick off.
    If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.

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    That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson

  3. #3
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    Cheers Lornester....I'm in

    I have to ad it that I cheated by listening to The Rotters Club and Blind Dog at St. Dunstan's yesterday, but Soft at the Baked Potato sounds like a great "official" kick off.
    I was pleased to find it in my Christmas stocking, after somehow continually overlooking it in my own purchases this year. Kudos to my wife on that one!

    I don't know what it is about this time of year, but the Canterbury vibe is so strong. And even stronger come the bleak, quiet days of January, post-holiday madness. I look forward to it every year.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

    *** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***

  4. #4
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    It was a dark and stormy night,
    We were standing on the deck,
    The ship was sinking,
    The captain said to me
    "Tell me a story my son" and so I began,
    It was a dark and stormy night,
    We were standing on the deck,
    The ship was sinking,
    The captain said to me
    "Tell me a story my son" and so I began....

    Hey, here's a Canterbury album to soothe the ravage beast in your soul; "Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into", a Gilgamesh classic in my view. It doesn't get the rave reviews that their debut album or "Arriving Twice" receives, but I think of it as really very well done. The Gowan keyboard wizardry was outstanding.

  5. #5
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SunRunner2 View Post

    Hey, here's a Canterbury album to soothe the ravage beast in your soul; "Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into", a Gilgamesh classic in my view. It doesn't get the rave reviews that their debut album or "Arriving Twice" receives, but I think of it as really very well done. The Gowan keyboard wizardry was outstanding.
    Love it. I picked up the Esoteric CD reissue several years back and it's one that always sees the light of day when the new years 'binges' get underway.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

    *** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***

  6. #6
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chalkpie View Post
    Cheers Lornester....I'm in
    No way.

  7. #7
    I'm here for the moosic NogbadTheBad's Avatar
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    I'm IN
    Ian

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  8. #8
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Now listening to Softs at the Baked Potato, and "Another Fine Tune..." in the queue. Now that I've realized you can put whole albums into a Spotify playlist, I'm in business! I'm finally using playlists. I have the Gilgamesh on Spalax or or something, but I won't even bother trying to find it since it's on Spotify. Yay.

    Also, a nice Armagnac next to me, and a pipeful of a very nice tobacco that I won't bore you with. Here we go...

    Cheers!

  9. #9
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    I'm forging on with Caravan & The New Symphonia. Also, I've changed the tobacco to Cornell & Diehl's "Old Joe Krantz."

  10. #10
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    Also, I've changed the tobacco to Cornell & Diehl's "Old Joe Krantz."
    So that's what happened to him!

  11. #11
    Currently playing Live at the Baked Potato, even though I'm a couple of days late. This is a good choice to kick things off with.

    I'm so happy that the Canterbury Binge is here once again.

  12. #12
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    What a great band that is on Live @ Baked Potato! IMHO best album yet from the SML/SM boys. So fiery and confident. ( I realize I sound like a PR blurb, but it is that good)

    Also been listening to the new, archival SoftWorks live release from 2003. TBH that band was still a little tentative at the time despite all the great players, particularly noticeable when played right after Baked Potato. But by Disc 2 Allan H seems to find his footing and lays down some inspired solos cf "Abracadabra".

  13. #13
    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    Yeah that Baked Potato gig was outstanding. Great sound too.

    Today I did;
    Egg Polite Force
    SM Baked Potato
    Gilgamesh s/t

    All great. Haven't heard Gilgamesh a ton of times so its fresh and yummy. Polite Force is one of the greatest trio albums ever.

  14. #14
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    New Symphonia was a bad choice - that album sucks! Tonight I'm hitting the hard stuff: Hatfield self-titled!

    That was my first time listening to Softs Baked Potato last night. I agree it's a great album.

    I think next for me after the Hatfield will be the Gong 25th Birthday Party album. I love that one, that tour was the first of only two times that I saw Gong live.

  15. #15
    Member Kcrimso's Avatar
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    Just listening Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into (1978) by Gilgamesh. I much prefer this to the debut album.
    My progressive music site: https://pienemmatpurot.com/ Reviews in English: https://pienemmatpurot.com/in-english/

  16. #16
    Member Mascodagama's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SunRunner2 View Post
    Hey, here's a Canterbury album to soothe the ravage beast in your soul; "Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into", a Gilgamesh classic in my view. It doesn't get the rave reviews that their debut album or "Arriving Twice" receives, but I think of it as really very well done. The Gowan keyboard wizardry was outstanding.
    Quote Originally Posted by Kcrimso View Post
    Just listening Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into (1978) by Gilgamesh. I much prefer this to the debut album.
    I'm a big fan too. Canterbury at its jazziest, or jazz at its most Canterburian. A great one to enjoy in front of the fire on a cold day.
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  17. #17
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    New Symphonia was a bad choice - that album sucks! Tonight I'm hitting the hard stuff: Hatfield self-titled!
    Ohhhhh, I don't agree there. Love New Symphonia, and in fact it's been a while, so I thank you for reminding me to pull it from the shelf!

    As for Hatfield, it doesn't get more superb and classic than that for me.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

    *** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Kcrimso View Post
    Just listening Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into (1978) by Gilgamesh. I much prefer this to the debut album.
    We can go up and down about this as before, but I personally think the two are so different from each other that comparisons won't really do. The debut oozes with charm and a sense of plain naivité which crashes with the obvious aspirations and ambitions of the music, while the followup certainly sits amongst the most self-assured releases ever from the whole Canterbury canon. It serves neither of them to spin back-to-back.

    For my part, Canterbury was always a treat of spring rather than winter, one definite exception being Before a Word Is Said by Gowen/Miller/Sinclair/Tomkins, which IMO of course was the final landmark of the "classic" Canterbury era.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  19. #19
    I love Playtime.

    While I admire the whole writing, playing, overall atmosphere of Another Fine Day, it fails to engage me in a complete way on the emotional level. Sometimes it's like reading a book in a language I don't understand. Sometimes it sounds like complexity for the sake of it.

    And yet it's a record I always return to with interest, an affair that hasn't finished its work on me. And that is a good thing, and a proof of its worth.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Zappathustra View Post
    Sometimes it sounds like complexity for the sake of it.
    Formalism, in other words. But to Gowen's credit, he would even attempt that as a conscious aesthetic asset in simply asserting its effect, thus basically imposing it with a certain artistic innocence. Did he always succeed? Definitely not, but he was still a rather young man on trying. Still overall I prefer Before a Word to almost anything else he was involved in except for the debut Health.

    Playtime is interesting for its exposure of conceptual integrity in that "dominant improvisation" apparently didn't sit too comfortably with a couple of the performers, Gowen in particular. Some of it works, some of it arguably doesn't. Yet today I see this release as far more of a "true" component of the Health dsicography than I do D.S. Al Coda, which I could never really get into.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  21. #21
    Member interbellum's Avatar
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    Canterbury legends gathered in Soft Works: Abracadabra In Osaka.


  22. #22
    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    ^ never knew that existed...cheers. Did Gilgamesh Another Fine Tune today...I really enjoyed it. Love the Canterbury/jazz harmonic language, pretty complex stuff at points. Phil Lee is a great player. I don't think I own Arriving Twice, or I can't find it? I thought I had it.

  23. #23
    Think I'll spin some Gilgamesh today, since you gents brought it up.

    Edit: Listening to Another Fine Tune... right now. This is a great one for sure.
    Last edited by aith01; 12-29-2020 at 03:35 PM.

  24. #24
    What do you guys think of this
    For me the guitars harken Phil Miller or Fred Frith
    One of my favorite traks


  25. #25
    The baked Potato reminded me of this recording I made at RIO

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