Doing the p-Pod shuffle

Tuesday 15 September - Yep, I didn't make it out at the weekend so you'll have to put up with my rambling musings instead. Porcupine Tree's The Incident has just plopped through my letter-box, and Muse's The Resistance is on its way as well, so you can expect reviews shortly. In the meantime, I have recently acquired Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster and Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I didn't have any Atomic Rooster material previously, but while trawling through some random recordings I stumbled across them playing at Prog At The BBC, playing Tomorrow Night and was so impressed that I acquired their second, and most successful album. Utterly fantastic. Whilst the guitar playing and soloing was superb, what really stood out for me was the keyboards. I could hear shades of Keith Emerson and Jon Lord in there. Not surprising really, as poking about on Pikiwedia I discovered that they toured with Deep Purple, and Carl Palmer drummed with them on their first album, so founder and keyboardist Vincent Crane clearly wore his influences on his sleeve. The great thing about this album is that despite being released in September 1970, it still sounds fresh and relevant today.

In stark contrast, The Inner Mounting Flame proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Whilst I can acknowledge the technical performances of the band members, I found this form of jazz fusion to be difficult to access. Each track sounded the same, they lacked a 'hook', which may sound shallow, but that's the way it is. I suspect that it'll take a few listens for this album to grow on me. I'll persevere.

So, on to the p-Pod shuffle, which is to say, I set my Zen Mosaic to random to see what played, and here it is:

1. 98 Pages - Help Yourself. Just one of the top tracks from the outstanding debut album, Broken House And The Halfway House, from these York-based rockers.


2. Seahorses - I Want You To Know. Back to the halcyon days of 1997's Brit-pop. This was the opening track to their only album, Do It Yourself and, of course, there is a York connection via vocalist/guitarist Chris Helme.


3. Gene - New Amusements. Taken from another 1997 album Drawn To The Deep End, I just love Martin Rossiter's voice. Bizarrely, as I'm writing this, I'm playing Take Off Your Colours by Surrey-band youmeatsix and Josh Franceschi's vocals are very Gene-esque. My world is full of weird coincidences.


4. Hope&Social - Drink The Drink. Track four is actually track four from Architect Of This Church, H&S's first album under their new moniker. I just love everything these guys do.


5. Ash - Innocent Smile. I think my Zen is a time-loop. From the 1996 album 1977. This was before Charlotte Hatherley joined the band. Charlotte is playing at The Duchess this Saturday (19 September 2009).


6. Lit - The Best Is Yet To Come Undone. Now this is why I love shuffle. I haven't heard this track for ages. This track is from their 1999 platinum selling album, A Place In The Sun.


7. Scheer - Demon. Irish alt-rock from 1996 album Infliction. This track was released as a single on 8 April 1997. Audrey Gallagher's vocals get me every time. Shame that their second album, ...and finally, got tangled in contractual difficulties with their label, 4AD, and didn't see the light of day until mid-2000 on the band's own Schism Records label. By that time the band had ceased to exist. I wonder where they are now?