"No Name #1" by Elliott Smith.

"Strawberry Letter 23" by Shuggie Otis.

Krzysztof Penderecki's "Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima" as performed by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antoni Wit.

 "Children Of The Grave" by Black Sabbath.

 

"Starless" by King Crimson.

"The Noonward Race" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

"Sunrise" by Pulp.

 

Sunday

"Napoleon Solo" by At The Drive-In.

The second movement of Philip Glass' Violin Concerto No. 1, as performed by the Ulster Orchestra with Adele Anthony as soloist, conducted by Takuo Yuasa. A good friend of mine inadvertently introduced me to it after I started flicking through his copy of Chuck Palahniuk's Rant, and caught sight of a passage which mentioned Ravel's glorious Piano Concerto in G, a work I already loved. I hadn't heard the other piece - Glass' Violin Concerto - but soon fell in love with that as well...

"1970" by The Stooges.

 

Friday Firsts

"Fake Empire" by The National.

"The Loom" by Bark Psychosis.

"Chain Of Fools" by Aretha Franklin.

  

Thursday

"Killing All The Flies" by Mogwai.

"Aire de Zamba" from Agustín Barrios' Suite Andina, as performed by Antigoni Goni.

"The Kid From Red Bank" by Count Basie.

"Not For Want Of Trying" by Maybeshewill. The speech is by Peter Finch (the first person to receive a posthumous acting Oscar; Heath Ledger was the second, fact fans) from the 1976 film Network.

A scorching live performance of "Nutville" by The Horace Silver Quintet. Yeah, Billy Cobham again. Yeah, he's amazing.

"The Art Of Easing" by Digable Planets, from their second album Blowout Comb, which is still one of my favourite hip-hop records.

"Broken Chords Can Sing A Little" by A Silver Mt. Zion.

"Ondine", the first movement of Ravel's notoriously difficult "Gaspard de la Nuit". Played live by the one and only Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. An amazing performance.

Monday

Some songs from the '80s:

"Monkeyland" by The Chameleons.

"The Killing Moon" by Echo & The Bunnymen.

"Medicine Bow" by The Waterboys.

"So You Say You Lost Your Baby" by Death In Vegas. A fine cover of Gene Clark's original.

Claudio Arrau playing the final movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23, better known as the "Appassionata". Ivy managed to find something to dance to in this!

"Sweet Thing" by Van Morrison.

Friday

"Why Didn't Rosemary" by Deep Purple, from their third, self-titled album - the last featuring the original line-up.

"La Guernica" by Billy Cobham. The drumming!

"The Awakening Of A Woman (Burnout)" by The Cinematic Orchestra.

"Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill" by Hüsker Dü.

"Tennessee Waltz" by Sam Cooke.

 

"Dancing Girl" by Terry Callier.

"Sinnerman" by Nina Simone.

 

Tuesday

"Fisherman's Blues" by The Waterboys.

As it's St. Valentine's Day, here's some Kyuss:

Monday

"Roads" by Portishead:

"Pay Not Play Not" by Max Roach and Hassan Ibn Ali:

News of the death of Whitney Houston broke today - here's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", which I've chosen largely because I used to hear it at least five times a day whenever I visited my Auntie as a young boy. Whatever my reservations about some of her music, she had an astonishing voice:

"New Dawn Fades" by Joy Division:

Friday Firsts

Thought I'd start posting the occasional 'First' - an opening track that I like, and/or from one of my favourite albums. This is "Hors d'oeuvres" by Roy Harper, the first song on Stormcock.

On a completely different note, this is "Stem/Long Stem" by DJ Shadow:

 

"I Used To Try" by Nancy Elizabeth. I'd never heard of her before last night, when I caught her performing a stunning solo version of a song called "Echoing Telephone" on Tony Livesey's Radio FiveLive show. I don't think that song has been released yet (she's currently recording a new album), so here's another:

"Garvey's Ghost" by Max Roach

"Let England Shake" by PJ Harvey. Another of Ivy's favourites.

On a completely different note, I've also had this cartoon classic in my head most of the evening.

Monday

"Reflection" by Tool. Danny Carey. That is all.

"The Rose With A Broken Neck" by Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi. Heard this whilst Lauren, Ivy and I were in the café at Spike Island this afternoon and hunted it down immediately:

On a completely different note, I've just been listening to a World Routes tribute to Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora, featuring Tito Paris performing "Regresso" (a song he wrote for Évora). Here's the very different, but equally lovely version by Évora:

Saturday

12-hour shift at work...listened to this all the way home. The classic "Turn The Page" by The Streets given a little twist in N29's Under The Streets Edit. Thanks to Nick Whittingham for bringing this to my attention a few months ago.

Friday Folk

"Solid Air" by John Martyn, the beautiful title track from his 1973 album, and a tribute to Nick Drake:

Thursday

"Me And My Woman" by Roy Harper. The closing track from his brilliant Stormcock album.

More Air-Drumming

"Lipstick Vogue" by Elvis Costello. The cause of more terrifying/hilarious air-drumming from Ivy. Brilliant bass playing from Bruce Thomas on this track (not to mention the rest of This Year's Model).

Talking of great bass playing, here's John Entwistle messing about in The Who's "The Real Me":

Tuesday

"Memorial" by Explosions In The Sky.

Monday

Chopin's Barcarolle as performed by Dinu Lipatti, my favourite classical pianist. I'm strongly convinced that 1:25 - 1:50 is some sort of pinnacle of musical beauty.

Sunday

"Vital Transformation" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Another astonishing drum intro - not that you'd expect anything less from Billy Cobham. The rest of the band know their way around their instruments too...

Saturday

"Pursuance" by John Coltrane. The way Elvin Jones resolves his opening drum solo at around 1:30 never gets old.

Friday Fusion

"All In The Family" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra. One of my favourite drum intros, courtesy of Narada Michael Walden.