Top Ten FB Album Challenge Part 6

Day 6.

            Blue Oyster Cult: Fire of Unknown Origin

            A fire of unknown origin took me away. An album full of science fiction apocalyptic sword fights was the perfect thing to find its way into my teenage conciousness. Thank you Blue Oyster Cult, the one true cult that I would gladly embrace.

            My friend Paul Armstrong had this cassette tape which we blasted often on his boom box in those lost daze.

            Not a bad tune to be found on this collection. Production by Martin Birch, straight up, top notch.

            Burnin For You is a nice rocking follow up song to the title track.

            The feedback driven guitars in Heavy Metal: The Black and Silver are so wonderfully twisted along with the demented lyrics.

            Joan Crawford features a hysterically odd tape/sample/collage subbing for a solo. What gruesome humor.

            Vengeance (The Pact) is a tight story driven song, of swords, and bird beasts. The time change is deftly executed.

            It would be really cool if BOC performed this entire album live. I know they played the complete first album live a few times a year or two ago so why not this one?

            It also has an intricately tripped out symbol crawling cover that would entertain a conspiracy theorist for hours.

            This album is just part of my feeble mind. It’s impossible for me to imagine it not being in my collection.

            Here’s the punky vampire song, After Dark. Terror took control and told me what to say…

           

Your faithful veteran of the psychic wars,

Count Robot

           

Top Ten FB Album Challenge Part 5

Day 5.

            Tangerine Dream: Green Desert

            Someone I knew let me listen to a cassette they recorded of this album. It was the first proper Tangerine Dream album I had ever heard. Of course I had heard their soundtracks to many different movies but none of that stuck to me so much.

            This album has stuck with me.

            I was told that the title track was a monster drum fest and I was informed correctly.

            Green Desert blew strange ethereal sounds backed by pounding mad drums and psych rock guitars that torched through my cheap stereo.

            This album only has four songs on it. The epic title track chews up side one. The next track White Clouds is like a mini-redux of the title track. Astral Voyager and Indian Summer are up next. These two tracks are ambient spacey trips to the inner grid.

            Many ages ago I remember walking into a chain movie theater in Somerville sitting down to wait for the movie to start and Astral Voyager was playing on the speakers! It then went right into Indian Summer then the trailers started. Who ever decided to play those before the movie, thank you! That movie theater no longer exists.

            Flash forward to a few years ago, my musical partner in crime, DNA girl, and I are discussing what our next album should be and it hits me to do our own bizarre tribute to this album, thus we created the Astro Al Purple Mushroom cd which is 4 tracks of spaced out madness tipping our hat to Green Desert with our of kilter science fiction trip out album.

            All TD fans have their go to album for the band, this one is mine even more so than Zeit which I discussed in a prior blog.

            Here is Indian Summer. The beautiful closing track.

Yours in astral voyages,

Count Robot

           

Top Ten FB Album Challenge Part 4

            Day 4.

            Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians: Globe of Frogs

            A time cube of psychedelic thoughts sprawling into songs. Songs that could have been written in 1960-1970-1980-1992 but recorded in the 80-90-00 time frame. That’s what this record is to me.

            This was the album that was predicted by many to help make Robyn huge, but much to the detriment of the music world it didn’t. An opening to a musical world that should be so much better than it’s present status. If he had been taken closer to mainstream it would open up more and more, but alas…

            “It rained, like a slow divorce and I wish I could ride a horse.” –Balloon Man. What a childish genius lyrical line! Robyn did some fantastic writing on this album.

            Robyn paints the world in words as strange as our reality.

            This album always makes me smile inside. This was the first Robyn Hitchcock album I heard. That is one reason why it sticks to me so strongly.

            Here’s Beatle Dennis

                         

           

Yours in Beatle Dennis,

Count Robot

Top Ten FB Album Challenge Part 3

Day 3.

            Rush: Power Windows.

            This was the first album of theirs to come out while I was actively in their thrall. Some people hated this record, that is their loss.

            To me it was an instant classic.

            “Better the pride that resides in a citizen of the world, than the pride that divides when a colorful rag is unfurled.” –That is one of my favorite bits of Rush lyrics right there. It comes from Territories. I deeply agree with that sentiment.

            Mystic Rhythms is a psychedelic classic with expansive lyrics. The thudding drum intro is entrancing. MTV used to play a video of Mystic Rythms which was directed by one of the Devo dudes.

            Here’s the video

            All the jams in Marathon make the song like a fine wine for the ears.

            Production wise this is a wonderfully crisply brightly sounding affair which matches the material perfectly.

            Lyrically Neal did some sharp, deft, writing. Consider this rail against conformity in Grand Designs, “Swimming against the stream, life in two dimensions is a mass production scheme.” Brilliant.

            The Power Windows tour was the first time I ever saw them thanks to my good friend Paul Armstrong. We went to the show on the old party bus from the store Stairway to Heaven in Boston, it was crazy.

            The Clockwork Angels tour was fantastic because they played a good chunk of Power Windows on that tour. Grand Designs even got a spin.

            I’ve heard all these songs live except for Emotion Detector, which I believe was never performed in concert.

            My personal connection to this album is that I never, ever get bored or tired of hearing it. If anything as time goes along, I like it even more.

Your Rush fan,

Count Robot

Top Ten FB Album Challenge Part 2

            Day 2.

            Rush: Moving Pictures

            What can I say about this album from my favorite band?

            The production is densely layered. Rush’s playing is just at an amazing level. Using Permanent Waves as a springboard from this record their writing is sharply crystallized packing a visceral punch.

            When I first heard this album it was already a few years in the rearview mirror, but that didn’t matter. The freshness of the album still resonated to me and in many ways whenever I listen to it there is a feeling of joy as if it’s a welcome familiar friend.

            How well do I know this album? Whenever I get any piece of new stereo equipment this is my go to album for testing it out. I know how this album should sound no matter what type of speaker/headphone it’s blasting through.

            In a snide review of Moving Pictures someone once suggested no one ever listens to side 2.

            Wrong!

            When I had the cassette of this stellar album I always listened to both sides back to back in order. Once the CD came out, if anything the track that would be skipped was often Limelight but now I appreciate it as a great lead into the astonishing rise fall epic the Camera Eye. What a beautiful song contrasting two cities. Witch Hunt is a howl of horror. True horror. First its witches, communists, terrorists… “Quick to anger, slow to understand.”

            Another thing going for Moving Pictures is that it is a well-sequenced album. Just a spot on classic. Never have I tired of listening to this record.

            On the Time Machine tour, Rush played this entire album in order. That was worth the ticket price alone.

            My personal connection to this album is that it is insanely amazing.

Here is the legend:

Yours in fantastic albums from Canada,

Count Robot

Top Ten FB Album Challenge Part 1

            Most of you have probably heard of the top 10-album challenge thing on the social media spheres, it’s primarily on Fakebook.

            Yours truly was nominated and did it. A real friend on the site, Laura Clifford of the great cable show, Reeling: The Movie Review Show, nominated me. Another real life friend Mike Langlie of the incredible toy piano band, Twink suggested that I do an essay on each of my choices; so here it is on this here blog.

            The way I viewed this challenge is believe it or not they aren’t necessarily my favorite albums of all time, but rather they are records that came at a formative time of my musical experiencing life and have stood the test of time, consistently staying in orbit of my tune conciousness as well as being in the stereo often enough to be on this list. The albums are listed in the order that they were placed in on FB, which is to say merely in the order that they occurred to me; not at all in order of how much I dig them.

            So having given you that entire foreground, let’s proceed.

            Day 1.

            Tangerine Dream: Zeit.

            This isn’t a standard musical album; it’s a pure experience. At time’s in the double album’s worth of tracks, it’s not even music, it’s pure sounds. Unearthly, unhumanistic, strange, creepy, shape shifting sounds, this thing is all that and more.

            It has only four tracks. Each of which consumed an album side back in the day. There are distorted cellos, an early Moog synth, distorted organs, and sounds no other human probably ever made. All of this blends through an amorphous filter of gurgling soundscapes that wash through the conciousness.

            This is the soundtrack to a dream.

            Upon my first listening to this record I knew that there was something that beautifully defied reason bursting into my ears.

            This album has been well traveled throughout my life. It was the soundtrack to many Halloweens worth of handing candy out to the kids with it blaring through open windows giving them a freak out as they received treats. The album is still played regularly during late night writing sessions. The atmospheres greatly helped to shape the Dracula novel I’ve been constructing. One Halloween at the long gone amazing Middle Eastern bakery/coffee shop/restaurant the Crescent Dragon we used this album as the soundtrack to the silent movie Nosferatu as we heckled the film. A friend told me about listening to this album in black room with a head full of LSD; it’s hard to imagine that not being a life changing experience.

            Here is a link to the album. Listen to it and allow it to change your perceptions of what music can be.

Yours in sounds beyond the human race,

Count Robot

Count Robot’s 3 favorite albums of 2017

OK so we’re well into 2018 and I have finally have this list up. As Ministry and Ed Wood would say, “So what?” Would it help if I told you that I probably already have one favorite for the 2018 list? No? Well then read this list or don’t.

3. Analog Missionary: Arc

Really great to see the long silent Analog Missionary become active again. I’ve really enjoyed this bands wonderful music. Welcome back!

Peace is one of the most creative songs crafted in 2017. For that song alone the album hit number three. This song blends so many insane elements together it transcends the genres of Bollywood, early 80’s prog rock, 90’s prog rock, New Wave, Psychedelia, and a twinge of Goth.

The classic sounds of Analog Missionary are still there but are given a newfound fire. I have the feeling if they put out another album soon it’ll be the best they’ve ever done.

https://analogmissionary.bandcamp.com/releases

2. Twink: Wide Eyed Wild Ride

Joy! Joyful dancing stuffed animals in a magic forest toy piano jam. Yeah, that’s what I hear in this record. It’s a party of fluffy awesome. Tunes that just bop out of the electronic corners and crash into your soul.

Another year, another amazing Twink album. So many great releases come out of this project that it’s mind blowing. Wild Eyed Wild Ride races to the top as one of the best Twink albums ever which is why it’s so easy for it to make the top 3 this year.

Another fantastic album cover and a beautiful vinyl release as well. Twink forever!

https://toypianoband.bandcamp.com/

1.    Blackfield: V

This is their second best album. Their best being the first Blackfield album. Wonderfully orchestrated strings sweep across this record. From the opening score to the crashing end with the ocean sweeping throughout the album. Amazing songs that feel nostalgic yet fully planted in the present.

“I’m a Lonely Soul” is a trance inducing loop of a song that is smart enough not to overstay its welcome. One thing I adore about this album is that it’s 40ish minutes. It lasts just long enough for you to think, wow that was brilliant then its gone in the ocean.

Family Man has a rocking biting guitar kick. A dig at the straight life but yet a love for it at the same time with fantastic hooks. A perfect example of a pure wonderful pop rock song.

Avi and Steve have done it again.

Musically yours,

Count Robot

3/31/18