Topic: The Vinyl Thread

@Octane What were the most notable records in your most recent haul?

@Draco_V_Ecliptic My local record store sells sleeves so I just get them there, despite probably being able to get them online for cheaper. Just make sure to get the softest plastic you can find! Back home, I have a signed copy of Pharoah Sanders’ Karma, the greatest spiritual jazz album of all time so that’s probably one of my favourites in my collection. I also have a numbered edition of F#A# infinity by Godspeed you Black Emperor so I guess I just like my original rare ones! In terms of music, I was really excited to get my hands on the Silent Hill 1+2 OSTs as well as Katamari Damacy as they feel like proper collector’s items. Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs was also a great album to snap up, I love those cowboy songs!
To Pimp a Butterfly sounds incredible on vinyl, by the way, as long as your set-up’s decent as the drums are seriously booming, especially on ‘The Blacker the Berry’. I don’t have any Deftones yet but I really like White Pony so I should get round to buying that as well as Around the Fur.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Most live albums; Bruce Springsteen most notably; Satin Doll, NYC 1973, Max's Kansas City. But I also got Simulation Theory by Muse, Traveling Wilburys volume 1 and the last Dire Straits album I was looking for, their first studio album, I never got it for some reason.

@nessisonett I'll look online for sleeves then. I didn't know Sanders made spiritual jazz music, I thought he belonged strictly to the free jazz cadre. I would like some original rare ones myself, I have a list of them and I keep checking ebay! I'll have to check out the Gunfighter Ballads album as I am quite fond of country and that sounds like a natural progression for me, the cowboy songs.
Kendrick's album Damn also interests me, but I agree with you about Pimp, the jazz productions on that album are amazing, as a jazz fan I was really pleased to discover he had done a full-blown jazz/hip hop album in that vein.
White Pony is good, Stephen Carpenter, their guitarist, and the rest of the band are allegedly quite influenced by hip hop, so there is a common thread running through all of this. I love Around The Fur and their most recent album 'Gore', it's a great shame about their bassist but at least they are still composing and creating music. Did you ever give a listen to one of Carpenter's more recent influences, Meshuggah? I want to get Chaosphere simply because Stephen said it is his favorite album of all time.

@Octane I've always wanted to get The Travelling WIlburys album. They are, however, a little too well-known for my liking, I have issues with albums that contain songs which I have heard many times on the radio over the years, prior to my purchase of the album in question. I like Making Movies by Dire Straits, that has all their classic hits on it. Contrary to what I just said, I haven't heard the Dire Straits on the radio too much, with the exception of Romeo and Juliet and Sultans of Swing, and those songs are acceptable to me, due to the strength of the songwriting, despite the fact that they may have suffered from being played too many times, overplayed, in other words. Do you like the album you mentioned, the first one, much compared to Making Movies?

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Yeah Sanders was a part of the free jazz collective and played with Trane so Karma is an incredible fusion of free jazz and spiritual jazz. Listening to that is the closest I’ve ever felt to any sort of belief to be honest. I’ve honestly never really listened to Meshuggah as my brother’s a lot more of a metalhead than I am but I’ve heard Nothing is incredible. With the whole jazz/hip hop thing, there are so many great hip hop albums with jazz instrumentals. Madvillainy (which is coming today on vinyl) is a great example of it, along with classics like Bizarre Ride 2 The Pharcyde and then Nujabes’ stuff like the Samurai Champloo soundtrack.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic I don't really listen to radio anymore. So I don't mind whether a song is popular or not, if it's good, it's good!

Honestly, all of their albums are really good. I tend to favour their earlier work over Love Over Gold and Brothers in Arms, but it's all quite solid. If I had to choose, I think I'd pick Dire Straits (album) over Making Movies. But maybe that's just because I enjoy Sultans of Swing quite a lot.

I got the wrong record sent to me by Amazon but to be honest I might just keep it, it’s a double LP that I’ve never heard of but it goes for double the price of what I actually ordered. I ordered Akuma no Uta by Boris but got Visions by Haken instead. According to Google, they’re a prog metal band and my limited knowledge of that genre is that it’s not my thing at all. Still, might come in handy if anybody’s birthday draws near 😂

@nessisonett I recently got sent Portraits by Maribou State when I didn’t order it. Turns out it’s a pretty great album (and I can still download the album I had bought).

I am trying to decide which Meshuggah records to order, I am considering avoiding Catch Thirty-Three as I don't really like the idea of programmed drums, unless it's considered a classic in which case I might have to pick it up. I'm feeling the concept behind what they were doing on that record though, y'know just trying to push the envelope.

Meshuggah are kind of the Dark Souls of metal, just that bit more difficult and serious than the other bands.

Edit: I bought the Led Zeppelin I'd been after for a while - Physical Graffiti, I sold all my Pixies records in an anti-rock fit, but kept my Led Zep, and I'm glad I did. Anyway, can anyone recommend a decent vinyl player that makes use of plastic needles? I want great sound but don't want my records to get easily scratched.

I recently acquired Fordlandia by Johan Johannsson and The Big Gundown by John Zorn as part of my recent haul. Fordlandia is an excellent record that I think anyone would enjoy, whereas The Big Gundown is exclusively for avant-garde purists.

@nessisonett What other jazz besides Trane and Sanders do you like? Did you ever listen to John Scofield or John McLaughlin? (I am a guitarist myself).

@Draco_V_Ecliptic I’m a massive fan of Mingus, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is right up there with my favourite albums of all time. Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins are also brilliant so I guess I’m all about the sax! I’ve listened to a couple of John McLaughlin albums, The Inner Mounting Flame strangely rips harder than several metal albums I’ve listened to, it’s great and a lot heavier than I normally expect of jazz rock. I also listened to that album with Carlos Santana which was really fun, hearing two absolute legends of guitar noodling together with a couple of Trane covers thrown in for good measure. I’ve not really got round to a lot of modern jazz to be honest, other than the Persona 5 soundtrack I guess!

@nessisonett I've been interested in jazz for a while, going to that from metal. Can I recommend a John Scofield (Jazz guitarist) track? You can choose between a rip-roaring one or something more laid-back. In general, he is quite sedate but his album Still Warm features the track 'Protocol' which is the heaviest song he has recorded. If you want to go down the more jazzy route though, try anything from his album 'Meant To Be' which is excellent as well. I'll have to get that Black Saint and the Sinner Lady album as I have always wanted a Mingus record on vinyl and from what you say, it sounds like that is the best. I bought Birds of Fire on vinyl by Mahavishnu Orchestra, it is even better than The Inner Mounting Flame and the last of the two albums recorded with that band's classic lineup. Let me know what you think if you do explore those Scofield recommendations.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic I gave a listen to some tracks off both those albums and I’d probably lean more towards the jazzier stuff than the pure noodling, I like a bit of context in my jazz guitar. It’s probably why I wasn’t a huge fan of The Ascension by Glenn Branca and my brother was hugely confused by my disinterest! I’d be careful if you’re getting jazz on vinyl though, quality varies quite a bit which is why I went second-hand with my Mingus stuff instead of the reprints.

@nessisonett Yeah, I mean, when it's jazz-rock it's often a noodle-fest isn't it? I'll have to check out Glenn Branca's album though, as I just like skillful guitar playing in general, thus, it might be more up my street. I'll look to the second-hand editions of those albums then, thanks for the heads up!

@nessisonett I have another recommendation for you, the album Oh! by Scoholofo , it features John Scofield and consists of jazz music in the style of the older jazz artists you listen to, there's also the song 'What They Did' by Scofield on his own, wherein the 'they' refers to the old guard of jazz music. Edit: I listened to Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin's album and thought that what I heard was brilliant, especially coming from a guitarist's perspective it's really interesting and elevating stuff. Did you hear the records Davis cut with McLaughlin? Live EvIl? Aura? Those might be more your sort of thing. Also, @nessionett Have you heard of Cynic? They are a jazz-metal band but one of their most recent albums 'Traced In Air' is really just heavy jazz-rock, you can hear the jazz influence in their music, and I think that that one's available on vinyl, also, there is another album you might like if you like that one 'Focus' it's heavier, but if you like 'Traced' you should like that one as well. I think your brother would definitely like Focus as it's a much lauded jazz-metal album.

@nessisonett I am having trouble narrowing down my next purchases to two, I am struggling to choose between Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan and Finding Gabriel by Brad Mehldau, and I Had Myself A Nuclear Spring by Kate Carr and Star People Nation by Theo Croker. Any ideas which two out of the four you would go for?

@Draco_V_Ecliptic I can’t say I’m familiar with any of those albums outside Bob Dylan’s slightly odd country one. Nashville Skyline’s definitely interesting to own but I couldn’t really tell you about the others!

@nessisonett Finding Gabriel & Star People Nation - Experimental and progressive jazz with plenty of samples and electronics, Kate Carr - field recordings mixed with music.