Barking Spiders

+1 for Manu Chau though IMO by best setting is live and by virtue of that his best albums are Radio Bemba Sound System and Baionarena. They're that good you wish you were there at the party. Also MC's an example to many of how to combine political views with fun and not taking oneself too seriously.

For sure. By a zillion miles his best album (IMO) is Station to Station, made while he was seriously caning Charlie As well as Transglobal Underground there are/were also several other 'world fusion' acts that were way to inventive and different for the mainstream; Loop Guru, Banco da Gaia, Afro Celt Sound System, Astralasia, Suns of Arqa...

Working from home gives me time to play the more sprawling albums in my collection, currently the 3cd deluxe edition of Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld by The Orb. Next up the 5 cd superdeluxe box set of Dubnoheadwithmybassman by Underworld.

That was me. I've long been bleating on about what an original combo they were . Shame they're now defunct. As for genius, someone said Prince. I guess if anyone in the rock n' pop world could be said to be one he's nearer than most. However, while he made some good albums he also produced a lot of unremarkable stuff. I've even got a few of his higher rated efforts but haven't played them in aeons. IMO they just haven't aged that well

We had planned to go to Blue Dot at Jodrell Bank this July. I'd been particularly looking forward to see Groove Armada, Squarepusher, Roisin Murphy and A Certain Ratio. For the sake of the mrs and the 15 year sproglette I'd also booked Download but am secretly grateful I don't have to go now👌.

Viz Furniture, two of their members went on to form an even better and more underrated band, Transglobal Underground which fused hip hop, house, Arabic, Indian, all sorts which got the tag 'world fusion'. Agree with all the 'over-rated' noms here. Guns n Roses, like the Stone Roses, are just another band whose fame rests on the success of one overhyped album, which had maybe 2 or 3 ok tracks and lots of filler.

My interpretation of 'overrated' = hyped to the max by the music industry to the point of wetting themselves. Conversely, 'underrated' = ignored by the music press, commercial radio etc The Stones Roses and The Strokes are examples of the former. The meejah told us these were the second coming of rock n roll when in fact The Strokes were just some sub-Velvets garage band and all the Roses did was puts beat under some second-hand Byrds melodies. Underrated = too many to name but I'll start with the entire Ninja Tune, Mo Wax and Warp rosters.

The latter most definitely. As I've said before and I'll say it again, non-musicians generally don't give a monkeys left t1t about how technically proficient the musicians are on the songs they like. As for female bassists being under-represented in that list , the bottom line is other than Carol Kaye, very few have played on widely acclaimed or million selling singles or albums that would expose their skills to a bigger audience.

Yep. I don't get the point of 'greatest' polls, Oscars, Brits, Palme D'or , Grammies, yadda blah etc. Like who's to say what the best song or album is in a given hour or who's the greatest goalkeeper of the last 1,000 years. Most of the time the views of pro critics or industry insiders is nearly always at odds with the general public anyway.

But at least his playing is instantly recognisable/distinctive. For my money that's probably the most important asset in a musician. While all these highly technical players are great at what they do I can't tell one apart from the others

Yep, whether it's a guitar, bass whatever it's all about memorable / recognisable and distinctive lines. I've heard lots of bass from many big names in technical virtuosity but nowt sticks in in my mind, which is why I far prefer the likes of JJ Burnel, Derek Forbes and Michael Dempsey over these two handed/no-handed, triple tapping, sweep picking, 50 notes a second merchants.

I loved all this at the time and it still sounds great, particularly as the recent mainstream has been dominated by dull-as-ditchwater beige 'artists' like Coldplay, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Tom Walker, Adele etc. The great things about KCATCs were the humour, the damned sexy coconuts themselves, the shows and some bluddy great tunes.

What people generally care about are tunes/songs. Only some (wannabe) musicians seem to care about playing prowess. I don't know of any non-player who's remotely interested in musical virtuosity and I've heard or read about many fine players who said they see themselves as songwriters who happen to play bass etc. In another life I'd much rather be known as a great composer/songwriter than musician.

Most of these play within genres I have zero interest in but at least Larry Graham gets a much higher placing than in lots of other lists. Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards and Mark King are way way too low down. No disrespect to the jazzers and fusion virtuosos, but while they may have had the chops the music they played was and still remains niche. I mean Jaco is well known within the bass/jazz-fusion world but outside of this I doubt many would ever have heard of him.

I wouldn't dare insult musicians by including myself as one and I don't have accounts with Spotty or YT. But in the spirit of this thread, bits of tunage that still get me going after many years and that I wish I'd written.. Wide open space - Mansun Bohemian like you -Dandy Warhols Space shanty - Leftfield Raise (63 steps to heaven mix) - Bocca Juniors East River - Brecker Brothers ..a monster of a heavy funk tune with Neil Jason on bass and vocals Holidays in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys We don't need this fascist groove thing - Heaven 17 Empire state human -Human League Rez/cowgirl -Underworld Templehead (Isis mix)- Transglobal Underground

Today's the first day I've listened to any music since the start of lockdown as I've preferred spoken word stuff like the entire Down The Line series which you can hear on YT. I thought I'd annoy the kids with some Autechre in reaction to having to endure my 15 year old daughter singing loudly along to Black Veil Brides nonsense.

Absolutely. Those who blithely dismiss the concern about covid-19 as 'mass hysteria ' etc p!$$ me right off. I've had what's been termed 'mild' covid-19 and it's still a complete bastid. I didn't need hospitalisation but it still wiped me out for three weeks. While I didn't have lower respiratory problems I had many other symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, a streaming nose, a raw sore throat, chronic diarrhea, brain splitting headaches and fatigue so bad I struggled to get out of bed. I'm over the worst of it but some problems still linger. I'm just 50, never had flu, have a very healthy diet, drink little, exercise a lot, don't smoke and rarely ever get colds. When I see pictures and read stories of idiots having BBQ parties, crowding beaches etc I find myself hoping they get covid to show them how irresponsibly selfish their behaviour has been. Why is it that people in Denmark, Germany and other countries where infection rates have been low do what they're advised to do yet in the English speaking world many still carry on like they're on holiday.

Going to the gents at work today, bearing in mind transmission of covid 19, it struck me as how stupid that with toilets in public places you push through the door when going in but coming out you have to pull on a handle. Considering general hygiene issues surely it should be the other way round. Furthermore, it's startling how many adults don't wash their hands after going to the john, not just after # 1s but also after #2s. Then there are those people who cough and splutter without covering their mouths. WTF?

Wouldn't that make him semi-pro?

My sole definition of a pro musician is one whose sole or principal income comes from music, whether writing, recording or performing. If you earn some extra dosh but it's less what what your regular job pays then you're not a pro.

Sure, but the gist of the thread is about people who had regular jobs and then jacked them in before deciding to turn pro. Thing I'd like to know is at what point did they say to themselves' feck it, I'm handing in my notice on monday' , or if unemployed/redundant what made them think' I don't want a regular job' I just want to play music' etc

It can be done, being a musician/composer and holding down a day job e.g. Philip Glass -plumber and cabbie Charles Ives (US composer) - ran an insurance agency Art Garfunkel - maths teacher Ian Curtis of Joy Division - civil servant at Macclesfield unemployment office

I've never had the ambition to be a full-time muso. Always been happy enough playing part-time as a hobby while getting a bit of extra pocket money. So, to those who are pros.. did you just jack in a decently paid job and went for broke..or get made redundant and use the redundancy pay to fund recording an EP, buy a clapped out transit van etc or won a boy band competition and got the backing of some oily industry exec with high waistband kecks or like Paul Weller you've never had to do a day's 'regular' job in the first place or summat else entirely?

I don't care for most rap of the last 20 years simply because it was done so much better in the 80s and 90s. Maybe I'm a hip hop snob but nowt I've heard by acts that have emerged since 2000 that can hold a candle to not just the big name acts like The Beastie Boys, NWA, Ice Cube , Wu Tangs, Public Enemy etc but also to underrated ones like EPMD, Naughty by Nature and Main Source. Not so keen on the Shadow track here but Entroducing and The Private Press are feckin excellent. Just in case non hip hop fans think rap is just about some MC rapping and turntablism check out two hip hpop bands that use real instruments e.g. The Roots (US) and The Herbaliser (UK) Anyway I'll leave you with a track from a cracker of an album from the golden age of hip hop

Cos of their critical rep I've tried hard with SD. There are some good tunes on the first two albums but the rest is mostly meh bar the odd tune or two..IMO. For me Aja is a snoozeathon. This is pretty good though https://www.last.fm/music/Steely+Dan/The+Definitive+Collection Mind you, SD are in good company of big name acts whose most acclaimed (and usually biggest selling) albums are their 'best ofs' /'greatest hits' e.g. Stones, Who, Queen, Bowie, Bob Marley, Beach Boys, Eagles, Abba and Madonna