Barking Spiders

Of late it's been a lot of Prins Thomas stuff, a Norwegian electronica producer. He has quite a quirky vibe, mashing up motorik, House, disco, rock, ambient... There's guitar and bass as well as the usual synths etc.

+ 1 x 1,000. I think this might top my musical puke list as well though it's a close call between that and the tinny, nasal, trebly vocals of most girly singers of today like Sia ( e.g. that firkin awful Under The Christmas Tree Lights!) and the slurry p1ssed and just woke up style of Lorde (e.g. on her dire cover of Everybody Wants To Rule The World). viz KB, I cant deal her yowling style on Wuthering and Unbelievable yet she could sing perfectly nicely on tracks like Sensual World and Running Up that Hill. Mrs Spiders MKII was a huge fan and subjected me to pretty much KB's entire works. Apart from Hounds I don't have much time for her other albums. I've noticed that peeps who like KN are also fans of Peter Gabriel who to me is very much her male equivalent. Not particularly a fan of him either though he's done several good tunes

here's Tony McManus. bit of an old clip but gives you an idea of what he can do

I have only two Favored Nations releases; Guitar Bones and Inheritance. I used to have all his Relativity albums but sold them cos of the reasons I mentioned. I'm as much of an acoustic guitar geek as I am a bass geek and those I'd recommend above all others for both playing skills and quality of albums are Martin Simpson, celtic acoustic maestro Tony McManus, flatpick ace Dan Crary, Leo Kottke and Pete Huttlinger. Tommy Emmanuel is cracking live but IMO his studio albums aren't as good as his live recordings.

I think I might know why Adrian Legg doesn't do it for you, probably because many of his earlier albums don't float my boat either and that's because on these he uses an electrified Ovation acoustic rather than a pure acoustic that's been miced up whatever. Also most of his tunes are his own and are a bit new age/Wyndham Hill - although he never gets as saccharine as others in that genre - but does'nt do folk tunes like the others you mentioned . However, once he joined the Favored Nations label his material got a lot better as he drew more folk and blues influences and stopped using the Ovation in favour of a regular acoustic.

Of late I've been playing more on my Martin Dreadnought more than anything else and have been caning albums by the likes of Adrian Legg, Tommy Emmanuel, Martin Simpson, Peter Huttlinger and several great bluegrass flatpicker types. If you're a keen player who floats your boat? Just to wet your whistle here are a couple of clips, first the great Tommy Emmanuel, a must see live performer and then the late also great Pete Huttlinger.

another huge fave tune of mine also by Joey Negro under his Z Factor pseudonym

check out this monster groove from Joey Negro with Julian Crampton on bass!

one of my fave players for sure. he also played on Heaven 17's Penthouse and Pavement tour a couple of years back and is a member of Joey Negro's Sunburst Band.

I don't like jazz by and large but as they say there are always exceptions. Among the few jazz albums I have which I rate highly are The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan - touches of groovy soul jazz with hard bop Red Clay by Freddie Hubbard - hard bop with a soul jazz funky vibe Still Warm, Groove Elation and A Go Go by Jon Scofield - guitar led with laid back funky feel

Nice to find another BCer here into ambient electronica. I didn't mention Woob and his two must have albums 1194 and 4495. There are a few of us around here not many but that's ok. Do you like the Bladerunner 2024 soundtrack too? It's excellent. Worked brilliantly in the cinema. I too like John Carpenter's soundtracks. Prefer him as a composer than film maker though.

Yep I'm big into Moderat which is a collaboration between two other acts; Modeselektor and Apparat. If you like quirky electronica, they're well recommended as are fellow Germans Mouse on Mars My two big recent 'discoveries' of late are Solar Fields and AES Dana, both on the French Ultimae label which specialises in ambient electronica with a mid-tempo trance-y vibe. Both been around for yonks though. Recommended if you like early The Orb, John Hopkins, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Global Communication and the like

Yep, I've heard a good number of so-called great rock albums by big names. Most have some songs I can appreciate if not actually like but which clearly also have too much mediocre content to make them truly great. I'm thinking Led Zep 4 and Sgt Pepper for starters. Can even the most diehard Beatles fan think stuff like Fixing A Hole, Getting Better, When I'm 64, Lovely Rita and Good Morning are anything but disposable mediocre pop ditties?

For me it's easier to name classic rock and pop albums I do have some time for though they're few and far between. From the 60s on the only ones I like are some 70s Elton John, Bowie's Station to Scary period, S & G's Bridge Over, Graceland and err that's all I can think of right now. All that rawk stuff does nowt for me. After hearing Kraftwerk's Autobahn for the first time when I was about 12 in the early 80s , it made electric guitar led music sound pretty prehistoric to my ears. However, I still have most of the hip hop, funk and electronica albums in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

I only know about The Breeders because they feature Kim Deal who was the original bassist in The Pixies who I used to a tad partial to back in the day. I was originally wondering if any of the albums listed went mainstream in 2018 or are they all 6Music type faves?

I posted this before reading the other comments and then deleted it but too late

Didnt Ken go on and manage one of those cheesy girlie groups like Atomic Kitten ? Yep, I've gotta watch this. I recall Mark Kermode giving it the thumbs up on that 5Live film review show he does with Simon Mayo

There's an aggregator site- www.albumofthe year.org - which has a list for 2018. I flipped through the top 200 and recognised only six names and that's because these have been around for aeons e.g. Richard Thompson, Mariah Carey, Suede, Johnny Marr and The Breeders. Just wondering if anyone else here has seen it. Am I really (happily) out of touch now or are those mentioned the kind of obscure indie bands the NME used to fawn over?

I should be old enough to think otherwise but I don't think we need live music on TV at all. Live music in the flesh 👍 but TV broadcasts lack what can make live gigs great, i.e. the vibe.

Ah good oh, another best of list to start the new year and an 'essential' one so we're told. Basically think of the first 25 female bass players that come into your head and job done .

Live music doesn't seem to be a big deal for tha yoot like it used to be and so broadcasters don't want to touch it with a bargepole

But I 'moan' about all parts of his programme 😊. And who pray is Yolanda Charles? If she's a pro bass player she damn well oughta be better than a bedroom bass hero like me!

there, are 12 reasons I'll be finding summat else to do, soz.

I play drums, various stick & hand percussion, bass and guitar to a similar standard. Whether that's low or high-ish is in the ear of the beholder. I inadvertantly use a percussive approach to a lot of bass playing as my drummer influences are mainly funkateers like Zigaboo Modeliste, Bernard Purdie and Tony Allen.

IMO online shopping isn't all it's cracked up to be. Firstly you don't get the enjoyment from perusing in-store whether it's clothing, books, music or whatever floats your boat. Secondly, buying online can be very much a hit and miss affair. Purchases often goes missing in the post, or you don't get what you were expecting, whether something's the wrong model, size etc. Often something looks good online but when you get it the quality of manufacture can be shoddy. Also, the faff of having to wait in all day to receive something is far more hassle than having to drive into town and walk around a few stores. As for streaming, I don't quite get why there's so much faith in this technology. Often there are buffering issues or routers 'freezing up'. Sure I can get my obscure Norwegian ambient electronica albums through Discogs but if it's a new, relatively more mainstream release I don't object to the £9.99 charge for a CD in HMV. I'll be sad to see it disappear from Cheltenham town centre in the wake of several others, leaving only Badlands.