The Listening Project - March

In January, I began to list every album I play in full during 2019. The format is immaterial, LP, CD or Download, as long as the album in question is played in its entirety. If I skip tracks, cherry pick the odd tune or give up part way through, it doesn't go on the list. My aim, as often as possible, is to treat the album as a body of work, old school stylee. 

After managing a total of 58 full albums during February, in March I listened to a mere 30. I played a lot of music, but struggled to fully apply myself fully to the task at hand and found myself flicking around - a couple of tracks from here, a few tracks from there. Must try harder.

A very fine record that has already appeared on a couple of blogs in this little corner of the internet is 'Dusty Notes', the 15th long player by Meat Puppets. Their third release, 1985's 'Up On the Sun', is an all time favourite of mine and in a couple of months I have a firm appointment to catch the band in concert for the first time since 1992. I'm hoping to pick up a physical copy of 'Dusty Notes' at the show.

Chicago Odense Ensemble - s/t (2019) LP 

The Stroppies - Whoosh (2019) LP 

Sleaford Mods - Key Markets (2015) LP 

Brix & the Extricated - Breaking State (2018) LP 

VED - Gershwin's Pipe (2010) LP 

Ashley Hutchings - Son of Morris On (1976) LP 

Frankie & the Witch Fingers - Zam (2019) DL 

The Furrow Collective - Fathoms (2018) CD 

El Guincho - Alegranza (2008) CD 

Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins (2005) CD 

Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes (2019) DL 

The Unthanks – Lines: Parts One, Two & Three (2019) DL 

Greenslade - Spyglass Guest (1974) DL 

Richard Youngs - Red Alphabet in the Snow (2014) DL 

Rustin Man - Drift Code (2019) DL 

Various Artists - Studio One Scorcher Instrumentals (2002) LP 

The Cinematic Orchestra - To Believe (2019) DL 

These New Puritans - Inside the Rose (2019) DL 

Egg - s/t (1970) DL 

Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes (2019) DL 

Our Solar System - Origins (2018) LP 

The Del Fuegos - Boston, Mass (1985) LP 

John Coltrane - Ascension (1965) LP 

James Brown - Ain't That a Groove 66-69 (1984) LP 

Paisiel - s/t (2019) LP 

John McLaughlin, Dave Holland, John Surman, Stu Martin, Karl Berger ‎ - Where Fortune Smiles (1971) LP 

Takeshi Inomata & Sound Limited - Innocent Canon (1971) DL 

Joshua Abrams - Reprencing (2012) DL 

Anne Briggs - s/t (1971) DL 

Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society - Mandatory Reality (2019) LP 

Meat Puppets - Nightcap

The Listening Project - February

In January, I began to list every album I play in full during 2019. The format is immaterial, LP, CD or Download, as long as the album in question is played in its entirety. If I skip tracks, cherry pick the odd tune or give up part way through, it doesn't go on the list. My aim, as often as possible, is to treat the album as a body of work, old school stylee. 

The results are in. The numbers have been checked, cross-checked and verified. Thanks in part to a combination of reduced shifts at work and a couple of endless train journeys, in February I listened to a grand total of 58 albums in their entirety, an improvement on the 37 I managed in January.

As the year progresses, I've no doubt that repeated plays of particular favourites will start to appear on these lists more and more often - I'm already finding it a struggle not to cave in and listen to the fantastic 'Drift Code' by Rustin Man endlessly. If that LP isn't among my top five of the year come December, we'll have been blessed with some stonkingly great releases over the next nine months.

Here's a list then, in order, of the 58 albums I played in full in February, with a track from one of 'em at the end. This month it's the typically odd, but nevertheless catchy as hell 'Token' by Panda Bear.

Beirut - Gallipoli (2019) DL 

Rustin Man - Drift Code (2019) DL 

Nucleus - Direct Hits (1976) LP 

AMOR - Sinking Into a Miracle (2018) LP 

Rustin Man - Drift Code (2019) DL 

Robert Wyatt - Ruth is Stranger Than Richard (1975) LP 

Alasdair Roberts etc - Au Cube (2018) LP 

Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Sound On Sound (1979) LP 

Jethro Tull - This Was (1968) DL 

Soft Machine - Spaced (1996) DL 

The Specials - Encore (2019) DL 

Daevid Allen - Banana Moon (1971) DL 

Desert Heat - Cat Mask at Huggie Temple (2013) DL 

The Clash - London Calling (1979) CD 

The Lyman Woodard Organization - Saturday Night Special (2017) CD 

McCoy Tyner - Extensions (1972) DL 

Panda Bear - Buoys (2019) DL 

Francis Bebey - Psychedelic Sanza 1982-84 (2014) DL 

The Cosmic Dead - EasterFaust (2014) DL 

John McLaughlin - Devotion (1970) DL 

Lau - Midnight and Closedown (2019) DL 

Sister John - Returned From Sea (2017) DL 

The Specials - Encore (2019) DL 

Big Blood - Operate Spaceship Earth Properly (2018) DL 

Hugh Hopper - Soft Boundaries Vol.7 (2015) DL 

Rustin Man - Drift Code (2019) DL 

Chick Corea - Return to Forever (1972) DL 

Gaz Coombes - World's Strongest Man (2018) DL 

The Coke Dares - Fake Lake (2018) DL 

VED - Demis Roussos Internal (2019) DL 

Meat Puppets - Rat Farm (2013) DL 

Kungens Män - CHEF (2019) LP 

Beak - >>> (2019) LP 

John Cale & Terry Riley - Church of Anthrax (1970) LP 

Lay Llamas - Thuban (2018) LP 

Karl Blau - Clothes Your I's (2001) CD 

Maria McKee - Life is Sweet (1996) CD 

Big Blood - Unlikely Mothers (2014) LP 

Bob Dylan - Scarlet Town: Unreleased Live Recordings 2018 (2019) DL 

Kungens Män - CHEF (2019) LP 

Richard Youngs - May (2014) LP 

Big Blood - Radio Valkyrie 1905-1917 (2013) LP 

Various Artists - Soweto Street Music (1984) LP 

Fridge - Ceefax (1997) CD 

Sleaford Mods - Eton Alive (2019) LP 

Panda Bear - Buoys (2019) DL 

Gong - You (1974) CD 

John Abercrombie, Dave Holland & Jack DeJohnette - Gateway 2 (1978) LP 

Shankar - Vision (1984) LP 

Glenn Jones - The Wanting (2011) LP 

Albion Country Band - Battle of the Field (1976) LP 

The Chieftains - s/t (1964) LP 

The Stroppies - s/t (2017) LP 

Greenslade - Time and Tide (1975) CD 

The Long Ryders - Psychedelic Country Soul (2019) DL 

Robert Forster - Inferno (2019) LP 

Paisiel - s/t (2019) DL 

Julia Jacklin - Crushing (2019) DL

Panda Bear - Token

The Listening Project - January

By way of a New Year's Resolution, a friend of mine pledged to read four books per month throughout the coming year. Another has set himself the lofty goal of watching 365 films in 365 days - as I type, they are both still on track. I knew that I wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting anywhere near either of those targets, so I went for something much more within my limited grasp, namely to listen to as many albums, in full, as possible in 2019.

So at the beginning of January I started to keep a list of every album I played from beginning to end. The format is immaterial, LP, CD or Download, as long as the album in question is played in its entirety. If I skip tracks, cherry pick the odd tune or give up part way through, it doesn't go on the list. My aim, as often as possible, is to treat the album as a body of work, old school stylee.

I realise that this is a purely self-indulgent endeavour and unlikely to be of the slightest interest to anyone else, but since I'm jotting them down, I thought I'd share the stats month by month anyway. So here's a list, in order, of the 37 albums I played in full in January, with a track from one of 'em at the end - a tune from The Stroppies' self-titled debut. Expect these guys to show up again when their new LP arrives at Swede Towers in March. (If you're reading this Brian and you're not already aware of them, I reckon they might be right up your street).

CB3 - From Nothing to Eternity (2018) LP
John McLaughlin - Devotion (1970) LP
Julian Cope - Rite (1993) CD
Sandman Project - Royal Family (2018) LP
Matching Mole - 1st (1972) LP
Ian Carr - Belladonna (1972) LP
VED - Omikron (2016) LP
Sista Maj - Localized Pockets of Negative Entropy (2018) LP
Thomasz Stanko Quintet - Purple Sun (1973) DL
Isotope - Illusion (1974) LP
Alasdair Roberts etc - Au Cube (2018) LP
Isotope - Deep End (1975) LP
Soft Machine - 1st (1968) LP
Soft Machine - 2nd (1969) LP
Fanatism - The Future Past (2018) LP
Alexander 'Skip' Spence - Oar (1969) CD
The Stroppies - s/t (2017) DL
The Janitors - Fuzz Club Session (2019) LP
Elvin Jones - Genesis (1971) DL
Ian Carr's Nucleus - Roots (1973) LP
The Janitors - Horn Ur Marken (2016) LP
Elvin Jones - New Agenda (1975) DL
Richard Youngs - Dissident (2019) LP
John Cale & Terry Riley - Church of Anthrax (1970) LP
Kungens Män - Dag & Natt (2017) LP
National Health - s/t (1978) LP
Ultimate Painting - Up! (2018) DL
dbh - Time Flies (2013) LP
Defunkt - s/t (1980) LP
Dr John - Gris-Gris (1968) LP
Deerhunter - Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? (2019) DL
Herbie Hancock - Kantonschule (1972) DL
Prince Far-I - Showcase in a Suitcase (1980) LP
Träden - s/t (2018) DL
Soft Machine - Alive & Well (1978) LP
Elvin Jones - Mr Jones (1973) LP
Edgar Froese - Aqua (1974) DL

The Stroppies - Gravity is Stern