The eighty-third classical recording: #978 Milton Babbitt - Transfigured Notes
It looks like, after receiving the score, it took three years for someone to even take on performing the piece. Scored for strings along, Transfigured Notes is discordant, off putting and odd sounding, a mess of notes that never settles in, but still creates some musicality out of the different sounds and sudden switches of tempo that are present in this piece. The piece merges it into something a bit more concordant as time goes on, but this isn't a piece that really lets you settle.
The one hundred ninety-fifth album: #195 Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley
It's weird to listen to Gasoline Alley as a 1970 rock album - on all levels,it feels more like something from the early 1960s, with a blues feel, simpler subjects and a sound that goes back to old rock and roll. Sure, it's gentler and the country feel has some appeal, but we've seen how this can be showier and bigger, even without losing that aspect, and this album loses out for that reason - it's not worth it enough for me.
The one hundred ninety-fourth album: #194 Soft Machine - Third
Listening to Facelift, the first track on Third, feels like it features two indulgences that I like least - the loose, too long jazz improv style layered on top of a prog rock feel that is unfocused, losing its power in the process. There are moments that make you perk up and think something interesting is going to follow, but really the twenty minutes just keep dragging. oon in June feels like a good step up (even if it's backwards for their oeuvre) as the lyrics provide a lot more structure to the num. It it still long, the lyrics aren't great, but it feels like it has a bit more substance while that part lasts. On the whole though, it's an album with four tracks that run too long, but don't have the pay off needed to make them worth the time spent listening to them.
The eighty-second classical recording: #898 Alan Hovhaness - Symphony no. 2, "Mysterious Mountain"
Mysterious Mountain, as a symphony, is a delicate piece, taking you on a journey through something beautiful, avoiding a more bombastic piece in favour of something subtle and small. For the most part, it feels like it doesn't do much or need much, but its tour is enticing and creates a lovely sound - I'm sure you could set a nice story to it. I didn't quite get a leitmotif that caught me, but its journey caught me and pulled me along.
The eighty-eighth book: #73 Rob Roy - Walter Scott
Can I complain about a work's false advertising based on its title? While Scottish outlaw Rob Roy appears in the story, he's far from the focus. The introduction in the edition I had tells a lot about his exploits, but it feels like almost nothing of that comes through in the novel. The focus is on Frank Osbaldistone, a nobleman who gets stripped of his inheritance and flees the law but, in the end, is proven right and gets it all back. Rasleigh makes for a good villain - a definite upside - but I wish the story could focus on Rob Roy more - he's a more interesting character and while we hear some of him, it's his exploits that I thought would be the focus. As it is, this is a story with a lot of setup, but a lacklustre pay-off.
The one hundred ninety-third album: #193 The Who - Live at Leeds
As an intentional counter point to Tommy, Live at Leeds is an unthemed collection of songs from a live performance. The sound is, for the most part, still the same - hard rock songs - with the psychedelia obviously dialled back in favour of a sound that can be done - and would work better - on stage. It culminates in a 15 minute jam around My Generation,including parts of Tommy and songs on other albums. It's a glorious hard rock celebration, dropping the messages and stories in favour of just playing music. As a counter point to the rock opera albums, this hits a different spot, and it's impressive that both sides work - a testament to how good The Who was (and is?).
The one hundred ninety-second album: #192 Ananda Shankar - Ananda Shankar
The Beatles started to include Indian influences in their musi as they drifted towards psychedelia, with the sitar being an important instrument used in that. It feels natural then that this is a stream that developed further. Ananda Shankar had moved to the US a few years earlier and gotten involved with the rock groups of the era. His first, self-titled album brings that in, but instead features his sitar playing first, with a rock influence in the background. Some of that comes through in the (mostly) instrumental covers of rock songs, which keep that rock sound as well, while Mamata has the feel of a jazz improv number instead, the sitar supported by quieter instruments.
Metamorphosis really feels like the point the psychedelia ramps up, not just in the stranger soundscape, but also the repetition that heightens the emotions. The later tracks go back to something that sounds more traditional, but there is that undertone of modernity that creates an interesting fusion, even if it's not compelling for me in the long run.
The eighty-first classical recording: #481 Johannes Brahms - Clarinet Quintet
I think this might have been the first piece we've done that focuses on the clarinet. It's nice as a change of pace, the strings aren't as heavy and without a full orchesa the piece feels a lot more delicate. The piece itself feels a bit downbeat and sad, with the third movement having some exceptions, but the tone gets set for that early on. The bts where the clarinet really gets to shine with some rapid movements and pieces, change that a bit as well, but it is mostly kept low key. It works, a nice listenable piece that do't assault you, but keeps you in a slightly sombre (apparently autumnal mood).