ESSENTIAL albums most Obners probably don't have

PopTodd · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:38 pm

Please reserve this space for the records that really do define or trailblaze a genre... the truly essential albums that never get mention here. Or at least rarely do. Keep this as a resource for what we think everyone here, as self-respecting music lovers and nerds would WANT to have and truly enjoy.

Maybe we've heard of them and maybe not. But please include a description and/or review for the benefit of those who may not have heard of the artist.

Things like:

AllMusic Wrote:

To call West Side Soul one of the great blues albums, one of the key albums (if not the key album) of modern electric blues is all true, but it tends to diminish and academicize Magic Sam's debut album. This is the inevitable side effect of time, when an album that is decades old enters the history books, but this isn't an album that should be preserved in amber, seen only as an important record. Because this is a record that is exploding with life, a record with so much energy, it doesn't sound old. Of course, part of the reason it sounds so modern is because this is the template for most modern blues, whether it comes from Chicago or elsewhere. Magic Sam may not have been the first to blend uptown soul and urban blues, but he was the first to capture not just the passion of soul, but also its subtle elegance, while retaining the firepower of an after-hours blues joint. Listen to how the album begins, with "That's All I Need," a swinging tune that has as much in common with Curtis Mayfield as it does Muddy Waters, but it doesn't sound like either -- it's a synthesis masterminded by Magic Sam, rolling along on the magnificent, delayed cadence of his guitar and powered by his impassioned vocals. West Side Soul would be remarkable if it only had this kind of soul-blues, but it also is filled with blistering, charged electric blues, fueled by wild playing by Magic Sam and Mighty Joe Young -- not just on the solos, either, but in the rhythm (witness how "I Feel So Good [I Wanna Boogie]" feels unhinged as it barrels along). Similarly, Magic Sam's vocals are sensitive or forceful, depending on what the song calls for. Some of these elements might have been heard before, but never in a setting so bristling with energy and inventiveness; it doesn't sound like it was recorded in a studio, it sounds like the best night in a packed club. But it's more than that, because there's a diversity in the sound here, an originality so fearless, he not only makes "Sweet Home Chicago" his own (no version before or since is as definitive as this), he creates the soul-injected, high-voltage modern blues sound that everybody has emulated and nobody has topped in the years since. And, again, that makes it sound like a history lesson, but it's not. This music is alive, vibrant, and vital -- nothing sounds as tortured as "I Need You So Bad," no boogie is as infectious as "Mama, Mama Talk to Your Daughter," no blues as haunting as "All of Your Love." No matter what year you listen to it, you'll never hear a better, more exciting record that year.

Seriously one of the 4 or 5 electric blues records that I can still listen to and enjoy after burning out on the genre sometime in my early 20's. Just a great, great record. The above review is accurate in every way, IMO.

And please, feel free to get away from Blues (I know we have a tendency to get focused on the first post in a topic.) I wanna hear and see about things that I (and everyone else) need that we may not have heard of.

Radcliffe · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:39 pm

mega thread

PopTodd · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:49 pm

Radcliffe Wrote:

mega thread

I certainly hope so.

The Mayor of Simpleton · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:54 pm

A hell of a fun album that went completely ignored and can now be found on Amazon for 1-cent a copy. One of my few cherished cut-out finds. I also managed to find an apparently extremely rare EP they put out that I can't find mentioned anywhere. Band leader Miles Om Tackett is now in Breakestra, whom a few of you may be more familiar with.

All Music Guide Wrote:

4.5 star review

If you dig through the bargain bins at your local CD store on a regular basis, you'll probably stumble over this album repeatedly. It's one of those completely inexplicable quirks of the marketplace: a funky, lush, and hooky minor masterpiece of pop music that was apparently released in great quantity but never marketed successfully, because it flopped commercially and the band hasn't been heard from since. If you're a fan of virtuosic yet fun guitar playing, funky drumming, rock-solid basslines, good-natured lyrics, and indelible hooks, this disc could be the best five bucks you ever spend. Opening with the astringent "Two Minds" and then bogging down briefly with the trippy "Somewhere in the Middle," the band then bops and struts through the funkalicious "The Atom" and soars into the stratosphere with a Living Color-meets-Dixie Dregs instrumental titled "Day at the Races"; "She Won't Go" features cello, acoustic guitar, and a sweet stoner love lyric; and "How Deep Is This Well?" features several simultaneous guitar parts, each one funkier than the last, and the program goes on like that for a total of 55 minutes. Highly recommended to anyone who wonders where all the fun pop music went.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:01 pm

For a penny, I ordered that sukka.
Awwww yeah.
Thanks.

jsh · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:47 pm

Mainliner "Mellow Out"

Don't know who does or doesn't know this album, but it is an inarguably essential album for anyone who's into heavy psych shit.

Quote:

In three tracks totaling thirty short minutes, Mainliner obliterates everything in its path. “Black Sky” lays down a thick, plodding riff until Makoto Kawabata’s “motorpsycho guitar” and drummer Hajime Kozumi explode four minutes later. In one swift second, a Sabbath-sized weight alights into the air and gravity disappears. When that riff becomes a furious free-for-all, in that single moment of transition, the skies clear and the storm clouds turn sunny. Kozumi rattles on his snare and then drops away.

Not for long, however. Distortion becomes a fourth member of the band, the fog through which recognizable elements sometimes emerge. Drums tumble, crash, and clatter everywhere while guitar scree and squall circle relentlessly. Eventually they regain their footing and return to The Riff while Nanjo’s phantom vocals sit above the bog. These vocals hardly exist; they are shadows without any object, reverberation with little articulated content. Relatively speaking, this could be called a breather, until four minutes later when another eruption pulls the rug out. Around fifteen minutes after beginning, the fury somehow subsides.

“M” establishes a bottomless crunch that would send Blue Cheer hiding behind their stacked Marshalls. Nanjo and Kozumi stick together on a riff and rhythm as Kawabata peels into the fiery heights of his guitar. On occasion he descends from the skies to add more mess to the low end – these are moments when the equipment might just give up the fight. No sound is distinct. The volume is too high, the distortion too thick; the speakers rumble in exhilarated pain.

Originally released in 1996, Mainliner’s Mellow Out quickly sold out its pressing and hid among the ghosts of underground myth and record collector whispering. Those who heard the record proclaimed it as a pinnacle of Japanese heavy psychedelic music, one of the heaviest records to emerge from perhaps the heaviest scene on the planet. Even seven years later, after a few more releases by Asahito Nanjo’s High Rise, and after a mountainous output from the Acid Mother’s Temple, this album should not be discarded as just another record in the genre. Mellow Out is not the speed garage of High Rise, nor the precision prog of The Ruins, nor the cosmic trip of the Acid Mothers Temple. It is a pure distortion meltdown with little regard for the limitations of time, rhythm, or volume.

Asahito Nanjo said that the terrorizing levels on Mellow Out were done out of love. Mellow Out, and perhaps the entire output of these Japanese guitar gods, reflects not only a love of volume, but also a love of inflating every musical excess hard rock had to offer.

Dalen · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:19 pm

The process of deconstruction in motion, A Blaze In The Northern Sky is a horrifying and bewildering expressionistic response to the debut, turning the initial formula flat on its ear. In pursuit of the capture of wickedness driven by a hatred towards a blind world devoid of understanding and the prison of life, DarkThrone discover not just an appropriation of sound but an ideology. The music is raw in a primeval sense, a regression of sorts towards the primitive and ugly sounds of early 80s black metal pioneers Hellhammer/Celtic Frost and Bathory. Arrangements are constructed to follow suit, while the delivery is intentionally unrefined and haphazard, a direct rebellion to the somewhat technical approach and sound of their death metal debut Soulside Journey, as well as what, in many early 90s Norwegian black metal musician�s eyes, had become a derivative and soulless operation in the name of placid death metal.

"My flesh yearns for the tombworld"

The soul of this effort is one of violent rejection and cryptic evil. The terrifying howls and screams of Nocturno Culto are the cries of a misanthropic spirit self-banished to deep, cold forests blanketed in pitch-black midnight. Unholy in confrontation into frightening depths of spiritual/mental conflict through freezing distortion and violent, simple-yet-smart in regards to structure dynamic drumming, DarkThrone seek for and reach towards the netherworlds of black metal, striving for an element of approach heretofore never achieved within this form. Despite the veneer of instrumental and compositional unrefinement (they have already previously established ability in each), this group knows exactly what they are doing.

A Blaze In The Northern Sky is the essence of early 90's Norwegian black metal. It is here where diabolical matter, purity of hatred and impenetrable darkness function in synergy in denouncement of structural norms, even within its own realm, to tear down the fragments of existence. The atmosphere here is a thick black, an evil black, which, parallel to its compositional simplicity, insists upon focus on emotional/spiritual state of being within the imprisonment of humanity and its inherently condemned habitat. DarkThrone reflect the ugliness of existence through hellish terror in a vortex of inner desolation and malevolence.

Odds Bodkins · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:50 pm

If you're into magical hard bop piano, this is for you. Yet another prodigy on the Blue Note roster that left us far too soon.

Quote:

One of jazz's most tragically overlooked geniuses, Herbie Nichols was a highly original piano stylist and a composer of tremendous imagination and eclecticism. He wasn't known widely enough to exert much influence in either department, but his music eventually attracted a rabid cult following, though not quite the wide exposure it deserved.

A reissue of the 48 Herbie Nichols recordings formerly out on the limited-edition five-LP Mosaic box set, this three-CD package from 1997 has the pianist/composer's greatest work. Nichols was largely neglected during his lifetime; only in the late '90s did the highly original musician start receiving some of the recognition he deserved. Although his originals were often quite orchestral in nature, Nichols only had the opportunity to record in a trio format; the five sessions on this box (30 songs plus 18 alternate takes) feature either Al McKibbon or Teddy Kotick on bass and Art Blakey or Max Roach on drums. The music (all originals except George Gershwin's "Mine") is virtually unclassifiable, and although largely straight-ahead, sounds unlike anything produced by Herbie Nichols' contemporaries. Essential music. -- AMG

FT · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:00 pm

harry · **Posted:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:16 pm

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:57 am

Ish Wrote:

Mainliner "Mellow Out"

Great album. I should listen to it more, but I don't have a digital copy.

I'm trying to think of something for this thread, but I feel like every album I really think of as essential is pretty well known of.

I'd like to hear that Popol Vuh album harry posted. I remember a friend of mine was recommending them to me a few years ago.

splates · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:13 am

PopTodd · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:15 am

Odds Bodkins Wrote:

If you're into magical hard bop piano, this is for you. Yet another prodigy on the Blue Note roster that left us far too soon.

Quote:

One of jazz's most tragically overlooked geniuses, Herbie Nichols was a highly original piano stylist and a composer of tremendous imagination and eclecticism. He wasn't known widely enough to exert much influence in either department, but his music eventually attracted a rabid cult following, though not quite the wide exposure it deserved.

A reissue of the 48 Herbie Nichols recordings formerly out on the limited-edition five-LP Mosaic box set, this three-CD package from 1997 has the pianist/composer's greatest work. Nichols was largely neglected during his lifetime; only in the late '90s did the highly original musician start receiving some of the recognition he deserved. Although his originals were often quite orchestral in nature, Nichols only had the opportunity to record in a trio format; the five sessions on this box (30 songs plus 18 alternate takes) feature either Al McKibbon or Teddy Kotick on bass and Art Blakey or Max Roach on drums. The music (all originals except George Gershwin's "Mine") is virtually unclassifiable, and although largely straight-ahead, sounds unlike anything produced by Herbie Nichols' contemporaries. Essential music. -- AMG

This sounds awesome.

Sketch · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:20 am

RIYL: Mingus

Quote:

Ben Allison has done it again, expertly guiding his ensemble, Medicine Wheel, through the labyrinths of these strong new compositions. There's a multifaceted brilliance at work here: a stunning display of melodic gifts and sheer instrumental ability, a mastery of orchestrational detail, and an aesthetic of celebration amid the music's high seriousness. As he has in the past, Allison succeeds in never repeating himself. Each track is its own universe, with a host of distinguishing sonic features and moods. The most outwardly exciting tunes are "Riding the Nuclear Tiger," a drum'n'bass style romp that gets its title from an actual headline in The Economist, and "Swiss Cheese D," a comic-book funk explosion inspired by the play-by-play commentary of retired basketball great Walt Frazier. Allison's and Ballard's stop-time fills on the latter are dead-on and electrifying. But some of the subtlest orchestration can be heard on the mellower tracks. For instance, hear the way pianist Frank Kimbrough and trumpeter Ron Horton answer saxophonist Ted Nash's melody line in "Jazz Scene Voyeur." Or how Kimbrough's piano and Tomas Ulrich's cello blend on the unison melody of saxophonist Michael Blake's piece "Harlem River Line," the one track not written by Allison. For that matter, listen to the end of Blake's piece, when bass and drums drop out, leaving only the horns to state the theme while Kimbrough decorates it with subtle piano fills. This is a band that knows how to surprise listeners at every turn.

Other highlights include Blake's simultaneous tenor/soprano solo on the folksy waltz "Weazy," Ulrich's beautiful work on the polytonal ballad "Charlie Brown's Psychedelic Christmas," Allison's alternate-tuned bass vamp on "Tectonics," and drummer Jeff Ballard's injection of Elvin Jones into the Mingus-inspired "Love Chant Remix." The brief prelude to "Tectonics," titled "Mysterious Visitor," is another a refined touch that contributes to the seamless flow of the record.

Ben Allison is one of the few young players and composers to transcend the futile debate between jazz traditionalists and radicals. He is following his own instincts, meeting the demands of the tradition while developing his own increasingly recognizable sound. With this fine album, he ascends another rung on the ladder of greatness and validates the artistic vision that brought his organization, the Jazz Composers Collective, into being.

jsh · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:33 am

Drinky Wrote:

Ish Wrote:

Mainliner "Mellow Out"

Great album. I should listen to it more, but I don't have a digital copy.

I'll trade you my mp3s for your lp.

Hit me up.

bort · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:41 pm

This album is in my top 10 of all time. It may be known, but I believe it to be highly underappreciated. In my own humble opinion, this album does indeed define lo-fi acoustic bedroom folk/pop. AMG describes it fairly accurately but does not stress enough how GREAT these songs are. Every single one of 'em.

Bill Fox - Transit Byzantium (SpinArt 1998)

From AMG:
Bill Fox's second solo album pushes his music further away from pop toward a kind of lo-fi folk sound — recorded primarily on acoustic guitar, with only the occasional touch of harmonica and the even less frequent hint of percussion, Transit Byzantine is rootsy and raw, with the uncluttered arrangements of tracks like "From a Dark Night," "Songs of a Drunken Nightingale" and "Burning Down a Snowflake" preserving the songs' intimacy and warmth.

From somewhere else:
Before I listened to this CD, I was pretty much ready to dismiss Bill Fox as a musical stalker of Bob Dylan. On the basis of a couple of tracks on compilations, it seemed that he'd be apt to change his name to Robert Zimmerman and claim to have been born in Hibbing, Minnesota.

Well, Mr. Zimmerman began with a serious case of Idol Envy as well, and his earliest music probably struck contemporary listeners as painfully Woody Guthrie-esque. What such dismissive listeners would have missed about the young Dylan is not only just how well he did Guthrie but the distinctive wit and verbal play he brought to his inspiration. Similarly, what Transit Byzantium reveals about Bill Fox is that while he may well have a faded LP copy of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II framed on his wall (the one that puts a halo around St. Bob as its jacket wears out), he brings an impressive melodicism and a haunting spirituality to his homage.

Before you leap away from this review at that s-word, I should explain that Bill Fox is not in the least preachy, nor is he even very specific about his beliefs. It may well be that he uses religious themes more for their metaphorical resonance than as a matter of belief - but then, that metaphorical resonance is one of the primary reasons for religion's persistence. But it's that melodicism that makes Fox's lyrics work to their fullest strength. It's telling that Fox's earlier band, the Mice, is usually mentioned in the same breath with Guided by Voices, and that the next breath usually mentions the Beatles. "I'll Give it Away" audaciously begins with the same first two lines as "From Me to You," and even though the arrangements here are uncluttered and led by Fox's acoustic guitar and harmonica, some songs feature Beatle-esque vocal harmonies and chord changes. And "My Baby Crying" sounds kind of like the Everly Brothers covering Dylan, or vice versa.

But the strength of Fox's vision, along with sharp lyrics and melodies, make this disc transcend any notions of cheap revivalism. Neither slavishly retro nor fashionably contemporary, Bill Fox's music sounds timeless

paper · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:49 pm

PopTodd · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:46 pm

paper Wrote:

Description?
Reasoning why it's "essential"?

Oh, and *bump*

I want more suggestions!!!

Odds Bodkins · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:06 pm

Since I'm on a huge jazz kick these days, here's another jim dandy!

Quote:

George Braith is a little-known name in jazz history. The saxophonist, who played fairly advanced hard bop, performed on soprano, alto, tenor, and stritch. In addition to being one of the few jazz musicians, other than Rahsaan Roland Kirk, to play stritch, Braith also occasionally played two horns at once (one less than Kirk), getting a rather eerie sound. He recorded three albums for Blue Note during 1963-1964; all of the music has been reissued on this two-CD set. Braith's repertoire (which includes originals, "Poinciana," "Boop Bop Bing Bash," and "Mary Had a Little Lamb") is sometimes unusual, but he managed to uplift most of the pieces. Braith is joined by the great guitarist Grant Green, organist Billy Gardner, and one of three drummers on these formerly rare performances, which are nearly his entire recorded legacy. After this, there would be just two albums for Prestige during 1966-1967, then nothing as a leader until a 1992 set for the Japanese Paddywheel label. Worth checking out.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:27 pm

Yeah, I know that I pimp them all the time (and no, Shrimp Boat will not end up in this thread), but these guys paved the way for all the great UK pub rockers that followed: Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Joe Jackson, etc...

And this is their best album.

Brinsley Schwarz - Nervous On the Road

AllMusic Wrote:

Silver Pistol wrote the blueprint for Brinsley Schwarz's pub rock, but Nervous on the Road perfected the group's sound, helping Brinsley to become the definitive pub rock band in the process. Nervous on the Road has a fuller, more detailed production than its predecessor, as well as a looser feeling -- even with the smooth production, it sounds like the band was captured on a good night at the Tally Ho. But what really makes the record is its excellent selection of songs, almost all of which were written by Nick Lowe. "Happy Doing What We're Doing," "Surrender to the Rhythm," and "Nervous on the Road" are all great rock & roll songs about rock & roll, spiked with an off-kilter sense of humor. "Don't Lose Your Grip on Love" is Lowe's first great ballad, while Ian Gomm's "It's Been So Long" is one of his best songs. And the covers of "I Like It Like That" and "Home in My Hand" are wonderful pub rockers, giving the album the feeling of an excellent concert. Nevertheless, what makes Nervous on the Road such a fine record is the combination of empathetic performances, unpredictable songwriting, and charming unpretentiousness, all of which help make the album one of the great forgotten rock & roll records.

Postmersh · **Posted:** Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:56 pm

Ish Wrote:

Mainliner "Mellow Out"

This sounds like yummy.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:11 am

The Mayor of Simpleton Wrote:

A hell of a fun album that went completely ignored and can now be found on Amazon for 1-cent a copy. One of my few cherished cut-out finds. I also managed to find an apparently extremely rare EP they put out that I can't find mentioned anywhere. Band leader Miles Om Tackett is now in Breakestra, whom a few of you may be more familiar with.

All Music Guide Wrote:

4.5 star review

If you dig through the bargain bins at your local CD store on a regular basis, you'll probably stumble over this album repeatedly. It's one of those completely inexplicable quirks of the marketplace: a funky, lush, and hooky minor masterpiece of pop music that was apparently released in great quantity but never marketed successfully, because it flopped commercially and the band hasn't been heard from since. If you're a fan of virtuosic yet fun guitar playing, funky drumming, rock-solid basslines, good-natured lyrics, and indelible hooks, this disc could be the best five bucks you ever spend. Opening with the astringent "Two Minds" and then bogging down briefly with the trippy "Somewhere in the Middle," the band then bops and struts through the funkalicious "The Atom" and soars into the stratosphere with a Living Color-meets-Dixie Dregs instrumental titled "Day at the Races"; "She Won't Go" features cello, acoustic guitar, and a sweet stoner love lyric; and "How Deep Is This Well?" features several simultaneous guitar parts, each one funkier than the last, and the program goes on like that for a total of 55 minutes. Highly recommended to anyone who wonders where all the fun pop music went.

My 1¢ copy arrived in the mail yesterday!
Preparing to give it a first listen.

Thanks for the rec.

You have made a difference

Finch Platte · **Posted:** Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:16 am

The Mayor of Simpleton Wrote:

A hell of a fun album that went completely ignored and can now be found on Amazon for 1-cent a copy. One of my few cherished cut-out finds. I also managed to find an apparently extremely rare EP they put out that I can't find mentioned anywhere. Band leader Miles Om Tackett is now in Breakestra, whom a few of you may be more familiar with.

I just ordered this thru Django's for 99 cents. Sounds like fun, thanks!

PopTodd · **Posted:** Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:21 am

Finch Platte Wrote:

The Mayor of Simpleton Wrote:

A hell of a fun album that went completely ignored and can now be found on Amazon for 1-cent a copy. One of my few cherished cut-out finds. I also managed to find an apparently extremely rare EP they put out that I can't find mentioned anywhere. Band leader Miles Om Tackett is now in Breakestra, whom a few of you may be more familiar with.

I just ordered this thru Django's for 99 cents. Sounds like fun, thanks!

Listening now and it is fun, but a caveat for those of you who may be thinking about buyin it.

This is Chilis-inspired, early-90's funk-punk!

It IS fun, like I said, but certainly not everyone's bag o' weed.

You St. Louis/MO people: think: The Unconscious.

The Mayor of Simpleton · **Posted:** Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:22 pm

PopTodd Wrote:

Finch Platte Wrote:

The Mayor of Simpleton Wrote:

A hell of a fun album that went completely ignored and can now be found on Amazon for 1-cent a copy. One of my few cherished cut-out finds. I also managed to find an apparently extremely rare EP they put out that I can't find mentioned anywhere. Band leader Miles Om Tackett is now in Breakestra, whom a few of you may be more familiar with.

I just ordered this thru Django's for 99 cents. Sounds like fun, thanks!

Listening now and it is fun, but a caveat for those of you who may be thinking about buyin it.

This is Chilis-inspired, early-90's funk-punk!

It IS fun, like I said, but certainly not everyone's bag o' weed.

You St. Louis/MO people: think: The Unconscious.

Interesting take, Todd. I would never have said the Chilis, however. If I've seen it rec'd to people it's been to those who like jamband-ish stuff like Phish and they seemed to appreciate it for the brand of funkiness that Phish brought, not the Chili Peppers harder-edged funk.

ESSENTIAL albums most Obners probably don't have

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