Slayer - Raining Blood

The best version (followed by Black Magic):



All drenched in blood:



With better audio/video:



Get a glimpse at the audience:



Top 10 of all-time best hard rock.

Five favourite albums (Part 1: Soft Machine and David Sylvian)

I should not play this game (especially at 3am), but I am starting to identify my favourite albums with greater precision.

The first one is clearly Soft Machine, Third. Every note on this album has left a mark in my mind. “Facelift” and “Slightly All the Time” are my ideal representations of, respectively, tortured and groovy electrified jazz music. “Moon in June” is the prelude to Robert Wyatt's foundational album, “Rock Bottom.” (produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason). “Out-Bloody Rageous” shows how to compose and play in the idiom of Steve Reich, with added jazz-rock style. The remastered 2007 edition of Third has extra live tracks (Facelift was already live on the 1970 Columbia recording). I listen to it almost every night.

The second one is David Sylvian, Gone to Earth. If memory serves, I discovered it after drifting from Brian Eno to Brian Eno & Robert Fripp, then to Robert Fripp & David Sylvian, and finally to David Sylvian. The album shocked me as the best ambient album I had ever listened to, even if Brian Eno's experimental work had been my first introduction to the genre. I remember listening to it looped when reading my courses for the preparation of my brevet des collèges (the BEPC, a French equivalent to the GCSE which we take when sixteen).

The third album will be a King Crimson album from their first period, which started with In the Court of the Crimson King and ended with Red. I yet have to pick my favourite Crimson album. I have only little clue about the fourth and fifth ones, but they will probably feature Brian Eno and perhaps Harold Budd at his side, King Crimson's Robert Fripp, Robert Wyatt (solo) and David Sylvian.

Followers include Pink Floyd from their first psychedelic period (Animals is so amazingly brilliant), new ambient composer Biosphere for his 2004 album Autour de La Lune based on the French radio archives of Jules Vernes, post-rock band Tortoise for understanding Brian Eno so carefully, and Frank Zappa, for being Frank Zappa, the Boris Vian from the eighties.

Alphabet City

What came before Hardtechno vol.3, the excellent mix by Kvitta? Discogs tells me here and there. From what I can tell from the tracklist, it's the same kind of hard techno, I cannot wait to find them!

Apocalyptica

... has a new album with Till Lindermann singing on the most interesting tune – “Helden,” a German version of David Bowie's “Heroes.”

Find it as soon as you can!

Crash the Zeppelin

I was part of the crowd of 20 million people who crashed the registration system for their once-19-years concert.

Communication Breakdown/It's always the same/...!

Music for Airports

The original Brian Eno record was a small revolution in ambient, but the Bang on a Can adaptation is even better! It feels like walking under water. Or maybe that's because it's 3.30am.

Cash, “Cocaine Blues”

Just to add a second country song to balance the first one:

“Union Maid”, by Pete Seeger & Arlo Guthrie

I once had a History & Geography teacher who shared some resemblance with the guy on the left:



And they sung the same type of songs too!

Via.

Rachid : “Je la désire”

Probably the funniest song on the planet (yes, it beats the Lumberjack song). I try to watch it every day to keep faith in humanity.

Nouvelle Star - Rachid
Uploaded by lyline19

The lyrics go like this:

Je vais à sa chambre, je vais à sa chambre
Je la vois, elle s'habille, elle se déshabille comme une abeille
Je fais demi-tour, je fais demi-tour
Je commence à ouvrir son frigo
Oh yeah, Oh yeah
Je vois la mayonnaise, je suis amoureux
I love you, oh yeah
Elle le croit
Elle me dit "S'il te plaît Rachid, s'il te plaît Rachid"
"Chope-moi un Kiri"
Je lui dit (…)
Elle m'a dit une voix douce
Elle m'a dit une voix douce
Je lui ai dit
I believe I can fly
(…)
Oh yeah
C'est ma chérie

Jazz tracks

Two tracks from my secret list of favourite jazz tracks ever:

• Herbie Hancock, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” on his amazing live with Chick Corea (An Evening With…, 1978)
  
  
• Mike Ratledge, “Slightly All the Time,” on Soft Machine's Third album (1970)
  
  

The video supply for these tracks is not that bad, thanks in particular to the jazzheads who are spending their days downloading from the French National Audiovisual Archives (INA) and uploading them on Youtube instead.

It is obvious that you should not trust live recordings to reflect album performace, but I think they will give you a pretty good idea. Third has been remastered in 2007, while the Hancock/Corea live was already perfect on first take: you can hear some slight humming over the piano at some point, but nothing critical like in Gould's Variations for instance.