Celebrate it.

Travelled south on the Caledonian Sleeper. Approached London via Shadwell on the DLR. Pulled into St. Pancras. Disembarked a GWR at Paddington. Right. 🙄

My favourite little secret book store in the back of a junk shop keeps doing the business. All a little foxed as is to be expected, but lovely things to bring home and care for nonetheless.

Writing Christmas cards and listening to Yo La Tengo.

Here are some of my charity shop book discoveries from the last week or so. Particularly pleased to find the Shon Faye book today. It seems to me that as good records become more scarce in such places, good books become more plentiful. And so the universe retains its balance.

This is the only Marilyn Crispell album I have, which seems like a strange oversight. For someone with such an extraordinary career I don’t see her name mentioned nearly as often as it should be. One for fans of Cecil Taylor who want to explore further.

Comfort food.

It’s time. ❄️

Is everyone enjoying this weekend’s tape travelogue…? Next stop is this which, it turns out, is Greenland. Not sure whether this is a country yet represented in the overall collection. Anyway, originally a double LP sampler of traditional music squeezed onto one tape. Again, unintentionally festive.

This could be a late, late contender for my 10 favourite finds of the year list. It’s an absolute belter. Freeman is on other albums I have (which I now need to revisit) but this was his first lead gig. Chicago soul jazz but a couple of AACM alumni pop in to bring a freer, deeper edge to one track.

Tree’s up, so kicking back with this. Another one from this week’s adventures.

Riotous live album from the fascinating Algerian cabaret singer Salim Halali. This was released in 1979, though he opened his first club in Paris in 1947. I have included more about his life in the ALT. 🏳️‍🌈

I thought I had stumbled upon the rumoured, long thought lost, Dodi and Princess Di album… actually it is Nojouki Dariush and Hayedeh Mahasti. Iranian, probably 1980s. Pop of its time with a bit of a nightclub vibe.

Saturday night polymath.

A delightful little private cassette from Australia, dated July 1987. Essentially hymns performed in a folk-style with bamboo flute, finger cymbals, and drum machine. The Fellowship is still in existence. More about them in the ALT.

This is Marzieh (Sharafat Morteza). I can’t pin down a date or title, but probably recorded in pre-revolutionary Iran. Classical Persian singing thoroughly dripping with passion. More about her life in the ALT.

Samba Mapangala, Virunga. This is probably the Vunja Mifupa LP, also referred to as …in Paris in some editions. Furthermore this is an expanded version with two additional remixes which might explain it having “Space Original” emblazoned on the front and the maybe not so very legit cassette.

If you like your strings cascading, your vocals yearning, and your keyboards sounding like a couple of cold wave kids playing Pong - then seek this out. Mayāda al-Ḥannāwi; she is Syrian, while the tape is Moroccan via Greece, I think.

But first this. Japanese press of what I think was originally released on Enja. Recorded in Munich. The gatefold here has the most jazz photograph of a jazz trio I think you could ever imagine.

Here are some cassettes that I picked up today. Good chance that these could dominate my listening over the next week or so. Lots to explore.

Two excellent compilations of some medium rare UK country blues. Nice to find them both together.

Flower Travellin’ Band combust and collapse before our very eyes. The first out of today’s bag.

Perfect Friday.

Floating.

Huge if true.

Somewhere in England, a lone security camera dutifully observes the security fencing installed around the fly tipped rubbish at the end of the unfinished road.

Confession: I have never read any Dickens. So, question: where should I start? Spent a lot of time recently reading more modernist and experimental books. Style and structure, more than plot driven. So looking for a rollickingly good, character driven, page turner. Recommendations please.

AB.

Home. 💚

Back to the beginning. I owned this on cassette before I owned anything on vinyl. 1981. It is still a great compilation to this day. Possibly it has even matured and improved with age - though admittedly very different ears are listening to it today.

Yesterday the conversation turned to the question; is it any longer possible for someone to set out from scratch and afford to build a record collection? Yes, but you have to dig around in the weeds beside any well-beaten path. This delight of an LP came from a remainder/bargain bin somewhere.

A stone classic. One of those records that is so good it makes it a joy just to be alive. Cheap heat; gas mark 10.

‘Tis Sunday. The Time for Peace is Now. World Spirituality Classics 2.

At the end of a very long day.

This is a new name and voice for me. Stone was a notable Broadway performer, a premier interpreter of Jacques Brel, and an advocate for LSD psychotherapy. This might be a concept album referencing notable points in American history. Not sure. Pretty good, though. A very likeable new voice.

Now, someone is going to step up and prove me wrong I’m sure, but this does appear to be untraceable on the internet. A rare thing these days. It is rather good. Interpretations of early music and folk, topped off with a five part folk/prog suite on the theme of Offa’s Dyke… what’s not to like?

“She was married when we first met Soon to be divorced…” I guess all roads lead back here.

Wish you were here. 💚

epic45 - Against The Pull of Autumn. Although it feels like winter has arrived here this evening.

In spare moments I have been slowly (really *very* slowly) assembling the Book Nook that my youngest gifted me earlier this year. In essence it is a diorama of a Japanese street scene with bookshops and cats; and also this intricate, gorgeous little tram car. 😊🌸

Little Axe Cassette 027 - A Dirge of The Sea Gods. The notes are sparse; Korean Song, Czech Song… furthermore Jed’s handwriting on the inlay is tiny and barely decipherable. But there is something lovely here that is true to that spirit of music moving hand to hand via homemade tapes.

Part radio play, part field recording, part memoir, part cabin-in-the-woods-slowly-casting-free-from-reality psychological ghost story. Or it might meander around to being something completely other.

More gospel goodness. This one recently arrived in a hand delivered care package. 💚

Magnificent Numero collection of private gospel soul. “You got to get involved…” Perfect Sunday morning accompaniment to drinking coffee and framing prints.

Catch a falling star. ⭐️

McCoy Joe Henry Jack God bless you all. 🧡

This not sounding quite as I expected, but it is rather fantastic nonetheless. Top work as always from the Sahel/Mississippi/Change crew.

At Stephen Friedman. And elsewhere.

Fabulous hat.

Recent book finds. I do rather have a soft spot for book club editions. So nice to find some further SF examples. Though I think the Robertson Davies is the highlight here. Love a book about books; especially one with a cover this nice.