“Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses. Have a good one, everybody! Couldn’t miss this one this year.

RECORDS OF THE YEAR Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound Asterisk - No School Rashad Becker - The Incident Cardiacs - LSD Civilistjävel! x Mayssa Jallad - Marjaa Versions False Aralia - various 12"s General Magic - Bosko Paul Jebanasam - Mātr Milkweed - Remscéla Rafael Toral - Travelling Light

My cousin played some beautiful guitar over a track I only vaguely remember sending him: richdownes.bandcamp.com/track/three-...

#nowplaying #prog #vinyl Peter Hammill — ‘From the Trees’ I have now listened to every solo Hammill record I own, in chronological order. Can report that he’s had a pretty significant return to form in recent years. Should I do Van Der Graaf Generator next?

#nowplaying #80smusic #vinyl The Art of Noise — ‘Who’s Afraid of..?’ Honestly don’t remember but I probably got this for Christmas in 1984 or 85. There’s something special about playing a record you’ve had for 40 years!

#nowplaying #vinyl Kate Bush — ‘50 Words for Snow’

Yes. #vinyl #records

#nowplaying #vinyl Oren Ambarchi — ‘Ghosted’ The finest release so far from the Ghosted trio, I reckon.

#nowplaying #ecm #jazz #vinyl Jan Garbarek — ‘Witchi-Tai-To’ Step 13 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1041. Another one with the power to convert Garbarek sceptics. Extremely nice German original copy.

I made a compilation of sad Japanese and Korean music from the 1970s and 80s. Frens and headz can DM me for the link.

#nowplaying #postrock #vinyl Seefeel — ‘Pure, Impure’ Some real highlights of the early UK post-rock scene collected here. Interesting that Warp licensed these tracks, which Beggars presumably owned the rights to. Nice pressing but the master sounds a bit overly compressed.

#nowplaying #80smusic #vinyl Depeche Mode — ‘A Broken Frame’ More childhood nostalgia. Didn’t actually own any DM records as a kid but my brother had the greatest hits. The album version of ‘Leave in Silence’ hits really hard.

#nowplaying #vinyl Joanna Newsom — ‘Ys’ Not really a Christmas record at all but I always play it at this time of year.

#nowplaying #dubstep #vinyl Burial — ‘Rival Dealer’ is a Christmas movie!

#nowplaying #morningmusic #vinyl Ryuichi Sakamoto — ‘Coda’ Another secret Christmas album.

#nowplaying #vinyl Kate Bush — ‘The Other Side 2’ This is secretly Kate’s Christmas album. And yes I know about ‘50 Words for Snow’. You could probably even get a bootleg LP of her Xmas special. But there’s something a bit special about this one.

It’s with great sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Ken Downie on 20/12/25. Rest In Peace brother, you will be deeply missed and never forgotten. Our condolences to Sheena and his family.

#nowplaying #morningmusic #vinyl Kim Doo Soo — ‘The Evening River’ So, here’s a record I bought. Long story short, I haggled. Veteran Korean singer-songwriter associated with Japan’s PSF label. Strong Nick Drake vibe. Incredibly haunting voice. Highly, highly recommended.

#nowplaying #vinyl The Human League — ‘Dare’ More festive nostalgia. My brother has this record when we were kids. But my copy is one I bought for 25c at a thrift store, when such things were still possible.

#nowplaying #ecm #jazz Ralph Towner — ‘Diary’ Step 12 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1032. The oceanscape painting and mellow vibe mark this out as one of the first archetypal ECM releases. Proper German original with annoyingly peeling plastic on the sleeve. Bought at Beat Street in Vancouver.

#nowplaying #ecm #jazz Terje Rypdal — ‘What Comes After’ Step 11 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1031. I have a lot of Rypdal albums that have not received the attention they deserve, so this project is a fun way to address that. This one features Barre Phillips, so you can pretty much guarantee it’s dope.

#nowplaying #vinyl The Cramps — ‘Songs the Lord Taught Us’ Recent reissue, which was mail-order only at first, apparently.

#nowplaying #jazz #vinyl Karin Krog — ‘We Could Be Flying’ One of those records that is inexplicably not on ECM. Hanukkah gift from my in-laws.

#nowplaying #dubstep #vinyl Burial — ‘Comafields’ This is absolutely Burial doing what he does best. Epic hauntological sample collages.

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild: * Black bear * Green see turtle * Japanese macaque (monkey) * Rattlesnake * Welsh mountain pony Doing this because I was surprised by how much I could flex with it, given that I’m a born coward who finds travel extremely stressful.

#nowplaying #vinyl Soft Cell — ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ At this time of year, I get an embarrassingly sentimental desire to hear pop music from my childhood. But honestly, Suicide + Peter Hammill x Northern Soul = what’s not to love?

#nowplaying #japanesemusic #vinyl Yosui Inoue — ‘Yosui II/Sentimental’ Strong evidence for Scott Walker’s influence on Japanese music in the early 70s. He went on to be the first million-selling Japanese artist, apparently. But that was after he went a bit more rock.

#nowplaying #ecm #jazz #vinyl David Holland Quartet — ‘Conference of the Birds’ Step 10 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1027. One of the more straightforward jazz records on the label up to this point. That is, if you consider Ornette Coleman’s classic quartet to be straightforward.

In terms of terrible things that just happened, the Rob Reiner thing is pretty far down the list. But I'd like to point out that The Sure Thing is a great Christmas movie and features my absolute favourite John Cusack line delivery. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9GM...

#nowplaying #vinyl Echo & The Bunnymen — ‘Ocean Rain’ Another super-obvious left-field rock classic finally joins my collection.

#nowplaying #japanesemusic #vinyl Yoshiko Sai — ‘Mangekyou’ More sad Japanese music from the 1970s. Thanks to @jspacewoman.bsky.social for inspiring me to revisit this one.

#nowplaying #ecm #jazz Ralph Towner with Glenn Moore — ‘Trios Solos’ Step 9 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1025. This is an Oregon album in all but name. At this point, the label is definitely moving far from its routes in free and spiritual jazz. An identity is forming, but the covers are still abstract.

#nowplaying #idm #vinyl Monolake — ‘Gravity’ Great to see the Monolake discography gradually getting reissued on vinyl. Can we have ‘Silence’ next, please?

“I followed the colonel to the cheap hotel I tapped the beds, I wired the phones as well” #FallFriday

#nowplaying #morningmusic #vinyl Roberto Cacciapaglia Ensemble — ‘Transharmonica’ Saw this for 10 bucks at a record fair and took a punt. Very different from the Cacciapaglia heads may know. Almost a holy minimalism vibe. Perfect rainy morning music, so far.

#nowplaying #prog #vinyl Peter Hammill — ‘All That Might Have Been’ Finally playing the last of the records I bought in Japan. Was saving this to slot it into my project of playing all my Hammill albums in chronological order. This one is legitimately excellent. A real late-period highlight.

#nowplaying #vinyl False Aralia — ‘Ira.gram’ Surely the new project from the shadowy figure behind Topdown Dialectic. In any case, the most exciting new electronic music project I’ve heard since Topdown. This isn’t my fave EP in the series, it’s just the only one I’ve managed to get on vinyl.

#nowplaying #ecm #jazz Paul Bley — ‘Open, to Love’ Step 8 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1023. This is another all-timer for me. The perfect combination of tenderness and radicalism. My copy is a US original but I think the album was reissued recently. Essential.

#nowplaying #morningmusic #vinyl Kim Doo Soo — ‘The Evening River’ So, here’s a record I bought. Long story short, I haggled. Veteran Korean singer-songwriter associated with Japan’s PSF label. Strong Nick Drake vibe. Incredibly haunting voice. Highly, highly recommended.

#nowplaying #morningmusic #vinyl The second Tindersticks album. This is the Plain Records reissue, which is presumably considered to be garbage. But it sounds fine to my unrefined ears.

#nowplaying #japanesemusic #vinyl Kan Mikami — ‘There are No Dreams to be Realized’ Was delighted to find some records by this icon of the Japanese counter-culture (and, later, a PSF recording artist). This is one of my faves by him.

#nowplaying #prog #vinyl Peter Hammill / Gary Lucas — ‘Other World’ Still working my way through all my Hammill albums. This is where things start to pick up again.

I have another weird audio gear question. I’d like a compact passive analogue summing box with six 1/4” inputs (three left and three right), which all mix down to two 1/4” outputs (one left, one right). Does anything like that exist and, if so, where do I find it? Thanks.

#nowplaying #ecm #jazz #vinyl Keith Jarrett — ‘Facing You’ Step 7 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1017. Saw that film about another Jarrett album. It was okay. Was mainly excited to see Manfred Eicher portrayed on screen.

1989 cover of the Lloyd & Devon song “Cuss Cuss”by Dub Syndicate. Guest vocals by the late Bim Sherman. Opening cut from the group’s debut album Strike the Balance. #Reggae m.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Dx...

Thread: #bandcampfriday tips. No links but they should be easy to search out.

Thread: #bandcampfriday tips. No links but they should be easy to search out.

In case you’re making a #bandcampfriday wish list, I highly recommend this collection of early dark ambient recordings from dub-techno master Nervous Operator. blastedgorse.bandcamp.com/album/archiv...

#nowplaying #ecm #improv #vinyl David Holland, Derek Bailey — ‘Improvisations for Cello and Guitar’ Step 6 on my #ecmodyssey is ECM 1013. Amazing how much early ECM is hardcore free improv. German original with the peeling plastic to prove it. Bought at Los Apson in Tokyo.

#nowplaying #triphop #vinyl Leslie Winer — ‘When I Hit You, You’ll Feel It’ An androgynous supermodel invented trip-hop and nobody noticed. And it still feels like nobody cares. Anyway, I’m a fan. Imagine a kind of laconically stoned version of Sleaford Mods. No, really.