December "New" Used Additions to the Record Shelf

What a week for music... I got some stuff in the mail that I had ordered as sort of early Christmas gifts to myself, and today I traded in some old videos for records. I've yet to get to all of the albums but I have nothing but praise for what I have heard so far.

Some of the far-out artwork by Voivod drummer Away

on The Outer Limits album

First up, I decided to dig deeper into the Voivod back catalogue and got a Japanese import copy of The Outer Limits at a very reasonable price. I had test-listened this one for the first time several months ago on Youtube, and was suitably impressed with the Quebec band's 1993 prog-thrash release. The sci-fi theme throughout was weird and fun, and the music itself just floored me. The opening track, Fix My Heart, is very uncharacteristically catchy - almost poppy - and quickly ear-wormed its way into my brain for several days. I just couldn't get it out of my head... day and night, that simple riff drilled away long after I'd turned off the CD player. Yeah, I resorted to the CD format for this one. This almost completely unavailable vinyl record commands hundreds of dollars on Discogs, and even the CD on Amazon.ca goes for over fifty bucks! What the...? But I found it from a third party seller operating through Walmart, of all places. Anyway, so many strong tracks on here, including Le Pont Noir, The Nile Song (a Pink Floyd cover), The Lost Machine, and the epic Jack Luminous (which runs over 17 minutes, not a moment of it boring). Yet again, I was dazzled by Piggy's incredibly unique guitar pyrotechnics (his last appearance before his passing, RIP), Away's hot drum rhythms, and even the stand-in session bassist's work (sadly, original 4-stringer Blacky left the band before recording the album).

So I wailed away on The Outer Limits for much of the week, not having found such a musical gem in a long, long time. Then late-week, another CD came in the mail. Again I opted for a compact disc, since the vinyl version of Rammstein's 2001 album Mutter was priced well into the stratosphere. Damn! I would really much rather add to my record collection than my already busting-at-the-seams CD shelves. Oh well, at least after just one listen, I can safely say that I really enjoy this heavy electro-industrial metal album. And I don't mind one bit that it is all (is it all?) in German. The CD was playing in the background while I did some computing, so my attention wasn't 100% on the music. But still... very cool stuff.

Then today I finally decided to take a pile of my old and unwanted DVDs to a used media shop. Thank the gods that these places still exist, since the big chain music/movie stores have pretty much vanished (only Sunrise Records remains here). So I give the little independent places my business, buying and trading semi-regularly. In exchange for my old crap, I walked away with the Thievery Corporation 2002 double-album, The Richest Man in Babylon. This record set looks like brand new, and though I haven't spun it yet, I can't wait to hear it. I have a few Thievery albums on CD buried away here somewhere, but just haven't been in an electronic music mood in years. I am pretty sure I have Richest Man on CD, probably a ripped copy, but when I saw the vinyl today, I figured if I got it, I'd easily re-vitalize my interest in both Thievery Corp. and electronic music in general. These guys (and gals) were favourites of mine back in the 90's, when I was obsessed with their atmospheric Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi album. Their music can best be described as an exotic blend of dub, acid jazz, reggae, electronic dance, Indian, Middle Eastern, hip hop, and Brazilian. Great for chillin' at a cocktail party for the modern crowd. 

At that same store, I found an inexpensive copy of Canadian progressive rock band FM's 1977 album Black Noise. This is an upgrade to my very shabby existing record - the outer sleeve, that is. I'll test listen this new disc to see how the sound compares, but my goal was to simply replace the heavily worn cardboard jacket with this very clean one. I don't always do this sort of thing, but this FM album is among my absolute favourites, so I felt it would be worth the few bucks to make my play copy look much nicer. If you're in the mood for jazzy space-prog without guitars, this could be for you... in lieu of rock's usual six-strings, Nash the Slash incorporates the eerie, otherwordly sounds of electric violin and mandolin, plus a myriad of other synthesized effects. Black Noise is pretty common in the used shops, and I recommend it for any vinyl enthusiast.

Multi-instrumentalist Nash the Slash... here he sports his

now-trademark mummy bandages, which actually came about

in the late 70's, after he left FM

A quick visit to another used record store yielded a purchase that I'm still scratching my head over. As the counter staff looked through the remainder of my old videos to trade, I flipped through the new record arrivals. All that caught my eye was a pristine LP of Rush's 1985 release, Power Windows. Now back in the day, I was an avid fan of that album - on cassette tape, that is. In fact, I'd say this was, and still is, my favourite Rush offering from the 80's. And these days, I prefer it to the played-to-death Moving Pictures album. I love the big lush, textural instrumentation on Territories, Middletown Dreams, Emotion Detector and Mystic Rhythms. And unlike so many haters of that period of the band's synth-experimentation, I have always enjoyed that hard rock-pop punch of the hit tune Big Money. At least the guitar has a large, fat presence, whether thick bright power chords or jangly arpeggios. Oh, and the reason I have mixed feelings about buying this is that I made the decision long ago not to re-buy more than one or two key Rush records. I mean... I owned everything to date on tape up until the CD revolution, when I re-bought everything (which is a lot of Rush)... and do I really want to accumulate these same albums yet again on vinyl? I very rarely hanker for Rush's music now anyway, so my trusty A Farewell to Kings and even Fly By Night would have done me just fine in a pinch. But the price was right, and Power Windows just looked so inviting at the store today. So I guess this was a bit of an impulse buy. Maybe once I crank it up later, all my reservations will disappear.

All in all, a productive shopping trip, and overall, a very satisfying week in "new" old music. Which is the way to go when you're my age and re-discovering the magic of vinyl. And occasionally slumming it with CDs. 

Cheers!