Music Reissues Weekly: Peter Baumann - Phase by Phase: The Virgin Albums

The surprising solo adventures of a core member of Tangerine Dream

When the first solo album by Tangerines Dream’s Peter Baumann was released in the US in 1977, its promotion was striking. Press advertising (pictured below left) said “he possesses the infinite vision that has made his group one of the most important contributors to mystagogic lore.”

Music Reissues Weekly: Sex Pistols - Looking For a Kiss in Kristinehamn

SEX PISTOLS - LOOKING FOR A KISS IN KRISTINEHAMN When Dionysian irrationality and divine insanity came to small-town Sweden

When Dionysian irrationality and divine insanity came to small-town Sweden

After Sex Pistols have played “New York,” the fourth song in their set, someone from the audience shouts “Anarchy in the U.K.” "We've already played it, you fucking idiot" responds Sid Vicious. They have. It was the first song they did at Kristinehamn’s Club Zebra.

The request begs the question of whether the person calling out knew what “Anarchy in the U.K.” sounded like. They may have known of “Anarchy in the U.K.” but not actually heard it. Considering where the particular show was, the information gap is possible.

Album: X - Smoke & Fiction

Final album from Los Angeles punks offers ebullient reflections on a career to be proud of

X, although beloved of music journalists, are one of American punk’s most under-acknowledged. They took a tilt at fame in the mid-Eighties with the radio-friendly Ain’t Love Grand album and its lead single “Burning House of Love”, but it wasn’t to be. They remained a connoisseurs’ choice (inarguable evidence of their abilities is the stunning 1983 tune “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”).

Album: Blues Pills - Birthday

Swedish-American quartet reinvent retro-rock to their own catchy formula

Swedish-American four-piece Blues Pills are new to this writer but have been around since 2011. Their fourth album makes me wonder why.

Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent, Whitechapel Gallery review - photomontages sizzling with rage

★★★★ PETER KENNARD: ARCHIVE OF DISSENT, WHITECHAPEL GALLERY Fifty years of political protest by a master craftsman

Fifty years of political protest by a master craftsman

Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent at the Whitechapel Gallery includes many of the artists’s most iconic political photomontages. Beginning in the 1970s, Kennard created images that by speaking truth to power, gave protest movements like CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), the Anti-Apartheid Movement and Stop the War Coalition the visual equivalent of marching songs.

Blu-ray: The Conversation

Coppola's other Seventies masterpiece, as Gene Hackman's sound man is dismantled by pre-Watergate paranoia

“I don’t care what they’re talking about,” says the best bugger in the business, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman). “I just want a nice fat tape.”

Music Reissues Weekly: Tomorrow's Fashions - Library Electronica 1972-1987

Fascinating collection of futuristic music intended for soundtracks rather than record shops

The conundrum central to library music is that it was not meant to be listened to in any normal way. Yet, in time, this is what happened. What ended up on the albums pressed by companies like Bruton, Chappell, De Wolfe and others was heard by subscribers – the records did not end up for sale in shops or on the record players sitting in the nation’s homes.

Music Reissues Weekly: Barry Ryan - The Albums 1969-1979

BARRY RYAN - THE ALBUMS 1969-1979 Musical drama personified

Musical drama personified

In April 1985, The Damned’s Dave Vanian was speaking with Janice Long on her BBC Radio 1 show. He said “Barry Ryan and Paul Ryan have been sadly forgotten. Everyone waxes lyrical about Scott Walker which is marvellous but this is absolutely superb. There’s a tension in there, it starts off pretty but it grabs you after a while.”

Album: Deep Purple - =1

★★★ DEEP PURPLE =1 Good-humoured chunky set of feisty rockin' from the old war-horses

Good-humoured chunky set of feisty rockin' from the old war-horses

Ever since their 2013 album Now What?! hard rock veterans Deep Purple have been on a roll, both creatively and commercially. They’ve seemed a revitalised force. An album of covers aside, their output since has also sold/streamed multitudes. Not bad for a unit that’s been going for 56 years, with a stable line-up for well over 30. Their latest album is more enjoyable and feistier than cynics might imagine. It’s business as usual, of course, but Deep Purple wear their heritage with aplomb.