Music Recommendations

I find that after a while my choices in music start getting a bit predictable. Just for an experiment, I thought I would let someone else choose my music for me. I decided to allow the listeners (or at least chat room guests) of the Reaperman’s Wasteland radio show pick  a CD for me. The first suggestion was an album by Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

Now this caused me some confusion. I looked up the name to discover that he was a 17th Century English naval officer. It also turns out to be a pretty decent heavy metal outfit. The album I went for is the only one I could find – “Don’t Hear It, Feel It” which came out last year but sounds as if it was recorded in 1969! For the most part it reminds me of early Black Sabbath with, possibly, a slight touch of Hawkwind. The sound is quite remarkable. It sounds as if it was performed live in the studio in much the same way that Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin’s first albums were but with lots of phasing effects and vocals that sound like they were played through a Leslie speaker. Under that is a really good, old-fashioned, crunchy guitar sound. What it doesn’t have is stacks of compression and overwrought bass which is the curse of modern recording. The CD says that the album is also available on vinyl – I can see why.

The other recommended purchase came about after I suggested that I thought the Russian language sounded great in rock music. It was suggested that I might like the Russian rock group Arkona. I had a look on YouTube and found this video which appeared to be a bunch of tanked up Russians beating seven shades out of each other:
The parent album is called Slovo so I gave this a go. So “like it”? I love it! Arkona fall into the folk-metal genre combining heavy metal genres with Slavic folk music and traditional instruments. It might sound a bit bizarre but it is essentially what Led Zeppelin did back in the 60s with blues-rock and English folk or Thin Lizzie with psychedelic-rock and traditional Irish music. The result sounds exhilarating and confirms what I suspected about the sonic possibilities of the Russian language. The CD booklet is also a fine example of what can be done with the medium with lots of romantic artwork mixed in with a brief English description of what the songs are about. Stenka Na Stenku translates as Wall On Wall and “is an ancient Slavic entertainment for men, that was basically a fist fight.” So I was probably right about the tanked up Russians beating seven shades out of each other.

I can see me buying some more Arkona CDs (and I rather like the folk-metal concept) but I’m wondering if the blind-date music selections would work in other genres? How about a Jazz or classical selection?