BassTractor

Philip Glass, with a nice-to-me twist to the story. Our music college student choir premiered his "Satyagraha". Whilst studying there unofficially, I didn't have a student card yet and was not in the choir. Was a Philip Glass fan though, and wanted to partake. So there's me crawling on the floor so as to gain access to the concert building - unseen by the doorman in his office at the artists' entrance. That went well for some metres, but then I spotted one Philip Glass in that hallway. Just as I thought all was lost, I saw him smiling. Phew, and I passed him with a sheepish smile and a thankful nod. Later, I went up to him, thanking him for his kindness and explaining why I'd done that. He appreared to be a very down-to-earth and friendly bloke, with great warmth. Even bought me a cuppa; should've been the other way round, but he wouldn't hear of it. Helped by his friendliness, I dared ask him for permission to play one of his organ pieces, mentioning that I'd been practising for 18 months developing the techniques for playing minimal music. He said yes, and told me where the notes were and who to contact. Still have the notes; never performed it.

Whimsical Dutch Canterbury-like band Supersister always have whackiness up their sleeves. This long track suddenly turns into something else after roughly nine minutes. "Judy goes on holiday" is off the album "Pudding en gisteren", and if you don't understant this Dutch title: it was also released with the international title "Pudding and gisteren". See what I mean with "whimsical"?

No thread like this can be without Bill Bruford, of course: Yes: Five per Cent for Nothing in the original short version.

Ha! I was thinking of posting Hocus Pocus. Here's another one then, by one of my fave bands, bob hund from Sweden, and one that grew on me despite its minimal expression. The mentioning of Batman brought me here. I guess you know how. BTW, its title means "bob hund's 115th dream" in English.

AFAICS, Esperanto were one of many bands trying to cash in on the success of Ekseption. Other bands included Exception and Expression. All used the same or similar typeface in the bands' names. Now, Ekseption themselves copied The Nice, so I'm not claiming they were the original. Here's one also done by Ekseption: the Sabre Dance in the Love Sculpture version.

Yup, love Mr. Bungle and Fantômas, but don't know SC3. Ashamed to report I've never particularly noticed Trevor Dunn (me too preoccupied with the composition, I guess), but I will listen betterly hereafter. As to the Bungle dude, whilst I love Disco (quite the statement, that one!) and California, just like @lidl e I have a special place in my heart for the first album. BTW, lidl e, is this where all the intricacies in Def Nettle (partly) come from? I must repeat that the radio programme to me didn't seem to do you guys justice.

Getting plastered in a London hotel lobby with members of Aussie band 28 Days, afterwhich my buddy and I proceeded sitting in wide chairs and drinking whisky, whilst the band members took responsibility for a makeover of the building, which o.a. was about filling the elevators with everything that fit inside, and waiting for someone on another floor to hit the button. The receptionist was wonderfully calm through this, just remarking they'd notice their bill.

You won! 🙇‍♂️ </THREAD> 😊

Var bare hyggelig. Ha dem bra! 😉 b

Åkei, da. Velkommen, @Rolf! Dem er stort sett dritgreie her, så du bør kunne kose deg. Kos deg! Bert (Translation of sorts: I'm just warning him against you lot.)

Oh, I remember another one: Markus Stockhausen, trumpet player and son of Karlheinz. In '79 or later, preparing for a gig, I met this bloke my age in the corridors, and we immediately found the tone together so our conversation went on and on ... Luvverly. Later that day I met him again, and he turned towards a gentleman at his side, saying: "Dad, here's my new friend. I mentioned him". The gentleman shaking my hand uninterestedly was only Karlheinz Stockhausen ... So ... to this day, I maintain that when I had a gig in the Main Hall, Stockhausen had to accept Hall no 2. (The only reason was that the main hall had the pipe organ we needed. Stockhausen drew all the audience. 😃 ) Anyway, Markus later had his own musical career, which reportedly continues to this day. Since this thread also mentions people who were already famous: Bill Bruford wanted to kick my årse! I've told the story before, but: a college percussion band (who were being instructed by Bruford that week) asked me to dep on piano, as they said for an easy piece of music: "Very simple! You'll do it sightreading!" Slight detail: the piece was a modern, avant-garde like, mainly percussion piece, and I didn't know it. I had no idea how to count the empty bars, and knew nothing about when to put in my tiny piano part. So I kept totally silent, seeing a grumpy Bruford in the audience, on row three or so, looking me in the face. The next two days people warned me I'd better hide, as Bruford was fuming, and searching the whole building for me, wanting to kick my behind. I remember me saying before: I fear his mouth more than his boot. 😂

Mucho, mucho bettero! This is a lot closer to my 256kbps downloads from the iTunes store (yes, you just cost me a lotta money and I hate you 😁 ), but to my old ears sounds more compressed, less open and a bit tinny in comparison. I'm guessing I'm hearing Loudness in this version (not talking as an engineer; just yer average listener). The radio programme (as received here through fast fiber) didn't do your music any justice whatsoever. Folks, if you found something to enjoy in these three tracks, do yourselves a favour and listen to better versions. It's a cracking album. Nope, I'm not buttering up @lidl e, whom I know nothing about and have never dealt with. Just love for the music. BTW, lidl e, I love it when you get your fingers overtly dusty in "God's Trainers". 😃

Taking the thread is about people who became famous later: Jean-Michel Jarre. I was to study in Paris in the mid '70s, and one of my teachers-to-be introduced me to one JeanMi, a semi-ex-student who reportedly was recording an album ... in his kitchen LOL. Amongst other things, JeanMi showed me around in Paris, guided me to my dwellings, and told me we were gonna be great friends. Didn't see him again after that ... ... until I recognised his face in a musicians' mag much later - in an article about him and a certain album called "Oxygène". Only recently did I happen upon the fact that Jean-Michel in fact used "Jammie" as his moniker, not JeanMi, and it explains how I really didn't get it when he wanted me to pronounce it without any sound that could remind of a half-hidden "n".

Congrats! Luvverly stuff. Me like! As to the sound, I know this is wireless radio and comes over the seas all the way from Ireland to Norway 😉 , but the whole programme had this from-far-far-away sound I couldn't define (both through internal laptop speakers and Harman/Kardon Soundsticks). I feel sure you guys sounded a lot better in reality. Maybe the live programme sounded better than its streamed version? Anyway, do go to Germany, and when there: Don't mention their cars.

Not me. Gigging is a strange affliction I don't partake in. 😉 I just buy all the basses. (Truth be told, I bought all my basses so as to learn about basses, with the plan to sell most of them once I knew what I wanted to know. As it happened, unwanted changes in my life meant I had to sell all of them before getting to the point of acquiring that knowledge. Never gigged with any of them, but gigged with someone else's bass.)

Several species of small furry Indie Pop. Stereolab: "Ping Pong". Considerably heavier live, then emphasising their post-rock roots with meganormous Moog modulars. Komeda: "It's Alright, Baby". Its lightness is like a thin veil over their compositional prowess. Valkurien Allstars: "Slutte og byne" in a shortened on-the-roof version. Give it the time it needs. The intro fades in until they start singing around the 0:30 mark, and the song then continues to fade in. The album version is more regular.

Luvverly! Your post just cost me £2.97. 😃

Polderprog. Headshakingly weird and disjointed, but still fun with its many differently styled sections. A brass rocker? A pop ballad? A jazz impro? Ekseption: "Pop giant" (and no: it's not "Pop Giant". Not in Holland in 1970; one had principles back then. 😁 ) Sheer beauty to my ears, with luvverly chord progression and a gtr to die for: Focus: "Sylvia" Weird and wonderful, the Canterbury related Supersister, here with a radio hit, but let that not lure you: it has definitive, weird prog bits: Supersister: "Radio"

Fugue Prog! Luckily though, these guys didn't just write another baroque fugue, but used fugal stuff inside prog contexts. (Personally, I see fugue rock as a phenomenon to do with yer typical "young and aspiring, but bewildered composer", hence why "fugal" is a term in both music and pyschiatry 😁, but I still like it.)

You mean a prog suggestion that is non-neo? In case: Some demanding Gentle Giant. IME this requires close listening, but gets better on each listening. A pretty song by the mighty Van der Graaf Generator: Other songs by them might be less pretty, but they're always expressive. A randomly "chosen" song by Magma, live in 1977 This one wasn't written by drummer Christian Vander, the band's main composer, but by bass player Jannick "Janik" Top.

Twas not a choice against him though; I simply don't know his stuff, and chose Alpert simply because I could remember his name. The other two tracks have followed me my whole life. Do you happen to know essential James Last tracks for me to visit?

On Cynic's magnificent "Focus" album, to me "Veil of Maya" is still the begin all and end all. I never get tired of it. But now for some hardcore: Easy listening!

That's one hot avatar you've got there, @paul_5. Love it.

Apple, Coke, Nestlé and others for bringing multinational cynicism to new levels. Samsung and LG for demonstrably having designed their tv printed circuit boards in absurdly complicated ways, thus placing low grade condensators close to very hot transistors so as to bring expected lifespan to a minimum. Reportedly, these tellies averagely lasted for only four years. (My own LG telly lasted one year and one day, one day longer than the warranty. My Samsung phone lasted three months. Long story. OTOH, my 2013 Samsung tablet is still used every day, and it works perfectly.)

Just a slight bit of pedantry: Compaq bought Digital some years prior to HP buying Compaq, the point here being that Compaq had already let Digital stuff bleed to death during these years. I have no idea what HP "contributed", but do know my b-i-l saw things going down the drain quickly after the first takeover, and he fled Compaq as fast as he could: before everybody there would stand in line for new jobs.