Alastair Reynolds's Blog, page 6

Galactic Vinyl Memories #10

 From Yes, with more than a little predictability, we pivot to reasonably unloved 80s supergroup Asia, featuring Yes's Steve Howe on guitar. Here's their second album, Alpha, which I bought in the heat of the moment in 1983.

I'm not going to claim this is any lost classic of 80s MOR, but it's perfectly pleasant and listenable within its own soft-rock microcosm and the Roger Dean cover art is lovely. My copy came from Bridgend and still looks near-mint and plays just fine. I'm fond of it because o...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #9

The trouble with Genesis is that they are/were always quite an insular band - other than Earth, Wind & Fire's horn section, you'd be hard-pressed to find any contributing musicians on any of the albums. There are the solo records, of course, and Collins and (especially) Gabriel have collaborated with many other artists. Gabriel's records easily link into post-punk and world music - Paul Weller is on his third album, for instance - but I thought I'd stick with Genesis for now, and make use of the...

Galactic Vinyl Memories # 8

 Just back from a jaunt to Sweden for the Gothenburg Book Fair, where I was looked after very well by both the fair and my friends from SF Bokhandlen, where I also stopped off in Stockholm to do a joint event with Peter Hamilton. Old pals Paul McAuley and Ken MacLeod also joined us in Gothenburg for many panels and discussion events, and a great time was had by all.

Here's Ken up on the impressive space-themed stage being interviewed by Glenn Petersen of the SF Bokhandeln. It was lovely to see Ke...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #7

 It's a short detour from Joni Mitchell to Weather Report, thanks to WR's Jaco Pastorius providing bass on Hejira! 

I bought this 1979 double live album (entitled 8:30) in 1985. Not sure why. I'd seen a TV documentary about Weather Report (the South Bank Show, 1984) and thought they might be up my street, but I was a bit confounded by the music when I actually listened to it properly. I'd obviously heard a bit of their music on the doco and knew it was "jazz/fusion" (whatever that is) but I think...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #6

 Keeping with the monochrome theme (why not), here's Joni Mitchell's magnificent 1976 album Hejira. This is a little different than the preceding records, in that my vinyl copy is a recent pressing. I only came to Joni Mitchell late in my listening, by way of budget box-set of her albums through the late 60s to the late 70s. Prior to that, I'd not given her a lot a of time, being only familiar with the big, early hits, which I could take or leave. Then, I heard a live recording of one of her tra...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #5

 With a certain inevitability we come to Steely Dan itself, via their 1974 third album, Pretzel Logic:

It's a monochrome album cover, so I went with a monochrome shot. There's nothing about this record I don't love. I bought it in Bridgend over Christmas 1985, along with The Royal Scam and The Nightfly. My journey down the Steely Dan rabbit hole had begun a few months earlier, when I bought a double cassette of their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill (1972), paired with their sixth, Aja (1977). It'...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #4

 We jaunt two years into the future and across the Atlantic now, to Glasgow. Love and Money's second album, Strange Kind of Love (1988) was another Gary Katz production, and in addition to the three band members, featured Steely Dan's Jeff Porcaro, Rick Derringer and an uncredited performance by Donald Fagen (although he does get an acknowledgement).

 

A lot of money was spent on this record, and it shows. It's got a really sumptuous production, and the gatefold sleeve gives off that "prestige" ar...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #3

Over on my justgiving page, thanks to many kind and generous people, we've just smashed the target of raising 1000 pounds for Alzheimer's UK. I'm really stoked by this and want to thank each and everyone who has chipped in, right from the start. In fact, in celebration of hitting the goal, I put in another practise half-marathon this afternoon. It was no easier than the last one in August, disappointingly, and I really struggled after 18km, but today was certainly warmer, which didn't help.

Anywa...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #2

 This might seem like something of an obvious choice, and indeed it is, but where do you go from Talking Heads? I could have gone with Brian Eno as a link into other artists, but I've misplaced my one Brian Eno vinyl album (indeed, I might have loaned it to someone). So it falls on Adrian Belew to link us into King Crimson, and I've plumped for my copy of their 1982 album Beat:

After disbanding in the mid-70s, KC reformed for a trilogy of three similar-sounding and similarly-packaged albums begin...

Galactic Vinyl Memories #1

 In order to drive some additional traffic to my Alzheimer's UK Justgiving page, in the build-up to the Cardiff Half-Marathon, I thought I'd try posting here a lot more frequently. The trouble is, in the day to day life of the jobbing SF writer, there isn't much to report. However, I can prattle on about music until the cows come home, so why not make that a feature, not a bug?

Hence Galactic Vinyl Memories #1, the first in a loose series where I dig through my vinyl connection, offer up a few re...