Good recommendations you've had

[Neil]

...and perhaps also the most recent ones.

I had a nice night in the chatroom tonight, and mentioned that I've gone on a bit of a Krautrock/proggy/general space music binge.  This is after about 3 years of listening almost exclusively to jazz, I'm just stretching my wings again, thinking if I'm going to 'specialise' in something next (from about 17 till about 28 was all about 60's and 70's music - for a while now I've wanted to focus on individual years and track my progress in last.fm journals.)  Anyway, Gradual Decline recommended Eroc 1 to me, so I grabbed it from slsk (old-skool!) and have just listened to the first track (Kleine Eva) again.

Eeh, it's flipping brilliant!  Lovely sort of quite ambient stuff from 1975, very sweet, beautiful melodies in it, it's like a cross between Cluster and Boards of Canada.  Can't wait to hear the rest of the record tomorrow.

Eroc - Kleine Eva

One of the best recommendations I ever had was The Meadowlands by The Wrens, Rich (or ClintonMorrison on last.fm) recommended it to me after perusing my last.fm profile, and it quickly went on to become one of my favourite ever records.

I don't generally take a lot of recommendations though, I love 'finding' music myself, music mags and blogs and stuff just takes the fun out of it for me.

[thugler]

Amon Duul is a good krautrock band to check out if you haven't heard them yet.

[Steve Lampkins]

EDIT: wrong thread

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

I love 'finding' music myself, music mags and blogs and stuff just takes the fun out of it for me.

How on earth do you find it then, do bands appear do you in your dreams?

Seriously, just wondering how you find things without blogs and recommendation etc. Do you just buy random CDs, or do you think "I've never really listened to X properly, I'll get one of their albums" on a whim? I do that quite a lot, but apart from that my "to listen to" list is a list of about 200 names, scribbled on a notepad or in my Favourites folder, as recommended to me through various people and media or based on a song I've heard on the radio, which I check out depending on my mood. I don't have a particular genre that I listen to long-term either, I'm a bit schizophrenic in that respect. Today, I've developed a sudden obsession with Cyndi Lauper - no doubt brought on by Goldentony's infectious love for her - but tomorrow or the day after that, I'll be all, "Lauper? Fuck that shit! John Cage!". Which is fun, but it's a shame I never have the attention span to get into much stuff in depth.

As for recommendations - the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, as suggested by someone on here, and also someone somewhere else which I can't remember. But thank you, whoever you were.

[Talulah, really!]

for a while now I've wanted to focus on individual years and track my progress in last.fm journals.) 

Hmmm, well on the one hand if you want to look at individual years you might be interested in the following though...

I love 'finding' music myself, music mags and blogs and stuff just takes the fun out of it for me.

...on the other hand you might not. Anyway recently I read the excellent "There's a riot going on" by Peter Doggett which is a survey of "revolutionaries, rock stars and the rise and fall of '60s counter-culture". It covers the years 1965 to 1972 and relates the work of the significant counter-culture artists to the political landscape of the time and how they effected each other.

As well as being a really good read, it introduced me to loads of people I hadn't known about or heard their work properly. For instance Chicago (Transit Authority) were initially a hip, counter culture act rather than the MOR US radio giants I thought of them as and their first album is bloody fantastic! Incredibly funky whilst heading in a prog direction yet remaining joyously tuneful, for instance Beginnings starts off like a Jimmy Webb mid-sixties sunshine pop song before moving into a full blown funk horn section work out before dropping into a samba groove fade out. If you've never heard it, give it a try, it is marvellous.

It doesn't just cover rock acts but also the folk protest movement and the more radical black politics of jazz artists like Archie Shep (another artist I discovered through it). Whilst being fairly anglo centric it finds time for some European, African and South American artists.

For myself I discover as much through reading reviews in books, magazines and blogs and thinking "that sounds interesting" as I do catching something on the radio.

[Neville Chamberlain]

I don't generally take a lot of recommendations though, I love 'finding' music myself, music mags and blogs and stuff just takes the fun out of it for me.

That's odd! I consdider recommendations to be all part of 'finding' music myself, along with blogs, books, lists etc. The best recommendation I had was the band Uz Jsme Doma from Prague, a kind of mix of punk and Zappa-style prog played at breakneck speed and with a kind of Bavarian beer hall vibe about it. I probably would have found about them myself at some point, but having them recommended to me helped things along a bit and made me discover a couple of other bands from The Czech Republic, like Deverova Chyba.

[djtrees]

That's odd! I consdider recommendations to be all part of 'finding' music myself, along with blogs, books, lists etc. The best recommendation I had was the band Uz Jsme Doma from Prague, a kind of mix of punk and Zappa-style prog played at breakneck speed and with a kind of Bavarian beer hall vibe about it. I probably would have found about them myself at some point, but having them recommended to me helped things along a bit and made me discover a couple of other bands from The Czech Republic, like Deverova Chyba.

Am I allowed to use the recommendation thread to give a recommendation? Good! I played with Uz Jsme Doma last year in Lyon and wasn't impressed with them really. At that gig they played with a band called Stanley Kubi, who have a similar style, but I reckon are much better. Not got any of their recorded stuff, but live they are wonderful. I RECOMMEND THEM!

[trotsky assortment]

I've just discovered The Hush Sound.

Where has this band been all my life?  Why did I never hear about them before?