Chimera Obscura
A Litany Of The Wilfully Obscure In Pictures, Music And Words
Chimera Musica
And so it’s time to move on. Chimera Obscura has grown to a steady 600 visits per month, over four hundred of which are return visits!
I’d like to visit each and every one of you and thank you in person, but apart from those generous souls who have left comments, encouragement and much more, I have no idea who you are. Suffice to say ‘Thanks - you have excellent taste!’
The new home is at Wordpress and there will be, mixtapes, videos, easier navigation, tagging, links to my favourite blogs and much more…hope to see you all there soon - and please, leave comments - it doubles the fun!
http://chimeramusica.wordpress.com
And lastly, a big thanks to the guys and girls at Tumblr - fantastic application, long may you continue!
The Ones That Got Away
Joan Armatrading - Love & Affection
For a moment, back in the 1970’s, after the death of Marc Bolan, the demise of Mott The Hoople and the Faces, before the onslaught of punk rock; a decade blighted by pestilance, civil unrest and strife, a ray of golden sunshine burst through the gyring clouds - that Joan Armatrading’s career was allowed to die on the vine is a savage indictment of our age. We can only hang our heads in shame.
Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight (2008)
A band whose soaring harmonies and vaulting ambition, allied to a rather worrying devotion to the condition of wonder has taken them relentlessly closer to the point where a tap on the shoulder and a whispered “Olias of Sunhillow” may be necessary to draw them back from the brink. This albums rejection of guitars and whole hearted embracing of electronics are to be applauded in principle, in practice this is the proverbial curates egg - good in parts and frankly, though it pains me to say it, not that good.
From the Devil's Dictionary
ACCORDION, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of anassassin.
Lucinda Williams - Essence (2001)
Eschewing the grammy nominated raunch of ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’, Williams turns in a devastatingly powerful performance on songs stripped to the bare minimum, hauntingly poignent, cracked and broken this collection is testament to the power of simplicity. an astonishing display of naked beauty from an artist who has never taken the easy path.
Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements (2008)
Precocious and provocative, this densely orchestrated melange of orchestral entanglements draws on a whole range of pop’s maverick stylists to create something as strange and compelling as I’ve heard all year. There are hints of the decadent, Isherwood’s 1930’s Berlin, splashes of solo Mark Almond and slatherings of vintage Scott Walker - the ghosts of Brel and Brecht stalk the hinterlands of this wonderful record, rubbing their hands at the prospect of another doomed tilt at the windmills of popular culture.
Tindersticks - Curtains (2004)
The most loved band never to have made a hit record? Tindersticks are the sound of love unrequited; doomed protagonists with tragedy lurking just around the corner tiptoe softly through abandoned bars in European capitals, a piano player picks out the ghost of a melody, just marking time until the next femme fatale…Inevitably, this record was intended to be their farewell, thankfully they reformed - this is a band that makes records of elegance and beauty, Curtains may well be their finest hour.
