Sheila Wood (John Wood's wife): "If you're so unhappy Nick, why haven't you killed yourself?"

Nick: "It's too cowardly, and besides, I don't have the courage"

(at the end of the thread mentioned in the previous post)

allmusic ((( Harold Budd > Overview ))):

Apparently Mr Budd (who is born in 1936 like my father) hasn't got an internet page but there is a useful fan page with audio samples of the albums here.

When driving home from work today I almost crashed into another car when listening to Plateaux. The traffic lights were off (blinking in orange) and I completely forgot that I didn't have the priority. Dangerous piano music. Switching my brain almost instantly into daydream mode.

By the way I have come to think that Plateaux is one of the best albums of all-time. Maybe even the one and only to take to the island.

Agony Shorthand recommends Glum as a starting point for Giant Sand in a good summary of the output of Howe Gelb & friends. A good choice but I think Chore of Enchantment is a better primer as it is more tuneful and easier to get into.

Taking Sides: New Order v. Joy Division: "Speaking in terms of wine and grapes. It is concentration vs. dilution.

Joy Division is a very concentrated almost black wine smelling black currants and pressed from around 40-50 very ripe grapes (songs) of an amazing quality which have been hand-picked. New Order is like a light sparkling wine made of much more grapes (100+) with most of them still unripe. A few are very sweet nevertheless. The bouquet is full of lemons. Especially the electronic production methods do not add to the longevity of this wine. In short New Order's music is more fun but short-lived whereas Joy Division is stronger and for the cave. You won't regret tasting either of these wines. Both should be consumed in moderation.

Some more thoughts on JD/NO in a recent post tomy music blog. -- alex in mainhattan (alex63@***.com), October 17th, 2001 12:00 AM. (link)"

were one of the ground breaking electronic bands from Germany at the beginning of the 70s. Other notable teutonic groups from this time are Neu!, Faust and Tangerine Dream (please forget the mostly awful Kraftwerk). As TD Cluster came from Berlin: graphics student and barkeeper Dieter Moebius and musical autodidact Hans-Joachim Roedelius who had been in the East German army NVA and had deserted from it. Their music was instrumental, kind of meditative or cosmic, foreshadowing Eno's ambient music with early synthesizers. I assembled a couple of tracks I found on WFMU with the correct real audio entry points. Here they are (release years, album titles and lengths in brackets):

• Side B, Tk 1 (1971; Cluster 71; 21:17; unfortunately fades into Shamen's despicable Move Any Mountain after 13')
• Plas (1972; Cluster II; 6:17)
• Im Süden (Cluster II; 12:53)
• Live in Der Fabrik (Cluster II; 14:45)
• Umleitung (1976; Sowiesoso; 3:25)
• Zum Wohl (Sowiesoso; 6:50)
• Tzima N'Arki (with Brian Eno; 1977/78: Old Land)
• Oh Odessa (Curiosum; 1981; 3:28)

Further reading:

• CLUSTER: I have fallen in love with this band, please help
• the turntable: "The Blindingly Simple Genius of Cluster"
• Roedelius
• Hans Joachim Roedelius - Official Homepage
• Hans-Joachim Roedelius interview with psf 97
• Krautrock II Companion - Cluster album guide with samples, covers and succinct reviews
• German Rock Lexikon - Musikerverzeichnis Roedelius interview 2002 in German
• Cluster - Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Dieter Moebius - Conny Plank band history in French
• D>Elektro - PROTAGONISTEN - short history of Cluster - by Russ Curry
• Cluster on MP3.com
• Michael Rother
• Krautrock Side-Projects

März are a duo (Albrecht Kunze and Ekkehard Ehlers) situated in Frankfurt. Their studio is Kunze's apartment close to the Mosel-Eck in the Red Light District near the station. When they record and a truck passes by in the Moselstraße they usually leave it in the mix. They offer two mp3s (The River and Blaue Fäden, also released as 10'') from their forthcoming album Wir Sind Hier. Click on "MÄRZ". Melodic acoustic and electronic music with a slight touch of unexpected noises. Nice to fall asleep to.

Taking Sides: Marvin Gaye vs. Curtis Mayfield

Deerhoof are from San Francisco. They are an experimentalish art/punk rock band somewhere in between The Breeders and Sonic Youth. The female singer coming from Japan makes comparisons to Blonde Redhead and The Boredoms inevitable. Loads of mp3s here. Milk Man is a good litmus test to see if you like them.

The first time I listened to Nick Drake was after Christmas 1979. Fruit Tree, the three record box set of all his three albums had been on my wishlist. It was difficult to get hold of. My mother had to order it. It probably arrived early January 1980. I don't remember what I felt when I heard Time Has Told Me, the first song on Nick's first record Five Leaves Left. I was 16 and stood six foot three at the time. The exact height of Nick Drake. He was the hero of my late youth. I never met anybody (up till 1990 or something) who knew his music and I only shared it with my best friend. Nick's music was a part of me. There were times when I thought he sang about me. About my inability to connect to life, to find a girl-friend. He was my friend in spirit though he had been dead for five years already. He was me. And still is.

I just heard a cover of Day Is Done by Norah Jones (see last post). And thought she should have been forbidden to cover him. God was her version shallow. Additionally she probably sold more with this one song than Nick did with all his records in his lifetime. Fck her. Nick Drake in my world is the most difficult musician to cover. I only heard a cover of his once before. It was Joey Burns from Calexico doing Clothes of Sand. It is a very nice rendition of the song though I must admit that this song is not on Fruit Tree, I guess it is on the compilation of rarities called Time of No Reply which I only have on tape (got it later) and didn't listen to very often. I never ever want to hear a cover of any song of any of the three original Nick Drake studio albums in my life again. I want to keep him in my heart like when I was 16. In January 1980.