2018 Music Discovery Wrap-up

Rudy

¡Que siga la fiesta!
Staff member
Site Admin
This thread is where I would like to ask what new music our visitors have discovered over the past year. This isn't so much a favorites thread (that will be a separate discussion), nor is it about new releases by favorite artists. Instead, what new (to you) music did you discover this year?
 
Earlier this year I discovered Nik Bartsch's Ronin, on ECM Records. I watched the ECM documentary and heard part of one of the tracks from Holon on there, then I got hooked on it after several listens.

Another ECM artist I picked up on was Dave Holland, who I'd heard on plenty of other recordings but never on his own. The album Extensions (from 1989) is the one I was most drawn to, and it features Kevin Eubanks on guitar.

Been pretty tired of saxophone jazz in recent years, but I discovered Ike Quebec's Soul Samba, and now have other recordings like Heavy Soul and Blue & Sentimental.

A more recent discovery was JD McPherson. I picked up Socks (the holiday album), and ordered Let The Good Times Roll a week later. Love the old school vibe on this one.

I had owned the Shaft! soundtrack CD for several years but never could get into it. But this past year I discovered his Don't Let Go album--I was already a fan of the title track as far back as the late 70s (it is a dance remake of the Roy Hamilton hit), but never heard the downtempo album songs before. Back in the day it was regarded as a fairly good comeback since his prior recordings post Shaft had kind of tapered off.

I also now own the first Was, Not Was album. Curiosity got the better of me, and I finally located a nice used LP of it. A local record store I visited weekly had this playing quite often when it first came out.

In classical, I discovered Bartok this year, and have a few different recordings of "Concerto for Orchestra" now. My favorite SACD is the RCA Living Stereo reissue that also has "Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta" (Fritz Reiner/Chicago Symphony Orch).
 
Thanks to a quick mention here, I discovered the singer Jeanette Dimech. A video posted of her song "Porque Te Vas" grabbed me with her sound - that to me - sounded nearly exactly like Claudine Longet (except she was on key!)

Born in London, she grew up in Chicago and California, and at 12 moved to Barcelona. In 1974 she had her biggest hit with "Porque Te Vas". I located a 2011 CD reissue of the 1974 album. It's a fun listen if you like wispy female vocals.

 
Another discovery was actually a sort of re-discovery. After a lot of years, I finally decided to put together and really listen to my collection of Rupert Holmes music. I'd acquired just about all of his albums on original vinyl, and some of his stuff on CD, but always just listened to selected tracks, particularly on the later albums.

The catalyst for this rediscovery was a box set from Cherry Red in the UK of Rupert Holmes' first three albums on Epic. The first album WIDESCREEN has been issued a couple of times on CD, which I have, and with compilation albums, much of the second album also existed on CD. It was the third album called SINGLES that had some missing digital tracks in my collection, so this Cherry Red box set filled in the gaps.

Listening to the set made me appreciate songs that I'd previously not given time to, and I found some new favorites. Looking further into his stuff, I discovered an album that I had but never really listened to as an album called ADVENTURE. This one on CD is rare. It was issued in Japan, but sells now for three figures. But there was a compilation issued in Europe called either "ESCAPE" or "THE BEST OF RUPERT HOLMES" that contains all but two of the ADVENTURE tracks, along with all but one of the PARTNERS IN CRIME songs.

That last fact was fortunate since the US issue of PARTNERS IN CRIME sounds like it was mastered from an AM radio. These tracks sound fine on the ESCAPE compilation. By locating a few other CDs of his later albums, I've essentially acquired the entire output of his 70s and 80s albums. He did one in the 90s, but I've yet to acquire any of that.

So, between compilations, LPs, and CDs, I reassembled the needed tracks into their respective albums and have really enjoyed listening to these, particularly in the car on my travels.
 
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