This album starts with a grunt. It probably has a grunt midway through, before ending with a grunt. I just didn’t get that far. Grunt, grunt, grunt. Chug, chug, chug. What a fucking racket.

The second track, Sex Type Thing, didn’t bode well. I’m not sure it was going to put me in the right mood to start my day with a smile. I bailed after the fourth grunt on the first track.

⭐

I actually went to the playback of this album at Abbey Road back in 1997. Christ, was it really almost 30 years ago? Despite hearing the album through the Grade A setup at Abbey Road, little of it now remains familiar. The World Night prompted some vague memories, but if you had asked me to whistle this to you then I would have been left a little clueless.

It’s pretty much McCartney by numbers. That’s no bad thing. He rarely writes a poor song. Jeff Lynne has his fingerprints all over it. It captures that moment in time where Lynne was auditioning to be the new fifth Beatle and to try and get the show back on the road again.

Take away McCartney’s vocals and it could easily be an album by Tom Petty. His voice still holds up here. No surprises that 30 years later, and it’s pretty much shot. Not a classic album but pleasant enough.

⭐ ⭐

Much to my surprise I’ve never actually heard this album before. It’s one of those records where the cover is iconic and you think you already know it inside out. Not so. Pink Floyd, without the lyrics, is so easy going on the ear. For such a challenging band this isn’t very challenging music. I rather like it that way. Plus it’s quite incredible to think this was released in 1970. Only seven years earlier it was all about Twist n Shout. That’s one hell of a leap in musical progression! Sure Pink Floyd weren’t alone in being responsible for this but it still blows my mind that you can go from Mop Top Mersey Beat simplicity to something like Atom Heart Mother in only seven years. This is basically a freefall jazz album. I know loads of shit comes bundled up with such a tag but I quite like all that shit.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

A couple of CDs. You don’t say.

Let’s start with the absolute bonkers bat shit crazy first. Here we have Aphrodite’s Child and their 666 masterpiece. It’s a double album, and it came shrink-wrapped and box fresh. I wasn’t expecting that.

This stumbled into my feeds a few weeks ago. I knew nothing about it before then. It turns out it’s some late 60s prog effort that actually boasts Denis Rousos on lead vocals.

It’s absolutely NUTS. The Wikipedia entry informs me that it attempts to retell some biblical story. This gets lost after the first track.

It doesn’t sound like it’s a late 60s prog effort. In fact, some of the tracks have quite hypnotic beats and could quite easily fit into a GP playlist.

I absolutely bloody love it. It’s my summer drop for 2026. Never say that I am behind the times.

And then we come to Miles. Last month was pretty much all about Miles with the hashtag #miles100, all over my audio feeds.

Someday My Prince Will Come is Miles at his most accessible. There’s nothing wrong with some of the deep shit that Miles got up to during his peak period, but also you can’t go wrong with something light and breezy like the Someday album, especially on a lazy summer afternoon.

If you were to tell me 30 or 40 years ago that I’ll be closing my days out listening to late 60s prog and Miles Davis, then I would have told you to get a fucking life, Grandad.

Like a fine wine I like to think that my musical tastes have aged well.

A morning spent pounding the mean streets of C07, delivering some more leaflets for the lovely local Green Party.

But wait! What’s this? Surely there’s not another election is there?

Not another one etc.

Nope. These are the thank you leaflets. The Greens are very thankful people like that. We’re delivering leaflets throughout the town to thank the many people who came out and gave us some support.

In the end it was a very close thing. Well not exactly close, but we put in a bloody good effort. We went from pretty much 0% of the vote up to a thousand actual votes cast. We still need to find 500 or so more to get over the line. We’re building…

I picked up my two leaflet rounds. These were actually available last week, but there was no way I was dragging my hairy arse around the town with temperatures coming close to 40 degrees.

I wasn’t surprised to see I’ve been allocated the very, very top of the town. No worries, I do enjoy a good long straight walk, especially so with some podcast listening to catch up.

During the election campaign I pretty much wiped out my entire Forest bank catalogue of podcasts to catch up. These have slipped in recent weeks. It was a pleasure to go out pounding the streets once again with Forest Focus in the AirPods.

Last time I was around these parts, pushing Green leaflets through letter boxes, there was optimistic talk of reaching a Europa League final. How did that one work out?

In the AirPods today was how do we go about spunking the hundred million pound plus for the sale of Elliot Anderson? It’s almost enough to distract you from doing your leafleting job.

One thing I noticed whilst out doing the door-to-door thing was the changing nature of the gardens over the past six weeks or so. I know this first round inside out. I’ve delivered three or four leaflets to each particular house.

Small changes are visible, such as seeing builders or gardeners six weeks ago working in individual houses. The jobs are now complete. Haven’t they done a good job?

There were a few houses where I felt a little nervy about the leaflets. When you see locals out on the garden then it feels rude not to say hello and ask them if it’s okay to pass on a leaflet.

Don’t forget that we’re up against a legacy mainstream media that does its best to try and demonise Polanski and others within our party.

I approached one particular female who was out doing a bit of digging. I asked her politely, “Is it okay to leave a leaflet with you?” She looked at me momentarily concerned for a few seconds and then clocked it was a Green party leaflet.

“That’s my party! I would love one!”

I took some pleasure as well in delivering to the one house in the whole town that had a Reform billboard up during the election campaign. Read and learn, my friend. Read and learn.

It got a little tricky around some of the outposts with their more obscure front doors. Post boxes are not always obvious.

A couple of hours later my first round one was done. Round two takes me into the Here Be Dragons territory for Weird Wiv.

I’ve got a month or so of Guardian Politics Podcast to catch up with. I wonder if they will break the election result?

This still sounds so fresh, right from the opening synth drum beats of New Life. There couldn’t be a more perfect opening to an album with the nominative determinism to welcome it. Depeche Mode were always at their best when they were young, clean, and full of optimism. Speak & Spell personifies this approach. For a band so young at the time, the depth of songwriting is impressive. Big Muff always raises a smile. An album that defines modernism at the start of a new decade.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Some do New Music Monday. I like to do Tatty Tunes Tuesday.

And so there I was about to fire up another Drum and Bus Show when R pinged me early on Tuesday morning.

Hey! Are you enjoying that current toe-tapper that everyone is talking about? Synthesising the Silk Roads… somehow passed me by on the Smooth Radio playlist this week.

Blimey.

And so what we have here is forgotten underground music from 1980s Soviet Central Asia. As the title suggests, it fuses disco, rock, electronica with traditional Silk Road folk and jazz. It’s not going to bother the top 40 anytime soon.

A lot of the album comes from dead stock vinyl that was pressed in the Soviet era plants in Uzbekistan. If dear old Andy Kershaw was still with us, he’d be having multiple wet dreams over this.

It’s not for the faint-hearted but then again it really is quite accessible compared to some of the crap I try and silence on the radio these days. I barely get beyond two to three minutes of any contemporary station before Alexa is told to change.

I’m always up for experimentation, and synthesising the Silk Roads is a step in the right direction. You’d go pretty batshit crazy if this was your only musical exposure. It’s all about dipping in and dipping out of different styles and tastes.

I continued the game of musical ping-pong. I pinged back over to R Redman International and We Run Things. This is a 40-track compilation of Ddgi dub from the early to mid-1980s.

It’s not a million miles away from Synthesising the Silk Roads in terms of aspirations, if not influences. Music is all the much better when different genres blend together. Digi and dub work just as well as disco and Uzbekistan folk.

Fancy that.

A couple of CDs. You don’t say.

Let’s start with the absolute bonkers bat shit crazy first. Here we have Aphrodite’s Child and their 666 masterpiece. It’s a double album and it came shrink-wrapped and box fresh. I wasn’t expecting that.

This stumbled into my feeds a few weeks ago. I knew nothing about it before then. It turns out it’s some late 60s prog effort that actually boasts Denis Rousos on lead vocals.

It’s absolutely NUTS. The Wikipedia entry informs me that it attempts to retell some biblical story. This gets lost after the first track.

It doesn’t sound like it’s a late 60s prog effort. In fact, some of the tracks have quite hypnotic beats and could quite easily fit into a GP playlist.

I absolutely bloody love it. It’s my summer drop for 2026. Never say that I am behind the times.

And then we come to Miles. Last month was pretty much all about Miles with the hashtag #miles100, all over my audio feeds.

Someday My Prince Will Come is Miles at his most accessible. There’s nothing wrong with some of the deep shit that Miles got up to during his peak period, but also you can’t go wrong with something light and breezy like the Someday album, especially on a lazy summer afternoon.

If you were to tell me 30 or 40 years ago that I’ll be closing my days out listening to late 60s prog and Miles Davis, then I would have told you to get a fucking life, Grandad.

Like a fine wine I like to think that my musical tastes have aged well.

A little too heavy for my liking. I love Winwood’s vocals; I can tolerate Baker’s drumming. But Old Slow Hand doesn’t half go off on one with his guitar wanking. I can’t Find My Way Home borders on neckerchief rock - no bad thing. It then strays into a showcase album for each individual member, rather than a collective effort. Sure you can play - just not together as a band.

⭐ ⭐

This is a bit of a weird one. There I was buying my milk on a Sunday morning when I walked past the usual part in the co-op where all the freebie books are left. It’s usually full of Bridget Jones shit. I usually walk on by.

But wait! What’s this?

There was a pile of around half a dozen or so CDs. I had a quick shifty through them. It looked like it was early 90s standard indie fare, with a fair sprinkling of CD singles. CD singles are the worst format ever invented. At least with a 7 inch vinyl, or even a 12 inch vinyl, you get a feeling of physical superiority.

I flicked through for all of 5 seconds… Nope. NOPE. NOPE!!!!

An album then jumped out at me: Somewhere Soon by The High. Never judge a book by its cover etc, but there was something about the simplicity of the album design, albeit reduced down to a CD level, and the band name that somehow triggered something in me.

The High? I think I’ve heard of them, but I really can’t place them. In between all the excitement of buying six pints of milk, I thought I’d take a punt on Somewhere Soon. It was placed inside my milk-carrying bag.

Back at base and a quick online investigation followed. Oh, that’s interesting. The High have not only Stone Roses, but also Buzzcock connections. They’re a kind of super group without being super. They’re the indie runners who might have been if it wasn’t for different times, different styles, and different label politics.

I gave it a play later on in the day. It’s not going to change the world. I’ll probably only play it once every 10 years or so, which perhaps suggests I should have left it outside the co-op. But it is interesting in the early 90s indie time capsule type of way.

They can’t quite decide if they want to go down the shoegazing route or perhaps take something of a slight twist and head a little bit more down a Madchester Stone Roses offering.

I confess to looking on eBay to see what the prices are. The cheapest is £5, with an average selling price around £10. That could buy my milk supply for the coming week. That’s not quite in the spirit of a freebie corner though, is it?

I’ll stick with it. My indie days are thankfully done, but I do like quite discovering lost relics from this period.