Two good tracks: Poland, Horizon
Two weak tracks: Tangent, Barbakane
In all, I award it 6/10.
If this AOTY entry is the following album - Coventry Cathedral (The Original Film Soundtrack / Live from Coventry Cathedral) - then I award it 88.
https://youtu.be/-XoYkW6cEDU?si=ekxDmj7WZBv3Jder
DARK MAGUS is underrated, very much so. I'm not sure why, because it packs a punch like Jack Johnson. When I listen to it, I always think I can hear Hendrix's indelible presence.
When I was a "terrible teenager" listening to Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Cream, The Doors, King Crimson, Black Sabbath, et al, The Berlin School, Krautrock, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, my father bought me GET UP WITH IT, a double album of Miles Davis. It was a clever though somewhat flawed ploy to ... read more
First collaboration between Epoch Collapse and Black Cactus.
Black Cactus wrote: -
I am excited to release a very special collaboration made with a long-time colleague, the immensely talented Epoch Collapse. A rewarding insight into combining contrasting but heavily overlapping music textures, differing creative technologies and the vast geographical distances between us. This began as an investigative project to combine our unique styles and practices and equally to disrupt our own set points ... read more
Second collaboration between Epoch Collapse and Black Cactus.
With “Necropolis Webs”, Epoch Collapse and Black Cactus take off from where the “Machinic Maelstrom” took us. This time, leaving no harmony untethered, every remnant of melody eviscerated, shredded and smudged, leaving behind nothing but an unhinged mire of ragged and bleak dread. The winter months were spent foraging and honing our demented craft with garage recordings, suspension springs, wrecked keyboards ... read more
Shapeshifting galaxies...
Shipwrecked astronaut...
In a galaxy near you.
Available on Bandcamp
https://epochcollapse.bandcamp.com/album/galactic-counterpoints
Pierre Boulez, Juilliard String Quartet, London Symphony Orchestra, Isaac Stern, Григорий Пятигорский [Gregor Piatigorsky], Charles Rosen & Anton Webern
My rating is for the original LP (with no lieder, which I dislike intensely) so NOT the box set.
The LP (one LP) I'm reviewing only includes the following works:
1. Passacaglia for Orchestra
2. Six Pieces for Large Orchestra
3. Five Pieces for Orchestra
4. Symphony
5. Variations for Orchestra
6. Bach Fugue (Ricercata) for Chamber Orchestra
My least favourite piece on this album is the Passacaglia, which Webern wrote while still a pupil of Schoenberg, and it is not particularly ... read more
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
This album is definitely not a consistent compilation of their Best.
In creating my own compilation, my choice for the best tracks is as follows:
Sysyphus (complete: Parts 1-4) (Ummagumma)
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (Ummagumma)
Astronomy Domine (Ummagumma)
Echoes (Meddle)
Careful with That Axe, Eugene (Ummagumma)
Interstellar Overdrive (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
A Saucerful of Secrets (Ummagumma)
One of These Days (Meddle)
Atom Heart Mother ... read more
One of the most interesting Krautrock albums, and among the best debut albums in any genre.
Atem is my favorite, but I wish this line-up (Edgar Froese, Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler) made more albums - at least as side projects to Tangerine Dream.
Not exactly a review of this album. However, as Klaus Schulze was on this debut TD album, and this recounting of events would have been just before the time of its release (1970) it seems appropriate to include it here. Klaus Schulze's ... read more
AMBIENT 4: ON LAND
This is possibly Brian Eno's masterpiece as a solo project.
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking ... read more
Klaus Schulze: "I started off only playing normal instruments, but as time went by it bothered me more and more that the sound was always the same, and all kinds of music were supposed to have fixed boundaries and rules. When the first ARP and Moog synthesizers came on the market, they meant I could not only compose my own music - I suddenly also had the freedom to choose and create my own sounds. An organ always sounds the same, but the early synths never did! The sound became more and ... read more
Phaedra was my first experience of this kind of electronic music (I had previously listened to Stockhausen and Morton Subotnick quite a bit). I saw Tangerine Dream live (when they were a band of considerable sonic power and quality), and the experience was unforgettable.
This is one of those releases I include in my ESSENTIAL ALBUMS list.
This live recording purporting to be in "honour" of the much-revered 'Phaedra' (released in 1974) doesn't do credit or justice to the original album; it comes off as a cheap imitation.
This live performance pumps up the sonic journey with a greater emphasis on the rhythmic pulses and ubiquitous arpeggiated patterns and sequences. In so doing, it loses a lot of the discreet and subtle power of the original; however, it still injects energy into this section with a ... read more
An exceptional and deeply immersive sonic journey from the Drone Queen of electronic & experimental music.
In memoriam.
Éliane Radigue (January 24, 1932 – February 23, 2026)
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she devoted herself to a singular three-hour work. Considered to be her masterpiece, the Trilogie de la Mort was released in 1998; the first part kyema Intermediate states follows the path of the continuum of the six states of consciousness. The work was influenced as much by the Bardo Thodol (aka Tibetan Book of the Dead) and her meditation practice, as by the deaths of Tsuglak Mawe Wangchuk ... read more
Éliane Radigue (January 24, 1932 – February 23, 2026)
In the words of Robin Rimbaud: -
"The world will feel a little quieter today, with the passing of French composer Éliane Radigue who, at the age of 94, has truly left us with a lifetime of inspiration.
In an era often seemingly obsessed with velocity and spectacle, she taught us the radical power of slowness, of patience, and attention stretched to the threshold of perception. Often to the most challenging degree, ... read more
Darkly immersive - as one would expect.
The virtually pointillist piano acts like a series of reflections and jagged glimpses of light and disturbed elements against the haze of slowly shifting night.
https://davidlynch.bandcamp.com/album/polish-night-music
An apple for your thoughts...
This masterpiece defies all the hum-drum clichés of orthodox music language as propagated and sanctified by the epsilon drones of popular media. A voyage beyond anything outside of ordinary human experience.
Awe-inspiring.
Contender for being the greatest release in the 1970s - or at least in the top 10. A remarkable and enthralling voyage into the worlds beyond where our imaginations fly.
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Recent Review Comments
On Tangerine Dream - Atem
"MUST HEAR ALBUM!"
On Sinfonieorchester des Hessischen Rundfunks / Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Sinfonieorchester des Südwestfunks / Michael Gielen / Wolfgang Schubert / Ernest Bour / Liliana Poli / Barbro Ericson / Antoinette Vischer - György Ligeti: Requiem; Lontano; Continuum
"“I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.” The composer György Ligeti, one of the towering figures of modern music and whose output includes the opera Le Grand Macabre, was born in Transylvania May 28th, 1923.
Ligeti is beyond both the avant-garde and the past, and the present is trying to catch up with him."
On scrumge's review of Tangerine Dream - Stratosfear
"So many people ignore ATEM, which, for me, is the best - followed by ZEIT."
On Epoch Collapse - Galactic Counterpoints
"I've been making music for decades. Most of the albums here are set by release dates, when the recordings often date many years before."
On EMR's review of Miles Davis - Dark Magus
"When I was a "terrible teenager" listening to Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Cream, The Doors, King Crimson, Black Sabbath, et al, The Berlin School, Krautrock, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, my father bought me GET UP WITH IT, a double album of Miles Davis. It was a clever though somewhat flawed ploy to steer me away from Rock, Metal, and Mahavishnu (the latter my dad hated more than anything else I played). Since then, I have collected over 20 Miles albums. My top choice would be Bitches Brew; but Agharta, Jack Johnson, Dark Magus and In a Silent Way are close company - along with the album that started my journey."
On ZoeVisual's review of Anu Komsi - Kaija Saariaho: La dame à la licorne; Cloud Music
"I could listen to Kaija Saariaho every day for the rest of my life and never tire of it. Hauntingly inspiring."
On Epoch Collapse - Galactic Counterpoints
"Video of title track - https://youtu.be/1PUqsTjAdIo?si=Rhc5MVAoyIBij5AT"
On Epoch Collapse - Galactic Counterpoints
"When Epoch Collapse was first entered into the AOTY archives, Lustmord was added as a "related artist" - therein lies the confusion - Lustmord is, moreover, a similar artist. A correction should be submitted."
On hausenger's review of Opa - Goldenwings
"@hausenger Glad you found my fusion list interesting. I've been listening to fusion since my earliest introduction, namely THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME - still my top choice, along with BITCHES BREW, of course."
On Plookeduah's review of Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band - Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band
"In terms of Yoko's early sonic explorations: The ignoramuses who have no appreciation for the avant-garde hate her for her wild outrageous interludes that actually improve on otherwise tame projects by Lennon around this time."
On TheOrangeGuy's review of Pink Floyd - Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
"UMMAGUMMA is ingenious from beginning to end. The disdain this album receives is utterly absurd."
On hausenger's review of Opa - Goldenwings
"John Zorn is phenomenal. I recommend virtually every album by him."
On hausenger's review of Opa - Goldenwings
"My FUSION list - https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/stavrogin/list/49656/fusion/"
On hausenger's review of Opa - Goldenwings
"Thanks for the recommendation. However, this is not my kind of Fusion.
For me, Fusion begins with BITCHES BREW, UNCLE MEAT, and THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME, and ends with THE LOUNGE LIZARDS (Brand X - Livestock is one I like a bit though)."
On Remi's Reviews's review of Yes - Close to the Edge
"I agree. I can't sit through this album; I never could. Without all that awful singing (so, an instrumental album) it would be a whole lot better, but still not something I could spend any time on. That's what I feel about 90% of this band's output."
On TheVULover's review of Michael Tilson Thomas / Boston Symphony Orchestra - Igor Stravinsky: Le Roi des Étoiles & Le Sacre du Printemps
"This gargantuan work of genius came into being in 1912 and was first published in 1913. The Paris riot at the debut performance is the stuff of legends."
On Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation
"https://www.tangerinedreammusic.com/en/biography/index.asp?dat=Tangerine+Dream+history+1967%2D1973&id=317&title=Tangerine+Dream+1967+%E2%80%93+1973"
On Ꝙ𑢸ᶒͤᥢ 𝜎𐍆 ᗪⱸƞՊдꓤ𐔘's review of Tangerine Dream - Underwater Sunlight
"This album (& Tangram) are the reason I stopped listening to Tangerine Dream albums with recordings made post-1980."
On Tangerine Dream - 50 Years of Phaedra: At The Barbican
"The original two Tangerine Dream line-ups were the pre-eminent electronic group of their time. The new and current line-up constitutes a group of posers capitalizing on the TD name - their music is hardly a tribute nor a worthy continuance of the original band."
On Anesthetized80's review of Behemoth - I Loved You at Your Darkest
"@Victorovich Utter nonsense! Atheism is the realisation that the beliefs of the many religions are completely false. Atheism is the logical step, as the probability of any gods existing is infinitesimal. All religions disagree with each other - all claiming their god to be the one true god. Look at history - numerous wars over whose beliefs were true. NONE are true. Religion poisons everything with its delusional grovelling and its persecution of those who don't share their moronic beliefs. People the world over need to remove themselves from these pernicious, egoistic and arrogant structures and institutions; it debases intelligence through indoctrination.
"Religion was invented when the first conman met the first fool." - Mark Twain"
On Anesthetized80's review of Behemoth - I Loved You at Your Darkest
"We will never evolve fully until we relinquish the shackles of religious imbecility."
On ark111's review of Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht
"I'm listening to this wonderful album again. This is one of many in my LP collection. I'm still amazed at how Schulze constructed this work - assembling a collage of sounds."
On Ꝙ𑢸ᶒͤᥢ 𝜎𐍆 ᗪⱸƞՊдꓤ𐔘's review of Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans (Super Deluxe Edition)
"Well, at least we agree on Steve Reich and Musicians - 'Music for 18 Musicians', a masterpiece."
On Ꝙ𑢸ᶒͤᥢ 𝜎𐍆 ᗪⱸƞՊдꓤ𐔘's review of Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans (Super Deluxe Edition)
"My taste in music is in favour of 99% instrumental - thereby almost entirely ruling out vocals. This is especially the case where the singing brings everything down to levels very much below par. No matter how accomplished the instrumentation if the singing sounds like mealy-mouthed mawkishness there is no hope for it."
On Ꝙ𑢸ᶒͤᥢ 𝜎𐍆 ᗪⱸƞՊдꓤ𐔘's review of Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans (Super Deluxe Edition)
"The singer/vocals are the weakest link in almost any band - especially in the realm of "prog", where the instrumentation is complex (often to excess), and the intricacies and drama are lost under the pointless jabbering of lyrics that never contribute much to the listening experience (almost never). This is particularly the case with this band."
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