What's Goin' Ahn: 1/6 of 2022 Is In The Books Reviews by Eric Sandberg In the normal course of events the music marketplace is flooded with new releases around November and December while the first quarter of the subsequent year sees only a tiny slate of releases by lesser artists. Sniffly old Uncle Covid, however refuses to pass on and keeps tossing his three toed cane into the machinery at the pressing plants causing a delightful spillover of notable releases early in the new year. Let's take a look at just a few. David Bowie ISO/Parlophone Toy (Box Set) **** * Toy was intended as a record and quick release project for Bowie, something like what Elvis Costello did years later with Momofuku . It found him in a reflective mood, reworking songs from the earliest parts of his career, when he was David Jones, along with a couple of new tunes. These reworked versions reveal how skilled a songwrit
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Beauty and Sadness: Eliza Jaye's Stunning Middle Child Album review by Eric Sandberg Eliza Jaye's powerful, expressive voice cannot be ignored. Her tremendous ear and sense of melody cannot be ignored. Her mastery of multiple stringed instruments and lyrical beauty cannot be ignored. He voice rivals, and even surpasses Adele's in range and versatility and if she had been plucked from obscurity by some Svengali producer and ground through the major label A&R machine she would doubtless be a superstar. But then, we wouldn't have an album like Middle Child , a record I would snatch up [along with my dog and cat] if my house were on fire. Jaye spent years driving up, down and all around the UK in her tour van/recording studio, thrilling audiences with live performances while writing and recording songs on the fly. Her first album The Seed was released in 2013 and is now impossible to find. The album wears its Chrissie Hynde influences on its sleeve but also c
DIY Power Pop In The Modern Age: Coke Belda 4
Album review by Eric Sandberg I recently reviewed a tribute album called Garden of Earthly Delights , a sprawling two-disc collection of XTC covers. All told, if you include the bonus digital selections, there are forty nine tracks by forty nine different artists, virtually none of whom had managed to come to my attention previously. That this collection was uniformly excellent throughout is a tribute to Futureman Records and the project's coordinator Keith Klingensmith. More importantly it is an indication that there is a mind bogglingly large assortment of skilled musicians, artists and producers roaming this planet albeit with very small audiences. As a music fanatic with a strong natural instinct to explore and support aspiring musicians, this put me in a quandary. I wanted to check out some of these artists' own music but, where to start? even as a latecomer to Spotify, the prospect was daunting. To start, I chose the most memorable name from the roster,
Groove On: Peter Himmelman Lays It Down
Press On cover art by Isaac Himmelman Album review by Eric Sandberg – Peter Himmelman – Press On After two major label stints and many releases through various indie distributors on his own Frinny Records imprint, Press On is Peter Himmelman's third straight album made under the aegis of his own fans via Kickstarter. Over this period his supporters have been rewarded with early access to three of his finest albums to date, each one better than the last. These releases are likely break-even affairs for Himmelman, if not losses considering how even the most carefully planned project budgets can go awry. Himmelman's primary means of support is his company Big Muse, a consulting firm that assists corporations and businesses grow by helping personnel remove mental barriers and unlock their creativity. Himmelman published his self-help process in book form Let Me Out: Unlock Your Creative Mind and Bring Your Ideas To Life in 2016. So why does Peter Himmelman still regul