Freedom Road (1970)

Let's be honest, some albums you can do quite well without. Freedom Road is, at least in yours truly's universe, one of these. This record is an echo from my childhood, it belonged to my parents' collection and I often came across it when I flipped through their albums as a kid, in search of something exciting to listen to. But I never spun it. And neither did my parents. Neither my brother. But it was there. I was well acquainted with the cover. The three black men, a title with a hippie vibe, the semi psychedelic design. It could have been something, but there was something about it that never made me curious enough.

It remained an enigma until the day I saved a number of albums from my parents' attic a while ago, when it finally was time to find out what actually was on it.

Rediffusion was a company whose slogan was "The best budget records in the world". I don't know, for some reason it's not the slogan I would have thought was the ultimate for a record company. On the other hand, I'm no businessman. On the other hand, the company was created in 1968 and went down in 1982.
Apparently, Rediffusion was originally a company that distributed radio and television in England. It was created in1928 and a number of sub-companies was started, of which the record label was one.

The content on the record are covers. Who or what bands are singing I do not know. Generally, covers are rarely better than the original, personally, I can only think of a handful. And the same rule applies to Freedom Road. Although the songs in their original forms often are quite good, the selection is OK, the versions on the album are too cheezy. The very first association I got, after a few seconds of the first song, was Paul McCartney at his very cheeziest mood. Not a favorite of mine. The sound is the same on most songs, cheezy and done without even a hint of creativity or challenge. Things you hear in an elevator or in the background in the clothing store that doesn't have a tiniest wish to be at the cutting edge of fashion trends. Since the songs basically are still pretty good songs, you can still listen to the album, and two or three songs are actually quite OK. But I see no reason to buy this album, it's way better to listen to the songs in their original form.

The album cover is perhaps the greatest benefit to this album.

Other titles from Redifffusion:
Flower Of Love
Songs Of The Islands
Bill McGuffie And Some Brass
Steve Benbow Sings Irish Songs

Tracklist

Side A
1. He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother 4:10
2. And The Sun Will Shine 3:43
3. Put A Little Love In Your Heart 2:06
4. Melting Pot 3:27
5. Onion Song 2:50
6. Walk A Mile In My Shoes 3:41

Side B
1. United We Stand 3:46
2. Everybody Get Together 3:30
3, Young Gifted And Black 3:12
4. Good Morning Freedom 2:46
5. Abraham, Martin & John 4:15
6. Love Of The Common People 2:25

Storm Corrosion (2012)

Birthdays tend to involve the receiving of gifts, which is nice. Extra nice is it when these are in the form of vinyl records. The summer that just passed included my 40th birthday, and a friend of mine with an interest in music was the man behind this gift. This friend is a man with a good taste in music, and also an admirer of both Opeth and Steven Wilson / Porcupine Tree. For this eponymous album is a collaboration between the singer in the (metal) prog band Opeth, Mikael Åkerfeldt, and singer of Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson.

I'm no expert on either Opeth or Porcupine Tree, but my view of the music these bands create is that it is relatively loud. This can lead to the expectation that Storm Corrosion is a pretty noisy record. It is not.The listener is treated with atmospheric and beautiful tones that lean towards an ambient direction. It's a double record, where each side clocks in at about 10 minutes, except for side 3, which is about 15 minutes long. The spin, however, is 33 rpm. Maybe it's for the sake of sound quality the record is done in this somewhat odd way, I've heard rumours that it sounds better if the grooves are not too close to each other.

Mikael and Steven have known each other since the early 00's and Steven has produced three of Opeth's albums. Mikael has guest starred on one of Porcupine Tree's records and in addition to this, the two bands have toured together. No one was therefore surprised when the couple announced that they would make music together. Storm Corrosion is the first result of this collaboration, nothing has been said about any possible continuation of this project.

Steven Wilson says: We ran in the opposite direction of the idea of ​​a progressive metal supergroup that people had been talking about and expecting from us. It was a chance to delve into more experimental ideas.

For this is truly a peaceful and atmospheric album. The opening track Drag Ropes gives at least me some Gentle Giant vibes thanks to the song structure, the album then goes on quietly and peacefully to the dreamy and beautiful final track with the Swedish-sounding name Ljudet Innan (=the Sound Before). The beautiful dream is disturbed, however, by the harmonies that alternates between the beautiful and the discordant. All songs except one on the album is with vocals.

From the very beginning it was thought that Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theatre) would drum on the album, but Mikael and Steven realized that the music they created had no room for drums. In the end, however, they asked the Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison to contribute with some drumming, a contribution which stays in the background and doesn't take up much space. According to my friend who gave me the album and also this information, Mike Portnoy took no offense.

This is probably no music for the pre-party or the build-up to the football game. However, it can fit three o'clock at night, when you come home after a breezy night out, with intense socializing and loud music, and have the need to unwind. Breathe and relax. Philosophize over the night that just passed. In your loneliness. Because you always come home alone.

I like the cover, a true work of art. There is a painting by Hans Arnold, the Swiss-Swedish artist who, among many other things, have done a lot of book covers I recognize from my childhood and youth. This painting was made in 1969.

So, not easy to describe the music on the album, and at the risk of repetition, words like beautiful, dreamy, ambient, calm, atmospheric and dark come to me when I try to summarize. It makes me think of David Sylvian and his more atmospheric creations and why not Shearwater, with their quiet, dark songs. Yet Storm Corrosion is not like much else in today's musical landscape. A cool and calm album I can recommend. This is a newcomer in my record collection, strange it would be otherwise since it was released this year, but a record that is sure to get more playing time in the years to come.

(Another obvious theme among the presents for my 40th birthday was beer in various forms, based on my ongoing beer brewing project, but that's a topic for another blog.)

Tracklist

Side A

1. Drag Ropes 9:52

Side B

2. Storm Corrosion 10:09

Side C

1. Hag 6:28

2. Happy 4:53

3. Lock Howl 6:09

Side D

1. Ljudet Innan 10:20