Album 951

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Etron Fou Leloublan - Les Poumons Gonflés
Year: 1982

Utterly fucked up RIO/Avant-garde/free jazz french randomness. I'm sure behind the madness lies a carefully thought out masterpiece, and that's what makes this such an amazing listen. Not only is it catchy in a sick twisted way, but it also basically just captures the mood and lets you sneak a look into the weird and demented world of this band. Ever wonder what the english translation is? Why it's Mad shit, The White Wolf of course. This is one to listen to if you want to go one step weirder than Samla Mammas Manna.

3 Choice Tracks: La Musique, Those Distant Waters, Lo Prefero

Album 950

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Mahvishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire
Year: 1973

Jazzy guitar driven fusion at it's absolute best. It even has a Miles Davis composition, so yeah, how can you lose! There's so much that can be said for this band, this is truly bringing jazz into a new age, and the fact that it didn't spawn a whole new lasting movement is such a massive shame. I had a bit of difficulty chosing between this and The Inner Mounting Flame. But I've always found that Birds of Fire was more driven and featured a much tighter band. This has massive crossover appeal so it's hard to see how anyone could not enjoy this. This is definitely one to listen to when you want to hear the shape of jazz to come in a more perfect world.

3 Choice Tracks: Birds of Fire, Celestial Terrestrial Commuters, One Word

Additional Notes: You can stream the whole album here: http://www.last.fm/music/Mahavishnu+.../Birds+of+Fire

^^^

Noice. Damn fine album. Have you heard Billy Cobham's A Funky Thide Of Sings? It's a little more funky but still awesome fusion and worth it for the title alone!

I haven't actually, but I'm always open to more fusion.

Album 949

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Il Balletto Di Bronzo - Ys
Year: 1972

I'm sorry I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome this is. Imagine if ELP had the capacity to make captivating music. You know, with some awesome guitars, a truly great drummer, keyboardist coupled with great songwriting skills. This is basically what you get with this Album, a lot of people are quick to dismiss it as derivative, but I just don't hear it. Even now this sounds completely original and suprisingly fresh. It's safe to say this has aged better than a lot of it's contemporaries. This is one to listen to when you want to hear something really interesting.

3 Choice Tracks: 5 track album, all are really good, and you'll probably find the whole album before you'll find individual tracks.

Album 948

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Led Zeppelin - Presence
Year: 1976

At first this, along with Houses of the Holy were the two choices available to me due to my restrictions. On re-examination, this is probably the strongest Led Zeppelin album. Bonham and Jones are on top form here, the rhythm section is so amazingly tight. Page and Plant however, are in a world all on their own, Tea For One for example, Page goes from sonic assault to beautiful squeals and Plant finds a power in his voice that exemplifies his longing. Yes, you can hear he's tired at times here, but it just adds to the bluesy feel. I'm not even going to start mentioning Achilles Last Stand, we'll be here all day. This is Led Zeppelin stripped down, raw and without all the fannying aboutm, also two hard rock epics, I am in heaven. Listen to this when you want an honest, bluesy hard rock album.

3 Choice Tracks: Achilles Last Stand, Nobody's Fault But Mine, Tea For One

Been saying this for years :thumb:

Great choice! :beer: I think you can hear where The Mars Volta got some of their inspiration on this album.

About Mahavishnu, I can see there's quality there and some of the songs are good (I also prefer birds to mounting flame), but listening to McLaughlin's picking gets a bit stressy for me. If you sit down and just listen to it, you can sort of imagine him standing on the table in front of you noodling with his guitar right up in your face.

Good call on Ys, I just sampled it a few days ago and it was better than I expected from slightly obscure italian prog offering from 1972. :D

Album 947

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Panzerpappa - Koralrevens Klagesang
Year: 2006

Norwegian group panzerpappa returns with this brilliant RIO/jazz-fusion prog masterpiece. With a diverse and brilliant range of influences which have been moulded here in to something completely unique there's a lot to cach onto here. There is a massive crossover appeal as well, none of these songs are too proggy, or too jazzy, they're just right to make it pallatable to pretty much everyone. Richard sinclair also guests on the brilliant Vintervake, everything about this is just cheery and fun. This is one to listen to when you're in the mood for a pick me up.

3 Choice Tracks: Korallrevens Klagesang II, Snill Sang På Bånd, Vintervake