Listen with Trollheart

Trollheart · 04-02-2018, 03:35 PM

Now that I've freed myself of my self-made burden, I'm going to start listening to music I want to listen to again. I'm going through my album collection and picking out one, or more, a day out to listen to, using this free program http://www.forman.free-online.co.uk/...er/publish.htm. It looks like my collection stands currently at around 7000 plus albums, so there's a lot for me to discover, or even rediscover. This is, for once, purely for my own enjoyment, so there will be no reviews, just the odd line, a few impressions, unless I feel like doing more.

If I've previously reviewed an album I'll point you in that direction in case you're interested. Each album will be rated with what has now become my go-to system, the speedometer rating. No recs, obviously, but if you want to ask if I have a particular album or artist, sure, why not? If I have it I'll kick the randomness to the kerb and spin that one. Not that I expect to be exactly inundated with requests, but not bothered about that. In fact, **** it: I'll mostly use random selections but some of the time I may just grab an album I really want to listen to, just because I want to. In direct contrast to just about any other thread I've ever made, the only rule here will be

Although many of these will be albums by artists I'm familiar with, there is still a good percentage of my collection I have yet to listen to. I'll indicate if that's the case by this icon

and if, after listening to the album, I feel compelled to seek out more of the artist's work, this icon.

If I'm already familiar with them, and/or have all their albums, then I'll use this one:

If it turns out to be utter shite, or just really disappointing or not what I thought it would be (in a bad way) I'll use this icon:

As in all my threads, anyone who wishes to comment is welcome to do so. I'll slap youtubes up for anything I can.

So, what's up first? Well, this, actually...

Eternal Return – Byron (2015)
Genre: Prog rock/art-rock/alt-rock

This really impressed me. Probably the first Romanian album I've ever listened to, certainly the first Romanian prog one. Not quite pure prog, but there are enough touches in there to qualify this as belonging primarily to that genre for me. Sort of remind me of Jadis at times. Who? **** off: this is for me, so if you don't know who they are, I don't care. Ah, freedom! Never even heard of this band before, but I'll be checking out more of their material.

~~MicShazam~~ · 04-02-2018, 03:40 PM

Subbed. I think just doing comments instead of having a full review format is a good idea. It's more flexible for such a large undertaking.

Trollheart · 04-02-2018, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MicShazam

Subbed. I think just doing comments instead of having a full review format is a good idea. It's more flexible for such a large undertaking.

Thanks. It's not even a project this time. I just figure, now I'm listening to music for me, why not scribble a bit about it while I'm doing it? If nothing else, it'll make some people feel superior and others laugh at my taste. Hey, as long as I amuse the staff, right?

I'm not writing much about the albums/tracks as I want to actually spend more time listening than writing, and as I say, it's more or less a thing for me to do but to share with anyone who happens to be interested. If there are more than half-a-dozen people checking this out I'll be surprised, but does Zoidberg worry? Oh, you wish!

~~MicShazam~~ · 04-02-2018, 04:02 PM

I expect it to mostly be a load of albums I'm not very familiar with myself, but there might be the odd surprise appearance of an album I own too.

If nothing else, I can come in here to feel better when people are done laughing off my choices in metal.

Trollheart · 04-02-2018, 04:05 PM

You'll always be welcome. Beer good enough for ya?

Trollheart · 04-02-2018, 06:39 PM

Note: there are going to be a fair few videos in this thread, especially the playlist part. I'm not going to be spoilering them, so be prepared if you're coming in on, oh I don't know, maybe a crappy Chromebook or something...

PLAYLIST FOR MONDAY APRIL 2 2018

“Islands of the Orient” – Vangelis – Oceanic, 1996
Genre: Electronic/Ambient
I first got into the music of Vangelis when I watched the BBC astronomy/history programme Cosmos (which ties in weirdly with Occulthawk's posts in the What Are You Reading thread about Carl Sagan) and heard “Heaven and Hell” and “Alpha”. I bought his greatest hits and then Spiral and later Direct. This remains one of my favourite albums of his though, a musical travelogue over, beneath and along the sea. Great music to relax to.
10/10

“School” - Roger Hodgson – Classics Live, 2010
Genre: Prog Rock
The very first Supertramp song I ever heard, both studio and live, as it opens both Crime of the Century and the double live Paris, this is ex-founder member Hodgson's version of it played live. It's almost as good as the Supertramp version, but then, he did co-write and co-sing the original, after all.
10/10

“Silent Path” - Dreamtale – Beyond Reality, 2002
Genre: Power/Symphonic Metal
One of those albums I obviously downloaded, as it's there, but I don't remember when or why I got it. Basic power/symphonic metal from Finland. I won't rate it as, to be honest, it made no impression on me, to the point that I can't recall what I thought of it, but it's certainly not memorable, on first listen at least. Your basic power metal ballad. Yawn.

“Queen of the Night” - Eloy – Planets, 1981
Genre: Prog/Symphonic Prog Rock
Interesting thing about Eloy: I'm not really what you'd call a fan. I used to spend my weekends hanging out in a record shop (as most of us around my age probably did) and it was great, but you did tend to get the hard sell, and you'd be generally not allowed (in the nicest possible way) to leave unless they sold you something. So when Tommy, the owner, heard I was into prog he foisted Performance on me. It was okay, and I bought Metromania as well, but I've never really been that bothered about Eloy. This track didn't do anything to change that. Again, no rating as it just passed me by.

“Fatboy” - Gary Moore – A Different Beat, 1999
Genre: Rock/Electronic
My least favourite Moore album, on which he, for some reason I've never been able to understand, thought he'd try his hand at dance music, leaving his fans bemused and those who weren't familiar with his work baffled and apathetic. This song consists of him singing “Let's hear it for the fatboy!” over and over against a thumping electronic beat. Yeah. Should have stuck with the blues, mate.
3/10

“Arcana” - Edenbridge – Arcana, 2001
Genre: Symphonic Metal
I mentioned before that I like Edenbridge, and well I do, but this song kind of passed me over, though that might have been due to the extractor fan going as I was cooking dinner. Either way, can't give it much of a rating.
5/10

“See Who I Am” - Within Temptation – The Silent Force, 2004
Genre: Symphonic Metal
I like Within Temptation too, and this song generally wasn't bad, but I've heard better from them.
6/10

“Blind Curve” - Fish – Return to Childhood, 2005
Genre: Prog rock
Nearly twenty years after leaving Marillion, Fish played a live tour in which he revisited all the work he had created with Marillion, including one of my favourites of theirs in its entirety, Misplaced Childhood. This is the full “Blind Curve” suite from that album, which consists of “Vocal Under a Bloodlight”, “Passing Strangers”, “Mylo”, “Perimeter Walk” and “Threshold”. Needless to say, I love it.
10/10

“El Codor Pasa (If I could)” - Simon and Garfunkel – Greatest Hits, 1972
Genre: Folk
An unassailable classic. Nothing more to say.
10/10

OccultHawk · 04-02-2018, 06:50 PM

So you kicked 2017 wiki to the curb?

Trollheart · 04-02-2018, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

So you kicked 2017 wiki to the curb?

Yeah

Quote:

Originally Posted by elphenor

shouldn't this be a journal

No, I don't think it has to be. If it did, then the Albums of 2017 thread would have had to be a journal. Unless I miss my guess, it's up to you whether you want to post in the normal section or in the journal one.

Quote:

can I just start a journal as a normal thread and quadruple post to my heart's content

I'm sure you can. I doubt anyone's going to stop you, assuming you have stuff to write about.

OccultHawk · 04-02-2018, 07:20 PM

I have 3 journals just as regular threads:

Free Jazz 2018
Drone Ambient 2018
The South

Same as my actual journal anyone is invited to post whatever but everyone knows they’re kind of my deal. I mean if other people wanted to they could post more than me but so far I’ve put way more time tracking down new releases and listening to them right away. Because I’m time affluent recently. When I was banned I just kept listening to music but not writing about it.

Trollheart · 04-02-2018, 08:31 PM

Yeah, I know what you mean. Personally, for me, a journal has to involve a lot more effort from me. I have to have put a lot more thought into it than just slapping down the songs I've listened to and writing a few lines about them. So although technically, this could be called a journal, I think it's fine here. Also, I don't recall quadruple posting here, and anyway, elph, if you want to see someone who does that on a regular basis, look in the mirror.

04-02-2018, 03:35 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Listen with Trollheart Now that I've freed myself of my self-made burden, I'm going to start listening to music I want to listen to again. I'm going through my album collection and picking out one, or more, a day out to listen to, using this free program http://www.forman.free-online.co.uk/...er/publish.htm. It looks like my collection stands currently at around 7000 plus albums, so there's a lot for me to discover, or even rediscover. This is, for once, purely for my own enjoyment, so there will be no reviews, just the odd line, a few impressions, unless I feel like doing more. If I've previously reviewed an album I'll point you in that direction in case you're interested. Each album will be rated with what has now become my go-to system, the speedometer rating. No recs, obviously, but if you want to ask if I have a particular album or artist, sure, why not? If I have it I'll kick the randomness to the kerb and spin that one. Not that I expect to be exactly inundated with requests, but not bothered about that. In fact, **** it: I'll mostly use random selections but some of the time I may just grab an album I really want to listen to, just because I want to. In direct contrast to just about any other thread I've ever made, the only rule here will be Although many of these will be albums by artists I'm familiar with, there is still a good percentage of my collection I have yet to listen to. I'll indicate if that's the case by this icon and if, after listening to the album, I feel compelled to seek out more of the artist's work, this icon. If I'm already familiar with them, and/or have all their albums, then I'll use this one: If it turns out to be utter shite, or just really disappointing or not what I thought it would be (in a bad way) I'll use this icon: As in all my threads, anyone who wishes to comment is welcome to do so. I'll slap youtubes up for anything I can. So, what's up first? Well, this, actually... Eternal Return – Byron (2015) Genre: Prog rock/art-rock/alt-rock This really impressed me. Probably the first Romanian album I've ever listened to, certainly the first Romanian prog one. Not quite pure prog, but there are enough touches in there to qualify this as belonging primarily to that genre for me. Sort of remind me of Jadis at times. Who? **** off: this is for me, so if you don't know who they are, I don't care. Ah, freedom! Never even heard of this band before, but I'll be checking out more of their material. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-19-2021 at 07:45 PM.

04-02-2018, 04:05 PM	#5 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	You'll always be welcome. Beer good enough for ya? __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

04-02-2018, 06:39 PM	#6 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Note: there are going to be a fair few videos in this thread, especially the playlist part. I'm not going to be spoilering them, so be prepared if you're coming in on, oh I don't know, maybe a crappy Chromebook or something... PLAYLIST FOR MONDAY APRIL 2 2018 “Islands of the Orient” – Vangelis – Oceanic, 1996 Genre: Electronic/Ambient I first got into the music of Vangelis when I watched the BBC astronomy/history programme Cosmos (which ties in weirdly with Occulthawk's posts in the What Are You Reading thread about Carl Sagan) and heard “Heaven and Hell” and “Alpha”. I bought his greatest hits and then Spiral and later Direct. This remains one of my favourite albums of his though, a musical travelogue over, beneath and along the sea. Great music to relax to. 10/10 “School” - Roger Hodgson – Classics Live, 2010 Genre: Prog Rock The very first Supertramp song I ever heard, both studio and live, as it opens both Crime of the Century and the double live Paris, this is ex-founder member Hodgson's version of it played live. It's almost as good as the Supertramp version, but then, he did co-write and co-sing the original, after all. 10/10 “Silent Path” - Dreamtale – Beyond Reality, 2002 Genre: Power/Symphonic Metal One of those albums I obviously downloaded, as it's there, but I don't remember when or why I got it. Basic power/symphonic metal from Finland. I won't rate it as, to be honest, it made no impression on me, to the point that I can't recall what I thought of it, but it's certainly not memorable, on first listen at least. Your basic power metal ballad. Yawn. “Queen of the Night” - Eloy – Planets, 1981 Genre: Prog/Symphonic Prog Rock Interesting thing about Eloy: I'm not really what you'd call a fan. I used to spend my weekends hanging out in a record shop (as most of us around my age probably did) and it was great, but you did tend to get the hard sell, and you'd be generally not allowed (in the nicest possible way) to leave unless they sold you something. So when Tommy, the owner, heard I was into prog he foisted Performance on me. It was okay, and I bought Metromania as well, but I've never really been that bothered about Eloy. This track didn't do anything to change that. Again, no rating as it just passed me by. “Fatboy” - Gary Moore – A Different Beat, 1999 Genre: Rock/Electronic My least favourite Moore album, on which he, for some reason I've never been able to understand, thought he'd try his hand at dance music, leaving his fans bemused and those who weren't familiar with his work baffled and apathetic. This song consists of him singing “Let's hear it for the fatboy!” over and over against a thumping electronic beat. Yeah. Should have stuck with the blues, mate. 3/10 “Arcana” - Edenbridge – Arcana, 2001 Genre: Symphonic Metal I mentioned before that I like Edenbridge, and well I do, but this song kind of passed me over, though that might have been due to the extractor fan going as I was cooking dinner. Either way, can't give it much of a rating. 5/10 “See Who I Am” - Within Temptation – The Silent Force, 2004 Genre: Symphonic Metal I like Within Temptation too, and this song generally wasn't bad, but I've heard better from them. 6/10 “Blind Curve” - Fish – Return to Childhood, 2005 Genre: Prog rock Nearly twenty years after leaving Marillion, Fish played a live tour in which he revisited all the work he had created with Marillion, including one of my favourites of theirs in its entirety, Misplaced Childhood. This is the full “Blind Curve” suite from that album, which consists of “Vocal Under a Bloodlight”, “Passing Strangers”, “Mylo”, “Perimeter Walk” and “Threshold”. Needless to say, I love it. 10/10 “El Codor Pasa (If I could)” - Simon and Garfunkel – Greatest Hits, 1972 Genre: Folk An unassailable classic. Nothing more to say. 10/10 __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

04-02-2018, 06:50 PM	#7 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	So you kicked 2017 wiki to the curb? __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

04-02-2018, 07:20 PM	#9 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	I have 3 journals just as regular threads: Free Jazz 2018 Drone Ambient 2018 The South Same as my actual journal anyone is invited to post whatever but everyone knows they’re kind of my deal. I mean if other people wanted to they could post more than me but so far I’ve put way more time tracking down new releases and listening to them right away. Because I’m time affluent recently. When I was banned I just kept listening to music but not writing about it. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

04-02-2018, 03:40 PM	#2 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Subbed. I think just doing comments instead of having a full review format is a good idea. It's more flexible for such a large undertaking.

04-02-2018, 04:02 PM	#4 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	I expect it to mostly be a load of albums I'm not very familiar with myself, but there might be the odd surprise appearance of an album I own too. If nothing else, I can come in here to feel better when people are done laughing off my choices in metal.

04-02-2018, 08:31 PM	#10 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Yeah, I know what you mean. Personally, for me, a journal has to involve a lot more effort from me. I have to have put a lot more thought into it than just slapping down the songs I've listened to and writing a few lines about them. So although technically, this could be called a journal, I think it's fine here. Also, I don't recall quadruple posting here, and anyway, elph, if you want to see someone who does that on a regular basis, look in the mirror. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018