Brian Lynch Quartet - Fuchsia
I put off listening to this for a while on the misguided idea that it was some sort of modern fusion album, misguided in that it’s at least not the type of modern fusion album I was expecting. This is a Canadian quartet very much along the lines of some of the mainstream Dave Douglas albums, homages to Miles Davis from the late 60s quintet through the electric era. What struck me about this set was how muscular, choppy and on fire the whole band was, with the trumpet playing way more Hubbard than Miles. I am hoping this gets even better as this was a real surprise. Drew my fast attention several times during the play.
Goro Ohmi - Fire
It’s amazing to me the assimilative quality of progressive rock and the lengths so many collectors go to drag something into the fold. Meet Goro Ohmi, Japanese musician creating album after album of kitschy and bombastic “soundtrack” music, I guess people must have thought Teru’s Symphonia and then of course not much of a stretch to Ohmi. At least a lot of the music is somewhat original its own way, in that the epic nature and bombast are unusually rendered at times (I can only think of useless words like quirky here), but the whole thing is so damn twee that my knees were starting to shake.
Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights
I can’t figure out why it’s taken me so long to start checking out the music of Richard Thompson, although this early 80s, very countrified album probably shouldn’t have been a first go (to be fair I’ve probably heard a show or two). Thompson seems to be more in the tradition of singer/songwriters, like a slightly more folky or celtic Neil Young, which doesn’t help this listener at all. But anything quite this different from what I usually listen to needs more attention, especially as it may be something of a departure from the usual Thompson music.