Starsailor (1970)

I keep forgetting to update.. oops! Sorry! Today I'm going to post a Tim Buckley album, which over the past month has become one of my favorite records. Tim Buckley, of course, was a folk singer famous for his powerful voice, and being the father of artist Jeff Buckley. Starsailor is one of Buckley's later albums which were more experimental than those in his earlier career. Instead of playing just folk music, Buckley incorporated elements of free jazz and experimental styles. The result is a really beautiful and haunting album. Though the record features some of his more "inaccessible" work, it also features his best known track, "Song to the Siren."


Though quite different than his earlier work, it's a really great album. It was the first that I ever heard by him, and is still my favorite.

After the record didn't gain as much commercial success, his drug and alcohol problem worsened. In 1975, Buckley died of an overdose of alcohol and heroin.


Track List
1. Come Here Woman 4:12
2. I Woke Up 4:07
3. Monterey 4:33
4. Moulin Rouge 2:00
5. Song to the Siren 3:28
6. Jungle Fire 4:43
7. Starsailor 4:37
8. The Healing Festival 3:17
9. Down by the Borderline 5:24


get it

Amalgamation (1971)

Yes, I finally picked up a copy of Japrocksampler. If you haven't read it before, I highly recommend buying the book. I'll probably be posting quite a few albums from Julian Cope's top 50, but I'm going to start with this one, since I've been listening to it a lot lately.

The album is Amalgamation by Masahiko Satoh and the Soundbreakers. Satoh is a jazz pianist. This album, which was one of the many "super sessions" which were created during this time period, featured many other musicians such as Kimio Mizutani, who was already known for his guitar work with the group Love Live Life + One.

This album is a bit difficult to describe. It is a mixture of psychedelic music, musique concrete, progressive rock and free jazz. The record is quite unpredictable, and features a lot of unique instrumentation, including some traditional Japanese instruments. Listening to it is a pretty strange trip.

The record is seperated into 2 tracks, side one and side two. Side one is 15 minutes and 49 seconds long. Side two is 21 minutes and 18 seconds.



give it a try

Satoh's website