What are you listening to? (V)Music 

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Finally got around to 1982's Hex Enduction Hour (which is suitably just over sixty minutes in length) in my Fall listening marathon. The casual use of the n-word in the first track kind of blindsided me but the album is catchy enough and I can see why it tops most fans' best-of lists unlike I can with This Nation's Saving Grace (on which I only liked three tracks and the associated singles).

I would've preferred to have had some warning first though. Every music critic I read on the album except The Quietus's John Doran completely glossed over the issue as if it didn't exist. I'm more disappointed than offended though because it makes it hard to recommend this otherwise fairly solid long player to others.

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Nice, did you like it? And you‘re right, the band has that typical shoegaze/dream pop feel!
I sure did. It's great to hear modern bands making high quality music which captures the feel of the old albums so well right down to the unintelligible lyrics and ethereal soundscapes.

It's equally gratifying to hear the shoegaze scene is alive and well and that youngsters like Byron and Zack are listening to and absorbing the classics in the twenty-first century.

I'm guessing the recent shoegaze documentary has ignited interest amongst bands in NY and elsewhere. This gives me hope that pop hasn't quite completely eaten itself or at least digested some of the good bits instead.
 
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I sure did. It's great to hear modern bands making high quality music which captures the feel of the old albums so well right down to the unintelligible lyrics and ethereal soundscapes.

It's equally gratifying to hear the shoegaze scene is alive and well and that youngsters like Byron and Zack are listening to and absorbing the classics in the twenty-first century.

I'm guessing the recent shoegaze documentary has ignited interest amongst bands in NY and elsewhere. This gives me hope that pop hasn't quite completely eaten itself or at least digested some of the good bits instead.
Exactly, this band definitely reminds me of Slowdive and MBV in some ways. There are actually a lot of really good modern shoegaze bands out there, I found many of them thanks to Spotify!
 
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Bought this Cannonball Adderley album in the nineties shortly after Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue and didn't like it at all despite having two of the same soloists playing on it. I just decided to give it another try and absolutely love it now. Guess my ears have grown up a little. The 1-bit half-speed mastering audiophile woo-woo on my SACD version doesn't hurt, either.

 
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Onto the Velvets' second album. Hearing this for the first time, it's remarkable to me that recording mishaps were responsible for its grungy sound that's evident in so many post-punk and shoegaze albums that were to follow after it.

The band reportedly hated it at the time and engineer Gary Kellgren was so agahast at the result he walked out on one of the sessions.

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Onto the Velvets' second album. Hearing this for the first time, it's remarkable to me that recording mishaps were responsible for its grungy sound that's evident in so many post-punk and shoegaze albums that were to follow after it.

The band reportedly hated it at the time and engineer Gary Kellgren was so agahast at the result he walked out on one of the sessions.

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I didn't expect to like the self-titled follow up LP since it was conceived as the anti-White Light/White Heat but it's still good if a lot more peaceful due to John Cale's absence. Lou Reed's songwriting style is still heavily in evidence. The Go-Betweens album I listened to a couple of weeks back just sounds like a carbon copy of this in places.

Not sure which of the various mixes of this album I'm listening to but since I can hear all the instruments and vocalists besides Reed I suspect it's not his one.

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I didn't expect to like the self-titled follow up LP since it was conceived as the anti-White Light/White Heat but it's still good if a lot more peaceful due to John Cale's absence. Lou Reed's songwriting style is still heavily in evidence. The Go-Betweens album I listened to a couple of weeks back just sounds like a carbon copy of this in places.

Not sure which of the various mixes of this album I'm listening to but since I can hear all the instruments and vocalists besides Reed I suspect it's not his one.

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I never heard of that song before, I'll listen to it tomorrow...
 
The last Velvet Underground LP I'm listening to is 1970's Loaded. It doesn't sound the same without Moe Tucker's relentless drumming. The songs are fine but the production seems aimed squarely at radio play and the experimentalism of earlier albums seems to have all but disappeared.

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Next I'm going to try Reed's solo albums Transformer and Berlin.
 
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