BLAST FROM THE PAST: Best Old New Discoveries

With so much incredible music constantly being released, here are some old-school and vintage gems from years gone by that I've been obsessed with lately.

King Crimson - 'Discipline' (1981)

I’ve always been a fan of King Crimson, but have only recently made my first foray into the 80s Krim line-up. Suitably uncompromising, the New Wave influence is palpable and gives the music a throbbing groove and visceral energy that is a welcome step from the ever-present threat of turgid saturation inherent in all that is prog.

Gussie Clark - 'Late Arrival' from 'Black Foundation Dub' (1976)

Vintage Jamaican dub gem. It literally sounds stoned, the synth line doing whatever the hell it wants in a sea of chopping board guitar stabs and backing vocals that could chill out a stoic.

Can - 'Future Days' (1973)

Can at their most ethereal, their most far-out and ephemeral. If I could be an album this would be it. The final track, 'Bel-Air', is, (for me at least) Can's magnum opus in its pure transcendence of form and composition - a fitting final statement from the indisputable early Can line-up before Damo Suzuki's departure.

Miles Davis - 'Get Up With It' (1974)

Eclectic and swaggering free-form sonic exploration from one of the most effervescent seekers of new sound. It's muscular, masculine, pungent. Great stuff.

McDonald and Giles - 'McDonald and Giles' (1971)

This one-off album from Ian Macdonald and Michael Giles (of the first King Crimson iteration of 1969), maintains the degree of complexity and musicianship so synonymous with their previous band; yet 'McDonald and Giles' sees this progressive being imbued with much softer touches of charming pastoralism and psychedelia.

Aztec Camera - 'Hard Land, Hard Rain' (1983)

Truly joyous Scot-pop from one of Glasgow's best bands. 'Walk Out To Winter' - need I say any more?

Ananda Shankar - 'Ananda Shankar' (1970)

Ravi Shankar’s nephew fuses 60's classics and Indian traditional music in a bizarre twist of California sunshine, twanging sitars and primitive electronica. There’s an expected twinge of Western pandering present, especially in the first few tracks (see the hilariously fun ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ cover), but once you accept the late 60's/early 70's sheen of overblown nonsense, it’s great fun and actually much more than just pop tunes done with a sitar for an obliquely Western market. The production especially is lovely, with weird proto-synths wobbling and arpeggiating in Technicolor Stereo, and the album in turn evolves into a fairly sophisticated, (if limited) introduction to Indian Classical music with extended raga jams blasting you off into the Summer of Love and beyond.

'Blast from the Past’ will return very soon! If you too have unearthed a gem you’d like us to check out, feel free to let us know at lastbusmagazine@gmail.com X