Jul 21: 1993

One lunchtime in 1993 I came home from work at lunchtime to check the post and have some lunch. I was living in a flat in King's Lynn which was cheap and a bit of a dive truth be told... but it was cheap and only three minutes walk from school - in fact I could see it out of one of the windows... 

Waiting for me was the new Rush album. I couldn't resist putting it into my CD player - I had a nice separates system with vinyls, but with the odd new CD appearing. It started really quietly and then '1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2....' then the drums pounded out of the speakers.

Here's the 2004 remaster of that opening track from the album 'Counterparts': 'Animate' - it remains one of my favourite openings of any Rush album.

Also that year, Bjork made her 'Debut', 

And Big Country were no longer in Kansas.

Sarah McLachlan released 'Fumbling towards Ecstasy'. I have a separate post about this album which will be appearing in a few days' time as it was one that I listened to a great deal.... 

What are your favourite albums from 1993?

Apr 23: Iceland

Another post where I explore some of the musicians from a particular country.

Today it's a place which actually has another of my blogs devoted to it: Iceland.

There are quite a few Icelandic bands I could mention in this post.

I've heard some of them playing live, and others have been regular fixtures in my listening for some years.

Sigur Rós should come first - it goes without saying.

Other bands I like listening to:

Arstiðir

The first album is perhaps the favourite.

Kaleo is another Icelandic musician who is known internationally.

Here's a RUV story about a planned concert that will take place at Thingvellir.

They are playing Þingvellir later this year if permission can be granted.

Here's one of Kaleo's most streamed songs on Spotify...

I've already blogged about Björk's connection with Rosalia at the Brits this year.

What are your favourite Icelandic bands?

Mar 1: Rosalía - Berghain & Björk

Back in January, Carl Lee contributed a guest post on Fado and mentioned Rosalia.

Last night, my wife was watching the Brit Awards. This is not my type of music, or event generally, but about an hour in there was an amazing performance from Rosalia, who then surprised everyone with a special guest (who featured on the original track providing a small vocal contribution). The ending was different to the original track on her album as well. If you've heard it you'll know.

Stop what you're doing and have a watch of this...

Update - 7th March

A remixed version of the track by Conrad Taylor has been released.... based on the Brits performance.