Author: ernopepper

663. Daphne Oram

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(July 2025) Episode 663 is DAPHNE ORAM, an early pioneer in electronic sound creation and composition, and also one of the first women in the field. She got her start making electronic music for the BBC in the 1940s-50s, and her music was used in early James Bond films. She invented an instrument called Oramics, which employed electric receptors to pick up shapes drawn on 35mm film to create variations in pitch, register, volume and vibrato. In the 1940s Oram composed a piece entitled “Still Point,” considered the first work to combine acoustic orchestration with live electronic manipulation. It wasn’t performed until 2016, years after her death.

Favourite album: Oramics

Favourite composition: Pulse Persephone

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: If, like me, you are into the sounds and tones of early electronic music, this is for you. Oramics provides what you need to know.

662. The High Dials

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(July 2025) Episode 662 is THE HIGH DIALS. This is a good reminder to apply robust skepticism to any contemporary band given the label “psychedelic.” This Canadian outfit’s initial album, A New Devotion, drew me in by offering promise with Beatles/Byrds-style baroque rock songs. But thereafter they descend into that 21st century kind of pop/rock that over-processes voice and instruments into a lush-ness that someone decided to improperly label psychedelic, thereby insulting all the art and artistry of the OG psychedelic aesthetic. “Open Up the Gates” from their third album was good neo-psychedelia, though.

Favorite album: A New Devotion

Favorite song: Oisin, My Bastard Brother

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Just that first album. I didn’t enjoy the rest.

661. Elmore James

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(July 2025) Episode 661 is ELMORE JAMES. A blues legend known as “King of the Slide Guitar” and for loud amplification of his guitar. Traveling a well-worn blues trail from Mississippi to Chicago, his recordings were in the 1950s and early 1960s. If not for his early death in 1963, one figures his fame would have exploded in the 1960s blues revival.

Favorite song: Dust My Broom

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Whose Muddy Shoes and Blues After Hours are good compilations of his songs.

660. Spirit

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(July 2025) Episode 660 is SPIRIT. They’re known for three things: (1) the minor classic rock hit “I Got a Line on You,” (2) the object of the copyright suit claiming Jimmy Page nicked a guitar line for “Stairway to Heaven” (unsuccessful, correctly IMO), and (3) giving us Jay Ferguson, of the yacht rock classic “Thunder Island” and composer of the theme song from The Office (US). Otherwise, their three late-60s albums will be of interest only to deep divers of that period (like me). They are an eclectic mix of rock, psychedelic, prog and jazz, fittingly drawing from the LA scene at the time. For an unknown reason, though, someone kept giving them recording contracts afterwards and through the 1990s.

Favorite album: The Family That Plays Together

Favorite song: I Got A Line On You

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first three albums may be of interest to aficionados of late 60s California rock. But others can skip.

659. Dave Brubeck

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(June 2025) Episode 659 is DAVE BRUBECK. This was a welcome learning experience because I didn’t know him beyond “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo à la Turk.” His music is a rare mix of brainy and popular. These famous songs are representative of his group’s experimentation with unusual time signatures, following a visit to Turkey on a global tour. His West Coast jazz comes off as an urbane version of cool jazz. His playing and compositions often seem to have classical piano as a substrate; in fact he later composed pieces for classical orchestra. He let his style evolve, such as the recordings with his sons in a fusion of jazz, rock, and blues. I enjoyed his late-career solo piano recordings.

Favorite album: Time Out

Favorite song: Take Five*

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: His quartet years in the late 50s, early 60s, with Paul Desmond on sax, are the classic period, but check out Two Generations of Brubeck for something different.

* written by Paul Desmond

658. Boris

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(June 2025) Episode 658 is BORIS. There isn’t a single term that aptly describes the music of this Japanese trio, although “noise” might be the closest. It’s sludge/stoner metal, drone, noise rock, dream pop metal, or experimental, depending on their phase or the album. They can do long drone noise like their debut, Absolutego, or pick it up into thrash mode, like Akuma No Uta. They also go pop, like on New Album or Attention Please. Vocals are selectively employed, and I’m not a fan of the men’s vocal style used on non-thrash tracks, which I label “dream pop metal.” Their output is voluminous, with an abundance of collaborations, notably Merzbow, so there are plenty of options to choose from.

Favorite album: Pink

Favorite song: Blackout

Favorite album-length song: Absolutego

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Best albums for heavy doom and thrash are Akuma No Uta, Pink and NO, as well as the Heavy Rocks trilogy. For drone/sludge try Absolutego, Amplifier Worship and Feedbacker.

657: Etta James

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(June 2025) Episode 657 is ETTA JAMES. One of my favorite voices. Powerful but not overpowering. Gentle, but sometimes coarse and bluesy. She recorded across a range on genres: R&B, gospel, jazz, pop standards, blues, soul. Her best stuff was in the 1960s, starting with trad pop and moving to soul. Substance abuse and financial difficulties affected her career, although she did have some good funky numbers in the 1970s. A comeback in the late 80s finally earned her emerita status and many late-career albums, although they lacked in originality.

Favorite album: Tell Mama

Favorite song: I’d Rather Go Blind

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Etta James Top Ten compiles her early silky songs; the 1965-68 trio of Queen of Soul, Call My Name and Tell Mama are her best.

656. Lush

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(June 2025) Episode 656 is LUSH, among the top-tier of bands whose name describes their sound. That was from the first part of their career in the early 1990s, when they helped introduce the shoegaze sound of ethereal, sweeping guitars, represented on several EPs and their first album. By their third and last album (1996’s Lovelife), Lush has turned to the prevalent Britpop sound. (Their second album was a transition between the two.) I like both styles, but kinda favor the shoegaze and Miki Berenyi’s floating vocals.

Favourite album: Spooky

Favourite song: Sweetness and Light

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Each of the three albums are good, but check out the several EPs that preceded the first.

655. The Chiffons

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Episode 655 is THE CHIFFONS. This enjoyable New York girl group had several hits in the early 1960s, including “One Fine Day” and “He’s So Fine.” The latter was the subject of the successful (and legit) plagiarism suit against George Harrison for “My Sweet Lord.” Their recordings for the rest of the decade were rather derivative.

Favorite song: One Fine Day

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A playlist of the top singles is sufficient.

654. Bill Withers

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Episode 654 is BILL WITHERS. Even if he recorded only “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me,” “Lovely Day” and “Just the Two of Us,” that would be sufficient to secure Bill Withers’ fame. But these came on several quality albums in the 1970s that applied his smooth yet textured baritone voice to a relaxed style of soul that contrasts to the chrome and flash of contemporaries. Also a great songwriter. He got a late start to his recording career, and (thankfully) declined to allow himself to be fully dragged into 80s synth R&B, so his nine albums (all but one in the 70s) stand as a consistent solid career set.

Favorite album: Still Bill

Favorite song: Ain’t No Sunshine

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: The first two albums (Just As I Am, Still Bill) are the best, but all are decent.