I enjoy a bit of Duke Ellington but I’ve never listened to this live album before. It’s fantastic. The quality of the recording is great, and the concert is fantastic, culminating in the wonderful ‘Diminuendo in Blue’. Great stuff. Listened to it before?: no Will listen again?: yes Favourite track: Diminuendo in Blue
My Fats Domino knowledge started and ended at ‘Blueberry Hill’ but I really enjoyed this. ‘The Fat Man’s Hop’ another highlight. Listened to it before?: no Will listen again?: yes Favourite track: Honey Chile
Not someone I’ve really encountered before outside of Disney’s Jungle Book. I enjoy jazz, but there’s jazz albums I like more than this. The ‘Night Train’ cover was the one track I remember after listening but the rest rather passed me by. Perhaps the album deserves another listen. Listened to it before?: no Will listen again?: maybe Favourite track: Night Train
I like some country music, but this leaves me cold. Some decent interpretations, but nothing to bring me back. Great title though! Listened to it before?: no Will listen again?: no Favourite track: Katie Dear
We’re already in the regime of albums it feels slightly perverse to comment on, like doing a book review of the Gospel According to John. A mere 28 minutes here to change the world. It’s not really an album in the modern sense as it’s clearly been compiled from multiple sources. Iconic cover though. If I had to choose one ‘early Elvis’ album it would be the Sun Sessions, but I’ll still never tire of listing to this. I’ve always…
I’m not a Sinatra fan, but since this album is on page 1 of the 1001 book it’s one I’ve started with before. I like it enough to regularly put it on in the background. It’s not something I actively engage with but it’s good mood music. I lean away from the more bombastic tracks on the album, preferring the more introspective pieces like ‘I’ll be around’. Listened to it before?: yes Will listen again?: yes Favourite track: Can’t We…
I have been making great progress with the Commodore 64 in recent months. To good, in fact, to give me enough time to document it! However, in the meantime the world moves on, and now it seems we are going through a deadly global pandemic. This means I am working from home with just my computer and my music collection for company. It’s been said you should never let a crisis go to waste, and so I’ve begun two new…
Time to crack the Commodore 64 open and find out what’s inside. This Commodore 64 has never been opened before if the intact warranty seal is telling me a true story. The case opens easily enough and I detach the keyboard and the power LED. Below this is the RF shield. This was an FCC requirement back in the day, purportedly to prevent the machine from interfering with other devices. Some C64s had a metal shield but many, including this…
Many people in the retro computer scene will argue that you should output these machines to the sort of displays which the designers intended, namely a good ol’ CRT. That’s not for me thanks, I don’t have one of those big heavy bastards in the house anymore and I have no desire to reacquire one. There are certain areas in which I don’t wish to revisit the past. Flaky power supplies is one such area. Outdated media: tape cassettes and…
The first Commodore VIC-20s used a simple two prong power supply which delivered 9V AC to the machine. All it was essentially was a transformer: the rectifier to convert to DC was internal to the machine. It was simple and reliable. When the C64 launched it used a very different power supply. A large and heavy box was connected to the machine by a DIN connector. This connector delivered both 9V AC and regulated 5V DC to the machine. As…