And so, inspired by the consistently rad musical uploads over at over at thttp://www.cosmonautfarm.blogspot.com/ (or hell, forget "inspired by", I pretty much
a good idea) I've decided to share with the internets some of my favorite records...some are classics, some are forgotten classics, some were never popular at all, and for some there are reasons they were never all that popular. My first choice, "Portsmouth Sinfonia Plays the Popular Classics" falls under that last category, and, despite having some of Britain's foremost avant garde musicians under their umbrella (Brian Eno, Gavin Bryars, among others) AND, a top 40 hit in the UK, their records never really stood the test of time (not even enough to make it to a legitimate cd repressing). The concept was pretty simple: get a bunch of musicians (and non-musicians) together, put them with an instrument they have no real idea how to play, and start a self dubbed "world's worst orchestra". Some pieces (this album is all classical piece reworkings) are hilariously bad, but at the same time it's kind of amazing that they are able to get as close as they are to sounding like the original, given their circumstance
s. There is another album by them, "20 Classic Rock Classics", in which they play the Rolling Stones etc., but that one comes off a bit too "novelty" for me...I know, I know, you are saying, "but you are putting up a gimmick album", to which I direct you to that old saying of "Beauty is in the ear of the beho..." no, you're right, this is a gimmicky album, but one charming enough, I think, to be worth a listen.Portsmouth Sinfonia - Plays the Popular Classics:
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