 Whenever I mention music in my equipment reviews, I get enthusiastic reactions and requests for a list of music I use for review. So in this and in the next video I share some more music I love to play. I don't like to use a fixed list of music while reviewing equipment since that has the risk of colouring my judgement in the direction of those albums. I always play a wide choice of music. Only opera and jazz is played less, although I do play them from time to time. World music has my serious interest, although I am hardly an expert. I share what I find interesting and great music in the second part of this video, due next week. In this video mainly rock music from my era. I thought initially that there would be little interest in geriatric rock, but the reactions on my first video on music, my favourite rock music, made clear I was wrong. For all the tracks here there is a link to youtube so you can easily get a first impression. For full enjoyment please play the CD or stream it from the lossless streaming services. Let's get started. Please allow me to start with a Dutch artist at a risk to confirm the unjust prejudice that all Dutchmen are drug addicts. Hem on Boat was sex, drugs and rock'n'roll finished off with alcohol. But he also was an acclaimed painter, actor, author and musician. He played piano and was a very gifted singer. Was for he ended his life by jumping from the Amsterdam Hilton, tired of fighting life. His musical career started mid-60s with the band The Mones that had many gigs playing for the American soldiers in western Germany. In 67 he joined Holland's best blues band, Cubie and the Blizzards. A band he was in and out of because of his addictions. Mid-70s he started his own band, Hem on Boat and his Wild Romans and climbed the charge with tracks like Saturday Night. It's that track I love to play, especially in the big band version he made at the end of his life for the album Back on the Corner. It further contains a lot of swing tracks, like it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Route 66. I love the life I live, I live the life I love and I get a kick out of you. But also the ballad My Funny Valentine. He made each track his own with his characteristic voice and unique timing. I don't know if the album can be streamed from title or caboose all over the world, but you should really try. Do I need to introduce Toto? They were the musicians behind some of the most successful tracks by Michael Jackson, and tracks by Steeley Dan, George Benson and Boss Kecks. As Toto they climbed the charge quite often. Their guitarist, Steve Lukether, is internationally acclaimed for his brilliant guitar playing. One example of that is on the live in Amsterdam album, while my guitar gently weeps. Originally a Beatles song with the guitar solo by Eric Clapton. Toto makes it their own with the look of their both singing and playing guitar, including the very brilliant guitar solo that for sure is based on the work of Clapton, but taken one step further. There also is a video registration of the concert on DVD and Blu-ray and on YouTube. The sound quality of the CD and Blu-ray is preferable though. Somewhere mid 70s I bought this album, vinyl of course. I love the music, I love that it was live recording and I love the atmosphere of the hall that was clearly audible. It had that organic somewhat unpolished sound. But the pressing I had was very noisy, and I mean very noisy. Despite that I played it a lot. A few years ago I discovered the digital version on title. It had all the charm that vinyl had, without the noise. I played title and caboose tracks using Rune and in Rune I learned the story behind the album. It was decided only a week prior to the concert to record it. And frontman Gary Brooker wrote the orchestral arrangement for Conquistador in The Plane to Edmonton. And since there was no time for rehearsal, they played it opening the concert without a single rehearsal. It's this track I played the most, but in fact the entire album is worth listening. Peter Sincotti fishes in the same river as Harry Conning Jr. and Jamie Cullum. Looking like the ideal son-in-law, he is a kind of modern version of a crooner. What makes this track work for me is the fantastic rhythm section with Barrick Maury on bass and Mark McLean on drums. Hammond B3 is played by Sam Jahl, a moniker by Bashiri Johnson and a percussion by Mark McLean. It's not only fine music, but it is also well arranged for playback on a stereo. This is a recording that is often used for demonstrations, since it's not hard to reproduce impressively. And there's nothing wrong with that. I love it. There are those that like to please more than Sting Solo. I like both, but currently wrapped around my finger in this live version is my favourite. I've seen the concert in Amsterdam and it was extremely loud. Only when I had my earplugs in, I would understand what was sung. Despite that, the 2007 audio or video registration of the concert in Buenos Aires sounds great. Especially this track, since there was a big role for Stuart Copeland on all kinds of percussion, Glockenspiel Bell's cymbals timpani, the works. And further in the song, when he switches through the drums, he lays down a firm beat to return to his percussion toys ending the song. Combine that with the intelligent guitar work by Andy Summers and the bass playing Sting with his unique voice and you get a three-man band sounding like a five-piece band. I know my selection of music gives away my age quite clearly, but then again you would have guessed it anyway. When the doors were formed I was 11 years of age and too young to appreciate their work. But that was quickly corrected a few years later when they were almost disbanded. LA Woman was released in 71, the year frontman Jim Morrison unexpectedly died in Paris and so joined the 27 Club Urban Legend. In fact, all those albums are great but I personally like this album best and Riders on the Storm is my favorite track. Perhaps because it's a very fine song with poetic lyrics, but surely also because it sounds fantastic. I played the Ripped SACD but the MQA version on title is also very good, provided you at least have your player software do the first unfold. And MQA DAX might sound even better, although through my Green Player and Court DAX it also sounds great. I'm a Pink Floyd lover ever since I visited the 1971 Atomheart Mother concert in Rotterdam. So the post-it Barrett period. Roger Waters Society Critical View, the lyrical guitar work by David Gilmour, the Atmospherical and Melodic Keyboard Works by Richard Wright and the Dramatic Drums by Nick Mason were constantly searching for a balance. Perhaps that made the music so interesting but also vulnerable and it was only a matter of time before Waters had to look for another way to explore his conceptual thinking. He did that for the first time in 1983 on the album The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, where he portrayed his mid-life crisis in the form of a number of dreams. Radio Chaos followed where he expressed his fear for a nuclear war, war being a returning theme in his work. In Amuse to Death, war also plays a role but now in a wider perspective. Another thing binds Waters' work together. The fascinating soundscapes they all use, painting a spatial image that can go far beyond and beside the size of your room, provided you own a good stereo and have it set up properly, especially where early reflections are concerned. See my two-step approach to loudspeaker placement video. Again, the entire album is word-listening to but it's a miracle I can commend for its dramatic dynamics. There are those times I enjoy complex and loud music. That can be within temptation, metallica, nightwish or this one, Tarkus by Emerson Lake and Palmer. They are considered to be the first British proc-rock supergroup. Their music is an original mix of rock, classical music and jazz. I learned about the classical suite pictures at an exhibition by Mussolski through the Emerson Lake and Palmer rock version, using the then fairly new MOOC synthesize next to the Hammond and Grand Piano. Tarkus starts with the title track, which is a 20 minute long suite, but the other tracks are interesting too, especially since they are so different from other music from that period. Try to find the original version from 1971. Dynamics are limited on that version but got even further squeezed on later releases. The Kiteman Orchestra is a project by Kiteman, artist's name of Colin Benders. The best way to describe him is a kind of musical Tasmanian tiger. Together with his father he started a music lab, Kytopia, in a temporary housing in Utrecht Netherlands, gathering all kinds of musicians around him that could work and develop themselves in a number of studios. They had to move twice and it stopped like it started, suddenly. It was the breeding ground for the Kiteman Hip-Hop Orchestra, that was in existence for a number of years and was instrumental in finalizing the Hermit Sessions, their first album. Benders had been working on the album for three years, living on thin air and drugs. The result was great and they toured many festivals and concert halls. The next project was even bigger. The Kiteman Orchestra formed from 80 musicians, 10 MCs, four opera singers and a choir. The music is only for the brave. It's insane, chaotic, fascinating, overwhelming and pure proof that the man is certified ADHD. And the public, including myself, loves it. I mentioned Angry at the World here since it's one of the most accessible tracks. The album was recorded analog on tape, in one take only and with only slide post-production. It ends part one of my music I like to play. Next week part two, that is about less mainstream music and what in the Anglo-Saxon world is called world music. As soon as that video is online, a link will appear at the end of this video and in the show notes. That will be next Friday at 5 pm Central European Time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up or link to this video on the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.