Here's the second instalment of music inspired by the book '1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die'.

1000 Recordings 21-40

Heard something new then? Anything blow your mind? I thought the Moorish Music from Mauritania was amazing.

As usual there are a few recordings that aren't on Spotify (coloured red) so I've substituted whatever was available (in brackets) that looked interesting and was close enough. Here's the book, by Tom Moon, and companion website and blog with more to check out.

• 21. Los Amigos Invisibles: Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey into Space
• 22. Albert Ammons and Meade "Lux" Lewis: The First Day
• 23. Marian Anderson: Spirituals
• 24. The Animals: "The House of the Rising Sun" [The Animals – The Most of the Animals]
• 25. Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85–92 [Aphex Twin – Jynweythek Ylow]
• 26. Fiona Apple: When the Pawn. . .
• 27. The Arcade Fire: Neon Bible [The Cure – The Head On The Door]
• 28. Martha Argerich: Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Berlin Philharmonic (Claudio Abbado, cond.) [Martha Argerich & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Charles Dutoit & Berliner Philharmoniker & Claudio Abbado – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 / Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3]
• 29. Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Fives and Hot Sevens
• 30. Arrested Development: 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of. . .
• 31. Art Ensemble of Chicago: Urban Bushmen
• 32. Fred Astaire: Steppin' Out: Astaire Sings [Fred Astaire – Fred Astaire's Finest Hour]
• 33. Chet Atkins and Les Paul: Chester and Lester
• 34. Albert Ayler: Spiritual Unity [Albert Ayler – Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe]
• 35. Baby Huey and the Babysitters: The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend
• 36. J. S. Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos (Concerto Italiano (Rinaldo Alessandrini, cond.)
• 37. J. S. Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Arthur Grumiaux) [Monica Huggett – Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin]
• 38. J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (Till Fellner)
• 39. J. S. Bach: Mass in B Minor (Chorus and Orchestra of the Collegium Vocale (Philippe Herrweghe, cond.) [Johann Sebastian Bach – Bach - Mass in B Minor / Messe in h-Moll BWV 232 (performed according to the traditions of the time)]
• 40. Bad Brains: I Against I

This book '1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die' has been sitting on my shelf for a good while now, taunting me with it's implied '1000 recordings you'll never hear because you can't be arsed to go to a record shop to buy them'. But a quick flip through the book reveals loads of interesting looking recordings. I've checked out a few on Spotify but the book still calls. What I need is a nice Spotify playlist that I can just whack on random so I can check 'em all out. That'll sate any lingering obsessive completist tendencies, I reckon. The book, by Tom Moon, is great, as it has commentary on each of the recordings, and there's also a companion website and blog with more to check out.

Out of the first 20 albums, 12 (coloured red) aren't on Spotify so I've just substituted whatever was available (in brackets) that looked interesting and was close enough.

Here's the first playlist: Inspired by '1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die'. 01-20

I guess the usefulness of this is just to have some directed listening that's full of stuff I wouldn't normally hear; to open my mind a bit; force me into hearing something new. Most of this music is older stuff too. I get newer indie recommendations from the good people of Twitter, and other stuff to check out via friends.

So 20 albums a week for around a year should do it. We'll see how we get on. It would be very cool to look back after a year having heard all that music that otherwise wouldn't have been discovered. Might be interesting...

1. ABBA: Gold
2. Dimi Mint Abba and Khalifa Ould Eide: Moorish Music from Mauritania
3. The Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra: Blu Blu Blu [The Visibility Of Thought]
4. The Abyssinian Baptist Choir: Shakin' the Rafters
5. AC/DC: Back in Black [Hayseed Dixie – A Hillbilly Tribute to ACDC]
6. John Adams: Harmonium (San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Edo De Waart, cond.)
7. John Adams: The Death of Klinghoffer (Christopher Maltman, Sanford Sylvan, Yvonne Howard, London Symphony Orchestra (John Adams, cond.)
8. Johnny Adams: The Real Me: Johnny Adams Sings Doc Pomus [Johnny Adams – Introduction To Johnny Adams]
9. Ryan Adams: Heartbreaker [Ryan Adams – Gold]
10. The Cannonball Adderley Quintet: At the Lighthouse
11. King Sunny Ade: The Best of the Classic Years [King Sunny Ade – Juju Music]
12. Aerosmith: Toys in the Attic [Aerosmith – Pump]
13. Mahmoud Ahmed: Éthiopiques, Vol 7: Erè Mèla Mèla [Best Of Éthiopiques, L'âge D'or De La Musique Éthiopienne]
14. Air: Air Lore [Henry Threadgill Zooid – This Brings Us To, Volume I]
15. Arthur Alexander: The Ultimate Arthur Alexander [Marshall Crenshaw – Adios Amigo: A Tribute To Arthur Alexander]
16. Alice in Chains: Dirt
17. Mose Allison: Allison Wonderland [Mose Allison – Down Home Piano]
18. The Allman Brothers Band: At Fillmore East
19. The Almanac Singers: The Complete General Recordings [The Almanac Singers – Talking Union and Other Union Songs]
20. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream and Other Delights [Mexican Border Brass Ensemble – A Tribute To Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass]

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Love it that the list starts with Abba Gold :) Can't argue with that!