Jaco, anti-war and Kraftwerk - while waiting for Depeche

 A new live album by Depeche Mode will be out on December 5th. An interesting concert from Mexico City during the Memento Mori tour. Looking forward to that! In the meantime, there are some other ”new” nice music finds to report.

Jaco Pastorius: Truth, Liberty & Soul - Live in NYC 1982 - came out on remastered 2 CD with an impressive booklet already in 2017, I bought it in November. Jaco was for bass players what Jimi Hendrix was for guitar players. An unbelievable talent, a genius. Of course he is center stage here, but it is a wonderful jazz big band performing and a truly great concert. Should have bought it years ago, happy to hear it now, and from now on. An essential jazz recording by the true Mr Bassman. Breathtaking stuff.

Compilation albums can easily be a combination of hits and misses, same with theme albums. If you want to hear an important anti-war album, which is not that very well-known but comes with a multitude of great tracks I can recommend the wonderful Body of War - Songs that inspired an Iraq war veteran. A tripple-LP album that is truly amazing. War Veterans Against the War is behind it and a superb list of artists and songs are included; from Springsteen, Neil Young, Roger Waters, Pearl Jam and Lennon to Bad Religion, Public Enemy, Rage Against The Machine, System of A Down, Dilated People, Bouncing Souls, and Tori Amos. Eddie Vedder & Ben Harper plays No More Live, which is sort of the title song here. Spellbinding from starting ballad Hero’s Song by Brendan James to ending Day After Tomorrow by Tom Waits. Perhaps the best album I have heard this Fall. Great stuff.

And last a nice 12” maxi from 1991, Kraftwerk: Radioaktivität, with great mixes from Francois Kevorkian and William Orbit. It is remixes of the Radioaktivität/Radioactivity version on The Mix (2 LP), so it is the modern, anti-nuclear version of the classic. Yesterday Kraftwerk played live in Helsinki, sadly I was not there but I have seen them twice live. Memorable concerts indeed, but now only Ralf Hutter is left of the greatest line-up. True legends, and this 12” is, of course, magnificent.