I now have to listen to RN in early AM as the bed partner has decided to wake to it.

I first caught Foreplay at the Apollo Bay Festival years ago playing in the Catholic Church. They are hot live but I reckon the studio CDs don't capture it, as well as say, Penguin Cafe or Kronos. I haven't got 'Now To The Future.' But I'm really praising with faint damns. They are good.

Almost anything produced by violas and cello sounds good I reckon. You could walk past and just knock each instrument and it would sound deep and musical.

I'm pretty sure Foreplay do a bit of Metallica live, they certainly did some impressive Hendrix each time I saw them.

I meant to say that I no longer listen to RN but am forced to listen to ABC FM - which also has album of the week. Still ABC FM in mornings is the lesser of many evils.

Francis,
I tried to make a reply early this morning but the server was down. I went to buy Now to the Future for Suzanne's birthday at Big Star, but it was out of stock. So I ordered it.

I don't know Penguin Cafe Where do I start? What's the best piece of work?

I haven't listened to Kronos Quartet for many a long year. Where do I start? With Steve Reich's Different Trains? Or Pieces of Africa? Or somewhere else?

Francis,
I've never listened to ABC FM in the mornings. It's always been Radio National Breakfast because of the policy/political stuff.

What happens in the morning on ABC FM---music? What kind of music?

I'm no expert or completist on Penguin or Kronos. But I'd think Africa is a good starting point for Kronos.

ABC FM has noice "classical" musics, shortish pieces, a small bit of chat and album of the week, with a bit of news. The helpful bit its that ABC Classical runs its playlist online with times so if you hear a bit of music you'd like to hear more of you can look up what it was.

My problem is that I'm still grumpy after all these years that ABC FM was hijacked by the "classical" music push, instead of it sticking to its original charter which was a broader selection of "hifi" music, including jazz, rokc and others. It was supposed to take music off AM onto a superior FM Stereo. Still no one seems to care about radio and music these days. We have the absurd situation of all the innovative music programs running on inferior AM on RN when even ABC local radio is on FM Stereo in many rural areas.

Francis,
once again I couldn't post--the weblogs appeared to be down again on Sunday. The "server problem" was me running out of digital storage space -- so I found out early this afternoon from Hosting Matters.

I forgot to add in my first comment that BigStar did not have the first CD 'Catgut Ya' Tongue?' (1998) Nor did they have the double remix album 'Digital Manipulation' (2001). All they had was a single copy of Fourplay's second CD--- TheJoyof. (2000). So I bought that on Friday morning for Suzanne's birthday. I have yet to hear it as the weekender in Victor Harbor does not have a CD player(an old tape and turntables system). We are working on adding the CD player. Currently I'm in Canberra with no music system.

I've been looking for someone who plays a good selection of what you are calling "hifi" music, including jazz, rock, classical and others.

I tried checking into ABC FM classical when at Victor Harbor on the weekend---its signal just doesn't reach. Pity.

I'm not sure that that I could stomach Elgar in the morning. However, I see what you mean about the program details--very thorough and informative. Very classical music orientated though--as you point out.

I notice ABC FM has Gerry Koster's 'Jazz Up Late' and Mal Stanley's Jazztrack'. Do you listen to those? Are they any good? They look conservative rather than exploring new music that is post the old genre boundaries.