John Coltrane - Manifestation
For most of the last weekend I've been supporting beaupepys while she was selling jewellery at the Godiva Festival. Felt hats, baking heat and an ever-present miasma of frying fish. Truly one of the great cultural events of our time. The music has been:

• chart-friendly (some might even say chart-fellating) rock
  
• earnest singer-songwriters who want the world to know that they are unique and precious flowers, every one
  
• quirky indie-folksters who want the exact same thing
  
• bands with more fiddle and banjo than they know what to do with
  
• easy-listening guitarists
  
• the "Salsa for Beginners" tent and their ever-present PA
  
• middle-aged men in vaudeville costumes playing novelty rock

What's the deal? I thought John Coltrane was supposed to be this great influential figure, and yet I counted precisely zero instances of fiery saxophone roar the entire weekend. Maybe I wasn't listening properly. Maybe I was trying not to listen properly as some kind of protective mechanism, I dunno.

So anyway, I had to come home and check that Manifestation, from the posthumously released album Cosmic Music really is as intense and powerful as I remember it. It was a relief to realise that it was. I thought perhaps my memory had been playing tricks on me; all the stuff I heard the last two days had been built on Coltrane's foundations, it was just that he had actually played overly-pleasant soul-searching mandolin ballads in 4/4 time while wearing a funny wig. Turns out that wasn't the case. Good for him. Have some proper music, everyone.

John Coltrane - Manifestation
(alternate download)