This is definitely a strange compilation. Although all comps are sort of strange by their very nature. Gathering a bunch of different musicians to contribute one song each, usually relating to a theme. Well, the them here seems to be some sort of broadly defined psychedelic music. But the bands and the sounds are so all over the place, it seems to be a much less obviously definable thread that runs through the different artists (minus the fact that maybe they've all released something one Mind Expansion record label?).
Regardless, this is a pretty killer comp. A good intro to lots of psychedelic space rock bands, droney hypno-rock bands, haunting slowcore pop bands, and anything in between.
Sonically, all of these bands love FX, reverb, and delay and chorus and whatever other pedals they can get their hands on. Hence the psychrock angle. A lot of the bands on disc 2 lean toward some sort of Krautrock, minimal electronic vibe, but still with plenty of psychedelic overtones. A handful of these tracks are exclusive, the majority are not. But it functions quite well as a great psychrock / weird rock mix tape. Lots of AQ faves represented: Spacemen 3, Teenage Filmstars, Amp, Bardo Pond, Paik, Fuxa, Magnetaphone, Piano Magic, Landing, The Telescopes and more. But probably the most exciting part of this comp is how many bands there are we'd literally never heard of. We didn't necessarily love them all, but we did like most of 'em. And our ever growing list of bands to investigate further now includes Mazarin, Venture Lift, Elevator, LSD And The Search For God, Unknown Celebrities, Large Number, Kid Yahtzee and loads more!
Thirteen tracks of tweaked out plunderphonic xmas madness from the twisted folks at Illegal Art and RTMark. Conceived and curated by NY sample artist Corporal Blossom (whose work has graced past Illegal Art collections, "Deconstructing Beck" and "Extracted
Despite its title, there's nothing really small about this double cd Morr Music compilation! Sure it collects together a bunch of the label's 2001-2007 singles which I s'pose could be thought of as small, but only if you think seven inches is small. Whoops, was that Freud knockin' on the door? Totally unintentional, honest! Anyways, some of these songs are short and most are super sweet, but they're all big hearted and fully bearhug-able, dreamy indie pop. There's thirty six of 'em from Butcher The Bar (very reminiscent of the late Elliott Smith), Benni Hemm Hemm, Seavault, Seabear, Masha Qrella, Electric President (like a twee Weakerthans), John Yoko with Lali Puna (including a lovely cover of "Papa Was A Rodeo"... that song always makes Cup weep!) as well as the latter on their awesome own, Populous, B. Fleishmann (an old aQ fave), ISAN, Styrofoam, Teamforest, and Other People's Children. Most offer up two tunes, some four. Be forewarned though, some folks might find the instrumental numbers veering too much into the bank commercial-ish tepid docility. Downy and dewy eyed and definitely recommended if you need to mellow out with an aural snuggle!
MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!! MISSIS... oh wait. Scratch that. A Orillas Del Magdalena might LOOK like a Mississippi record, and may SOUND like a Mississippi record, but is in fact a new archival release on Domino Sound, the beginning of a new series? We don't know, but we sure hope so. Needless to say, all you Mississippi Records fanatics, might want to grab one of these, sure maybe it doesn't yet have the fetishistic cache that Mississippi has attained, but it is a fantastic collection of lost sounds.
Unlike the gospel / blues focus of Mississippi, A Orillas Del Magdalena is a collection of Cumbia music, a mix of African and Spanish sounds from Columbia, that is festive and celebratory, raucous and emotional. The songs here are culled from the archives of recordist Antonio Fuentes, who began recording the music of Columbia in the early 30s and went on to start Columbia's first record label. The tracks here span the several decades between the fifties and the seventies, and are so fantastic, the sound incorporates lots of horns and accordions, call and response vocalizing, wild percussion, fluttery flutes, playful melodies, it's a little bit calypso, a little bit mariachi, all infused with a distinctly African vibe, fans of the Ethiopiques series and all the Sublime Frequencies releases will definitely dig this and yeah, this easily could have found it's way to Mississippi, which means, as if you couldn't have sussed it out already, WAY recommended!
For those of you not familiar with Monster Island, it's an imaginary land, created by artist Pete Fowler, filled with Technicolor cartoon monsters, bats, Yeti's, sea serpents, as well as a strange group of long haired residents, from grungy space rock musicians, to antlered rednecks, Fowler's art so dreamy and trippy and far out (and even sports some Fowler tattoos!!). A few years ago, there was another Monster Island compilation, that one was more focused on free folk and acid psych, perfectly complimenting Fowlers druggy land of wonder. Somehow, this second comp, is equally apt, exploring a whole different sound, and we can only assume, a whole different side of the island, and thus of course a bunch of new and fascinating beasts and mysterious folks...
Monsterism Island, at least sonically, is some imaginary haven of carefree, melty bliss and this is the freaky soundtrack to that wonderful world. The vibe this time around is some sort of really cool late '80s/early '90s video game soundtrack, lots of bloops and bleeps and skittery beats, imagine maybe a more tripped out, woozy and breezy soundtrack to Sonic The Hedgehog. The sound is all over the map, from colorful dreamy electronica, to groove heavy jazz to soft-psychedelic shimmer. Occasionally we're also reminded of Boards Of Canada as well as some obscure library music (makes sense that Johnny Trunk has a track on here!). We could have done without some of the 'goofy' spoken interludes and it does get a bit smooth sailin' in a party love boat kind of way, but still a nice fun ride for sure, then again, what would you expect a world of kaleidoscopic weirdness and wildly prismatic landscapes, groovy mystery bands and a wild array of wee beasties to sound like anyway?! Cool packaging too, featuring some of Fowlers gorgeous artwork.
So strap on the headphones, throw this in the stereo and head here:
http://www.monsterism.net/
And let yourself get WAY lost...
Yay! Peter Walker, one of the sixties best acoustic guitar players, comes out of hiding to bring us four new songs plus six new takes on his original compositions from current stars of the acoustic guitar scene including James Blackshaw, Steffan Basho-Junghans, and even Thurston Moore. While we would have much preferred a whole new album by Walker or better yet a reissue of his two seminal albums, including the all time classic "Rainy Day Ragas" released in 1966 on Vanguard, the performances by everyone involved, especially Walker's, are inspired and beautiful. For those who haven't heard of Peter Walker, he was the musical director for Timothy Leary's "Celebrations" gatherings at Harvard, and he brings that lysergic quality to his guitar playing fusing folk, flamenco, jazz, eastern and classical music into spiraling raga meditations. Walker hasn't enjoyed the same sort of revival as his contemporaries, Robbie Basho, Sandy Bull and John Fahey, but has clearly displayed his influence amongst the current "glitterati" of the acoustic guitar scene, as evidenced here. Hopefully we'll be hearing more of him real soon.
With a title like A Ride Across The Skies On A Knife Dipped In Blood, we had seriously high hopes for this compilation from UK microlabel Curor and we were not disappointed. A handful of familiar faces: Jazzfinger, Ben Reynolds, Number None, Peter Wright... but loads of groups new to us, most of which had is scrambling for our computers and hopping on the internet to track down more recordings by these weirdo noisemakers. Like all great comps. Ride Across functions simultaneously as a sort of mixtape sampler, as well as a surprisingly cohesive listen, considering how varied the sounds of these bands are.�
Some of the highlights include�Atoms and their�little tinkling flurries of guitar glimmer that morph into a slow melodic crawl, all tentative guitar and strange scrapes and creaks.�Heidika, who unfurl warm soft tangles of finger picked acoustic guitar and minimal mournful strings, a laid back and wintry Appalachian folk with a subtle buzzing raga element. The super bizarre�Injury Chic, one of the noisiest bands on the comp, kicking up�dense swirls of harsh noise, laid atop simple percussive thump and clatter, with ultra distorted sung/spoken vocals, sounding like a modern co-ed Whitehouse. AQ faves�Jazzfinger with a gorgeous slab of sound, all�clattery clouds of looped piano, a strange mechanical rhythm laid over a murky, fuzzy seasick waltz, a bit like the the soundtrack to some strange Quay Brothers�style�animated film. Then there's the strangely named�Family Battle Snake who spew forth a�cavernous skreescrape of industrial whir and haunting alien FX. Maybe our favorite track on the record comes from�Raised By Wolves beginning with�militaristic martial snare,�bits of guitar clang, all intertwined with ominous high end synth drones, with the drums getting more and more spastic and complex, like some dreamy droney cd-r outfit backed up by a skittery free jazz drummer, eventually erupting into a chaotic distorted blown out near-noise jam. Wow!�Number None offer up their own bit of�creeping grinding slow motion ambience, rumbling and moaning atmospheres, muted melodies, and occasional bursts of blown out guitar fuzz and glistening streaks of feedback. and the disc finishes off with another AQ fave,�Peter Wright, who offers up another blissy expanse of serene drift, this time, heavy on the guitar, well, not 'heavy', but more guitar than usual for Wright, woven into dreamy cyclical melodies, all�floating over long stretches of distant drones and rumbling swells, and that's not all.�
A killer comp and a whole bunch of new bands to get all obsessed with.�
From the Swedish Waerloga label, who you should remember as the folks responsible for the Orc-ish and vampiric dark ambient rituals of the mysterious Za Frumi, comes a massive comp of like minded bands and individuals, all exploring the dark damp recesses of their souls, trolling through moonlit forests, dripping caves, lunar landscapes and other mysterious and dimly lit lost worlds. Pretty exciting comp considering we haven't heard of about 90 percent of these bands and most of this stuff is pretty great. Two tracks from Za Frumi exploring similar territory as on their records proper, a a little dark ambient moodiness from The Soil Bleeds Black, and one track from AQ faves Sagor & Swing, and that's about it for bands we know. But fear not, the rest of the comp travels a similar musical path, dark rumbles, dreamy atmospherics, festive renn-faire frippery, downright scary doomscapes and all creepy and creaking stops in between. By the way we think Uglakh is the name of an orc, not a band...
Wow! Here's a terrific tribute to Will Oldham (aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy aka Palace aka Palace Brothers aka Palace Music, etc). This homage comes in the form of a collection of cover versions performed by many familiar AQ faves and fine contemporaries of Mr. Oldham. Each of them brings his/her own distinct flair to the chosen tune, but we noticed that some come remarkably close to absolute replication of the original. Hmmm, what's that old saying about mimicry being the sincerest form of flattery? But is it mimicry when someone really does sound like someone else without even trying? No, of course not. Anyways, the highlights and notables include Calexico, Iron And Wine, Mark Kozelek, Scout Niblett, Rivulets, Court And Spark, Pinetop Seven, and Jolie Holland. Great for fans of one and all.
Remember that rad White Lace And Strange compilation we highlighted not long ago? Some killer late sixties, early seventies psych rock from the USA, garage bands gettin' "heavy". Well this disc, on the same Nick Saloman-affiliated label Psychic Circle, is in some ways a sequel, featuring similar bands of the era from the UK (and one Israeli band that recorded in London, to be perfectly accurate). With the subtitle "20 Gems From The Early Years Of Prog", it's billed as a collection of obscure "progressive rock" tracks... but the stress is on the rock. After all, Black Sabbath was once considered a "prog" band too. Sure, there might be some keyboards, but there's lots of raw, raucous energy here, both singers and guitarists wailing away in full fuzzed-out psychedelic proto-metal glory, when they didn't know from headbanging but knew how to boogie! Being a comp, of course some of this is better 'n the rest, but quality control is pretty high. Some faves include the punkish Helter Skelter (ex-Crushed Butler), the powerful axe-action of Israel's Jericho, and the heavy blues thud of early UFO, among other treats here to be heard from these bands (some we already knew, some new to us): Treetops, Mousetrap, Deadwood, Fuzzy Duck, Incredible Hog, Mouse, Beggars Opera, Kingdom Come, Little Big Horn, Strange Fox, Onyx, Spontaneous Combustion, Sheephouse, Pussy, Axe, Sunchariot, and Kansas Hook. The liner notes provide interesting tidbits on each artist (ferinstance, if you're as much of a proto metal geek as Allan, you'll be excited to get the track by Pussy, a later incarnation of one-album wonders Jerusalem).
NOW ON VINYL!
Remember that rad White Lace And Strange compilation we highlighted not long ago? Some killer late sixties, early seventies psych rock from the USA, garage bands gettin' "heavy". Well this disc, on the same Nick Saloman-affiliated label Psychic Circle, is in some ways a sequel, featuring similar bands of the era from the UK (and one Israeli band that recorded in London, to be perfectly accurate). With the subtitle "20 Gems From The Early Years Of Prog", it's billed as a collection of obscure "progressive rock" tracks... but the stress is on the rock. After all, Black Sabbath was once considered a "prog" band too. Sure, there might be some keyboards, but there's lots of raw, raucous energy here, both singers and guitarists wailing away in full fuzzed-out psychedelic proto-metal glory, when they didn't know from headbanging but knew how to boogie! Being a comp, of course some of this is better 'n the rest, but quality control is pretty high. Some faves include the punkish Helter Skelter (ex-Crushed Butler), the powerful axe-action of Israel's Jericho, and the heavy blues thud of early UFO, among other treats here to be heard from these bands (some we already knew, some new to us): Treetops, Mousetrap, Deadwood, Fuzzy Duck, Incredible Hog, Mouse, Beggars Opera, Kingdom Come, Little Big Horn, Strange Fox, Onyx, Spontaneous Combustion, Sheephouse, Pussy, Axe, Sunchariot, and Kansas Hook.
Shellac, Big'n, U.S. Maple, and Brise-Glace - all covering their favorite AC/DC compositions. What more needs be said.
B-Music / Finders Keepers are the masters of the mix, headed up by DJ / record collector extraordinaire Andy Votel, pretty much every compilation these guys put out is like getting a super far out mix tape from your weird music obsessed best friend who knows everything about ____ (Turkish psych, lost disco, weirdo proto metal, lost soundtracks, Pakistani film music, Hungarian psych prog, etc.). To that list, of music your imaginary best friend (aka Andy Votel and his B-Music gang) is well versed in, you can now add "Mid-Med-Mod-Rock & Spanish Psychsploitation From The 'Cradle Of Spanish Pop'". Phew. Absolute Belter collects a handful of classic jams from the Spanish label Belter, marking the label's 50th anniversary!! Lots of incredible stuff here, plenty of fuzzed out psych, groovy funk, and especially intriguing, weirdo covers of songs by The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Quincy Jones, and most excitingly, Curved Air's "Back Street Luv" done by a group called Control (which is also on that Radio Galaxia comp!). It's a fuzzy, but more poppy than proggy version, makes us wish someone would do a cool anthology of all Curved Air's stuff, so good! But we digress...
The highlights are too many to mention one by one, it's basically a whole record of highlights, but besides that killer Curved Air cover, there's Fusioon's, warm washed out wearily psychedelic "Tocata Y Fug", with its woozy organs, majestic melodies, and weirdo prog-isms, or Furia's theme song "Furia", a heavy psych groove burner, with some awesome harmony vocals, thick basslines, and a killer main hook. Or howabout Soledad Miranda, most famous for being nude in Vampyros Lesbos with some groovy, loungy exotica, all soaring strings and jazzy drums, very Bond theme sounding, and she actually has a great voice. There's Los Mismos' "Jefe Ironside", a sort of disco cop show theme meets hippy jam from the musical Hair, or Control's country flecked bass heavy psychedelia, Los Gritos' "Veo Visions" a sci-fi fuzz groove, with tons of out-there Joe Meek production weirdness, we could go on and on and on and on. Needless to say, but we shall anyway, if you're a fan of the label, and any of their collections, the BYG Deal, Well Hung, Pomegranates, The Sound Of Wonder, well then you're probably gonna want this, or if you're just into cool fuzzy freaky far out psychedelic sounds, this could very well be the mix tape of obscure stuff you've been hoping someone would make you!
In the liner notes for this compilation, Saburo Teshigawara states that "the nothingness of immobility is an extraordinary energy with minus quality that functions dynamically." Teshigawara is the director of the Japanese dance ensemble Karas, which has been seeking out the beauty of the human essence within a manufactured environment. As the score to the ensembles' worldwide tour of
As a whole, this compilation develops a simple yet effective narrative-like construction with a gentle revelation of sound that reaches a specific denoument and fades ultimately into silence. Biosphere and Zoviet France open up the album with some beautifully radiant drone work. Monolake and Hallucinator then kick things into gear with the archetypal Chain Reaction heroin house sound. Hazard and Gescom (who are surprisingly quiet!) round out the compilation with minimalist pieces more suited to the Trente Oiseaux label. Very nice work.
For those of you who've been keepin' track of the Ace Of Spades limited edition cd-r series of monthly live acoustic performances at Oakland's Mama Buzz Cafe by various Bay Area rootsy folksy musicians, here's the final release! It's a limited edition 'best of' compilation cd (not a cd-r), and it features a single track each from seventeen different artists including Rogue Wave, The Moore Brothers, Sean Hayes, Black Bear, Dave Gleason's Wasted Days, Alela Menig, The Lonely Hearts, Jason Webley, Paul Panamarenko, Mandrake, Black Bird Stitches, Laura Weinbach, Audio Out Send, Etienne De Rocher, Brian Glaze, Bart Davenport, and Paula Frazer.
And for extra warm fuzzies, it's a benefit cd with for the Little Kids Rock Foundation supporting children's music education.
Thank goodness for compilations like The In-Kraut and Disco Deutchland which were not only super fun collections, gathering up some of the most amazing late '60s and '70s German grooviness, but they also helped dispel the common stereotype that German music and culture is deadly serious, cold and austere. Those records helped highlight a carefree side to to the German music scene that we hadn't often been exposed to. Achtung! furthers our exposure to this fun filled world with 20 instrumentals that perfectly tie together the go-go kitchy fun of the In-Kraut records, the dancefloor ready jams of Disco Deutchland as well as some serious grooving funk and poppy psychedelia informed by Philadelphia soul, The JB's, afro-pop, cocktail parties, ye-ye French-pop and B-movie scores. Totally fun and totally perfect as the soundtrack to your next party. Artists include: James Last, Max Greger, Peter Thomas, Ambros Seelos, Ady Zehnpfennig, Gerhard Narholz, Hans Haider, Don Kelly Band, Kai Warner And His Orchestra, Theo Schumann Combo, Henry Arland, Heinz Kiessling, Orchester G�nter Gollasch, Pete Jacques, Hans Ehrlinger And His Orchestra, Catch Up, Helmut Zacharias, Roberto Delgado, Berry Lipman and Orchester Walter Kubiczek. All your favorites!
Here's a cool comp of rare vintage '60s garage psych gems, that itself is a reissue of a long lost album, Acid Dreams having first been released back in 1979 on vinyl in an edition of just 77 copies, we're told. Apparently that record was compiled by the owner of a record store in Berlin, who thought that the then-current crop of new wave punk rock fans needed a lesson about the original wave of snotty, freaky, DIY "punk" from the previous decade... And indeed the nameless compiler picked some killer cuts from his collection of U.S. '60s psych singles for inclusion here, full of distortion and attitude ready to go toe-to-toe with the class of '77. Loads of fuzzed out guitars, urgent drumming and trippy lyrics burst forth across the 18 tracks here, most of 'em energetic yet moody 2-3 minute blasts, including songs from Zakary Thaks, Faine Jade, Music Machine, Mystic Tide, Painted Faces, Balloon Farm, Outcasts, Beautiful Daze, Caretakers Of Deception, Teddy & His Patches, Minds Eye, White Light, Remaining Few, Stereo Shoestrings, Unrelated Segments, Velvet Illusions (who get not one but two tracks on here, both awesome), and Vejtables (who were from San Francisco - hmm, could the spelling of their name maybe have been an inspiration to Wooden Shjips?). As you can see, all acts for the most part pretty obscure outside the collectors' realm, really. Poppy stuff, but probably too freaky for the masses, though it's not all hard acid wah wah guitar frenzies here - when not stormin' and stompin', Acid Dreams provides plenty of pleasant psychedelic swirling jangle as well.
Reissued now on cd by the same label that brought us the Electric Asylum comp listed last time, the no frills design of the original private press LP has been augmented with photos and brief liner notes on each and every track in the cd booklet.
Remember a long time ago, when only ROCKSTARS made videos? Aerosmith, U2, Yes, remember how you'd wait anxiously for so and so's new video to debut on MTV? A lot has changed since then. First and foremost, MTV doesn't actually show videos anymore. Second, almost all bands make a video at some point. And with the advent of digital video and cheaper production techniques, bands are finally able to make the kind of videos they could only dream about before. And now some of the most truly bizarre and amazing videos are being made by the same folks who are making truly bizarre and amazing music. If you have cable, you might have seen some of these videos on MTV2 or Fuse or Much Music, but for those of you without cable (like us) of those of you who just want to see these videos whenever you want, well, the fine folks at Sub Pop have offered up this super cheap, super deluxe video collection gathering up some of their best and brightest, and some of the coolest videos we've seen in ages. Just listing the bands should have indie rockers all in a tizzy: Shins, Ugly Cassanova, Iron And Wine, The Postal Service, Hot Hot Heat, Constantines, The Thermals, The Album Leaf, Low, Jennifer Gentle, The Helio Sequence, Kinski, Sleater Kinney, Rosie Thomas, Chad Vangaalen, Love As Laughter, Fruit Bats, Wolf Parade, The Elected, Rogue Wave and Mudhoney. Phew! Some of the highlights include the Ugly Cassanova video which has to be the most insane, most ridiculous, and somehow both the grossest and the cutest videos ever. Seriously. Every time we watch it, we're dying, it's so weird and funny and sick! Imagine a video very bright and primary colored, filled with infants, toddlers, insects and all sorts of anuses and intestines and shitting and farting. Woah! But even the gross stuff is kinda cute.
The there's a Shins video where the band members reproduce various indie record covers: Slint, Squirel Bait, Minutemen, Cat Power, see if you can name them all. The other Shins video is great too, an awesome construction paper animated sequence with white paper cows so cute. And then the two Postal Service videos are awesome too: one is a gorgeous sleek futuristic machinescape, all sterile and very white and shiny, the other is a cheesy eighties karaoke scene intercut with a far out futuristic space subplot, featuring Jenny Lewis! The Iron And Wine videos are beautiful and heartbreaking, just like the songs, sun dappled summerscapes, glistening water, green lush grass, sumptuous foods, each video dense and colorful, somehow perfectly conveying the love and hope and sorrow in the songs. WOW.
Pretty much all the videos here are well worth watching, some over and over and over, lots of cool animation, lots of high concept, plenty of cool production and bizarre imagery, very few by the numbers performance videos, plenty of innovation and creativity, which is just what we expect from these bands anyway!
Electronica comp with Jake Mandell, Kid 606, Kevin Blechdom, Arovane, Stewart Walker, and others.
Not all, but some of the AMAZING 'post-rock'/electronica singles that tasteful U.K. label Fat Cat has previously issued and have subsequently let fall out of print. From Fonn & Live Human's murky yet live intrumental breakbeats to Transient Waves & Immerse's haunting scores and back to the techno throb of Chain Reaction artist Various Artists. Also featured is one of the stellar Bjork remixes by Funkstorung. If you missed out the first time, here's your chance to hear a wonderful intro to the melodic mellow side of the new 'electronica' styles.
Earlier in 2007, the San Francisco based sound-art organization 23five held their annual Activating The Medium festival at The Exploratorium, a science / art museum housed within a converted aircraft hanger. In the past 23five had always hosted some pretty impressive events, collaborating with such esteemed institutions as SFMOMA, the San Francisco Art Institute, SF Cinematheque, and Recombinant Media Labs; but the two nights held at The Exploratorium probably showcased their best programming to date. Field recordings were the general theme, and the international cast of characters brought an exemplary variety of strategies in how to utilize the field recording in modern composition.
The first night featured Aaron Ximm, Camilla Hannan, Tarab, and BJ Nilsen. San Francisco's Aaron Ximm (aka Quiet American) has long been a proponent of the field recording, having hosted the seminal Field Effects series at his 964 Natoma loft several years back. Ximm grounded his field recordings of street vendors and competing popsicle carts with an evolving chorus of low frequency sine waves for a captivatingly quiet piece. Australia's Camilla Hannan offered an explosive set of de-contextualized factory sounds and construction site noise, which perfectly counterpointed Ximm's comtemplative piece. Fellow Australian Tarab presented an earthen kaleidoscope of crunching soil, wind-swept aridity, and sympathetic dronescaping. BJ Nilsen concluded the night with a slow building crescendo of his post-Niblock church organ drones that erupted with oceanic field recordings from the same sessions for his collaboration with Chris Watson.
Immaculately recorded, smartly packaged, and extremely limited.
Earlier in 2007, the San Francisco based sound-art organization 23five held their annual Activating The Medium festival at The Exploratorium, a science / art museum housed within a converted aircraft hanger. In the past 23five had always hosted some pretty impressive events, collaborating with such esteemed institutions as SFMOMA, the San Francisco Art Institute, SF Cinematheque, and Recombinant Media Labs; but the two nights held at The Exploratorium probably showcased their best programming to date. Field recordings were the general theme, and the international cast of characters brought an exemplary variety of strategies in how to utilize the field recording in modern composition.
The second night featured Keith Evans, Matt Shoemaker, Olivia Block, and Steve Roden. Oakland's Keith Evans presented an exquisite expressive combination of 8mm film and abstracted field recordings as a portrait of Mount Tamalpais. Matt Shoemaker's deliriously cinemascopic sound design situated itself as a blurred mass of grey, John Duncan-esque drones pocked with whip-snap cuts of highly detailed eruptions. Olivia Block broke her set into two electro-acoustic vignettes, offering her own take on the seminal work of Luc Ferrari and Pierre Henry. Steve Roden quietly turned in an emotionally resonant performance for a table top guitar and voice, spinning a delicate web of loops and echoes through his twin delay pedal set up.
Immaculately recorded, smartly packaged, and extremely limited.
A prime example of Trojan's strange marketing tactics. With the exception of a couple songs on volume two, all of the tracks on the two "Adults Only" cds are available for a much better price point, with a lot more tracks included, on the Trojan X-Rated Box Set. Kind of odd that they would reissue these discs just after assembling that collection, but I guess they gotta keep busy somehow.
A prime example of Trojan's strange marketing tactics. With the exception of a couple songs on volume two, all of the tracks on the two "Adults Only" cds are available for a much better price point, with a lot more tracks included, on the Trojan X-Rated Box Set. Kind of odd that they would reissue these discs just after assembling that collection, but I guess they gotta keep busy somehow.
Local label Voltaire does it again. First it was the Publicist Keep It Off The Record 12", a killer slab of propulsive robotic cyber funk grooviness from the alter ego of one of the guys in Trans Am, now it's Affairs Online, a new compilation, and a fantastic collection of retro psychedelic disco-prog Euro-synth electro, and introduces us to five new artists (one of which is in fact Steve Moore of Zombi in disguise), hailing from all over the globe, Sweden, Japan and the US, but what they all have in common is their slavish worship of vintage Eurodisco and old school electro and synthwave, and whereas lots of other artists dabbling in the same sort of sounds twist them all up, add some modern twist, the sounds here are perfect replications of songs that could have been, soundtracks to some obscure eighties softporn VHS, or the score to some rare Argento giallo, the sounds here are all swirling synths, groovy beats, vintage analog buzz, and that hazy eighties production.
Lovelock, aka Steve Moore, offers up a track that sounds like the soundtrack to the Loveboat or Hart To Hart or some other classic TV show, a little disco-y, a lot funky, with warm synths, and soaring faux strings, tense and dramatic and melodic, evoking the lazy after school TV watching afternoons of our childhood as much as some futuristic Eurodisco. Loose Shus gets all Logan's Run with his track, creepy pulsing synths, and percolating sci-fi melodies, before the song kicks in with some discofunk bass and lots of handclaps. Narctrax is a little ethereal, but that swirling groovy haze is wrapped around some pulsing rhythms, more handclaps and a big fuzzy bassline that would have Daft Punk in a tizzy. Le Pimp is total eighties Eddie Murphy movie soundtrack, slap bass, synth stabs, a woozy electrofunk that would work in a dance-off as well as a chase scene, and finally, Erik Artur offers up a brief bit of washed out squiggly swirly electro synth melancholia rife with swoops and bloops and swirls and bleeps.
So awesome. And obviously anyone into the current crop of retro futurist synth wave Goblin/Carpenter revivalists will dig this BIG time.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered! And check out these amazing videos that were created to accompany some of the songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evEG1j1kvV4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqc2hZFsoTc
With more to come!!
The last Honest Jon's compilation we carried focussed on the roots of Congolese Rumba through a wave of Latin influence on the region from the thirties to the fifties. The latest Honest Jon's compilation, Africa Boogaloo, expands upon that concept by tracing Latin music's influential trajectory from the fifties to the seventies all along Africa's Western Coast from the Congo to Senegal.
Culled from rare recordings by both celebrated artists as well as the little known, this compilation focuses not so much on the single artist but the bigger dance bands like Orchestra Baobab, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou, Orchestre OK Jazz, and one of the major stars of Afro-beat, Manu Dibango (here performing the title track with Le Grand Kalle and Don Gonzalo). Boogaloo being a hybrid style of soul, R&B, mambo and various other forms of Afro-Cuban music, it makes sense that not only would it be popular in Africa whose various indigenous musical styles inspired Latin music in the first place, but that it would proliferate further into modern fusions of various African musical forms. The constant cross-cultural influence is amazingly uncanny as well as delightfully infectious!
When we first ordered this, we imagined it would be a compilation of rapping in African music, or more like the roots of modern rap in Africa, but instead this is a collection of some of the most popular contemporary rap groups in Africa, and it's pretty great. It's interesting to hear how the music, while obviouly reminscent of American hip hop, incorporates all sorts of traditional African musics as well as modern music (especially Mbalax or African commercial pop), as well as rapping in French and Wolof and a heavy political/religious bent as 90% of African rappers are Muslim. As a simple hip hop compilation, this stands up pretty well. Fans of MC Solaar and the Le Flow hip hop collection from a few years back will love this. But as a musical and sociological document, complete with Trikont's excellent liner notes, this is essential.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Samy Ben Redjeb, the man behind the Analog Africa label, allegedly went through some 3000 records before picking the 14 tracks that make up this amazing compilation of mid-'70s sounds from Benin and Togo - the two smaller countries that happen to be sandwiched between Nigeria and Ghana, two of the dominant cultural forces in African music at that time. As much as the music included on African Scream Contest shows the influence of those neighboring heavyweights, there are plenty of other elements coming into the mix. You can hear Afro-Cuban horn blasts and clave rhythms alongside samba grooves and James Brown funk. That you can hear blues and soul being filtered through highlife, Afrobeat, and even traditional choral music is one of the things that makes this period of African music so exciting: no one influence holds any more sway than any other, and the result is something totally unique that manages to be strangely familiar while sounding like nothing you've ever heard in your life.
Like the title says, this stuff is definitely raw - you can hear musicians who not only taught themselves how to play, but in doing so created their own culture, national identity and music. For every influence pulled from elsewhere in the world (be it US funk or Brazilian rhythms), there's something distinctly regional through which it gets filtered; for example, Benin is the birthplace of voodoo, and that must surely have been an influence on the sense of wild abandon and frenzy that this music manages to capture so perfectly. Simply put, this is heavy stuff!
The standard for these kinds of compilations has been set incredibly high by labels like Strut, Sound Way, Soul Jazz and the like, but if anything Analog Africa have raised the bar even higher. It took three years of research, crate digging, interviews and detective work to put this compilation together and it shows: this presentation of the music, liner notes and archival materials is meticulous, loving and borders on obsessive. This is an amazing collection of songs that once again shows the incredible depth of cultural output happening in Africa in the '60s and '70s. It's a great time to be a fan of these musics, and this stunning compilation shows us exactly why. Recommended!
A collection that only begins to scratch the surface of the rarely heard of underground jazz scene in South Africa. Compiled by Jake Behnan, "Afrika Underground" covers "jazz funk & fusion" stuff from the mid-seventies to the early eighties, from the
In addition to reissuing their Ghana Soundz collection, Sound Way has put together an additional 12 rare tracks of afro-beat from Nigeria. Included along with mainstays Fela Kuti and Orlando Julius are several lesser known (this side of the pond anyhoo) groups like The Mebusas, The Don Issac Ezekiel Combination, The Martins Brothers Dance Band and more. Like Ghana Soundz, this CD comes with a thick booklet of info, including artist bios, and album art repros.
NOW ON VINYL!
In addition to reissuing their Ghana Soundz collection, Sound Way has put together an additional 12 rare tracks of afro-beat from Nigeria. Included along with mainstays Fela Kuti and Orlando Julius are several lesser known (this side of the pond anyhoo) groups like The Mebusas, The Don Issac Ezekiel Combination, The Martins Brothers Dance Band and more. Comes with a thick booklet of info, including artist bios, and album art repros.
There aren't many instruments that we would want to hear a whole record of. But drums are an exception. Drums seem to be the unifying instrument for all music lovers. Whether it's hip-hop, Japanese noise, krautrock, funk, afro-beat, etc. we all love hearing the drummer get wicked! There is something so mystical and powerful about the sound of drums that its no wonder that they have often been used as the main instrument in so many mystical & spiritual settings. Recorded by Soul Jazz in Cuba at the ICAIC studios these recordings demonstrate the African-influence on the drumming used in Cuban religious cults and ceremonies. Much like the amazing Voodoo Drums, and Spirits Of Life comps Soul Jazz put out a few years ago this is another great collection of frenzied drumming for a higher calling.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Yet another collection of classic 70's afro-funk. Subtitled "Motherload From the Motherland", the 13 tracks here are certainly a goldmine of afro-funk. Some are in the vein of Fela Kuti, some are bizarre interpretations of the James Brown sound, and some are akin to the instrumental tracks you might find in a seventies film score. Featuring cuts by the likes of Manu Dibango, Matata, Dick Khoza, Assagai, and much more. All the tracks were mastered directly from vinyl sources, so along with the usual surface noise anomalies you get a couple songs where the lp's hole was punched off center and the track is a bit warbled. Rather charming, I think. The bad or, to be sure, truly sucky thing about this compilation is its complete lack of liner notes whatsoever -- you get a track listing and that's it. I'm not opposed to quasi-bootleg re-issues, but if someone's going to go through the trouble of archiving the tracks they should at least give a little background info as to their origin, maybe even some bios on the more obscure artists.
Now on vinyl!
Analog Africa does it again! The hardest working Afro-beat reissue label brings us another amazing comp of psych-tinged, long-lost Afro-beat, this time from Ghana and Togo recorded between 1972-1979. Raw, sultry, and totally ass-shaking, pretty much all of the tracks have never been released outside the region. Funky Latin rhythms, organ-driven psych, and cosmic soulful percussive trance-outs by 11 bands. Comes with amazing 44 page booklet with pictures and histories. Wow, deluxe package, incredible music. We can go on, but do we really need to? Analog Africa hasn't let us down yet. 100 percent Solid! Trust.
Analog Africa does it again! The hardest working Afro-beat reissue label brings us another amazing comp of psych-tinged, long-lost Afro-beat, this time from Ghana and Togo recorded between 1972-1979. Raw, sultry, and totally ass-shaking, pretty much all of the tracks have never been released outside the region. Funky Latin rhythms, organ-driven psych, and cosmic soulful percussive trance-outs by 11 bands. Comes with amazing 44 page booklet with pictures and histories. Wow, deluxe package, incredible music. We can go on, but do we really need to? Analog Africa hasn't let us down yet. 100 percent Solid! Trust.
Kona records presents a new collection of Afro-Soul and Funk tracks taken from the late sixties to the early seventies. 11 tracks from 11 groups that arose out of the Pan African identity movement in the 60's, hailing from Sierra Leone, Kenya, Zaire, Ghana and elsewhere. Super tight, ready to explode afro-funk tracks that will make your butt shake are what you can expect when you put this
Chances are lots of us here at AQ are like you in that we can get a bit overly obsessed when we fall in love with something. Case in point: this mind melting electro-disco compilation from the new Troubleman Unlimited offshoot label Italians Do It Better. There are thousands of amazing records here in the store to listen to everyday yet we can't stop putting this on. Day after day and often multiple times during the day this always seems to find its way back to the cd player, making us feel like we're dancing on clouds, floating high in the sky, never to come down. Influenced by the best moments of early disco, Giorgio Moroder and the whole Italo-disco scene (of which the label name is a tip o' the hat to) this comp is a collection of tracks from 12"s, LP's and demos that have been pretty impossible to come by in these parts. Folks like Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, Professor Genius, and more have channeled their inner Moroder and captured that perfect late night dancing on air sensation after a long night of consumption and exertion, dancing your ass off, dressed to the nines and never wanting the party to end. Whether they're covering Kraftwerk or R.L. Crutchfield's Dark Day (a legendary and sadly obscure project by DNA co-founder!) or creating their own songs that fit perfectly into this after dark wonderland, all these artists have totally dialed into a sound and style that we find so irresistible. Where electro-clash was cold and calculated, these sounds channeling a heartfelt love of vintage disco have a seductive and sensual quality that's been making lots of us swoon. So highly recommended!
A midsummer's night motorcycle ride through the dystopic streets of Akira's cyberpunk Tokyo? Check. A steamy make out session beneath the glaring neon lights of Blade Runner's perpetually rainy Los Angeles? Check. A romantic slow dance with Snake Pliskin in one of New York's seedier abandoned warehouses? Check! If this plethora of strange images are what's springing to mind it can mean only one thing... Another After Dark compilation is upon us! It's been a full six years since Italians Do It Better last graced us with the first After Dark installment and, like any great sequel, the second volume is more than worth the wait. Anyone familiar with this excellent record label knows what to expect - and knows that these guys are the best at what they do. And what they do is beautiful nocturnal synth pop heavily indebted to classic Italo-disco. For the uninitiated, imagine vintage Giorgio Moroder, slinky Euro club music, maybe a bit of John Carpenter... Or look no further than the inescapable Drive soundtrack, which features a couple of the artists featured here. What's so great about this compilation is actually how unlike a compilation it feels. There's an international roster of musicians on display here (Canada, France, England, US are all represented), but there's also a serious feeling of unity and cohesion. If you didn't know better, this could easily be one artist's full length lp with a series of guest vocalists (and seeing as Italians Do It Better head honcho Johnny Jewel is in approximately 95 percent of the bands featured here, it kind of is.) That's not to say there's not plenty of variety on display though! Glass Candy's tracks recall '80s Siouxsie & The Banshees at their poppiest (the vocals in "Warm In The Winter" especially seem to be a bit of an homage to "Peek A Boo") but with a glorious, life affirming, coming of age hope to them. Mirage and Desire are both a bit more melancholy and bittersweet in comparison - the sparse minimal thud of Mirage coming off a bit like a supremely forlorn Chromeo (complete with robot vocals and everything), while the soothing synth pads and romantic vocals of Desire tug at your heartstrings even while you're still working the dance floor in the same way Sally Shapiro does. Meanwhile, Twisted Wires sounds like Ian Curtis singing over jazzy lounge piano, while Appaloosa's charmingly monotone vocals sound a bit like Nico singing electropop. There are some darker moments too, like the eerie quasi-religious spoken word of Farah or the minimal throb of Mike Simonetti's "The Magician" which might not sound out of place on NIN's Pretty Hate Machine! And then there's the sexy digital strut of Chromatics to round things out. But despite these myriad influences there's a real concrete mood throughout - nocturnal yet vibrant, sparse yet alluring, neon yet noir. But still never in danger of clearing the dance floor.
It takes a lot more than just a killer collection of songs to make an amazing compilation, and leave it to Tompkins Square, generally no slouches in the comp curating department, to come up with this curiously themed focus on affairs of the heart, in particular, the strange corner of human nature the impels and compels us to pursue romance, and love, even when the relationship seems doomed from the outset. A base human instinct not to just to find love, but to often look for it in all the wrong places. And to commemorate those lost loves and tragic encounters in song.
These prewar tunes, include music from the Cajun bayous, the mountains of Eastern Europe, and rural America, focusing on various nationalities who emigrated to America, only to form super strong enclaves, with a mind to preserve their cultural heritage, one part of which was various traditions of courtship and marriage, traditions that were quite different from one nationality to the next. But as different as those traditions were, the emotions, the feelings of love and longing, of sorrow and hopefulness, are of course universal, and were again, immortalized in music, a music that is at once festive and celebratory, but often with a subtle underpinning of sadness, the sounds are a mix of European folk, country music, bluegrass and gypsy music, lots of fiddles and strings, emotive vocals, wild melodies, there's plenty of blues too, cuz if one thing we all know, love can give a person the blues something bad, so Dock Boggs and his banjo spin a tale of "False Hearted Lover Blues", the Stoneman Family mix some gospel vocals and some wheezing accordion into their sweet country twang, Emry Arthur laments the fact that "She Lied To me", and in between the blues are endless variations on string music, polkas, hoedowns, wedding dances, it's a heady mix, that's fun to listen to, even when the subject matter is heartbreak and misery.
There's no shortage of old timey comps, but this one is most definitely a gem, musically AND thematically.
Gorgeously packaged in an oversized soft cover book style sleeve, with a massive 60 page booklet, filled with rare photos, extensive liner notes, lyrical translation, and gorgeous original illustrations by Robert Crumb.
MPEG Stream: DOUGLAS BELLARD & KIRBY RILEY "Aimer Et Perdre (To Love And To Lose)" [/audio/vaaimeretperd1.m3u]
