With this third and final volume in the Scratch Attack series, beloved local hiphop go-getter Billy Jam has managed to collect together some of the most astonishingly good and exciting turntablist tracks out there, many of them having been performed live on his Scratch Attack radio show, with the studio tracks boasting just as much energy and creativity as the live stuff. Honestly, these are some of the most impressive, well chosen tracks out there. A fine survey into the current turntablist scene. With appearances by T-Rock, Live Human, Qbert, Shing02, Alien Army, etc.
MPEG Download: SHING02 & FREELANCERS UNITED "Organ Transplant" [/audio/scratchshingo.mp3]
MPEG Stream: SHING02 & FREELANCERS UNITED "Organ Transplant" [/audio/scratchshingo.m3u]
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We've been skipping around through this "New Rubble" series -- we reviewed Volume 2 a little while back (entitled Speaking My Mind, it was devoted to rare prog-psych singles). Now we've settled on this killer comp of obscure '60s British female vocalists to mention this time. These soulful girl singers are backed by some outright freakbeat bands, though (like the Fleur de Lys), so instead of ballads (the stuff that made for hits) these are harder-edged, dancefloor-ready groovers filled with fuzz guitar and Hammond organ action. These ladies have plenty of sassy, "my boots are gonna walk all over you" attitude to match. Nobody's fools, their "love" songs are telling it like it is. There's lots of "baby baby baby" stuff but they're letting "baby" know he'd better behave or he won't be their baby no more... Lines like "It's understood / if you hurt me / you're gone for good" (from Samantha Jones "Go Ahead") are the norm. As is the saucier, sexually aggressive stance of tracks like "Scratch My Back". Great stuff, even the dated kitsch silliness of Laugh-In gogo dancer Judy Carne's "Sock It To Me" (wherein she opines, in a very proper British accent, "you know if this is what they call funky, it's a bit of all right"). Excepting that one, perhaps, we think AQ pals The Husbands should be mining this comp for new cover material...
Did you hear about the new pirate film?
It's rated Arrrrrrr!
What a smokin' comp! Do you like your soul & funk nice and raw and sizzling? Then be ready to discover that from 1968-1980 in Michigan lived an amazing scene of d.i.y. soul artists releasing sometimes only one single but putting so much oozing flare and charisma to their true soul sounds it nearly sets your speakers on fire! Luv N' Haight has compiled 14 of these artists on this truly great collection of soul, funk and jazz rarities from Michigan over those dozen years. Tommy McGee, Manual B. Holcolm, Robert Jay, El Riot, etc. never became household names, but if their luck had been a little different and the break that never came their way did, there is no doubt they would have earned a spot in the same breath as Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, and Sly & The Family Stone. No weak tracks in the bunch, great in depth liner notes that tell the story of each track, no doubt this is one of the strongest soul reissue collections we've heard in a while.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Mobile records wishes you a very indie holiday season with this collection of Christmas and winter themed songs from Low, Orso, Morgan Caney & Kamal Joory, Opiate, Kom�it, Future 3, Erland �ye (of Kings of Convenience), St. Etienne, Badly Drawn Boy, Hood, Domotic, Herrmann & Kleine, and M�m. Add gentle dreaminess to your holiday cheer, or be comforted with a moody soundtrack to the winter blues.
Nu-gaze! The new wave of shoegaze...
Somehow we slept on reviewing this series when the Yazoo label began issuing them on cd back in the mid-nineties (the cds are still available by the way). It wasn't that we didn't love them, of course we did! But we started carrying them way before our website was in its current form, and they just never made the transition in the usual hectic shuffle of putting together these bi-weekly new arrival lists. Besides, this series really didn't need our help to move them. They always looked very cool and mysterious, promising the discovery of some very far out and lost old world of music that folks here were naturally drawn to while shopping for cult metal, field recordings or obscure psych.
But now that Mississippi, Sublime Frequencies, Honest Jon's, Parlortone, and other like-minded revival labels have spearheded a much renewed interest in obscure early ethnographic recordings on vinyl, it was only a matter of time that this highly influential series would make the transition to wax, here's the first volume, and it's an amazing and beautiful package. Like The Black Mirror, String of Pearls, Mata La Pena, and Sprigs of Time compilations, this is an eclectic but choice collection of music from many different regions and covering many styles and traditions, starting in Nigeria with a church choir and pump organ, and working through Sardinia, Russia, Ceylon, Rajahstan, Cuba, Romania, Vietnam, Macedonia, Tahiti, Morocco, South Africa, Japan, India, the Basque country, Sweden, Poland, Jamaica, Abyssinia, Andalucia, Visayan Islands, and finally leaving us on Fiji with a lonely love song sung by school girls. Sigh.
Somehow we slept on reviewing this series when the Yazoo label began issuing them on cd back in the mid-nineties (the cds are still available by the way). It wasn't that we didn't love them, of course we did! But we started carrying them way before our website was in its current form, and they just never made the transition in the usual hectic shuffle of putting together these bi-weekly new arrival lists. Besides, this series really didn't need our help. They always looked very cool and mysterious, promising the discovery of some very far out and lost old world of music that folks here were naturally drawn to while shopping for cult metal, field recordings or obscure psych.
But now that Mississippi, Sublime Frequencies, Honest Jon's, Parlortone, and other like-minded revival labels have spearheaded a much renewed interest in obscure early ethnographic recordings on vinyl, it was only a matter of time that this highly influential series would make the transition to wax, here's the second volume, and it's an amazing and beautiful package. Like The Black Mirror, String of Pearls, Mata La Pena, and Sprigs of Time compilations, this is an eclectic but choice collection of music from many different regions and covering many styles and traditions, from regions including Bulgaria, Puerto Rico, India, Mozambique, Ukraine, Trinidad, Kazakhstan, Ceylon, and Tibet. Highly Recommended.
The third incredible volume of outerworld music from lands and peoples past and lost. Twenty-four tracks from Matabaleland (once Southern Rhodesia), Samarcand (central Asia), Poland, Spain, China, Epirus, Angola, India, Russia, Turkey, Arizona (Navajo), Mongolia, Dominica, Congo, Nyasaland, Burma, Tuscany, Persia, England, Albania, Laos, Tunisia, and Kiwai Island. Brought to us as always in a nice gatefold package with plenty of notes and information about the traditions and tribes of the people who made this incredible music. A must have!
Here's the 4th volume of the wonderful Secret Museum series to make the transition to vinyl, 'twas originally released on cd by Yazoo years ago. A compilation of rare ethnographic recordings, taken from old 78s, from the region of Central Asia: Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, Azerbaijan, and elsewhere. Like the rest of the series, quite recommended. In fact, this is one of our favorites. These new vinyl versions are limited editions of 1000, and packaged in gatefold Stoughton tip-on sleeves. Outernational should do as well with these as Mississippi has with similar archival vinyl releases, we think.
The Pharaway Sounds label has released several in a series of compilations devoted to groovy Persian music from the '70s - "funk, psychedelia and pop from the Iranian pre-revolution generation" as the subtitle here has it. We've stocked 'em all as they came out, but this latest is the first we've gotten around to reviewing. We absolutely had to, after hearing the first track, "Helelyos" by Zia Atabi, with its weirdass scat vocals, impatient horn stabs, and seriously funky percussive beats. Damn. Just check out the sound clip and see if you're not sold too. There's lots of other treats on here, pop hits in Iran back in the day, from a variety of performers & songwriters, many of whom live in Los Angeles now; names include Farrokhzad, Shohreh, Shamaizadeh, Nooshafarin, Azita, Shahrokh, Beti, Sattar, Soli & Neli, Afshin, Maziar, and the aforementioned Zia. Sweeping disco strings and zany synthesizers, electric guitars and santurs, flutes and frame drums are all part of the East meets West melange that characterizes this delightful, dancey & romantic music.
Includes extensive liner notes in the cd booklet which give some background history about how this happenin' scene/music industry was swept away by coming of Khomeini. Additionally, info about each song/artist is provided, along with colorful graphics from some of the original record sleeves featuring many of the pretty ladies and mustachioed guys who sang these songs. Now, to work backwards through the other volumes - if this one's so good the others must be pretty cool too.
Another new collection of classic dub tracks - all of these from the Blood & Fire back catalog - remixed by electronica artists. There are tracks by Smith & Mighty, The Orb, Avatars of Dub, Stereo MC's, Groove Corporation, The Erb and more.
Following on the heels of their successful first volume of remixes from the Blood & Fire catalog, Select Cuts has released yet another disc of more of the same. Classic tracks by Scientist, Yabby You, I Roy, King Tubby, Linval Thompson and more are remixed
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The third and final installment of the popular Select Cuts series of Blood & Fire remixes in which contemporary "leftfield" DJs and Producers pay homage to Jamaican music by remixing classic tracks from the island. This collection features remixes of Big Youth (Waterhouse Rock, Political Confusion & Chucky No Lucky), Horace Andy (Do You Love My Music, Ital Vital), Impact All Stars (Dubwise Situation), Gregory Isaacs (Get Ready) and more by the usual suspects: Black Star Liner, Smith & Mighty, Groove Corporation, as well as Pressure Drop, Walkner.Mostl, Dan Donovan / Don Letts Dub Cartel, Dreadzone, Henry & Louis, Different Drummer Soundsystem, Small Axe, Kaleidoscope and even a bonus "Blood & Fire Megamix" by Fila Brazillia. This one's definitely made for the euro dancefloor what with all those beautiful rhythmmic gaps now filled in like so much wood putty in much of these remixes by the endless chattering 32nd notes or pounding breakbeat rhythms. Those who enjoyed the last two volumes will appreciate this one as well.
While labels like the Numero Group and Soul Jazz have been doing a great job of digging up amazing old soul sounds from the past, this collection of soul and funk from Spain from 1966-1976 popped up out of nowhere and has ended up being maybe one of the best soul collections we've ever heard! It's everything you want soul and funk from that era to be. It's infectious, playful, gritty, groovy and totally addictive. While none of us had too much experience with the soul scene in Spain, this comp proves that it was pretty damn healthy and vibrant. These songs are damn near impossible not to be swept away by. Even Andee who is maybe the least funk-obsessed AQ-er was caught totally digging on these sounds. And then for those of you who are already attracted to great funk sounds of the era, this is like hitting the funkrock jackpot! After getting this the first day it arrived at AQ, I (Irwin) managed to play cuts from it during no less than three different DJ sets in the next 48 hours. And every single time I played a song from it I was immediately met with someone running to the DJ booth (and the phone lighting up when it was during my radio show) with the same excited question...What the heck is this and where can I buy one!!?? What makes this collection so outstanding are the strange splashes of eccentric spirit that keep it from sounding too same-y and keep the disc from ever losing steam, like lots of soul collections tend to do. This is one of those amazing records you can't help but fall in love with! If you have a pulse or a heartbeat or are at all alive, you won't be able to resist!
[Adopts Victorian street urchin voice]: "Hot shit warehouse find for sale here! Getch yer hot shit warehouse find!"
That's right girls and boys, we stumbled upon a few - as in, literally, like, THREE - of these rad 2007 comps from Canadian metal slangers Sepulchral Productions, who have thrown together a tasty smorgasbord of blackened bile spewing hate that goes down all harsh and spiny-like. The bands come to us from the the wilds of Europe and the great Canadian north and include heavyweights like Antaeus, Negura Bunget, and Horna in addition to lesser known bad asses like Lord Belial, Nostra Drama, Veneficium, and Azaghal. Nay, not a Yankee to be found. As these bands, even the more famous ones, dwell within the deepest depths of the underground, you can bet this shit is evil and rifftastic in all the ways you so greedily lust for. Intended as a tribute to the early age of Black Metal whose legacy has been shamelessly and successfully prostituted to consumers like you and me all across the globe, these guys are keeping the flame burning ALL.NIGHT.LONG.FOREVER - if you're looking to find cute and fashionable Black Metal, the liners politely suggest that you bear this in mind.
LAST COPIES!!!
Black and death metal bands, many from Scandinavia (how strange...) pay tribute to Brazilian metal gods Sepultura. Participating are such bands as AQ-faves the super-brutal Defleshed and keyboard-happy Children of Bodom, as well as Swordmaster, Lord Belial, Sacramentum, Brazil's Mystifier, and nine others. Songs covered range from the earliest of the Sep's death-thrash efforts to "Ratamahatta" from their last tribal-metal album.
French superstar songwriter and performer Gainsbourg, like Burt Bacharach before him, gets the Tzadik treatment here in tribute performances by Mike Patton, Fred Frith, Cyro Baptista, John Zorn, Cibo Matto, Eszter Balint (yes, the actress from Stranger Than Paradise), Kramer, and Medeski, Martin and Wood.
Dark pop? New beat? Call it what you will but that's one heck of a heavy thumpin' beat thundering up from the yesteryear depths of this fine Belgian compilation.
A highly entertaining mix of vintage rump-shakers and amusingly quirky tracks (make sure to check out Will Powers, one of the obscure gems from the '80s as standard New Wave / electro rhythms back the recitation of inane 'self help' lectures). While listening to track 10 "Hypnotic Tango" by My Mine, something struck us as oddly familiar... What the heck?! It's the chorus melody to "Look Of Love" by ABC. Supposedly the "sound of Belgium nightlife in the 80s" this compilation encompasses Section 25, Vicious Pink, Metro Area, Grauzone, Executive Slacks, John Carpenter, and even the Alan Parsons Project, among others. As dj mix documents go, this one's kinda neat and off the beaten track, and surely will capture the hearts of those diggin' the likes of The Faint and The Rapture.
MPEG Stream: VICIOUS PINK "8:15 To Nowhere" [/audio/viciouspink815.m3u]
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
There's no stopping Mississippi, is there? The vinyl-only archival reissue label specializing in old tymey music from around the globe really hasn't ever put out anything NOT worth buying. At least, if you're into - or want to get into - the blues or gospel or Palm Wine music or country folk or Greek rembetika or whatever species of vintage roots music is being documented on each particular Mississippi lp. In this case, as with the Mississippi compilation highlighted last list, My Intention Is War, it's Trinidadian Calypso music, circa 1928-1947. Seven Skeletons Found In The Yard is a fine companion to My Intention Is War, again highlighting the darker side of Calypso. Beautiful stuff with some serious subject matter. Artists include such greats as Grower, The Lion, Lord Executor, and Lionel Belasco.
Attention all fans of cheesy camp, kitsch, martial arts, blaxploitation, etc! Here's a humungous collection of movie trailers and music tracks from B-movies such as Thunderfist, Naughty Stewardesses, Black Gunn, The Gay Deceivers, Human Tornado, Fists Of Fury, Bare Knuckles, Switchblade Sister and oh yes, lest we forget... The Bummer! Music mostly takes a backseat to the highly entertaining announcements, and also despite the potency of the title, the saucy cover art (nude women with nipples blacked out by stars) and the proclamation on the traycard that this is "The Sexiest, Sleaziest & Most Soulful Motion Picture Collection Ever" and "Adults Only Erotic Soul", we should note that it's all pretty tame by today's standards... yet no less fun! A walloping forty-one tracks in all.
Curious about freaky '60s (and early '70s) pyschedelia? Well the good people at Germany's Shadoks label have not only made it their business to reissue a slew of pretty cool, previously unaffordable and unfindable psych LPs on cd (as well as doing some lovely vinyl reissues that soon enough become unaffordable and unfindable themselves...), but have also selected some representative songs from 'em to make up this 18-track, budget priced sampler. From heavy, blues-based psych rawk and fuzz-filled garagey punk to folkier, gentler fare, all the bands on here share, shall we say, an LSD-derived sensibility. Some are better n' others but even the not so good ones make up for in kitschy psychedelic era charm what they might lack in songwriting ability or musicianship. I mean, there are reasons why some of these LPs were obscure! But then again, several are undeservedly neglected classics, and this sampler makes for a great, cheap way to check out the full variety found in the Shadoks catalog. From all around the world (USA, India, Brazil, Philipines...), the line-up here features: The Spoils of War, Peacepipe, The New Tweedy Bros!, Juan De La Cruz Band, The Brain Police, Maitreya Kali, Merry Airbrakes, Butterfingers, My Indole Ring, Framework, The Wallflower Complexion, Brigade, Pete Fine, Fate, Spectrum, Confusions (from the Simal Beat compilation) and Tony, Caro & John.
Another super limited lp installment in Sublime Frequencies' ever expanding collection of fantastic and mysterious world musics. It's unclear, why a few releases have been vinyl only, and if the shelf-life of the last Sublime Frequencies lp was any indication, these won't last long at all.
So what is Shadow Music Of Thailand? Well, it's Thai pop heavily influenced by UK instrumental rockers The Shadows of course. More specifically it's a strain of sixties Thai guitar pop heavily influenced by Western music, rock, garage and especially surf. The guitar being the most obvious influence.
So here we have a collection of some of the most notable purveyors of "Shadow Music": The Son Of P.M., P.M. Pocket Music, P.M 7 / Jupiter and Johnny Guitar. You may have noticed the recurring P.M., well that stands for Payong Mukda, one of the most prolific composers and performers of the time and the music genius behind all of those P.M. groups.
On first listen, the Shadow Music here doesn't sound all that different than much of the Thai Pop we've heard before on other collections, and no doubt there is some overlap. But keep listening, and all sorts of strange and unique little sonic flourishes reveal themselves. Really, where else can you hear gamelan percussion with super fuzzed out ? And The Mysterions style organ and wailing surf guitar? From groovy garage rock to shimmery surf, lots of organ, and plenty of gamelan, vibraphone, xylophone, gorgeous vocals, strange harmonies, mysterious melodies, but it's those guitars, it buzzes and howls, chugs and twangs, woven into all of the songs here, creating this strange hybrid, Thai Pop, Bollywood, surf rock, blues rock, latin, soul, all woven into a wild groovy psychedelic fuzzy funky garage folkpop that will totally hit the spot for fans of exotic grooves and wild and wonderful sounds.
LIMITED ONE TIME PRESSING OF ONLY 1500 COPIES. 180 gram vinyl, super thick, gatefold sleeve, full color with tons of original Thai artwork and extensive liner notes.
We've seen a lot of trippy, groovy compilations of soundtrack music from '60s and '70s Italian and German thriller and romance flicks, but now Crippled Dick provides a look at the world of French cinema orchestrations, and it's as sexy and swinging as you'd imagine. The booket provides notes on each track and full-color poster art, etc. There's many a lush, psychedelic, funky gem to be found on this disc! Nice. The cd has three extra tracks not on the vinyl.
With the abundance of amazing comps and reissues of lost gems from all over Africa in the 1970s, it can get easy to forget that there is the here and now, and that there is equally damaged, brilliant, fucked up and contagious sounds being made throughout the globe RIGHT NOW! Don't get us wrong we love all the reissues of '70s psych glory that's being dug up and rediscovered all over the world, including so much from Africa, but damn it's so refreshing and invigorating to get a set of brand new sounds from across the globe being created at this very moment that grabs a hold of our imagination in such exciting ways. Shangaan is a new form of dance music coming out of Soweto that merges the sounds of traditional mbira (thumb piano) music with hyperactive synthesizers. It really is like nothing we've heard before. Call and response glory wrapped in 180 bpm craziness!
In some ways this feels like the spazzy cousin to the great Congotronics compilation from a few years ago, as that also showcased a new form of charged and body moving sounds coming out of Africa. But this is even more dance minded. You have to make sure you go online to YouTube and check out the actual dances that are performed to this music, so spirited, full of a new folklore and such a psychedelic aura. The sound of the songs is kind of like some early Nintendo game getting hijacked by Omar Souleyman armed with a karaoke machine and a troupe of boys, girls, men and women all ready to move on their feet as fast and furiously as possible. There are parts of the music that sound like Fever Ray played on the wrong speed, or what we imagine M.I.A. would blast at an afterparty. Forget about the World Cup, this may be the most mind blowing cultural phenomenon going down in South Africa that we are lucky enough to get to hear and appreciate NOW. Beyond recommended!
Here we have a fantastically frenetic compilation from the always SO SO killer Honest Jons Label. Shangaan Shake compiles all of the releases from the "MEETS" 12" series in which current electronic heavy hitters and aQ faves like Actress and Demdike Stare took on the "Shangaan" dance music sound of South Africa (a genre celebrated by Honest Jon's great Shangaan Electro compilation 2 years ago, as you hopefully are aware). We didn't ever list any of the 12"s, they flew out of here too fast, but we were looking forward to listing this collection, which ends up being a high powered, schizophrenic double disc set of ass shaking dance floor BLISS! But this ain't yer typical floor fodder...oh no. True to form, Honest Jons only asked the best of the truly far out electro experimentalists to contribute to the series...fucked up foot work, abstract drifty dream techno, stripped down long form minimal workouts, spacey ghost vibez DUB, and super-future slo-mo ELECTRO!
The Oni Ayhun (alias of Olof Dreijer of aQ faves, The Knife) Meets Shangaan Electro is the first tune to really set it off for us, a super frantic and hypnotic electro shuffle, the original vox from the Shangaan source being endlessly pitch bent into some truly bizarre yet catchy as hell melodies, while the hi-hats and claps stutter and fall out of phase, resulting in an hallucinatory funky freak out! Peverelist follows suit, but somehow ups the WTF quotient with his take on Tshetsha Boys. Starting with some industrial sized hi-hats, drifting in a syncopated haze, before a simple mid tempo electro drum pattern enters on an unexpected beat. It chugs along like this for a minute before yet ANOTHER hi-hat pattern enters bringing the track into a subtle yet transcendent groove, the sound design of which is seldom heard on this planet. Excitingly NEW sounds for sure. Actress, of course you know by now, will not bring something to light unless it is of the utmost quality, and here he does not disappoint. His take on Shangaan is truly mesmerizing, a jam that starts out as a sort of blissy dubby techno groove, albeit with some seriously deranged synth squelches and disassociated Shangaan vox atop, is all of a sudden transformed into something entirely different with the introduction of some discordant, Liquid Sky meets Rinse Dream meets Badalamenti sounding cyber-skronk keys! These chords are the twist yr ears up element, ultimately subverting your expectations and leaving you with something that feels entirely FRESH! Old Apparatus (whose Tapeworm cassette was a big highlight last list), turns the tempo down a bit, and treats us to some spooky ass Shangaan rub-a-dub! Pristine synths and that killer xylophone sound stretched and reverberated through a vast cave of FAR-I DELAY. We COULD go on and on...the rest of this double disc comp maintains this top shelf quality, with highlights ranging from the legendary Theo Parrish's ruff neck cut-up Mancingelani remix, to Demdike Stare's haunted house dubwise fraidy-pants minimal Soweto soundscape...not to mention forward thinking contributions from aQ faves Villalobos/Loderbauer and Hype Williams, as well as a funky ass Detroit style electro BBC mix from the venerable Afro-Futurist, Anthony "Shake" Shakir!!!
Ahhhh!!! Too much good stuff! Honest Jon's have outdone themselves, by first of all sharing this Shangaan goodness with the world, and then following it up with a perfectly concise and meaningfully curated remix series, by some of the best, brightest, and down right weirdo-futurist producers of the now! Essential!
Inspired by the Wu Tang (hence the title), here's yet another set of seventies soul compilations. We can't argue with their selections. 21 tracks, awesome stuff to put you in the mood from the likes of Ann Peebles, Al Green, Syl Johnson, Lyn Collins, Booker T & The MGs, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, O.V. Wright, and others... Both vol. 1 and vol. 2 have a good mix of classic tracks, for the most part not-too-obscure yet not-too-obvious stuff. Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles, The Emotions, and Al Green make appearances on both volumes, so I guess they're the compilers favorites or something.
Volume two of "Shaolin Soul" features Teddy Pendergrass, Al Green, Sly Johnson, Baby Huey, Mad Lads, Ann Peebles, Jackson 5, Detroit Emeralds, The Emotions, Black Ivory, The New Birth, Southside Movement, Eddie Holman and more (20 tracks). Again, lots of gems here, as with vol. 1 it's mostly lush love song soul rather than blaxploitation car chase funk, more smooth than gritty.
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.
More turntable trickery from respected Bay Area-based series.
Fascinating collection of Hebrew paraliturgical songs by Eastern Jewish singers from the Bene Israel and Baghdadian Jewish communities residing in Bombay, India during the thirties. Originally released on 78's from the King, Hebrew, and Jay Bharat Record labels, these recordings from various Hazzanim (cantors and prayer leaders), music school directors, an entrepreneurial meat-shop owner, Shofar (ram's horn) blowers, and instrumental stars of the Indian cinema are the long lost sonic artifacts from a nearly forgotten world of Indian Jewish musical traditions. We never realized before how intertwined these two musical traditions were, but of course it makes sense with the cross-pollination of Eastern European, North African and Middle Eastern populations through the bustling trade city of Bombay, that the cultural traditions would intermingle and possibly influence each other. Thus this is also recommended for fans of early Indian music, as well as for those intrigued by rare Jewish music recordings. The cd comes with a richly illustrated 24-page booklet with memories and photos of the descendants, relatives and friends of the singers and instrumentalists, gathered from across the globe.
This compilation of tracks from Urchin, Sufi, Suncoil Sect, Dust Devil, and Lightspeed and with remix work from Third Eye Foundation, Boymerang, and Alpha answers a common question here at Aquarius: "Can you recommend something that sounds like Boards of Canada and/or Kruder & Dorfmeister?" Nothing groundbreaking, just pretty and melodic electronica with plenty of armchair drum & bass breaks.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
At first glance, you may mistake this CD for Beck's "Midnite Vultures". Look closely though and you'll notice that the artwork used by Beck was in fact created two years ago for this compilation on Shock City (a Polystar Japan subsidiary overseen by Boredoms mastermind Yamataka Eye)! Now this collection is finally been made available as an not-absolutely-impossible-to-find import release. Through the 23 tracks and 78 minutes of music, we're taken on a wild ride through the new Osaka underground as seen by Eye: sitars, babbling babies, snake charmers, Jews harps, no-wave electronics, hardcore, new psychedelia, and drums, lots o' drums! Standout selections include tracks by DJ Pika Pika Pika (tweaked-out, beat heavy, electronics-fuckery by Eye), Standing Earth &
Touching Air (Yoshimi and Keigo "Cornelius" Oyamada making the most interesting use of Jews harp I've ever heard!), and DJ Tranquilizer (Otomo Yoshihide and Aoyama Yasutomo). Most tracks are both exclusive to this comp (save for the OOIOO and ROVO tracks) and definitely Boredoms related (many variations on the use of EYE in band names!). Great stuff! Beautifully designed, mind melting artwork (as always) by Eye, with sparkly printing, that kicks the ass of the later Beck cover...
While this cd is presented as the second installment of Boredoms-related works on Eye's own Shock City imprint, it is actually a collection of remixes of Yoshimi's OOIOO. Chari Chari and Zak rework "Mountain Book", (unrecognizable and expansive versions,
Alright all you hard ragga nuts, pick this fucker up! Damn, seems like it's been a while since we've got some real crazy shit in here that we could get really excited about and adamantly recommend to customers with complete confidence. Many of the tracks here have already appeared as 12"s and 7"s on Tigerbeat6's Shockout imprint. But those of us lacking turntables or too lazy to lift those heavy slabs for a mere 3 minutes of pleasure have been left out of the game... until now. Looking for some DJ Rupture? Looking for The Bug? Looking for something to replace those worn copies of DJ Scud's Murder Sound or yearning for a return of Panacea circa Low Profile Darkness? You'll find your fix embedded here in the digital pits of this here humble aluminum disc. Brutal two-step cut ups with gut churning bass, brain rattling hardcore ragga jungle and levelled off with some of the most phlegm inducing, distorted and gruff toasting you'll ever hear. Along with some of the heaviest singles in the Shockout series thus far by the likes of The Bug, Ove-Naxx, Soundmurderer & SK-1, Timeblind, Kid606, and Eight Frozen Modules, there are exclusive tracks from DJ Rupture, Com A. and Guislain Poirier (nice to hear some French in the mix for once). Plus this Shockout comp also includes the original "Killer" single by Rootsman and He-Man that The Bug remixed, which sounds like a madman trying to burp his way through a vocal dub. Verbally slobbering over this collection wouldn't be complete without mentioning the exceptionally great track sequencing. The comp kicks off with Strategy's mellow "Dunes Dub", a springy dub track with a Fela Kuti-esque keyboard line, and slowly works its way up in ferocity through the the next several tracks. Strategy bookends the collection in fact, with the A-side to their Shockout 12" "Going Street Dub" finishing things off. In flow, Shockout reminds us of DJ Rupture's now classic Minesweeper Suite. Everyone who loves those Ward 21 albums, DJ Rupture, The Bug's new ragga incarnation or the Kid (as in 606) should pluck this sucker up post haste. Highly fucking recommended!
"Shrine of Afrodigital" is sort of a sequel to the "Shrine of Afro-funk" that Ocho released last year. This compilation presents tracks from urban African artists exploring the future of afro-beat, drawing from legendary artists to up and coming afro-house
Those of you who have had a bar/bat mitzvah or have ever whipped up some matzah brie for breakfast will have a special fondess for this compilation. A collection of Jewish music from all over the world with a hip-modern twist. Musicians from Israel, Greece, Germany, Holland, France and elsewhere playing traditional songs in very modern styles but without losing the Jewish undertones and themes. Musically its pretty diverse from hip-hop to surf rock, klezmer to electro-pop. With the advent of Heeb Magazine and other hip Jewish websites, labels and magazines, it seems like there is finally some cool folks out there committed to showing and exposing the wide array of Jewish art and music being made. Fans of another compilation on the same label, our recent record of the week Beyond Istanbul, might find this to be an equally entertaining cultural snapshot.
More electronic-ambient-out-there fuckery from Campbell Kneale, sole member of Birchville Cat Motel and head honcho of Celebrate Psi Phenomena. And as I'm sure you already surmised from the title this is indeed a Prince tribute record. The versions are all over the map, From Birchville Cat Motel's almost straight rock version of 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man' to Afghan Cyborg Predator's 13 second noise blast version of 'Let's Pretend We're Married' to B.C.'s droned out, blissed out, almost ambient version of 'Little Red Corvette' to A.Ra's stumbling acapella version of 'Sign O' The Times to Antony Milton's glitched out melancholy powerbook version of 'When Doves Cry' to the C.M. Ensemble's sparsely gorgeous, reverb drenched version of 'Nothing Compares 2 U' and on and on and on and on. Two discs, over two hours, of Prince songs fucked with, fucked up, chopped up, rearranged, destoyed, honored, digraced, torn apart, turned inside out, played note for note, made completely unrecognizable, respected, disrespected and plain ruined!
Take any preconceptions about Cuban music you might have and throw them out the window. This is simply one of the most exciting and awesome compilations we've heard in a while from a period that has never been fully explored before, the seventies and early eighties. We've heard rumors that the compiler, Dan Zacks, of Waxing Deep Radio, had to go to great lengths to obtain these recordings including risking his life sneaking into Cuba and bribing government officials, but it seems the efforts have paid off. This compilation offers an amazing glimpse into an extremely fertile period of socialism and artistic freedom, one rife with the same progressive musical styles (son, disco, fusion, soul and jazz) that were hitting the New York and LA Latin scenes around the same time, but with their own inventive use of production, unusual instrumentation, psychedelic influences, electronic experimentation, and as the title promises, funky beats. Each track is beautifully remastered from the original Cuban sessions. Who would have thought that Communist Funk would sound so liberating? Highly recommended!
Hiphop/electro breakbeat compilation introducing a slew of up and coming Japanese DJs (Dazzle-T, Indope Psychics, Koji Sekiguchi, DJ Beat, DJ Yoh, DJ Shun, and others) all looking to be the next DJ Krush. Scratch-happy heavy beat science for those into the turntablist thing. One track gets remixed by DJ Cam, who is French not Japanese, but we won't hold that against him ;) As comps
Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find a review of another Sublime Frequencies release, the Shadow Music Of Thailand, where we discuss how hard it is to pick a favorite release, cuz they're all so goddamn good.
And such is the case with this one too, a sequel of sorts to 2007's Thai Pop Spectacular 1960s-1980s, this one titled Siamese Soul, but the first one was pretty soulful as well, so we'll presume that it was just chosen as a catchy title, because this does play out like a continuation of the first part which is in no way a bad thing, in fact, we'd been hankering for more ever since that first volume.
As the loner notes discuss, Cambodian pop has gotten so much attention lately, that it seems almost criminal that Thai pop wasn't getting the same attention, which becomes even more apparent listening to Siamese Soul (as well as the first volume). In the review of the first volume we described Thai Pop as "an awesomely confusional mix of Molam, Bollywood, Ethiopian groove, funk, soul, American pop and surf rock, all tangled up into amazing shapes, and peppered with killer hooks, amazing vocalists, bizarre production techniques, but most of all amazing amazing songs." Which of course still absolutely applies. Heavy Western funk to Ethiopian sounding grooves, tripped out organ drenched fuzz rock, with creepy sexy female vox to Shadows / Ventures style surf rock, a bunch of the songs like many of the tracks on the two Molam: Thai Country Groove Sublime Frequencies comps, totally remind us of whatever Thai song the Butthole Surfers appropriated for their song "Kuntz", that distinctly Thai vocal melody is so unmistakable and unforgettable. The whole record is just so wild and fun and varied and out there, slipping easily from classic sounding pop, to mysterious folk music, to stomping funk, to twangy soundtrack sounds to smokey bar ballads, to slithery soul, to far out almost Bollywood sounding exotica, all with a distinctly Thai flavor. Funky, groovy, soulful, so so good. Check out the sound samples. Sometimes we feel words can't quite do sounds like these justice. And the more we listen to this, the more THIS one is becoming one of our favorites, and heck, we could very well have made this another Record Of The Week too!
