What do you think, is it about time for another Turkish psych sensation 'round these parts? Hardal fits right in with Shadoks' previous reissues of Istanbul-based "Anatolian rock" bands we've loved, like Bunalim and Edip Akbayram, even though the date on this is a bit later than those. Hardal (featuring members of Erkin Koray's Underground 4 band) formed in 1976, releasing this, their debut album, in 1980. Maybe a little disco has infiltrated their sound, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Kitschy '70s cop show synths, acid rock guitar solos, and '60s psych-pop catchiness are all also in the mix.
Just listen to the first track, the super groovy, yet poppy "Bir Yagmur Masali" and tell us you're not hooked. It's impossible to resist that groove! They should have added this to the Psych Funk 101 curriculum (that comp we reviewed last list)! Reminds us a bit of South Korea's great San Ul Lim, who were of similar style, and vintage.
Soulful male vocals are contrasted with fuzzed out, funky bass. Whistling synth lines and cinematically wordless female vocals also adorn these songs. Hardal definitely have a typically romantic vibe derived from the traditional folk music of their homeland, but even at its mellowest, some tasty fuzz or badass groove is never that far away.
We don't know what Hardal means, but the album title Nasil? Ne Zaman? apparently translates as How? When? If the question involves getting down to some killer Turkish tuneage, the answer is: this is how, and the time is now!!
And as usual with Shadoks, the cd booklet provides informative liner notes, color photos, and press clippings.
Prepare yourself to to melt! This is one of our all time favorite records. Dripping with sensual seduction and a slow burn that always whisks us away, up into the clouds in such a stunning lush and wonderful way. La Question displays a side of Francoise Hardy that is often overlooked. While she is best known for the super fun and catchy ye-ye hits she delivered in the '60s, it's records like La Question (1971) that really show off the enchanting presence and mysterious qualities that truly make her one of the most enigmatic songstresses of all time.
With very stripped down yet haunting arrangements created by the mysterious artist only known as Tuca who also plays some seriously mesmerizing guitar on the record, its of course the breathy warm and ethereal vocals of Hardy that take the songs into another dimension. This is one of those records that truly takes a hold of you from start to finish. Causing goosebumps, hair standing on end, feelings of longing, desire and seduction, all with such stunning class.
La Question is the blueprint for so many of today's warm and woozy and dazed and dreamy music makers. It's a record that foreshadows the sounds of folks like Beach House, El Perro Del Mar, Taken By Trees, Tenniscoats, Air, Sebastien Tellier, Devendra Banhart, Tara Jane O'Neil, American Analog Set, Isobel Campbell, Brightblack Morning Light, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Samara Lubelski. One of the most breathtaking and beautiful records of all time perhaps, and beyond recommended!
Two discs full to overflowing with fifty immaculate French-pop nuggets by one of our favorite chanteuses of all time, and at a really reasonable price to boot, this one is an absolute no brainer!
Compiling songs Hardy recorded during her years on the Vogue label in France in the 1960s this really shows why there is so much to love and adore about Hardy. The first disc begins with many of her most ye-ye and infectious tunes that you just can't help but feel so classy and sassy while listening to. And as the collection plays on, you see what a nice range of sound Hardy had developed, which would lead her to create her masterpiece, La Question at the onset of the '70s. Taking the influence of what folks like Phil Spector were doing with girl groups in terms of lush, warm and hypnotic production, but with such a singular and undeniably sexy voice that just stands miles ahead of the pack. From songs that make you want to get on a dance floor with a glass of champagne in your hands, to songs that are so perfect for rainy Sunday nights when all you have is time to pass, this is pretty much as perfect a collection of songs as you can get. In fact it was this very collection that made the biggest Hardy fanatics at AQ first fall in love with her, so we're so happy this is finally available for us to list. One of those records we feel safe in recommending to just about anyone who loves music!
Limited edition reissue of a rare Swedish psych rarity from the very late sixties (or very early seventies). Perhaps you read about or bought the Terry Riley-influenced Parson Sound double cd we raved about not long ago? Well, Harvester (after releasing
Reissued and remastered for the first time on vinyl since its initial 1980 release, and previously long out of print on cd too, this beautiful collaboration between minimalist composer / experimental trumpeter Jon Hassell and ambient music pioneer Brian Eno has never sounded better! Such a gorgeous classic. Made between Eno's production work on Larajji's Ambient 3: Days of Radiance and the David Byrne collaboration, My Life In The Bush of Ghosts, Possible Musics was an early investigation into world music influences tempered through modern, Western studio techniques (synth treatments, tape delay, echo effects) resulting in a music of a borderless hybrid world of geographical intrigue. It greatly influenced the future-primitive recordings of My Life In The Bush of Ghosts made only ten days after the Fourth World sessions finished, though really they are different sides of the same coin.
Hassell, studied under Pandit Pran Nath and learned to transcribe Indian classical vocal techniques to the sound of the trumpet. Through various effects, he is able to conjure a vast array of sounds and textures, animalistic and mystical, sometimes flute-ish and even didgeridoo-ish. It never once sounds like a trumpet. There are definitely influences of Aboriginal, African, island and tribal music, but the aim feels more topographical than ethnological. The slow and deep attention to detail like the timbre of strings, the deep pulse of water drums and the loping liquid rhythms suggest big expanses of weather and terrain, movement and landscape. Hassell's trumpet treatments processed through Frippertronic-like tape loops and reverse echo effects are like deep rain clouds slowly moving across sparse tundra but seen and heard at a far distance. And indeed the whole album has this remote field recording quality like one is witness to something far-off, slightly foreboding, perhaps mystical, but also magnetic and alien, especially felt on the final side-long track "Charm (Over 'Burundi Cloud')". One of our favorites of the whole Eno/Ambient catalog!! Vinyl version comes with a copy of the cd.
Latest disc from Mr. Jeremy Barnes, formerly of legendary indie rockers Neutral Milk Hotel, and a staple of various other Elephant 6 bands, but for the last nearly nine years, the mastermind behind A Hawk And A Hacksaw, his solo project turned proper band, which performs music in the style of American folk music and Eastern European, Turkish and Balkan folk music. Now expanded to an EIGHT(!) piece, not counting various guest musicians, the expanded instrumentation of accordion, bass drum, cymbal, violin, viola, bouzouki, trumpet, flugelhorn, tuba, euphonium, dumbek, riq, guitar, cello, dobro, clarinet, and saxophone, has made the group's sound even more rich and expansive and expressive, from gypsy folk, to wild flamenco, to super intricate and lush klezmer music, Romanian folk music, Mariachi... Barnes and company are voracious, and deftly master whatever music they try their hand at, all woven into an incredibly festive, almost psychedelic, world music brew, which slips from frenetic and energetic and irresistibly danceable, to moody and mournful, to woozy and weary, to propulsive and playful. We had sort of forgotten how great this stuff was, but we can't seem to stop listening to this new one. A new favorite for sure.
Gorgeously packaged in a textured papers, screen printed, origiami style sleeve.
No sense in messing with a sure thing! A Hawk And A Hacksaw's latest release delivers more of their wonderful authentic Balkan folk sounds, but this time we also get the added delight of visual accompaniments. The group's enthusiasm and deep reverence for the music's history and artistry remains true, lively, and vibrant. Sure to please their growing legions of fans and win them a few more in the process.
Ethiopiques meets Torch Of The Mystics? Cambodian pop meets Turkish psych rock? Freaked out surf rock meets Saharan guitar music? Howabout all of the above...?
The very first release on the Sun City Girls' Sublime Frequency label from Istanbul-based instrumental psychedelic surf / space rock band Hayvanlar Alemi, their first vinyl lp, and their first record readily available outside of Turkey.
The thing that makes this Hayvanlar Alemi record work in the context of Sublime Frequencies, is that it borrows from a super varied set of sounds, from all sorts of musics, each track here sounding like it could possibly be from some other SF release, twanged out desert psych, moody Eastern garage pop, fuzzy druggy almost krautrock style drift, a few of the tracks even sound like they could be some Sun City Girls Torch Of The Mystics B side! But somehow these guys make all those different sounds work, this whole record holds together perfectly and flows like a proper album, a super expansive and sonically rich collection of modern psychedelia, beholden to all the various musics that came before.
The sound on Guarana Superpower is definitely exotic, lush, with Eastern melodies, simple hypnotic percussion, long droning tones, looped motorik grooves, plenty of buzz, and jangle, and crunch, rhythms that veer from spare and skeletal to wild and splattery, songs drift from tranquil shimmer to meditative buzz to occasional blasts of full on chaotic freaked out in-the-red psychedelia, but even in the midst of those noisy squalls, the instrumentation is distinctly Eastern, the result some fantastical Eastern psychedelic noise rock. It's during those moments that the Torch Of The Mystics comparisons become even more apt. The record is of course rife with references to traditional Turkish folk music, Turkish classical music, sixties and seventies Turkish psych rock, as well as all the above mentioned NON Turkish sounds and influences, all filtered through a modern avant rock sensibility. There are a few tracks of surfy, bluesy garage rock stomp as well, but again, even those jams are infused with a vibe and energy that is way more Eastern than Western. So good. And such a perfect fit for Sublime Frequencies...
As always, this is a super limited one time vinyl pressing, nice thick vinyl, housed in a heavy old school style tip-on jacket.
Yay, Turkey's answer to the Sun City Girls is back with their 3rd full-length album! We're talking real GOOD Sun City Girls, like Torch Of The Mystics, 330,003 Crossdressers, or the group's swansong Funeral Mariachi. Not a surprise that their previous record and 7" single both came out on ex-Sun City Girl Alan Bishop's Sublime Frequencies label, and that this one is on Unrock, a German imprint that up to now had specialized solely in releases featuring Sir Richard Bishop, also formerly of the Sun City Girls. The Ankara-based Hayvanlar Alemi trio (their name in English means 'The World Of Animals', btw) clearly have the Bishop brothers' seal of approval, and could be considered SCG proteges, carrying the torch (of the mystics) passed by the now defunct SCG's.
Their all-instrumental music is a similar, wide-ranging, partially improvised mixture of Western and 'world music' influences - an exciting, exotic synthesis of psychedelic surf rock and various Near Eastern / Middle Eastern / Far Eastern ethnic sounds� So if you're into classic Ethiopian groove (they are, covering Mulatu Astatke's wonderful "Yekermo Sew" here, which also appeared on that aforementioned single), and contemporary North African guitar groups like those found on many Sublime Frequencies releases, and all those cool obscure international '60s garage combos from everywhere from Turkey to Thailand we're always heralding reissues and compilations of, then Hayvanlar Alemi's jams are gonna be your jams too. Likewise probably if you dig some other excellent bands also currently doing the 'ethnic-psych' thing, like Swedish Afro-fuzz purveyors Goat or Mexican cumbia-psicodelico instrumentalists Sonido Gallo Negro.
This new lp-only album, limited to 750 copies, provides eight more 'twisted souvenirs' from Hayvanlar's sonic world explorations, which can be both heavy and atmospheric, shimmering and sinuous, fuzzed-out and groovy, often all of the above at once! Great stuff, recommended!
We already know that any Sublime Frequencies release is gonna be desirable - and not just 'cause it's undoubtedly limited in edition, especially the vinyl variety. But this one's really rad. A 45rpm 7" single from modern day Turkish psych band Hayvanlar Alemi, whose SF full length Guarana Superpower had us likening 'em to a surfy Sun City Girls steeped in the Anadolu pop playbook of the late '60s/early '70s, in other words they're the descendants of the likes of Mogollar, 3 Hur-el, Baris Manco, and Sublime Frequencies labelmate Erkin Koray, mixed with many other psychedelic influences.
The B side here is a cool unreleased improv jam, live in the studio in their hometown of Ankara. But it's the A side that makes this a double whammy for international groovy music lovers - it's a heavily rocked up, killer cover of the classic song by Ethio-jazz legend Mulatu Astatke! Even if you don't know it by name, chances are you'll recognize it when you hear it.
Now we'd like to hear Hayvanlar Alemi do an entire Ethiopiques album...
Recently, we reviewed Brazil's Modulo 1000... Before that, Thai Beat A Go Go volume 2. And the Lemmy-goes-to-India sounds of Sam Gopal. And the Juan dela Cruz Band from the Phillipines. And Turkish music galore. And all those incredible Cambodian Rocks comps. Et cetera, et cetera. Yup, we've had a lot of vintage heavy rock and psych reissues from all over the world now, but this is maybe the first time we've gotten our hands on something from Korea (and hopefully not the last -- we'd love to get Sanullim discs too, someday).
Recorded in, yay, 1971, pressed in a ridiculously limited (promotion only) quantity of 300 copies each, and subsequently all but forgotten, these two records by Korean psychedelic groovesters the HE 6 are some gems indeed! With the exception of the closing side-long seventeen minute cover of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (which faithfully does indeed include the obligatory drum solo as per the original version, along with what sounds like a police siren and also an added *flute* solo!) all the tracks on the two albums Go Go Sound '71 vol. 1 and Go Go Sound '71 vol. 2 included here are instrumental jams -- numbered themes with titles like "Theme 2. 4/4 for Guitar" and "Theme 3. Running Human". And even "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is mostly instrumental of course.
Listening to the other tracks on this disc it makes sense that they would choose Iron Butterfly's opus as the sole tune to cover. Like that tune, all of their originals are extended jams led by fuzzed-out electric guitar and Hammond organ. In addition, the aforementioned flute gets a workout too. (Yet another victory for the flute, so often mistakenly perceived as diminutive instrument! But the flute can certainly hold its own in this heavy, groovy, acid-rock band.) And it's crucial to mention that HE 6's rhythm section is darn tight! Indeed, this stuff's funky enough that we're sure they were probably just as much influenced by James Brown's band The JB's as they were by the likes of the Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly. If not so obscure, we're sure this would have been plundered by DJs looking for the swank breaks... who knows, maybe hip hop producers in Korea have done so? So, very much recommended to all you folks into these sorta swinging '60s/'70s sounds -- especially if you dig the Cambodian Rocks and Thai Beat comps!
'Tis an expensive import, but the packaging helps justify the price: a gorgeous heavy-duty mini-LP styled gatefold sleeve, complete with a booklet featuring extensive liner notes (in English!) and photos, plus you even get two colorful HE 6 stickers! Nice.
You would never in a million years guess that this band wasn't Swedish. And you would never guess they weren't a real metal band. I mean, they -are- a real metal band, but listening to this record, you imagine long haired Swedes banging their heads with one
One of two great Afrobeat finds this week, unearthed by the awesome Soundway label (see the Sweet Talks review elsewhere on this list too). Hedzoleh Sounds were (and still are!) one of the most original "Afro" bands from the early seventies in Ghana, combining West African highlife with funk and western rock sounds. Famously recruited by jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela ("Grazing In The Grass") as his backing band after a recommendation from Fela Kuti for Maskela's 1973 Afro-jazz rarity "Introducing Hedzoleh Sounds" (which we're hoping will also get a reissue!), this self-titled release from 1972 is even rarer, documenting the band from their beginning singles and their stint as the house band at the Napolean Club. Known later in years as stalwart performers of more traditional sounds and horn-fueled highlife, this self-titled release not heard for over forty years is more remarkable for its lack of the horn section that later defined them. Making it a more lean, stripped down excursion, heavy on swinging funk rhythms and gorgeous sweet vocal harmonies. Killer!
This unanimous store favorite has been newly reissued on vinyl with a beautiful gatefold sleeve. Come on, who could resist that classic cover of a mysteriously sexy lizard alien in a retro space helmet? Surely not us!
Ok, anyone into Magma and/or Moogs pay attention! Pretty much anything by Heldon, the pioneering French electronic rock act from the '70s comes highly recommended by us, but Interface perfectly combines Pinhas' Frippertronics guitar obsession with (what are now) vintage synth sounds into some of the best psych-prog sci-fi jamming EVER. Interface was Heldon's sixth LP, dating from 1977, and features the latter-day Heldon trio line-up of Pinhas (guitar, various Moogs, electronics), Patrick Gauthier (later of Magma, on the Moog bass and Minimoog) and Francois Auger (drums and synthesized percussion). Tracks like "Jet Girl" and the nearly twenty minute title cut are kinda like King Crimson meets Suicide or something like that. It's at once both hectic and contemplative, filled with dynamic energy and industrialized nervous ambience. Essential!
Wow! The wonderful, wonderful music of organist Merit Hemmingson combines a bunch of stuff we just simply LOVE but never heard quite like this before. The title of this "best of" collection boldly suggests as much to you too, right? Swedish Hammond Folk Groove, yeah!! We hadn't heard of her before we came across this, but now we know she made a handful of records in the '70s that brought together ancestral Swedish folk melodies, jazzy Hammond organ grooving, and some colorful psychedelic moves. Merit's Hammond is at the fore, playing her own swingin', riffin' take on these traditional tunes, but the arrangements also variously incorporate '70s funky wah-wah psych guitars, her lovely, wordless vocals, flutes and bongos and more... It's all so sunshiney and delightful, reminding us of everything from Hansson & Karlsson to Turid to The Free Design to a calmer, mellower version of Aavikko! And of course modern-day Swedish folk organ duo Sagor & Swing.
Merit's music is gentle, soulful, rhythmic -- so nice! It's total "grooving with trolls and flowers in the forest funk". Not your everyday organ jazz that's for sure, though Merit got her start in the '60s playing jazz -- she came over to the New York City to study, taking piano lessons from both Joe Zawinul and Lalo Schifrin and even getting to sit in with Miles Davis's band! But soon she went in a more pop/funk direction, and then became inspired by Scandinavia's rich history of olden folk music to create the sounds heard here.
The twenty tracks on this collection are all from albums originally released between 1971-1977 (Huvva, Trollskog, Bergtagen, Balsam, and Hoven Droven) except for a couple of recently-recorded tracks at the disc's end done in a similar style, featuring as sidemen members of currently happenin' Swedish retro-leaning rock bands (and big Merit fans) Dungen and The Ark! That's right, while obscure for years even in Sweden, she's undergone a bit of a hipster rediscovery lately and in fact this disc (the first time on cd for most of this music) is the prelude to a new album due out this year.
Queen Of Swedish Hammond Folk Groove is a nicely deluxe package, in a slipcovered jewelcase with a thick booklet full of photos, liner notes in both English and Swedish, and Merit's own track-by-track commentary. We had to go to a bit of trouble to import these from Sweden, but it was worth it!
Besides having an awesomely demented band name (who the hell is Henry Fiat?) Henry Fiat's Open Sore are so smoking hot and so ultra kick ass, it's amazing we're only now discovering them. I was going to describe them as the Hives meet the Mentors, which I still think is pretty apt, although the rest of the AQ staffers hear more straight ahead punk rock a la the Ramones. But if you're into that hypercharged Swedish guitar sound, this will definitely be right up your alley. Dressed in tattered mod suits and heads wrapped in black bandages, they look like the Mummies' scary older brothers. But no retro lo-fi garage rock here. This is fierce and furious, ass kicking 3 chord, bounce up and down punk rock and roll!
We love our metal here at aQ. A LOT. But there a two distinct strains that tend to drive us wild. There is of course the ultra precise, super heavy, complex and punishing perfectly crafted metal. Be it black, or thrash, stoner or doom. But then there's its bastard offspring, its deformed sibling, the one kept locked in the cellar, the damaged, demented, completely bizarre, totally unhinged and utterly and beautifully impossibly fucked metal. Total outsider metal. It may be doom or sludge or black metal, but composed and played and recorded with total disregard for anything but the personal vison, no matter how skewed or off kilter. In the past we have worshipped before the likes of Benighted Leams, Urfaust, Striborg, Wold, Rehtaf Ruo, Spektr, Necrofrost, Furze and all of a similarly demented nature. And now we have Hidden. A sort of doom / thrash hybrid, pre-occupied with some impossibly ridiculous science (fiction), the record is called Aleisstar Morphalite, some of the song titles: "Hydrodynamic Physics", "Interplanetary Space Physics And Climatology", "Planets Of Metal", "The Search For Where Life May Have Existed", you get the drift. And their sound is equally as scientifically and musically obtuse. Buzzing downtuned thrash metal, lighting fast riffs buried WAY down in the mix, the gutteral inhuman vocals way UP in the mix, spitting out impossibly complicated lyrics, you can catch a word here and there, 'radiation' gets mentioned a lot, as does the 'universe', 'carbon dioxide' does too, each line containing just a few too many words to fit in the designated space, so it comes out all gargled and jumbled together, a bit like old Slayer actually at least in terms of cadence, the sound though is like nothing you've ever heard, a sort of deathmetalized alien shriek. Then there's the songs, the riffs and the song structures are super convoluted, lots of stops and starts, pauses where there will be no sound but a weird wheezing synthesizer, or some random droning rumble, creepy synths and almost Cradle Of Filth keyboards surface all over the record, sometimes in a thick sheet draped over everything, there are some weird trashcan sounding electronic cymbals that hover in weird spaces when the music sort of hiccups and skips a beat, sometimes just a haunting background, occasionally a black thrash attack will slowly peter out and turn into a strangley gorgeous melancholic doom dirge, but still peppered with haunting piano and all sorts of random sound effects and sonic weirdness, and of course the vocals slithering and shrieking out some strange alien scientific propaganda over the top. But weird and bizzare and damaged and demented are not enough (well, almost), there has to be songs, you know actually songs, riffs and hooks and parts that stick in your head. And well, as impossible as it may seem, this record is full of 'em. Completely and impossibly catchy parts. The first song in fact, "Interferometer", has to be the catchiest damaged-alien-doom-black-thrash-sci-fi song EVER! Even the weird double kick / warbly space synth battle part way through gets stuck in our heads. Holy crap! This record is so completely nuts, but so completely heavy and kick ass. These guys should totally have a crazy metal science show on PBS, where kids learn about gravity and time travel and wormholes, but each lecture is delivered as a sludgy buzzing convoluted blast of demented space metal! In our dreams!
Way back in 2002 we listed a record by Norway's Hlidolf, who whipped up (or, er... down) a slow motion swirl of spacey, dark, drifty, deep, and droney doom sludge. Channelling Earth 2, SUNNO))), Lustmord, Klaus Schulze and the like. Obviously it was a huge AQ fave. Unfortunately that release seems to have faded and disappeared into the ether, but thankfully we now have this epic three track disc from Hjarnidaudi, who are the rightful sonic heirs to the space doom drone throne once occupied by Hlidolf (due in no small part to this being the new project of Hlidolf's Vidar Ermesjo). But where Hlidolf was all darkness and doom, winter and wastelands, Hjarnidaudi is white hot light and blinding bursts of fuzz and sparkle, like the impossible birth of a new universe. Sure it's still slow and doomy, but much like the recent Fleshpress III record, this is a doom band moving beyond the confines of pure doom. Huge expansive stretches of majestic slow moving melody, a sort of doom certainly, but instead of murky downtuned gurgling sludge, these doomscapes are constructed from jagged buzzy brittle slabs of crystalline guitars, brief explosive smears of almost ambient fuzz, held together by an impossibly glacial rhythm section. Sunroof! by way of Esoteric, a shoegazer SUNNO))), a WAY less propulsive Jesu, or Skepticism broadcast through the M83 soundsystem. A gloriously thick and rich, warm and shimmering expanse of stretched out buzzing guitars, dreamy melodies, minor key and melancholy, but with a strangely warm embrace. If most sludge-doom-death-drone is like dunking your head in a tarpit, the world a dripping black dirge, Hjarnidaudi is like falling into the Sunn, hot and blinding, the world splintering into a million tiny sparkling pieces.
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
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One of two new modern Chilean psychedelic outfits on this week's list, both on Sacred Bones, and both sharing a member, The Holydrug couple is a duo who traffic in spaced out, hazy, druggy, cosmic jams, laid back and lysergic, a little bit stonery and sun baked, the sound lush and layered, a definite raga vibe, totally cosmic and pretty heavy, and definitely heady, minimal vocals, the crux of these tracks filled up with hypnotic, krautpsych JAMS, the drums solid and propulsive, the guitars swirling and swooping, soaring and wailing, plenty of effects, the whole of side A, a single extended jam that pulses and jangles, chimes and crunches, like Los Natas meets Pink Floyd maybe, gradually growing more and more spaced out mellow, before finally, slipping into a swirl of shimmery droned out ambience.
The B side is two shorter tracks, the first a crunchy chunk of garage-y groove, even more stonery than the flipside, all Hawkwind, Monster Magnet, Kyuss, Earthless psych space jam bliss, the second half a total heart of the sun blowout. The second track (and the shortest of all three), is also the mellowest and dreamiest, all washed out jangle, melodic shimmer, shuffling drums and hazy sweetly sung vox, the perfect psychedelic wind down / chill out coda...
On the same label that brought us the amazing avant grind of PIVIXKI on the last list, comes another stunning find, this one from UK avant/free/math rockers Honey Ride Me A Goat, who apparently have been around for a while now, although this is the first we've heard from them, but we are appropriately blown away.
You think with a name like Honey Ride Me A Goat, we would have been all over these guys, but hell, here we are now making up for lost time. Imagine some dizzying collision between old school SST style free jazz weirdness, stop on a dime NoMeansNo style mathiness, the tangled riffy jangle of nineties college rock, and super spazzy sonic tangles a la everything Mick Barr, and you'd probably be close to capturing the head spinning sonic weirdness these guys traffic in.
After a stretch of swirling abstract free jazz avant noise splatter, the band launch into the first track with something almost surfy, gnarled riffs, skittery rhythms, crunchy distorted guitars, all very looped and hypnotic before finishing off with another squall of chaotic crunch.
But it's the second track where we're totally and irreversibly smitten, a seriously progged out post metal, space metal math jam of epic proportions, think the Ruins and Orthrelm battling it out on stage, only to occasionally slip into some churning hypnotic almost krautrock grooves, with lots of woozy basslines, angular abstract guitar grind, and some of the most perplexing arrangements EVER. And so it goes, the band leaping dexterously from mesmerizing Necks-like avant jazz drone creep, to spastic math grind freakouts, to churning carnivalesque genre leapfrogging grooves, to blown out free jazz / avant grind, to sounds even more abstract and difficult to describe.
Needless to say, this stuff RULES, freaked out and frenetic, frantic and frenzied, fans of Orthrelm, Ocrilim, Ruins, NoMeansNo, Hella, Lightning Bolt, Upsilon Acrux, Flying Luttenbachers and all that sort of post prog / math / grind / avant weirdness will dig BIG TIME.
We have a long history of obsession with strange sounds from Scandinavia, whether it's all the hypnorock weirdness from Finland, grim blackness from Norway and Sweden or music performed on instruments made from ice, there's something about that stuff that we find irresistible. Not just sonically, but also conceptually. Which makes the provenance of this disc's arrival at aQ all the more wonderful. One day in the mail, a cd with a moose, standing in front of an open refrigerator, set amidst a sunset lit landscape of snow. On the back, drawings of men all wearing white hooded body suits, and all seemingly holding deer skulls and antlers. We were already sold, but the deal was sealed with the legend: "Originals and traditionals performed on stringed reindeer antlers." Which is exactly what this is, a series of haunting soundscapes, performed primarily on stringed and contact mic'd reindeer antlers, the strings and antlers bowed and plucked and scraped, those mysterious sounds accompanied by all manner of sticks, logs, rocks, bones and various field recordings, those field recordings giving the proceedings the air of some surreptitiously captured ancient ritual. There are more traditional instruments as well, drums, flutes, fiddles, guitars, but those are employed judiciously, and most often merely to color the background over which the antler skulls hum and thrum, shimmer and moan.
It's no surprise that David Tibet of Current 93 is a fan, and maybe even less of a surprise that so is�Fenriz of Darkthrone (who even did a '90s acid techno remix of 'em which works surprisingly well! Not included here, sadly...), the sound of Hornorkesteret definitely plays into C93's ritualistic ambient folk, and Darkthrone's Norwegian pride, but beyond that, the sounds here are unlike anything you've heard. If we had to compare it to anything, we might mention Avarus, No Neck Blues Band, the aforementioned ice instruments of Terje Isungset, there's definitely a murky, primitive, tribal krautrock vibe, not to mention a certain hauntological bent, especially on the first track (more on that in a second), but ultimately, this is some fantastic raw sonic exploration, a mysterious songsuite, atmospheric, haunting and strangely psychedelic in its own way.
This disc collects the group's best recordings from the last ten years, and begins with what might be the weirdest one, "Elegi For Roald Amundsen", which begins with a staticky shortwave broadcast, a lost radio transmission of a voices speaking in Norwegian, beneath which, the stringed antlers rumble and hum, weaving a dark shimmery drift, driven by a low pulsing thrum, all the while wreathed in a warm crackle, totally mesmerizing and strangely evocative of some impossible melding of ancient tribal ritual and 'modern' technology. It had us imaging some ancient Norwegian tribe, who discovered an old transistor radio, which they assumed must have come from the gods, and every mysterious broadcast was a message from beyond, which they paid tribute by accompanying on their bowed skulls and stringed antlers. Elsewhere, the group weave darkly meditative and ominously rhythmic soundscapes of thrum and rumble, over beds of rushing water and birdsong, or pounding stretches of almost Dead C worthy abstract atmospheric psychedelia, or groaning surreal ambience that reminds us quite a bit of an even more abstract take on Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste. The tracks vary greatly, from spare and minimal, to dense and rhythmic, at one point detouring into pure Norwegian folk, and at another into something almost funky, a sort of super rhythmic kraut-groove, but for the most part, spends the majority of its time in some haunting sonic otherworld, a transmission from a lost time, delivered in a lost language of sound, the stories and lives and memories conveyed via this strange music, performed on skulls and bones, captured here for eternity.
As we're sure you've noticed, over the past year, we've been reviewing tons of Chinese indie rock / noise pop / experimental music, and based on the response we've gotten, you're all digging it as much as we are. Even on this list, you'll find a bunch more cool weird Chinese stuff, including this one, from Hot & Cold, which oddly enough comes by way of Chicago label Moniker, but once you get an earful of these guys, it'll make perfect sense, cuz H&C are a perfect fit on Moniker, their sound a sort of zoner-psych, kraut-drone psychedelia, all programmed rhythms, loping stoned basslines, wasted Velvets vocals, and some blown out distorto organs, giving it all a kick ass lo-fi psych-garage vibe, that while not necessarily distinctly Chinese sounding, definitely hits the spot, falling somewhere between Moon Duo, Suicide, the Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3, and the like, all dirge-y, druggy outsider/weirdo mesmer. Border Area is killer blast of minimal, psych garage kraut-boogie that we have been digging like crazy!
Includes a download code too!
On the last list, we reviewed an lp from Hot & Cold, a Chinese group who somehow found their way to Chicago label Moniker, and as we mentioned in that review it was a perfect fit, as H&C's twisted brand of lo-fi noise pop / minimal psych kraut / psychedelic noise rock was pretty well removed from much of the other Chinese stuff we've been reviewing lately, which tends more toward the jangly/fuzzy end of nineties style American indie rock. But we (and lots of you) dug that lp, and wanted more, so here's another blast of FX drenched weirdo pop noisiness, and if anything, it's equal to the Moniker lp, right from the get-go, opening with a feral blast of distortion drenched, feedback slathered, bass heavy crunch. Siren like melodies swirl atop a bed of tangled high end squiggles, some fierce distorto bass buzz, yowled Mark E. Smith style vox, all wreathed in a weird cloud of sculpted industrial feedback, and driven by a clipped minimal electro beat, and it's so good! One of those opening tracks we had to listen to 5 or 6 times before we could make ourselves listen to the rest of the record. Which is equal to that opener, albeit not all nearly as noisy and chaotic. "Simon's Angry Song" doesn't sound nearly as angry as that opener, but does deliver a tense sprawl of loping noise rock mesmer, with some crunchy guitar buzz, another drum machine beat, the vocals buried in the mix this time, but as we've come to expect, it doesn't take long for the song to splinter into full on WTF freakout, a twisted squall of wild psychedelic noise, and glitched out weirdness, all still draped over that original hypnotic groove. "Knife Fight" sounds like a more wasted, WAY more abstract Stooges, a single riff looped and layered into something super tranced out, like the other tracks, gradually getting more and more twisted and trippy. We could probably go through the whole record track by track, cuz every song here is a twisted weirdo gem, hazy zoner-psych krautrock style kosmiche, to loping, stuttering electro-murk grooviness, that explodes into damaged outsider rhythmic meltdown, to super blown out, noise rock damage, to druggy dirgey mesmer, that sounds a bit like Spacemen 3 and the Velvets, melted down and doused in hallucinogens, to crunchy, robotic new wave noise-pop...
Seriously twisted, WTF avant pop electro noise radness, an oddball sonic outlier amidst all the killer Chinese indie rock and noise pop that we've been reviewing recently, but one that's quickly revealing itself to maybe be one of our favorites so far!
Huun Huur Tu are probably the most famous musical export from Tuva, known to most for their unique style of throat singing, in which the singer sings multiple notes: a drone, and then whistle like overtones, enabling the singer to create harmonies and multiple melodies, it's quite fantastic, and unlike almost anything you've ever heard. We've often fantasized about a black metal band finding a throat singer for a vocalist. We've actually seen John Gossard (Weakling, Asunder, Dispirit) at a Huun Huur Tu performance, trying to figure out exactly how they do it.
But the music of Huun Huur Tu is much more than just throat singing. Formed in the early nineties, the group performs and preserves traditional Tuvan folk music, singing in the traditional style, but also performing on traditional instruments, hand drums called Tungurs, a long necked Tuvan lute, called a Doshpuluur, a bowed two string instrument called an Igil, and perhaps as distinctive as the vocals, the Khomus, which is a Tuvan Jew's Harp. The sound they create is incredible. The above mentioned performance had 500+ people absolutely enraptured. Four guys in traditional Tuvan garb, boots and headdresses and furs, with those gorgeous instruments, the band wove a sonic spell that was impossible to resist. A sound that was surprisingly loud and powerful as well.
Ancestor's Call is their latest collection, and reflects the various facets of the group's sound and of the Tuvan folk music they pay homage to, from gorgeous solo vocal ballads, to galloping grooves (the galloping rhythm meant indeed to be horselike), the vocals a deep raspy almost Popeye sounding croon, easily slipping into throat singing, that whistling tone soaring impossibly over that deep buzz, some of the vocal harmonies are incredible, 4 impossibly deep voices woven into a lush harmony that rivals ANY drone music you've ever heard, rich and thick and dense and layered and when they begin to add those throat singing overtones, it's totally mesmerizing. The band do incorporate more traditional Western instruments (flutes, acoustic guitars), but they're deftly woven those into the group's sound, and they only serve to add to the gorgeous textures, especially on "Odugen Taiga" which sounds like Tuvan new age, or some Tuvan group making a record for Root Strata, but that's quickly followed by the gorgeous monk like chanting vocals of "Prayer", and it's then, more than ever, that you can feel the true power of their voices. So haunting and intense and emotional.
Of all the group's records, this one seems more stately, and restrained, darker and more melancholy, heavier on the ballads, the focus on the voices, not just the throat singing, but the vocal and instrumental interplay, the more rollicking numbers taking a back seat to the darkly dreamy moodiness of Huun Huur Tu's incredible sound and the fantastic musical legacy of Tuva. Nice slipcover packaging as well.
Wow, we've been waiting for someone to tell the definitive story behind one of Korea's most influential but sadly obscure guitarists and bandleaders. How influential? Well, Fender Guitars has recently made the 72 year old psych-rock veteran his own Custom Shop Tribute Series Guitar - the sixth one ever, after Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. How obscure?
Well, every past review in which we've ever mentioned him, his name has had a slightly different spelling. We couldn't find much written about him except that he was considered the "Godfather of Korean Rock". His signature song, the 18 minute epic, "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains" has been featured on two other releases we reviewed but with different titles and lengths. An edited version closed the Asian installment of the Love, Peace and Poetry series under the title, "Korean Title A2" by Jung Hyun and The Men, and the Shin Jung Hyun and The Men cd we listed in the past, credits the song as "Beautiful Country", at least that one had the full length version.
The edited 10 minute version is featured here too, but it's understandable given that this is a compilation that highlights how multifaceted his career has been through this fertile 16-year period, often playing behind singers who got top billing (Kim Sun, Kim Jung Mi, Jang Hyun and Lee Jung Hwa) or in a variety of Ga-yo (pop-rock) groups (Golden Grapes. ADD4, Bloozetet, Club Date, The Donkeys, etc.), But Shin Joong Hyun's signature guitar style, moody and soulful, but with a fuzzy, distorted grooviness, is evident throughout. What's even more amazing is Hyun's arranging skills, often augmenting his guitar sound with trippy psych organ and big booming drum tones (check out the opening break on "The Man Who Must Leave" to see what we mean).
Hyun got his start in the late fifties when he found lucrative work playing on American army bases after the Korean War. The opening track "Moon Watching" is from that period. It also afforded him the opportunity to stretch out stylistically away from the Korean traditional pop sound, into more western influenced pop, R&B and psychedelic styles. But while Hyun's songwriting and arranging is often hook-inflected and groovy, there is a serious soulfulness to the songs that give them a powerful melancholic quality. For instance, Kim Jung Mi's "The Sun" sounds like a song Galaxie 500 might have ripped off and made their own (maybe they did?). Jang Hyun's "Sunset" could have easily been featured on that Forge Your Own Chains comp of Heavy Dirges we raved about recently too. As Hyun's career hit the seventies, he was more interested in expanding his guitar sound with his band and moving away from the shorter poppier numbers of his sixties past. "'J' Blues 72" is the longest track on here at 15 minutes and it's all just fuzzy acid-groove freakout.
But it's the title track here that takes the prize for most amazing song. One of our favorite Asian psych tracks ever, it's really interesting to hear the incredible story behind it, as it was sadly the song that led to Hyun's professional undoing and to the beginning of a seven year forced musical exile. It turns out a representative of the corrupt leader of South Korea, Park Jung-hee, called upon Hyun to write a song about him, but he refused. The leader than asked him to write a song about the government and Hyun refused again. So perplexed and understandably, a bit paranoid about the exchange, Hyun retreated and wrote his own song about his feelings toward his country and brought it to his band to record. Since it was an eighteen minute song recorded live, the process of recording was unusually grueling, because if any mistakes were made, the band had to start over. Getting it onto a release was difficult as well because of its length but was eventually added to the B side of the singer Jang Hyun's album, originally called Jang Hyun and The Men which Shin Hyun later renamed Shin Jung Hyun and The Men (which is why we figure there have been many different names of the song and credits). Finally having it recorded, Hyun had the opportunity to perform it on TV. The song, with its simple depictions of how Korea is made up of beautiful nature and people, angered the leader and led to a subsequent country-wide musical ban, and years of interrogation, probation and oppression, until the leader's eventual assassination in 1979. Shin Joong Hyun's return to music after this period has been slow and much more low-key.
Light In The Attic has done a tremendous job compiling these tracks and doing the research into Hyun's topsy-turvy life and career, even getting the man himself to annotate all the recordings with his own personal stories of how they came to be made. With a 40 page full color booklet with photos of record covers and all of the great pop acts Hyun worked with over the period. This is not just a great document of an amazing musician, but a great view into the sixties and seventies pop-world of a little documented region of Asian music. Fans of other old and new Asian psych we love like He 6, San Ul Lim, Korean Black Eyes, Mops, Acid Mothers Temple, Up-Tight, Onna, and Satoshi Sonoda will find much to love here. Highest Recommendation!
A while back we made the Shin Joong Hyun anthology Beautiful Rivers And Mountains put out by the Light In The Attic label a Record Of The Week, and it was deservedly very popular. So hopefully you already know all about this legendary Korean rock n' roller, but if you don't, you could go read that lengthy review for a lot more information. He certainly has had an interesting life and career, with lots of ups and some serious downs; he began playing rock music back in the '50s for the G.I.'s on American military bases, saw a lot of success in the '60s writing hits for an assortment of singers, by the '70s his rebellious rock n' roll attitude landed him on the conservative South Korean government's shitlist, he wound up getting busted for pot and was tortured in an insane asylum and blacklisted, but eventually things changed for the better and his work resumed, though not the same as before, and he still makes music to this day.
What we have here is a 1974 album, the debut from a three-piece unit Shin formed called the Yup Juns ('brass coins'). None of the songs here appear on that Light In The Attic compilation except for one, there in an alternate recording that was used on a film soundtrack. But if you liked what we described in that review as the guitarist's signature style of being "moody and soulful, but with a fuzzy, distorted grooviness" then this album is full of that - awesome Korean '70s poppy psych action that's VERY GROOVY indeed, with an exotic, Asiatic flair. Halfway through the album, the track "I Love You" seems to channel some traditional Buddhist chant, with bells and percussion in lieu of Shin's guitar, a placid interlude amidst the other songs which look to get heads bopping and hips swivelling out on the dancefloor.
The compact disc version of this comes in a miniature-lp-style sleeve, and includes a thick 20 page booklet with extensive liner notes, lyrics and photos, which are also included with the 180 gram vinyl version. And it's an official release, in cooperation with Shin Joong Hyun himself. Nicely done, so happy to have this.
This week we happen to be listing another reissue from 1974 by another international psych guitar great, Erkin Koray. What Erkin Koray is to Turkey, we suppose you could say Shin Joong Hyun is to South Korea. We recommend getting both albums, while they draw from totally different cultures and traditions (well, except for rock n' roll), they're both great and it'd be tough to decide between the two...
Another one for everybody who loved the groovy HE 6 album we listed not long ago! Guitar player Shin Jung Hyun was a big deal in the South Korean rock n' roll scene, going as far back as the '50s, when he played for the GIs on American military bases. His music even was apparently the subject of a tribute album a few years ago. In the late sixties/early seventies psychedelia took hold, and Shin Jung Hyun did it as well or better than anyone... totally funky, tripped-out, acid-rock freakdom. Lots and lots of acid-fuzz guitar jamming with bass, drums, organ and some flute too. Maybe for that reason this reminds us a bit of Dungen, actually. The material on this album (which may actually be entited It's A Lie, we're not sure) dates around 1972 or so. Though 44 minutes long, there's just three songs here, "Beautiful Country", "It's A Lie" and "Woman In The Mist", all consequently long and meandering (yet rhythmically tight, believe it), and mostly instrumental. It seems that these three might have originally been the extended flip-sides to shorter, more commerical cuts, compiled onto this disc for the benefit of anyone into far-out psych jamming as wedded to Asian pop of the era. Not so much heavy as it is simply seriously groovy and right-on, Shin Jung and The Men blend garage rock/surf/Frisco ballroom styles into a head-nodding, toe-tapping, mind-blowing, utterly dazzling unravelling of whatever "song" it seems they started off playing. That means: the singer does some nice kinda soft psych pop crooning to start things off, but he soon disappears and the band just takes off into outer realms, doing their thing and stretching out without care for commerical (radio play) considerations. Eventually the singer shows up again, but it's as if he left the room and then came back in some minutes later to finish the song, utterly unaware of what his band had been up to in the interim! We can only imagine what their live shows were like, must have been killer -- as this disc is, killer.
Beautiful understated solo piano from this multitalented South African artist. Gorgeous!
"Anachronistic Belgrade prog/psych record from 1979. Heavily influenced by Pink Floyd, Can Hawkwind and Herman Hesse."
The Maestro strikes again! You should already know prolific South Indian film score composer Maestro Ilaiyaraaja and his "Electronic Pop Sound" from a couple Finders Keepers compilations we've highlighted: his own Solla Solla, and also the one featuring singer K.S. Chithra, with music by the Maestro. If you thought those two discs were over the top and irresistible, just get a load of this new one! (And even if you missed those, well, you probably have an idea of what we're talking about, if you've been exposed to any Bollywood/Kollywood/Lollywood craziness, as represented by other recent collections like Bollywood Bloodbath and Life Is Dance.)
Compared to those other Ilaiyaraaja's, this is similar, but with perhaps even more "video-game-iness" in the goofily orchestrated mix. It's VERY '80s electro synth sounding, and groovy too, as the subtitle promises. There's a big kitsch/cheese factor no doubt, but that's a big part of this genre's charms, really! Plus, this shit's tight, every element - electronic beats and sweet vocals and synthesized string sections and ethnic instruments and startling sound FX - in its place, everything and everybody dancing to the tunes of the Maestro. Hott stuff. 16 tracks, 65 minutes, you'll be grinning gleefully the whole time.
And you gotta love the cover, right? Icing on the cake of this swank trifold digipak, which includes a 30 page booklet with info on each of the films from which music was taken.
Yay, more delightful music from Ilaiyaraaja, illustrious composer for South India's Kollywood (not Bollywood, but close) film industry. Finders Keepers / B-Music has previously brought us a couple other comps full of Ilaiyaraaja's tremendously enjoyable and unusually arranged tunes, so hopefully you know all about him already and are eager for more, 'cause look out, here's another seventeen tracks of the man's colorful and creative East-West mashup music, circa the synth-pop Eighties (his prime), full of electro funk drum machine grooves, '80s future shock synthesizer (Yamaha DX7 keyboard in the house!), orchestral flourishes, and the often amorously impassioned vocalisations of a variety of famous playback singers including K.S. Chitra, aka the "Tamil Nightingale".
Ilaiyaraaja himself can lay claim to the honorific "The Maestro". He's also been called "The Crown Prince Of Tamil Pop", and it's easy to hear why from this disc of so very lively and infectious and not overly-serious music, joyful songs designed to get characters in Tamil films - and maybe you too - singing and dancing.
Apparently Ilaiyaraaja, currently 69 years of age, has written/recorded over 4,500 songs in his career (and counting), so we can probably look forward to more collections from Finders Keepers and other equally hip labels, but don't let this one slip by, it's got a lot of gems on it. Imagine if Axel F went to India...
Extensive, interesting, informative (as usual) liner notes from DJ Andy Votel are included, the disc having been compiled by Votel and Doug Shipton.
Import double vinyl version also forthcoming, by the way, we should have that in time for our next list.
Yay!! Now in stock, in quantity, on nice fancy import vinyl, in two parts. And each of the lps contains a bonus track not found on the compact disc version! Here's what we said about the cd:
If any album on this week's list is gonna put a smile on your face and spring in your step, this is the one! First off, we love Bollywood stuff to begin with, and then that this was curated by the Finders Keepers / B-Music folks, you know it's gonna be good... And indeed the stuff they've dug up for this compilation is so fantastic, fun, energetic, absurd, over the top, and catchy, yeah it's Bollywood at its best. Well, except that actually to be precise it's KOLLYWOOD not Bollywood, 'cause this is is all music from films produced by the Tamil-language film industry, based not in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) but in the South Indian city of Chenai (formerly Madras), in a neighborhood called Kodambakkam, thus "Kollywood" (and remember, there's also Pakistan's Lollywood too, based in Lahore, and Nollywood in Nigeria...).
In any case, there's 16 tracks here [18 on the vinyl, spread over the 2 lps], each more groovy and insane than the last. Furthermore, they're all the work of composer Ilaiyaraaja (meaning, Prince), aka The Maestro, a very creative and hard working fellow indeed, responsible for the scores to over 900 films in his long career!!! Thanks to Finder Keepers, who've selected these gems, sourced from rare 45 rpm singles and such, we're now big fans. Reminds us A LOT of one of our very favorite Bollywood and/or Kollywood collections ever, an all time AQ fave disc in any genre in fact: the long out of print Vijaya Anand "Dance Raja Dance" cd on Luaka Bop from years ago, another amazing batch of songs from South Indian musical cinema.
Solla Solla, like Dance Raja Dance, Dance, is simply irresistible. A lively, genre defying mash up of Eastern and Western, kitschy pop and chaotic exotica, psychedelic sometimes intentionally, sometimes otherwise, full of sudden surprises and sweeping melodies, crazy rhythms, wild vocal outbursts, funky fat synths, big bands doing disco beats... Wow!!
These songs, presumably for whirling, ADD action sequences / dance numbers, often feature quasi-orgasmic murmurs and squeals from the female lead vocalists, giggles and screams as well. Along with plenty of lovely singing, too, of course. And from the men, lots of "Huuh!!" and "Hey!!". Quite bombastic, and ecstatic, and definitely dance-floor DJ fodder for when you really want the party to get goin'. Absolutely delightful!!!
Again, all music composed, produced, and arranged by Ilaiyaraaja. Various veteran "playback singers" like S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and T.M. Soundararajan appear on here. The liner notes by Doug Shipton go into depth about Ilaiyaraaja's career, and plenty of photos/graphics are provided.
Yay!! Now in stock, in quantity, on nice fancy import vinyl, in two parts. And each of the lps contains a bonus track not found on the compact disc version! Here's what we said about the cd:
If any album on this week's list is gonna put a smile on your face and spring in your step, this is the one! First off, we love Bollywood stuff to begin with, and then that this was curated by the Finders Keepers / B-Music folks, you know it's gonna be good... And indeed the stuff they've dug up for this compilation is so fantastic, fun, energetic, absurd, over the top, and catchy, yeah it's Bollywood at its best. Well, except that actually to be precise it's KOLLYWOOD not Bollywood, 'cause this is is all music from films produced by the Tamil-language film industry, based not in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) but in the South Indian city of Chenai (formerly Madras), in a neighborhood called Kodambakkam, thus "Kollywood" (and remember, there's also Pakistan's Lollywood too, based in Lahore, and Nollywood in Nigeria...).
In any case, there's 16 tracks here [18 on the vinyl, spread over the 2 lps], each more groovy and insane than the last. Furthermore, they're all the work of composer Ilaiyaraaja (meaning, Prince), aka The Maestro, a very creative and hard working fellow indeed, responsible for the scores to over 900 films in his long career!!! Thanks to Finder Keepers, who've selected these gems, sourced from rare 45 rpm singles and such, we're now big fans. Reminds us A LOT of one of our very favorite Bollywood and/or Kollywood collections ever, an all time AQ fave disc in any genre in fact: the long out of print Vijaya Anand "Dance Raja Dance" cd on Luaka Bop from years ago, another amazing batch of songs from South Indian musical cinema.
Solla Solla, like Dance Raja Dance, Dance, is simply irresistible. A lively, genre defying mash up of Eastern and Western, kitschy pop and chaotic exotica, psychedelic sometimes intentionally, sometimes otherwise, full of sudden surprises and sweeping melodies, crazy rhythms, wild vocal outbursts, funky fat synths, big bands doing disco beats... Wow!!
These songs, presumably for whirling, ADD action sequences / dance numbers, often feature quasi-orgasmic murmurs and squeals from the female lead vocalists, giggles and screams as well. Along with plenty of lovely singing, too, of course. And from the men, lots of "Huuh!!" and "Hey!!". Quite bombastic, and ecstatic, and definitely dance-floor DJ fodder for when you really want the party to get goin'. Absolutely delightful!!!
Again, all music composed, produced, and arranged by Ilaiyaraaja. Various veteran "playback singers" like S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and T.M. Soundararajan appear on here. The liner notes by Doug Shipton go into depth about Ilaiyaraaja's career, and plenty of photos/graphics are provided.
If any album on this week's list is gonna put a smile on your face and spring in your step, this is the one! First off, we love Bollywood stuff to begin with, and then that this was curated by the Finders Keepers / B-Music folks, you know it's gonna be good... And indeed the stuff they've dug up for this compilation is so fantastic, fun, energetic, absurd, over the top, and catchy, yeah it's Bollywood at its best. Well, except that actually to be precise it's KOLLYWOOD not Bollywood, 'cause this is is all music from films produced by the Tamil-language film industry, based not in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) but in the South Indian city of Chenai (formerly Madras), in a neighborhood called Kodambakkam, thus "Kollywood" (and remember, there's also Pakistan's Lollywood too, based in Lahore, and Nollywood in Nigeria...).
In any case, there's 16 tracks here, each more groovy and insane than the last. Furthermore, they're all the work of composer Ilaiyaraaja (meaning, Prince), aka The Maestro, a very creative and hard working fellow indeed, responsible for the scores to over 900 films in his long career!!! Thanks to Finder Keepers, who've selected these gems, sourced from rare 45 rpm singles and such, we're now big fans. Reminds us A LOT of one of our very favorite Bollywood and/or Kollywood collections ever, an all time AQ fave disc in any genre in fact: the long out of print Vijaya Anand "Dance Raja Dance" cd on Luaka Bop from years ago, another amazing batch of songs from South Indian musical cinema.
Solla Solla, like Dance Raja Dance, Dance, is simply irresistible. A lively, genre defying mash up of Eastern and Western, kitschy pop and chaotic exotica, psychedelic sometimes intentionally, sometimes otherwise, full of sudden surprises and sweeping melodies, crazy rhythms, wild vocal outbursts, funky fat synths, big bands doing disco beats... Wow!!
These songs, presumably for whirling, ADD action sequences / dance numbers, often feature quasi-orgasmic murmurs and squeals from the female lead vocalists, giggles and screams as well. Along with plenty of lovely singing, too, of course. And from the men, lots of "Huuh!!" and "Hey!!". Quite bombastic, and ecstatic, and definitely dance-floor DJ fodder for when you really want the party to get goin'. Absolutely delightful!!!
Again, all music composed, produced, and arranged by Ilaiyaraaja. Various veteran "playback singers" like S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and T.M. Soundararajan appear on here. The liner notes by Doug Shipton go into depth about Ilaiyaraaja's career, and plenty of photos/graphics are provided.
FYI, we also have (or can get) this on import vinyl, in two volumes, $24.00 each. Vol.1 contains a bonus track.
If you have never heard of Rikki Ililonga or his influential band, Musi-O-Tunya, you are not alone. As it goes in the rediscovery of important music especially outside North America, the true innovators of a sound and a scene are often the last to be rediscovered, and Rikki Ililonga is a case in point. Followers of the aQ list have no doubt been aware of the recent spate of "ZamRock" reissues, most lately, from Witch, and Tirogo, and farther back, gems from Ngozi Family, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, The Peace, and Amanaz, that really have shown the influence of Jimi Hendrix and heavy psych on this part of Southern Africa. Well, Rikki Ililonga through his band Musi-O-Tunya and subsequent solo records were there from the beginning, releasing the very first pop and rock records after Zambia gained its independence, thus pioneering the birth of "ZamRock".
The Now-Again label has done an incredible job of compiling two discs of recordings from the years 1973 through 1976, one disc devoted to Musi-O-Tunya, and the second disc to Ililonga's solo recordings. The first disc traces the band's roots from its Afro-beat beginnings with bass and horn funk rhythms to more lo-fi fuzzy garage rock singles band then to a heavier psych powerhouse singing full on in English. The centerpiece single being the title track, "Dark Sunrise", should get any heavy seventies I-rock head salivating. The second disc compiling Ililonga's first two solo records is a more varied affair as he goes through many seventies styles and tropes. There's still plenty of heavy psych with searing guitar leads, but there's also some Thin Lizzyish power rock, baroque rock balladry, heavy sexy blues and even some rhythmic Afro-pop.
The cds are housed in a 32 page full color hardback book compiling photos and interviews, liner notes and ephemera, and the triple lp vinyl version is even fancier, a massive boxset containing 12 page booklet, and individual, exact reproductions of Ililonga's original 3 albums (thus tracklist of the vinyl format is somewhat different than the way the cds are organized, as described above). Whooo yeah!
Tinariwen, Group Inerane, Bombino, Koudede, Tartit... there's quite an amazing scene of North African groups making groovy guitar sounds out in the desert, isn't there? Add Mali's Imarhan Timbuktu to the list - though they're not that new, having been around since 1993, regularly playing the Festival au Desert as well as touring further afield in Europe and the States (in fact, they just played SXSW). They also share members with the aforementioned Tartit. But this is the first recording we've had from this Tuareg ensemble, lead by guitarist/vocalist Mohammed Issa Ag Oumar El Ansar (also simply known as Medissa). It's largely a family affair with Medissa and his brother on interwoven electric guitars, and their two sisters backing them up with traditional hand drums. There's also a bass player, and someone rockin' the calabash (a gourd-based percussion instrument). Together they provide more of that rhythmically satisfying, intricate desert blues goodness we've come to expect from all these exciting groups from the Sahara. Proud musical transmissions from a culture in turmoil and transition, protest music that's definitely danceable, with twanging, jangling, sometimes searing guitar, and jubilant, mellifluous vocal lines. Great stuff.
FYI, just on cd for now, but there's a limited vinyl version upcoming for Record Store Day!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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If you're looking for some punchy high life to dance you butt off to, then the Imo Brothers' Eastern Nigerian recipe is for you. Though recorded in the early 80's, the authenticity is still here and the good track lengths will attest to a healthy workout!
The cliff notes version of Invisible Hands might read something like "spaghetti-western cow-punk from Cairo with one of dudes from the Sun City Girls." The dude in question is the curmudgeonly Alan Bishop (aka Alvarius B.) here working with four Egyptian musicians, two of whom had been in the Egyptian rock band Eskenderella. As we mentioned before in the previous review about Invisible Hands' first album, this is a remarkably sensible project for Alan Bishop, known for his confrontational fuck-you-in-eyeball attitude and discordant avant-folk splutter. Where the first album had a sand-blasted alt-rock prettiness about akin to Giant Sand and Calexico, Teslam finds Bishop pushing more of the insidious, diabolical aesthetics for which he is known. "Eyes In The Back Of Your Head" is a blackened, sardonic waltz with Bishop and Co. alternating between languid Morricone-esque melodies and harshly plucked Brechtian venom, all in the steampunk time of three. When Bishop and fellow Invisible Hands Aya Hemeda sing in tandem as on "Slaughterhouse" and "The Great Implosion", it's akin to the unkempt harmonies that Exene Cervenka and John Doe delivered in X.
What?! A somewhat sort of sensible Alan Bishop recording? We had thought the amazing Baroque Primitiva from 2011 might have been the most polite thing the former Sun City Girl had ever released; but his latest project under the moniker Invisible Hands might just take the cake, as this one can be downright lovely, not too far from Giant Sand or Calexico weirdly enough. Nope, there's none of the misogyny or misanthropy which Bishop routinely tosses into his lyrics for the Sun City Girls or as Alvarius B, and most definitely nothing as rude and wild and over the top as his Uncle Jim pseudonym; and that may have to do with the company he's keeping. The Invisible Hands ensemble is comprised of members of the Egyptian rock band Eskenderella; and they recorded this album in the summer of 2011 after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak and the upheaval that spread throughout Northern Africa. Perhaps, the timing was such that it would be unwise to record an album with the sorts of provocative subjects that Bishop is generally known for; but then again, it might have been equally improper to have recorded an album that might have been offensive to an Egyptian sensibility. To Bishop, it might be one thing to offend his politically correct audience in America and another thing to offend his hosts in Egypt, 'cause that would be rude. Eh. Or hell, maybe we're just getting a glimpse of a lesser seen sonic side to this musical misanthrope...
Either way, the album's arrangements are lovely and spacious, mostly driven by acoustic guitar with plenty of those Morricone nods common to the Bishop songbook, but there's some more aggressive turns with the theatrical gravity of Tom Waits and a few incendiary psychedelic moments that had us wondering aloud "Hey, when is somebody gonna reissue Torch Of The Mystics?" In fact, one of the songs here "Black Weather Shoes" is a pretty radical reinterpretation of an old Sun City Girls track from their record Grotto Of Miracles. We've been told that there's an Arabic version of these recordings under the Arabic name El Ayadi El Khafeyya, but that's only being sold in the Middle East. Major bummer, dude! That would be a very cool thing to hear, although this is cool as it is. Let's petition the White House and force them to comment on an Alan Bishop record!
Not strictly a Secret Chiefs record, Ishraqiyun is the Chiefs' "neo-Pythagorean electro-folk" side project, which essentially consists of the non-rock based music the band routinely perform live, in non-Western tunings, and on non-Western instruments. But they're not played entirely straight, with most of the tracks sounding a bit like Master Musicians Of Jajouka by way of Don Caballero, with lots of bowed buzzing strings, tabla-like percussion, Eastern rhythms, a serious world music / international folk vibe, but then wedded to wild mathed out drumming, and swoon some cinematic strings, the arrangements intricate and the sound exotic, some mutant strain of math-prog-world music maybe?
Ishraqiyun for this debut recording is made up of various Secret Chiefs past and present, including Eyvind Kang and Ches Smith, and of course led by former Mr. Bungle weirdo and SC head honcho Trey Spruance. All the songs are exclusive to this record, although many have been performed live over the years, and anyone who's seen SC live, will definitely recognize some of the tracks here, and recorded they're just as mesmerizing and hypnotic, sprawling world-folk grooves, lush and layered and psychedelic, the sound like some alien Sublime Frequencies release. The title track is apparently the first recorded composition to feature Spruance's "evolving system of musical ideas patterned upon the specific geometrical relationships found in certain polyhedra and the tessellating patterns from which they are derived" Phew! And while maybe understanding what the heck that means might give you an insight into the mad musical genius at work here, it's not a requirement to dig these sounds. Not at all. And while most of the record is as described above, buzzing strings and will percussion, often wound around fierce propulsive proggy drumming, some tracks, like "Base Phive Futur Cossacks" mixes in some of the band's avant garde tendencies, some moments harkening back to the WTF? days of Mr. Bungle, others the band's obsession with John Carpenter style soundtrackiness, with sounds cutting in and out, swirls of mutated samples, thick buzzing synths, weird blurts of baroque pop, all draped over a woozy world music framework, and what at first sounds chaotic and on the verge of collapse, quickly becomes one of the record's highlights. And while the next two tracks (including the epic 16+ minute title track) dial back the weirdness, and deliver more whirling dervish folk prog and brooding hypnotic world music psychedelia, the final track gives us one final taste of that weird international synth-prog space-psych exotica, this time with even more synthy swirl, wild splatters of piano, blown out, distorto psychedelic guitar buzz, plenty of studio fuckery, wild edits (and if not edits, some impossibly dexterous playing), all in a swirling sonic tangle that has to be some of the most seriously dizzyingly next level, psychedelic, avant prog, faux world music we've ever heard!
On her first two records, Finland's Islaja completely swept us off our feet and delivered us to an enchanted world of mystery, warmly wrapped in delicate layers of a unique beauty that just doesn't come around that often. Definitely reminiscent of Brigitte Fontaine's experimental leanings or maybe what we imagine Bjork might sound like stuck deep in a Finnish forest.
With her latest outing Islaja has done it again! She's conjured up a handful of songs that immediately begin to melt into your consciousness the roots going deeper and deeper with every listen. With the subtle addition of horns and electronics to her already dense and seductive sound, Islaja shows once again what a unique vision she possesses. Imagine Patty Waters joining White Magic at a late-night seance... Ulual YYY is like sinking into some warm dreamy state, eyes clouded with wisps of smoke until everything becomes a hazy blur. You're not sure where you are or what to do, but you are absolutely sure there is no where else you would rather be than deep inside Ulual Yyy's alluring and mystifying world. Highly recommended!
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Two new songs by two of favorite Finnish artists. They couldn't be more different, but this reminds us of why we love and have such a soft spot for split 7"s. Groups that sound nothing alike but share geography or friendship with each other. And with the increasing price of making vinyl, split 7"s are truly a labor of love and such a sweet token, as really its quite impossible to make money from them. First be forewarned as it will become obvious that the single was labeled wrong and the side that says Islaja is TV-Resistori and vice versa. TV-Resistori give us more of their upbeat totally fun synth pop that if we didn't know better we'd think they were another great Japanese pop band. And a new song by Islaja is of course something to rejoice about. Tiding us over until whenever her next album comes out, her track is so lovely and will for sure get you standing up every few minutes to reach for the needle to hear it over again and again.
The Swedish musical oddities never cease to amaze us, whether it be the hermetic psych of Joakim Skogsberg or the voodoo heaviness of Goat, Swedish musicians always seem to extremely commit to whatever thematic conceit informs their musical output. When we first got this release by Ixtahuele, we thought it was indeed a reissue of some obscure pagan exotica record from the fifties, but a closer look at the photo of the blonde lads on the back cover decked out in forties tuxes, one wearing a fez, just seemed a tad too modern and lo and behold, we realized Ixtahhuele is indeed a modern ensemble mining the sounds of Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter and Martin Denny! Using classic exotica instrumentation, of you know, marimbas, piano, stand-up bass, and all sorts of exotic percussion: bongos, gongs, taiko drums and cymbals, this group does a pretty stellar job of performing original classic sounding music without trying to put a modern spin on the sound. Instead of overdoing the hipster tropes of tiki bars and island girls, the band does its best to get to the heart of the alluring spell-binding qualities of true exotica: ritual dances, evil flora, island fever, stone relics and sun gods, the music oceanic and dreamy, beautifully hypnotic and sometimes fraught with an uncertain sense of danger, mystery and intrigue. Nice!
Jacopo Di Nicola is an Italian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose band is locally based here in San Francisco. Inspired by European cafe rock, Tropicalia and global rhythms, Jacopo manages on his debut cd to show a wide variety of styles and directions but keep it encapsulated as a satisfying whole. Treading a path between the baroque pop of Lucio Battisti and the frenetic rhythms of Manu Chao, Jacopo manages to charm with infectious songs sung in both Italian and English and unique instrumentation including mandolins, hand percussion, and some rather masterful kazoo playing! Nice!
