We can never get enough of the colorful, zesty, infectious sounds of golden era Bollywood. Luckily we have two more outlets for our fix, as Bombay Connection has released two volumes of Bollywood hits that we've been groovin' to in the store for a few months now and finally have gotten enough to review and list. This is Volume 1 (2 to follow next list) and features tons of kick ass classic Bollywood funk from action thrillers spanning 1977-1984. You know what that means: incredible backbeats, suspense building bridges, and ultra saucy vocals. All the greats are here: R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle, Kalyanji-Anandji, Sapam-Jagmohan, etc. So fun and so great!
We can never get enough of the colorful, zesty, infectious sounds of golden era Bollywood. Luckily we have two more outlets for our fix as Bombay Connection has released two volumes of Bollywood hits that we've been groovin' to in the store for a few months now and finally have gotten enough to list. Vol 2 features all the golden greats spanning 1959-1972. Songs from all of those amazing nightclub scenes. You know what that means: intoxicating instrumentation, impassioned vocals, and splashes of color that you can practically hear captured in these wild and fantastic songs. All the great Bollywood luminaries are included: R.D. Burman, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kalyanji-Anandji, Sapam-Jagmohan, etc. So fun and so great!!
The UK's Outcaste label strikes again with this fab compilation of "Indo-Jazz", 14 tracks of Indian-music infused jazz, uh, fusion from the '70s. We're told most tracks are taken from super rare and collectable records and we don't doubt it. Funky, fun stuff with tabla, sitar, and so forth mixing it up with various Western electric instruments. Way more than those lame DJ-mixed "Bombay
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Wild Indian Soundtrack music from the 1960's, made by the Shah brothers Anandji and Kalyanji, that has gotten the 90's production by The Automator, who enlisted DJ Shadow to add a couple of beats here and there throughout the record. It's pretty good, though somewhat same-y after the first half hour. And I have to say that both myself and the Automator are so damn tired of lazy, ignorant food-based one-liners used to describe music made by Asians and Asian Americans. Naming a song on this cd "The Good, The Bad, and The Chutney" just shows that the only familiarity too many Westerners have with Asians and Asian Americans is through food. How pathetic.
Hip hop, called Bongo Flava in Tanzania, has had an odd inverted development in relation to its US mentor. Unlike the US where the genre started in the streets, only to be picked up by the middle class as its popularity spread, it was the children of the wealthy and elite in Tanzania who would bring back western hip hop initially that eventually would trickle down to the poor in Dar es Salaam. But it was the poor who put the creativity and effort into making a full-fledged Bongo Flava scene -- though the production resources are still in the hands of the few, which results in an industry not disimilar to Jamaica's burgeoning music industry in the early seventies. What's more, while the faces of American rap stars grace the walls of clubs (there are some nice photos of such included with the accompanying booklet) and music stalls are pasted with their promotional posters, it's the local Bongo Flava stars that top the charts in Dar es Salaam, not the Americans. This is partially out of a sense of national pride, but also to the fact that the Tanzanian listeners can understand the Swahili lyrics of the local singers, which makes them a great deal more compelling to listen to than someone they can't understand. Part of this sense of national spirit can be attributed to former president Julius K. Nyerere, the first president after the country acheived independence, who sought to unify the country, which included making the official language of Tanzania Swahili. Now, despite the derision of elder Tanzanians who see the music as hooligan's music, the Swahili spoken Bongo Flava can be heard almost everywhere in Dar es Salaam. The production on these tracks shows just how far the digital age and software based home recording studios have made it possible for those of minimum means to approach the production standards set by the well heeled studios of the west. CD comes with a thick booklet detailing the history of Bongo Flava and short bios on the included artists.
The first release from Afrodisiac Records, Booniay is a really fun comp of funk, afrobeat, and highlife from '70s West Africa. There's a lot of James Brown "heuh!" exclamations, a lot of Fela-style horns, a lot of smokin' groovy organs, and ridiculously
A fantastic package here: 3 cds (that's 193 minutes!) of musical/field recordings spanning 25 years, documenting the pre-industrial culture of the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea (y'know, it's an island to the north of Australia) and their
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Not sure what it was, but for whatever reason, some of us had never gotten that into Bossa Nova. Sure there were the standards, the popular tunes that everyone heard, but it never struck a chord, or maybe just at the time, and maybe it was precisely because it was the popular tunes, the accessible jams that made it into the ears of someone who at the time, was more of a jazz dabbler. But Soul Jazz has been killing it lately, with THREE different Bossa Nova comps, which have totally swayed the non believers, converted the haters, and even impressed the folks who were already big fans. First there was Bossa Nova And The Rise Of Brazilian Music In The 1960's, which was reviewed on a past list and you can check out elsewhere on the aQ list, then there was Bossa Nova And The Story Of Elenco Records, Brazil (which we haven't reviewed yet, but hopefully will soon!), and now there's Bossa Jazz: The Birth Of Hard Bossa, Samba Jazz And The Evolution Of Brazilian Fusion 1962-73, which might just be the best of the bunch. We've been listening to this like crazy non stop since we first got it in, and it continues to blow us away. It's still bossa nova, but it's darker, and more intense, mostly instrumental, hard to explain exactly what it is, but the sound, the soul, the vibe, it's just totally doing it for us.
Apparently instrumental music, played by the more popular bands of the bossa nova movement, became known as hard bossa or samba jazz, and as the sixties wound down, there was a huge exodus of Brazilian musicians heading to the US, and many Brazilian based musicians who began to collaborate with US groups, and thus was born Brazilian fusion, and this compilation basically follows that shift, and traces its development musically. But it's the sound, the music, the feel, this comp in some ways feels like a Brazilian version of Ethiopiques 4, our favorite volume in that stellar series, but that one is all instrumental, and in many ways that lets the music do the talking, the emotion oozes from the instruments, and the same is true here, there are some vocal performances, which are incredible, but mostly it's these jazz masters let loose, the drums are wild, there are multiple drum solos, the bass, the piano, the bands are just incredible, and the sounds they conjure up are stunning. And even some more well known names, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Airto Moreira, Baden Powell, all offer up darker more progressive fusion-y sounds, and it's just fantastic, much of this collection sounds very cinematic, and like the other Soul Jazz bossa nova comps, not a single track we had ever heard before, but pretty much every single one we LOVE. So much so that this comp has sent us on a serious bossa nova kick that shows no sign of letting up. Which is always the sign of a good comp.
Like all Soul Jazz compilations, there's a big booklet with extensive liner notes with lots of photos, the cd version housed in a cool miniature hardcover book.
Now on vinyl, split into two volumes...
Not sure what it was, but for whatever reason, some of us had never gotten that into Bossa Nova. Sure there were the standards, the popular tunes that everyone heard, but it never struck a chord, or maybe just at the time, and maybe it was precisely because it was the popular tunes, the accessible jams that made it into the ears of someone who at the time, was more of a jazz dabbler. But Soul Jazz has been killing it lately, with THREE different Bossa Nova comps, which have totally swayed the non believers, converted the haters, and even impressed the folks who were already big fans. First there was Bossa Nova And The Rise Of Brazilian Music In The 1960's, which was reviewed on a past list and you can check out elsewhere on the aQ list, then there was Bossa Nova And The Story Of Elenco Records, Brazil (which we haven't reviewed yet, but hopefully will soon!), and now there's Bossa Jazz: The Birth Of Hard Bossa, Samba Jazz And The Evolution Of Brazilian Fusion 1962-73, which might just be the best of the bunch. We've been listening to this like crazy non stop since we first got it in, and it continues to blow us away. It's still bossa nova, but it's darker, and more intense, mostly instrumental, hard to explain exactly what it is, but the sound, the soul, the vibe, it's just totally doing it for us.
Apparently instrumental music, played by the more popular bands of the bossa nova movement, became known as hard bossa or samba jazz, and as the sixties wound down, there was a huge exodus of Brazilian musicians heading to the US, and many Brazilian based musicians who began to collaborate with US groups, and thus was born Brazilian fusion, and this compilation basically follows that shift, and traces its development musically. But it's the sound, the music, the feel, this comp in some ways feels like a Brazilian version of Ethiopiques 4, our favorite volume in that stellar series, but that one is all instrumental, and in many ways that lets the music do the talking, the emotion oozes from the instruments, and the same is true here, there are some vocal performances, which are incredible, but mostly it's these jazz masters let loose, the drums are wild, there are multiple drum solos, the bass, the piano, the bands are just incredible, and the sounds they conjure up are stunning. And even some more well known names, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Airto Moreira, Baden Powell, all offer up darker more progressive fuison-y sounds, and it's just fantastic, much of this collection sounds very cinematic, and like the other Soul Jazz bossa nova comps, not a single track we had ever heard before, but pretty much every single one we LOVE. So much so that this comp has sent us on a serious bossa nova kick that shows no sign of letting up. Which is always the sign of a good comp.
Like all Soul Jazz compilations, there's a big booklet with extensive liner notes with lots of photos, the cd version housed in a cool miniature hardcover book.
Now on vinyl, split into two volumes...
Not sure what it was, but for whatever reason, some of us had never gotten that into Bossa Nova. Sure there were the standards, the popular tunes that everyone heard, but it never struck a chord, or maybe just at the time, and maybe it was precisely because it was the popular tunes, the accessible jams that made it into the ears of someone who at the time, was more of a jazz dabbler. But Soul Jazz has been killing it lately, with THREE different Bossa Nova comps, which have totally swayed the non believers, converted the haters, and even impressed the folks who were already big fans. First there was Bossa Nova And The Rise Of Brazilian Music In The 1960's, which was reviewed on a past list and you can check out elsewhere on the aQ list, then there was Bossa Nova And The Story Of Elenco Records, Brazil (which we haven't reviewed yet, but hopefully will soon!), and now there's Bossa Jazz: The Birth Of Hard Bossa, Samba Jazz And The Evolution Of Brazilian Fusion 1962-73, which might just be the best of the bunch. We've been listening to this like crazy non stop since we first got it in, and it continues to blow us away. It's still bossa nova, but it's darker, and more intense, mostly instrumental, hard to explain exactly what it is, but the sound, the soul, the vibe, it's just totally doing it for us.
Apparently instrumental music, played by the more popular bands of the bossa nova movement, became known as hard bossa or samba jazz, and as the sixties wound down, there was a huge exodus of Brazilian musicians heading to the US, and many Brazilian based musicians who began to collaborate with US groups, and thus was born Brazilian fusion, and this compilation basically follows that shift, and traces its development musically. But it's the sound, the music, the feel, this comp in some ways feels like a Brazilian version of Ethiopiques 4, our favorite volume in that stellar series, but that one is all instrumental, and in many ways that lets the music do the talking, the emotion oozes from the instruments, and the same is true here, there are some vocal performances, which are incredible, but mostly it's these jazz masters let loose, the drums are wild, there are multiple drum solos, the bass, the piano, the bands are just incredible, and the sounds they conjure up are stunning. And even some more well known names, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Airto Moreira, Baden Powell, all offer up darker more progressive fuison-y sounds, and it's just fantastic, much of this collection sounds very cinematic, and like the other Soul Jazz bossa nova comps, not a single track we had ever heard before, but pretty much every single one we LOVE. So much so that this comp has sent us on a serious bossa nova kick that shows no sign of letting up. Which is always the sign of a good comp.
Like all Soul Jazz compilations, there's a big booklet with extensive liner notes with lots of photos, the cd version housed in a cool miniature hardcover book.
Blame it on the Bossa Nova! What Americans experienced of Brazil's biggest cultural export in the sixties (think Astrud Gilberto's "Girl From Ipanema" and Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66) was actually a watered down version of a vital cultural renaissance of luxury and prosperity in a country transforming itself from its agrarian roots to a new industrial power on the world's stage. Soul Jazz has released this terrific new compilation to highlight the origins of this tremendous and far-reaching cultural shift, with many of the genre's original innovators: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Elis Regina, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil, Nara Leao, Wanda Sa, Maria Bethannia, Milton Nascimento as well as plenty of others we had never heard before. With its cool vocals, complex but economic melodic structures and sophisticated jazz motifs, Bossa Nova represented a huge shift away from traditional music to a new modern jet-setting sound. What's neat about this compilation is that even though the names may be familiar, many of the tracks are not the typical hits you may have heard before, reflecting the urgent embrace and hopeful optimism of a country stretching into its new identity. Sadly it wouldn't last. By the time, American's were fully seduced by Bossa Nova's warm wave of tropical sophistication in the mid-sixties, Brazil experienced a military takeover and many of the musicians (namely Jobim and Mendes) were forced to flee to the US. They were able to have successful careers (perhaps even more successful than when they were in Brazil) but Bossa Nova in America became something symbolically different, an almost Imperial embrace of laid-back Latin coolness while completely overlooking the political unrest that displaced it. Thankfully another musical and cultural revolution, Tropicalia, was gearing up to take its place. Still, whatever association you might have with Bossa Nova, this compilation is full of surprises and well worth the listen. So freaking good!
And as with all Soul Jazz record, the packaging is deluxe and elaborate, a slipcover housing a jewel case and a massive booklet, with tons of photos, and a super extensive history of Bossa Nova, detailing the musicians, and the politics of the era.
NOW ON VINYL, spread out over two separate double lps...
Blame it on the Bossa Nova! What Americans experienced of Brazil's biggest cultural export in the sixties (think Astrud Gilberto's "Girl From Ipanema" and Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66) was actually a watered down version of a vital cultural renaissance of luxury and prosperity in a country transforming itself from its agrarian roots to a new industrial power on the world's stage. Soul Jazz has released this terrific new compilation to highlight the origins of this tremendous and far-reaching cultural shift, with many of the genre's original innovators: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Elis Regina, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil, Nara Leao, Wanda Sa, Maria Bethannia, Milton Nascimento as well as plenty of others we had never heard before. With its cool vocals, complex but economic melodic structures and sophisticated jazz motifs, Bossa Nova represented a huge shift away from traditional music to a new modern jet-setting sound. What's neat about this compilation is that even though the names may be familiar, many of the tracks are not the typical hits you may have heard before, reflecting the urgent embrace and hopeful optimism of a country stretching into its new identity. Sadly it wouldn't last. By the time, American's were fully seduced by Bossa Nova's warm wave of tropical sophistication in the mid-sixties, Brazil experienced a military takeover and many of the musicians (namely Jobim and Mendes) were forced to flee to the US. They were able to have successful careers (perhaps even more successful than when they were in Brazil) but Bossa Nova in America became something symbolically different, an almost Imperial embrace of laid-back Latin coolness while completely overlooking the political unrest that displaced it. Thankfully another musical and cultural revolution, Tropicalia, was gearing up to take its place. Still, whatever association you might have with Bossa Nova, this compilation is full of surprises and well worth the listen. So freaking good!
NOW ON VINYL, spread out over two separate double lps...
Blame it on the Bossa Nova! What Americans experienced of Brazil's biggest cultural export in the sixties (think Astrud Gilberto's "Girl From Ipanema" and Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66) was actually a watered down version of a vital cultural renaissance of luxury and prosperity in a country transforming itself from its agrarian roots to a new industrial power on the world's stage. Soul Jazz has released this terrific new compilation to highlight the origins of this tremendous and far-reaching cultural shift, with many of the genre's original innovators: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Elis Regina, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil, Nara Leao, Wanda Sa, Maria Bethannia, Milton Nascimento as well as plenty of others we had never heard before. With its cool vocals, complex but economic melodic structures and sophisticated jazz motifs, Bossa Nova represented a huge shift away from traditional music to a new modern jet-setting sound. What's neat about this compilation is that even though the names may be familiar, many of the tracks are not the typical hits you may have heard before, reflecting the urgent embrace and hopeful optimism of a country stretching into its new identity. Sadly it wouldn't last. By the time, American's were fully seduced by Bossa Nova's warm wave of tropical sophistication in the mid-sixties, Brazil experienced a military takeover and many of the musicians (namely Jobim and Mendes) were forced to flee to the US. They were able to have successful careers (perhaps even more successful than when they were in Brazil) but Bossa Nova in America became something symbolically different, an almost Imperial embrace of laid-back Latin coolness while completely overlooking the political unrest that displaced it. Thankfully another musical and cultural revolution, Tropicalia, was gearing up to take its place. Still, whatever association you might have with Bossa Nova, this compilation is full of surprises and well worth the listen. So freaking good!
From the folks who brought us the recent Cuban compilation packaged in cigar box, comes this stellar Brasilian collection which is separated into 4 cds cataloged by style: Folk & Traditional, Carnaval, Bossa Nova, and MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira). Nope, no contributions by Os Mutantes, but there IS a song by Joyce, who we'd like to find out more about. (Laetitia from Stereolab, in the most recent issue of The Wire's musical taste test, mistakes Joyce for the Mutantes and goes on about how great both artists are.)
A fascinating documentary that will interest drummers, DJ's, record geeks, hip-hop nuts and fans of Brazilian music alike. Following the group Keepintime, a super collective of high profile DJ's (Cut Chemist, Madlib, J. Rocc, Babu, DJ Nuts) and veteran L.A. session drummers (Paul Humphrey, James Gadson, Roy Porter and Earl Palmer) who initially got together as part of a photo-shoot and interview but ended up jamming together, evolving to play out highly popular live improvised sets.
Invited to Sao Paolo to play, the group hooks up with some of the most legendary drummers Brazil has produced, including Joao Parahyba who drummed on "Comanche" by Jorge Ben, Ivan "Mamao" Conti of Azymuth and Samba legend, Wilson Das Neves. While the live performances kill, there are also really great tag-along scenes where we get to see the performers in their element of process: the American drummers visiting a local percussion shop; the DJ's record shopping, comparing notes and trying to one up each other on their finds; lots of cool footage of vintage Brazilian records and artists that'll make the headz drool; Madlib creating beats in his hotel room; and even a frustrating "band practice" scene involving the DJ's. Along the way, there are plenty of stony segways where we learn about the religious roots of Samba, the regional origins of classic Brazilian percussive instruments, growing up in the favelas, and the ups and downs of being an in-demand session player in Brazil. It's almost too much, but near impossible to stop watching. Includes a bonus disc of special features, interviews and photos. So Awesome! ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search on thee item you're looking for, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! AFRICAN MUSIC MACHINE "Black Water Gold" (Fuel) cd 10.98 AIR CONDITIONING "Dead Rails" (Load) cd 14.98 AKERCOCKE "Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone" (Earache) cd 15.98 AKIMBO "Navigating The Bronze" (Alternative Tentacles) cd 13.98 ALOG "Amateur" (Rune Grammofon) cd/2lp 16.98/27.00 ANAL CUNT "Defenders Of The Hate" (Menace To Sobriety) cd 14.98 APPELQVIST, HANS "Sifantin Och Morkret" (Hapna) cd 16.98 ARCTIC MONKEYS "Favorite Worst Nightmare" (Domino) cd 14.98 ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "Neon Pibroch" (Important) cd 14.98 ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "Super Grease" (Important) lp 16.98 BACHI DA PIETRA "Non Io" (Die Schachtel) cd 19.98 BAD PLUS, THE "Prog" (Heads Up) cd 17.98 BAD RELIGION "New Maps Of Hell" (Epitaph) cd 14.98 BOXCUTTER "Brood VIP" (Abucus) 12" 12.98 BRETSCHNEIDER, FRANK "Rhythm" (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98 BROOM DUSTERS "Sound From The Bottom Of The Tokyo Underground" (Siwa) lp 24.00 BUDOS BAND "II" (Daptone) cd 14.98 BURNING BRIDES "Hang Love" (ModArt) cd 14.98 CALIX, MIRA "Eyes Set Against The Sun" (Warp) cd 25.00 CARIBOU "Andorra" (Merge) cd/lp 13.98/16.98 CHARNEL VALLEY "The Igneous Race" (Paragon) cd 14.98 CHEMICAL BROTHERS "We Are The Night" (Astralwerks) cd 13.98 COMMON "Finding Forever" (Geffen) cd 14.98 CUB "Betti-Cola" (Mint) cd 15.98 CUB "Come Out Come Out" (Mint) cd 15.98 DALEK "A Purge of Dissidents" (Ipecac) book+DVD+CD 31.00 DARKEST HOUR "Deliver Us" (Victory) cd 15.98 DEADBEAT "Journeyman's Annual" (Scape) cd 16.98 DEATH AMBIENT "Drunken Forest" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 DEMBELE, DACUDA "s/t" (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98 DIMENTIANON / RIGOR SARDONICOUS "split" (Largactyl) cd 14.98 DIZA STAR & THE PINK LADIES "Featuring Mani Neumeier" (Fractal) cd 23.00 DOPPLEREFFEKT "Calabi Yau Space" (Rephlex) cd/2lp 16.98/19.98 ELEGI "Sistereis" (Miasmah) cd 17.98 EMBRYO "Steig Aus" (Revisited) cd 17.98 EVERGREEN TERRACE "Wolfbiker" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98 EVOKEN "Embrace The Emptiness" (Elegy / Solitude) cd 14.98 EX-COCAINE "Keep America Mellow" (Killertree) lp 14.98 EXCEPTER "Streams 01" (Fusetron) cd 15.98 EXIAS-J "Live Document 2003-2005" (PSF) dvd 27.00 EXPO '70 "Audio Archive 001 - Music From Inaudible Depths" (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98 EXPO '70 "Audio Archive 002" (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98 FAUST "So Far" (Universal) cd 17.98 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS "The Distant Future" (Sub Pop) cd ep 3.98 GOATREIGN "s/t" (Wabana) cd 16.98 HELLA "There's No 666 in Outer Space" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 HORSEFLESH "Journey To The East" (Chambara) cd-r 6.98 JABLADAV "3K Hum" (self released) cd-r/cassette 7.98/5.00 JABLADAV "Black As Pitch" (self released) cd-r/cassette 9.98/4.50 JASPER TX "In A Cool Monsoon" (Pumpkin Seeds In The Sand) cd 11.98 JESUS LIZARD, THE "Live" (MVD Visual) dvd 16.98 KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF "Jinx" (Staubgold) cd/lp 15.98/15.98 KANG, EYVIND "Athlantis" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 LAS MALAS AMISTADES "Patio Bonito" (Honest Jons) cd 25.00 LEXIE MOUNTAIN / LICHENS "Split" (Hoss) lp 14.98 LICHENS "Omns" (Kranky) cd + dvd 16.98 LIFE ON EARTH "Look!! There Is Life On Earth!" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98 LIGHT, THE "Turn On... The Light" (UT Records) cd 13.98 LINDSTROM (V/A) "Late Night Tales" (Azuli) cd 25.00 LIZZIE BORDEN "Master Of Disguise" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98 MANES "How The World Came To An End" (Candlelight) cd 12.98 MANIERISME "s/t" (Nekrokult Nihilism) cd 13.98 MANSON, CHARLES "The Summer Of Hate - The '67 Sessions" (Arte Lupo) cd 15.98 MARDUK "Rom 5:12" (Regain) cd 14.98 MARGINAL CONSORT "s/t" (Improvised Music From Japan) 4cd 79.00 MARTIN, AARON "Almond" (Preservation) cd 15.98 MARTIN, AARON & MACHINEFABRIEK "Cello Recycling / Cello Drowning" (Type) 10" 11.98 MASERATI "Inventions For The New Season" (Temporary Residence) cd 14.98 MAYHEM "Ordo Ad Chao" (Seasons Of Mist) cd 14.98 MCGONIGAL, MIKE "33 1/3 Series: Loveless" (Continuum) book 9.95 MEAT PUPPETS "Rise To Your Knees" (Anodyne) cd 14.98 MEIZTER, K. "Dark Matters" (Old Europa Cafe) cd + 3"cd 23.00 MEKURYA, GETATCHEW & THE EX "Moa Anbessa" (Terp) cd 18.98 MENCHE, DANIEL & KEVIN DRUMM "Gauntlet" (Editions Mego) cd 14.98 MIRAH AND SPECTRATONE INTERNATIONAL "Share This Place" (K) cd 14.98 MODERN SHIT "Modern Shit: The Stories Told By Record Covers" (Alga Marghen) book+cd 70.00 MORI, IKUE "Bhima Swarga" (Tzadik) dvd 30.00 MORTUUS "De Contemplanda Morte" (Ajna) cd 13.98 NADJA "Guilted By The Sun" (Elevation) cd 8.98 NARROWS, THE "Benjamin" (Wantage USA) cd 12.98 NATHAMUNI BROTHERS "Madras 1974" (Fire Musem) cd 14.98 NEED MORE SOURCES "Shed" (Moteer) cd 15.98 NEGATIVE PLANE "Et In Saecula Saeculorum" (AJNA) 2lp 27.00 NEMESIS "The Day Of Retribution" (GMR Music) cd 23.00 OS MUNDI "43 Minuten" (Revisited) cd 17.98 PESTE NOIRE "K.P.N. / La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence" (De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) cd 13.98 PETIT, CHRISTOPHER "Radio On" (Plexifilm) dvd 22.00 PHAROAHE MONCH "Desire" (Universal / Motown) cd 14.98 PHAZM "Antebellum Death 'N' Roll" (Osmose Productions) cd+dvd 13.98 PHIL MOORE & HIS ORCHESTRA "Polynesian" (EM Records) cd PIAF, EDITH "Chansons De Films 1936 - 1961" (Trema) cd 14.98 PIAZZOLLA, ASTOR "Pulsacion" (Circular Moves) cd 16.98 PIG DESTROYER "Phantom Limb" (Relapse) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 PILIA, STEFANO "The Suncrows Fall and Tree" (Sedimental) cd 14.98 PINEBENDER "Working Nine To Wolf" (Lovitt) cd 12.98 PINK REASON "Cleaning The Mirror" (Siltbreeze) cd 13.98 PJUSK "Start" (12K) cd 14.98 PLACES, THE "Fawns With Fangs: Selections From The Dark Heart Of The Thicket" (High Plains) cd-r 9.98 PRIESTBIRD "In Your Time" (Kemado) cd 13.98 PROFUNDI "The Omega Rising" (Profound Lore) cd 15.98 PULSEFEAR "Perichroresis" (Profound Lore) cd 10.98 QUI "Baby Kisses" (Heart Of A Champion) cd 12.98 RAMESES "Misanthropic Alchemy" (Feto) cd 14.98 ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET "Grand Animals" (New Line) cd 14.98 ROKY ERICKSON "You're Gonna Miss Me" (Palm / Manga) dvd 33.00 RUNEMAGICK / OCEAN CHIEF "The Northern Lights" (Chapter 53) cd 14.98 SAXON "s/t" (EMI) cd 12.98 SAXON "Strong Arm Of The Law" (EMI) cd 12.98 SAXON "Wheels Of Steel" (EMI) cd 12.98 SCHENKER, MICHAEL GROUP "s/t" (EMI) cd 12.98 SCORPIONS "Lonesome Crow" (Brain) cd 17.98 SHAIN'S, LOS "Anthology" (Iempsa) 2cd 21.00 SHEARER, HARRY "Songs Pointed & Pointless" (Courgette) cd 14.98 SHIRE, DAVID "The Hindenberg (OST)" (Intrada) cd 30.00 SHIRE, DAVID "Zodiac (OST)" (Varese Sarabande) cd 16.98 SHITMAT "Grooverider" (Planet Mu) cd 14.98 SIGNAL "Robotron" (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98 SKREAM & CLUEKID "Sandsnake" (Disfigured Dubz) 12" 12.98 SOLSTICE "Halcyon" (Cyclone Empire) cd 16.98 SOLSTICE "Lamentations" (Candlelight) cd 16.98 SONDE "En Concert" (Oral) cd 16.98 SONDE "En Ordes" (Oral) cd 16.98 SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA "An Ocean Without Water" (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98 SPECTRE, AARON "Say More Fire" (Rag & Bone) 12" 12.98 SPIRITUALAIRES, THE OF HURTSBORO, ALABAMA "Singing Songs Of Praise" (CaseQuarter) cd 14.98 SPOOKY, DJ "System Error. Al-Yamamah Mix" (Horus) cd 17.98 STEVENS, MEIC "Sackcloth and Ashes: The EPs Vol. 2" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 STINY PLAMENU "Odpadni Galerie" (NAGA) cd 14.98 STORMCROW / SANCTUM "split" (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98 SUB VERSION "s/t" (Future Dub) 2lp 24.00 SUN RA "Shadows Took Shape" (Transparency) 2cd 15.98 SUN RA "The Creator Of The Universe" (Transparancy) 2cd 16.98 SUPERBAD "OST" (Lakeshore) cd 16.98 TARWATER "Spider Smile" (Morr Music) cd 16.98 TAYLOR, MIKE QUARTET "Pendulum" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 TERRESTRIAL TONES "Dead Drunk" (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98 THE BEST OF "LONE WOLF AND CUB" "OST" (La-La Land Records) cd 11.98 TINY VIPERS "Hands Across The Void" (Sub Pop) cd 13.98 TODAY IS THE DAY "Willpower" (SuperNova) cd 14.98 TORSO / UNICORN "split" (Divorce) cd 8.98 TORTURIUM "Black Lunatic Chaos" (Aura Mystique) cd 15.98 TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION "Zen And The Art Of Total Fucking Destruction" (Translation Loss) cd 14.98 TRANSMISSION 0 "Memory Of A Dream" (Candlelight) cd 13.98 TULSA DRONE "Songs From A Mean Season" (The Perpetual Motion Machine) cd 10.98 TUSS, THE "Confederation Trough EP" (Rephlex) cd ep 11.98 U-ZIQ "Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique" (Planet Mu) cd 14.98 UFO "Force It" (EMI) cd 12.98 UFO "Phenomenon" (EMI) cd 12.98 ULTRALYD "Conditions For A Piece Of Music" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98 UNDER SATAN'S SUN "s/t" (self released) cd-r 8.98 UNKLE "War Stories" (Surrender All) cd 13.98 UPSILON ACRUX "Galapagos Momentum" (Cuneiform) cd 16.98 V/A "Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol. 2" (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98 V/A "Phoning It In" (West Main Development) cd 11.98 V/A "Searchin' For Shakes" (Amigo) cd 17.98 V/A "Silver Monk Time: A Tribute To The Monks" (Play Loud) 2cd 21.00 V/A "Some Songs Stuck In My Mind" (Crazy Apple Boutique) cd 21.00 V/A "The Busy Drone" (BVHAAST) cd 17.98 VENETIAN SNARES "Pink + Green" (Sublight) cd 15.98 VEX'D "Degenerate" (Planet Mu) 2cd 14.98 VILE CHERUBS "The Man Who Has No Eats Has No Sweats" (Afterburn) cd 13.98 VILLAINS "Drenched In The Posions" (Aurora Borealis) cd 14.98 VIRUS SYNDICATE "Present: Contagious Vol. 1" (Tyke) cd 17.98 VIRUS SYNDICATE "The Wasted EP" (Tyke / Planet Mu) 12" 12.98 VISITATIONS "s/t" (Time Lag Records) cd 16.98 VXPXC "Porchmass" (Digitalis) cd 11.98 WAGONER, PORTER "The Rubber Room" (Omni Recording Company) cd 21.00 WEEDEATER "God Luck And Good Speed" (Southern Lord) cd 15.98 WHITE STRIPES, THE "Icky Thump" (Warner Bros.) cd 16.98 WIJLEN WIJ "s/t" (Aesthetic Death) cd 15.98 WILDILDLIFE "Peas Feast" (Chicas De Hoy) cd-r 4.98 ZORN, JOHN "From Silence To Sorcery" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 ZWEINSTEIN "Trip / Flip Out / Meditation" (Captain Trip) 3cd 88.00
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Remember that amazing String Of Pearls compilation, which collected a handful of awesome and obscure 78's from all over the world, compiled by Ian Nagoski? Well, that may be out of print, but Nagoski returns with yet another collection, a sequel of sorts, gathering up various dusty gems from all over the world, Portugal, Spain, India, Iran, Macedonia, Switzerland, Greece, and yeah, even America.
Just like the first volume, Brass Pins & Match Heads is overflowing with wonderful and wondrous sounds, almost without exception warm and mysterious, haunting and lovely, from gypsy folk to classical guitar, wild steel string workouts, soaring dramatic operatic vocals, old timey big band jazz, lush choir like harmonies, rickety skeletal strum, sweetly singing strings and more more more, all wreathed in that hazy dusty record crackle...
Our favorite track is definitely "Alpufzug", which is the name for the ritual procession of cattle through the Swiss Alps, the wordless musical interpretation is sung by a club in a town called Thun, the lead vocals by a man with an impossibly clear, high, feminine voice, who also yodels, the track itself slips from dreamy ethereal chorale to wild whooping hoedown, replete with yelps and howls and yodeling of course, as well as the bleating of cattle, voices of villages and the gorgeous soft cacophony of tinkling cowbells. So great!
Packaged in a super swank old school style tip on cover, with 4 pages of extensive liner notes, photos and more...
You put two of the things we love most in the world, Soul Jazz compilations and Brazilian psych/pop from the 70's together, and you've got one very happy bunch of AQ staffers! Brazil 70 is the follow up to the great Tropicalia compilation Soul Jazz put out a couple years back which served as a great document and serious opened some eyes to the amazing musical movement and revolution in sound that went down in Brazil in the late 60's and early '70s. This compilation picks right up where that one left off, giving us a great glimpse into the post-tropicalia world of the '70s Brazilian music scene. There are some Tropicalia pioneers included here like Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Tom Ze. But what's most thrilling about Brazil 70 is all the amazing tracks from folks who haven't been as well documented here in the states. We've been blown away by the songs from Raul Seixas, Nelson Angelo & Joyce, Erasmo Carlos, Secos E Molhados, all of whom were making amazing and colorful sounds during the first half of the '70s in Brazil. Using the blueprints of the eclectic and spirited nature of Tropicalia, these artists tapped into some magical musical force, discovering new and incredible ways to create amazingly colorful psych-pop perfection. We can't stop listening to this...highly recommended!
Geez! Just when you thought you've heard all the Brazilian Psych and Tropicalia of the sixties and seventies worth listening to, comes this monster compilation of complete unknown jams from the era that very nearly blows away anything you considered to be the best. Distributed by the same folks who brought us the killer Psych Funk 101 compilation (a unanimous store favorite), if you dug that compilation you should definitely check this one out. Culled specifically from the rarest of 7" singles (the era's cheapest and most produced format), many of 'em promo only, there are none of the usual suspects, no Caetano, Os Mutantes or any of Rogerio Duprat's star artists. Instead this is the sound of the deeper radical underground, of groups most of which couldn't ever get record deals. The music is way heavier, the vibe more unhinged and funky with big fuzz and often wild, ecstatic arrangements. Here is the checklist of groups on here: Celio Balona, Loyce E Os Gnomes, The Youngsters, Serguel, Fabio, Tony E Som Colorido, 14 Bis, Banda De 7 Leguas, Ton & Sergio, Ely, Com OS Falcoes Reais, Marisa Rossi, The Pops, Piry, and Max Rybell. The cd comes with a HUGE full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures and the enhanced cd itself features a documentary, called "What Are Fuzz Bananas?" (good question). Meanwhile, the vinyl version comes with a large full color booklet with info on all the singles and pictures. We got the last copies of the first vinyl pressing that include 3-D glasses, though we're not sure why they were included as none of the record sleeve was printed in 3-D as far as we can tell, though they do make the wildly colorful psychedelic drawing in the gatefold sure look neat!
Way Recommended!
One of our favorite Sublime Frequencies releases EVER, long out of print on cd, is finally available again, and on vinyl!!!! Here's what we wrote about this amazing record way back in 2004 when we first reviewed it on New Arrivals List #192:
The first recording in the Sublime Frequencies catalog to not focus on the noise people make, Broken Hearted Dragonflies gives a voice to our insect brethren in Southeast Asia, as recorded by Tucker Martine in Laos, Burma and Thailand in 2000. The disc starts off like any other "traditional" insect recording: lots of cicada-like whining and chirping, but gradually turns to sound unlike all the rest. As one particular insect in the field begins to slowly sweep up in pitch like an oscillator on a synthesizer. A short time later, the clashing buzz of insect varieties begins to grate against their own harmonies and sounds much like either a clever DSP patch or the aliasing sound of a poorly sampled instrument. In other words, it all sounds hardly organic. In fact, in the field recording genre, we'd have to place this one in the same bizarre category as Douglas Quin's Antarctica recordings. The Raster-Noton sounds of nature. We're periodically reminded of our bucolic setting only by the steady hoots and coos of the native birds. You will undoubtedly share our initial skepticism regarding the purity of these field recordings, but it is emphatically stated by the recordist that "these recordings were not processed, the insects actually sound like this!" Absolutely amazing stuff! Features liner notes by none other than Hakim Bey.
Originally released in 1983 as "Rhythms of the Grasslands: Music of Upper Volta, Volume II", as the companion volume to the release now known as "Savannah Rhythms". The music on this album, even more than most others in the African portion of the Nonesuch Explorer series, is dominated by percussion instruments: calabash, metal objects, hand clapping, and all manner of drums. Which isn't to say that there are no melodic instruments contained here. A jirkil (a one string lute) makes its appearance quite often, as do the occasional thumb pianos and, of course, voice.
Originally released in 1981 as "Rhythms of the Grasslands: Music of Upper Volta", the change to the more poetic "Burkina Faso" (meaning "Land of Upright Men") was bestowed upon the nation by its Marxist leader a year after this album was originally issued. Performed in ritual -- the editor stresses this music as being performed "'with' people, not 'for' them" -- from everyday activities such as harvesting in the fields to special events such as weddings, the music on this disc is as varied as the events it accompanies. The disc begins with a couple of great xylophone (or marimba) ensembles performing during a wedding celebration, but also featured on this disc are tracks including mouth harp and flute, fife and drums, chorus, one-stringed lute and calabash, gourd clarinet and rattles, and more xylophones. One little detail purchasers may note is that there apparently was a bit of a track listing screw up whereby four cuts don't match their corresponding descriptions, but determined buyers can easily figure out which tracks go with which descriptions (and who knows, this problem may be fixed in subsequent pressings.)
Recording the musical practices of other cultures is often extolled as a way of preserving those practices, as they seem to always inevitably become wiped out due to some form of "modernization" within the culture. Most often it seems that it's the multinational media conglomerates, the loud mouth of the United States, that has a bigger and bigger effect on culture everywhere as more and more people have television and radio. But sometimes it's something more directly horrific that has this detrimental effect on a culture and that makes the music that has been archived almost un-nerving to listen to. Such is this recording from Burundi made in 1974. Even at the time of the recording ethnic fighting had already resulted in the death of 200,000 Burundians. The Hutu of the Northwestern part of Burundi, where these tracks were recorded, that had not fled their country, have most likely been killed in the ensuing nearly 30 years of bloodshed. So the seemingly happy music contained on this disc belies the more sinister reality of its existense. No fewer than five of the tracks are tributes to then Tutsi president Michel Micombero, which were to be performed during rural political gatherings. Having said that, I hope that doesn't depress anyone enough not to pick this up. There's a great variety of excellent tracks on this disc ranging from beautful songs accompanied in various forms by ikembe (thumb piano), flute, drums as well as other stringed instruments (like the inanga which sounds like a stringed bass) to heavy drum corps songs. In particular, the song "Take Me Back To Mabayi" in which and old man accompanies himself on inanga and incorporating vocal effects reminds me of the late great Camerounian songwriter, poet, playwrite Francis Bebey. I wonder if Mr. Bebey picked up any tricks from Burundian musicians during his travels?
FINALLY REISSUED, ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME! One of our early faves in the great Sublime Frequencies series, originally released in 2004 on (now out of print) compact disc. What we said back then...
Given the sheer volume of commercially available music that's come out of Mali (to say nothing of its West African neighbors, and the rest of the continent), one would think there would be a lot more field recordings of street musicians and the sundry other less commercially viable artists who don't attract the attention of the mainstream world music market. There certainly were labels such as John Storm Roberts' Original Music (R.I.P.) which had been hard at work on just that task many years ago, but recent years - what with "world beat" becoming a commercially viable genre targeted to the lowest common denominator - there's been less and less new, raw, unadulterated sounds to be had from the region. The first, in what is hopefully not the last, attempt from Sublime Frequencies to ameliorate this oversight comes from Tucker Martine. And what a nice collection of tracks it is. Recorded in the Fall of 1998 with, if we may say so, some incredibly nice field recording equipment, Bush Taxi Mali is like a really nice panoramic snapshot of music and sounds. The tracks range from miscellaneous street sounds, the dulcet tones of the kora (a bridged 21 stringed lute with a large calf-skin covered gourd resonator), fife and drum music, children singing and clapping, gorgeous acoustic guitar, and an absolutely frenetic wedding celebration with distorted bull horn amplification.
One of things we were most thankful for musically this year was the reemergence of Strut, the label we fell in love with for their great and deep digging tastes in booty moving obscure dance music from across the globe. Their Disco Not Disco comps are legendary for finding such outsider post-punk and left-field disco jams and they have released such amazing collections of Afrobeat, library music, old school hip-hop, etc. But the label seemed to disappear for the last few years so we were crazy stoked to see them back and on fire once again, with another volume of Disco Not Disco, as well as the awesome Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story collection, Nigeria 70, Disco Italia, and more! Which brings us to their latest immaculately packaged, well researched and most importantly totally jamming collection of Caribbean soul and funk from 1969-1979. The twenty tracks on here range from very Western influenced classic soul & funk to steel pan fueled jams, reggae tinged burners and loud & proud political anthems. A whole bunch of artists we'd never heard before that we are loving as well as a few AQ favorites sprinkled throughout (Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra, Cedric Im Brooks). We're so happy that this great label is strutting their stuff once again!
What? Another collection of Cambodian pop? But you just listed two volumes of Cambodian Rocks? (And, get ready for two more in that series!) It's true, Cambodian music seems to be the flavor of the moment on the obscure world music scene. But bear with us, as this one deserves all the attention afforded the Cambodian Rocks series... and then some. The history of Cambodia's flourishing and rich music scene was -- like the greater culture and society of the country in general -- cruelly severed in the early seventies by the Khmer Rouge during their "cleansing" program. All our favorite performers, anonymous until Khmer Rocks' own collections were recently released, were undoubtedly victims of the Khmer Rouge during this period. In the following years Cambodians who fled the country set up communities around the globe and among the other parts of their culture they treasured, the music of these lost performers was not forgotten. Throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties the scattered communities set up recording studios and continued to produce music just as amazing as those lost golden years. Enter Mark Gergis (of Neung Phak / Mono Pause and the man who brought us I Remember Syria). From 1999 to 2004 Mark diligently scoured the Asian branch of the Oakland Public Library, checking out each and every Cassette of Cambodian music produced in the period from the early seventies to the present. Many of the cassettes were unfortunately unlistenable; not merely because they'd been played thousands of times, or left on hot car dashboards, but because they were being slowly bulk erased by the library employees themselves as they would unwittingly pass them over the magnetic security system used to prevent book theft. Even with the best intentions of the public library as a repository for culture, Cambodian music was slowly being erased one cassette at a time. Of course there was no public outcry, at this point people had moved on to the newest thing (no doubt something recorded by one person with an electronic keyboard and other MIDI gear). It seems to happen everywhere: recent history is wiped clean for whatever happens to be hot at the moment. So it was that Mark culled together a collection of songs that are as amazing as they are rare. One thing particularly striking about many of the tracks is that, unlike what you'll hear on the Cambodian Rocks collections (all of which were actually recorded in Cambodia), they include both traditional Cambodian instruments alongside western instruments. There are tracks with Khan (the inimitable mouth organ of Southeast Asia) playing alongside electric guitar (which is often times being played in the style of a traditional Cambodian stringed instrument), saxophone, drums, electric bass and organ. Some of the combinations and bizarre genre bends are truly off the wall -- such as the track, unfortunately to remain untitled for now, a proto-metal Cambodian pop ditty featuring echoey and brash female vocals and a Queen-era guitar solo. While there are a few of the more modern pop tunes -- of the primarily keyboards and drum machine variety -- here, none are of the overly westernized Asian pop that is so ubiquitous these days. There are also 6 tracks of older tunes that were recorded in Phnom Penh between the mid-1960's and the early 70's (one of which was overdubbed by an American operated studio with a drum machine beat!) This is a truly amazing collection, certainly the best disc to be released by Sublime Frequencies to date, and Byram's top pick for 2004 thus far. Highly recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Previously issued a while back only on vinyl, "Cambodian Rocks" - now on CD - presents a handful of unknown (to the point that no artist names or track titles are given) Cambodian garage bands from the late 60s and early 70s. The liner notes explain that the compiler (s/he is also anonymous) picked up a bunch of random tapes while in Cambodia and put this together of the best tracks from those tapes. For those who are entranced by the psychedelic exotica found in the "Love, Peace, and Poetry" series, "Cambodian Rocks" makes an exceptional companion. For the most part this compilation is dominated by really good fuzzed out organ / guitar garage rich with understandably crappy production. But along with the garage cuts, there's a track of incredibly unfunky James Brown mimicry that make the Make Up's theatrical irony seem even more insincere than they really are. Appropriated dancehall groove/stomps with Cambodian instead of Jamaican overtones. But the highlight is the appearance of the female led garage band who were featured on the Asian Psychedelic chapter of the "Love, Peace, and Poetry" series. Greasy garage rock not far from the Count Five or the Seeds but with reverb drenched female vocals that hits high notes rarely found even on Bollywood sountracks. Totally essential.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
While most record stores might include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as a mainstay album, consistently moving units from its initial release on up to the present, the original Cambodian Rocks collection has been for us a mainstay in its own right. We may not be able to boast the quantities that a larger store might for a staple, but Cambodian Rocks has got to be one of the most universally loved albums here at aQ. So you can imagine we were pretty damn excited when we found out that the collection was being released with full disclosure of musicians, vocalists, recording dates, song titles and lyrics (translated into English!) And if that isn't enough, Khmer Rocks has expanded their version of the collection to two discs! Even better, for all of you owners of the original collection, between these two discs and the original release on Parallel World there are only 5 songs total that overlap! So now you're wondering what the connection is between Khmer Rocks and Parallel World. Well, as far as we can tell, there is absolutely no connection. Seems like Khmer Rocks titled their two discs to capitalize off the original's popularity. And to their credit, they seem a bit more legit, having gone through the trouble of tracking down artists' names and song titles to give credit where credit is due. Not to be too harsh on Parallel World -- their collection is a fucking great compilation, always will be -- but the Khmer Rocks folk seem to be more genuinely indebted to these artists and it shows in their aformentioned efforts. And like Parallel World's collection, all the tracks on these two discs are absolutely great. It would be hard to leave a track out of your iPod if you were short on space. You might just have to get rid of something else. The artists here are all absolute geniuses in their abilities to absorb American rock and roll and tweak it to local tastes. In a lot of ways these bands are like South East Asian versions of the Sun City Girls -- picking up foreign radio transmissions (shortwave radio broadcasts to American military personnel) and subverting them to their own likeness. Some of our favorites are tracks like Meas Samoun's "The Engagement", a completely dirty take on the Santana sound (a lot of these Cambodian rockers seemed to really dig Santana) with an organ (or is it some ridiculously fucked up early seventies guitar processing?) solo that will kill you. Others, like Ros Sereyosthea take an American song part and parcel -- in this case CCR's "Rolling On A River" -- merely inserting their own lyrics and twisting the arrangement. Other twisted renditions sound an awful lot like "Hey Jude", "If You're Going To San Francisco", and "Whiter Shade Of Pale". But more often than not the tracks tend to be originals with a deeply modified American twang and sound less like the cover versions mentioned above. In all cases, the rock on these recordings has an energy of absolute immediacy and urgency that's unlike any of their psychedelic counterparts the globe round.
While most record stores might include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as a mainstay album, consistently moving units from its initial release on up to the present, the original Cambodian Rocks collection has been for us a mainstay in its own right. We may not be able to boast the quantities that a larger store might for a staple, but Cambodian Rocks has got to be one of the most universally loved albums here at aQ. So you can imagine we were pretty damn excited when we found out that the collection was being released with full disclosure of musicians, vocalists, recording dates, song titles and lyrics (translated into English!) And if that isn't enough, Khmer Rocks has expanded their version of the collection to two discs! Even better, for all of you owners of the original collection, between these two discs and the original release on Parallel World there are only 5 songs total that overlap! So now you're wondering what the connection is between Khmer Rocks and Parallel World. Well, as far as we can tell, there is absolutely no connection. Seems like Khmer Rocks titled their two discs to capitalize off the original's popularity. And to their credit, they seem a bit more legit, having gone through the trouble of tracking down artists' names and song titles to give credit where credit is due. Not to be too harsh on Parallel World -- their collection is a fucking great compilation, always will be -- but the Khmer Rocks folk seem to be more genuinely indebted to these artists and it shows in their aformentioned efforts. And like Parallel World's collection, all the tracks on these two discs are absolutely great. It would be hard to leave a track out of your iPod if you were short on space. You might just have to get rid of something else. The artists here are all absolute geniuses in their abilities to absorb American rock and roll and tweak it to local tastes. In a lot of ways these bands are like South East Asian versions of the Sun City Girls -- picking up foreign radio transmissions (shortwave radio broadcasts to American military personnel) and subverting them to their own likeness. Some of our favorites are tracks like Meas Samoun's "The Engagement", a completely dirty take on the Santana sound (a lot of these Cambodian rockers seemed to really dig Santana) with an organ (or is it some ridiculously fucked up early seventies guitar processing?) solo that will kill you. Others, like Ros Sereyosthea take an American song part and parcel -- in this case CCR's "Rolling On A River" -- merely inserting their own lyrics and twisting the arrangement. Other twisted renditions sound an awful lot like "Hey Jude", "If You're Going To San Francisco", and "Whiter Shade Of Pale". But more often than not the tracks tend to be originals with a deeply modified American twang and sound less like the cover versions mentioned above. In all cases, the rock on these recordings has an energy of absolute immediacy and urgency that's unlike any of their psychedelic counterparts the globe round.
It would appear that the Khmer Rocks label is slowly rendering the original Cambodian Rocks compilation on Parallel World obsolete. With each volume of their version of the beloved series there are a smattering of those tracks included -- now better served with full disclosure of the artists' names, song titles and even lyrics! With volume 3 there are three more, leaving you with 16 completely new tracks. We figure that by volume 7 or 8 of the Khmer Rocks series we'll all be able to trade in the original. As a bonus, Khmer Rocks has included two tracks at the end of volume 3 of "Romvong Songs", or Cambodian circle dance songs. It's the label's way of turning on all the garage psychsters to some traditional Cambodian music. The first track is actually a lot like the tracks on the Cambodian rocks discs, but with a bit more swing. The second, by Cambodian superstar Sinn Sisamouth, replaces guitar and bass with flute and clarinet along with traditional Cambodian instruments, but it still has the same intensity of those rock tracks. What can we say? Highly recommended!
All right! The fourth volume in the totally rad Cambodian Rocks series is here at last (perhaps the compilers at the Khmer Rocks label were sensing competition from the now three-volume Thai Beat A Go Go series?). Volume four puts Cambodian Rocks into the lead with some truly over the top late '60s/early '70s rock n' roll, exotic psych-beat that's just so wild, weird, n' wonderful. WOW is all you can say. The 19 tracks include such brilliantly-titled songs as "Oops...He's Mute", "No Shorts Lesson Learned", "Leftover Smile" and "I'm All Skinny" performed by an all-star cast of Cambodian Rockers: Ros Sereysothea, Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron, Yol Aularong, and Meas Samoun. Until the tragic, catastrophic Khmer Rouge takeover of the mid '70s brought the genocidal despot Pol Pot and his gang into power, Cambodia (or its urban center Phnom Penh anyway) apparently was a hip, swinging place where teenagers could groove to plenty of homegrown rock n' roll music, inspired by Western R&B, surf, and psych but with a distinctive Cambodian flavor. You can sure hear that in so many of the tracks here, in the sweet female voices backed by distorted guitar and wigged-out organ. There's some serious psych-fuzz being laid down, sometimes murky and lo-fi duo to its temporally/geographically distant origins but full of spirit and energy. So very recommended, as every entry in this series has been! By the way, the compliers have thoughtfully included English translations of the lyrics in the cd booklet.
Once again Soundway continues to unearth amazing tracks from yet another overlooked international scene. This collection digs into the cumbia and descarga sounds out of Columbia in the '60s to early '70s that were being released on the Discos Fuentes label. Jose Maria 'Curro' Fuentes ran the label which would become Columbia's largest. In many ways he was like the Berry Gordy of Columbia, using his immaculate taste to curate an amazing roster of musicians. Sadly most of these artists never had their music heard or even released in other parts of the globe, so this release marks the first time most of these nineteen tracks have been released anywhere outside of Columbia. The raw recordings really serve the music so well as these aren't the kind of tracks you would want overproduced or with a shiny slick veneer. Instead the infectious rhythms within the songs emerge organically with such rich and warm grooves. With sunshine time hitting us in a big way the past week, this is becoming the perfect soundtrack to outdoor get togethers and rooftop afternoons. No denying how damn hot this is!
Fans of that magnificent "Orgues A Bouche" mouth-organ music from Bangladesh cd might be interested in checking this disc out, as it features some pretty darn cool horn music polyphony from the Banda Linda people of the Central African Republic, who sort of do with their horns what the Bangladeshi musicians do with their reeds: repetitive, minimal drone-trance music, although this is perhaps a bit livelier and "danceable". The Banda Linda make their horns, some of them over 6 and a half feet long, from the trunks of kapok trees that have been hollowed out by termites. With upwards of twenty members to an ensemble (which consists mostly of kapok horn players who can only play one pitch, plus a few higher pitched antelope horn players capable of two pitches along with trills), the combined trumpeters mete out an eerie polyphony. Also included on this disk are several tracks by the Banda Linda of percussion ensemble music.
This compelling compilation brings together tracks from a bunch of different releases in Buda Musique's Musique Du Monde series to provide a global, pan-cultural perspective on traditional shamanic ritual music. Here you'd definitely find some wild and wonderful examples of musical expression made by and for shamans and other "possessed" persons from places as diverse as Indonesia, Iran, Siberia, Haiti, Vietnam, Ecuador, Guyana, and Brazil. From the always-incredible Cak chant of Bali to Voodoo frenzies, from the anti-suicide ceremony of a Siberian shaman to the hallucinogenically-enhanced mouth-bowing of an Amazonian healer, this is both some great listening and a fascinating reminder of the universal human desire to transcend this world and find strength and succor in what to some is a very real spiritual realm. Some of the selections demonstrate the communal, celebratory energy needed to make contact with spirits, while others seem to derive their power from the depth of feeling evident in a singer's solo performance. 11 tracks, 60 minutes, an excellent international "shaman-sampler" indeed.
The French weren't the only ones creating irresistible "French Pop" in the '60s and '70s. A whole lot of amazing sassy effervescent pop was being created in Spanish speaking countries like Mexico and Spain (although there it was of course actually called Spanish Pop, but we digress), and this compilation digs out the amazing ladies responsible for these party starting Spanish Pop gems, that fans of French Pop sounds are gonna love. We had no idea who folks like Pili Y Mili, Sonia, Gelu, or Lorella were, but damn now we know they were responsible for some of the most saucy and addictive songs to come out during this amazing era for bright sunshiney pop. These ladies are like the Spanish equivalents of France Gal, Lulu, and Mina... Nancy Sinatra, too, for that matter. These are the kind of tunes you put on and everything around you starts looking a lot better, and a bad mood becomes practically impossible. If you've loved the Pop A Paris comps or the awesome Sensacional Soul collection that Vampisoul released a few years back, this will definitely hit the spot too. This is as fun and colorful as pop music gets. Makes us wanna get all tipsy on sangria and margaritas and dance the night away.
This longtime AQ favorite is finally available again!
Recorded in 1970 and '71 at his countryside home outside of Hong Kong, the elderly (but spry) Lo Ka Ping will captivate you here with his performances on the qin, a type of ancient Chinese seven-stringed zither with a soft, subdued sound. Confucius' favorite instrument, the sound and style of the qin in the hands of Lo Ka Ping really evokes both Buddhist music and the blues. In his sparse, soulful performance on these ten tracks (four of Ping's own composition and six traditional numbers) you'll hear echoes of the the likes of Son House and Blind Willie Johnson - you could almost imagine this is a lost backporch recording by an unknown gospelish slide guitarist, playing a mysterious, alien blues. Parallels to Indian classical music can be heard as well, to which there is a link to the qin tradition in fact as well as in spirit.
This cd is rounded out with a couple of older, crustier recordings circa 1946-48 by two other "Chinese Masters of the Guqin", Zheng Yingsun and Xu Yuan Bay, who alongside Lo Ka Ping make this a lovely, raw, spiritually resonant document indeed.
Just when you thought you'd heard everything, in comes Sublime Frequencies to fill in the gaps you never thought existed. How many CDs of Iraqi pop do you have in your collection? Until now we certainly didn't have any, let alone anything remotely traditional from Iraq. For a country that's so important to our war mongering presidential administration it's perhaps a little surprising that more interest hasn't been piqued about the culture of Iraq. But then again, everyone but W seems to understand that the real reasons for plundering this nation wasn't to "liberate" anyone. In fact, W would probably rather that no one even pay attention to any of this music, which has the awkward fortune to have been produced almost entirely (with the exception of three early 70's tracks) during the reign of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime ( tracks here range from 1980 on up to 2002!). In spite of his -- well deserved -- reputation as a cruel dictator, he was also an avid supporter of both education and the arts -- such are the complexities of life W would rather not acknowledge -- and for better or worse, kept the fabricated nation state as stable as it has ever been. Hussein promoted secular arts and music, starting cultural centers for both, and even dubbed singers the "eighth division" of the armed forces (his nation had seven military divisions) -- not to paint too rosy a picture of Donald Rumsfeld's former pal and business partner, who was also a sadistic tyrant after all. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Molam, Cambodian Cassette Archives), Choubi Choubi is a collection years in the making. Gergis scoured the earth for the source material on this disc, travelling through Syria, Europe and the Iraqi neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The anthology starts off with a folk rock track from '70s Socialist singer Ja'afar Hassan, a song that could easily compete with the best psych tracks on Hava Narghile or Turkish Delights for the crown of Middle Eastern psych champ. But if you're expecting another psych compilation, you're going to be disappointed as Choubi Choubi is much more than that, way more. Most of the recordings on the album have no western instruments on them, nor hardly any western influence. These tracks rock out much harder with no electric instruments, but with huge string sections, pounding drums, and monstrous oud playing. Maybe it's also the super bluesy sounding (to the western ear) melodies, it's no wonder that it sounds so fresh and familiar to us. It really is weird, when I (Byram) first listened to this record I could have sworn there were more songs with electric guitars on it, but there aren't that many. It just sounds so fucking heavy, and rocks so hard that I remembered it as being a "rock" record. Really, really, really fucking great!
YES! This long-time AQ fave on Sublime Frequencies, is back in print on cd! And it's a newly updated, expanded deluxe edition, 2 discs this time instead of just one, with new liner notes, newly remastered/restored audio, and 4 bonus tracks not on the original edition!!
Here's the review former aQ-staffer Byram wrote, from when the first version came out in 2005 (note, George W. Bush was president then, and the war in Iraq was still on): Just when you thought you'd heard everything, in comes Sublime Frequencies to fill in the gaps you never thought existed. How many cds of Iraqi pop do you have in your collection? Until now we certainly didn't have any, let alone anything remotely traditional from Iraq. For a country that's so important to our war mongering presidential administration it's perhaps a little surprising that more interest hasn't been piqued about the culture of Iraq. But then again, everyone but W seems to understand that the real reasons for plundering this nation wasn't to "liberate" anyone. In fact, W would probably rather that no one even pay attention to any of this music, which has the awkward fortune to have been produced almost entirely (with the exception of three early 70's tracks) during the reign of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime (tracks here range from 1980 on up to 2002!). In spite of his - well deserved - reputation as a cruel dictator, he was also an avid supporter of both education and the arts - such are the complexities of life W would rather not acknowledge -- and for better or worse, kept the fabricated nation state as stable as it has ever been. Hussein promoted secular arts and music, starting cultural centers for both, and even dubbed singers the "eighth division" of the armed forces (his nation had seven military divisions) - not to paint too rosy a picture of Donald Rumsfeld's former pal and business partner, who was also a sadistic tyrant after all. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Molam, Cambodian Cassette Archives), Choubi Choubi is a collection years in the making. Gergis scoured the earth for the source material on this disc, travelling through Syria, Europe and the Iraqi neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The anthology starts off with a folk rock track from '70s Socialist singer Ja'afar Hassan, a song that could easily compete with the best psych tracks on Hava Narghile or Turkish Delights for the crown of Middle Eastern psych champ. But if you're expecting another psych compilation, you're going to be disappointed as Choubi Choubi is much more than that, way more. Most of the recordings on the album have no western instruments on them, nor hardly any western influence. These tracks rock out much harder with no electric instruments, but with huge string sections, pounding drums, and monstrous oud playing. Maybe it's also the super bluesy sounding (to the western ear) melodies, it's no wonder that it sounds so fresh and familiar to us. It really is weird, when I (Byram) first listened to this record I could have sworn there were more songs with electric guitars on it, but there aren't that many. It just sounds so fucking heavy, and rocks so hard that I remembered it as being a "rock" record. Really, really, really fucking great!
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!
Here's our review from way back in 2005, when the cd version was first released...
Just when you thought you'd heard everything, in comes Sublime Frequencies to fill in the gaps you never thought existed. How many cds of Iraqi pop do you have in your collection? Until now we certainly didn't have any, let alone anything remotely traditional from Iraq. For a country that's so important to our war mongering presidential administration it's perhaps a little surprising that more interest hasn't been piqued about the culture of Iraq. But then again, everyone but W seems to understand that the real reasons for plundering this nation wasn't to "liberate" anyone. In fact, W would probably rather that no one even pay attention to any of this music, which has the awkward fortune to have been produced almost entirely (with the exception of three early 70's tracks) during the reign of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime ( tracks here range from 1980 on up to 2002!). In spite of his - well deserved - reputation as a cruel dictator, he was also an avid supporter of both education and the arts - such are the complexities of life W would rather not acknowledge - and for better or worse, kept the fabricated nation state as stable as it has ever been. Hussein promoted secular arts and music, starting cultural centers for both, and even dubbed singers the "eighth division" of the armed forces (his nation had seven military divisions) - not to paint too rosy a picture of Donald Rumsfeld's former pal and business partner, who was also a sadistic tyrant after all. Compiled by Mark Gergis (I Remember Syria, Molam, Cambodian Cassette Archives), Choubi Choubi is a collection years in the making. Gergis scoured the earth for the source material on this disc, travelling through Syria, Europe and the Iraqi neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The anthology starts off with a folk rock track from '70s Socialist singer Ja'afar Hassan, a song that could easily compete with the best psych tracks on Hava Narghile or Turkish Delights for the crown of Middle Eastern psych champ. But if you're expecting another psych compilation, you're going to be disappointed as Choubi Choubi is much more than that, way more. Most of the recordings on the album have no western instruments on them, nor hardly any western influence. These tracks rock out much harder with no electric instruments, but with huge string sections, pounding drums, and monstrous oud playing. Maybe it's also the super bluesy sounding (to the western ear) melodies, it's no wonder that it sounds so fresh and familiar to us. It really is weird, when we first listened to this record we could have sworn there were more songs with electric guitars on it, but there aren't that many at all. It just sounds so fucking heavy, and rocks so hard that we remembered it as being a "rock" record. Really, really, really fucking great!
Originally released way back in 2005, the first volume of Choubi Choubi, a collection of folk and pop music from Iraq, remains one of everybody's favorite Sublime Frequencies releases. And for good reason, besides the political implications of the music, made almost entirely during the reign of Saddam Hussein, which might have you envisioning the typical Middle Eastern story, of people forced to make music in secret, fearing for their lives, their livelihoods, but strangely, as we mentioned in our review of the first Choubi Choubi release, Hussein was in fact an avid supporter of the arts, and started cultural centers for both art and music throughout Iraq. Sadly, performers, artists and musicians who were not commercially successful, were deemed to be of a lower class, and the idea of Choubi, an Iraqi style of music that features rapid fire beats, buzzing oud melodies and wild fiddle playing, was considered by most to be a province of the seedier side of Iraq, dingy nightclubs, prostitutes, criminals, etc. In fact many female performers would wear masks to hide their identities. And while the music was encouraged by the government, music by its very nature is rebellious, so this music of the people had a power that made Choubi essentially the 'national dance of Iraq', and as the liner notes explain, even with Choubi's stigma and reputation, and parties and weddings, Choubi is the music of choice, with people whipping out their best Choubi moves.
The first Choubi Choubi comp has been out of print for a while now, so it's super exciting to have another volume to dig into. With the songs culled from the same era and time period, sonically, it's more of what we loved about the first one, wild, chaotic beats, flurries of percussion, super passionate vocals, dramatic and intense, lots of strings, the oud playing distorted and truly psychedelic, the recordings far out and lo-fi, in-the-red, the drums and rhythms slathered in cool primitive FX, reverb and delay, some of the tracks freaked out and energetic, others moody and minor key, some have an almost Bollywood vibe, others, are totally far out drum driven weirdness that reminds us of the twisted Indian soundtracks of Vijaya Anand, and still others sound almost liturgical, while others are distorted and buzzy and hypnotic, but really all of the tracks here incredible!
The story of the music and the musicians in Iraq at the time is super fascinating, and is gone into in more detail in the liner notes by Sublime Frequencies' Mark Gergis. As is the roots of Choubi, and what's gone on post Hussein, and post war in Iraq. Those extensive liner notes are accompanied by tons of awesome photos, as well as notes on each track, all on a super heavy full color gatefold sleeve.
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another stunning collection of mid-'70s Afrofunk, culled from well-loved albums to impossibly rare 7"s and lost treasures. Raw, fiery, melodic, sheer exuberance in sound! From such countries as Lagos, Cameroun, Guadeloupe, South Africa, Nigeria. From famous musicians such as Hugh Masekela (his track is one of the most gorgeous pieces of sunshine I've ever heard), Roy Ayers (who toured with Fela for a spell), and the legendary percussionist Babatunde Olatunji, to lesser knowns such as Letta Mbulu (who caterwauled that amazing opener "What is Wrong with Groovin'" on the equally excellent "Ouelele" comp) and Max B. Recommended.
An exciting anthology of clasic cuts from the Disco Fuentes label which was essentially the Motown records of Columbia. Hot and rare dance, soul and salsa tunes from the sixties and seventies will keep you burning that midnight oil for a good long time.
You'd have to have been living under a rock for the last year to not know about Konono No1, but for those of you who have been, let's recap shall we? Konono No.1 formed over 20 years ago in Kinshasa (the capital of Zaire) and have been performing their own version of Bazombo trance music, incoporating into their sound, more out of necessity than any avant garde aspirations, home built amps and microphones, hand made instruments, all assembled from old car parts and batteries, pieces of wood and various found bits of scrap material. Performing in the city and thus forced to compete with the din of cars and people and city sound, they built their own PA and speaker system, making their sound much louder but also lending it a buzzing distorted sound that became as much a part of the music as the insturments themselves.
The main instrument though, and the one which defines their sound, is an amplified likembe, a sort of thumb piano, which when run through the homemade pickups and ramshackle PA speakers buzz and distort and the melodies end up sounding like some strange sixties psych fuzz guitar. So those distorted melodies atop a wild festive bed of tribal percussion, hand drums, whistles, call and response vocals, it's like African highlife music but infused with all manner of, well like the title suggests BUZZ and RUMBLE.
But it would be naive to think a band like Konono No.1 developed in a complete vacuum. And one would assume that the music scene in Kinshasa would at least in some ways be like any place else, with loads of bands, all playing together, swapping members, that sort of thing, and this record demonstrates that for sure. While Konono No.1 ended up being the worldwide ambassadors for the Kinshasa sound, they are most definitely just one of many groups creating an amazingly vibrant scene. In fact some of the groups on Congotronics 2 take some of our favorite parts of Konono's sound and take them even further!
All of the bands on Congotronics 2 sound at least similar, employing the same basic song structure and same basic instrumentation. Cyclical repetitive rhythms, bells and hand drums locked in dense pulsing frameworks, loose but definitely the backbone of the music, the vocals are festive and wild, a single voice joined by a chorus. Each track is typically one part, maybe two, repeated and repeated with subtle variations, being as that it is an offspring of trance music, this hypnotic quality definitely defining all of these bands, a buzzing looped joyful noise, the sort of music that makes people want to dance and sway and move, eyes closed, getting lost in the mesmerizing repetition.
All of the bands also seem to employ the electric likembe as well to different effect. Sobanza Mimanisia up the distortion, their thumb pianos practically growl, super percussive and blown-out, definitely the heaviest band of the bunch. Whereas the Kasai Allstars employ their likembes as a swirling delicate percussive background, not at all distorted, gentle, liliting and pretty, sounding the most like traditional high life music. The one way in which many of the bands differ from Konono is their use of guitars, the interplay between a distorted thumb piano and a distorted guitar can be beautifully dizzying.
While all the bands are different, those differences are subtle enough that this could very well be a record by a single, albeit quite varied band, almost as if Konono No.1 decided to expand and explore a little for record number two. If you loved Congotronics, then this will for sure hit the spot, and actually the more we listen the more we think this might be even better than the first one. Konono No.1 have a SOUND, and that sound is amazing and beautiful and practically perfect, but they truly traffic in trance music, every song a subtle variation of the song before, almost like they have ONE hour long song that just happens to be split into parts, which we love, like most droning repetitive music, if there was a way to have each track last for six hours we would, but by the same token, one has to be in the right frame of mind to bliss out and trance out. So while this collection is still most definitely trancey, it's a bit more varied, with more instrumentation (one group even incorporates accordion!) and thus ends up being a bit more engaging, especially to the casual listener.
And as if another disc of buzzing rumbling joyful trance music wasn't enough, there is also a DVD featuring live footage of 6 of the bands, including Konono (so for those of you who missed their recent visit to the US, here's your chance to see what you missed). Each band performs live, surrounded by throngs of families and children, often performing in houses, on street corners, people dancing, smiling, embracing, this is truly happy joyful music. And the footage is amazing, allowing us a glimpse not only of these amazing bands, their individually customized instrumentation, sardine cans, milk crates, springs, lengths of PVC pipe, hubcaps, film canisters, wooden boards, tin cans, thier costumed and face painted dancers, their dramatic introductions to performances, but also a look at the people, and the city, and the houses, and the streets of Kinshasa, and the culture that inspired such an amazing music.
Holy moly! A handsome, hefty vinyl box set here from Crammed, and crammed it is with vinyl "Congotronics" treats, street jammin' bands from the Kinshasa scene. Here's what's in it exactly: AQ faves Konono No.1's Congotronics lp, the Congotronics 2/Buzz'n'Rumble From The Urb'n'Jungle compilation, Kasai All Stars' In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic lp, Staff Benda Bilili's Tres Tres Fort lp, and Konono No.1's latest, Assume Crash Position on double vinyl (none of which we've seen available on wax separately yet except for Congotronics 1), plus a bonus 7" with exclusive tracks from Kansai Allstars, one of which is a collaboration with Akron/Family, believe it or not!! There's also a 12"x12" booklet of photos, and last but not least a special Congotronics 2Gb USB drive, containing nine video clips, as well as mp3s of all the tracks on all five of the albums in the box set! Wow. And all the lps are 180 gram vinyl.
You can search elsewhere on our site for Konono if you want to learn more about the "Congotronics" sound and why they're such faves of ours, but we figure this box set is for folks who are already fans! We only have 1 in stock at the moment (of sending out this list), but if you want one, we'll get more next week when this one sells, so go ahead and order away!!
