A fantastic compilation of amazing French cosmic prog-tronic jams that is blowing our minds! An incredible survey of experimentation and rhythm that shows us that while the French may not have invented prog or disco, they certainly had the most fun taking those genres to their outer limits in exciting combination. Practically everyone is represented, including cinematic gems by Jean-Michel Jarre, Alain Goraguer (La Planet Sauvage composer!), Patrick Juvet and Serge Gainsbourg; Moog workouts by Jean-Jaques Perrey, Quartz and Pierre Bachelet; and cosmic disco reveries by Bernard Fevre, Space, Droids, Space Art and Cerrone. But there are also plenty of rarities from groups we know less about: Atomic Crocus, Rene Roussel, and Universal Energy amongst many others. Dig the Mobius-style cover art too. So Killer!
Wow. In the span of a couple years, the Numero Group label has become the most exciting reissue label around. From the haunting electronic samba Young Marble Giants worship of Antena, to the long lost soul of the Capsoul label, the missing funk of the Bandit label, the creepy country beauty of Fern Jones to the amazing Yellow Pills power pop combination. Makes us dizzy just thinking about it.
So here we have what might possibly be the first collection of funk-soul-calypso-reggae from Belize. And it's a rollicking joyous non stop party. The influence of American R&B and soul is everywhere, and of course, so is Jamaican reggae. But with any comp like this, it's not the influences, it's what you do with them. So the tracks here run the gamut from, super emotive soulful crooning over warm warbly organs and wavery horns, full on dubbed out reggae rave ups, down and dirty gritty funky workouts, reverb drenched fifties sounding rock and roll, total Shaft / theme from some seventies sitcom slap bass disco funk and on and on. All infused with the spirt of the city and the era in which they were created. Joyful and hopeful, fun and spirited and lively and just a total blast. We've been listening to this nonstop, and everytime we play it in the store, somebody buys one!
The Numero Group strike gold again with another great lost soul collection. This time it's the second in their Cult Cargo series. The first one, Belize Boil Up quickly became an AQ favorite. This time out they have extracted the sounds of Bahaman soul mostly around the early-mid '70s. Much Goombay music as it was called, captured the sound of the island with touches of Caribbean influence as well as the equally sun soaked golden Miami sound. All the tracks here are killers, with backbeats that would sound at home on Studio One and breaks that still sound so damn fresh now. Some of these bands were playing hotels and poolsides and backyards and that undeniable charm resonates throughout the collection. Some nods to the past for sure, soaking up the sweetness and warmth of doo-wop, but at the same time, these tunes begin to walk in funkier shoes, capturing that raw beautiful essence of how soul should sound. Dripping with warmth and sparkling with color, somewhere between doo-wop and funk, with the island's tropical warm wind keeping everything flowing and fresh!
Heads up all you Sublime Frequencies obsessives out there, and we know there are a lot of you, this is record number two from a new label called Sham Palace, run by Mark Gergis, one of the guys who runs SF, and whose first release was the amazing Leh Jani lp from aQ fave Omar Souleyman. This new lp is a collection of Dabke, a celebratory music performed at weddings and parties in the Middle East, hypnotic electrified dance jams driven by the buzzing of the mejwiz, a double reed bamboo flute, this modern version accompanied by driving electronic beats, over which a male vocalist, calls out for the audience to dance and participate. Does that all sound a little familiar? That's because Omar Souleyman is probably the most well known Dabke performer, at least in the West, so if you can't get enough of that sound, here's a killer collection of super obscure Dabke cuts, collected from various tapes and cds, featuring tracks captured live at parties and weddings, and like those Souleyman jams, the jams here are driving and hypnotic, psychedelic and totally mesmerizing, totally tranced out, the beats booming, pounding, skittering, the melodies buzzing wildly, the tracks here all vary quite a bit, from stripped down and a bit more mellow, to bombastic and booming, to brittle and lo-fi and distorted and drenched in echo and reverb, the programed beats wild and chaotic, the grooves totally irresistible, some amazing stuff.
And needless to say, WAY recommended, especially for all Sublime Frequencies / Omar Souleyman fans!!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!! Packaged in nice full color sleeves with printed liner notes on the back of the jacket.
Leave it to the fine folks at the Soul Jazz Label to bring us a stellar Krautrock compilation that is as heavy on obscurities as it is on classics. Don't let the fact that the Neu!, Faust and Amon Duul tracks will probably be familiar to the most casual krautrock listener, or that pretty much all the classic bands in the canon (save for Kraftwerk and Klaus Schulze) are represented, deter you from this well-researched and beautifully sequenced compilation. Why? Well, because this compilation does a great job of showcasing the many diverse facets of the music that defined krautrock: Kosmishe electronica, hippie commune folk, motorik rhythms, proggy jazz-funk and lysergic cinematographic soundscapes. There are plenty of rarities from bands we've barely heard of such as Between, E.M.A.K., Michael Bundt, and Ibliss, as well as bands and artists we love like Kollectiv (aka Kollektiv), Conrad Schnitzler, Deuter and Gila that perhaps casual fans may not know much about. Plus many of the more well known groups are represented by less well known tracks or later periods. The Can tracks, for example. "Aspectacle" and "I Want More" are from later records, while the great Tangerine Dream track "No Man's Land" is from an early eighties record, a less seminal period for most classic Krautrock, but one filled with plenty of amazing discoveries for those brave enough to wade through some crud. Thankfully Soul Jazz did that work for us! Here is the full listing of bands: Can (2 tracks), Between, Harmonia (2 tracks) Gila, Kollectiv, Michael Bundt, E.M.A.K., Popol Vuh (2 tracks), Conrad Schnitzler, La Dusseldorf, Faust, Neu!, Cluster, Ibliss, Moebius, Roedelius, Amon Duul II (2 tracks) Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Deuter.
Comes with a full color booklet showcasing the history of the bands and music. Perfect for both newbies and longtime fans! Awesome!
Holy cow! The Analog Africa label does it again, another amazing archival collection, even more notable this time around for the fact that it's not really even a collection of African music, instead, it's a sampling of sixties, seventies and eighties Colombian music, which as we discovered via this comp, was in fact hugely influenced by African music, and within seconds of pushing play, it's definitely obvious, the hybrid of Latin and African music so perfect, Afrobeat and Afrofunk, psychedelic fuzz funk, the drums and vocal chants of African music perfectly fused to classic Latin rhythms, even the folks around here who aren't always into this kind of stuff, have been digging this big time, and at least one of us has been listening to nothing else.
As with all Analog Africa releases, there's a massive booklet, with extensive liner notes, on the history of Colombian music, theories on how African music made it to Colombia (a single mysterious man called Boquebaba? Seafaring traders?), ideas on what drove this fusion that seemed utterly ubiquitous in Colombia at the time (roaming mobile sound systems, innovative and forward looking producers), there's also the story of how this comp came to be, which tells the tale of the curator's repeated visits to Colombia, which involved bringing African records to trade for Colombian records, and which ultimately resulted in threats on his life, as apparently, many of those records existed in Colombia already, but without anyone knowing the artists or the names of the songs, and various DJs and sound systems had been playing those records for years, and now that folks knew what they were, and more copies had been brought to Colombia, they felt threatened. It's all super fascinating, and there's so much more, multiple essays on the evolution of the Colombian sound, of Colombian psychedelic Afrobeat and more more more.
But it's really it's all about the music, and the music here is incredible, wild and fuzzy and funky, groovy and psychedelic, crazy percussion, chaotic drumming, wah wah guitars, soulful horns, and check out the vox on opener "El Caterete" by Wganda Kenya, which starts off sounding impossibly African, in fact, had we not known it was from THIS comp, we would have assumed it WAS African, and then when the lead vocals come in, a soaring near operatic croon, that is at the same time totally over the top and almost comical, and one of the coolest vocalists we've ever hear, all over call and response chanting, driving rhythms, psychedelic guitar jangle, groovy loping funk bass, it's KILLER. And it never lets up, the first disc focusing specifically on the Afrobeat and Afrofunk rhythms that worked their way into Colombian music at the time, while disc two, is more oriented toward more danceable tropical Latin rhythms, although both discs seem to offer a bit of both. The beginning of disc two is awesome as well, the vibe a little bit dark and brooding, the first few tracks sounding alternately like the swampy slithery blues of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (right down to some maniacal, echo drenched sinister laughter, wooooohahahahah), sultry and some seriously fuzzed out psychedelic Latin Afro-funk, and at times almost like Klezmer! And this disc two, never lets up, every song a stone cold killer, which will have you nodding your head, tapping your toes, and fighting the urge to get up and dance.
Easily our reissue of the year, hands down, coming in just under the wire, to leave all other reissues in its dust. And another strange thing, you don't often find on collections like this, a hidden track tucked away at the end. After a few minutes of silence, what sounds like a call in radio program, and then one final jam, all groovy percussion, whoops and hollers, acoustic guitar strum, and some serious accordion shredding! Fantastically packaged, in a miniature hardcover book, a huge almost sixty page booklet, tons of liner notes and essays, rare photos and more!!
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Yay! Always cool to get a new comp of crazy, colorful, psychedelic pop rock treats from way back when (and way far off too, internationally speaking).�The comic bookish cartoony cover art gets the swinging '60s (and early '70s) concept across, plus we were already fans of a couple previous comps on the same label, Neurotic Reactions and Some Songs Stuck In My Mind. So we were curious to hear this, and quite pleased with what we heard! 15 cuts full of fuzzy guitars, funky drum breaks, exuberant vocals, Hammond organ orgies, and other facets of freaky, garagey goodness, all from rare 45s by bands straight outta Argentina circa '69-'75, part of something called the "Rioplatense scene".
The lineup: Bosques, Dynamita, Los Fantasmas, Gipsys, Caballo Vapor, Kon-Tiki, Brujos, Wooky Toky, Los Barbaros, Victoria, Them (no, not that Them), Asfalto, Jarabe De Menta, and Little Green Men. Lots of great stuff. We love the backwards effects on Kon-Tiki's "Viaja Al Ayer (Turn Back Time)" which sounds like something by Peru's We All Together, old AQ faves. It's actually one of the prettiest, most restrained songs here, the others go for a variety of pop music that, y'know, really POPS. Like, ferinstance, the sheer organ-heavy FUNK of Caballo Vapor's cut. Or the unhinged mayhem of Gipsys' "Oh! Malala" (they get two tracks here, and the other one, "Kamasutra", is pretty wicked too). Wild, wacky, and fun are what you should expect, especially from the band that calls themselves Wooky Toky...
Yay! Always cool to get a new comp of crazy, colorful, psychedelic pop rock treats from way back when (and way far off too, internationally speaking).�The comic bookish cartoony cover art gets the swinging '60s (and early '70s) concept across, plus we were already fans of a couple previous comps on the same label, Neurotic Reactions and Some Songs Stuck In My Mind. So we were curious to hear this, and quite pleased with what we heard! 15 cuts full of fuzzy guitars, funky drum breaks, exuberant vocals, Hammond organ orgies, and other facets of freaky, garagey goodness, all from rare 45s by bands straight outta Argentina circa '69-'75, that the detailed liner notes in the illustrated booklet will explain were part of something called the "Rioplatense scene".
The lineup: Bosques, Dynamita, Los Fantasmas, Gipsys, Caballo Vapor, Kon-Tiki, Brujos, Wooky Toky, Los Barbaros, Victoria, Them (no, not that Them), Asfalto, Jarabe De Menta, and Little Green Men. Lots of great stuff. We love the backwards effects on Kon-Tiki's "Viaja Al Ayer (Turn Back Time)" which sounds like something by Peru's We All Together, old AQ faves. It's actually one of the prettiest, most restrained songs here, the others go for a variety of pop music that, y'know, really POPS. Like, ferinstance, the sheer organ-heavy FUNK of Caballo Vapor's cut. Or the unhinged mayhem of Gipsys' "Oh! Malala" (they get two tracks here, and the other one, "Kamasutra", is pretty wicked too). Wild, wacky, and fun are what you should expect, especially from the band that calls themselves Wooky Toky...
Spanish import, limited to 500 copies.
For those of you who may find the full 20-volume Smithsonian Folkways "Music Of Indonesia" series a little daunting, and don't know just where to begin, the kind folks at SFW decided to release this budget-priced series sampler cd. Featuring 15 tracks selected from the many amazing entries in the series. Everything from xylophone duets to brass bands, from church songs to gamelan, from bamboo tubes to funeral gongs. Totally great. Get this and then begin collecting the volumes from whence comes the music that intrigues you the most on here. We also recommend Vol. 20 ("Indonesian Guitars") and Vol. 2 ("Popular Music of Indonesia") as being good starting points and definite essentials in this series.
For all you Mississippi Records obsessives, Sublime Frequencies nuts, and just diggers of old timey 78's and world music (which we'd like to think covers a whole lot of folks who read the aQ list), comes this, the first release from record store turned label Hinter Records, and it's a good one, if a bit obscure, but then that only makes it that much more interesting. Don't Trust Your Neighbors is a collection of "Early Albanian Traditional Songs & Improvisations" from the twenties and thirties, and is overflowing with amazing songs, sounds and performances, the vibe is definitely similar to some of the Greek music compilations we've carried, which makes sense since they're neighbors, but we hear plenty of influences from Turkey, and Romania too, the vibe to our ears is definitely a sort of gypsy folk, but the sound is often surprisingly raga-like, hypnotic and droney, for every proper song here, there's a gorgeous sprawling drone-y jam, that evokes the same sort of hypnotic mesmer that most modern space/psych outfits spend their whole careers chasing.
There's extensive liner notes, presented as a beautiful 4 panel heavy cardstock insert, that details the quest for the records that make up this collection, as well as plenty on the history of Albania and the artists here, which is super interesting, but even removed from the historical background, the music here is so powerful, and so intense, dramatic and tense, quite dark much of the time, emotional and hypnotic, there are dances, and ballads, traditional folks songs, the vocals so passionate and powerful, but the strangely mesmerizing music and the way the music and the vocals seem to blur and intertwine, it must be the improvisation angle that really gives this the strange energy we find so appealing, but throughout strings buzz, and melodies unfurl into sprawling drones, the raga feel is huge, and makes this so much more than just a historical document. Instead this plays out like a collection of lives and loves, of memories and mysterious, all translated into glorious sound, evoking a sort of muted majesty and a powerful personal energy that imbues these songs with a humanity and intensity that is utterly mesmerizing.
Packaged in beautiful full color covers - with art by Robert Crumb! - with the aforementioned heavy cardstock printed insert, which includes liner notes and lots of amazing photos.
A collection of Indian film music classics, kind of a bizarre and infectious lo-fi hybridization of genres. If you liked the "Bombay The Hardway" disc, or our favorite, the great "Dance Raja Dance" collection of Vijaya Anand's film music, you'll surely dig this. Features the illustrious Asha Bhosle! Recommended.
Subtitled: "The First Recordings in the Georgian Republic." The Traditional Crossroads label is at its best when digging up and restoring historical recordings from the Middle East and elsewhere, such as those found here, 25 tracks recovered (and digitially
Originally released in 1975 as "Africa: Ceremonial & Folk Music", this collection of recordings comes to us from Northern Uganda, Kenya & Tanzania and is extremely varied in the tracks contained within. From the insane Aluar Horns which feature a group of horn players each with a horn capable of playing merely on pitch (reminiscent of the "Orgues A Bouche" in that sense) accompanied by a chorus of singers and a troupe of drummers, they mete out a teeth gnashing fanfare unlike about anything we've heard this side of Test Dept.'s "A Good Night Out." This track is immediately followed by the soft seven stringed enanga which accompanies a vocal duet as pretty as you can imagine. The rest of the disc is just as good, with both haunting and beautiful ceremonial music caught on tape.
Recorded in 1975 by David Fanshawe, Witchcraft & Ritual Music is a collection of recordings made throughout Tanzania and Kenya of medicinal music. Fanshawe explains that, in this recording he had "tried to capture the spirit of a musical heritage now nearly extinct. The music on this album comes from a part of East Africa whose musical traditions remain largely unknown to the rest of the world. Particularly fascinating is the manner in which music and medicine are combined in the indigenous practice of witchcraft; music becomes associated with the healing sound of drums, interwoven with beautiful threads of melody." Most of the music utilizes vocals, individual and chorus, in addition to percussion and several tracks include stringed instruments and some of the most odd and amazing horn playing you're likely to ever hear. Most notable is the buzzing melodies of the Kenyan bung'o horn weaving its melodies throughout a choral accompaniament.
New from Sublime Frequencies comes this lp reissue of an out of print cd called Eat The Dream: Moroccan Reveries, chronicling a trip to Morocco undertaken by Tucker Martine, who, as people tend to do, spent much of his time there recording local musicians, the trip culminating in a meeting with legendary Gnawa music master Maallem Boubker Ghania, who arranged for a series of recording sessions in his home! This compilation gathers up some of those recordings, as well as a handful of other recording including various street performers, a wedding reception, snake charmers and more!
Gnawa is a mystical brotherhood whose ancestors who migrated to North Africa centuries ago, and whose music is a blend of Islamic and African influences, that music tranced out and spiritual, traditionally played on a three string lute called a guimbri, and metal clappers called krakebs for percussion. It's a very distinctive sound, and can be both wild and celebratory, and haunting and stirring, it's a music that is in fact fairly varied, from dark, dolorous melodies played just on just the guimbri, a sort of melancholic African folk, to full on chaotic percussion heavy freakouts, augmented by a saz like horn, handclaps, call and response vocals, the recordings here especially pleasing to our ears as the surrounding sounds are often as present as the music itself, cars whizzing by, children playing, people shouting and talking, the music perfectly at home in the bustling sounds around it, mesmerizing and fantastic, as most Sublime Frequencies tend to be.
Packaged in an old school heavy tip-on style sleeve, with a printed insert featuring photos and liner notes by Martine.
Interesting collection of early recordings from throughout the African continent. Rare recordings dating as far back as 1929 and on up to the early 50's give us a peek into the germinus of modern popular music on the continent. Inundated by Christian missionaries, Europeans looking to make a buck and an increasingly urbanized lifestyle new forms of music had been developing even long before the introduction of the phonograph to Africa. There's a wealth of proto-African pop on here in the form of string bands, concertina and/or accordion groups, guitar, brass bands and vocal ensembles.
MPEG Download: WEST AFRICAN INSTRUMENTAL QUINTET "Bea Tsin No. 2" [/audio/westafricanbeatsin.mp3]
MPEG Stream: WEST AFRICAN INSTRUMENTAL QUINTET "Bea Tsin No. 2" [/audio/westafricanbeatsin.m3u]
MPEG Download: SITTI BINTI SAAD "Njia Ungurusumbwe" [/audio/sittibintinjia.mp3]
The Sublime Frequencies label is really on a roll lately, as always it seems, a flurry of new releases, all of them fantastic, including a recent Record Of The Week (Omar Souleyman), not one but two releases on this week's list (this, and one of our current Records Of The Week, Dara Puspita!), and new stuff upcoming soon as well. And as always, every time we get a new SF release, we can't help but think 'best one yet!', every single one is a thrilling earful of some remarkable sounds. This one is of particular note, as it's related to a past Sublime Frequencies release, the Musical Brotherhoods From The Trans-Saharan Highway dvd, which after watching repeatedly, we couldn't help but hope for a soundtrack, and well, this is about as close as we're gonna get. A handful of these tracks were in fact featured in that film, and in addition to those tracks, there are twice as many more, to let us experience the magic and mystery of the Jemaa El Fna, aka Rendezvous Of The Dead, aka a central square in the Marrakesh, Morocco, which during the day is a place for locals and tourists alike to gather, food and music and magicians and entertainers and story tellers, but at night, when the tourists are tucked away safely in bed, these musicians create some of the most intense and passionate music we've heard. Explosive and expressive and distorted and super blown out. Amps powered by car batteries, broadcast through beat up old megaphone speakers, hand built instruments, wild percussion, soulful ecstatic vocals, it's probably worth revisiting our review of the dvd, as the setting is as much a part of the music as the sounds:
"Ancient mystical brotherhoods', small groups of stringed instruments and drums, players managing to create intense and intensely emotional sounds and songs, that range from dark and simple, sweetly contemplative, to fierce and fiery and jubilant, explosive and over the top._Performing in bustling street markets, lit by fires and lamplight, a huge after dark celebration, story telling, eating, socializing but most importantly making music... Small lantern lit clusters of people gather around old record players, home made amplifiers, rusty old speakers, strange (to our eyes) stringed instruments, all manner of drums and percussion, the crowd eager to bask in this amazing music, and just as often to participate, whether it be as another drummer, a singer, a dancer or even just as an onlooker. The music, is a stripped down blues, the buzzing strings, the gorgeous hypnotic melodies, looped and cyclical, so hypnotic and catchy, the vocals soulful and impassioned, from solo crooning to strange harmonies, to chanting, and lots of festive sing alongs. The focus is the buzzing strings and the pounding drums, and there are plenty of both, but there are also buzzing snake charmer style horns, and of course the usual outdoor crowd sounds, folks talking and laughing, cars driving past. It's so much like wandering through Morocco, it's amazing. The rhythms and the melodies, a constant barrage of groove and drone, simple percussive thumps and shuffles, haunting melodies, huge tribal drum jams and of course some incredible riffing. Our favorite jams feature what appears to be a traditional banjo, but electrified and plugged into a rusty old handmade amplifier, turning the banjo into an awesome buzzing sitar like beast, emitting intense almost metallic chunks of incendiary riffing, raw and emotional, super distorted and intense, underpinning the wailing vocals and dense drumming.
And that pretty much is a perfect description of this whole record, a jubilant, celebratory, wild and exultant musical get together, the sound is fierce and vibrant and raw and in-the-red, super distorted and LOUD, like you were really there, the stringed instruments buzz and howl, the drums pound and thump and utterly mesmerize, the singers croon and wail, usually with the crowd joining in, the sound is just so intense and alive, really incredible. The pure joy of music making is rarely so palpable. Which makes this, yeah, we're gonna say it again, maybe one of our favorite Sublime Frequencies yet!
Comes in a thick full color gatefold, includes extensive liner notes. And like all the Sublime Frequencies vinyl, these are super limited, we order as many as we can, but once they're gone, we're not able to get more. You know what that means...
This one should hardly need a description. C'mon, it's called PSYCHEDELIC SITAR HEAD SWIRLERS! And it's a massive 5 disc collection of Eastern tinged garage rock from the sixties and the seventies, from all over the world, all the songs linked together by one common sonic theme, the gorgeous hypnotic buzz of the sitar. Sometimes subtle and minimal, other times, intense and distorted and buzzy, the songs themselves ranging from hippie folk pop, to crunchy sitar drenched garage rock pound, to organ driven groovers, featuring a whole mess of bands you no doubt are already familiar with (or should be), many of whom we've raved about on past lists: J.K & Co, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Pretty Things, July, Ramases, C.O.B., Meic Stevens, Erkin Koray, Popol Vuh, Brainticket, The Chocolate Watch Band, The Amboy Dukes, The Strawberry Alarm Clocks, Them, Krokodil, Mecki-Mark Men, The New Tweedy Brothers, Kuni Kawachi, The Book Of A.M., Shocking Blue, Pentangle, Sheila Chandra, Ananda Shankar, but for every band you already know and love, there's a handful you've probably never heard: Wylde Olde Souls, Popera Cosmic, Stuntz's Blue Leg Expedition, The Misty Wizards, Mushroom's God, Mystic Astrologic Crystal Band, United States Of Existence, we could go on, but needless to say, this collection is pretty incredible.
From the opening droney sitar spoken word tale, the collection flits from groovy flute flecked hippie jangle, to woozy, druggy almost Spacemen 3 like hazy buzzy drift, from jangly power pop to warm woozy psychedelic dream pop, from twangy strummy folk to sitar-ed Beatles covers, with much of the comp heavy on the drone, the sitar's distinctive buzz transforming even the simplest most standard chunk of sixties pop, into something more exotic and far out, more trancelike and WAY more psychedelic. So awesome.
Each disc comes in its own full color sleeve, all housed in a thick full color box, with a massive booklet packed with photos, record covers, and of course liner notes detailing the various songs and artists.
Along with putting out the three Cambodian Rocks compilations that have rendered the original Parallel World label comp of the same name virtually obsolete, Khmer Rocks also has a plethora of other khmer music compilations that we're only just beginning to scratch the surface of. While every bit as great as the three Rocks comps we reviewed previously, they're also not marketed as much for the greater population... ie: these are more for the Khmer community. To this end, there's no translation of the song titles or artists. Additionally this collection is on CD-R, but we can't complain because it's also only 9.98. You're probably wondering what a Spanish title is doing on a collection of Cambodian rock music and, well, so were we. The first track, with the word "espanola" featured prominently in the lyrics, clears all that up: yes, it's Cambodian Cha-Cha and Latin tinged Cambodian rock. There are even trumpet flourishes and string sections lifted straight out of a bolero. Not to give you the wrong idea however, only a handful of the tracks on Espanola are actually Latin influenced. Like the Cambodian Rocks series, there's plenty of good old fashioned go-go and garage rock make up the bulk of the collection. Plus the closer, a fuzzed out "hard rock" encore of a track is about as unlike anything in the previous comps. For those of you who already own the other anthologies, as far as we've been able to tell from listening -- another downside to not having English liner notes -- there's no overlap with any of the previous Cambodian collections we've been selling. Muy bien Khmer Rocks!
Finally! Another installment in the incredible Ethiopiques series, and while many of the collections focused on a particular artist, this latest gathers up a whole bunch of classic tracks from, as the title suggests, the golden years of Ethiopian Music.
And the second you push play you'll be transported, and in fact, the sounds you hear may sound strangely familiar, as legendary Ethiopian vocalist Seyfou Yohannes croons over a track we've definitely heard before, on Ethiopiques 2 we think, but it hardly matters, Yohannes' vocals transform the song completely, still smokey and sexy, but reimagined and reinterpreted. And fantastic!
According to the liner notes, which are as always, copious and incredibly well researched, the bulk of Ethiopian records were produced in a single 10 year period, 500 singles, 30 lps, all produced between 1969 and 1978, of those, the tiny Amha label released 103 two song 45's and a dozen lps, between '69 and '75, most of which have been delved into heavily for the Ethiopiques series, and now with volume 24, nearly all of those recordings have been reissued.
But here's one more chance to luxuriate in these magical sounds from the Amha label, before the Ethiopiques series delves into other labels, and digs up more lost gems.
These tracks are all incredible, of course, most of the names are new to us, no Mahmoud Ahmed, no Getatchew Mekurya, a couple tracks from Mulatu Astatke, but more folks like Syfou Yohannes, Ayalew Mesfin, Getatchew Kassa, Tamrat Molla, the sound though is so distinctly Ethiopian, warm languid horns, moody minor key piano, simple shuffling rhythms. and of course the vocals, lush crooning, the perfect compliment to the music's dark sultry mystery. There seem to be two distinct styles represented, the soulful funky slow burning grooves, haunting, late night, sexy, and the more festive and funky, a sort of Ethiopian reinterpretation of American rhythm and blues, with soaring sunshiney melodies, acoustic guitars, and more more horns, both are irresistible, and anyone who has even been dabbling in this series, will dig this big time. Just perfect for the impending warm summer days, and lazy summer nights...
Another fantastic entry in this incredible series, chronicling Ethiopian music past and present. Whereas previous installments have been thematically linked by era, or style, or performer, this one is a little bit more interesting, in that it focuses on the traditional Ethiopian music that became the roots for the music we're so familiar with today. Collecting various tracks that were attempts to modernize traditional Ethiopian music, without radically altering it. Folk music, wedding songs, nursery rhymes, traditional melodies, songs that have been passed down and passed on over generations, some musics and melodies so revered that they have been officially elevated to the status of "musical modes of reference" by official doctrine(!), all borrowed and reinterpreted by various singers and ensembles over the years.
The sound is not too different here than on other Ethiopiques collections, although the liner notes do point out that the tracks here are almost all acoustic, utilizing traditional instruments, as well as piano, mandolin and accordion, but to these ears it sounds fantastic, as good as ever, that sound that is so immediately recognizable as Ethiopian, horns and drums and percussion and handclaps, and of course the voices, it's so much about the vocalists, especially here, soulful croons, female back up vox, lots of call and response, deep and rough, smooth and silky, but always so expressive and emotional and powerful, and no Ethiopian comp would be complete without Tlahoun Gessesse, probably the most revered vocalist among Ethiopians, even though he is relatively unknown elsewhere, his vocals so expressive and intense, tackling complex melodies and making them sound like the simplest lullabies, so dulcet and lush, definitely a case of someone who could read the Ethiopian phonebook, and he's in good company here, with a fantastic gathering of Ethiopian vocalists, most of which we're familiar with from past Ethiopiques.
It occurred to us recently that the Sublime Frequencies compilations have a certain hipster cache, that compels folks to buy them or at least check them out, even if they're not that into world music, which made us think that all of those people should be checking these out too, these collections are just as mysterious and powerful and wonderful, each one a gorgeous glimpse into another musical tradition, one that is powerful and spiritual, as well as being funky and soulful!
As always, extensive liner notes, lots of photos, as well as information about the artists, the compilation, the tracks, the history of Ethiopian music, and the politics surrounding the music.
Following the beautiful funk / rocksteady / Ethiopian folk fusions on the first compilation, AQ has stocked the full catalogue of the "Ethiopiques" series. Here's a shortened version of what Windy wrote in her Bay Guardian review of the albums. I recommend you pick up #3 and the stunning instrumental volume #4, then #1. Volume #2 is from the 1990s, not the 1970s as are the other three, and is good but very different.
"From 1969 to 1975, spanning an astonishly short six years, a fascinating set of factors contributed to the golden age of modern Ethiopian music. Unless you're already a Mahmoud Ahmed fan or own the sadly out-of-print 'Ethiopian Groove' compilation, then this is some of the most amazingly beautiful music you've never ever heard. Ethiopia, unlike the rest of Africa, was never deeply colonized. Thus the institutional bands, like the Imperial Body Guard Orchestra and the Police Band, used conventional western instruments without regard for western song forms; the music sounds at once familiar and strange, a tantalizing combination. Alternately wistful and eerie arpeggios in pentatonic scales are warbled by the vocalists and horns. Rhythm guitar and jazz-like drums wreak havoc on a westerner's sense of time (once you think you're tapping toes along with the beat, you realize you've lost it.) And American sixties soul-type guitar follows its own melody above it all."
The literal translation of the word "Tezeta" is memory, or nostalgia and as it applies to music in Ethiopia it is akin to the American genre known as the blues, hence the subtitle of this collection. But don't worry, you won't hear any imitations of western blues progressions here. When I first put this on though, I instantly got a feeling of nostalgia before I realised that I'd heard these songs before. In fact, over half of the material on this disc has already been released by Buda in previous collections of Ethiopiques. Four tracks appeared on Ethiopiques #1 (three if you count Getatchew Kassa's split "Tezeta" slow/fast as one track) and two tracks were present on the instrumental collection of Ethiopiques #4. If you've got those two comps already, then you'll be paying a hefty price for the six new tracks you get on this collection. So is it worth it? Well, I may be a sucker, but the extra tracks are pretty damn impressive. Mahmoud Ahmed's 12 and a half minute version of "Tezeta" is absolutely dreamy and all three of the previously unissued cuts by Alemayehu Eshete are excellent. The general feel of this collection shares a lot with volume 4 in the series. Along with the two tracks that were already on Ethiopiques #4, the one instrumental track from Ethiopiques #1 is included here, and the remaining vocal tracks on the disc are all down tempo, sorrowful ballads that'll jerk the tears from your eye sockets. In a way, you could see this collection as a sort of "best of" Ethiopiques and more than recommending it to owners of the rest of the series I would suggest it as a great place to start for those who've still not taken the plunge into Ethiopia's wonderful and unique musical treasure chest. [Note to all the Santa's out there: great stocking stuffer for the un-initiated.]
Like volumes 2, 5, and 11, Ethiopiques 12 is a collection apart from the fuzzed out groove music of Amha and Kaifa records which make up much of the material in the series. This volume features the various traditional musics found in the Konso province in the Southeastern part of Ethiopia. Choruses, flute solos, and songs accompanied by various lutes and bells. Comes with 31 pages of liner notes in French and English.
While not as famous as Amha Eshete (Amha Records), Ali Abdella Kaifa and his Kaifa records was still a heavyweight in Ethiopia's golden age of record production. Kaifa essentially took up the slack from Eshete when the latter went into exile in 1975 due to the country's increasingly hostile military government. Entering the music business in 1973 with the release of the first 45s on his label, Kaifa didn't just materialize in Eshete's absence. But it was the release of Mahmoud Ahmed's legendary "Ere Mela Mela" -- the album that would become the first Ethiopian recording to be released in Europe -- that really put Kaifa on the map. He was also the one who discovered Aster Aweke (who later fled Ethiopia to build a successful career as a world beat artist in the late eighties.) All but two tracks in this collection were recorded between 1976 and 1977 at the tail end of of Ethiopia's record industry, which was squashed in 1978 (at which point Kaifa continued to produce music on cassettes.) Along with the usual collection of male vocalists (Alemayehu Eshete, Hirut Bekele, Ayalew Mesfin and Tamrat Ferendji) there are four tracks featuring female vocalists (unfortunately underrepresented in this series) Bzunesh Beqele and the duo of Asselefetch Ashine & Getenesh Kebret. Ashine & Kebret must be heard to be believed, their unearthly parallel harmonies sharing the limelight wonderfully with the Army Band's flautist and arranger Teshome Sissay.
Longtime readers of AQ's list might have caught notice of this volume's title "Ethiopian Groove", as we had once stocked an album of the same name many years ago (see AQL #42). Indeed this album is the very same as the now out of print one on Blue Silver (in fact Ethiopiques series editor Francis Falceto was the one who compiled the earlier release), but with a few differences. While Ethiopiques #13 is unfortunately missing three of the Aster Aweke tracks that graced the original Ethiopian Groove CD, it is supplemented by the addition of two tracks by saxophonist Seyoum Gebreyes, two by vocalist Muleqen Mellesse and greatly expanded liner notes & photos. We can only hope that Buda Musique is intending to issue an entire CD dedicated to Aster Aweke and her earliest recordings for Kaifa. Until then, those of you with the original Ethiopian Groove should hold onto it.
"A surprising gathering of Ethiopian, French and Dutch musicians, Jump to Addis presents an exhilarating blend of Abyssinian tradition, jazz revisited and mad rock'n'roll. This daring mix features azmari voices and krar lyres along with European guitars, sax and drums." So says the press release on this modern-day entry in the Ethiopiques series, we thought it was ok but as essential as many of the other Ethiopiques releases. Recorded in Addis Ababa, May 2001.
Asguebba is another Ethiopiques collection to contain not the excavated gems from the golden era, but contemporary tracks from Addis. With the end of the repressive Derg government in 1991, so ended the strict curfew which made life so difficult for musicians for almost two decades. Oddly, it wasn't the original sounds of groove music that rose from the ashes, but small groups of itinerant singers accompanied by traditional Ethiopian instruments: masenqo (fiddle), kebero (percussion), and the globally ubiquitous accordian. The artists featured on this disc, recorded in 2001 & 2003, are the cream of the crop, having survived through the halcyon days of the post curfew early nineties on up to the present where most of the cabarets are closed up and the competition has given up. While this collection may not appeal to those looking for a repeat of Volume 4 or any of the other groove music from the late sixties and early seventies, those who enjoyed The Lady With the Krar (Volume 16) should definitely check this out, if for no other reason than to pick up the stunning a capella track from Asnaqe Guebreyes whose falsetto kills all comers. Stunning!
Here it is. The most recent installment in Buda Musique's totally amazing Ethiopiques series, each volume so far focusing on a particular artist, or time or sound, but each volume as completley mindblowing as the next. Sure we had our favorites.
The all instrumental Volume 4 obviously, maybe one of the best selling records at AQ ever, a sexy, funky soulful late night groove. Volumes 6 and 7 featuring Mahmoud Ahmed, and we could probably go one and on listing every single volume. But we have to admit we were a little confused when we got this newest volume, especially when we thought it was to be the last (a quick glance in the booklet reveals that there is a 21st volume on the way!). A double cd, perfect way to finish off the series, but what is this, Either / Orchestra, wait a minute, they're American aren't they? From Boston if we're not mistaken. WTF?! Was their really such a dearth of lost classic Ethiopian music that the final volume needed to be a jazz band from Boston covering Ethiopian songs. We had already written it off before we even played it. But you never know, so we threw it on, and you know what? It was pretty darn good. And sounded pretty darn genuine. A look through the liner notes revealed that these tracks were recorded in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, for the Ethiopian Music Festival in 2004, and features guest musicians from Ethiopia including several recognizable names including Bahta Gebre-Heywet, Getatchew Mekurya, Mulatu Astatqe, Tsedenia Gebre-Marqos, and Michael Belayneh. Performing lots of Ethiopian orignals and traditionals, many that you'll no doubt recognize from otheer volumes in the series. The songs are as always fantastic , festive and jubilant, with a moody minor key undercurrent, warm rich horns, intricate hand percussion, jazzy guitar and piano, gorgeous melodies. The sound is just so lush and exotic and dark and mysterious and totally exciting, even when played by a bunch of dudes from New England. We still think it's a little weird to include a double disc live set of Ethiopian jazz / funk via Americans in Ethiopia when there is no doubt oodles and oodles of rare and unreleased Ethiopian music from the sixties and seventies and even the eighties that we all would kill to hear, we're just happy to have another batch of awesome Ethiopian grooves, and we're so relieved that this is not the end of the Ethiopiques series!
Ethiopia was the site of some of the most beautiful yet sadly forgotten music in the 60's and 70's. This compilation takes some of the best tracks from the enterprising Amha Records. This label specialized in recording unusually catchy and groovy pop songs that are not dissimilar to late 60's Jamaican rocksteady fused with jazz signatures and Ethiopian folk, plus plenty of James Brown funk. What makes these recordings (and most from the "golden era" of Ethiopian music) especially strange is that they were all performed by the institutional military bands who played all of the Imperial marches. Includes tracks by the great Mahmoud Ahmed (different from those on his wonderful "Ere Mela Mela" disc), ...Those of you who loved the "Ethiopian Groove" compilation, or who couldn't get a copy (as it's now out of print), be thankful.
Volume 5 of this stunning series of compilatons featuring the music made in Ethiopia between 1969 and 1975 -- the 'golden age' of Ethiopian music where governmental control lightened just enough for one independent label to flourish. Capturing everything from institutional outfits performing Ethio-funk to sad instrumental pieces to music played on both modern and traditional instruments, the series just sounds so lovely. This latest volume focuses on the 'Tigrigna' music of Tigray and Eritrea. We suggest you start with the classic volumes 3 and 4 of this series, then move on to all the others.
Finally, another installment in the fabulous Ethiopiques series! This time from the time span of 1969-1974, and focusing closely on the R&B and soul influenced musical output from Ethiopia's bustling capitol, Addis Ababa. More than just R&B and soul though, the tracks here are striking in their resemblance to early rock & roll and the twist -- there's even a track that sounds like a twisted spin on Chubby Checker. Despite the close relationship to popular music genres in the U.S. there is no mistaking the music's Ethiopian origin for anyone familiar with this series. And yet, despite even having tracks by such now familiar names as Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete, this compilation distances itself from the previous seven in this series with a sound all its own. It just goes to show you how amazingly diverse and fertile Ethiopia's music scene was/is. Hooray!
If the usual, corporate "world music" recording is intended for the pleasure and edification of "armchair travellers" who appreciate the comforts of said armchair and, if actually travelling, would prefer the expensive luxuries of Westernized hotels and guided tours in air conditioned buses, then "world music" as documented by the Sun City Girls affiliated Sublime Frequencies field recordings label is for armchair travellers who want to know what it would sound like if they and their armchair were to be picked up, packed into a crate, shipped on the slow boat TO China or wherever, and dumped into the back alleys of a far off land to fend for themselves. No guided tour, more like bumming around amid the teeming human cultures of the third world, ears open to new experiences, to both musical and environmental sounds.
For release number thirty-something in their series, Sublime Frequencies visits North Vietnam, bringing back 15 tracks of wailing horns, keening vocals, twanging Jews harps, wheezing bamboo mouth-organs, and and more, including the sounds of a reed instrument, the piem zat, a sort of oboe played with a circular breathing technique. Singing styles are unique too, as with the layered female chorus on track 10 for instance, where the singers achieve a kind a delay effect, in a style called bao zoo.
The liner notes by recordist/compiler Lauren Jenneau help to explain the musical traditions of the various ethnic minority groups he's encountered here, and how they figure into both their everyday and spiritual lives. As usual with Sublime Frequencies stuff, pretty much a must-have if you want to make your armchair a much more "exotic" place in which to recline... or to inspire you to get off your ass, quit your job and take off on that backpacking trip to South East Asia you've always wanted to take...
The Cambodians have a long and troubled history, rife with oppression and persecution. Whether it's the Khmer Rouge, the French, the Siamese, the Vietnamese, and even the Americans, as a people, their survival was always in doubt. This strife resulted in a rich musical landscape, music being an escape, but also a means of storytelling and passing on history. A rich oral tradition imbues almost all Cambodian music. While past forays into Cambodian music have focused on Cambodian ROCK, the sort of reimagining of Western pop, resulting in off kilter, buzzing psychedelic Eastern pop versions of popular Western songs, this comp focuses more on the music of the ethnic minorities, simple instrumentation, mostly vocal, with gongs, simple stringed instruments and primitive bamboo flutes, but if anything the music is so much more passionate and unique. Tales of love and loss, war and death, bombings and of course the terrible aftermath of the Khmer Rouge.
The opening track is an old man, laying in a hammock, singing tales of local legends and his voices is totally amazing, a growling creaking, rumbling, super resonant hum, equal parts chanting and throat singing, while in the back ground, you can hear conversations, creaking porches, children laughing, birds chirping, in fact almost every track here is performed right on the spot, whether it's outside the house, in the front room, in a hammock, on the side of the road, always surrounded by the sound of life and other lives. The second track is performed by 5 old men, playing 5 large gongs, set up outside their house, a low keening vibration, soft muted melodies, dreamy and shimmering, a swirling soft soundpool while in the background children again laugh and play, adding a strange joyous effortlessness to the glistening drone, later a female vocalist sings over the top, a lilting, mournful lament. Elsewhere, a female midwife sings an acapella song, a delicate wavering croon, warbling and wavering, but so rich and beautiful, while voices swirl around her. Like she just decided to start singing, right there amidst a crowd of random passersby, which she probably did. Later, a love song, simple fingerpicked guitar and sweetly sad improvised female vocals, while on another track, a 10 stringed instrument made from bamboo and a hollowed out gourd is strummed and picked, creating a sparkling web of buzzing high end melodies and delicate high end tangles, while later five gong players unfurl a warm wash of simple steel drum like melody, accompanied by a male vocalist, a flute player and 8 female virgins who clap along and offer up a chant responding to the male vocals.
This is literally a stroll through another culture, observing and learning via music, and it feels like music is everywhere, in houses, on the street, in shops and on the shores of the river, people talk and laugh, play and work, always surrounded by music, clapping and singing, melody and harmony, completely mesmerizing. And obviously very very recommended.
Includes a big booklet with lots of photos and extensive liner notes.
Yet another fantastic new entry in the ever expanding (at an alarming pace) catalogue of mysterious world music treasures from Sublime Frequencies. This one born of an aborted wedding plan, the couple Laurent Jeanneau and Shi Tanding had hoped to get married in China, while at the same time collecting field recordings from the various stops in their travels. But alas, the wedding was not to be, as the local authorities grew quite suspicious, following the two and interrogating them relentlessly. And while the wedding was nixed, the Laurent and Shi can definitely take consolation in the fact that they returned with this incredible collection of various folk musics from all over the Northwest Xinjiang region of China.
A fantastic array of Chines traditional folk music, various indigenous stringed instruments, different vocal styles, as always the booklet is bursting with information, about the trip, the couple's hardships, but more pertinent to the compilation, extensive notes on the various performers and the instruments, and the different styles of music.
But even without that sort of technical guide, the music here quickly reveals itself as mysterious and magical, intimate and emotional, haunting and otherworldly. A quick overview of some of our favorite tracks: wild frenzied string buzz, incredibly dense and tangled melodies, some seriously masterful playing that would give most Western shredders a run for their money, some gorgeous languid steel string buzz, over moody low end melodies, bird calls in the distance, super dramatic and so beautiful, in fact birds feature prominently in these recordings, which of course only makes them that much cooler. Like on the track with a swoonsome soaring violin like melody, sounding like it was performed in the middle of a lush forest, which it most likely was. There's lots of bluesy folkiness, with incredibly emotive vocals, so moving and intense. And then there's the 15 minute closer, very Indian sounding, a sprawling raga, layered buzz, tangled melodies, haunting vocals, totally mesmerizing and utterly transcendent.
It's difficult for us to not just make EVERY Sublime Frequencies release a Record Of The Week, and compilation is another reason why, which simply means that this is about as recommended as we can imagine, on constant play here in the store, where it will most likely remain, at least until the next mysterious Sublime Frequencies gem, which we're guessing is probably not that far off...
Yet another fantastic document from Sublime Frequencies, the avant world music label run by the Sun City Girls, and home to now dozens of releases, all of them fascinating and fantastic. Proving once again that we ain't got nothing on the rest of the world in terms of unique sounds and amazing musics. Ethnic Minority Music Of Southern Laos, is one of two new discs in Sublime Frequencies' series of documents exploring the rich musical histories of displaced minorities in various regions of Southeast Asia. This volume follows the Northeast Cambodia installment in exploring the music of Cambodia, this disc focusing on two distinct musical styles, one incorporating various gongs, the other involving different sorts of mouth harps. As always, the liner notes are dense and informative, but here they are a little bit more difficult to summarize than on past discs, so we'll focus more on the sounds than the story.
All of these tracks were culled from a super limited 4cd set released a few years back, and offer a varied and completely mindblowing sampling of the sounds of musicians in and around Laos, groups of people forced to move from their mountainous villages into temporary and makeshift villages, where all of the things that nature supplied in the mountains (food, water, protection) have now become scarce. And obviously, as with all cultures, the music and art represents the huge shifts and dramatic changes of a people, political, personal, love, worry, sadness, sorrow, death, passion, birth... The music here is just so intense and emotional and definitely reflects the transition and the day to day struggle to just live life.
As mentioned above, there are two distinct musics, the first is based mostly on gongs, with various bits of percussion, and the sound is amazing. Rich and resonant, totally hypnotic and rhythmic, often times just a single gong, but the magic of the music is in the patterns and the subtle overtones, so simple yet so subtly complex, the various subtleties unfold as the tracks progress, not hard to imagine (or hope) that these tracks could go on for hours...
Other tracks are more complex, with deep gongs creating a shimmering backdrop, for clattery cymbals and simple propulsive drumming, a sound that isn't all that different in places than some of the freaky forest folk from Finland we dig so much, or the stoned rhythmic jams of groups like the No Neck Blues Band or Sunburned Hand Of The Man. The sounds of the various gongs are so different, some are low and rumbling, others are high pitched and sharp, and lots of shades in between, muted and muffled or allowed to ring out, struck with something soft or with wood or other metal, the various shades are deftly woven into gorgeous stretches of rhythm and melody.
The other music is based on various mouth harps, and the sound of those harps is remarkable, strange complex chords, complicated alien timbres, wheezing and whirring, lots of overlapping melodies, and various tones all tangled up, a rich bed beneath deep rich crooning, while in the background can be heard chirping birds, crowing roosters, babies crying, many of the tracks pick up random conversations, from the players, or passersby. One of the most amazing organ track is "Jeu Phawn Peng Gawng Ploung Ken" featuring an organ made from 10 bamboo tubes and a single gong. The melody is haunting and minor key, looped and so hypnotic, while two vocalists take turns singing, their voices alternatingly raw and raspy, soaring and clear, one ragged and forlorn, the other wailing and sorrowful, and like the other tracks, you can hear coughing, breathing, feet shuffling in the background, but the music is so dark, and so intense, it's easy to get completely lost.
And while the record is mostly evenly split between the mouth harp tracks and the gong tracks, there are a handful of tracks that don't fit in either camp, some strummy and folky, others abstract and percussive. One of those tracks we love, one that should have been 10 minutes long instead of 24 seconds is "Reum Bang" a killer riff, played on a single string bowed instrument, the sound so primal and raw, the string all muted and stiff, like a distorted rubber band guitar or something, hard not to imagine the drums kicking in and it turning into some strange psychedelic jam.
The whole disc is fantastic, every time a new Sublime Frequencies disc arrives, we find ourselves wanting to proclaim it the best one yet, but all it takes is for us to go back and listen to any of the old ones, for us to realize that, no, THAT one is the best one yet. Can't think of a better recommendation for this disc, and for every disc in the series...
Last year we highlighted a fab comp of groovy vintage musique "Made In France", now here's another volume of similar sounds put out by the same label, Magic, who've also brought us many other excellent, if budget-lookin', French ye ye/pop/psych reissues from Pussy Cat to Rene Joly. This 70+ minute disc's got 22 tracks, with an assortment of gems to be found among 'em if your tastes run to this sort of commercial yet cool stuff from French hipsters of the psychedelic era. Much of this is in the mode of orchestrated soft pop and dramatic balladry, with even the occasional music hall novelty, but it can rock out, too - for instance, the heavy groovin' stoner psych of "Come Along" by Les Variations (which previously appeared as one of the most badass bonus tracks on Magic's now out of print Nador/Take It Or Leave It double cd we listed a while back).
Less rockin' but equally rad are the backwards beats and hollowly piping flute of Time Machine's "Bird In The Wind", a weirdly haunting instrumental, mellow and melancholic... Elsewhere, Titanic funk it up on "Macumba", and Zoo mix fuzz and horns on their catchy "Hard Times Good Times". Another hit with us (and probably any Zombies fans in the house) is Classical M's "Such A Lovely Voice", which we already knew from their Bad Guys anthology. Another one that's sort of familiar is by paradoxically named Anarchic System, because they do an odd version of Gershon Kingsley's sixties Moog hit "Pop Corn"!
This collection's sundry other tracks range from the wonderfully moody n' gloomy, to upbeat bubblegum, providing plenty of both polished progginess and pop chart cheesiness, often at the same time. And all of it, charmingly, very much of its times. The full lineup of groups and singers, omitting those already mentioned: Total Issue, Wallace Collection, Jupiter Sunset, Alan Jack Civilization, Century, Trianglophone, Georges & Michel Costa, Holly Guns, Jo Sony Avern System, Pop Tops, Joel Dayde, Peter Haller, Laurent, Charles Brutus McClay, The American Breed, and Marvin, Welch & Farrar.
First proper lp release from aQ pal, 78 collector, and curator of the awesome Excavated Shellac blog, Jonathan Ward, appropriately enough on Parlortone, "The Phonographic Arm And Limited Edition Leg" of longtime favorite reissue label Dust-To-Digital. And it's a doozy, before we get into it, anyone who buys everything on Mississippi is gonna want one of these, if you loved the Black Mirror collection, or the Victrola Favorites, for anyone into world music, into lost gems, old sonic obscurities, this is about as good as it gets, the song selection, the curation, the sound, the detailed liner notes, utterly fantastic, and sonically breathtaking. But of course we would have expected nothing less.
For those not familiar with it, Excavated Shellac is a blog dedicated to "78rpm recordings of folkloric and vernacular music from around the world", and besides having an incredible collection, Ward also is a fantastic write, who writes extensively about each record he posts (almost all unavailable anywhere else in any format), detailing the recording, the style of music, the history, a musical lesson in every post, and the music, well needless to say, it's easy to get lost and subsequently obsessed.
So Excavated Shellac: Strings, is an analog extension of the ES blog, with all the things we love about the blog intact. Of course there's the music, impeccably chosen, deftly cleaned up, and perfectly sequenced, the writing, informative and funny, educated and informed, about the record, the project, and each track and artist, and of course the object itself, beautifully laid out, pressed on thick vinyl, lots of amazing archival photos, so great.
This first volume focuses on string instruments from around the world, Armenia, India, Bolivia, Congo, Vietnam, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Uganda, Lebanon, Japan, Norway, Croatia and Paraguay. Every song a gem, haunting solos on Middle Eastern lutes, tangled frantic, droney sitar like buzz from India, playful festive dance music from Bolivia played on small guitars fashioned from gourds, gorgeous acoustic guitar music, lush and melodic, with soulful call and response vocals, from Congo, home recorded duets on 2 string fiddle and 'moon guitar' from Vietnam, solo violin from Iran, traditional folk music from Georgia, we could go on and on and on and on. But you know already if you need this, and it seems likely you probably do. We had been hearing rumblings about a Jon Ward / Dust-To-Digital project in the works, and had been anxiously awaiting it ever since. Now that we're playing this to death, we find ourselves already looking forward to future volumes. So incredible, and so totally recommended.
Beautifully printed matte finish sleeve, heavy vinyl, with a printed cardstock 4 page insert, with liner notes and photos and more!
As we approach fall, we find ourselves desperately hanging on to summer sun and celebrating summer fun. Nothing better than the sounds of cha-cha-cha's done just right to keep that feeling alive. Party songs you can trust, bugaloo that makes you move. And this cd version of a now out of print 7" box set of Latin soul and groove from a special heyday of this movement spanning the years 1966-1969 totally hits the spot. Mostly centered around neighborhoods in Harlem and other areas of NYC, a new generation of Latino youth were soaking up the sounds of raw R'n'B, incorporating elements of black culture and adding a definitely distinctive Latin element to the mix. If you've been digging the great Eccentric Soul comps that we've fallen for, this is another great '60s soul comp to add to your collection, and this one's got something most of those collections don't...intoxicating Latin spice!
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!
It's really getting to where we barely have to describe these at all. And not just because of the Mississippi obsessives. The collections are so lovingly curated, every step of the process, from the actual recording of the music, to the booklets and the jackets, and most importantly the amazing sounds inside, any one with even the slightest bit of interest in world musics, would be foolish to pass any of these up. Including this, volume two in this series of field recordings from Madagascar, the first volume so limited we were never able to get any copies at all. The sounds here were gathered by Canadian field recordist Charlie Brooks, and most were recorded on a trip there in 2002, focusing mostly on violin players and throat singers, although the sounds here are quite varied. There is so much info in the liner notes about the region, and the history, and that alone makes this a worthwhile purchase, but the music, it's fantastic, haunting, and lovely and beautiful, incredible vocal harmonies, the violins emit sweet melodies one second, intense buzzing the next, there are wheezing accordions, some of the tracks sound almost Hawaiian, the strings reminding us of ukeleles, throughout the songs are laced with street sounds, birds chirping, cars driving by, children laughing, conversations, all just adding to the vibe, and the energy, with a few of the tracks droned our and mesmerizing, sounding a bit like some mysterious variation of American Appalachia. Incredible!
Housed in a super heavy old school tip-on style jacket, and includes a massive booklet filled with liner notes on the music, the region, the performers, as well as lots of photos.
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
A few months ago, there was a triple lp release, briefly available via Mississippi, called Fihavanana, it was so limited, pretty much nobody got any, but thankfully, the label decided to pick out a handful of tracks, and create this, Fanajana, a collection of recordings culled from those 3lps, chronicling in music and photography a trip to Madigasikara, undertaken by Canadian musician and ethnographer Charles Brooks. Recorded in the late nineties, Brooks returned and pressed up a couple hundred copies of the aforementioned 3lp set, storing them in his house for nearly a decade, before finally letting Mississippi have them, where they literally sold out in a matter of days.
So unless you're one of the lucky souls who snagged one of those triples, you're definitely gonna want to grab one of these, some of the most intense, incredible and uplifting sounds, lush and celebratory, the stringed instrument playing is intricate and complex, a mix of traditional and modern instruments, the vocals very reminiscent of African high life, the tracks quite varied, but all fantastic, a wild drum and flute freakout, an awesome accordion ballad, a song that's just voices and handclaps, some super emotional and intimate solo vocals, all recorded live, in people's homes, or yards, the sound of life infusing all of these track, children playing, people talking, chickens, birds in the trees, running water, footsteps, all just adding to the energy and emotion of this music.
The record comes with a large 8.5" x 11" booklet, packed with Brooks' liner notes, the history of the country, of the music, descriptions of the various instruments (along with drawings), small stories about all the musicians, including how Brooks met them and what precipitated these recordings, a little about payment, an often overlooked element in these sorts of reissues, a bit about Brooks himself, and plenty of notes on his approach, his techniques, and so much more, poems, lyrics, diagrams, and tons of photos. Super super recommended.
