We couldn't be more stoked that Egyptian legend Hamza El Din's first two records have finally been made available to us on cd. His music has had such a lasting impact on such a wide range of artists. You can hear hints of his exquisite playing in the work of everyone from Sandy Bull (who he lived with for a bit while in the states) and John Fahey, to The Grateful Dead (who toured Egypt thanks to his help), to Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, James Blackshaw, Debashish Bhattacharya, etc. The way he used his oud to make such resonating and soulful sounds transcends language, culture or geography. Even with his soulful vocals, it doesn't matter if you don't understand the words because it's the rich emotional tone of his voice that taps into something greater then letters, words or language.
Al Oud was his second album, released in 1965, billed as a record of instrumental and vocal music from Nubia. What haunting yet majestic and soul piercing sounds. No doubt about it, El Din belongs in that special class of transcendent musicians like Alice Coltrane, Ali Farka Toure, Ravi Shankar, and Ali Akbar Khan. Totally essential!
Oops. Here's a straggler from the Africa portion of the Explorer series that we never got around to listing. Oh well, better late than never. A popular lute throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East, the oud has 6 six strings, all of which but for the lowest in pitch are paired up (like in a twelve string guitar). Hamza El Din hails originally from Nubia (which is absorbed within Egypt near the Sudan) and on this album he claims to fuse elements of both Sudan and Egypt into his distinct Nubian style. A couple of interesting facts I never knew about El Din: he not only played with the Grateful Dead live occasionally, he organized their tour of Egypt (Yikes! But don't let that dissuade you non-deadheads out there.) He also roomed at guitarist Sandy Bull's place for a spell (hence the source of the influence on Bull's piece "Blend".) Escalay was originally released by Nonesuch in 1971, but unlike many other artists featured in the Explorer series, it wasn't Hamza El Din's first commercial release (In fact, it was his third release and was apparently recorded after he had emigrated to the United States.) But this was the album that everyone, including Mickey Hart, initially went nuts over and the album that everyone still hails as his greatest -- Kronos Quartet commissioned El Din to arrange the title track for their 1992 release Pieces Of Africa. The first two tracks are mesmerizing -- 21 and 12 minute respectively -- pieces for oud and voice (both El Din's) and the third is a 5 minute piece for tar (frame drum) and voice. Hamza El Din's oud playing is so damn seductive, it seems to warp one's perception of time. The first time I put this disc on to listen to and write, I found myself just sitting paralized through the first two tracks before the crisp snapping of the tar awoke me from my reverie. His playing is so effortless as to understate his virtuosity, it's no wonder that it's so easy to become completely absorbed in his compositions. Listening closely, you can hear El Din manipulating the timbre of his instrument on a macro level: coaxing out texture from the warm buzz of the strings. Buying this CD, your only disappointment will be in its brevity of just under 40 minutes.
We couldn't be more stoked that Egyptian legend Hamza El Din's first two records have finally been made available to us on cd. His music has had such a lasting impact on such a wide range of artists. You can hear hints of his exquisite playing in the work of everyone from Sandy Bull (who he lived with for a bit while in the states) and John Fahey, to The Grateful Dead (who toured Egypt thanks to his help), to Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, James Blackshaw, Debashish Bhattacharya, etc. The way he used his oud to make such resonating and soulful sounds transcends language, culture or geography. Even with his soulful vocals, it doesn't matter if you don't understand the words because it's the rich emotional tone of his voice that taps into something greater then letters, words or language.
Music Of Nubia was El Din's debut album, released in 1964, this really was one of the first records from Africa to breakthrough and find a wider audience in the western world, and for great reason! What haunting yet majestic and soul piercing sounds! No doubt about it, El Din belongs in that special class of transcendent musicians like Alice Coltrane, Ali Farka Toure, Ravi Shankar, and Ali Akbar Khan. Totally essential!
Summer in San Francisco is a funny thing. It doesn't really happen, most of July and even August is chilly, grey, and windy. We know we have no room to really complain about the weather here, but it can get you down. Luckily we do usually get this small blast of Indian Summer that hits late in September and we all run to the park, the beach, a lake, anywhere to soak it all up as much as we can, as we know it will be gone before we know it. So in these times of packing in as much summer as we can in just a handful of days we really need and relish when an end of the summer jam shows up just in time to blast as we play in the sunshine.
El Guincho has given us the perfect bright, bouncy and colorful soundtrack that's beyond perfect for tapping into the carefree vibe of running through waves and playing in sand, the fleeting summer state of mind that is already on its way out. Picking up perfectly where his 2008 debut left off, and even upping he quality of songcraft and irresistibility. While El Guincho is from Spain, his music really sounds like someone so in touch with so many great sounds being made across the globe. It's a universal kind of super smart and catchy dance minded pop, filled with so many cascading melodies, catchy rhythms and such impeccable taste.
One of those perfect records that seamlessly mixes synths, samples, and live instruments along with warm and welcoming vocals to create songs that are made for letting down your guard and soaking up some much needed joy and sunshine. So damn good!
Early '70s film soundtrack by a Peruvian hippie commune. Nice.
Big ups to Daptone for pulling together this smoking collection of tracks from 45's by one of the most underrated masters of souk/funk out of Benin in the 1960s and '70s. We first heard El Rego (Theophile Do Rego) on the awesome Analog Africa compilation, Legends Of Benin, in one of his many incarnations as El Rego Et Ses Commandos, and we totally dug that track so much, that we were stoked to realize he had a golden vault of tracks hidden away, all from this magical era.
El Rego has a similar sound, energy and spirit to folks like Fela Kuti, James Brown, and Archie Bell, while also having the ability to slow things down and allow the rich grooves to drive the meditative focused vocals into a blues like trance. It makes sense that Rego was not only a performer, producer, and engineer, but also owned nightclubs, as his sense of timing and the importance of creating a mood and making bodies move is undeniable in these stellar tracks.
The vinyl edition comes with a bonus 7" of one of his most sought after funk tracks, while the cd comes in deluxe packaging including a booklet filled with photos, artwork from the original 45's and El Rego's story of his life and music.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Seventies Latin American prog-rock action, courtesy of Buenos Aires' El Reloj. This album is from '76 (with two singles tracks from '75 as a bonus) and showcases their powerful and complex "symphonic hard rock" sound. Argentina's answer to Deep Purple, apparently, with Hammond organ and wailing vocals. On the whole this band is a lot more freaky and twisted than Purple, with plenty of extended instrumental passages. Pretty great! "Without music life would be mistake." --part of a quote from Nietzsche found in the El Reloj booklet.
Wow! While Brazil gets most of the attention in terms of creating some of the best South American psychedelic music, we've recently been checking out the left coast of the continent, namely Chile, and have been digging some amazing stuff. Perhaps it's the epic geographical relationship of mountains and coast in close proximity that inspires such transcendent music or perhaps it's the constant political unrest of the period that cultivated a longing for the more earthy populace-empowered past. Smooth romantic harmonies, ancient flutes and dreamy textures of jungle and nature sounds are all key variables in the sound of great Chilean psych bands El Congreso, Congregacion (also reviewed on this list), Kissing Spell (featured on the Love Peace and Poetry Latin America comp), and their later incarnation, Embrujo. While Kissing Spell was more of a mellow psych-pop confection singing songs in English as was the trend of Latin groups seeking to become more commercially viable, the decision to become Embrujo stemmed from a revolutionary stance possibly inspired by the Brazilian Tropicalia movement both politically and sonically, to write songs almost entirely in Spanish and create a dynamic sound on their own terms upping the ante on their songwriting craft and musicianship. What they add to the equation is Gr-ooo-ve, driven along by fuzzy organ, simmering guitar and funky drumming, building on the traditional Chilean sound with fluid changes, solid rhythms, and like Os Mutantes, occasional wackiness. Tight hook-laden arrangements, lyrical breaks and progressive interludes are what make this sole 1972 album fetch astronomical prices amongst collectors of private press recordings. This is its first CD reissue and seriously, we haven't stopped playing it since it arrived in the store a few weeks ago. Finally we have enough to share this with the rest of you. Embrujo means "bewitched" in Spanish, and we are positive you too will be captured by its spell! Recommended!
Brand new record from this Finnish aQ fave, every new album a slowly blossoming mystery in sound, whether it's manipulated chunks of old vinyl, rickety campfire psychedelia, or expansive soundscapes of delicate crystalline shimmer. Es is the musical monicker of Sami Sanpakkila, who also plays in some other aQ Finnish favorites, most notably Kemialliset Ystavat and Kiila, and who is often joined by various members of the ever shifting and constantly collaborating Finnish underground community.
Kesamaan Lapset seems to be a record composed and performed entirely on keyboards and synthesizers, the opening track is a gloriously sun dappled chunk of skittery sunshiney new age synths, lush swoonsome swells of fuzzy whir, tinkling little melodies, and soft tangles of squiggly glitches, looped and chopped, like a more kinetic caffeinated Oval. The follow up begins with some circusy lo-fi keyboard melodies, that get more and more dense and intricate before the vocals swoop in, super effected and lush, wrapped in delay and reverb, ghostly and otherworldly, drifting lazily and dreamily over the softly chaotic jumble of tones and melodic fragments, managing to be pretty and soft, but fractured and off kilter at the same time.
The first of the two long tracks is a slow building dronescape, thick swells of warm lush organ whir, beneath delicate spidery piano melodies, the whole thing growing ever brighter and more insistent, various keyboards beginning to stutter and skitter creating all manner of incidental rhythms before finishing off in a dense swirl of hissy soft focus drift.
The 21 minute title track is all woozy dream pop, female vocals, over a constantly undulating bed of looped pianos and swirling synths, male vocals offer up some unlikely harmonies, horns slowly surface as do gauzy clouds of effects, before transforming into a deep, dark, almost brooding bit of keyboard driven drift, replete with all manner of Oval like digital glitch, warbly and underwater sounding, super hypnotic and intense, eventually giving way to a strange bit of majestic fanfare before fading out in a brief blur of warm abstract melody.
The final brief track is a buzzed out coda, all electronic glitchery, fuzzy drones, plonked electric piano, howled vocals buried in the mix, tons of grit and texture, buzz and whir, like a way more abstract Animal Collective.
Certainly a bit different than any of the other Es releases, but in its own warm and warped, tripped out and twisted way, a logical extension of Es's ever expanding soundworld. And we dig it.
As always, the packaging is super cool full color 4 panel gatefold, with some amazing childhood photos, printed insert with more cool art and liner notes, and a gold and white printed obi.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Awesome to get the music of this Ethiopian musical legend on vinyl.
Yay! A new volume in the always-popular, ever-wonderful "Ethiopiques" series of Ethiopian popular music, which most AQ-patrons will be aware of. Focusing mainly on the funky early seventies (when a dictator-free six years resulted in an unprecedented cultural flowering), the "Ethiopiques" discs are unanimous AQ staff faves and steady sellers. So what's volume nine all about? It focuses on Alemayehu Eshete who, along with fellow singers Mahmoud Ahmed and Tlahoun Gessesse, is one of the biggest stars from the golden age of Ethiopian music. He has often been compared both to Elvis Presley and James Brown in stature and style. Though a popular figure in a musical movement derided as anti-traditionalist and rebellious by many, Eshete's lyrics often preached of being a dutiful child and obeying one's parents. As a singer, Eshete is amazingly talented, crooning with a sillky voice in one song, then growling and yelping in the next. Like most volumes in the series, highly highly recommended!!
One of three new Mississippi titles reviewed on our list this week, this one another vinyl full length extracted from the Ethiopiques cd series (Ethiopiques 22, to be exact), following Mississippi's Tsegue-Maryamthis Guebrou and two Mahmoud Ahmed records. For this one, Mississippi take a big dip into the vaults of Alemayehu Eshete, one of the biggest stars from the golden age of Ethiopian music in the '70s, who alongside Mahmoud Ahmed, Tlahoun Gessesse and Mulatu Astatke helped define that sound. In fact, Eshete was the star of both the 9th and 22nd volumes of the Ethiopiques series, and judging from those releases, the man left a very sizable legacy. This lp features songs he worked out with three different bands: The All Star Band, The Alem Girma Band and Shebele's Band, and is filled with absolute treasures without a throwaway track in sight.
With instrumentation that's so tight, and breaks that would make any psych/kraut/rare groove lover's jaw drop, this is a collection that we've already been spinning over and over ever since it showed up at aQ. Eshete's voice and presence feels so sure and confident, with a unique vocal style that's been compared to an Ethiopian James Brown crossed with Elvis Presley. There are moments in these songs that catch such deep grooves and moments that sound like they could be pulled straight from a Can song. You just can't beat the warmth of these stripped down analog recordings. You want to be in a room filled with smoke and candles when you listen to this. Eshete made such amazing songs that just drip with sweat, while oozing elegance too. Highly recommended!
First time available on vinyl, Sheik Aljama has long been heralded as one of the finer albums from the long-running Spanish industrial project Esplendor Geometrico. The recordings here began as early as 1986, but the album didn't see completion until 1991. Sheikh Alkama is laced with Arabic samples, percussion, and radio broadcasts, and given the entire catalogue from Muslimgauze who genetically fused Arabic modalities within an industrial agenda, Shiekh Aljama will now and forever be compared to Muslimgauze. There's plenty to separate Shiekh Aljama from Muslimgauze though, but context is key to understanding this album. Cabaret Voltaire may have been the earliest to use Arabic samples within a bleak form of proto-electronica; and these eerie dislocations of Arabic sounds from "the other" came as an anti-colonial diatribe against what the philosopher Edward Said described as Orientalism. Both Muslimgauze and Esplendor Geometrico took those ideas much further than Cabaret Voltaire's appetite for sensuality. For Muslimgauze, the noise and Arabic rhythms were in response to very specific contemporary political events taking place in the Middle East; but for Esplendor Geometrico, the album cites the fall of the Republic of Cordoba in the 11th Century with Arabic and Islamic culture being driven out of the Iberian peninsula. Esplendor Geometrico's mesmerizing rhythms sizzle with corrosive noise and metal-bashed clamor; and the sampled chants seem positioned more as subliminals than as overt citations. "Medinati" looks back to EG's pioneering industrial work in the early '80s, more in keeping with the direct-action pummel of Test Dept; but immediately following this is the disorienting yet hypnotizing dervish of "Descontrol" with its spasmodic dromedary rhythms and shrouded megaphone barking. Like Muslimgauze, Esplendor Geometrico builds a didactic framework and allows the aesthetics of their rhythm and noise to flourish within. It's a great album to have back in print; and very strange to think this has never been on vinyl until now.
True desert blues! Originating from the never-ending dunes of the Sahara Desert, Etran Finatawa have been casting quite the entrancing spell on our ears with their second full length. While they do share many similarities with folks from their region like Tinariwen and Toumast they also have their own identity and places of departure. It's mostly their guitar sound and sense of melody that will have many comparing them to Tinariwen (which is an awesome thing in our book!). But we love how there are also moments on the record where their use of stripped down percussion, chanting call and response vocals and odilirou flute are used to perfection to help carve out a sound that is more of their own. And we have to mention how mesmerizing the soulful vocals that fill the record are, something that you almost take for granted as you listen, as it it so perfectly melds with the music. Another gem from the Sahara that will be in our ears and hearts for a long time to come!
We've loved everything we've heard from this great Saharan outfit, but with this latest outing they have definitely made their best record yet. With ex-members of all time aQ faves Tinariwen they exist in a similar sonic realm that sweeps us up in a desert trance, every single song on Tarkat Tajje is a stunner. One of those records that when you blast it loud there is no way not to get drawn in by the repetitive and hypnotizing guitars, polyphonic singing, call and response refrains, hand claps, heady percussion that drives all the songs with such a warm groove and steady pace, a sound that resonates with such beauty. For sure influenced strongly by Ali Farka Toure, EF continue to grow so much as a band and really deserve so much more attention and praise then they receive. This is an album that is as great as anything Tinariwen has released, in fact we think we might even be more in love with it then the last Tinariwen album which was pretty smoking in its own right. One of those records that doesn't need so much to be described, all you have to do is listen to the sound and the music speaks loud and clear for itself. So damn great!
Another stunning album from this formidable Cape Verdean vocalist! On her tenth album Cesaria Evora's voice, so timeless and effortless, will send wonderful shivers down your spine... at least it did ours! She's backed up by a stellar ensemble lead by Fernando Andrade who not only played piano and sang backup vocals, but also masterfully handled the orchestral direction and arrangements. Rogamar is the aural equivalent of the most passionate embrace. So welcoming and irresistible.
Have had a couple of these in stock for a while now, but never listed 'em. Decided it might be a good idea, since those of you looking for Chinese thrash metal that sounds a lot like Slayer ought to be stoked. They even have a song that's called "slaaaaaayer!!!" (yeah with six 'a's, three exclamation points, and a lower case 's'). That's what it's called in English, though the lyrics are in Chinese).
Explosicum hail from Nanchang, China, and share a member with No Colours recording artists Be Persecuted ("the first Chinese black metal band"). In addition to Slayer, it's a cinch that this old school thrash is influenced by Overkill and Bay Area bands like Exodus. Conflict is the band's first and so far only album, enough for us but definitely a decent dose of blazing battery, widdly guitar, and shrieking vokill aggravation, proving once again that thrash (and metal) is a universal language...
We've been totally obsessed with EM's recent reissue of Istikhbars & Improvisations by Algerian pianist Mustapha Skandrani, and before we even had a chance to begin wearing that one out, along comes yet another magnificent gem, this one from Thai violinist Thonghuad Faited, the Thai violin in question a two stringed sor, a mainstay of Isan music (which you may have heard on the Sublime Frequencies compilation ISAN: Folk and Pop Music of Northeast Thailand); Faited being perhaps the instrument's greatest proponent, and one of the few sor players to have made the transition from background musician to revered solo artist.
Diew Sor Isan is the first proper anthology from Faited, gathering up many of his finest performances from various recordings, many of which are available here for the first time outside of Thailand, Faited's sound part of the 'Molam' tradition, again, sampled on another couple of Sublime Frequencies comps, Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan volumes 1 and 2, Molam is the dominant musical tradition in rural Thailand and is focused around the exotic meditative melodies of the sor, and a style of playing that in some ways is definitely reminiscent of Celtic music as well as bluegrass, but ultimately it remains so distinctive, and utterly unique, the music collected here lush and emotional, dreamily melodic and groovy, from aching solo sor pieces, to lush full band grooves, sensual and soulful, to haunting percussion driven folk, to much more modern sounding Thai funk, from fuzzy garage-y grooves, to gorgeous vocal / sor interplay, some of the tracks super distinctive, the melodies especially the vocals, will be instantly recognizable to folks who remember the Butthole Surfers' purloined-Thai-music-sampling jam "Kuntz", Faited's sor so versatile, whether unfurling smooth, clean sinewy melodies, or sawing way wildly, the Thai folk version of 'shredding', it's no wonder he's a star, ALL the tracks here mesmerizing, every time we put this one, we end up just pushing repeat and listening to it over and over and over again. So fantastic.
The cd is housed in a full color gatefold cardboard sleeve, the lp in a nice full color jacket, both with a fold out full color insert with photos, and liner notes in both English and Japanese.
Beijing Hardcore!!! Or, at least, that's the title of one of the six tracks on this 7", from China. Others include "Chaos Now!" and "Garbage".
Super intense, wild Gypsy wedding music from this 12-piece Romanian band. Lots of crazy dancing potential here.
From a little village called Ciocarlia, located in Eastern Romania, near the Moldavian border, comes this eleven-man brass and woodwind band of gypsies. Combining elements of traditional Romanian, Turkish and Gypsy music as well as Klezmer, this former
Fans of Fanfare Ciocarlia pay heed. Fanfare Savale are an eleven piece gypsy brass band (ten horns, one drummer) from the Eastern Romanian village of Zece Prajini. Like Fanfare Ciocarlia, Savale often play at impossibly fast (upwards of 200 bpm) tempos and, being a group that makes its living through weddings and festivals, can play for extended durations. Infectious and reckless, it's hard not to start jumping up and down to Fanfare Savale's festive brass hard core. Put this on and open up the wine at your next party and you can bet someone's going to get hurt by the time the night's through.
You may have already heard Ibrahim Ferrer on the spectacular second track off the Buena Vista Social Club record, his high, light voice soaring over the expert Cuban instrumentalists backing him up. How lucky are we to have an entire album of Ferrer's lovely voice?
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Here's a recording of Buena Vista Social Club fave Ibrahim Ferrer in his salad days, singing with Electo "Chepin" Rossell's orchestra. Recorded in Havana, mostly in 1960 & 1961, this lineup of Chepin's orchestra also features: Pastor Manzano on trumpet; Remberto Ibarra on alto sax; Emerido Ferrera on percussion; Loreto Vistel, Epifanio and Faustino on trumpets; Luis Castell on piano; J. Guerra on tenor & baritone sax; Enrique Acosta on tenor sax, Ismilbo Correa on tumbao; Chepin on violin; and along with Ferrer on vocals there's Carlos Quintana and Isidro Correa.
As their name suggests, this is music by, or at least for, Finnish trolls. They should tour with Za Frumi, the Swedish orc band. Their self-described brand of black metal polka (or "humpa", as the Finns call it) has made 'em a fave here at Aquarius where anything less ridiculous gets barely a listen, after all.
This third album from Finntroll sports a sticker on the front reading "Special Price Acoustic Album". Well, the price isn't any more special than their others, and it's also not an acoustic album, so we're not sure what's going on there. It is, however, pretty special! Starting off with ominous forest noises, this soon builds into a doleful (is that an oboe?) square dance for monsters, stomping and growling. That's followed by some rather more lively jigs, that sound a bit like Czech maniacs Uz Jsme Doma, if they had a chorus of grim-voiced trolls backing them up. Other numbers are on the bombastic side, symphonic in scope even, very medieval and fantastical of course.
I guess the deep-woods hoedown aspect is what prompted Spikefarm to label this "acoustic" even when there's obviously lots of non-acoustic instruments (keyboards, electric guitars!) being used along with traditional Finnish/trollish instruments like jaw harps and handclaps... and it certainly is Finntroll's least "metal" album. Finntroll goes in the direction of early In Extremo, cool.
MPEG Download: "Asfagelns Dod" [/audio/finntrollasfagelns.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Asfagelns Dod" [/audio/finntrollasfagelns.m3u]
We always look forward to this time of year - it's the holiday season, of course, but also it's when Christian Virant and Zhang Jian (the artistic duo known as FM3) unveil their newest Buddha Machines! And even though Christmas is not remotely a Buddhist holiday, these popular little gadgets ARE just about the best stocking stuffers ever, for all the music/sound nerds you know (after you get one for yourself, of course). If you're unfamiliar with what a Buddha Machine is, well, you should take a gander at our previous reviews of FM3's other releases in the series, but basically, it's a rectangular plastic gizmo, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, a deck of cards, or an original iPod, that plays a pre-recorded set of sound loops (composed by the FM3 duo) that reside on a chip somewhere inside, through its own speaker, or out via a jack to your stereo or headphones. You can toggle between loops, and on recent Buddha Machine models like this one, also speed up or slow down the loops by fiddling with a pitch wheel.
The idea being that these looping sounds are all dreamily meditative and relaxing, or at least quite mesmerically interesting! Forget mp3 players, the Buddha Machine is thee perfect all-in-one, pocket sized music device. And we really like this new one.
This latest iteration of the Buddha Machine concept, Buddha Machine Mark IV, not only features nine brand new loops (which we will describe in great detail in just a moment) but also comes in a selection of 4 vibrant new colors: day-glo orange, pink (they say red but it's more of a neon pink), yellow and green. Very '80s lookin'!
Ok, here's our run-down on each and every loop, based on a brief first listen (hours of listening to 'em may reveal further nuances of course, we expect)...
The first loop here consists of swirling, almost John Carpenter like synth melody, woozy and tranced out, fantastically tense and cinematic. Loop #2 features soft focus chordal swells, lush and oceanic, washed out and hazy, slowly building to near blown out psych bliss drone, before fading right back into a hushed crystalline shimmer! The third loop has keening high end tones, layered into a softly undulating soundscape of dreamlike overtones, and ghostly glimmering drift, for however long you care for it to last. Loop #4 features spare, delicate Brian Eno or Harold Budd like piano, the notes ringing out, drifting through fields of sun dappled shimmer, slowly dissipating into the ether. If you ever toggle past that one, you'll get to loop number 5, in which the aforementioned pointillist piano is draped over a glazed sprawl of bleary background thrum, soundtracky and dreamily dolorous. Loop number six has warm whorls of deep muted buzz and soft rumbles, woven into another set of slow swells, lazy and languorous, building to a glorious prismatic crescendo, before melting down into a dense low end drone. Then, loop the seventh features a haunting woodwind melody, mournful and melancholic, wreathed in a reverby haze of softly effected glimmers, moody and meditative. That's followed by loop number 8, a distorted thumb piano melody, locked into a short cyclical loop (within the loop) repetitive and stuttery, minimal and hypnotically mesmerizing. The ninth and final loop is some kind of minimal distorted dub, its gorgeous throbbing tones doused in echo and delay, building from softly pulsing to blown out, with lots of gauzy space wrapped around the keening fractured melody, lots of crumbling texture too! Wow. All in all, this Buddha Machine 4 sounds like an obvious AQ-fave album, and it's INFINITE.
Like the last few Buddha Machines, again, this one comes with a volume knob, a pitch knob (to alter the pitch of the sounds), a mini output jack (to plug into an amp or your stereo, or for headphones), and a little red power light, but this time, as mentioned, they come in eye popping NEON colors, green, pink, yellow and orange. Each box comes wrapped in a swank, embossed, textured black paper O-card, with liner notes, etc. Requires two AA batteries, which are NOT included, sorry.
We always look forward to this time of year - it's the holiday season, of course, but also it's when Christian Virant and Zhang Jian (the artistic duo known as FM3) unveil their newest Buddha Machines! And even though Christmas is not remotely a Buddhist holiday, these popular little gadgets ARE just about the best stocking stuffers ever, for all the music/sound nerds you know (after you get one for yourself, of course). If you're unfamiliar with what a Buddha Machine is, well, you should take a gander at our previous reviews of FM3's other releases in the series, but basically, it's a rectangular plastic gizmo, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, a deck of cards, or an original iPod, that plays a pre-recorded set of sound loops (composed by the FM3 duo) that reside on a chip somewhere inside, through its own speaker, or out via a jack to your stereo or headphones. You can toggle between loops, and on recent Buddha Machine models like this one, also speed up or slow down the loops by fiddling with a pitch wheel.
The idea being that these looping sounds are all dreamily meditative and relaxing, or at least quite mesmerically interesting! Forget mp3 players, the Buddha Machine is thee perfect all-in-one, pocket sized music device. And we really like this new one.
This latest iteration of the Buddha Machine concept, Buddha Machine Mark IV, not only features nine brand new loops (which we will describe in great detail in just a moment) but also comes in a selection of 4 vibrant new colors: day-glo orange, pink (they say red but it's more of a neon pink), yellow and green. Very '80s lookin'!
Ok, here's our run-down on each and every loop, based on a brief first listen (hours of listening to 'em may reveal further nuances of course, we expect)...
The first loop here consists of swirling, almost John Carpenter like synth melody, woozy and tranced out, fantastically tense and cinematic. Loop #2 features soft focus chordal swells, lush and oceanic, washed out and hazy, slowly building to near blown out psych bliss drone, before fading right back into a hushed crystalline shimmer! The third loop has keening high end tones, layered into a softly undulating soundscape of dreamlike overtones, and ghostly glimmering drift, for however long you care for it to last. Loop #4 features spare, delicate Brian Eno or Harold Budd like piano, the notes ringing out, drifting through fields of sun dappled shimmer, slowly dissipating into the ether. If you ever toggle past that one, you'll get to loop number 5, in which the aforementioned pointillist piano is draped over a glazed sprawl of bleary background thrum, soundtracky and dreamily dolorous. Loop number six has warm whorls of deep muted buzz and soft rumbles, woven into another set of slow swells, lazy and languorous, building to a glorious prismatic crescendo, before melting down into a dense low end drone. Then, loop the seventh features a haunting woodwind melody, mournful and melancholic, wreathed in a reverby haze of softly effected glimmers, moody and meditative. That's followed by loop number 8, a distorted thumb piano melody, locked into a short cyclical loop (within the loop) repetitive and stuttery, minimal and hypnotically mesmerizing. The ninth and final loop is some kind of minimal distorted dub, its gorgeous throbbing tones doused in echo and delay, building from softly pulsing to blown out, with lots of gauzy space wrapped around the keening fractured melody, lots of crumbling texture too! Wow. All in all, this Buddha Machine 4 sounds like an obvious AQ-fave album, and it's INFINITE.
Like the last few Buddha Machines, again, this one comes with a volume knob, a pitch knob (to alter the pitch of the sounds), a mini output jack (to plug into an amp or your stereo, or for headphones), and a little red power light, but this time, as mentioned, they come in eye popping NEON colors, green, pink, yellow and orange. Each box comes wrapped in a swank, embossed, textured black paper O-card, with liner notes, etc. Requires two AA batteries, which are NOT included, sorry.
We always look forward to this time of year - it's the holiday season, of course, but also it's when Christian Virant and Zhang Jian (the artistic duo known as FM3) unveil their newest Buddha Machines! And even though Christmas is not remotely a Buddhist holiday, these popular little gadgets ARE just about the best stocking stuffers ever, for all the music/sound nerds you know (after you get one for yourself, of course). If you're unfamiliar with what a Buddha Machine is, well, you should take a gander at our previous reviews of FM3's other releases in the series, but basically, it's a rectangular plastic gizmo, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, a deck of cards, or an original iPod, that plays a pre-recorded set of sound loops (composed by the FM3 duo) that reside on a chip somewhere inside, through its own speaker, or out via a jack to your stereo or headphones. You can toggle between loops, and on recent Buddha Machine models like this one, also speed up or slow down the loops by fiddling with a pitch wheel.
The idea being that these looping sounds are all dreamily meditative and relaxing, or at least quite mesmerically interesting! Forget mp3 players, the Buddha Machine is thee perfect all-in-one, pocket sized music device. And we really like this new one.
This latest iteration of the Buddha Machine concept, Buddha Machine Mark IV, not only features nine brand new loops (which we will describe in great detail in just a moment) but also comes in a selection of 4 vibrant new colors: day-glo orange, pink (they say red but it's more of a neon pink), yellow and green. Very '80s lookin'!
Ok, here's our run-down on each and every loop, based on a brief first listen (hours of listening to 'em may reveal further nuances of course, we expect)...
The first loop here consists of swirling, almost John Carpenter like synth melody, woozy and tranced out, fantastically tense and cinematic. Loop #2 features soft focus chordal swells, lush and oceanic, washed out and hazy, slowly building to near blown out psych bliss drone, before fading right back into a hushed crystalline shimmer! The third loop has keening high end tones, layered into a softly undulating soundscape of dreamlike overtones, and ghostly glimmering drift, for however long you care for it to last. Loop #4 features spare, delicate Brian Eno or Harold Budd like piano, the notes ringing out, drifting through fields of sun dappled shimmer, slowly dissipating into the ether. If you ever toggle past that one, you'll get to loop number 5, in which the aforementioned pointillist piano is draped over a glazed sprawl of bleary background thrum, soundtracky and dreamily dolorous. Loop number six has warm whorls of deep muted buzz and soft rumbles, woven into another set of slow swells, lazy and languorous, building to a glorious prismatic crescendo, before melting down into a dense low end drone. Then, loop the seventh features a haunting woodwind melody, mournful and melancholic, wreathed in a reverby haze of softly effected glimmers, moody and meditative. That's followed by loop number 8, a distorted thumb piano melody, locked into a short cyclical loop (within the loop) repetitive and stuttery, minimal and hypnotically mesmerizing. The ninth and final loop is some kind of minimal distorted dub, its gorgeous throbbing tones doused in echo and delay, building from softly pulsing to blown out, with lots of gauzy space wrapped around the keening fractured melody, lots of crumbling texture too! Wow. All in all, this Buddha Machine 4 sounds like an obvious AQ-fave album, and it's INFINITE.
Like the last few Buddha Machines, again, this one comes with a volume knob, a pitch knob (to alter the pitch of the sounds), a mini output jack (to plug into an amp or your stereo, or for headphones), and a little red power light, but this time, as mentioned, they come in eye popping NEON colors, green, pink, yellow and orange. Each box comes wrapped in a swank, embossed, textured black paper O-card, with liner notes, etc. Requires two AA batteries, which are NOT included, sorry.
We always look forward to this time of year - it's the holiday season, of course, but also it's when Christian Virant and Zhang Jian (the artistic duo known as FM3) unveil their newest Buddha Machines! And even though Christmas is not remotely a Buddhist holiday, these popular little gadgets ARE just about the best stocking stuffers ever, for all the music/sound nerds you know (after you get one for yourself, of course). If you're unfamiliar with what a Buddha Machine is, well, you should take a gander at our previous reviews of FM3's other releases in the series, but basically, it's a rectangular plastic gizmo, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, a deck of cards, or an original iPod, that plays a pre-recorded set of sound loops (composed by the FM3 duo) that reside on a chip somewhere inside, through its own speaker, or out via a jack to your stereo or headphones. You can toggle between loops, and on recent Buddha Machine models like this one, also speed up or slow down the loops by fiddling with a pitch wheel.
The idea being that these looping sounds are all dreamily meditative and relaxing, or at least quite mesmerically interesting! Forget mp3 players, the Buddha Machine is thee perfect all-in-one, pocket sized music device. And we really like this new one.
This latest iteration of the Buddha Machine concept, Buddha Machine Mark IV, not only features nine brand new loops (which we will describe in great detail in just a moment) but also comes in a selection of 4 vibrant new colors: day-glo orange, pink (they say red but it's more of a neon pink), yellow and green. Very '80s lookin'!
Ok, here's our run-down on each and every loop, based on a brief first listen (hours of listening to 'em may reveal further nuances of course, we expect)...
The first loop here consists of swirling, almost John Carpenter like synth melody, woozy and tranced out, fantastically tense and cinematic. Loop #2 features soft focus chordal swells, lush and oceanic, washed out and hazy, slowly building to near blown out psych bliss drone, before fading right back into a hushed crystalline shimmer! The third loop has keening high end tones, layered into a softly undulating soundscape of dreamlike overtones, and ghostly glimmering drift, for however long you care for it to last. Loop #4 features spare, delicate Brian Eno or Harold Budd like piano, the notes ringing out, drifting through fields of sun dappled shimmer, slowly dissipating into the ether. If you ever toggle past that one, you'll get to loop number 5, in which the aforementioned pointillist piano is draped over a glazed sprawl of bleary background thrum, soundtracky and dreamily dolorous. Loop number six has warm whorls of deep muted buzz and soft rumbles, woven into another set of slow swells, lazy and languorous, building to a glorious prismatic crescendo, before melting down into a dense low end drone. Then, loop the seventh features a haunting woodwind melody, mournful and melancholic, wreathed in a reverby haze of softly effected glimmers, moody and meditative. That's followed by loop number 8, a distorted thumb piano melody, locked into a short cyclical loop (within the loop) repetitive and stuttery, minimal and hypnotically mesmerizing. The ninth and final loop is some kind of minimal distorted dub, its gorgeous throbbing tones doused in echo and delay, building from softly pulsing to blown out, with lots of gauzy space wrapped around the keening fractured melody, lots of crumbling texture too! Wow. All in all, this Buddha Machine 4 sounds like an obvious AQ-fave album, and it's INFINITE.
Like the last few Buddha Machines, again, this one comes with a volume knob, a pitch knob (to alter the pitch of the sounds), a mini output jack (to plug into an amp or your stereo, or for headphones), and a little red power light, but this time, as mentioned, they come in eye popping NEON colors, green, pink, yellow and orange. Each box comes wrapped in a swank, embossed, textured black paper O-card, with liner notes, etc. Requires two AA batteries, which are NOT included, sorry.
These showed up on Friday last week and we were so excited we made a whole "in-between" list out of 'em! If you didn't happen to see that, well, we got more in this week and here's that 'first impressions' review again (yeah, we sold out so fast last weekend that none of us here have even gotten a chance to pick one up yet!):
Hey, it's like Christmas in March! The new Buddha Machines are here! We wanted to let you all know, since it's been three long years since the last one - and ten years, believe it or not, since the FM3's original Buddha Machine appeared. Hence, the release of Buddha Machine 5 marks "a decade of drone." If you're not familiar with the Buddha Machine, well... we're very surprised. We've sold SO many of Buddha Machine I, II, III and IV.
But in case you haven't seen one yet, it's basically a small, handheld device - a "battery powered sound box" or, as some would have it, "pocket sound system" - that plays a discrete set of loops of ambient music. Kind of a Zen alternative to the iPod, in a way. Ever since the FM3 created their first iteration of the Buddha Machine, they've been extremely popular, with artists remixing the loops, museum shows, copy-cat sound boxes, and whatnot. Brian Eno was a famous early adopter. You could take a look at our earlier Buddha Machine reviews if you wanna get more info on what they're all about.
So, fans have been hankering for a new Buddha Machine, we were hoping it would be here for Xmas last year (they're the best stocking stuffers for music/sound geeks), but better late than never. We'll let you know the basics about it now - but really you know you want one (or more) already, right?
Buddha Machine 5 contains nine blissful, beautiful new loops by the Beijing-based experimental duo FM3 (Christiaan Virant & Zhang Jian), featuring, among other things, "deep, orchestral drones, a Steinway grand piano, and the ambient washes of a vintage monosynth". It's got the usual volume and pitch controls, and a line out so you could plug it into a stereo or whatever, although of course it's self contained with it's own little speaker. In a departure from the many neon hues of the Buddha Machine 4, there are two colors available for the Buddha Machine 5, a Black one (this one) and a White one, each with "a special five-layer silicon coating", providing "a warm and fuzzy handfeel", which sounds kind of kinky. We'll be trying it out tonight.
And oh yeah, requires two AA batteries (not included).
These showed up on Friday last week and we were so excited we made a whole "in-between" list out of 'em! If you didn't happen to see that, well, we got more in this week and here's that 'first impressions' review again (yeah, we sold out so fast last weekend that none of us here have even gotten a chance to pick one up yet!):
Hey, it's like Christmas in March! The new Buddha Machines are here! We wanted to let you all know, since it's been three long years since the last one - and ten years, believe it or not, since the FM3's original Buddha Machine appeared. Hence, the release of Buddha Machine 5 marks "a decade of drone." If you're not familiar with the Buddha Machine, well... we're very surprised. We've sold SO many of Buddha Machine I, II, III and IV.
But in case you haven't seen one yet, it's basically a small, handheld device - a "battery powered sound box" or, as some would have it, "pocket sound system" - that plays a discrete set of loops of ambient music. Kind of a Zen alternative to the iPod, in a way. Ever since the FM3 created their first iteration of the Buddha Machine, they've been extremely popular, with artists remixing the loops, museum shows, copy-cat sound boxes, and whatnot. Brian Eno was a famous early adopter. You could take a look at our earlier Buddha Machine reviews if you wanna get more info on what they're all about.
So, fans have been hankering for a new Buddha Machine, we were hoping it would be here for Xmas last year (they're the best stocking stuffers for music/sound geeks), but better late than never. We'll let you know the basics about it now - but really you know you want one (or more) already, right?
Buddha Machine 5 contains nine blissful, beautiful new loops by the Beijing-based experimental duo FM3 (Christiaan Virant & Zhang Jian), featuring, among other things, "deep, orchestral drones, a Steinway grand piano, and the ambient washes of a vintage monosynth". It's got the usual volume and pitch controls, and a line out so you could plug it into a stereo or whatever, although of course it's self contained with it's own little speaker. In a departure from the many neon hues of the Buddha Machine 4, there are two colors available for the Buddha Machine 5, a Black one and a White one (this one), each with "a special five-layer silicon coating", providing "a warm and fuzzy handfeel", which sounds kind of kinky. We'll be trying it out tonight.
And oh yeah, requires two AA batteries (not included).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This newest DVD release from Sublime Frequencies, shot by Hisham Mayet (the man behind the Morocco DVD on SF), focuses its lense on the Taureg people. Filmed in the oasis town of Ghadames in Western Libya (bordering both Tunesia and Algeria), Mayet's camera follows the performances of men, women and children alike in what appears be a local music festival of sorts. Like the previous DVD releases from Sublime Frequencies, this one has no narration or commentary; you, the viewer, guided by the excellent single camera shooting, are left to figure it out for yourself. In the accompanying booklet Mayet points out that the Taureg are unique amongst their neighbors in that not only are they nominally Muslim -- still incorporating their unique and ancient practices that predate the religion -- but are also a matriarchical society (indeed, many of the men appear to be wearing full veils). Running 60 minutes, this DVD is region free NTSC format.
One of two new modern Chilean psychedelic outfits on this week's list, both on Sacred Bones, and both sharing a member, unlike the spaced out psychedelic of The Holydrug Couple, Follakzoid traffic in a sound much more krautrocky, two ten minute side long jams, totally mesmerizing blissed out, cyclical, circular hypnorock, the drums and guitars locked into a super tranced out groove, while all around, strange vocals and voices swirl and swoop, effects shimmer and glimmer and other guitars jangle and chime, the sound changes subtly, stripped down and skeletal one minute, crunchy and distorted the next, but that hypnotic core riff remains locked tight, the sort of thing that should have fans of Circle and Lumerians and Cave and White Hills and 3 Leafs and Mugstar all freaked out.
The flipside starts out much more minimally, a sprawl of effects drenched warble, warped melodies draped over a lumbering beat, less a rhythm and more a pulse, all washed out and muted and muddy and bleary and blurry, before launching into another stretch of super hypnotic krautrock chug and churn, but this time, the sound is way more minimal, the main riff sounding more like the throb of a helicopters spinning blades, whump whump whump, wreathed in softly swirling synths, laced with chanted vocals, all wound into a super tight chunk of super muted sci-fi krautrock psychedelic space rock, that RULES.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
One of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth's very favorite artists, Brigitte Fontaine did a kind of acid-folk French pop thing (from the early 70s) that's just delicious. These are reissues.
Newly reissued by Superior Viaduct, Brigitte Fontaine's debut album from 1968 is a beautiful anomaly in the career of one of France's most groundbreaking artists. Produced by Jean-Claude Vannier, this is the closest Fontaine gets to a mainstream French pop record, even if it's hardly mainstream. Coy and alluring with a sultry mystery that gives the arrangements an artful sheen, Fontaine sounds like the best parts of Serge Gainsbourg, Francois Hardy and Nico combined. There are a couple of tracks that go into a goofy cabaret mode, but that was so indicative of the time, Fontaine could be forgiven for it. Especially considering the avant territory she would later explore with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and her longtime percussionist partner Areski on Comme a La Radio (also reissued on Superior Viaduct and reviewed elsewhere on this week's list). But for a fantastic French pop record with incredible production, this album comes highly recommended!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Attention les francophones!! If you've heard some of this new Brigitte Fontaine album, you may want to like it more than you actually find yourself doing so. If this is true, may we point you in the direction of Louise Forrestier? Please don't think we're simply generalizing when we say that stylistically there are many parallels between the music of Louise Forestier and Brigitte Fontaine. Much like that of chanteuse Fontaine, French Canadian actress/singer Forestier's music might initially strikes you as being fairly standard French Pop performed by seemingly straight-laced studio musicians, however listen closer / further to her Avec Enzymes album and you'll discover that's it's considerably more challenging and theatrical, at times drifting off into subtle eccentricities and some downright bizarre tangents. Quite campy but very cool.
If you're a die-hard Fontaine fan, you'll find her musical companionship with Areski here once again crafting futurist french pop tunes detailing her street and neighborhood. -- Very nice.
