Nina Simone's vast and varied back catalog never ceases to thrill and amaze us. As we dig and dig into the deep vaults of her recorded material we keep running into records that demand full attention and grab us by our vitals and throw us right into the world she was inhabiting at that moment. This 1973 album, now reissued on vinyl, found Nina full of a crazy kind of energy, empowerment, rage, urgency and intensity. As the Vietnam War continued to linger, Emergency Ward! was Nina Simone's most pointed protest against the war, as well as one of her most fiery and commanding records, period. With arrangements by the great Weldon Irvine and a church junior choir from South Jamaica, New York backing her up, a strong foundation was laid for Nina to take those elements and bring them to life as only she could. Recorded live in a few different locations the record finds Simone at her most epic and emotionally charged. The first side is one long track that merges an adaptation of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" with "Today Is A Killer", a poem by David Nelson, that Nina Simone transforms into an unforgettable gospel burner! The second side starts off with an irresistible version of "Poppies" and then the grand finale is an eleven minute emotionally poignant take on another George Harrison song, "Isn't It A Pity", that rings with so much truth and timeliness all these years later. Nina Simone fans, you must have this! Totally engaging and essential!
We've long been advocates of the importance and reward of spending time with Nina Simone's proper albums. We're really glad there have been so many reissues of her records from the '60s and '70s, but truth be told she was one of those rare incredible artists who stayed true to her vision and made powerful music in all five decades that she shared her magical voice and musical wisdom with the world.
Recorded in Paris in 1982, Fodder On My Wings was an album not many of us were familiar with so we were thrilled Sunnyside brought it to our attention, as it's one smoking and satisfying record, with Nina on piano, harpsichord shaker, and tambourine backed by an awesome band with instrumentation that included congas, woodblock, timpani, etc. Unlike many of her earlier albums, Nina wrote and composed all but one track on this record. Singing in both French and English, her songs range from bittersweet, to empowering, to effervescent. Filled with rich grooves, entrancing piano, and that unmistakably wise and magical voice. A must have for any Nina Simone fan!
It can sometimes be daunting with some legendary artists, especially with ones who have left us so much great music, to figure out where to start in terms of really exploring their music. Truth be told, any time or any way you get to hear a Nina Simone song it's pretty damn special. Whether it's on a mix someone made you, or one of the many best-of collections, or even any of the great live recordings. But lately we've really wanted to spend some quality time with her albums, as they were created so meticulously and flow so amazingly, with perfect emotional peaks and valleys that take you on a spiritual sonic journey from start to finish.
We easily could list a handful of essential albums from Nina Simone (we reviewed the great Silk & Soul a couple years back and it's become a staple of the AQ soundsytem), but this time around, we'll focus on one of her true masterpieces, High Priestess Of Soul, recorded in 1966. With lush and tasteful arrangements by Hal Mooney, this is a record that definitely demonstrates Simones's dynamic range and magical touch. From sad and sultry to empowered and resilient, her songs have this magical way of cutting right to the truth. From the rich gospel of "Take Me To The Water/I'm Going Back Home" to one of the most amazing and minimal deep groove songs of all time!!! "Come Ye" and the strong and proud anthem "Don't You Pay Them No Mind", High Priestess of Soul is filled with songs that that are like mirrors that reflect all that is true and real.
One of our all time favorite records, and an album that if you don't already own, we know you will want to start spending some serious time with, as it will become one of those special records you turn to when you need the real deal to hit your soul just right!
Time for us to gush about another one of our favorite Nina Simone albums. It's becoming a little aQ list tradition, and one we love to indulge in, especially because Nina Simone's albums are such rewarding treats from start to finish. Let It All Out falls right in the midst of our favorite era of her albums, released in 1966 it followed possibly our favorite album of hers, High Priestess Of Soul.
On Let It All Out, Simone takes songs by Duke Ellington, Van Mccoy, Billie Holiday, Irving Berlin and Bob Dylan and makes them all her own. While recent years have seen a resurgence of popular singers doing 'covers' albums, you are always aware that they are performing a version of someone else's song, but with Simone, her amazing arrangements, impeccable piano playing and truly fantastic voice, she made all of these songs her own. The acappella version of a poem celebrating black beauty called "Images" is one of her most stunning recorded moments. Like the best of her albums, this really has it all. From dizzying piano playing ("Love Me Or Leave Me"), shattering heartache ("Don't Explain"), and blistering raw truth ("The Ballad Of Hollis Brown"). Another stunning achievement in an amazing back catalog.
This is not newly reissued, it's just an old fave that gets played like crazy in the store but has never gotten reviewed, until NOW!
It's still astonishing to listen to records Nina Simone made over forty years ago and hear the kind of experimentation in song structure and delivery she used while transforming songs into creatures that became totally her own, all the while infusing so much soul and emotion into each note.
Pastel Blues came out in 1965 and fits so nicely into that mid to late '60s era of Nina that we are so in love with. The same era that produced High Priestess Of Soul, Let It All Out, Silk & Soul and Wild In The Wind. Bookend with two of her greatest musical moments, the leadoff track "Be My Husband" which has become a staple cover of Antony & The Johnsons and the ten minute closer "Sinnerman" which finds her at her most fiery, frantic and riveting. In between are so many more beautiful and sad sounds filled with her soft piano and distinctive vocals, a sound rich with such universal feelings of loss and sadness, yet burning with life and hope and passion.
We've said it before but we will keep saying it, this is an artist that demands a serious and deep relationship by music lovers of all varieties, 'best of' recordings are great but Simone's albums, especially in this era are so strong and carefully constructed from start to finish that they reward so richly, repeat listens. Without Nina so many of our modern day AQ favorites like Antony, Cat Power, White Magic, Devendra Banhart, etc. wouldn't exist as we know and love them. Another essential Nina Simone album!
It's been about three years now since Nina Simone passed away, we miss her madly but it's nice that reissues of her back catalog will keep her voice alive for years to come. This is one of her nicest soul centered albums with totally lush arrangements and of course her voice at it's most seductive and silky. While retrospectives and best of collections can be nice, when it comes to amazing artists like Nina Simone it's so important to get to hear how well crafted her albums were, how she was so conscious of the flow and the journey from start to finish. We think you'll be hard pressed to find a more perfect sounding Sunday morning album. This buried treasure from 1967 is sounding pretty perfect and timeless to our ears almost 40 years later.
This is so absolutely brilliant and bonkers, that when we first heard it, we thought it must be fake, some modern day Rephlex artist putting everyone on, taking the piss, with a "raga-techno" album supposedly from the early '80s. But, no joke, this is the real thing! In 1982, Charanjit Singh, a famous Bollywood composer (he was featured on Sublime Frequencies amazing Bollywood Steel Guitar compilation), had a plan to translate ancient traditional Indian classical ragas to the synthesizer. Using the very synths that would later define Acid House (Rolands TB-303 and TR-808!), Singh unwittingly created a proto-acid masterpiece, before the techno genre ever existed. Since only a hundred or less copies were made originally, this release was mostly a rumor since its creation. We vaguely remember Drew Daniel from Matmos talking about it on Pitchfork, a couple of years back, saying someone should reissue it, but we weren't ready for how incredible and ahead of its time it sounds. Imagine if Kraftwerk (or even Oneohtrix Point Never) started composing music for a Bollywood Rave. Or imagine a more raga-inspired take on another proto-acid classic, Manuel Gottsching's epic E2-E4. While the "disco" rhythms are fast and frenetic and don't really vary that much between tracks (they're not really disco beats per se, but more akin to acid's trancey bounce), the synth flourishes and squelches of the raga over the top are soaring and floaty, making the tracks deliriously hypnotic. Capturing acid house's lysergic transcendence but with an outsider's economy that refuses to date it specifically to the era. While we only have the double lp, there will be a cd release sometime in the next month or so. But don't sleep on the vinyl too long as it's highly limited, and we guarantee there is not another release quite like this one in your collection. Highest Recommendation!
Fell in love with this band over 20 years ago!! Slant 6 were an all-girl indie-punk trio from DC, who made two albums for Dischord back in the early nineties. Soda Pop*Rip Off was their first, and arguably best (though Inzombia was good too, hopefully Dischord will soon be reissuing it as well). You might have noticed we mentioned Slant 6 in one of our Record Of The Week reviews last list, Rips by Ex Hex. Ex Hex being the new band of Mary Timony of Helium/Wild Flag - who long ago, before Helium, was in a band called Autoclave with Christina Billotte. Christina then went on to front Slant 6, and later, Quix*o*tic (with her sister Mira, later of White Magic), as well as the Casual Dots. We detected a hint of Slant 6 in Ex Hex's garagey pop, for sure, and as it turns out Ex Hex has even covered Slant 6's "What Kind Of Monster Are You?", so it's such good timing that this album, originally released in 1994, has just been reissued on (red) vinyl - which now also includes a download.
It's an obvious choice for Record Of The Week, when a great old fave like this happens to get the vinyl reissue treatment (or even, sometimes, if we just find a cache of original copies, like that Treepeople we made a Record Of The Week recently). After all, there's got to be lots of you out there who missed out the first time, right? So we're super happy to have this to write about this week, and fall in love with all over again. And if you liked the Ex Hex, you gotta hear this, Slant 6 still an inspiration all these years later, an exemplar of youthful, girls-that-rock energy and girls-that-take-no-shit attitude. Super catchy, super cool, more fun than Sleater-Kinney (who came along a little later), less didactic than some of their Riot Grrrl contemporaries such as Bikini Kill, just a killer band fervently kicking out the pop-punky, new wavy blasts, and often having something serious to say while they do it.
All 16 tracks here are great, some dark and angry, some moody and melodic; usually pretty tightly wound, topped off with Christina's excellent, distinctive vocals and slashing guitar. The trio also included Myra Power on bass and backing vox, and Marge Marshall on drums. We note that Marshall sports a Boredoms sticker on her kit in the back cover photo - and also plays trumpet, a la Yoshimi, on one odd instrumental jazz-march song here. Part DC hardcore, part surfy garage, part art-femme-punk, so very rollicking and choppy and hooky and right on.
We remember being so excited seeing them live back in day, and this spinning this record still gives us a thrill. Check it out!
Note: lp lacks the 3 tracks from the "What Kind Of Monster..." 7" included on the cd edition, but the mp3 download does have 'em.
Record number two from this now defunct, vocal/synth psychedelic shoegaze duo, recorded back in 2009, and released not long after their Debacle cd-r, Ocean On Ocean. And like that record, on Grey Angel the Slaves again masterfully conjure up some sort of cosmic otherworld, a sound so expansive and epic, its hard to believe they're just a duo, layers of smoldering synths, swirling clouds of blurred effects, and the vocals, ethereal an angelic, like a deconstructed Slowdive, or My Bloody Valentine, slowed way down, and smeared into alien torch songs, the music roiling and full of motion, the lush raga like tones draped over a swirl of fractured melodies and vocal fragments, a darkly dour, melancholic rhythmless drift, all buzz and fuzz and rumble and whir, bleeding into one organic sonic swoon. On the tracks that hew closer to traditional songcraft, the melodies coalesce into something that almost sounds like some lost eighties synthwave creep, but the Slaves add wild squalls of psychedelic guitars, and reverb drenched vocal acrobatics, all of those disparate elements again woven into something impossibly lovely and dreamily mesmerizing.
A collection of melted pop songs, of deconstructed shoegaze, which occasionally, like on the cold wave poppy "Visions", definitely sounds like it could be some unearthed eighties synth pop gem, but of course spinning at the wrong speed, and not to mention the weirdly processed male vox, almost robotic, a weirdly (im)perfect foil for the gorgeous powerful soaring female vox. But of course, it doesn't take long for the band to slip back into something more abstract and tripped out, looping snipped vox over thick synth swells, all again as a backdrop to those gorgeous vocals.
"Ancestors" almost sounds like witch house, with all the rhythms stripped away, and the sounds super saturated, sonically coloring way outside the lines, haunting and dreamily ominous, the track growing more and more noisy and chaotic as it goes, culminating in the sweetly brooding slo-mo shoegaze dreamwave of the closer "Angel", which sounds like the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from Sleep Over or Still Corners, a totally gorgeous hazy, hushed dreamsynth ballad, that sounds a little bit like Zola Jesus on 4AD...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
We love bands whose music-making formula appears, on the surface, simple and intuitive, yet the sounds they create are huge, engulfing and seemingly complex. Using two synthesizers and echoing vocals, The Slaves inhabit a sound that is as lush and dense as it is mysterious and minimal. Their debut album, Ocean on Ocean, is the perfect showcase of a group that can conjure up bountiful sounds within a restrained approach. Honestly, we can't get enough of Ocean on Ocean, something about those enormous, dreamy, engulfing songscapes just leaves us wanting more. Their oozing brew of minimal pop melts and blurs with the melodic thickness of MBV's Loveless or early Slowdive, but surrenders to a contemplative mode that falls somewhere between Gregorian hymn and pagan ritual. The duo spin a radiant web of sustained vocals and heavy synth, each chord drawn out and smeared into a neon haze while indecipherable lyrics suggest longing, loss and submission to oblivion.�
"Seventeen" unfolds with a slow arching chord progression that grows and dissipates like a coastal tide. Female vocals creep into the oceanic haze while fluttering noise and cosmic wash hover in obscurity. And though the rhythm-less wash may appear to be aimless improv, a close listen reveals a defined structure beneath the veil of long tones and heavy atmospherics. And yes, The Slaves are heavy. And it's not a 'down-tuned guitars through a wall of amps' kind of heavy. It's more evident in the slow movement of the songs, and the visceral effects felt by each musical gesture. The duo have perfectly crafted a searing offering of 'soft doom', so gorgeous and mesmerizing we've had Ocean on Ocean on repeat for the past week. "Shadows" is another noteworthy track. We love the push and pull of heavy synth and whispery vocals, whirls of female voice echo into the night then dissipate into huge swells of HEAVY distorted synth. Crumbling low end amid ethereal dream chants, what else could we ask for?? One of our favorite records in recent memory and highly recommended!�
Our lips were sealed... Several months ago a former aQ employee and friend of the store told us a little secret. He knew that Sleater-Kinney were in San Francisco working on a brand new album. For some of us S-K fanatics this news brought squeals of disbelief & excitement but we promised to keep it like a secret. Fast forward a few months and the reissues of Sleater-Kinney's back catalog on vinyl hit along with a deluxe box set which included a 7" of a new song. The cat was finally out of the bag, as one of the most beloved bands of the '90s and '00s were making a big comeback.
As much as we love and hold the band near to our hearts, we had some fears and reservations. They seemed to go out and break up at such a perfect time and we always get worried about bands we love tainting such a perfect legacy. Our fears were instantly put aside when this new album came to light, as it's filled with everything we love about the band without being a rehash, repeat or a lesser version of what they did before. In fact it feels like one of the most alive and engaging albums of their career. While not quite as heavy as their erstwhile swansong The Woods (2005), it still taps into the huge sound they were exploring on that record while infusing it with the more punchy, poppy, and melodic elements of an older S-K fave, 1999's The Hot Rock.
There's an expression that comes up a lot, "more than the sum of their parts," and it couldn't be more fitting and true with regard to the three players in S-K. Since the band shut down shop they have all kept making records (The Corin Tucker Band, Wild Flag, etc.) but none of those endeavors was able to reach anywhere near the impact or power of what they do when they come together as Sleater-Kinney. While the band is often lazily referenced as merely coming from the riot grrl scene, S-K always had aspirations and a vision that looked at larger possibilities of any scene or movement. Over the course of their career they became a band that were truly monsters of rock in a way that we could fully get behind. Their live shows are legendary, and that high octane energy is present and pushed to the front on this new album. These are songs that make you wanna raise your fist, sing and scream along, and believe in the power of punk & rock n' roll. Like the heirs to everyone from The Who to Patti Smith to The Clash to Sonic Youth, Sleater Kinney show that when they are together the only thing they know how to do is make music that matters.
Note: available as cd, regular lp, or deluxe fancy lp with bonus extra 12" with 2 more songs (while they last)!
My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive embody the term shoegaze. If you have, have had, or may one day have even the smallest interest in said genre, you have this or you need this. Guitars are simply texture, bass and drums take the driver's seat, and vocals flutter here and there. This is their second to last album, but kinda the last. After this was Pygmalion, which was recorded by only half the band's members (one more than the other) and caused Creation to kick them off the label. Oh, we should mention that Brian Eno produced one song, and he played on two.
Not to mention any names, but one (former) AQ staffer has a Slowdive tattoo. This record is more than recommended, it's essential.
Includes 4 bonus tracks "not on import".
We'll be the first to admit that sometimes our customers are quicker than us to be turned on to the newest coolest sounds. We hadn't heard the Smith Westerns but a few of our regular customers kept gushing about them and told has we had to check it out. And we're so glad they did. While there has been no shortage of lo-fi garage pop in the last couple years, Smith Westerns have their own endearing and charming take on that kind of fuzzy bubblegum garage pop we can never seem to get enough of. While they hail from Chicago, these guys would be so at home right here in the Bay Area as they share a similar spirit and aesthetic with folks like Hunx & His Punx, Girls, Thee Oh Sees, Nobunny, Personal & The Pizza's, etc. In fact we just found out they will be playing a Valentines Day show here in San Francisco with the above mentioned Girls and Hunx & His Punx. So perfect!! We love how Smith Westerns bring in a wide range of influences, from T. Rex to girl groups, to create songs that are fleshed out and lushly lo-fi while bursting with bright eyed excitement. So fucking cool!
As the years pass after Elliott Smith's sad suicide, it's becoming more clear that his musical legacy will have the same impact and influence on future generations that Nick Drake's did a few decades before. He created such intimate and fragile songs that anyone with a heart (that's been broken) could relate to and find warmth, comfort and solace from. His songs have proven to be so practically perfect and seemingly timeless. He wasn't a part of any musical fad or trend. Instead he was one of those rare songwriting geniuses, the ones that only come along every few generations and craft songs that become the soundtrack to so many of our lives.
An Introduction To... is just that. A selection of his best songs spanning all his albums as well as a couple tracks from New Moon, the collection of B sides and demos during the era he was on Kill Rock Stars. We're sure the only problem the folks at KRS had with this collection was having to narrow it all down to fourteen tracks, as he did leave behind so many amazing songs. But we have to say they did an impeccable job choosing which songs and in what order to craft this ultimate ES mixtape.
There are also great liner notes written by Tape Op editor Larry Crane which gives a nice history and plenty of insight into the music of Elliott Smith. For any of our friends who somehow slept on his music in the past, we must INSIST this you at least pick this up, you'll soon be under his spell for sure, we can't imagine many lovers of music not finding so much beauty and richness in these stunning songs.
We miss you Elliott!
Without a doubt, the years Elliott Smith spent on Kill Rock Stars will always have a very special place in our hearts. His 2nd and 3rd albums came out when the label was still a somewhat small and emerging indie usually more associated with riot grrrl and the artier side of indie rock and punk than dreamy wistful folk. His self titled album and Either/Or spoke to all of us, across the board, even to ears that weren't at all used to hearing just one man and a guitar. This was several years before any kind of new folk revival.
This two disc collection features recordings from that era that didn't make it on to either of those two amazing records, but many of which are just as great and jaw dropping as the ones that did. As much as he would later be attracted to grander orchestration and a lush and full sound, there is something about when it was just him and his guitar, that perfect voice, so moving and vulnerable. So many in our generation can remember watching the Oscars for the first time ever with true excitement, when he was nominated for "Miss Misery." When he took the stage in his white tuxedo there was something so honest and real happening in a space that is usually void of true emotion and honest heartbreak. Of course Celine Dion walked away with the statue, but that night you couldn't help but feel so proud that this gifted songwriter was getting the widespread attention he deserved. Not much was added or done to these stripped down recordings. But they really didn't need it anyway. The songs are practically perfect as they are. It's just another reminder that not many people are capable of creating bitter beautiful sounds as sweetly at Elliott Smith did. And sometimes the emotional cost is devastating. These aren't just some unnecessary out takes from a famous dead name. These are songs that will find their way on to any Elliott Smith mix you will make from now on. Simply said, a must have for anyone who loved his music as much as we did.
Wow, now back in print on vinyl, all deluxe 180-gram style, for first time since it was originally released!!
It's easy to forget that when Elliott Smith first hit the scene things were a lot different than they are now. There weren't that many sensitive singer songwriters roaming the underground and there was still a pretty huge divide between the 'indie' and the mainstream. Of course that has all changed so much, but when Elliott first started to get wider attention thanks to Gus Van Sant's use of his songs in Good Will Hunting and the Oscar nomination that followed, it was really an exceptionally strange occurrence in the indie music scene. It kind of marked the moment where much of what had been a big well kept secret would soon become a part of popular culture. We can still remember watching Smith on live TV performing at the Oscar's in his white tuxedo looking so sweet, nervous and humble. It truly felt like one of US was finally getting their deserved moment in the spotlight. Of course he lost to Celine Dion, but there was really no one you would rather get to represent so many of the underdogs than Elliott Smith. It was like finally getting to see someone honest and uncorrupted in a mainstream Hollywood setting. His music was so pure and beautiful, with this uncanny ability to make the bitter sound so sweet.
XO was Smith's major label debut and he took full advantage of a bigger budget, and more time in he studio to explore and reach further, honing his amazing ability to construct and orchestrate grand yet never bloated pop songs. There was still lots of the more minimal moments, stark songsmithery and delicate fingerpicking, all hallmarks of his earlier work, but there was a new lush and and much fuller sound on XO. Without trying to sound too hyperbolic, XO is as close to a perfect pop record as you can get. We can't count the times that one of these songs was put on a mixtape we made, or was played over and over and over as it so closely corresponded to a relationship we were having or a moment in time we were going through.
He never hid the fact that he was hugely influenced by The Kinks and The Beatles and while countless others made careers out of trying to rip off both of those bands, Smith managed to tap into the internal world of those bands, their amazing melodies and moods, like no one else has, carrying the torch for smart, sincere, heartfelt and truly timeless pop music.
This is an album so full of warmth, like it was made just for you, the music flowing out of your speakers, filling your room or your headphones with glorious beautiful sound. Songs about lovers, friends, relationships and the human condition, that will ring with warm truth for decades to come.
What a find! We had no idea who Verdelle Smith was, but it only took one listen to this latest Omni Recording Corporation release, a compilation of her complete recordings to be, well, completely hooked. She only recorded music for two short years before disappearing from the music world altogether. But in a just universe, Verdelle Smith would have been as huge as Dionne Warwick and her producers and songwriters, Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, more famous than Burt Bacharach and Hal David (though to their credit, they were already pretty big due to a novelty hit "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" and Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star", but we digress...). Verdelle Smith's songs were no mere novelty. Originally from Asbury Park, New Jersey, Smith grew up singing gospel, but had big musical ambitions, so she moved to Manhattan where she auditioned for Vance and Pockriss who were looking for a specific type of singer for a Shangri-la's style song called "Juanito", a song about overcoming the social stigma of an inter-racial relationship. With high production values, lush orchestration, hook-laden arrangements and Smith's big voice, she fit the part perfectly and the duo recorded one lp and several singles, one of which "Tar & Cement" made it to No. 1 in Australia (which is probably why Omni is reissuing this.). That song and its B side, "Piece of The Sky" are both big pop laments to urban sprawl, and the dehumanizing effects of industrialization. It's rare to see such social issues being addressed in soul-pop fashion, and probably why they received little notice in the states. But Smith's drop-dead voice and the fabulous production give these songs such a deep, knife-sharp edge. "If You Can't Say Anything Nice" could easily have been a lost Bacharach / David hit. But it was the song, "(Alone) In My Room", that was quickly covered by both Nancy Sinatra (on the Boots record, no less) and The Walker Brothers, that seemed to secure her the most fame, fleeting as it was. Smith's delivery throughout her brief career shares the same dramatic largesse as Scott Walker on his first four solo records. So if you're as much of a fan of them, Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazlewood, early Dionne Warwick or Burt Bacharach as we are, then Verdelle Smith will be right up your alley.
So what happened to her? Well, she wanted to make gospel records but her producers weren't into it, so she gave up the music business to become more involved with her church and social activism, which according to the liner notes she still actively pursues to this day under her real name. So there you go. Thank you Omni for digging this up. Fantastic!
Woah! We've got the return of a way, way, way, WAY OUT electric guitar and drums duo document here, an improv maelstrom of uber DISTORTION freakout action that proves there's nothing new under the sun, 'cause this was cranked out by two long haired American hippies back in the early Seventies. In the annals of underground noise, they deserve a special place. This is proto everything! Mick Barr, No Wave, Ascension, Rhys Chatham, Glen Branca, Sonic Youth, High Rise, The Blue Humans, Dead C, Harry Pussy, Lightning Bolt, D!O!D!O!D!, even the Rangda we listed a couple weeks ago... heck, we're hearing all of that here. Wow. A total feedback and bashing attack, but not negative in attitude or anti-musical at all. In fact, it's presented with a lot of positive hippy-dippy charm ("listen for the time when the drums play themselves - when the spirits in the drums themselves are dancing" - that's a quote from drummer Bob Thompson found on the '98 release, and the title Daily Dance comes from the writings of Ken Kesey of Merry Prankster/Acid Test fame). Yet, it makes one of their own influences - The Stooges - seem square in comparison. These two go further in channeling spiritual free jazz a la Coltrane and Sanders into a stripped down, amped up primal "psych rock" context, it's hard to think of many earlier examples of such out-rock exploration. And it was also totally DIY punk too - of course, no label back then, or now for that matter, would have seen much commercial potential in this volume-dealing duo's pioneering skronk fest!
Daily Dance was recorded in 1972, and subsequently released as a private press lp in '73 via Carla Bley's New Music Distribution Service. It was reviewed favorably by Creem magazine in '77 (you can see, this didn't get all that much attention when it first came out, but has grown in cult status over the years), with Doug Snyder's guitar squall indeed compared to James Williamson of The Stooges. Snyder also cited the Velvet Underground and Sonny Sharrock as his guitar influences... Japan's Masayuki Takayangi was probably unknown to Snyder at the time but we bet he'd have been into him too, though the Daily Dance duo definitely are more ROCK than they are jazz. Or at least, they manage to combine rock and jazz without coming close to "fusion", not that there's anything wrong with fusion, good fusion anyway, but there's lots of bad fusion and this ain't either.
Now it's been reissued on cd for the second time (the previous edition, from '98, is long out of print) and on vinyl as well, making it available to a new generation of improv noise rock freaks. [Vinyl? Yes, unfortunately we're out of stock on the vinyl right at the moment, but will get it back in soon, so please let us know if you want a copy in that format.] Pretty neat to hear music "like this" being made for what might have been the very first time, certainly Snyder and Thompson were "pushing the envelope" as they knew it then, advancing into territory not entirely mapped out by things they'd already heard. And even if it wasn't from '72, anyone who likes loud, full-on freakout, rhythmic skree, and droney noisy textures will be variously entertained, whether it be by the moody, mystic feedback and percussive shimmer that closes out the epic title track, or the dense rumble of "Teenage Emergency" at the end of the disc that makes us think of Sharrock playing some sort of static surf music...
Lion Productions, in association with Cantor Records (responsible for the vinyl reissue mentioned above), has done this up nicely, in a fancy Japanese-looking miniature lp style paste-on sleeve, complete with obi. Remastered from the original tapes, and packaged with a 20 page booklet with liner notes and photos. Nice! FYI, this compact disc edition also includes a previously unreleased two-minute bonus track, "Unseen, Unheard", that was left off the both the original and reissued vinyl for reasons of space (and it's not on the previous cd version either).
We managed to miss this one when it was released a while back in 2005, but we figured we weren't the only ones to let this import cd slip through the cracks. The Bedsit Tapes is the officially released collection of the early demos, escapades, and excursions from the megawatt new wave pop stars Soft Cell. These DIY recordings date back to 1978 when David Ball was attending Leeds Polytechnic, where he made full use of a makeshift recording studio consisting of a couple of reel-to-reel tape decks and a mixing board. Upon wiring up a Korg synth and primitive drum machine, Ball started to make "weird little tunes," one of which caught the ear of fellow student Marc Almond who asked if he could use one of those songs for his performance art shows. The two began refining those electronic blorps and bleeps into arty synth-pop numbers, snarling with contemporary punk energy and technological primitivism. Almond already had developed a charismatic persona, which he jubilantly expressed upon the wide vistas of grandiose theatricality, from the crooning balladeering of "L.O.V.E. Feeling" to the switchblade slashes on the uber-ironic "Bleak Is My Favorite Cliche" to the ominous bark of "Occupational Hazard" and onto the fucked-up delirium of their frenzied cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." Yeah, you heard us right: Soft Cell covered Sabbath!
Given the stripped down arrangements and trial-by-fire approach to the technology at hand, Soft Cell certainly benefited from Almond's larger than life persona. Such is what gave the 'pop' elements of Throbbing Gristle and Reproduction era Human League their iconic status, and it certainly set the stage for the anthemic '80s hits that Soft Cell would produce later on. While many ordinary Soft Cell fans might be put off by the roughness of these tracks, it's precisely that fucked atonality, that avant-punk electricity, that giddy nervousness, those warbled, sci-fi effects and those ominous drones which make us totally dig this collection. Anyone into the whole "Messthetics" scene, and/or the current revival of retro new wave electronica old and new, should also dig.
Soft Metals have really upped the ante with their sophomore effort, as they have created one of the most sensual and seductive albums of the year. Female vocals that melt with an icy detachment, and Euro-synth stylings that walk the line between the dancefloor and somewhere darker and weirder. Like a lo-fi Goldfrapp adding vocals to a lost Goblin score, or Fever Ray hosting an after hours party at an alternate universe Studio 54, the album flows and comes together so perfectly, the music is just as important as the vocals and together they swirl, sway, and achieve absolute late night bliss. We've been playing this nonstop, a record that pleases so immediately, but that you want to keep around you as on repeated listens it delves and burrows even deeper into our subconscious...
Damn, it's getting hard to keep up with Captured Tracks. Every time we blink it seems they have put out a new record of some sort. But keeping up pays off, because they have a pretty amazing record when it comes to fucking great releases. Before we even heard The Soft Moon, we heard so many of our customers in the store asking when we were getting it in. And we can see what all the anticipation and excitement was about as this is for sure one of the finest slabs of wax yet to be released on Captured Tracks. Minimal, driving and sensual post punk. Almost like a sexier Moon Duo, as it shares a similar repetitive and drugged out psychedelic post-Suicide/Spacemen 3 aesthetic, but much more sleek and song based. Makes it even cooler that its all the work of one guy from right here in San Francisco. For sure he fits well in the world of folks like Blank Dogs, Cosmetics, and Pearl Harbor. You can hear that he must have a love for everything from Tones On Tail to Suicide to Slowdive as these two songs melt as much as they slowly burn with such pleasing fire. Fucking great!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
While there is no shortage of rad new music coming out of San Francisco, there is something about the sounds of Soft Moon that excite and dazzle us so much that it's safe to say they very well may be our favorite new Bay Area band in quite a while. They came out of nowhere, releasing their incredible debut 7" before even playing a show, and then kicking off their live incarnation with unforgettable performances, including their first ever show where they played with Blank Dogs. Seeing them live after falling so hard for that first slab of wax was just further proof that this was a band we would be loving for a long time to come. This new 7" continues to show the intensity and spot on vision that makes their entrancing psychedelia so damn addicting and satisfying. Both these songs have something so menacing, driving and assured about them. You can't just name a single specific band or era that they are tapping into, and while they do have this really cool dirgey early '80s dark wave disposition there is also something so sensual and singular to their sound. Without a doubt a total contender for our favorite 7" of the year and we are so psyched for their full length to drop in the near future!
Ok, bear with us here... Might anybody remember Steve Trecasse? We're guessing the answer is no. He has been a small-time music producer, who worked at a time for MTV way back in the mid-to-late '80s. He was responsible for all of the music on the shortlived MTV gameshow Remote Control, but he also composed the theme song for the first incarnation of 120 Minutes. The show grew into a rather banal rehash of major label sponsored "alternative" music, but the early years had some genuine underground acts showcasing their videos. Live Skull, Swans, Sonic Youth, and Loop were some of the more atypical groups to get their videos on the air, alongside more conventional college rock favorites like The Sugarcubes, Love & Rockets, and They Might Be Giants. But that theme song hedged toward the darker, grittier sound through a throbbing electronic underbelly girding an air-raid siren guitar swarm which was not too far from a Skullflower (circa Birthdeath & Form Destroyer) / Sigue Sigue Sputnik / Joy Division hybrid as bafflingly awesome as that may seem. Another weird piece of trivia about that theme song was that it was performed by Trecasse with Doug Di Franco (who might just be Double Dee, turntablist Steinski's partner in crime) and Josh Braun (who seems to be the same dude who played keyboards in Circus Mort, which was Michael Gira's band before Swans). Anyway, that theme song proved to be more haunting and menacing than anything else that 120 Minutes dared to broadcast. It is a bit strange that a song that good, that dark, and that bleak would make it as a theme song for anything, much less for MTV. While that track is clearly something for somebody to dig up beyond an odd YouTube clip here or there, the fact remains that The Soft Moon has unintentionally arrived at this exact same psychic, sonic environment, nearly 25 years later, in an act of convoluted convergent evolution.
The Soft Moon is the post-punk / minimal wave project fronted by Oakland's wunderkid Luis Vasquez, whose eagerly awaited debut album is the perfect extension of his two teasing singles which emerged on Captured Tracks earlier in 2010. Guitars, bass, keyboards, drum machines, and a whispered vocal delivery all come together in a series of monochromatic, mechanical, and gloomy propulsions that fit within the current resurgence of Factory inspired alienation through sound. Amongst his death disco vibes and downer post-punk dirges, Vasquez has a knack for an icy noise quotient that glides through the springy basslines and taut rhythms. Layers drift throughout each song, building never as anything so garish as a solo, but more as a scabrous doppleganger of the songs arching mood. These are tonebent squalls of atonal screeches exhumed from a lo-fi murk and rinsed in pools of reverb, very much like those really early Skullflower recordings when Gary Mundy and Stefan Jaworzyn provided the twin guitar attack. Where Skullflower had a drug-fuelled nihilism at their core, The Soft Moon is more of an alchemist of gloom, doubling rhythms with staccato electronics and downtuned Killing Joke-ish basslines to what would have been a standard Goth plod. In many ways, it makes perfect sense that The Soft Moon has landed on Captured Tracks, as he's mining the same aesthetic surfaces of Blank Dogs, but where Blank Dogs holds back with a subtle irony, The Soft Moon fully embraces the gloom of this music; thus making this one of the best records of 2010 that everybody will be hearing in 2011. Awesome.
Imagine a massive, dusty, vintage organ being played on the streets amidst urban decay... Now add extra psychedelic dirge and murk and you begin to have a good idea of the captivating and trance-inducing sounds that Douglas Katelus creates with his aptly named project Solo Organ.
A longtime fixture of the Bay Area underground film community, he started Solo Organ around 5 years ago, after scoring his ideal organ on Craigslist from a former preacher in San Jose. He started playing his version of the early Pink Floyd classic Atom Heart Mother around town, and anyone at those shows immediately took notice. As he's progressed with this project he has really ecome one with his instrument, travelling deep into droniness in the way he plays, making full use of the analog warmth and depth of the organ.
This transparent blue slab of vinyl is the perfect introduction to Solo Organ, but if you're in the Bay and get the chance to see him live don't miss out, as it's a totally transformational experience.
This is limited to 300 copies so act fast!
Oh how nice! Want to feel the glow of summer's warmth no matter what it feels like outside. Som Imaginario have got the golden rays for all of us to bask in. Brazil, 1970 -- and yeah start thinking Os Mutantes and the Tropicalia revolution of sound. While they never got the wide attention that some of their peers would end up receiving, their music was just as dazzling, delightful and adventures as those whose names are now much more known (Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, etc). Som Imaginario were a six piece who initially came together to back up Milton Nascimento for his short lived Brazilian TV show. This their debut was never released outside of Brazil until now, and with Os Mutantes launching a reunion tour this spring, the time is ripe for other wonderful sounds from that scene to finally resurface. Equal parts sun soaked pop, fun-freak-out and an underlying irreverent spirit make this one of those reissues that doesn't just sound cool in theory but you actually want to listen to it over and over.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. [/cat/experimental165.html]
Rather Ripped is a rather right-on title for this new SY album. Stripped down and back to basics, the core group of SY is back (Jim O'Rourke is out) and have made a totally great rock record. Poppy and catchy, but without losing their knack for soundscapery skree. Kim Gordon sounds more present and commanding then she has in a while (and a lot less whiney and singsongy), and Thurston is at his dreamiest and most laidback. This is the first SY record in ages to immediately seep into your soul after only a few listens. The great thing about SY is how they truly are A BAND. The sum of their parts comes together to create something WAY more fully realized then any of them could make on their own. Lee Ranaldo sings his song with so much intensity and his guitar sound remains totally, unmistakably his. Steve Shelley continues to keep the beat simple and solid, letting the rest of the band stray and wander. And of course Kim & Thurston are right up front effortlessly demonstrating that it's totally possible to age with dignity and passion while continuing to seriously rock. While it seems like some folks stopped listening to SY at some point in the past, "their last good record" (Daydream Nation, Dirty, etc.), the truth is, that unlike almost any other band around, Sonic Youth have been making really great records for the last quarter-century (totally check out recent under appreciated outings like Murray Street and Sonic Nurse). There is an ethos and undying spirit in their songs that continues to thrive and grow, change and mature, and it still gives us goose-bumps and has us throwing our fists into the air!
As much as we dig pretty much all the Sonic Youth records, from Evol to Sister, Daydream Nation to Dirty, even Rather Ripped and Murray Street, we definitely find ourselves a little partial to the group's SYR releases, various records that for whatever reason the band opted to release themselves, the sound usually well removed from the indie noise pop of their proper records, and focusing on collaborations, live performances, odds and ends, and even soundtracks.
Simon Werner A Disparu is a collection of music SY recorded last year for the latest film by French director Fabrice Gobert. The group approached it like any musician scoring a film, watching the rushes and dailies, and crafting their songs and sounds into cues that fit the action on screen. But when it came time to release those recordings separate from the film, the band decided to return to the studio and rework the various cues into SY songs, creating altered versions and new compositions by taking those various cues and the numerous sonic fragments employed for the score, and weaving them together, layering them on top of each other, pulling them apart and reconfiguring them, essentially transforming the score into what is now less a soundtrack, and more an actual Sonic Youth record. And a pretty great one at that.
Performed by classic SY lineup: Thurston, Kim, Lee, and Steve (with longtime SY collaborator Jim O'Rourke on one track), from the first track it's immediately recognizable as Sonic Youth, dark and mesmerizingly droney, shuffling rhythms, percussive guitar scrape and crunch, that gives way to a woozy loping slightly gnarled groove, rife with spidery guitar melodies and swirling guitar ambience. "Alice Et Simon" is up next and is classic Sonic Youth, it's almost impossible to keep from constantly expecting Thurston's vocals to come in any second, but they never do, instead the band weave a lush bit of softly atonal jangle and crystalline chordal shimmer. And so it goes, a series of instrumental SY jams, all propulsive motorik drumming, low slung bass thrum, and a gorgeously cacophonic symphony of angular guitars, from warm melodies to grinding crunch, chiming chords over warped melodic squiggles, all wreathed in plenty of crackle and buzz and the occasional strange effects.
The final track finds the band joined by Jim O'Rourke for a sprawling 13 minute epic, droney and krauty, the sound shifting from shuffling jangle to super melodic slow build moodiness, to full bore psychedelic chaos to abstract ambient free noise exploration, culminating in a gorgeous droned out hypno-kraut outro.
So good! And makes us want to see the movie now too!
The Eternal is pretty much a perfect title for a Sonic Youth album. There is something so eternal about their presence in our cultural landscape that it's kind of impossible to think about living in a world without them. Since their last album, the rather great Rather Ripped, their contract with Geffen finally expired which thus finds this new album on indie Matador, but truth be told Sonic Youth were the rare band who really seemed to be able to make any kind of record they wanted while on a major anyway, and just used their own SYR imprint as the outlet for their more experimental and improv based leanings.
The Eternal is very similar in scope and feel to their last few outings, but even a bit more rocking and immediate. Almost sounds like they took the blueprints for Sonic Nurse and Rather Ripped and just pushed a big 'turbo' button. The true stars of the album are Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon, whose songs are the ones we find ourselves getting truly attached to. We really wish Ranaldo would make a song based solo album one of these days, as his contributions to Sonic Youth, especially in the more recent years, feel so urgent and insightful. We do wish The Eternal allowed itself to get a little more sprawled out and dreamy but still, as we listen to this album more and more the music and songs and sounds keep sinking deeper and deeper into our psyches, no surprise as one of the trademarks of Sonic Youth's legacy is how they make records that really do reveal themselves with repeated listens.
While people seem to always be so nostalgic when they think of Sonic Youth, it's important to remember that this is still very a much a band who is in the present and continuing to make great and moving music.
Making a seamless transition from charming indie-rock boy in the bay area's great Call & Response to now dishing out some of the most infectious and delicious electronic jams we've heard in a long time, it won't be long until Daniel Judd (aka Sorcerer) is a name on the tips of the tongues of everyone who has been loving the recent resurgence of great dancey and disco inspired electronica. If folks like Lindstrom, Gui Borrato and Strategy have pleased your ears as much as they have ours we think this is a record you should check out for sure. We love how he's able to bring a smooth and suave feeling to what's often a clinical and robotic sound. It's almost how we imagine it would sound if Sam Prekop of The Sea & Cake made a daydream electronic dance record, as it has that same kind of endless breeze and carefree melody that he's perfected over the years. It's like sliding down milky mountain waterfalls into the freshest ocean filled with frothy waves and trays of the tastiest cocktails floating alongside always at arms reach for a delicious sip. Sorcerer have tapped into some delightfully fresh sounding electronic gold. So nice!
Sublime Frequencies record number two from the mind blowing Omar Souleyman! In reviewing the last Souleyman disc we compared the sound to something resembling a Middle Eastern Aavikko, which if you're anything like us, sounds AMAZING. Totally over the top chaotic world music rife with soaring strings, cheesy eighties drum machines, wild synths, and amazing buzzing saz melodies, and if anything this new disc is even more over the top.
More than ever, Souleyman's music sounds very Bollywood, festive, wild, sweaty, energized, intense and relentless, rooted around rhythm, the various melodies and vocals slither and swirl, unfurling woozy Eastern melodies over the non stop beat. It's definitely dance music, and party music, just not the sort of dance / party music we're used to.
The recording is fantastic too, very lo-fi, the texture and timbre of the sound shifting constantly, from murky and muddy, to bright and brilliant, could be that these cuts were culled from various tapes recorded and released over the past decade, but that only adds to the fun, and if it's anything, this music is fun. Funky, groovy, and fun fun fun. Sometimes the melodies are so rapid fire it begins to sound like some sort of alien video game music, then moments later it will slip into something darker and folkier, before exploding again into a wild burst of psychedelic dance chaos! Dabke apparently is a style of music, THIS music, a kind of party music rarely heard outside of Syria, as it's considered not important enough to export, but as far as we're concerned this is some of the most amazing music we've ever heard. For more background info on Souleyman, check the review of the older record on the aQ site, plenty of background on his life and his music, but it's hardly necessary, the sounds here definitely speak for themselves, and what they're saying, is buy this record now! It's so so so so so essential. And heck, while you're at it, you might as well pick up the other one as well (which is now available on vinyl!) if you haven't already, they both completely rule!
We're not sure how a live Omar Souleyman record differs from any of his other records, which were all essentially recorded live, but these shows are distinctive for one reason in particular, they all took place in the West, in front of audiences outside of the Middle East, who most likely had never seen anything like it. And we were lucky enough to see Souleyman perform here in San Francisco, and we were blown away. The sound was incredible, that tangled Eastern psychedelic sound that is already so propulsive and rhythmic and mesmerizing, but cranked through a MASSIVE sound system, and suddenly, it was as if that was how it was supposed to sound all along. And to see a whole sweaty throng of SF hipsters, from punks to metalheads, losing their shit, and dancing wildly to these weird and wonderful sounds, it was pretty inspiring. We couldn't help but wonder how Souleyman felt, performing in these big dance clubs, maybe it just seemed strange to us, cuz really we can't imagine any crowd, no matter how big or small resisting these incredible grooves. So here are a handful of live performances, from America, Australia, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the UK and Denmark, all of the tracks here finding Souleyman in fine form, the music lively and wildly chaotic, psychedelic and groovy.
One thing this live record does gives us the chance to focus on is Souleyman's keyboardist / percussionist, Rizan Sa'id, who when we saw Souleyman, almost stole the show. Sure Souleyman was the master of ceremonies, pacing the stage, clapping and singing, hyping the crowd, but then off to the side was Sa'id, going totally nuts on the keyboard, providing ALL of the music, a veritable one man band, playing wild melodies, looping rhythms, triggering big rib cage rattling beats, but the best part was his keyboard had little drum pads, and all of those flurries of Middle Eastern percussion, those are actually being played live, his hands a blur over the keyboard, unfurling wild rhythmic tangles. We literally could not take our eyes off him. On these tracks, those two are joined by an electric saz player, who adds another glorious layer of psychedelic buzz, and as you might imagine, this is incredible, and fantastic and totally and utterly transcendent. Fans will want this for sure, and it's definitely a perfect introduction to Souleyman's spiritual sonic magic, and by all means, if you get the chance to see this stuff live, you won't be sorry!!
THIS GREAT ALBUM FINALLY RE-PRESSED AND BACK IN STOCK!!
The ever-reliable Sublime Frequencies label opens our ears to new frontiers of amazing sounds, AGAIN. "World music" isn't just what Putumayo puts out, y'know. Any adventurous music-fan should by now know to pick up each and every Sublime Frequencies release as they appear, you won't be disappointed. This latest cd presents some "Folk And Pop Sounds Of Syria" in the form of a "best-of" collection of tunes by one Omar Souleyman, selected (and explicated in the liner notes) by AQ pal Mark Gergis (of Porest, Neung Phak, Mono Pause). Mark was the compiler of previous Sublime Freq faves like Choubi Choubi, Molam: Thai Country Groove, and Cambodian Cassette Archives. Already we hope you're eager to hear this disc, which features a variety of traditional folk forms from Souleyman's homeland and nearby countries supercharged with synth, the rapid fire results sounding something like a Middle Eastern version of Aavikko, almost. It'll make you sweat just listening to it. This stuff simply shreds. And when it's more mellowed-out, Souleyman's music is gorgeous too.
Now, we don't usually like to quote label press-releases whole-hog, but Sublime Frequencies has provided a lot of factual info on Souleyman and his music that any potential purchaser will find of interest, and so rather than paraphrase, here's what they said about this, it should certainly pique your curiosity all the more (though we'll tell you right now without further ado, GET THIS):
"Omar Souleyman is a Syrian musical legend. Since 1994, he and his musicians have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout Syria, but until now they have remained little known outside of the country. To date, they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live-recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city. Born in rural northeastern Syria, he began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that remain with him today. The myriad musical traditions of the region are evident in their music. Here, classical Arabic mawal-style vocalization gives way to high-octane Syrian dabke (the regional folkloric dance and party music), Iraqi choubi and a host of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles, among others. This amalgamation is truly the sound of Syria. The music often has an overdriven sound consisting of phase-shifted Arabic keyboard solos and frantic rhythms. At breakneck speeds, these shrill Syrian electronics play out like forbidden Morse-code, but the moods swing from coarse and urgent to dirgy and contemplative in the rugged anthems that comprise Souleyman's repertoire. Oud, reeds, baglama saz, accompanying vocals and percussion fill out the sound from track to track. Mahmoud Harbi is a long-time collaborator and the man responsible for much of the poetry sung by Souleyman. Together, they commonly perform the "Ataba," a traditional form of folk poetry used in Dabke. On stage, Harbi chain smokes cigarettes while standing shoulder to shoulder with Souleyman, periodically leaning over to whisper the material into his ear. Acting as a conduit, Souleyman struts into the audience with urgency, vocalizing the prose in song before returning for the next verse. Souleyman's first hit in Syria was "Jani" (1996) which gained cassette-kiosk infamy and brought him recognition throughout the country. Sublime Frequencies is honored to present the Western debut of Omar Souleyman with this retrospective disc of studio and live recordings spanning 12 years of his career, culled from cassettes recorded between 1994 and 2006. This collection offers a rare glimpse into Syrian street-level folk-pop and Dabke - a phenomena seldom heard in the West, not previously deemed serious enough for export by the Syrians and rarely, if ever, included on the import agenda of worldwide academic musical committees."
Got it? Get it. Recommended!
We'll admit, we're a sucker for Sublime Frequencies, they've yet to release a record that didn't totally blow our minds. Which says as much about SF's curating as it does about the unheard music worldwide. Treasures everywhere, amazing and passionate and personal and far out sounds, being made in homes and yards, on street corners, in bars, at picnics and parties, not conceived for public consumption, meant for a small audience, and often for a specific purpose, getting a glimpse into these magical musical moments is what Sublime Frequencies is all about, and we feel lucky to get to experience these sounds.
This is the third record from Omar Souleyman on Sublime Frequencies, and just might be the best one yet, which is saying A LOT. A collection of live recordings culled from nearly 15 years worth of cassettes, these tracks are incredible, energetic, passionate, so full of life, effusive and emotional, funky and celebratory, and to Western ears, seriously far out. There's almost a wild Bollywood vibe (even though this is from the Middle East, not India), in the vocals, and the rhythms, and with the crazy tangled synthesizer melodies, the propulsive drumming, and Souleyman's distorted, wailed vocal delivery, it all sounds just so perfect, even listening to this music on record, it sounds sweaty and exhausting and cathartic, it's easy to imagine a big crowd of people dancing and bouncing along, freed from all cares and concerns letting the music just carry them away.
Like all Sublime Frequencies releases, the liner notes offer up so much information, on Souleyman, his life, the history of Syria, on Syrian folk music, etc, but even without all that info, if it's just about the music, these are some of the most amazing sounds you'll ever hear. Frantic Eastern melodies, frenetic percussion, analog synths wound around Souleyman's vocals, this is party music, dance music, but not like party or dance music the way we normally think about it. The music of Souleyman is transcendent, spiritual, psychedelic, transformative, a folk pop known as Dabke, rarely heard in the West, perhaps not at all if it wasn't for Sublime Frequencies, and we'd imagine these sounds might be overwhelming for casual world music listeners, it is after all wild and frantic and relentless, the melodies complex and twisted and tangled, there are some moments that verge on folky for sure, the final track is a gorgeous haunting lament, just vocals and buzzing synthesizers, but barring that track, even on the folkier jams, those strange synths, the unique melodies, the repetitive tranced out rhythms, those all transform Souleyman's folk into something much more, and in most cases, it's not long before the band explodes into yet another super intense sweat soaked psychedelic Syrian folk pop workout. So great!
As if the Sublime Frequencies label wasn't prolific enough, one of the SF head honchos, our pal Mark Gergis, has now launched his OWN similar label, Sham Palace. Which has chosen as its first release, this reissue of a classic recording from beloved Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, a single song 30 minutes long! Originally released as a cassette in Syria, this reissue finds that single sprawling Souleyman groove, an edit of which was included on Souleyman's Sublime Frequencies debut Highway To Hassake, presented in its entirety, taking up two sides of vinyl. It's a killer track recorded live in one take, to emulate the vibe of the actual performance, without the distractions of the recording studio, and like other Souleyman jams, it's a scorcher, his vocals in fine form, over a wild tangled background of stuttering, pounding programed beats, buzzing synths and incredible saz melodies (the guy who plays saz is a serious shredder!). It's difficult to imagine the band keeping up the intensity for 30 minutes, but they never flag, the sound effusive and celebratory, the sort of sound that would incite and instant dance party (believe us, we saw it happen here, hipster wallflowers could not resist!), it stands up as one of his best most certainly, which is saying something considering how great pretty much everything we've heard from him is.
That would be enough, but there's a whole second lp, with two more tracks, the first, a lengthy introduction wed to another groover, this one more laid back and swoonsome, the vibe is more late night wind down, the band still killing it, but all stretched out and languid, sultry and surprising serene, while impossibly retaining much of the usual energy. And then finishing off with an unreleased track, which returns things to their proper order, Souleyman and band kicking it up a notch and once again unfurling some incredible grooves, wild and funky, hypnotic and tranced out, totally mesmerizing and utterly irresistible.
The legendary in-house-band of Studio One were responsible for laying down totally rich and funky tracks under vocalists like Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Alton Ellis, The Heptones, etc. By merging elements of rock-steady, funk, roots, and jazz, they pretty much invented the foundation of the true reggae sound that would leave it's mark on the world for decades to come. Featuring a who's who of amazing musicians from the island, like Jackie Mittoo, Cedric Brooks, Leroy Sibbles, etc all under the legendary production of Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd. While their primary role was to be the house band at Studio One, they often would mess around in between sessions and work on instrumental tracks together. Jamaica Soul Shake collects those instrumentals, which showcase the essence of the raw and melodic birth of Reggae that they helped give life to. Every track on here hits the spot oh so nicely and once again reminds us of the magical warmth that was buzzing inside Studio One.
Not sure how this great UK band has manages to remain so far under the radar here in the States, as they create such bright and fully realized pop songs played with major chops and such immaculately crafted precision. They explore similar sonic landscape as folks like Stereolab, in the way they tap into the best of light psych-pop from years past while creating songs that have such a driving force and are filled with swirling melodies and kaleidoscope vision. Every element in their sound is so top notch. From the perfect soft and dreamy vocal delivery, to versatile instrumentation that is beholden to the best kind of sugary pop as it is to the power of krautrock like repetition and gliding psych excursions. Sounds sort of Saint Etienne and Broadcast coming together to make songs in the spirit of some awesome combination of the most catchy and poppy side of Can along with the carefree groovy '60s pastoral pop of The Free Design!!
We're always up for really well executed and super engaging psych-pop. The UK's Soundcarriers are hitting the spot so perfectly this summer, updating '60s psych-pop (a la Stereolab) an creating new sound with a totally timeless feel. Everything about this album is so flawlessly executed. Recorded with such deep flowing warmth we wouldn't be surprised if these songs were all captured to analog tape, as each instrument sounds so rich and full. Armed with a strong pop sensibility, the Soundcarriers remind us of a bit more muscular Belle & Sebastian, with nice doses of pastoral psychedelic undertones that bring to mind a more pop minded version of Dungen. They also know how to tap into a slight groove with just the right touches of breezy effervescence and have us hearing hints of a wide range of folks like Sergio Mendes, Alceu Valenca, Galaxie 500, American Analog Set, The Free Design, and The Elephant's Memory who some of you might remember from their role as the stand-in-band for the Velvet Underground in Midnight Cowboy. There is a fluidity to these songs and a flow to this album that proves that The Soundcarriers have found a way to bring strong influences of the past to create something modern, yet timeless, of their own. So nice!
Who is The Space Lady, you ask? Well, among San Franciscans who were here from the late seventies to the nineties, many may remember The Space Lady's (aka Susan Dietrich) busking presence on the streets of the Castro. Wearing her plastic winged helmet with a flashing red light on top, and flamboyantly dressed, she would sing dreamy covers of popular hits ("I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night", "Major Tom") and some originals too, with just a Casiotone, or sometimes an accordion and a reverbed microphone, adding a cosmic flair to her sound. Always pushing her wares, she would often pause mid-song to passers-by and hawk buttons, tapes, postcards, all featuring her winged-helmeted profile - Scott here still treasures his original tape! Before San Francisco, she busked in Boston/Cambridge and has been seen in Berkeley too, but nowadays resides in Colorado, where she is still at it. She even travels to Roswell, New Mexico and plays often in front of the UFO museum and research center. Like other notable eccentric street musicians of San Francisco like Omer (notoriously known around the aQ neighborhood as Bum Jovi) and the loincloth-wearing violinist Thoth (who was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary short), The Space Lady was previously featured in the Songs in The Key of Z compilations of eccentric outsider musicians. All three have moved on from San Francisco leaving our neighborhoods a lot less exciting (though in Omer's case, people are probably getting more sleep now). The Space Lady was the best of them all, and it's so awesome to have her music on vinyl for the first time. Perfect for anyone into the charmingly eccentric outsider sounds of free-spirited performers like Medico Doktor Vibes, Michael Farneti and Mij. Highly Recommended!
Hmm. There's no point in really "reviewing" Spacemen 3 records at this point. They're surely one of the top 10 greatest bands to ever exist and even with their influence touching so many bands everywhere, no one - NO ONE - sounds like Spacemen 3. They just got it in ways other bands couldn't. Simple as that. It sure is great to have the band's Glass Records output, their first three full lengths, available on vinyl (some nice 180 gram vinyl to boot) for the first time in God knows how long. They look amazing in their heavy duty sleeves, and after years of absorbing every molecule of the shitty looking Taang Records cd versions, seeing these records as they were initially presented puts things into perspective even more. They just look so classic, so timeless, and so many years later, it makes perfect sense why we felt like we uncovered some secret portal when we discovered this band. Any song they ever did is the perfect soundtrack to any moment of any or every day.
For some people, it's Playing With Fire. For others, probably most, it's The Perfect Prescription, Spacemen 3's ultimate statement and the record where everything was working together in absolute harmony. The record cover itself seems to completely capture the essence of Spacemen 3, with Sonic Boom and Jason Pierce holding their guitars, eyes closed, no doubt concentrating deeply on the contents of their minds. It seems fair to call this their pinnacle, as things would become increasingly more split between the group's mainmen from this point on. The Perfect Prescription is one of those rare albums that is completely beyond criticism. Don't even try. Beginning in classic Spacemen 3 style with "Take Me To The Other Side", the album subsequently incorporates a wide array of influences and styles, from soul to gospel to country, making it clear that, even though they did it better than anyone else, there was far more to this band than just walls of fuzzed out drones. Even with this diversity, everything on the album belongs to Spacemen 3 - especially their cover of the Red Crayola's "Transparent Radiation" - and they were able to harness all their powers into something which is, yeah, pretty fuckin' definitive. We could go on forever, but we won't.
Wow! The Mael brothers have done it again. Who else, thirty-seven years into their career and 20+ records later, are making some of the most charged and vital music of their life? Pretty much no one except Sparks! Exotic Creatures comes hot on the heels of their summer residency in London where they spent the better part of a month playing EACH ONE of their records night after night in chronological order. The last night of those performances they unveiled this brand new record to the world and man how much we wish we could have been there. As Exotic Creatures Of The Deep deserves such a grand and staged presentation. But it's doing magical wonders through our speakers and headphones too.
Very much in line with their last two great records, Hello Young Lovers and Lil' Beethoven, this album feels like it's part of a truly remarkable trilogy of bombastic, orchestral, grandiose pop done so right.
If it's possible, this record seems even more flamboyant and fiery than past outings but in only the most glorious ways. It's also filled with some of the most beautiful pop melodies you will hear this year, songs with more twists and turns and surprises then most prog bands could dream of and an understanding of what crafting an album that works from start to finish is all about.
What makes Sparks so special is that beyond the tongue in cheek word play, clever titles, and wry sense of humor, is something always so honest, intense and individual in their music and vision. Songs with the ability to be both so self-deprecating yet totally triumphant. We urge you to spend lots of time with this record on your headphones or blasting it alone in your house, as it's when you really spend deep quality one-on-one time with this record that it really takes a hold of your senses and enters your life in such a striking way. Even though the album begins with the angelic singing of the words "I don't care if you love me, just as long as you like me" we can't help but still be so in LOVE with Sparks!
No.1 In Heaven was a match made in pop genius heaven! The matching of the super smart snappy pop chops of Sparks with the golden electronic touch of Giorgio Moroder at the prime of his magical production prowess, FANTASTICO!!! The year was 1979 and disco was at its zenith and lots of very non-disco folks were jumping on the bandwagon with pretty bland and lame results. But the collaboration of Moroder's spaced out and fantastical production with Sparks sharp wit and knack for ultracatchy melodies was such a perfect match! With Sparks still punching out fast paced pop and Moroder adding an element of electronic spacey wonder to the mix, this is simply one of the best records in the extensive Sparks catalog. 25 years after its release and folks like Hot Chip and Of Montreal are getting the kids all worked up with their brand of super fun and smart dancey pop that can find it's roots right here on No.1 In Heaven. While this is not a new reissue we never realized it had been issued on cd so we had to jump at the chance of sharing this long time favorite with as many new ears as possible!
Sun soaked tropical dreamy '70s psych-pop from a Latin American musical legend. Pippo Spero grew up in Uruguay where he studied classical guitar at the National Conservatory of Uruguay. As the military dictatorship of Uruguay grew more excessive, that school was shut down and life for artists and musicians became impossible. Spero didn't let that take him away from his love and gift for making such beautiful sounds and he started concentrating on songwriting, and crafted A Buen Puerto, a gorgeous album of breezy, warm and lilting perfection.
Brimming with songs that make you melt and take you out of the rigid and cold structure of everyday life. It's so interesting to see how so many folks under the harshest political climate were able to make such beautiful music. Not turning to anger, but instead showing that no matter what, no one could take away their ability to create beauty and experience love. Yet there is still a bittersweet sadness and melancholy that floats through all of A Buen Puerto. There is also a kinship in spirit and sound with Caetano Veloso, which we hear all over this gorgeous album.
In fact, after completing this album in 1976, Spero fled from Uruguay and moved to Brazil where he formed close relationships with many like minded musicians and songwriters there like Geraldo Azevedo, Alceu Valenca, and Milton Nascimento. Fans of any of the aforementioned artists, and folks like Lo Borges, Congregacion, and Eduardo Mateo will find a new favorite record in A Buen Puerto.
From 1967-1970, deep in their own little world in Urbana, Ill., the Spoils of War started making peculiar pop songs, layered with exotic instruments and experimental electronics, all performed with infectious warmth and emotion. One moment, the group is creating music that sounds like a jingle that sticks in your head forever, while the next moment, they allowed a folky sense of emotion and levity to rise above all else.
You know something pretty great is going on when you hear instruments more common in Afghanistan and Russia -- such as the domra and rubab -- on a record that also encompasses lots of heavy organ, male and female vocals, and a '60s fuzzy rock guitar sound. The Spoils of War had an ability to be both smart and catchy, sultry and playful, haunting and wholesome. They were the even-more-obscure sonic cousins of the United States of America. The spike in the drink of the Free Design. The fun daydream of Van Dyke Parks hanging out with the Monkees. Acid rock with a skip to its feet -- and a whistle in its pocket. Not a new reissue but one we just had to get around to listing.
Even the few of us who don't really dig this all that much, LOVE the bonus tracks, live and blown out acid drenched droning krautrocky nirvana, spacey and murky, heavy and so weird and amazing!
We've been so happy that Cherry Red has made available some of the wonderful records of late '60s early '70s UK folkstress Bridget St. John. Last time we listed the wonderful Thank You For... and this time it's the lush sounds of Songs For The Gentle Man that we have been swept away by. This is for sure one of her most beautiful albums. Teamed up with producer Ron Geesin who she was introduced to by their mutual friend John Peel (his record label Dandelion originally released this in '71). Geesin's production was such a perfect match for the breezy and beautiful sound of St. John's voice. He actually co-wrote one side of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother as well as making lots of interesting, challenging records of his own. The lush arrangements on this record will make you think of Vashti Bunyan more so then maybe any of St. John's albums. There is that same gentleness meets strength in her voice that listen after listen sinks deeper into our ears. We've got a feeling that Isobel Campbell might have been a big Bridget St. John fan as so many of these songs remind us of Campbell's contribution to early Belle & Sebastian records. Not a weak song in the whole bunch and her take on the Donovan penned "The Pebble and the Man" is pretty damn irresistible... as is this entire album. Highly recommended!
Another great British folk re-discovery! Bridget St
John was on the scene during the late 60's/early 70's and recorded just a handful of albums. A few of which were originally released on John Peel's Dandelion label. Luckily Cherry Red has gotten a hold of the original reels so those of us who missed out first time around can finally hear what we missed. And wow what a great voice and presence she had! She had this great ability to be both delicate and breezy, recalling the best of her contemporaries like Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan while dipping her feet a bit more in carefree wind-in-her hair styling. Her voice also reminds us a lot of Marianne Faithfull and even at times Nico on a sunny day with a smile on her face. Some of the standout tracks on the record like "Fly High", "Lazarus" (which was her sort of hit), "Silver Coin", "Thank You For.." are the kinds of songs you know will be on every mix tape (ok...mix cd) that we make this year. So nice when songs recorded 34 years ago can still resonate so strongly in the present moment. Oh that's called timeless...and that's what this record is!
The Starving Weirdos have long been a conundrum, but it's one that we love to entertain. Their unanswerable riddles are due to the scattered references that flow nearly unfiltered through an insatiable hunger for any and every cultural product churned out over the past century (and probably beyond). To engage in conversation with the Weirdos is to connect the dots between the six or seven strands of thought running through their psychically fused brains: How did the Dallas Mavericks do in the game last night? What did you think about that Serge Gainsbourg movie? Have you heard the new tape from Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier? She makes sick jams! Fuck! Check out that orange-crowned warbler that just flew out of the marsh! That shouldn't be here now. Global warming, man, it's gonna fuck us up... and the conversation circles back to Dirk Nowitzki. Yet, somehow it all makes sense as an organic recognition of the impact of cultural overload on individual consciousness. Just go with the flow, dude.
Musically, that's what you get with the Starving Weirdos. Their creativity is birthed in the hazed environs of Humboldt County through the psychedelic jam session; but they are not interested in repeating what their stoned, hippy brethren did 40 years ago. No, they hack into astral jazz, ambient smeared electronica, sixth-generation takes on PiL excursions of dub-punk, and a twinkling quest for their own path to transcendence - stoned, spiritual, or otherwise. Drum programming and synth emulators have crept to the forefront of the SW sound, with the trippy effects, swirling guitars, and opium-den vibes never far behind. It's certainly an unintended reference, but Land Lines harkens back to the ritual-ambient project O Yuki Conjugate from the mid-'90s. An obscure reference, yeah, but SW have stumbled through the droned-out excursions of Taj Mahal Travellers and an arboreal shimmer of Organum (via the satellite project RV Paintings), so to hear something else in the Weirdos is to be expected. This will certainly rank as one of our favorite SW records, for sure.
