This past record store day, we were super excited about this amazing book by Johan Kugelberg, "Enjoy the Experience: Homemade Records 1958-1992", a hefty, 508-page tome that thoroughly chronicles the history and obsessions of one of the largely misunderstood and under-appreciated niches of recorded music, the "vanity record" - also known as "private press recordings" - also known as outsider weirdness! With that book came a download coupon for an amazing compilation of some of the artists included in the book, and now that compilation has been released by Now & Again on double cd and vinyl and it's both super amazing and completely bonkers in all the best ways. It includes some old faves like Arcesia, whose operatically crooned "White Panther" some might recall from the American edition of the Love Peace & Poetry psych series; the love damaged soul-punk balladeer Gary Wilson (who can forget that line at the end of his song "6.4 = Makeout"? "She's a real groovy girl and she's got red LIPS! She's Real! She's Real!! SHE'S REAL!!!!"? Well, not us anyway), and Florida lounge maestro, Michael Farneti, whose Good Morning Kisses lp we featured on one of our Outsiders & Eccentrics In-between lists. But there are plenty of new-to-us goodies, including one of our new faves, Medico Doktor Vibes, whose Caribbean-inflected witch doctor bedroom funk recorded in LA in 1979 will soon be reissued by local label Companion Records sometime in the near future. As per the Now & Again sound, there are plenty of outsider funk, soul and disco rarities, some naive lounge, burnt out yacht rock, creepy exotica and country pop and just plain weird sounds - like 33 1/3 whose jungle themed "Monkey Bridge" would make any Kid Creole & The Coconuts fan smile. Here's the rest of the line-up: Vinny Roma, Steven David Heitkotter, Joe E., Ray Harlowe & Gyp Fox, Russ Saul, Jade, Boa, Circuit Rider, Dennis The Fox, Bob Harrison, Gary Schneider, The Muzzy Band, The Invaders, Carol-Leigh & Hank Mindlin.
Fun freaky shit!
We can't remember the last time a compilation so captivated everybody here, but this collection is really something else. A gorgeously compiled cd-r of tracks sourced from Japanese lps circa the years 1980-1986, featuring at least a few names we'd heard, like Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Inoyamo Land, but so so many we hadn't: Mkwaju Ensemble, Yasuaki Shimizu, Seigen Ono, Masahide Sakuma, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Danceries, Dip In the Pool, we could go on, but we're guessing these are all new to you too. It's a single 74 minute continuous mix, that slips dreamily from synth and percussion minimalism, to mysterious electronic laced rhythms, from new agey krautrock to dreamy clouds of percussive melodies, from playful childlike toy piano melodies to synthy sci-fi drones, haunting electronic flecked Asian ballads to fluttery flute folk, from mesmerizing vibraphone melodies underpinned by haunting drones to loping jazzy almost prog, from hazy washed out kosmische electronics to lush layered chorales and on and on and on.
The tracks are so perfectly combined, and so seamlessly mixed, it almost sounds like it could be the coolest, weirdest record ever by some impossibly brilliant single artist, who somehow crafted one epic sprawling sonic exploration, a series of sounds that manage to be at once warm and familiar, yet also strange and mysterious, strange looped birdsong lays atop distant choir like vocals, and a strangely mechanical rhythm peppered with strange symphonic bursts melts into soaring strings, chamber music devolves into some fantastically dada-ish assemblage of voices and sound effects, thick sitar like buzz underpins deep foghorn like melodies, the vibe strangely melancholic, deep, dense new age swirls hover above a super minimal dripping faucet rhythm, warm, muted melodies unfurl over distant bells and deep reverberating tones, vibraphone melodies are layered atop a groovy, almost jazzy rhythm, and a mournful brass melody before gradually disappearing in a washed out woozy sonic haze
So fantastic, and so cheap too! Besides being just about the best mix/comp/collection we've heard in forever, odds are it'll have you trying to track down records by all the artists, which is always the sign of a good mix. The entire list of artists (some with more than one track): Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mkwaju Ensemble, Mariah, Yasuaki Shimizu, Mkwaju Ensemble, Seigen Ono, Masahide Sakuma, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Yasuaki Shimizu, Danceries, Yukihio Takahoshi, Dip in the Pool, YMO.
So great! And so utterly and unequivocally and whole heartedly RECOMMENDED!!
LIMITED TO JUST 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered. Packaged with full color covers in plastic mini dvd-style sleeves. And nicely priced! We're one of only two places in the whole world where you can get these, and we're guessing they're gonna go fast, so grab one quick before they're gone.
It seems like we've been waiting forever for this, and finally it's here!! As you know we're big fans of Andy Votel's folk and prog comps as well as the Finders Keepers reissue series, and this collection does not disappoint. The first volume had all sorts of amazing songs from mostly bands we had never heard of, save for two or three exceptions. But with that and the help of Bob Stanley's stellar Acid Folk comps, Gathering In The Mushrooms, and An Early Morning Hush, as well as reissue labels Lion, Water and Sunbeam, our ears have been pricked up to rare folk ever since, so we are a bit ahead of the game in terms of making a whole lot of new discoveries here on this collection, which includes store favorites, Sibylle Baier, Pentangle, Turid, Susan Christie and Emmanuelle Parrenin. But there are plenty of surprises and wonderful inclusions such as the female Spanish/Dutch duo, Vainica Doble, the sitar-folk stylings of Paul Parrish, the Swedish prog-folk of Midsommar, the child sung lullabyes of Jan and Lorraine, Hawaii's These Trails, the Dutch commune folk of Elly & Rikkart, The Christian folk of Parchment and 11.59 and stalwart blues-folk heavyweight, Alexis Korner, among many others. So Awesome!!!
As elemental to psychedelic music of the sixties and seventies as fuzz-fueled freakouts and surreal mystical lyricism, was the dirge! Those slow and heavy head-nodding anthems of bittersweet self-reflection often replete with powerful descending chord progressions and moody and soulful angst-laden vocal crooning.
The amazing folks at the Now-Again label (who usually focus on the funk side of the psychedelic equation) have assembled quite a tour-de-force with these rare heavy-hitters from around the globe, including long-time aQ favorites as well as plenty of new discoveries. Here's the line-up: Top Drawer (Kentucky), Sensational Saints (Cleveland, OH), East of Underground (USA via Germany), D.R. Hooker (New Haven, CT), Shin Jung Hyun & The Men (Korea), T. Zchiew & The Johnny (Thailand), The Strangers (Nigeria), Damon (Los Angeles, CA), Ellison (Montreal), Morly Grey (Cleveland, OH), Shadrack Chameleon (Dakota City, IA), Ofege (Nigeria), Ana Y Jaime (Columbia), Kourosh Yaghmaei (Iran), and Baby Grandmothers (Sweden)! Focusing not only on the rare, but also the rather unconventional modes of the ballad, this compilation doesn't just cover heavy psych territory, but also crosses currents with gospel, soul and downbeat international funk by obscure artists who sought after their own kind of sound. Just in time for those cold winter months, this is perfect fireside listening. In fact, it's the perfect, sad and beautiful companion to the energetic exuberance of that Psych Funk 101 compilation, we raved about a couple of lists ago. Meaning, it's a total must-have!
The cd comes with a beautiful booklet of album covers and notes about each band.
One can always count on Johnny Trunk of the amazing Trunk records for making a mix that is as hilarious and head-scratching as it is beautifully listenable. When asked by strangers what kind of music his label releases, Trunks's response is usually, "you know, funny old shit", which if you think about it is the perfect response to describe the kinds of audible curiosities he reissues, from long forgotten children's TV show soundtracks to obscure novelty records and forgotten jazz greats. A few of the tracks included here are from earlier out of print reissues in the Trunk catalog such as Leona Anderson's wonderfully awful Music To Suffer By, but many of the tracks are from Trunk's private record collection, likely highlighting the best tracks on perhaps otherwise less interesting albums. You get a full gamut of styles and genres from novelty calypso songs from Robert Mitchum and Bernard Cribbins, space-lounge jazz from Alain Romans and Sergio Mihanovich, musique concrete from Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaffer, the punk dub of The Jellies, classical piano from Glenn Gould, ethnic music curios and warped kid songs. So great and for a real nice price, you'd be foolish not to pick this up! (And sorry, the more expensive vinyl version is now gone it seems.)
Much like the Sub Pop 200 comp which came out in 1988 and was filled with then not so well known bands who would soon become household names across the globe (Mudhoney, Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc.) this Arthur Magazine sponsored, Devendra Banhart curated compilation probably did the same for music of this decade. When it first came out names like Antony, Joanna Newsom, Espers, Iron & Wine, Vetiver, Josephine Foster and Coco Rosie weren't at the tip of indie music lovers tongues like they are now. Free-folk, freak-folk, whatever you wanna call it, this is a great collection of artists which also include such AQ faves as Jack Rose, Vashti Bunyan, White Magic, Troll (featuring our own Scott!), Six Organs of Admittance, etc. While none of these bands/people will probably ever get as big as some of those folks on that Sub Pop comp did, this is great document of one of a recent explosion of a sound and style that has pretty much defined much of the great new music coming out recently. Now repressed (it was previously only available via Arthur magazine), so if you weren't lucky enough to have Devendra throw you one at his Amoeba in store a few years back you can still revel in his mighty fine musical taste!
The great Public Information label releases another incredible collection of archival Library tracks, this time from the British archives of The Standard Music Library, recorded between 1970 and 2010. While many famous people recorded for Standard Library, including Delia Derbyshire, Tony Visconti, Michael Chapman, Sven Libaek, as well as Brian Eno and Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), this anthology focuses on the more obscure composers and electronic output released for industrial films, sci-fi television and commercials. You get the full range over 30 tracks from bloop-bleep abstractions, cosmic kosmiche and new age as well as eighties VCR funk and John Carpenter-like horror-synth jams. If you liked the last library survey Public Information offered, Tomorrow's Achievements - Parry Music Library 1976-86, then you'll certainly dig this. Top notch collection!!! Limited, import.
As the distinct sounds of flutes, harps, bells, gongs, pianos and of course synthesizers fill the air, we realize it wasn't that long ago that we had to defend our love for early new age music as a kind of guilty pleasure. Basking in the soft-focus vibrational glow of long form minimal composition, packaged in naive hippie-ish spiritual conceits bordering on and often overstepping into cheesiness, it was hard to consider it a distinct D.I.Y. practice. In hindsight, new age music can be seen as an early form of the slow food movement or folk art. It was music meant for slowing down time, taking stock and increasing awareness, and we have since come to view it more influentially in terms of its antecedents in ambient and drone music. Yet, over the years new age music has made quite a revival inspiring a new generation of long-form music practitioners and spiritual outliers. Nothing proves that more than this incredible compilation of private press new age music from Light In The Attic that features some old faves and new discoveries across a 40 year span. We have written plenty on influential figures like Iasos, J.D. Emmanuel, Gurdjieff and Laraaji (all featured here), but there are many, especially women like Judith Tripp, Nesta Karin Crain, Constance Demby, Alice Damon and Joanna Brouk who are equally blowing our minds. Often pulled from rare cassettes and hard to find records, this is an incredible survey and the perfect primer for the uninitiated. Fantastic tripped out and dreamy stuff!!
Electronic soul music pretty much begins with Sly Stone. In a year-long period of introspective but intensely prolific productivity that would ultimately transform his main band, The Family Stone, from upbeat soul poppers to deep socially-conscious funk groovers, Stone took a break from his main squeeze and had his hands in many pockets. Holed up in the studio with a a newly required Maestro Rhythm King drum machine and his trademarked wah'wah'd electronic organ in low key tempos, Stone not only recorded solo demos for what would become the most influential Family Stone record, There's A Riot Going On, but he also started a label, Stone Flower as well as a production team and released 4 singles. Two of them from Little Sister, which was a vocal group led by Stone's little sister Vaetta Stewart, one from soul singer Joe Hicks, and one from a funk group called 6IX, all of which featured Stone' organ and drum machine combo as well as production.
On the surface, 4 singles doesn't sound like very much for a label, but their sound transformed soul and funk music into something more deeper and minimal, influencing not only more well known performers such as Timmy Thomas and Shuggie Otis, all the way up to Prince, but also lots of private press artists as well, who did not have the resources to hire full bands and recording studios to create their music. One of our very favorite compilations from the past few years, Personal Space, documents this trend in private press electronic soul from the seventies, and fans of that comp will find tons to love here.
There have been previous comps of the Stone Flower output, but Light In The Attic dug a lot deeper (as they always do!) and included not only some of Sly Stone's demos, but plenty of unreleased material and alternative versions of the singles as well. The low key gospel spook of Little Sister's "Somebody's Watching You" has been a favorite song of ours for a long time, but it's also cool to hear the full band version where we can decipher the lyrics a lot more clearly: "Shady as a lady with a mustache", or "The nicer the nice/ the higher the price". I'm Just Like You is a fantastic intermediary look into the world of Sly Stone during a transformative period which also includes lots of photos and liner notes as well as a recent interview with the reclusive genius himself. Highly recommended!
Soon after heaping tons of praise on the mighty Enter The Dragon Soundtrack, we're thrilled to also see this killer compilation of unreleased De Wolfe library tracks drawn from the legendary Shaw Brothers martial arts films circa 1976-1984. If you've seen a Hong Kong Ku Fu flick of that vintage, chances are good you've seen a Shaw Bros. movie. Influencing everyone from The Wu-Tang Clan to Quentin Tarantino, these low-budget "bashers" with insanely impossible story lines have fed the fertile imaginations of midnight movie geeks for years. These 43 movie cues hand-picked by Gareth "Cherrystones" Goddard, Joel Martin and Jon Jigoku, display quite a sweeping emotional range of sounds: moody spy themes, old west-style standoffs, funky Moog passages, ritual drums, suspicious flutes and percussion, tense orchestrations, haunting siren song. The best part is the names the De Wolfe library gave the cues: "Electro Beat 5", "Nerve Stretch 2", "Tension Trip", "Moonbird", "Bitter Lemons", "Dogarnit". For the library music fan or martial arts geek in your life!
Score three in a row for the always amazing Analog Africa label! First African Scream Contest, then Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou, and now Legends of Benin! Focusing on four composers, Gnonnas Pedro, Honore Avolonto, Antoine Dougbe, and El Rego from the small West African country Benin, recording between 1969 and 1981. All coming from different regional musical traditions but operating in the same fervent musical scene in Cotonou where the Orchestre Poly Rhythmo were also from, that group providing back-up on a couple of tracks here.
As with the other two Analog Africa compilations, this one also focuses on tight danceable grooves and rare afro-funk. Gnonnas Pedro was perhaps the most popular of the four, being a master of the style known as Agbadja, derived from early burial rituals focusing on three differently toned percussion instruments, Pedro modernized the sound to such a degree that the first track, the highly infectious "Dadje Von O Von Non" later became the anthem for the national football team. Honore Avolonto, a young tumba player from Togo, was the most prolific composer in Benin, writing songs for pretty much every group around. Amazingly, he had no band of his own, but would score a hit, tour with the band until the hit faded and then write another hit with some other band and be off. He eventually recorded an LP,which became Benin's biggest selling LP ever. El Rego, a boxer in his young life and a brothel owner later on, made one of the first recordings of Jerk music (as soul and funk music was so dubbed) in Benin. His tracks are the most Western influenced, often times singing in English. Antoine Dougbe, is the most obscure and his tracks are among the rarest finds. His style combined elements of Congolese Rhumba, High Life, and traditional Beninese rhythms into a form he called Afro-Cavacha, named after the fast rhythms of pop music from Zaire. Dougbe, often worked with the Orchestre Poly-Rhytmo, but it was often an uneasy relationship since Dougbe's father was a feared and powerful Voudon priest, and the band (most of them practicing Voudons) feared reprisals should they question Dougbe's arrangements and musical instruction. But undoubtedly this religious quality so pervasive in Benin is what created such intensely tight and dynamic music, hypnotic and bewitching and endlessly captivating. Pure Gold!
What better way to celebrate the birth of our country (we're writing this on July 4th) than with this fantastic compilation of spiritual jazz, civil rights anthems and protest speeches from Bob Thiele's independent jazz label, Flying Dutchman. Spanning the years 1969-1974, Thiele began the Flying Dutchman label after years running ABC's modern jazz imprint Impulse records, where he produced John Coltrane and introduced free jazz to a wider audience. After a petty dispute with that label involving Thiele's choice to produce and release Louis Armstrong's last big hit, "What A Wonderful World" (which Thiele co-wrote under a pseudonym), Thiele made the move to be independent of big record labels in order to be able to release records he thought needed to be heard. His biggest star on Flying Dutchman was Gil Scott-Heron, whose "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" sets the tone for this release. Marked by black power anthems, cosmic spirituality and spoken word pieces by Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, and Carl B. Stokes, the first elected black mayor of a large American city (Cleveland), Liberation Music speaks truth to power in incredible focus of one of the more exciting jazz labels of the sixties and seventies. For anyone who dug the Spiritual Jazz comps, this is essential!
For their tenth installment in the Love Peace and Poetry series, Shadoks once again takes us to South America. At first we must admit we were disappointed. This is the fourth volume in the series to cover Latin American psych and so many other regions in the world remain potentially untapped by this series (Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, Indonesia, North Africa, to name but a few). But then we thought better, because we've always known Chile to be an amazing source of some of the best South American psych and sure enough many of the bands on this compilation are amongst our very favorite: Embrujo, Congregacion, Blops, Los Macs, El Congresso, Kissing Spell. Yet there's others here just as good we'd never heard before. In fact this is one of the better volumes in the series, not just because the music is so good, but that much of it was made under hostile political conditions and barely managed to survive, as most records made after 1973 were often contraband, and many master tapes were subsequently destroyed. (Pinochet's CIA-installed military dictatorship ruled until 1990!) It's surprising that given the constantly changing political climate, that bands took so much risk with their music, and album art. Like Aguaturbia, a sort of Latin Brainticket featuring a female vocalist (a rarity on these comps), depicted the singer naked and crucified (a la Salvador Dali) on their second album cover, and even one of the two songs representing them is called "Erotica" feauturing some hot and heavy sounds. Other bands like Congregacion and Sacros take a more mystical and spiritual approach. Some bands are deeply inspired by Hendrix and Deep Purple (Tumulto and Escombros), and others more influenced by the jangle pop of the Byrds and Beatles (Los Macs, Los Beat 4 and Los Vidrios Quebrados). But for all the bands heavily influenced by American and British psych and R&B, it's nice to hear more Andean roots come in to play from bands like Los Jaivas, who mix electric and traditional folk instruments. Another score in this amazing series with hopes for farther flung outings in the future.
Similar in spirit to the AACM (the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) collective out of Chicago, The Tribe was a collective of free-spirited musicians in Detroit, some of them former Motown session players, who produced and distributed independent recordings by local musicians to foster their own community and have their own creative control of marketing and artistic freedom. Founded by Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison, the collective also included Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney and Doug Hammond. Musically, The Tribe leaned more to the soul and funk side of jazz, often sounding similar in vibe to Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd rather than the freer sounds of the AACM which included the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Philip Cohran. The Tribe were similarly community minded, but displayed a more activist bent politically, trying to arouse a sense of communal pride and self-reliance in a city beseiged by economic woes, first in the relocation of Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles, and then in the long decline of the auto industry. They did this not only by making and releasing music, but also through the monthly publishing of the Tribe magazine, "Detroit's first black awareness magazine" which featured articles on history, politics, business and culture. While the collective only lasted five years, their output has continued to inspire. In fact, Carl Craig recently brought Tribe members back together to record for the first time in thirty years. Universal Sound has done an amazing job of anthologizing their collective output and this release features a 60 page booklet of history, photos and articles form the Tribe magazine, complete with vintage advertisements from local businesses. Fans of the Sounds of Liberation release or that Spiritual Jazz compilation on Now Again should definitely check this out. So freaking cool!
There's been a recent upsurge in free jazz compilations documenting the creative upheaval that followed the revolutionary call for social justice in the sixties and seventies throughout Europe and America. There was the great Spiritual Jazz series, as well as the Flying Dutchman label Liberation music comp, and also another disc we haven't had a chance to review yet called Bridging The New Age which looks really great too. Hopefully we can review that one soon, but in the meantime, there is this new comp called Mobilisation Generale that documents the creative post-1968 revolution period in France. Back then, students were rioting and the whole country was practically on strike. While rock music may have been the protest soundtrack in America, in France, they were inspired by the American free-jazz of Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, and most notably the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The latter group's historic concert at the Theatre du Vieux Colombier in Paris opened many minds to a freer music made by a community of politically charged musicians unfettered by traditions and structures. The group went on to record music both with radical chanteuse Brigitte Fontaine and French black actor Alfred Panou (both included here), setting up a stage of free music that set to break boundaries musically throughout the seventies. Documenting the fertile period between 1970-1976 before punk and disco changed everything, Mobilisation Generale is a look into the radical underground made urgent through groundbreaking ideas and a vital communal need for change. Includes tracks by Brigitte Fontaine and Areski, Alfred Panou & The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Atarpop 73 & Le Collectif Le Temps Des Cerises. RK Nagati, Frederic Rufin & Raphael Lecomte, Francois Tusques, Mahjun, Full Moon Ensemble, Baroque Jazz Trio, Michel Roques, Chene Noir and Beatrice Arnac.
A 2014 Record Store Day collaboration between two amazing obscurity-obsessive labels, Finders Keepers and Dual Planet, Monster Skies features a dizzy collection of damaged library sounds, far-flung private press pop and early electronic strangeness. We've carried some of the Dual Planet releases, but have yet to review them, like the Australian electric weirdo space-funk-rock of Steve Maxwell Von Braund, who provides the titular song to this collection as well as the reclusive Italian guitarist and electronic composer, Teisco, who may be the most marginally strange of the Italian Library composers leaning more toward Bruce Haack than say, Egisto Macchi. Suzanne Cianni, Lucien Goethals and Val Stephen provide some scintillating musique concrete and electronic composition, while Don Harper, Philippe D'Aram, and Andrzej Korzynski bring some wonderfully brooding cinematic horror vibes to the table.
Finally, Emerald Web, X-ray Pop, Clone and The Ultra Sonic Perception, give us some wonderfully sublime pop moments that buffer the oddities with wistful charm and eccentric groove. A fantastic collection and excellent introduction into a staggering undiscovered world of sound. Get one while they last!
Along with Funky Frauleins and the French Sixties Girls compilations, how could we resist the allure of Nippon Girls, a swinging mod-tastic compilation of hip-swaying and frug-dancing femme-fronted big beat gems from sixties Japan? We couldn't, and you probably can't either. The cd came out a few years ago, but the vinyl version only just got released so we thought we should finally review this especially after the success of another Big Beat disc, Nippon Guitars, we reviewed a few lists ago. Feeling the influence of Western pop music in the sixties (including Bossa Nova from Brazil and Ye Ye from France), Japanese musicians capitalized on the new sound often by lifting popular songs wholesale and rewriting the lyrics. But the enthusiasm with which these sexy and soulful songs are performed and arranged make them pretty outstanding in their own right. Acid-y guitars, cinematic orchestral flourishes, and sharp and dynamic arrangements are just too infectious to be ignored, especially by beautiful women who look and sound this fantastically fierce. It's party time!
Note: the cd version contains the full 25 tracks while the lp version only covers the first 12 tracks from 1967-1969. We assume there will be a follow-up volume 2 vinyl comp with the other tracks.
Along with Funky Frauleins and the French Sixties Girls compilations, how could we resist the allure of Nippon Girls, a swinging mod-tastic compilation of hip-swaying and frug-dancing femme-fronted big beat gems from sixties Japan? We couldn't, and you probably can't either. The cd came out a few years ago, but the vinyl version only just got released so we thought we should finally review this especially after the success of another Big Beat disc, Nippon Guitars, we reviewed a few lists ago. Feeling the influence of Western pop music in the sixties (including Bossa Nova from Brazil and Ye Ye from France), Japanese musicians capitalized on the new sound often by lifting popular songs wholesale and rewriting the lyrics. But the enthusiasm with which these sexy and soulful songs are performed and arranged make them pretty outstanding in their own right. Acid-y guitars, cinematic orchestral flourishes, and sharp and dynamic arrangements are just too infectious to be ignored, especially by beautiful women who look and sound this fantastically fierce. It's party time!
Note: the cd version contains the full 25 tracks while the lp version only covers the first 12 tracks from 1967-1969. We assume there will be a follow-up volume 2 vinyl comp with the other tracks.
***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***MISSISSIPPI RECORDS!!!***
Like a Pavlovian bell, just the mere utterance of this vinyl-only Portland label gets everyone aflutter, ready to eagerly acquire no matter what the sounds contained inside. We suppose if they put out a record solely of sounds made by cement mixers, back-hoes or traffic noises and packaged it in a sweet homemade album cover with nostalgic photos of antique construction equipment, and called it something like "My Heart Belongs To The Public Works", we'd sell out of them just as fast as their awesome compilations of pre-war blues or their reissues of obscure post-punk groups. As cool as that actually sounds, the not one, but TWO Mississippi releases we have this week are both super stellar and we know everyone is going to want at least one if not both of them.
Oh Graveyard, You Can't Hold Me Always is Mississippi Record's third (and arguably best) compilation of obscure gospel recordings. But instead of focusing on church revival songs featured on Life is a Problem, or the personal redemptive blues of Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long, here we have a compilation of joyous private pressing recordings from the sixties and seventies featuring mostly small family vocal groups and band ensembles, like the Mosby Family singers, Straight Street Holiness Group, Laura Rivers, Rev. Lonnie Farris, Radio Four, Joe Townsend, White Family, Silver Quintette, James Carter & The Mighty Stars, Farris and Williams, Traveling Echoes, Brother Willie Eason, Happy Travelers and an anonymous final track that sounds like either small children or munchkins singing "We Shall Overcome". Often sounding like they were recorded on street corners or in small community halls or city shelters, we can imagine that like the picture on the cover, these songs were recorded with the whole group surrounding one microphone. Although there are a few old school blues moments, there is a greater emphasis here on R&B and soul motifs than on previous gospel comps. Many of the songs feature mostly just guitar and bass, with the guitars playing out chiming circular riffs in an almost Afro-Caribbean vein, suggesting that many of the tracks were recorded far outside American urban centers (there's no liner notes, so we're guessing). One sweet instrumental track features some very nice Hawaiian-style slide guitar. This is a stunning collection of gospel tunes, amazing for its atypicality, showcasing an innocent simplicity and a transcendent independent spirit.
What a great comp! Rare but amazing examples of "Black music" (that's the European term) from the '70s, done with a heavy helping of at-the-time cutting edge electronics. Spaced out soul, in other words. Well, obviously it wasn't just cosmic krautrockers and spacey prog bands in the '70s messing around with the latest in synthesizers and other electronic music-making devices. Why wouldn't soul, funk, gospel, and RnB artists also make use of all that newfangled machinery? Of course they would, with folks like Herbie Hancock and Sun Ra leading the way. And they did. Especially those making music at home, without access to big studio budgets. That's the "Personal" part of the title, the songs here pretty much all being solo DIY home-brewed recordings, enabled by the technology... Which, along with the futuristic/sci-fi vibes that go along with the tech, give a lot of this a bit of an additional eccentric "outsider" feel, just check out the artist known as Starship Commander Woo Woo, for instance!
So, the compilers of this collection have dug deep, to find all these fantastic selections of what you could call "electronic soul", that in the mainstream we'd really only previously heard from Shuggie Otis... so if you can imagine Shuggie Otis really way out in spaaaace, you've got an idea of what's happening here.
Fat, buzzing synths. The mechanical tick-tock of primitive drum machines. Spacey FX galore. Mega multitracked masterpieces. Yeah, it'd all be novelty, if these songs weren't good. But, they ARE good. Obscure but definitely grade-A stuff in our book. The sci-fi sounds (which make a lot of this seem simultaneously '70s retro but also very up-to-date electronica-ish) are put to use by artists who come across like mutant Stevie Wonders and Sly Stones. There's 17 tracks here, from names we doubt you've ever heard of before: Jeff Phelps, Guitar Red, Johnnie Walker, U.S. Aries, The Makers, Cotillion, Spontaneous Overthrow, Jerry Green, Johnson, Key & Cleary, The New Year, T. Dyson & Company, Steve Elliot, Deborah Washington, and the aforementioned Starship Commander Woo Woo. Kinda hard to pick faves, some are simply groovy, some super bizarre, many both at once...
The only omission we can think of, is that even though this gets into the '80s, there's nothing from Wicked Witch on here (see our review of EM's reissue of that if you aren't familiar). But what's here is plenty weird & wonderful, from the twangy zipzap of bluesman Guitar Red's "Disco From A Space Show" to the heavily echo-effected "My Bleeding Wound" by The New Year...
Nicely presented, the cd in deluxe hardbound booklike slipcased packaging, complete with liner notes including thumbnail images of each original release. And the vinyl version is a 180 gram double lp, also nicely packaged.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Long before the mid-century heyday of tiki bars and the postwar Technicolor mystique of island magic framed by the sexy orchestrations of Martin Denny, Les Baxter, and Arthur Lyman, the siren song mythos of Yma Sumac and the cinematic supernatural heroics of Sinbad the Sailor, the genre of popular music that came to be known as Exotica had surprisingly deep but remote roots in various parts of the globe. Years before Hawaii became our 49th state, Hawaiian music was first heard by an international audience at the first Universal Exhibitions held in the United States in 1901. The tribal rhythms, novel instrumentation of ukuleles and steel guitar and scantily clad female dancers were more than enough to spark the imagination of American society, and the performative music quickly evolved from its native roots to include westernized musical hybrids and risque vaudevillian tropes. At the same time, Cuban and Puerto Rican music arrived in the US making way for big band night club leaders like Xavier Cugat, and Perez Prado, while Europeans were going nuts over rumba, conga and beguine from Central and South America.
This wonderful compilation traces the roots of Exotica and features incredible tracks sourced from original 78's, many of which see reissue for the very first time. This indeed reminds us of our art-school days where before the internet, people passed around mix-tapes of wild and wonderful music sourced from thrift store finds and those ubiquitous Rhino samplers of retro novelty songs and curiosities from around the globe.
Includes tracks by Orquesta Serramont, Lecuona Cuban Boys, Mercedes Marino, Pedro Berrios, All Star Trio, The Honolulu Queens, South Sea Islanders, Anglo-Persians, Jay Whidden, Elsie Bayron, The Kidoodlers, Wailana Grass Shack Boys, The Tune Wranglers, and Gino Bordin. So great!
The Sanity Muffin cassette label just keeps bringing out the gems. This one is a fantastic mix of obscure psych guitar gems from Asia from the '60s and '70s. From cinematic Spaghetti Western-ish sojourns to go-go pop, electric guitar weirdness, pastoral exoticism and funky eastern soul. Like the Teenage Dance Music from China, Indonesian guitar, Shadow Music of Thailand and Cambodian Rock comps, this is an incredible mix of little heard guitar driven music coming out of various Asian countries. Here are the groups included: The Red Stars, Cousen Brothers, M. Shariff and The Zurah, Salim I., The Caterpillars, Adnan Othman & The Wanderers, The Tones, The Steps, Jong-Yee Sho, The Hawks, M. Johari & Quandos, TLA Production Group, Mei Fong W/ Tony & The Polar Bear Five, Charlie and The White Cloud Orchestra, Group 123, and Apollo Band.
Super limited to 100 copies! Get it while you can!
We were in absolute buzzing raga drone, funk soul heaven when we learned that those amazing and totally fun vinyl-only releases in the Sitar Beat series had now been compiled onto a cd. Most of us were never lucky enough to get the lps but now we can get our sitar funk on all the same! Chances are if you've been in the store in the last couple weeks you've heard us playing this, as this is one of those rare records that every single one of us can't help but be in love with. '60s, '70s and early '80s Bollywood jams and Indian-influenced psych-grooves HEAVY on the sitar. R.D. Burman, Ananada Shankar, Asha Bhosle, Serge Gainsbourg, Klaus Doldinger just to name a few of the responsible parties East and West who will henceforth be making your parties way more fun!!! But be prepared for tons of questions when all your friends start asking you what it is you're playing. We've been fielding those questions for weeks, but we're more then happy to answer with a simple reply: "It's Sitar Beat!..." and before we can even finish our sentence said questioner is on his or her way out the door with a copy. We rest much easier at night knowing that we're doing out small part to spread these amazing soul stirring buzzy freak funk grooves far and wide, filling ears and shaking souls!
A fantastic selection of private press country songs from the '60s to the '80s collected by Austin-based musician and record collector Jason Chronis who traveled through many small towns in Texas and nearby states to compile this first volume of country obscurities. Far removed from the Nashville hit machine, these 14 tracks define a streak of individual spirit that reveals some amazing discoveries: The primitive one chord guitar drone and bells of Donald Adkin's "Lonely Sidewalks"; the absolutely stunning "Shadows of You" by Kenny Brent and Donna Harris. What's beautiful about true country music is that it can shine without polish. Cracked voices and simple heartfelt tunes carry as much weight as a slick studio production, and compiled together, no one seems to follow a formula but their own determination. Even those on the fence about country music, considering the absolute garbage that is being spewed out today, will find lots to love here. Highly recommended!
This isn't quite what we expected, but it is amazing and beautiful and we can't stop listening to it in the store. So what were we expecting? Well, from the title, we thought this would be a compilation of some Impulse, Actuel, ESP, and Black Jazz label style majestic free jazz, a la John and Alice Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Philip Cohran etc. And to some extent it is, but looking at the track listings, we hardly recognized any of the people or groups on here, except perhaps for Ronnie Boykins and Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band. Other folks like Mor Thiam, The Frank Derrick Total Experience, The Lightmen Plus One and Ndikho Xaba & The Natives among many others were completely new to us. And while at times the music here is majestic, it focuses less on the cerebral, higher minded forms of free jazz, and more on the burgeoning post-Coltrane musical underground that fostered from the communal spirit, personal reform and the celebration of African heritage prevalent in the African-American community following the civil-rights era. Culled from rare 45's, private press lps and obscure studio albums, seriously, this is some groovy shit! Sengalese percussionist and bandleader Mor Thiam's infectious "Ayo Ayo Nene (Blessing For The New Born Baby)" is definitely one of our picks for jam of the year! Other highlights include Bay area based, P.E Hewitt Jazz Ensemble (featured on the Record Store Day Comp, This LP Crashes Hard Drives!) and the funk groove of the Ohio Penitentiary 511 Jazz Ensemble, a group comprised of prison inmates. There are a great selection of tracks using unusual Asian and African instrumentation such as Diembe, Santur (a 72 stringed Iranian dulcimer like instrument), something called a Seaweed Horn, and of course mbiras, flutes, congas, vibes and horns aplenty. We've been getting a lot of awesome spiritual free jazz in the store lately from the recently reissued Don Cherry / Latif Khan collaboration (reviewed on this list as well, Record Of The Week in fact) and The Pyramids reissues (two of which are also reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this fits in quite nicely. So good!
Another amazing installment of the Spiritual Jazz series, and after volumes focusing on America, and Europe, and Americans in Europe, this time the series broadens its focus to the rest of the world. No small feat there, since the idioms of how jazz became defined in America and in Europe developed from a multiplicity of cultural musical traditions around the globe. But this volume is not about the ethnic origins of jazz, but how the popularity of jazz reflectively spread its influences back into the ethnic communities from which they originated. Largely culled from major label recordings as well as obscure private releases, this volume travels from remote Africa to Great Britain, Argentina to the Caribbean, and across Russia through Asia to deliver an incredible account of how music gets transformed through regional influences and nuances.
Includes tracks by: Charlie Munro Quartet, Paul Winter Sextet, Fitz Gore, Ahmadu Jarr, Eric Nomvete's Big Five, The Braz Gonsalves 7, Tete Mbambisa, Aquila, The London Experimental Jazz Quartet, Hideo Shiraki, Chivo Borraro, Jazz Semai, Jazz Work Shop, Virgilio Armas Y Su Cuarteto, Louiz Banks, Oladepo Ogomodede, and Jorge Lopez Ruiz.
Every volume has been spectacularly great, and this one is a fine place to start if you haven't heard the others.
Now this is the kind of church we'd attend. Not so much ecstatic gospel choirs and salvation sermons, but rather a deep open meditative environment tapped into an intuitive kinetic and vibrating communal groove carrying angelic voices of universal uplift. Space, form and light.
The sixth installment of Jazzman's great Spiritual Jazz series devotes itself entirely to the spiritual vocal, with excellent contributions from the sixties through the eighties from both obscure and famous jazz musicians around the world. Male and female voices in solo form or groups, these pieces are not necessarily religious, but whether slow and reverent, or kaleidoscopically propulsive, each song shares a gathering intention of cosmic unity, African awareness, and a long-suffering passion for justice and natural beauty. Featuring Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Sadaka, Norman Riley, E.W. Wainwright, Clifford Jordan, Pharoah Sanders, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti, Eddie Gale, Gary Bartz, Byron Morris & Unity, Washington High School Band and Singers and The Vibration Society, this compilation also features great vocal contributions by Abbey Lincoln, Leon Thomas, Doug Hammond, Andy Bey, and Jane Sims. Fantastic!
We instantly fell in love with the first volume of this series which introduced us to many new-to-us obscure mystical jazz artists that have since become some of our all-time favorites: Lloyd Miller, P.E. Hewitt, and Mor Thiam to name a few. While that installment focussed on American based African Heritage communities that rose up after the civil rights era, this latest installment takes us to Europe and focuses on a more progressive form of deep jazz throughout Scandinavia, Spain, Germany, England, as well as Eastern European countries. This time around, we're a bit more familiar with some of the names, though there are plenty of folks new to us. Of course there is British jazzman Michael Garrick who recently passed away prior to this release. The reissue of Garrick's Moonscape on Trunk records from a few years back was one of our favorite jazz reissues, so it's nice there is an awesome previously unreleased track here. Finnish Jazz pianist Heikki Sarmonto who also had a reissue on Porter records offers up a deep tribute to Coltrane and Duke Ellington that is akin to going to church, albeit, a church in Finland. A lot of tracks including Raphael's "Archangelo" have a more reverent orchestral / choral vibe than the tracks on the first volume did, and most are not quite as overtly groovy either. Yet this fits in with the post-Coltrane developments in Jazz in Europe at the time, with artists mining new forms and directions and not merely trying to ape American jazz idioms. That's not to say there aren't any groovers here, Dutch group Hans Dulfer and Ritmo Natural bring the Latin-tinged hotness to the core with "Candy Clouds part 2". This is some seriously deep dope!
For the third installment of Jazzman's great Spiritual Jazz series, the hardworking diggers of underground jazz decided to stay on the European tip spearheaded on the second volume instead of venturing off to some other exotic location. And it's a good thing too, because how can you capture all the diverse iterations of communal jazz across so many various borders, ethnic heritages and regional communities in just one volume? What separates the two volumes thematically is that this third volume swings a lot more than the more reverent liturgical second volume, focusing on individual expression, private press visionaries and unique hybrids of Latin, Slavic and Asian influences. Obscurities abound, most tracks previously un-reissued in any form, really one of the only names we were familiar with is Jef Gilson, whom who Jazzman introduced us to on a great compilation aptly titled The Best of Jef Gilson! The suave cafe jazz sound of Gilson is a great introduction into what is an eclectic and diverse selection of hypnotic modal jazz that is uplifting, entertaining and refreshingly energetic! Along with Gilson and Mangesdorf there are great pieces by Hermann Gehlen, Palle Mikkelborg & Radiojazzgruppen, Michel Roques, Babs Robert, That's Why, Binder Quintet, The Crescendo Quintet, Dusko Goykovic, Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet, Yoki Freund Sextet, Jan Allan Quintet, Dennis Wiley, Full Moon Ensemble, Louis Xavier, and Antithesis. Yes!
This would have easily been a contender for record of the week, if we got in enough in, so it will have to do as a highly recommended highlight. But let it be known that this latest volume of Spiritual Jazz is fast becoming our favorite of the series! We loved all the others of course and the first one was hard to beat, but they really brought out the big names and heavy hitters on this volume (Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry & Krzysztof Penderecki, Bobby Hutcherson, Hampton Hawes and Albert Ayler) and it's on two discs so lots of long form modal cosmic expansion is at the ready. The theme this time around is Americans in Europe and it documents a fertile period in the sixties and seventies where many American jazz musicians fed up with racism and decaying socio-economic conditions in the US found solace working in Europe on festival circuits and collaborating with great European jazz groups abroad in Denmark, France, Italy, UK and Germany, exploring new directions in sound. Many of these tracks are from rare recordings (some of them live), not released in America and are reissued here for the first time. Besides the big names, there are plenty of lesser known players like Billy Gault, Sahib Shihab, Frank Wright, Clarence Peters, Lee Konitz, Noah Howard and Grachan Moncur III. Beautifully packaged with lots of liner notes and record covers, this is some real deep and mind-expanding stuff! Like we said above, Highly Recommended!!!!
When we said in a recent review that Honest Jon's was giving Dust-to Digital a run for its reissue money, we weren't kidding. Here's yet another example...
Utilizing the vast archive of 78's from the EMI vaults, Honest Jon's presents a collection of pre-global musical magic. Taking a much broader approach than Dust-to-Digital's Victrola Favorites and Black Mirror compilations which focussed on the randomness of one person's or one group's private collection, Sprigs of Time offers more nuanced cultural examples of regional sounds. Beginning with a recording of the English Sound Table, and ending with the sound of the "Gas All Clear" bell, this collection spans the years 1903 to 1957 and features thirty tracks ranging from Tamil laughing songs, early British Folk, American Tin Pan Alley, Lebanese Rumba, Georgian Piano Rolls, Gamelan music, Japanese Court Music, Chinese Opera and songs of Bengali beggars. An amazing mix of sounds and songs and easily the best collection in the Honest Jon's catalog so far. Awesome!
Yay! It's been awhile since we've had a new Finder's Keepers release, and this one is amazing!
By now we're all too familiar with the Eastern cinematic pop splendor and sitar funk of Bollywood. But what about Lollywood? Yes, just to the north in Pakistan, the city of Lahore had their own cottage film industry. Perhaps not as well known outside Pakistan, Lollywood was highly profitable in the seventies and eighties, housing a unique music division with its own equivalent of Bollywood's R.D. Burman and Asha Bhole in M. Ashraf and his female collaborator, Nahid Akhtar. With the help of EMI, Pakistani musicians were able to create ambitious music in a world class studio, using far-out instrumentation like Moogs and other synthesizers, accordions, surf-guitars, and tons of traditional hand percussion instruments instead of a proper drum set. It's definitely a far more electric and electronic pop sound , than what we're used to hearing in classic Bollywood music. Having an almost retro-futurist bent in its explosive collision of Eastern and Western musical touchstones: Freak-Beat and Surf Rock meets Space-Age Moog Pop and Urdu Groove! Originally released on 7" mini-lps (a curious marketing scheme was to release one soundtrack on 3 separate 7"s!), this is the first time these wild and delightful cinematic obscurities have been collected. Let's hope more get discovered. This IS the Sound of Wonder!
Another incredible installment in Numero Group's Wayfaring Strangers series, Lonesome Heroes is the male singer-songwriter counterpart to the series' first installment, Ladies of The Canyon. But instead of one artist serving as the thematic touchstone (Joni Mitchell and John Fahey were the key influences of the first two installments), there are several influences present, but the artists are unified by a moody tone of loneliness and introspection. You can hear traces of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Tim Hardin and Tom Rapp in this collection of private press wonder (one artist, Kieran White, the only singer from the UK and a member of Steamhammer, actually sounds a lot like Sam Beam from Iron and Wine!), but the songs that span the late sixties to the early eighties are neither love songs or protest songs. Nor do they connect in any real way to a folk music scene or its traditions. These 17 artists, mostly from America, were rambling individuals who more often than not wrote music for recording more than for performing, penning quiet songs about time spent and lost, regrets and joys, and nature as the mystical reminder of this ever present balance of life. The home studio has a big presence in the recordings casting a warm tape aura around the songs and making subtle studio effects (reverb, multi-tracking, panning) add interesting details to the compositions. It's not all just an acoustic guitar and a voice (though some of it is), but aural flourishes of flutes, pianos, and female backing vocals can also be heard throughout. Perfect for Sunday Morning listening! As usual, Numero Group do a great job with the packaging with an added booklet featuring photos of the original private press lps and mini-bios of all the artists here. Astonishing!
This 1978 minimalist masterpiece by Italian composer Lino Capra Vaccina got reissued last year on the Die Schachtel label but quickly went out of print. Now the cd (which includes 4 bonus tracks) has been repressed, we can finally list it, as it's a wondrous masterpiece of minimal majesty that sits somewhere loosely between new age and world music sensibilities as well as electronic and avant-garde. Vaccina is a percussionist and composer and inspired by Steve Reich's Drumming album, created this work which is grounded in percussion but at the same time atypical of what a percussion focused piece would be expected to sound like. Using vibraphones, gongs, and marimbas, Vaccina employs a long-form sonorous foundation built on timbres and resonances that build abstractly into sublime dreamy clusters. Filtered voices and electronic enhancements give flowering shape to the scrapes and bells, evolving into meditative ruminations and curious otherworldly sounds. Magnificent in scope, there is a connecting thread to like-minded composers such as Roberto Cacciapaglia, David Behrman, Nuno Canavarro and early Anton Batagov. Even Kieran Hebden of Four Tet is a major fan (he provides the liner notes here). Incredibly moving and highly recommended!
Note: Vaccina vinyl has been released (and repressed) as well, but the tracks from this disc are spread across two separate lps, each of which cost more than this single cd - the original six-track album Antico Adagio and another called Frammenti Da Antico Adagio containing the four bonus tracks included on this cd. We'll stock 'em soon, though, so let us know if you're interested.
We're so glad to finally see this available, the lovely 1971 debut of Spanish female psych-folk duo, Vainica Doble. One of Spain's most collectable and sought after soft-psych artifacts, Vainica Doble combine Beatlesy pop with Incredible String Band like whimsical flair, often sounding like the prettiest moments of Os Mutantes, the groovier moments of England's Sunforest or even early Abba at their most balladic, due to the singers' beautiful dual harmonies. Featured on the Finder's Keeper's comp, Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word vol. 2, it's about time that this venerable Spanish duo finally gets some deserved recognition outside of their homeland. Included here are the 12 tracks from their original album and 8 bonus tracks comprised of rare singles, including a track by their backing band, Tickets (who recorded a song written by the duo) as well as an awesome fuzz-pop stomper called "Someone Like Me", that makes this amazing reissue even more worthy of your time!
Last year was a rich one for some amazing Tropicalia reissues and rediscoveries of long lost classics. Whether it was the first five Os Mutantes records or classics by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso or more obscure gems from Luiz Eca, Som Imaginario, Rubinho E Mauro and maybe our favorite of the bunch the collaboration between Alceu Valenca and Geraldo Azevedo. Valenca's beautiful and mystifying vocal delivery and songwriting had us so hooked as that record became one of our most listened to treasures of last year. So of course we've been doing everything in our power to get our hands on more primo Valenca recordings and this one, recorded in 1974 is definitely another solid gold gem. A little more rocking and charged then the record with Azevedo, Mollhado De Suor shows a more extroverted side to Valenca, but still exploring a nice wide range of sounds, which is one of the things we love so much about Valenca. One song he is rocking and all you want to do is jump around in the grass and follow him wherever he decides to go, while the next song might be dreamier and more pastoral, painting him as an artist as comfortable with introspection as he is with bold and upfront fire. That might sound sort of like a modern day songwriter we love lots as well, Devendra Banhart. In fact last time Devendra was in the store he bought a copy of the Valenca & Azevedo cd and we have a feeling that he's been listening to lots of Alceu's recordings lately as a sneak peak listen to his forthcoming record made abundantly clear.
On Mollhado De Suor, Valenca is backed by some of the greats in the Brazilian scene of that time, Geraldo Azevedo actually appears on this record too, playing craviola and Brazilian acoustic guitar and AQ fave Lula Cortes is also in the mix playing dulcimer on most of the record. Another 70's gem from Brazil that demands your ears' attention!
Finally, a remastered vinyl reissue (in Mono no less) of this undersung sixties bummer-folk masterpiece becomes available for the first time since its initial 1968 release. Dino Valenti (note the spelling, more on that below) is one of the more storied figures of sixties counterculture and the folk-rock movement. An early innovator and influential songwriter (he wrote one of our favorite songs, "Something's On Your Mind", for Karen Dalton) whose ego and largesse kept him from capitalizing on his enormous talent. Born into a family of carnies and gypsies, Valenti was an early key figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene along with Dylan, playing the 12 string acoustic with machine-gun agility. He wrote "Get Together", the proto-typical sixties hippie anthem, but due to legal entanglements from drug busts never saw much fame or money from it until later in his life. A stint in Folsom prison prevented him from joining Quicksilver Messenger Service for their debut, instead joining them later in the early seventies, when they were much less heralded.
His 1968 solo album recorded for Epic Records remains the quintessential document of a talented songwriter who disliked the recording process, and tended to unnerve many a recording engineer. The story goes that a full record was recorded by Jack Nitzsche using many of The Wrecking Crew as session players, but Valenti didn't play well with others (his performances tended to veer wildly in tempo and mood making it difficult for musicians to follow along), so the record was scrapped and re-recorded. He cost the studio so much money and bad blood that they didn't bother to fix a misspelling of his last name on the record release, and failed to promote it, so it sank like a stone. No one basically heard it until the nineties when it was issued on cd.
Despite statements from friends that Valenti was best heard live in person, his solo album in retrospect is undeniably moving. His twelve string guitar and nasally voice, which may be an acquired taste for some, are beautifully sheathed in warm reverb. Some of the tracks like "Tomorrow" may have been salvaged from the Nitzsche sessions as they have full orchestral treatments, and there's even some studio experimentation with the spacious "Test", but largely it's just guitar and voice in long meandering ballads that showcase Valenti's world-weary outlook with incredible songwriting.
For fans of Jim Sullivan, Karen Dalton, Tim Hardin, Townes Van Zandt, Skip Spence, Dave Bixby, Fred Neil and MIJ. Highest Recommendation!
These days, Portland seems to be at the epicenter of a new wave of seriously creative DIY underground 'noise' rock. From the last Yellow Swans record to the wonderfully incestuous Marriage Records crew, there have been a seriously ridiculous number of great releases in the last couple years. The thing is, though, that while you could argue that there is a "Portland sound," every project is totally distinct, so you can't really go lumping them all into some generic category. Well, Honey Owens' newest release under the Valet moniker is absolutely no exception. It's absolutely amazing. If you've been following her work, and you were lucky enough to grab one of the Fire/Beachside 7"s, you have probably noticed a trend toward more structured and more accessible songs. The pop-ophile in us who loves hooks and pretty melodies was pretty excited, while the nerdy drone-monger side was seriously scared. "What if she goes too far? Too poppy?"
Alas, Naked Acid is simultaneously a seamless blend of previous works, and -- yes -- a step toward tracks that are more easily digestible. It's like Fripp & Eno had a hippie baby with Karen Dalton and Tangerine Dream. But through it all, one thing that keeps us more than happy is Honey's voice. It's gorgeous, but not at all fragile. Not even so much confident. Instead, it seems beautifully unconcerned with those sorts of paradigms. The overall feeling is one of blissful engagement with melody and texture. Analog synth-sounding drones, gentle strumming, then suddenly everything is heightened by vocals and searing psych guitars. Just like a good movie, the final impression of any artistic experience is at least partially governed by the ending. On Naked Acid, the second to last song is "Fire" from the eponymous 7", which quietly dies down before bringing us to the final piece, a techno song. While on paper it may sound off-putting, it somehow works. If you can picture everything else about this record somehow being woven around some sort of late '90s Detroit techno, created in the wake of Basic Channel and Chain Reaction, then you've got a good idea. Maybe the reason it works so well is simply because it hints at unpredictable ambitions of Ms. Honey Owens, and we've got to say, the future is looking pretty good. Absolutely, wholeheartedly recommended.
Honey Owens sweetly surprises us with a return as Valet, on this beautifully kaleidoscopic record on Kranky. Much has changed in the six years since the nocturnal folk music of Valet's False Flag Society. For starters, Owens increasing attention over the past few years to her live dance music project, Miracles Club, with her partner Rafael Fauria, has given her a broader palette of sound design and a keener focus on production. A recent child had to put that project on hold (cue "babies ruin everything" rant from avid Miracles Club fan and aQ staffer Jill!), so Nature is a way of focussing that conduit of energy from one project to the other with a transition from a solo experimental act to a fully fleshed out band featuring Fauria and others.
Enthralled with the shimmery dream-pop of Cocteau Twins and Lush and the evocative shoegaze of Slowdive and Ride, Valet boosts up the production and songcraft on Nature from previous releases, but uses it to channel some of the internal and organic changes that come with new life and new responsibilities. It's a big change in sound for them, though not entirely new to us, as there seems to be a shoegaze revolution all over again these days with bands like Balms and Chasms, just to mention a couple from here in SF. Yet Valet use it to stunning effect and it's very nice to hear a band comfortable enough to just say fuck it to the complexities of experimentation and just give us a direct gorgeously-realized dream pop record. Kudos!
Yeah! Back in print and we're thrilled about that. The new reissue has 3 bonus tracks on cd and 5 bonus tracks on the oh so nice double gatefold vinyl edition. Even if you haven't had the pleasure of seeing any of the over 150 Jess Franco's 'horrotica' films from which these songs come from that shouldn't stop you from jumping into this delicious offering of red light sleazy cheesy psych-light instrumental treats. Composed by Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab in 1969 these songs ooze with a playful sexuality that you have to be pretty lifeless not to enjoy. The packaging is exquisite as well with amazing stills from the Franco films and really nice text that gives a background of where these sounds and his films were coming from. Next time you have some people over to your place, turn down the lights, light some candles, put this on the stereo and who knows where the night might take you!
We have become increasingly enamored with the recordings of Dutch renaissance and baroque lute player Jozef Van Wissem, whether it be through his solo output or through his many collaborations with guitarists Gary Lucas, Tetuzi Akiyama and most recently James Blackshaw (Brethren Of The Free Spirit). You wouldn't think that there would be such wide-ranging approaches to such an antique instrument, yet with each release, we're let into a new realm of sonic possibility. Sometimes it's classical deconstructions; using palindromes, mirroring, backwards compositions and cut-up techniques. Sometimes it's more Takoma-style fingerpicking and bottleneck playing. Or more avant, flinging sparse and reductive fragments of loosely connected tones into large voids of silence. Or augmented by subtle electronics and field recordings of airports and other public spaces. On his latest release A Priori, arguably his prettiest and most engaging to date, Van Wissem pushes forward the beauty of the melodic form but frames it in a stark restraint. Using a glacial pendulum-like progression and D minor tuning (the most melancholic of all tunings), Wissem establishes an up-down-up riff taking a pause between each turn before repeating, letting the tones ring out over the empty spaces. Occasionally he lets subtle nuances like an octave change or a bottleneck run appear, yet he takes great pains to avoid filling the space unnecessarily. With each song on A Priori, he explores this limitation to its outermost boundaries that connects each piece to the whole, forcing our headspace to slow down to this intensely meditative pace in order to experience its lovely tonal revelations. If Earth 2 was transcribed for renaissance lute, it might sound something like this. Liner notes by David Tibet of Current 93. Highly recommended!
A few of us were very lucky to catch Jozef Van Wissem's recent AQ instore where he played his new 13 Course Swan Neck Baroque Lute, a super long and intricately exquisite variation of the lute we've never seen before, that he wielded mightily, rocking out heavy metal guitar style, and also played whilst walking around the store like a medieval troubadour (check our blog for pictures!). While unfortunately it wasn't our best attended instore, Van Wissem played like it was, and we were graciously rewarded with an intimate and beautifully hypnotizing performance. NEXT time, don't miss him!
And that is what you will find with his latest (vinyl-only) release on Important, Ex Patris. On vinyl only (for now at least), Ex Patris (The Fathers) gives us four new tracks of gorgeous plucked string majesty. Building upon his repertoire of mirrored palindromic compositions, he focuses this release on layered and repeating melodies rather than sparse reductions of past releases. At times, we wonder if he might be using overdubs, something we haven't noticed before in his recordings or if it is just that his new lute offers more depth and range than the ones he used in the past. Hard to tell, but oh so easy to become seduced by its magnificent spell!
Brigitte Fontaine wasn't the only influential feminine avant-gardist of french chanson. The recently celebrated domestic reissues of Fontaine's first two records have coincided with this incredible reissue of obscure cosmic dream-prog by Jacqueline Thibaullt, better known under her recording pseudonym Laurence Vanay. Vanay, wife of Laurent Thibault, the bassist and guitarist for Magma, recorded Galaxies in 1974, and on it, the classically trained composer, keyboardist and songwriter takes us on a deeply epic trip of dreamy Hammond organ and fender rhodes led spacy jazz-prog that is incredibly beautiful and unique. A mysterious and moving mix of Gong, Alain Goraguer, Igor Wakhevitch, Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes, and even Magma at their most gentle. Yet the music seems to have teleported from some insular private place in a far-off dimension. Its intricate arrangements, and the complex moods they convey seem very otherworldly, like the lonely astral-psych chanson of a remote dying alien race. Listening to a song like "Le Bateau", it's apparent Vanay had as much an influence on bands like Stereolab as Brigitte Fontaine did. Wonderful.
The cd version features 9 bonus tracks.
Finally, a remastered vinyl reissue of the Blade Runner score sees the light of day. It's funny that most people know the music of Chariots Of Fire far more than they know the actual movie, but with Vangelis's other big soundtrack, for an undoubtedly more famous film, the original score has been somewhat difficult to secure. It did not get an official release until 1994, 12 years after the film debuted, and over the years multiple versions have become available that either added to or subtracted from the original material. The movie itself has multiple versions, and with the 1992 Director's Cut arguably becoming the definitive version of the film, the Vangelis score finally became available as well, a version so intertwined with the film that it also includes snippets of dialogue from this futuristic noir masterpiece. The score, a mix of mystical exotica, dark electronic minimalism and sadly romantic themes, is marked by heavy electronic treatments and classical instrumentation evoking a hazy twilight dreaminess and melancholic longing that serves the film exquisitely. Easily a touchstone for a lot of modern day synth-worshippers, get this score on vinyl while you can, as it is already out of print awaiting a repress apparently. Like all limited things, eventually "all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain" (sorry, we had to fit that line in here somewhere!).
The long unavailable solo soundtrack debut of Greek composer Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (aka Vangelis) finally gets an official reissue. The soundtrack to this obscure 1970 French film directed by Henry Chapier (so obscure that the only info IMDB has on it is this eight minute opening sequence found here: http://www.ina.fr/video/VDD08000001/sex-power-video.html), has only seen previous release as a bootleg cd-r and it has been rumored that Vangelis himself has suppressed many attempts to reissue it. Sex-Power, starring a young Jane Birkin, is similar to Zabriskie Point in that it seems to be a desert quest for meaning by young beautiful intellectuals giving up on society for more earthly concerns like walking in the desert naked, and apparently having lots of sex... But regardless of the arty tone of the film, in our book, you can't go wrong with the music of early seventies Vangelis. Early Vangelis recordings are often marked by exotic instrumentation (tribal percussion, water gongs, flutes, and ethnic string instruments) as well as piano, early synthesizer and ethereal female vocal choruses. Like Morricone's majestic early soundtrack work, Sex-Power has a strange free-folk mystery of lilting passages and beguiling pensive mystical soundscapes. It was recorded the same year Vangelis's prog band Aphrodite's Child released their final album, the legendary 666.
Recommended for fans of the soundtrack work of Jean-Claude Vannier, Lubos Fiser, and Alain Goraguer, and of course very limited!
Some reissues of long-lost gems arrive here with little fanfare and turn out to be great nonetheless. This one though, came our way emblazed with blurbs proclaiming its immense awesomeness quoting the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Tim Gane, Jarvis Cocker and David Holmes. And guess what? Those guys do indeed know what they're talking about! This IS pretty fantastic. Here we have an action-packed instrumental concept album whose title translates into English as The Child Killer Of The Flies, which musically narrates a simple but creepy story by Serge Gainsbourg (written *after* he heard the album, not before, and included the liner notes, explaining each track title) about the horrific revenge of flies on a child who had tortured them. This musical story-telling is by way of schizoid arrangements of tracks that range in sound from groovy pop to jazz to avant-garde tape music to fuzz guitar rock! Sounds good, eh? Good n' weird for sure.
L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches is a "Fellini-esque psychedelic symphony" originally released (but poorly distributed and relegated to general obscurity) in 1972, credited to a unknown group called Isolitudes. The man behind Insolitudes, though, was one Jean-Claude Vannier, a musician and producer from the happening '60s French pop ("Ye Ye music") scene who had scored film soundtracks and collaborated with Serge Gainsbourg, most famously providing the arrangements for Gainsbourg's highly-rated L'Histoire De Melody Nelson album (the reissue of which we wish we had in stock also, but haven't been able to get a hold of lately). This record is thereby cited as the follow-up to that one-of-a-kind conceptual classic. Itself it's pretty much one-of-a-kind too. Funky and groovy, as well as deliriously, disorientingly hallucinogenic, this will hit you with lush string arrangements one moment, sound effects of sheer terror the next... it's psych, it's prog, it's funk, it's musique concrete. There's even a chorus of car horns put to good use here! It's the freakiest 'sploitation soundtrack that never was. This reissue includes two bonus tracks from a rare 7" single entitled Point D'Interrogation, and also boasts extensive and informative (and quite laudatory) liner notes by DJ Andy Votel. Very recommended!
This is certainly an unexpected surprise! Caetano Veloso's misunderstood experimental outing from 1972 (the same year he returned to Brazil following a three year exile in London, and recorded the mostly English album, Transa) prompted massive refund requests from his diehard fanbase when it was released, but has remarkably withstood the test of time. Saying that he wanted to record an album without thinking, Araca Azul is marked by exuberance as well as a kinetic sense of urgency. Wordless vocals, concrete sound effects, strange serpentine song forms that appear and dissipate, bits of orchestra, and percussive passages followed by psych-tinged rockers and sublime ballads. It's all over the map but always exciting and interesting. It may not be the best album to start with for those new to Veloso's discography, but it's becoming one of our favorites. We think perhaps Devendra Banhart listened to this a lot while recording his latest record. So Awesome!!
Last year was a pretty great year for Tropicalia. With a reunited Os Mutantes touring all over the world, a killer Soul Jazz compilation that helped more ears fall in love with the thrilling sounds coming from Brazil in the oh so turbulent late '60s / early '70s. So it makes so much cosmic sense that one of the founders of Tropicalia, Caetano Veloso, starts off this year releasing one of his best and most rocking records in years. While his last few outings have veered towards the easy listening schmaltz side of the sonic spectrum with far too many ballads, Ce finds him all stripped down and exuding a youthful energy that we haven't seen or heard for years. Such vibrancy and color! It's so hard to believe he's 64 years old, and we'd be hard pressed to think of many other people his age still making music as compelling as the sounds on Ce, as this blows away anything folks like Bowie, McCartney or Young have made in recent years. Worth it alone for the opening track "Outro", a scorching almost indie-rock sounding anthem, which has our vote for one of the best songs of the year. The album as a whole is so solid and listen after listen we keep falling in love again and again with Veloso's song writing prowess. Recommended!
A Little More Blue is an understatement. This is some heavy sadness. Beautiful but really sad. Recorded in London while in government imposed exile, this record, mostly sung in English except for the final track, finds Veloso trying to cope with being a stranger in a strange land. Of course abject times can be deep sources of inspiration as two of his most popular songs, "London, London" and "Maria Bethania", are found here. The latter song, a tribute to his sister, a popular singer in her own right (and who by the way, has been grossly under-appreciated in the whole Tropicalia / MPB revival), has the most moving lyrics: "Maria Bethania, send me a letter / I want to hear that things are getting better."
Highly recommended!
It is with no small significance that we end this year highlighting one of our very favorite artists of all time, Caetano Veloso. If we were anything like Time Magazine, we could definitely see ourselves making him Man of the Year, because indeed, it has been a stellar year for Veloso. Not only have some of the many highlights of his extensive back-catalog been made available once again, but he also began the year, at age sixty, releasing one of the best rock albums of the year (Ce) that has made many of our top ten lists. If you were lucky enough to catch his performance at this year's San Francisco Jazz Festival, he shocked and delighted the audience by performing with just a stripped-down rock band, three young men on electric guitar, bass and drums, barely over a third of Veloso's age, his voice in amazing form, running from one side of the stage to another working the audience into a frenzy, causing a seemingly endless string of female (and one male) fans to jump on the stage for a quick kiss. Here was someone who could of easily just sat on his laurels and played his popular hits with the kind of over-orchestrated band you see in concerts on PBS, but instead embraced his forward-thinking musicality playing mostly new songs with a tight killer band and still managed to sway his oldest fans to cheer along. One of the best shows of 2007 for sure!
Years ago, when we first discovered the sounds of Tropicalia, it was through the more blatant psychedelic spectacle of Os Mutantes and their first three well-beloved records. But while we were aware of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil being the main songwriters and architects of the movement, most of their songs, until recently, we got to know through compilations and cover versions rather than through their full length records. While we have seen in the past couple of years so much amazing music being dug out of the far reaches of that fertile period and the post Tropicalia boom from Alceu Valenca, Jorge Ben, and Lula Cortes, as well as the amazing Soul Jazz comp, Brazil '70, it's been nice to see some of the best full length albums from Gilberto Gil and Veloso becoming available again. Earlier this year, Lilith reissued Veloso's first solo record from 1967 and his post-exile experimental jaunt from 1972, Araca Azul. So for a year that began with a return to musical form from this beloved Brazilian musical master, it's even more fitting that by years end we see the reissue of arguably the most important and most essential album of his vast discography, the second self-titled solo album from 1969.
Notice the blank cover with just a signature? Much different from most of Veloso's records which almost always feature his picture. That's because when he recorded this album, Veloso and Gilberto Gil were in captivity by the Brazilian Government for violating recently imposed orders against artists performing non-nationalistic music or expressing any statements that could be perceived as antigovernment. While confined, their long hair was shaved off, hence the decision to not display a picture. Allowed to play acoustic guitar and record songs through a masterful use of the media to keep a connection with the public for fear of being "disappeared" or tortured, both Gil and Veloso recorded albums (Gil recorded his masterful 1969 album as well at this time) using just voice and guitar and then sending the tapes to Rogerio Duprat, who added all the arrangements: electric guitars, strings, flutes and rhythm tracks. For such a strange and backwards production process, what results is a fervently articulate statement of politics and personal freedoms, with some of his first songs sung in English, namely the very pointed, "The Empty Boat".
Of course with time, it may be difficult to understand how radical the situation was, especially with the language barrier. Album opener "Irene" may seem like a pastoral groover with its opening flutes and guitars, but when he sings in Portuguese, "I want to see Irene laughing", it's rumored that the "Irene", he was referring to was the name of the machine gun of Tenario Calvacanti, a robber famously celebrated in leftist circles. While "Os Argonautas" is based on the belief that all oppressive dictatorships are fated to be temporary (Let's hold on tight to that belief!). The penultimate track "Acrilirico" is Veloso's response to the Beatles' "Revolution #9", a track very fitting to be on Veloso's own white album.
Like most Tropicalia albums, the urgently emotional song writing is tempered by a need to unite multiple populist musical forms together. So there are bits of Fado, Tango, Carnival music, psychedelic rock, with lyrics sung in English, Spanish as well as Portuguese. Veloso through the Tropicalia movement understood that the politics of freedom are best communicated through the musical language of the people. This record is more prescient than ever!
