The RVNG Int'l label has been killing it lately with 3 incredible archival releases in a row highlighting the marginal worlds of second generation avant-garde ambient electronic auteurs. The first two were the spacey electro-industrial "folk" productions of Craig Leon and the blithely elusive Eno-worship of Seattle's K. Leimer. But it's this third release that we have been most excited about and that is the rare early recordings of France's Ariel Kalma, a polymath musician and spiritual explorer whose sonic endeavors cross-pollinate multiple genres of music including free jazz, minimalism, musique concrete, experimental tape music, long-form ragas and proto-new age devotional ambience.
We made Kalma's 1978 masterwork of rainforest field recordings and atmospheric horn and organ textures, Osmose, Record of The Week when it was finally reissued back in 2006. There his interest in the correlations of sound and nature culminated brilliantly after years working with avant-garde musique concrete titan Pierre Henry at the legendary Institut National Audiovisuel, Groupe de Recherches Musicales (INA GRM) studios � the same sound laboratory that spawned masterpieces by members Luc Ferrari, Iannis Xenakis, and Bernard Parmegiani. But Kalma's restless wanderlust led him to travel, first to India, where he mastered circular breathing to be able to play the saxophone in continuous looping repetitions, then to New York where he briefly joined the mysterious musical spiritual collective, Arica, meeting one of his heroes, Don Cherry along the way.
Evolutionary music spans a fertile period of little heard recordings between 1972 and 1979 that were culled mostly from private press lps and rare cassette releases. Terry Riley-ish organ repetitions, Percussive pieces, Experimental vocal tape recordings, ragas, interplanetary jazz motifs and spacious gorgeous ambient drones. A beautiful collection of head music that comes of course highly recommended!!!!
There's something truly magical about music in nature. And we don't mean the music we find in nature, although more often than not, that natural music is far more interesting and beautiful then anything we humans can conjure up. No, we're talking about playing music -with- nature, -in-nature. The act of collaborating with something so big, so grand, so overwhelmingly complex, that sometimes just the mere act of creating sounds away from the studio or stage, just being outside in nature with your music, can seem truly divine. And as listeners, there is something thrilling about man and nature working together to make music. From the primitive forest black metal blast of Ulver recording Nattens Madrigal in the Norwegian woods, to the Jewelled Antler collective communing with nature, allowing wind and rain and sticks and stones to play as important a part in their music as they themselves, to the rain soaked ritual of Koukiji Kougezan's Live [11th] Final Hyakusenmansyuuraku, a near ambient performance for flute and sitar, with the falling rain, and thus nature, the focal point of the ritual / performance. So lovely, and vital, the music seems so much more whole, so much more alive, all intertwined with the elements.
Osmose was originally released in 1978 and found minimalist composer Ariel Kalma using all manner of keyboards, saxophone, harmonium, delays, effects, even circular breathing, to compose gorgeously minimal, softly spacey slow drifting ambient soundscapes, which were then mixed with the sounds of the rainforest (recorded by Richard Tinti). But unlike new age meditational music, this wasn't just music layered on top of random bits of field recordings, Kalma actually composed and mixed, edited and arranged his compositions to work with and within the sounds of the rainforest. Abstract melodies and warm chordal swirls, simple tribal war drums, perfectly blended with the calls of crickets and frogs and cicadas, the falling rain, birdsongs, flies, and all the sounds of the jungle forest. It sounds almost as if, while walking through the forest, you'd be just as likely to stumble across a bunch of analog synthesizers basking in a sunny glade or a wheezing harmonium perched in low hanging branches as you would frogs gathered by the edge of the stream. Sounds strange, but that's how interconnected the natural sounds are with Kalma's compositions. The distant animal calls sometimes form primitive loops, while Kalma paints them with warm soft smears of sound, extended drones and dreamy drifty ambience. Simple rhythms repeat while the sounds of the forest drift lazily by, everything sun dappled or rain soaked, It's almost like a pop ambient record recorded deep in the forest primeval. Or stumbling upon some ancient burial ground and discovering traces of some long gone krautrock jam, which over time had somehow sunk deep into the earth, or floated off into the sky, leaving nothing but memories, a handful of bones, sonic echoes of its former self. Sounds like ghosts, drifting like spirits through the leaves of the trees, floating weightless above the wet leaves and rich soil. Warm and fuzzy, dreamy and blissed out, so completely lovely and quite possibly our new favorite record to drift off to...
Includes three bonus tracks recorded at the same time as the original lp, but unreleased until now, as well as a booklet of liner notes detailing the lives of both Ariel Kalma and Richard Tinti, as well as the genesis of Osmose.
An interesting twist on the guitar soli genre sees these two old friends who both have deep roots in various hardcore, skate culture and street art scenes come together for a series of cinematic dual guitar vignettes. Rich Jacobs, whome we have featured here before with a tape on the Sanity Muffin label, is a prominent Bay Area artist with ties to the Mission School, who has designed skateboards, shoes for Vans and many of the album covers for Salt Lake City avant-hardore collective Iceburn. Tim Kerr, who most folks may know from Texan punk legends The Big Boys, is also a graphic portrait artist whose work has been featured nationwide in books, magazines and skateboards as well.
Both long inspired by roots and folk music, they craft here a variety of sounds with electric and acoustic guitars that look back on a dusty Americana filtered through a rigorous DIY indie sensibility. Beautiful strummed and picked melodies countered by searching improvisations and roughhewn noisy atmospheres weave oblique tales of small boondock towns and wide open abandoned spaces. A wondrously sublime take on the "soundtrack without a film" convention, mainly because it doesn't try too hard and their mutual compatible playing style ends up coming through quite effortlessly. For fans of Bill Orcutt, John Fahey, and Sir Richard Bishop.
This classic album from 1971 has been lovingly reissued by Tompkins Square. Released originally on the LA-based Black Jazz label, Shawn-Neeq was soul-jazz guitarist Calvin Keys debut release after years being a member and session player in several famous jazz combos with the likes of Jimmy Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and Jack McDuff.
Shawn-Neeq begins with the cosmic opening herald of "B.E." before launching into an understated groove backed by Fender Rhodes, bass, and flutes, some low-key horns, but the main space is left open for Key's travelling guitar lines that explore wildly while still keeping it all glued together. The title track delves into a softer focus of pretty balladry with lyrical flute and Rhodes keeping the momentum. The eight minute "Gee-Gee" brings a funkier vibe back into play and is probably our favorite track. Though it's hard to beat the closer, "B.K." which has a harder funk vibe and distorted Rhodes again that give the song a more acid-y psychedelic feel. This is an excellent slice of empowered soul jazz and we're psyched to see it available on vinyl once again! Recommended!
Calvin Keys lives in Oakland these days and we've heard he's playing out again in support of this reissue, unfortunately we missed his show at Yoshi's but hope to see him soon.
We usually start reviews of records released on Mississippi Records with a blaring announcement that looks a little like this:
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Cuz we know there are plenty of folks out there, that like us, are crazy obsessed with that label, and will buy ANYthing and EVERYthing they release. And we imagine those folks will no doubt buy this one as well, but for the folks who might not be quite so Mississippi obsessed, or who might have gotten in the habit of seeing that announcement and skipping on by, we didn't want anyone to miss out on this one, because this record just might be the one to suck you in and MAKE you that obsessed. Sure it's yet another incredible unearthed gem from the crazy music obsessives who run the impeccable Mississippi Records label, and as we hinted at above, pretty much everything they release is worth checking out, and yeah, they're all special in their own way, there's a bunch of others on this very list, but this one, this one is something else altogether, a collection of 78s from legendary Indian classical vocalist Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan, dense, lush, emotional and spiritual ragas, haunting and mystical and completely gorgeous. A huge influence of legendary minimalist composer La Monte Young, in fact the liner notes offer up a quote from Young that basically says it all: "When I first heard the recordings of Abdul Karim Khan I thought that perhaps it would be best if I gave up singing, got a cabin up in the mountains, stocked it with a record player and recordings of Abdul Karim Khan, and just listened for the rest of my life."
We can definitely understand his feelings, this is the sort of music, so powerful and so passionate, that it definitely puts most 'singers' to shame. The instrumentation is very traditional classical Indian, but it's the vocals that drive these songs, the instruments way down in the mix, Khan's gorgeous vocals soaring and dramatic, haunting and moving and utterly breathtaking. We've seen descriptions of these recordings as being "not easy listening, but ultimately very rewarding", and while we definitely agree with the second half of the statement, these sounds while complex and totally unlike most of the other music you've heard, are not at all difficult to listen to, just the opposite, after just a few seconds, you'll be whisked away, totally transported, as the sounds surround you, and seep into your spirit and soul. The music here so utterly transcendent, so lush, warm and welcoming, yet at the same time, so strange and wondrous, Khan's voice sounding like its bathed in divine light.
Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan truly was a sonic shaman for the ages, delivering these divine musical messages to us, his willing supplicants. Incredible.
Packaged in super thick full color old school tip-on jackets, with a big booklet packed with liner notes and photos.
It's hard to believe that some of the coolest and soulful new music we've heard of late is coming from this lanky British mush-mouthed teenager, but it's true. We've been floored by nearly everything Archy Marshall aka King Krule has done since we first heard the self-titled ep a couple of years ago, and even before that he was releasing rap singles under the moniker of Zoo Kid. You might also remember him from his elevating guest appearances on the last Mount Kimbie record. So after a bunch of singles and an ep that we were unable to get, we're happy to be finally able to stock his full length debut. In some ways 6 Feet Beneath The Moon is a trip back to an eighties college sound that has seen a little revival of late. Sparse arrangements of Durutti Column-ish guitar and moody electronic atmospherics and rhythms create a Bill Evans / Chet Baker late-night loner jazz vibe while Marshall's distinct vocal delivery, a thick mopey brogue laced with a doleful drunken elegance, gives the songs their emotional weight... Marshall's voice comes across like a less stridently political and more introspective Billy Bragg, but his singing style is more informed by rap and jazz, blithely stepping around complex clusters of wordplay, imbuing his songs with a late-night urban melancholy like a hoodlum poet. Recommended!
The Sleep Genius label who has brought us great releases by Chasms, Bad News, Tied To The Branches and Concrete Island is back and not only with a new cassette, but a cassingle!!!!!! Yes that's right, a cassette in a gorgeously blood red shrink-wrapped paper stock sleeve!
King Woman is the first solo project of Kristina Esfandiari, the front woman of San Francisco local band Whirr, who we're not familiar with, but wondering now if we should be after hearing this. Backed by members of Tied to the Branches and Chasms, Esfandiari's deep resonant voice hovers over the minimal hazy treatments in these two slow shoegaze murder ballads. She reminds us of Hope Sandoval or Marissa Nadler but with a richer timbre to her vocal that is quite stunning. The backing music all hovering slow motion creep, quietly lifting these songs up to the beckoning gallows. Pretty fucking great!
Latest in the series of reissues of obscure Lee Hazlewood productions from Light In The Attic comes this great anthology of tracks by a band of Nuggets-worthy never-weres from Amarillo Texas, The Kitchen Cinq (pronounced "Sank", a play on the French word for five, as they were a five piece, see!). The groop's sole 1966 album (Everything But....) and string of singles should have made them more than a mere blip in the regional psych scene as they were influenced both by the British Invasion and the emerging West Coast jangle folk sound. Like a mix of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators and The Byrds, with a seemingly aphetamine-fueled fuzz-pop sound, the band's probable lack of longevity was likely due to the fact they didn't record much of their own material - though songs like "Dying Daffodil Incident" and "When The Rainbow Disappears" by title alone should have set them apart. Instead, we largely get great covers of Neil Diamond ("Solitary Man"), Buffy Saint Marie ("Codeine") and The Hollies ("I Can't Let Go"), amongst many others. To their credit, they make these singles sparkle with gritty pop urgency, tremendous harmony and of course Hazlewood's top-notch production which accentuates the reverb and twang in such a beautifully satisfying way. As always with Light In The Attic releases, comes a great history of the band and lots of pictures. Great stuff for vintage garage beat geeks like us!
Latest in the series of reissues of obscure Lee Hazlewood productions from Light In The Attic comes this great anthology of tracks by a band of Nuggets-worthy never-weres from Amarillo Texas, The Kitchen Cinq (pronounced "Sank", a play on the French word for five, as they were a five piece, see!). The groop's sole 1966 album (Everything But....) and string of singles should have made them more than a mere blip in the regional psych scene as they were influenced both by the British Invasion and the emerging West Coast jangle folk sound. Like a mix of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators and The Byrds, with a seemingly aphetamine-fueled fuzz-pop sound, the band's probable lack of longevity was likely due to the fact they didn't record much of their own material - though songs like "Dying Daffodil Incident" and "When The Rainbow Disappears" by title alone should have set them apart. Instead, we largely get great covers of Neil Diamond ("Solitary Man"), Buffy Saint Marie ("Codeine") and The Hollies ("I Can't Let Go"), amongst many others. To their credit, they make these singles sparkle with gritty pop urgency, tremendous harmony and of course Hazlewood's top-notch production which accentuates the reverb and twang in such a beautifully satisfying way. As always with Light In The Attic releases, comes a great history of the band and lots of pictures. Great stuff for vintage garage beat geeks like us!
This compilation of singles circa 1971-1975 by new-to-us Anatolian folk-psych singer and guitarist Fikret Kizilok has been blowing our minds this week We don't much about Kizilok, except he was a dentist who, inspired by the Beatles, got into music, and recorded with Baris Manco, which led to a friendship-ending affair with his girlfriend. He is also rumored to be one of the first Turkish musicians to introduce the sitar into Turkish popular music (a bit hard to believe, and strangely there is no sitar on these recordings, but nevertheless that is what a cool-looking photo from a music magazine in the liner notes seems to state). However, Kizilok's hypnotic psych-tinged folk music, played with both electric and acoustic instruments (including lots of hand percussion and electric organ provided by Mogollar's Turhan Yukseler!), is impossible to ignore. Equally dreamy, moody, groovy, complexly arranged and politically driven, this is another great Turkish-psych discovery right up there with Selda, Mogallar, Cem Karaca, 3 Hur-el and Edip Akbayram. Also if you loved those Psych 101 compilations, this will be right up your alley!
Before there was Joanna Newsom, there was Carol Kleyn, a young hippie spirit with an ethereal songbird voice who wrote rapturous paeans to love and nature on her harp. So it makes sense then that Newsom's label, Drag City, would reissue this lovely private press recording from 1976. Studying at the University of Santa Barbara, Kleyn befriended Bobby Brown (the instrument builder who recorded the amazing old aQ fave The Enlightening Beam of Axonda) and she assisted him with his constructions and live performances. He gifted her the harp, and she began to learn to play and write her own songs, eventually opening for Gregg Allman. Instead of waiting to get a record deal, she decided to make a record on her own and released it on her own label. She recorded two other lps soon after, before devoting herself full time to her family.
Love has Made Me Stronger divides its compositions between harp and electric piano. Her tone is bright and the songs exude a sunny yet eccentric warm energy. Similar to the beautiful Collie Ryan and Connie Converse reissues we listed a while back, Carol Kleyn's debut is a much-needed positive ray of sunshine in these dark days.
For most casual listeners of music, Kool & The Gang will forever be remembered (and dismissed) for their platinum eighties mega-hit "Celebration". Which is a damn shame! That song alone has nearly built a wall so high over their past efforts that it's hard to convince people that in the seventies, there wasn't a harder working live band or tighter funk unit outside of James Brown & the JB's than Kool & The Gang. Even those familiar with their early funk hits, "Jungle Boogie", "Funky Stuff" or "Hollywood Swinging" (all from their 1973 album Wild and Peaceful) may not realize they put out five records of underrated solid grooves before that. Live At PJ's from 1971 was the band's third album, and their second live album released in a row. A hectic night after night touring schedule of gigs across the country had given the band the necessary chops to pull off one of the most exciting sets committed to wax. Not only were they tight on the funk side, but confident enough on the jazz side of things to get more exploratory and expansive. On the opener "N.T." (short for No Title), both funk and jazz sides are on full display at once. While they are known for having a killer horn section, the most amazing thing about this band is the flute leads, especially on "Sombrero Sam" and "Lucky For Me". Live at PJ's is largely an instrumental record, with occasional vocalizing on a couple of tracks, as the band at this point hadn't expanded much beyond it's soul-jazz roots into the full on funk band it would later become. But it's later hip-hop credentials become apparent on the last song (before the bonus track) "Dujii" as its opening groove became the foundation for "Jazz Thing" by Gang Starr. So awesome, that this underrated live set is available once again! Highly recommended.
A lot of the soundtracks we review, are for movies we haven't actually seen. In some ways that's sort of liberating, at least from a purely musical standpoint, hearing the sounds solely for what they are, instead of having those sounds inexorably linked to specific images. And in a lot of cases, we have discovered some incredible films via their soundtracks, and not the more common other way around. We got this soundtrack to this 1981 French horror/thriller (directed by Polish director Andrzej Zulawski, and scored by his longtime collaborator Andrzej Korzynski, also Polish, but more on that in a second) in a few months ago, and instantly, become totally obsessed, spinning it multiple times a day, inevitably folks in the store would ask what it was, because it's so goddamn good. And creepy, and twisted, and pretty much the perfect score, but for what, we weren't sure, as we had not seen the movie. And while are obsession proves that you needn't see the movie to love this, once we actually DID see the movie, we flipped for that too, wondering how the hell we could have missed out on it all these years. It's literally one of the weirdest, most fucked up films EVER. And the soundtrack we had become so familiar with over the last several months, finally viewed in the contest of the film, made both even more bizarre and amazing.
So the film itself, banned until 1991, and at the time classified as a "Video Nasty", stars an American, Sam Neil, who becomes convinced his wife, Isabelle Adjani, is cheating on him, which she is. Neil hires a private investigator, eventually meets the lover, and the lover's mother, but there's so much more to the story, there's a crazily neglected child in the mix, some truly twisted parenting, and SPOILER ALERT!!!! Some sort of super gross oozing monster that lives in an abandoned building that Adjani is in love with, or is at least having sex with? There's tons of screaming and hitting and fighting, and one of thee most dramatic freakouts EVER, with Adjani losing her mind in a tunnel, and ending up spewing and oozing all sorts of weird fluids, there's a particularly psychedelic denouement as well, lots of crazy scenery chewing, the whole thing is utterly and unabashedly over the top. Even right after seeing it, we weren't sure what the fuck just happened. But we did know, we loved the movie, and suddenly, loved the soundtrack EVEN MORE.
Korzynski's soundtrack is a series of short cues, most less than a minute, that find the composer experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines, primitive electronics. It's actually quite progressive, and in places is reminiscent of Carpenter or Goblin, especially in the movie's 'theme'. Check out the opening track "The Night The Screaming Stops", and it will be stick in your head forever, the tense strings, the pulsing rhythmic throb, the mysterious percussion, the swirling synth, and the creepy sci-fi sound effects, not to mention the melody. It's so haunting and creepy, but in the film, it's over the most innocuous sequence, and it's that juxtaposition that makes it so effectively chilling. Seriously if this soundtrack was 2 minutes long, and consisted of that first track, we'd still want a copy!
But dig in, there's plenty more, haunting swoonsome strings, drifting over a lilting organ melody, dreamy and drifty, but so subtly ominous, there's some full on synth prog, again revisiting that opening melody, but with more heft, as the soundtrack unwinds, there's lots of percussion, shakers, little flurries of synth shimmer, deep drones, the orchestral theme is particularly stirring, a refrain of the opening credit sequence, but so much more creepy and hauntingly stately. There are also lots of brief blasts of synthy psychedelia, appropriately titled things like "Detective's Desserts" or "Bloody Embrace", and part of the reason these cues are so short, is that much of the movie is sans incidental music, so the cues come in to accentuate certain events, the sonic equivalent of jump-scares, but super effective, and they add a whole other level of surreal psychedelia to the proceedings, very 'Euro' for sure. The series of "Kreuzberg" variations are particularly freaky, sinister and mysterious, grim ambience and super tense orchestral weirdness. Oh did we mention "The Man With The Pink Socks"? Another perplexing plot point, and one that here gets the bookending closing sequence, revisiting "Meeting With A Pink Tie". Adding some extra wah guitar, and both revisiting that opening theme.
Listen to the sound samples and see if you can resist. But really why bother? You won't be sorry. Even removed from the movie, this score is fantastic, psychedelic, orchestral, proggy, tripped out and bizarre, and no doubt will have you headed to the video store to experience the baffling brilliance of the film, once your sated on the equally baffling and brilliant score.
Like all B-Music / Finders Keepers releases, includes a huge booklet with lots of liner notes and tons of rare photos.
Out of the major Takoma triumvirate of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke, it is the latter who probably had the most mainstream appeal, but definitely the least hipster cred. Probably due to his early and sudden career switch from an amazing virtuoso instrumentalist to a rather mediocre singer/songwriter. But it's this debut recording of solo guitar work from 1969 of which listeners should take notice. Arguably, the most successful record on the Takoma label (it has sold over 500,000 copies), it is also one of the best. Definitely a student of Fahey school of tongue in cheek liner notes and eccentric song titles like "Vaseline Machine Gun" and "The Brain of The Purple Mountain", Kottke displays a knowing range of blues, pop, classical and folk styles. Though probably not as insistently ornery as Fahey's style could be, there is a pensive resonance that keeps Kottke's pastoralism from getting sappy. For sure, one of the best solo guitar records that actually helped create and popularize the genre originally! Nice to have it again on vinyl.
Latest release from this Bay Area composer, electronic musician and dronologist Gregg Kowalsky. A one sided lp documenting part of his Master's Thesis, which entailed taking one of his electronic compositions, scoring it for a live ensemble and then conducting the performance.
Kowalsky enlisted the Contemporary Performance Ensemble, directed by Fred Frith, who also contributed violin. Recorded in 2005 at Mills college, the result was sublime. A gorgeous organic piece that references Feldman and Part and Melnyk as much as Kowalsky's previous works.
The strings are low and buzz and throb dramatically, the piano is minor key and delicate, fluttering in brief little flurries, streaks of high end run through the swirling moodiness, over the top voices soar in choral fragments, washes of cymbals sizzle, horns moan, all manner of instruments are smeared into a heaving organic whole, shakuhachi, vibraphone, flute, a sonic cloud constantly expanding, intensifying chordal whir, like some moody rock band with the bones pulled out, leaving just a gloriously amorphous sound shape, slithering and drifting, creeping and billowing, building and building, some sort of classic chorale stretched out into a shimmering dreamlike blur. On the surface, it's a dark drift, but beneath the surface, sounds are roiling and churning, a sonic sea of tension and emotion, subtly psychedelic, a gorgeous, organic, orchestral drone.
Packaged in a thick cardstock sleeve, with a Xeroxed yellow paste on cover.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
Most Americans (well, not most Americans, but the ones paying attention) were first introduced to the progressive versatility of Norwegian jazz singer Karin Krog back in the nineties when European distribution regulations finally relaxed enough for wider promotion and availability across the Atlantic, and what a discovery it was. Having performed and recorded since the early sixties, Krog was essentially a household name in her native country, having worked with the some of the most esteemed bandleaders and arrangers of the post-bop jazz world, Dexter Gordon, Archie Shepp, Jan Garbarek, Steve Kuhn, and John Surman among them. Her then 30 year old back catalog was a treasure chest for crate diggers and beat heads and sure enough compilations of her work along with other groove heavy "Black Forest" jazz figures from Scandinavia, Germany and Poland, like Wolfgang Dauner, Michael Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak, began to crop up in the early 2000's.
It's been about 13 years since Crippled Dick released the first Krog survey, Raindrops, Raindrops, which mainly focused on her seventies work. Some of those tracks reappear here, like the great Herbie Hancock composition, "Maiden Voyage" and "We Could Be Flying". On Don't Just Sing, Light In The Attic expands that survey into the margins on both sides of her career from the sixties to the nineties, and truly highlights her wide range from funk-laden jazz pop to cosmic fusion explorations into freer modes of vocal expression and electronic experimentation. Krog's delivery can weave an incandescent tapestry no matter if the material is traditional or experimental. Her approach to standards is by no means by the book and indeed is quite innovative. Who else could turn the Mississippi Delta twang of Bobbi Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe" into a Scandinavian jazz groover? Or transform John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" into such blithely cool rapturous devotion? Krog's dry lilting voice is effortlessly breezy, at times near lackadaisical as it almost trails off a the end of a phrase - but also at times spitfire, full of life and in total control. "Don't Just Sing" is not only a track here exploring how much the voice can do without words, it's also a personalized mantra for how the voice can convey emotional and tonal complexities as well as transform audible worlds into poetic vision.
While we long for full reissues of her essential records like We Could Be Flying, Hi Fly (with Archie Shepp) and Joy, any survey of Karin Krog is warmly welcomed and this one is particularly great! Includes archival photos and liner notes including a Q& A with Krog herself. We cannot recommend this compilation enough! (Also be sure to check out her feature in this month's Wire magazine!)
How rad is this? One of our favorite Record Store Day items this year was not a record, but a book! 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". Enjoy The Experience, edited by noted collector Johan Kugelberg, delves deep into the uniquely 20th century phenomena of the custom-made record and the little-known artists who made them, as well as the collectors and reissue labels that have obsessed over them and ultimately prevented them from fading into obscurity. A lot of our faves are here, including many we have reviewed over the years like The Shaggs, Michael Farneti, Gary Wilson, Jr. and His Soulettes, Bob Chance, Luie Luie, and Hans Edler, many with extensive back stories about their creation. But there is sooooo much more. Including Christian family recordings, ventriloquists, creepy loner folkies, restaurant /resort entertainers, over-the-top lounge singers and just outright bizarre musical artists who just wouldn't have been able to release a record any other way. There are pages and pages of beautiful color reproductions of the cover art to these home made records, some even hand drawn, in all of their earnest naive glory. There's even a chapter on Century Records, one of the most well-established custom record manufacturers, who provided stock album covers for individual artists - and it's funny to see how many different albums utilized the exact SAME cover (including the one seen on the front of this book!). Enjoy The Experience is a joy to behold and will renew your faith in the self-released record.
Comes with a download card for a 20 song playlist including a song from a hopefully up and coming aQ Record of the Week, when it gets reissued - try and guess which one! While supplies last, this special RSD edition also comes with a clear vinyl 45 reissue of a recording by the Century Records marketing department, on how to customize and create your own record. So Awesome!!
Years ago, we were introduced to the genius of the "James Brown of Afrobeat", Fela Ransome Kuti through a massive cd reissue campaign of his '70s albums, many with 2 albums on one cd. While we never managed to review any of them for the website, our three favorites releases he made with his band Africa 70 (Live! With Ginger Baker, from 1971, and Expensive Shit and He Miss Road, both from '75) have just been reissued on lp and they are definitively some of the best and essential Afrobeat we've ever heard.
Expensive Shit and He Miss Road were originally reissued on one cd (still available) collecting the five sprawling tracks of both albums together. But the two tracks from Expensive Shit, in particular, were some of the most politically charged grooves recorded. A little background: Africa 70, a band consisting of two large choruses (male and female) around a core of over a half-dozen musicians on horns, guitars, and percussion from the world over, was formed in the wake of a visit to Los Angeles and Kuti's exposure to the Black Panther movement. Changing his musical focus from love songs to social justice, he returned to Nigeria where he set up a commune like residence where his band could record and play and declared it independent of the Nigerian government. Singing in pidgen English so as to connect with the diverse populations of Africa and practicing Yoruba religion, as his music grew in popularity, he was subject to regular injustices by the government and military including illegal searches and seizures, travel restrictions and beatings.
Expensive Shit refers to a legendary incident where soldiers tried to plant a joint on Kuti, which he managed to eat, prompting the soldiers to take him in custody and wait until he shat out the evidence. Legend has it, he was eventually freed after he was able to swap his feces for another prisoner's and thus the police had nothing on him. But the song and the B side, "Water No Get Enemy" in their epic lengths and ecstatic rhythms also serve as a call and response indictment of authoritative corruption and the counterproductive means in which governments wield power over its citizens.
He Miss Road runs along a more communal trajectory across three tracks, but the sound is moodier and more hypnotic. Produced by Ginger Baker, who contributed and recorded regularly with Kuti throughout the 70's when Baker moved to Nigeria from England after the breakup of Cream and Blind Faith. The grooves are longer, jazzier and at the same time more abstract, punctuated by swelling organ riffs and Tony Allen's full-burn percussive rhythms.
Live! with Ginger Baker is a scorcher of a set with Ginger Baker as guest drummer alongside regular drummer Tony Allen and since it was recorded earlier than the others, it has a tighter feel. You really feel/hear the James Brown comparison on this one. All three pretty damn essential!!
Expensive Shit and He Miss Road, two amazing records from 1975 now on one cd collecting the five sprawling tracks of both albums together. But the two tracks from Expensive Shit, in particular, were some of the most politically charged grooves recorded. A little background: Africa 70, a band consisting of two large choruses (male and female) around a core of over a half-dozen musicians on horns, guitars, and percussion from the world over, was formed in the wake of a visit to Los Angeles and Kuti's exposure to the Black Panther movement. Changing his musical focus from love songs to social justice, he returned to Nigeria where he set up a commune like residence where his band could record and play and declared it independent of the Nigerian government. Singing in pidgen English so as to connect with the diverse populations of Africa and practicing Yoruba religion, as his music grew in popularity, he was subject to regular injustices by the government and military including illegal searches and seizures, travel restrictions and beatings.
Expensive Shit refers to a legendary incident where soldiers tried to plant a joint on Kuti, which he managed to eat, prompting the soldiers to take him in custody and wait until he shat out the evidence. Legend has it, he was eventually freed after he was able to swap his feces for another prisoner's and thus the police had nothing on him. But the song and the B side, "Water No Get Enemy" in their epic lengths and ecstatic rhythms also serve as a call and response indictment of authoritative corruption and the counterproductive means in which governments wield power over its citizens.
He Miss Road runs along a more communal trajectory across three tracks, but the sound is moodier and more hypnotic. Produced by Ginger Baker, who contributed and recorded regularly with Kuti throughout the 70's when Baker moved to Nigeria from England after the breakup of Cream and Blind Faith. The grooves are longer, jazzier and at the same time more abstract, punctuated by swelling organ riffs and Tony Allen's full-burn percussive rhythms.
Years ago, we were introduced to the genius of the "James Brown of Afrobeat", Fela Ransome Kuti through a massive cd reissue campaign of his '70s albums, many with 2 albums on one cd. While we never managed to review any of them for the website, our three favorites releases he made with his band Africa 70 (Live! With Ginger Baker, from 1971, and Expensive Shit and He Miss Road, both from '75) have just been reissued on lp and they are definitively some of the best and essential Afrobeat we've ever heard.
Expensive Shit and He Miss Road were originally reissued on one cd (still available) collecting the five sprawling tracks of both albums together. But the two tracks from Expensive Shit, in particular, were some of the most politically charged grooves recorded. A little background: Africa 70, a band consisting of two large choruses (male and female) around a core of over a half-dozen musicians on horns, guitars, and percussion from the world over, was formed in the wake of a visit to Los Angeles and Kuti's exposure to the Black Panther movement. Changing his musical focus from love songs to social justice, he returned to Nigeria where he set up a commune like residence where his band could record and play and declared it independent of the Nigerian government. Singing in pidgen English so as to connect with the diverse populations of Africa and practicing Yoruba religion, as his music grew in popularity, he was subject to regular injustices by the government and military including illegal searches and seizures, travel restrictions and beatings.
Expensive Shit refers to a legendary incident where soldiers tried to plant a joint on Kuti, which he managed to eat, prompting the soldiers to take him in custody and wait until he shat out the evidence. Legend has it, he was eventually freed after he was able to swap his feces for another prisoner's and thus the police had nothing on him. But the song and the B side, "Water No Get Enemy" in their epic lengths and ecstatic rhythms also serve as a call and response indictment of authoritative corruption and the counterproductive means in which governments wield power over its citizens.
He Miss Road runs along a more communal trajectory across three tracks, but the sound is moodier and more hypnotic. Produced by Ginger Baker, who contributed and recorded regularly with Kuti throughout the 70's when Baker moved to Nigeria from England after the breakup of Cream and Blind Faith. The grooves are longer, jazzier and at the same time more abstract, punctuated by swelling organ riffs and Tony Allen's full-burn percussive rhythms.
Live! with Ginger Baker is a scorcher of a set with Ginger Baker as guest drummer alongside regular drummer Tony Allen and since it was recorded earlier than the others, it has a tighter feel. You really feel/hear the James Brown comparison on this one. All three pretty damn essential!!
Years ago, we were introduced to the genius of the "James Brown of Afrobeat", Fela Ransome Kuti through a massive cd reissue campaign of his '70s albums, many with 2 albums on one cd. While we never managed to review any of them for the website, our three favorites releases he made with his band Africa 70 (Live! With Ginger Baker, from 1971, and Expensive Shit and He Miss Road, both from '75) have just been reissued on lp and they are definitively some of the best and essential Afrobeat we've ever heard.
Expensive Shit and He Miss Road were originally reissued on one cd (still available) collecting the five sprawling tracks of both albums together. But the two tracks from Expensive Shit, in particular, were some of the most politically charged grooves recorded. A little background: Africa 70, a band consisting of two large choruses (male and female) around a core of over a half-dozen musicians on horns, guitars, and percussion from the world over, was formed in the wake of a visit to Los Angeles and Kuti's exposure to the Black Panther movement. Changing his musical focus from love songs to social justice, he returned to Nigeria where he set up a commune like residence where his band could record and play and declared it independent of the Nigerian government. Singing in pidgen English so as to connect with the diverse populations of Africa and practicing Yoruba religion, as his music grew in popularity, he was subject to regular injustices by the government and military including illegal searches and seizures, travel restrictions and beatings.
Expensive Shit refers to a legendary incident where soldiers tried to plant a joint on Kuti, which he managed to eat, prompting the soldiers to take him in custody and wait until he shat out the evidence. Legend has it, he was eventually freed after he was able to swap his feces for another prisoner's and thus the police had nothing on him. But the song and the B side, "Water No Get Enemy" in their epic lengths and ecstatic rhythms also serve as a call and response indictment of authoritative corruption and the counterproductive means in which governments wield power over its citizens.
He Miss Road runs along a more communal trajectory across three tracks, but the sound is moodier and more hypnotic. Produced by Ginger Baker, who contributed and recorded regularly with Kuti throughout the 70's when Baker moved to Nigeria from England after the breakup of Cream and Blind Faith. The grooves are longer, jazzier and at the same time more abstract, punctuated by swelling organ riffs and Tony Allen's full-burn percussive rhythms.
Live! with Ginger Baker is a scorcher of a set with Ginger Baker as guest drummer alongside regular drummer Tony Allen and since it was recorded earlier than the others, it has a tighter feel. You really feel/hear the James Brown comparison on this one. All three pretty damn essential!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Repressed and BACK IN STOCK (for now...).
Super limited, lovingly presented reissue of this legendary record. Long out of print (minus the briefly available reissue on DC / Intoxica, now also out of print) and heavily sought after soundtrack to Rene Laloux's 1973 Cannes Grand Prix winning animated feature "La Planete Sauvage." If the film itself is a hallucinatory masterpiece, the soundtrack - composed by Alain Goraguer (long time arranger for Serge Gainsbourg) - is as fitting as it is brilliant. Like an LSD dosed Isaac Hayes score, the music herein is at the same time both reminiscent of classic early seventies drama soundtracks and completely surreal and strange. Lots of recurring leitmotifs recast in ever building and changing arrangements, including marimba, Theremin and bird whistles as well as the standard orchestral elements, guitars and funky organs. So great!
Attention New Age Heads! Just click add to cart now because these will be gone before you know it. The first pressing is already out of print and we have just a handful of these, so don't sleep! This is a deluxe 3 cassette reissue of master zither excursionist Laraaji's seminal cassette releases made between 1978 and 1983: Lotus Collage (1978), Unicorns In Paradise (1981), and Connecting With The Inner Healer Through Music (1983). Originally hand made and distributed by Laraaji himself, the cassette form was perfect for immersive meditative listening. Indeed this is the first time these recordings have been reissued in their original form, as only excerpts have been included on compilations previously. Recorded before Brian Eno's "discovery" and release of Laraaji's Ambient 3: Days of Radiance, these pieces are blissfully extraordinary and come highly recommended. Packed in orange embossed cardstock sleeve around the 3 hardshell cassettes replicating the original tapes' j-card artwork. Uber-limited! Unicorns In Paradise!!
Ambient 3 (Days of Radiance) was the 1980 Brian Eno-produced album that introduced the majestic electric zither ambiance of Edward Larry Gordan (aka Laraaji, to use his preferred, more new-agey name) to a wider audience. Discovered busking in Washington Square Park after years of self-releasing tapes, studying eastern mysticism, and developing a practice of laughter therapy, Laraaji was soon after enlisted by Eno to release a work in his Ambient series, much as Eno did with Harold Budd previously. Comprised of two suites of music, "The Dance" and "Meditation", Laraaji employs gamelan-like rhythms on an electronically treated hammer dulcimer in the first suite, while the slowed down zither is featured in the second suite. Eno as usual keeps a restrained but guiding role in delicately layering and treating the tracks with a beautifully soft-focus feel. An essential release!
Lavender is the new project of local San Francisco (by way of France) synthesist Hugo Paris. His debut cassette release, Mystique Youth, is a beautiful visionary piece of prismatic sci-fi electronic romance largely inspired by Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel Dune. Though one can feel the moody strains of Vangelis' Blade Runner score as well as Edvard Artemiev's existential planetscape drones, Paris puts those influences to use in a most forward thinking way. He's no novice when it comes to equipment either. A technical engineer by trade, Paris employs a dizzying array of synthesizers, space-echo, oscillators and effects to bring in a vibrating quality of light, space and movement that gives his music an unconventional uplifting warmth and soulfulness. Mystique Youth is sublimely serene and progressively dreamy, but with an alien mystery that feels as if everything we hold dear will soon change. If you dig Nils Frahm, Jamie XX, or any of the artists mentioned above, you will find lots to love here. A stellar debut!
Download code included. And for a very limited time, we have a deluxe package that comes with a t-shirt, as well as a regular cassette version by itself. If ordering the deluxe package, please specify desired t-shirt size in the comments section of your order.
And by the way, we loved this release so much, we are hosting a Lavender in-store performance next week, Friday August 21st at 6 pm! Come on down to see and hear these amazing synths in action!
Lavender is the new project of local San Francisco (by way of France) synthesist Hugo Paris. His debut cassette release, Mystique Youth, is a beautiful visionary piece of prismatic sci-fi electronic romance largely inspired by Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel Dune. Though one can feel the moody strains of Vangelis' Blade Runner score as well as Edvard Artemiev's existential planetscape drones, Paris puts those influences to use in a most forward thinking way. He's no novice when it comes to equipment either. A technical engineer by trade, Paris employs a dizzying array of synthesizers, space-echo, oscillators and effects to bring in a vibrating quality of light, space and movement that gives his music an unconventional uplifting warmth and soulfulness. Mystique Youth is sublimely serene and progressively dreamy, but with an alien mystery that feels as if everything we hold dear will soon change. If you dig Nils Frahm, Jamie XX, or any of the artists mentioned above, you will find lots to love here. A stellar debut!
Download code included. And for a very limited time, we have a deluxe package that comes with a t-shirt, as well as a regular cassette version by itself. If ordering the deluxe package, please specify desired t-shirt size in the comments section of your order.
And by the way, we loved this release so much, we are hosting a Lavender in-store performance next week, Friday August 21st at 6 pm! Come on down to see and hear these amazing synths in action!
This is not new, but we never listed it before and we've always been fans of Trevor Montgomery's (Tarentel, The Drift, Believer) solo downer folk-blues project Lazarus, and seeing that he had a stash left of these, we jumped at the chance to share this beauty with you.
Trickster from 2009 is the third album from Lazarus and it's just as beautiful and heart-wrenching as the previous ones. Like a folkier Nick Cave, Trevor's baritone gothic blues-tinged croon is more refined but no less weary. Backed by simple lyrical guitar, organ, bells and shimmering electro-acoustic tones, the well-written songs display a despairing majesty that show glimmers of hope and redemption.
Limited to 300 copies on swirly smoke or blood colored vinyl, each cover uniquely hand-painted. Trevor has significantly less than 300 left so we don't know how long these will stick around. Highly Recommended!
The Third release from Montreal's synth-wizard Le Revelateur, aka Roger Tellier-Craig, former member of Godspeed You Black Emperor and Fly Pan Am, returns to Root Strata where we were first introduced with the Motion Glares cassette. Extreme Events has evolved from the flow-motion kosmiche of his last release Fictions and is much more dynamic, restless and ultimately alien. While we have connected Le Revelateur sonically with contemporaries like Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds and Steve Hauschildt in the past, this album takes us to a slightly different place. There is still an underlying flow of spacious energy, but it's overlaid with some fluorescent woven sonic textures and rhythms blunted with abraded digital decay and glitchery. The constant push-pull between space and movement give the album an organic intensity that sonically pokes and implores our eardrums rather than cradles and envelops, forcing us to actively engage rather than passively listen. The range of synthetic sounds and textures is jaw-dropping and though it doesn't seem that Tellier-Craig is deliberately trying to make difficult music, we can't really say this music is necessarily pretty either. But it has a searing burning beauty that like a sun-made diamond, is at once magnificent and soul-destroying.
From the mysterious black cover and gothic font, we initially thought that this was some new vinyl release by Amort or Striborg or any number of black metal hordes we see day in and day out. But no, this is in fact quite an awesome surprise, a beautiful early-seventies drum-centric spiritual jazz record by the unknown to us, David Lee Jr., and it's really quite killer! Right up there with the likes of Steve Reid, Rashied Ali, Roland P. Young or Khan Jamal!
Hailing from New Orleans and moving to New York where Lee played in Roy Ayer's Ubiquity for a few years, Evolution was recorded in 1974 and is Lee's only solo record originally released on his own Supernal records imprint (not to be confused with the black metal Supernal!). Centered around martial rhythms and syncopation with a left-field avant jazz sensibility and even some blazing psych rock and soul flourishes, the disc is 14 short tracks with the title track centerpiece being a 7 minute extended drum solo. There are even a couple of short vocal tracks, one of which should just be skipped over at the very end called "I Want Our Love To Always Last" (even the Soul Jazz site won't let you sample it). But other than that one misstep, this is a highly recommended album for fans of vintage beat-heavy seventies jazz from the likes of P. E. Hewitt, Lee Miller, or any of the cool cats we mentioned above!
For RVNG's third installment in their archival series (the other two being the great Harald Grosskomp and Sensation's Fix collections), the focus is on lesser known American ambient visionary, Kerry Leimer (or, K. Leimer, the abbreviated initial a nod to Kafka's Joseph K from The Trial). Hailing from Seattle, where he began his Palace of Light imprint in the late seventies (one of the first experimental labels in the region), Leimer had an almost savant-like obsession with generative music largely spurred on not only by the influences of Dada and Surrealism but also the works of Cluster, Eno, Terry Riley and Robert Fripp of which he saw a musical corollary, in that the tape loop became its own instant but fatalist structure. Realizing the potential to compose his own music with little background or training, Leimer used second-hand tape machines, a mini-moog and other cheap instruments and developed a vast archive of recordings. He took cues from the DIY cassette culture of the burgeoning new wave and punk scenes of Seattle and began carefully packaging and releasing his own records as well as cultivating a scene of experimental artists and releasing their works as well.
Instead of reissuing Leimer's Palace of Light recordings, RVNG digs deeper into his archives to highlight unreleased works from as early as 1975 to reveal a wide range of styles and forms: billowy, delicate and glacial as well as pensive, rhythmic and nervous, but all of an elegant unified voice. It never seems like Leimer is trying on hats, but rather investigating the possibilities of sound given limited parameters. This is an amazing release that is sure to bring Leimer's work out of the shadows. Highest Recommendation!
This is a reissue of one of those deep "in-the-know" records that we're perplexed that we had somehow never heard of before now, especially given its pedigree. It seems to be one of those weird anomaly recordings that when it's not acting as a "proto" example of genres that now exist today (dub-step and minimal techno), it works as a bridge between genres we never imagined being connected before (new age and industrial music, minimalist composition and new wave, minimal synth and ethno-folk music). It's a rare six-degrees-of-separation record that bafflingly connects Suicide to John Fahey, and it's utterly gorgeous to boot.
Craig Leon may not be a well-known name to most, but he was the producer or co-producer behind many of the bands of our youth including Blondie, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Richard Hell, Suicide, The Weirdos, DMZ, The Zero's. The Bangles and 45 Grave. But he's also a classically trained composer and orchestrator who has worked with Lucio Pavoratti, Sir James Galway and The London Symphony Orchestra. Nommos was the first album of his own material, originally released in 1981 on John Fahey's Takoma label and there really is just nothing quite like it.
With evocative titles like "Donkeys Bearing Cups", "Four Eyes To See The Afterlife" and "She Wears A Hemispherical Skull Cap", Leon uses minimal synthesis to explore repetitive rhythm and texture in hypnotic trance inducing compositions. The opener, "Ring With Three Concentric Circles" explores a kraut-y kosmiche sound employing cosmic synth washes over skeletal mechanical rhythms, but it's the second track, "Donkeys Bearing Cups" that prognosticates many of the production tropes of modern dubstep and minimal techno, the shuffling almost dance-y mechanized rhythms, as well as the squelched siren noise that opens it. Many of the tracks could be paired down backing tracks for Suicide songs, minus Alan Vega's vocals and Martin Rev's knack for propulsion. Instead Leon seems to dwell on the nuance of his robotic rhythms, tweaking the reverb and decay in bass pulses and cymbal clangs, but encasing them in a beautiful floating stasis.
The longest track at nearly 12 minutes, "Four Eyes To See The Afterlife", seems to have the least going on. It's plodding hiccupping rhythm stretching for minutes before we notice a woman's voice almost operatically singing way off in the background. Her voice almost feels like another synthetic texture in the composition and we at first had to turn the volume down to see if we were hearing things, but it's just another impeccable detail that Leon is carefully layering and weaving into seemingly bare-bone compositions making us ever conscious of the meditative nature of the work. This is definitely a producer's record, and an incredible one at that! If you are a fan of modern techno composers like Vladislav Delay, Andy Stott, Demdike Stare, anything on the Dead-Cert label, or even outlier composers like Moondog, Julius Eastman or Barton Smith, this is essential!
Download card included!
One of the more intriguing private press recordings we've heard, this 1983 soft-focus epic of romantic longing and regret is shrouded in mystery and conjecture. The music itself is a brooding country-western tinged affair of delicate airy synth washes, gentle loping piano and soft acoustic guitar strums lushly arranged into expansive emotional ballads sung with a ghostly mumbling barely-there vocal delivery that reminds us a lot of Arthur Russell, but much more introspective. Newly reissued and remastered by Light In The Attic, not much information was given out in the original release except for a dedication to swimsuit model Christine Brinkley, a photo credit to legendary punk photographer Ed Colver and the Germanic movie star good looks of the artist himself, who has since disappeared without a trace.
Trying to uncover the mystery of who Lewis is (or was) and what happened to him, has only led to more questions as rumors began to swirl of the singer being a con-artist who arrived in LA seemingly out of nowhere driving a white convertible Mercedes with a beautiful model, stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel, hired session musicians, recorded this album and did a photo shoot only to skip town without paying any of his bills. The record eventually showed up at flea markets and fell into the hands of private press aficionados where its cult-status grew. While the larger than life mystery of the singer largely fuels the appeal of such a bafflingly sensitive and otherworldly record, the music is actually quite captivating once your ears are opened to its languid and slowly unfolding pace. Definitely a headphone record, it's a narcoleptically sublime take on the Western landscape in musical form offering up a romantic big sky worldview with a dreamy celestial-minded quietude.
We only have the cd version available now. The lp version will be released next month.
Since we reviewed the reissue of the mysterious private press album L'amour by the equally mysterious single-named crooner Lewis, who was rumored to have disappeared shortly after its release in 1981, a lot has happened. First, there was a discovery of not just one, but of two previously undiscovered albums he released in the early eighties, of which Romantic Times is one, now reissued. But perhaps more importantly is the news that Lewis himself has been discovered, complete with last name, Baloue, alive and well in Canada, and he apparently has no interest in drudging up his previous life as a hopeless jet-setting and rumored bill-skipping romantic. In the L'Amour review, we mentioned the legendary rumors of his arrival into Los Angeles seemingly out of nowhere in a white suit and white Mercedes with models on each arm before running up a fancy hotel bill and studio time and then skipping town, tapes in hand, without paying his bills. While those rumors may be dubious, it's hard to argue with the cover photo of this newly discovered record of Lewis in fancy white suit with not only said Mercedes, but a white private jet to boot!
If L'Amour was all about epic space and heartbreak, an atmospheric personal lament projected onto the big open landscape, Romantic Times is much more about inviting and nurturing love back into life. Some of the songs sound like classic love songs with new words, for example the opener, "We Danced All Night", is basically "Strangers In The Night" with new lyrics and a snail's tempo. The spacious synths are tempered by narcoleptic waltz rhythms from a drum machine, and there is, of course, also some romantic sax inflections. Lewis's croon is more soulful and breathy, kind of like a mumbling Bryan Ferry, that quivers and soars with each pulse of the drum machine. But with all the romantic allusions, the slow dancing, candlelight and roses, the silhouettes shot through a brandy glass, there is this pervasive creepy stalker vibe that we imagine women would run for restraining orders if they heard this music on a date. Which is kind of why we are digging this so much, the allure of romance and affluence blind-sided by some creepy sentimentality makes for an incredibly bizarre listen.
Do You like sixties pop-jazz with your underwater nature films? Then you will love this. Norwegian composer, Sven Libaek scored dozens of Australian science and nature films in the sixties and Trunk Records has compiled some of the best examples here. Some of you may be familiar with Libaek's work for Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic, which featured four of Libaek's themes in the score. Full of vibes, piano and strings, Libaek's film score work recalls the best of John Barry, Vince Guaraldi and John Cameron, composer of Kes and Psychomania. Totally Awesome!
The soundtrack reissue campaign of this Australian (by way of Norway) jazz composer keeps rolling along. A few lists back, we reviewed his score for Inner Space, a nature documentary made for television about the Ocean and its inhabitants (notably sharks!), and this week we got another knockout eco-jazz score about the Australian Outback. We have been in love with Libaek ever since the Trunk Records compilation of lost film scores came out a few years ago (now sadly out of print), and his music was also famously included in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic. Now that many of his film scores are seeing proper reissues, including The Set, Libaek's only non-documentary film score, and Ride A Pale Horse, from a film about about Australian Surfing, we'll try to review those as well.
Nature Walkabout opens with a fanfare of horns in a swinging reverie of flutes and drums. Libaek's trademark style is both pastoral and upbeat, mysterious and lighthearted. Comparable to composers such as John Barry, Henry Mancini and Vince Guaraldi, utilizing harmonicas, pianos and vibes in endearing melodies that seem to describe the delicate nuances, both beautiful and dangerous of the wild Australian landscape and the birds, mammals and snakes that inhabit it rather perfectly. Fans of library music, nature scores and cinematic pastoral jazz, take note!
"Six days in 1976". That's what this disc represents. The entire lifespan, and output, of an extremely short-lived but also extremely awesome krautrock 'supergroup' of sorts. Organized by Dieter Moebius (one half of Cluster, one third of Harmonia), the Liliental project also featured the talents of Helmut Hattler and Johannes Pappert of psychedelic jazz-rock outfit Kraan, famed producer Conny Plank, soundtrack composer Otto Bekker and his protege, budding electronic experimentalist Asmus Tietchens (who contributes liner notes to this reissue). They never played live, and indeed spent only six days recording these six tracks. About 35 minutes of exquisite, oft glorious, softly moody and melodic instrumentals here on this one-off treasure... well, mostly instrumental, with some wordless "aahhs" here and there, and also some singing on the particularly quirky, catchy final track (which sounds more like a Brian Eno/Steely Dan collab than a Moebius thing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing). Since the tracks are sequenced on this disc in the same order in which they were recorded, it would seem that by day six they were ready to get a bit silly. On days 1-5, though, there was more restraint to their playfulness, their music sometimes joyous but as often wistful or otherwise serious-sounding.
It's hard to describe, easier to imagine if you're already acquainted with Moebius's music solo and in Cluster and Harmonia. While this group had their own special chemistry, the overall vibe is one that will definitely seem familiar to fans of Cluster et.al., wonderfully so. Track three, "Wattwurm", could be from one of the Cluster & Eno albums, easily. And that's high praise! On that track and elsewhere you'll find Liliental to be rhythmic, poppy, breezy, beautiful, all these things... with shimmering washes of mellow synths (lots of Arp and Moog), percolating electronic embellishments, almost-ambient saxophone, and even some blissful bird twitter on one track. So nice. This reissue actually came out last year, and we've been wanting to list it for a while, but had some trouble getting enough copies. Now we have a few in stock, so get it, it's definitely one to add to the top of the pile of essential krautrock reissues we've raved about recently, like those Michael Rothers, La Dusseldorfs, Eroc, etc.
In addition to Tietchens' notes, in both English and German, this digipack's cd booklet also includes color photos of Liliental in the studio (they existed nowhere else!), among them the group shot from which the cover painting was done - interestingly, amongst other small details altered, the cover artist decided to put long pants on Conny Plank (the smiling fellow on the far left) instead of letting him continue to wear the short shorts he had on in the original photograph.
This is not new, but its a favorite record we've never carried before and we managed to get our hands on a few copies to list, not sure if we'll be able to get more, so you know the drill...
We can't say we were huge fans of the Lilys, the Philadelphia based outfit led by Kurt Heasley. Their constant genre switching from MBV shoegaze to Oasis-style brit pop to electronic music never held our focus for very long. Yet this one record, a minor one in Lilys overall discography, recorded for the Darla label's Blissed Out series in 1999, is the one that holds up the best for us. Which is funny, because the Blissed Out series was created for invited bands to experiment with their sound. The best in the series included AMP, Windy and Carl, and Fuxa, but the Lilys one is our favorite, because they use the forum to dive head first into full blown Krautrock worship. Over 6 long instrumental tracks, they channel Neu!, Cluster, Kraftwerk and Faust (the cover art sort of apes Faust IV, albeit badly) with great efficiency and verve. We admit that at this point in time, it's not the most original sound, but for a one-off album, Lilys do it so spot on in a way that displays their obvious influences yet still sounds fresh and enjoyable. And nearly a decade before Arp, Cloudland Canyon, and countless other bands were fishing from the same well. Yeah!
Beardo Disco? That's a term we have heard bandied about lately when referring to the new wave of mutated house/electroclash/indie dance-rock sounds of acts like Ratatat, Justice, and Norwegian duo Lindstrom and Prins Thomas. Whatever it means, we've been digging it a lot lately. Here Hans-Peter Lindstrom has parted ways with his former collaborator and given us a compilation of solo 12" singles from the Feedelity label released between 2003 and 2006. Arranging with maximal effect without overdoing it, Lindstrom takes cues from Italo Disco, Morodor electro, and Loft-era party mixes to give us a set that will keep us bopping through the holidays. Recommended!
A beautiful reissue of spacey melancholic chanson from this Belgian chanteuse who notably won the Eurovision song contest in 1968 a year before this debut release. But what sets this apart from standard '60s Euro-pop are the electronic, almost avant-garde arrangements made mostly with an Ondes Martenot, a theremin-like electronic keyboard famously used in the Star Trek theme and championed at the time by French avant-classical composer Olivier Messaien. Fans of Stereolab and Broadcast as well as Linda Perhacs and Brigitte Fontaine will surely find lots to love here, and we would love this even more if the reissue retained the original cover which is more haunting and ethereal than the nineties /sixties space-age bachelor pad design featured here, but that's a very small complaint. Limited stock!
When people think of spaced out, drone-y drug rock, Spacemen 3 seem to get all the love, which is of course fair, Spacemen 3 totally rule, their music is magical, especially for some of us who will probably only ever experience drug use by strapping on a pair of headphones and blasting Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To. But c'mon, let's share the love, with another group, who existed during the same time, in basically the same place, and who were sonically quite similar, yet crafted their own distinctive and incredibly iconic body of work, one that has been criminally unavailable for years now. These two reissues are the first in what will hopefully be a comprehensive reissue campaign for London space rockers Loop.
For years, Loop have been a favorite of in-the-know music nerds, whose Spacemen 3 collection is most likely rivaled by their Loop collection, and basically, to love one, is indeed to love the other. You like thick looped guitars, blown out distorted buzz, krautrocky rhythms, song structures that are simple, cyclical, repetitive, hypnotic, guitars dripping with effects, vocals drawled lazily and buried in the mix, everything hazy and washed out and bleary eyed and druggy. Wait, were we talking about Loop or Spacemen 3? Exactly. The main difference to our ears, was that Loop always seemed to rock way harder. The Spacemen would often flutter off in tripped out ambient flights of fancy, dropping the drums completely, letting the guitar pulse and throb, the vocals drifting ethereally over the top. And sure, Loop were capable of that too, but seemed to hew closer to a more driving sound, the drums much more integral to their overall vibe. The sound of Loop was equal parts krautrock and space rock, and their name was definitely referenced their sound. Loop mainman Hampson would even go on to form Main, a more tranquil guitar loop based outfit, whose obsession with texture and loops absolutely informed all of the Loop recordings. The guitars were thick, wreathed in distortion, delay, reverb, doused in effects, that not only altered their timbre, and their tone, nut also often made the guitars sound backwards, creating woozy of kilter jams that seemed to slowly and subtly shift and change shapes before our very ears. The vocals weary and washed out, the drums skeletal and simple, but all fused into totally tripped out, drugged out, kraut-infused space rock bliss.
Fade Out was record number two for Loop, and found the band making a definite move forward in terms of production and sound, and an obvious shift away fro a sound they shared with countrymen Spacemen 3. The sound on Fade Out is much heavier, and way louder, the guitars sharper and more jagged, the bass more present, the vocals way more prominent, the sound immediately less druggy and washed out and more rocking. "Black Sun" is a propulsive slab of spaced out garage-y krautrock, the guitars ringing out, the second guitar a buzzing over the top, the drums busy and powerful, the whole thing still wreathed in effects, but now the murk had been replaced with something much more effulgent, a strange burnished glow, suffusing the sound, less like laying in darkness and watching colors swirl and shimmer, and more like staring directly into the sun. "This Is Where You End" continues on in the same vein, with gruff almost growled vocals, over that distinctive looped guitar figure, with multiple guitars offering up extra melody and texture.
"Fever Knife" stands out as it slows things way down, and the guitars are muted, not quite as sharp, with plenty of squiggly fun house mirror guitar melodies intertwined with that main riff, the tempo, a head nodding soporific groove, definitely reaching back a bit to the sound of Heaven's End. But then comes "Torched" with a incendiary guitar sound so loud and in the red, it threatens to blow your speakers, dwarfing the drums and bass in the background, churning and soaring, white hot and blown out big time.
The title track is another slowed down druggy dirge, the main riff lumbering woozily along side a steady simple beat, haunting processed vocals, and chunks of extra guitar buzz, the whole thing downright doomy. The last three tracks are gorgeous squalls of druggy throb and crumbling guitar buzz, the record finishing up with a short stretch of shimmering ambient drift. SO GREAT!!
The deluxe reissue of Fade Out not only comes in a super spiffy full color mini lp style gatefold sleeve, with printed inner sleeves, it also comes with a whole bonus disc, featuring a whole mess of extra stuff, alternate mixes of three tracks on the record, an awesome demo version of "This Is Where You End", the Peel Sessions from the Fade Out era, and most exciting of all a series of Fade Out Guitar Loops, from shimmering high end buzz, to whirring smears of low end rumble, definitely hinting at Hampson's post-Loop outfit Main.
SO TOTALLY AND UTTERLY RECOMMENDED. ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! And for recent converts to the world of druggy space rock, anyone who has been digging local droney drug rockers Wooden Shjips (and we know there are LOTS of you out there), will definitely fall in love with Loop!!
When people think of spaced out, drone-y drug rock, Spacemen 3 seem to get all the love, which is of course fair, Spacemen 3 totally rule, their music is magical, especially for some of us who will probably only ever experience drug use by strapping on a pair of headphones and blasting Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To. But c'mon, let's share the love, with another group, who existed during the same time, in basically the same place, and who were sonically quite similar, yet crafted their own distinctive and incredibly iconic body of work, one that has been criminally unavailable for years now. These two reissues are the first in what will hopefully be a comprehensive reissue campaign for London space rockers Loop.
For years, Loop have been a favorite of in-the-know music nerds, whose Spacemen 3 collection is most likely rivaled by their Loop collection, and basically, to love one, is indeed to love the other. You like thick looped guitars, blown out distorted buzz, krautrocky rhythms, song structures that are simple, cyclical, repetitive, hypnotic, guitars dripping with effects, vocals drawled lazily and buried in the mix, everything hazy and washed out and bleary eyed and druggy. Wait, were we talking about Loop or Spacemen 3? Exactly. The main difference to our ears, was that Loop always seemed to rock way harder. The Spacemen would often flutter off in tripped out ambient flights of fancy, dropping the drums completely, letting the guitar pulse and throb, the vocals drifting ethereally over the top. And sure, Loop were capable of that too, but seemed to hew closer to a more driving sound, the drums much more integral to their overall vibe. The sound of Loop was equal parts Krautrock and space rock, and their name was definitely referenced their sound. Loop mainman Hampson would even go on to form Main, a more guitar loop based outfit, whose obsession with texture and loops absolutely informed all of the Loop recordings. The guitars were thick, wreathed in distortion, delay, reverb, doused in effects, that not only altered their timbre, and their tone, nut also often made the guitars sound backwards, creating woozy of kilter jams that seemed to slowly and subtly shift and change shapes before our very ears. The vocals weary and washed out, the drums skeletal and simple, but all fused into totally tripped out, drugged out, kraut infused space rock bliss.
Heaven's End was Loop's debut, released in 1987, just a year after Spacemen 3's first record (and apparently Spacemen 3 were always quite annoyed by constantly being compared to Loop), and inadvertent or not, it's the Loop record that is the most Spacemen sounding. Lo-fi, raw and gritty. The opener "Soundhead" is surprisingly rocking, with lots of wah guitar, propulsive drumming, ethereal vocals, the song that would define the sound of Loop, but it's the second track where the record really gets going, slipping into a slow motion Stooges groove, a lurching looped riff, the vocals buried in the mix, the drums a simple pound, a main refrain that's catchy as fuck, the whole thing constantly repeated over and over and over and over, totally blissed out and trancelike. The following track slips even further out, the guitars super sharp and buzz drenched, the tempo a lugubrious crawl, the drums total barebones, swirling spaced out effects, the guitar billowing out into soft focus buzzscapes over which the rest of the instrumentation seems to hover weightless. The title track is a simple garage-y pound, with the cymbals and the guitars looped backwards (hinting at some Teenage Filmstars to come maybe?), the guitar stuttering creating incidental rhythms, very druggy and mesmeric. And so it goes, each song, a simple motif, locked in and set on repeat, the core remaining near static, looped into infinity, while all around that groove various guitars and effects and voices swirl and whirl and spin and stretch and shimmer divinely. Easily one of our all time favorite records for sure.
This deluxe reissue not only comes in a super spiffy full color mini lp style gatefold sleeve, with printed inner sleeves, it also comes with a whole bonus disc, featuring alternate mixes of two of the album tracks, as well as a killer cover of Suicide's "Rocket USA", with a cool programmed drum beat, tripped out psychedelic guitars, and hushed almost crooned vocals, and the three tracks from the Peel Sessions, included a seriously stretched out version of "Straight To Your Heart". SO AWESOME!!!
SO TOTALLY AND UTTERLY RECOMMENDED. ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! And for recent converts to the world of druggy space rock, anyone who has been digging local droney drug rockers Wooden Shjips (and we know there are LOTS of you out there), will definitely fall in love with Loop!!
Holy shit... they did it again! Two plus decades into their career and Low have managed to make yet another breathtaking record, a collection of songs that even on first listen, induced the sort of chills that only the most special records ever do. Along with Yo La Tengo, Low have proven to be one of the most consistent and reliable bands to emerge from the indie landscape in the last twenty-five years. Pioneers of the slowcore sound, their music has always been rich with wrenching emotion and a relentless power.
Over the years, they have experimented with more rocking and poppy directions, but even then, their slowcore roots remained, and somehow they always ended up, if not back where they started, at least sonically expounding on all the glacial beauty that came before. With Ones & Sixes, Low they have created maybe one of their best records yet, one that most definitely belongs with other Low faves of ours, alongside Long Division, Secret Name, and Things We Lost In The Fire. Everything we love about Low is in full flower here. Alan and Mimi's aching vocals, soporific songs that unfold like slowly blossoming flowers, with melodies that have us humming along - and in a perfect world, could/should/would be all over the radio. Low have never compromised their singular vision, and like the rest of Low's records, this is exactly it sounds like when a band remains connected to their truth and purpose. Brilliant!
We Know Each Other Somehow is an apt title for a meeting of two sonically cosmic minds from different generations in this latest Frkwys collaboration from the RVNG label. We have long been fans of both new ager Ariel Kalma (who recently got his own archival survey from the RVNG label) and Robert A. A. Lowe (90 Day Men, Lichens, OM). Having hosted a mesmerizing modular synth in-store performance recently with Lowe, we can definitely say this collaboration is a perfect match-up of cosmic synthesis, pastoral jazz dreaminess and an intriguingly rhythmic new age Balearic-Kraut revelry, with both artists bringing their distinct voices together in ways that reflect the past but also welcome the future. Includes a DVD, documenting the collaboration. A welcome addition to this incredible series!
We've been fans of Jana Hunter's from her first split with Devendra Banhart a few years back. Here with her new band project, Lower Dens, Hunter shakes off her usual singer-songwriter mode and gives us a more beautifully atmospheric indie-rock side that we just can't stop listening too. With big crunchy distorted dueling guitar riffs, driving rhythms and reverbed vocals that have a more urgent and energetic feel sort of like vintage PJ Harvey fronting early Deerhunter, while occasionally veering down a hazy and somnolent path giving off a Low or Galaxie 500 vibe. Plus some of the song titles are hilariously vivid, especially the last one, "Two Cocks Waving Wildly At Each Other Across A Vast Open Space, A Dark Icy Tundra". How can you not be curious? Probably one of the most rocking and energetic albums we have heard on this label. Solid!
"Touchy"? That term could connotate affection or annoyance depending on how receptive you are to the bizarrely heartfelt musical stylings of the one and only Luie Luie. Seriously music making doesn't get more strange, sincere and ambitious as this. Once called the "Greatest Single Act In The World", Luie Luie is a one man band of drums, trumpet, Moog, guitar and flute who often (and still does!) performed in Mexican and Mediterranean restaurants in Southern California. But he is so much more than that. Soldier, Martial Arts Enthusiast, Actor (he appeared in a film with Elvis!), Musician and Inspirational Speaker, he created a new dance concept called the "Touchy" to help bring people closer together and engage each other in new and exciting ways musically. On this album from 1974 with almost every song including the word "Touch" or "Touchy" in their titles, he begins each song with a spoken preamble that outlines his philosophy on life, love and humanity and how his "dance' works. With the help of the "Touchy Button", a pin with a drawing of Luie's face on it, partners can wear the pin on various parts of their bodies and the object is simply for the partners to touch each other with their "Touchy Buttons" to the music. Yet, the music Luie creates is probably not what most would describe as dance music. Often beginning each song with a loud trumpet blast, followed by lurching rhythms and swampy beats that waver in and out of tempo, containing melodies that seem like a underwater Mariachi band went insane, the music seems almost counterpoint to his endearing explanations of togetherness, like you may want to run away...far away! But with a closer and more firmly resolved listen, you have to realize that the music and this album are truly extraordinary. Who else could make music this warped and wacky yet with absolutely no tongue in cheek? And with each new song we're drawn in to its wonderful strangeness and naivety that by the end we're all smiles. Companion Records has done an amazing job with this reissue, working directly with Luie so that he finally receives royalties for this record, which has been bootlegged several times in the past. With extensive photos and liner notes by Luie himself and for a limited time, each copy will include two newly remade "Touchy Buttons". Fans of Incredibly Strange Music of all types and varieties, this is a must have!
We'll pretty much get anything on the Roundtable label right now, as they in collaboration with The Omni Recording Corporation, have been on a winning streak of reissuing on vinyl the most farflung and obscure library records, documentary soundtracks and other psycho-cinematic sonic ephemera from far off corners of the globe. Trouble is, they have been especially hard to get, and even more difficult to get enough of for us to list. We've literally been waiting for these latest two releases for nearly a year and our hopes of ever getting them were diminishing by the week. And all of the sudden, we got the news they were on the way and we were so seriously psyched! Two Italian library gems, one of haunted choir compositions from Egisto Macchi, founding member of the mighty Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova con Sonanza and the other from the wonderfully named Alessandro Alessandroni who is perhaps more well known as Ennio Morricone's guitarist and whistler! (Yes, whistler, of course he had to have one!) Both are pretty essential for lovers of seventies dreamy, otherworldly, acousmatic psychedelia!
Roundtable/Omni previously reissued Macchi's I Futuribili last year, and that missive of exotic outer space soundscapes was deeply mysterious and alluring, but not nearly as this one. As the title suggests, the compositions here all centered on voice, but not as you may think. This is the voice detached from the body expressed in haunting electronic choral effects and spectral concrete ambience that ranges from the percussive and urgent to the pastoral and ritualistic, always with a keen ear towards a brilliantly dynamic sound design. Pretty much the defining blueprint for Demdike Stare's entire sound, this has been considered a holy grail among collectors and comes with the highest recommendation. Limited to 500 copies. Don't Miss Out!
Just as it first appeared in the Boston Area around 1977, there are no song titles, contact info or any other identifying information accompanying this mysterious release, a reissue of a private press recording of serene but outsider-inflected new age classical composition. Like another similarly minded aQ fave, Moolah, the music presented on Mad Music Inc. is an oceanic mixture of echoed piano, harp and gong, in short sketches with one track adding percussion, some subtle bass groove and female spiritual cosmic jazz vocals (not quite the "cosmic disco" stated on Drag City's cover sticker, but still pretty cool!).
The primitive cover painting of two diametrically opposed naked women looks like it was inspired by Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man, with the women jumping out of their constrained environs. This seems like it would be an easy candidate for the Nurse With Wound list, especially with the back cover graphic of a chuckling Ming The Merciless type character with a tape machine implanted on the side of his head. Whatever it means, it must have been too elusive for even Stephen Stapleton, an obsessive authority on such obscurities. Regardless, for fans of weirdo new age, library records, and private press mysteries, this should be a nice sounding addition to your collection!
As everyone must know by now, we're huge suckers for Bollywood music. Just when we think we've had enough, another Sitar Funk or Bombay Beat comp comes in and we're madly in love all over again. Even if some of those comps revisit the same songs that were on other comps, we don't seem to mind too much, because there is always some new groove that we haven't been turned on to yet, or in the case of this record, hasn't been re-edited yet.
Madlib's Beat Konducta series has fast become our favorite side-project from this uber-prolific producer. Vols. 1 and 2 were like short unrealized film scores culled from the unlikeliest of musical places such as Van Dyke Parks. On Vols. 3 and 4, Madlib concentrates solely on Indian film music, painstakingly editing and reworking 34 newly unique and beat-heavy nuggets out of what is by now a classic and well-trafficked genre. But our guess is you won't be able to recognize much of the original sources, making it extra fresh listening for fans of Bollywood funk and instrumental hip hop alike.
Recommended!
We're often a little wary when hip-hop producers and DJs make mixes that seem all about showing off what an awesome record collection they have.
But on the other hand, we've always been fans of Madlib's many productions and we are of course rabid fans of Brasilian music in all forms, so there's plenty to love about this latest mix. Collected during the same trip to Recife documented on the dvd Brasilintime: Batucada Com Discos we reviewed a while back, this is the first in a series of six mixes of the most obscure corners of Musica Popular Brasileira: Folkloric Chants, Samba, Bossa, and Tropicalia. There are only a couple of songs we recognize, but we've been playing this non-stop since we got it as it's a mind-melting hour long trip that unveils one solid gem after another.
Every installment in Luaka Bop's World Psychedelia series has been an across the board aQ favorite. From Os Mutantes, Shuggie Otis, the great African psych compilation, Love's A Real Thing, and now we have this great introduction to the post-Tropicalia funk of the great Tim Maia.
But the music is just one part of the story, the man's life is filled with interesting twists and turns including multiple marriages, prison sentences and an avid role in a UFO-obsessed religious cult, all of which have been the subject of a best-selling biography, tv show and hit musical in Brazil. How could we not love this?!
Combining a unique twist on Brazilian popular music along with copious American soul influences have made Maia's seventies recordings long sought after and excepting a couple of pricey imports, we have never been able to find any substantial release of his early musical output. After a decade of legal wrangling and coinciding with what would have been Maia's seventieth birthday (he died in 1998 of a heart attack while performing onstage), it's great to see this 15 track compilation realized and we're loving it more with each listen.
Mixing the Latino funk of Mexican-American groups like Malo and El Chicano, the cool urban sophistication of Steely Dan (yes, we went there, and we're not apologizing!) and the soulful vocals of Jorge Ben and Gilberto Gil. Maia's music has a fervent infectious energy that is totally engaging and sexy. He's often been compared to Barry White in the fact his music celebrates love over politics, but really Maia's music made the joyous acceptance of love and life a political statement and has long endeared him to legions of fans worldwide.
The cd is housed in a mini-hardbound cd-sized book, the lp in a deluxe full color gatefold, both with extensive notes and details of his extraordinary life. And this compilation comes of course, highly recommended!
