This is Dead Can Dance's final work...which is very
unfortunate, as "Spiritchaser" sees DCD breaking some amazing new ground
here which cries out for further exploration by Perry and Gerrard. On
this release, the Mideastern and European tinges fade away, to be
replaced with a vibrant focus on Caribbean, Native American, African,
and Indian directions that promised so much. Everything on here is a standout track.This album is so much a fully-composed listening experience that begs to be play from start to finish.
"An interesting fusion between Arabic music and flamenco. Some of the
pieces are most straightforward flamenco with some additional Egyptian
percussion, thanks to Hossam Ramzy. In other parts, it reverts to a
straightforward Egyptian dance rhythm with some careful Spanish guitar
in the background. It's when the two mesh that the sound is something
worth hearing. Despite the relative obscurity of Rafa Tachuela (actually
a German flamenco artist, hence the obscurity), the skill is certainly
present to power the music forward. There is some able help from Said
Kamal and Mohamed Naiem, providing the Egyptian sounds beyond Ramzy's
percussion, and in the end, some help from the Sabri brothers in the
addition of a touch of Indian music, as the artists attempt to explore
the roots of flamenco through Egyptian music and the roots of Egyptian
music through its Indian forebearers. Given that the rise of flamenco
came after the Iberian peninsula had been taken over by the Moors, the
links between North African music and flamenco are somewhat expected.
When the two forms are brought back together to play in tandem, though,
something more than the sum of its parts emerges. An excellent addition
to the collection of any world music fusionist. "
Indialucia is a musical project, which fuses two fascinating styles of music: Indian and Flamenco
music. The album expresses both the human and musical fusion of these
cultures, which could have had a common ancestor. Improvisation and
rhythm are the common elements in both styles and are essential to the
continued existence of this music. The recordings were made between 1999
and 2004 mostly in India and Spain. Many great artists from the two
continents performed. This album is the result of the years of work,
which for the first time demonstrates the common elements of flamenco
and its Indian roots fused into one art form. The rhythmically driving chords of the flamenco guitar are perfectly
balanced with the soothing, more soulful melodies of the Indian vocals
and sitar. A unique listening experience.
Caribbean saxophonist Joe Harriott's classic collaboration
with Calcutta composer and conductor John Mayer. In England
in the 1960s, Harriott was something of a vanguard wonder on the order
of Ornette Coleman. And while the comparisons flew fast and furious and
Harriott was denigrated as a result, the two men couldn't have been more
different. For one thing, Harriott was never afraid to swing. This
work, written and directed by Mayer, offered the closest ever
collaboration and uniting of musics East and West. Based almost entirely
in the five-note raga -- or tonic scale that Indian classical music
emanates from -- and Western modalism, the four ragas that make up the
suite are a wonder of tonal invention and modal complexity, and a
rapprochement to Western harmony. The band Harriott assembled here
included his own group -- pianist Pat Smythe, bassist Coleridge Goode,
and drummer Allan Ganley -- as well as trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, flutist
Chris Taylor, Diwan Mothar on sitar, Chandrahas Paiganka on tamboura,
and Keshan Sathe on tabla, with Mayer playing violin and Harriott on his
alto. Of the four pieces, the "Overture" and "Contrasts" are rooted in
blues and swing, though they move from one set of ascending and
descending notes to the other, always ending on the tonic, and involve
more than the five, six, or seven notes of Indian classical music, while
the latter two -- "Raga Megha" and "Raga Gaud-Saranga" -- are out to
lunch in the Western musical sensibility and throw all notions of
Western harmony out the window. The droning place of the tamboura and
the improvising sitar and alto shift the scalar notions around until
they reflect one another in interval and mode, creating a rich,
mysterious tapestry of sonic inquiry that all but folds the two musics
into one another for good. Amazing.
Digitally remastered and expanded reissue of the 1970 debut from the
20-member ensemble. Producers Leroy Hutson and Curtis Mayfield (both of
the Impressions) worked with the group, whose ages ranged from 12 to 21.
The Voices Of East Harlem were a community choir that grew from an
inner city action project in 1969. Their music mixed devotional Gospel
fervor with commercial R&B and Soul, and included lead vocalists
Gerri Griffin and Monica Burress. Coming to the attention of Elektra
boss Jac Holzman via their producer Jerry Brandt, they were signed in
1970 for their debut Right On Be Free, which showcased a diverse song
selection from Buffalo Springfield’s "For What It's Worth, to Richie
Haven's "Run Shaker Life", all performed in their distinctive high-energy style. plus two live tracks recorded at the “Soul To Soul” concert in Ghana in 1971.
By the 1970s gospel music was at a crossroads. Rhythm and blues had
moved into soul, and the old-timey feel of much of gospel was alienating
younger audiences. It fought back by adapting the sounds of
contemporary funk and soul to their songs of devotion, and in recent
years these records have become some of the hottest items amongst
collectors. However until now the Stax Organisation and its Gospel Truth
label had been largely ignored.
Started by label boss Al Bell and run
by veteran black music radio promotions man Dave Clark, it aimed to
capitalise on the success Bell had had with the Staples Singers, the
gospel group becoming a pop sensation on the main Stax label. The idea
was that the Gospel Truth label would take existing and new gospel acts
and give them the Stax makeover. The very best soul musicians in the
world would take time out from cutting hits to create the music for a
series of gospel soul and funk masterpieces.
This compilation
tells the story of Stax's move into the gospel field by choosing the
best of the output. From the Staple Singers' glorious template via the
inspired and unique voice of Rance Allen, the mainstay of the Gospel
Truth label itself. We have cuts from the sought-after and super-rare Sons Of Truth LP, and Joshie Joe Armstead's You Got The Vibes, a UK northern soul monster almost from the day it was released.
The
20 tracks reflect the sound of popular black American music of the day -
from the out and out funk of Clarence Smith, through the group soul
harmonies of 21st Century to the proto-disco sound of the Howard Lemon
Singers. If the connection with God sometimes seems tenuous, it was all
part of the plan to bring you to Him by stealth.
As soul became the music of black America in the late 60s, the blues
had to adapt to survive. For those who could, playing to the white rock
crowd was an attractive option, but in hundreds of sweaty, run-down
clubs in cities and towns across the US an older urban black audience
was still there to be entertained. Blues musicians made a few
concessions to the age, added funk licks and a few soul screams and
created some seriously good music, which has often been ignored by blues
scholars. Shattered Dreams is BGP's celebration of that period.Drawn
from the vaults of such influential labels as Stax, Modern and Jotis
this exciting music comes from major names including Little Milton,
Lowell Fulsom and Albert King, using all the nous gathered through years
on the chitlin' circuit to keep themselves relevant to record buying
audiences of the day. Elsewhere we have both terminally obscure and cult
heroes. Finis Tasby and Smokey Wilson created music of great worth that
was rarely heard at the time, never mind 40 years later.
In recent years funky blues has started to be a sought-after genre, especially with funk collectors and numbers such as Tasby's It Took A Long Time, Slim Green's Shake It Up and Buddy Guy's I'm Not The Best would all fill a floor. The blues guys could certainly hit a groove, but if Shattered Dreams captures anything it is a sense of despair you can hear as Smokey Wilson sings You Shattered My Dreams. Despair for an age that was passing away.
This album shows a fantastic mixture of
authentic traditional Flamenco, Progressive and Psychedelic Rock by
Spanish legend Sabicas and extraordinary electric Jazzrock guitar by Joe
Beck with congenial backing band among others Donald Mac Donald on
drums, Warren Bernhardt organ and Tony Levin on bass. This is an album
for those, who are willing to look over the edges of their progressive
and psychedelic horizon. Great guitar playing all over. Unique and hypnotizing!
A master piece by Akira Ishikawa and his band. They play successfully covers of themostfamousstandardofrhythm &blues and Jazz from Stax orAtlantic records (Otis Redding, Joe Zawinul, Eddie Floyd, Aretha Franklin, The Bar-Kays...)
The group was formed in Long Island, NY as the Bobby Boyd Congress;
deciding America was already overloaded with funk acts, in 1971 they
relocated to France, but when frontman Bobby Boyd returned stateside the
remaining members renamed themselves Ice and became the house session
band at producer Pierre Jaubert's Parisound studio.
Regularly
performing live in Paris' Barbesse district — an area made up primarily
of African immigrants — Ice's driving funk became increasingly
influenced by African rhythms and textures, and in the wake of their
1973 debut LP 'Each Man Makes His Own Destiny', Jaubert changed the
group's name to the Lafayette Afro Rock Band.
Album note:
Under conditions of national emergency, like now, there are only two
kinds of people - those who work for freedom and those who do not...
the good guys vs. the bad guys. -Mc D.
Like many other Americans of the era, something happened to Eugene
McDaniels between 1965 and 1970 that transformed him from Gene McDaniels
to “Eugene McDaniels the Left Rev. Mc D”. The former Mr. McDaniels was a
clean-cut soul singer in the mold of Jackie Wilson that enjoyed minor
commercial success in the early ‘60s with songs like “A Hundred Pounds
of Clay” and “Tower of Strength”; the reinvented Reverend posited
himself as a fervent voice of protest, recording a pair of now-classic
records for Atlantic in 1970 and 1971. But where many other artists
dabbled in the counterculture to explore different ways of presenting
their image or to take advantage of looser codes of moral conduct, McDaniels fully embraced the movement’s radical politics. On Outlaw McDaniels recorded with a
rock- (and jazz-) solid band that featured legendary jazz bassist Ron
Carter and ubiquitous ‘70s session guitarist Hugh McCracken—a group that
fleshed out the Rev’s hippie-folk-funky dreams with undaunted
restraint.
Rising Sun is the Souljazz Orchestra's first all-acoustic afro-jazz album.
Playing over thirty different instruments, the group creates a rich soundscape of
otherwordly jazz, driven by heavy African rhythms and soulful grooves.
The esoteric arrangements and fiery improvisations make it one of the Souljazz
Orchestra's most unique offerings.
The soundtrack to the early-'70s underground cartoon hit, based on an R.
Crumb character, was produced by Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin, who also
ended up writing much of the material. Most of it's funky instrumental
soul-jazz, with contributions by such noted players as Bernard Purdie
(drums), Merl Saunders (organ), Melvin Sparks (guitar), and Chuck Rainey
(bass); Cal Tjader plays vibes on his own tune, "Mamblues." It's
well-suited for the kind of loose, Joe Cool ambience of the film; judged
purely as soul-jazz, it's just average. Providing a bit of variety are
cuts licensed from Bo Diddley ("Bo Diddley"), Billie Holiday
("Yesterdays"), and the Watson Sisters, who deliver a gospel-soul
number. The album's been reissued on a CD that also includes the
soundtrack to Ralph Bakshi's subsequent adult-oriented animated feature,
Heavy Traffic.
With their combination of Balkan Soul and funky dance beats
Äl Jawala boil European clubs and festivals from France to the Black Sea.
Äl Jawala create an absorbing and innovating urban sound that takes the
soul of Balkan-brass out to the Dancefloors.
An explosive and highly charged cocktail, in which cultural limits fade.
Äl Jawala reaches out further than the common “Style-Mix-Formats”. They
dare to reach into the unexplored, they break loose, transform into a orchestra,
become DJ,Punkband and Storyteller.
In May 2009 the German Pioneers of Balkan Big Beats released their first studio album
.. Asphalt Pirate Radio...
Focused energy, the quintessence after nine years of live experiences, lyrical,
up-front and 100% dancing pleasures guaranteed! Rooted in the soul of the Balkans
and grown from the European streets.
A fantastic bit of "Eastern" tinged jazz – and a real musical Journey To
Bliss on its own! Vibist Emil Richards has always been totally groovy working in an exotic
mode that features lots of weird percussion over choppy modal grooves
from keyboards, guitar, and drums – all in a wild blend of rhythms and
grooves played by Richards and his Microtonal Blues Band. Players
include Tom Tedesco and Dennis Budimir on guitar, Dave MacKay on
keyboards, and Joe Porcaro on drums – but all players handle a variety
of instruments, as does Richards, who must play dozens of different
percussion elements on the set! Side one of the album features some
great short groovers – like "Maharimba", "Bliss", "Mantra", and "Enjoy
Enjoy" – all of which are in a tripped-out LA guru hippy mode that's
simply wonderful! Side two features the extended "Journey To Bliss"
suite, which has some spoken bits and a much wilder sound – but also the
same sort of groovy pop-Eastern sound as side one!
This outstanding German band plays a trippy jazz rock like no one else. "Rockession" is a very technical, achieved effort which develops long instrumental, groovy, syncopated tunes with an enormous feeling. This album can easily be a real revelation for every jazz rock lovers.
Praise Space Electric
are the alter ego of key members of much loved UK band The Moonflowers. Recorded in 1996 in France at the Moonflowers farm studio and mixed in Bristol, Mushroom Jazz
is a highly inventive combination of laid back funky grooves,
psychedelic rock and cool jazz that defies comparison. With it's roots
in the underground, lounge-fusions of Bristol's funky club scene, this
album is bizarre yet obvious.
Why hasn't this been done before? The answer is of course that
nobody has had the nerve or the ability. The liquid guitar work of Jesse
Vernon recalls Jimi Hendrix at his acid fried best whilst the
stunningly competent and fluid backing of bass, drums and
keyboards/synths supplied by the rest of the band is a breathtaking
experience. Assorted extra musicians add woodwind, strings and vocals to
add the garnish to a highly original and magically different album that
will dust down those purple flares in the boutique at the back of your
mind....
Intrepid buccaneers and experimentalists Baba Zula continue to
explore uncharted waters with this, their third "Duble Oryantal (Belly
Double)" album on Doublemoon. Mixed and mastered in the heart of
mega-city Istanbul by legendary British dub producer Mad Professor, who
also worked on their last outing "Psychebelly Dance Music", "Duble
Oryantal" is the culmination of years of fearless musical adventuring,
and as usual there's a talented and eclectic supporting cast on board
for a share of the bounty.
Guest musicians include reggae legends Sly Dunbar and Robbie
Shakespeare, Alexander Hacke - bassist with seminal German noise artists
Einsturzende Neubauten and Crime and the City Solution, Canadian
vocalist and regular collaborator Brenna MacCrimmon and three acclaimed
artists who span the spectrum from traditional Turkish music (celebrated
clarinettist Hüsnü Þenlendirici from Laço Tayfa) to Turkish rock and
pop (Özkan Uður from MFÖ), and writer-painter-musician Mehmet Güreli.
The very natural cross-breeding of reggae and oriental music takes well in
Baba Zula's electronic treatments of traditional Turkish instruments, and with
"Duble Oryantal (Belly Double)" they have further developed the new genre they
have named oriental dub.
The Burger Project are here to turn your favorite
songs into “hybrids”!! They have a spicy sense of humor, no artistic
arrogance but all the knowledge, passion and talent it comes with.
They are a cover band. Something common in Greece and the world over
since the 50’s. You may recall a small band called the Beatles who
started out like that. Nothing new here then, so why bother? Simply
because The Burger Project found a way to combine fun and imminence, the
basic ingredients of a good live concert and also being inventive in a
way that you don’t expect when you seek a good night out.
Their surreal outfits, uncommon for Greek audiences, provoke and
alienate at first. Until they start playing. Then you realize that their
eccentricity is only the visual analogy to their ground breaking music.
You also understand that choosing their attire is a natural process
similar to how the breathe life into an 80’s hit like ‘Take My Breath
Away’, giving it a Jamaican twist or ‘swinging’ ‘Another One Bites the
Dust’. In their album ‘We Live in Athens’ they talk about relentlessly
mixing musical memories of a whole generation, rediscovering and
covering ‘diamonds’ from swing to punk, and from disco to country:
Clash, Alice Cooper, Queen, Ramones, Thin Lizzy, Godfathers, White
Stripes, Prince, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Sonics, Undertones, Tsitsanis
et. What they don’t say is that someone might even fall in love with a
song that they used to hate until they heard it from The Burger Project.
Gypsy flamenco frenzy! A blend of up-tempo traditional and original
music — Romanian, Roma, klezmer, flamenco and Japanese — with a
contemporary twist. From the smokey cafes of Bucharest to the Gypsy
caravans of yesterday, this CD evokes the spirit of a past age and the
sounds of tomorrow. 7-piece orchestra with vocals, 2 violins, saw,
accordion, shamisen, flamenco guitar, double base and percussion. A
unique musical experience--and a rollicking good time!
"An excellent bit of southern funk -- very much in the early mode of
Little Beaver, but with a sound that's even harder! James Knight is The
Black Knight -- leading a tight little combo with a raw funky 45 sound,
heavy on the horns for backing, but with James' guitar right up front in
the mix, jamming hard in a way that would have made Hendrix proud! The
tracks are a mix of heavy funk numbers and more tripped-out jams -- and
Knight's vocals remind us a bit of Charles Wright in the old days,
blaring out of the speakers with a bit of distortion and lots of soul,
really driving home the quality of the songs. Titles include "Fantasy
World", "Save Me", "Flyin High", "Funky Cat", "Uncle Joe", "Cotton
Candy", and "Just My Love For You".DG
One of the most unique and hard to classify artists of the 1970s, Exuma
was a singular talent. Mixing the infectious rhythms and folkloric
qualities of Bahamian music with rock, country, and other U.S.
influences and adding a sharply satiric element of social commentary,
Exuma's music aimed for the heart and the feet at the same time.
Exuma was born McFarlane Anthony McKay on Cat Island in the Bahamas
sometime in the early '40s (no one seems to know exactly when). Raised
on traditional Bahamian folk songs and the popular music known as
junkanoo, a West African-based Bahamian version of calypso or samba
named after a Boxing Day festival that's the local equivalent of Mardi
Gras or Carnival, McKay nevertheless planned a career as an architect
and fell into life as a performer almost by accident. Moving to New York
in the early '60s to attend architecture school, McKay soon found
himself living in the state of near-penury that's the urban college
student's life. Noting the popularity of Bahamian guitarist Joseph
Spence's records in the Greenwich Village folk scene, McKay began
playing venues like the Bitter End and Cafe Wha?, bringing traditional
Bahamian folk music to the city, first as a solo artist but quickly
forming a group called Tony McKay and the Islanders.
Tony McKay and the Islanders were a popular club band, opening for
artists like Richie Havens or Peter, Paul and Mary through the mid-'60s.
McKay began undergoing a personal transformation by the end of the
decade, absorbing political influences from the black power movement and
musical influences from acts like the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Sly
and the Family Stone. McKay translated this political and artistic
excitement through the traditions of his homeland and re-emerged by
decade's end as Exuma, the Obeah Man. (Exuma, besides being the name of
one of the Bahamas' largest islands, was a spirit balanced between the
worlds of the living and the dead; Obeah is an Afro-Caribbean tradition
of sorcery, like Santeria in Cuba or Vodun in Haiti.)
Signed to Mercury Records in 1969, Exuma quickly released two albums,
"Exuma the Obeah Man" and "Exuma II" (both 1970). Mixing powerful
Afro-Caribbean rhythms with Exuma's shamanistic exhortations and vividly
Obeah-inspired lyrics, these albums were conceptually similar to what
Nigeria's Fela Kuti was beginning to do around the same time. Like Fela,
however, Exuma was largely ignored by American press, radio, and
consumers, and Mercury quickly dropped him.
Exuma's debut album was a real odd piece of work, even by the standards
of the late '60s and early '70s, when major labels went further out on a
limb to throw weird stuff at the public to see what would stick than
they ever had before or have since. Roughly speaking, it's kind of like a
combination of the Bahamian folk of Joseph Spence with early Dr. John
at his most voodooed-out, though even that nutshell doesn't really do
justice to how unusual this record is. Often it seems more like
eavesdropping on a tribal ritual than listening to songs. Some of the
tracks, indeed, have little or less to do with conventional "songs" than
with tunes and lyrics; they're more akin to Mardi Gras street
percussion jams airlifted to the Caribbean islands. Exuma and his
accompanists make quite a spooky clamor with their various bells, foot
drums, chanting, gasps, sighs, shouts, and other percussive instruments,
creating a mood both celebratory and scary. He's not totally averse to
using more standard song forms, though, singing about "zombies walking
in the broad daylight" in "Mama Loi, Papa Loi"; devising a simple,
fairly singable soul melody for "You Don't Know What's Going On," his
most famous song due to its inclusion in the movie "Joe"; and setting
"The Vision" to an appealing, if again quite simple, folk melody.
Exuma's rough, unschooled vocals cut off any prospect of mainstream
accessibility, but they get the job done in getting both his uplifting
and ominous spirituality over.
The Coasters are best known for their dynamic delivery, writing the book
on harmonies and vocal interplay, allowing their songs to ride on a
loosely fitting instrumental structure, and relying on numbers that are
designed for the younger person, not so much because they’re immature,
but because they’re more of a novelty in nature. But even so, tunes
like “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” “Yakety Yak,” and “Young Blood” will forever
live in the minds of those who were around when the songs were receiving
so much AM air time in the mid 1950’s and early 60’s, and a constant
request at Sock Hops across America at the time.
Many of their
songs were penned by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, artists in their own
right, who managed to take The Coasters out of the Doo Woop circuit and
move them into the R&B/Rock & Roll genre; though their music
was covered and imitated so often that they will forever be linked to
Doo Woop ... but that’s what happens when evolution takes place, with a
constant looking back in order to redefine the future.
Every once
in a while The Coasters would float a song like “Down In Mexico,” a
song that was so unexpected and so good that it transcended time and
boundaries. A tune like that would have me holding my breath, hoping
that the next outing from the band would be equally dynamic and
engaging. Even so, The Coasters will forever be part of a musical
legacy, and though they toured under various lineups, any of their
incarnations put on a splendid show.
But to this album 50 Coastin’ Classics,
this is the one you need, this is the complete compilation. After all,
The Coasters only put out five albums, and twenty eight ‘A Side’
singles ... yet have managed to tally something in the neighborhood of
eighteen compilations, with I’m sure, more to come. While 50 tracks by
The Coasters may be way more than you need, this is certainly a release
that is both worth your time and your consideration. There is no way
I’m going to tell you that you’re going to find yourself playing these
selections over and over, they will certainly become part of your
musical reference library, and a timeless source of satisfaction for the
lineage and development of classic R&B and early Rock & Roll.
The Swing Shoes were formed in Athens in 2006. Initially a street
guitar duo, they evolved into a four-piece, with the standard swing
quartet instrumentation: two guitars, bass and violin. Gypsy swing - or
jazz manouche, as it is called in France, its birthplace - is a musical
idiom that originated in the 1930’s and owes its
international popularity to Django Reinhardt, the man who
single-handedly defined its style - even down to the way the chords are
played on the guitar - due to an injury that left him unable to use two
fingers in his left hand. The standard major or minor chords were
replaced by major 6ths and minor 6ths, and modified chords.
Another particular element of jazz manouche is the distinctive rhythm
guitar strumming technique known as la pompe (the pump), which gives a
continuous rhythmic drive.
The Swing Shoes fully respect the rules of this folk idiom, while
consciously omitting any kind of Hollywood glamour linked with swing.
Their faces reflect the purity, the honesty and courage of their folk
heroes: Django Reinhardt, Markos Vamvakaris, Karagiozis, Bob Dylan,
Muddy Waters, Manolis Hiotis, etc.
But although they faithfully adhere to the traditional gypsy swing
conventions, the Swing Shoes are also part of a special breed of
musicians that manage to sound innovative, due to their choice of
seemingly unlikely cover tunes from the Greek popular and folk songbook,
like Karagouna or Then Se Thelo Pia, which are
often re-interpreted in an unpredicted manner on the CD you are holding.
If you happen to catch them live, you may find that sometimes the
violin glissandos can swiftly transport you from a pre-war Paris street
corner to contemporary Ikaria or Smirni. That’s how music stands on its
own two feet, wears its shoes and moves on.
The fourth album by Germany's the Dead Brothers
is an eclectic, at times slightly crazed, mash-up of country,
psychobilly, blues, fractured art rock, and anything else that seems to
come to mind. So in the album's first three songs alone, things veer
from the spooky, echoed, funereal slide guitar instrumental "Trust in
Me" to an assaultive, bluesy raver that sounds like the Mekons
in their country period to a completely unexpected piece of big-band
Gypsy jazz that sounds like it came right off the stage of the Hot Club
of Paris circa 1930. Then comes the cross-culturally inexplicable "I
Can't Get Enough," which sort of sounds like it might be a catchy little
country-tinged song, but there's an oompah-band tuba holding down the
bass and a jazzy little horn section floating in every so often.
"Mustapha" turns vaguely Middle Eastern tropes into a surprisingly Kinks-like
piece of character-study pop; "Am I to Be the One" and "Time Has Gone"
do the same things with country and Gypsy music, respectively, and
"Marlene" is a just plain weird reverie for backwards tapes, accordion,
and vocals that comes from the bottom of a well. So Wunderkammer
is a sprawling, at times deeply strange record that reaches across
several different musical cultures and eras to create an odd but
effective crazy quilt of influences. Remarkably, all of this coheres
into a solidly enjoyable listen.
Ο Λουκιανός Κηλαηδόνης γεννήθηκε και μεγάλωσε στην Κυψέλη. Σπούδασε
Αρχιτεκτονική στο Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο (Θεσσαλονίκη), καθώς και στο
Μετσόβειο Πολυτεχνείο (Αθήνα), χωρίς ποτέ να ασκήσει το επάγγελμα του
αρχιτέκτονα, αφού από πολύ νωρίς φαινόταν ότι θα τον κέρδιζε
ολοκληρωτικά η μουσική.
Το 1976 ο Λουκιανός γράφει την «Media Luz» τον μοναδικό του δίσκο με
ορχηστρική μουσική, που είναι το soundtrack μιας υποθετικής ταινίας
“Film Noir” .
Από το 1978 και μέχρι το 1991 κυκλοφορούν πέντε απόλυτα προσωπικοί του
δίσκοι : «Είμαι ένας φτωχός και μόνος καουμπόϋ», «Ψυχραιμία Παιδιά»,
«Χαμηλή πτήση», «Τραγούδια για κακά παιδιά», «Γιατί θα γίνω μαραγκός»
και ένας δίσκος με τραγούδια της δεκαετίας του ’50 με τίτλο «Fifties και
ξερό ψωμί».
Παράλληλα όλα αυτά τα χρόνια ο Λουκιανός κάνει πάρα πολλές ζωντανές
εμφανίσεις σε ολόκληρη την Ελλάδα και στην Κύπρο. Γνωστότερη από αυτές
είναι το περίφημο «Πάρτυ στη Βουλιαγμένη», που έγινε το 1983 και που
συγκέντρωσε περίπου 70.000 κόσμο. Το «Πάρτυ στη Βουλιαγμένη» θεωρήθηκε
το ελληνικό “Woodstock” και ο Λουκιανός με αυτήν την εκδήλωση ήταν ο
πρώτος καλλιτέχνης που έβγαλε τις συναυλίες από τα γήπεδα και τα θέατρα
σε φυσικούς χώρους.
Επόμενες δισκογραφικές του δουλειές το : «Νέα Κυψέλη – Νέα Ορλεάνη» που
προήλθε από την συνεργασία του με το περίφημο συγκρότημα της Νέας
Ορλεάνης Preservation Hall Jazz Band και «Τα φανταρίστικα», πάνω σε
στίχους ανώνυμων φαντάρων.
Το 1999 δημιουργεί μαζί με τη σύζυγό του Άννα Βαγενά τον δικό τους χώρο
Θεάματος το «Μεταξουργείο», όπου δραστηριοποιούνται μέχρι σήμερα.
Demon Fuzz is the brainchild of Paddy Corea, born during his musical
sojourn in Africa (Morocco 1968). The idea was to blend all the
musical influences & poly-rhythmic styles he had experienced, from
sax to the 'steel pan', vibes, guitar,flute, jazz, reggae,
classical, Indian raga, blues, suffi Arabic sounds, ska, calypso,
Ethiopian church music, African highlife, kwela music,Joe
Harriot-Shake Keane Indo-Jazz Fusions. All these influences
synthesized into Demon Fuzz.We wrote some, we borrowed some, but
we constructed a new sound, different from all the other black bands in
England at the time, so much so Demon Fuzz became the prototype of a
new musical genre in England, baptized as Afro-Rock by the legendary
Eddie Grant and Paddy Corea. We used different time signatures 6/8,
3/4, 4/4, 5/4, and several types of rhythms,different movements
in the same piece (like classical works), used steel-band type bass
and blues harmonics in some passages, African drumming even
early rap (Biafra , Our World Today).We inspired a new breed of
bands after 1969, Spear, Cymande, Protoplazm, Batti-Mamselle,
Assagai, Noir, The New-Tonics, even Osibisa, and many more.
I don't know the story behind Lumumba.
All the musicians except for two are credited as coming from Ghana (the
two non-Africans, West Indies and Los Angeles). Though the group is
named after the singer Lumumba, it seems as though a fellow named Rim Kwaku Obeng
is the leader of the band. Obeng has records under his own name and
they are sought after by Afrobeat collectors. The record was recorded in
Los Angeles, which is rare for an Afrobeat record. How is the album?
Spotty and sometimes suspect. I am not sure if the musicians were
cobbled together by A&M looking to break Afrobeat or if some
American producer stumbled upon them in Africa, brought them to the
States and put them in a fancy studio. Many of the songs are over
produced and some sound very studio musicianish.Highly recomended.
"Stop talking about peace; make peace. Stop talking about love: make love."
Kelly Gordon and Shorty Rogers collaborated on a couple of funky
rarities in the late sixties. Gordon's 1969 masterpiece ‘Defunked’ is
oneand this wild obscurity credited to the ‘Inter-Urban Electric
A&E Pit Crew And Rhythm Band’ is the other. jumping
on the Califor-nia dune buggie wave of the 60's, the
chicks-cars-surf-gogo themed gatefold cover gives a first hint of the
treasure inside. the funk is really tuned up to the max here on this
action packed studio session! the stricly instrumental tracks have 'a
groove that is impossible to stop, add fluid scorching solo horns
against firecracker chunk-a-funk electric guitar, fender bass, electric
piano, drums, funky reverberated flutes and I think even some conga
drum.' (Jack Diamond) the excellent, tight horn section delivers
infectious, ultra-funky rhythms with a sleazy, very early 70s sound,
strongly reminding of some Tom Scott & the L.A. express session from
the same time. in between mixed you can hear roaring motor sounds
(just like Michel Legrand's 'Le Mans' OST) producing incredibly funky
effects you can almost see the buggys wheelin' and jumpin' over sand
dunes. a highly recommended and throughout consistent Capitol release,
and a rare one too as it’s not listed in any soundtrack guide. the all
killer, no filler-tracklist includes titles like 'Glitterbag', 'Spyder
Bug', 'The Manx Meets The Bronco', 'Boss Bug', 'Wampuskitty' or 'Mini
T'. all that's left to say is: bug in!, turn on!, drop out! and get
down! to the inter-urban electric grooves of Gordon N Rogers!
New Orleans Rock&Roll, R&B, Soul, & Funk Goodies 1955 to 2007
This Vampi Soul collection is arguably the most representative audio
portrait of the New Orleans songwriting and performing kingpin, Edwin Bocage.
Covering 60 years of music making, its whopping 28 tracks highlight his
songs, singles, and productions for other artists. Like all of the best
New Orleans music, this baby is sweaty, raw, greasy, and super funky.
Some of the classics here include Bo's stellar bit of proto-soul-funk in "I Found a Little Girl" (while it may borrow from Ray Charles' gospel-soul inspiration, it gives back in its prefiguring of the bridge style James Brown
used to great success later on), "We Like Mambo" (the Afro-Caribbean
style welded hard to NOLA second line), and the great break-driven duet
"Lover & Friend" with Inez Cheatham.
There are an equal number of highlights in his productions and
arrangements including -- but not limited to -- "Horse with a Freeze,
Pt. 1" by Roy Ward, the Explosions' "Garden of Our Trees," with its burning bassline and tight horn charts, and Curley Moore & Cool Ones' "Funky Yeah" (which is just damn nasty in the way it uses Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" rhythm). Then there's the elastic wah-wah guitar and keys in "The Rubber Band" by Bo
with the Soul Finders and the straight-up employment of a Motown-style
string chart on his 2007 single "Chained." Anyway you want to listen to
this slab, chronologically, on shuffle, or one track played over and
over until you gotta move to the next, is just fine because In the Pocket with Eddie Bo. is the bomb.
This is a massive collection (97 tracks spread over five CDs -- each
volume was originally released in numbered limited editions by Purple
Lantern Records) of swirling psychedelic folk and rock featuring the
sitar from the late '60s and early '70s. It draws on bands and
performers from the U.S., Britain, India, Germany, Sweden, Holland,
Australia, and several other points on the planet, and it's difficult to
imagine getting more flower power drone for the dollar anywhere else.
It's all wonderfully dated, of course, an incense-soaked time capsule
from a very particular time in pop music, and some of it is
incomprehensibly baffling, like Mehrpoojah's ultra-serious "Love Dance
of the Lemmings" -- which sounds like nothing so much as Spinal Tap in
full hippie phase -- while some of it seems like a natural fusion of
Eastern and Western folk music (Pentangle's "Once I Had a Sweetheart").
George Harrison and the Beatles had a lot to do with this sitar
phenomenon back in the Summer of Love, so it should come as no surprise
that there are a couple of sitar-led instrumental versions of Beatles
songs here ("I Am the Walrus" from Lord Sitar and "Eleanor Rigby" from
Chim Kothari) as well as a version of the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" by
the Folkswingers -- Roger McGuinn's iconic electric 12-string guitar
breaks in the original version of the song were attempts to fuse Ravi
Shankar with John Coltrane in the first place. The end result of all
this droning through 97 tracks is a fun set that is probably best
enjoyed in small doses -- one could seriously drift away on the incense.
