An obscure bit of late 60s Stax! Steve Cropper's working away from the
MG's here, in a mode that's slightly similar, but which has his guitar
upfront in the mix on a batch of Memphis-style instrumentals – kind of
his own take on the groove he was laying down with Booker T, but with a
lot less organ in the mix! There's no mad funk on the album, but the
whole thing's pretty darn nice – and is proof that Cropper was the key
element in more than just a bit of the Stax sound at the time – a really
strong artist who could more than stand on his own.
The five members of Ganimian And His Orientals were all
Armenian-Americans, led by Charles "Chick" Ganimian, who would later
become perhaps the most successful American-born oud player. The band's
repertoire included Turkish, Armenian, Arabic and some Greek dances and
songs.It’s an amazing LP with superb
Middle-Eastern belly-dance vibe, not dry or academic but as real as a
hazy party night of spicy food and liquor at the local kebab parlour !
Eric Burdon's second and final album with War, Black-Man's Burdon
was a double set that could have benefited from quite a bit of
judicious editing. Composed mostly of sprawling psychedelic funk jams,
it does find War
mapping out much of the jazz/Latin/soul grooves that, cut down to much
more economical song structures, would shortly bring them success on
their own. Highlights include the soulful vamps "Pretty Colors" and
"They Can't Take Away Our Music" and the 13-minute "Paint It Black" medley
that reflects the height of their eccentricity.
Fantastic album!
Call of the Valley is a 1967 Hindustani classical music album by Hariprasad Chaurasia, Brij Bhushan Kabra, and Shivkumar Sharma. It was recorded for the label EMI.
The instrumental album follows a day in the life of an Indian shepherd from Kashmir.
It is one of the most successful Indian albums and one that became
popular with an international audience. It was very important in
introducing Indian music to Western ears and internationally the best
selling Indian music record. George Harrison, David Crosby, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn are fans of the album.
The atmospheric music is traditional, but the innovative use of
guitar and flute make the sound more acceptable for Western audiences.
Kabra plays slide guitar, Sharma santoor and Chaurasia bansuri. The artists became well known musicians and the instruments they used became acceptable in traditional Indian music. Today Call of the Valley is considered a classic and a milestone in world music. Allmusic advises: "If the newcomer buys only one Indian classical recording, it should be "Call of the Valley"."
This legend has inspired
Theodosii Spassov to write his highly impressive piece Welkya. The
mythical, the invisible, the impossible, the unexpected turns into a
sound reality. And it seems this is exactly that makes Theodosii Spassov
unique. Even in the pronouncedly folk pieces his jokes and musical
witticisms surprise and amaze with their rich imagination and "jumps"
from one genre to another. The artist feels pleasure to "juggle" with
them, to "play" with his kaval. And thus everyone is involved in this
game, both the musicians and the listeners!
This compilation of "thrilling sexy '60s Spectre Jazz Noir Club"
library music from De Wolfe recording studios is one of the best ever produced and long out
of print (the short-lived Plastic Records out of Italy only released a
few comps and this may have been the best of the lot). With track titles
like "Mobster Scene," "Anaesthesia," "Dr. Witch-wot," and "Armed
Escort" how could you not love it? Great sound quality, too. A true collector's item.
The Bollywood
Brass Band plays Indian film music - this is intelligent, lively, powerful and innovative
music, easily accessible also for the European ear.
The BBB combines the talents of 11, mainly English rooted, musicians, eight
of them playing brass instruments (saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tuba, sousaphone,
flugelhorn), added by three percussionists. In live this band is a unique experience,
full of energy and passion. This second album of the band presents this live
feeling rather well, also this CD is full of energy, talent and happiness. The
music focusses on the works of the Indian film music composer A.R. Rahman, and
his style combines diverse music styles, such as World Music, Jazz, Brass Band,
Film music, and much more. The BBB interpretations of his works make exciting
and varied listening.
Additionally to their usual music that they play in live, the band have added
four tracks that act more as 20 minutes of bonus tracks. For those numbers,
they asked famous UK remixers and Club DJs (Transglobal Underground; Kamel Nitrate;
Groove Road) to create remixes of four tracks from the CD.
If you like Brass based folk and world music, you should give the Bollywood
Brass Band a try. This is a magnificent and impressive album.
A Brief History of SOA is a retrospective compilation album, featuring
tracks from all the releases prior to signing a major deal with EMI
records. It serves as a brilliant introduction to SUNS OF ARQA, or
simply a good way to plug those holes in your SOA collection. This album
reflects very well the diversity of SUNS OF ARQA’S music, and
emphasises that their commitment to style and spirituality has been
there from the start.
Unpredictable to the end A Brief History’ begins with two tracks, which
have been changing people’s musical perspectives around the globe, a
superb blend of Indian melodies, dub reggae bass line and sheer dance
power. Featuring N.MAGRIEL, mastering India’s most exotic bowed
instrument the Sarangi ‘voice of a hundred colours’, with its 35
sympathetic strings. On drums sees the return of their original
sticksman CHRIS JOYCE, back after many years in purgatory with Simply
Red. With impressive dub mixes from the likes of YOUTH and ADRIAN
SHERWOOD make this essential listening.
Introducing many of the artists who have recorded with the SUNS’ over
their epic musical career, including the mighty powerful vocals of
PRINCE FAR-I, from a long deleted 12”single, and the closing song from
his last live show. SANYOGITA KUMARI’s ethereal vocals on the YAM YAM
mix of Govinda’s Dream. The ancient dhrupad lyrics from Indian classical
artist REBA BHADURI and the awesome heavy dub bass from leading light
WADADA. This is a ‘must have’ CD for any collection.
Shamanimal a delightful mix of musical styles from all around the world,
by the Hadouk Trio: Didier Malherbe on wind instruments, Loy Ehrlich on
stringed ones, and Steve Shehan on Percussives. This adventurous trio
of multi-instrumentalists reveals nine utterly different styles,
instrumentation, sounds, rhythms, melodies in the exquisite tracks of
this CD. Didier played on many different wind instruments (soprano sax,
flute, alto clarinet, ocarina, bamboo flute, and his latest discovery,
Doudouk and Pekou ), very much a continuation of his seminal
contribution to Gong's "Shamal" album, "Bambooji". Bloomdido's mastery
of all these instruments is fascinating : a true magician of sounds and
melodies. Ethnic jazz, packed with high class melodies and brilliant
playing throughout. A joy to experience !
The band made in 2007 in Thessaloniki,Greece.As the city is a passage between the neighbour cultures ,they manage to combine a mix of many different influences as balkan,ska,rock and more in a well favoured blend.The first (self-released) album came out at 2011.Their sound is lively with clever multi-language lyrics.They cover four traditional songs in an imaginable way ,that let us know they have explored the roots of balkan music ,but they are capable enough to transform it in something new.The title of the album truly represents the feeling of the music.Excellent debut!
A Gypsy-horns brass band resolutly inspired of the Gypsy Tarafs from
Eastern Europe. This band of eight musiciens is composed of a horn
section (saxophone, trumpet, horn, tubas, helicon), a percussionist, a
banjo and an accordion.
Kontrabando is a group of
musicians experimenting with the colours of music and expressing
themselves through the use of various instruments both from eastern and
western music fields. Formed in 1999, and based in Kavala, Greece, “K”
is the musical vehicle of master kanun player and composer Alkis
Zopoglou. A wide range of musical instruments have been introduced to
the band (oud, lyre, double bass, keyboards, clarinet a.o.), serving the
musical needs of the personal compositions.
This CD is entitled “Elephant” and is consisted of 8 new
instrumental compositions by Zopoglou and a dynamic cover version of the
renowned greek popular song “Garsona” . Recordings took
place in various studios throughout Greece from March to July 2007. The
album was produced by Elephant Music Ltd. (being the newly found
label’s first production) and is distributed throughout Greece by Music
Post.
“Elephant” features the appearance of 18 musicians overall. Amongst
them some of Greece’s most accomplished instrumentalists like Vangelis
Karipis (percussion), Haig Yazdjian (oud), Dimitris Yiannopoulos (sax),
Alexandros Ktistakis (drums), Pantelis Stoikos (trumpet), Vassilis
Tzortzinis (lute) and many others.
The second album of Mode Plagal moves gracefully across genres such
as jazz, ethnic funk or trance and makes music sound the way Simonides,
the ancient Greek writer described it, "just like pouring wine". Mode
Plagal is the band's name but also "their manner". And in Mode Plagal II
they prove what that means.
The Mode Plagal formed in 1990 and managed to create a
unique musical idiom with references primarily to traditional Greek
music and lyrics and sounds in Byzantine, Balkan, African, funky,
groovy, rock, blues rhythms and many other factors are music as
influences. The new discs have a new element in comparison with the
previous two, the songs are more than the orchestral pieces as more
emphasis on the wealth of folk poetry. The Mode Plagal adapts songs from
Central Greece, Epirus, Thrace, Macedonia, Patmos. In their new album
together with the Giota Vei, Savina Yannatou, Helen Tsaligopoulou and
Theodosia Tsatsos, each with its unique interpretation, add their own
stamp to the sound of Mode Plagal.
