Ze French Touch
Some early French disco this time. Many people associate France and dance music with the French Touch of Motorbass, Etienne De Crécy, Air, Daft Punk, … but there has always been great dance music comin’ out of France. As a form of proof some early stuff from the heyday of Disco, somewhere around 1978 and early 80’s.
The opener Got To Have Loving is a major classic, a tour de force of imaginative synth textures, rhythmic variation and hypnotic girl vocals framing Don Ray's powerful voice and bitter lyrics. It’s From the only album from Don Ray (Aka Raymond Donnez and with a significant input by the famous Cerrone). His earliest known work is with Serge Gainsbourg in 1968 and Françoise Hardy in 1971 prior to the disco revolution. His jump into the disco world came with his keyboard work on friend and fellow Frenchman Cerrone's landmark Love In C Minor and Supernature albums.
Got To Have Loving – Don Ray
Next some classics from Cerrone. There’s more than enough info about this guy circulating on the world wide web so I just stick to the music.
Supernature – Cerrone
Give Me Love [original radio edit] – Cerrone
Striptease – Cerrone
* Some of the female backing vocals and lyrics on these tracks by Don Ray and Cerrone are by Lene Lovich.
Timing, Forget the Timing and Follow Me are part of a Rephlex label re-release of a classic disco record by French producers Bernard Fevre and Jackie Giordano from 1978. This EP is one of the most sought-after collector items of all time and a true disco masterpiece, a dark but rewarding piece of electro-disco that inspired both Metro Area and Luke Vibert. Even though this music is from the late 70's it still sounds fresh and new. Some people thought that the re-release was actually a joke and instead a current release of Luke Vibert. Black Devil Disco Club is for real and an all time favourite!
Timing, Forget the Timing – Black Devil Disco Club
Follow Me – Black Devil Disco Club
About the last one I hardly know anything. It’s French and from an album called L`Integrale by Five Letters and it’s from the early 80’s.
Magnifico Mambo – Five Letters
quarta-feira, novembro 29, 2006
terça-feira, novembro 28, 2006
Hurray for Bollywood
It seems that after twelve years of waiting and being totally devoted to old Bollywood soundtracks the ultimate best-of-collection is released. The label Bombay-connection has released 2 volumes of Bollywood Rare Grooves & Beats and it seems that more splendid stuff is on the way. Sure, their have been great samplers of this type of music before but what sets this collection apart, apart from the fine taste of choice and extensive liner notes, is the enhanced sound quality. I’ve been listening for years now to bad audio cassettes which I bought in India and some rare CD’s back home but without exception the sound quality is pretty awful. Now, I don’t mind it a lot, because it ads to the charm of the music, but since I’ve heard some of these tracks in a far better quality I know that they’re meant and better this way.
This great collection finally sets my mind to peace because 12 years ago, on arriving back from a first trip to India, I planned to pay a visit to Munich Records in Groningen to urge them to release this stuff. Back then they were the only ones I knew who would be crazy enough to do so. I never made the trip – for many reasons – but now I no longer have to.
Caesartjalbo is sharing this music for the moment and I’ve found some movin’ images from the singer Mohammed Rafi in order to make some publicity for the music but also for a hopefully fine concert that’s taking place in the near future. On the 9th of December the great playbacksinger Asha Bhosle is payin’ a visit to Brussels for the very fist time and probably also for the last time – knowing her age and everything. So enjoy!
It seems that after twelve years of waiting and being totally devoted to old Bollywood soundtracks the ultimate best-of-collection is released. The label Bombay-connection has released 2 volumes of Bollywood Rare Grooves & Beats and it seems that more splendid stuff is on the way. Sure, their have been great samplers of this type of music before but what sets this collection apart, apart from the fine taste of choice and extensive liner notes, is the enhanced sound quality. I’ve been listening for years now to bad audio cassettes which I bought in India and some rare CD’s back home but without exception the sound quality is pretty awful. Now, I don’t mind it a lot, because it ads to the charm of the music, but since I’ve heard some of these tracks in a far better quality I know that they’re meant and better this way.
This great collection finally sets my mind to peace because 12 years ago, on arriving back from a first trip to India, I planned to pay a visit to Munich Records in Groningen to urge them to release this stuff. Back then they were the only ones I knew who would be crazy enough to do so. I never made the trip – for many reasons – but now I no longer have to.
Caesartjalbo is sharing this music for the moment and I’ve found some movin’ images from the singer Mohammed Rafi in order to make some publicity for the music but also for a hopefully fine concert that’s taking place in the near future. On the 9th of December the great playbacksinger Asha Bhosle is payin’ a visit to Brussels for the very fist time and probably also for the last time – knowing her age and everything. So enjoy!
domingo, novembro 19, 2006
Herbert
The last one for today. A BBC documentary about Matthew Herbert. What can I say, I’m a fan. I got almost all his records. For me, it started with the remixes he made for others. He also produced former Moloko singer Roisin Murphy’s solo debut Ruby Blue. He has a very personal approach towards electronic music. If I remember well, he also had a kind of dogma pamphlet about the proper use of samples but I’m quit sure he’ll be the first one to sin against his own rules. I’ll leave the rest of talking to Herbert himself. Just watch how he builds up nice tune in a couple of minutes with some politically correct groceries.
Esme’s Waltz
BBC Collective interview [never mind the error announcement, just proceed…]
PS
Somethin’ wonderful just popped up in my mailbox. Since I’m a registered Bleep member –check out their site – I get updates about new releases and general news. The last version had a link to a free download of the band Grizzly Bear. They were scheduled for touring Europe this winter but because of misfortune that tour is cancelled. As a way of saying sorry, they give away a free song of their last album Yellow House.
On a Neck, on a Spit
Grizzly Bear - The knife
Somethin’ wonderful just popped up in my mailbox. Since I’m a registered Bleep member –check out their site – I get updates about new releases and general news. The last version had a link to a free download of the band Grizzly Bear. They were scheduled for touring Europe this winter but because of misfortune that tour is cancelled. As a way of saying sorry, they give away a free song of their last album Yellow House.
On a Neck, on a Spit
Grizzly Bear - The knife
Harper's Bizarre
Just some random stuff this time. I wondered whether the weather is still better, for this time of year because of the soundtrack I’m playin’. I’ve been listening all week now to the new CD Ys [pronounced Lies] of Joanna Newsom, and it’s still growin’ on me. I think it’s pretty timeless stuff. Critics call this New Weird Freakfolk; it’s not something you’d play an awful lot but I know I’ll still be to listening to it 10 years from now.
I liked her music before but I like it even more so now. Her voice matured and gained more flexibility over the years but the bonus of this album is the collaboration with other great musicians like Van Dyke Parks, Jim O'Rourke and Steve Albini.
Van Dyke delivered some great symphonic arrangements which ad a kind of old school musical fairytale appeal to it. O’Rourke and Albini both trembled the knobs and delivered the right at your face production. The arrangements really soften things, because the lyrics are heavy stuff - medieval imagery ad old English vocabulary are not exactly my expertise [but with a little help from an online dictionary I can pretty well master it].
The melodies are still typically home-made and one of a kind. The songs are really long for a pop song – an average 10 minutes – but are like little symphonies with a great flow and still hummable as I discovered to my own surprise.
Cosmia – Joanne Newsom [Ys 2006]
when you ate I saw your eyelashes
saw them shake like wind on rushes
in the corn field when she called me
moths surround me - thought they'd drown me
and I miss your precious heart
dried rose petal, redbrown circles
framed your eyes and stained your knuckles
and all those lonely nights down by the river
brought me bread and water (water, in)
but though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in
and all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in
why've you gone away?
gone away again?
I'll sleep through the rest of my days
if you've gone away again
sleep through the rest of my days
why've you gone away, away
seven suns, seven suns
away, away, away, away
can you hear me? will you listen?
don't come near me, don't go missing
in the lissome light of evening:
help me, Cosmia; I'm grieving
and all those lonely nights down by the river
brought me bread and water (water, in)
but though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in
and all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in
beneath the porch light we've all been circling
beat our dust hearts, singe our flour wings
but in the corner, something is happening!
wild Cosmia, what have you seen?
water were your limbs, and the fire was her hair
and then the moonlight caught your eye, and you rose through the air
well, if you've seen true light, then this is my prayer:
will you call me when you get there?
and I miss your precious heart;
and miss, and miss, and miss,
& miss, & miss, & miss, & miss, & miss your heart
but release your precious heart
to its feast, for precious hearts
Video – Sprout and the Bean – Joanne Newsom [The Milk-Eyed Mender 2004]
What’s more?! As an antidote for all this delicate softness. The Albini link brings me to Fugazi. This band really saved Indie music for me in those dreadful grunge years when everybody listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I never saw the fun of it. While surfing on the net this afternoon and posting this message, I found some live material from Fugazi on some other weblogs, namely http://detectiefvanzwam.blogspot.com/ and Zen and the Art of Face Punching. As ever on Youtube, this punch in yer face is great stuff. I wish I was there, because I only saw the live once. Enjoy.
Fugazi - Shut the door
Some other image footage from another band, Broken Social Scene. I got acquainted with this band when I heard this song on the radio. At first I thought, what a really nice new song from Dinosaur Jr. but then I remembered that they split-up. I learned that they’re a Canadian collective of musicians and that this song, Cause=Time is from a second album called You Forgot It In People. It was out of print but about a year or two ago it was re-released. I bought it and it’s really great. An all time classic. The other older albums are rather obscure and noisy. This makes me think that I should check whether they’ve got a new one out.
domingo, novembro 12, 2006
King Kong
On the 4th of December it will be 13 years since Frank Zappa past away after a long period of fighting cancer. I still remember what day it was when someone at school brought me the news. I was doing a final exam at the moment just before the winter break at college. It didn’t got trough to me right away. I knew he was ill but dead was the last of my thoughts.
Anyway, here's some advanced romance since it still being November and all…
King Kong Itself (As Played By The Mothers In A Studio)
King Kong II (Its Magnificence As Interpreted By Dom Dewild)
King Kong III (As Motorhead Explains It)
King Kong IV (Gardner Varieties)
King Kong V
King Kong VI (Live at Miami Pop Festival)
for the rest… Anything, Anytime For Absolutely No Reason At All
Mike Nesmith and Frank Zappa on ‘The Monkees’ show
This is probably my favourite version of the band doing Florentine Pogen
The same, doing Approximate (1974) – I only wish music classes were like that in my days
Rollo
The Ensemble Modern playin’ A Pound for a Brown at the Frankfurt Opera
And of course… King Kong again
sábado, novembro 11, 2006
The return of Pop that smells funny
............................[Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses]A while ago I posted a bunch of vocal popsongs in an electronic era. There's plenty more where those came from. So, here are some oldies and some brand new ones. In A Manner Of Speaking – Tuxedomoon
Dreiklangs Dimensionen – Rheingold
Some Guys Have All The Luck – Robert Palmer
Git – Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boys
In The Morning – Junior Boys
Girl And The Sea – The Presets
domingo, outubro 08, 2006
Michel Gondry
I’m a fan of Michel Gondry and there’s a new film of him in the movie theatres right now, The Science of Sleep. I haven’t seen it yet but what I’ve heard is that it doesn’t leave one cold. You either love it or hate it.
Before he became a well known director and darling of ze rich and famoz like Björk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers and many others, he made video clips for little known French bands and artists. A remarkable one from his early period is La Tour De Pise which he made for a French singer-songwriter Jean François Cohen. I found it – as always – on youtube. In this clip he makes clever use of the city landscape of neon’s, billboards and traffic signs to write the lyrics. It’s all done with split screens which pop up and fade out to the rhythm. The choreography very nicely follows the flow of the song. It’s a nice tribute to the city and city life in the wee small hours and early morning.
Something similar was done in a mid-'70s episode of an old American children's TV programme called The Electric Company.
I’m a fan of Michel Gondry and there’s a new film of him in the movie theatres right now, The Science of Sleep. I haven’t seen it yet but what I’ve heard is that it doesn’t leave one cold. You either love it or hate it.
Before he became a well known director and darling of ze rich and famoz like Björk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers and many others, he made video clips for little known French bands and artists. A remarkable one from his early period is La Tour De Pise which he made for a French singer-songwriter Jean François Cohen. I found it – as always – on youtube. In this clip he makes clever use of the city landscape of neon’s, billboards and traffic signs to write the lyrics. It’s all done with split screens which pop up and fade out to the rhythm. The choreography very nicely follows the flow of the song. It’s a nice tribute to the city and city life in the wee small hours and early morning.
Something similar was done in a mid-'70s episode of an old American children's TV programme called The Electric Company.
sábado, setembro 23, 2006
Marcos Valle
I’m back again. Posts have been scarce lately. Why, was it…
A. I’ve been to busy workin’
B. I’ve been out of love, in love and out of love again
C. Lost interest in the medium and the wonderful world of blog
D. Out of upload/download credits
E. None of the above
F. All of the above
Who knows…
Fact is that the great singer/songwriter/producer and icon of brazilian music Marcos Valle is comin’ to Ghent for a concert on the 27th of October. I wasn’t aware of it until friends of mine, who had tickets, invited me to come along.
Humble thanx to thee, thy noble fair hearted friend.
A funny thing was that they didn’t know who Marcos Valle was, so for them I offer this introduction and warm-up for the concert.
Marcos Valle is part of the second wave of bossa nova composers, following in the footsteps of the great and both late Gilberto and Jobim.
In 1964, at the age of 19 he was named brasil's leading composer of the Year. So he made a quick start. His great strength is the melodic power of his songs. He basically wrote the tunes and his brother Paulo Sergio Valle wrote the lyrics.
The highlights of his musical output are from the sixties and the early seventies but he’s currently busy with a kind of a comeback since he was rediscovered in the late eighties by the rare-groove scene and the drum ‘n bossa and chill-out movements from the nineties. He subsequently released a couple of superb records over the last years.
Over the years he changed his style regularly to stay in tune with the changing times and applied as a true renaissance man with great results his melodic prowess to the following trends of brazilian popular music. As a result his music is one of the building blocks of MPB. Which is short for musica popular brasileira, the main musical songbook and cherished heritage of brasil.
Starting with standard bossa tunes like Samba de Verão, better known as So Nice and made famous by the likes of Astrud Gilberto, Walter Wanderley, Sinatra, Stan Getz, and many more, and Os Grillos better known as Crickets Sing For Anamaria wherein Valle's wife Anamaria cheerfully fills in for Astrud Gilberto as the obligatory blasé-voiced Bahian chanteuse.
In 1966 Walter Wanderley took Valle's song So Nice (Summer Samba) into the US Top 40. The international success of So Nice enabled Valle to move to the United States, where he worked as a composer for several years. In 1968, his Verve debut Samba '68 became a brazilian classic thanks to simple, infectious pop songs like Batucada. That same year, the brazilian-only Viola Enluarada with arrangements by Dori Caymmi, Eumir Deodato and Oscar Castro Neves, and back-up of The Jovem Guarda [which brought rock & roll to brasil] on a couple of tracks, became a big hit in South America, thanks in part to the title track [with vocals by a young Milton Nascimento].
The rock & roll era that had already influenced Tropicalistas like Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil really began inspiring Valle on his return to brasil. He then promptly recorded several albums that arguably stand out as his greatest work.
With albums like the 1971 classic Garra, he moved away from native brazilian forms of bossa nova and samba into a rock and funk influenced sound that played upon groove-heavy bass and a smooth fusion-soaked sound.
My favourite one is Previsão do Tempo which means something like weather forecast but can also mean forecast or sign of the times [in my opinion]. During the late sixties and seventies brasil was under a military leadership and many artists (un)voluntary fled their country. The ones who stayed had to be very cautious not to be too critical. As a result many lyrics of that era have double entendres and so can be (mis)understood in many ways. Chico Barque da Hollanda’s song Calice is the best example of a sweet innocent message on top and bitter message underneath. The people understood this and loved them for it. On the other hand Valle was also clearly just out to have a good time with his band Azymuth on this goofy, funky album singing super-hummable tunes like Mentira and Previsão Do Tempo.
In the late seventies and eighties he finally moved to the US and continued to record solo albums, adding electronics and an smooth production techniques and started to produce music for film and tele novellas, including the theme to brasil's version of Sesame Street.
In the late 80’s dozens of rare-groove compilations started to appear which featured Valle’s crucial, overlooked tracks from the 60’s and 70’s.
In 1995, the British label Mr. Bongo released a two-volume series [The Essential Marcos Valle] dedicated to his work. This was my personnel introduction to his music.
One year later, Valle appeared on the jam-session compilation Friends from Rio, and in 1998 returned with a new album, Nova Bossa Nova. That same year, the Lumiar label released The Marcos Valle Songbook, Vols. 1-2, including new versions of Valle standards by Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania, Edu Lobo, Joyce, Chico Barque, João Bosco, and Azymuth, among others.
The new millennium heralded the studio album Escape and Contrasts.
His last album came out this year and is the reason for the current tour around Europe. I haven’t heard it yet but it’s apparently mainly light-jazz instrumentals. I hope the concert will not focus too much on this record and that he also plays some of his classic songs.
Samba de Verão / So Nice [Summer Samba]
Os Grilos
Crickets Sing for Anamaria
Batucada Sergiu
Viola Enluarada [Marcos Valle e Milton Nascimento]
Revolução Orgánica
Mustang Cor de Sangue
Azimuth
Democústico
Garra
Mentira
Previsão do Tempo
Sei Là
Bicicleta
Samba de Verão 2
Samba de Verão [Caetano Veloso]
On Line
Bar Ingles [roc hunter mix]
Poweride
Fundo Falso
Parabens
I’m back again. Posts have been scarce lately. Why, was it…
A. I’ve been to busy workin’
B. I’ve been out of love, in love and out of love again
C. Lost interest in the medium and the wonderful world of blog
D. Out of upload/download credits
E. None of the above
F. All of the above
Who knows…
Fact is that the great singer/songwriter/producer and icon of brazilian music Marcos Valle is comin’ to Ghent for a concert on the 27th of October. I wasn’t aware of it until friends of mine, who had tickets, invited me to come along.
Humble thanx to thee, thy noble fair hearted friend.
A funny thing was that they didn’t know who Marcos Valle was, so for them I offer this introduction and warm-up for the concert.
Marcos Valle is part of the second wave of bossa nova composers, following in the footsteps of the great and both late Gilberto and Jobim.
In 1964, at the age of 19 he was named brasil's leading composer of the Year. So he made a quick start. His great strength is the melodic power of his songs. He basically wrote the tunes and his brother Paulo Sergio Valle wrote the lyrics.
The highlights of his musical output are from the sixties and the early seventies but he’s currently busy with a kind of a comeback since he was rediscovered in the late eighties by the rare-groove scene and the drum ‘n bossa and chill-out movements from the nineties. He subsequently released a couple of superb records over the last years.
Over the years he changed his style regularly to stay in tune with the changing times and applied as a true renaissance man with great results his melodic prowess to the following trends of brazilian popular music. As a result his music is one of the building blocks of MPB. Which is short for musica popular brasileira, the main musical songbook and cherished heritage of brasil.
Starting with standard bossa tunes like Samba de Verão, better known as So Nice and made famous by the likes of Astrud Gilberto, Walter Wanderley, Sinatra, Stan Getz, and many more, and Os Grillos better known as Crickets Sing For Anamaria wherein Valle's wife Anamaria cheerfully fills in for Astrud Gilberto as the obligatory blasé-voiced Bahian chanteuse.
In 1966 Walter Wanderley took Valle's song So Nice (Summer Samba) into the US Top 40. The international success of So Nice enabled Valle to move to the United States, where he worked as a composer for several years. In 1968, his Verve debut Samba '68 became a brazilian classic thanks to simple, infectious pop songs like Batucada. That same year, the brazilian-only Viola Enluarada with arrangements by Dori Caymmi, Eumir Deodato and Oscar Castro Neves, and back-up of The Jovem Guarda [which brought rock & roll to brasil] on a couple of tracks, became a big hit in South America, thanks in part to the title track [with vocals by a young Milton Nascimento].
The rock & roll era that had already influenced Tropicalistas like Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil really began inspiring Valle on his return to brasil. He then promptly recorded several albums that arguably stand out as his greatest work.
With albums like the 1971 classic Garra, he moved away from native brazilian forms of bossa nova and samba into a rock and funk influenced sound that played upon groove-heavy bass and a smooth fusion-soaked sound.
My favourite one is Previsão do Tempo which means something like weather forecast but can also mean forecast or sign of the times [in my opinion]. During the late sixties and seventies brasil was under a military leadership and many artists (un)voluntary fled their country. The ones who stayed had to be very cautious not to be too critical. As a result many lyrics of that era have double entendres and so can be (mis)understood in many ways. Chico Barque da Hollanda’s song Calice is the best example of a sweet innocent message on top and bitter message underneath. The people understood this and loved them for it. On the other hand Valle was also clearly just out to have a good time with his band Azymuth on this goofy, funky album singing super-hummable tunes like Mentira and Previsão Do Tempo.
In the late seventies and eighties he finally moved to the US and continued to record solo albums, adding electronics and an smooth production techniques and started to produce music for film and tele novellas, including the theme to brasil's version of Sesame Street.
In the late 80’s dozens of rare-groove compilations started to appear which featured Valle’s crucial, overlooked tracks from the 60’s and 70’s.
In 1995, the British label Mr. Bongo released a two-volume series [The Essential Marcos Valle] dedicated to his work. This was my personnel introduction to his music.
One year later, Valle appeared on the jam-session compilation Friends from Rio, and in 1998 returned with a new album, Nova Bossa Nova. That same year, the Lumiar label released The Marcos Valle Songbook, Vols. 1-2, including new versions of Valle standards by Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania, Edu Lobo, Joyce, Chico Barque, João Bosco, and Azymuth, among others.
The new millennium heralded the studio album Escape and Contrasts.
His last album came out this year and is the reason for the current tour around Europe. I haven’t heard it yet but it’s apparently mainly light-jazz instrumentals. I hope the concert will not focus too much on this record and that he also plays some of his classic songs.
Samba de Verão / So Nice [Summer Samba]
Os Grilos
Crickets Sing for Anamaria
Batucada Sergiu
Viola Enluarada [Marcos Valle e Milton Nascimento]
Revolução Orgánica
Mustang Cor de Sangue
Azimuth
Democústico
Garra
Mentira
Previsão do Tempo
Sei Là
Bicicleta
Samba de Verão 2
Samba de Verão [Caetano Veloso]
On Line
Bar Ingles [roc hunter mix]
Poweride
Fundo Falso
Parabens
domingo, setembro 10, 2006
domingo, agosto 27, 2006
Candi Staton 25/08/2006 @ Petrol
I’m a lucky fella. Last friday a Soul legend visited my hometown for a memorable concert. The lady in question was Candi Staton [pronounced Stay-ton], Queen of Country-Soul and former Disco diva. She was in good shape and backed by an ace band. The music in overal was pretty standard – a revue of her big hits – but they showed what Classic Soul is all about and how it should be played and performed.
They played funked up versions of all her standards but with just the right attitude and skills and in support of the song. It was a great concert with lots of interplay. Candi Staton has a past in Gospel and as a minister, so she knows how to play and please a crowd. When and how to keep the groove going and when to stop.
The next lines are taken from the site http://www.divastation.com/home.html divoted to Diva’s no matter what genre of music. It sums up nicely the ups and downs of the hazardous life and career of Candi Staton.
The story of Candi Staton is truly the story of a soul survivor. Born Canzata Maria Staton in Hanceville Alabama, in 1943, Staton grew up helping her parents pick cotton and tending to the chickens. When not lending a hand on the farm, she could be found singing with the local church. At the age of four, Staton sang her first solo in the church and, by the age of five, she had been singled out, along with four other girls, to sing as part of a smaller vocal ensemble. ‘The crowds would get very emotional’, Staton related to the ce newswire in 1997, ‘at the time, I didn't really know why they were crying. Once, I remember, the audience got so emotional, throwing their pocket books at my feet and so on, that I got really scared and ran off to my mother’. When the relationship between Staton's mother and her alcoholic father reached the breaking point, they moved, along with Staton's older sister, to Cleveland, where the oldest of Staton's siblings already lived. Candi and her sister, Maggie, attended Jewel Christian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, where their new pastor asked them to join another young singer, Naomi Harrison, in the Jewel Gospel Trio. ‘ I was eleven or twelve, when I came to the Jewel Christian Academy’, Staton recalled in a 1997 interview with the tennessean, ‘The grounds there were just beautiful. I remember it very fondly. I lived in Nashville for the next six years’. The trio enjoyed relative success on the gospel circuit, touring with future gospel, r&b and soul luminaries Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson and the Staple Singers, and recording singles such as ‘Jesus is listening’, ‘I looked down the line’ and ‘too late’, all for Nashboro Records.
Though Staton was performing Gospel music, she was not treated with much ‘christian charity’ within the music industry, rarely being paid for her performances and often having to rely on the compassion of more senior members of the traveling ensemble to get by. When Staton turned seventeen, she left show business for a relationship with the late Lou Rawls, but the relationship did not last long and Staton soon married another man, by whom she became pregnant. The two married and had three more children, but the relationship ended when Staton could take no more of her spouse's violence. Having witnessed the rise of her fellow gospel circuit performers, Staton, who had been out of the music scene for some seven years decided to relieve her itch to perform by gigging at local clubs. It was at one such performance that Staton met the blind soulster Clarence Carter who married her and secured for her a recording contract with Rick Hall's Fame Records. In 1969, Staton foreshadowed her 1970 Muscle Shoals release, ‘I'm just a prisoner’, with the single ‘I’ rather be an old man's sweetheart (than a young man's fool)’. The single went on to become Staton's first platinum record and the album sold nearly as many copies in its first six months of circulation. For the next three years, she returned to her southern roots frequently, transforming classic Country such as ‘Stand By Your Man’ into soul-stirring r&b hits. Staton explained the appeal of Country music to the tennessean, ‘Country music tells stories…the lyrical tradition is so rich. A Ccountry song always has a beginning, a middle and an end’.
I’m a lucky fella. Last friday a Soul legend visited my hometown for a memorable concert. The lady in question was Candi Staton [pronounced Stay-ton], Queen of Country-Soul and former Disco diva. She was in good shape and backed by an ace band. The music in overal was pretty standard – a revue of her big hits – but they showed what Classic Soul is all about and how it should be played and performed.
They played funked up versions of all her standards but with just the right attitude and skills and in support of the song. It was a great concert with lots of interplay. Candi Staton has a past in Gospel and as a minister, so she knows how to play and please a crowd. When and how to keep the groove going and when to stop.
The next lines are taken from the site http://www.divastation.com/home.html divoted to Diva’s no matter what genre of music. It sums up nicely the ups and downs of the hazardous life and career of Candi Staton.
The story of Candi Staton is truly the story of a soul survivor. Born Canzata Maria Staton in Hanceville Alabama, in 1943, Staton grew up helping her parents pick cotton and tending to the chickens. When not lending a hand on the farm, she could be found singing with the local church. At the age of four, Staton sang her first solo in the church and, by the age of five, she had been singled out, along with four other girls, to sing as part of a smaller vocal ensemble. ‘The crowds would get very emotional’, Staton related to the ce newswire in 1997, ‘at the time, I didn't really know why they were crying. Once, I remember, the audience got so emotional, throwing their pocket books at my feet and so on, that I got really scared and ran off to my mother’. When the relationship between Staton's mother and her alcoholic father reached the breaking point, they moved, along with Staton's older sister, to Cleveland, where the oldest of Staton's siblings already lived. Candi and her sister, Maggie, attended Jewel Christian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, where their new pastor asked them to join another young singer, Naomi Harrison, in the Jewel Gospel Trio. ‘ I was eleven or twelve, when I came to the Jewel Christian Academy’, Staton recalled in a 1997 interview with the tennessean, ‘The grounds there were just beautiful. I remember it very fondly. I lived in Nashville for the next six years’. The trio enjoyed relative success on the gospel circuit, touring with future gospel, r&b and soul luminaries Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson and the Staple Singers, and recording singles such as ‘Jesus is listening’, ‘I looked down the line’ and ‘too late’, all for Nashboro Records.
Though Staton was performing Gospel music, she was not treated with much ‘christian charity’ within the music industry, rarely being paid for her performances and often having to rely on the compassion of more senior members of the traveling ensemble to get by. When Staton turned seventeen, she left show business for a relationship with the late Lou Rawls, but the relationship did not last long and Staton soon married another man, by whom she became pregnant. The two married and had three more children, but the relationship ended when Staton could take no more of her spouse's violence. Having witnessed the rise of her fellow gospel circuit performers, Staton, who had been out of the music scene for some seven years decided to relieve her itch to perform by gigging at local clubs. It was at one such performance that Staton met the blind soulster Clarence Carter who married her and secured for her a recording contract with Rick Hall's Fame Records. In 1969, Staton foreshadowed her 1970 Muscle Shoals release, ‘I'm just a prisoner’, with the single ‘I’ rather be an old man's sweetheart (than a young man's fool)’. The single went on to become Staton's first platinum record and the album sold nearly as many copies in its first six months of circulation. For the next three years, she returned to her southern roots frequently, transforming classic Country such as ‘Stand By Your Man’ into soul-stirring r&b hits. Staton explained the appeal of Country music to the tennessean, ‘Country music tells stories…the lyrical tradition is so rich. A Ccountry song always has a beginning, a middle and an end’.
After the birth of her last child, Staton reports that husband Clarence became a fillanderer whose womanizing ways she could not abide. The two divorced and Staton came to be romantically linked, in the press, with Al Green, Johnny Taylor and Eddie Levert. In 1974, Staton signed to Warner Bros. and, two years later, released one of her signature songs, ‘Young Hearts Run Free’. With the release Staton was catapulted, once again, from a genre which she had already conquered to a genre that she would quickly come to dominate. Alongside Disco Divas as Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Cheryl Lynn and Evelyn King, Staton became a club staple. The little girl who'd once been frightened by the religious zeal of her congregational audience now stood under a mirrored ball with throngs of gay and straight disco denizens writhing at her feet, entranced by the beauty and power of her voice. Performances at churches were replaced with spots on American Bandstand and the still steady going Soul Train. Staton described her third husband, Jimmy, as ‘a pimp and a hustler’, to the big issue's Tina Jackson, in 1999. ‘It was the worst mistake I ever made in my whole life…he was a big cocaine user and carried a gun. I was often frightened that he would kill me’. Though Staton's career was riding high, her troubled love life and a growing dependency on alcohol threatened to ruin everything. ‘Alcohol became my husband, my lover, my kids, my comforter, my god. I worshipped alcohol. Ii couldn't get up in the morning without a drink’, she admitted in her interview with the tennessean. A fourth marriage – this time to Diana Ross’ drummer, John Susswell – seemed to be the straw that would break the camel's back. Himself, a serious cocaine user, it seemed unlikely that Sussell would be able to provide the stability that Staton so badly needed in her life. The two, however, were able to turn their lives around, abandoning their respective addictions, and re-dedicating their lives to their religion. The pair became pastors at an Atlanta church and, to reflect her recent lifestyle change, Staton stopped singing ‘secular’ music in 1982.
Having come full circle, Staton threw herself into Gospel music and managed to rekindle the magic she'd created as a young gospel sensation. ‘I've always liked to be real’, Staton explained to jet magazine in 1997. ‘When I was singing the Blues, I had the Blues. I was for real. I was living it. When I got saved, I changed my lyrics. I grew up in the church and returned to my roots’. In 1986, she began hosting a cable program called say yes!, which focused on ministering to at-risk youth. ‘What I'm trying to do is offer inspiration message music because we've let rap go too far with its message’, Staton explained in the atlanta journal, ‘wee need songs like 'respect yourself' out there, for the children’.
In 1991, however, Staton was thrust back into the international spotlight as a remix of a bootleg recording she'd done five years earlier (‘You Got the Love") found its way to the dancefloor. Interest in Staton's ‘secular’ music was reignited by the single and a biography of her life published in 1994. In 1997, ‘You Got the Love’ was remixed, again – this time by the Source – and made its way to number one on British Dance and Pop charts. In response to the positive reception her club hits were garnering, Staton released her first non-Ggospel album in seventeen years in 1999. The Former label Warner Bros. also capitalized on Staton's recent boom, with the release of a compilation of many of her long out of print classic recordings.
having suffered through trials and tribulations rivaled only, perhaps, by those of Tina Turner and Etta James, Staton has recreated herself as often as needed to keep her head above water, each time successfully tackling new challenges and winning legions of new fans. With a voice that spans genres from Gospel to Soul and Dance, Staton is truly one of music's most overlooked treasures.
At the concert she summed up her philosophy clearly by reffering to what her mother used to say to her way back, at the porch of her parents house in Alabama... No matter what happens keep on living. If you fall, get up, brush yourself off and keep moving. Don't wallow. You have to get up and sometimes go against the wind. You can't always go with the flow and succeed…you have to swim upstream.
026 Young Hearts Run Free
027 Bobby Womack & Candi Staton – Stop Before We Start
028 I’m Just a Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin')
029 I'd Rather Be an Old Man's Sweetheart (Than a Young Man's Fool)
030 The Best Thing You Ever Had
031 In the Ghetto
032 Candi Staton and George Jackson - Too hurt to cry
033 Video of The Source feat. Candi Staton – You Got The Love
quinta-feira, agosto 24, 2006
Bitter Sweet Melodies
I'm experiencing bandwith problems at the moment. Not enough credit. Anyway, in the mood for Bitter Sweet Melodies. I’ve been trying to post this kind of stuff for a long time now, but I couldn’t find an appropiate title to go along with it. Where I come from, there’s a new name for this type of music which refers to a popular radio programme which promotes it. That name is Duyster, named after the host of the radio show. It runs almost every sunday night. For two hours you get some fine moodmusic. A soundtrack of Alternative Country, Postrock, young Singer Songwriters, Rootsoriented Pop and Folkrock, Sleepyheaded Indiebands and Minimal Electronics just in order to relax, take some time to contemplate the week that is about to come to an end and dream about the one that’s comin’. It’s usually a moment that evokes mixed feelings. Pleasant ones but also the more unpleasant ones. The bitter and the sweet.
01 Suicide Is Painless [MASH theme song] – Lady & Bird
02 Blood Bleeds – The Helio Sequence
03 Headlights Look Like Diamonds – The Arcade Fire
04 Reservations – Wilco
I'm experiencing bandwith problems at the moment. Not enough credit. Anyway, in the mood for Bitter Sweet Melodies. I’ve been trying to post this kind of stuff for a long time now, but I couldn’t find an appropiate title to go along with it. Where I come from, there’s a new name for this type of music which refers to a popular radio programme which promotes it. That name is Duyster, named after the host of the radio show. It runs almost every sunday night. For two hours you get some fine moodmusic. A soundtrack of Alternative Country, Postrock, young Singer Songwriters, Rootsoriented Pop and Folkrock, Sleepyheaded Indiebands and Minimal Electronics just in order to relax, take some time to contemplate the week that is about to come to an end and dream about the one that’s comin’. It’s usually a moment that evokes mixed feelings. Pleasant ones but also the more unpleasant ones. The bitter and the sweet.
01 Suicide Is Painless [MASH theme song] – Lady & Bird
02 Blood Bleeds – The Helio Sequence
03 Headlights Look Like Diamonds – The Arcade Fire
04 Reservations – Wilco
terça-feira, agosto 15, 2006
Apostrophe (‘)
Yellow Snow Suite
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow / Nanook Rubs It / St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast / Father O'Blivion
Talking about Frank Zappa. I suddenly realised that up until now I never made a post with his music which is a shame because he’s my alpha and omega, what music is concerned. I came in contact with the man and his music at a rather early age [16] and since then, music was never the same again.
I was overwhelmingly burried in a world of experimental jazz, classical and electronic music, worldmusic avan-la lettre, pop and all sorts of black music, guitar extravaganza and weird sexually twisted cabaret, I can go on and on,... The man has it all.
A good introduction is the Nanook medley from 1974’s Apostrophe, which follow the adventures of Nanook the Eskimo as he battles against an evil fur trapper, who ends up being blinded when Nanook rubs a ‘dog doo snowcone’ into his eyes. He seeks a cure at St. Alfonzo's parish, which is overseen by Father O'Blivion, master pancake chef. Yeah, the lyrics are completely ridiculous, but they're basically just an excuse to tie together some fantastic funky musical ideas. The high-speed Father O'Blivion is incredible, and especially Ruth Underwood's percussion is amazing throughout. Usually a repeated hearing of a joke makes the joke wear thin but I never get tired of this one.
What the Apostrophe is all about, beats me, but the answer should be 'easy to see, since the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.' Dixit Zappa. He himself never elaborated on it, though I have read a theory that on a variety of Gaine's dog biscuits [only on sale in America], the apostrophe in the brand logo is located directly at the center. Obviously, this is all very deep stuff.
Nevertheless over the years it has proven it’s merrits as a good introduction to Zappa’s music. I hope you enjoy it and may you go on plonging his music.
Yellow Snow Suite
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow / Nanook Rubs It / St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast / Father O'Blivion
Talking about Frank Zappa. I suddenly realised that up until now I never made a post with his music which is a shame because he’s my alpha and omega, what music is concerned. I came in contact with the man and his music at a rather early age [16] and since then, music was never the same again.
I was overwhelmingly burried in a world of experimental jazz, classical and electronic music, worldmusic avan-la lettre, pop and all sorts of black music, guitar extravaganza and weird sexually twisted cabaret, I can go on and on,... The man has it all.
A good introduction is the Nanook medley from 1974’s Apostrophe, which follow the adventures of Nanook the Eskimo as he battles against an evil fur trapper, who ends up being blinded when Nanook rubs a ‘dog doo snowcone’ into his eyes. He seeks a cure at St. Alfonzo's parish, which is overseen by Father O'Blivion, master pancake chef. Yeah, the lyrics are completely ridiculous, but they're basically just an excuse to tie together some fantastic funky musical ideas. The high-speed Father O'Blivion is incredible, and especially Ruth Underwood's percussion is amazing throughout. Usually a repeated hearing of a joke makes the joke wear thin but I never get tired of this one.
What the Apostrophe is all about, beats me, but the answer should be 'easy to see, since the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.' Dixit Zappa. He himself never elaborated on it, though I have read a theory that on a variety of Gaine's dog biscuits [only on sale in America], the apostrophe in the brand logo is located directly at the center. Obviously, this is all very deep stuff.
Nevertheless over the years it has proven it’s merrits as a good introduction to Zappa’s music. I hope you enjoy it and may you go on plonging his music.
Pop Is Not Dead, It Just Smells Funny.
Frank Zappa once replied to someone, pointing out that according to him there wasn’t anything happening in Jazz these days, that Jazz was not Dead. It just smelled funny.
The same goes for Pop music. Times change but great songs with just the right sound and really gorgeous, catchy stirring or ever winding mesmerizing melodies are still beeing made but with another approach and sensibility.
Electronica changed a lot. At first it was an odd one out [those old robot sounds really sticked out] but now it’s the dominant soundscape of our time. Even artists that are not linked to Electro incorporate electronic sounds, rhythms or stylistic aspects in their music. As a result there is plenty of music out there that can’t be filed as strictly electronic or strictly pop, or rock or dance music. It‘s a kind of hybrid. A mix and match.
So here’s a nice [ever growing] but random [I will sort them out later on] collection for ya of vocal popsongs in an electronic era.
Télépopmusik – Don’t Look Back
Mirwais feat. Madonna – Paradise (Not For Me)
Enon – In This City
The Knife – Heartbeats [Rex The Dog Remix]
Lucien-N-Luciano – Madre, Mother & Mère
Midaircondo – Perfect Spot
Soul Coughing – The Idiot Kings
Kelley Polar Quartet – Here in the Night
Stereolab – Strobo Acceleration
Gus Gus – Believe
Tiefschwarz feat. Chikinki – Artificial Chemicals
Le Tigre – Tell You Now
Air feat. Beth Hirsch – All I Need
Gramme – Like You
Lalalover – On The One
Golden Boy feat. Miss Kitten – Rippin’ Kittin
Colder – Wrong Baby
Clinic – Come Into Our Room
Architecture in Helsinki – Do The Whirlwind
Mouse On Mars – Send Me Shivers
Enon – Monsoon
Thievery Corporation feat. David Byrne – The Heart’s a Lonely Hunter
Dzihan & Mkamien feat. Ma. Dita – Drophere
Buffalo Daughter – Great Five Laks
Stina Nordenstam – Parliament Square [The Knife remix]
Coloma – Transparent
The Notwist – Trashing Days
The Notwist – Pilot
Herbert – The Audience
Sia – Breathe Me [Four Tet remix]
Clinic – The Second Line
Yo La Tengo – Saturday
Oi Va Voi – Refugee
The Notwist – Consequence
Télépopmusik – Love Can Damage Your Health
Terranova – Chase the Blues
ESG – Talk It
This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren
Fischerspooner – Emerge
Goldfrapp – Number One
Clinic – Harmony
Static – Headphones
The Baldwin Brothers feat. Miho Hatori – Dream Girl
Lo-Fi-Fnk – Wake Up
Herbert – Moving Like A Train
Barbara Morgenstern – Quality Time
Tiefschwarz feat. Tracey Thorn - Damage
Playgroup – Hideaway
Ada – Blindhouse (each and everyone)
Louie Austen – Hoping
Zero 7 – I Have Seen
Spoon – Stay Don't Go
The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Who Made Who – Hello Empty Room
King Britt vs. Michelle Shaprow – If I Lost You [Scuba mix]
Schneider TM – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Das Pop – You
Air – Alone In Kyoto [Lost in Translation OST]
Frank Zappa once replied to someone, pointing out that according to him there wasn’t anything happening in Jazz these days, that Jazz was not Dead. It just smelled funny.
The same goes for Pop music. Times change but great songs with just the right sound and really gorgeous, catchy stirring or ever winding mesmerizing melodies are still beeing made but with another approach and sensibility.
Electronica changed a lot. At first it was an odd one out [those old robot sounds really sticked out] but now it’s the dominant soundscape of our time. Even artists that are not linked to Electro incorporate electronic sounds, rhythms or stylistic aspects in their music. As a result there is plenty of music out there that can’t be filed as strictly electronic or strictly pop, or rock or dance music. It‘s a kind of hybrid. A mix and match.
So here’s a nice [ever growing] but random [I will sort them out later on] collection for ya of vocal popsongs in an electronic era.
Télépopmusik – Don’t Look Back
Mirwais feat. Madonna – Paradise (Not For Me)
Enon – In This City
The Knife – Heartbeats [Rex The Dog Remix]
Lucien-N-Luciano – Madre, Mother & Mère
Midaircondo – Perfect Spot
Soul Coughing – The Idiot Kings
Kelley Polar Quartet – Here in the Night
Stereolab – Strobo Acceleration
Gus Gus – Believe
Tiefschwarz feat. Chikinki – Artificial Chemicals
Le Tigre – Tell You Now
Bel Canto – Im Best N Beihs
Frou Frou – Let Go
Björk – All Is Full Of Love [Erotic Cosmos Mix]
Magnus – Buttburner
Télépopmusik – Breathe
Bauer & Spinvis – Dancing Bear
Roisin Murphy – If We're in Love
Bran Van 3000 – Astounded
Barry Adamson – Can't Get Loose
Golden Boy feat. Miss Kittin – Autopilot
Clinic – Distortions
Spoon – Paper Tiger
Herbert – Foreign Bodies [Plaid remix]
Felix Da Housecat feat. Devin Drazzle – Ready 2 Wear
Blonde Redhead – In particular
Fischerspooner – The 15th
Moloko – Day For Night
The American Analog Set – The Postman [Styrofoam’s Just Like The Ninties Never Happened Remix]
Ralph Myerz and The Jack Herren Band – Clouds
Llorca + Lady Bird – My Precious Thing
Röyksopp – Remind Me
Kotai – Sucker DJ
The Knife – Marble House
Stereolab – The Free Design
Gorillaz – Dirty Harry
Stereolab – Cybele's Reverie
Roisin Murphy – Sow Into You
The Shortwave Set – Is It Any Wonder
Scissor Sisters – Comfortably Numb
Skeletons & The Girl Faced Boys – Git
Air feat. Beth Hirsch – All I Need
Gramme – Like You
Lalalover – On The One
Golden Boy feat. Miss Kitten – Rippin’ Kittin
Colder – Wrong Baby
Clinic – Come Into Our Room
Architecture in Helsinki – Do The Whirlwind
Mouse On Mars – Send Me Shivers
Enon – Monsoon
Thievery Corporation feat. David Byrne – The Heart’s a Lonely Hunter
Dzihan & Mkamien feat. Ma. Dita – Drophere
Buffalo Daughter – Great Five Laks
Stina Nordenstam – Parliament Square [The Knife remix]
Coloma – Transparent
The Notwist – Trashing Days
The Notwist – Pilot
Herbert – The Audience
Sia – Breathe Me [Four Tet remix]
Clinic – The Second Line
Yo La Tengo – Saturday
Oi Va Voi – Refugee
The Notwist – Consequence
Télépopmusik – Love Can Damage Your Health
Terranova – Chase the Blues
ESG – Talk It
This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren
Fischerspooner – Emerge
Goldfrapp – Number One
Clinic – Harmony
Static – Headphones
The Baldwin Brothers feat. Miho Hatori – Dream Girl
Lo-Fi-Fnk – Wake Up
Herbert – Moving Like A Train
Barbara Morgenstern – Quality Time
Tiefschwarz feat. Tracey Thorn - Damage
Playgroup – Hideaway
Ada – Blindhouse (each and everyone)
Louie Austen – Hoping
Zero 7 – I Have Seen
Spoon – Stay Don't Go
The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Who Made Who – Hello Empty Room
King Britt vs. Michelle Shaprow – If I Lost You [Scuba mix]
Schneider TM – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Das Pop – You
Air – Alone In Kyoto [Lost in Translation OST]
The Angkor Wat Gallery
http://www.angkorwatgallery.com/
Also check out the blog of a friend of mine who's going away for 10 whole months!! to visit and explore parts of Asia and Polynisia.
http://mashaopreis.blogspot.com/
http://www.angkorwatgallery.com/
Also check out the blog of a friend of mine who's going away for 10 whole months!! to visit and explore parts of Asia and Polynisia.
http://mashaopreis.blogspot.com/
quinta-feira, agosto 03, 2006
The Latin Section
I'm opening a new shop, dedicated to everything Latin and it's called The Latin Section.
You can find it at http://blowsoftly.blogspot.com/ or with a seperate link down below.
I'm opening a new shop, dedicated to everything Latin and it's called The Latin Section.
You can find it at http://blowsoftly.blogspot.com/ or with a seperate link down below.
quarta-feira, agosto 02, 2006
O bird
A while ago I posted some tracks from around the globe. One of them was from Fairuz. Fairuz is one of the more seminal figures of Arabian music and still very popular. Knowing that she's born in Beirut, it’s only appropiate enough to repost it in order to reminiscent about what’s going on right now in Lebanon. After so many years of war it seemed that Beirut was finally becoming the city of light again, with it’s grandeur and glamour which gave it it’s nickname of the Paris of the Levant.
You never can take anything for granted.
O bird flying on the tip of the world
If you would only tell the beloved about me,
O bird.
Go ask the one who is alone
and wounded, all remedies of no avail
pained and not telling
what pains him
and in his memory recur
nights of childhood.
O bird, who carries
the color of trees
in which there's nothing but boredom
and waiting
with the sun's eye I wait
on coldness of stone
the hands of reparation shake me
and I am troubled.
I beseech you by your teachers
which are equal to my days
I beseech by the thorn-rose and the wind
if you are going toward those
whom I love and were love to erupt again
take me even for one minute
and return me.
A while ago I posted some tracks from around the globe. One of them was from Fairuz. Fairuz is one of the more seminal figures of Arabian music and still very popular. Knowing that she's born in Beirut, it’s only appropiate enough to repost it in order to reminiscent about what’s going on right now in Lebanon. After so many years of war it seemed that Beirut was finally becoming the city of light again, with it’s grandeur and glamour which gave it it’s nickname of the Paris of the Levant.
You never can take anything for granted.
O bird flying on the tip of the world
If you would only tell the beloved about me,
O bird.
Go ask the one who is alone
and wounded, all remedies of no avail
pained and not telling
what pains him
and in his memory recur
nights of childhood.
O bird, who carries
the color of trees
in which there's nothing but boredom
and waiting
with the sun's eye I wait
on coldness of stone
the hands of reparation shake me
and I am troubled.
I beseech you by your teachers
which are equal to my days
I beseech by the thorn-rose and the wind
if you are going toward those
whom I love and were love to erupt again
take me even for one minute
and return me.
domingo, julho 30, 2006
All The Way Summer Lovers Bailin' Out... it's Really Somethin' being Intimate Friends. Evil Vibrations, giving y'all a Love Hangover.
A brand new Warren G, two Dogg G-funk production, some solid Deep Soul from the Malaco label, vintage Motown, Gumbo Funk, a classic Hiphop sample and 80's Soul [yes, they made Soul music in the 80's].
A brand new Warren G, two Dogg G-funk production, some solid Deep Soul from the Malaco label, vintage Motown, Gumbo Funk, a classic Hiphop sample and 80's Soul [yes, they made Soul music in the 80's].
019 213 – Another Summer [Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Warren G feat. Latoiya Williams]
020 Benny Latimore – All The Way Lover
022 Donna Washington – It's Something
023 Eddie Kendricks – Intimate Friends
024 Mighty Ryeders – Evil Vibrations [Help Us Spread The Message 1978]
One Mashed-up Thing
It’s been really hot over here but finally the weather is cooling down. This change of the physical context for living can be beautifully expressed in music.
By chance I stumbled upon a song from last year’s summer which was one of the summer hits of 2005. Amerie’s One Thing. Really a great funky go-go driven tune with an ear catching urgent vocal [which is makin’ school now – just listen to Beyoncé & Jay-Z recent Déjà Vu] written by Rich Harrison but there was also an alternative version circulating all over the internet that year which sheds a totally different light on the song. The Siik remix from http://siik.org/.
Pure technically it’s more of a mash-up but that’s a form of remix too. It mashed-up together Amerie's acapella floating over ‘Arurian Dance’ by Nujabes from a soundtrack of the Anime series Samurai Champloo. Usually a good mash-up works because they take two, relatively incongruent pieces of music and manages to find a synergy between them; but this remix by Siik sounds as if Amerie was meant to record her song with that musical arrangement. Which is a rare thing. Hearing that remix makes you listen at it as a completely new song.
Siik takes it in an other direction with that sublime guitar melody from Japanese producer Nujabes. They both definitely have that summer vibe. Compared to the weather, the originally version is like the torrid sultry scalpburnin’ weather we had; the remix is like a soft summer’s breeze.
I give you both versions in order to compare and enjoy because the original is also titillating hot, and off course Arurian Dance.
017 Amerie - One Thing [Siik Remix]
018 Nujabes + Fat Jon - Aruarian Dance [Samurai Champloo Departure 2004]
sexta-feira, julho 28, 2006
Big Star *
More classic cuts, some classic Rock this time
- apparently it’s golden oldies time over here –
Big Star is perhaps the most famous obscure band in the world. They're the definition of a Cult band. They had it all but despite critical acclaim they didn’t make it. Distribution problems and just bad luck prevented albums to reach a wide audience.
After their break-up in 1975, Big Star's records went in and (mostly) out of print, yet the band continued to attract new fans, along with legions of musical offspring. One of the big clichés of Rock is that anyone who bought the Velvet Underground's early records went on to form a band, and certainly the same can be said for the Big Star catalogue. A lot of the music on the Indiescene of the 80’s and 90’s and even today was never possible without the music of Big Star or they would have sounded differently.
Before founding the band, Alex Chilton had achieved fame in the late 60’s as the 16-year-old vocalist sounding like an old Blues singer singing ‘The Letter’ with the Box Tops. Basically a puppet for producers, Chilton felt unfulfilled with his minor role and walked away from fame into an uncertain future in
Obviously they loved the Beatles, Byrds and Kinks so they sound like a pop band but there’s a certain dirty, even creepy, edge to it that ads layers of meaning to their music and lyrics. It’s highly tensed or intense music. There’s a certain urge to it. An element of anxiety that gave it a dark undercurrent not usually associated with guitar-pop music, is what their site says. A feeling of imminent collapse… against… an atmosphere of wild spontaneity… which creates… times on the album that the tension is virtually unbearable is what the liner notes of the second album Radio City say. The different dynamics and tempo changes of Daisy Glaze is a fine example of that statement. A lot of critics call it lost innocence [after the Box Tops debacle and the
Apart from that, there are off course the gorgeous melodies and the awesome sound. Especially that of the guitars and the powered interplay which is highly unique and immediately recognisable. I'm not really fond of the songs that show too clearly the influence of The Beatles. My favourite one is O My Soul and it proofs their original approach to Rock and their
Their best known songs though, are the ballads. Thirteen and September Girls are standard ballads that get frequent airplay on Commercial as well as Independent radio.
After the break up, Chilton and
Big Star reformed a couple of years ago without Chris Bell who died in 1979. I haven’t seen them yet, because I no longer visit the big festivals, but if you can believe the critics, they’re still great.
#1 Record 1972
Big Star - The Ballad of El Goodo
Big Star - When My Baby's Beside Me
Big Star - You Get What You Deserve
Chris Bell - You And Your Sister
This Mortal Coil - You and Your Sister
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