I found this record at my local spot... Prince Jammy, "Computerised Dub", 1986, Greensleeves.
It's exactly what you would expect... vintage drum machines, 80's synths, Commodore64 effects. It reminds me of all that Jahtari stuff, actually.
I also love that it has all song titles that were very space age for 1986: "Modem", "256K RAM", "Megabyte", "Synchrostart".
Great stand out is "Wafer Scale Integration", banger from start to finish, which Madlib sampled on Quasimoto CD ("Goodmorning Sunshine"). This record is dope.
Your friend Gabino, making sure your hard drive has everything it needs. This is missing a bunch of later albums, the Atlantic era that's been compiled a lot. Honestly, I've never thought that stuff was as cool as him just blowing (relatively) straight with a small group. Check out the rest of this blog also, pretty rich.
Been really enjoying The Only She Chapters, pretty different than what I was expecting, way closer to Savath y Savalas than what GSH puts out under Prefuse 73.
As it turns out, I recently realized that I like Shoegaze. In the interest of full disclosure, I can only say, how about that?
Here's some stuff I've been listening to the past couple of months. Flying Saucer Attack
Sally Free and Easy EP I picked this up used on one of my first exploratory outings into Seattle. I only knew of these guys because of a record that had been posted up at Glowing Raw. They had put up the 1995 record Chorus. I liked that, so when I saw Further (also 1995) and the Sally Free and Easy EP at Easy Street Records, I grabbed them. It's like Slowdive without all that music.
Further
Tears Run Rings Why would a Shoegaze band name themselves after a Marc Almond song? I don't know, but these two records are good. This San Francisco band is more musical than FSA, and they also have the addition of pretty, airy ladyvox.
Air Formation A friend of mine hooked me up with a copy of Daylight Storms (2007!), which has that whole e-bow on the atmospheric guitar + dzhunn-dzhunn-dzhunn-dzhunn rhythm guitar thing you'd expect it to have, but the lead singer sounds kind of like Morrissey- or the guy from Gene. Oh, holy shit. Do any of you guys listen to Gene?
Daylight Storms (2007)
This is a cleaner sounding sonic mud, in that I think they are just playing enough atmospheric instruments loudly enough to wind up with a wash of that stupefy-your-third-eye, stare-at-your-toes kind of sound, as opposed to adding a lot of processing to the mix. Out of their surprisingly long (and lately issued) catalog, I have listened to Daylight Storms and Ends in Light (2002) the most.
Belong Another Glowing Raw find that I only discovered yesterday but that I have been listening to on repeat since then is Belong. They're on Kranky, which is the magical box that shat out Deerhunter and made the universe safe for awesome again. Belong is from New Orleans. A combination of bands like those listed above, they play their instruments (like Air Formation), but behind a thick veil of static and effects (Like Flying Saucer Attack), and, in addition, it sounds like they have keyboards in there somewhere (like Tears Run Rings). I feel pretty good saying this is booby-tits.
Last, but certainly not least, have you guys listened to the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart? Someone told the twee kids how to use their distortion pedals and rock. The whole new Pains of Being Pure at Heart record, oddly enough entitled Belong (how's that for running rings around this post?) is everything loud and distorted about the nineties and early oughts with symmetry, energy, and pop sensibility. It's like the second coming of Smashing Pumpkins, Seam, and My Bloody Valentine all wrapped up in one disgustingly fresh and precious package. It's almost unstoppably addictive. You can listen to the whole record on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/thepainsofbeingpure/sets/belong
Given the flatness of some of his more recent work, he's probably better suited to his new career as GQ clotheshorse and silver screen eye candy, but he's certainly not as milquetoast as all the hip hop commentators reacting to Faux News attackers make him out to be. Positive, yes. Inoffensive, yes. Milquetoast, no.
Like Water for Chocolate(2000) is one of my favorites, and is perhaps more notable for being J Dilla's coming out party. If memory serves, DJ Premier shows up here as well.
Most of you here are probably already hip to this, but if you haven't heard it, give it a listen.
So, in the ongoing documentation of my recent record binge, here's the latest chapter...
My main man (and total coincidental neighbor), WWALT Blog member CS tipped me off to this Craig's List post: "Unbelievable Vinyl Collection. Estate Sale. $1.00" Well friends, right then I got, as the French say, "a boner".
From previous experiences like this in Brooklyn, I was expecting wall to wall record addicts literally getting into fights over who saw that sealed copy of blah blah blah first. So to my surprise I roll up, not a car or sign in sight. Some guy answers the door, didn't even seem aware that the estate sale was happening. Anyway, I went through all his shit for like 2 hours and came up with 100 records for $100.00.
Hahaha, I love doing that! Giant influx and now its like, stacks of records everywhere, "oh shit! what was this one again?", etc. In that situation I always buy some random stuff on a hunch, records with gaaaay covers from the 80's with the hope that there is at least a sound or sample or drum break or something. So I got some really terrible stuff, but I scored some gems as well.
I'm going to pass these on to the Scoobie Brothers and let them get busy with them.
Something that I've been listening to for the past 6 months or so (in addition to all the Hum, Seam, Shellac, and Arab Strap I've comfortably retreated into) is the output of Nantes, France's Valerie Collective, the dude who goes by the nom de guerre College in particular.
The schtick of the label/collective is rehashed '80s imagery paired with repetitive monophonic synthesizers. All the bands show up on each other's records. In contrast to some of the other bands on the label, College is mostly instrumental. Their latest record, Northern Council, is a completely instrumental concept record of bright, step-sequenced tones and grim foreboding.
I was able to find their whole Secret Diary record up for streaming on Grooveshark, so I'm plugging that in here. I had a harder time finding streaming tracks off of Northern Council. You can't swing a dead cat without coming up with DL links for that record, though, and it's easy to get on iTunes, so I'll leave industrious afficionados of the finer tunes to do what they do best with a search string and a dream.
I can't get the nice embedded widget to embed, so here's the link to the songs on Secret Diary on Grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/playlist/College+Secret+Diary/54067540?src=5
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
I really like the Stax record company. From Sam and Dave's "Soul Man"
1.) Singer Saints is back. I'm jazzed about that. That Andrew Hill looks sweet, though I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. And Call Me Burroughs? Are you kidding me?
3.) Yeah, I know. Y'all are over Tyler 'cause Pitchfork's all over him now. And besides, you want to bump the sound loud on a hot summer day, and Gobln doesn't lend itself to that. But I'm telling you, this is some of the best hip hop in years, and when we look back ten years hence, this stuff will be some of what has continued to define the genre.
And besides, psychodrama aside, this is one of the best tracks of the millennium:
Oh yeah, NOT SAFE FOR WORK.
4.) And finally, do you want New Wave or do you want the truth?
What's up, WWALT Community. And by that I mean me, Gabino and Hurewitz. Does anyone else read this still or is it just us?
But who can forget my main man Bla Blazo, and I'd like to just publicly shout out my huge thanks to you for the massive reggae DVD kick down. Like 4GB of insane reggae, mainly (what I'm feeling hardcore right now) is that Jahtari shit he has blogged about a few times. THat stuff is so good. I've even grown to love Bo Marley. Reminds me of Quasimoto in that it is a band that sounds so bad on paper but so good in execution. "A rapper from Germany who raps in German over Dub made with a Commodore 64? UH, ookkaaayyyeee." It's dope, though. For music nerds check this one to see their rig. BLA BLAZO I FEEL YOU DOG THANK YOU>
This was the biggest reggae score I've gotten since JKP that one time. JKP, you still on here?
And this is all on top of Gabe posting like every Soul Jazz comp of all time? So, in light of that, I did the rationale thing and went to Deadly Dragon Sound System, reggae only record shop in Chinatown, to get more Reggae records! While I was in there some guy from Australia threw down $1,400 on reggae records (!) After my jaw hit the floor the guy that works there told me a story about when Walter Becker (?) from Steely Dan came in and dropped $5G's on reggae records like it wasn't no thang. Crazy.
Then I went to Academy Records on my way to band practice and got so much shit, i won't even post it here or Rootless will ask me to rip it all for him:
THEN! THEN, true believers, after work today i hit up the local junk shop/antiques shop in my town that has records sometimes, and scored all this shit and more for $50.00:
Totally clean Promo copy of break classic Bernard Purdie LP on Flying Dutchman?!
Some good CTI stuff, including this Airto joint and a clean, nice OG copy of Bob James One:
Some cool random moog and psych records, like "A Tab in the Ocean" by Nektar:
Ravi Shankar Vs. Ali Akbar Khan on Prestige? That's my shit right there:
This really crazy, amazing jazz record, Rufus Harley who is a free jazz bag pipes player?! It's pretty out, but Side B is heat beginning to end, OG 1970 on Atlantic, great condition. Booyah.
Last but not least, a SEALED copy of Metallica "Master of Puppets"?!?? That's $30.00 on eBay material right there. DC!! DC!!! D C!!!!!!!
This hit the blogosphere a few days ago. I'm sure I'm not the only one here whose checked it out. I've only given it one full listen but I can say one thing: I like this quite a bit.
These are the "Scoobie Stacks", all just bugged out Children's Records, Random Soundtracks, "How To Play The Recorder", Private Press Christian Records, JImmy Carter's "Say No To Dope" record, Stereo System Test Records, How To Disco, Sound Library stuff, Haunted House Sound Effects records, etc...
Just came in the mail today. Doesn't get any more classic than this for me. Loved this album forever. Bought it first on cassette as a wee lad, then CD and now vinyl.
The new Grouper LP(s) are really good if you are into what she does.
dc
Monday, April 11, 2011
This is a new release from Jahtari. I've mentioned this label on here before. I love it...even more than Ke$ha!!
Black Chow is a duo made up of Kevin Martin and Kiki Hitomi. Love the title track - a deep pulsating otherworldly bass driven song with Japanese lyrics. One of my favorite riddims of late. You can hear it for free here - http://www.jahtari.org/music/JTR08.htm
Went to see HR of the Bad Brains perform a solo gig at Brighton Bar in Long Branch, NJ last night. I've always been a big fan of the Bad Brains and I casually like HR solo raga flavored work. I'm sure a few of you know about HR's...eccentricities. He's " the band's founder, is a mad genius that only America could produce; he's a magnetic, self-destructive, unfocussed/ultrafocussed, brilliant, schizo, frustrating, talented icon whose powers have resulted in a career/non-career that has no parallels".
It wasn't the greatest show but HR hung out in this small club that was probably at half-capacity. He was friendly and talked to all who approached him and took many pics with fans. I'll also note that he might've been heavily medicated. He actually looks like he may be ill. I hope it's only my imagination.
If you have interest in the Bad Brains or HR solo stuff a great selection can be found here.
If you're already hip to the Bad Brains or just want to check out details of HRs (supposed) exploits look at this.
I ordered some records off of mimaroglu music (run by Keith Fullerton Whitman). He always does a best of year thing, and if anything on there looks remotely interesting i go for it.
Of all the Emeralds side projects out there, for me Colored Mushroom and the Medicine Rocks is my favorite (except for the equally awesome and esoteric "Imaginary Softwoods" record). This LP takes the "best of.." a bunch of CD-R and tape releases and puts on vinyl. It's really good. You can find both of those out in Mediafire world, i believe.
This is the latest in the vdsq solo acoustic series. Limited edition runs of uaffected acoustic guitar by Mark McGuire, Thurston Moore and others, but i got Volume Four, a Fahey-esque guitar soli by Matthew Mullane. Per the site it was "an unsolicited demo that was a revelation in its intricate beauty and unique phrasings. Hailing from small town Ohio, this young player encapsulates everything exciting about modern composition for acoustic guitar. Performed live in one take. No overdubs." It's great. $20.00 bucks says that the first comment on this post is from Rootless, "DC, burn that for me."
Collection of recordings by early electronic composer Tristam Cary. I like the mystique of a lot of that Stockhausen, Cage, etc. vibe but don't find myself throwing it on after work, feel me? But this is actually good to listen to, and has killer samples.
Lastly, on my way back from Home Depot I hit up my new local killer record store (my favorite thing about living in New Jersey, straight up). Found this Max Roach joint I have never seen before, 1968 on Atlantic. Playing with future jazz funk legend Gary Bartz AND Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell, co-founders of Strata East Records. Good Shit.
I have a small interest in early American music, this is a great blog I've been picking at for the last couple of days. A quick browse and you realize by the stuff posted that's not early gospel/country/blues that this dude's got good taste, kind of makes you trust that most of the other stuff he's posting is pretty top notch. I've been checking lots of stuff out and having lots of good moments in that creepy/gorgeous nexus, know where I'm coming from?
