Like Pat Metheny, the late pianist and composer Esbjörn Svensson became one of jazz’s rare commercial successes without lowering the bar. He could write instrumental music that sounded sung, and his EST group combined the spontaneity of jazz with the power of rock.
In this live tribute, Finnish piano prodigy Iiro Rantala leads a Svensson-inspired quintet in a celebration that includes EST hits such as Dodge the Dodo and From Gagarin’s Point of View, vocals by the accomplished Viktoria Tolstoy (a regular Svensson collaborator), and a finale on John Lennon’s Imagine. Rantala’s title piece catches its subject’s classical grace, pop-ballad lyricism and EST’s close-knit polyphony with guitarist…

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…Ulf Wakenius and bassist Lars Danielsson; Tolstoy sings Love Is Real with a yearning, country ballad feel; Elevation of Love and the irresistibly hooky Dodge the Dodo reflect the seductive sound of both Svensson’s group and Metheny’s. If Tolstoy’s finales are at times bombastic and Imagine switches moods too restlessly, this remains, for the most part, an exciting and sensitively fitting accolade. — guardian

This bass heavy and potent collection features the key Peruvian producers and DJs that have helped build Lima’s reputation as ‘jewel in the crown’ of South America’s rave & party scenes.
Tropical bass artists like Dengue Dengue Dengue, DJ Chakruna, Animal Chuki and Deltatron have long been guided by the roots of chicha and Peruvian cumbia. This sees them reshape and digitally render the original sounds fashioning new cuts inspired by dubstep, techno, trap, grime, house and electronica all aimed squarely at the dancefloor. Peru Boom celebrates one of the most vibrant contemporary club scenes in the world.
Detroit has techno, Chicago has house, and Peru’s DJs and producers consider Lima as the home of Tropical Bass. A global and amorphous style…

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…of music that has producers, DJs and flag-bearers from various corners of the world from South Africa and Angola’s Kudoro scenes to the favela and Baile Funk parties of Brazil. International DJs like Diplo, Switch and labels like Mad Decent have long been absorbing and redefining the sound.

Electronic music made in Peru is often influenced by the national music style ‘cumbia’, a slow and syncopated style of music full of complex rhythms. Lima is the central meeting point for all of Peru’s Andean, African and European cultures and this is reflected by the music blaring out from speakers around the city. With an admirable respect for labels like Infopesa, the most influential label in ‘60s & ‘70s Peru for chicha and Peruvian Cumbia, the artists of today often use old rhythms and melodies, splicing and cutting up original tracks and adding in new electronic textures and programmed beats.

Peru Boom shows that those at the forefront of today’s music are carrying the flag for Peru’s musical heritage, bringing traditional and once popular sounds bang up to date, creating a new history influenced by the fast paced and modern city of Lima.

Gram Parsons called his blend of country, rock, and soul “Cosmic American Music,” a phrase that captured his hippie ethos: it was American music but it was mystic, an unnamable, unmistakable connective vibe that held together these 50 states.
Parsons may have stitched cannabis leaves on his Nudie Suit, but his own music rarely drifted into the slipstream. The same can’t be said for the 19 hippies, truckers, kickers, and cowboy angels showcased on Numero’s 2016 compilation Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music.
Apart from the arguable exception of Arrogance, which was the first band of noted ’80s college rock producer Don Dixon, not one of these musicians could possibly be called familiar. Each wandered down their own winding path, recording and…

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…pressing their personal visions on the private presses that littered America in the late ’60s and ’70s. Unlike some of the other entries in Numero’s Wayfaring Strangers, the fidelity on Cosmic American Music is better — not as cheap and grungy — but that suits the mellow sensibilities of these troubadours. Occasionally, there’s a bit of kick to the rhythms — Kenny Knight’s “Baby’s Back” grooves along nicely, Allan Wachs conjures a spooky highway anthem, Jeff Cowell’s “Not Down This Low” feels sprightly, especially compared to its competition — but usually these tunes float, feeling as if they were designed to soundtrack a vivid sunset.

Such cinematic associations underscores how Cosmic American Music excels on vibe, not necessarily songs. This isn’t damning with faint praise: the songs are often nice — earnest, tuneful and well constructed, respecting the traditions they learned from the Byrds and Dylan — but this isn’t a collection of overlooked compositions, it’s a bit of pop archeology, excavating records that feel right. Every one of these 19 cuts certainly does feel right, sounding sun-burned and blissed-out, embodying the hangover of the hippie dream.

1. Jimmy Carter and Dallas County Green – Travelin’ [03:32]
2. Mistress Mary – And I Didn’t Want You [04:02]
3. Plain Jane – You Can’t Make It Alone [04:12]
4. Dan Pavlides – Lily of the Valley [02:59]
5. Angel Oak – I Saw Her Cry [02:58]
6. Kathy Heidiman – Sleep a Million Years [02:44]
7. Deerfield – Me Lovin’ You [02:38]
8. Arrogance – To See Her Smile [03:44]
9. Jeff Cowell – Not Down This Low [02:23]
10. Kenny Knight – Baby’s Back [02:02]
11. The Black Canyon Gang – Lonesome City [03:33]
12. Allan Wachs – Mountain Roads [04:18]
13. Mike and Pam Martin – Lonely Entertainer [02:56]
14. Bill Madison – Buffalo Skinners [07:53]
15. White Cloud – All Cried Out [03:37]
16. Ethel-Ann Powell – Gentle One [04:18]
17. Sandy Harless – I Knew Her Well [03:51]
18. F.J. McMahon – The Spirit of the Golden Juice [03:34]
19. Doug Firebaugh – Alabama Railroad Town [01:18]

…Recent compilations such as Favourite Recordings’ AOR Global Sounds series have seen the previously only ironically enjoyed genre rising in critical stature. Much derided by critics during its heyday, AOR, disco and its various subgenres dominated the American airwaves to the point of pan-global saturation, resulting in far-flung locales delivering would-be hits in the titular style. And while many of these tracks are genuinely good or, at the very least, solid approximations of solid American styles, it’s their slightly-off-yet-familiar tone that has led to their continued appeal.
With others long since having established themselves as the preeminent diggers of African, Middle Eastern and Asian obscurities, it fell to Roger Bong to begin cataloguing the scores of..

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…lost. recordings made by Hawaiian artists working in then-contemporary mainland styles. Having established his Aloha Got Soul blog in 2010, Bong set about bringing to light the many lost should’ve-been hits languishing in obscurity throughout the state’s islands. And as with many similar like-minded individuals, Bong’s efforts proved so successful and popular that he was able to establish his own label to begin reissuing some of these lost classics.

Working with the obsessively curatorial UK label Strut, Bong and his Aloha Got Soul blog and label worked to compile what is being touted as the first definitive overview of classic contemporary Hawaiian soul (Mike Lundy’s “Love One Another”), AOR (Tender Leaf’s “Countryside Beauty”) and disco (Lemuria’s “Get That Happy Feeling”). Over a year in the making, Aloha Got Soul: Soul, AOR & Disco in Hawai’i 1979-1985 delivers just that. Where other collections sourced from the recesses of record bins across the globe tend to function with something of a freakshow appeal, Aloha Got Soul quickly dispenses any pretenses of these being pale imitations of their influences, establishing the scene chronicled here as one full of immensely talented, wickedly funky players who, given broader national exposure, would have been, if not household names, at least well-known within collector circles.

Having established their aim as one of cultural celebration, Bong and company have put together a gloriously celebratory collection of recordings from many of the island’s unheralded musical luminaries. By culling tracks from the islands’ full musical spectrum from the era in question and presenting them under a cultural, rather than stylistic, theme, the collection provides a holistic overview of the regions previously overlooked and surprisingly rich music scene. While only a handful explicitly reference the island or island life, the majority of these tracks could’ve been recorded in a major studio on either coast in period. So stylistically of a piece are they with their contemporaries that casual listeners would have a next to impossible time pinpointing their point of origin as anything other than the continental United States circa the late ‘70s/early ‘80s.

Even those that are undeniably Hawaiian in origin do not so much rely on the stereotypical notion of Hawaiian music, but rather lyrical documentation of life on the islands set against contemporary musical backing. Confined largely to album’s latter half, these tracks—Nohelani Cypriano’s “O’Kailua”, Brother Noland’s “Kawaihae” and Marvin Franklin with Kimo and the Guys’ “Kona Winds” in particular—help establish a cultural context largely lacking in the collection’s more immediately musically and lyrically identifiable recordings.

That having been said, were it not for their overt lyrics, each would easily be free from any sort of contextualization. So seamlessly does Aloha Got Soul’s collection of tracks flow together one would be hard-pressed to find fault with anything here. Only “Papa’A Tita”, performed by Chucky Boy Chock & Mike Kaawa with Brown Co., sounds as one would expect of music from the islands. And yet even this track retains elements that make it of a piece with the preceding, more mainstream sounding tracks.

In all, with very few exceptions, Aloha Got Soul offers a fascinating glimpse into a criminally under-documented and under-appreciated music scene rich with talent and possibility. As listeners, we should be eternally grateful for people like Roger Bong and the folks at Strut for making these previously obscure recordings available for broader consumption and, more than anything, appreciation. Aloha Got Soul, both the album and blog, are a welcome addition to the ever-expanding musical universe of our not-too-distant past.

If there is one legacy that could be derived from a casual analysis of the post-punk years, it’s that it wasn’t just the music that was made but the sheer amount of it that was produced. Outside the canonised collection of artists and labels that pass for the potted history of the era, underneath this layer there were swathes of DIY concerns aplenty brought about by an influx of cheap electronics and high quality tape recorders; micro labels, bedroom producers, tape releases, international scenes linked to each other by mail order distribution, numerous micro-genre offshoots and collisions. The production times from inception to release were short circuited, meaning that things moved quickly back in the 1980s.
And despite the fact that the sharity blogs today…

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…have pretty much mined these areas to the point of exhaustion (there are only so many bad rips of poor quality live bootlegs of 3rd Division Dutch industrial acts from 1986 you can muster an interest for), in the more official reissue market, where there seems to be a more judicious approach to selection, things are going strong with labels such as Vinyl On Demand, Dark Entries, and Minimal Wave still finding rich nuggets out there in the historical ether. Alongside this, we’re now also seeing the rise of the curated compilation, with the likes of Trevor Jackson and Adrian Sherwood applying their own selective ear in providing alternative narratives to the music terrain of that era.

To these two names we can also add Keith McIvor, aka JD Twitch, to the curatorial pantheon. As one half of the DJ duo Optimo (who also run their own top notch record label of the same name), he’s well placed to be your guide in these murky musical waters. Anyone who’s ever been to their legendary club nights in Glasgow, or listened to their shows on the likes of Rinse FM or NTS radio, will testify to the fact that they’re able to trace and traverse the myriad web-like structures that hang between techno, house, EBM, post-punk, synth pop, NDW, industrial et al, a testament to nearly 30 years of omnivorous DJing.

McIvor is now the driving force behind a new compilation, So Low, recently reissued by The Vinyl Factory label that provides another subjective take on 80s industrial, coldwave, and DIY underground electronic music that centres around his pre-house and techno tastes from that time, as well as taking its name from an occasional off-shoot Glasgow club night he helms. It’s actually McIvor’s second post-punk curated compilation in less than a year, the other being [Cease and Desist] : Cult Classics From The Post-Punk Era 1978-82 that came out on the Optimo label last year.

So Low definitely covers a fair bit of ground regarding track selection, . While [Cease and Desist] focused primarily on the lowest rungs of post-punk DIY sub-sub-culture obscurity, with So Low, McIvor takes a far more expansive overview of the music that he says that he was playing back in the late 80s, mixing more obscure musicians, such as John Bender and Gerry and the Holograms with now well-known names such as Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, and Front 242.

In terms of genre and aesthetic there’s not a truly defining sound, it’s more of a casual wander through. The industrial shrieks of Hunting Lodge’s ‘Tribal Warning Shot’ and a fine live rendition of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Discipline (Berlin)’ sit rather snugly alongside to the bass-driven, melancholic coldwave of Siglo XX’s ‘Dreams Of Pleasure’ and the frenetic benzopop of Tuxedomoon’s ‘No Tears’.  The opening track, John Bender’s ‘Victims Of A Victimless Crime’ is the archetype of the DIY bedroom producer sound, with jittery rhythms, close mic’d vocals, and wobbling sound levels. Such stark, minimal efforts are so intimate, almost quaint, next to the disgustingly lush, post-industrial sound of Chris & Cosey’s ‘Passion’.

What you will also pick up in listening to So Low is just how truly international affair the post-punk milieu had become after the initial breakout from the UK and the US, with several of the tracks displaying a decidedly central European flavour. The biggest contingent comes from Belgium, where the likes of Front 242’s ‘Kampfbereit’ and The Klinik’s ‘Moving Hands’ provide a strident statement of 1980s EBM that’s complemented with Siglo XX’s serene bleakness. From Germany, you have Conrad Schnitzler & Wolfgang Seidel Meissner’s ‘Fabrik’, a minimal track bolstered by a harsh, frazzled Teutonic snarl and sprinkled with the essence of percussive dub. Holger Hiller’s ‘Das Freur’ meanwhile, provides a link between that period and the previous generation’s Krautrock experimentalism. France provides its own contribution to the compilation with Hard Corp’s ‘Porte Bonheur (Remix)’, its hi-NRG rhythms and crystalline, operatic French background vocals providing a decidedly Gallic version of the British synth pop of Yazz and the Eurhythmics. The decidedly northern Frank Sidebottom style vocals from Gerry and the Holograms’ self-titled track sound decidedly provincial in comparison.

01. John Bender – Victims of a Victimless Crime
02. Hunting Lodge – Tribal Warning Shot
03. Throbbing Gristle – Discipline (Berlin)
04. Front 242 – Kampfbereit
05. The Klinik – Moving Hands
06. P1/E – 49 Second Romance
07. Colin Potter – Power
08. Eric Random – Fade In
09. Conrad Schnitzler & Wolfgang Seidel Meissner – Fabrik
10. Gerry & The Holograms – Gerry & The Holograms
11. Chris & Cosey – Passion
12. Hard Corps – Porte Bonheur (Remix)
13. Holger Hiller – Das Feuer
14. Siglo XX – Dreams of Pleasure
15. Clair Obscur – Toundra
16. Tuxedomoon – No Tears

01. The Mickey Finn – Garden of My Mind
02. The Bonniwell Music Machine – Dark White
03. The Silence – Down Down
04. The 13th Floor Elevators – Reverberation (Doubt)
05. The Spencer Davis Group – Morning Sun
06. The Seeds – Sad and Alone
07. The Yardbirds – Still I’m Sad
08. The Pretty Things – The Sun
09. Chris Farlowe – Paint It Black (Soundtrack vers.)
10. The Rationals – Leaving Here
11. Hat and Tie – Finding It Rough
12. Mountain Men – Too Many People Around
13. The Lloyd Alexander Real Estate – Whatcha Gonna Do (When Your Baby Leaves You)
14. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – Devil’s Grip
15. The Red Crayola – Hurricane Fighter Plane

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It’s the norm now, but at the birth of modern dance music in the ’70s, DJs, producers and remixers were rarely the same person. As influential as his Loft parties were, you’d be hard-pressed to find a record bearing the credit of “a David Mancuso production.” And while Tom Moulton invented the remix (as well as the 12″ single), outside of the Sandpiper tapes, his legacy wasn’t made behind the decks. So while Lawrence Philpot was well on his way to becoming Larry Levan, the greatest DJ of all time (at the helm of the most revered club of all time, the Paradise Garage), as Tim Lawrence put it in Love Saves the Day, “even at the early stage of his remixing career the Garage DJ had created such an important canon that even when he wasn’t spinning it was more than likely that somewhere else he was being spun.”

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That spinning/ spun dichotomy is part of what defines Levan and his lasting legacy as well as what makes boiling down his genius difficult. Try to put Levan into a handy package and it becomes tricky. Do you capture his DJ sets in situ? Do you focus entirely on the work rendered for a single disco label, like Salsoul or West End? Or do you draw from a back catalog big enough to contain Levan’s remixes as well as what he himself would have spun? The strength of Universal’s two-disc Genius of Time lies in the latter option, now having the biggest catalog to choose from, be it Island, Motown A&M and more.

The prolific Levan had over 250 remix credits to his name, so Genius of Time has its work cut out cherrypicking them and forming a coherent set. And in drawing on Universal’s holdings, it still means not licensing some stone Levan-touched classics: Instant Funk’s “I Got My Mind Made Up,” Skyy’s “First Time Around,” Taana Gardener’s “Work That Body” and Inner Life’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” to name just a few. The disco sound of the late ’70s is eschewed to instead focus on the sinewy, synth-laced pop of the early ’80s. Nevertheless, its twenty-two tracks capture the slippery, pliant, ecstatic sound that defined Levan as a producer, DJ and high priest for a club night deemed “Saturday Mass” by its attendees.

The opener “Life is Something Special,” credited to NYC Peech Boys, shows Levan’s mastery behind the boards. The set is bookended by this track as well as the most seductive song about growing impatient ever set to tape (“Don’t Make Me Wait”). “Special” extends for a slow-rolling nine minutes, and it’s so expansive one could parallel park in its stereo field. The song is little more than a stately piano line, a synth that spumes like a squeezed juicebox, a rock guitar solo, handclaps so echo-y they seem to come down from heaven and the group harmonizing the title. With so few moving parts, one might imagine it grows tedious, but Levan manipulates everything so that each sound strides towards you and then veers away, cruising you yet remaining ever elusive. As it continues to unfold, the song sublimates so as to be a mantra of uplift. In hindsight of the AIDS epidemic that would soon ravage the Garage’s audience and owner (not to mention Keith Haring, who designed the Peech Boys’s album cover), decades later it sounds more and more like a song of resistance and resilience in the face of impending death.

As a gay African-American making his dancefloors writhe as one, Levan’s sets often highlighted R&B divas, so it makes sense that his production skills were at their finest when he partnered with female singers. Esther Williams’s “I’ll Be Your Pleasure” is the most classic disco of the set and Levan adds a lavish swirl of strings and percussion to her husky voice. With a rollicking piano, rattling tambourine and tricky-metered hiccup right at the song’s chorus, he teases out the gospel, R&B, soul and jazz roots of Dee Dee Bridgewater’s voice on “Bad For Me.” For Syreeta, the onetime wife of Stevie Wonder, “Can’t Shake Your Love” shows Levan at his spry best, adding bass squelches, sax squeals, rolling piano and synth lines that fidget like five year-olds on a church pew.

Levan’s greatest muse, though, was Gwen Guthrie, and the mini-LP Padlock epitomized the sound of the Garage. Smooth, subtle, never one to over-sentimentalize her lines, Guthrie found the perfect foil in Levan, who remixed the tapes of Guthrie at Compass Point (already boasting a formidable band in Sly & Robbie, Wally Badarou and Steve Stanley) to sublime effect. The four tracks presented here are bright and shadowy, psychedelic yet body-moving, seductive and ebullient, cool and sultry. You’ll never regard a PB&J sandwich the same way after hearing Gwen Guthrie purr: “Spread yourself over me like peanut butter.” It’s one of the finest amalgams of singer and producer of that decade, equivocal to Jellybean with Madonna or Janet with Jam & Lewis.

It was short-lived however, and as the decade wore on, the closing of the Paradise Garage and the high human cost of AIDS began to take a toll on Levan’s psyche and work (along with his ravenous heroin habit). But as Genius of Time shows a new generation of dance fans, Levan was a singular talent. As Moulton put it: “He had the feel. He would always sacrifice the technical if it meant that he could have the feel, and that’s the most important thing in music.” You can feel that in every track here.

More than a concept album, Dave Cobb’s 2016 compilation Southern Family is a clarion call: the definition of a new south for a new millennium.
This new south — one with a reverence for the past, as defined by old tunes and handed-down traditions, but one unbeholden to conventions — has been essayed by Cobb on his productions for Jamey Johnson, Chris Stapleton, and Sturgill Simpson, records that refurbish outlaw country for a new century. Outlaw itself looked toward the past, stripping back Nashville productions to their bare, burly bones, but Cobb’s sensibility goes slightly further, treating that intersection of country tradition and rock modernism as ground zero. On the acclaimed albums by Johnson, Stapleton, and Simpson, this manifests in an easy swagger,…

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…but Southern Family is understated, a series of vignettes that combine to form an Americana mosaic. Much of the record plays like quiet confessions — songs that feel whispered as much as sung — but it’s impossible to convey the south without tapping into the deep reservoirs of soul, blues, and gospel, sounds that give the album an underpinning of earthiness.

It takes a while for those tunes to get there, though. Southern Family crawls into focus with John Paul White’s “Simple Song” and Jason Isbell’s “God Is a Working Man,” tunes that function as keynotes for the album. The album is devised of nothing but songs that seem simple but are slyly layered, something Isbell’s tune makes plain: the clean lines camouflage how he plays and inverts conventions, turning the traditional fresh. It’s a trick repeated throughout the album, usually done so subtly, the impact is felt more than recognized (an exception to the rule is a bluesy crawl through “You Are My Sunshine” by Morgane and Chris Stapleton).

Certain themes are cycled through — usually family, loss, and love, sometimes arriving in a tangled ball — but what resonates on Southern Family is how each singer/songwriter is faithful to their own voice within the grander tapestry Cobb has devised. It’s a trick that telegraphs just how rich and complex this modern Southern Family actually is.

Sylvie Simmons isn’t just a familiar byline to lovers of quality magazines, she’s also a musician who not that long ago (in the grand scheme of things) released an album under her own name for the world to feast on. But what she’s also done, as she did back in 2000, is compile a Rough Guide to Americana release, offering us her pick on some of the best voices in that loosely defined genre. We and, as she admits, she could have picked many other selections for this compilation but the selection here is still just fine and hangs together nicely with some of the less usual suspects.
The collections opens with the soon-to-be-defunct Giant Sand and the track “Man on a String” from the LP Heartbreak Pass. Giant Sand has it supporters and the band’s dust, roots music sound…

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…demonstrates why: These aren’t just songs, they’re slices of the American landscape, splayed out before our very ears like images on our phone screens. Patty Griffin’s irreplaceable “Wild Old Dog” from the equally brilliant American Kid reminds us that we need to ask more questions about why Griffin hasn’t come to occupy a more significant parcel of land in our consciousness.

The same goes for Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie “Prince” Billy whose excellent tribute to Don and Phil Everly, What the Brothers Sang gives us “Milk Train” while the ever-reliable Mary Gauthier’s “Oh Soul” is the parting shot. In between we’re treated to Robert Earl Keen’s take on an Old World writer’s “52 Vincent Black Lightning” cast as a bluegrass tune. Its author, Richard Thompson, is curiously absent from this collection though he surely has plenty in common with many of the voices from the corner of the globe he’s called home for several decades now. And like many of the artists here, he’s smart, literary, and maybe a little too good for the mainstream.

Those same things may be said about James McMurtry who gives us “Copper Canteen” from the easy to love Complicated Game, which sits nicely next to Robbie Fulks’ “I’ll Trade You Money For Wine”. Those voices too are exceptional ones to be in room with, voices that should and sing and suggest that even if everything in the world ain’t right we can make a little better a little bit at a time.

It may be embarrassing to admit that one has never heard or heard of some of the artists represented here, but Sean Taylor, who gives us “Tienes Mi Alma En Tus Manos”, and Reed Foehl who damn near carries away the whole shebang with “Caroline”. (The same might be said for Stone Cupid’s “Saint on a Chain” (with Julie Christensen). But the joy of compilations such as this one is that you can hear new voices and place them in new contexts and maybe even rediscover a voice or two that you’ve lost contact with. Then, of course, there are the names that should be more familiar to everyone, including Jim White (“Rambler”, from Sounds of the Americans is represented here) and Noah Gundersen (“Boathouse”), and the almighty Chuck Prophet whose “I Feel Like Jesus” is refreshing to find again.

At one hour the compilation doesn’t overstay its welcome, nor does it wear us out as it tries to do spectacular leaps in an attempt to over-impress. That approach as well as the simply but stately packaging and Simmons’ nifty liner notes make this a nice pick up for the price. So, hang on to this and in five years, compare its listing with those artists you’ve welcomed into your permanent collection. There are bound to be some matches. And that’s as it should be.

01. Giant Sand – Man On a String (3:54)
02. Patty Griffin – Wild Old Dog (4:46)
03. Noah Gundersen – Boathouse (3:35)
04. Robert Earl Keen – 52 Vincent Black Lightning (3:57)
05. Sean Taylor – Tienes Mi Alma En Tus Manos (5:20)
06. Robbie Fulks – I’ll Trade You Money for Wine (4:29)
07. James McMurtry – Copper Canteen (4:37)
08. Dawn McCarthy – Milk Train (2:44)
09. Chuck Prophet – I Felt Like Jesus (2:57)
10. Stone Cupid – Saint On a Chain (5:39)
11. Reed Foehl – Caroline (3:41)
12. Jim White – Rambler (3:56)
13. Malcolm Holcombe – Words of December (3:39)
14. Mary Gauthier – Oh Soul (5:26)

Ace spent three volumes chronicling country-soul, digging out the best country songs sung by soul singers. Their 2016 Out of Left Field: Where Soul Meets Country flips the equation, presenting 24 soul songs as sung by country singers. Compiler Tony Rounce doesn’t limit himself to the ’60s and ’70s, commonly seen as the heyday of country- soul, which is to the collection’s benefit; by having this extend all the way into 1993, it forces listeners to reckon with just how deeply the Southern sounds of country and soul are intertwined. Such an extensive time frame does mean that there’s a great variety of production styles on display — Don Gibson’s 1978 rendition of “Starting All Over Again” flirts with smooth soft rock, Chips Moman’s precise ’80s production takes the edge off of…

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…David Allan Coe, and Hank Jr.’s 1993 take on “Out of Left Field” has a digital gleam — but the strength of this collection is how the sensibility shines through the varying sounds. Throughout it all, these country singers — Bobby Bare, Waylon & Willie, Johnny Paycheck, Tanya Tucker, Jerry Reed, Conway & Loretta, and Johnny Cash are all featured — not only tackle R&B standards but are informed by soulful phrasing. While some of these singers always have shown a soulful edge — Ronnie Milsap is as good a blue-eyed soul singer as there is — the revelation of this wildly enjoyable collection is how both pure Nashville vocalists and outlaws drew lasting inspiration from soul.

Encompassing the marabi, kwela and jive styles of mid-twentieth century urban South African music, this compilation covers the sounds, styles, assemblages and musicians that reside under the umbrella of South African jazz – from the golden age of ’60s and ’70s to the new wave of musicians in the twenty years of post-apartheid democracy.
Recently re-issued releases from musician-in-exile Ndikho Xaba demonstrate the strong transatlantic dialogue between the civil rights movements in the USA and the anti-apartheid struggle through the language of jazz, with the rare single KwaBulawayo as performed by his group The African Echoes. The Sowetan spiritual Afro-jazz of Batsumi on the track ‘Emampndweni’ contributes to the narrative of music at home during the height of apartheid…

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…in the 1970s and similarly slots into the category of undeservedly lesser-known artistry. From a period considered by some as the golden era of South African Jazz, these artists and their compositions are pertinent and vital reminders of the intrinsic link between this music and the dismantling of oppression.

One of the most prominent figures of the South African jazz movement is the composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, whose career spans over 50 years, including a performance at Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Presidential inauguration. Having played alongside Abdullah Ibrahim, the late Zim Ngqawana was a leading proponent of the exploration of free improvisation. While retaining South African jazz roots, Ngqawana incorporates traditional and avant-garde elements in his performances. This is prominently illustrated with the rasping vocals and volatile harmonica on the track ‘Ebhofolo’.

Gospel, hip-hop and electronic music now dominate mainstream music in South Africa. But against this backdrop, the new school of South African jazzers have embraced the diversity of musical output, with many making the crossover themselves. Bokani Dyer regularly performs with fellow band member and bassist Shane Cooper, in his electronic music alias Card On Spokes. Furthermore, it could be argued the trajectory of popular music in South Africa over the last twenty years is personified by Thandiswa Mazwai, who rose to prominence through her work with kwaito group Bongo Maffin in the mid-1990s, before going on to encompass gospel and delve into maskanda and electronic music in her solo career. Featured here is Thandiswa’s take on the South African Jazz standard ‘Ntyilo Ntyilo’.

South African jazz may now sit on the fringes of popular culture in South Africa, but you only have to look at the success of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Joy Of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg and the National Youth Jazz Festival to recognise the legacy of the pioneering musicians and the continuation of their collaborative spirit in the wealth of burgeoning jazz talent in South Africa. — worldmusic.net

This seamless collection of some of the finest unheard musical treasures from around the world was gathered from World Music Network’s ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition.
From the souped-up guitar of Mali’s Anansy Cissé to modern Yiddish melodies with a modern twist by Mostly Kosher, this album represents artists at the very cutting edge of world music.
“At World Music Network we are lucky enough to be sent remarkable demos from every corner of the globe. Who knows what unheard treats each postal delivery or email ping will reveal. Passionate about creating a platform for musicians worldwide to share their music, we created Battle of the Bands – an online competition for new music that provides winners with press coverage and industry exposure.

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This album is our compilation of the very best tracks from that crop. Electrifying in their eclecticism, united in their excellence: these tracks reveal just how much top quality music is being made out there right at this very minute. Dig in and dig deep, as we unearth these choice tracks for your veritable listening pleasure.

The Rough Guide to the Best World Music You’ve Never Heard opens with ‘Pani Mottu’ from Sicilian rock band Big Mimma. Chanting chorus, hypnotic oscillating bass, gutsy guitar and rumbling drums reference everything from heavy rock to African percussion and Brazilian guitar style. Other European entries include ‘Mam Ja Meza’ by Polish troubadours Chłopcy Kontra Basia. This tight jazz-funk track tells the story of a married woman seriously considering poisoning her intolerable husband with a deadly viper. Sutari are another Polish band making waves: ‘Chłopacy (Boys)’ features delicate plucked strings, close-harmony vocals and the sounds of a revving motorbike. ‘Ikh Hob Dikh Tsufil Lib’ is by Mostly Kosher, an American-based Jewish revival band that explore European klezmer and plaintive Yiddish melodies with a thick modern twist. Migala’s track ‘Rotta A Levante’ mixes South-Italian tradition with added Irish and Balkan flavours. Oratnitza fuse their Bulgarian folkloric feel with hip-hop, dubstep and more rhythm-led dance dialogues. ‘Mari Mariiko’ is a fast and furious number with an infectious beat, fluttering flute and deeply sung vocals.

Hitching over to the African continent, Gabriella Ghermandi’s scintillating track ‘Aste Tewodros’ is an Italian-Ethiopian voyage that stylishly sails from Eastern African jazz to European swing feel with no problem at all. Naba TT began her career as backing singer for her older sister Rokia Traoré. Naba’s solo song ‘Talibé’ sings of the plight of young street children studying under corrupt marabouts (Islamic spiritual teachers).  ‘Sekou Amadou’ comes from another Malian talent Anansy Cissé: his souped-up guitar oozes an agitated attitude that seeps into the sound. Heading west from Mali, we find ourselves in Senegal, home place of the griot Solo Cissokho whose mellifluous kora sparkles on ‘Damma Gerve’. On said track, Solo is also joined by Lithuanian kanklės player Indre Jurgelevičiūtė crafting an unusually evocative string texture. Heading north to Morocco, gnawa­ groover Simo Lagnawi summons the forest spirit Sandiye on his trance-inducing track ‘Sandika’.

Heading up the South American vibes, LA band Salt Petal blur the boundaries of Argentinian folk, Brazilian tropicalia and indie rock on party tune ‘Por La Luna’. Closing track ‘Raag Charukeshi – Teental’ is a meditative peaceful contribution from British-Indian Classical fusion duo Giuliano Modarelli & Kamaljeet Ahluwalia.”

In the minds of most people, the psychedelic era lasted just a few short (though eventful and multi-coloured) years. As the Beat Generation of Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg morphed into an LSD culture inspired by the writings of Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley, bands like the Holy Modal Rounders and the Incredible String Band opened their minds not only to hallucinogens but to the sounds of Indian drones and middle-eastern musical modes. Soon everyone from the Yardbirds to the Monkees were using distortion, reverb and taped sounds played backwards or looped to create new rhythms and textures.  But as flower power wilted, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died young, rock bands became pompous or progressive and pop groups discovered platform…

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…heels and glitter.

However, while psychedelia appeared to have flatlined in Europe and the USA, its pulse remained perfectly healthy in other parts of the world. African bands layered fuzztone guitars over highlife beats and Indian sitarists responded to the appropriation of their instrument by creating totally new soundscapes.  In parts of Latin America counter-culture politics went hand in glove with musical exploration while Cambodian pop artists borrowed the psychedelic trappings of their American counterparts.

This Rough Guide reflects many aspects of the global psychedelic sphere, not only from the sixties, but continuing through the decades and on into the 21st century.

Latin America heads up nine of the tracks on this collection. The 1960s and 1970s were typified by activist rebellion and bands of the day communicated their passion with heavy reverb and re-imagined trad percussion gone west. Laranja Freak from Brazil make ‘Frantic Psychedelic Music’ on ‘Alergico De Flores’. Colombian dance style cumbia was also adopted by vintage psychedelic troubadours Juaneco Y Su Combo. Modern interpretations come via Chilean ‘cumbia-punk-psychodelia’ outfit Anarkia Tropikal. Salsa and samba are, in turn, psychedelicized by Iuri Andrade and Bacalao Men.

Skipping across the Atlantic we land in Africa. The 1960s and 1970s here were defined by clashing sensibilities and political optimism. Celestine Ukwu’s classic track mixes highlife with pedal steel guitar. Tanzanian group Milmani Park Orchestra are heard on horn-heavy ‘Taxi Driver’. Victor Uwaifo’s seminal 1966 ‘Guitar Boy’ tops off the mix.

During the 1970s drug culture wasn’t flooding India’s shores but the country was undergoing its own social transformation and a DIY garage band scene evolved.  Ananda Shankar’s ‘Dancing Drums’ is a cult classic from this era. The Virji Shah brothers appear under their duo moniker Kalyanji – Anandji on the wonderfully bizarre ‘Cabaret Dance Music’. Cambodia’s psychedelic archive was almost eradicated during the time of the Khmer Rouge but the sounds live on via legendary balladeer Ros Serysothea and Yos Olarang’s ‘Cyclo’. — worldmusic.net

Contrary to the somehow prevailing beliefs, reissue culture, as of this century, is not damaging per se. The notion that continuously digging the past and trawling history in search for something exciting, as in a cultural and anthropological exercise. Simon Reynolds’ fearmongering on the subject, mostly through the lens of his Retromania, has propagated a notion according to which our love for the past has obstructed somewhat a love for the new. It’s a daring theoretical construction that finds some obstacles, given the very own concept of what music usually stands for. Given the unprecedented access to music with which the internet has provided us, there is no need to fear a bright love and curiosity one could have for the past. The past can be, as we now know, a way of recontextualizing the new.

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In this context, British label Soul Jazz Records has, apart from its own original line of work, specialized in the field of unearthing music from very specific times and places, helping define particular soundscapes which, from the perspective of a somewhat untrained ear, might have sounded oppressively otherworldly. From a label which, at the time, was focusing on churning out various compilations, in 2003 the label released New York Noise, an album/collection parsing out the musical (and, in broader terms, artistic) scene from several New York avant-garde “movements”—more specifically, focusing on releases ranging from 1977 to 1982. As the title suggested back then, it didn’t possess a focus, something uniting the whole undertaking. Logically coinciding with the compilation’s initial and main motivation, the album set out to chronicle New York’s underground avant-garde scenario: the birth of no wave, the negation of punk rock and, most importantly, in such a short period of time, the unfolding of a culture which, by its own terms, wasn’t a “culture” according to those day’s requirements. No wave was, above all, the denial of culture.

New York Noise had significant importance when it came out in 2003—precisely because, at that time, the city itself was experiencing a post-punk revival. A more commercially appealing one, but that period still expressed some longing from the rule-breaking experienced back then. New York Noise, because of just that, meant context and history. And now, incidentally, in contraposition to whatever Retromania has to say about this particular moment in time, context and history are fundamental to the understanding of a “movement”.

No wave was, from the very beginning, to borrow from Marc Masters’ words on the subject, a “philosophy of negation”. It was ultimately predicated on negation. It denied commercial appeal, the New Wave music that sprouted at the end of the ‘70s (according to Masters, the name was coined in a response espoused by Lydia Lunch when answering a question on what her music sounded like: “Is it new Wave?” Response: “More like No Wave”.)

That is a classic definition, mainly because no wave is deeply grounded on that word no. It resists categorizations and labels—pretty much, let’s say—just like the ‘70s culture itself. As a direct effect, in order to ultimately negate punk rock’s (or sometimes just rock itself) usual tropes in vogue at the time, no wave was based in experimentation. Funk, jazz, noise, foreign music: all was worthy of consideration.

This is path tethered to New York Noise’s mission: it aims to represent, to paint a comprehensive picture of no wave, yet paying tribute to the eclectic nature of New York—that is, there was more going on with New York’s underground scenes. It’s a difficult job with which this (or every) compilation is tasked. Yet, it succeeds marvelously.

New York Noise is broad in scope. Its appeal goes from the Dance’s “Do Dada” (opener), a considerably more pop release, to the experimental nature of Mars’ “Helen Fordsdale”, whose guitar riff and dissonance might or might have not contributed as (in)direct influence to Sonic Youth’s “Teenage Riot”. Which is to say that, while it might be hard to categorize the music carried in the compilation—besides the vague terminology contained in expressions such as “post-punk” and “no wave”, and the fact this music was made all during the same period and in the same location—it doesn’t mean its influence can’t be traced. Despite the notion that people had lost sight of no wave as the ‘80s went by.

There are a few curious appearances in New York Noise. Arthur Russell, who, at that time, released music under his Dinosaur L moniker, is still here: “Clean on Your Bean” is one of the compilation’s most exquisite and rewarding tracks, precisely because one is able to trace the transcendental nature of the music under comment here. No wave might have not lasted long enough in order to leave a mark in the public’s collective imagination, but as a whole, its influence is immeasurable. That’s not just because of an incessant revival which took place more than ten years ago and this compilation helped spark, but also because of the music itself, a sprawling collection of art made during a very specific time. A confluence of negation of authority, traditional punk tropes and artistic values.

As it happens with every compilation with a Herculean task in mind, one should suspect of New York Noise’s intentions. When looking for an introduction to the music of that era—the underground’s post-punk vein—the listener will go as far as the compilation offers them to go. Yet, New York Noise’s scope is wide. Awkwardly enough, it’s wider than, let’s face it, No New York, the seminal album which serves as the basic narrative for said period.

The new 2016 edition adds material from impLOG, a collaborative project comprising Don Christensen and Jody Harris, little after their involvement with James Chance of the Contortions (“Contort Yourself” is, as expected, featured in the compilation). “Breakfast” is a perfect closing for the album. Above all, because it condenses the very own nature of the music made in such period. With is calming, jazzy overtones, the songs seems like a displaced commercial for the American way of life. It ends in laughs, as it is supposed to do. It’s also supposed to sound ironic.

The additions in the 2016 version don’t impact that much, which is, in all honesty, something to be overlooked when you consider for how much time the compilation has stayed out of print, which is something that only reaffirms the archival nature of this 2016. Given its original release in 2003, it suffices to say this album has already done (well, it’s good to state) its job of conferring context to a particular moment in the aughts. New York Noise is no encyclopedia, and it doesn’t have to be one. It’s supposed to make trawling the history of a very brief and particular (and important and seminal) “movement” considerably easier. And as for those who fear, in 2016, that reissue culture is a signal for the end of times when it comes to the art of discovery, well, there is nothing wrong with taking a shortcut. As long, of course, as you get anywhere. And there is no better shortcut than New York Noise for at least ten years.

In the early ’70s, the conventional wisdom in rock & roll was that Los Angeles was the home of all that was mellow and groovy, and New York City was the go-to place for music that was gritty and passionate.
This may be why nearly all the major New York punk bands from the rise of the CBGB and Max’s scenes managed to land record deals fairly early in their careers, but the groups that filled the Masque in Hollywood were poorly documented, usually recorded only on independently produced 45s, if at all. History has made it clear that, as usual, conventional wisdom was off balance, and L.A. was home to some of the very best American punk bands of the day. Soul Jazz Records’ ongoing PUNK 45 series offers a concise and frantic overview of the first golden era of Los Angeles punk with…

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…the album Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils — Hollywood from X to Zero & Hardcore on the Beaches: Punk in Los Angeles 1977-81. While that name may be a tongue twister, the 22 tunes included here are all clearly winners, and point not only to the quality of the Los Angeles punk movement, but to its diversity early on. Jumping from the purposefully awkward rants of the Urinals (“Ack Ack Ack”) and the speedy blast of the Weirdos (“Life of Crime”) to the grainy drama of the Flesh Eaters (“Disintegration Nation”) and the off-kilter socio-sexual politics of Black Randy & the Metrosquad (“Trouble at the Cup”), these bands were fast, loud, and noisy in an impressive variety of ways, and in this context even the aggressively amateurish early work from the Germs (“Forming”) and the fierce but cautious proto-hardcore of Middle Class (“Out of Vogue”) sounds revelatory, or at very least like the blueprint a few thousand bands would follow in the years to come. The two cuts from the Deadbeats (“Brainless” and “Final Ride”) confirm that even the lesser-known bands on the scene were often remarkable, and while the relative muscle and arrogance of T.S.O.L. (“World War III”) and the Adolescents (“Amoeba”) point to the more faceless direction SoCal punk would follow in the ’80s and ’90s, at this point they sounded bright and vital. And if there’s a better snotty/funny opening line than that of the Eyes’ “TAQN” (“Be like someone else! Take a Quaalude now!”), it’s doubtless still in the Top Ten. Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils isn’t the perfect Los Angeles punk sampler (at least not without Black Flag or the Screamers), and the presence of “I’ve Got a Right” by Iggy & the Stooges is questionable (not an L.A. band and a few years early for punk), but this is a well-chosen overview filled with underground classics, and if you have a taste for first-era punk from any part of the world, you’ll find lots of top-notch pogo action here.

No one should be too surprised to see a collection of acoustic piano pieces being issued by 1631 Recordings. After all, one of the label’s co-founders is David Wenngren (Kning Disk label overseer Mattias Nilsson the other), who’s been making memorable music under the Library Tapes alias for more than a decade, much of it piano-based. Wenngren contributes a fine Library Tapes piece (“Running by the Roads, Running by the Fields”) to the compilation, as do an impressive number of kindred spirits, Nils Frahm, Peter Broderick, Hior Chronik, and Schole main man Akira Kosemura among them.
Endless Melancholy is also one of the contributors, but the moniker could just as easily be used as a title for the compilation as a whole. Nostalgic, wistful moods predominate, and consequently…

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…Piano Cloud Series: Volume One achieves a remarkable degree of cohesiveness, even though many artists take part. Strengthening that impression of unanimity is the minimal approach shared by the contributors: the style of piano playing is generally of the stripped-down variety, and it’s rare for the listener to be drowned by a sea of notes. It’s telling that when a piece does distance itself from the others, it does so less for reasons of musical style than ambient design, as happens when atmospheric noises find their way into Lucy Claire’s “Kaiwata tsuki – The Barren Moon.” That being said, Joep Beving does separate his piece from the others by investing his ruminative “A Hunger for the New” with a bluesy feel.

Though Frahm opens the set with a characteristically lovely setting of delicate, dream-like splendour, it’s nice to see him bringing some welcome levity to the project by titling his piece “Nils has a New Piano.” Delicacy characterizes other cases, too, among them Oskar Schuster’s softly sparkling “Singur,” Gabriela Parra’s “Olopte’s Lullaby,” Kosemura’s “Farewell,” and Stray Ghost’s “Two Steps Too Often Aside (Early Variation I).” In addition, Broderick, Anna Rose Carter, and Heinali contribute resplendently chiming settings, “Eyes Closed and Traveling,” “Unstitch,” and “Soft like Snow,” respectively. Though there’s a generous amount of music included—twenty pieces in total—most are in the three-minute range, resulting in a comprehensive hour-long recording that isn’t so long the digital release wears out its welcome.

1. Nils Frahm – Nils has a new piano (4:05)
2. Library Tapes – Running by the roads, running by the fields (Solo Piano) (2:02)
3. Peter Broderick – Eyes Closed and Traveling (3:40)
4. Fabrizio Paterlini – Everyone wants to be found (2:22)
5. Joep Beving – A Hunger for the New (2:09)
6. Oskar Schuster – Singur (2:53)
7. Dmitry Evgrafov – Unasked Questions (2:26)
8. Anna Rose Carter – Unstitch (2:54)
9. Stray Ghost – Two steps too often aside (Early Variation I) (4:39)
10. Matt Stewart-Evans – Opus #24 (1:34)
11. Lucy Claire – Kaiwata Tsuki-The Barren Moon (Solo Piano) (3:56)
12. Hior Chronik – In the morning I’ll be with you (2:44)
13. Heinali – Soft Like Snow (4:55)
14. Alice Baldwin – Vater (4:05)
15. Endless Melancholy – November (3:32)
16. Gabriela Parra – Olopte’s lullaby (2:47)
17. Daigo Hanada – Again (3:24)
18. Paddy Mulcahy – Waltz Sketch (2:41)
19. Benjamin Gustafsson – Close to Her (3:25)
20. Akira Kosemura – Farewell (1:21)

This richly realized collection from the Cherry Red label’s psych/garage imprint Grapefruit offers up three heaping discs worth of British folk from its late-’60s and early-’70s heyday.
The scene’s influential flagship acts like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle, and the Incredible String Band are all represented, but the real attraction here is a hefty amount of deep cuts from more obscure regional acts who received scant recognition in their time.
Chronicling the five-year period between 1967 and 1972, Dust on the Nettles pools together the various intertwining movements of underground folk in the U.K. from the more staunch traditionalists to the more cerebral, psych-influenced acts and everything in between.

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Progressive bands like Comus and Synanthesia get their due, as do mysterious rarities like Shide & Acorn, Agincourt, and Melton Constable. Cult heroes like Vashti Bunyan and Bill Fay, who received unexpected post-millennium career revivals, sit alongside acts who would later become associated with other genres like Marc Bolan’s pre-glam Tyrannosaurus Rex and early, neo-folk editions of new wavers Duncan Browne and Joan Armatrading.

With its generous mix of recognizable masters and unexpected surprises, Dust on the Nettles is a treasure trove begging to be discovered.

Promo-only 4CD set covering the years 1961-2000 from Numero Group’s catalog.
“This four-CD set compiles highlights, lowlights, and odd lights from the Numero Group’s sprawling collection of songs spanning four decades and covering the broadest range of popular music, none of which caught the popular attention. From group soul to garage rock, from psych to folk to new age to power pop to yacht rock to indie, noise, slowcore, and art-punk….from songs in celebration of eternal life and aching love to Nicaraguan jazz and odes to death, fate, Eurotrash, and teenagerhood.
This sampler follows a rough chronological format, though certain tracks are grouped together to provide clearer access to their genre and individual history; you will, for instance, find…

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…a mini-collection of copyrights from San Antonio’s Epstein Enterprises on Disc #1, which we’re calling 60. Real estate mogul Abe Epstein doubled as the proprietor of an army of Texas labels, represented herein low-riding soul by the Royal Jesters and the Commands, brassy surf instrumentation by Classie Ballou, and wasted Los Angeles beach pop by Dan Henderson.

Cosmic country-folk and nihilist punk rock mark 70, our splintered restatement-in-recordings of the Me Decade. This disc is a place where “Cookies” is a question posed by funk, and where “Whiskey” puts the fear of death into a simple Chevrolet man. But the deepest seam may be one forged in stone, a vein of very hard rock, pierced by guitar scream and bodily bass on tracks by Junction, Arrogance, Goliath, and Little Boy Blues.

Then there’s the utter fracture of the MTV decade, taste-tested herein on 80. This disc globe-hops with the times, putting Aussie pop-punk into context with Alaskan blue-eyed soul in the forms of The Scientists and Archie James Cavanaugh. But don’t let any of that distract you from the android advances that ooze out of Steve Elliot’s synthesizer or—to jet once again off to exotic climes — the whistling of indigenous Philippine musicians credited to MNLF. We’re even bringing White Zombie back into our walking-dead century.

Elsewhere, as on the disc entitled 90, you’ll delve deeply into indie rock items from acts as varied as Codeine, Bedhead, Unwound, Blonde Redhead, and Beat Happening. And Numero’s as~yet-undiscovered properties are here for you as well: Across these discs, hear music still just an inspiration shy of appearing in completed Numero product with Teenage Widow, Nun-Plus, and Amethyst.” — discogs

CD1 – 60s
1. Earsley Young – I’m a Winner [01:40]
2. Lee Walker – Cold Sand [02:34]
3. The Blazers – The Grasshopper Twist Pt. 1 [02:24]
4. Little Alice – Why Oh Why [02:01]
5. Niela Miller – Daddy Went to Jail [02:39]
6. The Four J’s – Will You Be My Love [02:09]
7. Little Evie – Salvation [03:32]
8. Dimas III – I Won’t Love You Again [02:34]
9. The Judi & The Affections – Dum Dum De Dip [02:43]
10. The Hill Sisters – My Lover [02:26]
11. The Shades – Tell Me Not to Cry [02:46]
12. Classie Ballou – Classie’s Whip [01:57]
13. Larry Sands & the Sound Affair – You’ll Know the Words [02:47]
14. Otis Brown – Southside Chicago [02:25]
15. The Devotions – Some Old Sweet Lovin’ [02:02]
16. The Tonettes – I Gotta Know [01:39]
17. The Occasions – There’s No You [02:22]
18. The Commands – Hey It’s Love [02:21]
19. Dino and the Del-Tones – Daydream [02:43]
20. The Cave Dwellers – Run Around [02:08]
21. The Sensations – It’s a New Day [02:39]
22. Sons of Christ – Wake Up Country [02:33]
23. The Vondors – Look In The Mirror [02:17]
24. The Royal Jesters – Girl I Can’t Forget [02:34]
25. The Vandelettes – A Love of Mine [02:19]
26. Dan Henderson – L.A. is Where It’s Happening [02:01]
27. Sonny Harris & the Soul Reflections – The Vibration [02:56]
28. White Eyes – Streetcar Love [03:24]
29. The Classmen – Doin’ Me Right [02:08]
30. Elyse Weinberg – Houses [03:35]
31. The Burnette Sisters – I Meant Every Word (Song) [04:24]

CD2 – 70s
1. Nun-Plus – Los Angeles [03:40]
2. Little Boy Blue – Nothing Left to Say [03:10]
3. Sole Inspiration – Life [02:27]
4. American Sound Ltd – Aunt Marie [02:37]
5. Pearl Dowell – It’s All Over [03:07]
6. Frank Sinatra Jr. – Black Night [03:56]
7. Kathy Heideman – Sleep a Million Years [02:45]
8. Arrogance – Herlocker [03:10]
9. Goliath – Dead Drunk Screamin’ [03:54]
10. Junction – Sorcerer [02:42]
11. Sheriff – I Don’t Really Love You [02:45]
12. Majestic Arrows – Ladies and Wonderful Girls [03:41]
13. The Summits – Sleepwalking [02:39]
14. Brother Soul – Cookies [02:43]
15. Jeff Cowell – Not Down This Low [02:22]
16. Wrath – Warlord [03:54]
17. The Mighty Imperials – Unity [03:29]
18. Alfonso Lovo – Tropical Jazz [03:12]
19. Jordan De La Sierra – Music for Gymnastics [04:18]
20. Aura – Taste of Love [03:30]
21. Love Apple – Guess I Already Knew [03:37]
22. The Edge of Daybreak – Let’s Be Friends [03:18]
23. Herman Jones – I Love You [04:19]

CD3 – 80s
1. Jonah Thompson – Get Involved [03:54]
2. Orville Shannon – Oh Lover [03:01]
3. The Scientists – Last Night [02:38]
4. Kenny Knight – Whiskey [03:24]
5. Archie James Cavanaugh – Take it Easy [03:26]
6. Steve Elliot – One More Time [04:00]
7. Sharon Revoal – Reaching for Our Star [03:40]
8. Keni Rightout – Another Day [05:09]
9. Universal Togetherness Band – My Sentiment [04:23]
10. Donnell Pitman – Burning Up [06:04]
11. Ned Doheny – Whatcha Gonna Do for Me [04:46]
12. Jackie Stoudemire – Guilty [05:13]
13. The Scientists – When Fate Deals Its Mortal Blow [02:35]
14. Steven – Quick [03:21]
15. Stylle Band – If You Love Me [03:02]
16. White Zombie – Gentleman Junkie [02:37]
17. MNLF – Whistling [03:05]
18. Amethyst – Midnight Rendevouz [03:39]
19. White Zombie – Eighty-Eight [03:47]
20. Beat Happening – Indian Summer [03:03]
21. Toms – (I Wanna Be A) Teen Again [04:00]

CD4 – 90s
1. Codeine – Pea (Acoustic) [03:33]
2. Beat Happening – Fortune Cookie Prize [03:46]
3. Codeine – JR (Dessau Demo) [03:21]
4. Beat Happening – Teenage Caveman [04:35]
5. Codeine – Tom (Dessau Demo) [04:16]
6. Bedhead – The Unpredictable Landlord [04:21]
7. Long Hind Legs – Open Wide [03:10]
8. Super Static Fever – Lovely Kill Smile [03:58]
9. Unwound – Totality [03:06]
10. Noise Addict – Pop Queen [01:47]
11. Blonde Redhead – Sciuri Sciura [03:22]
12. Noise Addict – Body Scrabs & Bizzos [01:28]
13. Blonde Redhead – (I am Taking Out My Eurotrash) I Still Get [03:40]
14. Unwound – Here Come the Dogs [02:07]
15. Blonde Redhead – Swing Pool [04:10]
16. Blonde Redhead – U.F.O. [05:34]
17. Bedhead – The Dark Ages [05:26]
18. Unwound – Corpse Pose [03:05]
19. Bedhead – What’s Missing [03:48]
20. Bedhead – More Than Ever [04:17]
21. Beat Happening – Angel Gone [03:12]

Since 1999, Atlanta’s Dust-To-Digital has stayed true to their mission “to produce high-quality, cultural artifacts.” This four-disc set of field recordings by expatriate writer, composer, and translator Paul Bowles is no exception.
In 1972, the Library of Congress issued a double LP from Bowles’ landmark 1959 journey across most regions of Morocco, recording professional and amateur musicians alike. Financed by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the trip was made in five different jaunts and in 22 villages and towns. It netted 250 performances on some 65 hours of tape. It is a legendary document. It was the only one of its kind until 2002 when the Moroccan Ministry of Culture issued a limited edition of the Anthologie de la Musique Marocaine, a 31-CD set…

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…(eventually expanded to 66 discs).

Bowles recorded performances public and private, some captured by happenstance, others formally organized, and still others arranged by the Moroccan government. Some were done merely for the sake of capturing the sound of certain instruments, many were for the purpose of providing evidence of an unfathomably large musical landscape and diverse culture Bowles believed to be in the process of being destroyed by modernity. Sound itself was paramount in his world and informed all of his work no matter the discipline. That, along with the “hypnotic” character he loved so dearly in Moroccan music, is what is best represented. Evidence of the latter is more prevalent here than it was on the original albums. (To present as much of what he recorded as possible in the LP format, performances — many 10-15 minutes in length — had to be edited greatly.)

This is not the work of an ethnomusicologist. Notes are not as detailed as they should be, and Bowles reveals his own preferences and prejudices. None of that diminishes the importance of this music because Bowles was the first to document these sounds for general release.

Philip D. Schuyler compiled and produced this greatly expanded collection with complete approval of the author, who died in 1999. It contains 31 tracks instead of 26. It does not follow the original running order, but does adhere to the broad classifications of Berber and non-Berber music on the album. It contains complete performances, not edits. Bowles also made one addition: “El Fjer (Tangier): Early Morning Calls to Prayer” on disc four sums up his M.O. nicely. Recorded at night, it contains the sounds of people, roosters, dogs, and a passing truck. The expanded performances of the music provide listeners with a sense of what Bowles heard in them: A vehicle for hypnosis by sound. Raw, immediate, sometimes jarring, they contain small timbral differences in their cyclic nature, serving to draw listeners almost inescapably into their world.

Schuyler offers a detailed, lengthy, historical and musicological essay, and Bowles’ original notes are included with annotations from the producer. Maps and diagrams are provided from the journey, as are photographs. Music of Morocco: Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959 is kinetic, vibrant, problematic, and artfully presented for the ages — just as it should be.

Hospital Productions parade a rogues gallery of extreme souls commissioned to compose original, durational ambient pieces in opposition to contemporary definitions of that sound. The term ‘ambient’ is thrown around without much care these days, a catch-all for anything pertaining to quiet – silence- and space. This project attempts to create a cascading layer of what ambient can be: a negative-space composition that’s a little harder to define, offering a parallax view that shifts with perception and perspective.
On the first tape Alessandro Cortini pursues the electro-acoustic spectres of his Forse volumes and the Sonno / Risveglio couplet with an hour of new music spiralling down foggy alleys of primitivist, viscous drone and collapsing banks…

320 kbps | 391 MB  UL | MC ** FLAC

…of curdling, atonal synth noise. It’s the most unsettling work yet from Cortini, tentatively stepping through those comforting analogue recordings into a world gradually consumed by noise and dissonance. If it offers us any clues as to where he might head next – it’s a tantalising prospect.

Kevin Drumm’s “Middle Of Nothing” album on the second tape returns to the hugely influential tone set by his landmark Imperial Distortion album, a record often compared to Aphex Twin’s “Selected Ambient Works Vol.II”. Here he makes a glacial transition from a glowing orb drone fed through unsettling subharmonics that slowly consume their surroundings, whilst the other side flirts with a more tranquil variant that ebbs and undulates with a barely perceptible pulse – that thing that Drumm does like no other.

Lussuria takes the 3rd tape with “Indigo Window Along Those Steps”, committing his first new music since his brilliant Industriale Illuminato album from 2014. Spread across 6 tracks he tackles a shimmering, cinematic variant designed as a suite rather than single, unbroken tracks. The result is the most evocative and optimistic of the contributions here, gently sloping topographies intersecting noirish giallo themes, 4th world tones and layered organ drones. We’re huge fans of Lussuria’s work – if you have never heard any of his music before – this is a really good place to start.

The last tape is the most tantalising prospect of all – a proper full-length collaboration between Regis and Prurient, and, for our 2p, the best of the lot. Tantamount to a staring match between two singular producers, side A’s Family Configuration is perhaps best defined by what they left out, working at lip-biting levels of tension pregnant with a dread that never fully reveals itself, whilst the B-side’s The Eternal Laws assuages that anticipation with a slowly breathtaking scene of arcing, silvery harmonics underpinned by oily subs and serrated guitar jabs with an aching sense of restraint…

A – Alessandro Cortini – Callimaco
B – Alessandro Cortini – Ligurio
C – Kevin Drumm – Part I
D – Kevin Drumm – Part II
E1 – Lussuria – To Sleep With Crones & To Accept Their Jealousy
E2 – Lussuria – Vermillion Eyes
E3 – Lussuria – The Mondrian Part II
E4 – Lussuria – God In Their Mouths
E5 – Lussuria – Intaglio
F1 – Lussuria – The Universal Cross
F2 – Lussuria – Indigo Widow Along Those Steps
F3 – Lussuria – Serpentine Labyrinth
F4 – Lussuria – Monolith Crystallizes The Heart
G – Regis & Prurient – Family Configuration
H – Regis & Prurient – The Eternal Laws