Following on the heels of the documentary film of the same name that covered the lively post-punk era in Scotland, Big Gold Dreams widens the scope and digs deeper than the film did. The five-disc set covers the years 1977 to 1989 and charts the winners, losers, oddballs, and geniuses who helped shape one of the more intriguing and rewarding music scenes of its age.
The first disc mostly shows how the Scots reacted to the punk explosion and gathers up all sorts of rough-hewn gems that blend manic energy and huge pop hooks. Tracks like the Rezillos’ “I Can’t Stand My Baby,” the Freeze’s “Paranoia,” and Bee Bee Cee’s “You Gotta Know Girl” proved that there were plenty of bands around the country making first-rate punk-pop. Once that groundwork was laid, bands started shooting off in all sorts of interesting directions. Disc two captures a wide range of sounds that stretch from the goth goofiness of Altered Images to the bombastic art pop of the Associates, and the arch artiness of Josef K to the stuttering lo-fi synth pop of Thomas Leer.

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There’s a nice mix of well-known artists and obscurities here and through the rest of the set; half the joy of working through the tracks is finding gems like the Delmontes’ “Tous Les Soir” or APB’s immense dance-punk floor-filler “Palace Filled with Love.”

The next three discs follow a similarly diverse course, but a couple strands start to come into focus with the jangly introspective pop of Creation Records bands like Jasmine Minks and Biff Bang Pow, the noisy clatter of post-C86 bands like Shop Assistants and the Vaselines, and the sophisticated sound of post-Postcard artists like Paul Quinn and the Orchids helping to shape much of what people think of when they think of the country’s music. Of course, there is still a lot of ground to cover outside those areas, and the compilation does a really fine job sorting and presenting lesser-known songs by big bands like the Cocteau Twins, Aztec Camera, and the Waterboys; left-field gold like the High Bees’ lilting ballad “Some Indulgence” or the Church Grims’ chiming chamber pop miniature “Think Like a Girl”; and forgotten classics like Edwyn Collins’ brilliant slice of big pop “Don’t Shilly Shally” or Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes’ great “The Adam Faith Experience.”

Even without any tracks by Orange Juice, Big Gold Dreams paints a picture of Scotland as an underground pop music paradise. Listeners could drop in anywhere on any of the discs and find a string of songs guaranteed to bring a smile to their face, a lump to the throat, or a swelling heart. It’s a well-chosen, carefully annotated collection made both for people who were there and want a trip down memory lane and for a newcomer looking to do some serious exploring. Either one will come away glad they took the time to take this deep dive into some of the best music ever made.

As part of their 20 th Anniversary celebrations, Strut present the first new volume in their pioneering ‘Nigeria 70’ series for over 8 years, bringing together rare highlife, Afro-funk and juju from the ‘70s and early ‘80s. Compiled by collector and DJ Duncan Brooker, this new selection of tracks is receiving its first international release outside of Nigeria.
The compilation returns to a fertile heyday in Nigerian music when established styles like highlife and juju became infused with elements of Western jazz, soul and funk and musicians brought a proud new message post-independence. Brooker places the spotlight particularly on some of the incredible Ukwuani musicians from the Delta State region as guitarist Rogana Ottah and…

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…Steady Arobby’s International Brothers Band forged their own fluid brand of highlife and soulman Don Bruce drew on the US R&B greats for a series of great albums and explosive stage shows at his residency at Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

Elsewhere, the album explores the close connection between Nigeria and Benin’s music, most famously through Sir Victor Uwaifo, appearing here with a killer mid-‘80s ekassa jam, as well as highlife hitmaker Osayamore Joseph on ‘Obonogbozu’ (Joseph made headlines in Nigeria for very different reasons in 2017, surviving a one month kidnapping ordeal).

Other tracks include ‘Sickness’ a 1979 lament on how all countries share troubles by Prince Nico Mbarga, the Nigerian / Camerounian star behind the smash hit ‘Sweet Mother’; reggae singer Felixson Ngasia switches to funk and disco for a heavy workout with potent lyrics around black identity; another major highlife great Etubom Rex Williams unleashes a punchy psych funk gem with ‘Psychedelic Shoes’ and Africa 70 member Pax Nicholas vocals a simmering Afrobeat groove from Jacob Lee’s Saxon Lee & The Shadows International Band. — strut.bandcamp.com

Bobby Bland, King Curtis, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Joe Tex, Johnny Cash, Solomon Burke, Merle Haggard, Jackie DeShannon, James Carr… these are just a few of the many musical heavyweights whose recordings have been embellished by the talents of Reggie Young, Memphis and Nashville’s most versatile and in-demand session guitarist. They’re all here on this CD overview of Reggie’s six-decade career, along with 14 other prime examples of his uncanny ability to play exactly to a song’s requirements while at the same time leaving his own indelible stamp.
Session Guitar Star shows Reggie completely at home in all the various genres that have provided top class material for so many Ace LPs and CDs for the best part of 40 years.

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…

One of the “Memphis Boys” of American Studios, Young’s instrument graced six decades’ worth of recordings from music’s biggest stars.  Ace previously addressed many beloved tunes (including Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” and King Curtis’ “Memphis Soul Stew”) on 2012’s Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios, but as this compilation demonstrates, there was still plenty to go around.

Young’s career as a professional guitarist began in 1954, and Session Guitar Star begins its not-quite-chronological journey two years later with the rockabilly of Eddie Bond and His Stompers’ “Slip, Slip, Slippin’ In,” with Young leading the song and contributing two impressive solos.  But Young wasn’t destined to remain a Stomper forever.  While playing on the road with Johnny Horton, he was drafted into the U.S. military.  Upon completion of his service, he chose to concentrate on session work, adapting to every style necessary.  This set, compiled by Bob Dunham and Reggie himself, displays his versatility from the get-go.  As a member of Bill Black’s Combo, Young aped Chuck Berry on Black’s cover of the superstar’s “Carol.”  As one-half of Jerry and Reggie with drummer Jerry “Satch” Arnold, Young reinvented Roy Orbison’s “Dream Baby” in high-energy fashion.  Supporting Bobby Bland in the studio, the guitarist brought more than “A Touch of the Blues” to Bland’s torrid track.

Young would, of course, be known for his southern soul sound which crystallized at Chips Moman’s American Studios.  Young came to American following time at Hi Records’ Royal Studio, becoming one quarter of the original rhythm section with Tommy Cogbill (bass/guitar), Gene Chrisman (drums), and Bobby Emmons (keyboards).  Numerous American treasures are featured here, including The Box Tops’ cover of Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On” (helmed by Dan Penn), Solomon Burke’s slow, thunderous “Meet Me in Church,” and King Curtis and The King Pins’ R&B groover “In the Pocket,” an instrumental showcasing the tight interplay between Young and his musical brothers as he answers the horn section and deftly supports Curtis’ lead saxophone.  For sensuality and soul, few titles could compare with Dusty Springfield’s masterwork Dusty in Memphis, from which Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s cool, imploring “Don’t Forget About Me” (featuring Reggie on prominent electric guitar) has been culled.   Jackie DeShannon’s Jackie was helmed by the same production team of Tom Dowd, Jerry Wexler, and Arif Mardin; Jackie’s bright, earthy reinterpretation of Van Morrison’s “I Wanna Roo You” was a highlight of the 1972 album and remains so here.

Ace also has recognized the most high-profile artist to walk through the doors of American, one Elvis Aron Presley.  “Stranger in My Own Home Town” wasn’t one of the hit singles from the Elvis sessions (i.e. “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Kentucky Rain”) but it’s a superlative choice, with Young playing the same electric sitar he employed on tracks like B.J. Thomas’ “Hooked on a Feeling” and The Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby.”  Young would be called to other studios, too; he joined the smoking band for James Carr’s impassioned “More Love,” a slice of deep-soul balladry recorded at Sam Phillips’ studio for the small yet mighty indie, Goldwax Records.

Not long after, pianist Bobby Wood and bassist Mike Leech joined the group.  Young would remain in their ranks until 1972 when he relocated to Nashville’s Quadrafonic Sound Studios.  By the end of the decade, Moman had opened a new studio there, and one by one, the “Memphis Boys” reunited in Music City.  One of Young’s biggest Nashville hits came early in his stay there: Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” from 1973.  His introduction to the song has become inextricably linked with it, re-played by countless imitators.  (Bob Dunham helpfully points out in his notes that when Reggie revisited the song with its author, Mentor Williams, as artist, he completely altered his guitar parts.)

Ace captures the period in which Young’s supple, fluid lines graced many country-flavored recordings including “Rock n’ Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life)” from Sonny Curtis who did give years to rock-and-roll as lead singer of the post-Buddy Holly Crickets, not to mention as author of “I Fought the Law” and “Walk Right Back,” just to name two.  Delbert McClinton’s “Victim of Life’s Circumstances” and Billy Swan’s “Lover Please” found Young and his old cohorts in rollicking mode.  One of the best cuts from this era is 1976’s “Morning Glory” from James and Bobby Purify, with Young complementing a Chicago-esque horn chart.  One of the more atypical tracks is J.J. Cale’s “Cocaine,” famously covered by Cale friend and supporter Eric Clapton, with Young adding effectively spiky fills.

The 1980s saw Young playing on records from country royalty, like Merle Haggard’s chart-topping “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink” and Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson’s rendition of Jimmy Webb’s cosmic opus “Highwayman,” the name of which the quartet adopted for their supergroup.  A Jennings solo track has also been selected, 1987’s uptempo “Where Do We Go from Here,” featuring an extended instrumental jam.  Reggie Young kept recording up until his death; from this decade, Session Guitar Star has pulled Natalie Merchant’s 2010 “Griselda” featuring Young, Bobby Emmons, Mike Leech, Bobby Wood, and Gene Chrisman doing their thing much as they did in the 1960s as only they could, creating a smoking backdrop for Merchant’s distinctive vocals and insinuating brass. — SecondDisc

1. Eddie Bond & His Stompers – Slip, Slip, Slippin’ In [02:03]
2. Bill Black’s Combo – Carol [02:07]
3. Bobby Bland – A Touch of the Blues [03:16]
4. Jerry & Reggie – Dream Baby [02:08]
5. The Box Tops – I’m Movin’ On [03:45]
6. Willie Mitchell – The Champion Part 1 [02:13]
7. Solomon Burke – Meet Me in Church [03:30]
8. Joe Tex – Chicken Crazy [03:25]
9. King Curtis & the King Pins – In the Pocket [02:37]
10. James Carr – More Love [02:37]
11. Dusty Springfield – Don’t Forget About Me [02:46]
12. Elvis Presley – Stranger in My Own Home Town [04:20]
13. Jackie De Shannon – I Wanna Roo You [03:03]
14. Dobie Gray – Drift Away [03:52]
15. Sonny Curtis – Rock ‘N’ Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life) [03:57]
16. Delbert McClinton – Victim of Life’s Circumstances [02:19]
17. Billy Swan – Lover Please [02:46]
18. James & Bobby Purify – Morning Glory [02:28]
19. J.J. Cale – Cocaine [02:50]
20. Merle Haggard – I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink [04:27]
21. The Highwaymen – Highwayman [03:00]
22. Natalie Merchant – Griselda [05:43]
23. Little Milton – Whenever You Come Around [04:06]
24. Waylon Jennings – Where Do We Go from Here [04:48]

One of the more satisfying aspects of this collection is its symmetrical design, with a guitar concerto framed by two violin-centered settings and the trio bookended by two three-movement works, one featuring clarinet and the other piano. On this fine addition to the Navona catalogue, the Croatian Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Miran Vaupotic, and five respective soloists bring to vivid life concertos by contemporary composers Michael G. Cunningham, Rain Worthington, Ssu-Yu Huang, Bruce Reiprich, and Beth Mehocic. In these emotionally encompassing pieces, turbulent passages regularly alternate with less unsettling episodes characterized by warmth and nostalgia.
Cunningham’s Clarinet Concerto establishes a dramatic and somewhat dark tone for…

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…the recording, with clarinetist Bruno Philipp accompanied by the non-string sections of the orchestra. Opening urgently, “Dithyramb” inaugurates the work with aggressive horn statements that set the stage for Philipp’s entrance. A rather Berg-like dissonance adds to the brooding character of the movement as the agile soloist darts amidst the equally fast-shifting backdrop; “Lithe” then brings the volume down without diminishing the work’s acerbic tone, after which “Charivari” reinstates the faster pace of the opening with five minutes of churning rhythms and sombre clarinet expressions.

At the tail end, pianist Charlene Farrugia performs a concerto written in 1974 when Beth Mehocic was a twenty-one-year-old senior at Youngstown State University but which subsequently was set aside when her graduate school instructors deemed it “too conventional” (this occurred during a period when avant-garde experimentalism was at its height). Now dusted off and updated slightly by the composer, the eighteen-minute setting ends the release on a triumphant note. In an unabashedly tonal work that follows convention in framing aggressive movements with the restraint of a graceful “Lento,” Farrugia’s grand gestures are matched in exuberance by robust percussion and the orchestra’s strings, woodwinds, and brass.

As credible as the opening and closing works are, the three central ones leave a greater mark, attributable in part to the impact a single-movement work can exert when its power is concentrated into a single statement. Rain Worthington’s In Passages is given a stunning reading by violinist Mojca Ramušcak and the Croatian Chamber Orchestra’s strings. Effected as ongoing interplay between the soloist and string section, the material exudes tenderness as Ramušcak alternates between foreground and background, the standard approach of the soloist positioned at the forefront rejected in favour of something more daring. Paralleling the ebb and flow of emotional states, the two instrumental components move fluidly back and forth, the result a sonic organism as unpredictable in its unfolding as human experience.

Written after a move by the composer to a foreign country, Ssu-Yu Huang’s Guitar Concerto No. 1 (Remembrance of Hometown) naturally exudes nostalgia, and, in fact, during the fifteen-minute work the guitar voices a motif from the Hengchun folksong “Nostalgia.” After a solo intro by Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues, the orchestra emerges to complicate the classical guitarist’s expression of homesickness with agitated passages that perhaps mirror the emotional turbulence wrought by relocation and the ambivalence a person experiences in reflecting on the decision to move. Rodrigues is a refined, expressive presence throughout, but the orchestral colour generated by many different instrument voices, oboe, flute, and trumpet among them, is just as pivotal to the work’s effect.

At six minutes, Bruce Reiprich’s harmonically lush Lullaby is the recording’s shortest setting, but its brevity makes it no less affecting, especially when Goran Koncar’s the violinist involved. Composed in 2002 to celebrate the birth of a friend’s child, the piece is suitably lyrical, with the composer evoking the wonder of new birth in the writing’s uplifting spirit and stirring coda. All five of the recording’s dynamic works have much to recommend them on formal grounds, but it’s their emotional effects, so powerfully instantiated by Reiprich’s piece, that register as memorably. — Textura

German electronic music label Kompakt is no stranger to annual curated compilations. So far it had Total, curated by Michael Meyer which presents new label talent mostly concentrating on house music, while the brilliant Pop Ambient series curated by Wolfgang Voit, usually presents the best selection of ambient tracks around.
Now, the label has decided to open another series titled Velvet Desert Music curated by Jörg Burger also known as The Modernist, and a few other aliases. Again it concentrates on the artists that are in some way connected to Kompakt, or have in some way influenced the music of their artists, at the same time retaining the concept of including only unreleased tracks or different mixes.
Based on the first volume, what the additional…

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…twist in the concept for Velvet Desert Music seems to be, is to include as diverse musical influences as possible, and Burger certainly has his head filled with quite a few diverse sounds. At least four tracks come from him or his aliases and they rank among the better stuff on the album, particularly the acoustically/jazzed-up tinges of “Magic Lantern (Velvet Edit)” and slowed down psych tones of “Memphisto”.

The rest of the material ranges from the very mellow (in the best manner) opener of Terrapin’s “Cirrus Minor (The Black Flame Extract)”, through the Krautrock shades of Can in Cologne Tape’s “Welt 10 (Jörg Burger Mix)” and Paulor’s “Arrival” to Rebolledo & The Novotones’ shades of Ennio Morricone on “Mountain Eagle (The Black Frame Desert Mix)” and Sascha Funke & Cosmo Vitelli’s minimal techno of “Botzaris”.

Although it might sound a bit too disparate and hard to swallow, it actually works as a coherent musical concept contrary to all odds, indicating that it was probably quite a painstaking process for Burger to make everything work together. Yet another promising series from Kompakt.

Soul Jazz Records present this new collection of music from the great Fashion Records, one of the most important and iconic independent reggae labels to come out of the UK, and which ran from 1980 for nearly 20 years.
In that time Fashion released hundreds of records that successfully reflected, and indeed set, the changing styles and perspectives of reggae music in the UK – from UK dancehall and lovers rock in the 1980s through to the mighty rise of jungle in the second half of the 1990s.
While nearly all other UK reggae labels focused on releasing Jamaican music – from the early days of Island and Trojan in the 1960s, through Island and Virgin in the 1970s, and Greensleeves that came up in the 1980s – Fashion’s focus was…

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…firmly on music produced in the UK. This unique British perspective shaped both lyrical content and musical fashion. And like all the great music labels – from Studio One to Blue Note – Fashion was able to create a significant roster of its own artists.

Amazingly for a small independent label, a number of Fashion artists achieved mainstream UK chart and crossover success – including Laurel & Hardy, Smiley Culture and General Levy. But although this success was welcomed, crossing over into the mainstream was never the main focus for the label owners Chris Lane and John McGillivray (who also runs the successful Dub Vendor record shop) whose starting point was alwaysprimarily focused on producing quality music first.

In the early 1980s, Fashion Records captured the rise of the emerging British dancehall scene in its ascendency. The large roster of first generation British-born artists and MCs on the label – including General Levy, Papa Face, Smiley Culture, Bionic Rhona, Asher Senator, Laurel & Hardy, Top Cat and many more – often gave a unique and sometimes humorous British lyrical perspective to Fashion releases, discussing everyday subjects, from police harassment to road safety!

Throughout much of the 1980s and into the 1990s Fashion continued to release an almost relentless array of UK dancehall releases as well as continuing with lovers rock, and the occasional dub releases. Then, in the mid-90s, with the dancehall and reggae releases still coming on strong, Fashion released a superb series of early jungle tracks linking Jamaican and British MCs and dancehall artists with young jungle mixers, re-mixers and producers. By this time dancehall artists General Levy and Cutty Ranks had become the staple vocal samples of literally hundreds of white label jungle records and Fashion took advantage of this, often getting young producers to work in exchange for sample clearances – don’t get mad, get even!

Britain wasn’t on its own in having a thoroughly miserable 1973: O Lucky Man! and Badlands both found a great year to premiere; Watergate brought America to a new low. But America didn’t still have back-to-backs and outside bogs. Tens of thousands of Britons were still housed in wartime pre-fabs. The bright new colours of the post-war Festival of Britain and Harold Wilson’s talk in the ’60s of the “white heat of technology” now seemed very distant as strikes, inflation, and food and oil shortages laid Britain low. What had gone wrong? And what did pop music have to say about it?
Many of the year’s biggest acts had set out on their particular journeys in the most idealistic years of the ’60s (Yes, Genesis, the Moody Blues) and still held traces of that era’s promise.

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For acts such as Bowie and Roxy Music who had emerged in the new decade, one way out of the British malaise was to look into the future, embracing modernism and the space age beyond, a world of electric boots and mohair suits. Another was to draw heavily on the revered 50s, retreating to rock’s unsullied roots while remaining ostensibly current – Wizzard, Mott The Hoople and even the Rubettes managed to reshape the 50s to their own ends, much as Springsteen did in the States, although beyond them lay Showaddywaddy, Shakin’ Stevens, and a sickly nosedive into nostalgic yearning.

This left a small rump of acts diligently soundtracking Britain’s present, not with a wagging finger but a fuzzy guitar, a primitive synthesiser, and a pitch-black sense of humour. Quite often these records were cut in home studios – many featured the same basic synth (just the one) that Roxy’s Eno and Hawkwind’s DikMik used; the guitarists still played blues progressions picked up from the Stones; and they sometimes touched on glam – the era’s brightest, newest noise – found inspiration in its disposability and its energy, but didn’t have the luxury of a Chinn and Chapman or a Mickie Most to sprinkle fairy dust on their final mix. And outside the studio door were the strikes, the cuts, economic chaos, teenage wasteland – these musicians created music that, intentionally or not, echoed their surroundings. It wasn’t glam, but it emerged from what Robin Carmody has called “the glamour of defeat, the glory of obliteration”.

The songs on “Three Day Week” amplified the noise of a country still unable to forget the war, even as it watched the progressive post-war consensus disintegrating. We hear shrugs and cynicism, laughter through gritted teeth. Comparing it to the richness of records made just five or six years earlier, you might think musical instruments had been rationed, and that everyone has one eye on the clock, cutting corners to get the recording finished before the next power cut. You picture engineers in donkey jackets, with a brazier by the mixing desk. You hear odd electronic explosions, quacks and squiggles. The pub piano is predominant, with its brown ale, Blitz-spirit, grin-and-bear-it jollity. And under many of these tracks is a barely concealed frustration (sexualised on the Troggs’ ‘I’m On Fire’) and even anger (how else to read ‘Urban Guerrilla’, or the howling and the hand grenade at the end of Stud Leather’s ‘Cut Loose’?). Think of “Three Day Week” as an extended, musical Play For Today.

The Three Day Week itself – which only lasted eight weeks, but was the nadir of a four-year-long depression – had been a result of the Tory government’s limit on pay rises in October 1973 and the miners strike that followed. Back at the start of 1972 the miners had struck for higher pay and won, averting Prime Minister Edward Heath’s threat to introduce a three day week in manufacturing and industry to hold on to energy reserves. By late 1973, though, the miners had slipped from top of the industrial wages league to 18th. Amid strikes by civil servants, medical staff, railway and dock workers, the miners went on strike again. The Three Day Week proper lasted from New Year’s Day to 7 March 1974. TV shut down at 10:30. Power cuts and blackouts in homes across Britain meant the sales of candles and torches soared. Old soldiers tutted. The Army were on standby. And, nine months later, there was a spike in the birth rate.

For the younger generation, however, the Three Day Week is not remembered as a period of woe. Power cuts were fun! Who wouldn’t like the idea of a three day week? More time to play! It was also easy for kids to confuse pop culture and politics when the Prime Minister was Ted Heath and the leader of Britain’s biggest union, the TGWU, was Jack Jones. Even the TUC’s leader Vic Feather sounded like the bassist from a RAK act. There is also the folk memory of the period being a high-water mark for the power of trade unions, who seemingly always struck for higher pay and won, a dreamtime for many on the left. The second miners strike brought down the Tory government – what a time to be alive! Margaret Thatcher was only education secretary at this point, the hated “milk snatcher”, and no one had a crystal ball to see what the Tory reaction might be several years down the line.

The records on this collection were almost all released as 45s, sent to shops in cost-cutting plain white paper bags, and – thanks to the oil shortage caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict – pressed on thinner vinyl than you’d have had ten years earlier. On every level, they felt as if they were being recorded and released under wartime restrictions. Many of these tracks were B-sides, recorded in haste, with no commercial forethought or relevance to the A-side, because, as Peter Shelley recalls, “You’d made the wild assumption that no one would ever play it”.

Why did the music end up sounding this way? There had been a general sense of decline in Britain since the turn of the decade – not only in industry but in film, art, fashion, and in people’s expectations. You could trace its roots further back to 1968, when the collapse of the Ronan Point tower block in East London sounded a death knell for modernist dreams. Or to 1967, a year for which Swinging London has prevailed in popular memory over Cathy Come Home, but which should be remembered for the devaluation of the pound and the capital’s nationalistic dock strikes as much as Alexandra Palace’s 14 Hour Technicolour Dream. By 1972, everything new – be it a brick wall or a terylene suit – was a shade of brown or orange, and the smell of sweat and odour-hugging man-made fabrics (not only clothes but carpets and curtains) was dominant. The worsted mills of Bradford and cotton mills of Manchester were fast disappearing, and the mix of wet wool, chimney smoke and boiled cabbage that Shena Mackay recalled being London’s olfactory default in the 60s had been replaced by weeks-old fag smoke, BO, and something plasticky you couldn’t put your finger on.

Few of the songs on “Three Day Week” are politically direct: the Edgar Broughton Band had been Ladbroke Grove rabble rousers at the tail end of the 60s, but their ambitions sound entirely blunted on the monochrome hopelessness of ‘Homes Fit For Heroes’; Phil Cordell’s ‘Londonderry’ is diffuse, but it was an odd place to single out for a song title in 1973; Pheon Bear appears to be losing the will to live even as he shouts himself hoarse on ‘War Against War’. The ambivalence of the Strawbs on ‘Part Of The Union’ – a #2 hit – is entirely in keeping with the pub humour and shrugging cynicism of the era. So there is a little agitation here, but there is plenty of gleeful irreverence. One more drink? What have we got to lose? The government’s on its knees and we might all be out of work tomorrow. Quick, somebody, get on the piano before the lights go out again. — acerecords.co.uk

Pay attention to the subtitle of Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present State of the Union: The American Dream in Crisis 1967-1973. That phrase hints at the turmoil in the United States as the Summer of Love rolled into a violent, turbulent 1968 and the country as a whole began to take stock of Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, and the legacy of the hippie dream. Stanley and Wiggs document this shift by focusing on establishment artists reckoning with all of these changes, usually with the assistance of strings and warped echoes of psychedelia. What makes State of the Union such a compelling listen — and important historical document — is that the 24 featured artists are divided between accidental tourists, pandering pop stars, and genuine works of art.

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Often, the line separating these divisions is a little blurry, particularly on Roy Orbison’s melodramatic epic “Southbound Jericho Parkway,” a winding mini-suite whose darkness pales in comparison to the Everly Brothers’ genuinely unsettling “Lord of the Manor.” Such extreme swings in tone and style are smoothed over by the fact that all of these selections are big-budget productions, bearing layers of orchestration, studio players, and backing vocals; even when the subject is uneasy, it’s music for the easy listening market. What’s astonishing about State of the Union is how it reveals that these adult-oriented songs could be as spacy as the underground — or, failing that, they offer their own mind-altering trip, such as Bing Crosby pondering a post-space age future on “What Do We Do with the World?” Individually, some of the selections could be classified as camp — this is especially true of covers of pop hits, such as Mel Tormé’s version of R.B. Greaves’ “Take a Letter Maria” and the Brothers Four’s sweet, soft take on the Beatles’ “Revolution” — but when presented as a whole, they amount to a prime piece of pop archaeology.

John Cage spent some of the summer of 1983 tracing the outlines of 15 stones onto paper. He was inspired to do so by the Ryoanji Temple rock garden, set in a rectangular landscape of raked sand, in Kyoto, Japan. During this time, the composer began writing a piece based on this contour-tracing method. Each musician was meant to choose one sound to play for the piece’s duration, independent from the other players, and then play in “Korean unison.” (Cage explained that this meant “the practice of playing the same thing but not at precisely the same time.”) There is no mention of Cage in the jargony statement that accompanies Cipher, the first compilation by the experimental party and label c.a.n.v.a.s. But the prompts given to the artists here…

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…—to compose collaboratively, to compose graphically, and to compose with the Ryoanji garden in mind—contain traces of key Cageian practices.

Flora Yin-Wong uses this final prompt to construct “Murmures,” the compilation’s second track. This stark composition balances delicacy and darkness by weaving airy bells, wind chimes and a string instrument that sounds barely grazed by the hand playing it. It then flips to a lower register with a few bass notes, along with a deep and artificial whirring sound. The effect is of a peace akin to enjoying the breeze despite knowing it will rain soon. Michael Speers riffs on the same Ryoanji prompt to more discordant ends with “îË |I O Æ B.” A single, steady note over crackling white noise begins to resemble the nagging tone my car makes when I’ve forgotten to put my seatbelt on. Vague anxiety dissolves into foam when the song turns toward ASMR, invoking unnameable sounds that feel as if they are tickling the inside of my mind. At this point, one might feel firmly situated in this strange garden. If Yin-Wong’s “Murmures” gives the atmosphere of a physical environment, Speers’ track provided the interior experience.

Cipher‘s midpoint begins to stray from the out-of-body mood. Following the prompt to collaborate, Ashley Paul and Olan Monk began by texting each other fragments of work to construct their respective songs. But the banal synth lines of Monk’s track is a particularly jarring departure from the compilation’s aesthetic. A conceptual project might not aim for aesthetic consistency, but “Seph” seems sealed off from the rest of Cipher. The compilation veers back into its lane with object blue’s meditation on Ryoanji, “Fourteen Boulders, Fifteen Stones.” Banging on the uppermost octave of a piano has never sounded so good. I long to hear this light-footed track dropped in a bass-heavy set, so off-kilter, deceptively delicate and enjoyably weird. This gentle avalanche was made by allowing the algorithms and sequences to work on their own, in a sense letting the sand fall where it may without forcing an all-encompassing vision or design. And although it’s not an algorithm’s song, Ben Vince’s “Fading In Panoramic” sounds like automatic free jazz. It’s both noisy and fun.

The compilation’s structure doesn’t suit its intent to resist “the codification of music” and questioning “the hegemony of authorship.” By piggybacking onto Cage’s experiments, it tries to insert itself into a specific canon of minimalism from a few decades past. But just because the concept is flimsy doesn’t mean the works aren’t beautiful. Each is a freeform creation that might be appreciated individually. I’m reminded of the Japanese tradition of appreciating suiseki, stones that are naturally shaped by the elements in strange and subtle ways to become objects for contemplation. Listening to much of this album for what it is, without getting caught up in what it wanted to be, ends up being a much more rewarding experience. — residentadvisor.net

Few label founders loom as large in the history of underground music as P.S.F Record’s Hideo Ikeezumi. Over three decades and more than 200 titles, Ikeezumi’s intensely critical ear guided and assembled a body of music that transcended genre; he exclusively championed artists that were uncompromising in their visions, unconcerned with trends or commercial success.
This compilation, selected by Ghost’s Masaki Batoh, is a primer of Ikeezumi’s curation: a kaleidoscopic collection of previously unreleased gems from the Japanese Underground. Running the full stylistic gamut from the hushed tones of Kim Doo Soo and Go Hirano to the psychedelic rock splendour of Overhang Party and High Rise this set connects the dots between generations and movements…

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…all linked by the common thread of Ikeezumi’s panoramic musical vision. The most original voices in the avant garde, psychedelia, folk, free jazz and rock all found a home with P.S.F. Records.

1. Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. – Pink Lady Lemonade (9:12)
2. Kazuo Imai – Delay 160715 (10:04)
3. Maher Shalal Hash Baz – ikeezumi-san (10:52)
4. .es – Akatsuki No Uta (12:23)
5. Kim Doo Soo – Wild Flower (4:23)
6. Keiji Haino – Tozakariwashinai (9:27)
7. Overhang Party – Now Appearing! Naked Existence” (7:15)
8. á qui avec Gabriel – has come (8:55)
9. Shizuka – Lunatic Pearl (6:01)
10. Masayoshi Urabe – Alto Saxophone Solo (7:02)
11. High Rise – Outside Gentiles (5:25)
12. Che-Shizu – “Emperor”, “Notify” (7:45)
13. Fushitsusha – Omae (6:50)
14. White Heaven – Out (5:45)
15. Keiko Higuchi – Nothing Is Real 002 (7:14)
17. Makoto Kawashima – Madokarano Kagayaki (4:09)
18. Niseaporia – Sora No Ao Ni Somazu Utau (10:36)
19. Ghost – Blue Link (5:45)
20. Go Hirano – For Rains (5:26)
21. Hasegawa – Low Blues (7:45)
22. Hideaki Kondo – Bach: Sonata #1 In G Minor For Solo Violin, BWV 1001 – 1. Adagio (3:56)

1. The Contours – The Stretch
2. Marv Johnson with the Band of Harold “Beans” Bowles – Once Upon a Time
3. The Miracles – Got a Job
4. The Ohio Untouchables – Love Is Amazing
5. Briant Holland – (Where’s the Joy?) In Nature Boy
6. Betty Lavette – Witchcraft in the Air
7. Sax Kari feat Ella Reed – Sweet Man
8. The Primettes – Tears of Sorrow
9. The Majestics – Hard Times
10. The Isley Brothers – Shout (Part One)
11. The Falcons – This Heart of Mine
12. Temptations – Check Yourself
13. Nolan Strong & the Diablos – Since You’re Gone
14. Jackie Wilson – To Be Loved
15. Gino Parks – Last Night I Cried

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Mojo May 2019 edition (#306)

After last year’s excellent Punk and New Wave box set, broadcaster and DJ Gary Crowley has turned his attention to the 1980s, by curating a new four-CD and 3LP package called Gary Crowley’s Lost 80s.
As you might expect, this package isn’t the normal 80s compilation with images of Rubik’s Cube and Pac Man on the front, and the oh so familiar big hits, rather this is a trip through the decade via some lesser-known songs. Alongside quirky selections from the catalogue of Wham!, Depeche Mode, Prefab Sprout, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and Bananarama, sit artists like The Suede Crocodiles, Friends Again, Bush Tetras, Strawberry Switchblade and poignantly, given yesterday’s news, Lost 80s also includes the dance mix of Pete Shelley‘s Homosapien.

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CD1:

1. Vic Godard – Stop That Girl (02:55)
2. The Pale Fountains – (There’s Always) Something On My Mind (02:42)
3. Haircut 100 – Milk Film (02:57)
4. Aztec Camera – Pillar To Post (04:02)
5. The Bluebells – Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool (02:28)
6. Johnny Britton – Happy-Go-Lucky Girls (02:47)
7. Prefab Sprout – Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone) (02:35)
8. Fantastic Something – If She Doesn’t Smile (It’ll Rain) (03:13)
9. The Suede Crocodiles – Stop The Rain (03:25)
10. Friends Again – Honey At The Core (03:56)
11. Strawberry Switchblade – Trees And Flowers (03:46)
12. April Showers – Abandon Ship (03:40)
13. A Craze – Wearing Your Jumper (04:34)
14. Paul Quinn – Ain’t That Always The Way (03:10)
15. Hurrah! – Sweet Sanity (04:15)
16. The Dream Academy – Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (03:08)

CD2:

1. Bush Tetras – Too Many Creeps (04:01)
2. Bow Wow Wow – Mickey Put It Down (03:02)
3. Theatre Of Hate – Do You Believe In The West World? (05:17)
4. The Apollinaires – The Feeling’s Gone (03:47)
5. The Redskins – Keep On Keeping On (03:52)
6. Carmel – More More More (03:16)
7. JoBoxers – Is This Really The First Time (You’ve Been In Love) (03:46)
8. Makin’ Time – Feels Like It’s Love (05:47)
9. Hey! Elastica – This Town (03:09)
10. Fashion – Streetplayer (Mechanik) (03:51)
11. The Main T Posse – Fickle Public Speakin’ (03:52)
12. The Associates – 18 Carat Love Affair (03:40)
13. Spandau Ballet – Confused (04:38)
14. Matt Fretton – It’s So High (03:16)
15. Depeche Mode – Shake The Disease (04:49)
16. Paul Haig – Running Away (02:44)
17. The Questions – Tuesday Sunshine (Jock Mix) (04:04)
18. The Kane Gang – Brother Brother (03:58)
19. Sunset Gun – Be Thankful For What You’ve Got (03:44)
20. Altered Images – Love To Stay (03:21)

CD3:

1. Wham! – A Ray Of Sunshine (04:48)
2. Grandmaster Flash – The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel (07:08)
3. Tom Tom Club – Genius Of Love (05:35)
4. The Jellies – Jive Baby On A Saturday Night (04:41)
5. I-Level – Give Me (U.S. Remix) (07:51)
6. Jimmy Young – Times Are Tight (03:59)
7. Whodini – Magic’s Wand (05:38)
8. Blue Rondo À La Turk – Klacto Vee Sedstein (03:48)
9. Culture Club – I’m Afraid Of Me (Extended Dance Mix) (07:20)
10. Pigbag – The Big Bean (03:31)
11. Monyaka – Go Deh Yaka (03:56)
12. 23 Skidoo – Coup (04:15)
13. Funkapolitan – If Only (04:50)
14. The Staple Singers – Slippery People (Club Version) (06:30)
15. Matt Bianco – Matt’s Mood (05:18)

CD4:

1. Bananarama – Aie A Mwana (U.S. Extended Version) (06:52)
2. Intaferon – GetoutofLondon (Intacontinentalballisticmix) (08:00)
3. Pete Shelley – Homosapien (04:34)
4. Quando Quango – Genius (06:25)
5. Was (Not Was) – (Return To The Valley Of) Out Come The Freaks (Extended Remix) (08:45)
6. Defunkt – The Razor’s Edge (09:23)
7. Chic – Hangin’ (12 Inch) (05:13)
8. Gang Of Four – I Love A Man In A Uniform (Extended) (04:08)
9. Animal Magnet – Welcome To The Monkey House (05:35)
10. Fun Boy Three – The Alibi (Extended Mix) (05:57)
11. Brilliant – It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World (Extended) (06:04)
12. Morgan & McVey – Looking Good Diving With The Wild Bunch (04:12)

Prior to the advent of reggae towards the latter half of 1968, rock steady dominated Jamaica’s musical landscape, having superseded ska just two years earlier.
Yet despite remaining island’s national sound for less the two years, the period during which it prevailed produced a stunning array of hugely influential recordings, many of which continue to inspire music makers over half a century after their creation.
‘This Is Trojan Rock Steady’ comprises 50 of the most popular rock steady recordings ever to see issue, with highlights including notable chart hits in ‘007’, ‘Return Of Django’, ‘It Miek’ and ‘Train To Skaville’, along with the original versions of the famously covered ’54 46 That’s My Number’…

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…‘Rudy A Message To You’, ‘Stop That Train’, ‘The Tide Is High’ and Let’s Do Rocksteady’. The collection, which forms part of the exciting new ‘This Is Trojan’ 2CD range forms part of Trojan’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Disc 1

1. Desmond Dekker & The Aces – 007 (Shanty Town)
2. The Upsetters – Return Of Django
3. Alton Ellis & The Flames – Rock Steady
4. The Maytals – 54-46 That’s My Number
5. Derrick Harriott – Walk The Streets (AKA You Might As Well Forget Him)
6. Val Bennett – Take 5 (The Russians Are Coming)
7. The Melodians – I Will Get Along (Without You) (AKA Gonna Get Along Without You Now)
8. Roy Shirley – Hold Them
9. The Ethiopians – Engine 54
10. The Paragons – Only A Smile
11. Desmond Dekker & The Aces – Intensified ’68
12. The Gaylads – It’s Hard To Confess
13. The Jamaicans – Things You Say You Love
14. Keith & Tex – Stop That Train
15. Delroy Wilson – Once Upon A Time
16. Phyllis Dillon – Don’t Stay Away
17. Rudy Mills – A Long Story
18. The Three Tops – Do It Right
19. The Pioneers – Long Shot
20. The Ethiopians – The Whip
21. The Techniques – Queen Majesty
22. The Uniques – Let Me Go Girl
23. The Paragons – On The Beach
24. Desmond Dekker & The Aces – Fu Man Chu
25. Dandy – Rudy, A Message To You

Disc 2

1. The Paragons – The Tide Is High
2. Desmond Dekker & The Aces – It Miek
3. The Ethiopians – Train To Skaville
4. The Melodians – You Have Caught Me
5. The Maytals – Bim Today (Bam Tomorrow)
6. Stranger & Patsy – Down The Trainline
7. Alton Ellis – My Willow Tree
8. The Gaylads – Over The Rainbow’s End
9. Lee “Scratch” Perry – I Am The Upsetter
10. The Techniques – You Don’t Care (AKA You’ll Want Me Back)
11. Desmond Dekker & The Aces – Mother’s Young Gal
12. Derrick Harriott – The Loser
13. The Paragons – Happy Go Lucky Girl
14. The Tennors – Ride Your Donkey
15. The Uniques – My Conversation
16. Alton Ellis & The Flames – Girl I’ve Got A Date
17. Ken Boothe – Lady With The Starlight
18. The Kingstonians – Winey Winey
19. Phyllis Dillon – Perfidia
20. Stranger & Gladdy – Just Like A River
21. The Federals – Penny For Your Song
22. The Melodians – You’ll Never Get Away (AKA You Don’t Need Me)
23. Desmond Dekker & The Aces – Unity
24. The Jamaicans – Ba Ba Boom
25. Dandy – Let’s Do Rock Steady

On July 28th 1967, British-based Jamaican music company, Island Records launched a label to showcase the output of one of the most popular and successful producers of the ska and rock steady eras – Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid. The imprint, called ‘Trojan’ after the title Mr. Reid had acquired during his early days in the music business, surprisingly failed to fulfil its potential and folded after a matter of months. And this may well have been the end of the Trojan story had it not been for the creation of a new Jamaican music company, launched in the summer of ’68, which was in need of a suitably dynamic name.
The result of a merger between by Island Records and one of its main competitors, B&C, Trojan Records promptly launched an…

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…ambitious programme of issuing singles on a variety of labels that highlighted music from every producer of note, ranging from British-based music makers such as Robert ‘Dandy’ Thompson, to such esteemed Jamaican operators as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Edward ‘Bunny’ Lee and, of course, Duke Reid himself.
Trojan’s rapid growth during its first year was due in no small part to the development of a working class youth movement that embraced Jamaican music as part and parcel of its culture: skinheads.
The purchasing power of this fast developing demographic resulted in an explosion in sales and in the summer of ‘69 the company enjoyed its first mainstream hit with ‘Red Red Wine’ by a little known British-based singer Tony Tribe. Its success was soon eclipsed when the Upsetters, the Pioneers, Jimmy Cliff and Harry J’s All Stars all made their way onto the higher reaches of the mainstream listings.
The Trojan bandwagon rolled on remorselessly into the new decade, with the likes of Desmond Dekker, the Maytals and Bob & Marcia all flying high on the British Pop charts.
In the spring of 1971, Dave & Ansel Collins’ ‘Double Barrel’ provided Trojan its first UK number one, while further chart entries followed with hit singles by Bruce Ruffin, Greyhound and the Pioneers.
Aside from their overtly commercial output, the company also highlighted music by artists largely unknown outside Jamaica, many of which would later become major international recording stars – among these were Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs and a Kingston-based vocal trio called Bob Marley & the Wailers.
Trojan remained hugely successful over the next year or so, with further major hits from Dandy Livingstone, John Holt, Ken Boothe and the larger than life ex-bouncer, Judge Dread, but in 1975, after experiencing financial difficulties, the label acquired a new owner in Marcel Rodd.
Rodd’s inexperience with Jamaican music proved costly and despite signing new deals with a number of up-and-coming producers, Trojan struggled, but as the seventies came to a close, the ‘Ska Revival’ brought a dramatic upturn in its fortunes.
The success of bands such as the Specials and Madness sparked renewed interest in vintage ska and reggae classics and for a time Trojan thrived once more, with compilations, such as ’20 Reggae Classsics’ and Bob Marley‘s ‘In The Beginning’, compiled by label manager, Patrick Meads, selling particularly strongly.
Unfortunately the good times were not to last and in 1985, with the ska boom long since over, Colin Newman – an accountant by profession and avid collector by nature – purchased the label. Under Newman’s direction, Trojan’s primary focus was upon its formidable back catalogue, with various specialists employed to ensure it maintained its position as the world’s leading vintage reggae record company.
Some 15 years later, Sanctuary Records became Trojan’s fourth owners, paying over £10 million for the privilege. Over the next few years the label went from strength to strength, its already vast catalogue augmented by those of RAS and Creole, resulting in an astoundingly diverse range of releases, highlighting everything from ska to dancehall.
The Trojan Records story took its next dramatic turn in June 2007, when the Universal Music Group purchased Sanctuary in its entirety, so bringing the Jamaican music imprint back under the same roof as Island, the label that had been instrumental in its creation some 39 years before.
Universal maintained the catalogue for the next 7 years, issuing numerous acclaimed collections and reviving the much-missed Trojan Appreciation Society, before reluctantly selling the imprint to BMG, a subsidiary of one of Europe’s biggest media companies, Bertelsmann.
Much has changed since the summer of 1968, yet despite the rise and fall of numerous music trends and the development of new formats on which music can be acquired, Trojan Records has consistently maintained a significant and relevant presence in an ever-competitive market. And such is the vast wealth of music at its disposal there is no reason why it should not continue to do so for many, many years to come.

This Is Trojan Dub

Over the past few decades, Jamaican dub has proved to be one of the most influential of Jamaican music forms, inspiring a range of modern genres, from jungle to dubstep.
This collection brings together some of the finest dub tracks from its heyday, mixed by its many of its most influential creators, including such luminaries as King Tubby, Lee Perry, King Jammy, Errol Thompson, Sylvan Morris and Scientist.
As with the other releases in the new ‘This Is Trojan’ range, the stylish, distinctively designed package also includes a fully illustrated and annotated 16-page booklet, tracing the development of this ever-popular style.

1. Zion Gate (Dub) – King Tubby, The Aggrovators 03:13
2. The Gun Court (Dub) – The Revolutionaries 03:35
3. Sipple (Dub) – The Upsetters 03:26
4. My Time Version Observer Style – The Observer All Stars 02:29
5. I Shave the Barber – Tommy McCook, The Supersonics 02:53
6. Blood Dunza (Dub) – Scientist 03:08
7. Shine Eye (Dub) – Barrington Levy, The Roots Radics 03:52
8. L.S.D. – Sly & The Revolutionaries 03:17
9. Merry (Dub) – The Sky Nation 03:00
10. Wandering (Dub) – Rupie Edwards All Stars 03:26
11. Queen of the Minstrel (Natural Dub) – King Tubby, The Aggrovators 03:19
12. Hurting Inside – Marcia Griffiths, The Revolutionaries 04:20
13. Roots Train (Dub Number One) – The Upsetters 03:28
14. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – The Observers 02:49
15. Tracking (Dub) – Tommy McCook, The Supersonics 02:26
16. Dark Destroyer (Norwegian Wood Dub) – Prince Jammy, Jackie Mittoo 02:38
17. Babylon Wrong (Dub) – The Roots Radics 03:16
18. Sufferer’s Version – The Sky Nation 02:55
19. Forward Home (Dub) – Prince Jammy 03:41
20. Opposition (Dub) – The Roots Radics 03:48
21. Buckshot (Dub) – Rupie Edwards All Stars 03:37
22. Stalag 17 – King Tubby, The Techniques All Stars 03:01
23. Escape Affair – ERROL BROWN 02:47
24. Headline – The Observers 03:12
25. Collie (with Jah Thomas) – Sly & The Revolutionaries, Jah Thomas 02:51
26. Babylon Police Thief (Dub) – Augustus Pablo, The Upsetters 04:12
27. Goodbye (I’ve Got to Tell You Goodbye) (Magnificent Dub) – King Tubby, The Aggrovators 02:58
28. Won’t You Come Home (Dub) – Witty’s All Stars 03:31
29. Scientist In Fine Style – The Roots Radics 05:51
30. Dub in Dreamland (Dreamland Dub) – Marcia Griffiths, ERROL BROWN 03:11
31. Zinc Fence – The Observers 03:27
32. Herb – Sly & The Revolutionaries 03:29
33. Tedious (Dub) – The Upsetters 03:43
34. Man from Shooters Hill – The Soul Syndicate 03:52
35. Concrete Rock – Ansel Collins 03:14
36. The Gorgon Speaks – King Tubby, The Aggrovators 03:09
37. Rock Me In (Dub) – Linval Thompson 03:23
38. Good Woman – Lorna Bennett, The Revolutionaries 04:03
39. Dub In Love – The In Crowd 04:11
40. Communist (Dub) – The Roots Radics 04:53

This Is Trojan Roots

Primarily focusing upon afro-Caribbean themes, notably the Rastafarian faith and the plight of Jamaica’s underprivileged, roots reggae dominated Jamaica’s national landscape throughout the mid-to-late 1970s, making major stars of such talents as Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and Johnny Clarke.
The latest release in the newly launched ‘This Is Trojan’ series, this collection showcases 40 of the most popular and significant Jamaican hits of the roots era, performed by many of the biggest names in reggae music.
This seminal collection, which includes a 16-page booklet packed with imagery and a fascinating essay on the style, forms an integral part of Trojan’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

CD1:

1. Culture – Two Sevens Clash
2. Johnny Clarke – None Shall Escape The Judgemen
3. Marcia Griffiths – Steppin’ Out Of Babylon
4. Dennis Brown – Here I Come
5. Cornell Campbell – Dance In A Greenwich Farm
6. Lloyd Parks – Mafia
7. The In Crowd – His Majesty Is Coming
8. Junior Byles – Curly Locks
9. Zap Pow – Last War (Jah Jah Children Ari
10. Hell & Fire – Where Is That Love
11. Michael Rose – Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
12. Bunny & Ricky – Bushweed Corntrash
13. Bim Sherman – Lightning And Thunder
14. Reggae George – Fig Root
15. Gregory Isaacs – Slave Master
16. Linval Thompson – I Love Marijuana
17. Michael Rose – Born Free
18. Bobby Melody – Jah Bring I Joy
19. Prince Lincoln & The Royal Ras – Humanity
20. Junior Murvin – Roots Train Number One

CD2:

1. Brent Dowe – Forward Up
2. Dennis Brown – Wolf And Leopard
3. Gregory Isaacs – Set The Captives Free
4. The In Crowd – Back A Yard
5. Justin Hinds & The Dominoes – Wipe Your Weeping Eyes
6. Culture – Zion Gate
7. Johnny Clarke – Peace And Love (In The Ghetto)
8. Bob Andy – Ghetto Stays In The Mind
9. George Nooks – Tribal War
10. Junior Delgado – Sons Of Slaves
11. The Heptones – Cool Rasta
12. Glen Washington – Rockers Nuh Crackers
13. Horace Andy – Skylarking
14. Delroy Denton & The Silvertone – Sufferer’s Child
15. John Holt – Up Park Camp
16. Max Romeo – Fire Fe The Vatican
17. Prince Far I – Heavy Manners
18. Freddie Mcgregor – Rastaman Camp
19. Earth & Stone – No Time To Lose
20. Sugar Minott – Man Hungry

This Is Trojan Boss Reggae

As the 1960s drew to a close, a new, exciting sound emerged in Jamaica that would swiftly take the music world by storm: reggae. During this formative period, the music was marked by its rapid tempo, which by the dawn of the Seventies had been superseded by the more relaxed style that today is more readily associated with the genre. In recent years, the early, energetic form of reggae has been branded ‘boss’ or ‘skinhead’ reggae – the latter reflecting its association with the UK’s youth sub-culture that championed the style. This aptly-titled 2CD set in the newly launched ‘This Is Trojan’ 2CD range showcases 50 of the most popular and sought-after tracks in the style, including many tracks making their digital debut, along with 6 mainstream chart hits: ‘Israelites’, ‘Liquidator’, ‘Wet Dream’, ‘Red Red Wine’, ‘Moon Hop’ and ‘Skinhead Moonstomp’.

01. Desmond Dekker – Israelites
02. The Harry J. All Stars – Liquidator
03. The Pioneers – Su Su Su
04. Lee Scratch Perry – The Dark End of the Street
05. Tommy McCook & The Supersonics – Tribute to Rameses
06. Lee Scratch Perry – What a Botheration
07. The Ethiopians – I’m a King
08. Roy Shirley – Dance the Reggay
09. Slim Smith – For Once in My Life
10. Count Matchuki & Randy’s All Stars – Pepper Pot
11. Eric Monty Morris – You Really Got a Hold On Me
12. Stranger Cole & Gladdy Anderson – Pretty Cottage
13. The Crystalites – Biafra
14. The Young Souls – Man-A-Wail
15. The Tennors – Reggae Girl
16. Freddie McGregor – Drink and Gamble
17. The Maytals – Do the Reggay
18. Derrick Morgan – Don’t Play That Song
19. The Inspirations – Down in the Park
20. The Soulmates – On the Move
21. The Gaylads – The Same Things
22. The Mellotones – Facts of Life
23. Sweet Confusion – Elizabethan Serenade
24. The Versatiles – Push It In
25. Max Romeo – Wet Dream
26. Tony Tribe – Red Red Wine
27. Derrick Morgan – Moon Hop
28. Freddie Notes & The Rudies – Shanghai
29. Dandy Livingstone – Reggae in Your Jeggae
30. Owen Gray – Girl What You’re Doing to Me
31. Rico & The Family Circle – Official
32. Vincent McLeod – Too Late
33. George Lee & The Family Circle – Reggae Groove
34. The Dials – It’s Love
35. The Hot Rod All Stars – Strong Man
36. Audrey – Sweeter Than Sugar
37. Al Barry & The Cimarons – Morning Sun
38. Les Foster – Do It Nice
39. Sonny Binns & The Nat Cole All Stars – Spread Joy
40. Millie – Enoch Power
41. Clancy Collins & The Black Diamonds – Black Diamonds
42. Brother Dan All Stars – Everybody Feel Good
43. Big L – Family Man
44. The Coloured Raisins – One Way Love
45. The Rudies – Boss Sound
46. Winston Francis – Honey Don’t Go
47. The Jubilee Stompers – Luciana
48. Ray Martell – She Caught the Train (I’m Going Home)
49. The Hot Rod All Stars – Lick a Pop
50. Symarip – Skinhead Moonstomp

Fifty years after the release of one of the founding records of the genre known as Peruvian cumbia (by guitar players Enrique Delgado Montes and Berardo Hernández ‘Manzanita’), Vampisoul presents this 3rd volume in the series Cumbia Beat, which brings together 45 rpm rarities from acclaimed groups, short-lived bands and outstanding huaycumbias. Like the previous volumes in this series, listening to this record takes you on a journey across the geography of Peru, as the majority of the groups on this collection were from different regions of the country, or had close links to them, although all of the artists recorded in Lima.
Most of the bands emerged during the period 1968-1980, a time of deep political and social change implemented by the nationalist…

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…military dictatorship. Los Demonios Del Mantaro, Los Demonios De Corocochay, and Los 5 Palomillas are the exceptions to this, as they recorded between 1965 and 1967 and produced a hybrid of cumbia and huayno called huaycumbia, a genre which achieved high sales figures during those years. Despite the characteristics of huaycumbia, the early composers of Peruvian cumbia didn’t consider it a direct source of inspiration. They admit to being more influenced by Colombian cumbia, Cuban guaracha, beat, and psychedelic music from the UK and US that they had played since the end of the ’60s, in their ‘own style’, as a part of a musical appropriation process that quickly led them to forge a singular sound. Peruvian cumbia developed, spurred by the music school erudition of the guitarist Enrique Delgado Montes on the one hand and, on the other, by the self-taught creativity of Berardo Hernández ‘Manzanita’. Largely ignored by the elites, it steadily won over audiences and created its own market, establishing its own broadcast channels and distribution channels.

As Enrique Delgado stated in 1973: ‘We’ve defined a typically Peruvian cumbia which, strange as it might appear, people also like in Colombia and several other countries.’ Finally, setting up their own labels, competing hard against one another and enriching their music with sounds they brought from their specific regions, these bands that gradually sprung up all over the country managed to consolidate a tradition that is still alive today.

This new compilation showcases the breadth of music touched by psychedelia in the late 1960s whether it be pop, folk or rock. This eclectic mix of psychedelic masters is drawn from the Vanguard, Original Sound and Stax catalogs, offering tracks from cult-classic artists such as Buffy Sainte-Marie, Southwest F.O.B., the Serpent Power and many more.
The collection includes the previously unreleased song “When Will You Happen to Me” by The Human Jungle, as well as many other rarities in their mono incarnations. The package includes detailed liner notes from GRAMMY®-nominated writer and producer Alec Palao. This will be the first of a planned series of rarities that will include future volumes dedicated to 1960s…

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…garage rock and sunshine pop.

1. Poppies – Buffy Sainte-Marie
2. Smell of Incense – Southwest F.O.B.
3. Sorcerella – Jefferson Lee
4. Redeemer – The Gospel
5. Stand in the Shadows – The Frost
6. Say It Isn’t So – The Sot Weed Factor
7. In 1582 We – The Honey Jug
8. Flower Eyes – The Paternak Progress
9. Bright Light Lover – Circus Maximus
10. Open House – The Serpent Power
11. When Will You Happen to Me – Th Human Jungle
12. Oracle – Chapter VI
13. Why Come Another Day – Erik

There is a debate to be had about the slippery notion of belonging and the nature of place in creativity, and Stick in the Wheel are determined to have it. On 2017’s From Here: English Folk Field Recordings Vol 1 they curated a thematically varied, uniformly excellent collection of songs which all, in one way or another, examined or reflected on what it meant to be from a particular place. What was so special about those recordings was the way they showed that pride in one’s homeland did not have to go hand in hand with an exclusionary, parochial or small-minded political outlook. In the two years since then, time (in a political sense) seems to have stood still. There seems to be a kind of lethargy hanging over the United Kingdom that reflects the indecision of its leaders, and people…

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…are gravitating to extremes almost without noticing it. At times when nationalism peaks, the idea of Britishness (or rather Englishness) is in danger of being co-opted by the far right. There is an epic and entirely false narrative of the purity of blood and soil (with worrying precedents in German and Italian agrarian fascism), and the perpetrators of this narrative present themselves as custodians of folk traditions when in reality they are reappropriating them to fit their own version of history.

So it is as important as ever to provide a dissenting voice and now feels like the perfect time for Volume 2 of From Here. Part of Volume 1’s immense appeal was curators’ insistence that folk music is an infinitely expressive, infinitely changeable form, and that tradition is not the same as stagnation. The same is immediately evident with just a glance at the tracklist of Volume 2: well-known interpreters of traditional song like Nancy Kerr rub shoulders with experimental folkies like Richard Dawson while Brit-folk royalty (June Tabor) has a place at the table alongside impassioned protest-singers Grace Petrie and Chris Wood. There is such a wide range represented here that it is impossible to deal with it other than on a track-by-track basis, though the whole thing hangs together admirably as a complete album, possibly due to the democratising manner in which the recordings were made – using the bare minimum of equipment and usually in the performers’ own homes. The recordings, all made by Stick In The Wheel members Ian Carter and Nicola Kearey, are blissfully free of any kind of tinkering.

Nancy Kerr’s contribution opens the album. Gan To The Kye/Peacock Followed The Hen is a setting of a medieval song from Northumbria to an old fiddle tune and is proof that new connections can still be made between ancient pieces of music. The result here is both earthy and strange, exhilarating in its unadorned simplicity. The Sandgate Dandling Song, sung unaccompanied by Rachel Unthank, is an unbearably moving and emotionally complex account of domestic violence which shows how folk music can illuminate human conflicts on a personal as well as a political level. These songs endure because the issues they address endure.

C Joynes has been one of our most underappreciated musicians for years now (The Wild Wild Berry, his 2012 collaboration with Stephanie Hladowski, is particularly worth seeking out). His Cottenham Medley is set of three less well-known traditional pieces given a brisk new lease of life by Joynes’ distinctive and elusive guitar playing. Richard Dawson has chosen to contribute his own song rather than a traditional piece, but it is testament to his unique talent as a songwriter and to the malleability of folk music that it sounds as ancient as anything else here. The Almsgiver is a typical Dawson tale full of wonderfully specific description and his trademark mixture of pathos and humour.

Ladle/Richmond by Cath and Phil Tyler is a and Anglo-American hybrid, a jaunty tune for banjo and mouth harp that conceals the casual violence of the lyrics. As a married couple who hail from different countries the idea of belonging and of home must be even more complex for the Tylers than for most people, and that is reflected in the ambiguity of their chosen song. It is delivered with a rawness and immediacy that hints at the importance of the collaborative spirit in folk music. This spirit is further exemplified by Mary Humphreys and Anahata, whose version of Barbera Allen comes from the same unusual source as the medley by C Joynes: a Cottenham servant whose songs were written down by the blind song collector Ella Bull.

The King Of Rome is a strangely moving song about a racing pigeon, written by Dave Sudbury in 1986 and recorded here – with her customary knack for finding the emotional weight of a song – by June Tabor. While Tabor has been performing since the early 1970s, Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp are at the other end of the scale with only one album to their names so far. But their version of Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy – clearly indebted to Tim Hart and Maddy Prior – shows them to be harmony singers of enviable skill. Another young singer, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, contributes a reworking of Charles Coborn’s late nineteenth-century music hall skit Two Lovely Black Eyes, a song that neatly sums up how political ideas can be both strongly-felt and slightly ridiculous at the same time. Grace Petrie’s political songs are more direct protests. A Young Woman’s Tale is the story of recent politics, from Blair to Brexit. Petrie’s voice is that of the angry, intelligent and ultimately hopeful observer who feels that she has a duty to do more than just observe. It is an important message and a reminder that direct activism still has a role to play in music, and music in activism.

Essex singer Belinda Kempster is the mother of Stick In The Wheel member Fran Foote, and the two often sing together. Here Kempster performs the unaccompanied Nightingales with a stately, haunting beauty. Equally haunting, though in an entirely different way, and the Northumbrian smallpipes of Kathryn Tickell. Her tunes, Bonnie Pit Laddie/Lads Of Alnwick, are ancient-sounding and weirdly futuristic all at once. This is characteristic of Tickell’s instrument: she describes the sound of these old tunes as ‘trancey’, and there is certainly something hypnotic about the precise notes and lengthy drones.

Chris Wood is another artist who should be more well-known. So Much To Defend – a song that also appears on the album of the same name, released by Woods in 2017 – is a detailed series of vignettes that describe the variety of human life on the edgelands of the Thames between East London and West Kent. And the album ends, as it began, with Nancy Kerr, though this time she is accompanying her mother Sandra Kerr on the lively Northumbrian pipe tune Nancy Clough. This conclusion throws up interesting possibilities: that perhaps the concepts of belonging and identity are rooted more deeply in the shared heritage of our personal relationships than in anything that can be found on a map, that what we learn from our loved ones and how we interact with others is what helps us belong. Either way, Stick In The Wheel’s stated intention for this project was an attempt at documenting what folk music is rather than trying to dictate what it should be, and in that, they have succeeded. The latest instalment of From Here shows that, perhaps against the odds, folk music in England is diverse and thriving. — folk radio

It may seem unbelievable in 2019 but there was a time when Motown was not a household name in the UK. Around 40 Motown singles were released here between 1959 and 1964, not one making a dent in our charts until Mary Wells scored a Top 10 hit with ‘My Guy’. After that Berry Gordy’s company began to slowly make a greater impression on British pop fans but even then a full three years went by before Motown’s flagship acts routinely made the UK Top 20.
However, all but ignored by the public at large, Motown songs quickly won a place in the collective heart of British beat merchants, particularly after the Beatles recorded three Motown songs on their second UK album. Soon it was open season on their catalogue, with all manner of artists…

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…coming up with covers of songs that had flopped for the original artists. The Motown sound was difficult to replicate, so most who covered the songs went their own way with them. Not all covers were musically successful but this new Ace project selects two dozen that were.

Most of our selections cover songs from Motown’s early years. Once the hits started coming regularly, there was little point in going up against the originals, so artists started to cover B-sides and singles that had not been issued here at the time. By 1967 there was virtually no point in trying to steal Motown’s thunder, and thus our compilation goes no further than that year. But there’s a lot of great stuff here that stands up well in comparison with the originals, and there are plenty of highlights to savour, from avowed Motown fan Dusty Springfield taking on an early Supremes classic to a certain Liverpool icon reminding us of her R&B roots as Swinging Cilla as she launches herself into Jr Walker’s ‘Shotgun’.

The singers might get the odd word wrong but their commitment to each song can’t be faulted. They may not have been able to replicate the Motown sound but they surely knew how to get “On The Detroit Beat”. — acerecords.co.uk

VP Records celebrates the life and legacy of the South African leader, Nelson Mandela, 100 years after his birth and 25 years after his election in April 1994 as President of South Africa. Released for Black History Month 2019, Reggae Mandela chronicles the awareness within the reggae community of Mandela’s struggles, as well as the collective celebration of his victory over apartheid, his freedom, and his ascension to the presidency.
His struggle -under auspices of the ANC- against the disgusting Apartheid led to his imprisonment in 1962. He served 27 years in prison. Amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. In the 1994 multiracial general election Mandela led the ANC…

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…to victory and became president. Widely regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, he received more than 250 honours—including the Nobel Peace Prize—and became the subject of a cult of personality. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, and described as the “Father of the Nation”

Quote from the liner notes by Harry Wise: “The musical support for Nelson Mandela and dissent and disgust of the apartheid system from Jamaica was not only confined to culturally inclined artists who had fought long and hard to assert their ‘declarations of rights’ but also from each and every one of the myriad, multi-facetted aspects of reggae. From the unequivocal “Gunshot For Botha” to the haunting, thought provoking “Can You” from songs of succour to cries of help, from velvet voiced vocalists renowned for their romantically inclined love songs to the ‘rockstone’ delivery of dancehall deejays, from established veterans to youthful newcomers, from smooth, sophisticated creations to raw, rough and rugged productions… all come together in one common cause.”

The 36 track 2CD set opens with the extraordinary “South Africa” by The Mighty Travellers. It was originally released in 1976, eighteen years before the end of apartheid and twenty-eight years after it had begun. What follows is an amazing collection of songs, inspired by revolutionary consciousness and liberation of repression. Lots of songs on the album are well loved and cherished and we’re sure every reggae adept has its own favorite tunes.

There’s “Mandela, You’re Free” from Barrington Levy who delivers with his distinctive whining voice. Half Pint’s “Freedom Fighters” was a typical 1983 heavy Channel One BIG tune for the Jamaican market. Two years later Greensleeves gave it a general release. In 1989 the unlikely combination of Jimmy Cliff and Josey Wales released “Pressure On Botha”. Another combination here is Dennis Brown and Cocoa Tea, who strike all chords with “Shepherd Be Careful”. Such a solid tune! African reggae superstar Alpha Blondy makes a firm statement with “Apartheid Is Nazism”.

Singer Frankie Jones’ “Free South Africa” is a killer tune on par with Junior Delgado’s “Hanging Tree”. Here you’ll also find a young Yami Bolo in exceptional form on “Free Mandela”. It was recorded under the supervision of keyboard virtuoso Jackie Mittoo. There’s a -to us- completely unknown artist called Snowman who is produced by Augustus Pablo. His tune “Black Heroes” runs across a semi digital version the “Answer” riddim. The heavenly voices of The Mighty Diamonds attack the Apartheid system with two tunes: ‘Mr. Botha” and “The Real Enemy”, both Gussie Clarke productions.

Dancehall star Flourgon licks the classic Shank I Sheck riddim with his tune of hope “Africa Don’t Worry”. The Warlord Bounty Killer picks the appropriate “Marcus Garvey” riddim for his celebration tune “Prophecy Fulfill”. One of Beenie Man’s largest and moving singjay tunes is “Steve Biko”, such a good choice to include this one here. Should be played in Full Force! The aforementioned “Answer riddim” is used in full force by cultural deejay Charlie Chaplin for “Free Africa”. Youthman Promotion founder and front man Sugar Minott, Godfather of Dancehall, contributes two songs. First “Nah Go To South Africa”, a tune that appeared on Sugar Minott’s album “Rydim” and next is “A Letter to Nelson Mandela” from 1988.

For many of us in The West, Rokia Traoré may be the most recognisable name featured on African Café, the latest compilation released by Putumayo World Music. The Malian singer-songwriter was featured on many “best of” lists in 2013 when she released her aptly titled LP Beautiful Africa, and her contribution to the compilation, “Laidu,” is rife with finger-picked guitar notes that provide an alluring contrast to her full bodied singing. But Traoré is by no means the only musician here worthy of mainstream attention.
Numerous other featured artists on African Café reach that high bar set by Traoré. Chief among them is veteran Zimbabwean songsmith and activist Oliver Mtukudzi. His voice is like rich, dark, long-cultivated soil from which xylophone,…

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…guitar, deftly tapped drums and other elements blossom to vibrant effect on the midway track “Mukana.” Then there’s Winyo’s “Odongo,” which finds the reedy voiced Kenyan bluesman holding his high notes until they tremble like a bird’s fluttering wings, which suits his band’s gentle yet upbeat playing. Congolese songwriter Ray Lema’s “Leila” is also a standout, thanks to featured performers like Ballou Canta, Fredy Massamba and Rodrigo Viana, who are all clearly having a laid-back gas on this bluesy yet lounge-y number.

Those tracks all remain somewhat mid-tempo, fitting the low-key café vibe from which the LP takes its name. And while the album’s other tracks sometimes adhere a little too faithfully to that mellow manifesto, African Café remains an alluring listen throughout, even if it could’ve used more distinctive selections from the likes of Traoré, Mtukudzi, Winyo, and Lema to spice up the proceedings.