Outro Tempo II: Electronic and Contemporary Music from Brazil, 1984-1996 documents a wave of experimentalism that emerged in post-dictatorship Brazil, moving the timeframe up a few years from the first collection, which spanned 1978 to 1992. By this time, the Brazilian popular music (MPB) movement had “lost its ability to articulate the social consciousness of the era,” writes Outro Tempo curator John Gomez, in the album’s liner notes. “The music that had once been a vital voice of dissent became the polite face of the new democratic movement.”
Out of this sense of alienation emerged “an effervescent period of cultural production,” he continues, that involved “alternative performance spaces, DIY modes of production and…

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…collaborations with the art world.” Stylistically, this body of work spans a wide breadth of synth-pop, ambient, art rock and experimental electronics, “drifting away from the rainforest and into the pulsating heart of Brazil’s immense and overpowering cities.” Priscilla Ermel is the only holdover from the first Outro Tempo compilation, with volume two focusing on musicians that thrived in São Paulo’s gallery scene, including Dequinha E Zaba and Fausto Fawcett.

Outro Tempo II: Electronic and Contemporary Music from Brazil, 1984-1996 also includes several tracks touched by Mitar Subotic, AKA Suba. Suba, the late Yugoslavian producer whose visionary music has recently surfaced on Offen Music and Versatile Records, relocated to São Paulo in 1990, and his arrival “marked a turning point in Brazilian electronic music,” Gomez writes. On Outro Tempo II, Edson Natale covers a Bosnian song called “Nina Maika,” which Suba, his frequent collaborator, introduced to him . A track from Angel’s Breath, a group featuring Suba, Milan Mladenović and João Parahyba, also appears on the 20-track collection.

…In the early 1970s North American jazz musicians were eager to work with upcoming Brazilian musicians. Miles Davis invited Airto Moreira to join his new ‘electric’ band, Dom Um Romao (part of Sérgio Mendes’ legendary Brazil ‘66 in the 1960s) joined the fusion group Weather Report, Flora Purim and Airto both became a part of Chick Corea’s new project Light As a Feather, Wayne Shorter collaborated with Milton Nascimento, George Duke recorded Brazilian Love Affair, and so on. With all the attention placed on them from these important jazz artists, North America became the new musical playground for a large number of these Brazilian artists – Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Sérgio Mendes, Luiz Bonfá, Eumir Deodato, João Donato and many others. Most of these musicians…

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…had already experienced success through the earlier popularity of bossa nova in the 1960s, either at home in Brazil or in the USA. But by the end of the 1960s many Brazilian artists had left their own country, as the military dictatorship became progressively more authoritarian and repressive. In the USA, through their critically acclaimed work for Miles Davis, Weather Report, Light As A Feather etc., all of these artists were now given reign to explore new musical terrains away from the restrictions of both a musical genre and a state censor back in Brazil.

This collection brings together some of these finest works and comes complete with extensive notes that explains the path these musicians took from Brazil to the USA and shows the political and musical links between Brazil and the USA that created the conditions for this unique fusion of these two distinct cultures, North American Jazz and Brazilian music, that occurred in the 1970s. — roughtrade.com

Journey begins with Brazilian samba-inspired singer-songwriter Fernanda Cunha, whose career has spanned seven solo albums and extensive international tours. We then take a trans-Atlantic journey to Denmark for Stine Michel’s “Frejas Indblik” (Freya’s Insight). Michel sings a fascinating tale of the Nordic goddess Freja opening a shop in Copenhagen and experiencing humanity.
Next stop takes us to the Spanish island of Palma de Mallorca, where we are treated to the captivating voice of Buika singing “La Falsa Moneda.” Buika, whose parents emigrated from Equatorial Guinea, is one of Spain’s most celebrated singers. The female trio Elle & Elles from Martinique follows, offering some Caribbean sunshine with “Samba Lé,” which illuminates the diversity of people in the Caribbean.

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Next, Canan Uzerli’s “Zaman” explores the singer’s Turkish roots and laments the fleeting nature of time. The second half of this album kicks off with Mónica Giraldo, her third appearance on a Putumayo collection. Born and raised in Colombia, Giraldo has received a Latin Grammy nomination and toured the world. Her song “Todo Me Lleva a Tí” is a love song inspired by the traditions of the Nueva Cancion (New Song) movement. From Colombia, we head back across the ocean to Sweden for CajsaStina Åkerström’s “Är Det Så Här Det Känns Att Komma Hem” (This Is How It Feels To Come Home). Once an archaeologist, Åkerström now dedicates her career to music but remains inspired by ancient Scandinavian folklore and traditions.

Lebanese singer-songwriter and visual artist Tania Saleh’s moving composition “Ayya Shi” was a response to the turmoil and insecurity in 2010/2011 in the Middle East. Saleh sings: “Anything can happen anytime / Stay alert, stay awake…” Francesca Blanchard was raised in France and Vermont and, in “Tu n’existes pas,” sings to her imaginary lover: “In the city of my dreams / You live by my side / It’s the world I’ve invented / You’re just a dream that I have rented.” The international journey winds up with Bendith, a collaboration between Welsh groups Colorama and Plu. Their song “Angel” is an ode to unconditional love.

Previous Grapefruit genre anthologies have shown how the various strands of British psychedelia developed tangentially in subsequent years: I’m A Freak Baby observed how the blues-based, harder-edged element of the genre gradually morphed into hard rock/proto-metal, Dust On The Nettles examined the countercultural psychedelic folk movement, while Come Join My Orchestra looked at the post-“Penny Lane” baroque pop sound.
Latest attempt to document the British psychedelic scene’s subsequent family tree, Lullabies For Catatonics charts the journey without maps that was fearlessly undertaken in the late Sixties and early Seventies by the more cerebral elements of the underground, inspired by everyone from Bartok, Bach and The Beatles to Dada, Dali and…

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…the Pop Art movement. Suddenly pop music was no longer restricted to moon-in-June lyrics and traditional song structures. Instead, it embraced the abstract, the discordant and the surreal as pop became rock, and rock became Art.
A new, post-Dylan emphasis on lyrics led to self-proclaimed poets like Keith Reid, Pete Brown, Pete Sinfield and Adrian Henri aligning themselves with rock bands, while the free jazz and classical influences embraced by the underground scene resulted in a new musical hybrid. While Soft Machine’s mordant wit and musical complexity established them as progenitors of the so-called Canterbury Scene, the likes of Procol Harum instigated a more portentous, symphonic style that was subsequently classified as Art Rock, a sub-division of a wide-ranging scene that would be codified by the one-size-fits-all term Progressive Rock.
Those two complementary strands are at the heart of Lullabies For Catatonics, with the more challenging American bands of the era also an influence: The Velvet Underground impacted on everyone from a young David Bowie to teenage ingénues The Velvet Frogs, while Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band would inform Arthur Brown’s equally uncompromising playmates Rustic Hinge.
A fascinating window on a movement that stands as one of the most creative, challenging and esoteric in British music history, Lullabies For Catatonics incorporates the hugely successful (Yes, Genesis, 10cc) cheek-by-jowl alongside the unsigned (both Gnome Sweet Gnome and As You Like It now gain their first-ever commercial release), together with the art-rock collectables (Gnidrolog, Spring) and the unclassifiable avant-garde iconoclasts (Third Ear Band, Pink Floyd collaborator Ron Geesin). Housed in an attractive clamshell box, this essential set features suitably sympathetic artwork as well as a heavily illustrated 40-page booklet that includes the story behind each track.  Cherry Red Records

CD1 – Spontaneous Underground

01. Soft Machine – I Should’ve Known
02. The Riot Squad with David Bowie – I’m Waiting for My Man
03. Procol Harum – Conquistador
04. The End – Bypass the By-Pass
05. Dantalian’s Chariot – World War Three
06. The Zombies – Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)
07. Giles, Giles and Fripp – I Talk to the Wind
08. Liverpool Scene – Tramcar to Frankenstein
09. Strawbs – The Battle
10. Woody Kern – Xoanan Bay
11. Genesis – In the Beginning
12. The Velvet Frogs – Wasted Ground (Memento Mori)
13. Yes – Beyond and Before
14. Third Ear Band – Druid One
15. Bachdenkel – Through the Eyes of a Child
16. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – All Over the Country
17. Eyes of Blue – Merry Go Round

CD2 – Tea on the Lawn

01. Mighty Baby – Egyptian Tomb
02. Audience – Banquet
03. Cressida – To Play Your Little Game
04. The Pretty Things – Parachute
05. Rustic Hinge – Crystallised Petard
06. Curved Air – Vivaldi
07. Sweet Slag – World of Ice
08. Barclay James Harvest – Mockingbird
09. Comus – The Prisoner
10. Nirvana – Home (Reconstruction)
11. Second Hand – Death May Be Your Santa Claus
12. Spring – The Prisoner (Eight by Ten)
13. Coxhill-Bedford Duo – Don Alfonso
14. Stackridge – Grande Piano
15. Samurai – Saving It Up for So Long
16. Blonde on Blonde – No. 2 Psychological Decontamination Unit
17. Fuchsia – Me and My Kite

CD3 – The Wind Sings Winter Songs

01. Deep Feeling – Welcome for a Soldier
02. Open Road – Can I See You?
03. Matching Mole – O Caroline
04. 9.30 Fly – Unhinged
05. Gnome Sweet Gnome – The Machine Grinds On
06. As You Like It – No More Sunshine Till May
07. Jade Warrior – A Winter’s Tale
08. Bond + Brown – C.F.D.T. (Colonel Frights’ Dancing Terrapins)
09. Gnidrolog – Ship
10. Rupert Hine – Anvils in Five
11. Ron Geesin – Upon Composition
12. Mick Ronson – Growing Up and I’m Fine
13. Be Bop Deluxe – Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape
14. 10cc – Somewhere in Hollywood
15. Renaissance – Mother Russia

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is one of those great time capsules of the rock and roll era. Filmed at the Intertel TV Studio in Wembley on December 11, 1968 and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the movie was part rock show and part sideshow. The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featured the original lineup of The Rolling Stones – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman – who served as the main music draw and the night’s hosts. They were joined by a diverse lineup that included The Who, who were firing on all cylinders with their explosive performance of “A Quick One, While He’s Away.” There’s also Jethro Tull featuring Tony Iommi on guitar, Marianne Faithfull, Taj Mahal, Yoko Ono and Ivry Gitlis, and the only performance by…

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…the supergroup The Dirty Mac. Comprised of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, and Keith Richards, the group was specially assembled for the show and are seen in the film performing an incendiary take on The Beatles’ “Yer Blues” and accompanying Yoko Ono and Ivry Gitlis on the improvisation “Whole Lotta Yoko.”

The special was recently restored in Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision for a limited engagement screening across the U.S. But fans will be happy to hear that they’ll soon be able to bring the circus home with them. Today, ABKCO announced the release of several deluxe, expanded editions of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, due for release on June 7.

The new editions will be available in three physical configurations. The 2-CD Expanded Edition boasts newly remixed and remastered audio and newly discovered, unreleased performances. Among those rarities are three tracks by Taj Mahal, two classical interpretations by Julius Katchen, and three tracks by The Dirty Mac (a warmup jam, a second take of “Yer Blues,” and a run-through of The Beatles’ “Revolution”).

Disc 1:

1. Mick Jagger’s Introduction Of Rock And Roll Circus – Mick Jagger
2. Entry Of The Gladiators – Circus Band
3. Mick Jagger’s Introduction Of Jethro Tull – Mick Jagger
4. Song For Jeffrey – Jethro Tull
5. Keith Richards’ Introduction Of The Who – Keith Richards
6. A Quick One While He’s Away – The Who
7. Over The Waves – Circus Band
8. Ain’t That A Lot Of Love – Taj Mahal
9. Charlie Watts’ Introduction Of Marianne Faithfull – Charlie Watts
10. Something Better – Marianne Faithfull
11. Mick Jagger’s and John Lennon’s Introduction Of The Dirty Mac – Mick Jagger & John Lennon
12. Yer Blues – The Dirty Mac
13. Whole Lotta Yoko – Yoko Ono & Ivry Gitlis with The Dirty Mac
14. John Lennon’s Introduction Of The Rolling Stones – Jumpin’ Jack Flash – The Rolling Stones
15. Parachute Woman – The Rolling Stones
16. No Expectations – The Rolling Stones
17. You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones
18. Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones
19. Salt Of The Earth – The Rolling Stones

Disc 2:

1. Checkin’ Up On My Baby – Taj Mahal
2. Leaving Trunk – Taj Mahal
3. Corinna – Taj Mahal
4. Revolution (rehearsal) – The Dirty Mac
5. Warmup Jam – The Dirty Mac
6. Yer Blues (take 2) – The Dirty Mac
7. Brian Jones’ Introduction of Julius Katchen – Brian Jones
8. de Falla: Ritual Fire Dance – Julius Katchen
9. Mozart: Sonata In C Major-1st Movement – Julius Katchen

In the 1970s reggae music burst forth from its birthplace of Jamaica and took over the world. Who would have ever thought that one of the first outposts it captured on its way to global domination would be an unlikely city known mostly for its Brahmin heritage and blue‐collar brawlers as well as for violent racial polarization? Boston, Massachusetts was the first region in the US to really “get” reggae, adopting it as early as 1973 when the city’s huge student population turned the low‐budget Jamaican B‐flick The Harder They Come into a midnight cult classic. The city would gain a reputation as a key market for any international reggae act trying to gain a foothold in America. But besides being early enthusiasts and advocates for the music, Bostonians would also…

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…become bountiful producers of reggae as well, with a network of clubs, singers and musicians coalescing to form an organic Boston roots scene: A scene that would yield acts as varied as Zion Initation (a solid, spiritually‐inclined Rasta band), to the I Tones (an ambitious, multiracial group that set a new standard for pop success), and even reaching across New England to embrace the Vermont‐based Lambsbread (a latter‐day reggae reincarnation of the legendary African‐American proto‐punk trio Death, later made famous by 2013’s revivalist documentary (A Band Called Death).

Boston‐based music journalists/historians Noah Schaffer and Uchenna Ikonne have teamed up with Cultures of Soul to compile an overview of some of the most crucial cuts to emerge from Boston during the height of the reggae boom in the 1980s. Formatted on CD or 2LP set both configurations come with a 28‐page book documenting the rich history of this music scene with in‐depth analyses and photos of the reggae artists involved.

Almost all of this music is reissued for the very first time, including rare gems such as Danny Tucker’s “Our Father’s Land,” Zion Initation’s “Think About It,” I Tones’ “Love is a Pleasure” and Lambsbread’s “Two Minute Warning” are sure to delight both roots connoisseurs and newcomers to the genre, and open up a time tunnel to a little‐known golden age of American reggae, and an even less‐known scene that facilitated the expansion of the music into an international phenomenon. — culturesofsoul.bandcamp.com

A single moment can change a life forever. That happened to the Jewish baroness and heiress Pannonica (Nica) de Koenigswarter (1913-1988), née Rothschild. On hearing Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight’ on a trip to New York at the beginning of the 1950s, she was so totally captivated by the music, she turned her back on her native Europe and on all the glamour of her previous existence, and became one of the great supporters of American jazz.
Siggi Loch experienced a similarly decisive moment in his life when, at the age of just 15, he heard a concert by Sidney Bechet and decided that his life from then on would be dedicated to jazz. This decision had a profound effect…

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…not just on him, but also on the way this music has developed in Europe, most notably in the years since he founded ACT in 1992.

So it was above all a feeling of affinity with Pannonica which inspired Siggi Loch to dedicate an entire evening to her in the “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” concert series which he has curated since 2012. The concert, on 6 February 2019, thirty years after her death, focused on pieces by the musicians whom the “Jazz Baroness” supported over many years with money, accommodation, advice and friendship, and who often dedicated compositions to her to express their gratitude: Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Bud Powell and Sonny Rollins.

Musicians from five countries took part in the concert: Finnish pianist Iiro Rantala, a habitual unifier of the traditional and the modern, was directing. Alongside Swedish bassist Dan Berglund and Norwegian-born drummer Anton Eger, he formed the musical foundation. In addition, there were three outstanding soloists: American saxophonist Ernie Watts, who shared the stage with Thelonious Monk back in the pianist’s lifetime, German saxophonist Angelika Niescier and New York singer Charenée Wade. Together they do not only demonstrate magnificently that a single moment can indeed transform an individual life story, but also that such occurrences have the power to shine beyond the confines of continents, cultures and epochs. — ACT

Self-Discovery for Social Survival is a documentary film in three parts, following 16 surfers in three very different countries. Exploring hazy adventures in surfing cultures in Mexico, the remote Maldives Islands, and Iceland, the film’s soundtrack is an integral part of the package, as the musicians worked closely with the producers of the documentary to create original music that not only scored the visual elements but acted as an emotional counterpart to the experiences of the surfers. For this project, the bands and artists were handpicked for their place in the somewhat psychedelic nature of surf culture and philosophy. Included here are dusty garage psych act the Allah-Las, Swedish acid rock powerhouse Dungen, ambient artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma,…

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…sun-dazzled indie dub group Peaking Lights, and several collaborative works by New Zealand experimental rocker Connan Mockasin and MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden.

The almost-entirely instrumental soundtrack finds its various contributors covering a wide range of sounds to highlight the film’s three locales. The Allah-Las stick most closely to the traditional form of surf rock as it was defined in the late ’50s and early ’60s, with reverb-coated guitars, rolling drums, and beachy melodies coming through on a series of jammy instrumentals with titles like “Blackberry Jam,” “Raspberry Jam,” and so on. Cantu-Ledesma offers a more subdued interpretation of aquatic bliss with his misty, ambient instrumentals. Peaking Lights go for a dancey approach, with tracks “Mirror in the Sky” and “Hold On” echoing Arthur Russell’s smeary mid-’80s disco experiments. Mockasin and VanWyngarden are all over the place with their three tracks, ranging from unobtrusive incidental music pieces like “Mountain Pass” to the claustrophobic post-Animal Collective goo of “Bad Boys.”

Like the best soundtracks, a lot of Self-Discovery for Social Survival works outside the context of the film it accompanies. This is a mixed bag, but the strongest moments are more inspired than the standard soundtrack contribution.  — AMG

…World Peace features renowned artists Jackson Browne, Nina Simone, Keb’ Mo’, India.Arie, Richard Bona, David Broza, Wyclef Jean, the international collective Playing for Change, and others who have been committed to writing and recording songs of peace and freedom. It begins with contemporary blues artist Keb’ Mo’, who recorded a moving version of the 1975 classic “Wake Up Everybody” with its inspirational lyrics “there is so much hatred, war and poverty… the world won’t get no better, we gotta change it, just you and me.”
Following Keb’ Mo’, we hear a call for Africans to come together to achieve peace and prosperity in “Africa Unite” by Swaziland’s Bholoja. Renowned singer-songwriter and activist Jackson Browne wrote and recorded “It is One”:…

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…“It is one world spinning ‘round the sun, this life is a battleground between right and wrong.” Cameroonian musician Richard Bona and jazz star Michael Brecker follow with their rendition of Bob Marley’s powerful “Redemption Song.”

The legendary Nina Simone recorded her version of the civil rights anthem “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” in 1967 after an Alabama church bombing and the civil rights struggle moved her to address these issues. The album continues with the Keb’ Mo’ recording of the classic peace anthem “Love Train.” Then, 4-time GRAMMY-winner India.Arie sings “One,” in which she calls for a celebration of the similarities that bring human beings together.

We next head to South Africa for Bongeziwe Mabandla and his song “Freedom for Everyone.” Mabandla asks “Oh, what is freedom if there’s no freedom for everyone?” We then turn to the Palestinian/Israeli singer Mira Awad’s beautiful ballad “Think of Others,” a musical adaption of the poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Awad sings, “Do not forget those who seek peace… those who have nowhere to sleep.”

The album closes with two powerful ballads. On “East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem,” Israeli  singer-songwriter David Broza is joined by Haitian-American star Wyclef Jean. They sing, “Spread a little love before you put your head down, maybe when you wake up, the world will be a better place.” The album concludes with John Lennon’s beloved peace anthem “Imagine,” sung by Playing for Change and featuring artists from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Nepal, and beyond. — worldmusicreport.com

Analog Africa is releasing a compilation featuring Amazonian dance music from Northern Brazil during the 1970s. Jambú e Os Míticos Sons Da Amazônia includes 19 tracks compiled by Samy Ben Redjeb and Carlos Xavier, the majority of which were recorded during the mid-’70s, in the northern Brazilian city Belém. Local sound system culture and traditional Amazonian music combined with international influences arriving via its vibrant port, to create a unique mix of sounds.
“The city of Belém, in the Northern state of Pará in Brazil, has long been a hotbed of culture and musical innovation. Enveloped by the mystical wonder of the Amazonian forest and overlooking the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean, Belém consists of a diverse culture as vibrant and…

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…broad as the Amazon itself. Amerindians, Europeans, Africans – and the myriad combinations between these people – would mingle, and ingeniously pioneer musical genres such as Carimbó, Samba-De-Cacete, Siriá, Bois-Bumbás and bambiá. Although left in the margins of history, these exotic and mysteriously different sounds would thrive in a parallel universe of their own.

I didn’t even know of the existence of that universe until an Australian DJ and producer by the name of Carlo Xavier dragged me deep into this whole new musical world. Ant it all began in Belém do Pará. Perched on a peninsula between the Bay of Guajará and the Guamá river, sculpted by water into ports, small deltas and peripheral areas, Belém had connected city dwellers with those deeper within the forest providing fertile ground for the development of a popular culture mirroring the mighty waters surrounding it. Through the continuous flow of culture, language and tradition, various rhythms were gathered here and transformed into new musical forms that were simultaneously traditional and modern.

Historically marginalized African religions like Umbanda, Candomblé and the Tambor de Mina, which had reached this side of the Atlantic through slaves from West Africa – especially from the Kingdom of Dahomey, currently the Republic of Benin – left an indelible stamp on the identity of Pará’s music. They would give birth to Lundun, Banguê and Carimbó, styles later modernised by Verequete, Orlando Pereira, Mestre Cupijó and Pinduca to great effect. The success of these pioneers would create a solid foundation for a myriad of modern bands in urban areas.

Known as the “Caribbean Port”, Belem had been receiving signal from radio stations from Colombia, Surinam, Guyana and the Caribbean islands – notably Cuba and the Dominican republic – since the 1940s. By the early 1960s, Disc jockeys breathlessly exchanged Caribbean records to add these frenetic, island sounds to liven up revelers. The competition was fierce as to who would be the first to bring unheard hits from these countries. The craze eventually reached local bands’ repertoires, and Belém’s suburbs got overtaken by merengue, leading to the creation of modern sounds such as Lambada and Guitarrada.

To reach a larger audience, the music needed to be broadcast. Radios began targeting the taste of mainstream audiences and played music known as “music for masses”. As the demand for this music grew, it led to the establishment of recording companies. Belém’s infant recording industry began when Rauland Belém Som Ltd was founded in the 1970s. It boosted a radio station, a recording studio, a music label and had a deep roster of popular artists across the carimbó, siriá, bolero and Brega genres.

Another important aspect in understanding how the musical tradition spread in Belém, are the aparelhagem sonora: the sound system culture of Pará. Beginning as simple gramophones connected to loudspeakers tied to light posts or trees, these sound systems livened up neighbourhood parties and family gatherings. The equipment evolved from amateur models into sophisticated versions, perfected over time through the wisdom of handymen. Today’s aparelhagens draw immense crowds, packing clubs with thousands of revelers in Belém’s peripheral neighbourhoods or inland towns in Pará.

The history of “Jambú e Os Míticos Sons Da Amazônia” is the history of an entire city in its full glory. With bustling nightclubs providing the best sound systems and erotic live shows, gossip about the whereabouts of legendary bands, singers turned into movie stars, supreme craftiness, and the creativity of a class of musicians that didn’t hesitate to take a gamble, Jambú is an exhilarating, cinematic ride into the beauty and heart of what makes Pará’s little corner of the Amazon tick. The hip swaying, frantic percussion and big band brass of the mixture of carimbó with siriá, the mystical melodies of Amazonian drums, the hypnotizing cadence of the choirs, and the deep, musical reverence to Afro-Brazilian religions, provided the soundtrack for sweltering nights in the city’s club district.

The music and tales found in Jambú are stories of resilience, triumph against all odds, and, most importantly, of a city in the borders of the Amazon who has always known how to throw a damn good party.” — analogafrica.bandcamp.com

Cherry Red’s 4-CD anthology Electrical Language: Independent British Synth Pop 78-84 focuses on the electronic side of the post-punk era, compiling 80 examples of how musicians embraced technology and broke away from guitar-based conventions, reshaping the sound of pop music from the ground up. As with the label’s other genre-specific multi-disc sets, this one demonstrates how broad its subject actually is — barely-in-tune first takes by teenage basement dwellers are juxtaposed with more ambitious, fully conceptualized productions by future pop stars. The collection covers much of the same ground as 2016’s Close to the Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984, although the compilers chose different tracks by the artists who appear on both. The main difference is that Electrical Language more or less concentrates on proper three-minute pop songs, as bizarre and envelope-pushing as some of them may be, rather than thoroughly avant-garde experiments. Of course, a handful of inclusions test even…

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…those boundaries, such as “Technical Miracle” by Voice of Authority, an excellent one-off moniker of dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood. There’s a smattering of undisputable all-time classics, such as the Normal’s “Warm Leatherette” and Chris & Cosey’s “October (Love Song),” as well as lesser-known early tunes by household names like Thomas Dolby and the Human League. Drinking Electricity’s perky “Good Times” (as sampled by Crystal Castles on their first album) makes an appearance, and to the excitement of particular trainspotters, the astonishing “Lifes Illusion” by Ice the Falling Rain receives its first official compilation licensing.

While many of these songs seem optimistic at the prospect of a bright and shiny future, there’s also an undercurrent of soul-crushing loneliness throughout, from relatively upbeat numbers like Quadrascope’s “Baby Won’t Phone” to the truly bizarre “Happy Families” by Zoo Boutique, in which a man living a seemingly perfect life begs to be put out of his misery. A few tracks even express outright dementia; Martin O’Cuthbert basically sounds like Napoleon XIV with a bunch of whizzing synths on the outrageously loony “Committed to Vinyl,” while Hybrid Kids play a rousing synth-disco rendition of “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” joined by a synthetic elf chorus. Also in the Silicon Teens/Flying Lizards mode of wacky pop covers are Techno Pop’s thundering take on “Paint It Black” and the Fast Set’s murky interpretation of T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution” (the debut single on the Axis label, before its name was changed to 4AD).

Nearly every track included is fascinating, and the detailed liner notes put everything into perspective, filled with photos and cover artwork, as well as recollections from many of the artists.

A few years ago, Ben Chasny reckoned his guitar playing needed a break or a breakthrough. Over the last two decades, recording as the superb Six Organs of Admittance and in a messy web of collaborations, Chasny had become one of the instrument’s most exploratory new masters. He had woven dizzying acoustic fantasies through psychedelic fever dreams, summoned stately solo meditations on poets and landscapes, and led full bands with cutting electric leads. But after a quarter-century, he detected a complacency that stemmed from endless cycles of recording, rehearsing, and touring. So he made the obvious choice: Combining his interests in chance, games, mysticism, and number theory, he invented an entire personalized system for…

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…composing that relied on a deck of cards to determine the notes he’d play on the guitar and, hopefully, force him out of old habits. He called it Hexadic.

Three years have passed since Chasny unveiled his Hexadic system with two records, both released in 2015. The first, Hexadic, is a scabrous, powerful noise rock statement, its arching distortion proclaiming that Chasny hadn’t somehow lost his edge in his new role as a theorist. Hexadic II, however, is cocoon-soft, its fluttering acoustic notes and nearly hummed words stretched like strands across each song. The LPs serve as testaments to Hexadic’s intrigue and versatility. Elsewhere, Chasny has sometimes struggled to explain the system, even as he’s led classes on it, written a book about its order of operation, and designed a deck of playing cards for interested musicians. He’s often had to talk about what it is and isn’t or who influenced it and who didn’t. For Hexadic III, he’s finally asked his friends for help with the demonstration.

Curated by Chasny, the new album collects seven diverse interpretations of the system from his inspirations and collaborators. Heron Oblivion’s Meg Baird and Charlie Saufley float through a gauze of gentle piano and guitar, while Richard Youngs wrestles the system into a surrealist collage of acidic distortion and vocals that flip between chants and rants. It all ends with the gorgeous and haunting “Zoa Pastorale,” a wordless keyboard hymn written by one of Hexadic’s earliest champions, British composer and theorist Phil Legard. Stuck somewhere between the fugues of Bach and the psychedelic extremes of Terry Riley, it’s a stunning little piece and an unexpected application for the guitar-centric Hexadic. Indeed, for the neophyte or the casually curious, Hexadic III illustrates the potential and promise of Chasny’s obscure method in a way that a dozen blog posts or even an instructional manual cannot.

Hexadic’s use of chance means that the relationship between notes likely isn’t what you’re used to hearing in familiar Western scales—it was created, after all, to disrupt those thought patterns. The system’s best results, then, suggest a maze of music, a stream of sound that the players simply seemed to have slipped inside. Moon Duo’s “Square of the Sun,” the smoldering krautrock jam that opens the album, epitomizes this feeling. The notes hang together loosely, conjuring recognizable guitar chords but never quite landing on them. The sensation is that of an ellipsis, suggesting this music might go on forever in search of resolution. It’s so perfect that perhaps it should. Likewise, a trio led by Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley seems set to drift forever toward the horizon; they eke out distorted chords and squeeze and stretch the rhythm, as if examining the output of Chasny’s system in real time, with genuine shared surprise. You can feel them searching for some end or climax, all the while knowing it doesn’t truly exist. Tashi Dorji condenses the quest into two tidy minutes of prepared acoustic guitar, a welcome proof of economy for a system that doesn’t favor it.

The most remarkable track here is the one that most fully rescues Hexadic from the realm of esoterica. On “The Hanging Man,” Jenks Miller begins with a riff that sounds like a sun-warped version of something he might play in his country-rock band, Mount Moriah—a crackling electric lead, all moaning and elegant. There’s a demented calliope organ line and distant vocals that seem to arrive on the wind. These threads gather across four minutes, then coil into a tight, delightful passage, with both the riff and the rhythm reflecting off of Miller’s singsong melody. It may be the first Hexadic song with a legitimate hook, a rarity in Miller’s slanted oeuvre, too. If Chasny’s goal was to help himself and others snap their habits, this is indisputable evidence he’s done it. — Pitchfork

1. The Greenhornes – Saying Goodbye
2. Jake Wood – Born to Wander
3. The Raconteurs – Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)
4. Bush Tetras – Neverending Hum
5. A-Moms – Strawberry Cheesecake
6. Todd Albright – Savannah Mama
7. The White Stripes – Let’s Shake Hands (Alternate Take)
8. Teddy and the Rough Riders – I Found Somethin’
9. Lillie Mae – Loaner
10. Joshua Hedley – Mr. Jukebox
11. The Dead Weather – Forever My Queen
12. Alabama Shakes – Be Mine
13. Kelley Stoltz – Storms
14. David Nance Group – Meanwhile
15. The White Stripes – Signed D.C.

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15 incredible tracks from Jack White’s Third Man vault. Mojo Magazine August 2019

Woodstock: Back to the Garden (50th Anniversary Experience) rises above its predecessors. A considerable expansion of Rhino’s 2009 six-CD set Woodstock 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm, 50th Anniversary Experience is also a distillation of the gargantuan Woodstock: Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive, a box that re-creates the entire three-day festival over the course of 38 CDs (all that’s missing are two Jimi Hendrix tunes his estate chose not to license, along with some Sha Na Na that never was taped). While the 38-CD set is an immersive, transportive experience, it’s also by definition a box set that appeals only to archivist, scholars and fanatics-the kind of listeners who don’t think twice at digging through a weekend’s worth of music and stage…

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…announcements. This ten-disc set, however, is a great choice for listeners who want to get a feel for the entire sprawling festival without devoting more than a day of their life to listening to Woodstock.

50th Anniversary Experience draws from the same mixes producer Andy Zax and sound producer Brian Kehew assembled for the 38-disc box, mixes that differ from the 2009 box. Like the 2009 set, this 2019 box follows the same chronological order, opening with Richie Havens and closing with Hendrix. Zax’s decision not to sweeten or fix the original tapes doesn’t mean the set sounds rocky. On the contrary, the sound is vivid and alive, lending a kinetic kick to both rock bands and folk singers, yet it still sounds like a document of a specific time and place. Its documentary elements are the most attractive element of 50th Anniversary Experience, even in this truncated form, the festival unspools at the pace it did in August 1969, touching upon every artist on the bill and filling in narrative details with stage patter. Ten Years After and the Band chose not to participate in the 2009 set, nor was the Keef Hartley Band present, but all three are included here among the fifty-plus tracks making their official debut on this box.

While there are gems to be heard among these rarities — gems coming from both cult figures like Bert Sommer and heavy hitters like Janis Joplin and the Who — the appeal of 50th Anniversary Experience lies in its cumulative impact. Listening to the set gain momentum as it turns from hippie folk to over-amplified psychedelia and rock & roll, with its pace sometimes slowed by the rantings of John Morris and Chip Monk, seems as ungainly and wooly as attending a three-day musical festival. It also has the side effect of puncturing some long-held myths cultivated by both Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 film and decades of chatter. For instance, both the Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival sets are much better than their reputation suggests, while the whole weekend sounds exploratory and adventurous in a way that years of nostalgia have obscured. It’s that latter revelation that makes Woodstock: Back to the Garden (50th Anniversary Experience) worthwhile even for the skeptics: the comprehensive nature changes our perception of an event we all thought we already knew.

Day 1
1. Richie Havens – Hello [01:14]
2. Richie Havens – From the Prison / Get Together / From the Prison [04:30]
3. Richie Havens – High Flying Bird [04:22]
4. Richie Havens – With a Little Help from My Friends [03:28]
5. Richie Havens – Handsome Johnny [04:47]
6. Richie Havens – Freedom [05:12]
7. John Morris – It Seems There Are a Few Cars Blocking the Road [00:38]
8. Sweetwater – Look Out [04:02]
9. Sweetwater – Day Song [01:51]
10. Sweetwater – Two Worlds [06:12]
11. Bert Sommer – Jennifer [03:03]
12. Bert Sommer – And When It’s Over [03:05]
13. Bert Sommer – America [03:28]
14. Bert Sommer – Smile [04:13]
15. John Morris – Let’s See How Bright It Can Be [02:53]
16. Tim Hardin – How Can We Hang On to a Dream [04:04]
17. Tim Hardin – If I Were a Carpenter [05:17]
18. Tim Hardin – Reason to Believe [04:25]
19. Tim Hardin – Misty Roses [04:32]
20. John Morris – We’re a Pretty Big City Right Now [03:57]
21. John Morris – Somebody, Somewhere Is Giving Out Some Flat Blue Acid [00:49]
22. Ravi Shankar – Raga Manj Kmahaj [17:46]
23. Melanie – Momma Momma [03:43]
24. Melanie – Beautiful People [03:59]
25. Melanie – Mr. Tambourine Man [02:22]
26. Melanie – Birthday of the Sun [03:35]
27. John Morris – It’s a Free Concert from Now On [01:30]
28. Arlo Guthrie – Coming Into Los Angeles [03:24]
29. Arlo Guthrie – Lotta Freaks! [00:34]
30. Arlo Guthrie – Wheel of Fortune [02:28]
31. Arlo Guthrie – Walking Down the Line [04:25]
32. Arlo Guthrie – Every Hand in the Land [01:46]
33. John Morris – Let’s Just Make the Festival, Not the Other Stuff [00:43]
34. Joan Baez – The Last Thing On My Mind [03:50]
35. Joan Baez – I Shall Be Released [03:45]
36. Joan Baez – He Already Had a Very, Very Good Hunger Strike Going [02:58]
37. Joan Baez – Joe Hill [02:44]
38. Joan Baez – Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man (feat. Jeffrey Shurtleff) [02:45]
39. John Morris – That Brings Us Fairly Close to the Dawn [00:52]

Day 2
1. John Morris – I guess the reason we’re here is music [00:36]
2. Quill – They Live The Life [08:17]
3. Quill – That’s How I Eat [05:29]
4. Chip Monck – Can those of you in the back hear well? [01:45]
5. Country Joe McDonald – Janis [02:48]
6. Country Joe McDonald – Donovan’s Reef [04:03]
7. Country Joe McDonald – The “Fish” Cheer / I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag [05:06]
8. Chip Monck – Those wishing to be lost, those wishing to be found [00:27]
9. Santana – Savor [05:22]
10. Santana – Jingo [05:15]
11. Santana – Persuasion [03:51]
12. Santana – Soul Sacrifice [11:53]
13. Chip Monck – An exciting set is understandable [00:12]
14. John Sebastian – How Have You Been [05:59]
15. John Sebastian – Rainbows All Over Your Blues [03:41]
16. John Sebastian – I Had A Dream [03:35]
17. John Sebastian – Darling Be Home Soon [04:25]
18. Keef Hartley Band – Halfbreed Medley: Sinning for You / Leaving Trunk / Just to Cry / Sinning for You [17:55]
19. Chip Monck – Bring Jerry’s nitroglycerin pills to the Indian Pavilion [01:56]
20. Chip Monck – Go to Mr. Lang’s office right away [01:13]
21. The Incredible String Band – Invocation [01:40]
22. The Incredible String Band – The Letter [05:31]
23. The Incredible String Band – Gather ‘Round [05:04]
24. The Incredible String Band – When You Find Out Who You Are [09:24]
25. Chip Monck & Hugh Romney – If things aren’t going well for you or whatever [02:44]
26. Canned Heat – Going Up the Country [04:44]
27. Canned Heat – Woodstock Boogie [29:00]
28. Bob Hite & Chip Monck – Can we have a little juice on this other microphone, please? [01:25]
29. Canned Heat – On The Road Again [10:51]
30. Chip Monck – It’s your own trip [02:03]
31. Chip Monck – We’ll take care of that right away [02:28]
32. Mountain – Theme For An Imaginary Western [05:02]
33. Mountain – Long Red [05:43]
34. Mountain – Who Am I But You and the Sun (For Yasgur’s Farm) [03:53]
35. Mountain – Southbound Train [06:15]
36. Chip Monck & Joshua White – Open your eyes wide [02:27]
37. Ken Babbs – So many people have been able to participate in such a debacle [01:27]
38. The Grateful Dead – Mama Tried [02:38]
39. Ken Babbs, Country Joe McDonald – It’s a sinister plot! [04:08]
40. The Grateful Dead – Dark Star [19:16]
41. The Grateful Dead – High Time [06:15]
42. John Morris – You’re carrying Janis’ wah-wah pedals [01:52]
43. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River [03:15]
44. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising [02:12]
45. Creedence Clearwater Revival – I Put a Spell On You [04:22]
46. Chip Monck – It’s going to be a very long evening [01:02]
47. Janis Joplin – To Love Somebody [05:17]
48. Janis Joplin – Kozmic Blues [04:52]
49. Janis Joplin – Piece of My Heart [03:54]
50. Janis Joplin – Music’s for grooving, man [01:32]
51. Janis Joplin – Ball And Chain [06:25]
52. Chip Monck – Just in case you should get any ideas about leaving [00:39]
53. Sly And The Family Stone – Medley: Everyday People / Dance To The Music / Music Lover / I Want To Take You Higher [22:29]
54. Abbie Hoffman & stagehand – Are you supposed to be up there rapping? No, man [00:33]
55. The Who – I Can’t Explain [02:22]
56. The Who – Pinball Wizard [02:53]
57. Abbie Hoffman & Pete Townshend – I can dig it [00:28]
58. The Who – We’re Not Gonna Take It [08:57]
59. The Who – Shakin’ All Over [04:42]
60. The Who – My Generation [07:10]
61. Chip Monck – Welcome this new day [00:52]
62. Jefferson Airplane – The Other Side of This Life [08:26]
63. Jefferson Airplane – Somebody To Love [04:23]
64. Jefferson Airplane – Let’s play it out of tune [00:10]
65. Jefferson Airplane – 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds [05:27]
66. Jefferson Airplane – Won’t You Try / Saturday Afternoon [05:09]
67. Jefferson Airplane – We got a whole lot of orange and it was fine [00:29]
68. Jefferson Airplane – Plastic Fantastic Lover [04:28]
69. Jefferson Airplane – Volunteers [03:00]

Day 3

1. Hugh Romney – If you’re too tired to chew, pass it on [02:18]
2. John Morris – The roads are fairly clear now [01:06]
3. Max Yasgur – This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place [02:33]
4. Joe Cocker – Dear Landlord [08:06]
5. Joe Cocker – Feelin’ Alright [06:00]
6. Joe Cocker – Let’s Go Get Stoned [06:52]
7. Joe Cocker – Hitchcock Railway [06:02]
8. Joe Cocker – With a Little Help from My Friends [08:17]
9. John Morris, Barry Melton, Rainstorm & Audience – Isn’t the rain beautiful? [05:34]
10. Country Joe and The Fish – Rock & Soul Music [02:10]
11. Country Joe and The Fish – Love [03:01]
12. Country Joe and The Fish – Silver And Gold [04:46]
13. Country Joe and The Fish – Rock & Soul Music (Reprise) [12:25]
14. Ten Years After – Help Me [15:35]
15. Ten Years After – I’m Going Home [12:18]
16. Chip Monck – Come down and say hello to us [01:31]
17. The Band – Chest Fever [05:34]
18. The Band – Tears Of Rage [05:34]
19. The Band – This Wheel’s On Fire [03:55]
20. The Band – I Shall Be Released [03:37]
21. The Band – The Weight [04:36]
22. Chip Monck – We’ve just had a slight change in running order [00:28]
23. Chip Monck – It’s really a drag [00:53]
24. Johnny Winter – Leland Mississippi Blues [05:11]
25. Johnny Winter – Mean Town Blues [10:55]
26. Johnny Winter – Johnny B. Goode[05:24]
27. Chip Monck – It just doesn’t seem to be necessary [01:01]
28. Blood Sweat & Tears – More And More [02:55]
29. Blood Sweat & Tears – Spinning Wheel [04:47]
30. Blood Sweat & Tears – Smiling Phases [10:06]
31. Blood Sweat & Tears – You’ve Made Me So Very Happy [04:52]
32. Crosby, Stills & Nash – Tell ’em who we are, man [00:58]
33. Crosby, Stills & Nash – Suite: Judy Blue Eyes [08:36]
34. Crosby, Stills & Nash – Blackbird [02:43]
35. Crosby, Stills & Nash – Marrakesh Express [02:52]
36. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Sea Of Madness [03:17]
37. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Wooden Ships [06:43]
38. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Bummer! [01:01]
39. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – 49 Bye-Byes [05:17]
40. The Butterfield Blues Band – No Amount of Loving [06:02]
41. The Butterfield Blues Band – Love March [11:02]
42. The Butterfield Blues Band – Everything’s Gonna Be Alright [09:20]
43. Chip Monck & Sha Na Na – Test [01:19]
44. Sha Na Na – Get a Job [02:26]
45. Sha Na Na – Come Go with Me [02:30]
46. Sha Na Na – Silhouettes [02:55]
47. Sha Na Na – At Tthe Hop [02:56]
48. Sha Na Na – Duke of Earl[01:58]
49. Sha Na Na – Get a Job (Reprise) [00:24]
50. Chip Monck – Thank you for making all this possible [01:39]
51. Jimi Hendrix – Hear My Train A Comin’ [09:10]
52. Jimi Hendrix – Izabella [04:46]
53. Jimi Hendrix – The Star-Spangled Banner [13:37]
54. Chip Monck – Good wishes, good day, and a good life [03:30]

Emanating from the tiny French island La Réunion, nestled some 500 miles off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, maloya dates back to the 17th century. Made by the slaves working the island’s sugar plantations, the music only began to be recognized by Réunionese society in the 20th century. But in the 1960s, a turn towards pro-independence and communist lyrics — not to mention its use in trance-inducing servis kabaré ceremonies, which the Catholic Church disapproved of — led to the prohibition of the style. When it emerged again in the 1980s, acts like Ziskanan and Ti Fock presented a more digestible iteration of that sound, which got picked up by western labels. But in the 21st century, artists like Christine Salem and Danyèl Waro have broadened…

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…the appeal of maloya, while Jako Maron has used modular synths and drum machines to both modernize and scuff up the form, stripping it back to its spiky, percussive essence. Maron’s 2018 tape for Uganda’s Nyege Nyege label helped spread greater awareness of maloya far from the island.

Maron appears three times on Digital Kabar: Electronic Maloya from La Réunion Since 1980, a wide-ranging 18-track set of older material and exclusive tracks that shows just how technology has altered the traditional sound of the island. Previously released on The Electro Maloya Experiments of Jako Maron, “Batbaté Maloya” strikes a midway point between Pan Sonic and charming drum-machine sputters, the ancillary buzz slowly throwing a pall over the entire track. As a producer for the hip-hop group Force Indigène, Maron blends together twanging strings and squalls of feedback. And his remix of drummer Patrick Manent’s “Kabaré Atèr” is as spare as can be. Rooting the mix in vocal chants and relentless drums, he brusquely chops and loops the vocals into a jostling call-and-response, with a menacing dose of acid bass infiltrating the threshing rhythms of the hand percussion. Rather than intensify and add layers, at the midway point, Maron cuts the electronics out, leaving the drums and voice to tussle, a rare instance of a remixer extracting themselves from the music.

Elsewhere, the set shows a plethora of artists moving away from the template, showing how the music naturally mutates the further it roams. In Berlin, the shakers and synth bass underpinning Alex Barck’s rework of Christine Salem’s “Oh Africa” percolate and carefully build to sweet dancefloor dopamine release. Barck, a member of Germany’s Sonar Kollektiv, is wise to foreground the evocative grain of Salem’s voice rather than overpower it with his own programming. Same with the stirring remix of Maya Kamaty’s “Pandiyé,” adding tumbling hand drums and her layered vocals until it achieves liftoff.

Such reworkings of maloya don’t always fare so well. Do Moon’s update of Ti Fock’s 1985 track “Kom Lé Long” veers dangerously close to breezy house tropes, mixing marimba and kick drum until the vocals feel like an afterthought. The loungey downtempo dub of “Mahavel” comes across as velvety wallpaper, while Boogzbrown & Cubenx’s hectic “Butcha” gets shot through with a ludicrous array of laser effects, as if hunting for the birds chirping throughout the track. La Réunion’s indigenous feathered species are better served on L’abuse’s “Ré-Union.” The expansive centerpiece of the set, it’s a gently cresting slice of 124-bpm ambient house, the bird calls and handclaps judiciously mixed with wordless vocals and piano. Fragrant as it is, the track unceremoniously cuts out after 13 minutes.

In the clash of traditional and futuristic, ancestral and electronic, Kabar brings to mind heady fusions like Shangaan electro, gqom, and batida that are sprouting up across the African continent and diaspora. Too often on this compilation, though, the remixers risk drowning out maloya’s fiery, vital message. As the singer Firmin Viry once said, “It is the cry of the people.” — Pitchfork

Brothers Chip and Tony Kinman had fronted some of the most influential bands of the last quarter of the 20th century. After forming the seminal punk band, The Dils (and even scoring an appearance in Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke), the brothers became cow-punk pioneers with their next band, Rank and File (whose early line-up included Alejandro Escovedo). They took a more industrial turn with their next band, Blackbird, and returned to more traditional country with Cowboy Nation.
For the first time, 22 previously unissued performances from all 4 bands are collected on Chip & Tony Kinman: Sounds Like Music. Selected by Chip, and taken from the brothers’ archives, these restored and remastered tracks trace their journey like no other collection has, or could.

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Featuring photos, ephemera, and new notes from Chip, it takes listeners from the D.I.Y. aesthetic of L.A. punk to cowboy songs that feel like they’ve been around forever.

…Sadly, Tony passed away in 2018, but Chip & Tony Kinman: Sounds Like Music solidifies the brothers’ legacy, adds to their already beloved body of work and is a fitting tribute to the music they made together.

1. Blackbird – Real Style [00:44]
2. The Dils – Folks Say Go [02:46]
3. Blackbird – Me Too [01:50]
4. Blackbird – Liberation [04:10]
5. Blackbird – Jersey Girl [06:50]
6. Blackbird – Dope [05:01]
7. Rank and File – Rank and File (Alternate Version) [02:26]
8. Blackbird – Candy [02:35]
9. Rank and File – Amanda Ruth (Alternate Version) [03:14]
10. Rank and File – Lucky Day (Alternate Version) [03:18]
11. Cowboy Nation – Paniolo (Alternate Version) [02:31]
12. Rank and File – Citizen [03:04]
13. Blackbird – Revolution Is Rising [03:44]
14. Blackbird – Dream On [05:13]
15. Rank and File – Restless [02:30]
16. Rank and File – Landslide [03:20]
17. Blackbird – Old Paint [05:00]
18. Blackbird – Blue Hair [02:30]
19. Blackbird – Perfect Day [03:35]
20. Blackbird – She’s Real Gone [02:09]
21. Cowboy Nation – Rebel (Alternate Version) [04:31]
22. Blackbird – All the Same [05:29]

…The music collected on The World of Keith Haring is a combination of rare disco, early electro and New York punk/dance tracks reflecting the vibrant and hybrid world of downtown New York in the 1980s.
Here you will find early electro from The Jonzun Crew, Adiche and The Extra T’s alongside angular jerky crossover punk/dance and disco/not disco tracks like Pylon’s ‘Danger,’ John Sex’s ‘Bump and Grind’, Yoko Ono’s ‘Walking on Thin Ice’ and Mudd Club DJ Johnny Dynell’s ‘Jam Hot.’
The music of some of Haring’s favourite visual artists (and friends) also feature heavily including Jean-Michel Basquiat’s experimental group Gray, George Condo’s art rock group The Girls (produced by David Thomas of Pere Ubu) and…

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…early rap from Fab Five Freddy.

Paradise Garage soul and disco classics here include Sylvester’s seminal ‘Over and Over’; London DJ Tony Williams’ fusion of Jamaican dub and New York dance music as The Funk Masters, Damon Harris’s uplifting ‘It’s Music’ and disco producers extraordinaire Peter Brown and Patrick Adams’ homage to the new phenomenon of the day – The Guardian Angels of the New York subway system.

Together these are some of the tracks first heard in New York’s prolific underground club scene of the 1980s – including Club 57, The Mudd Club, Danceteria, Hurrah, Area, The Fun Club, Tier 3, The Palladium, Roxy, Pyramid and Paradise Garage. Haring was a regular face at many of these clubs, often a creative participant, both shaping and defining the cultural identity of downtown New York.

Also included is a track by the long-standing French experimental group Art Zoyd. ‘Sortie 134’ made as part of the music for ‘Le Mariage du Ciel et de L’Enfer’ (‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’), a ballet created by Roland Petit, choreographer at the National Ballet of Marseille, based upon a collection of pose and poetry by William Blake. As one of many works that Haring took on in Europe at the time, Petit commissioned the artist to create a massive 100-square metre backdrop painting for this show.

The selection of music on this collection is itself like a mixtape that reflects Haring’s wide-ranging musical influences and connections. And for someone who neither DJ’d nor played in a band he had impeccable musical tastes, with music playing a pivotal part in both his life and work, and functioning as an essential and always present soundtrack to both.

…Haring’s many friends and collaborators included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Madonna, Fab 5 Freddy, William Burroughs, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono, Bill T Jones, Larry Levan, Timothy Leary, Futura 2000. If you were looking for a person to guide you through the wide variety of nightclub scenes of downtown New York in the 1980s, then Keith Haring would have been your man.

Keith Haring was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1988 and died at the age of 31 on February 16, 1990. During his short time on the planet his work featured in over 100 solo and group exhibitions across the world and was seen on subways, in public spaces, on club flyers and consumer products.

Keith Haring was one of the key members of a group of New York-based artists who redefined the boundaries of modern art in the 1980s. Like his friends, including the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and graffiti artists Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quiñones and LA II, Haring helped first bring the aesthetics of graffiti and street art to New York’s downtown; into both the fine art world, with his own shows at the Shafrazi Gallery and Patti Astor’s Fun Gallery, as well as into the alternative punk and new wave club scene, curating art shows at spaces like Club 57 and the infamous Mudd Club.

During this time the art and music worlds of downtown New York, especially that of the East Village, were colliding as the musical boundary lines between punk rock, dance music and hip-hop also blurred. Musicians were also artists, film-makers or actors. Artists formed bands and music was art. This was the world of Keith Haring’s New York; a collaborative world where the numerous artists he worked with were also friends, all inhabiting the same fertile, febrile and creative world of New York City in the 1980s.

Music played a central role in the creation of Haring’s art. In 1981 Keith Haring, Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 organised ‘Beyond Words,’ the first downtown graffiti show on the top floor of the Mudd Clubb, with Afrika Bambaataa DJing at the opening, while downstairs the sounds of spiky punk/dance music played to a dancefloor populated with New York’s new punk and no wave glitterati – David Byrne, Deborah Harry, The Contortions et al – who mixed with poor East Village aspiring artists and Studio 54 celebrities like Andy Warhol, Grace Jones and David Bowie.

At his early solo art shows Haring hired break-dancers and DJs (including his partner Juan Dubose) to play at gallery openings. As hip-hop and electro exploded into the world, body-popping and electro boogie-ing characters also populated Haring’s paintings with much of the kinetic energy of his work part inspired by the dancefloor and street moves of B-Boys and B-Girls.

But the decisive moment in creating Haring’s musical tastes and inspiration came with a chance discovering of the Paradise Garage one night in 1984 while walking through the streets of the West Village with his friend Fab 5 Freddy. As Haring told biographer John Gruen:

‘I have never been the same since I walked into Paradise Garage … The music was phenomenal – Larry Levan was the DJ there and he was like a god in the DJ booth. I was totally mesmerized.’

Haring fell in love with the Paradise Garage, creating large scale artworks and flyers for the club, flying home from his exhibitions around the world to religiously attend Saturday nights there. Haring became friends with Larry Levan and in 1984 he put on his own Party of Life at the Garage with DJs Levan and Juan Dubose, and live appearances from his friends John Sex and the then-unknown singer Madonna.

By the second half of the 1980s Haring was spending more and more time away from New York and working in Europe. Despite this he remained connected to New York’s dance culture at all times through a constant stream of cassette mixtapes that he would listen to while working. These mixtapes were supplied by friends and lovers such as Jean Dubose and Gil Vazquez and playlists from the likes of Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles and Junior Vasquez.

1. Israel Nash – Lucky Ones
2. Luluc – Spring
3. Juniore – Magnifique
4. Nathan Salsburg – BB
5. Ty Segall & White Fence – Good Boy
6. Jim James – Throwback
7. Dirty Projectors – Break-Thru
8. RVG – A Quality of Mercy
9. The Innocence Mission – Green Bus
10. Ray Davies – Bringing Up Baby
11. Kamal Keila – Sudan in the Heart of Africa
12. Gwenifer Raymond – Sometimes There’s Blood
13. Olivia Chaney – House On the Hill
14. Matty – Clear
15. Dawes – Never Gonna Say Goodbye

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August 2018 (“Take 255”) issue of Uncut magazine.

Universally known to his fans and peers as ‘Hag’, the late Merle Haggard was one of the prime exponents of the ‘Bakersfield Sound’, developed in the early ’60s as an alternative to the increasingly smooth and homogenised country music that was coming out of Nashville.
As well as having one of the most distinctive and memorable voices of his generation, Haggard was also one of country’s most prolific hitmakers and composers, writing more than three quarters of the hundred plus songs he placed on Billboard’s Country charts between 1962 and 1990, as well as numerous album tracks.
Hag’s songs quickly found an audience among his country peers. They also spoke to artists active in other genres, and particularly to…

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…the generation of rock musicians who fell under their spell in the late 60s and early 70s and who played them live and/or recorded them frequently.

The latest entry in Ace’s ‘Songwriter Series’, “Holding Things Together” offers a broad cross-section of premium Hag copyrights, as reinterpreted by artists as diverse as Gram Parsons (in various guises), Bettye Swann, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Grateful Dead and legendary ‘Singing Cowboy’ Roy Rogers, to name but a few.

Most of the featured songs are famous enough to be recognised by their titles and are rightly considered to be country music classics but as ever, we have unearthed a few lesser known killers – some of which are appearing on CD for the first time. — ACE

1. Jerry Lee Lewis – Swinging Doors [02:48]
2. Roy Rogers – Okie from Muskogee [02:49]
3. Barrence Whitfield – Irma Jackson [02:50]
4. Bettye Swann – Just Because You Can’t Be Mine [02:32]
5. The Knitters – Silver Wings [02:11]
6. Tammy Wynette – The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde [02:00]
7. The Flying Burrito Bros – White Line Fever [03:13]
8. Dave Alvin – Kern River [04:04]
9. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Honky Tonk Night Time Man [04:01]
10. The Byrds – Life in Prison [02:44]
11. Merle Haggard & the Strangers – Holding Things Together [02:57]
12. Brenda Lee – Everybody’s Had the Blues [02:38]
13. The Grateful Dead – Mama Tried [02:41]
14. Chip Taylor with Ghost Train – Farmer’s Daughter [03:25]
15. Dean Martin – I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am [03:11]
16. Dolly Parton – Life’s Like Poetry [01:47]
17. Wynn Stewart – Today I Started Loving You Again [02:47]
18. The Everly Brothers – Sing Me Back Home [03:56]
19. Elvin Bishop – I Can’t Hold Myself in Line [02:39]
20. Country Joe McDonald – Rainbow Stew [03:09]
21. George Thorogood & the Destroyers – Living with the Shades Pulled Down [03:23]
22. Hank Williams Jr – I’d Rather Be Gone [02:39]
23. The International Submarine Band – I Must Be Somebody Else You’ve Known [02:13]
24. Emmylou Harris – The Bottle Let Me Down [03:14]

…comprising 5 of the most collectable Trojan albums that attracted fans of the new reggae style throughout the latter half of ’69.
In 1969 reggae and the skinhead look hit the big time in the UK. The fortunes of the music and new look were of course closely intertwined, with skinheads largely instrumental in propelling the music from Jamaica into the British charts. But while the singles and albums that became hits have since provided the focus for numerous compilations, the lesser known records, bought by the die-hards and aficionados, have been largely overlooked.
…This collection forms part of Trojan’s 2019’s ‘Spirit of 69’ campaign, which celebrates the half centenary of the year that reggae hit the British charts and the original skinhead…

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…generation hit the streets. — trojanrecords.com

CD1: Lloyd Charmers – Reggae is Tight
Original UK release: Trojan, TTL-25
1. Lloyd Charmers – 5 To 5
2. Lloyd Charmers – Follow This Sound
3. Lloyd Charmers – Golden Moon (aka Blue Moon)
4. Lloyd Charmers – Higher Heights
5. Lloyd Charmers – Psychdelic Reggae
6. Lloyd Charmers – Summer Face (aka Theme From A Summer Place)
7. Lloyd Charmers – Crimson & Clover
8. Lloyd Charmers – Rat Trap
9. Lloyd Charmers – Everybody Needs Love
10. Lloyd Charmers – Safari
11. Lloyd Charmers – Reggae Is Tight (aka Time Is Tight)
12. Lloyd Charmers – Stronger

CD2: Various Artists – Jackpot of Hits
Original UK release: Amalgamated, CSP-3
1. The Pioneers – Jackpot
2. The Mellotones – Feel Good
3. The Pioneers – Give Me A Little Living
4. The Pioneers – No Dope Me Pony
5. Ansel Collins – Secret Weapon
6. Lyn Taitt & The Jets – El Casino Royale
7. Stranger Cole – What Mama Na Want She Get
8. The Pioneers – Catch The Beat
9. Hugh Malcolm – Good Time Rock
10. Stranger & Gladdy – Just Like A River
11. The Crashers – Hurry Come Up
12. Cool Sticky – Train To Soulsville

CD3: Owen Gray – Reggae with Soul
Original UK release: Trojan, TTL-24
1. Owen Gray – Too Experienced
2. Owen Gray – You Call My Name
3. Owen Gray – Mr Sun
4. Owen Gray – Seven Lonely Days
5. Owen Gray – There’ll Be No Ending
6. Owen Gray – Any Day Now
7. Owen Gray – I Can’t Stop Loving You
8. Owen Gray – I’ve Got To Get Back
9. Owen Gray – Say You Will
10. Owen Gray – I Nkow She Loves Me
11. Owen Gray – Do You Wanna Dance
12. Owen Gray – I’m Gone

CD4: The Hippy Boys – Reggae with the Hippy Boys
Original UK release: High Note, BSLP-5005
1. The Hippy Boys – Nurse J’Kel
2. The Hippy Boys – This Is It
3. The Hippy Boys – Mad Movie
4. The Hippy Boys – Capo
5. The Hippy Boys – Foot Work
6. The Hippy Boys – Seventh Heaven
7. The Hippy Boys – Moon Walk
8. The Hippy Boys – Challenge
9. The Hippy Boys – Reggae Pressure
10. The Hippy Boys – Wondering

CD5: The Dynamites – Fire Corner
Original UK release: Trojan, TTL-21
1. The Dynamites – Eternally
2. The Dynamites – Sam-Fie
3. The Dynamites – I Did It
4. The Dynamites – This Is The Night
5. The Dynamites – One Way Street
6. The Dynamites – John Public (aka Tom Hark)
7. The Dynamites – Skokiaan (Mr Midnight)
8. The Dynamites – Aoul Language
9. The Dynamites – Say What You Say
10. The Dynamites – Vigorton Two
11. The Dynamites – Next Corner
12. The Dynamites – Fire Corner