Sofa Records and Les Disques Bongo Joe present Maghreb K7 Club: Synth Raï, Chaoui & Staiif 1985-1997, a compilation of music recorded and produced between 1985 and 1997 in Lyon by musicians from the Maghreb region.
Most of Lyon’s musical scene is composed of men originating from eastern Algeria, but since the 1950s, the Croix-Rousse and Guillotière cafés have counted musicians from all over Maghreb. These cafés were social hubs, where these individuals met up weekly, playing together and sharing their everyday life experience. This compilation brings together eight tracks that were then released on audio cassettes only.
…There, the practice of music was cross-regional with different North African influences,…

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…but also with local traditions. These versatile musicians also absorbed new local influences: music within the context of immigration was a perfect school for musical cosmopolitanism. Chachacha or tango versions of some Cheikh El Hasnaoui tracks come to mind, or Mohamed Mazouni’s jerks and twists. Like their predecessors, the musicians in this compilation brilliantly integrate raï or staïfi tunes with disco aesthetics or funk guitar riffs as Nordine Staifi did. — pan-african-music.com

Berlin is often touted as the techno capital of the world, but the city’s music scene goes deeper than the steadily thudding kick drums emanating from clubs like Berghain and Tresor. The German capital has always been a musically diverse place, particularly for those interested in leftfield and experimental sounds, and in recent years, a variety of styles have taken root across the city’s many dancefloors.
Until last month, several of those dancefloors could be found at Griessmuehle, a former grain mill-turned-nightclub that was a beloved hub for a myriad of non-techno styles: house, disco, electro, UK bass, and more. The club closed in early February after the property’s owner chose not to renew the venue’s lease, but while…

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…the place was still open, its roster of regular parties included Mother’s Finest, with German artist Franklin De Costa at the helm. During the series’ seven-year run—for now, its events are part of the “Griessmuehle im Exil” series at Alte Münze, with a new permanent home coming later in the year—De Costa has established himself as one of Berlin’s most trusted nightlife curators, especially for those who gravitate toward heavy bass and the more adventurous varieties of house and techno.

He now applies those curatorial skills to a new record label, which kicks off with the simply titled Mother’s Finest Compilation. A 15-track collection put together by De Costa and Bristol artist Hodge—a Mother’s Finest resident since 2016—it’s an impressive assemblage of talent that places established artists like Batu, Laurel Halo, and Mosca alongside hotly tipped up-and-comers like Anunaku (aka TSVI), Otik, and Karima F. Although Berlin and the UK are heavily represented, the record does reach beyond the usual electronic music hotspots, gathering tracks from Portugal’s Violet, Mexico’s Nico, and Italy’s Katatonic Silentio.

Stylistically, the compilation resides mostly in the hard-to-categorize nether region between bass music and techno, making additional forays into ambient, breakbeat, electro, and jungle. Similar to the output of labels like Timedance, Livity Sound, and Hessle Audio, the music marries the potent basslines and adventurous drum programming of the UK hardcore continuum to a more focused techno framework, resulting in a hybrid sound that’s remarkably potent.

Mother’s Finest Compilation is loaded with formidable club tracks. Hodge’s “Silo” is a particularly animated drum workout, while Nico’s “Common Drum” blends percussive acrobatics with delicate melodies and a more introspective mood. The North African palette and rambunctious spirit of Anunaku’s “Nascent” make it one of liveliest offerings, although it’s rivaled by the breakbeat-infused ghetto house of Nasty King Kurl’s “Complicated” and the booming basslines of Violet’s “Infinite Source,” which brilliantly captures the raucous, rave-ready vibe of ’90s jungle. Dynamo Dreesen’s hypnotic “From This Era” pursues a more linear path; wonky, off-kilter rhythms fuel the seasick glitch of Mosca’s “Swann Morton,” the serpentine groove of Batu’s “High Press,” and the alien stomp of Franklin De Costa’s “Rage.”

If there’s one drawback, it’s a lack of narrative. Mother’s Finest Compilation may be stuffed with top-shelf tunes, but its larger purpose is unclear. Most of the artists featured have played at Mother’s Finest before (some several times), so perhaps it works as a sort of overview of the party’s history, but only Hodge and De Costa are actually residents, and most of the producers don’t even live in Berlin. Without knowing the label’s future plans, it’s possible to see this compilation as a sort of public branding exercise—a practice that’s become common in the electronic music realm. Especially for a new label, it’s a lot easier to market and sell a record with 15 different artists, all of who have their own fan bases and social media channels, than it is to find an audience for an EP or album from a single act, particularly one that’s relatively unknown.

Fortunately, while many artists aren’t naturally inclined to offer up their best stuff for a random compilation, Mother’s Finest Compilation hardly feels inconsequential. It’s clear that De Costa and Hodge made sure to accept only high-quality material, and as first releases go, Mother’s Finest Compilation makes an impressive statement. Its storyline may not extend much beyond, “Here’s a bunch of tunes from artists we like,” but when the music is this good, perhaps that doesn’t matter. — Pitchfork

In 2017, A Colourful Storm released a compilation of Australian indie rock called I Won’t Have to Think About You. For those who’ve come across the label via obscure electro, techno or drum & bass, it would’ve been a surprise. But there’s a throughline from the morose jangle of Hydroplane to the gloomy techno of Nerve. A Colourful Storm’s Moopie doesn’t see a difference. He once said the label’s mission was to “simply explore the feelings which appeal to us most — desire, urgency, desperation.”
Now Moopie and Bayu reunite for a new compilation (part two of a planned trilogy), this time focusing on emotional late ’90s and ’00s IDM, by turns yearning, desolate and beautiful. This is stuff only the nerdiest diggers would know about…

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…— deep cuts found on obscure compilations and unusual formats like Minidisc and CD-R. The LP centers on output from Sweden, the UK and Finland, and the biggest artist featured is Martin Haidinger, who produced under aliases such as Gimmik and Num Num in addition to running the label Toytronic. I hadn’t heard of most of these artists and I was bowled over from the first listen. It’s a collection of electronic music defined by its soul-baring tenderness.

The artists on Still In My Arms express themselves in murmurs and whispers, and it feels like they’re in conversation with each other. The drums are lightweight and nimble, the melodies silky and glum. They’re deliberate textural choices that heighten a timelessly sentimental mood. A track like Boc Scadet’s “Sel Alterat”—taken from a CD-R that explains that it was “produced in a bedroom in a crappy town”—has a reedy synth lead whose smallness underlines the feeling of loneliness, alienation and longing. Each track is a solitary transmission with a diaristic intimacy, dance music in search of a dance floor it’ll never find.

Carefully sequenced and only 37 minutes long, the compilation feels like a self-contained world, though there are recognisable moments here and there. The Spark remix of Multiplex, a highlight here, sounds like The Other People Place remixing Autechre. Spark, a producer from Vancouver, used to self-release albums through MP3.com. He has a pretty big catalogue, as do most of the artists gathered here. But the compilation isn’t a gateway to an overlooked scene so much as a lovingly compiled mixtape. Still In My Arms‘ latest compilation is a strong example of the artful curation that has made A Colourful Storm one of electronic music’s most exciting labels. — residentadvisor.net

1. Sugar – Gift
2. Superchunk – The First Part
3. Sebadoh – Beauty of the Ride
4. Shudder to Think – X-French Tee Shirt
5. Lotion – She Is Weird City
6. Girls Against Boys – (I) Don’t Got a Place
7. Pond – Young Splendor
8. Madder Rose – Car Song
9. Built to Spill – Car
10. Robert Pollard – Psychic Pilot Clocks Out
11. Sunny Day Real Estate – 8
12. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Bellbottoms
13. The Grifters – Last Man Alive
14. The Jesus Lizard – Fly On the Wall
15. Red Red Meat – Chain Chain Chain

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MOJO May 2020 [#318]

Rare and unissued Pacific Northwest floor fillers! While soul music might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the music of the Pacific Northwest, Salem Oregon’s Garland Records was churning out high quality hip shakers along with their reels of garage & psych. Contained here is some super deep “Northwestern Soul,” including three cuts making their inaugural spins 50 years after they were put to tape.
From the politically powerful “Freedom Train,” a pleasantly less polished version of a Motown staple, to a pair of energetic takes on some Bobby Blue Bland steamers. True to form for BeatRocket’s Garland Records collections is the abundance of original material. Sixties Salem Oregon was about as musically diverse as they come…

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…and BeatRocket is sorting through the Garland reels to prove it!

1. White Feather – Freedom Train (3:56)
2. Cornucopia – Just One Time (6:01)
3. Morning Reign – Reach Out I’ll Be There (2:59)
4. Crystal Teardrop – Findin’ My Own Kind of Song (1:55)
5. Dart – I Can’t Understand (2:11)
6. Prince Charles & The Crusaders – Mr. Love (2:17)
7. Dart – Don’t Cry No More (3:12)
8. Crystal Teardrop – Dorchester Summer (1:49)
9. White Feather – Any Day Now (5:35)
10. Baldwin Brothers – It’s Alright (2:34)
11. Dart – Lead Me On (2:53)
12. Morning Reign – But It’s Alright (2:56)
13. Baldwin Brothers – Ticket to Denver (3:38)

The music business is littered with stories of almost-made-its, could-have-beens and should-have-beens, and artists that just happened to be in the right place but the wrong time. Memphis, Tennessee, is one of those magical places that has given birth to so many musical legends that its story can — and has — filled several books. But for every Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Isaac Hayes, and Al Green, there’s a Big Star or Jim Dickinson. Influential legends and cult heroes in their own way, but far from household names.
Then, when you move past the cult figures, you reveal another layer: the names you’ve never heard of. The ones who may have pulled an Elvis: stopped into one Memphis’s many-storied studios, recorded a track or two, and disappeared.

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Only unlike Elvis, there was no Sam Phillips or Dewey Phillips or Scotty Moore or Marion Keisker to call them back to the studio and put up the money and the marketing to make them a star. This is the fate of most of the artists included on Stone Crush: Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987.

Chronicling the years when R&B in general splintered off into many different directions and styles, Stone Crush is a reflection of that. Light funk, hints of disco, quiet storm, Southern soul — the studio musicians that performed these tracks helped develop that thumping four-on-the-floor sound that became ubiquitous during the ten years covered here. Depending on your age and your background, many of these tracks may conjure memories of roller rinks or public parks. These recordings may be regionally-based, but their sound is universal, even if the names attached to them have remained relatively unknown until now.

The producers, engineers, and musicians included on Stone Crush, however, are a who’s who of Memphis music: The Memphis Horns (Andrew Love – tenor, Wayne Jackson – trumpet, James Mitchell – baritone); the legendary Willie Mitchell; Ben Cauley, surviving member of the original Bar-Kays (in fact, a revamped Bar-Kays provide much of the backing throughout this collection); and recorded in studios such as Ardent, Allied, Royal, and others. But the voices are the focus here, and they’re the (so to speak) unsung heroes. They all took time out of their lives to step into a studio in one of the world’s most storied and musical cities, either on a whim or in an attempt to reach for that ever-elusive brass ring.

Legendary radio stations WDIA and WHBQ beckoned these artists from near and far for a possible shot at the big time. From Arkansas by way of Howard University’s College of Dentistry came O.T. Sykes. Tom Sanders was discovered singing soul in a club in Brownsville, Tennessee. Morris J. Williams, a.k.a. Magic Morris arrived in Memphis from Chicago. While others like Greg Mason called Memphis their hometown. Still others were tertiary to greatness: Cato Walker III was one-time music director for blues giant B.B. King during the late 1970s, for instance.

Regardless of their origins, the artists of Stone Crush give their all to this compilation. Deep funk mixes here with rubbery grooves and strong R&B/pop hooks. These tracks, thought to have been lost forever, were found, and have now been carefully and thoughtfully researched and fully restored. Here’s hoping they’re also discovered by a new generation — or finally heard on their own for the first time. — PopMatters

As our horizons shrink in these days of lock down we are forced by circumstance to travel in the imagination. Kompakt stalwart Jörg Burger proves a welcome tour guide on his latest curatorial project Velvet Desert Music, Volume Two, a collection of chilled out electro-psychedelia that brings a particularly European vision to bear on the myth and mystique of the wide-open American landscape. As per Burger’s request the featured artists explore the intersections of the Kompakt sound with more guitar-based music: spaghetti western soundtracks, surf rock, Tejano twang, lounge exotica. Think Friends of Dean Martinez or Giant Sand trip-hopping through the mesas.
Michael Mayer opens with a typically spacious swoon on “Not So Far Away”…

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…layering choral and vocal snippets over a shuffling clip-clop beat and panoramic synths. Vertigo’s “That Velvet Circle” builds on the template, adding guitar twang and upping the tempo. Charlotte Jestaedt provides an ethereal lead vocal over a Krautrock chug that rescues Mount Obsidian’s “Ride” from becoming mere Buddha Bar fodder. Golden Bug and The Limiñanas introduce French spoken word and wah-wah guitar into the mix. The real pleasure here is absorbing the skill of Burg’s sequencing, his immaculate control over tempo and atmosphere, his introduction of new elements and the way he foreshadows and circles back to particular motifs. Paulor centers “We” on a repeated strummed guitar riff with a muscular hi-hat and woozy sci-fi synth bass, Mount Obsidian’s second contribution reintroduces choral samples and what sounds like Linn drum runs, Lake turner/WEM/Hand’s “East County Lines” reimagines Can as Calexico.

As with most compilations of this type there are a couple of relative lags; Sascha Funke’s “In Der Tat” , whilst quite good, disrupts the flow somewhat midway through and The Novotones’ harmonica inflected “Angel of Doomsday” may have been better placed earlier in the mix but these are minor quibbles with what is a carefully plotted road trip through the American desert as imagined by a sensibility nurtured by the stories of Karl May and reflected in the films of Wim Wenders and Percy Adlon. Velvet Desert Music, Volume 2 allows you to close your eyes, feel the hot wind on your face and transport your mind to the great outdoors. — dusted

1. Julia Holter – Les Jeux to You
2. Case/Lang/Veirs – Blue Fires
3. Wendy & Lisa – White Flags of Winter Chimneys
4. Joan As Police Woman – The Silence
5. Glen Hansard – Shadows and Light (Unreleased)
6. Frazey Ford – Three Golden Trees
7. Sun Kil Moon – Duk Koo Kim
8. The Weather Station – You and I (On the Other Side of the World)
9. Nadia Reid – Track of the Time
10. Brigid Mae Power – Sometimes
11. Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau – Marcie
12. Joan Shelley – Even Though
13. Jessica Pratt – This Time Around
14. Bedouine – Mind’s Eye
15. Tomberlin – I’m Not Scared

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MOJO March 2019 (#304)

The album, titled A Tribute to Keith Emerson & Greg Lake, features renditions of a variety of popular ELP tunes, as well as a cover of King Crimson‘s “21st Century Schizoid Man” – a song co-written and originally sung by Lake.
Among the many well-known musicians contributing to the record are Todd Rundgren, Yes/Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes, Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro, ex-Yes and Moody Blues keyboardist Patrick Moraz, current Yes singer Jon Davison, Yes/Asia bassist Billy Sherwood, founding and current Dream Theater keyboardists Derek Sherinian and Jordan Rudess, ex-E Street Band keyboardist David Sancious and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown singer Arthur Brown. The album also includes a version of Aaron Copeland‘s…

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…“Fanfare for the Common Man” featuring Emerson’s son Aaron and grandson Ethan.
“The music these guys created is timeless, and is there for future generations to discover,” says Sherwood, who produced the album. “I’m honored to be a part of this project which displays an amazing collection of songs as well as artists contributing to the record.”
He adds, “I think fans of the original will appreciate the attention to detail, love and care that went into the production of this project.”

1. Todd Rundgren & Brian Auger – 21st Century Schizoid Man (4:18)
2. Leslie Hunt & Derek Sherinian – A Time and a Place (3:20)
3. Billy Sherwood & David Sancious – The Sheriff (3:04)
4. Jon Davison & Larry Fast – C’est la vie (4:14)
5. Thijs Van Leer & John Wesley – From the Beginning (4:22)
6. Patrick Moraz – Hoedown (3:47)
7. Sonja Kristina & Steve Porcaro – Still…You Turn Me On (2:58)
8. Martin Turner & Geoff Downes – Lucky Man (4:49)
9. Aaron Emerson & Ethan Emerson – Fanfare for the Common Man (6:14)
10. Arthur Brown & Jordan Rudess – Karn Evil #9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2 (5:02)

Born in house music’s birthplace and spiritual mecca, Chicago DJ and producer Jamie Watson (aka Jamie 3:26) has built an impressive catalog of edits that have been smashing dancefloors for more than a decade. From his heavy reworking of Swiss new wave band Yellow’s 1980 hit “Bostitch” to his dark flip of Loleatta Holloway’s joyous disco classic “Hit And Run,” Watson has established himself as one of the finest remixers working in dance music today.
Watson’s latest, A Taste of Chicago, pays homage to some of Chicago house music’s staple tunes, putting his gift for re-envisioning classic dance music on full display. The album opens with a scorching edit of BSTC’s “Venus & Mars,” complete with rousing brass, slick jazz guitar lines and shuffling, rapid-fire percussion.

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“The Jungle (Jamie’s Jungle Sounds Edit)” strips away the original vocal, leaving listeners with a quirky, minimal banger. Watson flashes out Chip-E’s acid house classic “It’s House,” transforming it into a warm and weird slice of contemporary experimental dance music. A Taste Of Chicago is further evidence of the continued vitality of Chicago house music, revealing the genre’s endless potential when placed in the hands of a producer who is intimately familiar with the music’s true spirit.

…Over the last decade, a variety of factors including regular reissues, Youtube algorithms, and tastemaker DJ advocacy, have led to a surge of global interest in Japanese environmental music, city-pop, and jazz from the late ‘70s and ’80s. Some names worth mentioning here include Organic Music Tokyo’s Chee Shimizu, Dubby from Ondas, Yozo-San, and Jerome Qpchan from France. Through his association with European record labels such as WRWTFWW, BBE, MR BONGO, Time Capsule, and Music for Dreams, Ken Hidaka became very involved in this milieu, by helping facilitate communication between the Japanese music industry and the outside world.
In 2017, Hidaka accompanied the legendary Japanese composer and percussionist…

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…Midori Takada on her first major European tour. During that trip, they visited Music For Dreams label boss Kenneth Bager at his home. “On the drive back to our hotel, he popped the question, would I like to compile a compilation of Japanese music for Music For Dreams,” Hidaka remembers. “I went back to Japan with his offer in mind, and thought, wouldn’t it be cooler if I did it with Rob [Harris] and Max [Essa]?” Three years later, the fruits of their labor have blossomed with Oto No Wa: Selected Sounds of Japan 1988-2018.

When they started trying to license Japanese major label material from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s for Oto No Wa (loosely translatable as “Music of Harmony”), the trio felt they hit a wall, before having a cartoon lightbulb moment. “We realized that we knew tons of [more contemporary] Japanese artists—many of them having been guests of ours at Bonobo,” Harris said. “No one seemed interested in more current Japanese music—they were concentrating on dusty holy grails. I guess living here—with Max and Ken [Hidaka] active in the business—we were in the perfect position to address this.”

Across Oto No Wa, they blend late ’80s machine-music, blissed-out ‘90s sunset anthems, 21st-century post-house/techno heaters, soft-focus bossa, and library music into a balmy 14-song cycle.

On “Sealed,” NEWSIC sound explorer, Yoshio Ojima, layers delicate, twinkling chimes over a soft, synth dronescape, creating an instrumental cradle song for adults and children alike. Major Force’s remix of “N.I.C.E. Guy (Nice Guitar Dub)” by Scha Dara Parr is a masterclass in vibes. A programmed post-boogie backbeat provides support to a series of graceful piano flourishes and exuberant, strutting guitar, as they all combine into a good times groove that could last forever. “Frostie” sees the Japanese reggae band Little Tempo combing the cavernous weight of vintage dub riddims with the sparkle of steel drums. And on “Balasong,” Ojima’s fellow NEWSIC associate, percussionist Yoshiaki Ochi, summons up an idiophone jam for the ages.

Given Essa, Harris, and Hidaka’s personal histories, and expansive, open-eared approaches towards record store digging, DJing, and writing, none of this is surprising, but that doesn’t make their discoveries any less delightful. “I’d love to do a follow-up,” Harris continued. “Regular bulletins of new Japanese music. Brownswood Bubblers, Bonobo Bangers? Japanese Juice?” — daily.bandcamp.com

01. Dinosaur Jr. – Lost All Day
02. Garcia Peoples – High Noon Violence
03. The Dream Syndicate – Still Here Now
04. Kurt Vile – One Trick Ponies
05. One Eleven Heavy – Too Much, Too Much
06. Mikal Cronin – Show Me
07. Ty Segall – Alta
08. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Shiggy
09. Low – Witches
10. Big Thief – Not
11. Particle Kid – Radio Flyer
12. Thalia Zedek Band – What I Wanted
13. Chris Forsyth – Dream Song
14. Israel Nash – A Coat of Many Colours
15. Arbouretum – Call Upon the Fire

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Mojo December 2019 edition (#313)

As its name suggests, the compilation Guasa, Cununo y Marimba: Afro-Colombian Music from the Pacific Coast, focuses on the cultural richness of a part of Colombia that is largely imbued with African music. For 17 years now, the Madrid-based label Vampisoul has been re-releasing old eclectic treasures in the form of albums and compilations of Peruvian psychedelic music, Afrobeat, Brazilian rock, salsa, cumbia and much more. Experts in the field Lucas Silva and Philippe Noel now draw a line between the 1970s and the 2000s to pick out 21 rare titles that are representative of the cultural consequences of intensive colonization. Made up of 90% African descendants and 10% indigenous people, the Pacific coast of Colombia, which stretches between Panama and…

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…Ecuador, was colonized late by the conquistadors. Nearly three centuries of slavery later, it is a coastal region soaked with African influences that is resurfacing, thanks to the instruments brought back by the men and women who came to work on the country’s plantations and mining deposits.

Styles such as chirimía, currulao and their associated dance then gradually emerged and many groups were born and flourished in the town of Buenaventura, the largest port in Colombia. In a country musically dominated by cumbia and Caribbean rhythms, the songs compiled here struggle to make their way despite the quality of their hypnotic songs, frenetic rhythms, marimba or clarinet flights. This compilation is therefore here to help prevent this chapter of history from falling into oblivion for good, allowing today’s musicians to reconnect with the past and their most important African heritage. — pan-african-music.com

If you travel up the Amazon, past the city of Manaus and past the Brasilian/Peruvian border, you will eventually reach the city of Iquitos. It was here that Werner Herzog filmed Fitzcarraldo, the visionary epic of one man’s struggle to drag a ship over a mountain; and it was here, in a city completely cut off from the Peruvian coast, accessible only by air and water, and surrounded by impenetrable forests, that a new, distinctly Amazonian style of Cumbia emerged in the early 1970s.
One of the style’s greatest practitioners is Raúl Llerena Vásquez – known to the world as Ranil – a Peruvian singer, bandleader, record-label entrepreneur and larger-than-life personality who swirled the teeming buzz of the Amazonian jungle, the unstoppable rhythms of Colombian…

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…and Brazilian dance music, and the psychedelic electricity of guitar-driven rock-and-roll into a knock-out, party-starting concoction. It’s cumbia alright, but you’ve never heard cumbia quite like this before.

Ranil’s music came into being far from Lima, the Peruvian capital, where Cuban-style big band and guitar waltzes vied for popular supremacy. On the distant banks of the Amazon, where Ranil spent the early years of his adulthood working as a schoolteacher, the air was full of the criollo waltzes of his youth, carimbó rhythms from nearby Brasil and crackly broadcasts of cumbia from Colombia picked up on transistor radios.

When Ranil returned to Iquitos after several years teaching in small towns, he assembled a group of musicians and prepared to take the city’s nightlife by storm. His unique blend of galloping rhythms and trebly, reverberant guitar was so successful that he was soon able to take his band to Lima to record their first record at MAG studios, where many of Peru’s most successful psych, rock and salsa bands began their recording careers.

Yet Ranil had no intention of entering into the indentured servitude that comes with signing one’s life away to a record company. Instead he established Produccions Llerena – possibly the first record label founded in the Peruvian Amazon – which allowed him to maintain complete control over the release and distribution of his music. His fearsome negotiation skills and his insistence on organising his own tours turned him into one of the central figures of the Amazonian music scene.

Although his records were popular throughout the region, Ranil never sought his fortune in the capital, preferring to remain in his hometown of Iquitos where, in recent decades, he has concentrated his considerable energies on his radio and television stations, and become involved with local civic politics. Yet his legacy has continued to grow among those fortunate enough to track down copies of his legendary – and legendarily difficult to find – LPs.

Ranil’s extraordinary output has remained one of the best kept secrets among collectors of cumbia and psychedelic Latin sounds. With the release of Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical it is a secret no longer. Assembled by Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb from original LPs sourced from Ranil himself, this fully-licenced compilation presents 14 tracks – many of which have never seen wide release outside the Amazonian region – by a singular artist at the very height of his considerable powers.

A couple years ago, Chicago archival label Numero Group launched Cabinet of Curiosities, a compilation series focused on fringe private-press releases of yore. A lot of the strange music they’ve reissued under this banner intensely evokes the eras in which its creators lived, and Cabinet of Curiosities comps are unified less by genre than by spirit. The ’80s electronic sounds on 2018’s Escape from Synth City, for example, include glacial new age (“Konya” by Al Gromer Khan), chintzy boogie (“Intellectual Thinking” by New World Music), and progressive house (“Whirr” by Frank Youngwerth); the LP sleeve looks like a classic NES cartridge, a theme that Numero took further by creating an Escape from Synth City side-scrolling video game. The songs on the new…

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…Whispers: Lounge Originals ooze the laid-back essence of 1960s hotel bars, martini glasses, and Pat Boone, but the artists push the concept of lounge music to its outer edges. “Kids,” a lo-fi, bittersweet shot of blue-eyed soul from Minnesota singer-songwriter Chuck Senrick, rubs shoulders with “These Moments Now,” a bizarre intergalactic psych-rock romp by North Dakota act Justen O’Brien & Jake. Lounge music generally doesn’t try to draw much attention to itself, but the odd, twisted, and boldly beautiful songs on Whispers definitely deserve it. — chicagoreader.com

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A lounge in the Poconos located just inside a Holiday Inn, 1973. The smoky haze clears to reveal a middle-aged couple on a one-foot high stage, prattling on about the weather or Watergate before launching into a serviceable cover of Burt Bacharach’s “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” Tens of thousands of such combos littered restaurants, cruise ships, casinos, lobbies, and cocktail bars throughout the ’60s and ’70s, but far fewer cut a record worth buying from the stage, much less listening to on the home hi-fi. Gathered here are 14 lounge originals from across the entire easy listening spectrum. A spent matchbook’s worth of crooners, bossa nobodies, seafood jazzers, and Donca-Matic enthusiasts all in search of their ticket out of a red leather booth hell. — numerogroup.com

Al Kent, Scotland’s foremost Disco aficionado and founder of the Million Dollar Orchestra, returns to BBE Music with a 6th volume of his famed ‘Disco Demands’ compilation series.
…Taking the next step on the ‘Disco Demands’ journey in partnership, Volume 6 sees another incredible selection of obscure dance-floor soul selected and edited by Al Kent, fully licensed from the original artists, remastered and ready for a new generation of fans to discover. Recorded during the late ’70s and early ’80s, the records chosen for Disco Demands Part Six may be hard to find, but don’t be confused: they have been selected solely for maximum dance-floor enjoyment. Al’s love of powerful string arrangements and bass-line led grooves are evident not only in…

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…his picks, but also in his subtle edits; removing a hint of cheese here, extending a particularly effective instrumental section there.

“Most of the tracks I’ve chosen for this album have been with me for some time – I’ve played them on and off as a DJ for years. And though that might seem like a lazy or selfish option when compiling an album, it also fits nicely with the concept that the album is primarily aimed at DJs and dancers. I’ve seen first hand how a crowd reacts to these choices. I’ve bought the records, rearranged the best bits and tested them on a room full of dancing drunks so you can confidently do the same…” – Al Kent, 2019

The Western Jubilee Recording Company is a small label with an exceptional catalog of authentic cowboy music and poetry. Founded in 1996 by Scott O’Malley, Western Jubilee has been based out of a former warehouse of the Santa Fe Railroad in Colorado Springs that doubles as an intimate concert space and recording studio. Its walls adorned with Western paraphernalia, the warehouse, much like the label itself, served as a sanctuary to the deep-rooted and ever-evolving traditions of Western music and folklife.
Take Me Back to the Range: Selections from Western Jubilee Recording Company shows the label in its full breadth. From the old-time tunes and historic songs by Norman Blake and Don Edwards to Buckaroo poems from…

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…Waddie Mitchell, from Hollywood-styled “Singing Cowboy” songs from Sons of the San Joaquin to the pioneering fusion from the punk-inspired Cowboy Nation, this 18-track compilation, produced to celebrate the label’s acquisition by Smithsonian Folkways, showcases the diversity of sound and voices in cowboy music and poetry, honoring the label that has championed it.

As part of his ongoing Field Works project, multidisciplinary artist Stuart Hyatt makes field recordings of specific places and subjects, then collaborates with several musicians in order to make music out of the audio, with the goal of telling evocative stories and raising awareness about these subjects. In addition to producing books, exhibitions, and site-specific performances, the project has released several albums, and the cast of contributors reads like a who’s-who of contemporary experimental and ambient music: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Dan Deacon, Matmos, and William Tyler are but a few of the dozens involved. In 2018, Temporary Residence released the first seven Field Works albums as a limited vinyl box set, packaged with a hardcover book.

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Ultrasonic is the project’s eighth album, and the focus is on the federally endangered species of bats in Indiana. All of the compositions are based on the echolocations of bats, incorporating the winged mammals’ chirping, fluttering, and clicking sounds into abstract textures and pretty, plaintive melodies. The source material ends up being a gold mine for the producers and musicians, who twist the sounds of wings flapping into crunchy rhythms and make extensive usage out of the natural cave echo.

Eluvium’s “Dusk Tempi” douses rhapsodic, heart-rending strings with some very strange bubbling, vibrating effects. On “Silver Secrets,” Mary Lattimore builds a rhythm out of a sequence of sampled bat calls, then adds her graceful harp playing, and as the rhythm comes close to dissolving, the bats fly all around her. Even though bats are commonly associate with vampires, witchcraft, Halloween, and all things macabre, very few of the pieces seem overtly dark or haunting. Noveller’s “A Place Both Wonderful and Strange” starts out ominous and brassy before ending up calmer and more ethereal, and Ben Lukas Boysen’s foggy dark ambient piece “Torpor” is as glum as the album gets. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s “Night Swimming” is more of a tranquil new age drift, and “Indiana Blindfold” by JAB (John Also Bennett of Forma) is like a ray of starshine slowly shimmering downwards. Ending with a poignant spoken word piece bidding goodbye to the bats and their habitat, Ultrasonic is a compelling release which creatively expresses sincere appreciation for these fascinating creatures. — AMG

Eighteen years ago, Three One G Records flew in the face of Queen purists with the release of Dynamite With A Laserbeam: Queen As Heard Through the Meatgrinder of Three One G, the label’s 20th release. On it, bands like Melt-Banana, Weasel Walter, The Locust, Bastard Noise and The Blood Brothers unapologetically tackled some of the most beloved and universally recognizable music in popular culture and made it nasty, noisy, and brutal – and they did so with nothing but love and respect.
This was followed by an equally bold tribute to Australian avant-garde legends The Birthday Party, entitled Release The Bats. More frenetic energy from the likes of bands like Cattle Decapitation, Das Oath, SSion and Some Girls, more chaotic feedback giving way to unsettling synth lines, and still…

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…(knock on wood) not a lawsuit in sight. It is only fitting, then, that Three One G’s one hundredth release be another tribute, this time to an iconic band known for its raunchy and pure punk spirit, all while looking effortlessly cool: The Cramps. For the label’s third comp, the lineup of musicians enlisted to take part is even more diverse, including the likes of Chelsea Wolfe, Daughters, Mike Patton, and Metz, among others – all members, in some way or another, of the extended Three One G family. Here you’ll hear everything from Cumbia-style Cramps as interpreted by Sonido De La Frontera, to Panicker’s electronic dance-centric distorted version of “I’m Cramped”. Just as The Cramps mastered the art of covering music through their own warped lens, Three One G carries on the torch of re-imagining songs with swagger and style, making it their own while honoring a band whose influence on the label is obvious.

01. Child Bite – TV Set [02:33]
02. Metz – Call of the Wighat [02:17]
03. Secret Fun Club feat. Carrie Gillespie Feller – I Was a Teenage Werewolf [03:19]
04. Chelsea Wolfe – Sheena’s in a Goth Gang [03:40]
05. Sonido de la Frontera – Zombie Dance [01:51]
06. Qui – New Kind of Kick [02:25]
07. Zeus! feat. Mike Patton – Human Fly [02:24]
08. Retox – Garbageman [04:29]
09. Magic Witch Cookbox – People Ain’t No Good [02:31]
10. Microwaves – Don’t Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk [01:34]
11. Daughters – What’s Inside a Girl [03:12]
12. Panicker – I’m Cramped [03:20]

01. Primal Scream – Worm Tamer
02. The Lemonheads – Straight to You
03. Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer – Into My Arms
04. Grant Lee Phillips – City of Refuge
05. Sharon Van Etten – People Ain’t No Good (Triple J Like a Version)
06. Giant Sand – Red Right Hand
07. Mick Harvey – Come Into My Sleep
08. Hans Chew – Long Time Man
09. Ed Kuepper – Do You Love Me?
10. Camille O’Sullivan – Jubilee Street
11. Japandroids – Jack the Ripper
12. The Walkabouts – Loom of the Land
13. Mark Lanegan – Brompton Oratory
14. My Morning Jacket – New Morning
15. Conway Savage – Bring It On

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MOJO June 2020 [#319]