Japan’s bubble years feel like a fantasy in 2020. During that period, which played out over the course of the 1980’s, the country’s economy soared and the mood was jubilant. It was a decade defined by opulence, neon-soaked nightscapes, and persistent optimism. Thirty years on, and images from this time function as a kind of nostalgia for better days that younger people all over the world haven’t actually experienced. The same goes for music — specifically a style dubbed “city pop,” referring to glitzed-out songs borrowing from funk, R&B, and disco designed to be blasted out of a high-end car system. City pop has served as the building blocks for niche genres such as vaporwave and future funk, inspiration for young Japanese creators and the source for surprise YouTube hits.

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Light In The Attic’s Pacific Breeze 2: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1972 – 1986 spotlights the sonic development and diversity of a style that often feels reduced to an aesthetic or algorithmically-assisted curiosity. It follows last year’s Pacific Breeze, a release that made songs from artists helping define what city pop would become—and among the nation’s most celebrated acts, including Haruomi Hosono and Takeo Ohnuki—available outside of Japan for the first time ever. That mission is continued here.

Pacific Breeze 2 captures the way city pop and its adjacent genres developed in Japan, reminding that this sound didn’t burst out at the same time the nation reached its capitalist peak, but in fact took form earlier. Fuyumi and Satsuya Iwasawa’s Bread & Butter project begins the compilation with “Pink Shadow,” a number closer to the folk-rock of Japan’s “new music” of the early ‘70s thanks to its acoustic guitar sprint. Everything becomes sleeker with other mid-period cuts, such as The Sadistics’s “Tokyo Taste,” and more bombastic with Kimiko Kasai’s horn-assisted “Vibration.” The ‘80s cuts, all electronic sheen and shimmy, roll in shortly thereafter (Piper’s “Hot Sand” and Momoko Kikuchi’s “Blind Curve.”) There’s also reminders of how important jazz fusion is to this era of Japanese music, capped off by Yuji Toriyama’s “Bay/Sky Provincetown 1977,” Pacific Breeze’s most soaring moment.

Optimism is one of city pop’s defining characteristics, mirroring the rise of a country emerging from ruin to become an economic powerhouse allowing people fun lives. These flashes of joy come through in “Pink Shadow”‘s chorus hollers and the excess of Eri Ohno’s “Skyfire.” Yet Pacific Breeze shows many more emotions swirled around in this sound, from the tension lurking beneath the flute and tropical percussion of “Yubikiri” (from former Happy End member Eiichi Ohtaki, one of and among Japan’s most celebrated songsmiths) to the melancholy funk of Anri’s “Last Summer Whisper”: a song focused on how nothing can last forever, though the memory can be revisited. That’s fitting for this set, considering the genre’s arc—when Japan’s economic bubble popped, city pop faded as well—but as Pacific Breeze demonstrates, its uplifting mood will never go out of style. — daily.bandcamp.com

By the late 1970s Sheffield was on the edge. The erstwhile industrial powerhouse was crumbling under the weight of recession, the decline of manufacturing, rising unemployment and the degradations of Conservative Party policies and especially Margaret Thatcher’s war on labor and the welfare state. A common theme in the contemporary history of other great northern economic centers like Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds that formed the backdrop to the fecund art and music scenes that germinated among the ruins.
Dreams to Fill the Vacuum: The Sounds of Sheffield 1978-1988 showcases a decade of experimentation over four CDs and 83 tracks. The cadences of the once busy factories, the frustrations of the unemployed, the fury of those left on the shelf, the DIY ethos fueled by punk, restless experimentation; it’s all here from ragged noise to slick white funk, from electronic noodling to industrial noir, post –punk to indie jangle. Future MTV staples The Human League,…

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…ABC and Thompson Twins, underground legends Clock DVA and The British Electric Foundation, early showings from present day Sheffield treasures Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley and a raft of coulda-beens, shoulda-beens and never-weres lovingly brought to light by the ever digging folk at Cherry Red who have already excavated gold from Scotland (Big Gold Dreams), Manchester (Manchester North of England) and Liverpool (Revolutionary Spirit).

Although Cabaret Voltaire do not appear their influence is felt as inspirations, producers and owners of the famous Western Works studio which was housed in a derelict cutlery factory and has since been demolished.

Disc One 1977-1981 opens with an early instrumental from The Human League. “Dancevision” unites the band’s familiar synths and drum machines with a rumbling punkish bass line that sounds like a cross between Warsaw and OMD. They Must Be Russians contribute a lesson on STD’s taken from a student nurses’ pamphlet interspersed with an insistent guitar thrash on the hilarious but danceable “Don’t Try to Cure Yourself”. I’m So Hollow’s single that provides the box set’s title is classic early post-punk that sounds timeless with its snare heavy beat, thick layers of guitar, straight ahead bass and earnest vocals. B Troop’s “Junior” adds saxophone, keyboards and funk-influenced bass to the mix from whence the sound of post New Romantic white English soul peeps out. The Toy Shop provides “The Maze” a nicely warped piece of synth pop augmented by choppy guitar and a carnivalesque keyboard riff.

Disc Two 1981-1982 starts with the extended version of Heaven 17’s still relevant “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” a mix tape staple that sound-tracked every student party in the day. Further highlights like Surface Mutants’ excellent dub experiment “Train”, Clock DVA’s industrial noir single “4 Hours” with its wailing clarinet, superb bass line and Adi Newton’s tale of urban alienation, Flying Alphonso Brothers’ “War Games” an Aztec Camera like piece of melodic indie pop, the new wave thump of Shy Tots “English Industrial Estate”, the proto-goth of Stunt Kites’ “Deity’s Lament” are worth the admission price.

Disc Three 1982-1984 features an early incarnation of Pulp with young Jarvis Cocker showing a glimpse of what the future held on “Everybody’s Problem”, the avant-jazz influenced “Intruder in the Dust” by Bass Tone Trap, In The Nursery’s industrial dance track “Iskra”, Tsi-Tsa’s single “Billingham’s Island” which sounds like Icicle Works straining to be the Bunnymen. Chakk’s “Out of the Flesh” shows the influence of producers Cabaret Voltaire’s machine funk. Defective Turtles are more straight ahead on “Silicon Chip” with its pub rock guitars elevated by a jerky rhythm section and sax sound cribbed from X-Ray-Spex, both good.

As the decade progresses the music becomes both technically more proficient and sonically more sophisticated sacrificing a little of the energy and rawness to the polish. Scala Timpani’s “Winds of Change” is by no means bad just very much of it times with the slap bass, Linn drums and proggy keyboards, think Tears For Fears pre bombast. On the other hand, The Flight Commander’s “Message from a Dead Man” incorporates spoken word samples and middle eastern sounds into an atmospheric collage while The Anti Group gets gnomic and gnostic on “Zulu”. On “Like a Fool” Treebound Story, featuring Richard Hawley, produce a classic piece of indie pop and One Thousand Violins are sarky mid-1980s indie jangle of superior quality on their 1985 flexi-disc (ah memories) “You Ungrateful Bastard”, a track which deserves repeated plays.

A tax haven and dream destination for wealthy travelers, the Republic of Mauritius is a multi-ethnic country that is currently experiencing full economic and social ascension. Banking, textile, tech, tourism industries… in this fast-paced melting pot, business is strong. But not too far from the heavenly beaches and luxurious hotels are quasi-shantytowns, reminding us that a large part of the population, often Creole (of Afro-Malagasy origin) are still excluded from the “economic miracle of Mauritius.” These Creoles are mostly descendants of slaves who were deported in mass in the 18th and 19th centuries from Madagascar and the East African coast for the cultivation of spices and coffee and later sugar cane. On the margins of these hellish plantations was secretly…

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…created a music called tchiega, chéga or tsiega, a distant cousin of the blues. The music from Mauritius in the 70s found on this compilation naturally evolved from this original sega. Created at the crossroads of Afro-Malagasy, Western and Indian cultures, pop, soul and funk arrangements, syncopated ternary polyrhythms, saturated guitars, psychedelic organs and Creole vocals, this musical phenomenon is as incredible as a tropical flower in bloom.

The Mascarene Archipelago, located in the South Western part of the Indian Ocean includes the islands of Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues. Unsullied of human settlement up until 500 years ago, these islands are home to a unique flora and fauna, including the famous dodo, emblem of Mauritius, giant tortoises and the flying fox, a large bat that thrives mostly on raw fruits. Dutch, French and English settlers started trading slaves in Mauritius leading to French King Louis XIV’s terrible ‘code noir’ which was finally abolished in 1835. Followed by the era of commitment, often described as disguised slavery during which hundreds of thousands of contract workers immigrated from India and South-East Asia to provide much needed labor in the plantation system for the widespread cultivation of sugar cane.
Although the origins of sega remain quite unknown, we do know that it contains vocal and percussive practices that originated from Madagascar, Mozambique and East Africa. A social escape and a space for improvisation, satire and verbal jousting, it transcended everyday life and made room for the expression of conflicts and the transgression of taboos. Inseparable from dance, sega is thus exposed as part of a pair: bodies brush against each other, stare at each other, get excited but never touch each other.

The main instrument of sega is the ravanne, a large tambourine-like drum made of a large wooden frame and goat skin. It is accompanied by the maravanne, a rectangular rattle filled with seeds, and also often by a triangle, a bottle, a machete or any metal object that can be hit with a stick. The practice of sega also exists in a ritual and mystical form, forgotten in Mauritius, but still present in Reunion where it creates impressive trances during the “servis malgas”, cults dedicated to ancestors.

Songs of sailors, romances from ancient France, Breton folk traditions, and of course the many rhythmic and melodic contributions from India have certainly influenced sega. The fashionable European ballroom dances (quadrille, scottish, waltz, polka, mazurka) were introduced by the bourgeois circles, then appropriated by the Creole populations who used the repertoires and instruments (violins, mandolins, pianos) to create a first fusion of the genre called “sega salon”.

Jean Alphonse Ravatton also called “Ti Frère” (little brother) is considered to be the “missing link” between the original sega and modernity. Born in Quartier Militaire (Military Quarter) in 1900, he learns sega from his father, a singer and organizer of “bobèche balls” lit by oil lamps and “rann zariko balls” where a bean hidden in a cake determines who will organize the next party. A fabulous improviser, “Ti Frère” sung about impossible loves, marital quarrels, social misery, alcoholism and violence with his hoarse voice. He was the inspiration for future generations of segatiers. His song “Tamassa”, pressed on a 78-inch vinyl in rudimentary conditions by the Damoo pressing plant, a pioneer of phonographic production in Mauritius, was his first local recording. Fanfan the sega storyteller, “Captain” Michel Legris, the Cassambo family or the fisherman and healer Nelzir Ventre de Poudre d’Or (golden powder belly) are all singular figures of the “typical” sega who preserved the Afro-Malagasy cultural heritage and influenced modern sega.

Now celebrated as an emblem of Mauritius, sega long remained disdained and banned in its early days by the colonial administration who feared revolts and slave gatherings. The high society then despised this music of “dark tcholos”, calling it grotesque, rowdy and repetitive, while the Catholic missionaries denounced the sega dance, considering it to be licentious and depraved.

It is only from the 50s onward that the style came out of the shadows. The Mauritian soldiers who fought alongside the English in the Second World War brought along guitars, banjos and accordions. The first orchestral ensembles such as the Typhoon Band, the Police Orchestra or the Pepitos took over fairs and movie theaters. A generation of popular singers emerged with Roger Augustin, Jacques Cantin, France Jemon, Francis Salomon and the famous Serge Lebrasse, who had much to do with the democratization of sega thanks to the enormous success of his first song “Madame Eugene” in 1959. The single was produced by John Venpin on “Dragons”, a small label that put a mark on the 60s and 70s with its continuous production of 45-inch vinyls, following in the footsteps of Michel Foo Fat’s ‘Neptune’ and Henri Ah Koon’s ‘Do Re Mi’, other pressing houses run by Chinese merchants.

The emerging tourism industry approached sega as an added value and a guarantee of authenticity. The orchestras started playing their segas in hotels among all kinds of other musical varieties and international hits. This was also around the time of the creation of Mauritian TV and sega programs such as the “Star Show” presented by the excellent keyboard player Gerard Cimiotti, who launched many singers’ careers. Cimiotti is part of a handful of genius arrangers who, over the course of two decades, propelled sega. The most prolific and surprising of them is undoubtedly Marclaine Antoine, a talented self-taught guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger who composed hundreds of singles for a number of singers: “They would come see me with a song composed of two or three chords on the ravanne” he remembers “I would offer arrangements that we would record with my orchestra, often just voice, bass, rhythm guitar and drums because we only had a 4-track recorder at the time. I would then go to Reunion to re-record the tracks with percussion, chorus, guitar solos, keyboards etc… The records were then pressed in Madagascar at De Comarmond”.
In 1959, Raoul De Comarmond and his son Jean-François had set up the first 78-inch pressing plant in the Indian Ocean in wild conditions. In addition to funding many labels and pressing most of the singles from Reunion, Mauritius, and Madagascar in the 60s , they went on to produce nearly 5000 references over 20 years.

The singer Claudio Veeraragoo, after debuting in the styles of variety and bollywood, became the first Indian-born segatier but also one of the pioneers of rock sounds and saturated guitars in Mauritius. A fan of Santana, Jimmy Hendrix and the Shadows, he recorded the incredible “Qui Fine Arrivé” in 1971, a sorrowful love song melded with a canvas of sharp riffs played by James Furcy. The band was called “les Copains” before becoming “Satanik” or the “Satanik Group”. Claudio made a strong impact with his segas inspired by Bollywood and Qawwali, then with his hit “Ambalaba” covered by Le Forestier, which made him internationally known as one of the biggest stars in Mauritius. In his famous session from 1971, Harold Berty, another singer of Indian origin, recorded his first 45″ from which came the song “Django”, an ode to the famous pistolero from the eponymous western spaghetti. “Mo’nn tir sa kou revolver ek mo labouss” he recalls: the effect of the pistol and the whistling bullet is simulated by his own voice.

Another iconic figure, the segatier from Rose-Hill, Jean-Claude Gaspard son of Roger Augustin started out playing guitar for the Yankees, Serge Lebrasse’s orchestra, before becoming one of the most famous singers from the Indian Ocean with a local and international career that spanned over 40 years. A prolific composer and a talented chronicler of everyday life, he is known for his humorous two-sided sega. Puns, irony and sexual allusions are all an integral part of the style. A specialist of this aspect, the singer Coulouce (Jean Pierre Mohabeer) was censored by the Mauritian radio before sinking into alcoholism and dying, like many artists of his generation, in misery and indifference.

A few months after the independence of 1968, a gang war began in Port Louis, drifting into violent racial riots. Followed by the birth of the MMM (Mouvement Militant Mauricien) which, inspired by Frantz Fanon and May 68, offered to replace race struggle by class struggle. This marks the beginning of the years of embers, 10 years of strikes, police repression, student revolts and states of emergency. This was a decade of profound cultural change revealing the turbulent multiethnic Mauritian identity. The emblematic movement of the “santeé engazé”, which mixed Indian music, sega and progressive militancy, appeared with Siven Chinien, Grup Latanier and the Soley Ruz band which brought together Bam Cuttayen, Rosemay Nelson, Micheline Virahsawmy, Nitish and Ram Joganah, Lélou Menwar and Eric Nelson.
The latter, a solo guitarist and arranger, set up the “Features Of Life” which, in the mid 70’s, gave birth to a new sound. Fuzzy distorted guitars and funky beats invite each other to play over the unbridled ternary beats created by fabulous drummer Raoul Lacariate, brother of singers Micheline Virahsawmy and Rosemay Nelson, a cursed genius who tragically vanished way to early. The band accompanied a new wave of singers, including the atypical Joseph Roland Fatime aka Ti L’Afrique, a hyperbolic and hyperactive character, a fan of blues and James Brown who launched an explosive raw, and funky style of sega. Originally from Plaine Verte, an Arab neighborhood of Port Louis and born in a family of kawwal singers, he became a segatier, political activist, masseur in hotels, host at Club Med, and even a pastor and sports coach! During the 70’s, his bad boy reputation preceded him. Now a repentant, he leads peaceful days in the suburbs of Port Louis. In his wake is Joss Henri, who played guitar in the Caméléons alongside Alain Peters, Daniel Delord ambassador of Seychellois music in Mauritius and the excellent Georges Gabriel. Eric Nelson’s brother, John Kenneth, stands out as one of the island’s most original voices, with his energetic and abrasive style. His song Missieé Coutou, unsuccessfully covered by French singer Carlos, was a hit in the Indian Ocean. Although less known, his first single reissued on this comp is equally brilliant.

With the arrival of cassette tapes, the 80s marked the death of vinyl: many record companies went bankrupt when faced by cassette copies that flooded the market. The role of arrangers who directed bands and supervised recordings disappeared. Speaker systems and DJs replaced the bands that provided entertainment for balls and weddings, confining them to hotels and official ceremonies. Sega underwent a stylistic and melodic impoverishment, accentuated with the advent of computers and the standardization of productions.

The style of seggae, a mix of reggae and sega emerged with Joseph Reginald Topize aka Kaya, whose death in jail in troubling circumstances in February 1999 caused historic riots and several deaths. The percussionist and singer Stéphano Honoré, better known as Lélou Ménwar, started out alongside Marclaine Antoine one of the major creators of seggae, then went on to develop his own style, the sagaï, influenced by sega typik, maloya from Reunion, blues and funk. To this day, he remains one of the most surprising artists of the 90s and 2000s. One of the few who has managed to transform the sega saga into an ever more personal and original direction. — bornbadrecords.net

The Africa Airways series on the Africa Seven label returns with its 6th instalment. Africa Airways Six: Mile High Funk 1974-1981 is a scintillating 10-track collection featuring the likes of Cameroonian artist Eko Roosevelt, Nigerian street funk from Akwassa and former Osibisa bassist JK Mandengue.
“The flight opens with the punchy horns, afro rhythms & groovy bass of Eko Roosevelt’s “Ndolo Embe Mulema”. Keeping the tempo high we usher in fellow Cameroonians JM Tim & Foty for another punch of brass with the funky “More And More (Ye-Male)”. We stay in Cameroon with Ngalle Jojo, here he lays down another funktastic bass heavy stomper with “Ngigna Loko”. Jude Bondeze hails from Bangui, Central African Republic and is probably best known for his more…

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…traditional Tene Sango album… but his debut 1981 release saw him in a very funky mood indeed!

Next up, Nigerian Vicky Edimo gets his thumb out and lays down some glorious slabs of deep funk… along with a rather splendid bass solo! JK Mandengue played bass off & on for the British Afrobeat band “Osibisa”, playing on the uber funky “Super Fly TNT” Motion Picture Soundtrack album.. Certainly putting him on a path to the Wahahwah’tastic “Kosa Mba” taken from his 1979 self-titled album. Slow percussive classic raw street funk from Nigeria’s Akwassa, who’s line up is the same as “Heads Funk Band”, are up next.

Another outing for Vicky Edimo on this 1978 beauty from Mike Kounou. Also on guitar duties for Mike Kounou is Francois Amadou Corea, who’s funky chops can be heard on “Ngigna Loko” & “Njonjo Mukambe”. Hi-Octane funk from Airto Fogo, percussion, rhodes & horns aplenty on this 1974 instrumental cut “Black Soul”. As we prepare to start our decent Francois Misse Ngoh drops in some filth with this 1980 bass face monster “Njonjo Mukambe”… head nodding isn’t essential, but it’s best to brace yourself for impact.”

One of the rewards from working with living composers is that they might write something just for you. When Bob Hurwitz, long-term chairman of Nonesuch Records, announced he was standing down from the role in 2015, composer John Adams suggested a collection of newly written pieces in Hurwitz’s honour.
The result is this collection of short, new works for solo piano, around 40 minutes in total. The 11 composers chosen, young and old, embrace the wide range of contemporary music that Nonesuch has cultivated.
The plan was to devise music that Bob himself might play, so these are not barnstorming showstoppers. As composer and pianist Timo Andres says, “If the listener has the odd…

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…feeling of having stumbled into an exchange between two friends . . . that’s not far from the truth.”

The overall title is taken from Adams’s own piece, “I Still Play (Pocket Variations)”. At just under six minutes, this little set of variations, from the simple and almost romantic, to vigorous and outgoing, is the most elaborate.

Philip Glass has contributed the reflective “Evening Song No. 2”. Steve Reich’s “For Bob” is a radiant outpouring of rhythm, Louis Andriessen’s “Rimsky or La Monte Young” a study of contrasts. There is a nicely improvisational number from Laurie Anderson, a songful piece from Pat Metheny, and rippling textures from Donnacha Dennehy and Nico Muhly. Most of these are played by Andres, who also contributes his own thoughtful “Wise Words”, while Brad Mehldau and Randy Newman each play their own pieces. Altogether, an all-star collection. — FT

1. James Elkington – Ever-Roving Eye
2. CASSOWARY – Superhiro
3. Bonny Light Horseman – The Roving
4. Laura Marling – Song for Our Daughter
5. Alabaster dePlume – Visit Croatia
6. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Remembering
7. Luke Schneider – Exspirio
8. Jess Williamson – Sorceress
9. Aoife Nessa Frances – Less Is More
10. Jeff Parker – Max Brown (Part 1)
11. Frazey Ford – The Kids Are Having None of It
12. Rose City Band – Only Lonely
13. Brigid Mae Power – Wedding of a Friend
14. Andrew Tuttle – Burwood Heights Convenience
15. Sam Burton – I Can Go with You

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Mojo Magazine July 2020

There aren’t many songwriters who have reached a level of success comparable to Stevie Wonder. He is one of the most important figures in American music, and to celebrate his 70th birthday, Posi-Tone records is releasing Tales of Wonder: A Jazz Celebration of Stevie. This compilation, performed by some of the label’s excellent roster of musicians, offers a fitting tribute to this legendary artist. Rather than simply offering something of a greatest hits compilation, Tales of Wonder digs into Wonder’s catalog and explores deeper cuts along with some perennial favorites. While his overall career span stretches back to the early 1960s, this collection draws mainly from his classic period of recordings from the ’70s, which makes sense because this was arguably Wonder’s…

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…most innovative and musically complex period to date.

Tales of Wonder presents a unique blend of jazz styles ranging from mainstream to fusion with several stops between. Of course, it might be easy to simply assume that the variety of music presented here comes mainly from the various interpretations of the songs, but the different styles represented equally reflect Wonder’s diversity as a songwriter.

Every song on this compilation is a standout in its own right. Some songs are presented in traditional jazz styles while others venture into different directions. Throughout the album, though, the spirit of Wonder’s own inner vision remains intact.

Many of Wonder’s songs lend themselves to traditional interpretations. The opening track, “Send One Your Love,” for example, offers a straight-ahead jazz take performed by the group Works For Me, featuring Tony Davis’ excellent guitar work along with Alexa Tarantino’s melodic alto sax. This is followed by pianist Jon Davis’ classic jazz trio take on “My Cherie Amour.” The Idle Hands version of “You and I” serves up some bossa nova flavors with outstanding solos by Will Bernard, Sam Dillon, Art Hirahara, and Behn Gillece.

With the majority of these songs coming out during the 1970s, some of the feeling of that decade definitely shows up here. This is probably most evident in Jared Gold’s version of “You Haven’t Done Nothin,'” which conjures up a solid organ groove with Dave Stryker’s wah-wah guitar adding just the right touch of funky goodness. The retro vibe is also strong on Theo Hill’s “Superwoman,” providing some cool fusion sounds with Hill on Fender Rhodes, synthesizer, and piano accompanied by Rashaan Carter’s melodic bass lines and Mark Whitfield Jr.’s solid drumming.

The album also includes Farnell Newton’s soulful treatment of “All in Love is Fair” with Newton’s melodic trumpet supported by Brian Charette’s gospel-inspired organ and Rudy Royston’s strong foundation on drums.

Much of Wonder’s music also has an atmospheric quality, which is also represented here. Diego Rivera’s “The Secret Life of Plants” creates a beautifully haunting take on this classic. Out To Dinner’s “Visions” also highlights some of the more ethereal aspects of Wonder’s music with excellent performances by Behn Gillece and Boris Kozlov.

With Tales of Wonder: A Jazz Celebration of Stevie, Posi-Tone gives this musical legend a very thoughtful and fitting birthday present. It’s an excellent compilation featuring some of the most talented jazz musicians around. — AllAboutJazz

In his personal and professional quest to find and document underground experimental music in all corners of our planet, Raffaelle Pezzella (of Sonologyst / Unexplained Sounds Group) has compiled this collection of Indonesian artists working in their particular music cultures and traditions, using tools, techniques and ideas picked up from formal experimental / avant-garde music scenes outside Indonesia to create some fascinating and intriguing fusions of their music and Western styles. Most of the music featured on this anthology is of either an ambient, drone ambient, musique concrete, noise or soundscape / sound art nature, reflecting perhaps a combination of what Pezzella was able to find and his preferences, though interestingly a couple of artists…

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…featured in the USG anthology, Senyawa and Wukir Suriyadi, have also been featured on another, earlier compilation “Pekak! Indonesian Noise 1995 – 2015: 20 Years of Experimental Music from Indonesia” which emphasised harsher noise, industrial and metal-influenced experimental music. — thesoundprojector.com

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For many centuries Indonesia, from the Malay Peninsula throughout the vast archipelago, has been subjected to successive foreign cultural invasions which have left their deep imprint on the indigenous way of life. Among the first was the Mongolian intrusion from central Asia. A later cultural wave came from India when Hindu merchants and immigrants introduced Hinduism and Buddhism into the islands. Subsequently, about the 13th century A.D. Islamic influences penetrated the archipelago. Finally in the 16th century, Western culture and Christianity came into the picture. Although, after four centuries, Western civilization has by no means superseded the Islamic hold on Indonesia (90% of the population are Muslims), it has already reshaped the outward appearance of Indonesia life to a considerably extent. The cultural diversity is naturally reflected in the music.

In the current globalized and digital communications-dominated era, influences from the Western world become more and more evident, in everyday life , as well in popular art and music from Indonesia. But listening to the tracks included in this compilation presented by Unexplained Sounds Group, you’ll discover how traditional Indonesian music, even in its more ‘primitive’ forms, as well in the very elaborate and developed ones from Javanese and Balinese tradition, are still very much recognizable. The current mix of influences in the experimental and avant-garde music from this region has resulted in an extremely fascinating kaleidoscope of sounds. — unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com

Playing music on a wooden box that is strung with guts or metal wires is an age-old tradition across all cultures in the world. In the Western world, the guitar became a symbol for serenading an adored one, to cure homesickness, conserve stories, or go against the establishment.
Especially for American culture the guitar is an important icon and being pictured with a guitar shaped our understanding of pop culture.
For European settlers the guitar, or even just the knowledge of how to build a guitar, was often the only way to take something from home with them into the new world. And there, as more people were immigrating or were forced to emigrate, European music traditions, from the British Isles, Portugal, France or Italy, started to influence…

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…each other and were played on other stringed instruments like the Banjo, which was brought over from Africa under similar, but more violent, circumstances than the guitar.

It’s fascinating to know that the legendary Dobro guitar, an acoustic guitar with a metal cone to make them louder, and primarily known in blues music, was invented by Slovak emigrants, the Dopyera brothers.

The iconic Hawaiian lap steel guitar was built by Norwegian emigrant Chris Knutsen (fair to say, he was three years old when his family emigrated to the US.)

These instruments were pushed to their limits by self-taught Black performers, playing the blues, which was essential to modern Western Rock music.

That brings me to John Fahey who is seen by some as the “Übervater” of American steel-string guitar, or “American primitive” as he called it. His vision of playing the music of the world; be it European classical music, African kora music, blues, Indian raga, musique concrète, Latin American jazz on a single instrument, is still inspiring young musicians all over the world. They take up the challenge to become fingerstyle virtuosos themselves, and discover their local musical roots through the lens of Fahey’s American primitive framework.

With this compilation, I want to show how many talented and original musicians on the other side of the ocean were inspired by Fahey and American primitivism in one way or another, and how they aim for playing the music of the(ir) world on a single instrument. For example, Italy seems to have a strong connection to the Takoma records label. Both Fahey and Robbie Basho played there at least once, and inspired musicians like Roberto Menabo, Maurizio Angeletti, and Enrico Marcandalli to explore the possibilities of the steel-string acoustic guitar.

I must acknowledge the history of European emigration to the United States, slavery, and the exploitation of (then) minorities in the music business and in general, is a complicated one. John Fahey’s character and how he treated the people who loved him was complicated as well. But as Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard said: “Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.” We can only do better now.

I hope you enjoy this compilation that ranges from traditional Takoma School pieces to more Avant-garde minimalism; from the warmer hemisphere of Southern Europe, through Central Europe, and into the stark beauty of the Scandinavian regions. — Marcus Obst

Saudade is a word with no direct English translation. In the Portuguese language it describes a sense of nostalgia for something that may never return. But in longing for that certain something, whether it’s a person, a place or a time gone by, saudade holds the thing you miss close, and keeps it present despite its absence. Portuguese author Manuel de Mello calls it “A pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy.”
While rooted in feelings of pain and sadness, the bittersweet Portuguese word took on a slightly different expression through Brazilian art, music and literature. As a nation steeped in slavery, the vibrance of African culture in Brazil amplified Saudade, and it became something even more painful, but at the same time a little…

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…more rhythmic, perhaps even upbeat.

O Aperto da Saudade (the grip of saudade), is a compilation by Far Out Recordings which attempts to translate the word through the music itself. While saudade is traditionally equated with bossa nova and samba – Brazil’s most famous musical exports – we wanted to highlight its hold on the many different kinds of Brazilian music. Reaching into the label’s back catalogue the music ranges from 1965 to the present day, and spans psychedelic folk, samba jazz, bossa nova and MPB, featuring some of the nation’s musical icons alongside archival releases from lesser known artists, as well as some of the label’s more contemporary output. — faroutrecordings.bandcamp.com

“I’m not a legitimate theatrical composer like Steve Sondheim, that sort of thing,” insisted Elizabeth Swados to New York in 1980. “I’m not such a good musician, but I do have an excellent ear. People say I don’t write melodic music. I was talking to a Broadway producer who told me I could learn to write melodies. But my orientation is different; I’m writing music that can’t be dissociated from a theatrical piece, from the event itself.” In fairness, one should note that the same affront – “he can’t write melodic music” – was hurled at the young Sondheim who also asserted that his songs were written purely to serve a piece of theatre, not as standalone songs for the top 40 or otherwise. Swados, who died in 2016 at the age of 64, can happily be proven wrong with…

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…Ghostlight Records’ release of The Liz Swados Project. Over nineteen tracks (seventeen newly recorded, and all previously unreleased) performed by a cast of theatre’s finest actors and singers with a full band, it’s clear that experimental theatre icon Swados could be melodic when the spirit moved her, and also that her songs can live and even thrive divorced from their original theatrical sources.

The Liz Swados Project presents songs from ten of Swados’ works, arranged and orchestrated by her longtime musical director Kris Kukul (who brought much of the musical flair to Broadway’s Beetlejuice). Swados was one of the young writers whose talents were shepherded by Joe Papp at The Public Theater. (The visionary impresario also took an interest in a young theatre composer named Jim Steinman, and much later, in the already established Todd Rundgren.) Her music blended rock, pop, folk, jazz, opera, soul, blues, modern classical, and very occasionally, what we think of as “musical theatre.” Whatever the style, it was always tailored to the subject about which she chose to write. If one song isn’t a listener’s cup of tea, there’s a solid chance the next one will be.

Swados made her Broadway debut in 1977 under Papp’s aegis, providing incidental music for a revival of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. That production was directed by her frequent collaborator Andrei Serban, and just months later, she and Serban conceived a new production of Agamemnon for Papp on Broadway. She again wrote the incidental score. Her biggest splash came the following year, though, with a full-blown musical. Runaways hadn’t been conceived as such, but ended up transferring from Papp’s downtown off-Broadway venue to Broadway’s Plymouth Theatre. It was built around the stories and words of children who had run away from home and ended up on the streets; Swados wrote the book, music, and lyrics and also directed, choreographed, and played guitar in the pit. She remains one of the few artists to be nominated for four Tony Awards in one season (for all of the above-named roles other than the guitar). A fixture of the off-Broadway scene, she was never entirely comfortable on Broadway, and only returned once more.

Runaways characterized Swados’ style which emphasized social consciousness. Whether writing a musical, an opera, an oratorio, or a song cycle, she took on heavy and significant themes. Not all of her musicals are featured – there’s nothing here from her collaborations with cartoonist-satirist Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury (based on his comic strip) and Rap Master Ronnie. But the almost 20 songs here fully showcase the depth and breadth of her talents as a composer, lyricist, and storyteller. It may be impossible to capture every facet of Swados’ art, including her humor (often in unexpected places), on one album, but The Liz Swados Project comes admirably close.

The opening track, Runaways‘ anthem “We Are Not Strangers,” was described by its composer as “a hymn for wanderers, a coming together of people who’ve been through hard times.” The hypnotic, shimmering rendition comes courtesy of Heather Christian. It’s one of four songs from the show here. As a devotee of experimentalism, Swados would surely have approved of the transformation of her compositions. She originally set “Every Now and Then,” an expression and exploration of the sadness and regrets experienced by a runaway, to a slow Brazilian samba; the interpretation here by Dave Malloy (composer-lyricist-librettist of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) moves the song from Brazil to a seedy New Orleans bar after dark with boisterous group vocals and Kukul’s woozy horns.

Sophia Anne Caruso, so memorable in both Beetlejuice and David Bowie’s off-Broadway musical Lazarus, gives a chilling reading of “Song of the Child Prostitute,” a piece composed in monotone to reflect the dulled senses of the 13-year old character for whom it was written. (Caruso appeared in the 2016 City Center Encores! Off Center revival of Runaways.) Michael R. Jackson, recent Pulitzer winner for his musical A Strange Loop, leads Runaways’ finale, “Lonesome of the Road.” Wishing to leave the audience on a hopeful if realistic note, its uplifting lyrics (reiterating the difference between being lonely and being alone) were married to one of Swados’ most traditionally accessible and happily rousing pop melodies.

Meryl Streep starred as Alice in Swados’ 1980 Alice in Concert (later filmed with its star for television as Alice at the Palace), a freeform musical retelling of the famous Lewis Carroll stories. Performance artist and playwright Taylor Mac embodies “The Red Queen” to a seductive tango rhythm with head-chopping gusto. (Debbie Allen played The Red Queen in the NBC adaptation which squarely set the show within a Victorian music hall.) For Alice, the versatile composer adopted a different musical style for each song. The sweet, acoustic guitar-based opening number “In This My Green World” (with lyrics from Kenneth Patchen’s poem) is delivered with childlike whimsy by Stephanie Hsu.

Ali Stroker, the big-voiced, Tony Award-winning Ado Annie of the latest, controversial Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, sings the hell out of “Take Me to Paris” from 1984’s The Beautiful Lady, based on Russian poems adapted by Paul Schmidt. The musical chronicles a group of Russian poets before the 1917 October Revolution; while there’s a Russian air to the song’s melody and arrangement, it’s also a potent showstopper. Damon Daunno, Curly in that same reimagining of Oklahoma!, brings a throaty rock edge to “Isadora.”  On the third song from The Beautiful Lady, Starr Busby makes the triumphant promise that “A Change Will Come.”

Swados never stopped seeking change and empowering those who would work toward it. Grace McLean goes soul deep on the stirring “War Gets Old” from 1979’s Vietnam-themed rock musical Dispatches, with lyrics by Michael Herr. Missionaries, a “choral drama” about the murders of four American Catholic women in 1980 El Salvador by members of that country’s National Guard, was composed using the words of the women from their own journals and letters as well as sermons of Archbishop Oscar Romero. “Salvador” (“…is such a beautiful country”) has the same delicate, childlike music box feel as “We Are Not Strangers.” Apart from the production, it captures a lovely moment before the tragedy. It’s sung by Ashley Perez Flanagan, Rachel Duddy, and Hannah Whitney.

The earliest show represented on The Liz Swados Project Swados’ is 1977’s Nightclub Cantata. The work consisted of 20 original songs set to lyrics adapted from contemporary prose and poetry (including Sylvia Plath and Carson McCullers). Most critics singled out the Roma, or “gypsy,” song “The Dance,” performed here by musical duo The Bengsons in a modern, clattering, and very theatrical arrangement. A second piece from Nightclub Cantata, “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved,” is performed by the late singer-songwriter and Swados disciple Michael Friedman. It was recorded live at a Lincoln Center American Songbook salute to Swados, and also features Rachel Duddy and Dara Orland. Swados set music to a poem by Turkish author Nazim Hikmet; it’s very nearly a droned recitation allowing for close attention to be paid to the words.

Shaina Taub, a talented songwriter herself who’s currently penning lyrics to Elton John’s score for the upcoming stage version of The Devil Wears Prada, sings “You Do Not Have to Be Good,” written by Swados and Mary Oliver for Atonement, a 2007 oratorio for Yom Kippur or “concert with liturgical underpinnings” as Swados called it. The ballad is arranged for piano and strings. Another liturgical composition, the choral “Amen,” is culled from her score to Haggadah: A Passover Cantata (1980).

Along the way, songs are also sampled from a 1978 Bottom Line concert (Amber Gray’s “Oh King Daddy”) and Swados’ first opera, 1982’s Lullaby and Goodnight (Alicia Olatuja’s “You Gave Me Love”). In a wonderful tribute, the late composer herself is heard on “Bird Lament,” a voice-and-guitar art song in which she calls, crows, and caws. Most appropriately, it’s the most avant-garde track on this release.

2015’s The Nomad, written with Erin Courtney, is the most recent Swados work here. It was billed as “a desert musical” with “holy men, kief smokers, spies, soldiers, and tribes of nomads.” The melody and arrangement of “Souf,” thrillingly sung by Jo Lampert (David Byrne’s Joan of Arc: Into the Fire, Burt Bacharach and Steven Sater’s New York Animals), evokes an exotic and adventurous spirit. That latter quality, in particular, defined much of Elizabeth Swados’ oeuvre. The downtown doyenne prolifically wrote throughout her career, always staying true to her muse. “Every now and then,” an uncompromising and unconventional artist like Elizabeth Swados comes along. With impassioned performances by so many artists influenced by her body of work, The Liz Swados Project proves that her songs will, indeed, live on. — SecondDisc

1. Oh Sees – Footsteps
2. Wilco – Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
3. Bon Iver – Naeem
4. Jenny Hval – High Alice
5. CFM – Black Cat
6. One Eleven Heavy – Wild Hair
7. Devendra Banhart – Memorial
8. Gruff Rhys – Pang!
9. Sandro Perri – Wrong About the Rain
10. Kefaya & Elaha Soroor – Jama Narenji
11. Mike Patton & Jean-Claude Vannier – Browning
12. Bodega – Shiny New Model
13. Hiss Golden Messenger – Happy Birthday, Baby
14. Tinariwen – Taqkal Tarha (feat. Micah Nelson)
15. Diagonal – Citadel

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CD included with the October 2019 issue of Uncut magazine.

You just can’t sit down when one of those Cameo-Parkway classics comes on the stereo. Cameo Records – launched by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe, the team that penned the Elvis hip-shaker “Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear” –  and its sister label Parkway dominated the pop charts from 1958 to 1967 with dance crazes like “The Twist” and “The Wah-Watusi” as well as hits by the likes of Bobby Rydell, The Orlons, The Dovells, Dee Dee Sharp, Don Covay, Evie Sands, and of course, Twist king Chubby Checker. Now, ABKCO will revisit the Cameo-Parkway catalogue (plus a couple tracks from subsidiary labels Good Times and Fairmount) with a new three-part series of digital compilations.
The first, Dancin’ Party: The Chubby Checker Collection 1960-1966, is touted as…

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…“the definitive set of tunes” from Checker’s classic era.  In those six years, Chubby Checker established himself as the most successful on the label’s roster.  Sure, there was the landmark dance classic “The Twist” and its sequel song “Let’s Twist Again,” but Dancin’ Party also highlights fifteen other Top 40 hits, ten of which hit the Top 20.

You Can’t Sit Down: Cameo Parkway Dance Crazes 1958-1964 , featuring some of the most enduring sides from the Cameo-Parkway catalogue, songs that still get the hips shaking and the feet on the dance floor.  The 22-track collection features Checker again, plus the likes of Bobby Rydell (“The Cha-Cha-Cha”), The Orlons (“The Wah-Watusi”), The Dovells (“Bristol Stomp”), and Dee Dee Sharp (“Mashed Potato Time”).

The final set – You Got the Power: Cameo Parkway Northern Soul 1964 -1967 – spotlights the soul classics that would make up the soundtrack to Britain’s Northern Soul movement.  These include crate-digger favorites that received a cult-like following across the pond decades after they were released. Among the collection’s 20 floor-fillers are recordings by Frankie Beverly & The Butlers, Bunny Sigler, The Orlons, Evie Sands, Candy and the Kisses, Christine Cooper, and Eddie Holman. — SecondDisc

Various Artists, You Can’t Sit Down: Cameo Parkway Dance Crazes 1958-1964

1. The Twist – Chubby Checker
2. The Wah-Watusi – The Orlons
3. Bristol Stomp – The Dovells
4. Mashed Potato Time – Dee Dee Sharp
5. You Can’t Sit Down – The Dovells
6. The Third House (In From The Right) – Bobby Rydell
7. Do The Bird – Dee Dee Sharp
8. Slow Twistin’ – Chubby Checker w/Dee Dee Sharp
9. Shimmy Shimmy – The Orlons
10. The 81 – Candy And The Kisses
11. (Everybody Do) The Swim, Pt. 1 – The Marlins
12. The Popeye Waddle – Don Covay
13. Do The New Continental – The Dovells
14. Baby, Do The Froog – Dardenelles
15. Rocka-Conga – The Applejacks
16. The Hucklebuck- Chubby Checker
17. The Mash – Tom Young & The Hippies
18. Mexican Hat Rock – The Applejacks
19. The Cha-Cha-Cha – Bobby Rydell
20. When You Dance – The Turbans
21. Everybody South Street – The Taffys
22. Twistin’ U.S.A. – Chubby Checker

Tracks 1 and 22 released as Parkway single P-811, 1960.
Track 2 released on Cameo single C-218, 1962.
Track 3 released on Parkway single P-827, 1961.
Track 4 released on Cameo single C-212, 1962.
Track 5 released on Parkway single P-867, 1963.
Track 6 released on Cameo single C-192, 1961.
Track 7 released on Cameo single C-244, 1963.
Track 8 released on Parkway single P-835, 1962.
Track 9 released on Cameo single C-295, 1964.
Track 10 released on Cameo single C-336, 1964.
Track 11 released on the various artist box set Cameo Parkway 1957-1967, ABKCO OXO1-92232, 2005.
Track 12 released on Cameo single C-239, 1960.
Track 13 released on Parkway single P-833, 1961.
Track 14 released on Cameo single C-271, 1963.
Track 15 released on Cameo single C-155, 1958.
Track 16 released on Parkway single P-813, 1960.
Track 17 released on Cameo single C-224, 1962, credited to Tony Young and The Hippies.
Track 18 released on Cameo single C-149, 1958.
Track 19 released on Cameo single C-228, 1962.
Track 20 released on Parkway single P-820, 1961 — re-recording of Herald single H-458, 1955.
Track 21 released on Fairmount single F-610, 1963.

Various Artists, You Got the Power: Cameo Parkway Northern Soul 1964-1967

1. You Got The Power – The Four Exceptions
2. Because Of My Heart – Frankie Beverly & The Butlers
3. (Whoa, Whoa) I Love Him So – Nikki Blu
4. Girl Don’t Make Me Wait – Bunny Sigler
5. It’s Rough Out There – Jerry Jackson
6. Envy (In My Eyes) – The Orlons
7. Picture Me Gone – Evie Sands
8. Country Girl – Vickie Baines
9. Night Owl – Bobby Paris
10. Village Of Tears – Ben Zine
11. You Just Don’t Know (What You Do To Me) – Chubby Checker
12. The 81 – Candy And The Kisses
13. Shake And Shingaling (Pt. 1) – Gene Waiters
14. S.O.S. (Heart In Distress)  – Christine Cooper
15. Eddie’s My Name – Eddie Holman
16. Pass Me By – Hattie Winston
17. The Grass (Will Sing For You) – Lonnie Youngblood
18. (Your Love Was Just A) False Alarm – Tari Stevens
19. Who Do You Think You Are – The Soul City
20. You Didn’t Say A Word – Yvonne Baker

Track 1 released on Parkway single P-986, 1966.
Track 2 released on Fairmount single F-1017, 1967.
Track 3 released on Parkway single P-931, 1964.
Track 4 released on Parkway single P-123, 1966.
Track 5 released on Parkway single P-100, 1966.
Track 6 released on Cameo single C-383, 1965.
Track 7 released on Cameo single C-413, 1966.
Track 8 released on Parkway single P-966, 1966.
Track 9 released on Cameo single C-396, 1966.
Track 10 released on Parkway single P-996, 1966.
Track 11 released on Parkway single P-965, 1965.
Track 12 released on Cameo single C-336, 1964.
Track 13 released on Fairmount promo single F-1018, 1966.
Track 14 released on Parkway single P-971, 1965.
Track 15 released on Parkway single P-981, 1965.
Track 16 released on Parkway single P-956, 1965.
Track 17 released on Fairmount single F-1016, 1966.
Track 18 released on Fairmount single F-1001, 1966.
Track 19 released on Good Time single GT-802, 1967.
Track 20 released on Parkway single P-140, 1967.

Chubby Checker, Dancin’ Party – The Chubby Checker Collection: 1960-1966

1. The Twist
2. The Hucklebuck
3. Pony Time
4. Dance The Mess Around
5. Let’s Twist Again
6. The Fly
7. Dancin’ Party
8. Slow Twistin’
9. Popeye The Hitchhiker
10. Limbo Rock
11. Let’s Limbo Some More
12. Twist It Up (single version)
13. Birdland (single version)
14. What Do Ya Say!
15. Loddy Lo
16. Hooka Tooka
17. Hey, Bobba Needle
18. Lazy Elsie Molly
19. (At The) Discotheque
20. You Just Don’t Know (What You Do To Me)
21. Hey You! Little Boo-Ga-Loo

Track 1 released on Parkway single P-811, 1960.
Track 2 released on Parkway single P-813, 1960.
Track 3 released on Parkway single P-818, 1960.
Track 4 released on Parkway single P-822, 1961.
Track 5 released on Parkway single P-824, 1961.
Track 6 released on Parkway single P-830, 1961.
Track 7 released on Parkway single P-842, 1962.
Track 8 released on Parkway single P-835, 1962.
Tracks 9 and 10 released as Parkway single P-849, 1962.
Track 11 released on Parkway single P-862, 1963.
Track 12 released on Parkway single P-879, 1963.
Track 13 released on Parkway single P-873, 1963.
Track 14 released on Parkway single P-806, 1963.
Tracks 15 and 16 released as Parkway single P-890, 1963.
Track 17 released on Parkway single P-907, 1964.
Track 18 released on Parkway single P-920, 1964.
Track 19 released on Parkway single P-949, 1965.
Track 20 released on Parkway single P-965, 1965.
Track 21 released on Parkway single P-989, 1966.

“Who the hell was Vic Gargano? This question hung in the already stale air of our Little Village office at the tail end of 2017. We were deep into the compiling of Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights when a pallet showed up in the warehouse C.O.D. Dilapidated boxes of quarter-inch tapes, 45 deadstock, DJ copies, acetates, and paper were spread across the warehouse, smelling faintly of mildew after spending the previous 40 years in a garage in Southern California. An entire world abandoned like so much trash. The man himself dead so long that there was little hope of untangling his 20-year history as a record mogul and hustler.
As we began to transfer the reels and sift through the paper, the picture got fuzzier.

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Vic Gargano had multiple labels: Inferno, Indigo, Magenta, Lavender, Invicta, Condor, and Blue Fin, and an equal amount of silent partners. By nearly every account of the artists we spoke with, there was most certainly a criminal element in the background, but few were willing to go on record. “We were in the middle of a session and these guys showed up,” said an off-the-record source. “Vic went outside with them and came back ten minutes later with blood all over his face. He walked into the recording booth and said, ‘Back to work’ like nothing had happened at all.”

Gargano got his first taste of music business in March 1959, when he penned “Alone” b/w “Nightfall” for the Three Dimensions on Al Kavelin and Fess Parker’s short-lived Cascade imprint. Following the session, the 23-year-old Gargano partnered with Don Wayne to form Inferno Records that September. Less than a handful of records were issued on the red and black labeled imprint, including a follow up by the Three Dimensions and two brilliant 45s by the mysterious Carmen, who delivered the eerie “Isle of Love” in late 1959. A few months into the next decade, Indigo Records was born to handle Gargano’s pop fantasies, which came true that September when Kathy Young & the Innocents took “A Thousand Stars” to #3 on the pop charts, selling a million singles over the course of the next two years. Those proceeds allowed Gargano to eventually release over 50 records on the label and spawned two sister companies: Lavender and Magenta.

Indigo and Gargano blew through all of their Kathy Young money and were out of business by fall 1962. In anticipation, the ever crafty Gargano set up the Invicta imprint with Marvin Cockrum that summer, upcycling previously unissued Indigo masters by Skip Battin, Babs Cooper, and Kim Fowley through 1963. The balance of the decade was spent as an independent producer with diminishing returns. Cockrum and Gargano tried the label business again with Blue Fin in 1966, issuing wild, psychedelic offerings by the Deepest Blue, the Ascots, and Egyptian Candy. The Condor label released the incredibly obscure girl group The Mellow Dawns, group harmony soul by the Jhamels, and pop by Don Crawford and The Tomorrows. In 1974 he trotted Indigo out for one final run, briefly managing and producing Chameleon, a two husband and wife quartet billed as the “American Abba.” A letter from Capitol’s Stu Yahm from that year delivered the crushing blow: “We are up to our navels in girl singers around here.” By the early 1980s he was largely retired, living on some kind of mysterious largesse. His recording empires was packed up and forgotten about until our call.

Gargano’s Garage gathers the best of his psychedelic pop recordings from the 1960s, including previously unissued sides by Life, the Goodthings, Dyland Roberts, Junction, and Buzz Clifford, as well as blistering nuggets from Deepest Blue, Egyptian Candy, the Ascots, Skip & Johnny, and the Colours. The thirsty results of a guy hell-bent on having a hit.” — numerogroup.com

Disc 1
01. The Ascots – Summer Days (02:43)
02. The Goodthings – Every Girl (02:19)
03. Junction – Keep Me from Falling (02:44)
04. The Ascots – The Wonder of It All (02:30)
05. The Goodthings – I Got Eyes for You Baby (02:13)
06. Mike Muñoz – Here I Stand (02:33)
07. The Tomorrows – Need Only You (02:54)
08. Scott Maurer – Ashes (02:39)
09. The Goodthings – The Journey (02:03)
10. Junction – Good Time Believer (02:30)
11. Scott Maurer – A Woman Yes (02:57)
12. Deepest Blue – Somebody’s Girl (02:14)
13. Egyptian Candy – Living My Love Game (02:05)
14. The Ascots – I Won’t Cry (02:24)
15. Deepest Blue – Pretty Little Thing (02:49)
16. Egyptian Candy – I Found Out (02:31)

Disc 2
01. Cleveland Jones – Loreen (02:50)
02. Patti LaSalle – How Many Times (02:11)
03. Skip & Johnny – It Was I (02:08)
04. Unknown Artist – Why Cry (02:28)
05. The Jhamels – Be True to Me (02:57)
06. Denny & Jenny – You Tear Me Up (01:48)
07. Bixie Crawford – I Miss Those Lonely Nights (02:30)
08. Babs Cooper – How Am I Gonna Leave You (02:07)
09. Skip & Johnny – What Do You Think You’re Doing (01:51)
10. Little Mojo – Something On Your Mind (03:08)
11. The Robins – Magic of a Dream (02:27)
12. Patti LaSalle – Quarter After Eight (02:22)
13. Skip & Johnny – Blue In The Night (02:36)
14. The Carians – She’s Gone (02:15)
15. Babs Cooper – Honest I Do (02:38)
16. Bobby James – 5000 Tears Ago (02:33)
17. Skip & Johnny – Sea Of Love (02:21)

Disc 3
01. life – Life (02:19)
02. Mary Ingram – Many Years (02:28)
03. Manny Lopez – Mr. Lucky (02:24)
04. Carmen – Isle Of Love (Instrumental) (02:36)
05. Manny Lopez – Me Voy Pal Pueblo (03:02)
06. Jody Reynolds – Thunder (02:25)
07. Don Chocek – Ukelele Mambo (02:27)
08. The Blue Boys – Damascus (02:17)
09. Bobby Paris – Dark Continent (Part 2) (01:52)
10. life – Cu Cu Ru Cu Cu Paloma (03:08)
11. Gene Lamar – No Hands (02:14)
12. Manny Lopez – Esta Es Mi Guajira (02:43)
13. The Castiles – Ecstasy (02:03)
14. Don Chocek – Just To Be Near You (02:27)
15. The Crystals – Dreams And Wishes (02:11)

1. Amyl and The Sniffers – Some Mutts (Can’t Be Muzzled)
2. Fontaines D.C. – Boys in the Better Land
3. Jamila Woods – Muddy
4. Faye Webster – Jonny
5. Sarathy Korwar – Mumbay
6. Black Midi – Western
7. Mdou Moctar – Ilana
8. Park Jiha – Thunder Shower
9. Jessica Pratt – As the World Turns
10. Weyes Blood – Something to Believe
11. Black Pumas – Fire
12. Mattiel – Keep the Change
13. Yola – Walk Through Fire
14. Nérija – Last Straw
15. Modern Nature – Supernature

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Mojo October 2019 edition (#311)

For the last 20 years London-based author and party organiser Tim Lawrence has dedicated himself to excavating the history of New York City party culture and bringing some of the most powerful aspects of that culture to London’s dance scene, from where it has ricocheted around the world.
Having conducted the first and set of major interviews with David Mancuso of the New York City Loft, Lawrence started to host Loft-style Lucky Cloud Sound System parties with David and friends in London in June 2003. In February 2004 he published the first of three published three pioneering histories that have excavated and championed the previously overlooked foundations of contemporary party culture: Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music (1970-79)…

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…Hold on to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene (1973-92), and Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor (1980-83). Since 2018 Lawrence has hosted and DJed at the community audiophile party “All Our Friends. Paper Magazine describes him as the “reigning authority on the history of dance music in New York”.
With knowledge to share, and a readership as well as a dance floor to feed, Lawrence released Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor as the debut imprint on Reappearing Records. A year in the making, a compilation featuring rare and iconic tracks that appear in his much-loved and heavily-thumbed classic Love Saves the Day amounts to the follow-up. The collection features several tracks selected regularly by Mancuso, the party host who exerted a prophetic and unparalleled influence on New York City party culture, as charted by Lawrence. It also includes choice picks from groundbreaking DJs such as Michael Cappello, Steve D’Acquisto, Francis Grasso, Richie Kaczor, Larry Levan and Nicky Siano, whose expressive contributions are faithfully recorded in Love Saves the Day. The compilation traces how disco grew out of the record collections and intuitive sensibility of these and other DJs, offering a unique survey of the era’s expansive sonic palette.

1. Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin – Dibwe Diambula Kabanda [03:00]
2. Chuck Mangione – Land Of Make Believe [12:06]
3. Wilson Pickett – Don’t Knock My Love (Part 1) [02:22]
4. Wilson Pickett – Don’t Knock My Love (Part 2) [04:01]
5. James Brown – Give It Up Or Turn It Loose [06:29]
6. Jackson 5 – Hum Along And Dance (Uncut Version) [15:06]
7. Brainstorm – Lovin’ Is Really My Game (12″ Version) [07:40]
8. Domenic Troiano – We All Need Love (12” Version) [05:32]
9. Gladys Knight And The Pips – It’s Time To Go Now [02:29]

…Timeless is as cliched an adjective as “soulful” or “uplifting” when it comes to describing the sort of house music Enrico Crivellaro, AKA Volcov, has specialized in for as long as many of us have been alive. But listening to First Circle, the sublime new compilation celebrating 20 years of Crivellaro’s Neroli label, time and geographical barriers seem to melt away. The musical ideas within are a distillation of the same principles that have informed similar imprints like Guidance and 2000 Black, yet still, somehow, the music feels as fresh and relevant as ever.
When soliciting tracks for The First Circle, Crivellaro drew inspiration from the label’s namesake, Brian Eno’s contemplative 1993 ambient album Neroli. “In general I’ve always been more…

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…interested in the more musical things rather than beats/drums,” told InfiniteStateMachine a couple years ago. Without specifically asking for ambient tracks, Crivellaro requested material “which had a sort of intimacy — delicate melodies, introspection.”

Drums don’t enter the picture until The Third Circle‘s third track, Patrice Scott’s deep, introspective, “Untitled.” Even then, the emphasis is on the pensive interplay between the piano and synth lines, the rhythms a subtle afterthought in support the melodies. In fact, though house producers like Fred P appear on The First Circle, there’s only one track that you could conceivably play to a full dance floor—the “Citrus,” a spaced-out roller from Linkwood that concludes the album.

Instead, The First Circle homes in on the melodic common ground that links house music and broken beat with jazz, ambient and library music. K15, whose 2014 breakthrough track “Yellow” is clear kin to The First Circle‘s melodically-centered ambient house, leads off the album with a sumptuous piano-based intro. He’s followed by Kirk Degiorgio, the UK producer (and sometime RA contributor) whose Applied Rhythmic Technology label in many ways laid the foundation for The First Circle‘s explorations. On label compilations like The Philosophy Of Sound And Machine, and tracks like his own “Amalia” (as As One) or event Photek’s “T’Raenon,” Digiorgio spent the ’90s drawing a clear line between intelligent techno, deep house and an appreciation for rare groove, soul and jazz. This same alchemy is at work on The First Circle, teased out by producers like Dego, an artist whose catalogue has traversed those genres—and many more—over the decades.

This genre-agnostic approach reaches its full potential on the album’s centerpiece, “Snow,” a previously unheard 2010 collaboration between Volcov, UR’s Gerald Mitchell and Pirahnahead. Mitchell and Crivellaro work up a moody atmosphere with pads and some skittering percussion. Pirahnahead, who had just woken up from a nap, plays a one-take guitar solo straight from the heart, the way Eddie Hazel did on Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain,” recorded at Universal Studios four decades earlier in Detroit. That night in the studio, Pirahnahead, Mitchell and Volcov weren’t concerned with whether “Snow” would fit neatly as the A1 on a dance 12-inch. They were tapping into a continuum that predates house, Hazel and even recorded music. The First Circle captures a group of artists who travel along a reverent path that extends from the past infinitely into the future. — residentadvisor.net

John Hartford‘s nimble, whit-fueled songs have long been a focal point of the bluegrass and newgrass canon and Hartford’s musicianship, on both the banjo and fiddle, has now been doted over for generations, but until recently, little has been known about his late-in-life, academic approach to fiddle music.
After Hartford passed in 2001, his family discovered over two-thousand original, hand-written fiddle tune charts in file cabinets under his desk, and in time, the idea for a way to honor Hartford’s passion has grown legs. Nashville-based fiddler Matt Combs spent months pouring over Hartford’s journals and notes to compile resources for what would become two expansive projects; a book called…

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…John Hartford’s Mammoth Collections of Fiddle Tunes and this album, The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Volume 1.
Hartford’s music and ideas certainly don’t need a qualifier attached, but if one were to look for evidence to support their greatness, the laundry list of grade-A musicians who took part in the recording of The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Volume 1 would be a righteous place to start. From track one, the guest artists flow in and out of a revolving door of virtuosity. Combs is joined by Ronnie McCoury, Noam Pikelny, Chris Eldridge, and Dennis Crouch for “Tennessee Politics,” Sierra Hull accompanies herself on both mandolin and octave mandolin for “Old Beveled Mirror,” and Brittany Haas leads Paul Kowert, Dominic Leslie, and Jordan Tice through “Long White Road.” Meanwhile, four tracks feature Hartford’s former bandmates-Mike Compton on mandolin, Mark Howard on banjo, and Chris Sharp on guitar-reuniting their bandleader’s music with the pickers who brought it to life for years. The head-turning list of contributors continues with Tim O’Brien, Alison Brown, Megan Lynch Chowning, Tristan Scroggins, Forrest and Kate Lee O’Connor, Kristen Andreassen, Mike Bub, Rachel Combs, and Jan Fabricius before the album concludes with Shad Cobb joining Combs and O’Brien for the triple-fiddle, album-closing composition “Evening Farewell.” When all is said and done, listeners will have heard a total of seventeen unreleased Hartford compositions, running the gamut from driving to lilting to waltzing to stomping, while never losing their creator’s lighthearted touch.
“We are quickly approaching 20 years since his passing, and I hear not only John’s tunes out in the ‘fiddleverse’ but so many of the old-time tunes he unearthed and brought to the world,” says Combs. “I truly hope that this record continues that trend. There are so many great tunes here that represent the breadth of John’s influences and his deep creative spark; all of the artists on this recording helped bring them to life through their unique lens.” Katie Harford Hogue, Hartford’s daughter and executive producer of the album, says, “What I love the most about this record is that each artist’s DNA comes through, and Dad is the unifying spirit that brings it all together. He pulled inspiration from every moment, every sound, every sight he encountered, and his journals were a place to explore all of his ideas.” The ​John ​Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Volume 1 was recorded in part at the legendary Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa in Nashville, home of the late Jack Clement, where Hartford recorded his 1984 album Gum Tree Canoe. Those album sessions essentially coincide with the start of Hartford’s musical journals, which date back to 1983.
“Ever since I pulled the first fiddle journal out of a storage box back in 2008, the whole concept has fascinated me. The idea of this much creative output from one source is mind-boggling, and yet I understand where it comes from,” says Hogue. “With the creative brain, once the faucet is turned on the ideas just keep coming. Everything builds upon everything else, and there are endless variations. That’s the great thing about art, music, and creative thinking-every idea spurs on ten more. It’s a beautiful burden.”

1. Matt Combs & Ronnie McCoury & Noam Pikelny & Chris Eldridge & Dennis Crouch – Tennessee Politics
2. Matt Combs & Mike Compton & Mark Howard & Chris Sharp & Dennis Crouch – Calhoun County
3. Sierra Hull – Old Beveled Mirror
4. Megan Lynch Chowning & Tristan Scroggins & Dominick Leslie & Paul Kowert – Running Board Waltz
5. Brittany Haas & Dominick Leslie & Alison Brown & Jordan Tice & Paul Kowert – Little Country Town
6. Matt Combs & Mike Compton & Mark Howard & Chris Sharp & Dennis Crouch – Don Brown and the Boys
7. Megan Lynch Chowning & Tristan Scroggins – John Rice
8. Tim O’Brien – On Guitars, The Ends of New Fingers Get Sore
9. Brittany Haas & Dominick Leslie & Jordan Tice & Paul Kowert – Long White Road
10. Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius & Shad Cobb & Mike Bub & Kristin Andreassen – The Old Man’s Drunk
11. Matt Combs & Mike Compton & Mark Howard & Chris Sharp & Dennis Crouch – Heartache What to Do
12. Brittany Haas & Rachel Combs – How Can We Love
13. Megan Lynch Chowning & Tristan Scroggins & Alison Brown & Matt Combs – Just Enough Room to Turn Around
14. Matt Combs & Mike Compton & Mark Howard & Chris Sharp & Dennis Crouch – Every Hour on the Hour
15. Forrest O’Connor & Kate Lee O’Connor – The Half-Price Hornpipe
16. Matt Combs & Ronnie McCoury & Noam Pikelny & Chris Eldridge & Dennis Crouch – Over at the Side of the Road
17. Tim O’Brien & Shad Cobb & Matt Combs – Evening Farewell

1. Foo Fighters – For All the Cows
2. The Black Keys – Gold On the Ceiling
3. Tinariwen – Wartilla
4. Michael Kiwanuka – Black Man in a White World
5. Paul Weller – Brushed
6. New Order – Atmosphere
7. U2 – The Little Things That You Give Away (Live from Olympic Stadium, Rome, 15 July 2017)
8. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Jubilee Street
9. Fontaines D.C. – Dublin City Sky
10. Madness – Before We Was We
11. Bon Iver – Blood Bank
12. Wilco – Hold Me Anyway
13. R.E.M. – Wendell Gee
14. Lucinda Williams – You Can’t Rule Me
15. Bill Callahan – Held

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MOJO August 2020 [#321]

We Were Living In Cincinnati a “Killed By Death’ or “Bloodstains’ style compilation covering the golden era of Cincinnati, OH punk and underground music from Southwest Ohio 1975-82. It is the culmination of a long-idealized project from Peter Aaron of the Chrome Cranks, who amassed a large collection of Cincinnati-area records and demo tapes from the 70s & 80s, lots of which have never been comped before, and several of which are presented here for the first time anywhere.
While the more famous punk parties were going full swing in Warholian New York, press-savvy London, glittery LA, and other big towns, the early scenes in Ohio’s cities were toughing it out on their own. Instead of being courted with major-label deals, their handfuls of brave bands were mostly…

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…ignored, ridiculed, and physically threatened within their surrounding hostile environments. And although the pioneering activities in Cleveland and Akron have been well documented through several compilations, the early action in southern Ohio’s largest city has not—until now. Tirelessly compiled, annotated, researched, and produced by punk historian, author, and musician Peter Aaron (the Chrome Cranks, Young Skulls) and co-released by HoZac Records and Shake It! Records’ Music from Ohio series, We Were Living in Cincinnati rounds up rare, raw tracks by 21 of the town’s toughest, coolest punk and new wave outfits, several of them sourced from unheard tapes by acts who never released records in their day.
Surveying the period from 1975 through 1982, We Were Living in Cincinnati encompasses a stunningly diverse range of stylistic shades for a smaller, out-of-the way scene. Here’s everything from garage/rockabilly rave-ups (the Customs) and Ubu-ish art-skronk (BPA) through thuggish thrashing (the Ed Davis Band), melodic power pop (the Rockers), Dada-driven No wave (11,000 Switches), snotty teen brattiness (Beef, the Verbs), synth-propelled, Screamers-style mania (the Dents), Dead Boys-esque aggression (the Rave-N’s), scraping ska punk (the Erector Set), postpunk Anglophilia (Dream 286), glammy garage (Dennis the Menace), unhinged noise (Teddy & the Frat Girls), MC5-damaged protopunk (Bitter Blood), and more—all of it remastered straight from scarce singles and long-lost cassettes.
Included is a tri-fold poster insert with meticulous liner notes and track annotations, rare photos and flier images, and a family tree of early Cincinnati bands, as well as a free download. God save the Queen City. A sharply packaged rock ’n’ roll revelation, We Were Living in Cincinnati unearths one of American punk’s unjustly forgotten and most interesting early scenes.

1. 11,000 Switches – Drinking Elvis Wine (1982) [04:18]
2. Dennis The Menace – Working Girls (1980) [02:39]
3. Ed Davis Band – Asshole (1978) [03:50]
4. The Customs – Let’s Get It On (1979) [02:12]
5. The Rockers – Blonde Debbie (1980) [03:06]
6. BEEF – Nosedive (1978) [02:06]
7. Qi-Zz – New Baby (1980) [02:00]
8. Bitter Blood – Picnic (1975) [02:26]
9. The Verbs – Little In Doubt (1979) [02:49]
10. BPA – Dead Boy (1982) [02:50]
11. News – Stop (1980) [02:29]
12. Squelch – I Can’t Stand You (1982) [02:07]
13. Erector Set – Inside Out (1980) [03:30]
14. The Dents – Sleeping Around (1979) [02:46]
15. Rave-N’s – I Feel So Suicidal (1979) [03:20]
16. Dream 286 – Scars (1982) [02:25]
17. The Customs – Long Gone (1980) [02:24]
18. Teddy & The Frat Girls – Clubnite (1980) [01:34]