Jac Berrocal
Prière
From Jac Berrocal comes a compendium of French Surrealists texts by Berrocal, Andre Breton and Antonin Artaud all set to noise-making music. Cranky, effusive, profound? How the hell would I know – I don’t speak French. But I’d like to think a picture disk is worth a thousand lyrics. Released in 2004 on Alga Marghen but you can still sniff out a new copy.
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou
“The Vodoun Effect” 1972 – 1975
Funk & Sato from Benin’s Obscure Labels
volume one (yes!!!)
The Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou were genuine music machines, churning out hundreds and hundreds of songs from their native Benin. The tracks on this double LP are from ‘private’ sessions recorded in people’s homes on a lone Nagra and the sound is beautiful, alive, raw and hot. Trance-inducing, voodoo-inspired (Benin’s official religion) hard-driving poly-rythmo musical magic of the highest order. Turn out the lights, turn off the AC, crack open the brews and dance till you just can’t dance no more. A great great record.
Loren Mazzacane Connors
The Stations of the Cross
Recorded 1994 released 1996 on Menlo Park in an edition of 800 copies, double 7″ set from Loren Mazzacane Connors. 6-string electric meditations on death based on texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Delicious Costa Rican Imperial was our drink of choice, unless we needed a Cuba Libre. Here we are in a little shack of a restaurant we found by the side of the road on the way back from a breathtaking beach sunset. Delicious.
Oh, and a beautiful can as well.
The Don, the Captain gave up music. Now he paints and writes. Poetry. Catalog from the 2007 show at The Michael Werner Gallery with an intro by Polly Jean.
Kawabata Makoto
Rainbow of Love
Kawabata ambient pulsing bowed guitar Makoto. A one-man Popol-Vuhesque drone band with nary a hint of pluck or strum or pick. Wall of sound, rainbow of love. Lovely. Limited to 300 copies.
:zoviet*france
Misfits, Loony Tunes And Squalid Criminals
Apropos of my recent foray deep into the heart of hifi forum darkness, another beautifully sparse, scratchy and primitive beat infested brain wash from my favorite coolest cover art ever band. From 1986, Misfits, Loony Tunes And Squalid Criminals is on the mellower side with less jarring moments and more fluid pulsing heartbeat. I could listen to them all day and I just might.
It’s gone. I was out on a typical Saturday with Leo (our usual Saturday routine, to give mommy a break) and thought he’d like to do some record shopping. He loves record shopping, so I always try to stop by a record store on Saturday afternoons. Etherea was our favorite. It’s gone, just an empty store front with a dirty “for rent” sign duct-taped to the inside of the glass at an uninteresting angle.
It had been here for nearly as long as I had. It was the store that got me hooked on electronica, D&B, ambient, house, acid jazz, all that sort of creep-in-to-your-mind-without-your-realizing-it music.
maher shalal hash baz
blues du jour
Imagine a Japanese children’s band practice taken over by Syd Barrett whose trying to write pop tunes and commercials for toothpaste and you might get a grip on maher shalal hash baz. From 2003, Tori Kudo’s purposefully naive music is all jangly clumsy nearly accidental made from sounds tunes. All 37 tracks worth. The Kudo’s are joined by a bunch of musicians and instruments including pixiphone, glockenspiel, clarinet, guitar, cockerel, mandolin, recorder, drums, bass, euphonium, xylophone, clock, ‘door open and close’…you get the picture.
I respond to Ms. Kudo’s sweet spoken vocals but all in all this is a toyed with and played up slapsticky treat.
Tom Waits
Small Change
There was a thread on the Stereophile forum about the Furutech Demag device. Michael Fremer ended up posting two samples – one before treatment on after – from this record. Even though the thread progressed/regressed in typical forum fashion, it made me buy this record and think about the first time I heard it:
I was in Artie Beltramba’s older brothers’ car on the way to a concert (Foghat) at the Capital Theater in Passaic, NJ when Small Change first came out in 1976. And I remember very clearly feeling as if I was being introduced to something special. Something meaningful was lurking in the absurdity and off-hand beat-poet meets cynical drunk piano-man (which was so much more appealing to me than the other Piano Man) backed by some grungy strip joint jazz. I was a teenager and feeling at once trapped while I could see the road went on forever, filled with endless possibilities. Tom Waits’ seemed to be pointing to one way out of suburban dead ends. As we drove through the cold, dark and dismal streets of a December Passaic drinking warm Bud, we sang along to “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (an Evening with Pete King)” over and over and over until we were dizzy, hysterically laughing drunk.
The Inner Space
Agilok & Blubbo
Pre-Caned Can? Agilok & Blubbo is the 1968 German film & this here soundtrack by The Inner Space – Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay, David Johnson, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit who became Can a few months after this recording was made. And let’s not forget Rosy-Rosy (our cover girl and star of the flick) who joins them on vocals. Acoustic and wah-infested electric guitar, mouth-harp, flute, bass, drums and various and sundry vocals presented in über-tasty 60s damn near classic jam rock style. Released for the first time in its entirety by Wah Wah Records Supersonic Sounds from the original master tapes, Agilok & Blubbo is an unexpectedly delightful and fresh 60s sound strudel.
Wooden Shjips
Dos
I was waiting. I waited to love Wooden Shjips and the few 7″ singles made me think I could. But I didn’t. Until Dos. Cleaned up with less murk the boys that are Wooden Shjips rock out some monster tunes on this their 2nd full-length LP. Catchy as all get-out with gnarly guitar, moody organ, bitchin’ bass, rockin’ drums and trancey vocals all supporting their song-driven drivin’ hazy sunset trip. Super! Super Dos!! The hippie stoner rocker in me is leaping over fences over clouds.
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