Gamelanish Grooves 4

“This music comes from somewhere unknown and offers hope that there are worlds of music out there, unexplored and waiting to be discovered.”

That’s from a review of Orchestra Bana Luya from Kinhasa, Zaire

The likembé merge to provide a brutal, hypnotising beat, the cousin to The 13th Floor Elevators’ electrified jug or John Cale’s manic viola. The rapid intensity of rhythm matches the finest exponents of Krautrock, occasionally drifting close to the confused energy of Aphex Twin or Autechre, with the damaged tempo of Beefheart or Marc Ribot slithering in.

That’s what the reviewer heard … but I hear hypnotic gamelan, as I do in the other tracks gathered for you. I’ve pruned some 25 minutes off that track, so if you want to be transported click the link above.

Having been in Indonesia for nigh on 30 years, I’ve got to hear a lot of local music, yet very little of it excites me. This is probably because local musicians in general play for their audiences who want the familiar. I listen out for the excitement of extemporaneous sounds of musicians playing for themselves, for fun.

Although I’ve labelled each track with the nationality of the artist(s), none to my knowledge had nationalistic messages about character building or other such claptrap. The first three tracks have most definitely been composed to reflect the musicians’ love of Indonesian scales and melodies.

If you share that, then I hope you’ll download my compilation and listen with open ears.

The first three Gamelanish Grooves can be found here.

Enjoy!

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Širom from Slovenia

“Fearlessly textured sonic landscapes – both linked to and unbound by – the past and present, geography and tradition, the real and imagined. Hypnotic, otherworldly and epic. Širom’s music moves like the restless waters of their homeland, Slovenia. No matter how hushed or slow it may seem, it is never ever standing still.”

Listen to their new album I Can Be A Clay Snapper here.

Solo Jazz Piano 1

I don’t often post jazz music here, preferring to post on IndoJazzia. However, jazz is my favourite genre, and if music maketh man, then this post is at the core of me. I grew up listening to my father playing his favourite ‘jazz’ standards. This version of George and Ira Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm was recorded when he was 85.

Sadly, I felt that his playing was one-dimensional and after I left the parental nest I began to really appreciate the meditative zone induced by the artistry of some jazz pianists.

This download is one continuous track to keep you in the mood. Although Mingus (bass), Gismonti (guitar) and DeJohnette (drums) are better known for their primary instruments, they fit quite nicely in my selection.

Tracks
Charles Mingus – Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress, Then Silk Blues
Egberto Gismonti – Don Quijote
Tete Montoliu – Una Guitarra
Esbjörn Svensson – Like Wash It Or Something
Jack DeJohnette – Ebony
Jacob Karlzon – Gaspard de la Nuit II: Le Gibet (after Ravel)
Mara Rosenbloom – I Rolled and I Tumbled (tribute to John Lee Hooker)
Keith Tippett – Let The Music Speak

Blogisteria

I’ve been online since 1998, but have only been able to watch YouTubes and explore the wondrous world of music blogs since 2013, which was when a fibre-optic cable for internet access made its appearance near Jakartass Towers.

I’ve been much like a squirrel ever since, gone nuts grabbing any album which glittered in my memory and/or curiosity to stash in my archives. I’ve rebuilt most of my three long-lost (through marital separations and house moving since you ask) record collections, given away most of my cassettes and tried unsuccessfully to sell my CDs.

I suppose I’ve been trying to relive those excursions I would make to the Record and Tape Exchange emporia I used to visit in lunchtimes and spare hours.  I’d invariably come away with something I hadn’t heard, or even heard of, but which attracted me because I recognised a name in the credits.

Sometimes I bought something which I’d resell later, or give away, because it had little appeal for me. More often than not, though, there were hidden gems, albums which didn’t sell then and are largely forgotten now by all but a few dedicated crate diggers. Some of them now make these albums available through their blogs.

Being a contrary kind of bloke, I seek out esoterica, albums unavailable from regular outlets, or which are only available for rich bidders on eBay.

Lisa Sinder who posts mainly ’70s albums on Ezhevika Fields offers no information whatsoever about the albums. If there’s no info about them via an internet search either, or just minimal facts on Discogs.com, then her site is a lucky dip. Check her tags for the music genre.

However, her blog list in the left column did lead me to Julian Ryan’s Progressive Reviews (PR). He also posts albums from the seventies, but in addition he offers his opinions, minimal reviews, on a musician’s discography and places the chosen album(s) in their context, with links to the various releases of the supporting players.

What intrigues me the most about both blogs is that I’ve heard of very few of the musicians they bring into the limelight.  How many names do you recognise in this screen-grab from Julian’s site?

I just had to dig in, and, yes, there are certainly gems for my ears, but also some albums which didn’t sell then for pretty good reasons.

I’ve put together a compilation of tracks – download here – from albums discovered on PR’s site. Click on the names below to go to the pages which have the albums. Most have some sample tracks to listen to before deciding to download the complete album.

Kenneth Knudsen – Danish keyboardist

Gerardo Bátiz – Mexican pianist and flautist

Peter Thorup – Danish singer-songwriter who toured with Alexis Korner, “the godfather of the British blues”, in the early ’70s. He was then the vocalist in CCS, which has a hit with Led Zep’s Whole Lotta Love.

The Rainer Brüninghaus track is from a ‘library record‘, meaning that it is a recording which may end up as background music for a TV advertisement, or part of a soundtrack for a soap opera.

Vanessa – Norwegian prog-rock group

Zbigniew Seifert‎ – Polish jazz violinist who died too young

Waterfall – early 70’s UK ‘hippy-dippy’ folk-rock

A couple of other music blogs with a similar range of esoterica worth exploring:
Vinil Inflamable

Cun Cun Revival  – check out the Indonesian albums

Holger Czukay R.I.P.

(24.3.38 – 5.9.17)

fr.Wikipedia: Holger Czukay, born Holger Schüring was a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the ‘krautrock’ group Can. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as “successfully bridging the gap between pop and the avant-garde”, Czukay is also notable for having created early important examples of ambient music, for having explored “world music” well before the term was coined, and for having been a pioneer of sampling.

Gordon Skene says, “They weren’t a band who had hit singles, or even hit albums, or were even played very much on [radio]. But the represented a turn in music; looking at it as an experimental forum and a place of free-form music that, on its surface, was so damned weird that most people paid no attention to them. But to that handful of people who were open and willing and listening – they were one of the most powerful and influential bands to come along.”

Obit

Interview (2012)

Download these album tracks

1969. Holger Czukay & Rolf Dammers – Canaxis
Mellow Out

1980. Holger Czukay – Movies inc. Morvern Callar OST
Fragrance
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1981. Holger Czukay – On The Way To The Peak Of Normal
Witches’ Multiplication Table

1982. Holger Czukay, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit
Where’s The Money?

1987. Holger Czukay – Der Osten ist rot
The Photo Song

1991. Holger Czukay – Radio Wave Surfer
Late Night Radio

1993. Holger Czukay – Moving Pictures
Witches’ Multiplication Table

1999. Holger Czukay – Good Morning Story
Good Morning Story

Walter Becker R.I.P.

Once heard, Steely Dan has been one of those bands which demand ‘loyalty’. The strength of the song writing partnership of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and the supreme musicianship of their bands has ensured that their “string of pristine, sophisticated albums with ‘calculated and literary lyrics’ that blurred the lines of jazz, pop, rock and soul” will endure as long as recorded music is listened to.

Walter Becker died yesterday from an undisclosed illness aged 67.

Read Rickie Lee Jones’ poignant tribute.

There are only eight Steely Dan studio albums, but such is their originality that many musicians cover the songs. There’s even a Facebook page called Steely Dan Covers.

The following tracks are from tribute albums and are listed in the order of release of the original albums, noted in brackets.

Download

1972. The Royal Dan w. Mike Stern – Dirty Work (Can’t Buy a Thrill)
1973. The Brian Setzer Orchestra – Bodhisattva (Countdown to Ecstasy)
1974. Bob McAlpine – Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (Pretzel Logic)
1975. Sara Isaksson & Rebecka Törnqvist – Rose Darling (Katy Lied)
1976. The Woody Herman Band – Kid Charlemagne (The Royal Scam)
1977. Hoops McCann Band – Deacon Blues (Aja)
1980. Sara Isaksson & Rebecka Törnqvist – Gaucho (Gaucho)
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fr. 2000. Steely Dan – Cousin Dupree (Two Against Nature)

September Songs

Oh the leaves how they shimmer
Trees lift their skirts and they quiver
Gently they lay down
To the dirt and dust and ground

They lose their innocence to find it all over
Ain’t nothing missing, they’re just high on a feeling
All they need is believing, no reason will do …
Beth Orton – Last Leaves of Autumn

September means something in the temperate climes of the northern hemisphere: it’s the start of Autumn when Mother Nature prepares for the rigours of Winter. Here on the Equator, we await the rains, and further south, in Australasia it will get a bit warmer.

Given that the majority of the world’s population live north of here, it is inevitable that songs have been written, and that many are melancholic. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 described this time of the year as presaging one’s demise.

That time of year thou may’st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day,

But that’s no reason to not offer you a collection of rather fine songs from my archives.

Download