Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 10/24/07 - 10/31/07



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V/A: Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics (Dust To Digital) - The sonic ethnographers at the fine Dust To Digital imprint return with this collection of recordings of folk music from around the globe. It contains 24 tracks, all transferred and mastered from 78 rpm discs of recordings originally issued between 1918 and 1955. Among my personal favorites were the double reed mayhem of India’s Thiruvazhimilalai Subramanian Brothers and Needamangalam Meenakshisundaram Pillai (yeah, easy for you to say - maybe!) “Manasa Sri Ramachandra”, Irishman Patrick J. Touhey’s amazing solo performance on the Uillean pipes "Drowsy Maggie", the evocative, haunting "Smyrneiko Minore" from Greek folk singer Marika Papagika (pictured above), the hypnotic “Nakhone Prayer” by Laotian Buddhist monk Sathoukhru Lukkhamkeow, and the incredible mix of tortured vocal stylings and percussion of "Songs in Grief" by Japan’s Sinkou Son and Kouran Kin. There’s even a Burmese Pwe (I assume that all but the most hard core musicologists among us just received our primer on this form of ceremonial folk music via Sublime Frequencies recent collection “Music of Nat Pwe: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar, Vol. 3”), the disc’s final track, "Yein Pwe". Stylistically diverse and consistently interesting, “Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics” is a solid collection of archival recordings of international folk music and a welcome addition to any music collection.


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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 10/23/07



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PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE / KEN VANDERMARK: Dual Pleasure CD (Smalltown Supersound) - Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love began their musical relationship in 2000, when the group School Days was formed. Since then, they have collaborated on numerous projects, such FME and the Territory Band, among others. They have also recorded a number of duo dates, with this title “Dual Pleasure” being their debut in 2004.

This release is a model of conceptual continuity, with everything being in pairs: two players, Vandermark focusing on a different horn (baritone sax, tenor sax, and Bb clarinet) for two tracks each, even the cover artwork (see above) is composed of duplicate images. The disc begins with “ Flashpoint”, an outstanding freedom chase, with Nilssen-Love providing a solid foundation for Vandermark’s aggressive baritone work. “Anno 1240 “ is next and features Vandermark on tenor sax. It, too, is a fairly aggressive freedom chase until the closing moments of the track. Which provides a suitable lead-in to the next piece “Closed Doors, Open Windows”, a minimalist improv feature for Vandermark on the Bb clarinet that failed to satisfy this listener. The album’s other Bb clarinet showcase “Storefront Materials“ follows and, while still fairly subdued, it is decidedly more lively and entertaining than its predecessor. On “Jean S” Vandermark returns to the tenor and delivers a very soulful, slow burning improvisation of a high order. “Dual Fiction” closes out the set, with Nilssen-Love, once again, both propelling forward and providing excellent splashes of color for Vandermark’s solo flights on the baritone sax. Consistently creative and highly entertaining, “Dual Pleasure” is an outstanding release that displays two world class improvisors at the top of their game!


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Running Count For The Year

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Monday, October 22, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 10/16/07 - 10/22/07



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AMIR EL SAFFAR: Two Rivers CD (Pi Recordings) - I must confess that I had never previously heard of Iraqi-American Amir El Saffar nor of any of the members of his solid ensemble. As the material on the appropriately titled “Two Rivers” (referring, literally, to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but also, symbolically, to the combination of two different musical traditions in the music on this CD) reveals, he’s a talented multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader. Not only has El Saffar received extensive training in classical and jazz music in the United States, but he has also traveled to Iraq and immersed himself in a traditional form of the Iraqi music, the maqam.

Your introduction to maqam begins with the opening track “Menba’ (Maqam Bayat) / Jourjina”, a showcase for El Saffar on trumpet, voice, and the beautiful and hypnotic santoor, which is an Iraqi hammered-dulcimer. While a few other cuts, most notably, the album’s other lengthy piece “Blood and Ink (Maqam Awshar) / Aneen (Maqam Mukhalif)” also focus mainly on the traditional sounds of maqam, the majority of the compositions on this disc are an excellent synthesis of the instrumentation (like the buzuq, dumbek, and oud) and stylistic elements of the maqam form and those of modern jazz. The resultant music is what one might expect/hope for: an organic, flowing, Middle Eastern-influenced style of ethno-jazz, which is best exemplified by tracks such as “Flood (Maqam Hijaz Kar)”, “Diaspora (Maqam Lami)”, and “Khosh Reng (Maqam Awj)”, in which El Saffar and Mahanthappa engage in a fiery exchange of short solos. Genre-blurring, innovative, and well-executed, “Two Rivers”, for the most part, hits all the right notes!


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Running Count For The Year

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Monday, October 15, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 10/4/07 - 10/15/07


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V/A: B-Music - Cross Continental Record Raid Road Trip CD (B-Music) - The record stack rummagers at B-Music return with their latest international collection of rare funk, pop, psych, and rock sounds from the 60’s and 70’s. It contains eighteen tracks which cover a lot of ground, both geographically and stylistically: ranging from a variety exploito-psych sounds (Caribbean steel drum funk, faux Middle Eastern themes, and so on) and fuzzy, Eastern European pop-rock to dated, stereotypical sounding 70’s hard rock and lightweight, jazz-influenced lounge pop stylings. Personal favorites included the Stylers excellent dose of asian psychedelic pop “For You” (which would be consistent with the material on any number of Sublime Frequencies releases!), the groovin’ sitar beat of “Da Klagar Mina Grannar” by Sweden’s Charlie & Esdor, “Un Soir Chez Norris “ a driving, exploito-psych track, featuring massively effected guitars and an ethereal space chorus, by Frenchman Pierre Cavalli, and Zafer Dilek’s swinging Andolu pop instrumental “Yekte”. Always interesting, if not uniformly successful, B-Music’s “Cross Continental Record Raid Road Trip” is, overall, another fairly satisfying fix of vintage sounds from around the globe.

Sonictroubadour readers may look forward to learning more about the efforts of the B-Music crew in the near future, as I have already ordered copies of their forthcoming “Bearded Ladies” LP (a collection of psych-tinged femme folk from luminaries of the past, such as Wendy & Bonnie, Heather Jones, and Susan Christie, as well as the revivalists of today, including Emma Tricca, Magphai, and Cate Le Bon) and the second volume in their “Welsh Rare Beat” series.


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Running Count For The Year

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

Space Is The Place!!!!!




What better way to commemorate the 50th anniversary of man's entry into deep space than with a little celestial jazz from the great Sun Ra?!?

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Music I Liked And Didn't - 10/1/07 - 10/3/07



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SAMARA LUBELSKI: Parallel Suns CD (Social Registry) - Amidst her busy schedule, providing support for luminaries such as Thurston Moore and MV and EE with the Golden Road, talented vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Samara Lubelski, somehow found enough time to craft her third solo album. While the material on this CD, as that of her previous releases, would still be properly categorized as falling under the general rubric of psychedelic folk and pop, the nine tracks on “Parallel Suns” display a somewhat sharpened sonic focus. Whereas some of the material on her earlier solo efforts reflected the more dark, lo-fi, and improvisational modern free folk approaches favored by the groups with which she has previously participated, such as Hall of Fame and the Tower Recordings, on this outing Lubelski (backed by a solid supporting cast, including members of Metabolismus, P.G. Six, and Hamish Kilgour of the Clean) has created nine tracks of polished, light, and dreamy psychedelic folk and pop that almost perfectly capture the sound and spirit of those classic and highly prized private press rarities from the 60’s. I’ll readily admit that listeners who were expecting and seeking the somewhat more experimental sounds of her earlier work may be slightly surprised and disappointed by “Parallel Suns”, but lysergic pop gems like “Taste The Candy”, “The Cloistered Palace” and “Ego Blossoms” make this disc a winner (if also a slightly guilty pleasure!) in my book.


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Running Count For The Year

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