Zero G Sounds @ Tante Horst

 

Our friends from the Zero G Soundsystem will spin some fine records this friday night at a small bar in Berlin-Kreuzberg, called Tante Horst. May the funk be with us & them! You are welcome!

Freundschaft - Drushba

Here´s another interesting historic and political artifact from the GDR. "Druzhba" means in Slavic languages "friendship".

Tracklist:

01 - Ruhm der großen Partei
02 - Marsch der Moskauer Miliz
03 - Wir, die Genossen der Volkspolizei
04 - Warum freue ich mich
05 - Ich traf sie
06 - Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck saß
07 - Sowjetischer Gardemarsch
08 - Pidmanula
09 - Der Zukunft entgegen
10 - Drushba - Freundschaft
11 - Zu Gast bei Freunden
12 - Das Glöckchen
13 - Im schönsten Wiesengrunde
14 - Wolga-Weisen
15 - Zwischen Berg und tiefem Tal
16 - Kühne Jugend
17 - Matrjoschka
18 - Wir bau´n unsere glückliche Welt

VA - Freundschaft - Drushba (192 kbps, front cover included)

Any information about this album would be great!

Martin Büsser is dead - Rest in peace!

Again, sad news: Martin Büsser, one of the most interesting german “pop” journalists, publisher and author, died yesterday at the age of 42. 

Thanks a lot for everything what you did for music and the critical music journalism in this country! Thanks a lot for all the readings and discussions!

Martin was one of the last representatives of the so called german "pop left" ("Poplinke") and reflected popular culture in the tradition of the critical theory and authors like Diedrich Diederichsen, Jutta Koether and Dietmar Dath.

Martin was involved in a lot of important music projects, for example the statement against german nationalism called "I Can´t Relax In Deutschland". He co-founded the "Ventil Verlag" publishing house as well as the book series "Testcard - Beiträge zur Popgeschichte" ("Testcard - contributions to pop history"). He has written many interesting books on pop history and pop theory  like "Antipop. Essays und Reportagen zur Popmusik der Neunziger", "Anti-folk - From Beck to Adam Green", "If the kids are united - von Punk zu Hardcore und zurück",  "Wie klingt die Neue Mitte? Rechte und reaktionäre Tendenzen in der Popmusik" and "On The Wild Side. Die wahre Geschichte der Popmusik".

Martin was the singer of the post punk band "Familie Pechsaftha", which released three albums.

Via this link you can listen to his german lecture about  Geschlechterverhältnisse in der Punk- und Hardcore-Szene from May, 7th, 2008.

Here you find an interview with Martin in german language: http://www.turnitdown.de/200.html.

Hopeton Lewis - Dynamic Hopeton Lewis (1974)

Hopeton Lewis' rich baritone has had a profound impact on Jamaican music, and his mixture of gospel and soul elements helped set the template for early rocksteady.

Born October 3, 1947, in Kingston, Lewis' mother died when he was two, and he rotated living with various aunts, uncles, and grandparents. By the age of six he was already singing in church, and singing is where he turned when he was left on his own at the age of 15.
Lewis quickly formed his first singing group, the Regals, and his career course was set. Like many Jamaican singers, Lewis got his start at Studio One, but soon moved over to Ken Khouri's Federal Studios, where he recorded what is arguably the first rocksteady side, "Take It Easy," backed by Lynn Taitt & the Jets. The song was released on Winston Blake's Merritone label in 1966 and was a huge success.

In the late '60s he worked as part of a duo with Glen Brown. His solo career really took off when he won the 1970 Festival Song Competition with the song "Boom Shacka Lacka," which he recorded for Duke Reid's Treasure Isle label, then moved over to Byron Lee's Dynamic Sound imprint for the album "Groovin' Out on Life", which firmly established Lewis as an explosive singer and performer when it was released in 1973, followed quickly by a second album, "Dynamic Hopeton Lewis".

Lewis started his own label, Bay City Music, in the late '80s and turned increasingly to gospel music.

"Dynamic Hopeton Lewis" was released in 1974 on Dynamic Sounds.

Hopeton Lewis - Dynamic Hopeton Lewis (1974)

(192 kbps, vinyl rip, front & back cover included)

VA - The Grove Reggae Collection (1979)

Fine roots reggae compilation released on Grove in 1979. Enjoy it!

Tracks:

A:
B.B. Seaton - One Thing Leads To Another
King Sounds - Kill Them Dead
Alton Ellis - It's Hard To Be A Lover
Carl Malcolm - Repatriation
B.B. Seaton - No Good Girl
Claudette Miller - Too Much Heaven

B:
Carl Malcolm - Take A Tip From Me
Patrick Andy - Poverty And Starvation
Veronica Douglas - The Morning Is Bright
Patrick Andy - Woman Woman Woman
Prophets - Till I Kiss You
Wayne Wade - Happy Go Lucky Girl

VA - The Grove Reggae Collection (1979, vinyl rip)

VA - Cool Playing Blues - Chicago Style

The 15 songs on this compilation were left behind by Parrot Records' Al Benson, all cut during the mid-1950s.

The music could have passed muster at Parrot's better-known Chicago rival Chess - Jody Williams may have been Parrot's answer to Muddy Waters (Willie Dixon is even playing the bass), although his style was closer to an amalgam of B.B. King and T-Bone Walker.

In addition to some established sides, this album features one outtake, "Groan My Blues Away," his only known workout on slide guitar. Guitarist L.C. McKinley ("All Alone Blues" — worth it for the guitar-sax duet on the break) and pianist Curtis Jones are also featured in numbers cut under their respective names, and St. Louis Jimmy Oden has two tracks represented here, backed by the Red Saunders Band, including a sultry version of his classic "Goin' Down Slow." This and "Murder In the First Degree" are among the very last sides Oden is known to have recorded. Three obscure tracks by John T. "Nature Boy" Brown, a saxman and singer, close this extraordinary collection of little-known Chicago blues, which should impress any fan of Chess or Cobra Records (indeed, Parrot had a stronger roster than Cobra, based on what we hear here).
The sound quality is generally very good, the only signifcant surface noise from a non-tape source coming up on the Oden sides, which still sound clean and very listenable.

VA - Cool Playing Blues - Chicago Style
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Slim Smith - Everybody Needs Love (Pama, 1969)

One of the most soulful and accomplished singers of Jamaica's ska, rocksteady, and early reggae eras, Slim Smith found his biggest success from 1965 until his premature death at age 25 in 1973. Although according to various reports stating he had a troubled and unstable life, Smith will best be remembered for his stunning contributions to reggae's vocal tradition.

"Everybody Needs Love" is an exceptional rocksteady record. Fans of his Studio One material will be equally pleased with these Bunny Lee-produced gems. The emotional investment that Smith puts into these pieces makes it difficult to imagine them not as stories from his own life but as the covers that many of them actually are. He simply pours so much into these songs that the plights detailed in their respective lyrics make every one of them seem like a legitimate concern on his part. And if that weren't enough, the instrumentation is absolutely stunning throughout — an appropriate launching pad for Smith's stellar vocal delivery. This combination makes even exhausted covers, like "Somebody to Love" (actually "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"), new and fresh experiences all over again, while the otherwise questionable decision to cover "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" produced a version as sensual and funky as anything else in his catalog. This record is one of the best examples of the American soul influence on early reggae, making all the more puzzling Smith's outright exclusion from the Soul Jazz Studio One Soul compilation. Fans of that collection especially should see what they're missing out on with this very enjoyable record. Highest recommendation.

Slim Smith - Everybody Needs Love (Pama, 1969)

(192 kbps, front cover inlcuded)

David Crosby & Graham Nash: Whale & Fieldworkers Benefit 1974 (Bootleg, San Francisco, CA, Dec 14, 1974)

The credit for this one goes to bigozine2.com:

Wally Heider who recorded Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at the Fillmore in June, 1970 which became the famous Four Way Street album, was again at the soundboard to record this show in San Francisco. Nothing was released till 1977, when a Crosby & Nash album called Live came out. That album was recorded during the duo’s tours from 1975 to 1977. This show is among the earliest of their professional recordings. It seems to have been edited for a live album but never released.

This was not the country-rock-pop of Loggins & Messina nor the folk-rock-pop of Simon & Garfunkel but soft rock with a conscience. Especially in that vein was Graham Nash’s Prison Song and Chicago. Not to be outdone, David Crosby contributes the angry What Are Their Names?, a song-dirge about accountability that leads into Chicago.

With Stills somewhat distracted and Neil Young tail-spinning into insular projects like On The Beach, these were the years when Crosby & Nash had star power and a real career. But whereas Simon & Garfunkel split over politics [apparently Simon was pissed that Garfunkel was not keen to include Cuba Si Nixon No on Bridge Over Troubled Waters] and Loggins & Messina had too big egos, Crosby & Nash were consumed by their own excesses or at least Crosby’s indulgence with chemicals.

By the end of the ‘70s, the duo or as a trio with Stills could be found at anti-war benefits, anti-nuclear benefits and such shows still holding on to their ideals and those familiar songs. Their solo careers took hiatus as they regrouped to release what can best be said are mediocre albums compared to the first two album as a group or as a duo. When they had stopped listening, they had also stopped creating.

All the happy songs are here in superb hi-fidelity, suitable for entertaining. Play loud. Nothing has been officially released.

- Professor Red

No link.

Zero G Sound is gone

Blogger decided to take down the good old Zero G Sound blog. Right now we are looking for a new home to rebuild the blog.

Check in later for more informations.

Bärbel Bohley is dead - R.I.P.

The former East German opposition activist and artist Baerbel Bohley died today of cancer aged 65.

Bärbel Bohley (24 May 1945 – 11 September 2010) was an East German opposition activist and artist. In 1983 she was expelled from the GDR artists federation (VBK) and was banned from travelling abroad or exhibiting her work in East Germany. She was accused of having contacts to the West German Green Party.

In 1985 she was one of the co-founders of the "Initiative for Peace and Human Rights". In 1988 she was arrested during a demonstration and was given a six month visa to the United Kingdom. She later returned to East Germany. In 1989 she was one of the founders of New Forum. It became the most prominent opposition group in the final phase of the GDR. The group advocated free elections, greater openness in East German society and a free press. East Germany opened its heavily fortified border on Nov. 9, 1989 after mounting peaceful protests helped undermine the communist government. New Forum's importance faded as Germany headed toward reunification in 1990.

Still, Bohley and other activists that year occupied the archives of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police — ultimately helping ensure that the public would be granted access to them.

After the unification of Germany in 1990 she was involved in several court trials because she publicly proclaimed Gregor Gysi to have been a Stasi informer, and actually spent several days in prison because she would not take the statement back publicly or pay a fine. In November, 1990, she supported the squatter movement in East Berlin and tried to prevent forcefully eviction of hundreds of squatters from houses in Mainzer Strasse by police acting in orders of the Senate of the recently united city.

In 1996, Bohley said that what had been achieved in Germany since reunification was "less than what we dreamed." - "But it is far more than what we had before," she said.

One of her later projects was a group help project near Sarajevo, where she put great effort into building homes in order to enable refugees to return after the armed conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

During the 1980s, the Gethsemane Church in East Berlin was an important meeting place for members of the opposition and the East German peace movement. After the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, a central meeting of the New Forum took place there on November 10 and 11. The New Forum was the first nationwide opposition movement that tried to create a platform for the public discussion of East Germany’s manifold problems. Second from left: Rolf Henrich, Jens Reich, and Bärbel Bohley (with microphone). Photo: Volker Döring

In memory of Bärbel Bohley we will post some albums of dissident East German artists in the next days.