Donnerstag, 31. Dezember 2015

Alton Ellis - Showcase

PhotobucketAlton Ellis was one of Jamaica's all-time favorite vocalists. Like so many other talented singers, he got his start and gained valuable experience under the tutelage of producer and Studio One label founder, Clement S. Dodd. Alton's singing career began in 1959, and he has maintained headliner status throughout his career. His best-known recordings are those he cut during the "rock steady" period of Jamaican popular music.

Ellis started his career in 1959 as part of the duo Alton & Eddie with Eddie Perkins. Ellis and Perkins recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One before Perkins moved to the United States. Duke Reid took Ellis to his Treasure Isle label in 1962. By the mid 1960s, ska was moving on and the beat was slowing down and becoming associated with the rude boy subculture in Jamaican dancehalls. Recording with a backing trio, The Flames (consisting of his brother Leslie Ellis, David "Baby G" Gordon and a musician called Ronnie), Ellis scored big with the hits "Girl I've Got a Date", "Cry Tough" and "Rock Steady", which lent its name to the newer genre. As rocksteady dominated the Jamaican airwaves for the next two years, Ellis continued to score hits for Treasure Isle, working with artists such as Lloyd Charmers, Phyllis Dillon and The Heptones.

Ellis has lived in England since the 1970s. In England, Ellis established his own Alltone label, which he devoted to both new recordings and compilations of his early classics. The international popularity of Bob Marley and the rise of roots reggae meant that Ellis' considerable legacy was soon overshadowed, but over time, he remained a fondly remembered pioneer of Jamaican music. He made triumphant returns to Jamaica with well-received sets at the Reggae Sunsplash Festival in both 1983 and 1985, and recorded a new single, "Man From Studio One," for Dodd in 1991. Numerous compilations of his work appeared during the CD era, illustrating his stunning consistency. He died on Oct 10, 2008 in London, England.

Alton Ellis - Showcase (192 kbps)

Samstag, 12. Dezember 2015

Rüdiger Klose R.I.P. - 39 Clocks - Pain It Dark (1981)


Originally posted on September, 26th, 2010:

Rüdiger Klose, drummer in a lot of interesting music projecst like 39 Clocks, Cocoon, Kastrierte Philosophen, Mythen in Tüten, Dakota, rk2, Treson, Die Unheilige Allianz died September, 26th at the age of 58. Rest in peace!

The 39 Clocks were "the best German band of the eighties" (German pop scholar Diedrich Diederichsen). The Hanoverian band cultivated a heavy accent and invented the Original Psycho Beat: futuristic, hypnotic 60s psychedelia with a beatbox deferred to the early 80s.

Originally released in 1981, "Pain It Dark" was the debut album from the band and owed no small debt to the Velvet Underground, Suicide, and Nuggets-era garage rock. The band’s spare arrangements, cold German-inflected English vocals, and comfort with discomfort still sounds great today. 
It’s such a joy to discover something from the past that sounds so vital, so ripe for broader discovery and adoration. If the sometimes-harsh sonics and low vocal levels don’t offend, they’re not doing their job. For a band known in their time as tricksters and provocateurs, it’s simply their mode of operation. That’s not to say that songs like “Psycho Beat” and “Radical Student Mob in Satin Boots” aren’t “accessible”—it simply depends on your definition of the word. 

Although VU is clearly the band’s touchstone, the band simply uses them as a jumping-off point. "Pain It Dark" sounds like American garage and proto-punk filtered through some shadow-filled masterpiece of German expressionism.

39 Clocks - Pain It Dark (1981)
(256 kbps, cover art included)