Freitag, 31. Dezember 2021

Gilberto Gil - Gilberto Gil (Cérebro Eletrónico) (1969)

Let´s look forward to a better 2022 with some fine Tropicalia!

A leader of Brazil's Tropicalia movement during the late 1960s along with artists Caetano Veloso, Marcos Valle, and Gal Costa, multi-instrumentalist Gilberto Gil mixed native styles like samba, MPB, and bossa nova with rock and folk instruments to become one of Brazil's, and the world's most celebrated singer/songwriters. Gil's career has spanned six decades, and he's had hits in each one.

It's not only ironic that the record with Gilberto Gil's first major hit ("Aquele Abraço") is also his most experimental album; it also speaks to the diversity of Brazil's emerging pop superstar. Beginning with the loose-jointed groove-pop of "Cérebro Eletrónico" (the album's subtitle), this second of three straight self-titled LPs includes a few Carnival-styled pop songs, as on his previous album. Most of the experimentation comes at the end of side two with "2001" and "Objeto Semi-Identificado," both of which are filled with odd tape-music portions, spoken-word elements, and a reliance on studio trickery rarely seen on any Western pop albums. Even the pop songs are produced with an eye toward noise; the tropicalia anthem "Volks Volkswagen Blue" features a few psychedelic guitar lines breaking into distortion, and a small but devastatingly brassy horn section punctuating the melody. It's a very disjointed album, not quite as consistently entertaining as last year's entry, but definitely a masterpiece of forward-looking pop.


Tracklist:

A1 Cérebro Eletrônico
A2 Volks Volkswagen Blues
A3 Aquêle Abraço
A4 17 Léguas E Meia
A5 A Voz Do Vivo
B1 Vitrines
B2 2001
B3 Futurível
B4 Objeto Semi-Identificável

Bonus:
Gilberto Gil– Omã Iaô 4:26
Gilberto Gil– Aquele Abraço (Versão Integral) 6:59
Gilberto Gil– Come Medo, Com Pedro (Demo) 4:22
Gilberto Gil– Cultura E Civilização (Demo) 16:21
Gilberto Gil com Jorge Ben e Caetano Veloso– Queremos Guerra

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Donnerstag, 30. Dezember 2021

VA - In die Zukunft (1980)

This album was recorded at the "In die Zukunft" festival at the "Markthalle" in Hamburg on 29.06.1979. It was organized by the label owner and music journalist Alfred Hilsberg.

Hilsberg was involved in the spread of punk in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1978. In the music magazine Sounds (issue 3/78) he presented the Cologne / Düsseldorf punk scene with the article “Rodenkirchen is burning”. A year later, he coined the term "Neue Deutsche Welle" (NDW) in another Sounds article.

As head of his record label Zigzack, he promoted bands such as Abwärts, Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Krupps, FSK, Palais Schaumburg, Die Tödliche Doris, The Wirtschaftswunder, Die Zimmermänner and Xmal Deutschland. He rejected musically (in his opinion) less interesting, but later commercially successful bands such as Trio or Extrabreit. In the first five years of existence, ZickZack released over 100 vinyl records and cassettes.

 His work had a strong influence on the "Geniale Dilletanten" scene in West Berlin and the "Hamburger Schule" ("Hamburg school"). Since 1992 Alfred Hilsberg has continued his work with the newly founded label What's So Funny About and released the first Blumfeld albums and albums by Die Erde, 39 Clocks, Die Haut, Cpt. Kirk &., Mutter, Knarf Rellöm and Saalschutz.


Tracklist:

A1 Hans-A-Plast – Es brennt
A2 Big Muff – Scheißegal
A3 Big Muff – Blackout
A4 Geisterfahrer – Magazine
A5 Geisterfahrer– Zweischlag
A6 KFC – Für Elli
A7 KFC – PVC
A8 KFC – Folta für Travolta
B1 Buttocks – Lifer
B2 Buttocks – Emetic Girl
B3 Buttocks – Eurovision
B4 Din A Testbild – Hiroshima
B5 ZK – Heimweh
B6 ZK – Hochspannung
B7 Male – Vaterland
B8 Male – Sirenen
B9 Male – Risikofaktor 1:x

VA - In die Zukunft (1980)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Mittwoch, 29. Dezember 2021

Creation Rebel - Dub From Creation (1978)

Creation Rebel worked with Adrian Sherwood from 1977-1980, recording some of the best reggae dub music this side of Lee Perry during the early English punk era. 

Languorous, funky, spacy, and totally intoxicating, it's exciting to hear the awesome production/mixing talents of Sherwood in their early days.

Similarly, the band (drummers Style Scott and Fish Clarke, bassist Clinton Jack, keyboardist Bigga Morrison, guitarist Crucial Tony, and percussionist Slicker) play with a grace, effortlessness, and power that most studio bands would kill to achieve.

"Dub From Creation" is the debut Creation Rebel album, released in 1978. The original band had been a studio outfit known as the Arabs, now primarily remembered for their work with Prince Far I, including the classic dub set "Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1". 

The rhythm tracks for this album had been laid in Jamaica, but the overdubs were worked up at Gooseberry Studios in London. The experienced Dennis Bovell was the engineer, with the young Adrian Sherwood on his very first production assignment encouraging him to make it “madder” and add more and more effects! A real great piece of dub!


Tracklist:

A1 Dub From Creation
A2 Basic Principals
A3 Rebel Rouser
A4 Creation Vibration
A5 Creation In A Iration
B1 Dub Fusion
B2 Mirage
B3 Liberation
B4 Rising Star
B5 Vision Of Creation

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Theodor W. Adorno & Hanns Eisler - Works For String Quartet (1996) (Leipziger Streichquartett)

On the album there are works for string quartet by Hans Eisler and Theador Adorno.

The Eisler works are from the 1920s and are interesting and show his great talent. The works by Adorno, particular his full string quartet are excellent. They are composed using the 12 tone technique and are beautiful, showing his debt to Alban Berg with whom he took composition lessons.

The full string quartet is as fine as any composition I have heard using the twelve tone system of composition.

01 - Hanns Eisler - String Quartet Op 75
02 - Hanns Eisler - Praeludium Und Fuge Ueber B-A-C-H For String Trio, Op 46
03 - Theodor W. Adorno - Six Studies For String Quartet
04 - Theodor W. Adorno - String Quartet
05 - Theodor W. Adorno - Two Pieces For

T. W. Adorno & H. Eisler - Works For String Quartet (1996)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dienstag, 28. Dezember 2021

Ernst Busch - Lieder aus dem spanischen Bürgerkrieg - Lieder der Arbeiterklasse

Ernst Busch was called "the singing heart of the labor movement".
He was, along with Helene Weigel, one of the best-known singer/actors who popularized Brecht's political plays in the early 30s. His powerful, "metallic" voice was a perfect instrument for outdoor rallies and large performance halls in a time when amplification was generally unavailable. Busch spent the last years of the war in a Nazi prison and, following his release, resumed his singing and acting career in East Germany.

The songs on this CD are a fair representation of his repertory: Original recordings (all lyrics in German) from the early German labor movement, the failed revolution in 1919, and the Spanish Civil War. Included are two of Eisler's most striking "Kampflieder" from the final crisis years of the Weimar Republic: "Der heimliche Aufmarsch" and "Der rote Wedding" - both are agitprop choruses written to emphasized texts by the communist poet Erich Weinert.

Ernst Busch - Lieder aus dem spanischen Bürgerkrieg - Lieder der Arbeiterklasse
(256 kbps, cover art included, ca. 91 MB)

Klaus der Fiedler und Toni - Straßenmusik

Music has provided an outlet for expressing the political vision of violinist and composer Klaus der Geiger (born Klaus von Wrochem). Performing as a street musician since 1970, Klaus der Geiger has spoken out against housing shortages and the limiting of tenant and human rights. In addition to performing many concerts for the homeless, he has participated in numerous demonstrations against nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.

A native of the small German city of Doppoldiswalde, halfway between Dresden and Dubi, Klaus der Geiger studied in Cologne under American composer Mauricio Kagel. Traveling to the United States in the late-'60s, he attracted attention as a political-minded street musician in Boston and San Diego. When his request for a visa extension was rejected, due to his political outspokenness, he returned to Germany.

This album is a live recording from October 1975. One part was recorded in a pedestrian zone in Frankfurt with a 2-track-machine. The other part was recorded with a 4-track-recorder in the "Kneißl-Keller", part of the autonomus community center in Munich-Milbertshofen. On the later recording, Klaus der Geiger was accompanied by Tommi (guitar) and Uli (harmonium).

1. Bolle [4:12]
2. Oberaufsichtsrat [4:01]
3. Frühlingslied [3:10]
4. Rosie [3:10]
5. Amazing Grace [6:25]
6. Herstatt-Blues [5:19]
7. Die Katharina Focke [2:42]
8. Kumpellied [7:09]
9. Nachbar [5:57]

Klaus der Fiedler und Toni - Straßenmusik
(320 kbps, cover art included)

With special greetings to Otto - thanks a lot for your patience!

Pete Seeger - At the Schaubuehne, West Berlin, Germany, 1967-01-02

For nearly 70 years as a performer, Pete Seeger has embodied the ideals of folk music – communication, entertainment, social comment, historical continuity, inclusiveness.

The songs he has written, and those he has discovered and shared, have helped preserve our cultural heritage, imprinting adults and children with the sounds, traditions and values of our global past and present.

A fearless warrior for social justice and the environment, Pete’s political activism – from the Civil Rights movement and anti-McCarthyism to resistance to fascism and the wars in Vietnam and the Middle East – has become the template for subsequent generations of musicians and ordinary citizens with something to say about the world.

This album was recorded live in Berlin West, January 2nd, 1967 at the Schaubühne. It was digitally remastered from an old tape.


Tracklist:

CD 1:
01) Old Joe Clark
02) I wished I were a little swallow
03) We were fourty miles from Albany
04) When I first came to this land
05) Kumbaya
06) Blues (instr.)
07) Rock Island Line
08) Good night, Irene
09) The Bourgeois Blues
10) Suliram
11) Bayeza
12) Tzena, Tzena
13) Schtill, di Nacht.
14) Instrumental (12string guitar)
15) Where have all the flowers gone
16) Turn, turn, turn!
17) Ballad of the Fort Hood Three
18) If I had a hammer

CD 2:
01) I was born in East Virginia
02) I am a union woman
03) There once was a union maid
04) Little boxes
05) Guantanamera
06) Whirling Beethoven (instr.)
07) Die Moorsoldaten
08) Liza Kalvelage
09) We shall overcome
10) How did I know my youth is all spent

Pete Seeger - At the Schaubuehne, West Berlin, Germany, 1967-01-02
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Hannes Wader - Singt Arbeiterlieder



German political folk singer Hannes Wader was born in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia in 1942. Wader repertoire consists of traditional German folk songs (volksmusik), provocative social commentaries, blue-collar ballads and songs based around the works of poets and classical composers. He still tours regularly in Germany.

He was an important figure in German leftist circles from the 1970s on, with his songs covering such themes as socialist and communist resistance to oppression in Europe and other places like Latin America. He both wrote new songs and played versions of older historical works.


Tracklist:

01 Dem Morgenrot entgegen
02 Auf, auf zum Kampf
03 Der kleine Trompeter
04 Bella ciao
05 Mamita mia
06 Die Thaelmann-Kolonne
07 El pueblo unido
08 Trotz alledem (Dass sich die F
09 Das Einheitsfrontlied
10 Solidaritaetslied
11 Die Moorsoldaten
12 Lied vom Knueppelchen
13 Die Internationale

Hannes Wader - Singt Arbeiterlieder
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Georg Kreisler - Seltsame Liebeslieder (1961)

Georg Kreisler was born on July 18, 1922 in Vienna, Austria. He was an actor and composer, known for "Das Orchester" (1979), "Des Broadways liebstes Kind" (1969) and "Vanillekipferln" (1969). He was married to Barbara Peters, Topsy Küppers, Mary Greenwood and Philine Hollaender. He died on November 22, 2011 in Salzburg, Austria.

Georg Kreisler fled Vienna to avoid anti-semitic persecution in 1938. Since his return from the US to Europe in 1955 he has achieved recognition in the world of German cabaret, but because he has consistently maintained a radically critical view of capitalist society and its interpretation of democracy, the status that his artistic achievments warrant has eluded him.

His plays and novels are generally less well-known than the extraordinary range of songs he has written for the cabaret, where his remarkable musical and verbal dexterity as composer, poet, pianist, and performer has produced work of enduring quality and appeal.

Tracklist

Das Grammophon 3:47
Das Holz für unseren Gartenzaun 4:00
Das Wort "Verlassen" 3:40
Barbara 2:12
Der Herbst 5:10
Um halb Drei 1:40
Was sprichst du mit den andern? 3:05
Ich hab sie gefunden 2:11
Der Luftballon 1:30
Fehlt dir was 2:30
Alles nicht wahr 2:16
Eine Einsamkeit 2:50
Ich hab dich zu vergessen vergessen 3:56
Bessarabien 4:56

Georg Kreisler - Seltsame Liebeslieder (1961)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Songs Of The Spanish Civil War

From the linernotes:
"This record is an imaginary journey through time, from 1936 to 1939, and space, from Asturia to La Mancha, from the lands of the Basques to Andalusia, from Castille to Estremadura. Throughout it appear and vanish the shadowy figures of the Republican militiamen, the International Brigades, La Pasionaria, Durruti, Frederico Garcia Lorca.
The verses of Louis Aragon could serve as an introduction and a conclusion:

I remember a tune that one could not hear / Without the heart beating and the blood catching fire, / Without the fire rekindling like a heart beneath the ashes / And one knew at last why the sky is blue."

The album was released 1963 on "Le Chant Du Monde" and got a re-release in 1996. The songs were recorded in Barcelona by Cobla de Barcelone, under the direction of Rodolfo Halffter and Gustavo Pittalgua. The songs are not only about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) but actually popular songs - some that are dated more than a hundred years before (1800's) - which were re-used (some unmodified) during the war against fascism.


Tracklist:

1. Hymn Of Riego (Song Of Freedom) - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga/Rodolfo Halffter
2. The Four Generals (Song Of The Defence Of Madrid) - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga
3. We Are The Soldiers Of the Basque Land (Euzko Gudari) - Cobla De Barcelone Chor/Gustavo Pittaluga/Rodolfo Halffter
4. You Know My Address - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Rodolfo Halffter
5. The Sardana Of The Nuns - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga/Rodolfo Halffter
6. What Will Happen? - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga
7. La Santa Espina (Sardana of Freedom) - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga/Rodolfo Halffter
8. The Crossing Of The Ebro - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Rodolfo Halffter
9. The Armoured Train - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Rodolfo Halffter
10. The Fort Of San Cristobal - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Rodolfo Halffter
11. Sailors - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga
12. Eat It - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga
13. The Violet Banner - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga
14. The Mowers - Cobla De Barcelone Chor Et Orch/Gustavo Pittaluga/Rodolfo Halffter

Songs Of The Spanish Civil War
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Dieter Süverkrüp & Walter Andreas Schwarz - Erich Mühsam - Ich lade Euch zum Requiem (1986)


Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 in Berlin, Germany – 10 July 1934 Oranienburg Concentration Camp) was a German-Jewish anarchist, writer, poet, dramatist and cabaret performer.
Both a prolific poet, dramatist and a Bohemian intellectual, Mühsam emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic. However, Mühsam achieved international prominence during the years of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) for works which satirized Adolf Hitler and condemned Nazism before Hitler came to power in 1933.


Erich Mühsam was an anarchist who despised dogma & close-mindedness. He believed in the power of the individual & the power of the lowest classes of society.

At Sonnenburg, the first Concentration Camp where Mühsam was held, it was reported:
"After breaking his teeth with musket blows; stamping a swastika on his scalp with a red-hot brand; subjecting him to tortures which caused him to be taken into a hospital, even now the fascist hyenas of the Sonnenburg concentration camp continue their beastly attacks upon this defenseless man. The last news are really atrocious: the Nazi forced our comrade to dig his own grave and then with a simulated execution made him go through the agony of a doomed man. Although his body has been reduced to a mass of bleeding and tumefied flesh, his spirit is still very high: when his traducers tried to force him to sing the Horst-Wessel-Lied (the Nazi's anthem) he defied their anger by singing the International." (from: "The Nazi Regime at Work: Erich Mühsam" in MAN! A Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement. Vol. 2, No. 3, March 1934)

On this album Dieter Süverkrüp, Walter Andreas Schwarz and Vridolin Enxing (from the polit-rock band "Floh De Cologne") have arranged and interpreted 31 agitation songs, poems and vicious ballads from the estate of Erich Mühsam. The final verse proclaims: "Das Heut´erkennt das Gestrn nicht, / trotz Ruhmeskranz und Seelenmessen. - / Wer Zukunft schuf, bleibt unvergessen. / Erst die Geschichte hält Gericht." Mühsam´s requiem for his dead revolutionary colleagues had different connotations for a West German audience than for one in the GDR. In the GDR, these lines were dripping with irony even as late as the 1980s because of the hollowness of the state´s claims to be the continuation of this past - the dead revolutionaires had indeed effectively been forgotten. In the West German version, on the other hand, there is no intended irony, only the invoking of a tradition in a country were radical socialism has ceased to play a majore cultural role. By 1986, the heady days of student rebellion were longe gone. Süverkrüp and Schwarz´s modest motivation is to keep the spirit alive "für die, die auf dem beschwerichen Weg in die Zukunft Mühsams Idealismus brauchen als Stärkung und Bestätigung", as the booklet informs us.

Dieter Süverkrüp & Walter Andreas Schwarz - Erich Mühsam - Ich lade Euch zum Requiem
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Richie Havens - Mixed Bag (R.I.P.)

Photobucket
Originally posted in April 2013:

Sad news: Richie Havens  has died of a heart attack at 72 on April, 22. Rest in peace!

Richie Havens' finest recording, "Mixed Bag" captures the essence of his music and presents it in an attractive package that has held up well. A close listen to lyrics like "I Can't Make It Anymore" and "Morning, Morning" reveals sadness and loneliness, yet the music is so appealingly positive that a listener actually comes away feeling uplifted.

In fact, on most of the songs on this album, it's the sound of Havens' distinctive voice coupled with his unusual open-E guitar tuning, rather than the specific lyrical content of the songs, that pulls the listener in. The six-and-a-half minute "Follow" is structured like a Dylan composition in the "Hard Rain" mode, with its memorable verse-ending refrain, "Don't mind me 'cause I ain't nothin' but a dream."

Both "Sandy" and "San Francisco Bay Blues" have a jazzy feel, while the aforementioned "I Can't Make It Anymore" would not have been out of place in a movie soundtrack or pop radio playlist of the time. "Handsome Johnny," one of Havens' best known songs as a result of the Woodstock film, is a classic anti-war ballad, stoked by the singer's unmistakable thumb-chorded guitar strumming.

Mixed Bag winds up with a soulful cover of Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" and an electric piano-propelled take on the Lennon-McCartney classic, "Eleanor Rigby."



Richie Havens - Mixed Bag (1966)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Oktoberklub - Politkirmes (Amiga, 1978)

"Singe-Bewegung" and "Oktoberklub" in East Germany, part 6.

During the cultural thaw in the first half of the 1960s there was an easier access to western pop music and jazz. In this respect the formation of the Hootenanny-Klub in 1966 was the culmination of four years of musical eclecticism in a vibrant scene in East Berlin that also included Wolf Biermann, Eva-Maria Hagen, Manfred Krug and Bettina Wegner - with a lot of influences of Western/ango-american pop music.

The political thaw came to an abrupt end with the 11th Plenum of the Zentralkomitee of the SED in December 1965. A lot of films ("Das Kaninchen bin ich", "Denk bloß nicht, ich heule", "Der Bau", "Der Tag X", "Spur der Steine"...), stage plays, books and pop groups - especially for their alleged corrupting Western influences - were banned. For example in Leipzig 54 of the 58 registered beat bands were banned.

This banning of the more Western pop orientated groups created a space for folk and singing groups to emerge. By this means, the end of the thaw, marked by the 11th Plenum, gave way to the expanding "Singe-Bewegung". The GDR officials tried quickly to control and instrumentalize this expanding movement. In late 1966 it was decided by the GDR officials that the "Hootenanny-Klub" was to be taken over by the FDJ. As a part of this process, Perry Friedman and the international idea of "Hootenanny", with its prefernce for the English language, was discredited as "anti-socialist" by the FDJ officials.
With the agreement of several leading members, the groups name was changed to the "Oktoberklub". The writer Gisela Steineckert was installed as a supervisor. This appropriation of the singing youth movement by the FDJ was ideologically motivated. With effective control over all popular performance events, the FDJ had the means to bring it to the masses, and by 1968 thousends of singing clubs had formed all over the GDR. Leaders of the singing clubs were frequently reminded that they had to remain "politische Instrumente des Jugendverbandes" ("political instruments of the FDJ").   In this way the movement became increasingly instrumentalized as an agent of state propaganda. From 1968 onwards, under the slogan "DDR-Konkret" the FDJ encouraged young students and wokers to write new songs dealing with their everyday lives and with issues of importance to them. This gave a new twist to the concept of revolutionary "Gebrauchslyrik" pioneered by Erich Mühsam in his ealry-twentieth-century "Kampflieder".

The official role of the political song in the GDR was defined by Inge Lammel as follows:
"Die neuen Lieder werden für die Politik von Partei und Regierung geschaffen. Sie sind nicht mehr Kampfmittel einer unterdrückten Klasse gegen eine Klasse von Ausbeutern, sondern Ausdruck der gemeinsamen Interessen aller Werktätigen."

So, on the one hand, the FDJ was succesfull in the appropriation of the singing youth movement. But, on the other hand, the singing movement led to uncountable singing groups and singer-songwriter all over the GDR. The GDR officials could not control these groups and individuals all the time and in all places. Some of the protagonists found ways to use this as a free space in which they could express their opinion.

Here´s "Politkirmes", a late album by the Oktoberklub, released in 1978.

Tracklist:
(01) Oktoberklub - Große Fenster
(02) Oktoberklub - Genossin Christiane B
(03) Oktoberklub - Bierlied
(04) Oktoberklub - Waldemars Kneipe
(05) Oktoberklub - Der Veteranenchor singt
(06) Oktoberklub - Arbeiter vom Dienst
----
(07) Oktoberklub - Kalliolle Kukkulalle
(08) Oktoberklub - Das Brot des Volkes
(09) Oktoberklub - Neutronenbombe
(10) Oktoberklub - Prowodui
(11) Oktoberklub - Chile Resistencia
(12) Oktoberklub - Haben wir diese Erde
(13) Oktoberklub - So wollen wir kämpfen
.
Oktoberklub - Politkirmes (Amiga, 1978)
(128 kbps, front & back cover included)

To be continued...

Ernst Busch - Zeit-, Leid- , Streitgedichte - Erich Mühsam & Klabund (Aurora, 1966)


Erich Mühsam was an anarchist who despised dogma & close-mindedness in reform movements, particularly as manifested in Marxism. He believed adamantly in the power of the individual & the power of the lowest classes of society.

A radical critic of bourgeois society, Erich Mühsam rejected all forms of state control and advocated political anarchism from an early point. He fought for a radical form of soviet democracy in the 1918 November revolution, was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment in a fortress in 1919 for “literary high treason,” and not pardoned until 1924. He published the anarchist monthly magazine "Fanal" from the fall of 1926, calling for “social revolution.”

Mühsam was arrested immediately after the Reichstag fire, and severely maltreated. He was regarded as a “November criminal” – a particularly loathed Marxist. Erich Mühsam was taken from the prison in Berlin’s Lehrter Strasse to Sonnenburg concentration camp, from there to Berlin-Plötzensee prison, and finally to Brandenburg concentration camp. At the beginning of October 1933, he was put into Oranienburg concentration camp, where he was also subjected to violence. Erich Mühsam was murdered by an SS commando in the night of July 9-10, 1934.



"Streit & Kampf 

Nicht nötig ist’s nach Schritt und Takt
gehorsam vorwärts zu marschieren.
Doch wenn der Hahn der Flinte knackt,
dann miteinander zugepackt
und nicht den Nebenmann verlieren !

Schlagt zwanzig Freiheitstheorien
euch gegenseitig um die Ohren
und singt nach hundert Melodien -
doch gilt es in den Kampf zu ziehen,
dann sei der gleiche Eid geschworen !

Aktionsprogramm, Parteistatut,
Richtlinien und Verhaltungslehren -
schöpft nur aus allen Quellen Mut !
Ein jedes Kampfsystem ist gut,
das nicht versagt vor den Gewehren !

Darum solang kein Feind euch droht,
verschont einander nicht mit Glossen.
Doch weckt euch einst der Ruf der Not,
dann weh das einige Banner schwarz und rot
voran den einigen Genossen!"

Erich Mühsam

Klabund was the pseudonym of Alfred Henschke (born Nov. 4, 1890, Crossen, Ger. - died Aug. 14, 1928, Davos, Switz.), an Expressionist poet, playwright, and novelist who influenced German literature with his adaptations and translations of Oriental literature. Notable among his free, imaginative renderings of Chinese, Japanese, and Persian literature are Li-tai-pe (1916), Lao-tse (1921), and Der Kreidekreis (1924; The Circle of Chalk), a drama that inspired the German playwright Bertolt Brecht to write his play Der kaukasische Kreidekreis (The Caucasian Chalk Circle).

A consumptive who spent many years in sanatoriums, Henschke identified with the eternally seeking wandering poet and called himself Klabund, a name derived from Klabautermann (“hobgoblin”) and Vagabund (“vagabond”). Restlessness and versatility characterize his work. He composed poetry in a variety of forms, and he created a new prose form, the “Expressionist novella.” Notable in this genre are his autobiographical “novels of longing,” with themes of sickness and love; biographical “novels of passion,” with sensual portraits of historical figures (e.g., Pjotr, 1923; Peter the Czar); and his greatest achievements in prose, two “novels of fulfillment”—Bracke (1918; Brackie, the Fool) and Borgia (1928; The Incredible Borgias).

Ernst Busch worked with Erich Mühsam in 1928 in the working men drama "Judas" and one year later in the play "Sacco und Vanzetti" at the "Piscator Bühne" (Berlin). The Erich Mühsams songs "Lumpenlied" and "Der Revoluzzer" became a regular part of Ernst Buschs musical repertoire. So it was self-evident that he would dedicate an edition of his "Aurora" project ("Eine Chronik in Liedern, Balladen und Kantaten aus der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts") to Erich Mühsam. The recordings were done in 1965, the double EP was released in 1966.

Ernst Busch - Zeit-, Leid-, Streitgedichte - Erich Mühsam & Klabund (Aurora, 1966)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

The Mekons ‎- Never Been In A Riot (1978)

Formed in the late 1970s as an art collective, The Mekons are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands. Through the years, the band's musical style has evolved, incorporating aspects of country music, folk music, alternative rock and even occasional experiments with dub. They are known for their raucous live shows. These days, The Mekons are often described as a post-punk, cowpunk and/or alt country band.

The band was formed in 1977 by a group of University of Leeds art students: Jon Langford, Kevin Lycett, Mark White, Andy Corrigan and Tom Greenhalgh - the Gang of Four and Delta 5 formed from the same group of students. They took the band's name from the Mekon, an evil, super-intelligent Venusian featured in the British 1950s-1960s comic Dan Dare (printed in the Eagle). The band's first single was "Never Been in a Riot", a satirical take on the Clash's White Riot. For several years the loose-knit band played noisy, bare-bones post-punk, releasing singles on a variety of labels. The Mekons' first album, The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen, was recorded using the Gang of Four's instruments, and due to an error by the Virgin Records art department, featured pictures of the Gang of Four on the back cover. After 1982's The Mekons Story, a compilation of old recordings, the band ceased activity for a while, with Langford forming The Three Johns.

By the mid-1980s (revitalised by the 1984 miners' strike) the Mekons had returned as an active group. The band was now augmented by vocalist Sally Timms, violinist Susie Honeyman, ex-Damned member Lu Edmonds, accordionist/vocalist Rico Bell (a.k.a. Eric Bellis), and former The Rumour drummer Steve Goulding and Kelvin Weech on lead guitar. They began to experiment with musical styles derived from traditional English folk (tentatively explored on the English Dancing Master EP prior to the hiatus), and American country music. Fear and Whiskey (1985), The Edge of the World (1986) and Honky Tonkin (1987) exemplified the band's new sound, which built on the innovations of Gram Parsons and blended punk ethos and left wing politics with the minimalist country of Hank Williams. Subsequent albums, such as The Mekons Rock'n'Roll, continued to experiment with diverse instrumentation (notably the fiddle and slide guitar).

Here´s their first single “Never Been in a Riot”, an off tune, off time, slacker anthem with the memorable lyric: “I’ve never been in a riot / Never been in a fight / Never been in anything / That turns out right”. As a direct response to the Clash’s suspect “White Riot”, it embodied post punk’s awareness, not to mention its conflict with punk’s original ideals.

ANever Been In A Riot1:45
B132 Weeks1:38
B2Heart And Soul2:38

The Mekons - Never Been In A Riot (1978)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Montag, 13. Dezember 2021

Pedro Faura - Volver, No Es Volver Atras (1976)

Pedro Faura (real name Bernado Fuster) is a Spanish singer and composer, born in Madrid in 1947. He was part of the "nueva canción española" movement. Due to his political ideas (he was a member of the militant F.R.A.P. party) he had to exile in Paris in 1974. He was part of the resistance against the Franco dictatorship and released two albums in Germany: "Manifiesto" (Neue Welt, 1975) and "Volver no es volver atrás" (Neue Welt, 1976).

It could be argued that Paco Ibáñez introduced in Spain the Singer/Songwriter movement in 1956, but nueva canción española was developed during the 1960s. It was strongly influenced by Nova cançó and its political stance against Franco's dictatorship. Nueva canción española reclaimed back the popular folklore of each Spanish region and it had several variations: Nueva canción castellana/canción del pueblo (Madrid and Castilla), nueva canción aragonesa (Aragón), nueva canción canaria (Canarias) and Manifiesto Canción del Sur (Andalucía). Canciú mozu astur/cameretá (Asturias), A nova canción galega (Galicia) and Euskal kantagintza berria (Basque Country) were related too, although they sung in their own regional languages.

They were also strongly influenced by Nueva canción latinoamericana, particularly by the possibility of singing 'canción protesta' (protest songs) in Spanish. All these regional variations adapted the influences of nova cancó and nueva canción to the traditions, culture, music, poetry and folklore of each region. Spanish Republican poets and writers such as Federico García Lorca, Antonio Machado, Miguel Hernández and Rafael Alberti were also very influential and it was common to adapt their poetry to music. Chanson (Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré in particular) and American folk ‘protest’ singers such as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan were also an strong influence. Some of the most important nueva canción española artists are Joan Manuel Serrat, Paco Ibáñez, Pablo Guerrero, Elisa Serna and Luis Eduardo Aute. Nueva canción española had its golden era during the 1960 and 1970s. Many nueva canción española artists remained successful during the 1980s and subsequent decades but the movement itself by the mid-1980s was seen as passé.

The album "Volver no es volver atras" was recorded at Tonstudio Zuckerfabrik in Stuttgart, West Germany.


Tracklist:

A1 Cancion para Julian.
A2 Volver.
A3 Cancion de siega.
A4 Maquis.
A5 Silencio.
A6 Este muro vuestro.

B1 Carretera de Aviles.
B2 General.
B3 Gil.
B4 En Tiempo de las Barbaras Naciones
B5 Fuego de los altos hornos.
B6 Cancion de esperanza.
B7 Pueblo de España.

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sonntag, 12. Dezember 2021

Peter, Paul and Mary - Songs Of Conscience & Concern - A Retrospective Collection

Amazingly, this is only the second compilation (discounting the mail-order only Readers Digest set) in the history of Peter, Paul & Mary, and it is the perfect compliment to "Ten Years Together: The Best of Peter, Paul & Mary". Drawn primarily from the trio's 1980s and 1990s material, it's a profile of the group's most serious songs from their second phase -- what most casual fans will find most startling, apart from how good the group sounds, is how unflinching they are in their seriousness, at a point when most people had stopped listening, or even wanting to listen to what they had to say. 

Most listeners in the 1980s and 1990s wouldn't have taken the trouble it required to think of ignoring them, yet there Peter, Paul & Mary were, singing exactly the same way and with the same sincerity, confidence, and clarity of message that they'd displayed when millions of college students hung on their every lyric. The voices have held up so well, that it's difficult to believe that "Pastures of Plenty," a Woody Guthrie song that they somehow missed doing in the 1960s, isn't from the '60s instead of the 1990s. 

The four early songs here, "If I Were Free," "The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)," "All My Trials," and "Old Coat," mesh seamlessly with the newer work. Among the latter material, the hands-down highlight is "El Salvador," co-authored by Paul Stookey; with its piercing, sardonic lyrics, gorgeous harmonies, attractive melody, and good hooks, it ought to have gotten it onto the radio as a single -- except that even beyond the tighter formats that existed in the 1980s, radio stations were far less willing to offend the Reagan administration than they were to offend Lyndon Johnson over the war 20 years earlier. Moreover, the way it slides right into "The Great Mandala," cut almost 20 years earlier, is startling. And their return to a late-'50s calypso sound on Pete Seeger's "All Mixed Up" is an unexpected delight, as well as a break from the seriousness of much of the rest of the material. This CD may date primarily from their second phase, but there's nothing secondary about its content.


Tracklist:

Wasn't That a Time
Pastures of Plenty
Power
If I Were Free
Coming of the Roads
El Salvador
The Great Mandala
All My Trials
All Mixed Up
Danny's Downs
Don't Laugh at Me
Home Is Where the Heart Is
There But for Fortune
Old Coat
Because All Men Are Brothers

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Samstag, 11. Dezember 2021

Gerhard Gundermann - So wird es Tag - Eine Auswahl (custom made compilation, 2015)

Two years ago - inspried by Gerhard Gundermann´s 60th birthday - a friend compiled this home made collection of Gerhard Gundermann live recordings. The quality of the lyrics and the songs impressed me deeply.

Gerhard Gundermann was a phenomenon in the German musical landscape; although he never became a professional musician, he managed to rise to be one of the most successful singer/songwriters of the '90s in Germany.
Growing up in East Germany and heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen, the media frequently called him the "Springsteen of the East." Gundermann wrote lyrics full of poetic density reflecting on the '90s situation in East Germany and coated them in folk-rock songs which struck a chord with the generation who had grown up in the GDR but with the German reunification suddenly had to adopt to a completely different social system.

Working as a miner in his main profession after a failed career attempt as a military officer (he was fired because he refused to sing a praise song for the defense minister), Gundermann started his artistic activities at the end of the '70s as a member of "Brigade Feuerstein", a group which performed political songs and cabaret and had been founded in 1978. He soon gained attention as one of the main lyricists of the group, but this also brought him the first trouble with the official system. Although he was a full-fledged member of the SED, the East German communist party, and even an informant of the Stasi, the notorious secret service, the conflicts accumulated. In 1979, he was dropped as a Stasi informant due to severe differences with the official party line; five years later he was eventually expelled from the SED.

During the decade of touring with "Brigade Feuerstein", he constantly sharpened his ability to use powerful words in his lyrics. In 1987, he left "Brigade Feuerstein" and started solo performances accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. The result of this work was his first album, "Männer, Frauen und Maschinen", released in 1988. Despite strong lyrics, the album left a very uneven impression due to constant interference of censors and other bureaucrats of the GDR cultural nomenclature. Some songs of "Männer, Frauen und Maschinen" Gundermann performed with a band, which marked a significant change. In the aftermath of the album release, he had entered a new chapter in his songwriting career by writing lyrics for the rock band "Silly", who were one of the top bands in the GDR at the time and had just lost their previous lyricist. This job convinced Gundermann that his songs might be considerably enriched by performing them with a full-scale rock band.

The members of "Silly" agreed to provide him with the required band backup. The album "Einsame Spitze" (1992) was much more accessible than its predecessor and laid the foundation for his cult status in East Germany; this was of course also the case due to the newly achieved artistic freedom after the 1989 political changes which enabled Gundermann to put his ideas to life much more creatively. Gundermann then christened his project "Gundermann und Seilschaft" and recorded two more albums: "Der siebte Samurai" (1993) and "Frühstück für immer" (1995) continued the success. The latter earned Gerhard Gundermann the "Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik", the most important musical award in Germany and further consolidated his reputation as one of the most innovative German songwriters.

In 1994, he and his band performed as a support act for a Bob Dylan tour in Germany. "Engel über dem Revier" (1997) painted a much more melancholic picture; it reflects on the closing down of the mine Gundermann had been working in for two decades. But even then, officially unemployed, he refused to make music his profession, realizing that this might corrupt his potential as a songwriter when he has to write songs to sell them.

On June 21, 1998, Gerhard Gundermann suffered a stroke and was found dead at his house. After the death of Tamara Danz, the singer of "Silly", in 1996 (she succumbed to cancer), this was the second big loss for German rock music. By pure chance, Gundermann's last concert took place just seven days before his death had been recorded and was released in 1999 on the double-CD set "Krams - Das letzte Konzert". Another posthumous release of 1999 was "Unplugged", a recording of a 1994 acoustic concert together with "Silly".



Tracklist:
01. PS (with Silly)
02. So wird es Tag
03. Und musst du weinen
04. Der Narr
05. Das war mein zweitbester Sommer
06. Linda (with Silly)
07. Brunhilde
08. Lancelots Zwischenbilanz
09. Gras
10. Einmal
11. Atlantic City
12. Oweh
13. Leinen los
14. Keine Zeit mehr
15. Helpless
16. Ich kann mich nicht mehr erinnern (with Silly)
17. Alle oder keiner (with Silly)
18. Nach Haus (with Silly)

Gerhard Gundermann - So wird es Tag - Eine Auswahl (custom made compilation, 2015)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Theodor W. Adorno - Walter Benjamin - Briefwechsel

81 years ago, on September 26, 1940, at the age of 48, Walter Benjamin committed suicide at Portbou on the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape from invading Nazi forces.

Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno first became acquainted in Frankfurt in 1923 through Siegfried Kracauer, a contributing editor at the Frankfurter Zeitung since 1921.

Kracauer had taken the young Wiesengrund under his wing, tutoring him on Kant’s "Critique of Pure Reason" on Saturday afternoons. Benjamin was in Frankfurt intermittently after 1922 arranging to do his habilitation, his last-ditch effort to obtain a professorship at a German university after losing out to Karl Mannheim in competition for a seat in Heidelberg. Adorno was still a student reading philosophy, music, psychology and sociology, but he had also begun publishing music criticism in journals.

In 1924 Adorno finished his doctoral dissertation on Husserl with Hans Cornelius, the same professor to whom, the following year, Benjamin’s habilitation thesis was referred by the professor of German, Franz Shultz, when Shultz found it incomprehensible, and with whom Max Horkeimer was working as an assistant. Benjamin was allowed to withdraw his thesis on German Baroque drama to avoid the embarrassment of rejection, and afterwards gave up his academic ambitions for a career as a literary critic. Adorno’s thesis was submitted to Cornelius in 1927, and like Benjamin, he was forced to withdraw it after Cornelius, supported by Horkeimer (who disliked it for its insufficient Marxism), refused to accept it. For the next few years, Adorno pursued a career as a music critic.

The relationship between Adorno and Benjamin was solidified in 1929 in Königsberg, when Benjamin read Adorno, Horkeimer, and Greta Karplus (whom Adorno later married) his proposal for a philosophical history of the 19th century, which would retrospectively be referred to as an intellectual watershed for everyone involved. In 1929, Paul Tillich took over Cornelius’ chair of philosophy, and Adorno, by then greatly under Benjamin’s influence, was able to gain acceptance of his habilitation on “The Construction of the Aesthetic in Kierkegaard” in 1931. In one of the first seminars offered by Adorno, the class spent the semester reading Benjamin’s “failed” habilitation.

After 1933, when Adorno and Benjamin were forced into exile, their relationship became increasingly close, as Adorno provided Benjamin with his only real financial support through the Institute for Social Research, headed by Horkeimer.

The correspondence between Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno must rank among the most significant to have come down to us from that notable age of barbarism, the twentieth century. Benjamin and Adorno formed a uniquely powerful pair. Benjamin, riddle-like in his personality and given to tactical evasion, and Adorno, full of his own importance, alternately support and compete with each other throughout the correspondence, until its imminent tragic end becomes apparent to both writers. Each had met his match, and happily, in the other. Adorno was the only person who managed to sustain an intimate intellectual relationship with Benjamin for nearly twenty years. No one else, not even Gershom Scholem, coaxed so much out of Benjamin.



Theodor W. Adorno - Walter Benjamin - Briefwechsel
(audiobook, German language)

VA - Lieder des europäischen Widerstands gegen den Faschismus - Songs Of The European Resistance Against Fascism

The resistance against fascism in the 30s and 40s of the last century occurred in every european country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. Resistance movements are sometimes also referred to as "the underground".

This cd is a reissue of the first album release of a german antifascist label called "pläne", issued in 1966. It collects 19 songs against fascism, originated between 1933 and 1963 in France, Greece, Spain, Russia, Italy, Yugoslawia, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany in the original languages.

Tracklist:
01 Zum Sturme (Jugoslawien)
02 Lied von Breendonck (Belgien)
03 Ein dichter Nebel fiel (Bulgarien)
04 Mein Vater wird gesucht (Deutschland)
05 Spaniens Himmel (Deutschland)
06 Lied der Befreiung (Frankreich)
07 Lied der Partisanen (Frankreich)
08 Donner vom Olymp (Griechenland)
09 Wir tragen Italien im Herzen (Italien)
10 Mussolinis Ende (Italien)
11 Ihr Brüder in den Städten (Österreich)
12 Traurig rauschen die Weiden (Polen)
13 Lied vom Frieden (Portugal)
14 Schwarzer Hahn und roter Hahn (Spanien)
15 Friedenstaube (Spanien)
16 Die Slaven standen auf (Tschechoslowakei)
17 Die drei Flüsse (Ungarn)
18 Nebel, meine Nebel (UdSSR)
19 Lied von der Soija (UdSSR)

Songs Of The European Resistance Against Fascism
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Schmetterlinge - Herbstreise - Lieder zur Lage (1979, vinyl rip)

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"Die Schmetterlinge" ("The Butterflies" in English) were an Austrian political folk-band. They started as a folk ensemble but later evolved into a complex theatrical progressive band, with "Sparifankal" and "Floh De Cologne" touches, moving onto progressive rock-opera.

The album "Herbstreise - Lieder zur Lage" was recorded at Schmetter-Sound-Studio during January, February and March 1979 and released in the same year on the "Antagon" label.

Check out "Das letzte Lied" - it´s one of my favourites.

Tracks
A1) Auf Unserem Langen Weg
A2) Ein Leises Lied
A3) Guter Mond, Du Hängst So Stille
A4) Klein, Aber Geheim
A5) Lied Des Richters
A6) Warte Nur Kein Weilchen
A7) Drei Rote Pfiffe
B1) Hände Über Hönnepel
B2) Liebesgrüße Aus Österreich
B3) Der Große Stahlarbeiterstreik 1978/79
B4) Das Letzte Lied

Acoustic Guitar - Günter Großlercher
Bass, Accordion, Vocals - Erich Meixner
Drums, Vocals - Willi Resetarits
Electric Guitar, Vocals - Herbert Tampier
Flute, Vocals - Beatrix Neundlinger
Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals - Georg Herrnstadt
Producer - Günter Großlercher

Schmetterlinge - Herbstreise -Lieder zur Lage (1979, vinyl rip)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Gretel Adorno - Walter Benjamin - Briefwechsel (Audiobook)

"We must see to it that we put the best of ourselves in our letters; for there is nothing to suggest that we shall see each other againsoon." 

So wrote Walter Benjamin to Gretel Adorno in spring 1940 from the south of France, shortly before he took his own life.

The correspondence between Gretel Adorno and Walter Benjamin is the document of a great friendship that existed independently of Benjamin's relationship with Theodor W. Adorno. While Benjamin, alongside his everyday worries, writes especially about those projects on which he worked so intensively in the last years of his life, it was Gretel Karplus-Adorno who did everything in her power to keep Benjamin in the world.

She urged him to emigrate and told him about Adorno's plans and Bloch's movements, thus maintaining the connection between the old Berlin friends and acquaintances. She helped him through the most difficult times with regular money transfers, and organized financial support from the Saar region, which was initially still independent from the Third Reich. Once in New York, she attempted to entice Benjamin to America with her descriptions of the city and the new arrivals from Europe though ultimately to no avail.

“The correspondence between Gretel Karplus Adorno and Walter Benjamin documents a remarkable friendship. Benjamin valued “Felizitas” as a critic who was at once acute and sympathetic, and these letters bristle with some of the most challenging formulations of his thought in the 1930s. Yet their relationship also enabled Benjamin to reveal aspects of his life that remained hidden from even his closest male friends, including Adorno himself and Scholem. The letters thus offer a moving and surprisingly intimate account of the fate of a great intellectual struggling to survive – and to write – in exile.” - Michael Jennings, Princeton University


Gretel Adorno - Walter Benjamin - Briefwechsel
(audiobook, 256 kbps, front cover included, German language)

Freitag, 10. Dezember 2021

Country Joe & The Fish - The Collected Country Joe & The Fish 1965 - 1970

If you mention the name Country Joe & the Fish to Americans born in 1955 or earlier, chances are that they'll know the band you're talking about, at least to the degree that they know their most widely played and quoted song, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag." The problem is, that particular song captured only the smallest sliver of who Country Joe & the Fish were or what they were about. One of the original and most popular of the San Francisco Bay Area psychedelic bands, they were also probably the most enigmatic, in terms of who they actually were, and had the longest and strangest gestation into becoming a rock band. And Joe McDonald may have written the most in-your-face antiwar, anti-military song to come out of the 1960s, but he was also one of the very few musicians on the San Francisco scene who'd served in uniform.

Country Joe & the Fish are well represented on this 19-track compilation that traces their development from a politically-oriented folk/jug band ensemble to a politically oriented rock and soul band. Most of the material comes from 1967, the band's high-water mark, and the centerpiece is the still-cutting "I-Feel-like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag."
 
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Fire & Fleet & Candlelight (1967)

Buffy Sainte-Marie has enjoyed a long career that has seen her rise to stardom on the folk circuit and try her hand at country, rock, soundtrack themes, acting, activism, and children's television. For most listeners, she remains identified with the material she wrote and sang for Vanguard in the mid-'60s. Her songs that addressed the plight of the Native American, particularly "Now That the Buffalo's Gone" and "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying," were the ones that generated the most controversy. Yet she was also skilled at addressing broader themes of war and justice ("Universal Soldier") and romance ("Until It's Time for You to Go").

"Fire & Fleet & Candlelight" was ridiculously over-eclectic, so much so that it comes as a surprise when the 14 songs have finished to find that the total length of the album is a mere 37 minutes. That doesn't mean there's not some worthy material, but the arrangements and material are all over the place. Variety is a good thing, but only when the quality is extremely consistent, and this 1967 album is erratic. "The Seeds of Brotherhood" is so in line with the kind of utopian singalong common to the folk revival that it inadvertently sounds like a parody of itself. Yet songs with orchestral arrangement by Peter Schickele are entirely different, with "Summer Boy" and "The Carousel" going into the Baroque-folk that Judy Collins was mastering during the same era. Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game" and "Song to a Seagull" both predate Mitchell's release of her own versions, and "The Circle Game" sounds like Sainte-Marie's shot at making it into a hit single, with more straightforward pop/rock production than anything else she cut at the time. "Song to a Seagull," by contrast, is quite close in arrangement and vocal delivery to the treatment Mitchell gave it on her 1968 debut album. Her interpretation of the traditional "Lyke Wake Dirge" verges on the creepy; her cover of Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "Doggett's Gap" goes way back to her earliest folk roots, complete with mouth-bow; "97 Men in This Here Town Would Give a Half a Grand in Silver Just to Follow Me Down" is her fling at good-timey rock. There are yet more cuts that catch you off-guard, like the French-language pop reworking of her "Until It's Time for You to Go"; "Reynardine -- A Vampire Legend," a traditional song with only vocals and mouth-bow; and "Hey, Little Bird," whose upbeat symphonic pop vaguely foreshadows her songs for Sesame Street. Though not without its rewards, on the whole it's an unnerving record.

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Fire & Fleet & Candellight (1967)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dunkelziffer – Colours & Soul (1983)

 
A varied New-Wave and experimental band and part of a family of Krautrock-related acts from Cologne, "Dunkelziffer" were formed in 1981 involving members of Phantom Band and musicians that have collaborated in various Can-related solo projects.

Their first LP still misses Can's Damo Suzuki, but another world famous musician takes part: Reebop Kwaku Baah, percussionist of Traffic and late Can.

Also in 1983, this bunch of musicians founded 'The Unknown Cases' and recorded the hit 'Masimba Bele'.

Tracks
01. Kedema 04:11
02. Bleib nicht so lang im Schatten stehn 02:31
03. This is how you came 08:01
04. Keine Python 03:04
05. Dark number 02:21
06. Free 05:13
07. Colours and soul 04:15
08. Arche Noah 01:39
09. Don't ask me 04:26
10. Beside the light 06:41


Musicians
Reebop Kwaku Baah: Vocals, Percussion (ex Traffic) (1,3,6,9)
Coco Claus: Vocals (2,4,7,10)
Josefa Martens: Vocals (2,8)
Helmut Zerlett: Keyboards
Wolfgang Schubert: Oboe, Saxophone
Achim Fink: Trombone (2,4,7,10)
Matthias Keul: Bass, Keyboards
Michael Ritter: Bass (3)
Olek Gelba, Reiner Linke: Percussion
Stefan Krachten: Drums

Dunkelziffer – Colours & Soul (1983)
(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - This Land Is Your Land - Songs Of Freedom

Woody Guthrie composed "This Land Is Your Land" in 1940 as an answer to Kate Smith's version of "God Bless America," which he had heard countless times on car radios and on café jukeboxes during a cross-country hitchhiking trip. This Land Is Your Land: Songs of Freedom is a collection of folk songs drawn from the vaults of Vanguard Records, and includes Cisco Houston's version of "This Land Is Your Land," along with selections by performers like the Weavers, Ian & Sylvia, Judy Collins, and Odetta. Two of the tracks - Joan Baez's live version of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and the Chambers Brothers' somber take on Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" - are released here for the first time.

Although this is a fairly good compilation of songs, mostly well-known, from the 1950s and (mostly) 1960s folk revival, the common threads between the tunes are vaguer than what the title might portend. Indeed, some of these 16 tracks are specific songs of freedom and struggle: Cisco Houston's "This Land Is Your Land," the Weavers' "If I Had a Hammer," and the Chambers Brothers' previously unreleased version of "People Get Ready." Others would probably be more properly described as songs of protest (Buffy Sainte-Marie's "The Universal Soldier," or the duet by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez on "With God on Our Side"), or songs of unity (Judy Collins' live version of "Get Together"). Others, though quality compositions, really fall into no fixed boundary: Collins' versions of "Blowin' in the Wind" and Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn," the Kingston Trio's "All My Sorrows," Joan Baez's "There But for Fortune," and Ian & Sylvia's cover of Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game." Perhaps this could have been called "songs of freedom, protest, conscience, and the spirit," or something else so blanket as to be almost uselessly all-encompassing. At its root, it's just an above-average anthology of songs from Vanguard's hallowed folk catalog.       


Tracklist:

1 –The Weavers - Rally 'Round The Flag 2:19
2 –Cisco Houston - This Land Is Your Land 2:43
3 –The Weavers - If I Had A Hammer 2:16
4 –The Weavers - Kumbaya 2:51
5 –Odetta - He's Got The Whole World In His Hands 2:01
6 –Joan Baez - There But For Fortune 3:15
7 –Ian & Sylvia - The Circle Game 2:59
8 –Judy Collins - Turn! Turn! Turn! 4:03
9 –The Kingston Trio - All My Sorrows 2:52
10 –The Chambers Brothers - People Get Ready 4:00
11 –Odetta - Battle Hymn Of The Republic 3:54
12 –Judy Collins - Get Together 2:55
13 –Buffy Sainte-Marie - The Universal Soldier 2:17
14 –Judy Collins - Blowin' In The Wind 4:22
15 –Bob Dylan & Joan Baez - With God On Our Side 6:22
16 –Joan Baez  - The Times They Are A-Changin' 2:53

Tracks 10 and 16 were previously unreleased.

VA - This Land Is Your Land - Songs Of Freedom
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Donnerstag, 9. Dezember 2021

Kollektiv Rote Rübe & Ton Steine Scherben - Paranoia

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"Paranoia" is an unusual album, a cooperation of the left cabaret "Kollektiv Rote Rübe" and the alternative rock band "Ton Steine Scherben", released in 1976 on the self organized label "David Volksmund Produktion".
The music on this album is very varied, from angst-ridden sound collages like "Paranoia" to noisy proto-indie rock like "Taifuns Traum" (a pretty funny song if you understand the lyrics and wait till the end).

Other favourites of mine is "Eine Tote zuviel", a song about the oppression of workers, or "Miss Lissy Lamour" about the bleak life of a mother and wife.

This is surely not for everyone and it has its weak moments, but it is an album one should know if interested in alternative German music.

Tracklist:

A1 Entree
A2 Manchmal wenn ich so dasitze
A3 Nie wieder
A4 Die Zeiten sie ändern sich
A5 Paranoia
A6 Taifuns Traum

B1 Song der Hure Holly
B2 Das Paradies
B3 Song der Emma P.
B4 Zeitmaschine
B5 Eine Tote zuviel
B6 Horrormäuse
B7 Miss Lissy Lamour

Ton Steine Scherben & Kollektiv Rote Rübe - Paranoia (1976)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - South African Rhythm Riot - The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto, Volume 6

This sixth entry in the landmark guide to township jive is, like most collections, a mixed bag. Some songs offer up delicious grooves and inspiring harmonies, while in others the beatbox, synthesizer, and American influence are all that come through.

Standout tracks include Chicco's "Sixolele Baba (Forgive Us Lord)," which sets a message of dire need delivered by male chorus and a lone, wailing woman against a background of catchy beats and increasing complexity and one of the last songs recorded by the late Simon Mahlathini Nkabinde and a bragging song entitled "Sihambile (We Traveled)." There's not much point in enumerating the lesser works; suffice it to say that four of five tracks out of a total of 15 sound like outtakes from the Graceland sessions. Interestingly, two or three tracks evince a strong Jamaican influence that works very well. If you are a fan of South African popular music, you need not hesitate about "South African Rhythm Riot".

From the opening strains of "Vuli Ndlela" (South Africa's 1999 song of the year) through the distinct afro-techno grooves of "Oyi-Oyi" and "Girls", this album is a winner. It's accessible and danceable enough to get any party started, but still incredibly gorgeous and intriguing.


VA - South African Rhythm Riot - The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto, Volume 6
(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

Franz K. – Rock in Deutsch (1973)

 

Review from "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg":

Formed in Witten in 1969 as Franz Kafka. In their early days they were one of those very Teutonic underground rock bands, akin to Ton Steine Scherben or Lokomotive Kreuzberg, with a hard-edged agit-rock style. By the time of their debut (becoming just Franz K.) they had matured their sound from the early days of Fugs and Mothers style theatre in German.

SENSEMANN featured just two side-long tracks offering a great deal of freedom for invention, with aggressive German lyrics and similarly angular freaky guitars characterising their sound. A psychedelic hard-rock twist on Ton Steine Scherben perhaps.

Franz K. continued for many years, ROCK IN DEUTSCH is also reputedly good, but on later albums (at least another nine!) the vocals took over and they moved to a more mainstream rock and cabaret mixture, totally lacking the innovation of their debut.


Tracklist
1. Schieß und marschier 3:53
2. Cabora Bassa 2:29
3. Peterlied 12:52
4. Räder 4:13
5. Big Boss 7:04
6. Mackie Messer 2:48
7. Rita B. 6:05


Musicians
Peter Josefus: Bass, Vocals
Mick Hannes: Guitar
Werner Becker: Piano, Organ
Stefan Josefus: Drums

Franz K. – Rock in Deutsch (1973)
(ca. 320 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Prayers From Hell: White Gospel & Sinner's Blues, 1927-1940

This compilation of hillbilly gospel music and twisted Southern white blues could have been taken from one of the discs in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music - there's even an essay included by Greil Marcus, a reprinted chapter from his Invisible Republic book.

Normally, this would reek of copycat-ism and a cheap way to make a buck. Given that this is the Trikont label from Germany, you can be assured this isn't the case. Their notes and packages are superb, they make their records primarily for a European audience, where the Smith Anthology may not be available, and there is a different focus, one that is perversely curious in its approach to this very foreign - to them - music. Besides, they put some gems on here Smith didn't include because his anthology was based on only six years of recorded material.

As for the music, it's stellar. This is solid, primitive, hillbilly gospel music and blues. The remastering is excellent and the material choice is wonderful. From the Carolina Ramblers Stringband's "That Lonesome Valley" to the Dixon Brothers' "Didn't Hear Nobody Pray" (covered recently by the Fairfield Four) and "When Gabriel Blows His Trumpet for Me" to Byron Parker and his mountaineer group, the Carter Family, and Bill Carlisle, we hear the sound of the hopeful pilgrims, assured of their place in the heavens with God. Some of these songs also plead for the one who is lost to turn from sin (the Carter Family's "Better Farther On"). The praise is definite but reserved, plaintively sung with the fear of God in their approach. There is a loneliness in these songs that speaks of everything from poverty to a sense of continual loss - it's whistling in the graveyard music.

However, the coin flips on this disc several time when we hear Frank Hutchison's "Hell Bound Train" and "Stackalee," or the mad-dog glass-chewing howl of Dock Boggs' wailing through "Country Blues," "New Prisoner's Song," "Sugar Baby," and "Pretty Polly." Boggs and Hutchison even the score - they show the dark as death side of culturally enforced Christianity and refuse to be tamed or comforted. Joining them are Ledford and Daniel Nicholson's fiddle and banjo blues ballad "Ninety Nine Years" from 1932. It's a tale of love, betrayal. Gambling, love, and murder.

All of these songs appear in the mirror of redemption, past it, out of its dimension and scope. But even here, rebellious as they are, Jesus wins. Just after Boggs' "Pretty Polly" sends chills down the spine for the coldness of its tale, its unrepentant bitterness and anger, we are led out of the entire compilation by Edith and Sherman Collins' "I Can't Feel at Home in This World Anymore." Something becomes obvious in the tune and both gospel and sinner's tunes turn back on themselves and meet the bridge where the title of this song is literally true in both cases, and the pitfalls of earthly existence is, too; it's just the attitude regarding departure from that place that's different.

 
Tracks:

That Lonesome Valley - Carolina Ramblers String Band
I Am Ready To Go - The Monroe Brothers
Church In The Wildwood - The Carter Family
New Prisoner's Song - Dock Boggs
Didn't Hear Nobody Pray - Dixon Brothers
The Heavenly Train - Bill Carlisle
Hell Bound Train - Frank Hutchison
We Shall Rise - Byron Parker & His Mountaineers
Down South Blues - Dock Boggs
What Will You Take In Exchange - Edith And Sherman Collins
Shining City Over The River - Dorsey & Beatrice Dixon
Worried Man Blues - Rodgers & Nicholson
It Is Better Farther On - The Carter Family
Country Blues - Dock Boggs
What Would The Profit Be - The Monroe Brothers
Unclouded Sky - Bill Carlisle's Kentucky Boys
Stackalee - Frank Hutchison
When Gabriel Blows His Trumpet For Me - Dixon Brothers
I Love My Savior - Byron Parker & His Mountaineers
Sugar Baby - Dock Boggs
He Will Be Your Savior Too - Bill Carlisle
Ninety Nine Years - Ledford & Daniel Nicholson
When Jesus Appears - Dorsey & Beatrice Dixon
Pretty Polly - Dock Boggs
I Can't Feel At Home In This World Any More - Edith & Sherman Collins

VA - Prayers From Hell: White Gospel & Sinner´s Blues 1927 - 1940