Mittwoch, 25. Januar 2023

Au Pairs – Sense And Sensuality (1982)

On their second album, the Au Pairs were very much in tune with the growth pangs of the punk/new wave scene as a whole in the early '80s. In stripping their music to a funkier, more rhythmic essence, and shifting the focus of their lyrics to the personal rather than the political, they lost some of the direct impact (and critical acclaim) of their debut. Musically, however, things were actually more interesting. The addition of horns and imaginative synthesizers allowed for more satisfying sonic diversity. 

The words were still confrontational, but more obscure in their intent. Although occasionally political (as in the blunt anti-Reagan screed "America"), they were far more concerned with questioning sex/relationship roles (as in "Sex Without Stress," "Intact," and "Instant Touch"). The record didn't get as much attention as their first LP, but it's just as much a touchstone of post-punk.


Tracklist:

1 Instant Touch 2:43
2 America 5:27
3 Sex Without Stress 4:15
4 Intact 3:04
5 Stepping Out Of Line 5:34
6 Shakedown 4:04
7 Don't Lie Back 4:31
8 (That's When) It's Worth It 3:36
9 Tongue In Cheek 2:50
10 Fiasco 3:29
11 She Runs With Honey 6:22
12 No More Secret Lives 5:16
13 Beat Of A Machine 3:42
14 Lion Love 4:17
15 Hokka He Ha 5:33
16 Taking Care Of Him 5:15


1 to 10 are the original album tracks recorded between April - June 1982 at Jacobs Studio.
Additional tracks written for the third Au Pairs album:
11 to 14 performed at a Janice Long Show, 1983, licensed from BBC Enterprises Ltd.
15 and 16 are studio demos.
New sleeve and running order of the tracks on demand of the Au Pairs.

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe ‎– Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1960)

The daughter of Arkansas cotton-pickers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was raised by her mother, a travelling evangelist with the Church of God in Christ. She was six years old, and already playing the guitar and performing in church, when they moved to Chicago, where she soon absorbed the sounds of blues and jazz, and went on to attract a following. In 1938, after a short-lived first marriage, she moved to New York, where the great talent scout John Hammond included her – alongside Big Joe Turner, Big Bill Broonzy, Count Basie and others – in his celebrated From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall.

But she also shocked her original fans by appearing at the Cotton Club and singing secular material – some of it, such as "Four or Five Times" and "I Want a Tall Skinny Papa", decidedly risqué. Nevertheless, a song called "Strange Things Happening Every Day" became the first gospel record to reach the R&B top 10 in 1945; and 25,000 fans paid to attend her wedding to her third husband in a Washington DC sports stadium in 1951. But she had returned to near obscurity when the English trombonist Chris Barber invited her to tour the UK with his band in 1957.

Her following had once included the young Elvis Presley, who loved her ferocious guitar-playing. Dylan, on his radio show, said of a later British tour: “I’m sure there are a lot of young English guys who picked up an electric guitar after getting a look at her.” He was referring to a visit in 1964, when Granada TV set up a concert for the members of the American Folk, Blues and Gospel Caravan in a railway station at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, outside Manchester. The young audience sat on one platform, while the performers set up on the other side of the tracks, which the programme-makers had dressed up to resemble the porch of a sharecropper’s shack.

For today’s listeners, just as remarkable as her guitar-playing is the great artistry of her singing: the strength of her tone and her command of expressive variation, the flexibility of her phrasing, the mastery of vibrato. The headstone erected on her grave decades after her death bears these words: “She would sing until you cried, and then she would sing until you danced for joy. She kept the church alive and the saints rejoicing.” And she helped shape the sound of rock’n’roll.

Tracklist:

If I Can Help Somebody
Walk All Over God's Heaven
I Believe
Take My Hand Precious Lord
Faith
Twelve Gates
I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray
He
If You Believe
Light A Candle
Bless This House
Without Him


Sister Rosetta Tharpe ‎– Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1960)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sonntag, 22. Januar 2023

Ernst Busch - Six Songs For Democracy - Discos De Las Brigadas Internacionales (New York, Keynote Recordings, 1940)

Today is the 123. birthday of Ernst Busch. 

The legendary album "Six Songs For Democracy" was originally issued by Keynote in 1940. It was a reissue of six songs recorded by Ernst Busch in 1937/38 in Barcelona during the spanish civil war. In 1937 Ernst Busch joined the International Brigades to fight against Fascism in Spain. His wartime songs were then recorded and broadcasted by Radio Barcelona and Radio Madrid.

These 6 songs by prominent German singer and stage actor Ernst Busch, a political refugee from Nazi Germany, who fought with the antifascist International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War were recorded with a chorus of soldiers, purportedly in the men's barracks, with noises of wartime activity in the background. As translated from their Spanish titles, the songs included are "The Four Generals," "Song of the United Front," "Song of the International Brigader," "The Thaelmann Column," "Hans Beimler," and a song from the Nazi concentration camps, "Song of the Peat Bog Soldiers."

The photograph below shows Ernst Busch with comrades from the XI Brigade of anti-fascist forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. (As printed in "Ernst Busch: Canciones de las Brigadas Internationales", VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, Berlin: Aurora-Schallplatten, 1963). Note: Busch is the only man in the photo not in uniform.

Ernst Busch - Six Songs For Democracy
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Samstag, 21. Januar 2023

David Crosby & Graham Nash - Live In San Francisco, Dec. 14,1974

Rest in peace, David Crosby! Thanks a lot for all that wonderful music.

This is a well recorded delightful set deserving of a proper release. Crosby & Nash run through fan favorites and, what would have been, new songs in an all acoustic set.

Excellent live show recorded Dec. 14, 1974 by ace producer and engineer, Wally Heider, edited as a live album that would never come out. Fantastic sound and also known as the "Whale & Fieldworkers Benefit 1974" concert. There are a number of highlights, including Crosby’s new (at the time) “Carry Me” and a slow, tortured reading of “Wooden Ships.”


Tracklist:

Intro (0:24)
Deja Vu (6:05)
Lady Of The Island (3:55)
Prison Song (3:40)
Carry Me (4:30)
It’s All Right (2:55)
Another Sleep Song (4:21)
King Of The Mountain (4:21)
Time After Time (4:26)
Guinnevere (6:30)
Fieldworker (4:28)
The Last Whale (4:14)
Wooden Ships (5:32)
What Are Their Names? (0:57)
Chicago (5:06)
Long Time Gone (6:32)
Outro (5:14)

(192 kbps, front cover included)

Crosby, Nash & Young - Prison Benefit (Winterland, March 26, 1972)

This fine Crosby, Nash & Young bootleg from 1972 is also know as "Waterbrothers". The recording comes from a radio broadcast.

Tracks:

Wooden Ships
I Used To Be A King
Lee Shore
Harvest*
Only Love Can Break Your Heart*
Southbound Train*
Almost Cut My Hair
Page 43
And So It Goes
Immigration Man
Heart Of Gold*
The Needle And The Damage Done*
Teach Your Children*
Military Madness > No More War*
Chicago*

*with Neil Young

Crosby, Nash & Young - Prison Benefit
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Studio Archives (1969)

Photobucket
This is a very nice little bootleg, which spans the period between the release of CSN's debut album together, and "Deja Vu", the first CSN&Y album. The songs are taken from a few sources, including Stephen Stills home studio and the Wally Heider's Studio. Many unreleased songs, a couple of cover versions (many takes of the Beatles one), and more vasic, stripped down versions of released tracks. Enjoy!

Highlights include beautiful alternate recordings of “Triad”, “The Lee Shore” and “Almost Cut My Hair”, four gorgeous in-studio takes of “Blackbird”, some hysterical in-studio dialogue, and a lovely renditionof the Fred Neil track “Everybody’s Talkin’” which Harry Nilsson made popular on the “Midnight Cowboy” soundtrack.

Photobucket

Tracklist:

1. Everybody's Talkin' (Fred Neil cover)
2. How Have You Been (John Sebastian cover)
3. Black Queen Riff / Dialogue
4. Triad (acoustic studio take)
5. Almost Cut My Hair (acoustic studio take)
6. Every Day We Live (Stephen Stills unreleased song)
7. Sea of Madness (Studio Take)
8. The Lee Shore (different vocal take)
9. Everybody I Love You (unedited basic track)
10. I'll Be There (Stephen Stills unreleased song)
11. Blackbird (Beatles cover, Takes 1-4)
12. Ivory Tower (Stills' unreleased song)
13. 30 Dollar Fine (Stills' unreleased song
14. Everybody's Been Burned (Nash version)
15. You're Wrong, Baby (Nash's unreleased song)
16. Everybody's Alone (Young's unreleased song)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Studio Archives (1969)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ‎– Standing Ovation (1969)

"Standing Ovation" utilizes a brand new almost complete very good audience recording. There is an older complete tape source of the entire show that was released on the fan produced cdr "Bring Me Sadness". That source is described by one collector as “horrendous” that wouldn’t even appeal to a hardcore CSN&Y diehard. The two Neil Young tracks from the acoustic set, “Birds” and the rarely played “I’ve Loved Her So Long”, surfaced from a professional source on the fan produced compilation "A Perfect Echo". This new tape source comes very close to the stage, or perhaps even on stage, capturing the performance very well. It emphasizes the treble frequencies although the lower end isn’t absent either, capturing Young’s guitar in the electric set. The August 26th show at the Greek Theater was CSN&Y’s third ever performance after two shows in Chicago followed by their appearance at Woodstock.

The title "Standing Ovation" comes from Robert Hilburn’s review of the event for the Los Angeles Times. “Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – pop music’s new supergroup-is starting its career at the top and is giving every indication of staying there….Its opening Monday night at the Greek Theater was a triumph of the first order as the group gave a staggering display of individual and collective talent…. But Monday’s ‘sold out’ sign and lengthy standing ovation were indications that Crosby Stills, Nash, and Young have lived up to, if not exceeded, all expectations…. CSNY is composed of David Crosby (an ex-Byrd), Steve Stills (part of the old Buffalo Springfield), Graham Nash (formerly of the Hollies), Neil Young (also an old Buffalo Springfield) plus Dallas Taylor on drums and Greg Reeves on electric bass….In the namesakes, CSNY has four strong writers, musicians and lead vocalists. One of the most impressive things about the group is its resulting versatility.

“With so much writing and performing talent, the group, unlike many current outfits, is not limited to a narrow musical path…. By the end of the evening, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, on such songs as ‘Wooden Ships’ and Young’s excellent ‘Sea of Madness,’ had moved a long way from the simple acoustic background and sweet harmony of ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.’…In the process, they gave the Greek Theatre audience a generous sample of the strength and creativity of pop music’s newest supergroup.” Mainstream has done a good job in producing this tape. There is evidence of its being downloaded from the internet with slight swooshes of sound in the higher frequencies, but nothing to distract from the music. This tape is important enough to overlook such deficiencies and the warmth of the performance is enough to make this title an essential piece of the CSN&Y collection. (GS)

Tracklist:

Acoustic Set
1 Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
2 Blackbird
3 Helplessly Hoping
4 Guineverre
5 Lady Of The Island
6 Black Queen
7 Birds / I've Loved Her So Long
8 You Don't Have To Cry
9 So Begins The Task

Electric Set
10 Pre-Road Downs
11 Long Time Gone
12 Bluebird
13 Sea Of Madness
14 Wooden Ships
15 Down By The River



Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ‎– Standing Ovation (1969)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Live At Fillmore East

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young made their much publicized debut in the summer of 1969. The high profile set at Woodstock was most well known, but they did a substantial amount of touring that summer and in Europe in January. Neil Young booked a solo tour with Crazy Horse early in 1970, and then CSN&Y reconvened for their second trip in the summer of 1970.

Deja Vu was released in March 1970 and beginning on May 12th in Denver, they played twenty-three shows through the middle of July. The six shows at the Fillmore East in New York from June 2nd to June 7th were the longest engagement, and perhaps only equaled by their two shows at the LA Forum later in the month in importance.

All these shows were recorded and filmed for possible official release. But the Los Angeles and Chicago shows were chosen for 4 Way Street, released in April 1971. While those shows were very tight, coming by the end of the tour, the New York shows are much more fun and loose.

This bootleg was recorded at the Fillmore East on June 3, 1970.

Tracklist:


1 Judy Blues Eyes 10:29
2 On The Way Home 4:17
3 Tell Me Why 4:31
4 Triad 6:18
5 Guineveve 5:38
6 Simple Man 3:55
7 The Man In The Mirror 3:42
8 Down By The River 6:38
9 Only Love Can Break Your Heart 3:22
10 Blue Bird 3:09
11 Black Queen 6:11
12 4+20 2:24
13 49 Byes Byes 2:01
14 For What It's Worth 2:00
15 America's Children 3:16
16 Love The One You're With 3:15


Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Live At Fillmore East
(192 kbps, cover art included)

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

David Crosby & Graham Nash: Whale & Fieldworkers Benefit 1974 (Bootleg, San Francisco, CA, Dec 14, 1974)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

2. Festival des politischen Liedes - Wer, wenn nicht wir (1971, Eterna, vinyl rip)

This album features artists from 16 different countries taking part at the second "Festival des politischen Liedes" in 1971.


Tracklisting

01. Oktober-Klub - Auf, auf zum Kampf
02. Oktober-Klub - Seid euch bewusst der Macht
03. Isabel Parra - En septiembre canta el gallo
04. Oktober-Klub - Streiklied
05. Il contemporaneo - Que il nostro Vietnam
06. Thanh nien Ho Chi Minh - Der Hügel der zehn Helden
07. Oktober-Klub - Vietnams Geschütze
08. Oktober-Klub - Prometheus
09. Lutschina - Lied über Schtschors
10. Venceremos Club - Lied der Gleichen
11. Agitprop - Kenen joukoissa seisot
12. Francesca Solleville - Mexiko 68
13. Quilapayún - Comienza la vida nueva
14. Venceremos Club - Die Partei
15. Oktober-Klub - Die Thälmann-Kolonne

2. Festival des politischen Liedes - Wer, wenn nicht wir (1971)
(192 kbps, complete cover art included)

Freitag, 13. Januar 2023

John Renbourn – Faro Annie (1972)

Pentangle singer/guitarist John Renbourn often takes a folk-rock approach, and often investigates American folk songs, on Faro Annie, beginning with the traditional "White House Blues," a song about the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley. "Buffalo Skinners" is a song associated with Woody Guthrie that Renbourn gives an unusually calm treatment to, adding for the first but not the last time a background sitar part. "Kokomo Blues" is the first overtly folk-rock track, finding Renbourn joined by the Pentangle rhythm section of bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox. 

The first song with a distinctly British derivation is "Willy O'Winsbury," but before long Renbourn is evoking Robert Johnson on "Come on in My Kitchen." That Delta blues is followed by "Country Blues," and then the original instrumental title tune. Throughout, Renbourn and his cohorts explore the various folk styles with delicacy and restraint; that's the British element coming through, and it gives an elegance to the material.


Tracklist:

A1 White House Blues 3:35
A2 Buffalo Skinners 3:37
A3 Kokomo Blues 3:54
A4 Little Sadie 3:16
A5 Shake Shake Mamma 3:33
B1 Willy O'Winsbury 5:39
B2 The Cuckoo 3:57
B3 Come On In My Kitchen 3:52
B4 Country Blues 3:36
B5 Faro Annie 3:25
B6 Back On The Road Again 3:12

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Joshua White - Southern Exposure - An Album of Jim Crow Blues (1941)

"The blues, contrary to popular conception, are not always concerned with love, razors, dice, and death," Richard Wright wrote in 1941, in the liner notes to a new album of 78 rpm records. "Southern Exposure contains the blues, the wailing blues, the moaning blues, the laughing-crying blues, the sad-happy blues. But it contains also the fighting blues . . ."

Southern Exposure was the third album by Josh White, a young singer who was then staking out a unique position in American music: he was the only musician ever to make a name for himself singing political blues. Oddly, he made no claim to uniqueness; like Wright, he argued that the blues was by its nature a protest music, and decades of writers on the subject would concur. They always pointed, though, to veiled verses like "You don’t know my mind/ When you see me laughing, I’m laughing just to keep from crying." What Josh was singing was something quite different: a repertoire of blues about current events, written from a strong left-wing perspective. Some of the other blues artists who became caught up in the folk revival recorded similar pieces (Big Bill Broonzy’s "Black, Brown and White" and Leadbelly’s "Bourgeois Blues" are the most successful examples), but only Josh made it the centerpiece of his work.

In 1941, Josh White was 27 and had already lived out two previous musical careers. He had spent his childhood traveling around the South as "lead boy" for blind blues and gospel singers, making his first recordings at age 14 with the streetcorner evangelist Blind Joe Taggart. Then, in the early 1930s, he had settled in Harlem and became a solo artist, his records influencing a generation of players in the southeastern states (both Blind Boy Fuller and John Jackson covered his songs and guitar arrangements). These early recordings were pretty standard blues and gospel fare, though his guitar work was already outstanding and he was the only artist to have simultaneous success in the sacred and secular markets, recording gospel under his own name and blues as "Pinewood Tom." Only one of his 1930s records hinted at his future direction: in 1936 he put out "No More Ball and Chain" backed with "Silicosis Is Killin’ Me," two songs by a populist country songwriter, Bob Miller. Miller was a link between what was then called "hillbilly" music and the progressive New York scene, working with the Appalachian ballad singer and union organizer Aunt Molly Jackson and later the Almanac Singers, but his collaboration with Josh was brief. They might have done more work together, but, shortly after making the record, Josh cut his right hand so severely that he was unable to play for the next four years.

It was with the Almanacs that he first recorded for Keynote Records, an outgrowth of New Masses magazine, and in 1941 the label released his most influential album of the period, Southern Exposure: An Album of Jim Crow Blues. This time, the songs were all original compositions, collaborations between Josh and the Harlem Renaissance poet Waring Cuney. It was the first full-fledged Civil Rights record album, and there would never be another with so much popularity or impact. The title song gives an idea; written to the tune of "Careless Love," it was the lament of a Southern sharecropper:

Well, I work all the week in the blazin’ sun, (3x)
Can’t buy my shoes, Lord, when my payday comes.

I ain’t treated no better than a mountian goat, (3x)
Boss takes my crop and the poll takes my vote.

The rest of the material, most of it in a straightforward 12-bar blues framework, included "Jim Crow Train," Bad Housing Blues," and "Defense Factory Blues." The latter was typical, a hard-hitting attack on wartime factory segregation with lines like, "I’ll tell you one thing, that bossman ain’t my friend/ If he was, he’d give me some democracy to defend." Harlem’s main newspaper, the Amsterdam News, devoted two articles to the album’s release, rating it as a work that "no record library should be without" and emphasizing the painful familiarity of the subject matter: "All of you know the guy who ëwent to the defense factory trying to find some work to do . . .’; and over there on 133d St. and Park Ave., and down in Mississippi and out in Minnesota, we all have a brother or a sister or a cousin who can wail: ëwoke up this mornin’ rain water in my bed. . . . There ain’t no reason I should live this way. . . I’ve lost my job, can’t even get on the WPA.’"

(Thanks to Elijah Wald, Living Blues magazine, for the information.)

(224 kbps, front cover included)

VA - History of Carnival: Christmas, Carnival, Calenda & Calypso from Trinidad 1933-1939 [Matchbox, 1991]

"History of Carnival: Christmas, Carnival, Calenda and Calypso from Trinidad, 1933-1939" is a collection of original 78rpm recordings released by Matchbox Records in 1991. 

The compilation was produced by John Cowley and Dick Spottswood who should be well-known to calypso fans as collectors, discographers and researchers of Trinidadian music in the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st. 

They are responsible for other top-notch calypso collections released via Rounder, New Cross, and Heritage labels. 

This album draws together varying forms of Trinidadian song from the pre-WW2 era, considered the first golden age in the island's history of recorded music.


Tracklist:

01 - Attila the Hun - "History of carnival"
02 - Wilmoth Houdini - "Way down sobo"
03 - King Radio and the Tiger - "Millington"
04 - Attila the Hun - "Archie boulay"
05 - the Lion - "Hojoe"
06 - the Attila - "Zingue talala"
07 - John Buddy Williams & his Blue Rhythm Orchestra - "Barre-a-oh"
08 - Lord Invader - "Demasbar"
09 - King Radio - "Matilda"
10 - the Lion - "Buddy Abraham"
11 - the Caresser - "Madame khan"
12 - Al Philip iere Syncopators - "Play mass don't do me that"
13 - Lionel Belasco & his Orchestra - "Juliane"
14 - the Executor - "Christmas is a joyful day"
15 - the Lion - "Netty netty"
16 - Lord Beginner - "Christmas morning the rum had me yawning"

Sonntag, 8. Januar 2023

Hazel O´Connor - Sons & Lovers (1980)

"Sons & Lovers" was Hazel O'Connor's second album, released also in 1980. The album didn't have the same impact of its predecessor as it was felt like a rushed release hot on the heels of her first album.

However, that didn't stop the album from spawning memorable hits such as D-Days (#10 in the U.K.). This song was inspired by one trip Hazel did to a London night club where she met a lot of bizarre looking people.

The album follows pretty much the same line of her previous album, New Wave with intelligent lyrics and saxophones thrown in the songs, but it's worth a listen.


Tracklist:


D-Days 3:10
Waiting 2:33
Who Will Care? 3:18
Zoo 4:32
Gigolo 2:41
Do What You Do 4:36
Sons And Lovers 4:38
Glass Houses 3:19
Ain't It Funny 3:57
Danny Boy 2:30
Bye Bye 3:18
Time (Ain't On Our Side) 3:17


Hazel O´Connor  - Sons & Lovers (1980)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Samstag, 7. Januar 2023

Swell Maps - International Rescue (1999)

Noisy and experimental, Britain's Swell Maps experienced little commercial success during the course of their chaotic career, but in hindsight they stand as one of the pivotal acts of the new wave: not only was the group an acknowledged inspiration to the likes of Sonic Youth and Pavement, but their alumni -- most notably brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks -- continued on as key players in the underground music community.

You'll have to be a pretty major Swell Maps fan to make heads or tails, at a glance, out of which songs on this 20-track compilation you may already have. It's all over the Swell map, including four songs that have never been on CD [including "Dresden Style (City Boys)," which was on a single]; three that have never been released anywhere; three "unreleased mixes"; and a few songs that appeared on U.K. singles ("Let's Build a Car," "Real Shocks," "Read About Seymour"). 

It doesn't really succeed as either a representative overview compilation or a rarities disc. Approached on its own terms -- which you might want to do if this happens to be the first, or only, Swell Maps album you get -- it's decent arty punk that's too monochromatic to sustain burning interest over the course of the lengthy program. It does have a heartier sense of joie de vivre than much U.K. punk/new wave of the period, particularly in the vocals.


Tracklist:
1 International Rescue 2:24
2 Real Shocks 2:16
3 Let's Build A Car 3:01
4 Black Velvet 1:59
5 Ammunition Train 3:30
6 Ripped & Torn 1:47
7 Secret Island 4:35
8 Read About Seymour 1:29
9 Get Down And Get With It 1:29
10 Spitfire Parade 3:11
11 New York 3:19
12 Forest Fire 3:02
13 Winter Rainbow 3:40
14 Dresden Style (City Boys) 2:30
15 Off The Beach (Spilling Coffee) 2:23
16 One Of The Crowd 2:21
17 Vertical Slum 1:14
18 H.A.K. 1:22
19 I Really Love You 2:13
20 Hey Johnny! Where's The Chewing Gum? 1:11

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Freitag, 6. Januar 2023

Ruts DC - Animal Now (1981)

While it’s impossible to envisage what The Ruts could have achieved had their career not been curtailed by singer Malcolm Owen’s tragic death from a heroin overdose in July 1980, it’s safe to say that the remaining trio’s subsequent recordings as Ruts DC (or Da Capo) have been significantly under-valued.

Originally released on Virgin in May 1981 and at long-last awarded CD status with detailed sleevenotes from music writer Alex Ogg, the band’s debut, Animal Now, initially copped a lot of critical flak, primarily due to bassist Segs Jennings taking over lead vocals. Yet while he couldn’t realistically compete with the charismatic Owen, that hasn’t prevented the album from growing in cult stature since.
The edgy Mirror Smashed, strident No Time To Kill and epic single Different View all sound like logical extensions of the classic Ruts sound of The Crack and aptly demonstrate why Hayes’ finest were always leagues ahead of the three-chord punk chancers.

Elsewhere, hints of 50s rockabilly (Walk Or Run), tense, atmospheric pop (Dangerous Minds) and even
avant-garde flecks (the atonal piano solo by sax/keyboard alumnus Gary Barnacle on Despondency) are hungrily absorbed. It is, however, the immaculate punky reggae militancy of Fools that points the way to the brilliant dubwise stylings of the second lost Ruts DC classic: 1982’s Mad Professor collaboration
Rhythm Collision. (from: https://recordcollectormag.com/)


Tracklist:

"Mirror Smashed" 3:27
"Dangerous Minds" 3:34
"Slow Down" 4:23
"Despondency" 3:48
"Different View" 4:01
"No Time To Kill" 4:37
"Fools" 6:34
"Walk Or Run" 3:28
"Parasites" 5:25

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Gesammelte Werke

Lokomotive Kreuzberg was a Berlin based polit-rock band, who were launched onto the scene in early 1972 with enthusiastic help from Floh De Cologne.

They played funky krautrock with a lot of folk rock included. Gong and Mother Gong is a very good reference. The music is mainly built around the lyrics and their message to the left wing scene. The band breaks out into gospel and Canterbury prog at the twenty minutes long "Mountain Town" epic.

This "best of" compilation was released in 1994 on the Pläne label.

Tracklist:

1. Frühmorgens (3:42)
2. Leise Sohlen (3:35)
3. Fette Jahre (5:34)
4. Come Back (2:44)
5. Verfassungslied (3:00)
6. Tempo Mann (4:03)
7. Hand in Hand im Park (3:51)
8. Hey Mr. Amerika (4:46)
9. (a) Mountain Town, (b) Mountain Town Song (20:35)
10. Requiem (3:17)

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Gesammelte Werke
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Mittwoch, 4. Januar 2023

Creation Rebel - Historic Moments, Vol. 2 (1994)

"Historic Moments, Vol. 2" is little more than a bonus-tracked reissue of "Starship Africa", the 1978 DJ Superstar album that, unreleased at the time, was remixed and revamped for release in 1980. As such, it remains one of the most intriguing albums in the Adrian Sherwood catalog, not only because of the continuing hope that the original vocal takes might be released someday, but also because things don't get freakier than this. 

Comparisons with Tangerine Dream and the Grateful Dead long ago established Starship Africa as the dub world's answer to Dark Side of the Moon, a spaced-out suite that transports you to other worlds whether you want to go there or not; it comes, therefore, as something of a shock when the bonus tracks kick in, and earth reappears via three distinctly misplaced cuts from "Threat to Creation", plus "In I Father's House," a booming assault by the legendary Prince Far I, previously available only in Japan. 

Overcome those shocks, however, and every accolade poured onto the original "Starship Africa" remains as valid as it ever was. This truly is an album for the ages.


Tracklist:

1 Space Movement Section 1 4:58
2 Space Movement Section 2 5:14
3 Space Movement Section 3 4:31
4 Space Movement Section 4 3:17
5 Space Movement Section 5 0:55
6 Space Movement Section 6 8:50
7 Space Movement Section 7 4:07
8 Space Movement Section 8 4:13
9 Space Movement Section 9 4:31
10 Chemical Specialist 4:18
11 Threat To Creation 3:34
12 Last Sane Dream 3:21
13 In I Father's House 3:50

Tracks 1 to 9 originally released on the LP "Starship Africa".
Tracks 10 to 12 originally released on the LP "Threat To Creation".

Tracks 1-9 bore different titles when originally released on the album "Starship Africa."
Tracks 1-5 were entitled "Starship Africa Section <1-5>," and tracks 6-9 were entitled "Space Movement <1-4>.

Louis Armstrong - Swing Low Sweet Satchmo (1958)

"Swing Low Sweet Satchmo" is an unusual album in the Louis Armstrong canon - this collection of gospel songs, spirituals and homilies was the only religious album this determinedly secular musician recorded.
Backed by a gospel vocal group led by the celebrated jazz arranger Sy Oliver, Armstrong performs a variety of religious-themed favorites, including "Ezekiel Saw De Wheel" and "Didn't it Rain". There's also an affecting version of the traditional spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child".

Tracklist:

A1 Down By The Riverside
A2 Go Down Moses
A3 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
A4 Rock My Soul
A5 Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
A6 On My Way
B1 Didn't It Rain
B2 Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen
B3 Ezekiel Saw The Wheel
B4 Shadrack
B5 Jonah And The Whale
B6 This Train

Louis Armstrong - Swing Low Sweet Satchmo (1958)
(320 kbps, cover art included)