Cosmic Psychos - Go The Hack (1989)

On this, Cosmic Psychos' third album -- released in 1989 on the Shagpile label, and a year later on Sub Pop, the band continues forth doing what it does best -- dirty, mean, simple, garagey punk rock & roll. Dr. Knighty's vocals and lyrics evince the rough-hewn stain of manual labor, tempered with a night out at the pub. In other words, this is a working man's rock band -- basic, uncomplicated, tough, but like Motörhead and Rose Tattoo, Cosmic Psychos are not without their sense of humor, especially on tracks like "Out of the Band." Go the Hack was the band's first album to gain any footing in the United States -- even if just in the underground. From this point on, the band never truly changed their formula. Honestly, that probably never mattered to them, either.


Tracklist:

A1 Lost Cause 3:26
A2 Rip'N'Dig 3:21
A3 She's Crackin' Up 1:53
A4 Out Of The Band 3:10
A5 Alright Tonite 2:59
B1 Pub 4:00
B2 Back In Town 2:38
B3 Elle 2:26
B4 Go The Hack 4:14

Cosmic Psychos - Go The Hack (1989)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Ras Michael: Dadawah - Peace and Love (1974)

Nyahbingi music in its purest form ist the music played at Rastafarian meetings or "grounations", and is based around a style of relentless drumming and chanting. Sometimes a guitar or horns are used, but no amplification at all is employed.

Though serious musicologists had made occasional field recordings of nyahbingi sessions, the first album to give the music the studio time it deserved, while remaining as true to its original forms are possible, was the triple LP set "Grounation" from Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari. This historic set has never been superseded, but the establishment of Rastafari as the dominant reggae ideology in the mid-1970s, plus the emergence of an audience for reggae albums that were more than collections of hit singles, created a climate in which more sets of nyabingi-based music could be produced.

The most noteworthy of these were by Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus. In 1975, Ras Michael´s group were joined by some of Kingston´s top studio musicians for the retrieving album "Dadawah - Peace & Love". Unique in its synthesis of musical forms and the length of its tracks, it uses traditional Rasta chants as its basic material, but subjects it to elements from the reggae mainstream, US funk and even rock.

"Dadawah" was a revelation, a stunning album that, across a mere four numbers, wove together a grounation feel, thick roots atmospheres, blues, rock, psychedelia, and deep Rastafarian devotion. Brilliantly produced by Lloyd Charmers, who also provided keyboards, with stunning work from guitarist Willie Lindo and the rhythm section of Paul Williams and Lloyd Parks, "Dadawah" remains one of the most exceptional albums of its, or any other, day. It is one of our favourite albums for the more quiet and thoughtful hours of the day:

Tracklist:

1. Run Come Rally

2. Seventy-Two Nations

3. Zion Land

4. Know How You Stand

Ras Michael - Dadawah - Peace And Love (1974)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Encuentro De La Canción Protesta. Casa de las Américas, Cuba (1967)

The term "nueva canción" was first mooted in public at a key event which took place in Cuba from 29 July until 10 August 1967: the "Encuentro de la Canción Protesta". This first international meeting of artist performing protest songs was organized by the "House of Americas". 

Fifty musicians from eighteen countries were given the opportunity to hear each other perform, exchange ideas and experiences, discuss the role of singer and song and establish friendships and contacts. Artist from four continents were brought together at a time of political upheavel in different parts of the world.

The appearance of Gerry Wolff, film actor and singer in the GDR, is another clue for the connection between the GDR song movement ("Singebewegung") and international revolutionary artists as mentioned before in the "Canto Libre" posting.

Daniel Viglietti, who participated in those days, said that "the meeting was an opportunity to discover that if you had fallen into the error of thinking we were alone, we were not alone". Singing in many languages, artists from all around the world expressed solidarity with the oppresed people and their fight for a better world.

The various stages reached in the development of movement in individual countries with different economic, social and political conditions and musical cultures had resulted in the usage of different terms: "Canción protesta", "canción comprometida", "canción politica revolucionaria" and "nueva canción". Other names used before and after include "canción folklórica", "cancion popular", "canción politica", "canciones de lucha y esperanze", "canto libre" and "canto nuevo".

Musicians, especially those who are members of, or allied to, the Communist Party, met intermittently before and after the Cuban "Encuentro" at Youth Festivals held every four years in the Socialst countries, as they also do at "International Festivals of Political Songs" held annualy in the GDR, at "Victor Jara Festivals", "Concert for Peace", various solidarity concerts and more recently "Nueva Canción" and "Canto Nuevo" Festivals held in Latin America. At the Cuban meeting, an "Encuentro", not a Festival, it was resolved that song should play an important role in the liberation struggles against North American imperialism and against colonialism, as it was agreed that song possessed enormous strength to communicate with the people and break down barriers, such as those of illiteracy, and taht in consequence it should be a weapon at the service of the people, not a consumer product used by capitalism to alienate them. Protest singers (as they continued to call themselves despite the debate) should be engaged in a constant enriching search for artistic quality, in itself a revolutionary activity. They should work amongst their people, confronting problems within their societies. For some of those involved this merely reflected what they wer doing already.

Tracklist:

01. Me gustan los estudiantes – Ángel Parra
02. A yime yo be Singing – Jean Lewis
03. Canción para mi América – Daniel Viglietti
04. Certainly Lord – Julius Lester
05. Mia cara moglie – Ivan Della Mea
06. Hasta siempre – Carlos Puebla
07. The ballad of Ho Chi Minh – Ewan Mccoll
08. Porque los pobres no tienen – Isabel Parra
09. Epigrama – Luis Cilia
10. The cutty wren – John Faulkner, Sandra Kerr y Terry Yarnell
11. Mi honda es la de David – Oscar Chávez
12. Vous – Martha Jean Claude
13. Bella ciao – Giovanna Marini, Elena Morandi e Ivan Della Mea
14. El pobre y el rico – Los Olimareños
15. Lettera del condennatto a morte – Elena Morandi
16. Juventud – Carlos Molina
17. Le coq chant – Onema Djamba Pascal
18. Lullaby for the times – Sandra Kerr
19. El mensú – Ramón Ayala
20. San Sang Ban – Tran Drung y Pham Duong
21. Der Hammer – Gerry Wolff
22. Coplas al compadre Juan Miguel – Alfredo Zitarrosa
23. Diguem no – Raimon
24. Coplera del viento – Oscar Matus y Armando Tejada Gómez
25. Hitler Ain’t Dead – Peggy Seeger
26. Coplas del pajarito – Rolando Alarcón

27. Hell no – Barbara Dane

VA -  Encuentro De La Canción Protesta. Casa de las Américas, Cuba (1967)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out! (1966)

One of the most ambitious debuts in rock history, Freak Out! was a seminal concept album that somehow foreshadowed both art rock and punk at the same time. Its four LP sides deconstruct rock conventions right and left, eventually pushing into territory inspired by avant-garde classical composers. Yet the album is sequenced in an accessibly logical progression; the first half is dedicated to catchy, satirical pop/rock songs that question assumptions about pop music, setting the tone for the radical new directions of the second half. Opening with the nonconformist call to arms "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," Freak Out! quickly posits the Mothers of Invention as the antithesis of teen-idol bands, often with sneering mockeries of the teen-romance songs that had long been rock's commercial stock-in-trade. Despite his genuine emotional alienation and dissatisfaction with pop conventions, though, Frank Zappa was actually a skilled pop composer; even with the raw performances and his stinging guitar work, there's a subtle sophistication apparent in his unorthodox arrangements and tight, unpredictable melodicism. After returning to social criticism on the first song of the second half, the perceptive Watts riot protest "Trouble Every Day," Zappa exchanges pop song structure for experiments with musique concrète, amelodic dissonance, shifting time signatures, and studio effects. It's the first salvo in his career-long project of synthesizing popular and art music, high and low culture; while these pieces can meander, they virtually explode the limits of what can appear on a rock album, and effectively illustrate Freak Out!'s underlying principles: acceptance of differences and free individual expression. Zappa would spend much of his career developing and exploring ideas -- both musical and conceptual -- first put forth here; while his myriad directions often produced more sophisticated work, Freak Out! contains at least the rudiments of almost everything that followed, and few of Zappa's records can match its excitement over its own sense of possibility. - allmusic.com



Tracklist:

Hungry Freaks, Daddy 3:27
I Ain't Got No Heart 2:30
Who Are The Brain Police? 3:22
Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder 3:31
Motherly Love 2:45
How Could I Be Such A Fool 2:12
Wowie Zowie 2:45
You Didn't Try To Call Me 3:17
Any Way The Wind Blows 2:52
I'm Not Satisfied 2:37
You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here 3:37
Trouble Comin' Every Day 6:16
Help, I'm A Rock (Suite In Three Movements) (8:37)
1st Movement: Okay To Tap Dance
2nd Movement: In Memoriam, Edgar Varese'
3rd Movement: It Can't Happen Here
The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet In Two Tableaus) (12:17)
I. Ritual Dance Of The Child Killers
II. Nullis Protii (No Commercial Potential)

Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out! (1966)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Chambers Brothers - Now (1966)

This nine-song, 41-minute album, originally released on the Vault label, was recorded live at performances at the Unicorn in Boston and the Ash Grove in Los Angeles.

The shows, from 1965, pre-dated the Chambers Brothers' signing to Columbia by more than a year, and capture the group just coming up as a major discotheque attraction, still retaining elements of their gospel roots on songs such as "Baby Don't Cry" and even "High Heel Sneakers."

The set includes a some basic rock & roll, "Long Tall Sally" and "Bonie Maronie," both highly animated in the playing as well as the singing, and stirring despite some moments of sloppiness, such as wrong notes, etc., but there's also some slow blues ("It's Groovin' Time," "C.C. Rider") present, which gives the group a chance to stretch out. The closing number, "So Fine," is about as perfect a song as the group generated during the early part of their history, showcasing their fine harmony singing, bluesy guitar work, and a rock steady beat in a performance that soars and surges for six solid minutes. This is one of the better-sounding live rock or soul documents of its period, captured in decent fidelity right down to the twisting guitar part in "Long Tall Sally" and about half of the vocals up fairly close as well. The band's sound is divided between the two channels, drums one on side, bass on the other, and the voices split between the two.              


Tracklist:

A1		Introduction To
A2		High Heel Sneakers
A3		Baby Please Don't Go
A4		What'd I Say
A5		Long Tall Sally
B1		Bony Maronie
B2		It's Groovin' Time
B3		You Don't Have To Go
B4		C.C. Rider
B5		So Fine

Chamber Brothers - Now (1966)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Thomas Hampson/Wolfram Rieger - Verboten und verbannt (Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Zemlinsky, Zeisl, Schönberg, Berg, Mahler)

"Verboten und verbannt" - "forbidden and banned" - a phrase used with Jewish composers whose music was proscribed by the Nazis brings to mind more than musical censorship, but also the atrocities that culminated in the Holocaust.

 

While some of the composers represented by this phrase died before the Third Reich, others lived through it, and like the works of their predecessors preserved on this recording, they endured the horrors of this dark period of the twentieth century. This recital is an attempt to use music of composers so wrongly branded and proscribed to reverse the situation and make the label “Verboten und verbrannt” into an emblem of their merit. The best explanation of the purpose of this recital from the 2005 Salzburg Festival is included in the liner notes by Gottfried Kraus:

"As in previous years, the programme extended over two evenings, the first of which featured Hampson alone, whereas for the second he was joined by femail colleagues who shared his commitment to the subject. In both he confronted his festival audience with the works of composers whom the National Socialists had banned, outlawed, driven into exile and in some cases even murdered. Both programmes were titled "Verboten und verbannt" ("Forbidden and Banned"). Hampson’s aim was not so much to engage on a political level with one of the darkest chapters in human history. Instead, he wanted to show that art is ultimately more powerful than evil and brute force. Many of the songs and composers’ names, especially in the second programme, may well have been unfamiliar to his Mozarteum audience, while even familiar works such as Mendelssohn’s "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges," which opened both programmes, functioning as a kind of motto, and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, which brought the first evening to a close, appeared in a new and different light when heard in their present context.The result was certainly not a lieder recital in the customary sense of the term, but a festival concert as it ought to be be, a distinction that it owed not only to the choice of programme and its intelligent structure but also to the way in which the audience was prepared. . . ."

This recording preserves the recital from 18 August 2005 and provides an excellent overview of the Lieder by a body of proscribed composers. With Mendelssohn’s "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges" (“On the wings of song”) opening the program, the connotes a conventional Lieder recital through the use of this familiar song that has been part of many such performances since its composition. Just the same Mendelssohn’s "Altdeutsches Frühlingslied" is another song that transcends the artificial boundaries connected to nationality and politics, but rather communicates the poet - and the composer’s - experience of rebirth. These and other selections of Mendelssohn’s songs evoke the nineteenth century, a time when Mendelssohn would have been known and admired, but hardly forbidden and banned. These songs anchor the recital in the tradition of the German Lied, an element that is wholly part of the culture in which the other composers worked. It was not an idiom for social, religious, or political activity, but rather an artistic milieu that crossed any of those artificial boundaries. This hardly means that prejudice or labeling were unknown. While it may have been less so for Mendelssohn, Mahler faced the anti-Semitic press, and the bias against his Jewish nationality certainly influenced the reception of his music in lifetime and afterward.

 

With Meyerbeer, the songs represent an unfamiliar side of the composer, who is known best for grand opera. The three selections chosen for this recital show Meyerbeer’s facility with the Lied in two settings of Heine and one of Michael Beer. The first two are somewhat conventional Lieder, but the third, "Menschenfeindlich" shows a more dramatic and, to a degree ironic, side of Meyerbeer. This song calls for a tight ensemble between the singer and the pianist, and the applause included in the recording demonstrates the audience’s appreciate for this bravura piece. Wit the songs of Zemlinsky that follow, the harmonic idiom is more complicated. Mit "Trommeln und Pfeifen", for example, Zemlinsky is a wonderfully colorful setting of Liliencron’s Wundhorn-like text, with modal inflections in the vocal line that underscore the sung text. Of Schoenberg’s Lieder, the setting of Viktor Klemperer’s verse in "Der verlorene Haufen" is highly evocative, and its proximity to Pierrot lunaire emerges in the passages of Sprechstimme and the pointillistic writing in the piano that underscores the vocal line in other places. Schoenberg’s proximity to Mahler and, by extension, the nineteenth-century Lied tradition may be found in his more conventional setting "Wie Georg von Frundsberg von sich selber sang" (“Mein Fleiß und Müh ich nie hab’ gespart”), with its text from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn".

The modernism that Schoenberg expressed in his songs is part of the idiom that Alban Berg adopted for his own style, and in so doing both created music that eventually became associated with artistic decadence. It is possible to hear Berg’s challenges to convention in even the early songs included in this recital, with a piece like "Schlummerlose Nächte" poised keenly between traditional structure and turn-of-the-century innovation. Other Lieder are, perhaps, less experimental, with the fine examples from the young composer Erich Zeisl being a bit anachronistic. Mahler has the final word with this set of five Rückert-Lieder found at the close. Four of the songs were on the program, with the last, "Liebst du um Schönheit" offered an encore.

This recording preserves essentially all of Hampson’s performances of this important part of the 2005 Salzburg Festival. It is no surprise to find Hampson balancing the attention to the lines of text with the execution of the musical line and never at the expense of one over the other. His phrasing of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder is exemplary, with the comfortable ensemble with Rieger apparent on those pieces and throughout the recording. It is a fine contrbituion on various counts, with the sometimes infrequently performed literature here executed masterfully. The focus of the recital itself merits attention for its supra-musical motivation whcih, in this live recording were hardly lost on the audience. The overall quality of the reproduction is fine, and while some of the audience and stage sounds sometimes intrude on several selections, such details contribute the sense of immediacy that the audience itself experienced. While music that was forbidden and banned by the Third Reich has been the subject of various books and articles, as well as London’s series of recordings labeled “Entartete Musik” - proscribed music - this concise exploration of the subject speaks volumes. - James Zychowicz

Thomas Hampson/Wolfram Rieger - Verboten und verbannt 

 

(192 kbps)

Ian & Sylvia - Live At Newport

Ian Tyson and Slyvia Fricker had first teamed up in the late 1950s in Toronto and had moved to the New York City folk scene at the start of the next decade where they were signed by Albert Grossman, who was better known as the manager of not only Bob Dyland and Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Besides their two-part harmonies, Ian & Sylvia were known for their wide ranging repertoire of songs, which included not only folk and country songs (e.g., "Some Day Soon"), but blues (e.g., "Maude's Blues (Losing Is An Easy Game"), bluegrass, spirituals, gospel, and even French-Canadian songs (e.g., "Un Canadien Errant").

Divided about equally between material from their appearances at the 1963 and 1965 Newport Folk Festivals, these 14 tracks present concert versions of many of the duo's best songs, including "You Were on My Mind," "Someday Soon," "Song for Canada," and "Four Strong Winds." Eric Hord adds lead acoustic guitar on the 1963 cuts; Rick Turner does the same on the ones from 1965.

Ian & Sylvia recorded studio versions of all of the songs on their '60s Vanguard albums, which makes this disc a sort of souvenir that's essential only for big fans, although the sound and performances are decent.

Tracklist:
1. Introduction: Ed McCurdy
2. Oh Katy Dear
3. Un Canadien Errant
4. V'Le Le Bon Vent
5. The Greenwood Sidie (The Cruel Mother)
6. Royal Canal
7. C.C. Rider
8. Red Velvet
9. Song For Canada
10. Travelling Drummer
11. Someday Soon
12. Play One More
13. You Were On My Mind
14. Maude's Blues (Losing Is An Easy Game)
15. Four Strong Winds

Ian & Sylvia - Live At Newport
(ca. 192 kbps, cover art included)