Bad Brains – Attitude • The ROIR Sessions (1982)

More than one writer has called the Bad Brains' incendiary 1982 debut the definitive hardcore album, which certainly testifies to its strengths while also overlooking how different the group was from the other bands on the nascent hardcore punk scene, as well as those who followed. 

As powerful and exciting as hardcore could be, many of the key groups in its first wave were made up of young players who embraced speed and impact because they lacked the experience or skill to give their performances nuance. Bad Brains, on the other hand, were mature musicians who had the chops and the imagination to play whatever they wanted; fast and loud wasn't the only option open to them, which is why they could use it as a tool rather than a blunt instrument. Dr. Know's guitar work showed a deep knowledge of hard rock riffage when he dropped a concise solo into the maelstrom of one of their songs, while bassist Darryl Jennifer and drummer Earl Hudson could actually groove in fifth gear, lacking the stiffness that was the curse of too many punk bands trying to break the sound barrier. 

Like most hardcore acts, Bad Brains sang at length about the injustices and frustrations they saw in their daily lives, but as African-Americans and Rastafarians, their outlook on oppression and a broken society came from a place the white suburban teenagers who were the backbone of most hardcore bands had never experienced. Their rage was more purposeful, and their embrace of "Positive Mental Attitude" was emblematic of a survival instinct and a desire for a larger justice rather than simply shouting for its own sake, and the depth of H.R.'s fevered howl was the right instrument to articulate this. Bad Brains had the gift to write anthems rather than just rants, and though their detours into reggae weren't always as immediately satisfying as their punk rock, their ability to shift from one rhythmic extreme to another with confidence and ease demonstrated the depth of their relationship with time. Bad Brains' only real flaw is the low-budget production and engineering, which documents the deep-focus ferocity of the performances but doesn't make it easy to focus on the details (an advantage their second LP, the Ric Ocasek-produced Rock for Light, has over the debut), which was even more of a problem in its original cassette-only release. Still, if the audio is not all it could be, the songs and the performances are dazzling and inspiring in their fury, and Bad Brains remains the gold standard of American hardcore, a warp-speed cry of rage and hope.


Tracklist:

1 Sailin' On 1:56
2 Don't Need It 1:07
3 Attitude 1:19
4 The Regulator 1:08
5 Banned In D.C. 2:10
6 Jah Calling 2:33
7 Supertouch / !!!!Fit 2:31
8 Leaving Babylon 4:12
9 Fearless Vampire Killers 1:07
10 I 2:05
11 Big Take Over 2:57
12 Pay To Cum 1:25
13 Right Brigade 2:26
14 I Luv I Jah 6:23
15 Intro 0:17

Bad Brains - Attitude - The ROIR Sessions (1982)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Víctor Jara - El Derecho De Vivir En Paz (1971)

Chileans are voting today in a referendum on whether to adopt a progressive new constitution that would enact broad institutional reforms, transforming a market-driven society into one that is more welfare-based.

"El derecho de vivir en paz" ("The right to live in peace") is an album by Víctor Jara released in 1971.

The title song from this album,"El derecho de vivir en paz" (The right to live in peace), was originally dedicated to the Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh, as the United States waged war in Vietnam. After the Pinochet regime took power in Chile, Victor Jara was subsequently tortured and murdered. 

In the wake of Jara’s death, “El Derecho de Vivir en Paz” has since served as a chilling memento for the Chilean people. 

The song was widely sung by protesters during the 2019 Chilean protests including by a people's ensemble of almost a thousand guitarists. Subsequently to lend their support to the protesters, Chilean musicians living around the world released their own version on Facebook. Another rendition of the song was released by a Chilean all-stars ensemble with artists including Francisca Valenzuela, Mon Laferte and Gepe to show their support for the Chilean resistance.


Tracklist:

"El derecho de vivir en paz" [The right to live in peace] – 4:34
"Abre la ventana" [Open your window] – 3:55
"La partida" [The departure] – 3:26
"El niño yuntero" [Boy of the Yoke] (Miguel Hernández, Jara) – 3:44
"Vamos por ancho camino" [Making our way via broad avenues] (Jara, Celso Garrido Lecca) – 3:17
"A la molina no voy más" [I won't go back to the mill] (popular Peruvian song) – 3:13
"A Cuba" [To Cuba] – 3:59
"Las casitas del barrio alto" [lit. Uptown neighbourhood, adap. of Little Boxes] (Malvina Reynolds, Jara) – 2:30
"Con el alma llena de banderas" [Our hearts are full of banners] – 4:00
"Ni chicha ni limoná" [Nor fish nor fowl] – 3:23
"Plegaria a un labrador" [Prayer to a laborer] – 3:16
"B.R.P." [Brigada Ramona Parra] (Jara, Víctor Rojas, Lecca) – 3:14

Víctor Jara -  El Derecho De Vivir En Paz (1971)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Felt - Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty (1982)

Felt's first album, 1982's "Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty", is skeletal and mysterious, equally influenced by the intellectual New York City scene of the '70s and the gloomy psychedelia of the '60s while laying out in very clear terms the vision of the band's frontman, Lawrence. The songs are built around the dueling guitar interplay of Lawrence and the very skilled Maurice Deebank, whose silvery filigrees dart around Lawrence's strums like flashes of baroque lightning. 

The two guitarists build intricate structures of sound that jangle like bells, cut like knives, and are buffered perfectly by Gary Ainge's muffled tom-toms and Nick Gilbert's simple basslines. 

The instrumentals that make up a chunk of the album are majestic and strange, with the guitars twinning together in epic cathedrals of sound, the drums thundering, and the bass wandering about below. They are lovely moments of atmosphere between the songs that feature Lawrence's pain-wrecked, buried-in-the-mix vocals. He's not the assured vocalist that he became later, but his barely audible vocals fit the subdued mood and cloudy melancholic drama just right. Most of the songs are structureless and loose, with the band repeating chords and parts while Lawrence mutters bitter poetry under his breath, but occasionally a clear melody escapes ("Cathedral") or the band works up a head of steam that Lawrence matches with some strong vocal work (the almost poppy "I Worship the Sun").

Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty is an auspicious debut that's very much a band effort, with each member pulling his weight and turning in exciting, expressive performances. The record showed Felt standing pretty much alone as sonic innovators and as a band that could break one's heart with an arpeggio, a sad melody, or a well-turned phrase.

Tracklist:

Evergreen Dazed
Fortune
Birdmen
Cathedral
I Worship The Sun
Templeroy

Felt - Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty (1982)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Reinhard Mey - Starportrait (1977)

The German liedermacher Reinhard Mey rose to prominence in France and Germany as one of the most well-known and beloved singer/songwriters of his generation. He was born in Berlin on December 21, 1942, and learned how to play the piano and guitar at an early age. His first foray onto the stage came when he joined a skiffle group, Les Trois Affamés. His group was invited to play a liedermacher festival at Burg Waldeck in 1965, and the gig eventually led to Les Trois Affamés' first record deal. Mey released his first solo album in 1967, and he dropped out of university in order to pursue music. It was a career that would span well over four decades; Mey released over 20 albums in the 40 years following his debut, gaining audiences throughout Germany, France, and Holland.

Mey writes both sensitive and humorous songs, with subject matter taken mostly from his everyday life and surroundings. His themes include life on the road, his hobbies (e.g., flying), childhood memories, his family life and surroundings, and occasionally politics. Many of his songs are humorous and demonstrate Mey's extraordinary linguistic versatility. Mey's songs are characterized most by their expressiveness of language and their penetrating melodies.
Mey's politics tend to be moderate to left-leaning. He speaks out in particular for freedom and non-violence, and not only in his songs (for example, he participated in a demonstration at the beginning of 2003 against the coming war in Iraq). Strongly influenced by the French chanson, Mey's political songs were relatively scarce among his works at the beginning, but they have increased in quantity over time, such that there is usually at least one song on each new album that concerns itself with politics. His 2004 album, Nanga Parbat, for example, includes "Alles OK in Guantanamo Bay", a song critical of the U.S. detention facility on the island of Cuba.

The compilation "Starportrait" was released in 1977 as a double album, featuring recordings from 1968 to 1975.

 Tracklist, LP 1:

1.	Ich wollte wie Orpheus singen	2:19
2.	Die drei Musketiere	2:15
3.	Rouge ou noir	2:55
4.	Das Lied von der Spieluhr	3:35
5.	Trilogie auf Frau Pohl	5:19
6.	Ich denk' es war ein gutes Jahr	3:46
7.	Irgendwann, irgendwo	2:19
8.	Aus meinem Tagebuch	3:00
9.	Du, meine Freundin	2:52
10.	Ich bin aus jenem Holze geschnitzt	3:10
11.	Der Mörder ist immer der Gärtner	4:49
12.	Komm, gieß' mein Glas noch einmal ein	4:10

Tracklist, LP 2:

1.	Annabelle, ach Annabelle	4:03
2.	Schade, daß Du gehen mußt	4:22
3.	Die heiße Schlacht am kalten Büffet	3:16
4.	Mann aus Alemannia	5:30
5.	Herbstgewitter über Dächern	3:13
6.	Gute Nacht, Freunde	2:51
7.	Über den Wolken	3:45
8.	Wie vor Jahr und Tag	4:36
9.	Ich bin Klempner von Beruf	3:25
10.	Es gibt keine Maikäfer mehr	4:12
11.	Wie ein Baum, den man fällt	3:43
12.	Es schneit in meinen Gedanken	3:33

Reinhard Mey - Starportrait (1977)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

The Replacements - Hootenanny (1983)

"Hootenanny" is the place where the Replacements began to branch out from the breakneck punk that characterized their first two records -- which isn't quite the same thing as growing up, however. The brilliant thing about "Hootenanny" is that it teeters at the brink of maturity but never makes the dive into that deep pool. Paul Westerberg nevertheless dips a toe into those murky waters with "Color Me Impressed," as good an angst-ridden rocker as he would ever write, and the heartbroken "Within Your Reach," which presented a break from the Replacements' past in its slower tempo, driven by a stiff yet sad drum loop, and its vulnerability. Not long after this, Westerberg's vulnerability would become central to the 'Mats, although here he's keeping it way in check, but "Hootenanny" has something better to offer than a collection of soul-searching ballads: it offers the manic, reckless spirit so key to the Replacements' legend. All the myths of the Replacements at their peak speak to how it seemed like anything could happen at one of their shows, how Bob Stinson could blow out his amplifiers, how Westerberg would stumble through impromptu kitsch covers, how it could seem like the band would never make it to the end of the show. 

Well, "Hootenanny" is the only record of theirs where it seems like they may not make it to the end of the album, so ragged and reckless it is. It lurches to life with the folk piss-take "Hootenanny" before spinning out of control with "Run It," a piece of faux-core harder and funnier than anything on Stink. Hootenanny continues to bounce from extreme to extreme, stopping for a Beatles parody on "Mr. Whirly" and the instrumental "Buck Hill" before Westerberg reads out personal ads on "Lovelines." Almost all of the album's 12 songs could be seen as slight on their own merits, but the whole is greater than its individual parts, not just in how it is a breathless good time, but how this album offers a messy break from American punk traditions, ushering in an era of irony and self-deprecation that came to define much of American underground rock in the next decade. Nowhere is the Replacements' influence clearer than on "Hootenanny", and although they made better records, no other one captures what the band was all about better than this. (amg)


Tracklist:

Hootenanny 1:51
Run It 1:10
Color Me Impressed 2:26
Willpower 4:22
Take Me Down To The Hospital 3:47
Mr. Whirly 1:52
Within Your Reach 4:25
Buck Hill 2:07
Lovelines 2:00
You Lose 1:44
Hayday 2:10
Treatment Bound 3:12

The Replacements - Hootenanny (1983)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Víctor Jara - 1974 - Manifiesto - Chile September 1973 (Canciones Póstumas)

Victor Jara was murdered 52 years ago, September 16, 1973, during a military coup in Chile.

Victor Jara was not, unlike thousands of other Chileans, one of General Pinochet’s ‘disappeared’. Indeed, Jara’s body — once the dictator’s secret police had finished with him — actually turned up, dumped outside Santiago’s Metropolitan Cemetery. He had been killed a few days after the assassination of President Allende by the Pinochet-led junta; Jara’s ‘crime’ had been one of visibility.

The son of peasants from southern Chile, Jara was a multi-talented man who had worked in theatre before fully turning his attentions to songwriting. Taking as his theme an earthy socialism, his career strove to put music at the heart of political change. ‘My guitar is a worker/Singing and smelling of spring,’ he sings in ‘Manifiesto’, written and recorded in 1973, the year of his death. ‘It is not for killers.’

Compiled from several recording sessions held between 1968 and 1973, "Manifiesto" was originally brought out in 1974. 

Jara’s songs have aged well. With minimal ornamentation (some percussion here, some panpipes there), his voice conceals in its light tenor a conviction and humanity that is undiminished through time or language. While his songs are very much of their time and place, they are unlike much politically orientated music in their vivacity and emotion. Jara may place an overt faith and optimism in the people, but there is nothing formulaic or hectoring here. Rather, there is an intimacy that characterizes songs for both individuals and crowd. 

When Joan Turner Jara was exiled from Chile with her two daughters, she was carrying the last recordings of Victor, including his musical testament "Manifiesto", that gives the name to this album, released in 1974 in England by Logo Records, Transatlantic, XTRA 1143. This album probably is the strangest of all "original" Victor Jara releases, since Joan reads the English translation of some of the songs - before, after or overdubbung the original tunes.

Here´s the original 1974 version of this album, which was re-released with some changes in the following years, until Warner released a "final" version in 2001.


Tracklist:

01. Te Recuerdo Amanda (2:29,  includes reading theme translated by Joan Jara, during performance of the song by Victor Jara

02. Canto Libre (4:53)
03. Aqui Me Quedo (3:00,  Joan introduces the topic)
04. Angelita Huenuman (4:02)
05. Ni Chicha Ni Limona (3:21)
06. La Plegaria A Un Labrador (3:50, Joan introduces the topic)
07. Introduction to "Cuando Voy Al Trabajo", translated by Joan Jara
08. Cuando Voy Al Trabajo (4:33)
09. El Derecho A Vivir En Paz (4:31)
10. Introduction to "Vientos Del Pueblo", translated by Joan Jara
11. Vientos Del Pueblo (3:09)
12. Manifiesto (5;45)
13. Reading "Manifiesto" translated by Joan Jara
14. La Partida (3:27) Instrumental
15. Chile Stadium (Estadio Chile) (3:52, reading English singer's posthumous text by the poet Adrian Mitchell

All lyrics are sung in Spanish. Joan Jara, Victor Jara's widow, translated the Spanish lyrics of tracks 1, 6, 8, 11 and 12 and recorded them. These are dubbed onto the start of the respective tracks.

Víctor Jara - 1974 - Manifiesto - Chile September 1973 (Canciones Póstumas)

(224 kbps, cover art included)

The Twinkle Brothers - Miss Labba Labba

It seems as though the Twinkle Brothers have been around since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of reggae.
Led by Norman Grant, the Twinkles began in the early '60s as a trio featuring Grant and his two brothers singing in the slick trio style similar to that of the Melodians and the Mighty Diamonds. In the early '70s, the group hooked up with the influential producer and arranger Bunny Lee, a union that produced a number of reggae hits including "We Can Do It Too" and "Miss Laba Laba." In 1975, the Twinkles released their best and most widely known record, Rasta Pon Top, a rasta-infused, roots-heavy demi-masterpiece that included soul and gospel vocal stylings within the deep grooves.

Although hardcore reggae audiences were the principal fans of the Twinkle Brothers, Grant and company were consistently releasing chart-topping records. As much as this brought great success to the band, it also created a significant amount of friction, as Grant began seeing himself more as a solo act and less as a member of a trio.

The album Miss Labba Labba was released in 1977 on the Roots Music International label.

Tracklist:                           

A1	Miss Labba Labba	3:21
A2	It's Not What You Know	4:46
A3	Different Strokes	3:21
A4	Feeling Irie	3:14
A5	Too Late	3:45
B1	There Is No Peace	3:10
B2	Self Praise	3:08
B3	Jah Army	3:28
B4	Love, Sweet Love	3:14
B5	Down Came The Rain	4:48
B6	Do Your Own Thing	3:56

The Twinkle Brothers - Miss Labba Labba
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Vietnam Veterans - The Days Of Pearly Spencer (1988)

Thanks to a friend bringing back "The Vietnam Veterans" to my attention (by the way, greetings to all pudels out there!), here´s another band that was really on heavy rotation on my record player through the 80s and 90s.

"The Vietnam Veterans" were a six-person french band, playing a very unique and fantastic psychedelic music style.

"Souls must have been sold for a performance like this", the "Bucketfull Of Brains" magazine once wrote about the Veterans great live album called "Green Peas".


The Vietnam Veterans - The Days Of Pearly Spencer
192 kbps

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Moonshot (1972)

For her seventh album, 1971's "She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina", Buffy Sainte-Marie and her producer, Jack Nitzsche, worked in five recording studios in New York, Los Angeles, and London, and came up with a varied collection ranging from her characteristic folk protest to rock featuring Neil Young and Crazy Horse as a backup band.

For her eighth album, 1972's "Moon Shot", she stuck to one city, Nashville, working with producer/arranger/bassist Norbert Putnam and some of the same studio musicians who appeared on Young's then-recently released country-rock LP "Harvest". But as the advance single of Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt's "Mister Can't You See" (which was well on its way to becoming Sainte-Marie's first Top 40 hit when the LP appeared) indicated, "Moon Shot" is, for the most part, a collection of pop/rock arrangements.

Sainte-Marie has not abandoned her primary political concern, the interests of Indians, but when she brings it up on this album, she has softened the message. "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo" is an upbeat love song that happens to involve Indians. "Native North American Child" is a celebration of Indian culture. And "Moonshot" is a playful reflection on the supposed wonders of Western science and technology that suggests "primitive" peoples actually may be far more advanced. Elsewhere, Sainte-Marie comes up with some appealing pop love songs, such as "You Know How to Turn On Those Lights" and the string-filled ballad "I Wanna Hold Your Hand Forever," worthy additions to the catalog of the songwriter who previously wrote "Until It's Time for You to Go." Sainte-Marie sings them in a gentle voice without the stridency and vibrato she sometimes uses, and Putnam and fellow arrangers Glen Spreen and Bill Pursell create lush settings for them. This is not the Buffy Sainte-Marie of her early political period, but the album demonstrates her versatility, and it works as an appealing pop effort.     

Tracklist:                                                       

A1	Not The Lovin' Kind
A2	You Know How To Turn On Those Lights
A3	I Wanna Hold Your Hand Forever
A4	He's An Indian Cowboy In The Rodeo
A5	Lay It Down
A6	Moonshot
B1	Native North American Child
B2	My Baby Left Me
B3	Sweet Memories
B4	Jeremiah
B5	Mister Can't You See

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Moonshot (1972)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us (1982)

An enduring figure who came to prominence in the early days of the English art rock scene, Robert Wyatt has produced a significant body of work, both as the original drummer for art rockers Soft Machine and as a radical political singer/songwriter.

This compilation of early-'80s singles includes some of Wyatt's finest work. Aside from "Born Again Cretin" (whose vocals recall the Beach Boys at their most experimental), all of it's non-original material that Wyatt makes his own with his sad, haunting vocals.

You could hardly ask for a more diverse assortment of covers: Chic's "At Last I Am Free" (given an eerie treatment with especially mysterious, spacy keyboards), the a cappella gospel of "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'," political commentary with "Trade Union," the Billie Holiday standard "Strange Fruit," Ivor Cutler's "Grass," and a couple of songs in Spanish.

Tracks:
01. Born Again Cretin
02. At Last I Am Free
03. Caimanera
04. Grass
05. Stalin Wasn´t Stallin´
06. Red Flag
07. Strange Fruit
08. Arauco
09. Trade Union
10. Stalingrad

Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us (1982)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Kurt Tucholsky - Chansons, Prosa, Briefe

Kurt Tucholsky (January 9, 1890 – December 21, 1935) was a German journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved in 1924 to Paris and in 1930 to Sweden.
Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of the Weimar Republic. As a politically engaged journalist and temporary co-editor of the weekly magazine Die Weltbühne he proved himself to be a social critic in the tradition of Heinrich Heine.
He was simultaneously a satirist, an author of satirical political revues, a songwriter and a poet. He saw himself as a left-wing democrat and pacifist and warned against anti-democratic tendencies - above all in politics, the military and justice - and the threat of National Socialism. His fears were confirmed when the Nazis came to power in 1933: his books were burned and he lost his citizenship.

Here is a collection of chansons, prose and letters by Kurt Tucholsky, performed by artists like Gisela May, Günter Pfitzmann, Helen Vita, Hanne Wieder, Grete Weiser, Kate Kühl and Ernst Busch.

Kurt Tucholsky - Chansons, Prosa, Briefe
(192 kbsp, ca. 99 MB)

There´s an interesting blog out there that contains a selection of the works of Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935), translated into English: http://kurttucholsky.blogspot.com/.

Ernst Busch - Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales (Aurora)

On July 18, 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as a revolt by right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco and spreads to mainland Spain. From the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco broadcasts a message calling for all army officers to join the uprising and overthrow Spain’s leftist Republican government. Within three days, the rebels captured Morocco, much of northern Spain, and several key cities in the south. The Republicans succeeded in putting down the uprising in other areas, including Madrid, Spain’s capital. 

In spite of their own government's refusal to oppose Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco (until Hitler signed his infamous non-aggression pact with Stalin, he was actually seen as a bulwark against the Red hoards by far too many Western pundits) young men and women from around the world came to Spain on their own to fight for the Republican cause.

The International Brigade was composed of German, American, Canadian, and others from across Europe who came to fight the fascists. Since their own governments had refused to aid the Republicans, and in some instances had tried their best to prevent people from doing so, it wasn't very surprising that the returning soldiers at the end of the war were ignored in their own countries.

Some, like the Germans and the Italian, had to become refugees because they couldn't go home.

"Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales" is another part of Ernst Busch´s recordings on the "Aurora" label between 1964 and 1974 for his wonderful "Chronicle of the first half of the 20st century in songs and ballads". It is the second collection in this series with ballads and hymns related to the fight of the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.

Tracklist:

A1		Mamita Mia
A2		Himno De Riego / Himno Republicana
A3		Los Campesinos
A4		Suite
A5		Vorwärts, Internationale Brigade
B1		Nuestra Bandera
B2		In dem spanischen Land
B3		Ballade der XI. Brigade
C1		Canto Nocturno En Las Trincheras
C2		An der Sierra-Front
C3		Die Thälmann-Kolonne
D1		Wie könnten wir je vergessen das Land
D2		Lincoln-Bataillon
D3		Am Rio Jarama, Februar 1937

The tracks of side A are recorded in a continous flow, so they are merged in one track.

Ernst Busch - Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales

(320 kbps, cover art included, vinyl rip)