Janis Joplin - Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI - July 27, 1968

The greatest white female rock singer of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her own with her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First rising to stardom as the frontwoman for San Francisco psychedelic band Big Brother & the Holding Company, she left the group in the late '60s for a brief and uneven (though commercially successful) career as a solo artist. Although she wasn't always supplied with the best material or most sympathetic musicians, her best recordings, with both Big Brother and on her own, are some of the most exciting performances of her era.

She also did much to redefine the role of women in rock with her assertive, sexually forthright persona and raunchy, electrifying on-stage presence.

Here´s a rare bootleg with her performance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, 1968.

Tracks:
01 Piece Of My Heart (Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns)
02 Summertime (DuBose Heyward, George Gershwin)
03 Coo Coo (Peter Albin)
04 Combination Of The Two (Sam Andrew)
05 Ball and Chain (Willie Mae Thornton)
06 Down On Me (Eddy Head, arr. Janis Joplin)
07 Piece Of My Heart (Reprise) (Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns)

BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY:
Sam Andrew - guitar
Peter Albin - bass
Jim Gurley - guitar
Dave Getz - drums

Janis Joplin - Newport Folk Festival, 1968
(320 kbps, front cover included)

"Fragt uns, wir sind die letzten" - "Ask us, we are the last" - Interviews with victims of the fascist regime

This weekend the annual Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht demonstration, initiated in the German Democratic Republic and continued in today’s conditions takes place on Sunday 15 January 2012, 10 am at Berlin Friedrichshain.

The demonstration commemorates the murder of the two leaders of the German workers movement by reactionary Freikorps on the orders of the Social Democrat minister Friedrich Ebert.

This gives cause for sharing "Ask us, we are the last, Vol. 1 & 2" - two booklets with memories of victims of the fascist regime and people form the anti-fascist resistance.
These memories are an important counterweight to prevailing images of history and also to those "Zeitzeugen" who apparently knew of nothing - especially not by their own fault.

These interviews are based not so much of a scientific, supposedly objective approach to history, but rather a personal one. How did people experience persecution and / or resistance? What lessons they drew from it? What were (and are) their motivation to engage against fascist ideology?

In a few years there will be no more possibilities of meeting people from persecution and resistance, The more urgent it is to get into conversation with those people to preserve their knowledge and make it available to the public. These booklets can´t replace historical scientific work or even a theoretical discussion. But they can make visible these marginalized perspectives that these perspectives.

"Fragt uns, wir sind die letzten - Ask us, we are the last"
(2 pdf booklets, german language)

Palais Schaumburg - Telephon / Kinder, der Tod (7", 1980)

Palais Schaumburg was a new wave band from Hamburg, Germany. The style was classified as Neue Deutsche Welle, and strongly characterized by their avant garde music and dadaistic attitude.

The band was originally formed in 1980, featuring Timo Blunck, Holger Hiller, Thomas Fehlmann, and percussionist F.M. Einheit. The group's name stands for Das Palais Schaumburg in Bonn, the former residence of German chancellor.

Einheit left the group, eventually to join Einstürzende Neubauten and was replaced by Ralf Hertwig prior to Palais Schaumburg's first full length album "Palais Schaumburg" which was produced by David Cunningham and released in 1981. Shortly after it was released, Hiller left the band and started his solo career. He was replaced with Moritz von Oswald and vocalist Walther Thielsch.

The group made several singles and albums throughout early 80's, where their avant garde sounds were heavily influenced by funk, especially in albums "Lupa" and "Parlez-Vous Schaumburg".

They eventually split up in 1984. All the members have been working on their solo careers.

Here´s a Palais Schaumburg single, released in 1980 on ZickZack.

Tracklist:
A Telephon
B Kinder, der Tod

Palais Schaumburg - Telephon/Kinder der Tod
(192 kbps,  no cover art included)

Prinzessinnengärten

Next Friday, November, 18, our friends from the Zero G Sound DJ Collective will spin again some records at the club "west germany" in Berlin-Kreuzberg. This time they will select reggae, rocksteady, ska and dancehall tunes.

Their dj-set will be a part of a nice event with live music and djs celebrating the urban gardening project "Prinzessinnengärten".

Nomadisch Grün (Nomadic Green) launched Prinzessinnengärten (Princess gardens) as a pilot project in the summer of 2009 at Moritzplatz in Berlin Kreuzberg, a site which had been a wasteland for over half a century. Along with friends, fans, activists and neighbours, the group cleared away rubbish, built transportable organic vegetable plots and reaped the first fruits of their labour.

For a video about the Prinzessinnengarten with english subtitles click here

 

Etoile de Dakar - Same (International Music, 1980)

Etoile De Dakar was one of the most influential bands to come out of Senegal. Best known for its work with vocalist Yassour N'Dour, a member from 1975 to 1978, the group created a Latin-tinged style of African pop that influenced such western artists as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon and David Byrne.

The roots of the Etoile De Dakar were planted in 1960 when Ibra Kasse, owner of the Miami Club in Dakar, assembled members of two bands -- Guinea Band De Dakar and Star Band De Senui - and created a supergroup, known initially as The Star Band. Although it reached its apex with the arrival of N'Dour in 1975, The Star Band splintered three years later when several members left with N'Dour to form Etoile De Dakar. Relocating to Paris in 1983, the group changed its name to Super Etoile.
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Etoile de Dakar - Same (International Music, 1980)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky!

Next Friday, November, 11, our friends from the Zero G Sound DJ Collective will spin some groovy and funky records at a nice little bar in Berlin-Kreuzberg, called Tante Horst. Check out their fine mix of soul, funk, jazz, rhythm´n´blues and have fun!

VA - STUC Centenary Album - If It Wisnae For The Union (1997)

"Words make you think, music makes you feel, a song can make you feel a thought" ~ Pete Seeger

This nice compilation with Union related songs was created to mark the Centenary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress. It shows the close relationship between trade unionism and traditional music in general, and between Scottish singers and musicians and the STUC in particular.

In every country in the world, where working people come together, they organise trade unions to defend an improve their working conditions. In every country in the world, the working people sing and make music about their victories and defeats, their joys and sorrows, laughter and tears.

Please check out  Brian McNeil's "Sell your labour, not your soul" song.

 
Tracks:
1. Battle of the Somme/Freedom Come All Ye - Dubliners, Luke Kelly
2. Four Stone Walls - Capercaillie
3. Both Sides the Tweed - Dick Gaughan
4. Ravenscraig - Runrig
5. If It Wisnae for the Union - Hamish Imlach
6. Bawbee Birlin' - Gordeanna McCulloch
7. James Connolly - Christy Moore
8. North by North
9. Contract - Eric Bogle
10. Gauteng - Mara Louw
11. I Am the Common Man - The Battlefield Band
12. Blantyre Explosion - Ewan MacColl
13. Farewell Tae the Haven - The McCalmans
14. Sell Your Labour, Not Your Soul - Brian McNeill
15. Three Nights & A Sunday - Matt McGinn
16. Mothers, Daughters, Wives - Judy Small
17. Te Recuerdo Amanda - Victor Jara
18. Stand Together - Ceolbeg

VA - STUC Centenary Album - If It Wisnae For The Union

(320 kbps, cover art and booklet included)

The Special A.K.A. - Nelson Mandela (extended version)

In this song Jerry Dammers of the Special A.K.A demands the release of the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela. He had been imprisoned by the South African government since 1964 on charges of sabotage and attempting to overthrow the government. Unsurprisingly this song couldn't be played freely in South Africa, however it helped install optimism within the black community there. Its success in Britain sparked an increasingly vocal campaign by the rock world to free Mandela, which culminated in the 1988 Mandela 70th birthday concert at Wembley Stadium in London. Prisoner no 46664 was finally released in February 1990 and became State President of South Africa in 1994.

Special A.K.A were fronted by former Specials songwriter and keyboardist Jerry Dammers. They were an offshoot of The Specials, after Terry Hall, Neville Staples and Lynval Golding had left the Ska band to form the Fun Boy Three. This was to be their only UK Top 40 hit.

 

Jerry Dammers told the Radio Times June 21-27 2008 about this song: "I knew very little about Mandela until I went to an anti-apartheid concert in London in 1983, which gave me the idea for 'Nelson Mandela,' I never knew how much impact the song would have; it was a hit around the world, and it got back into South Africa and was played at sporting events and ANC rallies-it became an anthem."

In the same Radio Times interview Dammers recalled finally meeting Mandela after a 1990 concert, which celebrated his release: "When I was introduced as the writer of 'Nelson Mandela,' he just said, 'Ah yes, very good.'"

 

Dammers told Uncut magazine January 2010 the story of the song: "It was a bit like the end of The Specials. When 'Nelson Mandela' came along, the band was falling to pieces. But I had this idea that I knew was really important, like 'Ghost Town.' so there was that desperation to get it down on tape, before the thing disintegrated completely. I wrote the tune to 'Nelson Mandela' before the lyrics. By that time, especially in London, rock music was dead. It was all electro-pop, hip hop, jazz or Latin. And also, Joe Hagen had this African club at Gossip's. I was inspired by the spirit and positivity of that African music. I was trying to get in a few Latin rhythms, but also township jazz. It was a very simple melody, three notes: C,A and E. That meant the public could sing it. And then I went to Nelson Mandela's 65th birthday party at Alexandra Palace. I'd never really heard of him, to be honest. Various bands sang about him, particularly Julian Bahula. And that's where I had the idea to put this message into this tune I had hanging around."

 

The Special A.K.A. - Nelson Mandela

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Sammy Walker - Songs From Woody's Pen (1979)

Sammy Walker (born July 7, 1952 near Atlanta, Georgia) is an American singer-songwriter. Influenced by the folk and country sounds of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams, Walker emerged in the mid 1970s with two albums for the Folkways label and two albums for Warner Brothers. While appearing on Bob Fass's radio show in 1975, he caught the ear of Phil Ochs, who was impressed by the young songwriter and agreed to produce his first album with Folkways. Walker recorded two albums for Warner Brothers under the tutelage of producer Nick Venet, and toured Europe in 1978 and again in 1986. After recording an album of Woody Guthrie songs in 1979, he did not record again until 1989. "Misfit Scarecrow" - the first album released by Sammy Walker in over twelve years - was released on July 22, 2008.

Sammy Walker recorded Songs from Woody’s Pen in 1979, twelve years after Woody Guthrie died due to complications from Huntington’s disease. Though the original recordings of these songs date back more than 30 years, Walker sings them in a traditional folk-revivalist manner reminiscent of Guthrie’s social conscience and sense of humor. Speaking of Guthrie, Sammy Walker said, "I can’t think of hardly anyone who has had as much influence on my own singing and songwriting as Woody." This is Walker’s enduring record of that influence.



Tracks:
01. The Grand Coulee Dam
02. Pastures Of Plenty
03. Talking Dust Bowl Blues
04. Deportee
05. Vigilante Man
06. Ramblin' Round
07. Jackhammer John
08. 1913 Massacre
09. Tom Joad
10. Philadelphia Lawer
11. Pretty Boy Floyd

Sammy Walker - Songs From Woody´s Pen (1979)
(ca. 200 kbps, cover art inlcuded)

Heidi Berry - Firefly (1987)

Heidi Berry cut a stark contrast to the prevailing musical mentality of the early '90s - despite releasing records on both Creation and 4AD, together the leading lights of the shoegazing and dream pop movements, her haunting, luminous folk-inspired sound instead harked back to the work of Sandy Denny and Nick Drake, complete with an earnestness and raw honesty far removed from her irony drenched times.

Heidi Berry's debut release, originally on Creation, sounds rather jauntier than her later efforts.
Firefly's folk/rock/pop confection, in its own way, anticipates the huge popularity of that combination in the 1990s among female vocalists - and grows out of similar roots of the past, as well. Berry's calm but not remotely cool singing is the most relaxed thing about the midpaced songs, which all have good energetic performances from her studio band. The songs all tend to resemble each other a touch - the waltz-time swing of "Houses Made of Wood" and the piano-led "Hasten the Buds to Bloom" are fine exceptions to this - but the overall pleasantness can't be faulted, and Berry's voice is simply quite enjoyable.

Standouts include the title track (with notable piano accompaniment) and "Nobody Tells on You," with an understated romantic wryness. Credit for the solid sound on the EP goes to both Berry as producer and her engineer

A1 Out Of My Hands 3:05
A2 Firefly 2:59
A3 Nobody Tells On You 3:35
B1 Will It All Change 3:25
B2 Houses Made Of Wood 3:01
B3 Hasten The Buds To Bloom 1:56
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Heidi Berry - Firefly (1987)
(320 kbps, front cover included)

VA - Calypso Calaloo, Early Carnival Music In Trinidad (Rounder)

Rounder Records deserves much praise for brightening up the often dull and familiar American pop musicscape with a flurry of releases that challenge our stereotypical view of "island music." This is particularly true of the music of Trinidad and Tobago, identified in the American popular mind with the synthetic Calypso-meets-disco sound of soca. While soca is a more complex and worthy genre than some opine, it's associated less with Calypso's social protest and hilariously witty innuendo than with less-graceful expressions like popular soca artist Arrow's sexual request in "Winey Winey" to "winey winey 'pon your pum-pum."

This fascinating CD puts the gleam on the fine old wood of the earliest Calypso songs, featuring wonderfully baroque orchestrations from the finest T&T Calypso orchestras from 1914 to the '50s, with elegant keyboard passages, swooning strings, snaking horns, exotic male choruses with African overtones, and the sublime vocals of seminal Calypsonians such as Lionel Belasco, Roaring Lion, Babb and Williams, Houdini, Lord Executor, and Lord Invader. This collection of treasures from the Smithsonian, other archives, and commercial studios transformed a series of tracks by the set's producers into a heady taste of carnival through the decades.

Calypso Calaloo is actually the aural accompaniment to Donald R. Hill's written volume Calypso Calaloo: Early Carnival Music in Trinidad, a fascinating account of that island's music pioneers, its world-famous annual carnival, and the culture that spawned it.
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VA - Calypso Calaloo - Early Carnival Music In Trinidad
(256 kbps, front cover included)

Tom Ashley & Tex Isley - Play and Sing American Folk Music (Folkways, 1966)

Biography:
"A medicine show performer in the 1910s and 1920s, Clarence (Tom) Ashley influenced the urban folk revival when his early recordings were included on the Folkways album Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952. Although he had retired from the medicine show circuit in 1943, he made a successful comeback in the early '60s when he recorded a pair of albums that introduced influential flatpicking guitarist Arthel "Doc" Watson.

Ashley, who took his last name from the maternal grandfather who raised him, was inspired by the jokes and songs that he heard played by transients who boarded in his family home. His mother's two older sister taught him songs and instructed him on the banjo. Joining his first medicine show in 1913, Ashley traveled by horse and buggy through the southern Appalachian region, playing songs while "the doc" sold his elixirs. In 1914, he married Hettie Osborne and settled in Shouns, TN.

Although he supplemented his income as a musician by farming and working at a sawmill, Ashley continued to perform. By 1927, Ashley was performing with numerous string bands, including the Blue Ridge Entertainers. He recorded as a member of Byrd Moore & His Hot Shots and the Carolina Tar Heels. His solo debut came in 1929 when he recorded "The Cuckoo Bird" and "The House Carpenter" for Columbia. Signed to a solo contract by both Columbia (as Clarence Ashley) and Victor (as Tom Ashley), he recorded for both labels until 1933.

Retiring from the medicine shows in 1943, Ashley bought a truck and, with his son J.D., hauled coal, furniture, and lumber. His performances were limited to working as a comedian with Charlie Monroe's Kentucky Partners and the Stanley Brothers.

While his songs were revived by string band instrumentalists in the 1950s, Ashley disappeared almost completely from the music scene. Attending the Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers Convention in 1960, he met folklorist Ralph Rinzler, who, with folk song collector Eugene Earle, set up a recording session at Ashley's daughter's home in Saltville, VA. Ashley invited Watson to accompany him on guitar. The session marked the acoustic guitar debut for Watson, who had previously played electric guitar in rockabilly and country bands. Beginning in 1961, Ashley and Watson, joined by fiddler Fred Price, performed at northern folk festivals, coffeehouses, and clubs. Their concert at New York'sTown Hall was recorded and released as their second album. Ashley recorded an additional album with fiddler Tex Isley."
-Allmusic.com



Tracklist:

May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonite Mister?
Rude and Rambling Man
Whoa, Mule
Faded Roses
Shout Little Lulu
The House Carpenter
I'm The Man That Rode The Mule Around The World
Wild Bill Jones
The Little Log Cabin in The Lane
Cluck, Old Hen
Frankie Silvers
The Prisoner's Song
Hard Luck Blues
Little Hillside

Tom Ashley & Tex Isley - Play And Sing American Folk Music (1966)
(224 kbps, cover art included)

Rex Jim Lawson - The Highlife King In London (vinyl rip, 1970)

Until his untimely death in the 1970s, Erekosima (Rex Jim) Lawson was a standard-bearer of the Nigerian highlife scene whose tunes achieved popularity across Africa. Of mixed Kalabari and Igbo parentage, he was born in the town of New Kalabar in present-day Rivers State, and got his start in Port Harcourt's Starlite Melody Orchestra, led by "Lord" Eddyson.

By 1960 he was leading his own group, the Nigeraphone Studio Orchestra of Onitsha and had played with the "big names" of Nigerian highlife - Bobby Benson, Roy Chicago, Victor Olaiya and others.

With his second group, the Majors Band of Nigeria (variously called the "Mayors Band," and in later years the "Rivers Men"), he scored innumerable hits over the sixties and early seventies, notably "Jolly Papa," "Adure," "Ibi na Bo," and many others. Of these, the biggest was "Sawale," in pidgen English, which has become an African music standard and been remade numerous times by various artists. Lawson's fluency in various languages and dialects has only enhanced his appeal across class and ethnic lines in West Africa.

Rex Jim Lawson - The Highlife King In London (1970)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Super Ensemble Webert Sicot – La Flèche D'or D'Haiti (1967)

Webert Sicot (1930 – February 1985) was an Haïtian sax player, composer and band leader. He is recognized as one of the creators of konpa dirèk, a style of Haïtian dance music born in the 1950s.

Sicot was born in Port-au-Prince, Haití, in 1930. He took his first musical lessons from Augustin Bruno. He made his debut as professional with Claudin Toussaint's Jazz Capois. He also worked with the groups Jazz des Jeunes and the Saieh orchestra, in the second half or the 1950s.

He founded with Nemours Jean-Baptiste the Conjunto Internacional and took part in the Citadelle orchestra and Casino Internacional Band. With Jean Baptiste, he created the konpa dirék, a variation of the Haïtian merengue. In 1961 he commenced a solo career and became one of the pioneers of cadence rampa. He played several instruments as trumpet, bass, piano and drums.

Sicot died in February 1985 and is considered as one of the most influentials band leaders in Haïtian popular music.

 

Super Ensemble Webert Sicot - La Fleche D´Or D´Haiti (1967)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

The Mighty Duke, Canary, Fighter, Blakie - This Is Calypso!

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song. This forged a sense of community among the Africans, who saw their colonial masters change rapidly, bringing French, Spanish and British music styles to the island of Trinidad. The French brought Carnival to Trinidad, and calypso competitions at Carnival grew in popularity, especially after the abolition of slavery in 1834. While most authorities stress the African roots of calypso, in his 1986 book "Calypso from France to Trinidad, 800 Years of History" veteran calypsonian The Roaring Lion (Rafael de Leon) asserted that calypso descends from the music of the medieval French troubadours.
Kelvin Pope, known in the Calypso world as 'The Mighty Duke', is a legendary Calypsonian whose work spans a period of over fifty years.

Born in 1930 in Point Fortin, south Trinidad, 'Duke' grew up in a period that was marked by striking workers who challenged the colonial authorities by protesting against working conditions, wages, racism and exploitation in the oilfields.

Growing up in this turbulent period would have a lasting impact on Kelvin Pope and the music that he would create in years to come.
He started his calypso career at a calypso tent in Point Fortin but moved to the Southern Brigade Tent in San Fernando in the early 1960s. He then joined the Original Young Brigade Tent in Port-of-Spain where he performed from 1964 to 1967. He won the National Calypso Crown four times: 1968 ("What Is Calypso" and "Social Bacchanal"); 1969 ("Black Is Beautiful" and "One Foot Visina"); 1970 ("Brotherhood of Man" and See Through"); and 1971 ("Mathematical Formula" and "Melvine & Yvonne"). He also won the Road March title in 1987 with "Thunder." He died in 2009.

Tracklist.
1 The Mighty Duke - What is Calypso ?
2 The Mighty Duke - Woman baccanal
3 Canary - Beatnik generation
4 Canary - Tribute to Luther King
5 Fighter - What you sow you reap
6 Fighter - Pom pom
7 Fighter - Send me instead
8 Blakie - Monica

9 Blakie - We ain't going back again

10 The Mighty Duke - Send them girls by me

The Mighty Duke, Canary, Fighter, Balkie - This Is Calypso!

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Amiri Baraka - New Music New Poetry (1980)

Poet, playwright, critic, and novelist Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoi Jones) is best known to the jazz community for his two books, "Blues People: Negro Music in White America", published in 1964, and "Black Music" in 1967, both as LeRoi Jones.

Long before this, however, Baraka was identified with the New York School of poets and the Beats (he was included in Donald Allen's seminal anthology "The New American Poetry"). His first book of poetry, "Preface to a Twenty-Volume Suicide Note" was published in 1961. With Diane Di Prima he founded and edited the legendary "Floating Bear" newsletter. Baraka founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater/School and won an Obie award for his play "Dutchman" in 1964. He was an outspoken leader in the Black Nationalist movement in the late '60s and was a close associate - as well as spiritual godfather - to the Black Panther Party.

He changed his name to Imamu Amiri Baraka, and later dropped "Imamu" (a Muslim word for "spiritual leader") in 1970. Remaining an activist, Baraka dropped his nationalist stance in 1974 and adopted a Marxist/Leninist one and is regarded as one of the most influential African-American writers of the 20th century.

With influences on his work ranging from artists as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane,
Thelonius Monk, and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements,
Baraka is renown as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became,
though short-lived, the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics.

He recorded the wildly controversial play "Black Mass" with Sun Ra & His Arkestra in 1968 (issued on the Jihad label) and the amazing "New Music New Poetry" with saxophonist David Murray in 1980 on India Navigation. Baraka has added one more volume to his shelf of music criticism, "The Music: Reflections on Jazz and Blues", which he and Amina Baraka, his wife, published in 1987. Baraka has taught at SUNY Buffalo and Columbia University, and he is currently a professor of Africana studies at SUNY, Stony Brook. He lives in Newark, NJ.

Amiri Baraka - New Music New Poetry (1980)
(230 kbps, cover art included)

Holiday break

It´s time for summer holidays - so there will be no new posts in the next two weeks. Have a nice time and enojoy yourself!

Tyrone Taylor - Move Up Blackman (1976, Wolf)

Although Jamaican singer Tyrone Taylor recorded in a series of styles and genres rooted in the Caribbean tradition, he remains best known for 1983's soulful lovers rock ballad "Cottage in Negril."

Born in rural St. Elizabeth in 1957, Taylor cut his first record at just 12, lending his rich, emotive voice to the Joe Gibbs-produced "Delilah." Although the song was later issued overseas as the flip side of the Dennis Walks hit "Having a Party," Taylor was less than pleased with the end result and briefly teamed with singer Vince Brown in the Soul Menders.

His initial struggles forced him to question the realities of a career in music, and he spent the next several years learning a series of instruments under local session players, chief among them the legendary guitarist Willie Lindo, who encouraged Taylor to return to singing. In 1972 he resurfaced in the Soul Twins, cutting the anthems "Don't Call Me Nigga" and "Rastafari Ruler" for producer Clancy Eccles before resuming his solo career with a series of little-noticed singles including "Fight It Blackman."

Taylor first earned significant attention and airplay in 1975 under the wing of producer Jack Ruby, scoring a series of well-received hits including "Life Table" and "I'd Like to Know." With 1977's Niney the Observer-produced "Sufferation," he scored his biggest and most memorable single to date, earning a special King Tubby remix in the process. After a series of middling follow-ups, including "Can't Stop Rastaman Now," a reggae rewrite of the McFadden & Whitehead disco classic "Ain't No Stopping Us Now," Taylor self-produced "Cottage in Negril" in 1981.

Inspired by both a failed romance and the recent rise to power of the conservative Labor party, complete with the sounds of cocaine snorts between verses, the single slowly but surely emerged as a chart blockbuster, and two years later was picked up for international distribution by MCA. However, the follow-up single, "Pledge to the Sun," bombed, and MCA shelved a proposed LP. In the meantime, Taylor's struggles with drug addiction grew even more serious, and in the decade to follow he recorded only sporadically, generating some notice in 1987 via "Members Only" and "Be for Real." Lindo stepped in to produce 1993's full-length The Way to Paradise, widely celebrated as a return to creative form, and a year later Taylor teamed with producer Clive Hunt for the hit "Rainy Sunset." But Taylor never conquered his personal demons, eventually suffering a handful of strokes and spending the remainder of his life confined to a wheelchair; he died of prostate cancer in Kingston on December 1, 2007.

Tyrone Taylor - Move Up Blackman (1976)

(320 kbps, front cover included)

VA - La Revolución Mexicana (Orfeón, 2 CDs)

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution changed from a revolt against the established order to a multi-sided civil war.

After prolonged struggles, its representatives produced the Mexican Constitution of 1917. The Revolution is generally considered to have lasted until 1920, although the country continued to have sporadic, but comparatively minor, outbreaks of warfare well into the 1920s.

 

This record needs no explanation ..

Tracklist:

 

Disc 1:
Silvestre Vargas - La Adelita
Jorge Negrete - El Desterrado
Lucha Moreno - Corrido del Norte
Chavela Vargas - Corrido de Cananea
Alejandro Rivera - La Cama de Piedra
Charro Avitia - Maria la Bandida
Trío Tariácuri - Soldado de Levita
Chavela Vargas- Heraclio Bernal
Trío Calaveras - Alla en el Rancho Grande
Banda Sinaloense - La Rielera
Luis Aguilar - El Adios del Soldado
Alejandro Algara - Pajarillo Barranqueño
Conjunto Durango - Polka Revolucionaria
Los Llaneros de San Felipe - La Toma de Torreón
Silvestre Vargas - Lamarieta

Disc 2:
Jorge Negrete - La Valentina
Antonio Bribiesca - La Cucaracha
Francisco Avita - El Siete Leguas
Los Tejones - La Escondida
Luis Aguilar - Carabina 30-30
Chavela Vargas - Benjamin Argumedo
Lucha Moreno - Bala Perdida
Silvestre Vargas - Jesusita en Chihuahua
Jorge Fernández - Cuatro Milpas
Jorge Negrete - Me He de Comer Esa Tuna
El Auténtico Tamborazo Zacatecano - La Toma de Zacatecas
Los Pantoja y Sus Villistas - Gabino Barrera
Dueto Azteca - Rosita Alvirez
Emmanuel Gomez - La Tumba de Villa
Silvestre Vargas - La Marcha de Zacatecas

 

VA - La Revolucion Mexicana (2 CDs)

(128 kbps)

The Ex - Dead Fish (1990)

The Ex are an anarchist band from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

"Dead Fish" is a suite of songs about surviving in the rock'n'roll jungle, coughed up with an amount of bile only The Ex could summon. A direct attack on the commercialisation of indie music and the creaky industries that support its mass market consumption. The Ex are still committed naturals in an over exposed and hyped arena.

"Dead Fish" was recorded at KGM Studio, Wakefield, England, and was released as a 10" EP in June 1990. It was produced by Jon Langford with Terrie (guitar), G.W. Sok (vocals), Luc (bass) and Katrin (drums).

Tracklist:

01. Dead Fish
02. Blah Blah
03. White Liberals
04. Elvis + I
05. No More Cigars
06. Mousetrap
07. Get Your Share

The Ex - Dead Fish (1990)
(192 kbps, no cover art included)