Rock Progressif

Let me share some of the music that most notably contributed to my growing love for Music.

My encounter with Progressive rock happened in high school, when I first got exposed to British bands like King Crimson, Genesis ['Selling England by the Pound' album era, I used to be -and still is- obsessed with the track "Firth of Fifth"], Caravan, Yes etc.
I then found out about some really good progrock bands from France, and started digging into it.

Last summer, I came across an antique sell in the streets of Grenoble. People would sell old antiques, vinyls included. I found a LP by the band Ange, a famous progressive French band in the seventies.

Their unique fantastico medieval progressive sound got me hooked after the first listen.

A few days ago, in one of the many great record stores in Montreal, I found an album by the band Maneige when going through $2 vinyls crates.

Maneige is a progressive rock band from Canada, Quebec. Not so famous worldwide.

Both albums I am introducing here are therefore both progressive rock albums, released during the same year of 1977. One in France, the other one in Quebec.
You will therefore appreciate different styles within the same genre of music, produced in the same timeframe.

As a characteristic of progrock albums, both records are to be listened as a piece. Their cover, along with their content, make up a whole story. Your imagination is constantly stimulated. The melodies on the Maneige albums (entirely instrumental, and definitely a mine of samples) draw unknowns landscapes from a different time and space.

Ange 'Par les fils de Mandrin' [Progressive Rock, France, 1976]

Enjoy

Maneige 'Ni Vent Ni Nouvelle' [Progressive Rock, Quebec,Canada, 1977]

Enjoy

Check this greatness:

Ooo Record stores. Going through $2 crates. Starring at vinyl covers while flicking albums one after the other. Looking for something. Could be anything actually.

I like getting hooked by an album cover. Trying to anticipate what the record would sound like. A lot of prog rock albums are identifiable by their covers, often hand-drawn and depicting fantastic landscapes, imagined worlds, weird environments. This image that they convey contributes a lot to the listening experience of the sound. Giving their music a certain image, a depth, an identity.

Somehow,I have good intuition when it comes to cover. And it still have not fail me last week when I picked up that Maneige record.

David Crosby

David Crosby 'If I Could Only Remember My Name' [Rock, Folk, USA, 1971]

Crosby's best solo effort. Released a year after the amazing 'Deja Vu' by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Both of those albums sound similar, though this solo album has more of an atmospheric touch to it.

This track is amazing:

Here is the back cover of the album, and a good sleeveface opportunity :)

Enjoy!

Lagos Shake

Lagos Shake: a Tony Allen Chop Up [Various artists, Afrobeat, electronic, 2008]

Tony Allen, or the beat master. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he was Fela Kuti's sideman in the seventies in Nigeria.

On this compilation he is revisited by various contemporary artists, giving his memorable drumming skills a new aspect. They give to his music a new, electronic based, freshness. Allen's rolling rhythms, laidback and propulsive persussions dictate those contemporary versions of what could be called as electronic afrobeat.

An interesting album that might also introduce you to Allen's unique rhythms.

I will post some Fela Kuti albums soon.

Enjoy!

Cut Chemist

Cut Chemist 'Sound of Police' (HipHop/ Remix/ DJ/ Afrobeats)

Cut Chemist was Jurassic 5's DJ on their first album, which is sick by the way.
Here, on 2 live sets of about 20 minutes each, he mashes up some afrobeat, Ethiopian and Brazilian records.

Using a single turntable, a mixer, a loop pedal, he propulses beats after beats with an efficiency and the ease of a master.

REally good performance for an epic journey through those exotic beats and swaying rhythms.


Enjoy!

Jane Birkin

Jane Birkin "Di Doo Dah" [1973, Folk/Pop, France]

A great find here. I have had this for maybe two years now, and coming back to it the other day blew me away. Listening to those kind of albums on some good stereo system really gives them the full perspective of what the musicians want to share. The orchestrations and arrangements are really inspired and serve righteously Jane's graceful and sensual voice

Lastly, if this cover doesn't make you want to listen to it, you might be a lost cause.. !

A delicious album.

Enjoy!

San Francisco House Music

Rising to the Top: House Sound of San Francisco

I thought switching genres would be a wise thing to do as diversifying yourself is something that can only be beneficial. I did not force myself into electronic music in general, from which house music branched off it as a subgenre in the early nineties in Chicago. I have personally been hermetic to a lot of this kind of stuff until I got into it through live performances (DJ set is a live performance that I do appreciate a lot too), dancing scenes, under influence.. Burning Man definitely got me into a lot of that stuff as a lot of music played out there is electronic based.

Anyway,here is what we got here:
This CD was found in my new apartments basement by the owner himself (my roommate, accessorily), a retired DJ agent who used to know a lot about this kind of music.

(for the info he nows go back to college to finish a previously started bachelor). ANyway.

Studying in the kitchen, he was hearing from my room some STS9 tune playing. He walked down the basement and came back with this obscure "underground electronic scene from San Francisco" as he called it.

I actually just found out that there is quite a bit of information online about this mix.

It reminds me of some Mark Farina who was actually part of that San Francisco scene after he left Chicago.

Enjoy Homies,

Quantic

I stumbled upon this unique DJ and musician while wandering the endless streets of the blogosphere megalopolis.
This compilation is the best introduction you can get to this crazy sound seeker. Travelling the worlds for unique tunes that he mashes up, overlays with instrumentions and guest appearances.
Brilliant shit.
Read up if you like him.

Quantic by PYITE-1

Enjoy

Curtis Mayfield

Curtis Mayfield "There is no place like America Today" [1975, Soul, USA]

Let's diversify the genres while staying in the same timeframe.
A superb soul album by Curtis Mayfield.
Not his most representative album but definitely a unique one in his already rich discography.

The song "Blue Monday People" still reminds me my old roomies, in love with that song :)
Great cover too.

Below, the opening song, "Billy Jack":



Enjoy.

Ash Ra Tempel

Ash Ra Tempel "Starring Rosi" [1973, Rock/Psych., Germany]

One of my krautrock nuggets.
Mostly instrumental, the album displays Manuel Göttsching's unique guitar playing.
A great album.

Enjoy!

Jacno

Jacno - Self Titled [1979, Rock, France]

An other surprising album by this French musician who recently died from cancer, in november of 2009.
Born Denis Quillard, he picked his professional name from the graphic artist who conceived the logo on the french Gauloises cigarettes pack [which makes me guess he died from lung cancer since I couldn't find this information].
He used to belong to the french punk rock band The Stinky Toys.
This solo album, short in length, is a interesting rock album built on several hypnotic melodies with a pop resonance. Five out of the six songs are instrumental.



Enjoy!

Demon Fuzz

Demon Fuzz - Afreaka! [1971, UK, Afrobeat]

Here is one of my favorite find over the past year. After multiple reissues, this nugget has finally reached us, devoted music lovers.
There is hardly nothing that we can know about this band since it has been forgotten for so long.
All I can say is that this album, which is a fine blend of jazz, funk, afrobeat, soul and progressive rock, sounds extremely fresh.
Mostly instrumental, the eight tracks that compose the album are all great and the album keeps a consistency throughout.
We can note a really good cover of "I put a spell on you" (can't beat the authenticity of the original by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, but definitely delivers a great version).
I couldn't transcribe my excitement when I found a vinyl copy (reissued obviously) for $10 when browsing a record store in NewYork city. The cover, as mysterious as this band is, contributes to its uniqueness.

Enjoy!

The Roots Of Chicha 2: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru

After a couple months of online inexistence, Im back.
For anyone whose musical apetite isn't diversified enough.
Also for anyone who took a ride in my 97' Chevy all over the Little Biggest City :)
Amazing tunes compiled by Barbes Records.

Enjoy -

Bill Holt

Bill Holt " Dreamies " [1972, avant-garde sampling, electronic collages]

I highly recommend reading this review to fully understand the context and birth of that ovni album:

"For one year in the early 70s, Bill Holt lived the real American dream: quitting your job to do something you love. In his late twenties and supporting his Delaware family with a disheartening 9-to-5 gig, he decided to make a go of a career in music, in spite of having next to no first-hand musical experience. He holed up in his basement with an acoustic guitar, a few chords, a Moog synthesizer, and assorted electronic devices and created what would prove to be his only opus: Dreamies.

The album is a triumph. It’s difficult to even place it in context because it’s such an oddball little record, on the one hand probing whatever corners of his mind Holt felt were worthy of exploration, and on the other deftly preserving a sense of popular songcraft. Holt structured his album in two side-long suites, “Program Ten” and “Program Eleven.” The numbers he chose were not random: He saw his work as a direct continuation of what the Beatles did on “Revolution 9,” packing it with found sound, including a couple of boldly snatched samples of “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Oh! Darling,” and “All You Need Is Love.”

Not that sampling other peoples’ records got him into trouble. The simple fact is that almost no one heard the album upon its initial release, and the situation has barely improved since. In fact, until Gear Fab records resurrected Dreamies back in 2000 for a limited release, the album was completely unavailable outside of collectors’ circles, qualifying it for genuine Lost Classic status. This most recent reissue sounds absolutely fantastic, presenting Holt’s hi-fi vision with brilliant clarity, subdivided into tracks of more manageable lengths.

As the album opens, President John Kennedy mingles with a field of insects, making his famous payload/payroll gaff in a speech about the space program. This gives way to Holt’s acoustic guitar, slowly descending through some basic chords and his mellow, double-tracked vocal. This trippy little song becomes the backbone of a 26-minute odyssey that teeters on chaos at points as radio transmissions, snippets of title fight broadcasts and recordings of shattering glass interrupt and fade, all the while dappled with Moog overdubs. Holt hands the melody to the Moog on occasion, but mostly uses it to create the album’s weird, buzzing ambience.

On the flip side, “Program Eleven” is more aggressive and downcast, featuring a loop of Holt’s whispered exhortation to “just dream” used as a rhythm, along with numerous samples of gunfire and TV commercials. Holt also appears to have made some of his own field recordings, as apparent subway announcements and dinner conversation leak into the texture, fighting with simple psychedelic pop for the listener’s attention while Moogs climb and descend scales. Eventually, the suite veers into jarring passages of noise and overlapping voices.

The overall effect is something like a primordial Olivia Tremor Control, and easily as wild and unfettered as anything the Residents were doing in the 70s. Dreamies has its obvious and acknowledged influences — the Beatles and John Cage chief among them — but it’s also clearly the work of an untutored auteur dissecting his own mind in the basement on reel-to-reel. Holt never recorded again, as the financial losses he suffered making the album forced him back into the workaday world, but more than 30 years later, his one moment on tape still sounds incredible."

Joe Tangari

Definitely an interesting album.

Tunes to get Blunted to

Tunes to get Blunted to [2CDs]

Here is a mix that I put together for the homies.
2CDs stuffed with Downtempo/Hip-Hop/Electronic music

Antonio Carlos Jobim

Antonio Carlos Jobim - Stone Flower [1970, Bossa Nova]

"Jobim has been described as the Gershwin of Brazilian music, which is an apt title for a man who contributed so many original songs to the jazz repertoire, adding a few standards along the way. Those who were inspired to follow his work after “The Girl From Ipanema” may have picked upWave, his most well-known solo record, but may have overlooked Stone Flower, a markedly better effort. The drippy strings on the former record brought out the quiet romanticism of the melodies, but makes the album sound dated today. Stone Flower marks a fresher approach, using musicians from the CTI stable, but don’t be misled by the personnel into thinking that Jobim has wandered into soul jazz. The quietly sensual melodies and beguiling bossa nova rhythms are as bewitching as ever, with Laws, Carter, and Green added sensual textures in the background. The title track says it all: Jobim on electric piano, heavily reverbed as if it was recorded underwater, with violin and trombone providing a warm tropical breeze overhead. No one could write bossa nova tunes as well as Jobim, and the songs on Stone Flower easily rank with his best work. Stone Floweris a fantastic record of quiet intensity." From http://www.allaboutjazz.com/

E.S.T

E.S.T "Viaticum" [Jazz, 2005 Sweden]

Snowy days are coming. It's about time to pick up a smooth jazz album. This is one of my first jazz album. It's what we could classify as modern jazz. Easy listening and melodic compositions though quite long. The songs usually extend around 6 minutes in creating some intricate and evolving soundscapes.
E.S.T stands for Esbjörn Svensson Trio was a Swedish jazz piano trio consisting of Esbjörn Svensson (piano), Dan Berglund (double bass) and Magnus Öström (drums). Actually, Pianist Esbjörn Svensson passed away recently, in June 2008, in a scuba diving accident.
I would advice this album to anyone really. I think it's an album that could be a good introduction to jazz in general.

E.S.T. - The well-wisher

Berlin

Some really interesting pictures of Berlin during the winter. I stumbled upon them randomly and I immediately like their style, minimalistic and complex at the same time. The smart use of colors and geometry in the frame give them some real depth. You can look at them for quite some time and hardly express what you love into them. Those pictures were shot by Matthias Heiderich. I would recommend you checkin out his other projects that are really interesting as well.

Talking about Berlin, I thought I could share some of the amazing music that has been recorded there.
My pick is Bowie. That's a great thing since I haven't shared anything from him yet and he's been one of my favorite musicians who got me a lot into German music actually. That's how I first heard of Brian Eno too.
Anyway, Bowie started working with Brian Eno in the 70s and recorded three albums that were highly influenced by the German music of the time - Krautrock and electronic music - . Those three albums, "Low", "Heroes" and "Lodger" make up this trilogy.
I chose only to share "Low" for now. You'll see what you think.

David Bowie "Low" [1977]

An album that is definitely interesting to check out. If you know Bowie it's interesting to see the turn that he took over those three albums. "Low" turns experimental halfway through with mostly instrumental tracks. The excellent "Speed of Life" and "Sound and Vision" on the first half of the album are some of the tracks that are not instrumental. Some of the soundscapes in this album are oppressing and will be hard to grasp at first. Definitely an album that requires many listens, like any experimental or avant-garde music album. One of those albums that you end up loving and you would never have thought so.

Here is probably the most easy listening track of the album, an excellent track that you've probably heard before:

Sound and Vision

If you don't know Bowie at all, then I might have start at the beginning and to share a handful of timeless albums..

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother [1970, UK]

My favorite Pink Floyd album. The 23minutes of the "Atom Heart Mother Suite" are unreal. Best song. Get it!

Summer '68

KCRW Sounds Eclectico

KCRW - Sounds Eclectico

From now on, Im gonna try to keep a certain eclecticism on here. I don't want to share only a few specific genres which is the reason why I also might upload some compilations. Here is the first one.

If I remember, I think I actually got a five finger discount on this album a few years back just picking it for its cover [which I do a lot and which is not a bad thing, you would be amazed to find the most random and amazing stuff like this].
Anyway, cool album which is basically some latin tunes compiled by the Los Angeles-based station KCRW. However the whole album is really eclectic, going from electronic to acoustic.

If anything, this collection shows how rooted this music is in it’s acoustic, unplugged traditions, and how revolutionary it can be in its electronic expansions to other musical forms. --Eugene Holley, Jr.
The opening track is pretty damn good. Definitely recommended.

Socalled

Socalled - Ghetto-Blaster [Hip-Hop, Klezmer]

A few days ago was Rosh Hashanah, the new year in the Jewish calendar.

Shana Tova everyone :)
Anyway, that reminded me of an interesting jewish artist: Socalled. This is his last solo album to date. He also belongs to the band Abraham Inc. from which I uploaded an album a few days ago. More hip-hop oriented, this solo effort blends elements from Klezmer music [musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe] as well as funk and jazz. Socalled talks about the jewish culture from which he belongs and sing in many languages including Hebrew.

On "{Rock The} Belz", Socalled talks about his relation with the Jewish culture:

“I sing Jewish songs not because they are better than the songs of my neighbor but because they are mine. And unless I sing them, that part of the culture will vanish and that meadow of proliferating flowers, with a profusion of flowers, will have the Jewish flower missing. That’s why I sing Jewish songs.”

Really cool album.

Pretty fun clip video



Also while I was looking for some video to put on here, I found out about this documentary about him and his music that should be out this year. Here is the preview it looks just great!