El Barrio Dream - Various Artists (1996)

Excellent Japanese compilation of Latin sounds from New York. There's a great mix of stuff here, from straight up boogaloo to more soulful songs like 'Cowboys to Girls', or fuzz guitar madness on tracks like 'My Daddy's Farm', and all the big names (Tito Puente, Willie Colon, Joe Bataan) are represented alongside some more obscure groups like the TNT Band or Orchestra Harlow. Enjoy.

Tracklist:

01 Reminiscences
02 Que Paso (Wa Happens)
03 Got Myself Together
04 Bridges
05 Searching For Love
06 My Daddy's Farm
07 Chin Chow
08 Chinito Boogaloo
09 Subway
10 Slow Down
11 Cowboys To Girls
12 Michelle
13 Coquero
14 Grazin' In The Grass
15 At The Hamburgea Shop
16 Safari
17 Willie's Whopper
18 ME__
19 Bridges
20 De Que Te Quejas
21 Las Quisquellanas
22 Reminiscences
23 At Last

Get it HERE.

Nkengas - Destruction (1973)

I've been a bit busy in recent weeks, hence the lack of music posts. However I hope to make up for this absence by presenting you with this bad boy of an album. Devastating, earth-shaking funk from Nigeria, this is as raw and hypnotic as it gets.

Tracklist:

01 Anyi Bundi Igbo
02 Obuna Alu
03 Anyi Buofu
04 Jungle Beat
05 Ube Frank Special
06 Ndu Bu Isi
07 Nkenga Special
08 London Special
09 Destruction

Get it HERE.
Nkengas in London can be found HERE.

Straitjacket Fits - Hail (1987)

Straitjacket Fits were from Dunedin in New Zealand and played a noisy indie-pop that swoons with adolescent trauma. I never liked them as much as The Chills (whose great album Brave Words was produced by the legendary Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola) or Snapper, but I was still excited to find this in a local charity shop. She Speeds is a bit lovely, if you like this kind of shimmering, melancholic bedroom pop:

Tracklist:

01 Dialling A Prayer
02 All That That Brings
03 Hail
04 Sparkle That Shines
05 She Speeds
06 So Long Marianne
07 Grate
08 Fabulous Things
09 Life Is One Chord
10 This Taste Delight

Get it HERE.

Bali: Les Celebres Gamelans (1972)

This is a lovely recording of Gamelan music from Bali. The album was released in 1972 and the recordings were made by Gerard Kremer at various Gamelan performances including dances and shadow-puppet theatres:

"Gamelan is comparable only to two things: moonlight and flowing water, it is pure and mysterious like moonlight, it is always the same and always changing like flowing water. It forms for our ears no song, this music, it is a state of being, such as moonlight itself which lies poured out over the land. It flows murmuring, tinkling and gurgling like water in a mountain stream. Yet it is never monotonous. Sometimes the sounds flow faster and louder, just as water also sometimes speaks more loudly in the night only to sink back again quietly."

--Leonard Huizinga when describing Javanese gamelan music.

Tracklist:
01 Rayamanat Ballet
02 Barung
03 Defile de Offrandes
04 Ketjak
05 Gender Wayang
06 Pendet
07 Legong

Get it HERE.

Rap Tracks - Various Artists (1982)

I've seen this compilation a few times in various boot sales and charity shops over the years, but this morning it was going particularly cheap so I thought I'd better give it a try. I'm so glad I did because every track (nearly) is a winner! I'm particularly loving the spaced-out slippy disco sounds of the Funk Fusion Band, this one really hots up after a minute or so of jazz-fusion noodling:


Also loving Count Coolout's fabulous bassline:


Anyone who enjoyed the Genius of Rap that was posted a while back should consider giving this a listen.

Tracklist:

01 Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus
02 Funk Fusion Band - Can You Feel It (Progressive Version)
03 Captain Sky - Station Brake
04 Count Coolout - Here To Stay (Me And My Double R.R.)
05 Doctor Ice - Calling Doctor Ice
06 Midnight Blue - Enjoy With Me
07 Treacherous Three - Put The Boogie In Your Body
08 Disco Four - Do It, Do It

Get it HERE.