La Sensation - Co. (1976)

Its been quite a while since we heard any of the cadence sounds of the Caribbean around these parts, so I was excited when I found this in a local fleamarket. Attempts to uncover any information about this group have been completely fruitless, so as usual any knowledge you could impart about La Sensation would be gratefully accepted. What I do know is that this album contains plenty of that itchy, staccatto island funk that we all love so much.

Check this one, its called 'Reverie':



Tracklist:

01 Co
02 Aras Ka Pe
03 Soleil Soleil
04 Frankeinstein
05 Pa Bombarde Nou
06 Nou Bien Vivants
07 Exile
08 Reverie
09 Cosita

Get it HERE.

The Stupids - Retard Picnic (1986)

Classic UK hardcore-skater-thrash-punk from Ipswich. This came out in 1986 when I was 15. John Peel used to play them fairly regularly (along with other UK thrash bands of the period like the Electrohippies, Heresy or Napalm Death). In contrast to many of the other UK bands, The Stupids played more of a US influenced style of hardcore that is reminiscent at times of early Husker Du, or some of the Washington DC bands. Also in contrast to most of the UK bands, The Stupids steered well clear of politics. The subject matter for their songs was puerile and silly: horror films, skateboarding or fast food, and extremely appealing to my adolescent self. I never got to see them play, but I imagine their concerts were great fun.

Here they are playing 'Slumber Party Massacre' live in 1987:



Tracklist:

01The Memory Burns
02 Sleeping Troubles
03 Terrordome
04 Heard It Before
05 Jesus, Do What You Have To Do
06 Somethings Got To Give
07 Yah Dude!!!
08 Hawaian Vacation
09 Shades Eyes
10 Frank Furter
11 Slumber Party
12 Waltz Of The New Wavers
13 Your Little Words
14 Killed By A Cripple
15 We Suck
16 People In Your Neighbourhood

Get it HERE.

Slim Gaillard - Cement Mixer Put-ti Put-ti (Folklyric Records 1984)

Slim Gaillard was a real oddball character from the classic age of American jazz, as anyone who ever saw the BBC's documentary, The World of Slim Gaillard can attest. This album collects some of his most popular tunes from the mid to late forties on one lovely chunk of vinyl. Here's a short biography of the oroonie man:

One of the most eccentric vocalists ever to hit the jazz scene, Slim Gaillard became a legendary cult figure thanks to his own privately invented jive dialect “vout," a variation on hipster slang composed of imaginary nonsense words (“oreenie" and “oroonie" being two other examples). Gaillard's comic performances, laid-back cool, and supremely silly songs made him a popular entertainer from the late ‘30s to the early ‘50s, especially on the West Coast, and several of his compositions became genuine hits, including "Flat Foot Floogie" and "Cement Mixer." Versatility was not Gaillard's stock in trade, but he was highly effective at what he did, and his musical ability as a singer, Charlie Christian-style guitarist, and boogie-woogie pianist was perhaps a bit overlooked in comparison to the novelty value of his music.

Slim was born Bulee Gaillard, most likely on January 4, 1916 in Detroit, MI.; some sources list his birthdate as January 1, and Gaillard sometimes claimed to have been born in Santa Clara, Cuba instead of Detroit. His father worked as a steward on a cruise liner, and sometimes brought young Slim along, once accidentally leaving him behind on the island of Crete. Gaillard was mostly raised in Detroit, though, where he tried his hand at professional boxing, worked as a mortician, and ran bootleg rum for the Purple Gang during the ‘30s. He also developed an act in which he played guitar and tap danced simultaneously, and eventually moved to New York to work the vaudeville circuit. In 1936, he teamed up with bassist Slam Stewart as Slim & Slam, and two years later they scored a substantial hit with "Flat Foot Floogie," which was quickly covered by the likes of Benny Goodman and Fats Waller in the wake of the original recording's success. Gaillard and Stewart kept cutting songs in a similar vein, including "Tutti Frutti" and "Laughin' in Rhythm," and eventually took their act to Hollywood, where they appeared in the 1941 film Hellzapoppin. Their partnership continued on through 1942, when World War II interrupted; both served in the military, Gaillard in the Air Force.

Upon exiting the service in 1944, Gaillard settled in Los Angeles and took up residency at Billy Berg's Hollywood Boulevard club, a hot spot for stars of the era. Now in tandem with bassist Bam Brown, Gaillard became a top draw and a hip name to drop; his 1945 hit "Cement Mixer" returned him to national prominence, and he recorded frequently that year, often with a quartet featuring Brown, pianist Dodo Marmarosa, and drummer Zutty Singleton. He also cut a session with bop greats Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in late 1945, the most notable result of which was "Slim's Jam." The latter half of the ‘40s saw Gaillard's popularity at its peak; he appeared in several films and recorded for Verve up through 1951. He had further hits with 1948's "Down by the Station," which became a popular children's nursery rhyme, and 1951's "Yep Roc Heresay," a recitation of the menu from a Middle Eastern restaurant that one radio station banned for its "suggestiveness." He performed in New York frequently from 1951-53, and also participated in Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1953; a few years later, he was name-checked in Jack Kerouac's On the Road.

By the mid-‘50s, Gaillard's popularity was on the wane. He spent much of the latter part of the decade on the road with Stan Kenton, and recorded for Dot in 1958. He took a hiatus from music in the ‘60s; he managed a motel in San Diego for a time, and bought an orchard near Tacoma, Washington. He also played clubs and spent time in Los Angeles, where he drifted into acting toward the end of the decade, appearing on TV shows like Marcus Welby, M.D., Charlie's Angels, Mission Impossible, Medical Center, and Along Came Bronson. He reunited with Slam Stewart at the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival, and in 1979 he appeared in the miniseries Roots: The Next Generation. In 1982, Dizzy Gillespie talked Gaillard into returning to music. He traveled to the U.K. and made his first recordings since 1958 for Hep, which issued them as the album Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere; he also hit the festival circuit and toured Europe extensively, making London his new home base in 1983. He appeared in the cult film Absolute Beginners in 1986, and was the subject of a multi-part BBC special called The World of Slim Gaillard in 1989. Gaillard passed away on February 26, 1991 after a bout with cancer. — Steve Huey

Check out this piano man:



Tracklist:

01 Jam Man
02 Scotchin' With The soda
03 Cement Mixer
04 Cuban Rumbarini
05 Drei Six Cents
06 Three Handed Boogie
07 Groove Juice Jive
08 Laguna Oroonee
09 Tip Light
10 Arabian Boogie
11 The Hogan Song
12 Money Money Money
13 Organ Oreenee
14 Little Red Riding Wood
15 When Banana Skins Are Falling
16 Bongo Cito

Get it HERE.

More Amazigh Music from Fatima Tabaamrant and Rais Moulay Mohamed ben Lefqih

Here is another of Uncle David's wonderful cassettes, and I think this one may be my favourite. I believe the lady in the picture is Fatima Tabaamrant who was featured in this previous post way back in 2009 following a trip up the Souss Valley and on into the Anti-Atlas mountains. She is not the main voice heard in these wonderful songs however, and any help identifying the male lead singer would be much appreciated.
Anyway if you're a fan of the frantic banjo and rabab music of the Moroccan Berbers then you're in for a proper treat with this one. It's great!



Tracklist:

1A) Tandamt
1B) Izda Zine
2A) Allah Inser Siydna
2B) La ilaha illa Llah

Get it HERE.

Posset - Mump Grumpy (Infinite Exchange 2009)

Brain curdling cassette hum and buzz, this skrree takes the sounds of everyday life and turns the volume up to unbearable, in the process making everyday life into something exotic and strangely mysterious. Real freedom propaganda, this is the wobbly sound of Dali's spindly legged elephants learning to walk. It is the sound of children ransacking The City and exchanging bullion for bubblegum, the sound of spontaneous fun.

Posset is J.G. Murray, the North-East's premier purveyor of dictaphone jazz. He jams with a bank of old dictaphones and broken walkmen, ring modulators and antique effects pedals all wired together with strings of snot, scraps of sticky tape and bits of old wool. The noises he makes might not be everybody's cup of tea, but then what is?

Tracklist:

01 Children's Film Foundation
02 Coleslaw Surfeit
03 Verunk Bluaghh
04 Wooden Bells
05 The Pete Best Of Noise
06 Cafe De La Halle
07 Pekar

Get it HERE. And go leave him a message at myspace.com/iamposset

Scotty - Unbelievable Sounds (Trojan 1988)

Sweet reggae and rocksteady sounds from the very early '70s. This'll help ease you through the winter nights.

Tracklist:

01 Draw Your Brakes
02 Children Children
03 Penny For Your Song
04 Jam Rock Style
05 I Worry
06 Musical Chariot
07 Sing Along
08 Rosemarie
09 Sesame Street
10 Lonely Man
11 Riddle I This
12 Monkey Drop
13 I Count The Skank
14 Clean Race
15 Skank In Bed
16 Unbelievable Sounds

Get it HERE.

Normal Service is Now Resumed.

I've been having some difficulties since getting a new laptop (bloody technology - I was led to believe it was meant to make life easier!), I thought the problems would be over when I bought a cheap external soundcard from Maplins. How wrong I was, I recorded a couple of albums through said cheap soundcard, and was annoyed by a low level buzzing or humming noise that droned on in the background of the recordings (anyone who managed to unzip the A.R. Kane album may have noticed the noise). This has been preying on my fragile mind, causing sleepless nights, my place in the world feels tenuous if I can't deliver sounds to the music hungry masses - what would I do without the love I receive from my adoring public? All this is now resolved, I took the buzzing sound card back to the point of purchase and explained my problem and they very kindly replaced it with one they said should work. I have tested it out and the hum is no more. Hooray!

HERE is an entirely re-recorded copy of the aforementioned A.R. Kane l.p. for those of you who were annoyed by the buzz, and those who were unable to unzip the zip.