Akiko Nakamura - Hit Album (1968)

Akiko Nakamura was a popular actress and singer in Japan in the '60s and '70s. This album was released in 1968 and it features a cover of Scott McKenzie's flower power hit 'If You're Going to San Francisco' amongst all the bubblegum J-Pop. The big hit from the album is 'Nijiiro no mizuumi' (which translates as Lake's Rainbow Colours or something like that). Here is Akiko herself performing the song in some teenbeat movie or other. Its totally swingin' kids:


What can you expect on the album? Well a much more polished sound than found on the clip above featuring a full string section, backing singers, brass section, marimbas, glockenspiels, tiki style rhythms. A wonderfully mixed bag of gorgeousness.

Tracklisting:

01. 虹色の湖 (nijiiro no mizuumi) Rainbow Lake
02. 花のサンフランシスコ (hana no san francisco)San Francisco Flower (i.e. If You're Goin' to San Francisco)
03. 太陽に恋をして (taiyou ni koi woshite) Love in the Sun
04. 愛の願い (ai no negai) Please Give Me Love
05. ラ・ラ・ラ (la la la)
06. ブルー・シャトウ (blue chateau)
07. 砂の十字架 (suna no juujika) Cross in the Sand
08. 別離(わかれ) (betsuri (wakare)) Separation
09. 霧情 (kiri jou) Mist
10. フラワー東京 (tokyo flower)
11. 夢みていたい (yume miteitai) I Want to Dream
12. ロック天国 (tengoku rock) Rock Heaven (I Dig Rock and Roll Music; Peter Paul & Mary)

Many thanks to Richard and Peter for their fantastic translations. Superfast work too chaps!

Get it HERE.

Charlemagne Palestine & Christoph Heemann - Saiten en Flammen (2009)

This is a very recent release compared to much of the stuff I post here, but its interesting and pretty much unavailable so I thought I'd treat you all to this intense drone work from these two avant-garde hipsters.

Charlemagne Palestine was active in the New York underground scene in the 1960s, a contemporary of characters such as La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Tony Conrad. He composed and performed long and dramatic improvised pieces on pianos, church organs and carillon bells, filling huge rooms (and listeners heads) with a mass of sound.



Christoph Heemann on the other hand is a German sound artist who's been releasing music since the 1980's when he became loosely involved with the surreal English outfit, Nurse with Wound. He's since worked closely with those esoteric pranksters, Current 93, and the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Lee Ranaldo and Andrew Chalk.



Charlemagne Palestine recorded the Bosendorfer piano piece featured on Saiten en Flamen in 2000. The sound was then processed and messed with by Christoph Heemann in 2007. Mr Heemann has softened the percussive qualities of Mr Palestine's playing and brought the tonal qualities to the forefront. The result is something like having a head full of baritone bees.

Tracklist:

01 Saiten en Flammen (Part 1)
02 Saiten en Flammen (Part 2)

Get it HERE.

Chief Dr Sikiru Ayinde Barrister - Fuji New Waves (1991)

It's been an awful long time since I posted any of that mindbending Fuji music so here is something else from the late, great Chief Doctor Barrister. Here the Chief Doctor urges us to dance to the new wave of Fuji and uses a non too subtle wall of percussion, slide guitar and incredibly wonky synth noise to coax us onto the dancefloor. Once there, you won't want to stop.


Tracklist:

01 Duka Hausawa
02 New Waves
03 Cinderella
04 Gbaa - e gwu
05 Alhaji Raheem Tejumola
06 Ori o Gbodo Fo
07 Owo Kilani
08 National Pledge
09 Late Alhaji Muniru Gbadamosi
10 Mr Dolapo Badru

Get it HERE.

The Bauls of Bengal (1976)

This is a reissue of an album released by Elektra Records all the way back in 1966 and its grooves contain delightful musical gifts from some of the wandering troubadors of Bengal. This music is just incredible - definately one for those who groove on the Sun City Girls.

...but...

"Some People have said that it is possible to characterize the Bauls by a distinctive doctrine. I have never found it possible to do so, for it seems to me that they are first and formost individuals, and that the term Baul encompasses a wide range of religious opinion, traceable to several Hindu schools of thought, to Sufi Islam, and much that is traceable only to a man's own view of how he relates to God. All Baul's hold only this in common: that God is hidden in the heart of man, and neither priest nor prophet, nor the ritual of any organized religion, will help man to find him there."

Edward C Dimmock Jr. - from the sleevenotes

Here's a more recent offering from Purna Das to whet the appetite:

Tracklist:

01 Ki Die Pujibo Hari Charana Tomar
02 Bloey Koey Manush Key Ki Sadhu Kora Jai?
03 Manush Bhaja, Manush Puja
04 Sesher Diney Sheyjon Biney
sung by Purna Das
05 Tumi Jaaliey Geey Moner Aagoon Nivey Geley Naa
sung by Hare Krishna Das
06 Prem Kathati Shuntey Bhalo
sung by Luxman Das
07 Ebar Jeney Shune Namio Saabdhaney
sung by Sudhanhanda Das
08 O're Mone Jele
sung by Purna Das, Luxman Das & Hare Krishna Das

Get it HERE.