More fixed links...

Hello people!
I've been a busy boy and have fixed the following broken links:

Total Recall Vol 2 - Various Artists

Bismillah Khan & Party - Music of India #9 (1969)

Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe - Osadebe '77 (1977)

Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe - Osondi Owendi (1984)...

Daouda - Le Sentimental (1985)

Production Disco Presente - OUDADEN (2004?)

Elza Soares & Miltinho - Elza, Miltinho e Samba (1...

Fatima Tabaamrante - Amazigh Music of the Anti-Atl...

Many thanks to those of you who have pointed out broken links, I am trying to repost things as quickly as I can, unfortunately most of the old Rapidshare links are lost forever and I have lost many of the original zip files.  If anybody has kept copies of any of the old stuff I posted in 2008/2009/2010 and would be willing to upload them to one of the file hosting sites, please get in touch through the comments box.

Thanks people.  That is all.

Yeah Yeah Noh - Fun On The Lawn, Lawn, Lawn

Yeah Yeah Noh were (are, they appear to have reformed so I hope they don't mind me posting this record) a bunch of dweebs from the delightful city of Leicester who made a bit of a splash in the UK indie charts between 1984 and 1986.  They made regular appearances on Mr John Peel's radio 1 show and this album is made up of songs recorded for Peel sessions. 
These songs are clearly influenced by those masters of English mundanity, The Fall, however Yeah Yeah Noh's sound is less jarring and more melodic, and the wit of the songwriter less acidic.  There's also a jangly sweetness that I would have hated as a young teenager, but that I have grown to love in middle age.

Here is a taste of the band themselves:


I suppose that many parts of Northern England had bands like Yeah Yeah Noh, but most never got to record for John Peel or to become stars of the indie charts.  Local favourites in my area were Shrug from Middlesbrough.  From 1986 through to 1990 my friends and I would regularly make the trip from our home town to Darlington, Middlesbrough, sometimes even Newcastle, to see Shrug, with their small army of malcoordinated drummers, make their wonderful noise.
Shrug's claim to fame was that they were the first Western group to play in East Berlin after the Berlin Wall came down.  Here is a short news report on BBC's Look North about the trip (check out Mike Neville!):

And here is another great clip from 1989 about the Middlesbrough Music Collective (4.30 for a proper listen to Shrug's "Sir Walter Raleigh's Fast Food Takeover" though I recommend you check the whole clip):


Tracklist:

01         Super Imposed Man         
02         Beware The Weakling Lines         
03         (It's) Easier To Suck Than Sing    
04         Cottage Industry         
05         Another Side Of Mrs Quill    
06         Crimplene Seed Lifestyle    
07         Temple Of Convenience    
08         Jigsaw    
09         Blood Soup    
10         Prick Up Your Ears         
11         Starling Pillow Case        
12         See Through Nature    
13         Stealing In The Name Of The Lord     
14         Zoological Gardens

Get it HERE.

Not Sulamiyya but Aissawa: Sufi Songs from Tunisia

A friend has just returned from a couple of weeks in Tunisia and we're all lucky because she has brought back some cassettes.  This here is the first of 'em.  I am however, close to useless when it comes to providing you with any information about this wonderful music.  We will all need to rely upon the kindness of Arabic speaking/reading visitors who may be able to translate the text on the cover and enlighten us a little about the artists behind these songs.
These are Sufi songs from Tunisia, sung by a male choir accompanied by pipe and drums - not quite as destabilising as this cd of Tunisian Sufi songs I posted way back when, but great nevertheless.

Tracklist:
Face A
Face B

Get it HERE.

24/04/2013:
Well, Tim from Moroccan Tape Stash and Hammer from Audiotopia have provided a wealth of information about the artists behind this cassette.  Please refer to the comments section for their wonderful insights.  Thanks chaps!

Macka B ‎– Looks Are Deceiving (1988)

FIYAH!
This is another heavy Mad Professor production from the late '80s.  Fans of his tripped out digi-dub sound should find plenty to enjoy here, but in addition you get Macka B's fearsome toasting.  Macka B stood out from other UK dancehall toasters because of the clear political and spiritual messages he delivered, and the wry sense of humour in his songs.  Check it:


Tracklist:

01         Looks Are Deceiving        
02         Badder Than Jah        
03         Proud To Be Black        
04         Unemployment Blues        
05         What's He Done?        
06         Joker        
07         Drink Too Much

Get it HERE.

Jeffrey Lee Pierce - Flamingo (1985)

Jeffrey Lee Pierce died on March 31st, 1996 - just over 17 years ago, so now seems as good a time as any to post this little oddity that I picked up during a recent trip to Palma de Mallorca.  I first heard Jeffrey's band, The Gun Club, in the mid '80s when I was around 14 - same time as I was hearing Nick Cave and Lydia Lunch.  Coming from a, what seemed to me, desolate and depressed small town in the North-East of England, I was fascinated by the dark tales of self destruction and the glamorous nihilism of these artists, but of course at that age I had little understanding of the possible consequences:

"In 1996, Pierce died from a brain hemorrhage at the age of thirty-seven. Pierce was HIV positive, while also suffering from cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis, at the time of his death. His health had been poor for some time, and he suffered further from prolonged use of opiates ("I beat scars into my arms waiting for an early death").

In a reflection on Pierce's death, the deceased musician's friend, musician Mark Lanegan, stated in an August 2004 interview for Loose Lips Sink Ships:

    In early 1996, he went to Japan, and right before he left, he and I were at his mom's in LA [Los Angeles, US] writing songs. He seemed in really good health—sometimes he wasn't in such good health, sometimes he could barely walk because he was so fucked up. When he came back from Japan, he left me a couple of messages on my answering machine. He sounded completely out of his mind, though not like he was drunk. It was strange, like he'd gone crazy; finally I got hold of someone, and she told me Jeffrey had come back, that he'd been drinking while he was gone, his liver had poisoned his system, and he was experiencing dementia. The hospital turned him away saying, there's nothing we can do for him, his liver's shut down, he's dying. After this, I get a call from him; he was up in Utah and he sounded normal. And I said, what the hell, man, everyone's saying you're going to die. And he said, they always say that. And a week later, he fell into a coma and died.

Pierce spent time with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds during the recording period of the latter's album, Let Love In. Mick Harvey, former Bad Seeds member, has recalled, "He was sat on the couch during much of the recording ... He'd come almost every day and just sit on the couch and then he'd come out to dinner with us and just mumble away. He was very hard work. He was very unusual and a very unique guy." Pierce then joined the band on-stage at the Shepherds Bush Empire venue, during the "Let Love In" tour in 1994, to sing on the Cave/Bad Seeds song, "Wanted Man". Harvey has also disclosed his personal perspective on Pierce:

    I love a lot of his songs but he was pretty hard to connect with at first. I suppose he was pretty out of it with drink and drugs and so kind of difficult to communicate with. Most of the time it was difficult to work out what he was talking about. But he was always very nice and very gentlemanly.

Cave was in contact with Pierce prior to his death and revealed in a 2012 interview:

    He looked increasingly ill, I mean, we all did, but Jeffrey looked particularly so. His pallor, you know. He was physically suffering. And then he went to Japan. I think he got involved in some kind of relief work ... Helping earthquake victims. This seemed to have a positive effect on him, you know, spiritually. Then he went back to the states. The phone calls that I got from him there, he seemed really well. Or comparatively well. And happy, you know. And then, I think, [Henry] Rollins phoned me to tell me that he died."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Lee_Pierce

For me, Jeffrey Lee Pierce was as exciting and talented a songwriter as any of his contemporaries and I hope his music continues to be celebrated, including this strange and slightly incongruous record which includes a Jimi Hendrix cover, a short piece that seems strongly influenced by New Order's Blue Monday, as well as a dancefloor friendly mix Love and Desperation and some kind of free-improv-noise-skronk business.

Enjoy.



Tracklist:

01         Get Away       
02         Fire   
03         No More Fire         
04         Love And Desperation (12" Midnight Mix)         
05         Flamingo (Part 1)       
06         Flamingo (Part 2)

Get it HERE.