A couple of nights ago I was lucky enough to see Odemba OK Jazz on their Spirit of Franco tour. The band take their name from the style of rumba that was popularised by Franco and is made up of Congolese musicians who now reside in Belgium and France. They're led by Maitre 'Dizzy' Mandjeku Lengo, an astonishing guitarist and veteran of Sam Mangwana's African All Stars, Tabu Ley's Afrisa International and T.P.O.K. Jazz. I think the UK tour finishes on the 5th October, and I would recommend them to one and all for a night of irresistable Congolese dance music. They really had the audience in the palm of their hands and everyone left the building sporting huge grins and a sweat.
If you can't get to see the band, here's a taste of the mighty OK Jazz at the height of their powers.
Mahasti, the Lady of Hearts and Flowers, was a popular singer in pre-revoltionary Iran, and this crackly album sounds like a relic from a long forgotten time, despite the fact that it was only released in the mid '70s. Its not just the poor condition of the vinyl that makes these songs sound antiquated, its also some elusive quality to the music itself. It has a weight that seems to be lacking in much Western pop musics. It is heavy, mournful. Those strings are dramatic and Mahasti's beautiful voice is filled with sorrow and weary resignation.
Here's some film of Mahasti singing a song on Iranian TV:
Tracklist:
01 Dige Basse 02 Del Ke Gonahi Nagare 03 Bestare Gham 04 Ashki Baram Namonde 05 Saghi 06 Del o Del 07 Khonetekouni 08 Vay Be Halet 09 Dela Menat Kesh 10 Jodaiye To
Excellent bit of Hammond driven jazz-pop-lounge sounds from this band of Manchester hipsters. Here's some great footage of the band in action in the early '70s. Check the drummer!:
Tomorrow is the first birthday of SnapCrackleandPops! This is quite an achievement because I've usually got a short attention span. To celebrate we have this excellent compilation of slinky Colombia cumbias all originally released on the Discos Fuentes label between the '50s and the '80s. This is perfect dance music that combines hypnotic poly-rhythms and big fat basslines to get the body and mind moving.
According to John at Likembe (thanks for the superb blog!) this album is not by The Nkengas, but is actually a recording by Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe and His Nigerian Soundmakers. A number of the group's players left taking the tapes with them, they started a new band called The Nkengas and released this album under that name. Very Naughty! Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe's voice is spread like melted chocolate across all but one of the songs on the album. It's pretty unmistakable. This is feel good highlife of the very highest quality and it never fails to bring a smile to my maudlin face.
This is the song Ekene Dili Chukwu:
Tracklist:
01 William Emeka Omambala
02 Asa Mpete Special
03 Anaedo Special
04 Unzulu Onye / Ige'Gbupi
05 Ekene Dili Chukwu
This is the first of a bunch of occassional Shimmy Disc related posts. Shimmy Disc was a hugely influential New York record label that released a dizzyling variety of psychedelic/folk/noise/outsider sounds from 1987 until people stopped paying attention in the mid-'90s. SOme of the most popular acts they worked with included the legendary Bongwater, King Missile (Dog Fly Religion), Jad Fair, Lida Husik, B.A.L.L., Shockabilly, Galaxie 500, Ween, the list goes on and on. Bad Orb, Whirling Ball wasn't released on Shimmy Disc in the UK, but this great album was produced by Kramer and is a fantastic example of the Shimmy Disc neo-psych sound.
The Walking Seeds were from Liverpool and their grungey wall of fuzzed out rock 'n' roll made them one of the most exciting UK bands of the period. Their live shows were a howling mess of feedback and wah wah, beer and sweat, properly euphoric affairs. Here's what Julian Cope's fantastic Head Heritage website has to say about this great album:
"Every good thing in the World was invented in Liverpool.... ask any Liverpudlian and they'll tell you. Humour, football,fashion, culture ... all invented in Liverpool. Another thing they invented was "Grunge" music. Yes, in 1986, a good year or two before Sub Pop, hairy Liverpool beat combo The Walkingseeds produced a debut LP (on Probe records) of loud, fuzzy, demented evil genius. This LP marked a watershed and was almost certainly exported in numbers to Seattle - it mangled The Fugs and Blue Cheer with punk rock and set the tone for things to come. The album is called "Skullfuck" and I think you can buy it on reissue from Godbless records (or just ask the girl at the counter in Woolworths!). Of course, the British music press ignored them, first in favour of shoe gazing art school boys and then later the very American bands who owed most to Liverpools finest (I'm talking Mudhoney, Nirvana, Tad,etc) but The Walkingseeds walked on, losing some personnel to The La's, getting a second album out (1989's "Down wind of atonement.."), to some acclaim, on Glass records, and then, in 1990, releasing what for many is their defining work "Bad Orb...". Like "Downwind..." before it, this album is produced by the great Kramer and also features contributions from Sonic Youth associate and sometime Dinosaur Jr. member Don Fleming, but even without their stirling efforts this album would have been brilliant! Imagine an album where the vocals are bellowed, like on Floyd's "Nile Song", all the way through so you can actually hear the singer (Frank) going hoarse (and all in that american accent that only people from the north west of England can do!), an album of malign, choppy cosmic fuzz that Killing Joke would have died for, an album that twists American delta blues and English folk shanties into strange psychedelic vistas that far better musicians can only dream of!....... Imagine all this and you can probably hear The Walkingseeds! Hell, they even relieve themselves on the bloated corpse of The Beatles, turning in a cover of "She said, she said" which is both frazzled and spot on. "Bad orb..." is a relentless,cathartic, pysch-rock album that spins with malice towards it's final conclusion ... "You're not fit to live in normal society..." hollers Frank on the final track, harking back to their grizzled debut and paying tribute to the few strange werewolf misfits who liked 'em back then. Get this album, and if you like it then look for the other stuff. They went on to do a mini ("Dwarf") LP called "Sensory Deprevation Chamber Quartet" which was produced by The Bevis Frond (and good it is too) plus a lo fi live album called "Earth is Hell". A band this evil couldn't last and unfortunately they split amid recriminations and genuine heartfelt on-stage violence during the early 90's. Ah, The Summer of Love .... that was invented in Liverpool you know. P.S. After the split bassist Lee Webster (by far the most accomplished musician in the band) went on to form an outfit called Froth and then later Rhombus of Doom, while Frank Martin (Intelligent lyricist/great singer) and Bob Parker (guitar) formed a band called The Del Bloods. Stuff may still be available from both these bands. Tony Mogan was a decent drummer but I don't know what happened next for him."
Unfortunately, there's no live footage of the band available anywhere on the net, so here's a little taste of the album:
Tracklist:
01 The Gates of Freedom 02 Weight of these Years 03 Mortal Blues 04 Broken Cup 05 He Said, She Said 06 Peter's Trip 07 Caged Beatnik 08 World's OK 09 Skullfuck
Groovy psychedelic rock from Turkey that blends traditional instruments and wonderful Anatolian percussion with monstrous fuzz guitars and a '70s prog sensibilty. Erkin Koray was one of the pioneers of rock and roll music in Turkey, first releasing records in the early '60s. By the end of the decade he had adopted a more psychedelic sound. There's plenty of info on the man and his music, and his influence on the Turkish pop scene, over here. Meanwhile, here's some film of his band playing 'Cemalim' from this album:
Tracklist:
01 Karli Daglar 02 Sir 03 Hele Yar 04 Korkulu Rüya 05 Yalnizlar Rihtimi 06 Cemalim 07 Inat 08 Türkü
The music is, of course, for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear then go out and try and buy stuff...or something, give money to a down on his luck musician, or sponsor a good busker, it may be the start of something beautiful.
If any of the zips die, then post a comment and i'll try to repost. And leave comments, abuse, name calling, any response is welcome.
I think all of the albums posted are currently unavailable, but if this is not the case we'll remove the offending files.
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