Voices & Instruments (Obscure 1976)

Alright people, I'm back after the house move and you'll all be glad to hear that I got my priorities straight and now have the records sorted and the stereo up and running so Snap, Crackle and Pop is now back in business.

This little gem from Brian Eno's short lived Obscure label is a real grower.  Jan Steele and John Cage are given a side each but somehow their compositions really hang together and sound like a whole LP.  Both sides feature some sublime vocal performances with Janet Sherbourne performing on the Jan Steele pieces,  Robert Wyatt and Carla Bley on the John Cage tracks.  Steve Beresford and Fred Frith also perform on some of the songs

These songs are definately late night/small hours smokey material.  There's something dark and sensuous about this music, and I find it fills the air with some strange erotics.  Or maybe that's just me.



Let me know your thoughts please.

Tracklist:

01 Jan Steele - All Day
02 Jan Steele - Distant Saxophones
03 Jan Steele - Rhapsody Spaniel
04 John Cage -Experiences No 1
05 John Cage - Experiences No 2
06 John Cage - The Wonderful World of Eighteen Springs
07 John Cage - Forever and Sunsmell
08 John Cage - In a Landscape

Get it HERE.

Mystery singer from Marrakech

I'm about to move house, a mammoth task as we (my partner and our 3 kidiwinks) have been renting our current home for 12 years now.  I'm surrounded by boxes and feeling slightly overwhelmed by the amount of packing left to do.  It's times like this that a man could easily start to feel like he has too many records.

What this may mean for Snap, Crackle and Pop is that there may be a lack of posts for the next few weeks while we move and settle into the new place.

Just to keep y'all occupied in my absence though, I am posting this cassette I picked up on my recent Marrakech visit.  It was recommended to me by the owner of a music shop located in the back room of an electrical goods shop just off the Djemaa el Fna telling me the singer is from Marrakech.  I have no idea what type of music it is, and its fair to say I've never heard anything quite like it.  I was disappointed when I first put the tape on and really though it would not be my cup o' tea, but the tempo increases over the course of side one until you're absolutely swept away by the demented energy of it all.  It appears to be a live recording and, gosh, it does sound like some party!

 

As usual, any informtion on the artist and the music would be greatly appreciated.

Tracklist:

Side One

Side Two

Get it HERE.

Arnaldo Baptista - Loki?

Anyone who visits regularly, or has read the little blurb about detritus on the right hand side of this page, will know that I am consistently fascinated by the music that turns up at those places where people get rid of their junk. I used to buy lots of new records containing new music by new bands, indeed, I spent a number of years working in a record shop selling new music by new bands to other hip young things (though this is many years ago now), but I now find it difficult to remember the last new record I bought. I feel much more excited by the thrill of finding something wonderful and unusual in a flea market and that thrill shows no signs of abaiting.

I picked this LP up at a boot sale about a year ago. Shuffling through a pile of old vinyl (mostly Cliff Richard, Des O'Connor, James Last and all the other usual suspects) I was immediately taken by the bizarrely tasteless cover of this particular record. I really didn't know what to expect when I bought it and, as the label show the release date as 1983, I was expecting to hear something pretty horrible. Upon returning home and putting the record on the turntable, I was certainly very confused to hear this sensitive, piano driven prog-pop music.

Luckily (although this is a moot point), we now appear to have a world of information at our fingertips and Google provided me with plenty of gossip about Arnaldo Baptista, one of Brazil's most important musical figures. Arnaldo was one of the founding members of the legendary group, Os Mutantes, and was a leading light of the tropicalia movement throughout the '60s and early '70s. By 1974 the drugs, touring, military harrassment and complex relationships within the group became too much for Arnaldo and he left the band amidst rumours of nervous breakdowns and an ever loosening grip on reality. He recorded Loki? at this troubled time in his life, then promptly retired from the spotlight.

Here's a taste of Os Mutantes psychedelic lunacy:


Now taste the madness of Loki?


Tracklist:

01 Sera Que Eu Vou Virar Bolor?
02 Uma Pessoa So
03 Nao Estou Nem Ai'
04 Vou Me Afundar Na Lingerie
05 Honky Tonky
06 Ce Ta' Pensando Que Eu Sou Loki?
07 Desculpe
08 Navegar De Novo
09 Te Amo Podes Crer
10 E Facil

Get it HERE.

Sahra With Popular Chaabi Music (Moriphon, Egypt)

This was a great find at this week's car boot sale. Any info or translations would be greatly appreciated as I'm in the dark as to what exactly this is. I think its from Egypt, the recordings were possibly made in the '70s and its a fantastic listen!

Here's a taster of one of the tracks from the album:

Tracklist:

01- Hassan (Shiek Taha).
02- Cho Cho (Samir Sorour).
03- El-Derbake (Ahmad Hamouda).
04- Houda (Hani).
05- Ya Ma'alm (Samir Sorour).
06- Mouled El-Said (Farouq Salameh).
07- Mahasen (Samir Sorour).
08- Bulbul (Fikri El-Jazzar).
09- Samiya.
10- Khaled El-Bizeh (Samir Sorour).
11- Mouled El-Hussien.
12- Harat El-Awalim (Farouq Salameh)

Thanks to Hammer for the translations and see his comments for the lowdown on this album.

Get it HERE.

I Seek to Know this World

Here's this week's exciting flea market find, a lovely album by The Doves. This crackly old (1979) record is full of some bubbling Nigerian reggae/funk/highlife grooves with plenty of wah-wah and mooginess. You can read more about the group over at Comb & Razor.

Tracklist:

01 Life Is Gone
02 I Seek To Know This World
03 Strange Land
04 True Love Is Gone
05 The Urge To Sing Our Music
06 Living Together
07 I Shall Be Free
08 Lawrence Rest In Peace

Get it HERE.

IZMAZ (1979)

Izmaz started playing in 1976 and featured a young Ali Chouhad, who later went on to form Archach. This is beautiful, raw banjo led mountain music from the Issaffen region of Southern Morocco, and you absolutely need it. By the time the guimbri kicks in at 5:25 I'm halfway to the stars:

Any more info about this tape, and the group more generally would be much appreciated. In the meantime, get it HERE.

Update 03/04/2012!

Thanks to Hammer from Audiotopia for the wealth of info about this cassette and IZMAZ. According to Hammer, this was the group's second album - their first will follow in a later post you lucky, lucky people!

J-Card Info:
Face-A:
Ma Trai'eit El-Mout ('Haven't Seen Death')- Ayhaya - Anshad ('Songs').
Face-B:
Lalla Oumali ('Lalla What's Wrong With Me?') - Tagrist - Manfanhoul - Azoul Flak ('The Vanishing Horizons').

Members:
Mohammed Khaledi Ba'Yazid
Abdallah Al-A'arfi
L'Hassan El-Werdi
Abdelateef Fehmi
Mohammed Dammou

Birth-place: Tafroun - Casablanca 'Eddar El-Bedha', Morocco.

Chronology: Formed in the late 60's. Started playing from 1973 till late summer, 1975. Lineup changed a lot in the early 80's. Disbanded in 1986.

Description: An Amazigh-Soussian band who followed suit of an earlier Moroccan Amazigh band (Osman), that played music influenced by western pop artists and reggae lords like Bob Marley.
The style became known as Tazinzart; a Ghwenai kinda fusion of rock and traditional 'Ruweis' sounds. Izmaz started as a theatrical group featuring friends Mohammed Khaledi (known as Ba'Yazid), and Abdallah Al-A'arfi (known as 'El-Maghreb') with a third member L'Hassan El-Werdi O'Salim playing their lotar/rabab/naqous traditional instruments.

They left Tefrawat the small village where they all hailed from and moved to Casablanca contacting Ali Shouhad: a well-known musician from Issafen Nit Haroun district near Tata town who lived in Zangat Louzitania, and used to frequent a cafe-lietraire in Casablanca called Le Joie. Ali Shouhad showed interest in joining them. Moulawi Ali joined them finally in 1976 after relocating to Casablanca.

Their early days of performing together were in 1973, singing at Moroccan popular celebrations like King Hassan II's Ascendance to the throne, and some private public parties. The band decided then to go full-circle with the public, naming their selves first in 1975 Inrin. Their first successful concert playing as Izmaz took place at The Public Theatre celebrating The Green March revolution. Later on in 1977 Mohammed Dammou joined as a gnawist along with ex-member Ibrahim Koko who performed with the band in one cassette album before quitting them.

In 1979, Ali Shouhad left the band to form Archach, and Fehmi Abdelateef took Ali's place as a percussionist. The band toured France and Belgium later that year, playing for the Moroccan immigres. In 1986, a piracy-related court case was held against some company who copied their cassette albums without the group's consent. The case dragged on for years, causing most members (Mohammed Dammou) to leave disbanding Izmaz, ultimately.

Discography:
1.) EL-Sakhi Disc 'Rouatagh Ik Inmon' - 1978.
2.) Sharitifon 'Izmaz' - 1979.

Accomplishments:
-Izmaz is credited to inventing a new 'meld' instrument which joined three already established ones (Rbab Soussi/Lotar/Tssouissit) into one instrument.
-Ali Shouhad is credited for forming a 100-strong Amazighian symphony which was such a feat musically speaking at that time.

ENJOY!

The World We Knew

Raw, bluesy, swamp rock from Tav Falco's Panther Burns, kind of like the Cramps or the Gun Club, but with this weird Lynchian sensibility. I'm loving it at the moment, especially the eerie title track.

Here he is performing some of the good stuff on a late night poker show, I posted this vid once before but its so good there's no harm in seeing it again:

Tracklist:

01 Dateless Night
02 Do The Robot
03 It's All Your Fault
04 Pass The Hatchet
05 She's My Witch
06 The World We Knew
07 Drop Your Mask
08 Mona Lisa
09 She's A Bad Motorcycle
10 Doubtful Of Your Love
11 Ditch Digging
12 Big Road Blues

Get it HERE.