Thursday, March 10, 2005
emil's West Coast HipHop mix is incredible.
These posts of "I like this, I like that..." are pretty tired - who cares? I resolve the pose things in a more comparative way in the future. ie.:
People who like Neko Case ought to check out Wanda Jackson, who is a strong influence to say the least.
Of the "sampled" records I listed recently, I'd say that the music on super breaks vol. 1 most consistently stands on its own two feet as excellent soul.
MIA and Diplo in San Francisco, March 16. If you haven't heard "Diplo - live at 3d," I recommend it, and Hollertronix' Never Scared as starting points there. For MIA - Arular has everything worth getting.
These posts of "I like this, I like that..." are pretty tired - who cares? I resolve the pose things in a more comparative way in the future. ie.:
People who like Neko Case ought to check out Wanda Jackson, who is a strong influence to say the least.
Of the "sampled" records I listed recently, I'd say that the music on super breaks vol. 1 most consistently stands on its own two feet as excellent soul.
MIA and Diplo in San Francisco, March 16. If you haven't heard "Diplo - live at 3d," I recommend it, and Hollertronix' Never Scared as starting points there. For MIA - Arular has everything worth getting.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Oakland edition.
Good sideshow report. Make sure to check the video.
Jerry Brown has a blog.
There's a huge development project called Oak To Ninth in the works. 60 acres of Oakland Waterfront will become 2,500-3,000 condo units.
Good sideshow report. Make sure to check the video.
Jerry Brown has a blog.
There's a huge development project called Oak To Ninth in the works. 60 acres of Oakland Waterfront will become 2,500-3,000 condo units.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
African -
Abdullah Ibrahim - Cape Town Revisited
Bembeya Jazz National - The Syliphone Years
I love Syliphone stuff. The two-cd Syliphone Anniversary stuff is A++. The Syliphone Discoteque series (annual samplers) are great too. Hard to find though.
Club Africa, volumes 1+2. quite good. On the subject of samplers of african music, I'd recommend:
The Rough Guide To Afro Cuba and Afro Latino are excellent explorations of the cross-Atlantic relationship.
The Music In My Head (I haven't found the sequel)
Racubah! and Ouelele.
A lot of people swear by The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto, but I've never really been a fan. I much prefer Township Jazz 'n' Jive as an overview of that period of South African music.
Ghana Soundz & Afro Baby
Desert Blues, African Blues and The Very Best Of Africa are good overviews for the newcomer.
Ethiopiques is a fantastic series, of course.
I'm curious about the Sacred Steel phenomenon. I've heard Sacred Steel - None But The Righteous, which has a killer lead track: Sonny Treadway - Jesus Will Fix It For You.
There a wide variety of Sister Rosetta Tharpe material available, but I've never really figured out which period I prefer.
Blues -
Magic Sam - West Side Soul really is the classic blues album everyone says it is.
When it comes to John Lee Hooker, I really like The Classic Early Years.
And I love Joe Tex.
Every year, I ritually complain about the elitism and snobbery of music critics and the secretiveness of djs. On January 08, 2005, Sasha Frere-Jones wrote,
This drives me bananas. If wish every music critic I respected made a list of all the records they would love except they are too middle-brow, so I could buy them.
On the other hand, I find Gould's French Suites fairly boring.
As for the secrecy of djs, Andrew Weatherall has a good response:
More liking:
The Mfa - The Difference It Makes (Superpitcher Mix)
Rough Guide To Cumbia
The references section at the back of Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop is an excellent catalogue of classic reggae & hiphop.
Ms. Thing - Jump Up And Rail isn't quite another Get That Money, but it's fun.
Anita O'Day - The Parties Over
Tegan And Sara - Take Me Anywhere has been totally stuck in my head for the last week.
Votive Samples
On the subject of my recent post about "sample" records, let me just say - I love "sample" records - they're always a pleasure, even if you only listen to it once. After all, producers don't tend sample bad records. Even when they're looking for obscure sources less encumbered by legal protection, they're sampling more than the music. They're also trying to draw some of the karma/atmosphere/cool of the record. It sometimes seems like records that use samples are constructed like a bride assembling something borrowed, something blue... where the ingredients are chosen for their associations with a superstitious hopefulness.
Abdullah Ibrahim - Cape Town Revisited
Bembeya Jazz National - The Syliphone Years
I love Syliphone stuff. The two-cd Syliphone Anniversary stuff is A++. The Syliphone Discoteque series (annual samplers) are great too. Hard to find though.
Club Africa, volumes 1+2. quite good. On the subject of samplers of african music, I'd recommend:
The Rough Guide To Afro Cuba and Afro Latino are excellent explorations of the cross-Atlantic relationship.
The Music In My Head (I haven't found the sequel)
Racubah! and Ouelele.
A lot of people swear by The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto, but I've never really been a fan. I much prefer Township Jazz 'n' Jive as an overview of that period of South African music.
Ghana Soundz & Afro Baby
Desert Blues, African Blues and The Very Best Of Africa are good overviews for the newcomer.
Ethiopiques is a fantastic series, of course.
I'm curious about the Sacred Steel phenomenon. I've heard Sacred Steel - None But The Righteous, which has a killer lead track: Sonny Treadway - Jesus Will Fix It For You.
There a wide variety of Sister Rosetta Tharpe material available, but I've never really figured out which period I prefer.
Blues -
Magic Sam - West Side Soul really is the classic blues album everyone says it is.
When it comes to John Lee Hooker, I really like The Classic Early Years.
And I love Joe Tex.
Every year, I ritually complain about the elitism and snobbery of music critics and the secretiveness of djs. On January 08, 2005, Sasha Frere-Jones wrote,
"I know it is totes the Banana Republic of klassikal,
but Glenn Gould playing The French Suites makes me
wanna ease back on my newly-laid plan for secret and
ubiquitous sterilization of all people."
This drives me bananas. If wish every music critic I respected made a list of all the records they would love except they are too middle-brow, so I could buy them.
On the other hand, I find Gould's French Suites fairly boring.
As for the secrecy of djs, Andrew Weatherall has a good response:
"This is not the soundtrack for (...) pick
and mix culture snitches. This is not the soundtrack
to an imaginary film. This is the soundtrack to a
million stories, Jah willing, you will never be
told. (...) Dedicated to the million story
protagonists (you should know who you are), keep
your secrets - they're all we have left".
More liking:
The Mfa - The Difference It Makes (Superpitcher Mix)
Rough Guide To Cumbia
The references section at the back of Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop is an excellent catalogue of classic reggae & hiphop.
Ms. Thing - Jump Up And Rail isn't quite another Get That Money, but it's fun.
Anita O'Day - The Parties Over
Tegan And Sara - Take Me Anywhere has been totally stuck in my head for the last week.
Votive Samples
On the subject of my recent post about "sample" records, let me just say - I love "sample" records - they're always a pleasure, even if you only listen to it once. After all, producers don't tend sample bad records. Even when they're looking for obscure sources less encumbered by legal protection, they're sampling more than the music. They're also trying to draw some of the karma/atmosphere/cool of the record. It sometimes seems like records that use samples are constructed like a bride assembling something borrowed, something blue... where the ingredients are chosen for their associations with a superstitious hopefulness.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
San Francisco galleries, "First Thursday(s)."
If you don't know, most San Francisco galleries participate in "First Thursdays" - every month, they stay open late on the first Thursday of the month. Many time their openings for this night. The atmosphere is like an opening - large crowds, free wine, & the artists and gallery managers/owners are likely to be around. It is most pronounced around Union Square; because of the high density of galleries, you can conveniently take in a broad variety of shows.
Today I visited about 20-25 galleries. I saw three great shows:
Catherine Clark had a group show with a great piece by Josephine Taylor called "Bad daughters make bad friends." A massive painting that felt like a drawing. Two women crouched, facing each other, shrouded under two layers of lace. Their hands and feet are grouped together, strangely shrunk by forced perspective. Beautiful but subtly devastated. Many incredible details, everything works together. Apparently she's in the SECA Award show at Moma, up now.
Jim Campbell's show at Hosfelt is fantastic.
One series was bi-level illuminated photography (i wouldn't quite say movies). Vacant shots of the city, over which glided pedestrians way out of focus, vague shadows of figures. Beautiful and calming, like watching waves at an empty beach.
The other series were backlit multi-layered photographs on the theme anti-war protests. The layers were protesters, urban skylines, etc. Absorbing, truly bore long scrutiny: as you partially parse out the layers, you settle into the image. You're never done; you break away.
Finally, Asuka Ohsawa at Gregory Lind. Cartoon animals in bitterly funny scenes, inter-species predator-prey relations satirized. Bitter because Asuka has carefully anthropomorphized the animals with poses & expressions out of Hieronymus Bosch or Bruegel. But the animals remain cute despite their heartless indifference, inappropiate mirth and debasement.
here's a link to help find your way around the bay area gallery/museum scene: http://www.wereawe.org/sf-galleries-2.php
If you don't know, most San Francisco galleries participate in "First Thursdays" - every month, they stay open late on the first Thursday of the month. Many time their openings for this night. The atmosphere is like an opening - large crowds, free wine, & the artists and gallery managers/owners are likely to be around. It is most pronounced around Union Square; because of the high density of galleries, you can conveniently take in a broad variety of shows.
Today I visited about 20-25 galleries. I saw three great shows:
Catherine Clark had a group show with a great piece by Josephine Taylor called "Bad daughters make bad friends." A massive painting that felt like a drawing. Two women crouched, facing each other, shrouded under two layers of lace. Their hands and feet are grouped together, strangely shrunk by forced perspective. Beautiful but subtly devastated. Many incredible details, everything works together. Apparently she's in the SECA Award show at Moma, up now.
Jim Campbell's show at Hosfelt is fantastic.
One series was bi-level illuminated photography (i wouldn't quite say movies). Vacant shots of the city, over which glided pedestrians way out of focus, vague shadows of figures. Beautiful and calming, like watching waves at an empty beach.
The other series were backlit multi-layered photographs on the theme anti-war protests. The layers were protesters, urban skylines, etc. Absorbing, truly bore long scrutiny: as you partially parse out the layers, you settle into the image. You're never done; you break away.
Finally, Asuka Ohsawa at Gregory Lind. Cartoon animals in bitterly funny scenes, inter-species predator-prey relations satirized. Bitter because Asuka has carefully anthropomorphized the animals with poses & expressions out of Hieronymus Bosch or Bruegel. But the animals remain cute despite their heartless indifference, inappropiate mirth and debasement.
here's a link to help find your way around the bay area gallery/museum scene: http://www.wereawe.org/sf-galleries-2.php
lots of great music is lost...
I'd love find some good minimal electro mixtapes from around 95-97... or breaky acid mixtes from around then. Probably never will though.
I'd love find some good minimal electro mixtapes from around 95-97... or breaky acid mixtes from around then. Probably never will though.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
the carter family - when the roses come again
Harry Smith included four tracks by the carter family on his anthology of american folk music. I've heard it said that "Wildwood Flower" is the best single-cd to their music.
Anita O'Day - (Ah, The Apple Trees) When The World Was Young
Anita O'Day - Fly Me To The Moon (A.K.A. In Other Words)
These two tracks (which appear on the excellent O'Day Jazz Masters CD) were both recorded with "The Three Sounds." I've never been able to score that album (Anita O'day With The Three Sounds) in any form. right now it's an itunes exclusive, which is worthless.
Harry Smith included four tracks by the carter family on his anthology of american folk music. I've heard it said that "Wildwood Flower" is the best single-cd to their music.
Anita O'Day - (Ah, The Apple Trees) When The World Was Young
Anita O'Day - Fly Me To The Moon (A.K.A. In Other Words)
These two tracks (which appear on the excellent O'Day Jazz Masters CD) were both recorded with "The Three Sounds." I've never been able to score that album (Anita O'day With The Three Sounds) in any form. right now it's an itunes exclusive, which is worthless.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Jean Grae - Jeanius - Track 10
Deep Gully - Outlaw Blues Band
Lcd Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
Silures - 21 Ghosts (this used to irritate the hell out of me)
Orchestra Baobab - Pirates Choice, Specialist In All Styles, N'wolof
Professor Longhair
Get Down Low (The Soul Of New Orleans 65 - 67) (quite good)
Some old things I haven't gotten tired of:
Plaid's work after the Black Dog (Nothing matches Spanners though).
Soundbombing 2
Deep Gully - Outlaw Blues Band
Lcd Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
Silures - 21 Ghosts (this used to irritate the hell out of me)
Orchestra Baobab - Pirates Choice, Specialist In All Styles, N'wolof
Professor Longhair
Get Down Low (The Soul Of New Orleans 65 - 67) (quite good)
Some old things I haven't gotten tired of:
Plaid's work after the Black Dog (Nothing matches Spanners though).
Soundbombing 2
"sampled" records.
Ultimate Breaks And Beats Volumes 1 - 25 (1986-1991)
Changed hiphop and record collecting when they came out. Classic breaks only, many of them are great songs in their own right. Focus is on soul and funk, of course, but many of the great rock breaks are here too.
Dusty Fingers Volumes 1-11 on Strictly Break Records
Far more obscure. Less likely to be interesting as songs in their own right.
Other series that I haven't heard yet:
Strictly Breaks Volumes 1-9
Soul Beats Volumes 1-6
Argo/Cadet Grooves 1-7
Batteria For The Beatheads Volumes 1-2
Super Breaks & Beats 1-6
Diggin' 1-15
The Mighty Mellow 1-3
Breakdown 1-2
Nuggets 1-6 (Not to be confused by more than one other compilation of the same name)
Beyond The Valley Of The Beats
Teen Tonic
First Family Of Funk
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Performance/3412/Crates/diggin1.htm
Blue Break Beats Volumes 1 - 4
Most Sampled Songs From Blue Note
Heavily sampled tracks from the Blue Note catalogue. Sampled for the break or melody.
Recent collections:
Block Party Breaks Volumes 1-2 (DJ Pogo)
The Breaks Volumes 1-4 (DJ Pogo, Cutmaster Swift and Skye)
On Strut and Harmless. No surprises. Only classic breaks. Largely a distillation of Ultimate Breaks And Beats.
Sampled Volume 1-4 (there may be a fifth volume)
British collections of sampled music. Very eclectic - not just interested in samples used by hiphop, but also pop, electronica, etc. Consequently draws from a wide variety of genres.
Producer sampled collections (some actual releases, some informal internet collections):
Pete's Treats
Beastie Boys Have Sampled These
Dj Premier - The Crates (Original Songs As Sampled By Dj Premier)
Ghostface Sampled Soul Songs
Madlib Sampled In The Unseen
Originals As Sampled By Quasimoto
Rare Grooves - Sampled Songs
Sampled By Dj Premier
Sampled By The Avalanches
Sampled By Wu - Tang
Sampled On Dj Shadow's Entroducing
More producer collections that I haven't heard yet:
The B.I.G. Collection
School Yard Breaks
The Beatnuts Collection
The De La Collection Volumes 1+2
The Illmatic Collection
The Jigga Collection Volumes 1-3
The Infamous Queensbridge Collection (Mobb Deep)
Tribe Vibes Volumes 1-3 (ATCQ)
The Beatnuts Collection Volumes 1-2
Misc.
Who Sampled It
Who Sampled This
Ultimate Breaks And Beats Volumes 1 - 25 (1986-1991)
Changed hiphop and record collecting when they came out. Classic breaks only, many of them are great songs in their own right. Focus is on soul and funk, of course, but many of the great rock breaks are here too.
Dusty Fingers Volumes 1-11 on Strictly Break Records
Far more obscure. Less likely to be interesting as songs in their own right.
Other series that I haven't heard yet:
Strictly Breaks Volumes 1-9
Soul Beats Volumes 1-6
Argo/Cadet Grooves 1-7
Batteria For The Beatheads Volumes 1-2
Super Breaks & Beats 1-6
Diggin' 1-15
The Mighty Mellow 1-3
Breakdown 1-2
Nuggets 1-6 (Not to be confused by more than one other compilation of the same name)
Beyond The Valley Of The Beats
Teen Tonic
First Family Of Funk
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Performance/3412/Crates/diggin1.htm
Blue Break Beats Volumes 1 - 4
Most Sampled Songs From Blue Note
Heavily sampled tracks from the Blue Note catalogue. Sampled for the break or melody.
Recent collections:
Block Party Breaks Volumes 1-2 (DJ Pogo)
The Breaks Volumes 1-4 (DJ Pogo, Cutmaster Swift and Skye)
On Strut and Harmless. No surprises. Only classic breaks. Largely a distillation of Ultimate Breaks And Beats.
Sampled Volume 1-4 (there may be a fifth volume)
British collections of sampled music. Very eclectic - not just interested in samples used by hiphop, but also pop, electronica, etc. Consequently draws from a wide variety of genres.
Producer sampled collections (some actual releases, some informal internet collections):
Pete's Treats
Beastie Boys Have Sampled These
Dj Premier - The Crates (Original Songs As Sampled By Dj Premier)
Ghostface Sampled Soul Songs
Madlib Sampled In The Unseen
Originals As Sampled By Quasimoto
Rare Grooves - Sampled Songs
Sampled By Dj Premier
Sampled By The Avalanches
Sampled By Wu - Tang
Sampled On Dj Shadow's Entroducing
More producer collections that I haven't heard yet:
The B.I.G. Collection
School Yard Breaks
The Beatnuts Collection
The De La Collection Volumes 1+2
The Illmatic Collection
The Jigga Collection Volumes 1-3
The Infamous Queensbridge Collection (Mobb Deep)
Tribe Vibes Volumes 1-3 (ATCQ)
The Beatnuts Collection Volumes 1-2
Misc.
Who Sampled It
Who Sampled This
