Piero Umiliani - Hard Times & Chaser

Hard Times (1974)

One of my favorite 1970s Italian Soundtracks. This song sounds like it could have been an outtake from David Axelrod's Seriously Deep, also released the same year as this hot-steaming-bubbler. Umiliani, a rather prolific Italian soundtrack composer, produced the music for most of Luigi Scattini's erotic-milky dangler-detective movies; Il Corpo was the final, fantastically sleazy film in Scattini's erotic trilogy. Short, spares, playful guitar solos, a bassline that would make Miles Davis grunt and a deeply slick Gene Hackman-esque working class-downtown-man-string arrangement (2:08) adequately prepares me for hard times in my near future aka not having enough money to buy a double gin & tonic tonight.

Chaser (1974)

Also from Il Corpo: Music for women who cheat on their man.

Can - A Spectacle

Can - A Spectacle (1979)

A late, late Can jam. I had no idea that even after "Soon After Babaluma" they created music for planets to have sex to.

Q-Tip recently put this track to werk:


Thanks to Jonathan for hippin' me to this.

Airto Moreira - Uri, Peasant Dance & Return to Forever

Airto Moreira - Uri (1971)





















Airto Moreira -Peasant Dance (1974)






























Airto Moreira - Return to Forever (1972)

A crunchy percussion orgy from Brazil's most talented extraneous shell and maraca shaker. As legend has it, Airto's peppery voice and cuica playing is said to penetrate directly into the Eye in the Sky, while simulatneously reaching the depths of the underworld; reaching even the most loathsome and malignant of castaways.

Hubert Eaves - Painful Pleasure

Hubert Eaves - Painful Pleasure (1976)

This track is just glossy enough to make me slip on the Arsenio pants and holleur "watch out neoahh" to high waisted girls; yet creamy enough to savor in my monitors. Jerhi Curl vibez w/ Mtume, Reggie Lucas and Howard King.

George Duke - My Soul

George Duke - My Soul (1972)

Pull yr girlfriend out of the closet and deflate her on your carpeted dance floor.

Keith Jarrett - Clavichord Improvisations

From "Book of Ways"

Henri Texier - Kan ar Labour

Henri Texier - Kan ar Labour (1979)

A fantastic folky-jazz tune from his last solo/multi-tracked album from the late 70s.

Soft Machine - Live on French TV (Out-Bloody-Rageous)

Lynn Dobson rarely played with Soft Machine. I believe he only recorded on "Third" although he could have done other studio work with them in the early 70s. The groove that Hugh Hopper and Mike Ratledge ride-out is only 24 bars on the original recording of "Out-Bloody-Rageous" but is here extended into six minutes, allowing Lynn Dobson to play a wonderful extended solo.

Keith Jarrett - Mortage On My Soul (Wah-Wah)

Mortage On My Soul (1972)

This track demonstrates that Mr. Jarrett can rip it on a soprano sax (1st solo) while playing over one of the hardest bass lines Charlie Haden ever recorded.

Le Orme - Evasione Totale

Evasione Totale (1971)

Before they got noodly and a tad too sugary.

Spectre - Arkham

Spectre - Arkham

Space colony takeover music

The Esso Trinidad Steel Band - I Want You Back

I Want You Back

A great steel drum cover of the Berry Gordy and Alphonso Mizell classic

Chris Rae & Frank McDonald - Night Moves

HOARD

RIP Hugh Hopper

One of the finest electric bassist to ever play. I was immediately attracted to his simple and poignant bass playing. I think it was "Kings and Queens as well as "Drop" and "As If" from Soft Machine 5 that most acquainted me with his style. Unlike a lot of musicians, he's able to say a lot while playing few notes. His groovy-ness was unlike many of the other bassists who played fusion in the early to mid-70s: no slapping and no ostentatious presentation. Aside from being a superb bassist, he was one of the few people who experimented with tape-delay manipulation. Around the same time as Steve Reich and Terry Riley, Hugh Hopper, (who seems to get little recognition for manipulating live samples via reel-to-reel tapes) made sound scultpures that can be heard on Soft Machine's seminal album, "Third," along with his first solo release, "1984"

Hugh Hopper - Hopper-tunity Box (1976)
A medieval march song from his second solo album. Includes Gary Windo and Elton Dean

Soft Machine - Kings and Queens (written by Hugh Hopper)
from "4"

Alan Gowen & Hugh Hopper - Morning Order (1982)
A beautiful blend of cascading synths and robust electric bass, from their album "Two Rainbows Daily"

Aleke Kanonu - N'Gwode & Mother's Day

N'Gwode (1980)
An extremely rare afro-beat/funk album featuring Wilbur Bascomb on bass. Before recording his self-titled album, Aleke performed with Stanley Cowell and recorded on his '75 Strata-East release, "Regeneration." No other information seems to be obtainable about his musical output or his current location - his one and only album release; all the tracks are heat.

Mother's Day (1980)
A beautiful and sparse percussion track with pidgin mutterings and lush piano chords.

Marva Broome (Art Ensemble of Chicago) - Mystifying Mama

Marva Broome/Art Ensemble of Chicago - Mystifying Mama (1972)

7 inch release - it currently sells for a ridiculous amount of money.

The Discotheque pt. 2

Alex - Flying High (1977)

Alex is the name of Norwegian disco princess, Alexandra Sandoy. I came across her music upon noticing that jazz drummer, Jon Christensen was listed playing on several tracks off her self-titled album. As an ECM record freak, I was a bit shocked to see Keith Jarrett's drummer boy playing percussion on disco tracks and thought that perhaps it was a different Jon Christensen - it sounds like it could possibly be a common name in Norway, but for that one other person that might care, my own dutiful research confirms that it really is him. I can't say that I ride for most of the album, although you have to commend Norway for trying to make disco heat in the icy tundra, a sly persuasive move to simultaneously get hundreds of toe heads under the disco ball. Glamour!





















The Limit - She's So Divine (1982)

Fortunately, the guitar rift and synth solo heavily outweigh the cliche chorus.




















Karisma - Got You Dancing (Instrumental) 1976

Funky, funky, funky, damn, and Karisma only released one single. If anyone knows more music they released or side projects they had, please inform me! Apparently, it has been released and re-released on several great record labels including SAM and Patrick Adams P&P records throughout the 70s and 80s. I've never heard it in a mix, on a compilation or played live, that is, until I stoarted makin people poarty with it. Fresh.

William Sheller - Introit

Introit (1972)

Apocalyptic opera voices , window shattering strings, Carol Kaye era David Axelrod basslines, twangy sounding Jean Claude Vannier guitars, slow Sahara dessert drum breaks...murderin music.

Dan the Automator ripped this track for "Deltron 3030" peep:

Jan Garberak - Beast of Kommodo & Afric Pepperbird

Beast of Kommodo

Afric Pepperbird

An early release for the Norwegian saxophonist on his home label, the mega-jazz fortress ECM. "Afric Pepperbird" was released in 1971 and at this point in history ECM had not yet slipped into the slick, polished, and atmospheric gloss that tends to be the sound of most of their contemporary releases. Terje Rypdal, who released several Miles fusion influenced records in the early to mid 70s along with Jon Christensen stand as a testament to the period when ECM had the jazz balls to release raw music. The icy Norwegian sound that established Garberak as a saxophone stylist is not present on these early recordings. Instead, Coltrane's influence, which most young saxophonist echo, is greatly heard on both this recording and "Sart," the Quartet's other album released in the same year. The unappreciated bassist Arlid Andersen sounds like a funky tractor or something - meaty, greasy, yet magnificently smooth. He lays down dirty lines that would make even David Sanborn crack his neck and Rza tweek.

Chick Corea Killin' It

"Spiritual" Music pt. 1

Part 2

Yatha Sidhra - Meditation Mass (1972)























Spiritual Blessing

Pharoah Sanders - Elevation (1973)



















Spark from the Infinite (Part 2)

Terry Riley - No Man's Land (1985)
























Gol-e Gandom

Lloyd Miller - Oriental Jazz (1965)


"Spiritual" is used here in the loosest sense. Although, for many people spiritual music simply means recording flutes, tablas, sarods and dangling bells. I don't see how those instruments are in anyway spiritual, if we mean spiritual beyond the fashionable Westernized fast-food version of spiritual, as meaning Oriental. But for this post, that's exactly what I aim for.

Ikenga Superstars of Africa - Greedy Man

Greedy Man

Led by Vincent Okoroego, the Ikengas were a fairly popular "highlife guitar" group from Nigeria. Like many African groups in the 70s and 80s, they created upbeat, bouncy music to enliven the spirits of attracted customers at market stalls throughout Nigeria - Africa's form of market commercialism. Broken and "pidgin" English sharply cut into the groove and the soft, smooth Congolian guitar rift sounds like the source of Paul Simon's imperialistic replication of African music during the 80s.

MPB pt. 1

Nega





















Farinha Do Desprezo
























Toc

Letta Mbulu - Mahlalela & Melodi

Mahlalela
Melodi

From her 1970 release, "Letta"
White people, cleanse yourselves in the waters of primordial neck-crackin music

Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah

Harvest Time

Pharoah Sanders 1977 album released on the obscure label, India Navigation is by far his rarest and perhaps most beautiful album. "Harvest Time" fills up the first side of the record and contains some of Sanders most lyrical and forward tenor sax playing. Bathing in the atmosphere of lush chords from Tisziji Munoz's echoing electric guitar, Pharoah arises from the waters and glides on top of Munoz's motifs, caressing the majestic soundspace with lovely interpentrating soliloquies that bounce back and forth with bassist Steve Neil (sounding like Dave Holland) to then travel off into the cosmos to make love with some funky godhead residing inbetween Sirius and Torgious.

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - The Feedback & Seguita

The Feedback

Seguita

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione was Ennio Morricone's jazz/avant-garde/classical group throughout the 60s and early 70s. The group's style changed in the early 70s from Stockhausen-esque possessive soundscapes to dry drum breaks with screaching trumpets and guitars. "The feed-back" is considered highly as an Italian avant-garde classic. 'The feedback' showcases Ennio Morricone sounding off a flat trumpet that fits perfectly with the cold and cacophonous intermingling of instruments. "Seguita" is from 'Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura' (Cold Eyes of Fear) a dramatic action movie Morricone soundtracked in 1971. The song spawns images of tall, dark men in black suits running through damp streets and narrow alleys. I haven't seen the movie so perhaps my mental image isn't too far from Morricone's theatrical intention.

La Kabala - El Cumbanchero & Miami Beach

El Cumbanchero

Miami Beach

La Kabala was a funk group from Peru who performed early Santana-style music, but with more sincerity, swing, and with better keyboards. This record is pretty rare

Jean Cohen-Solal - Concerto Cyliq

Concerto Cyliq

A theme song for alien visitations
Apprehending knife fights in Paris
and secretly yappin diamonds from a rich Parisian

The Bayan Mongol Variety Group - Bayan Mongol

Bayan Mongol

Thanks to Waxidermy for informing the world about this track. It's a Mongolian rock record! When was the last time you thought about Mongolia? Ghengis Khan? Maybe you have an image of Julia Roberts riding horses in the lush countryside, like I do? I dunno. When I played this for a friend he asked, "Mongolia? What? is that a country?" Supposedly this was released in 1981 but recorded sometime in the late 60's, it certainly sounds like it. I'm not sure what the rest of the album sounds like, simply because it's nearly impossible to find and nobody has posted any other tracks from it. Hopefully they will in the future and then I can post them for you. "Mongolian psych-funk" ooooooohhhhhhhhh, get steamy.

San Ul Lim - It was probably late summer

It was probably late summer

S. Korean psychedelic rock that makes dudes drop turds with ease

Ronnie Von - Voce De Azul

Voce De Azul

Ronnie Von is still a huge star in Brazil. Known now for his work on reality T.V. shows and other commercial work. In the late 60's he released several great psychedelic albums. Prior to his psych-sound, he recorded mostly Beatles covers and some other cheesy stuff. The four albums released from 1967-70 are largely considered classics in the genre, fortunately he was able to have a period of success making great music.

Phirpo y sus Caribes - Feliz Porque Regreso A Casa (Happy Cause I'm Going Home)

Happy Cause I'm Going Home

Caetano Veloso - Nine out of Ten & It's a Long Way

Nine out of Ten

It's a Long Way

"Nine out of ten movie stars make me cry. I'm alive. Know that one day I must die. I'm alive."

I usually attempt to post rarer songs, but hopefully these will get a pass!
Caetano Veloso as many know, is a huge musical figure in Brazil. Along with Gilberto Gil, he pioneered the Tropicalia movement that fused psychdelic-rock with samba and bossa nova elements. For most Brazilians, posting this song is probably the equivalent of an American posting a Bob Dylan song, considering he's called the, "Bob Dylan of Brazil."

"Transa" was the album that made him largely recognized after the Tropicalia explosion.
It was the first album he made upon his return home from exile in England, hence the title. This album has a bittersweet appeal - sparse arrangements, beautiful melodies and mournful lyrics. It contains very little residue from his early recordings that were full of heavy percussion, fast rhythms and aggressive political lyrics. His political opinions can still be heard, similar to his self-titled (Irene) album recorded a year prior while in prison. His political opinions continue to to be hidden, or perhaps exposed, through metaphor such as "The Empty Boat"and the leading track from Transa, "You Don't Know Me." His tone is somber and distant. Veloso's hostility is held within poetic imagery and passive aggressive lyrics that seem to both stifle his lyrical expression and yet vividly reveal his position as a musician censored by the Brazilian government, the object of his subdued verbal attacks. He celebrates his country and mourns for it, but he knows better than to suggest any ideas for how it should change. Although Veloso didn't record in English before he was exiled, he did record several songs in English while in England. "Transa" is the album that represents his acceptance back into his own country, a return unto his family, friends and fans, so its curious that he chose to record most of the album in English. It must have been a way for him to continue pinching the tits of the Brazilian government .

Os Brazoes/Lula Cortes E Ze Ramalho/Satwa

Tao Longe De Mim

Fuzzy sunshine from Os Brazoes (1969)























Trilha De Sim (1975)























Satwa

An acid folk project from Lula Cortes recorded around the same time as he was making music with Ze Ramalho

Ersen - Done Sevdigim

Done Sevdigim (1974 Turkish Psych)

Dude has serious swagger

Blue Phantom - Equilibrium, Compression & Distillation

Equilibrium

Compression

Distillation

Tasty stuff from a band that did a lot in 1971 and very little after. It's a popular record for psych nerds to collect and the first two pressing (Italian and British) sell for about $100-200. The music is somewhere between Ennio Morricone-style Italian soundtrack music and traditional fuzzed out psych-garage music - fuzzy soundtrack music? The songs that I posted have the most cinematic stylings from the album, some of the other songs sound like they were made with a psych rock-cookie cutter that was collectively shared within Europe in the early 70s. Not a good look. Fortunately most of the album is good looking. Like a young Burt Reynolds.

Sabu Martinez - Nus & Afro Temple

Nus
From Winds & Skins 1978

Afro Temple
From "Afro Temple" 1973

DON'T SLEEP MY SALMON

Ananda Shankar - Streets of Calcutta & River

Streets of Calcutta
(Every car door i open and walk out of, every time i shake a man's hand, every time i drive a convertible car through the tunnels of Europe, this song plays in my miiiiiind)

The River
(for my reflective posture mode)


Famous album from India's sitar-funk king