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

Arica - River & Rock

River

Rock

Arica was a meditation group from New York City who recorded two albums of improvisational music. The first self-titled album was released in 1971 and the second called "Heaven" which the two tracks posted above are from, was released in 1972. I've read that they were pretty serious practitioners of several mystical traditions. It wasn't just a bunch of ritzy people trying to pay for enlightenment. I'm not sure how music related into their religious practice, if it was an aspect of their rituals, an integral element of their practice, or if it was an extra circular activity outside of their religious domain.

Arik Einstein - Dark, dark

Dark, dark

A beautifully arranged song from the popular Israeli musician's rarer early release, "Capricorn."

Hailu Mergia and The Walias - Yemiasleks Fikir & Musical Slit

Yemiasleks Fikir

Musical Slit

Stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupid Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare.

Not like I own an original copy or anything, but still.

1970s Ethiopian Jazz w/ Mulatu Astatke

Bobby Hutcherson - Ntu

Ntu

Word up to Simon Steezhoard for playing this for me.
I've never really gotten into most of Bobby Hutcherson's albums. Perhaps because he tended to play with jazz musicians I had little interest in. He played a lot with Harold Budd in the late 60s and early 70s, in a time of tremendous momentum that motivated jazz in directions that were once seen as outside the parameters and inaccessible to jazz musicians - Bobby Hutcherson chose to play with Harold Budd. Eeeek, I dunno, its kind of like neglecting to submit to a Coperinican view of the universe and instead withdraw from its fresh and profound insights and stick with the old world-view, the traditional one propagated by the Church. That probably reads as geek-drama-jazz-nerd shit, but still, much of Bobby Hutcherson's stuff has kind of that "10 years ago" vibe. It wasn't until the mid 70s that Hutcherson found a groove, Montara, the album after "Linger Lane" has some great moments.

Jon Hassel - Dream Theory

Dream Theory

If sea creatures ever have a dance party that unites all the underwater Beings. I hope the Dolphins play this so they can show the Swordfish how the Molluscs jive the Tuna Fish.

William Onyeabor - Better Change Your Mind

Better Change Your Mind

"America do you ever think this world is yours? Russia you ever think this world is yours? You China you ever think this world is yours? And you Cuba do you ever think this world is yours?"

Some Ghanian moog funk from the late 70s.

Tony Williams - There Comes a Time

There Comes a Time


The end of my high school years and the beginning of my college ones consisted of listening to a lot of post-Miles Davis influenced jazz fusion. Along with a heap of friends, we would regularly and enthusiastically chat about records released thirty-five to forty years prior, as if they were newly reviewed pitchfork media albums. The musicians who no loner play in the jazz/rock style that we adore had little bearing on our affection for the sounds they produced in the late 60s through the early 80s. A close friend introduced me to this Tony Williams track that was compiled on his "Best of..." cd. It wasn't until a year or two ago that I finally listened to the original release entitled, "Ego." A bit shocked, that we jazz nerds listened to the first and second Lifetime records but never placed "Ego" on the turntable or mentioned it in conversation. Although critics seem to regard "Ego" as trite and aesthetically indistinguishable from other jazz-fusion rock records in early 70s, "Ego" which isn't an entirely interesting listen, is buoyed by "There Comes a Time"- the closet thing i've heard to a blisteringly funky love ballad. Tony Williams, who sings on the song, sounds like an earnest and perhaps unqualified second string background singer - expressing honesty, sincerity, and an unpretentious evocation of charity and love.

Kim Jung Mi - Toward the Sunlight

Toward the Sunlight

I believe this is a somewhat common record in South Korea but it's rare to come by in the U.S. I've been recently listening to a lot of Korean-pysch rock/folk music from the 70s...and this has been one of my favorite tracks that i've come across during my lonely nights of Korean psych research and record digging : (

Enjoy the beautiful song

A.K. Frimpong - Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu

Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu

Ghanian Psych-Afro beat burner alert!

I had read that most Ghanian's know of this song - it was a popular political anthem of sorts in the 60s/70s. What can Americans say about their popular political songs of the 60s? Don McLean's American Pie? John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance? - Smut. When it comes to cultural songs that re-present an era or movement or whatever America can't hold a turd to anyone else.

I don't believe this has even been on a compilation. I guess Gilles Peterson missed this on his paid trips to Africa.
Peep the price: Popsike

MRR-ADM (MHE)

MRR-ADM - A1

MHE - 007

MRR-ADM A3


These sample based musicians are from San Diego and they KILL it. Their music sounds live - I bet many question if they even use samples, although as far as I know (I spoke to Adam from the group a couple of years ago) the music is completely created with samples- using obscure records and heavy drums to form cinematic head-nodding tunes.

Originally signed to L.A/Orange County's Sound in Color label, they are now working on a full length on Stones Throws subsidiary Now-Again records. The first track is from their 10 inch record that is selling upwards to $100 after pressing a limited amount some months back. Originally called MHE (Machines Have Emotions) they changed their name due to confusion with other people supposedly claiming to be in their group. The second track is from their limited 7 inch released a few years ago. The third song is the third track from their newest release. Their sound is grimey, minimal and infectious - sample-based hip-hop psych instrumentals. They also have an awesome website: www.dirtydrums.com

The Discotheque pt. 1

Japanese Pop Joint


My friend Nick hipped me to a mix of rare Japanese funk songs. The entire mix was lovely but this song stuck out most. It's on some foreign-high-school-love-affair vibe. I could see a Japanese version Zach Morris bumping this in his '84 Camero - sunglasses on, windows down, feelin ace that things are solid with Kelly. Ghey, i know. Supposedly the singer is speaking about feeling nervous around a girl he likes and is to chicken to talk to her.' For some odd reason they use the famous Yes horn stab sample towards the end of the song, i dunno, it seems unnecessary but some how it seems to add lovingly to the songs existential narrative. A parody on its own divisive song structure. If you're ever in Denton, Texas you might possibly see the Sun Club playing this melancholy pop song along with other disco joints in one of the various glossy clubs around town. I've yet to track down the artist or album - mysterious cheeseball.


Asha Puthli - Space Talk

Asha Puthli is an Indian singer who not long before releasing this single was recording with jazz legend Ornette Coleman on his 'Science Fiction' album. She made a successful transition from free-jazz vocalist to disco diva. This song was her swan song and was played out most famously by Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage in the mid-late 70s.


Pam Todd - Let's Get Together


Another Patrick Adams produced sure shot. The man made only incredible disco throughout the 70s, separating himself from a lot of the mediocre crud that attempted to follow suit. His signature squiggly synths aren't noticeable in this song like they are in most of the other songs he produced during that time period. Mr. Chinn from Rong Music made a fantastic edit: here

Brian Bennett - Name of the Game

Name of the Game

If you ever drive on the L.A. freeways then you would know that they can completely mess with your conception of time. I've never had a single phenomenon (i.e. driving a single stretch of highway) be completely stretched and warped like the activity of driving in L.A. A two mile stretch can take anywhere from two minutes to two hours to drive. Of course traffic is the deciding factor. But even at midnight on a weekday cars flood the roads and it takes more time than one may suspect to drive only a couple of miles.

I recall one night driving on the 10 at three o' clock in the morning from Santa Monica to Downtown L.A. (around the 110 interchange) about a fifteen mile drive that usually takes two or more hours during rush hour and at least forty-five minutes when it isn't rush hour. In the middle of the second play of Bennett's "Name of the Game" I arrived in downtown, in about seven minutes. The feeling was like suddenly finishing a 200 page book in five minutes when it usually takes several hours --a feeling of transporting around time, rather than as a classical object traveling through it. It was a clear experience of relativity and recognition of the mind's mechanical attempt to structure experience wholly by the static and classical notion of time.

I honestly don't know what "library" album the "Name of the Game" was released on. He recorded for Burton music, KPM and many other library outfits throughout Europe in the 70s and 80s. Its been released on different compilations and has one of the funkiest synth-bass lines I've ever heard.

Dig it.

Harumi - Hunters of Heaven & Hello

Hunters of Heaven


Hello


A psychedelic outing from the Japanese musician who traveled to America in the mid 60's and released this album with the help of producer Tom Wilson. The album contains many great fuzzed out moments but the two tracks that most stand out: "Hunters of Heaven" which contains a funky violin rift sampled by Diplo fame on "Florida" before he started making b-more, house, and oversaturating the house/electro music market with bland remixes. And "Hello" a psych burner sampled by Edan...if i remember correctly on "Beauty and the Beat." But I think the most memorable moment on Harumi's self-titled album is the 25 minute "Twice Told Tales Of The Pomegranate Forest" which contains a koto with warped efx and several San Francisco cats talking about their mystical experience - I presume with help of LSD since it was the 'dope' drug of the late 60's. Although, they could have been students of Gurdjieff, Swedenborg, Suzuki, or the Upanishads. But I somehow doubt it.

Tune in, Turn On, Drop Harumi funk bombs

Silhouettes - Lunar Vision

Lunar Vision


I remember playing this in my car for a friend of mine who grunted and screamed all the way through. "Ohhhhhh shiiiiit, AHHHHHH" it certainly deserves the reaction. When I first heard this, another friend played it for me, and I pictured some obscure tribe in the jungles of Brazil with rusty analog gear to be responsible for this gem. But it's actually a group of five ghosts from L.A. "Lunar Vision" is as far as I know from their only album "Conversations with The Silhouettes" released in 1968. Most of the other tracks on the album have a west coast cocktail lounge vibe. Like a psyched out version of Sinatra - ehhhhhhh. This track is by far the album's best moment.