Category Archives: music

World music classic #47

As the days of my life have progressed, I’ve made up certain rules from myself: only eat chocolate if it’s from the brand Cote d’or, never buy music albums with ugly cover art, not allow to let in new stuff unless it connects with old stuff, etc… One of these rules is not to discuss music with anyone who does not have at least some cursory knowledge of Neil Young, Lee Perry, Arthur Russell, Serge Gainsbourg, Kraftwerk and Fela Kuti. I know that this makes me sound like an arrogant prick, but to my defense I blame it on my placement within what is known as the autistic spectrum.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRZdEqpTmD4]

Another part of my defense is that I have listened to a great variety of music. One of the albums which has enjoyed lots of my time and attention is the 1976 Super Ape album by Jamaican veteran Lee “Scratch” Perry, an album I rediscovered a couple of weeks after I had initially erroneously dismissed it. Super Ape is generally classified as a dub album, and to my knowledge, it is also the first reggae concept album. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

More goodness from 1976 (and here is more from my wiki):

ECSTASY,PASSION , AND PAIN – TOUCH AND GO 05:09	Jackson Sisters – Miracles 04:08	Side Effect – Always There 05:02
Rare Pleasure – Let Me Down Easy (1976)	Nature Zone – Porcupine 03:46	juggy murray jones/ Inside America 1976 07:28
Eddie Harris, It’s alright Now

World music classic #45 and 46

“Show ‘Em Whatcha Got” (1988) Public Enemy

Both images lead to YouTube clips.

There is a very good Afro-Caribbean “mix tape”

There is a very good Afro-Caribbean “mix tape” [1] (by DJ Geko Jones [MySpace] and a track listing here) over at Wayne and Wax. Other music blogs I am currently subscribed to include the Simon Reynolds, Swen’s blog[2], WFMU, Mixtuur, The Wire‘s The Mire[3] and Phinn. Woebot is still missed.

Needless to say, I cannot agree with Sebastian Horsley (Dandy in the Underworld ) when he angrily says:

I’ve had enough of this shit[4]. The internet is for those who lack the flair for conversation. A blog is what you write for after being rejected by all the reputable publishers. It is Loser Central. The last refuge of the refuse.

Where else but on blogs can I read, watch and listen at the same time. The only off-line media I still follow are Focus Knack (a Belgian general interest arts and culture mag), an occasional newspaper and occasional snippets of televised and radio-broadcast news.

Can you live without off-line media?

P.S. From that mixtape:

Eres para mi Julieta Venegas

Bo Diddley (1928 – 2008)

Bo Diddley – I’m a Man, YouTube

“I’m a Man” (1955) Bo Diddley

World music classic #43 and 44

“Make it Last Forever”

Donna McGhee is an American singer who released one album on Red Greg Records, produced and arranged by Greg Carmichael and Patrick Adams. The track from that album, “Make It Last Forever,” was covered by Loleatta Holloway.

Greg Carmichael (“Barely Breaking Even”) and Patrick Adams (“In the Bush” and “Keep on Jumpin’) produced at least 50 tracks which transcend disco as genre. They are in many ways the auteurs of disco, more so than Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons or Tom Moulton, who were primarily involved in post-production. The only one to rival Adams and Carmichael was Arthur Russell, but his story is altogether different.

One more by Patrick Adams (“My Baby’s Got E.S.P.” notice the similarity of Patrick Adams’s trademark: the string arrangements and slow beats).

“My Baby’s Got E.S.P.”

WMC#42: To shake memories into the air

This post rhymes with air

She threw back her hair
Like I wasn’t there
And she sipped on a julep.
Her shoulders were bare
And I tried not to stare

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYHEBa6Xx48&]

“Summer (The First Time)” (1973) by Bobby Goldsboro

A Hemisphere in Your Hair (French: Un hémisphère dans une chevelure) is a poem by Baudelaire collected in Paris Spleen.

Laisse-moi respirer longtemps, longtemps, l’odeur de tes cheveux, y plonger tout mon visage, comme un homme altéré dans l’eau d’une source, et les agiter avec ma main comme un mouchoir odorant, pour secouer des souvenirs dans l’air.

Long let me inhale, the odour of your hair,

into it plunge the whole of my face, like a thirsty man

into the waters of a spring and wave it in my fingers like a scented handkerchief,

to shake memories into the air.

In the film Withnail & I Richard Griffith’s character recites the line “Laisse-moi respirer longtemps, longtemps, l’odeur de tes cheveux” (Eng: Long let me inhale, the odour of your hair).

Playa Bianca

Charles Petit is the director of this superb video clip to the musical composition “Playa Bianca” with sweet parlando vocals by French writer Michel Houellebecq.

In the words of the director:

“Michel Houellebecq released an album five years ago on the French label Tricatel. The lyrics was from his poems, the music was from Bertrand Burgalat, and I was the director of the video.”

The CD’s title is Présence humaine, and it was released on Bertrand Burgalat’s Tricatel label in 2000.

The track reminds us of “Sea, Sex and Sun“[1] by Gainsbourg, but also (and the link is more oblique here) of Deleuze reciting Nietzsche on Richard Pinhas‘s Le Voyageur composition.

“Playa Bianca” means “white beach”.

Tip of the hat to De Papieren Man.

World music classics #39, 40 and 41

Beastie Boys – Cooky puss
04:30

Added: 6 months ago
From: iwillluvher
Views: 7,489

Ciccone Youth – “Into the Groovey”
02:47

Added: 3 months ago
From: dipsetmuthafucka
Views: 2,381

Liquid Liquid – “Cavern” 1983
04:38

Added: 6 months ago
From: tertolkin
Views: 7,336

Background info:

Beastie Boys – Cooky Puss, 1983
Ciccone Youth – “Into the Groovey“, 1986
Liquid Liquid – “Cavern“, 1983

Notes: There is a better version on Youtube of “Cavern” (sound-wise), but the one featured here has the original music video, and the only one commissioned by New York record label 99 Records. “Cooky Puss” was a revelation when it came out, and my first exposure to the Beastie Boys. “Into the Groove(y)” was also my first exposure to SY, there are two alternative versions of this Madonna spoof/cover.

If you have the time, check dipsetmuthafucka‘s Youtube channel, he, or rather his musical selection, is the incarnation of taste.

“I’d rather be lonely than happy with somebody else”

Discover Johann Sebastian Bach [1] through Nina Simone “Love Me or Leave Me“[2] (from 1:40 to 2:50). No, really.

Click the numbers to listen to the music.

Oblique “namesake” connection: Moodymann’s “I’d Rather Be Lonely”

MyTube

As I’ve probably mentioned before, YouTube satisfies most of my current music needs. Whether that says more about Jahsonic than about the quality of the current batch of YouTube footage, I leave up to you. This aside, I thought I’d let you know that from now on I will be favoriting both my audio and video finds on Youtube. The address is quite simply http://youtube.com/user/Jahsonic (I’ve even managed to give it the vintage clay/day-glo green Jahsonic.com color scheme).

I hope you enjoy and do let me know if you have an interesting YouTube channel.