All of the reissue items can be viewed and purchased at Acoustic Sounds.
Five individual titles plus exclusive bonus album of cover classics, all on 33
1/3 LP
All mastered from the original sources by Kevin Gray
LPs pressed on 200-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings
The box set will be wrapped in a textured paper that feels like linen
Norah Jones is the rare artist who has combined widespread critical acclaim with immense commercial success, winning nine Grammy Awards and selling 40 million albums in just a decade, while collaborating with artists from across the spectrum from jazz to hip hop, rock to country. Her pitch perfect voice combined with her choice of the finest musicians along with top-flight producers such as Arif Mardin, Danger Mouse and Jacquire King have made her releases go-to demonstration discs for audiophile stereo systems. Now ten years into her already impressive career, she is releasing her fifth studio album Little Broken Hearts on May 1, 2012 produced by and co-written with five-time Producer of the Year Grammy nominee Danger Mouse, and to celebrate, Blue Note Records and Analogue Productions are collaborating to re-issue her entire catalog in limited edition audiophile LP and SACD editions.
The LP editions of the five albums — 2002′s Come Away With Me, 2004′s Feels Like Home, 2007′s Not Too Late, 2009′s The Fall and Norah’s new album Little Broken Hearts — have all been re-mastered from the original sources by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio. The LPs will be pressed on 200 Gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (fast gaining popular consensus as the best pressing plant in the world) and, keeping with Analogue Productions’ standards, they will be packaged in heavy cardboard stock, tip-on, old-school gatefold sleeves.
In addition to the individual releases, Analogue and Blue Note will produce a limited edition vinyl box set comprising all five titles plus an exclusive bonus album entitled Covers. Only available as part of these sets, Covers includes ten rare or unreleased interpretations of classics recorded throughout Norah’s career. Artists covered include Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Horace Silver, Wilco and more. The box set will be wrapped in a textured paper that feels like linen. – Acoustic Sounds
Frank Maston, guitarist of the Los Angeles quartet So Many Wizards, has released an expanded version of his debut cassette EP Opal with Family Time Records. With an additional track included onto the original run, this limited edition CD-r serves as the 28th release in Family Time Records ongoing saga of modern sounds from the underground rock world. Opal is truly an extravagant arrangement of 20th century pop influence that crosses the board and the generations before us, hinting towards an otherworldly dreamy state that melts the music into a pool of colorful harmony. From Deerhunter to David Lynch, I can hear so many different types of music submerged into the Opal sound that it really becomes its own thing.
Opal is dreamy from front to back with tones that cascade from the highly processed sets of effects and synthesizer each song on the ep presents. The percussion is always stripped to the bone and gives a calming, nostalgia feeling of older, more simple times to the record. This isn’t a record about drum rolls and intricate and complex drum placements. It is a record that puts all its eggs into the melodic shaping, lyrical presentation and gilded voicing of these two areas conjoined. Because of these unique blends of effects and synthesizer settings inside of a framework of strong song writing, the music becomes as airy and light as it is commanding and powerful.
‘Gold Leaf, the opening song from Opal, creates a mirage induced garden from the mirrors of guitar that bounce around each from the processing of Maston’s axe. The vocal layering and specifically the backing parts, sounds like a 50′s doo wop piece, something that gives this record a very nostalgic feeling of the past on contact. The second track, ‘Meteor Shower’, sounds like a Bjork interlude that came straight from Venus. Very short in length, it’s a breathing point from the guitar and vocal heavy song writing Opal lives off of.
With the song ‘Wigwan’, I felt like I was inside of the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks after hearing it for the first time. Built on a lot of simplicity, the guitar riffs are some of the catchiest yet dark lines I have heard in some time. It’s the type of track that I can’t get enough of. Immediately after this nod to the Twin Peaks sound, the mad scientist horror scene comes out in full with the track ‘Well’. This song really reveals how mood shifting the record can become track after track. The expansion of Opal from cassette to CD-r with Family Time Records has come with the track ‘Potemkin’, a modern pop song that makes me feel like I am inside of a black and white 50′s TV show intro.
Opal from Maston is one album I am glad the good people at Family Time Records have been given access to release. A must hear album for all fans of the bridging age of experimentation and pop.
When it comes to innovations in modern synthesizer technology, the most common reference you will hear is Robert Moog and his famous Moog synthesizer gear. At the forefront along with Robert was Don Buchla, a modern synthesizer maverick and well respected researcher in multiple fields of study. The two created gear that would change the idea of sound and the possibilities of micro fragments under different synthetic properties. It wasn’t until I was sent one of the latest compilations from the illustrious Finders Keepers Records that I knew of Don and the influence that had made its way into the disc I was hearing. This influence is of course in the name of Suzanne Ciani and the compilation record Lixiviation. Suzanne is a world renowned 5 time Grammy nominee electronic innovator. As an Italian American composer who specializes in a vast array of synthesizers, Suzanne Ciani is emerging back into the public consciousness with this impressive set on Finders Keepers Records. Her use of the the Buchla synthesizers in the time of their creation became an extensive tool in her approach towards electronics along with a multi-array of keyboards, modules and other gear from the best companies around. This set highlights in many ways, the importance Suzanne had on modern underground and mainstream cultures with a nostalgic focus on the defining era of synth micro composition in mainstream ads and video games of the 70′s and 80′s. The longer and more drawn out pieces reign in a galactic voyage of suns warmth. Every layer becomes a subversion for long passages and sequences in color variation that cycle in spheres around the programmed sequences of sound that take her weeks to construct. Suzanne Ciani studied classical music at MA in her younger years, adapting to the electronic format after being introduced from friend and sculptor Harold Paris to the Buchla world. It was this foundation that gave her a head start in bridging the age of electronics into modern culture and her move to New York in the early 70′s moved her closer to all the new technology that was coming out. By the 80′s she had fully realized her sound and was into creating her own albums. Suzanna Cianni had completed studies at Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Labs in the early 70′s as well and this was a very defining element to the format of her music. The Buchla synthesizer systems itself operated on a system where layers unfolded after preset sequences were layed out, ensuring that nothing would ever be the same and a garden of endless ideas would unfold from the intricate programming. This unfolding creates a transparency on the longer pieces in Lixiviation that retain an outer cosmic and telepathic feeling, where something has become a part of the unfolding of these layers that defies all logic towards the original design, acting in an artificial intelligent way.
Suzanna Ciani was an artist who dealt with sound in a highly complex manner but had the pleasure of conceptually dealing with other mediums of art as she commissioned to do pieces for dancers, film and many other mediums that stretched outside of the norm. The self titled song and the first number on Lixiviation shows an excerpt of a soundtrack piece Suzanna Ciani did with sculptor Ronald Mallory. Recorded using the Buchla synthesizer technology, it begins the album in a very open way, showing Suzanna in a very dynamic and colorful setting, reacting to the fluid movement of a piece of film one could only imagine of from the sounds coming out. The song builds into a very bright and glowing state, with shimmering lights of counter colors dripping outward from the rising layers. It’s so soft yet so alive.
Atari, Coca-Cola, PBS and Discover Magazine are among the company logo and ad music that was selected for Lixiviation, highlighting a very different approach towards composition and sound from Suzanna Ciani than the long form sound collage pieces. Micro filled ideas are jumbled into tiny spots, with what feels like hundreds of notes and sounds in the span of 30 seconds. ‘Princes With Orange Feet’ is yet another concept and doorway to conceptual building for Suzanna, with the participation of a dancer and the choreographing we can imagine, this beautiful piece was taped in Berkeley to 2 track. The delay and processing drifts this piece into a very hypnotic and dreamy world with the compositional basis being fairly simple. The tonal color ideas on top of this pulse are endless though, with sound drifting in and out from the amount of delay processed into the recording. This is the most abstract song on the compilation and shows her affection towards the avant-garde.
The stand out track included on Lixiviation for all of us at Sound Colour Vibration is easily the live recording extract from Paris 1971. Almost seven minutes in length and created with the Buchla synthesizer, this sound sculptor unfolds in a very surreal and cinematic way with emotional shifts that burst with energy by the time it climaxes in weight and volume. The thought that a machine is creating this landscape is something all too unreal, especially considering the fact that she has to prepare each Buchla piece for weeks in advance. As Suzanne Ciani explains in the liner notes, “This is an example of a Buchla piece where the music is generated by the machine itself, after lots of careful programming. I would spend weeks just living with the machine, always on, and tweak the parameters that were interacting to create this “automatic” composition. The idea was that you worked with the machine, setting up sequences and envelopes and filter modulations that interacted in an organic way. The composition then infolded infinitely, going for weeks.” There is really no way to explain how beautiful this organic growing sound becomes in the matter of minutes from the Paris recording in 1971. The song ‘Eight Wave’ is the only piece off Lixiviation to come from one of her solo albums, Suzanne Ciani’s second LP The Velocity of Love. There is a majestic feeling in ‘Eight Wave’, one that sounds like what a lot of Japanese composers were doing in the 90′s for many popular video games and movies. Waves crashing and symphonic keyboard runs of bliss, this is a really magical sounding song that never looses an artistic integrity. To hear the crossing of barriers of sound is almost unparalleled in her time, with no artist divulging in mainstream and the underground in states this extreme and at the same time. The worlds of music on this compilation stretch to every part of the electronic idiom, with the Atari Liberator’ TV ad song being the most 80′s and comical of the set. It is pieces that highlight how far she was willing to stretch her sound to fit into whatever was asked of her. The vocoder she uses on her voice makes it a really fun track to listen to and gives the entire experience of Lixiviation a one of a kind feel.
Lixiviation is a collection for the dedicated enthusiast of electronic music and for those who want to understand in further detail more electronic music history. Suzanne Ciani has partnered with the Finders Keepers organization to launch an extensive amount of work in her catalog. Lixiviation is the perfect start, the maiden voyage for a completely new understanding on the influence and innovation that occurred outside with Suzanne Ciani.
Kayo Dot is one of the most uncompromising bands out today, releasing a python of sounds that immerses every listen in gardens of supreme madness through the sublime beauty of advanced unique composition work and sonic landscape building. There are dynamics on the half a dozen albums they have release in the last decade that never sit in one mode, arena or perception of sound. There is a constant search for the new and a very delicate, specific and intricate placement of instrumentation in the Kayo Dot idiom that is rare in today’s standards of contemporary artists. The arrival of 2012′s Gamma Knife from Kayo Dot is one of the most abstract, powerfully composed and mind altering experiences I have had with the groups music. Gamma Knife on first contact felt like a record that pushes the vision of the group to newer heightens then ever before. There is a diversion towards doom and the demanding technical excellence of the chamber world that defines their entire body of works and runs all over this new album. Melting sax lines, flourishing guitar sheets, deep moving bass work and highly complex drums that search as much as they create foundations, there is a search for something unreal. Kayo Dot pulls from the deep identity and purpose of sound they have brought to the table since day one and has given it a new spirit and a new power of light towards the future of the group. The evolution of Kayo Dot is measured from record to record, a feat many bands take decades to define. The energy and cycle of every release seems to get more potent, stronger and more heightened to the ethos of all sub underground worlds of music that branch out into rock, classical and improvisational idioms.
Gamma Knife is an album that has broken every law of understanding sound that I have ever been accustomed to, a weight that left me speechless for weeks after initially experiencing the album. There is a frightening and bewildering achievement of cinematic evocation of every emotion possible, something that pushes itself to the highest extremes when Toby Driver presents his vocals in the most raw and vicious way. This record is not all power and gusto, instead living in a state of waves that create cycles of explosive and subtle dynamic flourishes. Resolve and deep reflection are some of the last results in the Gamma Knife experience, ending the album on a euphorically subtle and beautiful note. Just as subtle, beautiful and brush stroke evoking the ending portion of the record is, the album starts off in the same enlightening way, featuring the inclusion of a glorious sounding church bell. Subtle shades of violin and the beautiful aura of Toby’s vocals bring the Gamma Knife opening to a very ancient setting. The church bell is cycled through the entire piece ‘Lethe’ and the build up creates a jaw dropping sense of sunsets that cloak the sky in florescent oranges, purples, reds and yellows. Toby Driver is a really marvelous vocalist, something he has brought to the kayo Dot sound for the last few albums and it seems like Gamma Knife is his most complex and dynamic to date.
The pieces ‘Rite of Goetic Evocation’, ‘Mirror Water, Lightning Night’ and ‘Ocellated God’ dive heavily into the doom filled chambers that Toby Driver has been extensively known for in his career. Drum work that never stays still but always remains a sense of direction and guitar, piano, mellotron, violin, saxophone and bass tonal shifts and turns that are all too unreal and engrossing to explain in full detail, these three pieces shed a lot of light into the power and strength that has run through the groups entire legacy. Angular momentum and euphoric crescendos, there is an overshadowing level of unconstrained and unrestricted madness that evolves in the time that the three songs elapse. Guitar parts shift in ways I have never experienced and vocals that come out into the mix darker than any metal album I have heard in years, this is music of a dawning age and of a tomorrow that never turned better. ‘Rite of Goetic Evocation’ feels like the anticipation leading up the awakening, the process of massive change in the darkest way possible. ‘Mirror Water, Lightning Night’ brings me to the glory of the battle field forshadowed in the previous number while ‘Ocellated God’ shaves off image after image of the aftermath and destruction left behind from this battle. A falling towards the bottomless pit of despair unravels itself from the grinding hault of the inner soul of Kayo Dot stems from, a sinking and falling that never stops from beginning to end with these three pieces. The title track, ‘Gamma Knife’, shifts in presentation and really shows the resolve, reflection and beauty of what this record ends on. Subtle runs of piano, guitar and bass and a mesmerizing display of vocals, ‘Gamma Knife’ leaves the album in a remarkable wake of light and a sense of something new that leaves the record to rest in the most peaceful manner.
Gamma Knife was recorded live in part at Littlefield, Brooklyn NY in the beginning of October of 2011by the very talented Jeremiah Cymerman, one of the newest associates to make a presence in the Kayo Dot lineage of artists and an artist we have been exposed to from the illustrious Porter Records. The rest of the album, including overdubs, was tracked in Toby’s home between October and November of 2011. Gamma Knife is one of the most ground breaking pieces of music I have ever heard, a revelation of worlds that are opening up to show the massive perspectives and ideas that are still available and uncharted in the music today. Toby Driver and Kayo Dot’s Gamma Knife: a modern masterpiece.
-Erik Otis
++++
Toby Driver – bass guitar, guitar, vocals, keys
Terran Olson – alto sax
Daniel Means – alto sax
Keith Abrams – drumset
Mia Matsumiya – violin
Tim Byrnes – mellotron, bells and audience direction
Ron Varod – audience direction
David Bodie – additional percussion
Ras_G "Spacebase is the Place" 2x10" Poo-Bah Records
Ras_G, one of a handful of very influential producers and a Southern California mystic enigma, has been very active in the last 6 years of his music output. Over 20 releases in a little over 10 years, he is following in the foot steps of the musical icons he has come to realize he shares a lot of ideologies with. While some mimic and copy the past innovators, Ras_G has naturally become what all those teachers once were. Sound masters such as Sun Ra, Lee “Scratch” Perry and J-Dilla are just a few who share the principles and emotional wave length that instantly grabs you that Ras_G has been tapping into for years. Ras_G has released a very special piece of art this year with a double 10″ called Spacebase is the Place. Performed under his The Alkebulan Space Program moniker, this record shines in the most experimentally exuberant ways with philosophical samples, the bottomless rhythmic pulse found in the best dub and reggae songs and bass tones to shatter the best of speaker systems. Pressed on high grade vinyl and a heavy duty gatefold, the photography of Ras_G from the very talented Theo Jemison adds the perfect touch.
Cosmic and ancient in tone with shading of modern production and dj techniques, Spacebase is the Place gives the best of both worlds. Music with a strong identity in philosophical ideologies is one that is never taken lightly by the artist making it and Spacebase is the Place proves to be no different. The Bruce Lee quote used perfectly places the modern and mystic aura the albums music evokes into this philosophical identity. Space tones, 90′s era RZA production, gritty break beats, modern dub and dungeon like melodies with the heaviest dose of exploration in 21st century cosmic tones. Ras_G is a heavy record collector and his use of samples falls in the ranks with the best producers. There is no denying his abilities when you hear some of the first stuff he was putting out around 2005 up until Spacebase is the Place. It’s all quality. Spacebase is the Place is split over 4 sides on a rare double 10″ set up wth every side providing a window into the vehicle that has become his center for creation: Spacebase. Dedicated and created in thanks to the peers and environments around him, Spacebase is the Place shows Ras_G becoming a stronger musician, producer and dj, all of which have coalesced in a way on Spacebase is the Place that is unseen on his previous releases.
Ras_G "Ghetto Sci-Fi" on Poh-Bah Records 2008
His very own Poo-Bah Records had launched the first thing I had grabbed my ears onto from Ras_G, 2008′s Ghetto Sci-Fi. Steeped in a heavy array of samples and self production that slips in and out of an unknown sea of sounds, I felt saturated in a deep meditative aura that was inflicted by the overtones of dub, jazz, abstract instrumental hip-hop and bass heavy tones. Soft is something that like the Greek influence in culture, is nowhere found in the music of Ras_G. This is a celebration of something very different, the celebration of a living myth and the doors that open from this reality. Every Ras_G album feels like a time capsule of the past, present and future. His collection of thousands of records has given him an advantage that people like DJ Shadow, Madlib, DJ Premier and other heavy crate diggers have over most. There is a euphoric super natural feeling when the bass tones rumble through my speakers. When bass wobbles and pushes its way around the mix like it does in Ras_G’s songs, you know the best of systems are required to really feel where this guys music is going. “Ras, Ras, Ras, Ras…” echoes out of the mix over time lapsed futuristic and cosmic anthems for the space age with air horn blasts that are a time capsule of the present. The modification Ras_G has done on the notorious NASA symbol is one reflection of his principle ideas and aesthetics that outline his message. It’s chaos and serenity for me, all wrapped up under beats that sound like an elevator dropping 20 stories.
In 2009 his presence grew even stronger in the psyche of the world when his emergence into the Brainfeeder family brought forth the full length Brotha From Another Planet. This album pulls heavier into the origins of Ras_G and blasts further into the future than anything he has released. The ancient pulse and drum of his African roots, the philosophical principles and musical identity he shares with Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and other prominent black musicians over the last 40 years and his working relationship and connection to the best producers in the game have merged as one field of light. If you have never heard Ras_G, imagine if Madlib and Lee “Scratch” Perry were given multi-track master tapes to Sun Ra’s fusion pieces of the late 70′s and given free territory to do whatever they wanted with it. You can imagine the landscapes that would come to life. 2009 also saw Ras_G moving his connectivity power into the heart of the United Kingdom with the Destination There EP on Ramp Recordings and released as a 12″. With mixes contributed to different organizations, sets at large festivals like Coachella, and constant releases with various labels, his stature and tentacles are constantly reaching to more places in this world as each year passes.
Ras_G "Spacebase is the Place"
In 2010, Ras_G combined forces with Matthewdavid’s imprint Leaving Records for an extremely limited edition cassette tape release called El-Aylien (part 1). Modeling the Discipline series that Sun Ra equated into his musical hemisphere, Ras_G shows the future disciplines of electronic devices, unique sample methods, advanced compositional techniques and analog collage work that originated from the Discipline series laid out 40+ years ago from Sun Ra. 2011 has been a year of high activity for Ras_G with the release of 2 brand new records. UK based label Ramp Recordings was first in line for these two releases with Down 2 Earth. 21 tracks and a little over 30 minutes, the cover art is easily one of my favorite of the year. ODB verbal assault samples to the wobbly beats and earthquake level bass that sucks me in every time, this album is heavy on all levels. If you ever want a study in bass tones, sample methods and melodies for miles, put a Ras_G record on.
2011 would bring Poo-Bah Records back into the fold with what is easily my favorite Ras_G album, Space is the Place. Recorded at his Spacebase 2031 and Spacebase 2912 between 2008 and 2010, the material on this record is personally some of the most original and inspiring works of his for me. Drenched in so many sounds, it’s been a record that hasn’t left the side of my record player since my copied arrived in the mail. Ras_G submitted an extremely detailed write up on each piece for the double 10″. Below is this full break down, track by track, from Ras_G himself. Sourced from his Poo-Bah Records site, this is an extremely comprehensive look into the album. Don’t miss out on owning a copy.
-Erik Otis
Ras_G & The Alkebulan Space Program Spacebase is the Place Poo-Bah Records
As a bonus to our review of the latest Ras_G album, we wanted to present an exclusive photo set of Ras G performing at Heavy. All photos were shot by Oliver Walker.
London’s Ninja Tune Records hit their 20 year anniversary last year with critical acclaim from all corners of the electronic world. The label has launched the careers of some of the most important electronic musicians in the last 20 years and the label keeps growing and expanding. Artists such as Amon Tobin, Jaga Jazzist, The Cinematic Orchestra, The Herbaliser, Sixtoo, Blockhead, Daedelus and Kid Koala have been with the label for a decade or longer and summarize miles of musical evolution in electronics and approaches to harmony. The newest introduction to Ninja Tune Records camp is by the London born and Czech singer multi-instrumentalist, producer and vocalist Emika. She brings a discipline and vocabulary to the electronic spectrum that sheds light to the foundations of Ninja Tune’s ability to find the most sophisticated and capable artists of the times. Now a resident of Berlin, Germany for many years, she has witnessed the evolution of dubstep and other new forms of electronic music in the clubs and dance halls they were birthed in. Her music pulls from these ethos and taps into something other worldly and monumentally original.
Emika. Photo from facebook.com/emikamusic
Emika shows duality in emotional presentation where darkness meets the light and a complex assortment of ideas and structures gives way to some of the most captivating electronic music out right now. The subtle piano counter parts that break down some of the songs and start others are haunting, intuitive and radiant, giving way to a completely different aura that pulls you in and out of the field of heavily processed electronics. The overcast of harmony drifts in an ambiance that explores many worlds of culture, providing an escape for out of body transient and fractured thought; a creation of inner sonic antennas to properties outside of the norm. Emika reflects a marvelous corridor of sound and is a continuation of the same type of short yet powerful after-effect bursts of transient energy that has fills dance halls for decades under this same musical movement.
Originally as an intern for the prestigious Ninja Tune label, it was only a short time before the label realized what they had sitting in their ranks. Her time working for the famous Native Instruments company is also a factor that has played into how Emika has utilized production technique in a variety of ways that have not been repeatedly tapped into by her contemporaries. Emika has a beautiful vocal range and shows shades of phrasing that you would find in artists and groups as diverse as Portishead, Aaliyah and PJ Harvey. Her work has been non stop with Ninja Tune since singing with them last year and it has culminated in one of the biggest experiences of her career, a nation wide tour with Amon Tobin and Lorn. When I listen to the type of production Lorn creates, I really hear the cross reference of influences they are both pulling from. This is becoming more than just a movement of people using the same gear and is a redefinition of electronic music all over again. Emika’s reputation is expanding by each months passing and the music she is creating is for me some of the most thought provoking material from Ninja Tune’s history. Her recent collaboration on the Amon Tobin 12″ single for ‘Surge‘ is one of the most phenomenal pieces I have heard in some time and is a reflection of how far she can extend her abilities.
Cover for Emika's 'Drop The Other' 12" Single on Ninja Tune
Since singing with Ninja Tune in 2010, she had released 4 singles in various formats and has now presented her debut full length with the label this year. Self titled, there is an eerie and beautiful evanescence that explores the experimental side of her interests as much as it does the pulse that drives the thousands of people who dance to her music around the world. For anyone who has heard the works of Lorn’s debut full length on the Brainfeeder imprint and has yet to check out Emika’a full length, you can expect the same kind of devastating effects with the productions she did in her own personal studio. The vocals however, take the debut LP to a realm rarely materialized in a way this full and on point. The way she moves her vocal positioning and phrasing is phenomenal and adds a dimension to the music that allows as much restrain or complexity to exist in the music. ‘The Long Goodbye‘ from Emika has bass tones that sound like the drone you find in the deep tuned gong’s that are found in the gamelan family. Every song has this underlining ancient feeling, another aspect of the record that has only come in the form of select albums in modern electronica. Lyrically, Emika is as dark and full of mystery as the origins of the rumbling and speaker shattering bass tones.
Emika is a classically trained pianist and her debut record is filled with that background all over the place. The ending piece called ‘Credit Theme‘ has an extremely elegant and somber sounding grand piano. It’s a perfect ending and shows the wide range of possibilities that will surely pop up in future projects of hers. I love when an artist ends a record with a statement that makes me really question where they can go next and Emika did that for me with flying colors. Very heart felt and personal, the ending is almost as a rolling credits excerpt of the disciplines, cultures and teachers that have brought her to the person she is today. With as much to do with her past as she is dealing with the future, Emika’s debut LP with Ninja Tune has left us all in the wake of an injection to electronic music that has rarely been approached, let alone achieved with this much grace, power and energy.
The B-Movie genre- notable for its extremely low budget, overzealous actors, obnoxiously overplayed clichés, and cheap bold obnoxious plots- has created a cult following of diehard fans longing for the worst of the worst. Trust me; I’m definitely one of them. As for the Horror genre, we all know it’s in a league of its own. B-Movies and Horror flicks are two genres that helped to create the general foundation that has evolved into the film industry and entity we know of today. Add the magic touch of India’s epic Hindi film industry… and you’ve got yourself the muse of Finders Keepers’ beast of a compilation, ‘Bollywood Bloodbath: The B-Music of the Indian Horror Film Industry’. This has got to be one of the most fascinating film-based compilation releases I have ever gotten my hands on.
Catering to the likes of music enthusiasts from all across the globe, the monstrous music emporium that is Finders Keepers has lured us into its abandoned house of horrors with an outlandishly terrifying and gruesome witch’s brew of a compilation. This sinister collection of haunting melodies derived from the B-Horror film genre have an exotic twist: all these tracks are not from the far too familiar Old Hollywood Horror cinema (circa Bela Lugosi and William Castle), but from Bombay’s very own Hindi Film Industry, more commonly known as “Bollywood”.
Finders Keepers delved into a world unknown and-throughout the arduous and exceptionally efficient search through old forgotten video cassettes, discarded cassette tapes, and dusty worn-out vinyl records-gave us a window into the evolution and lineage of Bollywood’s B-Horror film genre. With sinister tracks derived from a vast array of B-Horror movies, Bollywood Bloodbath is an elaborate compilation of music from some of Bollywood’s finest musicians and composers, highlighting the brilliant and terrifyingly bold alliance of Hindi film and music.
Known as one of the largest film production industries in the world, Bollywood has been a fierce and astoundingly vicious force when it comes to pumping out efficient and quality material. Bollywood is comprised of a multitude of artistic mediums and performance-art genres. With its signature twist of incorporating intricate dance numbers and songs throughout each film as the chosen form of cinematic expression and dialogue, the Bollywood film has become more than just a movie genre. A Bollywood film is an incredibly elaborate production characterized by an amalgam of every performance art medium and Indian culture.
Straight from Finders Keepers’ gruesome underbelly comes this 2LP set with A-D sides that take you away into a harmonious nightmare of bone-rattling cries, ghoulish sound effects, venomous electro-pop, and trendy 70s disco. Capturing Bollywood’s ‘Golden Age’ of cinema, Bollywood Bloodbath also acts as a mini archive of the Hindi film and music camaraderie over a forty-year time period (1949-1985). With music from India’s greats, Bappi Lahiri, Sapan Jagmohan, and Laxmikant Pyarelal- to name a few- this ferocious release goes far beyond the current standards of modern Hollywood soundtracks.
With India’s electro-pop and disco guru, Bappi Lahiri, contributing to multiple tracks of this Bloody compilation, songs like ‘Meri Jaan’ are quick to illustrate what you’d imagine to be the under budgeted, obnoxiously outdone, Hindi B-horror flick. The composition and seemingly tacky gold-plated electricity of each score, paired with ethereally sweet vocals and-what seem to be- the not so subtle orgasmic cries of a woman in distress, juxtaposed with the terrifying 1981 Ramsay Brothers release, ‘Dahshat’ (Shock), you have got something exceptionally intricate and phenomenal.
The follow up to their 1980 horror film, ‘Guest House’, directors, the Ramsay Brothers, once more use their film as a showcase for the phenomenal Hindi music veteran Bappi Lahiri and his contribution to cinema. Bappi Lahiri is a music director whose fierce presence catapulted the use of disco and electro-pop in Hindi cinema.
This veteran maestro is shameless when it comes to his love and application of luminous disco compositions. At first it seems extremely unconventional to have music like Lahiri’s contributing to any horror film, but considering the classic nature of the B-Horror genre, Lahiri’s presence is nothing short of perfect. It’s the proper juxtaposition of the hip gold and neon-electro pop disco melodies and B-Horror film that create that signature timeless cult affect.
The dark arduous intro of Laxmikant Pyarelal’s ’Aa Jaane Jaan’ reminds us that, after all, this music is from an outcast of a genre. But, when the lovely and signature vox of Lata Mangeshkar catch your ear, you wonder whether or not that intro was intended for the satisfaction of maintaining the film’s intended effect. Between the melodic instances of screams, and abrasive brass instruments mixed with trendy 70s disco and electro-pop, you’re reminded that these are musicians who love to make music, and quality music at that. Unable to understand the lyrics of the album’s majority, it’s safe to say that the beautiful sound of Hindi only adds to the eclectic, elaborate, and without a doubt fascinating subgenre of music that can be admired by a global audience.
With four sides, this 2 LP set can only be described as a brutal collection of bloody tracks seducing you with its extremely technical and melodic mastery, punctuated by the sporadic sound affects of eerie creaking doors, subtle orgasmic cries- well, not exactly subtle- hauntingly expressive lyrics, and eerie suspense. Finders Keepers has compiled the works of India’s most accomplished musicians, composers, and songwriters, and filtered this work through a B-Bollywood-Horror strainer of sorts.
Finders Keepers proves that no matter how under-budgeted a film is, no matter how obnoxiously cliché and comical the plot and no matter how overzealous the acting, the music of the B-Horror film always seem to shine through its artistic counterparts.
Lucky for you, Sound Colour Vibration presents this clip of the Ramsay Brothers’ 1981 film, ‘Dahshat’ (Shock). In true Bollywood form, this music and dance number to Bappi Lahiri’s ‘Meri Jaan’ is nothing short of an epic production of B-Horror glory.
Bollywood Bloodbath
Sound of Wonder Series
Finders Keepers Records
Concept, all tracks and liner notes were compiled from Andy Votel
As one of the most younger and active avant-gardcomposers from America, Toby Driver has elevated his reason for creating with every release and the stakes have been brought to new heights with the release of this years Polyimage Of Known Exits. Released under his group Tartar Lamb, this new LP is an extension of his past works and is now labeled Tarter Lamb II. Captured during a live ensemble studio session under the direction of Toby Driver at Grand Street Recording in Brooklyn, NY in September of 2011, the albums additional overdub work was completed by Jeremiah Cymerman and Toby Driver at their home and at Ft. Washington Church in New York, NY. With a sound steeped in genres as far away from each as other as doom metal, jazz, post rock and chamber music, the genre classification becomes pointless and the weight of the composition becomes an instant attention grabbing mechanism. Long strident trumpet, sax and clarinet lines fall under a bed of soft and delicate tones that dance around in emotions of sadness and joy. Toby Driver’s bass work is beautiful on this, always giving a harmonic distinctive element that rests somewhat outside of the usual low end forms of how the bass guitar is approached in music. When realizing this music is composed, it presents a level of appreciation that any fan of classical and avant-gard forms of music can relate to. Toby Driver is one of the few who can pull off a sound that his latest full length Polyimage Of Known Exits brings, a sound we will get into in just a little bit. The complexity and dynamic nature of the listen requires all instruments to be considered when retaining and analyzing this music, there are no hooks and harmony relies on a collection of the whole, not just isolated pairings. Included with Jeremiah and Toby is an impressive list of top level musicians who have been associated with Toby Driver for many years. Terran Olson contributes alto saxophone and synthesizer, Daniel Means also plays the alto, Tim Byrnes on trumpet, synthesizer and french horn along with guests David Bodie on drums, the violin of Mia Matsumiya and piano from Masami Tomihisa. A very complex mapping of sound is achieved in Polyimage Of Known Exits with an attention to dynamics and detail rarely seen in bands associated with the post-rock world.
New York City based composer and multi-instrumentalist Toby Driver has stretched the confinements of modern music since the inception of his first group maudlin of the Well in 1996. With his most well known project Kayo Dot forming right after the break up of his first group in 2003, Toby Driver launched an entire new phase of his career and began experimenting with many more like minded individuals he crossed paths with. A solo release on the John Zorn Tzadik label and the creation of Tartar Lamb has given Toby ample room to further explore and compose some of the most breath taking music in rock music. Every work he produces showcases extremely complex time signatures, unique instrumentation, unique usage of popular instrumentation and lush stretched out time lapse sound scape pieces that pull deep into territory truly unexplored in sound yet. Toby’s list of instruments used on his recordings further shed light on the sonic possibilities he has at his disposal. 12 string, acoustic, baritone and electric guitars, clarinet, cello, mellotron,world percussion, organm synthesizers and keyboards are a small list of the devices he has become comfortable enough to utilize himself on his recordings. Prior to him releasing music, Toby studied under one of Detroit’s most legendary composers, musicians and teachers: Yusef Lateef. Studying at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, this must have been a turning point considering the dedication and time Yusef has given to music, it’s beyond just genre altering and dives into socialism, philosophy and so much more.
Kayo Dot "Choirs of the Eye" Tzadik Records
I had heard about Toby Driver through a friend many years back when the Choirs of the Eyefull length that was put out on the John Zorn imprint Tzadik Records. The sheeting and layering was thick on contact. The phrasing was something completely new to my world, unlike anything I had up to the time and was at first an enormous amount of music to process in one sitting. How did he do that, what is that, when did this phase start…are just a few of the questions I asked myself and still ask myself when I listen to that record. After realizing Toby Driver composed all of the music on his records, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing repeated listen after listen. Toby Driver alone contributes vocal work, guitar, cello, double bass, bells, synthesizer and tuba. Violin and viola contributions from Mia Matsumiya sound like some of the most unorthodox yet perfect uses of the instrument I have ever heard. I became engulfed into a state of oblivion and this was only the beginning of Choirs of the Eye. Some years later when I got my hands on the 2007 release 60 Metonymies from Toby’s group Tartar Lamb, I knew I’d be listening to this guys music until the day I die. With a very small line up at hand, this project is still as deep, emotional and heavy as any Kayo Dot record. Fast forward another few years and to this year, Toby Driver introduces the newest incarnation of his Tartar Lamb band with the full length Polyimage Of Known Exits. The biggest difference this time around is the inclusion of sound innovator Jeremiah Cymerman.
Tartar Lamb II’s Polyimage Of Known Exits is a relentless expression of released and controlled states of sonic submergence in over tones, rhythms, harmonies and melodies. Odd shapes confront the patterns of your speakers as the configuration of sound employs very different standards and responses from your system. The electronics from Jeremiah Cymerman sounds like gears are being pulled out of a bull-dosser by something of even a greater force. Metallic plated flickers of smooth textures calibrate from the minds of Jeremiah, Toby and the rest of their colleagues. There is infinite amount of relationships occurring at all moments, you could never stop when absorbing this record for all the levels it can reveal. Hearing how outward Jeremiah embellishes his clarinet, I got a very strong and overwhelming feeling that this is a final piece to Toby’s field of sound. Having such a deep love for the pioneers of modern jazz, the spirit of John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter’s was a presence I felt on Polyimage Of Known Exits.
Toby Driver. Photo from kayodot.net
With the album split into 4 movements, the ending is one of the most elegant and beautiful pieces of music I have heard from Toby Driver. The violin, piano and percussion only come in during this movement, adding a very different depth to the album before the closing. With the 4th movement conveying so much light, the movement before it is split into very opposite half’s, one being frantic and chaotic with a synthetically driven nightmarish end along with the sparse and minimal beginning that occurs for many minutes before it. Tartar Lamb II’s Polyimage Of Known Exits is one of the most highly executed, emotional and technical records of the year. This is a release of incomprehensible depth, exploration and emotion that is saturated with expansions of the oddest manifestations. Tentacles of sound are waiting in every corner to grab you as you sink deeply into the world of Polyimage Of Known Exits. After listening to this record for a few months and going back to the rest of his catalog, it’s safe to say you can never go wrong when it comes to Toby Driver.
Personnel: Toby Driver – Bass Guitar and Vocals Jeremiah Cymerman – Clarinet and Electronics Terran Olson – Alto Saxophone and Synthesizer Daniel Means – Alto Saxophone Tim Byrnes – Synthesizer, Trumpet, and French Horn
Guest Musicians: David Bodie – Percussion on Movement 4 Mia Matsumiya – Violin on Movement 4 Masami Tomihisa – Piano on Movement 4
Live ensemble recorded on Sep 25th, 2010 by Tomek Miernowski at Grand Street Recording in Brooklyn, NY. Additional recording during the Fall of 2010 by Jeremiah Cymerman and Toby Driver at home and at Ft. Washington Church in New York, NY.
Analog Reverb Construction and Mixing by Randall Dunn at Aleph in Seattle, WA. Pre-Mixed by Jeremiah Cymerman and Toby Driver at home. Mastered for vinyl by Mell Dettmer at Sinister Kitchen in Seattle, WA. Special thanks to Joshua l. Aransky and Steven Taylor Miller.
Guitarist Raoul Björkenheim, drummer Morgan Ågren and bassist Bill Laswell are one of the latest super groups to emerge in the sonically implosive hybrids of all the bands that Laswell has accumulated over the years. This super group is called Blixt and the sonic degree and variance hits you at 1000 miles per hour as total carnage breaks loose from the harmonies that transpire. On the latest record released with Silver Spring, Maryland based label Cuneiform Records, Blixt have offered a statement with only a few resting spots to breath and the rest is a savage cyclone of musical exaltation. It always seems like every few years, if not every year, Bill Laswell has gathered the talents of some of the most diverse and technically adept musicians around. Each project serves a different purpose for the endless amount of electronics, gear, pedals, rack mounts, and other production tools Laswell has at his disposal. His knowledge of music from all over the world and not just “world” music is unparalleled. I have never heard anything he has had his hands that didn’t create timeless statements steeped in musicality that stretches the globe. His groups Tabla Beat Science, Material, Painkiller, Praxis, Massacre and Last Exit are genre defining groups; having left an imprint of the highest level on improvisatory, world and experimental settings. His resume for production credits, music contributions and more are in numbers some wouldn’t even believe.
With Raoul Björkenheim and Morgan Ågren, Laswell enlisted the talents of some of the most outward thinking and advanced musicians for this new super group Blixt. The release of their self titled debut full length this fall has created a wave of excitement for all fans of Laswell’s work and we are among that wave. On Blixt, the odd shapes and angular flow of shattering sonic substance from groups like Massacare and Last Exit are reintroduced along side the atonal feedback that Hendrix was known for in numbers like ‘Machine Gun‘ and ‘ I Don’t Live Today‘. When you hear the blistering shock waves of mountainous guitar sheets that are captured on Blixt by guitarist Raoul Björkenheim you know that this guy is in a league akin to a list as diverse as John McLaughlin, Sonny Sharrock, Jimi Hendrix and Buckethead. There is a weight captured in the way the album was recorded that sheds light to the genius of Laswell as a producer and a musician of many ways. The thickness of the mix really overwhelms the listen in the best way with a feeling that is as intense as a live show. Laswell’s bass tone rumbles in a midst of the freenzy and torrent of devastating annihilation that is served up from the drum kit of Morgan Ågren. 16th notes and syncopated phrasing splash in every direction as Laswell stretches the limitations of the low end very cleverly, always keeping time and an anchor but shooting outward with his impressive set of effects.
Bill Laswell. Photo from last.fm
Improvisations from the hands of the men from Blixt could easily be labeled as composition if the notes didn’t reveal that much of this was created through improvising. Everyone commands their instrument in a very deep and powerful way. With associations that tie all three of these musicians over the last few decades, the level of music achieved with Blixt makes sense as the sessions to complete the album were done in a very short time. For anyone into super groups and musicians of the highest caliber that can create compositions as powerful as they can with improvisational spontaneity, Blixt is a really good opportunity to feel that part of your love for music. To simply put it, it’s the kind of groups dreams are made of. Cream and Emerson, Lake and Palmer are two perfect examples of groups that reflect how Blixt has been put together. Hammered out in a very short window as a group recording, the live feel of the record stays through and little over dubs are used for the record. The beginning piece ‘Black Whole”, a nice play on words I might add, starts with guitar player Raoul Björkenheim doing a magnificent effects heavy solo intro that is shortly washed away in the first building section of the song. This then gives way to the exploratory section of the song and the first introduction to how they crescendo and build together. It’s unreal how they follow each other and play off one another and retain the quality of a studio recording. With all the rawness intact that you would expect from a recording made this way, Bill Laswell and his band mates fly from idea to idea with the ease heard in recordings from the best.
I had the name of Swedish drum prodigy Morgan Ågren in my head before this project but could not connect the dots until I did some research and found out he had played with Frank Zappa, Terry Bozzio and many other greats from the 80′s and on. He also contributed work to the Grammy Ward winning 1994 release Zappa’s Universe. Morgan Ågren implanted himself at a very early age around some of the brightest minds in music and you can hear every single trace of that history in the works he has given to Blixt. He is always exploring his kit and provides the most natural and tasteful selections. In the song ‘Tools’, there is a phenomenal drum intro from Morgan Ågren that displays his genius level technique. Raoul Björkenheim is a guitarist who is much like Morgan in that he is one of the most explosive and trained in his field, yet is under the radar in many respects to modern music culture. His guitar antics and acrobatics are aggressively beautiful and attribute as much to the past as they do the future.
Blixt really stretches the groups limitations in the 11 minute piece ‘Invisible One’. To hear how they attack and mold the slow bubbling rhythm is out of this world. The song that really turns the page and shows the most unique presentation when compared to the entire body of work in Blixt is the number ‘Ghost Strokes’. With a long guitar solo guitar passage, the song builds on a very open and strident recycled theme that allows Raoul Björkenheim to explore his guitar in every way imaginable. Laswell and Ågren stay close to the pocket with Ågren beautifully adding in touches of ghost notes. The depth on each song can be masked by the repeated note configurations but this music is highly complex and relies on the most subtle dynamic changes and filling positions with the drums and bass. The closing number ’10 4-4-4-4-2-2-2-5-2′ is a ferocious and grimacing ending to a very dynamic ride. Laswell and Ågren begin things slowly and by the time Björkenheim fully displays his techniques, you are fully encased inside orchestrated madness through sound. Guitar slides upward and slices pieces of the mix with it as it explores further inside this dark hole. There is no turning back at this point and Björkenheim goes off in a way few guitar players could even imagine going. Laswell pushes the song to the furthest limitation before everything breaks a part from the velocity they are traveling. The closest thing I could wrap my mind around describing this sound is new age speed jazz and experimental space rock, or more honestly something unlike anything I have ever heard in my life.
Morgan Ågren, Raoul Björkenheim and Bill Laswell. Photo from cuneiformrecords.com
Cuneiform Records has officially closed out their last quarter and Blixt is a part of the last batch they launched. The label is one of the strongest in the experimental scene and Blixt tops anything they have presented thus far. With no lyrics and only a landscape of music to absorb, it’s the perfect ride for anyone who enjoys all the conceptual building to rely in the music itself. Bill Laswell will go down in history as one of the most prolific musicians ever and not only just of this generation. Like Laswell, Raoul Björkenheim and Morgan Ågren are an equal musical force and have proven themselves to be just as innovative and important to modern music history as Laswell has been. Blixt is yet another window into why the legacy of Laswell will never be touched.
Efrim Manuel Menuck Plays "High Gospel" Constellation Records
The mystic aura of Godspeed You! Black Emperor had always been an invigorating element to the band when I was first tapping in to the group in the late 90′s. I had gathered all I could on the Montreal based megalithic and decade defining collective and one name that has always stuck around is Efrim Manuel Menuck. With the co-creation of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, contributions to the late and great Vic Chestnutt and scores of production work, Efrim Manuel Menuck has carved out a spot in history as a cosmonaut in sound and a connecting point of musical movement and evolution. There’s not a lot of maiden voyages being made in music today and Efrim is one of the few who makes them on every release he puts out. Efrim created a creative ligament to the city of Montreal by constructing Hotel2Tango, one of the longest lasting independently owned recording studios of Montreal in modern times. Started in 1995, the Hotel2Tango facility has been Efrim’s launching base for scores of recordings, concert promotions and other projects. Considering all of this work and the dozens of albums released with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion over the last 15+ years, the coming of a solo album was an unexpected but very warming welcome to all fans of the prestigious world of sound he is associated with.
Constellation Records has been constant supporters of Efrim Manuel Menuck’s career and they have faithfully and triumphantly achieved one of the greatest musical statement of the year with the release of Plays “High Gospel”. The debut solo album of anyone with this much history is always highly anticipated, and the contravention of past trappings is achieved in the highly layered and immaculate outing of Plays “High Gospel”. As much of a poet and social activist as he is an innovative composer and sound sculptor, Constellation had this to say about the unique gifts Efrim brings to the world, “Fans of Menuck will be well versed in his highly original and constantly evolving approach to the sound of the electric guitar – a unique combination of short and long analog delays, biting compression and blown-out clouds of pink noise distortion. His recasting of various folkways through the lens of uncompromising punk-rock is also well-documented in the discography of Thee Silver Mt. Zion, with that band’s use of poetically political group singing set against a hybrid of damaged blues, waltz, klezmer and folk instrumental tropes.” Constellation also boldly states, “Perhaps less appreciated is Menuck’s work as an inventive signal-bender and sound-sculptor, with an overriding commitment to analog processing, tape manipulations, re-amping and other iterative strategies. Efrim’s aesthetic and techniques remain about as diametrically opposite to the dominant Pro-Tools and DSP culture as it gets for someone working in contemporary multi-tracked rock composition and production.” When putting on a pair of headphones with Plays “High Gospel”, I became immediately aware of why these statements had so much meaning and truth.
Efrim Maneul Menuck’s Plays “High Gosepl” was written and recorded at Hotel2Tango, P.J. Mansions and Bloomfield Acres in Montreal between 2010 and 2011. Guest appearances from Godspeed and Mt. Zion alumni come from Thierry Amar, Nadia Moss, David Payant, Jessica Moss, David Payant and Katie Moore. On the origins of this debut album from Efrim, Constellation describes this debut outing as a “personal album that serves as an ode to his adopted Montreal hometown (where he has now lived for two decades), the passing of great friends (Vic Chesnutt, Emma) and new fatherhood“. With elongated spheres of synthetic and acoustic sound that trap themselves in a glossy submergence of transient thought and mental image mapping, scene after scene of worlds you never knew existed unfold song after song. Shades of my deepest emotions tenderly and gently sedated repeated listen after listen, more became a necessity, not an option. Coagulation of instrumentation kept burying itself as the rapacious and powerful vocal addition of Efrim carried and shined over almost every part of my senses.
Efrim and Ezra. Photo from cstrecords.com
The mystical and savory state of sound found on the instrumental piece ‘Chickadees’ Roar pt. 2′ became a spiritual recitation of lifelong pursuits towards understanding my own self. I had to extract myself from mental caves as I dived deeper and deeper with Plays “High Gospel” serving as the soundtrack to this serenity. The ending of the song finds a sample of an outside world with birds of various kinds playing the earths song from that moment. Origin of this field recording is unknown, but the natural sounds bring a state of relation that reminded me of how unique yet the same this earth is. You know these sounds of nature so well, yet it could be in tens of thousands of places in this world. It’s a perfect ending to a minimal instrumental and a more than perfect pre-intro to the last song of the LP, ‘ I Am No Longer a Motherless Child’. “Look at my boy, look at him smile, I am no longer a motherless child” is a euphoric and victorious lyrical statement by Efrim. This song is of course dedicated to his son Ezra who also graces the hand painted front cover of the LP. Jessica Moss, the mother of this child, beautifully presents one of the most entrancing violin sections I have ever heard on record. You can tell mom was recording for this session, not just Jessica Moss.
Every piece gives light to a very different set of emotions and colors, some relying on heavy climaxes while other such as ‘August Four, Year-of-Our-Lord Blues’ sit in a very relaxed and minimal state. Heavily effected guitar and little overdubs contributed, there is reason in the space between the notes and sounds as much as those present. The space and emotion conveyed highlights how much of a modern composer Efrim has become over the years. The way he has mixed the record and the way Harris Newman mastered it reflects the thought that was given to the movement of instrumentation, vocals, compression and separation. It’s a highly complex and experimental record produced to the highest levels of sonic possibility; a rare meeting of the worlds. High, mid and low resonance is just as powerful as the sheets of sounds Efrim constructs harmonically.
With long tides of guitar and synthesizer, each movement and song on this LP gracefully saturates into one another. The amount of sound to process divides itself into layers and even more sub layers and is very reflective in tone to the stories and history that represents the album. Efrim Manuel Munick’s Plays “High Gospel” is marvelous and highly imaginative, one of the best in 2011.
-Erik Otis
Efrim Manuel Menuck. Photo by Timothy Herzog
Efrim Manuel Menuck
Plays “High Gospel”
Constellation Records
2011
Track Listing
our lady of parc extension and her munificent sorrows
CD comes in a custom gatefold jacket printed on 100% recycled CCNB paperboard in full colour with a matte UV varnish and a full colour printed CD sleeve on reverse 9pt cardstock. CD also includes a 4″x8″ fold-out lyric sheet.
LP is pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a jacket printed in full colour on thick 24pt board with matte UV varnish. LP comes with a limited edition 10″x20″ art print poster and a CD copy of the album. LP also includes an 8″x8″ colour insert card and 4″x8″ fold-out lyric sheet.
Front cover painting of Efrim & Ezra by Corri-Lynn Tetz. Back cover handset in vintage wood type at Popolo Press by Kiva Tanya Stimac. CD gatefold/LP insert collage handmade by Jessica Moss.
On October 24, 1982 and March 21, 1983 at The Japan Center Theatre in San Francisco, CA, modern world percussion masters and one of the most innovative recording engineers alive stretched themselves to some of the most obscure sound-scapes seen. Däfos was this creation and was a mythical world created in the inner space of the composers who are credited to this album. Filled with the most exotic percussion instruments, vocals of abstract and aboriginal nature and one of the most profound engineering jobs I have heard on an album, there is not a misguided moment on this record. The nonprofit record label Smithsonian Folkways has unearthed some of the most fascinating musical artifacts and has taken on the duties of repressing the masterful and joyous experience called Däfos.
What was captured on Däfos and how it was captured instantly became an indispensable and profound proton of massive weight to the world. The center of this weight and the three people responsible for presenting this vision was Mickey Hart, world renowned student of Ravi Shankar’s tabla player of the 60′s Ustad Allah Rakha and integral member of the Grateful Dead; Brazilian sound master and Miles Davis and Return to Forever alumni Airto Moreira and the exceptional vocal acrobatics of Flora Purim. When Flora shows her vocal presence in the Reunion 3 part piece, the percussion and her vocals move around the rhythmic flow of the electric bass in perfect tangents of pull and release. The musical ideas and instrumentation used to achieve the ideas on Däfos map out an ethnographic setting of human history. Each percussion and color setting displayed in the singular tones and harmonic relationships that forge truly map the world.
Däfos is one of the few concept albums I have heard that is centered around world percussion. Mythical lands where spirits of the past dwell and a sense of spirituality is evoked through the ethos of traditional pavements in sound become the molding and building blocks of each emotional setting. There is always a rhythm present, sometimes of complex nature, sometimes set in polyrhythmic wave like cycles of trance inducing euphoria. Mickey, Airto and Flora and the rest of this amazing cast on this Däfos bring some of the most complex arrangements of percussion and vocal tandem to the table.
The engineering talents of Keith Johnson and the special mic placements he created for the live setting you hear in the studio record Däfos is nothing short of incredible. The liner notes have a really extensive section on this process. “He did not utilize a single pair of microphones, nor did he individually mik each instrument. The placement of each microphone was a function of the choice of instrument, the overall orchestration of the piece, the desired sound given the highly reverberant nature of the recording space. With this hybrid miking technique, he was able to capture the pinpoint, three dimensional focus of stereo pair without compromising the sharp, transient detail that is best captured with closed miking. Hearing Däfosin a superb high definition system and you can’t escape the intense moments of the percussion interaction and most notably the use of Mickey Hart’s “Beast“. The speakers rumble with a force and low end rarely heard in recorded sound. It’s not the bass heavy 808 sounds one can be used to with modern electronic records, it’s more of a flowing and lightning like pulse that moves you from your center. The volume settings seemed very different with the album mastering levels when compared with the collection materials I am listening to right now. It’s almost more quiet in many occasions but the tones that emerge in power and weight are a far cry from sounding shy, soft, quiet or timid.
To add to the natural feeling and presentation of a live show in the musical world of Däfos, no post production was added to this recording outside of the song ‘Psychopomp’. The liner notes had this to further say about the mic placement and overall aesthetic molded from the recording process. All miking was done with stereo pairs. To enhance the spacial effects, and give the recording a live performance rather than a studio session, the stereo mix was routed through a Meyer speaker placed in the middle of the auditorium. The result was a combination of the close-miked pure sound of the individual instruments and their combined sound reverberating in the hall. The further the goal of presence and sonic accuracy, no equalization, editing, reverberation, overdubbing or other signal processing was used, except on ‘Psychopomp’, where stereo digital reverberation was employed.” The level of musicality present to achieve what you hear on Däfos is spell binding.
Combining musical forces with Mickey Hart, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim on Däfos is musical direction from José Lorenzo and his Brazilian percussion ensemble Batucaje. First pressed on 45rpm vinyl in 1983 with Keith Johnson’s Reference Recordings imprint, the vinyl edition did not have the post edited track ‘Psychopomp’. This track was performed and recorded at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA. September 25, 1984. Spanning three years of creation between 1982-84, Däfos was formally pressed and released on CD in Canada and the US in 1989 with Rykodisc. The prestigious Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has picked up this project to resurrect a celebration of percussion mastery and conceptual freedom from what the world genre was known for. Däfos is an unparalleled and imperious level of combined world music knowledge. The conceptual extensions of literary and cinematic refuge in sound gives a power and strength behind the heart and beat of Däfos in what seems like an endless display of percussive telepathy.
Gatefold inner sleeve for Däfos LP on Reference Recordings. Photo from discogs.com
When putting into perspective the lineage Mickey Hart, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim came from musically before Däfos took shape in the early 80′s, you can trace the paths of modern and traditional sounds used throughout the album down to countless corners of music. Airto was on landmark recordings with Miles Davis such as Bitches Brew and Live-Evil along with the achievements he gained in Chick Corea’s Return to Forever. Airto also became world renowned for sessions with Brazilian maestro Hermato Pascoal, contributions to music from the great Grover Washington, Jr., saxophone giant Wayne Shorter’s landmark 60′s achievement Super Nova, 1970 Stone Flower sessions with Antonio Carlos Jobim, the 1971 Mahavishnu John McLaughlin LP My Goal’s Beyond and so many more albums. Did you catch a breath yet? The list of Airto’s musical associations goes well into 300+ releases and almost a fourth of these came before Däfos was completed.
Mickey Hart is another heavy weight in modern music. As mentioned before, his studies landed him in the ranks of Ravi Shankar’s tabla player Ustad Allah Rakah. With two very enthusiastic music loving and playing parents, Mickey was destined to perform percussion and his time in 60′s San Francisco at the legendary Matrix Club landed him in a spot with the Grateful Dead. The band was beginning to incorporate many new members and Mickey became the second drummer and one of the most integral parts to expanding the bands to use world methods not seen in rock music prior. He instilled musical timings, counter melodies and highlight sophisticated polyrythms and syncopation that set the Grateful Dead a part from their contemporaries in the jam rock scene. Scores of albums with the Grateful Dead from 1968 and on implanted Mickey into a world of instrument access most could never even dream of.
Flora Purim is another mystery in modern sound. The roots of her traditions become ever clear but the abstract nature and tonal shifts that occur in her extensive vocal range become psychedelic on contact. Also from Brazil along with being married to Airto, Flora also helped define the early sound of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever along with an extensive solo career and collaborations in the same circles as Airto. At the turn of the decade from the 70′s into the 80′s, the popularity of these three had reached an apex and Däfos stands as one of the crowning achievements of all their careers individually. I don’t make that statement lightly.
The story of Däfos was an element to the LP that really made me interested in what this record had to bring to the table. A concept surrounding world percussion masters is an unlikely fit but one that has worked so well with Däfos. The liner notes for the set beautifully explain the origins of each song and as you read each note and encase yourself inside of the world of Däfos, it is easy to get lost inside the extravagant imaginative tones that flourish every second on this record. With Däfos, you can expected traces of Sudanese traditional wedding music that are followed by a rich percussive legacy of the gamelan tradition. Brazilian, African, Indonesian, and many other world traditions are laid out in full and the sonic experimentation and acrobatic affects of Flora Purim’s vocals add the perfect touch.
Each piece moves you from the beginning of the journey and into the place known as Däfos itself, further exploring the relationship with sound and story telling. Traveling through an array of scenery, climate settings and the most obscure and colorful depictions of lands, the music that accompanies these stories matches and fits seamlessly. One could even say flawlessly. A version with narrated accompaniment would have been a stellar bonus when you hear the depth of how this record was made and the story that follows every track. Däfos is a world you have to experience for yourself, check out the repress with Smithsonian for one of the most exhilarating percussion heavy records ever created.
- Erik Otis
Mickey Hart, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim
Däfos
Track Listing
Mickey Hart, Steve Douglas, Shabda Khan, Hamza El-Din – Dry Sands Of The Desert
Mickey Hart, Jody Diamond – Ice Of The North
Bobby Vega, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, Mickey Hart – Reunion I / Reunion II / Reunion III
Mickey Hart, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, José Lorenzo, Batucaje – Saudaçao Popular
Mickey Hart – Psychopomp
Mickey Hart – Subterranean Caves Of Kronos
Mickey Hart – The Gates Of Däfos
Mickey Hart, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, José Lorenzo – Passage
Collections 01: Confronting the Masterful Prowess and Evident Genius of a Melodic Sovereign
One thing comes to mind when characterizing the creative genius and penetrating affect of the electronic musician and artist Teebs: a seductive allure of enchantment that can only be attained through a transgression of the here and now. Abstract, I know, but describing the trance-like state evoked by his music is far more complex than something as easy as ‘heavenly’ or ‘soothing’. There are very few artists who have the ability to induce such lucidity and guide their listener through a euphoric bliss with that everlasting yearn for more. Born in New York to parents of Malawi and Barbados decent, Mtendere Mandowa, aka Teebs, is an LA-based canorous beast. There is no doubt that this electronic artist and Brainfeeder prodigy has the natural ability to birth a spiritual presence within the peaceful acquisition of his music.
With the amount of layers of sound that so naturally fall into place, Teebs has created an audio-stratum that many of us would have untouched had we not experienced his talent and keen ear for music firsthand with albums like Ardour; his first 2010 album released by Brainfeeder. Our ears perk up to the multifaceted and highly multidimensional sounds that swallow our brain once a track like ‘Gordon‘-tenth track off of Ardour- hits us. When the angelic vocals of one of Sound Colour Vibration’s favorites, Gaby Hernandez, speak to us in ‘Long Distance‘-Teebs’ fourth track off Ardour- we exhale with a sigh of relief that, “Yes, there is something that can give me peace and be that liaison between me and my ideal spiritual state.”
There is no doubt that Teebs is a Melodic Sovereign liberating us from life’s restraints. His layered melodies couple with a raw and honest emotion. This formula, mastered by Teebs, is representative of something so unique and yet so simple. If you have the ear and the heart, the rest is bound to come. And, in the particular instance of both albums, Ardour and Collections 01, Teebs proves that music is more than just an abstract. Music is our release from the shackles that threaten us with that habitual monotone lifestyle of mediocrity. Once touched by the ecstasy woven throughout the many colors and shapes of Teebs’ mastery, you realize you have taken on the role of Alice slowly falling through a tunnel of tranquility. Teebs has created a rabbit hole with no end in sight, and will forever guide you through what I’d like to call a scintillating kaleidoscope exposing your entire being to a forbidden notion of reality and spiritual vitality.
If you are a fan of (DJ) Nobody, a man who has the ingenious ability to mix such abrasive and fringe tracks into seductive pieces that are so delicate and yet so violently alluring, then you will understand the idiosyncrasy present in each other’s work. Whether direct or indirect, both musicians have tapped into a similar influence evoking the depth and emotion necessary for their listeners to fully attain that Cocker trance-like state.
Although he has only come to release one formal solo album, Ardour, prior to Brainfeeder’s initial digital release and forthcoming December 16th vinyl release of 2011’s Collections 01, Teebs has developed quite the repertoire among his fellow colleagues, musicians, and avid listeners. With multiple collaborative projects released through labels such as Planet Mu, Sunless Records, Proximital Records, and Svetlana Industries –just to name a few- Teebs has proven to the world that the number of formal solo albums released in one’s career has no bearing on the acquisition of clout within the melodic realm. Teebs is an unmistakable force. The haunting cover art of the Collections 01 LP, painted by Teebs himself, provokes an eager sense to abandon the present and escape into an abyss of Teebs’ suggested artistry of soulful restoration and absolute bliss. From the cover art to the trace-inducing tracks, Collections 01 is more than just an album, but an audio-collective.
Collections 01, released through the pivotal label, Brainfeeder, can only be described as just that; a collection of sounds impeccably mastered into a mosaic of something as ambient, and as intense, as what I’d imagine to be an exotic and hypo-purified euphoria. These songs are the birthing of, not one instance or blocked time period, but a collection of acquired harmonies throughout a time span of numerous phases and instances. Exclusively recorded in his L.A. home, Teebs has delivered an album that encompasses what his signature vibe is all about: Absolute Beauty.
Teebs has definitely catered to a broader demographic with Collections 01. The collaborative efforts of artists like fellow Brainfeeder, Rebekah Raff, and accomplished pianist, musician, and composer Austin Peralta, enables Collections 01 to present itself with the assertive backbone of heavier beats and thicker baselines that illustrate a cutting-edge approach more distinct than that of Ardour. ‘Pretty Polly‘-Teebs’ third track off of Collections 01-is just an example of a perfect track showcasing the idea that an unorthodox combination of beats and melodies can form such a serine and honest sound, as if two such opposites were so blatantly made for one another. Teebs is nothing short of on point when laying down a thick simple beat laced with the angelic and childlike vocals present in ‘Pretty Polly’.
Teebs has definitely kicked it up a notch with Collections 01. With sounds and songs reminiscent of those found in Ardour, Collections 01 smacks us with a side of Teebs not present in his first album; undeniably fierce prowess. Collections 01 proves that Teebs has conjured up the forceful application of unorthodox instruments and worldly sounds that broaden his music with the added touch of multiculturalism and what can only be described as sheer genius.
Teebs Collections 01 BF026
Just the Yellow Bits
Cook, Clean, Pay the Rent (New House Version)
Pretty Poly
Jahara
Verbena Tea with Rebekah Raff
Your Favorite Weekday
LSP feat. Austin Peralta
While You Dooooo (Extended)
Red Curbs Loop (Stuff I Dream About)
Yellow More New
Teebs submitted the following statement to Brainfeeder that was included in their article for the release: “With this record I’m trying to imagine a side project or group of mine that just so happened to make the same exact music as I’m making now. These records are neither EPs or full albums. Just mini collections of ideas…I hope to release them randomly through my life as if they were paintings in a drawn out series. The vibe I want people to be sent off with is a feeling of going out and buying some kind of rare library record they always wanted and not a “new album/EP.” This will be the first ‘Collections’.”
From Theo Jemison: Mini Documentary of the artwork of Mtendere Mandowa visual artist and musician aka Teebs. Music track ‘LSP’ featuring Austin Peralta from Teebs’ 2nd record “Collections 01″ on Brainfeeder.
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