|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Updated: 28/01/08 | © 2008 Cool Bunny Media | Da Cool Bunny sez 'Splank that Plank, Baby!' | |
#8 |
|
The popularity of latin music has been on the rise in recent years, thanks to the likes of Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez and other fluffy pop jitterbugs. But anyone who really loves latino music knows that this is just the glossy 'Hello' Mag end of the spectrum. The real latin music is that derived from salsa, son and other street styles drawn from the streets of Cuba and countries of Central America. Yo! Hot Latin Funk From El Barrio is a collection of some of the hottest latin funk from a variety of New York-based artists recorded back in the late 60s/early 70s, and let's not mince words here - this album rocks like shit and you'll have steam rising from your cd player if you play this immaculate compilation. The reason for my unreserved enthusiasm is that this album shows just how infectious latin music became when it was mixed with the afro-american soul and funk rhythms that were bouncing around New York. The music here is just as rooted in Harlem as it is in the Bronx, and many of the tracks are covers of soul and funk orginals by the likes of Sly Stone and War. This compilation is also a great introduction to some of the best names in latin music: Mongo Santamaria, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Bobby Valentin, Jimmy Sabater, Joe Bataan, Cortijo & his Time Machine, La Crema De New York, The Latin Blues Band and many others. There are fourteen tracks waiting for your exploration, so I suggest you get the Bar-B-Que cooking, get the friends in, the booze flowing and put this on. Guaranteed success! Okay, here's one that came out of the blue through the mail - hailing from Chicago, Ness certainly believe that the age of the guitar has returned in big time style. Their debut album Up Late With People has huge great wedges of crunching guitars amped up to 11 and sounding like they have been fed through every sort of effects box going. This album is indeed full of potential and just listening to the first few tracks reveal that the band have a wide-ranging record collection that must include the Kinks, Beach Boys, Who, Led Zep and pretty much any band that has really mattered over the last half century. That, and the previous work experience of some band members playing with the Webb Brothers and John Cale on their recent albums has definitely honed Ness into a band raring to go in the only direction that matters - up! Ness are Rick Ness, Phil Young, Bill Swartz and John San Juan, plus a variety of band friends helping out on some of the tracks. On an album that rocks so well as this one it is difficult to single out tracks for special mention, but the opening track Where The People Kick It is an excellent calling card and ideal choice as first single from the album. This is followed by Let's Vaporize, which may have a more varied arrangement but is equally full of energy and attitude. And then their is the epic length title track that lasts for thirteen minutes and showcases the band and their influences in an impressive way. It's quite refreshing to hear an album that is honest and takes no prisoners in its quest to rock like shit. With albums of this quality coming out at the start of the year it augurs well for 2004 to be the year that real music returned. Feast of
Fiddles - Live '01 This is one of those 'star' collaboration albums that used to be so loved by the record labels back in the 70's - they were usually fatuous and overbloated marketing exercises to jack up the sales of fading stars. Thankfully that isn't the case here, Feast of Fiddles is a 'supergroup' made up of the cream of British traditional folk music, and everyone left their egos at home. This album is a collection of live tracks recorded during the band's short tour in 2001. The band itself is quite a stellar one, the line-up on fiddles includes Phil Beer, Ian Cutler, Peter Knight, Tom Leary, Chris Leslie and Brian McNeil - with most of these doubling [even tripling] on other instruments as well. The rest of the band includes Hugh Crabtree on melodeon, Dave Harding on bass, Dave Mattacks on drums, John Underwood and Martin Vincent on guitars. The fiddle music here spans most traditional genres, folk, country and bluegrass - highlights include Orange Blossom Special, plus several medleys of traditional English tunes. On the whole this is a great collection of tracks show-casing the talents here and the spectrum of British tradition music. It's a shame that the album isn't a recording of a complete concert, the fades between tracks tends to emphasise the bittiness of the selection, whereas some of the between song repartee would have been quite atmospheric. That aside though, this is a superb album and you should certainly book a ticket if they arrive at a concert venue near you.
An album from a woman singer/ songwriter new to me but recommended by her producer, guitarist John Morgan, as 'worth a listen' - and he was right. Superficially Alison Kitchen sounds a bit like Joni Mitchell, though the songs she is performing on Mercy Dancing seem to be more spiritual and based on the idea of faith, and it has to be said musically less overtly funky jazz-influenced than Mitchells'. There is quite a cast list of supporting musicians spread across the dozen tracks here, and they offer backing scenarios that range from the spare to the lush and orchestral. Whatever the backing, Alison Kitchen's voice soars over it all, perhaps a little too high flying at times for my tastes but she is always in control and doesn't subscribe to the Whitney and Mariah school of more notes per second. I can't in all honesty say that any of the songs stand out above the rest on the album, except for perhaps Looking For You, which has a wistful, hopeful feel to it, and the country-fried Drive All Night. If you enjoy singers such as the previously mentioned Joni Mitchell, or Joan Armatrading and Tori Amos then I think you might like to try this album.
The title pretty much says it all here - a live recording of blues legend B.B. King from 1978, arguably one of his many peak periods in his long and distinguished career. Being from the late 70's there are guest appearances by Johnny and Edgar Winter and George Benson, and while this adds to the hip factor they do little to the musical value of the tracks they appear on. Plus the schmoozing to the whooping audience is a little wearing when all one wants to hear is the blues. But then I may be carping here as this is, of course, just one of hundreds of gigs King performs in a year and this is as good a record of his show as you will probably find. The gig starts with a blistering Caldonia and slows to a simmering How Blue Can You Get which showcases the horn section nicely. A raw and hollering Goin' Down Slow features the Winter brothers before George Benson comes out for I Got Some Help I Don't Need and Just A Little Love, a pair of lengthy workouts that add Benson's jazzy guitar to the blues mix. The final track is King's signature tune The Thrill Is Gone and then he's gone, onto the next gig in the diary. So, not a bad snapshot of a blues legend at his peak and giving the audience what they want. One for the fans. The days of issuing music just through the traditional method of vinyl or CD and via high street shops is changing, and this new EP from The Glimmer Room is a case in point. The four tracks that make up this release are only available from the web site, where you can download the four tracks and cover artwork. I'm not sure on the pricing, so check on the site. As for the music, well, this pretty much carries on from The Glimmer Room's recent album Tomorrows Tuesday, available on the Neu Harmony label [click here to read review] - rather smooth electronica with a slightly funky dance beat. Track one is Every I Die For You, synth orchestral pads take us into a rather chilled out soundscape with some lovely melody lines that also include some ethnic voices to give it an eery feel. Great track! Without You I Wouldn't Have No One To Leave, is the next track and uses a similar multi-textured backing but with a load of voice samples of conversations. Rather strange, but continues the ambience created by the first track. Track Three is Tomorrows Tuesday, a ten minute long remix by Gydja of the album title track. This is much funkier, with a more pronounced [but thankfully not braindead techno] beat, again it features samples of ethnic voice chants, and small flourishes of world music elements. Final track is Sweet Smell Of Cloves, something of a brooding track, with a proper vocal and remixed by Macondo, it has a slight Gothic feel to it. Future activities for The Glimmer Room include a special track for the next issue of Sequences magazine's cover CD and a remix of track by the French group Air. All in all, this is a fine 'mini' collection that one can use either to extend the previously mentioned album or as a sampler before buying it. Either way, 2 Up 2 Down is a fine example of the music that Andy C of The Glimmer Room is producing. Go to www.theglimmerroom.co.uk and order your copy today - you won't be disappointed! I quite like music that mixes elements from various genres and regional ethnic sounds together into something new. Nowadays this sort of music is labelled as 'Fusion' and this new album by John Wubbenhorst & Facing East certainly fits the bill. Simply put, Facing Beloved is a mixture of jazz flute and guitar mixed with various types of Indian percussion and rhythms, and the musicians have also added other ethnic elements such as traditional Irish dance music into the pot. Facing East comprises John Wubbenhorst on Indian and western flutes, Subash Chandran on ghatam and vocals, Ganesh Kumar on Kanjira, Steve Zerlin on bass, and Jorge Zamorano on guitar. And I have to say that the quality of the musicianship is very impressive indeed, while the overall ambience is jazzy improv with an eastern flavour it veers from delicate to swinging at the drop of a hat. The music itself is also inspirational as all the musicians are followers of an Indian mystic, so there's a spiritual side to it as well. The ten musical tracks here, the eleventh is a short speech by the mystic, offer a wide range of moods, from slow meditations to frenzied [well, almost] workouts where the Indian drums take over. New age blandness this certainly isn't. |
There are several other guest appearances on this album alongside Johnny Cash: Steve Earle, Sheryl Crow, and Teddy Thompson. And thankfully these are all sympathetic to the song and the singer, so do not overshadow the main performance. Rosanne Cash's vocal style is a little similar to that of Mary Chapin Carpenter: close-miked breathiness, a sophisticated one-to-one directness that is very appealing. She also has some of the twangy sharpness of her half-sister Carlene Carter, so it's a very rich and attractive mix, which allied to the sympathetic instrumental backing produced mostly by multi-instrumentalist and producer John Leventhal, makes for an album of great maturity. But I hasten to add that this is not a gloomy album, the tone is optimistic,or at least hopeful, on most of the songs [the majority written by Cash solo or in collaboration with John Leventhal] and it even swings, albeit at a stately pace on occasion. A very fine album that deserves to be heard beyond the country audience. The Albion
Band - An Evening With... (Talking Elephant
TECD041)
Ashley Hutchings - 5 (Talking Elephant TECD037) Various Artists - Grandson of Morris On (Talking Elephant TECD038) These three albums all have a single common factor - they all feature the talents of folk/rock bassist Ashley Hutchings and the various groups of musicians he's been involved with over the last thirty years or so.
5 is a trawl through the Hutchings archive for unreleased gems and live recordings, and features the work of Fairport Convention, The Sawdust Band and, of course, The Albion Band. Recordings date back to 1967 with Fairport's If I Had A Ribbon Bow, followed by a lovely version of Who Knows Where The Time Goes with Sandy Denny on vocals from 1969. One of the rarities is a version of Cell Song from the Fairport song-cycle Babbacombe Lee performed by the Albions in 1978. The Albion band material spans the 70s up to 2001, including topical songs such as Cookery Is The New Rock 'n' Roll and much more. These seventeen tracks span a wide timespan and can only scrape the recordings of these seminal bands, and the wide-ranging influence Ashley Hutchings has had on the way traditional folk music has grown up and become something to be respected and not mocked like it used to be. Back in 1972 Ashley Hutchings and the cream of that period's folk-rockers released an album called Morris On - it was a groundbreaking album in that it embraced the culture and dance tunes of the Morris Men, those strange looking coves you'd see dancing in the village squares. It became a classic album and now here is the sequel, Grandson Of Morris On, thirty years on. Once again Ashley Hutchings is in the producers' chair and providing the bass on most tracks, the musicians include Simon Nicol, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie, Phil Beer, Ken Nicol, and a cast of thousands. As before the album consists of great uptempo dance tunes and songs interspersed with readings and interludes. Grandson Of Morris On is one of those jovial albums that stealthily creep up on even the most rabid anti-folkie and convert them by attacking that most weak part of the body - the feet. Once they start tapping to the infectious music you are in deep shit! These three CDs provide a pretty good starters set for anyone interested in either the work of Ashley Hutchings or the Albion Band. For the long term folk-rock collector 5 is a must, it has performances available nowhere else and many rarities, and the Live album is a pretty good snapshot of the Albion Band in the new millennium, while Grandson Of Morris On is the album with the broadest appeal for the newcomer wanting to dip a toe into British traditional folk music. Yer takes yer choice and pays the piper... Various
Artists - The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Original Soundtrack
It would be easy to dismiss the new album by Ann Sweeten of being just another 'New Age' instrumental album, but I think that Sapphire Days rises above this with the quality of the music and the performances. According to the press release that came with the CD Ann Sweeten has been immersed in music since she was a child and has eventually become a highly qualified musician and composer.
I can't really decide on selecting a few favoured tracks for special mention here, the album works so superbly as a whole that I can't believe anyone would just play it piecemeal. This is an exceptional, highly musical album and recommended to anyone with shattered nerves that need calming.
The album roars off to a great start with Sixty Years, the best blues that ZZ Top never recorded, followed by Don't Trust A Woman (In A Black Cadillac), a riff-fest that would make Jimmy Page smile with nostalgia! When The Bells Don't Change is a rockabilly/bluegrass hybrid that gets the feet going, while it slows down with That Someone Just Ain't You, a blues ballad guaranteed to get you and your girl into a clinch. Rat Pack Boogie is a spritely instrumental reminiscent of Les Paul [sans Mary Ford]! And so it goes, a dozen tracks of prime quality music played with virtuosity and good humour - and not a little showing off. Setzer is a dynamic and nimble fingered guitarist and a fine singer and this album deserves a lot more airplay and sales than it will probably get. So my advice is buy Nitro Burnin' Funny Daddy for someone you love and stand back...
Make no mistake, these are real bootleg recordings and the audio quality reflects that - at the best they are earwitness documents, with all the attendant noise that microphones in the audience will pick up - though thankfully the 'yee-haw' factor is mercifully missing from most of these recordings. You are hearing what the fan in the middle of the auditorium was hearing. At worst, as on CD2 of the Bilbao gig one wonders why it was included as the audio quality is completely dire thanks to what sounds like severe tape degradation. The bottom line is that this box set is for the devoted fan and not the newcomer to the music of Tangerine Dream. These recordings are documents of work in progress, with many of the musical themes improvised here eventually evolving into material on their official Virgin albums of the time. On that level they are a fascinating and indispensible record of TD's golden age.. I have to admit that I have a few blind spots when it comes to music and one of these is Christmas carols, and all the sentimentally cliched mush that purports to be representational of that season. Call me Scrooge, call me a miserable bastard, but this sort of Hallmark card ordure just leaves me cold. And so we come to an album of instrumentals with a Christmas and Winter theme by a musician new to me called Jeff Ball.
The Indian flute is a haunting sounding instrument, devoid of the embellishments you hear with the european classical version. It certainly gives all the above tracks a distinctive sound, even with the 'new age' backing instruments on this album. Jeff Ball is a superb musician and manages to get the very best out of his instrument, but I have to admit that most of this music left me unmoved. It lacked the spark needed to revive these hackneyed old tunes [original compositions excepted, of course]. I realise that I'm being extremely biased here, but my loathing for Christmas is deep grained and any album of carols in any style was on to a no-hoper here on The Borderland. However, if you find pleasure in Christmas music then I think you would appreciate the different approach on this album. I suggest you go to http://www.redfeathermusic.com and sample any demo tracks there before making your own mind up. This arrived on a CD-r disc so I'm not really sure if this disc is the full commercial release or just a collection of sample tracks. What I do know is that Van and Borner hail from Poland and consist of Barbara Zielinska-Van and Sabina Borner [who has since left the band, so they now perform as VAN] plus several guest musicians. What I am hearing is extremely ear friendly electronica, not too far removed from what Code Indigo do, with added touches that remind me of Vangelis, Jarre, Mike Oldfield and Steve Hillage. Above all, this is extremely tuneful music, most of the tracks pack good melodies in with the ambient backings, and I have been playing this album at least once a day since it arrived. The card sleeve lists fifteen tracks, but the cd player only shows nine and I don't think the album details relate to Miracles at all but to another band called Loom. Which means I'm very in the dark as what the tracks are called. However, I am very impressed by the musicianship on show here and I would love to hear more of Van. Peter
Frohmader - 2001 (Nekropolis Records
NCD 009)
Peter Frohmader - Advanced Alchemy of Music (NCD 007)
Looking at the cover for Advanced Alchemy of Music you could be forgiven for thinking that the music on this album has a surreal gothic feel to it - I guess that the gothic typeface enhances that feeling. The black and white cover art [by Peter Frohmader] also has many gothic elements to it. However, the music on the cd is made of sterner stuff - in fact it's quite a heady brew of electronica, ethnic beats and melodies, jazz improvisation and some industrial noises to top it off. For some reason I keep getting visions of David Lynch's movie Eraserhead while listening to this. The opening track has a vast Tower of Babel feel to it, with pounding beats topped by layer upon layer of weirdness. Golden Dawn starts with what sound like tablas and an acoustic guitar, a gentle interlude before a martial rhythm appears and some excellent electric guitar rings in. This track has a circular motif to it, like Ravel's Bolero it slowly builds up into a restrained crescendo, with various interesting dips along the way for all sorts of wayward and unexpected instruments. The remaining four tracks all have a similar feel, mixing strong rhythm tracks with lashings of alien sounding percussion to soaring guitar lines, samples of ethnic instruments and voices vie with atmospherics and ambience. Advanced Alchemy of Music is a very striking album, the music might not appeal to everyone, it has its peculiarities that make it very difficult to pin down - easy listening it ain't, but an exciting musical journey into a very strange aural world it most certainly is. InfoPoint Contact: Nekropolis Records, Kriegerstr.7, B81545, Munich, Germany. Official homepage: http://www.peterfrohmader.de
Darlin' And Rose are Sylvester E. Bowen and Nisha, a fine pair of musicians who have worked seperately and together over many years. In many ways this is traditional country music, playing up the lyrical and musical themes that make the best country music so damned infectious. I'm rather reluctant to select individual tracks as highlights because the whole album is a joy - it's rare to find an album that is 100% rock solid with no filler tracks. Darlin' And Rose are backed by a very savvy and sympathetic band who hit the spot on every track, and on the really rocking tracks there is some serious swinging going on. Country music has always had a strong following here in the UK, and if this album managed to get some radio play it could do well. If nothing else Darlin' And Rose restore my faith that there is life in country music beyond the overhyped bluster of Garth Brooks and his ilk. Darlin' & Rose - Darlin' & Rose (DNR-1401)
Both Nisha and Sylvester are quite evocative songwriters, so this album is full of good original material written together or individually. Opening track Honky Tonk Eyes kicks the album off with a gentle swinger of a song, enriched by Nisha's deep-pitched vocals. Sylvester sings the next song, I'll Only Be Yours, his lighter-toned voice backed by some lovely pedal steel and fiddle. To be honest it's a bit of a pain trying to select the best tracks for mention as this is one of those albums that slips by so enjoyably that the run-off on the final track comes as a surprise. But I will admit that the effervescent Two Dimes And A Quarter has been on repeat quite a lot as has the very bluesy My Tears Have Gone To Pain. The mixture of Nisha and Sylvester's voices with the excellent musicianship of the session band certainly make for a quality listening experience and proves that there are people still making great country music. Oh yes, and my feet were tapping like hell all the way through! InfoPoint Contact: PO Box 2594, La Mesa, CA 91943-2594, USA Web: www.darlinandrose.com |
The
trend with Nashville 'country' music is for bigger sounds, more flash
and a general aptitude to overdo everything. Thankfully, this new album
by Rosanne Cash bucks the trend and goes far in the opposite direction.
What we have here is an intensely personal album, with minimal instrumentation
and whole lot of heart. Cash goes for dignified understatement throughout
on a set of intimate songs about love and loss made all the more poignant
considering the recent death of her mother, June Carter Cash, and the
frailty of her father, Johnny, who makes possibly his last [though I
sincerely hope not] recording on a duet here.
Subtitled
"Dangerously Live & Seriously Rockin' without the aid
of a safety net, but with the aid of modern computer technology",
An Evening With... is a new live album that should bring back
memories of the bands' gigs during 2000/1. As always with bands under
the leadership of Ashley Hutchings the envelope of what is considered
folk music is continuously being pushed back - in this case the inclusion
of sax player Pete Zorn adds a new jazz/free music colouring to the
band sound. Having followed the Albions on an occasional basis for many
years via their albums this new live album is something of an eyeopener
as the songs here may have their roots still in traditional folk but
the sound is now much smoother, incorporating jazz and rock stylings
into the mix. This is most noticeable on Chief Seattle's Reply/Time
To Ring Some Changes. But the band's roots are still deep in the
fertile soil of British traditional music and the whole album reflects
this with the band on good form throughout. Indeed, at times it is almost
impossible to classify what type of music the Albions are playing -
I like to simply call it rock music for grown-ups...
This
is one of those albums that really defy reviewing for the simple reason
that the musical this movie is based on has become a cultural reference
point for millions - as has the movie version on an international level.
What probably isn't so widely realised by the movie buffs out there
is that for many of the cast this was their first movie or at least
their breakthrough to stardom. On this soundtrack you get the vocal
talents of Meatloaf, Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Richard O'Brien, Charles
Gray, Patricia Quinn and Little Nell. And of course this album contains
all the classic tracks: Science Fiction/Double Feature, The Time
Warp, Sweet Transvestite, I Can Make You A Man, Over At The Frankenstein
Place... If Richard O'Brien is remembered for one thing in his life
it will be this joyous and extremely camp musical - with its enthusiastic
embrace of 50s rock and roll culture and sci-fi monster movies it has
become a classic, helped not least by Tim Curry's scene chewing performance.
So the bottom line is if you are a fan replace that tatty old vinyl
LP with this digitally cleaned up CD and sing along to the great songs.
Oh yes, and if you think Thelma And Louis was Susan Sarandon's finest
hour check out her tonsil gymnastics on Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me.
Sapphire
Days is based on the notion that we all have special days worth remembering
and enjoying again and again in our memories. This emotional response
is tied in to a love of nature and the environment which has helped to
create the dozen or so instrumentals on this very melodic album. What
I like most about the album is the simplicity of the music and the production
- essentially there is the piano and a soft background of string synths
so low in the mix to be barely discerned at times. So the focus is on
the piano playing of Miss Sweeten, and I have to say that she can 'tickle
the ivories' in a very pleasing way. This album is extremely restful,
there are no shocks to the system, the style is almost 'old school' classical,
indeed at times I keep thinking I can hear snatches of Chopin or Schumann
in there...
The
name may not mean too much to you, but Brian Setzer was the duck-tail
quiffed guitarist/singer with rockabilly revivalists The Stray Cats
back in the 80's. And I'm happy to say that this new solo album carries
on in the same way, though the rockabilly brief has widened to include
country, blues and rock, all mixed into an exhilerating sound.
Over
their many decades of performing Tangerine Dream have released many
live records and it seems from this box set that their fans have been
equally busy with clandestine tape recorders. Somehow an accord has
been reached between the fans and the band and this first tranche of
seven officially sanctioned CDs is the result. The box contains five
gigs that date from late October 1974 through to June 1976, and locations
as diverse as Sheffield, London, Croydon, Bilbao and Berlin. In many
ways these recordings represent the golden age of TD, with Edgar Froese,
Chris Franke and Peter Baumann in the lineup, and highlight a band for
whom every gig was an exercise in improvisation - it is only in the
latter concerts here that the sequencers and some pre-programming start
to appear and TD start to move away from their cosmic ambience into
something new.
Ball
is a master of the American Indian wood flute, and I have to say that
on this hearing it is an extremely mournful, even ghostly, sounding
instrument - a tool for summoning up revenants of the past. The contents
of the album are certainly varied: a number of traditional carols -
Silent Night, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, O Come All Ye Faithful,
O Holy Night, a couple of traditional folk tunes in Greensleeves
and Auld Lang Syne, a rather silver-toned version of the Beatles'
Across The Universe, and a few home-grown compositions.
Peter
Frohmader is a veteran of the German music world, having been a composer
and mult-instrumentalist for thirty years. I've only really encountered
his music [up till now] via his collaborations on 
Big
admission time - I love country music! It probably knocks my 'cool'
rating to hades and back, but I've always had an affection for country,
especially the stuff that comes from anywhere other than Nashville.
Give me Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Commander Cody or JJ Cale and I'm
away... In my opinion the globalisation of the 'Nashville' sound has
bastardised and neutered the soul and energy and all that good stuff
that makes country music get under the skin. So I originally approached
this cd with a certain amount of trepidation... Thankfully, Darlin'
And Rose have gone down the rootsier country road, and this is a fine
album of country ballads and rockier moments.
This
was the debut album by Nisha Catron and Sylvester Bowen, who record
as Darlin' And Rose, and as with their most recent album, Tomorrow
Yesterday [see above], it's a goodie. Now, I have to admit that
I have become very disenchanted with what Nashville-based labels call
Country music. It's become a glossy and homogenized music, bland in
the extreme and leached of almost all that made it country in the first
place. But not here - Darlin' & Rose are country with a capital
'C', so the music is full of pedal steel guitars, mandolins, acoustic
guitars and all that good stuff that makes country Country! Ironically,
it was recorded in San Diego, California, not exactly the heart of country
music.