Klaus Schulze – Bayreuth Return

This track is one half of Schulze’s 1975 release Timewind and while it’s certainly a wonderful example of Berlin School electronic experimentation, one look at Schulze’s discography highlights the difficulty of picking just one release. He performed on Tangerine Dream’s debut album Electronic Meditation as well as on the Lord Krishna Von Goloka release that I’ve also written about here in addition to releasing over 40 albums of his own beginning with Irrlicht.

Part of that extensive discography includes releases under another name, Richard Wahnfried which he described in the notes for Time Actor as a blending of avant garde music and hypercommercial muzak. This appropriation of commercial ambient music in service of avant garde forms influences many experimental musicians today, from manipulating cassette tapes originally designed for corporate outreach by groups like Good Willsmith to the long-form future mall music of Virtual Dream Plaza. Schulze and the artists in his milieu helped to expand the vocabulary of electronics in experimental music and, eventually, music more generally and in my opinion it’s hard to overstate their influence. Since it is getting more and more affordable for people to obtain synths thanks to software-based synth engines, those interested would do well to immerse themselves in the music of this period if they have not already, both because it is good to understand the history and because it’s a sonic treat.

Ravi Shankar & Andre Previn – Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fby1MhTaLyQ

To commemorate what would have been Pandit Ravi Shankar’s 96th birthday, I thought I’d document another fascinating collaboration of Shankar’s that is in the same vein of East meets West as his collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin, which I have documented in another post. This work arose from a commission Shankar received to compose a work for sitar and an orchestra from the London Symphony Orchestra. Shankar was intrigued by composing in this way following those collaborations with Menuhin, especially since many of those recordings were improvised while this was to be composed in advance. Shankar blurred the lines by including bongo drums instead of the traditional tabla drum typically found in ragas as well as incorporating the call-and-response form that is typical of a concerto into the composition. There are many excellent recordings of Shankar performing more traditional ragas and today would be a good day to dive in, but I wanted to shine a light on this slightly off-beat record in his tremendous body of work. He was a master of the form and his influence on Western perception of Indian classical music and on music in general is difficult to overstate. His legacy lives on in these many recordings and the increased influence of raga forms on contemporary music and in more literal form through his daughter, Norah Jones. This recording, despite being so unorthodox, sold surprisingly well when it was released in 1971, leading one EMI executive to remark that it “sold like a pop record.” Somehow I find it hard to believe that this trend could be repeated, but one can dream.

Pas De Deux – Cardiocleptomanie

Those who have followed the annual Eurovision song contest for a long time might remember Pas De Deux from their 1983 entry representing Belgium entitled Rendez-vous. You can watch their performance at the contest here, which the announcer introduces by saying

I’ve described this as sort of crypto-punk. I suppose Belgium deserves some credit for trying something new.

That glowing introduction was delivered with classic British passive-aggressive disdain, but given how fresh Cardiocleptomanie sounds today I think this Belgian group got the last laugh. The group comprised Dett Peyskens (who is currently part of the group Red Zebra), Hilde Van Roy, and Walter Verdin. Cardiocleptomanie comes off the group’s only full-length release Axe Ends which also came out in 1983. The synths probably give this one away as being early-80s, but the combination of driving rhythms and almost disinterested vocals are irresistible. Perfect for anybody who has ever harbored a little crush on the girl from the cover of Duran Duran’s Rio.

51-y2jcwmal

Joe Townsend – Going Over The Hill

Though Mississippi Records/Little Axe Records has gone through some re-branding/changes in management, they consistently put out top notch reissues. Their reissues of obscure blues records, either in their entirety or in compilation form, are particularly excellent and Oh Graveyard You Can’t Hold Me Always is a perfect example. I couldn’t find any sort of temporal or geographic limitation that guides this compilation, but it’s made up of bluesy gospel tunes that certainly have the feel of live recordings made in homes and churches throughout the south. I couldn’t find much information on Joe Townsend, but his tune Take Your Burdens to the Lord has appeared on a number of other compilations. Mississippi Records is responsible for a number of great releases that I can personally endorse, including The Life and Times of Abner Jay and Michael Hurley’s Armchair Boogie, but I have yet to come across material they put out that doesn’t have some hidden gems waiting to get the audience they deserve. They have a record store in Portland, OR so if you’re in that neck of the woods I’d encourage you to check it out.

megaritual – Eclipse

megaritual is the brainchild of Australian multi-instrumentalist Dale Paul Walker, and his latest, Eclipse, represents a maturation of forms laid out in two earlier releases, Mantra Music (Vol. 1) and Mantra Music (Vol. 2). While the first two releases were Walker-only joints, he is joined on eclipse by bassist Govinda Das. Blending Indian-style raga forms with heavy guitar rifts is a clever concept, and Eclipse combines the two masterfully into a one-track release which is both meditative and apocalyptic. You can name your price to get it, along with the other two megaritual releases, and if you dig Eclipse then I’d recommend checking the two earlier EPs out as well. I wasn’t able to find anything in the way of physical releases, at least at present, but I’ll edit the post should anything cross my path. For now fire up those ear cans and rock the fuck out.

It’s a Beautiful Day – Essence of Now

It’s a Beautiful Day was part of San Franscisco’s burgeoning psychedelic rock scene in the late 60s. Essence of Now comes from the group’s second release Marrying Maiden from 1970. David LaFlamme played a key role in this release, performing as a vocalist, guitarist, and violinist (he was a soloist with the Utah Symphony before the group started). Jerry Garcia provided pedal steel guitar on this release, as he would for seemingly everybody in SF in the 1960s, including CSNY and its component members, Jefferson Airplane, and David Bromberg in addition to his work with the Dead.

Their best known song, White Bird, came from their self-titled debut and while they put out a few more albums they never reached the same level of success. Luckily they left behind these sun-dripped jams.

M. Mucci – Dangerous Summer

This is the title track from M. Mucci’s 2013 release put out on vinyl by Tall House Recording Co.. The distinctly medieval sounds accompanying M. Mucci’s guitar come from a Vielle, here performed by B. Grossman. The vielle is a stringed instrument somewhat resembling a violin but with five strings instead of four, and it was a popular instrument among troubadours and court musicians during the medieval period. In the 15th century the word began to be used when referring to a hurdy-gurdy which is also a stringed instrument but which is performed by a mechanical wheel turning against the strings instead of a human bowing them, in the case of the vielle.

M.Mucci has a Bandcamp page with lots more music, though I’m not sure if more medieval instruments make appearances.

Below is an image from the National Gallery in London depicting an angel playing the stringed instrument, likely painted by a contemporary of Da Vinci.

N-1661-00-000069-wpu — Associate of Leonardo da Vinci (Francesco Napoletano?), 1452 – 1519 An Angel in Green with a Vielle about 1490-9 Oil on poplar, 117.2 x 60.8 cm Bought, 1898 NG1661 This painting is part of the group: ‘Panels from the S. Francesco Altarpiece, Milan’ (NG1093; NG1661-NG1662) http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG1661

Dinosaurs Using Tools

This is a couple months old but I’m just getting around to sharing it. Please be gentle, I’ve only been playing guitar for a few months. I’d surely occupy the lowest caste in Dinotopia.

Snoozer Quinn -Lover Come Back to Me/ On the Alamo

I found this track on a great post over on Dusted Magazine’s blog where American Primitive guitarist Glenn Jones laid out some of his favorite guitar pieces that don’t fit into the American Primitive mold. Despite being well respected by guitarists both of his day and since, little is known about Snoozer Quinn and very little of his playing was ever recorded. He was born Eddie Quinn in Pike County, Mississippi in 1907 and spent his young adult life touring Texas and the South as a guitarist in a number of travelling bands. He joined the popular dance band the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1928 and recorded with other well-known artists like Bix Beiderbecke and Jimmie Davis throughout his career, though some of those recordings have been lost. In case the sounds of Love Come Back to Me/On the Alamo weren’t mournful enough for you, this recording was made in a New Orleans charity hospital where he eventually died of tuberculosis. They are some of the only recordings that capture his playing by itself.

He was credited as a songwriter on the excellent Jimmie Davis song There’s Evil in Ye Children and perfomed on a number of other Davis recordings which survive today like Market Blues and Midnight Blues. I’d encourage you to look at Quinn’s Discogs to see where he performed, since only one compilation is dedicated to Quinn by himself. I suppose Quinn’s story serves as a reminder that if you are good at something, keep doing it because you might be forgotten and die of tuberculosis in New Orleans only to be written about on music blogs long after it can make any difference.

Orion's Bastard

Author: musicforcougars