Amanaz – Khala My Friend

This track comes from a vibrant rock scene in 1970s Zambia affectionately referred to by collectors/enthusiasts as Zamrock. According to this Guardian profile, the Zambian government issued a law mandating that 95% of music on Zambian radio must be from native Zambian artists, and many groups put their own spin on the psych sounds that were creeping into the country from the United States. While the scene was short lived because of an economic recession which hit the country in the late 1970s and the influx of more outside radio programming, it has left behind a wealth of fuzzed-out garage gems. Paul Ngozi, an alias which translates to Paul Danger, is credited with introducing the Zamrock sound through his solo work and releases under the name The Ngozi Family. Another group, W.I.T.C.H. (We Intend to Cause Havoc) released a number of albums throughout the 1970s and are closely associated with the Zamrock sound.

Amanaz released only one album, Africa, in 1975 on a label called Zambia Music Parlor that released a lot of the Zamrock material from the period. It has been reissued by Now-Again Records, who also put out a fantastic psych compilation called Forge Your Own Chains which I can’t recommend enough. Now-Again has been releasing a lot of material from this period in Zambia and if this album is any indication there is a lot of good music to (re)discover.

OM – Bhirma’s Theme

OM rose from the ashes of the group Sleep, one of the early pioneers of stoner/sludge metal and originally comprised Al Cisneros and Chris Haikus. Cisneros and Haikus first worked together in a group called Asbestosdeath and released their first record under the Sleep moniker, Volume One in 1991. It was their next release Sleep’s Holy Mountain the following year that cemented their role in the development of stoner metal. The group went on to release two versions of similar material, first Jerusalem in 1997 and then under the name Dopesmoker in 2003. The estimable folks at Southern Lord have reissued Dopesmoker a few times over the years and it’s wall to wall goodness.

To the chagrin of many, the group and its founding members seemed to slow down after the release of Dopesmoker. But Cisneros and Haikus returned as OM with 2005’s Variations on a Theme. Bhirma’s Theme comes from a 2007 release on Southern Lord entitled Pilgrimage and its worthy of reverence and (dare I say it) pilgrimage, though luckily you shouldn’t have to go very far to hear it.

Jordan De La Sierra – Music for Gymnastics

Jordan De La Sierra was a classically trained pianist who began his recording career with a double LP of hypnotizing long form ambient works in the minimalist style of Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and La Monte Young. It anticipates a lot of the work that would make Windham Hill a new age juggernaut, but his debut record, Gymnosphere: Song of the Rose, was released on a small label called Unity Records in 1978. Though it received little attention at the time, it has luckily been given the Numero treatment since then, and I would argue the world is a better place for it.

The original release came with a 16 page booklet which includes some original artwork, an essay by the artist called “The Tableau of Space” and a greeting from the artist (image from Discogs):

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Now who isn’t charmed by that kind of earnestness. It reminds me of the art of Gilbert Williams, who really embodies the sort of hypercolor utopia that I find so irresistible:

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In short, put on your peasant shirt and dangly earring, get out your crystal prayer bowl, and become a being of pure light.

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

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.

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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.