The Higher Intelligence Agency - Colour Reform (1994)

By request, complements of Ingo (thanks!).

Remixes from the classic Colourform album.

Last post of the year. 

I can quit anytime I want.  Really.  I can...

Enjoy

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Reflections At Year's End

I thought about putting together some kind of a "top" list which is so tempting to do but decided to end the year on a more laid back note with Boozoo Bajou's "Grains Inspiration Mix", probably because I'm in need of some laid back.

This has been more rewarding than I could ever have imagined and the spirit of sharing and knowledge from everyone over the past several months has been nothing short of inspiring.

When I first ventured into this I figured I'd up a couple of rarities or out of print gems and post occasionally from there. It just reminded me how much music means to me and to us all. As Trappist monk Thomas Merton once noted after listening to a live jazz performance, "now that is prayer."

Thanks to all for the "warm fuzzies" and for those who have shared so much. The participation, feedback and sense of community makes it a joy. There are far too many people to thank but I do thank you.

I hope some of the music here brightens your year's end. Take it easy, be grateful and be the change you'd like to see in the world.

Boozoo Bajou - Grains Inspiration Mix (2009)

In case you weren't aware of it, Boozoo Bajou released Grains in 2009. 

For the new album, the duo put together an organic, gentle take on the Laurel Canyon sound that influenced the making of the album.
"We didn’t try to make an authentic West Coast album, it’s just that laidback California thing was in the back of our minds," Florian explains.  "It coloured the whole thing."

If you don't have this album yet, it was one of 2009's essential releases.   This mix will get you in the mood. A laid back California groove seemed to be a nice way to wind down the year.

Part1//Part2

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Ministry Of Sound - The Sessions Vol. 1 (1993)

While it was Sasha and Digweed's Renaissance: The Mix Collection that exploded the DJ mix into the public consciousness, the first of "The Sessions" mixes out of New York's Ministry of Sound predates it.

Can't say I was "there" but in '94 I was in Seattle and did catch wind of the rising U.S. "rave" scene that was making it's way out of California. I heard the stories of those who were there in the beginning and remember the traveling DJs and the rave flyers and those long, sweaty nights in the warehouses.

By that time it had already begun to "sell out" but it still brings back fond memories.

This mix by Tony Humphries will take you back. It may be from the Ministry of Sound on the east coast but the spirit transcends geography.   Seemed like a fun mix to toss in at the end of the year.

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Keepintime: A Live Recording (2005)

What do you get when you bring together legendary "breaks" drummers with legendary "scratch" DJs? Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl. Watch part one below:




What do you get when you bring them together for a tour? Keepintime: A Live Recording.

Part1//Part2//Part3//Part4//Part5//Part6//Part7//Part8

Incredible.

Almost Famous and Marvin Gaye

Just a little educational piece I put together a while back. Hopefully you'll find it interesting.

The film Almost Famous, one of the best rock and roll films ever made, has two versions, the theatrical release and the "Bootleg Cut".

I've never seen the original release as I bought the "Bootleg Cut" version of the DVD when it was released. Seems it's out of print now.

There is a scene early in the film when William, eyes glazed at having been allowed back stage to hang out with rock stars, is tagging along with Russell, guitar player for the band Stillwater (there was a real Stillwater though the band in the film is based on the Allman Brothers band, a shout out given to Greg and Dickie in the same scene).

Russell is trying to explain the essence of rock and roll to William and mentions a song from Marvin Gaye's essential album What's Going On.

Here's the scene:



When I first saw this scene, which was not in the theatrical release, I thought it nailed the essence of music. However, some time later I would get the Deluxe Edition of the album on CD which contained the original Detroit Mix.

The main vocal track and the harmony track on this mix, both done by Marvin Gaye, are in separate channels (i.e. left and right speakers). On the final mix, done in L.A., Motown having made the move to California, these two separate tracks are mixed together and layered. It is quite a stunning effect.

I have grown fond of the Detroit Mix; it sounds much more raw and unpolished and many subtleties of the production behind the album leap out. What becomes also more clear is the fact that this album makes use of samples that are looped throughout the album. The talking heard in the intro to "What's Going On" are repeated throughout the album giving it continuity along with the tracks flowing one into another in seamless fashion.

In fact, the 'Woo!' that Russell mentions in the film is one such sample. It may have been spontaneous at the moment of recording but it first appears not in "What's Happening Brother" but one song earlier in the title track. Even in 1971 sampling and looping were on the ascendant, though instead of digital sampling, tape had to be spliced together.

Miles Davis' Bitches Brew is an example of such looping and it was controversial at the time. Just imagine the time it took to do this.

Here's the 'woo' in question in "What's Happening Brother":



Here is the same sample, first heard one track earlier on "What's Going On":



If you listen to the album (and these two tracks) repeatedly you will clearly hear the 'everything is everything' and 'hey man what's your name' and the 'woo' in question over and over. Listen a little longer and you'll hear the separate vocal tracks.

Perhaps it's ironic that the scene actually nailed the essence of the music industry, not in the actual 'woo' but in the imitation thereof, a creation of an illusion, of a dream, of what we think it should be.

The Higher Intelligence Agency - Colourform (1993)

Classic electronica.

Anyone happen to have Colour Reform available to share? The Autechre remix is readily available but the other three remixes are tough to find.

Enjoy

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Power Of Flower: The High-End Of Electronic Lounge Music (2006) Re-up

Nice mix of downtempo/lounge music by Roland Voss (aka Lemongrass).

If you aren't familiar with the works from this prolific artist, track his stuff down. Great taste.

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Feed Your Head Volumes 1 thru 3

A nice series of ambient dub releases from the  brief lived Planet Dog Records label, most famous, perhaps, for being home to Banco de Gaia's first official releases (his earlier works were cassette only and discontinued for copyright issues).


Banco de Gaia, Spooky and Tuu are perhaps the most recognizable names (they were for me anyhow...) on these comps but the albums flow nicely as a whole. Great, trippy, dubby, ambient stuff.  Enjoy.

Feed Your Head

Part1//Part2 (320 kbps)

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Feed Your Head Volume 2

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Feed Your Head Volume 3 - Accelerating The Alpha Rhythms

Part1//Part2 (256 kbps)

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Volume Magazine - Volume 1 thru 10

Here are the first ten volumes (to start) of Volume Magazine's incredible compilation CDs. They were all accompanied by a descriptive booklet (which I don't have available, unless anyone has PDF versions!).

It would be great for someone to up these online somewhere as the booklet is a treasure trove of history.

Volumes 11 thru 17 will follow soon (for now you can get them, and lots of other goodies, here).

Don't forget about TEXtures, killer mixes by Darren Emerson and Alex Paterson, also on the Volume label.

Anyhow, here they are...enjoy. Some incredible, incredible (did I mention incredible?) music here.

This ties up all of the posts over the past few months quite nicely.

Volume 1 (1991)

Part1//Part2 (320 kbps)

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Volume 2 (1991)

Part1//Part2 (224 kbps)

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Volume 3 (1992)

Part1//Part2 (224 kbps)

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Volume 4 (1992)

Part1//Part2 (320 kbps)

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Volume 5 (1992)

Part1//Part2 (320 kbps)

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Volume 6 (1993)

Part1//Part2 (320 kbps)

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Volume 7 (1993)

Part1//Part2 (320 kbps)

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Volume 8 (1993)

Part1//Part2 (320 kbps)

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Volume 9 (1994)

Part1//Part2 (224 VBR)

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Volume 10 (1994)

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Coldcut - Journeys By DJ: 70 Minutes of Madness (1996)

Perhaps the ultimate example of the cut-up/sample mix this one by Coldcut is legendary. Innovative and highly influential, it brought together many disparate musical styles that just should not have worked together but a cohesive whole it is.

Genres? Who needs 'em? It all comes back to the beat.

An essential release.

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Ultimate Breaks and Beat Volumes 1 thru 3

Hope all this "educational" stuff isn't boring you to death. I share it not because I know so much but because the thrill of musical discovery never ends. I share the things that have thrilled me when I first learned about them and hope to continue sharing as I learn so much from so many others. That's the beauty of it all.

Music expresses life. What better way to understand others than by understanding the language that speaks to others?

Along with the dub technique, it was the "break" that changed the sound of music. The break, pioneered by New York DJs in the 70s, is that one hook or groove, that funky little drum break in the middle of just about any song that jumps off the record.

These DJs took this little break and learned how to loop it through the manipulation of the turntable to prolong the break and keep people moving.

As with anything new, eventually it becomes popular and is capitalized on. These comps were the fruit of such marketing thus making it possible for just about anybody to DJ. The secret was out.

This is the first three volumes out of a series that totals 25 releases. Personally, I get the idea but if you're a diehard or completist, the other 22 releases are out there somewhere...

For a cool history of the "Amen Break" go here.

Enjoy

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Bim Sherman - Rub-A-Dub (1975-79)

I'm watching the Dub Echoes documentary again. It's not much of a stretch to say that all of today's remix/sample/cut-up culture has it's roots from the small of island of Jamaica.

Without going into much detail (for that I recommend the documentary), "dub" is a studio technique; "dub" does not equal "reggae". It was a felix culpa that happened in the recording studio when a vocal was left off of a piece of wax meant to be played at one of the sound systems so popular at the time.

When the instrumental version was played it was a hit. With this, dub was born. Studio engineers began experimenting with electronic manipulation of recorded sound and the reverb, delay and other effects associated with dub generated and entire new sound. Thus, arguably, remix culture was born.

Rub-a-dub is closely associated with "dancehall", referring in general to the "dub" versions, i.e. bottoming out the low end and amplifying the high, engineered specifically for the sonic space of the outdoor soundsystems. Rub-a-dub, in all actuality, references a specific style of dance associated with the groove of the music.

Anyhow, this is a compilation of "dub" versions of Bim Sherman songs. These are the b-sides of 7" single releases.

Check out Dub Echoes and listen to these versions when compared to some of his other works and you'll get a deeper appreciation for one of the biggest innovations in recent musical history.

Enjoy

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DJ Spooky - Rhythm Science (2004)

"DJ/conceptual artist/author Paul Miller's pseudonym is at once an arcane reference to William S. Burroughs's Nova Express and a childlike recognition of the sometimes eerie, disembodied sounds he gathers—an immediate indicator of the gleeful enthusiasm with which both his "mixes" and his first book juxtapose cultures high and low, new and old, avant-garde and "street."

Son of Howard University's dean of law (who died when Miller was three) and a mother who ran an international fabric shop off Dupont Circle, Miller spent much of his childhood in Washington, D.C.'s nurturing bohemia before studying philosophy and literature at Bowdoin. That his thesis was on Richard Wagner—whose theory of gestamtkunstwerk (the total art work) presages much of today's "new media" revolution—is no surprise.

The emerging aesthetic he describes is one in which the proliferating technologies of sampling and studio manipulation have eroded the distinction between music's producers and consumers. From "dub" in Jamaica to the turntablism of the South Bronx, how music was manipulated by listeners after the fact has become as important as how it was "originally" made. The range of reference Miller brings to his description of these phenomena reaches back to Vico and Emerson and forward to Eminem, giving "DJ culture" the broad contextualization its innovations have long warranted." (Source)

This is the CD that accompanies the book by the same name. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of sample/remix/cut-up culture. Life is basically a remix.

The book comes strongly recommended.

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Return of the DJ, Vol. 1 (1996)

If you trace the roots of hip-hop and rap (not the same thing), you find that in the early days it was the DJ who controlled the show. The MC was not yet the headliner. It was not called rap music in the early days. That demarcation came later. Today the two terms are conflated but in the early days hip-hop meant much more than "rap".

As the title says, this album brings back to the mainstream the innovations that had been happening with the turntable as an instrument. While rappers were doing their thing with simplistic machine driven drum beats , the DJ came out of hiding and revealed what had been happening underground.

I continue to repeat, and cannot recommend it enough, but the documentary Scratch is not only essential viewing but is essential owning material, one to watch again and again.

As a teaser, a track by Cut Chemist is featured here. You may know that name through his work with DJ Shadow on Brainfreeze and Product Placement.

You may not become a fan (though you may just have to admit you are) but what these guys do takes music to a deeper level.

Try

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Deep Concentration Series

I'm no hip-hop head but I love what these guys do. If you've not seen the movie Scratch, I highly, highly recommend it. It may just change what you think about turntablism and hip-hop in general.

If you remain unconvinced, check out Bill Laswell's heavy hand in Altered Beats: Assassin Knowledges of the Remanipulated.

"Deep Concentration reinforces what you fundamentally love about hip-hop and then proceeds to flip your brain into hyperspace with some of the more progressive DJ compositions from some of the most respected turntablists around. West Coast DJ Cut Chemist (of Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli) reaches extra deep into the archives to build "Lesson 6," while DJs Swingsett and Wally find a hook in a loop of dripping water for the trippy "Centaurius Space Bass."

Hip-hop purists will appreciate the X-Ecutioners' assault "A Turntable Experience" and the only MC cut, "Say What," by the lyrical marvels Latyrx. Some of the routines on Deep Concentration are sonically experimental while others, such as Prince Paul's ego trip, "DJ Prince Paul vs. the World," simply excel with excess. --Todd Levin

Deep Concentration: The Future of Experimental Hip Hop (1997)

Try

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Deep Concentration, Vol. 2: Deeper Concentration (1998)

Try

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Deep Concentration, Vol. 3 (2000)

Try

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Deep Concentration, Vol. 4: Wreckin' the Floor (2003)

Try

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Material - Intonarumori (1998)

I don't usually post the reviews of others (like to put in my own two cents y'know...) but this one sums it up nicely:

"This time out, Material is Laswell and a motley crew of rappers and DJs. The disc package is emblazoned with the defiant slogan "Rapping is still an art, " which tends to raise one's expectations somewhat. Those expectations are more or less borne out, too...

Laswell provides instrumental settings that are dark, rhyhmically complex and bone-shakingly bass-heavy; on top of his foundational beats there are expert turntable manipulation from the likes of DXT (known to old school aficionados as Grandmaster D.ST) and phonosycographDISK, rapping by Ramm Ell Zee, Scotty Hard, Killah Priest, Flavor Flav and others, and even a cameo appearance by wispy-voiced art-pop singer Lori Carson (whose "All That Future," a collaboration with funky keyboard legend Bernie Worrell, turns out to be one of the album's highlights).

Flavor Flav is his typical off-the-wall self on "Burnin'," while Killah Priest gets arrythmically serious on the six-minute recitation "Temple of the Mental." Alicia Blue provides the aptly titled "Flow," and Kool Keith weighs in with "Conspiracies," a lyrical theme that keeps returning throughout the album. (All Music Guide )

The Intonarumori were a family musical instruments invented in 1913 by Italian Futurist painter and musical composer Luigi Russolo. They were devices for producing a broad spectrum of modulated, rhythmic sounds similar to those made by machines, but without imitating or reproducing them.

If you're interested, you can hear some samples here.

You just never know what's gonna show up here.

The names chosen for Laswell's projects are not by accident. They all reflect his guiding musical philosophy as well as those of similar ilk.

Enjoy

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Wasted - The Best Of Volume (Part 1) (1995)

Before shifting gears for a bit, this is a teaser of sorts. Check out Volumes 1 thru 10 here (many in full 320 kbps glory...thanks, as always, to Drew!). Volumes 11 thru 17 coming shortly.

Volume magazine was a series of compact disc compilation albums that were published in the UK in the early to mid 1990s. The albums typically contained exclusive tracks and remixes from a diverse range of indie artists.

Each album was packaged with a 192-page booklet (not included here unless anyone happens to have PDF versions...) that contained features on the artists, and original articles. The booklet was the size and shape of a CD jewel case, and was usually packaged with the CD case in a cardboard sleeve.

Volume One, the first issue, was published in September 1991. The series came to an end in January 1997, with Volume Seventeen. There were two two "Best Of" compilations, including Wasted, featured here, which was comprised of electronic/dance tracks.

Some great, great music from great, great bands were featured in these compilations. Just check out the track list below.

Part1//Part2//Part3//Part4

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Bim Sherman - Across The Red Sea (1982)

After moving to England in the 80s, Sherman released this album on the legendary On-U Sound label, thus expanding his reach even further beyond Jamaica.

You'll find "original" versions of some of the songs from Miracle here.

Enjoy

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Bim Sherman - It Must Be A Dream (1997)

This album of remixes followed Miracle.

It was via the Youth remix that I discovered Sherman's music.

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Bim Sherman - Miracle (1997)

Stripped down, "acoustic" reworkings of reggae legend Bim Sherman's songs. Recorded alongside a full Indian classical orchestra in Bombay, (including Talvin Singh playing the tabla), there is only a hint of dubby bass.

Truly a gorgeous album.

Prepare to be amazed.

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Sussan Deyhim & Bill Laswell - Shy Angels (1998)

Bill Laswell reworks and reconstructs Sussan Deyhim's Madman of God album.

Try

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Sussan Deyhim - Madman of God (1998)

Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim, who has been living in New York for over 20 years, runs in similar music/art circles as Bill Laswell which is how I discovered her music.

This collection of classical melodies from the Persian repertoire is based on the poetry of Rumi, Hafez and other Sufi writers from the 11th to the 19th cenruries.

It's sung in Farsi, the language of Persia, but you don't need to understand it to be moved by it. While I was in school I had many classes about Islam, one of which was a class about mysticism, and my professor used to recite Persian poetry and it was always a beautiful experience.

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Jah Wobble - Psalms (1987)

Thanks to jeepster for this one!

"Jah Wobble releases the solo album 'Psalms'. He later commented, "Psalms was done half on the piss, half having stopped drinking." Soon after he quits the music business, suffering from alcoholism.

Two tracks were recorded at the end of 1986 with Julienne Regan of All About Eve, "I went to his house and recorded the vocals to 'Sakharov', about the Russian political activist, and listened to Jah's tales of fame and lost fortune with PiL. A few days later I recorded the vocals to another song with him at Southern Studios. It was called 'No Second Chances' and was kind of a Human League style duet... He made me laugh with his tales of working for the London Underground as an announcer. I believe one day he said something along the lines of 'Mind the gap - I used to be somebody you know!' He'd also had to work as a cabbie during the lean times."

'Sales Target' is a new version of 'Sunshine' from the 'Bedroom Album' (1983).'The Hymns' was re-recorded as 'Sweet Divinity' on the 'Rising Above Bedlam' album (1991). (Source)

Enjoy


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1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die

Something a little different. Everyone's got lists so here's another one.

It's a (big) PDF download.

Debate it, agree with it, make your own but by all means check it out. 

Enjoy

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