WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 154

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

With the blogger Arkadin's decision, last week, to shut down his online music sharing efforts, deep music appreciators are losing three fantastic blogs: one that was dedicated to the Italian record company Palcoscenico; another that astounded collectors by aggregating download links for every last OOP album from Flying Dutchman; and the crown jewel, Arkadin's Ark, an exquisitely curated sound salon that began almost exactly three years ago.

Arkadin announced the sad news in his most recent post, accompanying a beloved recording from the recently departed French pianist Jef Gilson. Arkadin says his sites and links will go dark at end of the month, so get cracking—and don't forget to leave some farewells and thank-yous in the comments.

Today's Motherlode presents five memorable offerings from Arkadin's Ark. Thanks for everything, Arkadin!

Jef Gilson  ~  "Europamerica"
(Blog: Arkadin's Ark)

You Will Be Missed
"It's just a (regrettable) coincidence, but my very first post exactly three years ago was an album by David Young, a rather unknown sax player who had worked with George Russell and died some days before my post. Just like Jef Gilson, the French pianist, arranger, bandleader, composer, producer, label founder and talent booster—a key figure of modern jazz in France—who sadly died on February 5. May he rest in peace! Europamerica is quite a wild thing, maybe a bit too wild for some of my regular readers as it ranges from still structured progressive jazz to free jazz expressiveness. But those of you getting through the first four tracks will be rewarded with a relatively accessible and great rendition of Gillespie's "Con Alma." Give it a try. Making this my last post feels like having completed a circle, so thanks a lot for your attention! Hope you liked some of the stuff I posted..."  (The final words from the great Arkadin) 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 153

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

After our hopeful words last week about an attempted comeback at The Vault, it appears (for now) that this mighty Everest of music sharing has been reduced to rubble. Adding to the misery in blogland this week was the apparent demise of the enlightened pages at Weird Brother, but an outpouring of appreciative comments at the site has led erudite host, Y Brawd, to consider giving it another go. (We were all set in this post to link to an historic Fluxus audio collection at WB, but the link went dead as a DCMA doornail.) Please cross fingers—and maybe send a few encouraging words—to help inspire this vital cultural resource to find a way to keep calm and carry on!

 

    
Starship Commander Wooooo Wooooo  ~  "Mastership"
(Blog: Allegory of Allergies)

Pick Hit: "Laugh and Dance"
"Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri in the late 1970s Omer was running a mobile disco that ended up using live instruments. It incorporated a spectacular stage show with smoke and light effects. Along with other stage props, including a spaceship styled car, the stage attention inspired him to create his first solo album in the early 1980s under his moniker 'Starship Commander Woo-Woo.'"  (Uncredited bio posted at Discogs) 

[A friendly hint from your Miner: Do NOT sleep on this one!]

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 152

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Few bloggers blitzed by the Megaupload seizure on January 19 could claim to be more devastated than the uploading wizard behind the curtain at Japanese music site the Vault. Eating prolific for breakfast, Voodooninjamunky shared, in less than three years online, a staggering 5,600 LPs.

Understandably discouraged, our hero posted the sad notice that he was retiring the blog. A few days later, though, he announced he was shifting his files over to a private bittorrent tracker, but that proved inefficient and unsatisfying, and the idea was abandoned. Now, to the delight of Japanese music junkies everywhere, it appears that Voodooninjamunky intends to continue the Vault, uploading files to a different 3rd party file-sharing service. Steps toward a reanimated blog are tentative, but the last number of hours have seen a flurry of offerings that looks a whole lot like the old Vault. (Our lead-off item below is a lovely female duo pop album posted not 12 hours ago.)

In honor of Voodooninjamunky's determination to press on, your Motherlode today presents exclusively Japanese music. (For more such magnificent sounds, check out my most recent Give the Drummer Some broadcast.)

    
Membous  ~  "Honey Chapatti"
(Blog: The Vault)

 Track #5 translates as: "Grandma Is Wating for Summer"
"Membous is a group I have been hunting for for a little while now and was shitcited to see them pop up on Rakuten for pretty sweet prices. I first heard them on one of the Benten comps a long while back. then realized that they were affiliated with the Gyuune label also and was like, yeah, I need that shit. They popped up on another comp I found from childish soup, which seems to be a bit of a spinoff from Gyuune. So now I finally have their albums, and they don't disappoint. Delicious lo-fi dual girl action with sweet mellow musical background to some cute and relaxing melodies."  (Description by VoodooNinjaMunky, at The Vault) 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 151

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

All was copacetic during SOPA/PIPA smackdown day last Wednesday, the day of last week's Motherlode posting. Then came Thursday and bloodbath in blogland as the popular file-sharing site MegaUpload was seized and shuttered for copyright violation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The subsequent ripple effect of fear spread quickly, prompting other file-sharing sites to go dark preemptively. Meanwhile, the free and unfettered exchange of ideas and information amongst millions of legitimate Internet users has been eviscerated.

In an instant, crucial music-preservation sites like Madrotter, Mutant Sounds, and Global Groove—and the many hundreds of painstaking hours their conscientious hosts spent constructing libraries of vanishing sounds—have been wiped out. Surely, this isn't the end of the story, but it is a sickening chapter. To be continued...

 

 

    
Kwamy, Nico, Rochereau  ~  "Les Merveilles du Passé 1965"
(Blog: Global Groove)

Seront Merveilles Jamais Fin?
"Do you know that phenomena ? Some LPs can hit you instantly when hearing it for the very first time, you are blown away and think, this is one of the best I've ever heard. Often these are the ones that get boring after a while. The LP we have here today is one of the other kind, you like it instantly but it gets better every time you hear it. These are the ones that remain for ever and never ever bore. How lucky are we to enjoy this wonderful disc for the rest of our lives?"  (Description by Moos, at Global Groove) 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 150

 

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Here we are at Motherlode #150 and it doesn't feel a day over 100. Strange to think that when we started this weekly column, your ol' miner still lived in Brooklyn, and he still had a damn job. Surely by now he's adjusted to life in the Steel City, but if he could just get someone to pay him to scour 600+ music blogs for the best free music online, he'd be well on his way toward delivering another 150 weeks of sonic spelunkery.

No worries, friends. As long as there are sites where music is presented thoughtfully and with reverence—like the exceptional African music blog Worldservice (see our lead item, below)—producing this survey will continue to be as richly rewarding as it was back in January 2009. 

 

    
Alhaja Hassanah Waziri  ~  "Oghena Iruduna"
(Blog: Worldservice)

Smooth as Corduroy
"I am puzzled about the adjective used to describe the voice of Alhaja Hassanah Waziri. "Velvet"?? Unless it is meant as a clever alternative to "rough" or "rough-edged," I am at loss for the source of this label. Maybe it is a cultural thing."  (Description by Wrldserv, at Worldservice) 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 149

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

In addition to producing this weekly travelogue through Freemusicstan, I also wrassle a couple of other sonic obsessions: I run a 24-hour webstream/radio channel for WFMU called Give the Drummer Radio, and I host two weekly radio programs live on the stream, called Give the Drummer Some. (The show airs Tuesdays, 6 to 7pm and Fridays, 9am to noon, ET.)

In its default mode, the stream delivers a continuous flow of the sorts of sounds presented here in the Motherlode—unusual, wide-ranging, adventuresome, groovy. In addition to the queue of tracks, the stream also serves as a broadcast channel for radio programs produced by a regular crew of DJs. For a schedule of these shows and links to their playlists and archives, go here. To listen to the stream anytime, go here.

In the next two weeks two programs will be added the the GTDR schedule. Starting tomorrow and airing every Thursday, noon to 2pm, Charlie Lewis will revive his excellent show Busy Doing Nothing. Beginning  on January 20, and airing every Friday, noon to 1pm will be rebroadcasts of mix maestro Steinski's legendary show A Rough Mix, which first ran on WFMU back in the mid''90s!

For program alerts and other info, friend Give the Drummer Radio on Facebook and follow on Twitter at @GTDRadio.

    
Yoshiaki Fujikawa & EastAsia Orchestra  ~  "Shoyoh Jurin"
(Blog: Big in Japan)

Blowing in from the East
"Very rare original Japanese progressive, improvised free Jazz Avant record from 1984."  (Random description on a Popsike page)

"This is great, Doug! It sounds like a demented version of Masada or something."  (Comment left by "Ricardo Montalban" on the playlist for my January 6 radio show.)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 148

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

If I produced this weekly column for the glory, I might have quit a hundred motherlodes ago. Much like producing a radio show, music blogging largely involves serving up solitary epiphanies for mass consumption. Sure, it's sweet to get some appreciation reflected back, but if you're not doing it for the pure pleasure of sharing, you'll probably end up disappointed.

Every few weeks, it seems, another blogger threatens to quit over not getting enough comments on their posts. It's kind of a silly dance, really: Blogger gripes. Blogger gets a ton of rah-rah messages. Blogger relents. (This melodrama played out recently at the prolific Garage Punk 66—see here then here.) Occasionally, the host really does fold up the tent, but I'm guessing the reasons have more to do with the daily grind of maintaining a well-stocked site. Speaking of which, the wonderful Oufar Khan has recently stopped posting new material, but will graciously maintain the abundantly endowed archives. For a blast from the past check our lead-off item posted at Oufar Khan back in August 2010:

    
Norman Feels  ~  "Norman Feels" & "Where or When"
(Blog: Oufar Khan)

He Who Feels It, Knows It
"Mellow soul, sweeping strings, and sweet electric keys – a stone '70s classic from Norman Feels! The album's Norman's first (of two), and is a vastly under-recognized sweet gem–the kind of record that easily stands next to some of the best male sweet soul of the time .... More sweet soul with Norman Feels' second album, still for the Just Sunshine label, and still with this heavenly Marvin-like sound—sweeping timely strings, bubbling groove, delicate horns here and there, and touches of background vocals to enrich the whole thing."  (Descriptions by Greg, at Oufar Khan)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 147

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

So many insanely great recordings have been Motherloded over the last year that it would take a month or two just to compile a BEST OF post heralding the best of the lot. Good thing I took stock last July to post my Mid-Year Favorites! Blessedly, this left me only half the calender to parse in order to select my Most Pleasurable Platters for the second half of 2011.

See if you agree with my selections, and please do exalt your faves in the comments. Here's to bounteous insanity in 2012!

    
Joe Harriott  ~  "Free Jazz"
(Blog: BritJazz)

Utterly Magnificent
"This is rare music, and great music. Joe Harriott and his group were making confident steps in the area called "free jazz" at a time when that was a daring, even a dangerous undertaking. As with the almost contemporary music of Ornette Coleman, however, these many years later it is the beauty and the lyrical invention of their playing which is most striking. The group has long since passed into legend; the records, in their original vinyl form, have become almost impossibly rare; and with both Harriott and his front-line partner Shake Keane now both gone, there is also a poignancy in rediscovering this wonderful jazz."  (Richard Cook, from the liner notes)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 146

 

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Seeking the perfect soundtrack for tasing holiday shoppers? Desiring treacly seasonal sounds so corrosive your ears will need a dentist? Well you've come to the wrong place. We here at the Motherlode have zigged our annual zag through the minefield of abysmal Christmas albums in order to serve up our unhideous half-dozen Xmas platters for 2011. (Check out our picks for 2010 and 2009.) Have a happy listen and don't forget there are only 368 shopping days left before next Christmas.

 

 

Various  ~  "Christ Was Born on Christmas Morn  (Blog: Ghostcapital)  • / • Jimi Hendrix  ~  "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year  (Blog: Funky Frolic)
Various  ~  "Gemas de Navidad"  (Blog: L'Ostia Latin Jazz) • / •  Koes Plus  ~  "Natal Bersama"  (Blog: Madrotter)
John Fahey  ~  "The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album  (Blog: I Don't Care About Sleep)  • / •  Gene Autry  ~  "Christmastime with Gene Autry"  (Blog: Mr. Meadowlark's Music and Memories)

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays (6-7pm) and Fridays (9 to noon)—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio. Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 145

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Whether you're a casual visitor to or voracious consumer of the Motherlode, you should know that Internet-based music-sharing like what takes place in these here pages is under direct threat from legislation currently being considered by Congress. SOPA or the Stop Online Piracy Act — which is set for a vote tomorrow (December 15) by the House Judiciary Committee — could potentially criminalize intermediary content providers like Beware of the Blog. Before snagging the amazing musical offerings dutifully referenced here, take a moment to call or email Congress to voice your opposition.

 

 

 

Alokpon  ~ "Le Roi du Gotta"
(Blog: Oro)
From the album: Abadjahoue So Medagbe (mp3)
[Click on the tiny "oro" link above the album art]

Benin There, Done That
"Alokpon is the the greatest singer and the king of traditional Tchinckoume rhythm, a rhythm from the center of Benin, known for its water drums and Gotta drum which are made out of calabash. The Gotta is the biggest calabash that is commonly beaten with a shoe sole. Its sound is heavy and deep."  (Description by Oro)

[Desperate to hear more? Oro has posted three other recordings by Alokpon here, here and here.]

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 144

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Humanity's fascination/revulsion with the mechanization of mortality reached its poetic acme in the form of Maschinenmensch in Fritz Lang's 1927 epic Metropolis. Nevertheless, the species has clawed its way through much of the past century trying to reinvent itself mechanically. I find cinematic droids and robotic vacuum cleaners tiresome, but camp me in front of a music box, calliope, or player-piano and I go gaga. There just something about an inanimate hunk of junk making music that I find thrilling.

Speaking of thrilling, get a load of this imaginary mechanical instrument, which for all the world appears to be the creative lovechild of Dr. Seuss and Rube Goldberg:

    
Various  ~  "From Music Box to Street Organ"
(Blog: Mrs Blucher)    From the album: Organ-opheide with and without sourdine (mp3)

C'est Mechanique!
"With the advent of the sound reproducing instruments, the heyday of the mechanical instrument was over the end had come for an industry, which for hundreds of years had flourished. With the exception of carillons, very few mechanical instruments are made nowadays. Most of the instruments, among them no doubt many rare and valuable specimens in which great craftsmanship and an evolution of more then four centuries was embodied, have been lost. Evidently the precious few that are still left to us deserve to be preserved, the more so since they should not be regarded as curios from bygone days. On the contrary, today many a music lover has a marked preference, an affection, for mechanical instruments, especially for those which have a sound entirely their own."  (From the liner notes)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 143

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

An odd and lovely quintet of albums populate this week's Motherlode harvest: A Venezuelan Austrian freaks out groovily / a Brazilian son of Syrians croons at the birth of bossa nova / Cuba's longest-running charanga champs leave it all on the dance floor / Bollywood's greatest male warbler sings a different tune / and one of reggae's perennial backup trios cover the Temptations, Ohio Players and more...

 

    
Gerry Weil  ~  "The Message"
(Blog: Quimsy's Mumbo Jumbo)
From the album: The Joy Within Yourself (mp3)

What's Within Gerry Weil?
"A sizzling set by Austrian born pianist & Venezuelan emigre Gerry Weil.
Recorded in Caracas — cracking!"  (Description by Quimsy)

"Awful shit, this music. It is the same with Donald Byrd, who was a great trumpet artist, did wonderful albums in the 60's, but around 1970 the jazz-world had all this bullshit music with voices, pop-arrangements, awfull sounds, so a real jazzfan wishes bop back again. Luckily, this music here did not survive."  (Pathetic but entertaining comment by "Anonymous" at Quimsy's Mumbo Jumbo)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 142

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Congrats to reader Chris in Massachusetts, winner of last week's album-giveaway contest. For those keeping score at home, here's the answer:

Which blog has had the most recordings presented in Mining the Audio Motherlode?
Hippy Djkit, has appeared in the Motherlode 16 times! Twilightzone! came in second, with 13 appearances. Tied for fourth, with 12 appearances each are Time Has Told Me and Time's Ain't Like They Used to Be.

    
Daz René  ~  "Discover"
(Blog: A Pyrex Scholar)
A track missing from the above download can be found here.

When God Calls You to Open a Video Store, You Do It
"In the early '70s, while a full-time student at Cal State San Bernadino, wife, and voice teacher with a full-time job, the unexpected happened. Daz was asked to sign a record deal by Howard Caldwell, a producer at Try Hard Records in Rialto, CA. Unaware he was taping her, Caldwell was impressed with Daz's training with a voice student. Reluctant to sign because of her busy schedule, Daz eventually gave in to Caldwell, who assured her she wouldn't have to travel much. But after one hit song in six months, the demands for her to travel began. She traveled for a year and was home only three months. With three children and a husband, she decided to quit. 'The Lord told me to come out of it,' she said. 'I never looked back.' In 1974 (a year later) she got a regular job as a counselor at a juvenile hall and finished school with a B.S. in Psychology. She became the first black female supervisor for San Bernadino County in 1979 before becoming a probation officer in 1983. Then the Lord called her to do something else. She and her husband, Norman, opened the first black video store..."  (Excerpted from a much longer bio at Daz's MySpace page.)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 141

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

While some music-sharing blogs are content with offering a conveyor belt of free downloads and little else, others take a more conscientious approach, discussing, promoting and celebrating the sounds they cover. Launched nearly six years ago, the sublime Matsuli Music has focused almost exclusively on African recordings, digging up rarities, championing reissues and new releases and spreading the love and credit far and wide to musicians, labels and other blogs.

A year ago Matsuli maestro Matt Temple got into the reissue game himself, re-releasing Dick Khoza's deeply groovy '76 platter Chapita to wide acclaim. Now, Matt has identified another beloved mid-'70s gem worthy of resurrection, a self-titled album from the soul-jazz outfit Batsumi. Check it out:

 

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode Giveaway!
Matsuli Music will send a free LP copy of Batsumi to one lucky Motherlode reader! To win this record, be the first to email me with the answer to this question: Which blog has had the most recordings presented in Mining the Audio Motherlode?

The contest is now over. We have a winner. I will announce the answer in next week's Motherlode.
From the album: Emampondweni

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 140

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

It's always been a great puzzlement why the exquisite, bourbon-and-honey voiced Lorez Alexandria never garnered widespread recognition. She could swing as hard as Ella, deliver a phrase like Billie, create drama like Nina, enunciate like Sarah, bop like Carmen, and tackle unusual material like Peggy. She was just a helluva a singer. One of my very favorites. Need convincing?

Check out her startling take on Hoagy Carmichael's evergreen
Baltimore Oriole

and her miraculous version of Stephen Sondheim's near-universally murdered
Send in the Clowns

 

Library of Alexandria

 
Lorez Alexandria ~ "Alexandria the Great"  |  "For Swingers Only"  |  "Deep Roots"  |  "Singing Songs Everyone Knows"
(Blog: Pintando Música)

Another from Lorez and more, on page two...

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 139

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Sure, I'm sore about not making it to the WFMU Record Fair this past weekend. Even wallowing neck-deep in the geyser of free music available online doesn't salve the dull ache of missing that cavernous conflagration of consonance. But I have to admit, it comes pretty damn close. A few months ago, I arrived home from a nearby used-record store to discover that several of the pristine-looking LPs sported unplayable scratches. Being a great adorer of used record stores, I was kind of repulsed, but also fascinated that, after only a few minutes of hunting and pecking the blogs, I'd found and downloaded clean digital versions of those same albums. I'd love to declare that downloading free music will never replace the joy of sitting on the floor of some dingy vinyl emporium, thumbing through dollar bins. But I think I'd be lying.

Help yourself...

 

Lee Fields  ~  "Let's Talk It Over"
(Blog: Funkytownsoul)

Lee Fields Forever
"Renowned throughout the global Funk community,  Lee Fields has poured his grunts and screams over a legacy of funk and soul hits from the early seventies, including such 45 rpm classics as "She’s a Lovemaker," "The Bull Is Coming," and "The Funky Screw," not to mention his well sought after Let’s Talk It Over LP. This LP draws four digit bids from collectors worldwide."  (Description, posed at Truth & Soul)

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 138.2 (BONUS)

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

ANTHEM FOR THE 99% MOVEMENT?!

On September 13, 2011, the music sharing site 45 Blog posted "The Other Ninety Nine," an inspiring, patriotic cri de coeur performed by Bill Cagle and the Spirit of '68. Four days later, a thousand protesters marched on Wall Street demanding economic justice. Coincidence?

We download, you occupy...

 

The Other Ninety Nine  (Bill Cagle and the Sprit of '68)
(Blog: 45 Blog)

From the lyrics: "Where are they, the other ninety nine? The decent folk, the righteous. Do they rally together in brotherhood, only to mourn? Can they not rally together for good, to overcome those things that make them mourn? Is it not time for such a rally of the other ninety nine? Where are they, the other ninety nine percent. The silent people, the sleeping giant….Look! They're coming. By the millions they're coming. From New York's sidewalks, from Chicago's factories, from the Mississippi Delta, from California's golden shores, from every state in the Union. Shoulder to shoulder, marching together to overcome wrong and set this nation right!"

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays (6-7pm) and Fridays (9 to noon)—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 138

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Singles Going Steady...

Sevil Öztatlı  ~  "Seks Seks Seks"
(Blog: Turkish Psychedelic Music!)

So Nice She Named It Thrice
Random bit of lyrics as translated by Google: "Her hips like a bomb/Pumpkin vine branches/The eyes are seeing cross-eyed/See my woman/They say in the name of sex sex sex."

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 137

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Various  ~  Charly Small-Label Chicago Soul Comps
Windy City Soul (One-derful)  |  Chicago Soul Cellar (M-pac)  |  Chicago Twine Time (Mar-V-Lus)
(Blog: Twilightzone!)

City of the Big Soulsters
"The Vee Jay-OKeh–Chess axis of companies so dominated the Chicago music scene in the 1960s with their styles of uptown soft soul, it would be easy to overlook the output of the city's many fine raw and gritty singers of hard soul. Much of it was provided by George Leaner in his label group, One-derful/M-Pac/Mar-V-Lus. A veteran of the record business since the 1940s, when blues dominated the R&B charts, Leaner specialized in urban heavily blues-flavored soul, and likes its often indistinguishable counterpart, southern soul, this northern variety had that black church element, gospel."  (Robert Pruter, Gospel Soul [University of Illinois Press, 1971])

 *FOUR MORE DELECTABLE DOWNLOADABLES ON PAGE TWO!*

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 136

 

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

 

Brigitte Fontaine  ~  "Le Goudron"
(Blog: Panorama Patchwork)

Fontaine of Youth
"Here's a pretty awesome 7" from Brigitte Fontaine, released sometime between her fantastic pop record "Brigitte Fontaine est...folle" and the more radical explorations of her early 70's output with Areski. This single kind of acts as the middle ground between these two worlds, taking the best out of her capacity for writing a catchy hook while pushing the envelope of what a song can be. She's still writing songs but they are more drone-based and minimalist..."  (RTC, at Panorama Patchwork)

 

Ada Rave Cuarteto  ~  "La Continudad"
(Free download courtesy of Pan y Rosas Discos)

Rara Avis: Ada Rave 
"A quartet of improvisers and jazzniks out of Argentina. The quartet began playing in early 2009 as trio before adding a guitar/electronics to the mix in early 2010. Their inspiration comes from the language of jazz, free improvisation and out rock of the '60s and '70s. They blend all of these things as a way of reaching their objective – improvisation! Improv as a means of composition and improv as the composition itself. They create diverse spaces, sensory forms, movements, instances and related sounds all the while projecting their own voice and collective identity."  (Description from Pan y Rosas)

 

 

Louis Armstrong  ~  "Louis Armstrong & His Friends"
(Blog: King Cake Crypt)

The Creator Has a Satchmo Plan
"Recorded in May 1970, Louis Armstrong & His Friends was his next-to-last studio session—on July 6, 1971, the jazz giant passed away. When this album was recorded, Armstrong was in poor health; in fact, he wasn't well enough to do any trumpet playing on this album. But he was still able to sing, and he gets his points across on songs that range from "My One and Only Love" and Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" to unlikely choices such as "Give Peace a Chance," Pharoah Sanders' "The Creator Has a Master Plan (Peace)," and the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome."  (Alex Henderson, at Allmusic.com)

 

[name in Korean]  ~  [title in Chinese]
(Blog: Ghostcapital)

Reason to Live: "Chang-Boo Tahryung"
"Yet another obscure thrift store LP discovery. Probably my favorite kind of post. Found this record 6+ years ago in Harrisonburg, VA. Don't know the artist, title, genre or year. I sure dig it, though. If you know anything about this record and/or know Korean, please help us out."  (Nicholab, at Ghostcapital)

 

 

Shelly Manne  ~  "Daktari"
(Blog: The Sleepy Lagoon)

Everything But the Kitschy Sink
"Daktari is an original music score that is performed and conducted by Shelly Manne. He accomplishes this with the help of assorted musicians including, four woodwinds players and five percussionists. Keep percussion in mind when considering this album. Because there is "Lots of It." Daktari sounds like an experiment in ethnic African percussion music with the sounds of traditional jazz style melodies and solos mixed in. Some of the more notable songs are "Out on a Limb," a somewhat softer boss nova feel going on. Lots of percussion! Nice flute and vibraphone harmonies. "Clarence" makes me think of an out of control chimpanzee. A busy mischievous sounding tune. Interesting chord structures on the part of the woodwinds. "Africa" is a dark deep slow paced theme. A feel of the Outback! "Elephantime" Up tempo jungle theme in 6/8 time. Shelly cuts loose a little. Also some strong bass guitar."Wameru"-A mix in oriental and african melodies. Keyboards are predominant throughout. Picture a Kung Fu Master practicing in total solitude…"  (Silly Amazon review)

 

 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode