WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 160

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

Long-time readers of the Motherlode (and listeners of my radio show Give the Drummer Some) are well familiar with my near-hysterical schoolboy infatuation with South African music. In my nearly four decades of music discovery, no other sounds on the planet have thrilled me as deeply as the recordings of South African artists—in large part, the music produced by those in exile during the last thirty years of the the Apartheid abomination.

Well, it pleases me immensely to report that now this particular area of music has been paid near-miraculous tribute by artist/archivist Siemon Allen in a new post at Electric Jive. Assembled in two long sets, with rich annotation for each selection, Allen's "In Exile" presentation paints a portrait at once devastating and uplifting. Go hear and see for yourself.

    
Various  ~  In Exile
(Blog: Electric Jive)

Umkhonto we Sizwe!
"For purposes of definition, exile music here covers a thirty year period from 1959 to 1990, during the heart of the apartheid years. This survey is by no means comprehensive, nor is it representative of all South African exile artists or even their ‘best’ work. Rather it is a collection of some of my favorite, more personal tunes. Tunes that for me capture some of the darker but also more ecstatic moments of exile. The alienation, isolation of the foreign experience is evident on many tracks, especially the solo performances. But at the same time, so are fragments of cultural memory, various phrasings, quotes of the majuba sounds of the 1950s, that instantly recall a distant home. Often the fragments gives way to moments of ecstatic joy and build in strength to challenge the darkness."  (Description by Siemon Allen, at Electric Jive)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 159

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

Allow your Miner to indulge his first love, a little creative improvised music for a hump-day stroll through Motherlodesville. You can call it jazz if you like, but I find that term pitifully inadequate. (I could just go with personal hero Yusef Lateef's description of the music as "autophysiopsychic," but writing the explanation would eat into my precious listening time. Suffice it say that the five albums presented here provide some thrilling and lovely moments. Collect them all!

 

 

    
Max Roach/Archie Shepp  ~  Force (Sweet Mao/Suid Afrika 76)
(Blog: Free the Music)

Sweet
"This exceptional double-album of duets with Archie Shepp helped inaugurate Max Roach’s own revolutionary cultural program. Over the ensuing years, he purposefully connected with the younger generation of adventurous jazz musicians, engaging in a series of stellar duets with Dollar Brand, Anthony Braxton, and Cecil Taylor. Roach not only reinvigorated his own music and pushed his playing to dazzling heights, he proved himself (at least) the creative equal of his esteemed partners."  (Description by Destination: OUT)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 158

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

MIXTAPE SPECIAL
Today's Motherlode pays tribute to those magnanimous bloggers who, in addition to their constant ripping of tracks, scanning of album art and writing of nuggets, somehow find time to produce marvelous homemade mixes as well. Most prolific of all is the venerable Moos of Global Groove who's now dished out three dozen such collections. While Moos produces samplers as a way to highlight individual tracks from previously posted LPs, other hosts are merely taking pleasure, in the age-old analog mixtape tradition, at concocting  high-, low-, and no-concept collections of tunes they're just dying for you to hear.

On display below is a collection of custom mixes I think you'll appreciate. If you do, please drop by the offering blogs and leave a kind word for all the extra effort.

    
Custom Mixes:  Global Samplers, Volumes 33 | 34 | 35 | 36
(Blog: Global Groove)
[password = globalgroove]

Around the World in 36 Mixtapes
"With over 1100 posts, the Global Groove is becoming quite a reference book. Lots of styles from lots of countries are to be found here. To help you find your way through all those LPs...Global Samplers can be of help. They contain some personal favorites and highlights. Single tracks from selected LPs that were posted through time."  (Description by Moos, from Sampler #33 )

[There are 36 amazing samplers available at Global Groove. Scroll through the archives and collecte them all!]

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 157

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

First, big ups to the many generous readers who stepped up and gave a little something back in support of these weekly Motherlodes during WFMU's annual fundraising marathon. Biggest cheers for Holly in NC, who made a significant contribution to the station and Beware of the blog and "adopted" your faithful Miner for the next year.

And while you're applauding, how about a round for blogger Gary Sullivan, who found time—along with continuing to share marvel after pleasurable marvel at Bodega Pop (see the lead item, below)—to write two critical observations of the post-Megaupload blog tumult. The first, his cathartic rant Guilty Until Proven Innocent?, is required reading for those trying to make sense of the scorched-earth tactics of those seeking to extinguish online music sharing—free, legal and otherwise. The other is a piece published in the latest edition of The Brooklyn Rail. Titled Vanishing Point: Will the RIAA and MPAA Wipe International Music Off the Globe?, it includes some words from me regarding the late, lamented Holy Warbles.

    
Selda Bağcan  ~  Türkülerimiz 6
(Blog: Bodega Pop)

Mos Def Sampled Her (w/o permission)
"Belting out radical poetry with heart-wrenching conviction, Turkish folkie-cum-siren of psychedelia Selda Bağcan has endured imprisonment, banning, restricted travel and other indignities, all for love of rocking the paranoid authorities. Istanbul in the 1970s was, for legions of Anatolian space cadets, the primo launching pad for the taking the mother of all acid trips. And in a world of progressive music dominated by men, Selda was the mother of Turkey's countercultural revolution. This release, originally from 1976, finds Selda amid a din of flanging, fuzzed-out guitars, crooning lines like "The sweat of the working-class amalgamates with the soil.""  (Description from my own Favorites of 2006 page) 

What it sounds like to skim FMU every 15 minutes and promptly turn it off

A really nice listener hipped me to this programming object called wget (what...I think programming objects are hip).  It simply lets you download files from the internet and do cool stuff to em.  So I taught my computer using wget and cron to record a minute of FMU's live stream every 15 minutes.  It's still running and I'll air the full thing on my radio show tonight, but here's a little sample of what you might've missed earlier today on the radio.

Not surprisingly, it starts off with Joe Belock congratulating all our amazing listeners for putting us PAST our goal for the first time in years!  Amazing!  It does restore my faith in humanity...kinda...

A minute from wfmu's live stream, recorded every 15 minutes on a Tuesday afternoon

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 156

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

Hey, no one gets how the Interwebs is all about getting stuff for free. Mining the Audio Motherlode is nothing if not a blissful survey of spectacular sounds that cost you nothing but the time it takes to snag 'em. Saving you time as well as legal tender, your faithful Miner does all the hunting and gathering, inspecting the wares at many hundreds of music blogs—so you don't have to!

Now the Miner comes to you, illuminated helmet in hand, asking for a small contribution to the cause. You see, the Motherlode is a labor of love: For 50 weeks a year, the Miner provides the labor; for these 2 weeks, it is incumbent upon all Motherlodes to provide a little love.

Take a moment and drop a few coins in the virtual tip jar below. Help  us get raise 100% of our goal and get ready for another cornucopia of sonic delights next week.

 

As a gift to you readers and listeners of my radio show, Give the Drummer Some, I have produced Going Out of Their Heads, an insane, 2-CD assemblage of whacked-out warblers, psychotic singers and loony tunesters, losing it before your very ears. (This follows an '05 compilation I created called Loony Tunes, which is available here for free!) To receive this handmade, one-of-a-kind collection, please make a pledge, above, of $75 or more. Thank you.

Big THANKS to Holly in NC for adopting the Miner for 2012!

Web 0.0: Douglas Adams’s Hyperland

By Tom Keiser

Hyperland (Douglas Adams)

What's on today on Network Awesome

When did you first hear of the Internet? Was it when you were in college, and finally saw a way to connect with people without a huge long distance bill? Were you in high school, and found out you could skip hours of ungodly research at a library when you could look something up on one of the first search engines? Or, was it in 1990, when you turned on the BBC and watched a documentary hosted by Douglas Adams and Tom Baker, entitled Hyperland?

Hyperland posits that Modern Man, in the guise of Douglas Adams, would be so tired of the dreck on television, that he would strive for a better way to put his free time to good use. Adams uses The Price Is Right to mark the nadir of popular culture. It makes you think how far we’ve come in twenty years.

Adams falls into a dream sequence, which starts with him taking his television to the local dump. It is there

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 155

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

Your faithful Miner is taking a couple of weeks off during the WFMU Marathon to hammer home that the Motherlode—and the blog that publishes it—are nonprofit, labors-of-love in need of your financial support.

Take a moment and count up all the $$ this weekly offering has saved your music budget, then use the pledge widget below to make a small offering of your own to support WFMU, the radio station that makes this all possible.

 

As a gift to you readers and listeners of my radio show, Give the Drummer Some, I have produced Going Out of Their Heads, an insane, 2-CD assemblage of whacked-out warblers, psychotic singers and loony tunesters, losing it before your very ears. (This follows an '05 compilation I created called Loony Tunes, which is available here for free!) To receive this handmade, one-of-a-kind collection, please make a pledge of $75 or more. Thank you.

10 Seconds from Every Top-100 Song Ever + A Free Cut-up Software!

1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011

In 1959, Billboard began releasing their annual charts of the top 100 songs of each year.  Here are mp3s with 10 seconds of every single top 100 song ever.  Follow the lists along with the music on this site.  There are some errors here, so bear with me and do point out major imperfections in the comments.  If you've been following my column in the past, all of these mp3s are improved versions, with crossfades in between tracks and smarter choices of clips.

I produced these supercuts with a software that Frederic Cornu and I developed together.  Fred is a genius and I'm eternally grateful to him.  This software is VERY SIMPLE to use and 100% FREE.  It simply takes a music playlist of your choice (from iTunes or a similar program), finds the loudest point of each song and stitches all the songs together.  These supercuts are useful to condense information and I think they're totally beautiful too.

In a few minutes, you can easily make supercuts of your music collection, even if you are a luddite.  Download the file below, unzip the folder and click "Run Supercut-O-Matic"...there'll be a button to press in the program to give you further instructions.

UPDATE!  You can get improved versions of the Supercut-O-Matic at this link.  The new version gives you more options, such as changing the size of each clip, the crossfade, and more!

Download Supercut-O-Matic for Mac (2mb zip file)

Download Supercut-O-Matic for Windows (3mb zip file)

Source code for Linux

Once you've made your files, send them to me (contact info is provided in the program's helpme file) and I will release YOUR MUSIC on a CD!  Do you have a completist collection of yodeling music, blues singers, minimal-synth, presidential speeches or tuba solos?  Use Supercut-O-Matic and SEND ME THE RESULTS!  Please do contact me with any feedback.

"Supercuts Supercut", a CD with the best submissions I get, is available to anybody who pledges $75 or more to my radio show in the current WFMU fundraising marathon!  Use the widget below to pledge to the greatest radio station on the planet and help us broadcast for another year.  Also, if you pledge $30 or more to my show, I will remix a top 100 song of your choice LIVE on the air.

2012 Marathon Underway! Daily DJ Premium MP3 Samples & More At *New WFMU Tumblr*

WFMU's 2012 Marathon is officially underway! Tune in now through March 4th to hear all your favorite DJs doing their thing to the utmost with special co-hosts, swag, and prizes galore.

We've also put together a fine batch of DJ Premiums. Any of these handcrafted CDs are available for a pledge of $75 or more.

Unlike in previous years, we won't be posting DJ Premium samples to this blog.

Instead, you can sip on daily mp3 teasers at the shiny new WFMU Marathon Tumblr. There, you'll also find a freeform mix of music, animated gifs, hyperlinks and mixed up media from throughout WFMU's extended universe. We're using this fluid format to highlight the many layers of WFMU's annual radio party without overwhelming our regular blog readers.

We hope you'll tune in to the tumblr, and help spread the word!

pictured: WFMU's Flexi-Disc Postcard || Swag

Ready, Set, Pledge!

As you probably are aware, the WFMU Annual Fundraising Marathon starts next Monday, Feb 20th (well, you know now, don'tcha?). As the staff goes into this undertaking, the word PLEDGE gets repeated over and over again in a relatively short period of time. After awhile, the word goes unnoticed, yet it's an odd word just the same. We pledge allegiance to the flag, or at least sometime in our lives we Americans have been asked to do so. Our country is certainly enjoying watching the disorderly process the Republicans have been undertaking to determine who might lead the USA in that important pledge of allegiance next January 20th. It's not a leap year word per se, but the word pledge certainly seems to have something to do with leaping, jumping, dancing or urging in some way. And I know you're all dying to go and spray your furniture at the moment..

The Pledge Music site has been garnering attention; it's tag line is: "the new business of making music." Yes; it's that word again. Poking through the site, I found some familiar faces who are in the midst of putting together new recording projects, and asking (with rewards attached) the public for a little push of their own. Friend of WFMU, Hugh Cornwell's Pledge Music campaign for his new record "Totem and Taboo" ends in 45 days; Richard Barone's putting out a reissue on the 25th anniversary of his "Cool Blue Halo" release, and there are 26 days left in the campaign Ian McCulloch has on the same site for his next solo record. It's a busy time in pledge-land!

I will leave you with a lovely duet: Art-Brut and Hugh Cornwell with a great version of the Stranglers' Dutchess, posted yesterday on Soundcloud.com; eagle-eyed by WFMU's own Evan "Funk" Davies! Feast your ears, and yes, of course, sorry to mention it, please don't forget to pledge!

 

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) 

Music Blogs React to Megaupload Seizure & Cyberlocker Lockdowns

The day after last week's inspiring protest against overreaching anti-piracy laws, the US Department of Justice demonstrated that they don't need those laws, anyway.  They just went ahead and unilaterally shut down Megaupload, the world's most popular cyberlocker.  Rumor has it that similar sites like MediaFire and 4shared are under investigation and have been deleting files, while FileSonic preemptively disabled all sharing features.

As a result, much of the history of recorded sound has been made inaccessible to the public.  I'm talking, of course, about the music blogosphere.  The best music blogs aren't pirates.  They are libraries, sound archivists and music preservationists sharing recordings that would not otherwise be available.  And now sites like Global Groove, Mutant Sounds, and Holy Warbles have lost large swaths of the material they'd salvaged from obscurity.

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)