Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
I really can't recommend more enthusiastically the array of musical treasures on display in this week's Motherlode:
• Raw and raucous salsa bands laying down dancefloor killers
• Tripped out Jamaicans promoting a very different kind of high
• A gang of Detroit punks shredding guitars on the other side of the tracks
• Middle Eastern maestros playing elegant music for a courtly crowd
• Down-home wailers from the Southwest Louisiana prairie, making music like their very lives depend on it
If were a travel agent, I'd bump you right up to first class. If I were a lunch lady, I'd slop your tray with extra mystery meat. If I were a priest, I'd let you sin nine ways to Sunday. But I'm not any of them types. I'm a DJ. With a record bag ready to burst, I'm a Johnny Appleseed of sound, hoping to plant some tunes in your head.
They'll grow on you...
Various ~ "Lost Classics of Salsa 1 & 2"
(Blog: LATINJAZZySALSADURA)
Barrio Blasters
Dig salsa? The twenty hard-charging scorchers on these two volumes are a stone-cold must-have. With the master tapes of these little-known gems lost to the winds, many of the crackly tracks here sound as if mastered from some dude's well-loved collection of vinyl 45s. And you know what? It sounds better this way. Back when these volumes were first released, Dave Hucker in the The Beat described the compilations as the salsa equivalent to Lenny Kaye's Nuggets releases.
Trinity ~ "Trinity Meet the Mighty Diamonds"
(Blog: P.A. to da Reggae)
Just Say Yes
Produced by Mighty Diamond stallwart Bunny Simpson, this 1979 album opens to strains of the Muppet Show theme (originally Piero Umiliani's "Mah Nà Mah Nà") and closes with a jaunty chanter in which the lead singer repeats the phrase "take L.S.D." thirty times in just over three minutes. Bunny claims it was his idea to match up the deejay Trinity with the Diamonds harmony trio—a vocal-style mashup not before attempted on record—and the results are brilliant.
Black Merda ~ "Black Merda"
(Blog: Digital Meltdown)
Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?
When this insanely good self-titled LP from 1970 was reissued (along with a later platter) on Funky Delicacies' The Folks from Mother's Mixer, it made my "Favorites of 2005" list. Read here.
Various ~ "Arabesque Series"
Volumes 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
(Blog: Anthems for the Nation of Luobaniya)
Oud to the Last Drop
Earlier this year Bilongo69, at the enchanting blog Anthems for the Nation of Luobaniya, posted all five of EMI Pathé's 1974 Arabesque series, which presents virtuosic performances of Arabic oud, flute and zither music. First read the introductory post, then go devour the whole lot of them.
Amédé Ardion/Cleoma Falcon ~ "Prends Donc Courage: Early Black & White Cajun"
(Blog: On Muddy Sava Riverbank)
Blue on the Bayou
Two of the earliest superstars of cajun music, Amédé Ardoin and Cleoma Falcon both started recording in the late 1920s—the African-American Amédé most often teamed up with white fiddler Dennis McGee, and Cleoma almost exclusively in tandem with her accordion-playing husband Joe Falcon—and both died in 1941: Cleoma of complications following a car wreck; Amédé of complications following a savage mauling by a racist mob.
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.
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Some experimental musics treasures...hours of bliss...
http://holywarbles.blogspot.com/2010/11/harry-bertoia-sonambient-discography.html
http://turkishpsychedelicrock.blogspot.com/2010/11/ilhan-mimaroglu-experimental-electronic.html
Posted by: icastico | November 18, 2010 at 11:29 AM
I just wanted to say thank you for featuring one of the albums from my blog (Digital Meltd0wn). I noticed a spike in traffic, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it came from wfmu. I've been a big fan of wfmu for a long time, so it's a real honor. Hopefully I'll be able to make an appearance here once again in the future. Take care.
Posted by: Zer0_II | November 20, 2010 at 12:34 PM
For listeners interested in hearing more Cleoma Breaux, please check out this amazing trove of glory posted by ana-b over at the astonishingly great blog The Singing Bones. It is described thusly: "As far as I know, this is the most complete collection available of recordings by the Falcon/Breaux clan up to Cleoma's death."
Try not to drool on your keyboards!
Posted by: Doug Schulkind | November 24, 2010 at 11:41 AM
link in doug's post above is broken, here it is:
http://desosquichante.blogspot.com/2010/11/cest-pour-cleoma.html
salute ;)
Posted by: Lucky | November 30, 2010 at 10:24 AM
Thanks for having my back, Lucky. (Not sure how I screwed that up.) I fixed the link.
Once you're finished devouring all that Cleoma Breaux, take a moment to peruse the wonders on offer at Lucky's blog.
Posted by: Doug Schulkind | November 30, 2010 at 10:55 AM