Love And Happiness

It is great to get inspired from you all during the week to listen to new/old songs. So it happened on last weekend when Drew posted another #nowplaying post on Twitter and reminded me to a song I forgot. It is a song Little Louie Vega released as River Ocean 25 years ago as the half of the Masters At Works team when garage house was a big thing at the clubs. A stomper with a forward driven beat and great vocals and always worth to be played at full volume.

River Ocean feat. India - Love & Happiness (Yemaya y Ochún Junior Boys Own Super Dub)

Monday's Long Song

Anders Trentemøller, a Danish musician and producer was featured on this pages for several times and now again. He released his latest album Observe  a few weeks ago and it was oh heavy rotation at my place. The intention of this album in his own words: The only thin I knew from the beginning was that this didn't abolutely have to be an album I should be able to play live, with a band. That's been a consideration on every record since The Last Resort. Observe was always going to be about exploring the possibilities in my studio, with no consideration of how it could be performed on stage and it was completely liberating. Based on the German Kosmiche/Motorik experimentals he made an album that shows that the spirit of these days is still alive.  

Some Dub On Sunday

To many of you it will be already happened that when you searched for a record in your collection  you find a record that you didn't listen for a long time, grab it and put it on your turntable. This happened to me when I found The Clashification  of Dub an album from 2011 by Dub Spencer and Trance Hill. Inspired by the music of The Clash they transformed their songs into their music they call itself instrumental psychedelic dub-reggae with rock and trance influences. It is always a pleasure to come back to great music.

Dub Spencer & Trance Hill - Guns of Brixton

Double Visions

Sometimes it might be helpful to give your band a strange name to get more attention. This is the reason I searched for more information when I heard that MNNQNS released a new album. The band is pronounced mannequins and based in Rouen, France and the make a modern post-punk with a good groove and pop melodies. They have also some jangling riffs and great harmonies in their repertoire. As the frontman Adrian D'Epinay said We are a rock band that hates rock and roll it is just another great album of this year.

Dance The Night Away

After the news arrived that Ginger Baker died a few days ago I came home and grabbed out my old records and listened to Cream's album Disraeli Gears after a very long time. Even if it is not the kind of music I prefer these days I have to admit that this record was perfect 50 years ago. Based on early 60's blues rock the three individuals on their instruments made great music. Many praised Clapton as the lead figure but for me Jack Bruce on bass and Ginger Baker on drums were responsible for the sound. Just another step back in history that made fun for an hour.

Cream - dance the night away

Ginger Baker RIP

Today I heard the news that Ginger Baker died at the age of 80 after a short time suffering. I was never a fan of him and knew him as a member of Cream and several other bands from the 60's until I saw the documentary of him Beware of Mr. Baker. If you want to know what kind of madman he was take 90 minutes and watch it. After this documentary I checked out a few of his releases and changed my point of him. He was mad, a devil and a wizard on drums and he made a step to Nigeria in the early 70's to join Fela Kuti in his band when many other artists didn't knew that music was alive in Africa. Now Ginger Baker has died at the age of 80 years. Where he goes, John Bonham already plays for a while his drum kits and Keith Moon smashes there further his drums. Maybe they already wait for him, the devil with the red hair.

Rest easy Ginger.

Until The Lights Go Out

During the last years more and more bands from Italy showed up with new and fresh material mostly in the category of psychedelic music. One of those is Julie's Haircut from Reggia Romana. They released their ninth album a few weeks ago and it is very good and don't have to hide behind productions from other countries ruling this genre. Their music is spread between Mercury Rev and Spiritualized one one side and Can and JAMC on the other. It is great to hear that they make a very true and unique sound of their influences. Great songs with a motorik beat and some feedbacks make this record worth playing.