Monday's Long Song

 

The film Shaft was released in 1971 and for the first time the main character was a black private detective who behaved as naturally as his white colleagues: self-confident, not believing in any authority. The character and the film did the black community a lot of good and ensured that they were able to display a new self-confidence.

The soundtrack was provided by Isaak Hayes, who climbed to the top of the charts with the title song. An anticipated blueprint for the disco wave to come. But the accompanying double album has much more to offer. Perfectly arranged soul songs that seamlessly follow on from his classic Hot Buttered Soul.

Hayes has always been someone who could stretch his songs to almost 20 minutes without them being boring. Do Your Thing is one of them. It begins with a fantastic bass line, brass instruments are added and Hayes' baritone ennobles this soul piece. After about 10 minutes, the guitar and drums take over. The wah-wah guitar wails and the drums roll over and take the bass with them. This turns a soul song into an almost endless jam. Really hot and a masterpiece even after more than 50 years.

Isaak Hayes - Do Your Thing

New Song On Sunday

 

Military Genius is the project of Canadian singer-songwriter and producer Bryce Cloghesy, who released his second album earlier this month. I became aware of him when he released his debut two years ago, which was filled with intimate and introverted songs.

Now he's back with a record on which he largely deals with his near-death experience after falling through a window. Many of the songs have a depressive touch and the music is somewhere between Talk Talk and The Cure (could it be that many artists are currently referencing their album Disintegration?). 

But there are also plenty of other songs that convince with a mixture of dark and dubby soundscapes and minimal psychedelic synthwave. Twisted Root is the outstanding track of the album with a looped hip-hop bassline, some guitar licks and almost spoken words. 

I Wanna Go With Dignity

When punk started, The Only Ones were at the start and even had a hit with their debut album and Another Girl, Another Planet. The band was founded by Peter Perrett, who also fronted the band as guitarist and singer. 

After the Only Ones broke up, he was only heard from sporadically as a guest musician in other bands, which may have been due to the fact that he was focusing more on drug use. I only became aware of him again when he released his first and good solo album in 2017.

Now, at the age of 72, he has released his third album The Cleansing. With 20 songs, the work seems very ambitious, but even with the help of Johnny Marr, he manages to deliver work on some tracks that is based on classic rock tracks and hardly gets boring. It looks like he is following in the footsteps of Johnny Cash, who is still on top form even in his old age. 

November

 

Another month has passed and the end of the year is fast approaching. The first Christmas decorations are already being put up in the cities and sweets are being draped in the supermarkets. For me, however, it means that my annual holiday is not too far away.

A song with the month of November in the title was not difficult, as Andres A song with the month of November in the title was not difficult, as Andres Trentemøller quickly came to mind. The Danish musician and producer released Fixion in 2016, his fifth album on which he indulges his passion for the post-punk and new wave of the 80's. Instead of intelligent bass lines, organic band sounds take centre stage here.

November sounds as if The Cure had rediscovered a piece from their early days. A song that could easily have been released on Disintegration and is more a further development of The Cure than a copy.

On Sinus, he changes the sound by starting with a powerful bass and then creating a dystopian sound that is strongly inspired by Vangelis and Blade Runner and conveys a retrofuturistic metropolitan atmosphere.

Phoenicia is a song that builds up a hypnotic tension with psychedelic organ loops, which are fulminantly released at the end. Spacemen 3 may have been the inspiration here.

Burundi Drums

 

Inspired by the African odyssey of our good friend Ernie, I recently landed in Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Burundi is located in East Africa and is surrounded by Rwanda, Tanzania and the Congo. It was formerly a Belgian colony and has still not recovered from the bloody ethnic conflicts at the end of the last century.

Musically, the Royal Drummers Of Burundi are typical, traditionally playing for ceremonies such as birth and death. In principle, a leading drum determines the rhythm, which is followed by many other drums. 

It is thanks to Malcolm McLaren, who managed Adam and the Ants in the late 70s, that this percussive sound found its way into the punk scene. With their mixture of tribalism, rockabilly guitars and a thoroughly conceptualised outfit, they were the big thing between punk and pop.

The same concept worked a second time when McLaren poached part of the band to promote Bow Wow Wow under his direction. The same Burundi beat, only instead of Adam Ant, thirteen-year-old Annabella Lwin took over the vocals. 

Both bands didn't change the world, but they wrote formative songs that I would describe as classic new-wave pop.

Happy Birthday Grace

 

Grace Slick is 85 years old today and a good reason to listen to the music of Jefferson Airplane once again. Hardly any other band stands for peace, love and consciousness-expanding drugs as much as Jefferson Airplane. Together with the Grateful Dead, they spearheaded the hippie music that emerged in San Francisco in the mid-60's. However, internal disputes led to them disbanding after just a few years. Their fame is based on a handful of hits and appearances at the most famous festivals of their time.

For me, Jefferson Airplane are one of the few bands from the psychedelic era that I still enjoy listening to. That's because they wrote great songs, had perhaps one of the best guitarists of his time in Jorma Kaukonen and I just love Grace Slick's voice.

On 2400 Fulton Street, a very good compilation of their releases, their work is divided into four categories (Beginnings, Psychedelia, Revolution and Airplane Parts), which also corresponds to their sound and meaning.

Jefferson Airplane - Coming Back To Me

Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers (Live At Woodstock)

Jefferson Airplane - Martha

A few years ago Don Letts compiled Version Excursion for the LateNightTales series with reggae versions of well known songs. Prince Fatty & Shniece McManamin turned the White Rabbit into a wonderful Black Rabbit.

The Nightfly

 

I've had friends for many years whose musical spectrum doesn't go beyond West Coast rock and jazz fusion. Many attempts to introduce them to other music have failed, but that's not tragic, because everyone should feel comfortable with the music they like.

Unfortunately, I can't do much with this music, although there are great artists in this genre and Pat Metheney, Larry Carlton or Marcus Miller play fantastic music live. If we can agree, it would be Steely Dan, who released perhaps the most perfectly arranged albums in the 70's. 

I recently listened to Donald Fagen's debut album again, which I liked at the time. It was the first album that was recorded completely digitally and became a classic. Fagen mixes West Coast pop with jazz here. The Nightfly is perfectly recorded, the arrangements are sophisticated and the songs are catchy. If there is anything to criticize on this album, it is that it is too smooth and somehow has no soul. 

Despite everything, it is an album that has set standards in this genre and is still worth listening to after 40 years.

Donald Fagen - New Frontier

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly

Donald Fagen - I.G.Y.