A few good times in my life
Almost two years ago I listened the first time to Love Makes Magic, the latest full album by Nottingham's songwriter and producer Jim Baron under his stage name JIM. Since then I often go back to this album that is a mixture of Westcoast sound like Crosby, Stills and Nash with a massive Balearic beat. Fine fingerpicking guitar and a warm sound added later with relaxed electric guitars show us that the spring has finally come.
JIM - The Ballad Of San Marino
Today's song is from the new album by Japanese Breakfast the project of Michelle Zauner a Korean-American singer/songwriter. She is active since more than a decade and nominated for a Grammy a couple of years ago. She has left the electro-pop of recent years behind her and has set her songs to music with acoustic instruments and cello. The result is fairytale-like and melancholy songs in which she reflects on herself and her music. As I said, sentimental and melancholic, but pretty much recommendable for everyone.
In the seventies, there were virtually no magazines in Germany that dealt with contemporary music. Apart from the German Sounds, the only other option was to buy British music magazines in the international magazine shop in the capital. For a long time, Sounds was characterised by old hippies who found it difficult to make friends with punk and new wave. The inevitable happened - Sounds ceased publication and many of the journalists jumped ship to work for Spex in Cologne.
One of these music journalists was Hans Nieswandt, who favored writing about new electronic music and broadened my musical horizons with his clever reviews. He tried his hand at DJing at a young age and has since developed into a respected DJ and producer, with a preference for house, techno and electronic music in general.
His latest record is being released today and with Flureszent he has written a song that I can't get out of my head after hearing it for the first time. Over a motorik beat, he recites about his golden days when he first started dabbling on the decks.
Last December, Saint Etienne released The Night, perhaps the most extraordinary album of recent times. The music creates a meditative and dreamy mood that serves as an antidote to the hectic pace of everyday life. Almost without rhythmic elements and clear song structures, recitations and field recordings create a world of sound that works best with headphones and has a decelerating effect.
One of my favorite songs from this album was Alone Again will be released in various remix versions.
Another journey through decades of music and genres.
1969: True soul-funk by Sly and the Family Stone
Last week the news told that George Foreman died. Not that I miss him much or that I'm a fan of boxing, but this news reminded me of how often I used to watch such events on TV with my father. As always, he woke me up in the middle of the night so we could watch these fights together. I will never forget his fight against Muhammad Ali in 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Ali looked passive in the early rounds, dropping to the ropes and fending off Foreman's punches. Foreman wore himself out for several rounds until Ali changed tactics in the eighth round and became more active himself, landing a combination of left uppercuts and right straights to knock Foreman out.
One-hit wonder Johnny Wakelin paid tribute to this fight in 1976.
I would never have believed that I would be presenting a real gospel song here. But Annie Caldwell has proved me wrong. She has been travelling with her family for over 40 years to praise the Lord.
The Caldwells can be thought of as an extended family from West Point, Mississippi. Mother Annie, who is a member of the Staples Jr. Singers, performed at weekends with her daughters and sons, her husband and a goddaughter in various clubs and dives not far from her home town. They played a mixture of rhythm & blues and soul, sounding like a highly explosive mixture of Chaka Kahn, Bootsy Collins and Prince unplugged.
Now they released their first album with powerful and moving songs, all recorded live in a church. The call and response of Annie's lead vocal and her daughter Deborah is one of the strongest vocals I listened to since a long time. The funky beat and the superb guitar passages make this song exceptional. An unusual but fascinating record. Hallelujah from me too.
To be honest, until last week I didn't know much about Tamino-Amir Moharam Fouad, a Belgian-Egyptian musician. He crossed my radar when he announced the release of his new album next week. A few listens to his pre-releases shows a very talented singer-songwriter with a high falsetto that reminds me to Tim Buckley. But I enjoyed his minimalistically recorded and emotional singing. Sanctuary is a collaboration with Mitski, an indie singer-songwriter with American-Japanese roots. The title tells of heartache, but radiates with hope. They affirm each other by listening to each other, ensnare each other and finally melt into each other in playful harmonies. Strings and gentle percussion are heard, emphasising the beat more with each verse. Sanctuary is one of the most beautiful singer-songwriter songs released so far this year.
Without further ado, here are some of the songs released this week.
1967: Jimi Hendrix
1967: Nancy & Frank Sinatra
1967: The Who
1977: The Clash
1985: Tears For Fears
1971: Richie Havens
1973: Jim Croce
1969: Simon and Garfunkel
1970: Guess Who
1977: Peter Gabriel
Today's post is number 3,000 in a blog that has been running since I started it in September 2012. Inspired by other blogs, I thought that I could do the same and that someone might be interested in what I have to say. Over the years, I've joined a community that now means a lot to me. One of the highlights was certainly the meeting of several bloggers in Glasgow a few years ago and hopefully it will be the same in Bristol in June.
I thought long and hard about what to post today and went for the beginning. The name of the blog is borrowed from a song by the Fellow Travellers. The Fellow Travellers and their singer Jey Loy Nichols appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the year and didn't let us go for a summer.
They brought us a previously unheard-of combination of folk, country, reggae and dub that had never been seen before or since. The music exudes serenity and in the best moments everything is reduced to wishes for a few good times. Jeb Loy's voice certainly takes some getting used to, but it suits these songs like no other. The music was written about at the time: The Fellow Travellers' songs are folk and country songs in dub. They speak of loneliness, loss and sadness, of melancholy states, pleasurable and on the verge of cheerfulness. They hit that sweet spot more precisely than any other music I've heard so far. There is nothing more to add.
The Fellow Travellers - A Few Good Times
The Fellow Travellers - Train Of Tears / Blue Train
The Fellow Travellers - Blues For Texas / Dub For Texass
The Fellow Travellers - Just A Visitor
From time to time, it makes sense for musicians to rummage through their own archives. Nina Walsh has been doing this for some time now, opening up her treasure chest of previously unreleased music.
Last week, she dug up and released three electronic excursions again, of which Ridintg The Mistral stands out. A song in which she recalls the early days of New Order with a bubbling bass line and a metronome rhythm and breathes the spirit of Neu! into it with fine guitar picking.
With Danny Lee Blackwell's project Night Beats a new band appeared on my radar. The Texas born guitarist with Indian roots is since 15 years on duty searching for the right combination of psych and R&B. It seems that he now found it. Behind The Green Door is a hypnotic, psyche influenced song with great soul vocals and a twangy guitar. All in all an artist worth to be explored more.
When the short series ended last week, the question was asked whether Def Leppard had not found a place. The only reason why Sheffield's best didn't appear was because I didn't find two other songs with Saturday in the title that should appear.
And here is High 'N' Dry probably the typical song by them. Formed in the post-glam days they were the spearhead of new British heavy metal. Their music was often played at biker meetings and was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they became less important later when they drifted into simple hard rock.
Have a good weekend.
1966: The Bobby Fuller Four was a short time existing rock and roll band. Their legacy is that they first brought Sonny Curtis song to the charts.
1970: CSN&Y released Joni Mitchel's Woodstock a swan song to an era
1965: For me, Donovan always seemed to be poor man's Dylan, but this song is beautiful.
1985: Dream Academy, a small one hit wonder appeared with a with a melancholy tribute to their youth.
1966: The Byrds got success with a cover by Bob Dylan.
1974: Steve Wonder released on of his best records.
1983: David Bowie's album Let's Dance when me and a couple of friends made a short trip to France.
1986: Robert Palmer - just because of the video.
1889: Heart made probably the best song about a one night stand.
Today's song leads us back into the mid seventies and to a band that got critical acclaim but less success. I featured them once before and will do it once again whilst I listened to their live album from 1977 during last weekend. The band was formed in 1972 and was inspired by glam-rock and early David Bowie. After their first album Nelson replaced the whole band with new musicians who, in his opinion, could interpret his songs better. He expanded his sounds with elements of art rock, prog rock and to the end with new wave. Nothing is better to dive into their music as the live version of Shine. A pumping bass over a funky rhythm is the perfect ground for Nelson's guitar excursions.
Be Bop Deluxe - Shine
Regular visitors to these pages will know that I have a high regard for Kerala Dust. The band, formed nine years ago in London and now based alternately in Berlin and Zurich, have always aimed to bridge the gap between electronic music and traditional songwriting.
And this time, too, they manage it very well. A hypnotic beat unites Americana and blues with lush guitar passages. Let it roll.
Last round for this little series about Saturday. We start with Sam Cooke, who sadly died far too early and had a good number of hit singles before his murder. The next one was written by CCR's John Fogerty and covered years later by Dave Edmunds. Finally one of my favorite songs by Tom Waits. Seldom was a cruising through a Saturday night on the search for solution better described as by him.
Dublin based DJ and producer Mike Wilson is back with his project 100 Poems and released a new new album today. He continued his journey of taking tunes from the past and give them a new dress of Balearic, psyche or house. Now he has discovered the blues and shows us what can be made of ancient songs when acoustic instruments such as fiddle or harmonica merge into a cosmic sound. All proceeds of this album will go to two mental charities.
Regular visitors will know that I have a great affection to Cari Cari, one of my favorite band from Austria. Cari Cari is an Austrian indie rock duo founded by drummer and singer Stephanie Widmer and guitarist and singer Alexander Koeck. This began when I first saw them live a couple of years back in a small venue close to my former workplace. Only about 50 visitors wanted to see this unknown band live and they missed something great. Right from the start, they created a warm and cosy atmosphere with their spartan equipment. Every song felt familiar. Years later, I saw them again at a festival, but this time in front of a few thousand people. They had perfected their sound and for many, this concert was the highlight of the weekend.
Now they announced the release of their third album and it seems that it has the same level as their predecessors. Cari Cari make desert rock. It sounds classically bluesy, sometimes psychedelic, but mostly with a pinch of Ennio Morricone, and their songs always sound a little bit like the Wild West. Like dried, rolling tumbleweed bushes, circling vultures and a siesta at the hottest hour of the day.
When I started this series, I didn't really have any great expectations as to which songs would appear on these pages. In the meantime, I really enjoy listening to these songs again after many years or even just watching the videos.
1972: At the height of glam rock, you can't get past Gary Glitter and I thought long and hard about whether I should give a pederast a forum.
Dieter Meier, a Swiss conceptual artist, musician and entrepreneur, turns eighty today. Reason enough to honor his work, especially with Yello, a band formed in 1977 by Boris Blank and Carlos Peron.
Legend has it that the two met in a car test lab to record engine noises to create songs. In their search for a voice to accompany their songs, they came across the professional gambler, painter and performance artist Dieter Meier, who was still playing in a band called The Assholes at the time.
They released several songs on a Swiss indie label and Bostiche went through the roof in the United States in the early 80's and was played in many discotheques. On the following albums, they released classics of early electro-pop that became unmistakable thanks to Meier's spoken vocals.
Happy birthday, Dieter
Yello - Bostich
Yello - The Race
Yello - Oh Yeah
In 2013, one of krautrock's most underrated bands returned with a new album. Agitation Free was founded in Berlin in 1967 and their instrumental improvisations were unusually long for the time. With an independent mixture of improvised rock paired with electro, ethno and trance elements, they found a large fan base.
After splitting up in the seventies, they released a new album, Momentum, 24 years later. Even after these years, the album is characterised by guitars that shimmer through time and space. Momentum is no longer as experimental as it once was, but it is still powerful and full of rhythmic and melodic beauty. Sometimes the songs are reminiscent of the best times of Steve Hillage and Kraan, which can't be a bad thing.
Agitation Free - InDaJungle
This week didn't show much of new releases that are worth to be featured at this place. I listened a lot to Dub Syndicate's latest releases the recent days and to Antoine Harispuru's latest release as Golden Bug. It is a new collaboration with In Fields (sadly I couldn't find more information that it is another electronic musician). It's a combination of Golden Bug's electronic adventures in electronic house and In Fields dark sounds. A pulsating piece of music with many twists and turns.
This week's bundle of songs starts with a classic by the early Elton John and shows how great he was in these days and had more to give than weird outfits.
Graham Parker is another artist I loved in my younger days until punk and new wave changed everything.
We finish with a pop song by Chicago when they were already on the decline musically.
