See also: June 2022 and Aug-Sept 2022 (View all)
I just finished appearing on a guest podcast to discuss two albums Pistola de Plástico by the Chilean punk-pop group Los Ex and Lupon by the Portland group Y La Bamba. Both were great albums, and I’ve been following the Los Ex lead singer Colombina Parra for a while.
Articles and Interviews
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Emusic Purchases
- Light by Tessie. 5 tracks, 99 cents. Nice solo work by Tessie Spoljaric-Woodgate, lead singer of the INTIMATE STRANGER band from Chile (also great). Not as pop, but more like Mazzy Star (and the last two songs were absolutely beautiful). Nice lowkey EP, in slow ambient shoegazing style
- Various low-cost eps from Mitimitis: (Soundcloud) Abrilar, Terror en el autocine, Monos en la costa, videoclub, campos de amberries por siempre.
- Just (We are not Just Human Beings) by Intimate Stranger. About half these tracks already appeared in their compilation album,
- GBS Fest by Gugun Blues Shelter. 3.49 for 37 minutes. (Youtube) Nice mainstream Indonesian blues rock.
- Bosque Sagrado by Felics. 3.99 for 34 minutes.
- 3 albums by Elso Tumbay: s/t (1997) and Nino Planta, and Arbolica, Each is 3.99 for 45 minutes.
- Gorgeous George by Edwyn Collins. 55 minutes, 5.99 Scottish songwriter famous in the 1980s and 1990s.
- A Flower White EP by Susumu Yokota. 99 cents for 21 minutes.
- Hotel Valentine By Cibo Matto. 4.99 for 37 minutes.
- s/t by Omni. 5.99 for 42 minutes. 80s Polish electro, very Vangelis/Stranger Things.
- Electric Love by 70sOC (70s Orgasmic Club). Indonesian funk band. Also, Supersonicloveisticated 1.99 , 21 minutes.
- Golden Hits by Adriano Celentano. 97 minutes, 44 tracks. 3.99
- ZYX Italo Disco Collection 2, Various, 6.49. 210 minutes. Call me crazy, but I just love that 80s Euro-disco sound. It’s oddly soothing.
- More ESP-Disk Experimental Jazz (unbeatable prices!) New York Eye and Ear Control by Albert Ayler, Town Hall 1962 by Ornette Coleman, On tour by Burton Green Trio, 99 cents, 46 minutes, s/t, Noah Howard Quartet, 99 cents, 29 minutes, Pharoah’s First by Pharoah Sanders, In Search of Mystery by Gato Barbieri, Two by saxophonist Sonny Simmons: Music from the Spheres, Staying on the Watch, Forest and the Zoo by Steve Lacy, Your Prayer by Frank Wright,
- African Prayers by Amine Mesnaoui & Labelle (bc), 2.99, Moroccan piano compositions, with all sorts of percussive accompaniment.
- Gondrong Kribo Bersaudara by Gribs. Indonesian glam rock. Conventional and predictable, but still a nice listen.
- Saz Ile Modern Oyun Havaları by Kadir Seker. 3.99, 56 minutes. Intense and fast-paced Turkish instrumentals which sound like bellydance music a little.
- Young and Old by Tennis, 4.49 for 33 minutes. 2012 album Early album by Denver pop duo and husband and wife (and still going strong). Crap, looks like their albums are already on freegal.
- Various
Bandcamp Purchases
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Youtubey Things
SANREMO ROCK AND ROLL SPECIAL: Adriano Celentano shows off his dance moves in this classic rock and roll song from 1961.
Recently I’ve grown sentimental about some musical pieces for children written by Carl Orff for pedagogical purposes. My high school girlfriend Susan Engelhardt gave me two classical music cassettes for my birthday: Haydyn‘s Mass in the Time of War (an extraordinarily beautiful piece) and Orff’s Musik für Kinder (which included the lovely Gassenhauer). I was probably a senior in high school and knew Carmina Burina very well (maybe I even had a cassette of it), but the Orff music for children caught me off-guard. It was so inventive and unconventional and yet sophisticated. I didn’t learn until later that these pieces were invented mainly for pedagogical reasons. No matter! (Gassenhauer is the first piece on the youtube clip, and it is justly famous). There’s a great note on the youtube vid:
it should be mentioned that the ‘Street Song’ album was pretty much entirely arranged/composed by Gunild Keetman, not Orff, including ‘Gassenhauer’,the sole exception being the collaboration ‘Unsquare Dance’. The credits on the 6 CD release ‘Musica Poetica’ by RCA/BMG from 1994 confirm this-she was the percussion/instrumental genius while Orff’s contributions tended to lean more towards vocal/choral works. Unfortunately Keetman rarely gets the credit she deserves-for example her name has been airbrushed from the original album cover shown in this video and on some releases, not mentioned at all.
The Haydn mass in the time of war was not as lugubrious as I expected it to be. It was a simple classical mass — more Bach than Beethoven, but the last part, the Agnus Dei has a nice adagio which ends with a dirge-like trumpet and drums. Actually though the last dona nobis pacem ends quickly on a simple and glorious note. (Here’s a great Neville Marriner version).
Freegal and Library CDs
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Reviews (Rateyourmusic/Personal Reviews, etc)
See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.
Podcasty Things
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