Traffic - Every Mother's Son

 #Traffic #Steve Winwood #Dave Mason #Jim Capaldi #psychedelic rock #progressive rock #British psychedelia #blues rock #jazz rock #folk rock #1960s #1970s

At only 22 years old, Steve Winwood sat down in early 1970 to fulfill a contractual commitment by making his first solo album, on which he intended to play all the instruments himself. The record got as far as one backing track produced by Guy Stevens, "Stranger to Himself," before Winwood called his erstwhile partner from Traffic, Jim Capaldi, in to help out. The two completed a second track, "Every Mother's Son," then, with Winwood and Island Records chief Chris Blackwell moving to the production chores, brought in a third Traffic member, Chris Wood, to work on the sessions. Thus, Traffic, dead and buried for more than a year, was reborn. The band's new approach was closer to what it perhaps should have been back in 1967, basically a showcase for Winwood's voice and instrumental work, with Wood adding reed parts and Capaldi drumming and occasionally singing harmony vocals. If the original Traffic bowed to the perceived commercial necessity of crafting hit singles, the new Traffic was more interested in stretching out. Heretofore, no studio recording had run longer than the five-and-a-half minutes of "Dear Mr. Fantasy," but four of the six selections on John Barleycorn Must Die exceeded six minutes. Winwood and company used the time to play extended instrumental variations on compelling folk and jazz-derived riffs. Five of the six songs had lyrics, and their tone of disaffection was typical of earlier Capaldi sentiments. But the vocal sections of the songs merely served as excuses for Winwood to exercise his expressive voice as punctuation to the extended instrumental sections. As such, John Barleycorn Must Die moved beyond the jamming that had characterized some of Traffic's 1968 work to approach the emerging field of jazz-rock.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/john-barleycorn-must-die-mw0000197791

The Grip Weeds - All Tomorrow's Parties

 #The Grip Weeds #power pop #psychedelic rock #psychedelic pop rock #alternative rock #indie rock #folk-pop #Velvet Underground cover

The Grip Weeds: A powerhouse pop-psyche band extraordinaire who write insanely gripping melodic nuggets - a gorgeous alchemy of the 60's and 70's brought into the 21st century, with ripping guitars, explosive drumming and golden harmonies. Bands like The Grip Weeds usually aren’t built to last. The clichéd “personal and musical differences”, changing tastes and Father Time have brought down most of the greatest bands in history. And yet, over two decades and counting after their debut album House Of Vibes, The Grip Weeds continue to survive, thrive, surprise and innovate. They do it on their own terms, defiantly refusing to play the usual major label/name producer/big time studio game. Critics, while praising The Grip Weeds, often try to pigeonhole them with the “Power Pop” label. This is a bit of a misnomer. While there are plenty of driving, poppy melodies, chiming guitars and close harmonies, The Grip Weeds’ releases have sported many different styles of original material, from Psychedelic and Garage Rock to Folk-based ballads and thought-provoking social commentary. This diversity has landed several Grip Weeds songs on the top of the Little Steven’s Underground Garage "Coolest Song In The World” list, as well as placed Grip Weeds music in several television and film projects.  From: https://www.gripweeds.com/bio/biom.html

Rïcïnn - Doris

 #Rïcïnn #Laure Le Prunenec #neoclassical darkwave #art pop #avant-garde metal #baroque pop #experimental #gothic rock #French #animated music video

Laure Le Prunenec returns with another avant-garde masterpiece on her solo project Rïcïnn's sophomore album Nereïd, mixing classical influences with folk, electronics, and gothic sounds. Laure Le Prunenec is well-known for her work, among all those who enjoy the more experimental and avant-garde end of dark music. Her operatic vocal delivery on Igorrr, Öxxö Xööx, and Corpo-Mente has rightfully earned her a strong fan following, but what often flies under the radar is her solo work under the moniker of Rïcïnn – a captivating project, whose debut Lïan in 2016 put Le Prunenec’s vocals front and center, while bringing together bits of all the previously mentioned projects, to form a colossal masterpiece unlike any other. Four years later, Rïcïnn returns, taking a broader yet nuanced approach with a sophomore full-length – Nereïd. What made Rïcïnn‘s debut stand apart from her other projects is that it showcased Le Prunenec in her most expressive form, free from any restraints on style. Yet Lïan was just the first step of expression for Le Prunenec, whereas Nereïd sees her break all the shackles and soar high. The multiple layering of the vocals is more refined, and the vocal delivery has an even wider variety.  From: https://everythingisnoise.net/reviews/ricinn-nereid/

Jethro Tull - Nothing Is Easy

 #Jethro Tull #Ian Anderson #progressive rock #folk rock #hard rock #blues rock #British folk rock #art rock #classic rock #progressive folk #1970s

No, Jethro Tull is not just another English blues band. ‘This Was’, their first album, made some gestures in that direction, obligatory, in a way, for the time (summer of 1968); in its differences it was intriguing even as it disappointed. Its inadequacies were unconventional; the essential problem seemed to be a style in search of a subject. Bob Dylan once said that the English know how to pronounce “marvelous” better than Americans, but that they have a little trouble with “raunchy.” ‘Stand Up!’, Jethro Tull’s new album, has a fairly low raunch quotient, true to form, but it is quite marvelous. For one thing, the band’s orientation is more definite than before. With the removal of Rick Abrahams to form Blodwyn Pig, the musical tug-of-war which could be heard on the first album has here been effectively curtailed. Ian Anderson simply dominates the proceedings — doing all the writing and singing, and playing a potpourri of instruments. He reveals a melodic gift on this album not apparent on the earlier one, a fuller awareness of the coloristic possibilities of the flute, and a catholicity of taste. ‘Stand Up!’ has great textural interest, due, in part, to a more sophisticated recording technique, in part to the organ, mandolin, balalaika, etc., which Anderson plays to enrich each song. The band is able to work with different musical styles, but without a trace of the facile, glib manipulation which strains for attention. I can hear ethnic influences throughout the album — a hint of Greek rhythms on the flute break of “We Used to Know” and in the body of “For a Thousand Mothers” — but they are too well assimilated to be easily pinpointed. “Bourree” has that unmistakable baroque swing, a suggestion of the traditional English round, some jazz interludes, and a straight-forward yet breathtaking bass solo before, it winds its way to completion. “Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square” has a sense of the vague, charming disorganization of medieval music. “Look into the Sun,” which finishes side one, is in its melodic twists and turns, a song of genuine poignance, with Martin Barre’s guitar playing a model of lyricism and understatement.  From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/stand-up-192622/

Diamanda Galas - Broken Gargoyles 1 - Mutilatus

 

 #Diamanda Galas #avant-garde #experimental #avant-goth #classical crossover #performance art #operatic #blues #jazz #spoken word #piano #a capella #no wave #bel canto #Schrei opera 

Diamanda Galás composes violently compassionate music about suffering. Her late-1980s Masque of the Red Death Trilogy focuses on AIDS, which killed her brother, Philip-Dimitri, in 1986, while other projects delve into the oppressive Greek Junta and the Armenian, Assyrian, and Anatolian Genocides. The 67-year-old goth icon performs less harrowing stuff, too - a hard-grooving 1994 collaboration with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, a bevy of brilliant takes on blues standards. Yet at her best, Galás sharpens her cutting sense of empathy, slices open difficult subject matter, and approaches it from inside: Her 1991 dirge for HIV’s most deadly era, Plague Mass, might be the heaviest live record ever made. Ultimately, Galás’ haunted ritual, like all of her releases, is a ceremony of tenderness.
A master of the early 19th century style of bel canto singing, Galás uses her operatic genius to explore tropes uncommon in experimental composition - especially the breakdown of tortured, diseased bodies. Shaped from spectral piano and electronics, her soundscapes batter, unsettle, rouse us. Her virtuosic voice, inspired by avant-garde saxophonists Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman, spans an untold number of octaves. She screeches, wails, bleats, and slips between characters, usually vengeful, demonic figures skulking around like a bad conscience. Both performance artist and diva, Galás has a potent theatrical sense and a persona at once progressive and full of fire and brimstone. Echoing obsolete medical drawings that illustrate sickness as floating miasma or bodily humors to be drained, she rebukes ignorant societies while harnessing their wild imaginations.
Her latest record, Broken Gargoyles, highlights the chronic nature of our callousness toward the ill and injured. Inspired by the mistreatment of wounded World War I infantrymen, Galás unearths devastating source texts from a slightly earlier era: the verse of Georg Heym (1887-1912), son of an assistant in a yellow-fever clinic and an enfant terrible of German expressionist poetry. Before his death at 24, Heym wrote unflinchingly about sick patients, maimed soldiers, and other doomed souls he might have been exposed to through his father’s work. Setting four of Heym’s poems to pulsing, droning accompaniment, Galás traces a throughline of ostracized invalids across the past century-plus of public health catastrophes. Appropriately, she premiered some of this material at a medieval German leper sanctuary and began cobbling the album together during COVID lockdown. Broken Gargoyles targets governments’ botched coronavirus responses - implicitly, it sets sights on their homophobic sluggishness to protect gay men from monkeypox, too. The album may not shock the singer’s die-hard fans, but Broken Gargoyles is a moving, painful listen and an ideal access point for the uninitiated.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/diamanda-galas-broken-gargoyles/

Dr. John - Desitively Bonnaroo

 #Dr. John #Allen Toussaint #The Meters #blues #jazz #soul #funk #R&B #New Orleans #psychedelic voodoo rock #1970s

Dr. John further defines an ass-shaking new synthesis on Desitively Bonnaroo. Even today, there’s really no roadmap for the crazy-eyed co-mingling of R&B, jazz, island beats, blues, boogie funk and hoodoo splashed across this LP, recorded alongside fellow New Orleans legends Allen Toussaint and the Meters. At the same time, the grooves here are so sleekly ingratiating as to be therapeutic. Desitively Bonnaroo doesn’t aspire to the brash, edgy soul of contemporaries like George Clinton or the Ohio Players. No, it’s too sophisticated, too mysterious, for that. Which is probably why this 1974 cluster-funk didn’t sell nearly as well as its predecessor, Dr. John’s break-though In the Right Place. Stirred together at Allen Toussaint’s Sea-Saint Studios in New Orleans, Desitively Bonnaroo is the sound of a group of musicians in perfect sync. And, yeah, having a ball. Dr. John has rarely sounded more loose, more committed. “High steppin’ mama!” he crows at one point, with a singing voice like a knotty live-oak knee. “Better keep on foxin’ with your foxy self!” Nearby, the slinky, coolly salacious backup singers match Dr. John and Co., wail for wail: “Give me what you got for me!” (Named after a south Louisiana expression meaning roughly “better than the best,” ‘Desitively Bonnaroo’ later gave a Tennessee-based music event its name).  From: https://somethingelsereviews.com/2011/02/19/dr-john-with-the-meters-desitively-bonnaroo-1974/

Chron Goblin - Deserter

#Chron Goblin #stoner rock #heavy metal #psychedelic rock #blues rock #stoner metal

From the dusty coulees of Alberta’s Badlands to the jagged peaks of the snow-capped Rockies, the musical entity known as Chron Goblin is a true force of nature. Yet there’s simply no reckoning the immensity of the sound that these hard rockin’ Calgarians are capable of generating once they hit the stage boards. Grinding it out in the trenches and pits of venues and festivals across North America and Europe since 2009, the fuzz clad foursome knows no bounds when it comes to laying down the rugged riffage and cranking up the volume on a sweet Southern rock tinged blues-metal breakdown. Surrender to the smoke show, heed the call of the Chron and inhale the melodious commotion churned up by the Goblins. The botanically infused gin in your work-a-day tonic, Chron Goblin will obliterate those vexing worries and liberate your immortal soul.  From: http://www.chrongoblin.com/bio

Euzen - Phobia

 #Euzen #Maria Franz #experimental rock #alternative rock #progressive rock #electronica #indie rock #Danish #music video

Euzen is a young, highly talented and ambitious band, situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their music is experimental, progressive and electronic, with the main focus of creating innovative music, which is both catchy and complex. Euzen present a variety of expressions in a grand musical universe filled with both acoustic and electronic instruments, completed by the captivating vocal range of the charismatic Norwegian singer Maria Franz. It's harmonic and intense, intricate and accessible, the total listening experience is completely and utterly unique and offers a fresh angle to electronic music.  From: https://www.womex.com/virtual/westpark_music/euzen

From the first accords of the Euzen’s ‘Metamorph’ you slide into a magical world of a great piece of work. This must be one of the best electronic releases of this year. Brave and bright, experimental and solid, melodic and light this album is exactly what you expect from a band from somewhere like Denmark. Probably it is not a good thing to mention the nationality in the context of music, but it would be ignorant as well to skip this aspect. There are international trends and terms like Eurohit. But this is exactly what we, the lovers of underground music, hate, right? Those who know the value of the music are looking for authentic and original pieces. And only those musicians who embrace their background are able to bring out something like this. Euzen is a brilliant example. Listening to them it is easy to identify they have some Nordic roots. On the one hand the music of Euzen is quite simple. There are not much of elements or tracks. The compositions of the songs are very ordinary and pop, just like many others. But quiet low bass lines give some feeling of calmness and relaxation. The vocals – something between Bjork and CocoRosie – tell some fairy tales. The charming vocalist immediately catches the attention of the listener. And the guitars give it a drive and colour texture. Exactly, it is possible to feel this music with all of your senses. This must be something like drugs – when you think you’re in control and can get off any moment. But try to turn this album off, if you dare. No, you won’t! This album is absolutely must have for an easy listening, when you want to relax for a while, since this is a fantastic soundtrack for daydreaming.  From: https://www.reflectionsofdarkness.com/artists-a-e-cdreviews-131/15689-cd-review-euzen-metamorph 

Chad VanGaalen - Monster

 #Chad VanGaalen #indie rock #psychedelic folk #electronica #psychedelic rock #alternative rock #singer-songwriter #Canadian #animated music video 

2020 was a terrible year for gardening. It was terrible for peppers, it was terrible for tomatoes, it was terrible for the condition of the soul. But Chad VanGaalen somehow raised a garden all the same: carrots and sprouts and broccoli and a revivifying new album, all of them grown at home. He likes to eat directly off the plant; he says, ”I get down on my knees and graze. It’s nice to feel the vegetables in your face,” and the 13 songs on World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener were harvested with just such a spirit: in their raw state, young and vegetal, at the very moment they were made. What that means is that the Calgary songwriter’s new album is a psychedelic bumper crop. A collection of tunes that does away with obsessiveness, the anxiety of perfectionism, in favor of freshness and immediacy - capturing the world as it was met while recording alone at home over a period of years. “Don’t overthink it,” VanGaalen told himself again and again, despite the push/pull love/hate of his relationship with songwriting. “I’m always trying to get outside of the song - but then I realize I love the song.” This is a record that gleams with VanGaalen’s musical signatures: found sound, reverb, polychromatic folk music that is by turns cartoonish and hyperphysical - like ultra magnified footage of a virus or a leaf. Apparently, the LP began life as a “pretty minimal” flute record. Later it became an electronic record “for a while” and finally, “right at the last second,” it “turned into a pile of garbage.” The good kind of garbage: glinting, useful, free. Music as compost—leaves, and branches ready to be re-ingested by the earth, turned into a flower.  From: https://www.subpop.com/artists/chad_vangaalen  

Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt - Hey, Hey, Watenay / I Walk In Beauty

 #Sally Rogers #Claudia Schmidt #folk #traditional #Americana #singer-songwriter #contemporary folk #Appalachian dulcimer

Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers have been weaving their voices, dulcimers, and guitars together for decades, creating an atmosphere of joy and musical lushness that audiences find so irresistible, they frequently join right in. Starting with their soaring harmonies - "blood harmony" was how one fan described it - fascinating double dulcimer work, the mix of 6 and 12 string guitars, then brought together with a wide choice of material encompassing their originals, traditional, and choice compositions of contemporary songwriters, a concert by these two masters of their craft is an immensely satisfying and restorative experience. Time has only deepened and enriched the music they create together.  From: https://sallyrogers.com/concert-booking/sally-and-claudia/

The Navaho term for the spiritual path, their practice of the holy life, has been translated as The Beauty Way. This way of referring to spirituality, when I first encountered it, was so different from the dry, ascetic pursuits of Zen or intensive meditation that I was first attracted to in my 20's, and spoke to the deep heart of the Holy that was so missing from my vision of spirituality, and from my young and undeveloped self at that time. Understanding the spiritual path as The Beauty Way also opened me to the wonder of the Creator's creation that shone with holy light all around me, not only in the natural beauty of nature, but also in the simple beauty of sunrise, of the in and out of my breath, of the breath of my children as they slept. All was Beauty. It took this Navaho prayer to open my heart to the same truth that my Jewish roots, in the deep mysticism of Kabbalah, spoke to as well: there is no where God is not - all of creation is made of the sparks of the Creative.

I offer two short versions of Beauty Way prayers here that their resonance may bless you as they have blessed me.

R. Waldrip prefaced his use of this blessing with a note that seemed appropriate to include here:

"Let me be clear: I didn't write this song. When I saw it at the Anasazi Museum at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, I was so impressed that I copied it for the introduction of my novel, Anasazi Harvest."

Today I will walk out, today everything evil will leave me,
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever,
nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.

From: http://www.pathwaysforhealing.com/node/160

The Temptations - (I Know) I'm Losing You

 #The Temptations #David Ruffin #Eddie Kendricks #Motown #R&B #soul #funk #psychedelic soul #1960s

The Temptations were an American vocal group noted for their smooth harmonies and intricate choreography. Recording primarily for Motown Records, they were among the most popular performers of soul music in the 1960s and ’70s. Originally called the Elgins, the Temptations were formed in 1961 from the coupling of two vocal groups based in Detroit - the Primes, originally from Alabama, and the Distants. That same year they signed with Motown. After a slow start - with the addition of David Ruffin and largely under the direction of songwriter-producers Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield - the Temptations turned out a string of romantic hits. Bass Melvin Franklin, baritone Otis Williams, and occasional lead Paul Williams provided complex harmonies, and the two regular lead singers, David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, strikingly complemented each other. Ruffin had a remarkable sandpaper baritone and Kendricks a soaring tenor. Paragons of sleek fashion and practitioners of athletic choreography, the Temptations epitomized sophisticated cool. In the late 1960s they shifted to a more funk-oriented sound and to more socially conscious material when Whitfield became the group’s producer and principal songwriter.  From: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Temptations

The list of Motown songs based around a guitar riff is a short one, but this masterpiece should be at the top of that one and several others. Producer Norman Whitfield wrote the song with Edward Holland of Holland-Dozier-Holland, but the Temps’ road manager Cornelius Grant supplied the signature guitar line. Grant’s contribution not only got him co-writing credit, but earned him the spot to play on the record – that’s him you hear on guitar in the song. The Temptations’ classic line-up was in full effect for this number. David Ruffin nails the vocals. The rasp in his voice makes it sound like he’s been up all night drinking, smoking and thinking about where this relationship has gone. When the rest of the Temps chime in with “looosing you” it sounds like a desperate cry echoing out of the abyss. The subtleties in Whitfield’s arrangement take center stage in the last minute of the song, as the playing of Eddie “Bongo” Brown and the Funk Brothers horn section take over. Check out that great trombone line and how the long low note underscores the desperate feel of the song. You can hear Ruffin’s world collapsing as the horns ramp up and dance with the voices as the song fades out. The gravity of the situation would be dire if it weren’t so easy to dance to. Seizing on the rock elements of the song, Rare Earth cut a 10 minute cover for their 1970 “Ecology” album. Motown cut the track down to three minutes and released it as a single that summer where it peaked at No. 7 on the pop charts, one slot higher than the Temptations’ original. The greatest bar band of all time, the Faces, cut their version a year later. It was also released as a single and appeared on Rod Stewart’s blockbuster “Every Picture Tells A Story” album.  From: https://joelfrancis.com/2009/06/17/the-temptations-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Ci-know-i%E2%80%99m-losing-you%E2%80%9D/

The Marshall Tucker Band - A New Life

 #The Marshall Tucker Band #Southern rock #blues rock #country rock #jazz rock #C&W #progressive country #1970s

The Marshall Tucker Band is a Southern rock band. Originally from Spartanburg, South Carolina, the band formed in 1972, and soon signed with Capricorn Records. In 1973 they released their first LP, simply titled 'The Marshall Tucker band. Compared to Southern rock pioneers and label-mates The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker had a more country and western feel, with the flute being a key lead instrument in their sound. There was no band member named "Marshall Tucker". Originally, the band called itself The Toy Factory (named after lead-guitarist Toy Caldwell). But by the time the band released its first album they had become the Marshall Tucker Band. During a radio interview in Hempstead, NY in 1973, Tommy Caldwell explained the origins of the band's name: "There's an old blind dude that tunes pianos, and his name is Marshall Tucker. We didn't name the band after him, but we just kind of liked that name and stuck with it."  From: https://www.last.fm/music/The+Marshall+Tucker+Band/+wiki

Sunanda Sharma - Patake

 #Sunanda Sharma #Indian music #Indian folk pop #bhangra music #Punjabi folk #world music

Bhangra is a type of traditional folk dance of Punjab. It is done in the season of harvesting. Bhangra is especially associated with the vernal Vaisakhi festival. In a typical performance, several dancers execute vigorous kicks, leaps, and bends of the body - often with upraised, thrusting arm or shoulder movements - to the accompaniment of short songs called boliyan and, most significantly, to the beat of a dhol (double-headed drum). Struck with a heavy beater on one end and with a lighter stick on the other, the dhol imbues the music with a syncopated (accents on the weak beats), swinging rhythmic character that has generally remained the hallmark of bhangra music. An energetic Punjabi dance, bhangra originated with Punjab farmers as a cultural and communal celebration; its modern-day evolution has allowed bhangra to retain its traditional Punjabi roots, while broadening its reach to include integration into popular music and DJing, group-based competitions, and even exercise and dance programs in schools and studios.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangra_(dance)

Sunanda Sharma is one of the most talented singers in the Punjabi music industry. She was born in Gurdaspur, Punjab, India. She is a playback singer as well as an actor. Sunanda started her career by singing cover songs during her college days and uploading them on Youtube. One of her videos caught the eye of many people and that’s how she came into the limelight. One of her songs, Jaani Tera Naa, which was released in 2017, is one of the most viewed songs of hers and brought her the fame and success she had always dreamt of. Sharma has also won many awards for her fabulous talent. Her acting career began when she starred in Sajjan Singh Rangroot opposite Diljit Dosanjh and Yograj Singh. Some of the most popular Sunanda Sharma songs that you cannot miss are Baarish Ki Jaaye, Duji Vaar Pyar, Mummy Nu Pasand, Tere Naal Nachna, Chori Chori, Poster Lagwa Do, and the list goes on.  From: https://fantiger.com/artist/sunanda-sharma

Ghostemane - Bonesaw

#Ghostemane #trap metal #hardcore punk #noise #alternative hip hop #black metal #industrial hip hop #animated music video

Eric Whitney, known professionally as Ghostemane or Eric Ghoste, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He has released eight solo albums and three collaborative albums under his Ghostemane moniker, primarily merging elements of heavy metal, hip hop and industrial music. Whitney has also released music with a number of additional solo projects, pursuing styles including black metal as Baader-Meinhof, noise music as GASM, and electronic music as Swearr. He began his career in local hardcore punk and doom metal bands around Florida. In 2015, he moved to Los Angeles, starting a career as a rapper, under the moniker Ill Bizz. Around this same time, he was a member of the hip hop collective Schemaposse.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostemane

While eagerly awaiting Ghostemane’s forthcoming album, ANTI-ICON, let’s recap some of the defining points in his discography so far. These are the picks from Ghostemane’s creative timeline that reflect his ability to take the elements from trap, metal and industrial worlds and mix them in genre-defying ways that redefine the framework of trap metal and heavy music in general.

Swan: If you could imagine the spooky synth lead in “Swan” played on a guitar in tremolo picking style, the references coming to mind would be along the lines of early Mayhem or Darkthrone, as this haunting melody mirrors some of the most typical riffs in black-metal classics. So much so that you might expect an outburst of blast beats to eventually break the suspense. But instead, Ghostemane’s agitated flows, deep lo-fi beats and crawling atmospheres culminate with a guitar sample from Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral,” making the track anything but predictable.

Elixir: Way before he debuted his black-metal side project, Ghostemane put out Blackmage — a record which continued pushing the limits of the genre that in 2016 was already gaining a cult-like following. In “Elixir,” as soon as you get used to the mashup of distressed rap verses, piano melodies and open hi-hats gliding along the guitar hook from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the flow gets interrupted by a heavy riff from Pantera’s “Walk.” Its rough, ostensibly random, I-don’t-give-a-fuck placement reflects Ghostemane’s bold and straightforward approach to mashing up references in his Blackmage era.

Rake: In this unruly track from Hexada, Ghostemane’s creative process comes off as that of a painter picking colors for a contrasting yet weirdly harmonious palette. No, wrong metaphor. It’s more like a twisted artistic villain sawing off random body parts from zombified trap, death-metal, nü-metal and industrial-metal archetypes and grinding them up in a superpowered food processor. It takes about one-and-a-half minutes, and that’s all Ghostemane needs to mold this sticky matter into an astonishing trap-metal Frankenstein.

D(R)Ead: If you’ve only heard one song from Ghostemane, chances are it’s this one. If you’ve only seen one music video by Ghostemane, chances are it’s also this one. One year after he debuted the post-industrial/techno side project Swearr, Ghostemane dropped “D(R)Ead,” a single that foretold the dominance of industrial sound on N / O / I / S / E. Chill(y) trap meets glitched noises, and rap verses shift to panicky Slipknot-style vocals as the track, with the help of live drumming by blink-182’s Travis Barker, progresses into a scream-powered industrial-metal explosion—then makes a full circle back to a dark trap ritual.

From: https://www.altpress.com/best-ghostemane-songs/

Belly - Gepetto

 #Belly #Tanya Donelly #alternative rock #dream pop #jangle pop #indie rock #1990s #music video #ex-Throwing Muses #ex-The Breeders

The year was 1993 and a boy said to me, “You know, you kinda look like Tanya Donelly.” I interpreted this as a pick-up line although it migh have been simply a (generous) observation, but at the time there was no higher compliment paid in my estimation. Even the boy from 1993 knew that Tanya Donelly was much more than just indie-rock cutie pie. As a founding member of Throwing Muses and the Breeders, she was rocking the cradle during the infancy of the alternative music movement. These collaborations resulted in a measured amount of critical success (particularly the Breeders’1990 LP Pod) but Donelly shifted focus in 1992 to form her own band, Belly.
Star, one of Belly’s only two albums, listens like the dangerous part of a fairy tale; tucked into bed at one turn only to be climbing out a midnight window at another. The first track, “Someone to Die For,” is a gentle, dreamy introduction to the album. On most releases, that crucial opening song is so often the pull of a ripcord but here, it’s the letting go of a balloon. The flotation ends quickly as the following two tracks, “Angel” and “Dusted” deliver a shot in the arm of swirling rhythm guitars and runaway beats. Donelly uses dynamics to emphasize her narrative, opening her throat wide and crescendoing as the drama gains momentum.
The pop triad of songs on Star – “Feed the Tree,” “Gepetto” and “Slow Dog” – saw frequent play on college radio and landed rotation in the that hallmark of alternative music credibility, MTV’s “120 Minutes.” Although “Feed the Tree” was Belly’s most commercially successful single, “Slow Dog” is the highlight of the album, a punchy little pop song that is anthemic in its simplicity. Similarly, “Witch,” the eerie lullaby of the collection, offers up the flip side of “Slow Dog”‘s emotional dissonance. The soothing introduction of major chord arpeggios on slide guitar is followed with Donelly’s breathy warning: “It’s not safe/ In this house/ In some witch’s bed/ You know the one/ She lies all lit up.” It’s this emotional juxtaposition of imagery and sound – nursery stories turned nightmare – that makes Donelly’s songwriting so compelling.
Star winds down with the lullaby sounds of “Untogether,” “Star” and “Stay,” interrupted only by “Sad Dress,” the most technically interesting effort of the album. Swinging in a 3/2 time signature, “Sad Dress” waltzes dizzily through heavy backbeats and bass riffs that are ratty like an unfinished hem. “Untogether,” an acoustic and bare offering, is the only track that features back-up vocals. Chick Graning, member of the short-lived alt-rock band Scarce, lends just an echo of a male voice in this elegy for an incompatible love.
Indeed, the beauty of Star is that Tanya Donelly’s voice and vision alone drive the album’s conceptual integrity. Her sound, luminous and evocative, was a departure from the disc(h)ord of the riot-grrrl bands that were building steam and fan bases in the mid-90’s. This is not to say that her pipes have no power. Airy and feminine for sure, Donelly can just as quickly tower a hundred stories high when the songwriting insists on it. She plays with notions of vulnerability and invincibility in her vocals, using inflection and even pronunciation to elicit emotional connections.
Donelly’s lyrics are peculiar and specific, conjuring images that are nature-oriented, childlike and vaguely occult. They are the remnants of your baby sister’s bad dream. One of the most memorable lines from “Angel” confesses, “I had bad dreams/ So bad I threw my pillow away.” The songs of Star are subliminal sense impressions, free associations in a way that intuitively clicks. When recalling snapshots of this album rapid fire, my list was “sister doll moon dress witch” – and yeah, that’s about right. Thematically, it’s somewhat of a curious bookend to Hole’s Live Through This. Where Courtney wails wounded about doll parts and witches’ heads, Tanya murmurs dream-like about beheaded dolls and witches’ beds. Both artists identify the trauma, artifice and stigmata that accompany a postmodern womanhood, reaching that place across very different access points. Courtney Love once remarked retrospectively, “I don’t think if I had been Tanya Donelly and put out Live Through This anybody would’ve cared” – and to be fair to Donelly, the reverse might also be true, insofar as only you can sing your own songs. Whether or not Love and Donelly viewed each other as feminist contemporaries, there are disarming lyrical parallels between the two works.
From:  https://spectrumculture.com/2010/06/21/revisit-belly-star/

Kula Shaker - Temple of Everlasting Light

#Kula Shaker #psychedelic rock #neo-psychedelia #raga rock #post-Britpop #psychedelic revival #world music #1990s

Kula Shaker are a British rock band who emerged from the post-britpop era. Named after the ninth century emperor of the same name, their 1996 debut album ‘K’ showcased a different approach than their contemporaries, with a sound inspired by 1960s psychedelic rock and world music and lyrics influenced by Hindu spiritualism. After a brief hiatus from 1999 to 2006, they reformed and are still active today.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/KulaShaker

In Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?!, we quiz an artist on their own career to see how much they can remember – and find out if the booze, loud music and/or tour sweeties has knocked the knowledge out of them. This week: Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills takes the ultimate test

Which band codenamed their seventh album “Kula Shaker demos” to prevent it from leaking?
“The Arsewipes?”
WRONG. It was Radiohead. According to bassist Colin Greenwood, to stop their 2007 record ‘In Rainbows’ being stolen, on the master they’d “write a name which probably nobody would listen to if we lost it; ‘Eagles: Greatest Hits’, ‘Kula Shaker demos’, ‘Phil Collins hip-hop covers”…
“Radiohead are the most overrated band in the universe. I think those guys believe their own myth, and that’s why their albums are so dull and self-important. That’s not me being offended – I genuinely think they’re boring.”
Did you cross paths much with Radiohead?
“We would never cross paths with the gods – we’re just mere mortals! [Laughs] They played opposite us when we played Glastonbury [in 1997], so all The Guardian readers were at Radiohead and then everyone else was at our gig, so it felt a bit more real. But my answer was right: it was The Arsewipes!”

You wrote and directed the 2018 comedy horror film Slaughterhouse Rulez. What is the school’s motto in the film?
“Per Caedes Ad Astra – Through Slaughter to Immortality.”
CORRECT. “The movie ‘If’ was a massive influence on Slaughterhouse Rulez and that was filmed at Charterhouse, a posh public school in the 1960s. A famous Indian saint said around that time that all formal education was like an abattoir for the mind, and you were sending your children to the slaughterhouse because there was no spiritual knowledge in schools. It was a powerful statement that stayed with me all those years until we came to pick the name for the public school.”
You hail from a filmmaking dynasty – you’re the son of actor Hayley Mills and director John Boulting. Were you ever starstruck by any big names as a child?
“The first time I met Harrison Ford he was dressed as Indiana Jones. My mum had worked with Steven Spielberg and was friends with his first wife Amy Irving, and surprised me by taking me to the set of The Last Crusade. I was frozen – all I could do was stare at his boots!”

In 2018, whose psychedelic-influenced album did Liam Gallagher brand as “shit Kula Shaker”?
“No idea. Who was it?”
WRONG. He said of his brother Noel’s High Flying Birds record, ‘Who Built the Moon?’: “It sounds like a shit Kula Shaker.”
“[Laughs] That’s very funny!”
Noel Gallagher used to champion Kula Shaker in the 1990s and you even played Oasis’ blockbuster 1996 Knebworth gigs…
“Being part of Knebworth was like being part of an event rather than a great concert. You can’t see anybody, but you get to say I was there. We didn’t really hang out with Oasis. There was definitely a sense of competition, and they saw us coming and Noel’s approach was probably: ‘Keep your enemies close’. We were rivals and they were at the top. They had the crown and were measuring themselves against the people making waves.”

In 2016, a reformed Kula Shaker made a return to playing live in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, under which pseudonym?
“Was it The Garcons?”
CORRECT. “On the blackboard outside the pub, it said: ‘Live tonight – Kula Shaker. All the pizza you can eat!’ [Laughs] It was a very auspicious return! But it was great because we gave up trying to play the game, nobody in the industry gave a shit when we reformed, and we spent years making records and building it up again ourselves. It was a total reset that had to be done for our spiritual core.”

What time does the watch on the single cover of Kula Shaker’s ‘Govinda’ say?
“It’s 10 to 10.”
CORRECT. “One of the greatest experiences of being in Kula Shaker is singing ‘Govinda’ because it’s a magical chant that exists outside of space and time. It’s a sacred mantra. When you see our audience – a mass of humanity – engaged in transcendental congregational chanting, it’s overwhelming. That’s why I’d much rather be in Kula Shaker than The Arsewipes [Laughs].”

From: https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/kula-shaker-crispian-mills-robbie-williams-radiohead-90s-3252289

Sam Phillips - Black Sky

 #Sam Phillips #alternative rock #indie rock #singer-songwriter #T-Bone Burnett #1990s

With Martinis & Bikinis, Sam Phillips has revitalized the "Beatlesque" category with some substantial songwriting and a woman's voice, which turns the whole sound upside down. The Beatles hardly exhausted the possibilities of their late-'60s sound, and Phillips has the hooks and aphorisms to give that sound a second lease on life. Phillips has rewritten two old Beatles songs into "Strawberry Road" and "Same Rain"; she has even recorded a John Lennon composition, "Gimme Some Truth." Phillips's husband, T-Bone Burnett, cowrote two of the songs and produced all 13, and he adds the Lennon-esque touches of guitars recorded backward and sweet harmonized vocals pitted against distorted guitars. But none of this would matter if the songs weren't so good.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Martinis-Bikinis-Sam-Phillips/dp/B000000W50  

Speaking of her 1994 record, "Martinis and Bikinis," Los Angeles singer-songwriter Sam Phillips recently recalled an anecdote associated with one of the songs from that album--a track called "Baby I Can't Please You." It involved one of the musicians who played on the record, bassist Colin Moulding of the British alternative rock band XTC.
"I remember Colin Moulding coming in from England," she tells CBSNews.com. "We were at Jackson Browne's studio in Santa Monica recording. And I remember when he heard "Baby I Can't Please You," he had this big smile on his face and he said, 'We should do a Bollywood duet, you and me.' At the time I thought, 'Uh, maybe not.' But now I regret that. I think that would have been a wonderful idea and maybe someday we'll get to do that duet."
Still, Phillips did have a chance to rework some of the songs from the record that now appear as bonus tracks on a new reissue of "Martinis and Bikinis," which came out Tuesday. Produced by her then-husband T-Bone Burnett (whose production credits include Counting Crows, Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, and the Wallflowers), "Martinis and Bikinis" is generally well-regarded by the critics and perhaps her most accessible work.
"Martinis and Bikinis" Omnivore Recordings
"It actually came from my publishers at Notable Music," Phillips said about the idea behind the reissue. "They've been talking to this company Omnivore -  they started reissuing these vinyl projects. "It's been quite a while since ["Martinis and Bikinis"] has been released, and also because it's never been on vinyl, they were very excited to be involved."
Released at a time when alternative rock was the rage, "Martinis and Bikinis" was Phillips' third album for her then-label Virgin Records - the others being "The Indescribable Wow" and "Cruel Inventions." One thing she recalls about the record was T-Bone Burnett playing a lot of the guitars on it. "But I also remember that of the three records for Virgin," she adds, "it was the culmination of the other two records that the process that we had started when we first did "The Indescribable Wow." I felt like they were all connected and that "Martinis and Bikinis" was we finally got to the place that we wanted to get after a lot of work. I remember months in the studio for all three of those records."
In addition to Burnett, "Martinis and Bikinis" featured musicians such as Colin Moulding, Marc Ribot, Mickey Curry and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. And while the album was dominated by Phillips' vocals, melodic hooks, and pristine production, "Martinis and Bikinis" contained soul-searching lyrics that addressed political, personal and social themes.
"Writing melodic songs were going against the grain at that time," says Phillips, "and also going against the grain in terms of what the lyrics were saying. A friend of mine who was very wealthy once brought up the idea that he knew of a man who was a refugee and everything that he had that was of value he held in his heart. I was very struck by that, so I put that verbatim in "Same Rain." There were a lot of different ideas. "Fighting with Fire" was about having to deal with art and commerce and trying to make sense of that, trying to make a life when corporations dictate how you make art and dictate how you get paid and we're still dealing with that today. It was a very serious record."
From: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sam-phillips-revisits-martinis-and-bikinis/

The Allman Brothers Band - Revival

 #The Allman Brothers Band #Southern rock #blues rock #country rock #jam band #1970s

If you're going to listen to the Allman Brothers, make sure you have the first four records. The band made The Allman Brothers Band, Idlewild South, At Fillmore East, and three-fourths of Eat a Peach with its original lineup, before Duane Allman's fatal motorcycle accident in 1971. The Tom Dowd-produced Idlewild South, their second album, comes off with a little less ferocity than their debut -- which is perhaps the result of reaching for new sounds the second time around. "Revival," the album's opener, introduces Dickey Betts as a composer. The countrified flavor of his songs gives an indication of where the band will head in the post-Duane era. Betts' other contribution to Idlewild South is the instrumental "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," a centerpiece of the Fillmore East recordings. Gregg's "Please Call Home" and "Midnight Rider" are built around piano and acoustic guitar, respectively, and have a different feel than the band's usual twin Les Paul-and-Hammond sound. That sound is showcased in the balance of Gregg's tunes, however: the funky blues of "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" and "Leave My Blues at Home." The album is also notable for the rollicking version of Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man," with the only vocal bassist Berry Oakley (who died in a motorcycle accident one year after Duane) ever recorded with the group. Though overall it packs less punch than The Allman Brothers Band, Idlewild South is all the more impressive for its mixture of chunky grooves and sophisticated textures.  https://www.allmusic.com/album/idlewild-south-mw0000196446

Stolen Babies - Push Button

 #Stolen Babies #progressive metal #avant-garde metal #gothic rock #alternative metal #experimental rock #dance rock #performance rock

Stolen Babies are an American experimental rock band consisting of vocalist/accordionist Dominique Lenore Persi, bassist/guitarist Rani Sharone, and drummer Gil Sharone. Stolen Babies formed from a 12+ member high school performance troupe named The Fratellis; the band takes its name from one of the skits performed by the group during this period (written by Dominique Persi and her older brother, animator Raymond S. Persi). Stolen Babies released their first demo CD through their own label, No Comment Records.
Among the band's many musical influences are groups such as Oingo Boingo, Mr. Bungle, Cop Shoot Cop, and Fishbone (with whom Gil Sharone has performed). Stolen Babies are known for their unclassifiable odd rock and heavy, energetic performances. Except for the earliest demo, each album has featured artwork by indie comic artist Crab Scrambly.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Babies

Edwin Starr - War

#Edwin Starr #Norman Whitfield #Motown #soul #R&B #protest #1960s

An anti-war anthem deemed a little too forthright for one of Motown’s biggest acts hit the top of the charts for one of its finest soul singers in August 1970. Edwin Starr, who arrived at Motown with a fine track record but had never quite dined at Tamla’s top table, had the USA’s hottest single as “War” started its three-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by Barrett Strong and producer Norman Whitfield, who recorded the first version of it with the Temptations. But even though that creative combination was producing some real cutting-edge social commentary, Motown felt that to release their version as a single would alienate their more conservative fan base. Many politically engaged students lobbied the label to release the Temptations’ recording, but Motown decided on a different tactic. Whitfield recorded a new version with Starr, the soul man born Charles Hatcher in Nashville in 1942 and raised in Cleveland. He’d made his name at Detroit label Ric-Tic in the mid-1960s with such gems as “Agent Double-O-Soul” and “Stop Her On Sight (S.O.S.),” before transferring to the Gordy label when Motown bought Ric-Tic outright. The result of the new interpretation was a soul classic, with a lyric that was clearly anti-Vietnam but has remained sadly relevant throughout the world ever since. Starr’s powerful vocal delivery brought a real sense of anger and frustration to the recording.  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/edwin-starr-war-song/