Monday, April 28, 2008

Perilous Times



deeply moving & magnificent roots. same tune, different titles, different mixes.

Mystic Eyes - Judgement Time (from "Mysterious" LP, Burning Sounds UK)

Mystic Eyes & Trinity - Perilous Time (Greensleeves 12" UK)

The Revolutionaries - Freedom Dub (from "Outlaw Dub" LP, Trojan UK - dub to "Judgement Time")

Trinity - Pope Paul Dead (Thompson Sound 7" JA reissue - deejay cut to "Perilous Time")


oh jah oh jah, sent forth thy blessings
on thy people now, for this is perilous times
we living inna a judgment time, a dis is a perilous time, we living in a judgement time
one got to seek their bread, outta desolate places
trodding thru the valley of evil faces, you got to beware
'cause a one grain of corn, and a small loaf of cornbread
for that thou shall be sanctified, 'cause this is perilous time
we living inna a judgment time, a dis is a perilous time, we living in a judgement time
judgement, now
not the buyer nor the seller, none of them shall rejoice
'cause some a them a rob, and some a them a crab
i say, inna dis ya perilous time, we living inna judgement time, 'cause this is a perilous time
we living inna judgement time
the scribes and the pharises pass them by (pass them pass them)
they hold their heads up high (head up high)
na na na, na na na, now you got no one to turn to
so you better turn to jah, so you better call on jah
come on and turn to jah, people
so you better call on jah
jah jah, jah jah, jah jah, jah jah
so you better turn to jah, come on and call on jah
my people rastafari
turn to jah oh no
so you better call on jah
so you got to turn to jah
i'm telling you now
call on jah, hey hey, hey hey
turn to jah, so you better call on jah



mp3 wanted:
Mystic Eyes "Judgement Time" (Thompson Sound 12" US)
Trinity "Pope Paul Dead" (Attack 12" UK)
Trinity "Pope Paul Dead" (Thompson Sound 7" US)
dub cut of "judgement time" from Revolutionaries "Outlaw Dub" (Trojan LP UK) now added above
please!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Finally Out of Dark Shadows



so a while back i heard that the German World In Sound label were finally going to do what's needed doing for years - a reissue of the Cold Sun recordings, probably the greatest (semi) lost psych band of all time. if ya dunno these cats, read here (review about mid page) and here. really amazing stuff - if i wanted to use a stupid metaphor, i would say they're like a teenaged early Elevators as played by a more-competent Index, but still with that same beautifully-sublime-naivety vibe. the World In Sound site claims a prospective release date of May 2008, for CD and vinyl, and with 2 bonus tracks! Very exciting. 2007 finally saw the reissue of both of the Bobb Trimble records, and now Cold Sun in 2008. let's hope 2009 and beyond sees more people doing the lord's work, and we get readily-available reissues of the Index 1st LP, Dave Bixby LP, and more...(no links for those, future posts maybe?).

Friday, April 25, 2008

Man Still Deh Bout

when it comes to reggae, just when you think you know something, it shows you that you don't. who knew the man called Eccleton Jarrett was still out deh? not me. but then i found this brilliant youtube video a month or so ago. the man still deh bout, and he can still sing beautifully. check it!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Original Singer Fe Years


so i came across this excellent quality soundtape of Silverhawk in Montego Bay, circa '88/'89. the main artists featured are Brigadier Jerry, Conroy Smith, and White Mice. killer. since Conroy is one of my favorite singers ever in all of music, i did myself and all of you the favor of excerpting all his parts from the continuous ~90 minute recording of the session. so here they are. enjoy!

Conroy Smith & White Mice - two the hard way (live on Silverhawk) cool combination tune!

Conroy Smith - Dancehall Possie - mr. bassie riddim (live on Silverhawk)


Conroy Smith - 3 song medley (live on Silverhawk)
tunes are: the devil (pretty sure this is one of his dubplate-only tunes), no gold chain pon me (? - never heard this one before), girl yu mus be stallion (on the original Studio 1 real rock riddim!)

Conroy Smith - come follow me - modern girl riddim (live on Silverhawk)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

GREETINGS

slow day today, a quick post for y'all, one of the great and unique Jamaican singers of the '80s, QUENCH AID, with a little freestyle niceness. this is one of my favorite videos on youtube, check it!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Live Inna Dance



so last night DJ Wicz and I rolled to the Deadly Dragon Sound 3-year store anniversary dance. this was at a pretty chill little club/lounge spot in Chinatown called Happy Ending. i know this is also the place where DDS holds their regular night, but i had not been there before. anyway, on this night, for a mere 5 or 10 bones, you got four legends live touching the mic - Johnny Osbourne, Wayne Smith, Ranking Joe, and Tony Screw aka Father Downbeat selecting. so of course, the night was absolutely terrific. here's the rundown.

we arrived there 11:30ish (the night kicked off at 10). Max Glazer from Federation Sound was spinning upstairs (Serato, boooo!) playing a selection of '90s classic dancehall and recent-years huge-tunes. i really dig Federation & Solomonic's dubplate mix CD from a couple years ago, so i was into seeing Max play for a little bit. there was one shall-remain-nameless very questionable selection that had me cringing, but overall it was a nice and accessible crowd-pleasing selection. definitely aimed at getting the upstairs not-reggae-heads crowd dancing, and they were. after about an hour or so upstairs, Tony Screw started playing downstairs, so we headed down there.

the downstairs is a long and somewhat narrow room, with one side being somewhat separated from the dj booth by a large doorway. it was really crowded down there already, i guess we didn't realize more people were down there listening to DDS selecting than were upstairs listening to Glazer. anyway, we opted of course for a position closest to the little cul-de-sac next to the booth, as it was clear that was where the artists were going to touch down. Tony Screw played for about 2 hours selecting strictly '60s-'70s tunes, doing 3-4 tune runs from Dennis Brown, The Wailers, Delano Stewart, Leroy Smart, Gregory Isaacs, and a couple more i'm forgetting, along with a few dubplates throughout - a Willie Williams comes to mind. i think Gregory's 'Babylon Too Rough' got the biggest forward of any tune Tony Screw played. Screw closed his set by selecting a few one off's. That I can recall, these last few tunes included Dandy Livingston's 'A Message To You Rudy', a Rupie Edwards tune, and an AMAZING, warhead-heavy and super hazy 1975 Studio One dubplate of the Drum Song rhythm, among others. that 'drum song' dub was the highlight of Screw's set for me, along with his excellent stage presence and the great tidbits of knowledge he was dropping on the mic all throughout the night.

just shy of 2am the artists made their way up to the control tower and DDS took over selecting. the first rhythm to hit was stalag, and from there all three artists were just killing it. lemme just say that all three cats have totally retained their voices and sounded exactly as they did twenty-plus years ago, and in Johnny Osbourne's case, even 40(!) years ago. the highlight of the night for me was hearing Wayne Smith, one of my all time favorite singers. he did 'come along', 'under me sleng teng', 'ain't no meaning', and maybe one or two more. i wish he would have touched the mic more (and sang 'life is a moment in space' or 'my lord, my god', though i knew those weren't gonna happen), but he was still excellent. Ranking Joe held it down inna OG deejay fashion, and Johnny Osbourne just killed it with most of his biggest hits and then some - Budy Bye, Musical Chopper, Truth & Rights, Dubplate Playing, Bring the Sensi Come, Can't Buy Love, No Ice Cream Sound, Murderer, In The Area, and many more. the night's other big highlight for me was Johnny doing 'Rock and Come In'!!! when that drifter rhythm came booming out i let out a serious cheer. totally beautiful. Ranking Joe touched on drifter inna deejay style as well. towards the end of the night DDS and Tony Screw were both testing Johnny, throwing down old and obscure rhythms he has tunes on, to see if he could remember the tune on the spot...he got it every time, most times even saying the year and producer he cut the tune for. most of Johnny's big tunes got big forwards from the crowd and nearly every tune had almost the whole crowd singing along.

by 3:30 the crowd was thinning out, as the night was wrapping up at 4. we split shortly before closing time, and Tony Screw was selecting again, throwing down mostly Studio One rhythms for Johnny and Ranking Joe to shock out over (Wayne had left earlier unfortunately). overall, excellent vibes and a great night out - the best $5 i've spent on live music in forever. the majority of the crowd didn't stop dancing all night, and seven hours after leaving the dance i'm still rocking.

np: CSNY - 4 way street (atlantic 2LP)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Record Store Day



as i was waiting for my bagel at the coffee spot this morning, i spotted this article below the front-page fold of today's Star Ledger. as everyone should know, i don't read the Ledger (Bergen Record stand up), but i threw down the extra fifty cents to read this inevitable piece of comedy. yet another fluff piece lamenting the death of the brick and mortar record store (does the mainstream media have like a once-a-month quota on this story? for real!), this time cloaked in the "Record Store Day" concept which some indie shops are getting behind today - yes, like today, April 19, 2008. inspired by the "free comic book day" concept now (apparently successfully?) employed by many comic shops (another floundering niche-market, but for worse reasons than the indie record biz), basically stores are trying to reel in customers with various gimmicky promotions throughout the business day. of the many obvious jokes that could be made in light of this, a good one is that, aside from Ledger readers i guess, the only people who would probably even know about this "day" are the people who already go to these shops anyway. whatever, the whole idea is so caveman-dumb that it doesn't warrant any more talk. the real point of this post is just for me to complain again about these totally fucking oblivious dinosaurs, the middle-aged-and-beyond record store owners. all these clowns should ask for a Business 101 textbook for their birthday. apparently basic concepts such as staying in-touch with your marketplace and adapting your business model to fit the current climate of that market place are totally alien to these ignorant fatsos (or at least limited to complaining about things they barely have a grasp on, at best). i mean really, i know for years and years you could eek out a nice one just selling new releases, but that aside, it's not like the record business hasn't always been an ever-changing game, right? at least if you were/are even half paying attention it is. seems as close any of these clowns gets to any contact with the contemporary reality is complaining about an ipod or talking about how they've added t-shirts to their store and how they sell more than records (they're called 'lifestyle' products douchebag). i think i'm nearing a real 50/50 split in my desire - as much as i want as many stores to remain open as possible, i want them all to burn to the ground just the same. hey assholes, if you wanted a bulletproof gig you should have opened a liquor store or a funeral parlor. you all fucking deserve it.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Bolo Pon Yuh Corner



Yami Bolo is one of my favorite singers in all of music. it seems i listen to at least one of his songs every day. with just over 20 years deep in the game now, he has a tremendous body of work. so i figured a little post and a couple lists are in order to get some of you casual reggae listeners acquainted with this cat. here goes...
Yami Bolo was one of the best 'youthman' (read: very young and almost-child-voiced) singers to emerge from the '80s. he's one of the few of that crop who continues to record regularly to this day, and for me, the only one who's work has never faltered. Bolo continues voicing roots and culture in the true inimitable Waterhouse style. his history is well known to fans, but here's a quick recap for the uninitiated. not unlike many other legendary reggae vocalists, his first 'break' came in 1983, when at age 13 he won a talent contest singing what would become his first trademark tune, 'when a man's in love.' from there it was a short stop to singing on two of the top soundsystems of the digital era - Youth Promotion and Stur Mars. he first entered a studio in 1986, recording for Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion label. Yami says he recorded a full album at this time, but only four singles from this session were ever released, two in '86 and the other two not until '99 and the early '00s! so we don't get bogged down in details, a discography of Yami's '80s tunes in rough chronological order will be at the bottom of this post. Yami next recorded for Winston Riley's Techniques label, and Kenneth Black's Skengdon label. in 1987 Yami hooked up with Augustus Pablo, going on tour with Pablo's Rockers soundsystem and recording a good deal for Pablo over the next couple of years. these recordings would yield a batch of singles for Pablo's labels, and Yami's first two LP's, the first one coming in 1989. on into the '90s and it was full speed ahead; by '90 he was grown and establishing himself as one of the finest roots singers out. to date Yami has recorded hundreds of singles and is probably approaching 30 albums by now. of course his '80s youthman work will always be the best for me, but with his amazing voice and knack for voicing on terrific contemporary roots riddims, i've got dozens of excellent singles from him, and undoubtedly dozens and dozens more yet to acquire.

so, here's a little discographical information. i'll put a couple of mp3 links in the lists below. if you dig and want to hear more, then send an email and i'll sort you out with my Yami '80s mixtape or 'best of Yami' mixtape, both of which contain most of the tunes listed below.

Yami Bolo - 1980's discography (rough chronological order), all essential!!! of course, corrections & additions are welcomed.
-Roots Pon Mi Corner (Youth Promotion 7" JA)
-Original True Love (Youth Promotion 7" JA - rec. '86?, rel. '00s)
-Through The Falling Rain (Youth Promotion 7" JA / Youth Promotion 12" US)
-Youth Promotion (V/A - Hidden Treasures CD - Easy Star UK - rec. '86?, rel. '99)
-When A Man's In Love (Techniques 7" JA // V/A - Original Stalag 17-18 and 19 LP - Techniques JA // VP Dancehall Classics 12" US - rel. '00, first rel. on 12"?)
-Bad Boy Posse (Techniques 7" JA // V/A - Rebel Teng LP - Techniques JA)
-Jah Jah Made Them All (Techniques 7" JA / High Power Music 12" UK)
-Free Mandela (Skengdon 7" US / Skengdon 12" US // V/A - Skengdon All Stars - Skengdon LP US)
-Walkie Talkie (Skengdon 7" JA / Skengdon 12" UK)
-Loving You My Dear (Skengdon 7" JA)
-'Dance Hall Pt. 1' on V/A - A Tribute To Tenor Saw - Sky High LP JA - excerpt from Stur Mars live session circa mid-'80s, LP rel. '89; Yami sings part of George's Michael's 'Careless Whisper' and 'When A Man's In Love'!!!
-Ransom of a Man's Life (Message 7" JA / Ransom LP/CD - Greensleeves UK/Shanachie US)
-She Loves Me So (Rockers 7" JA / Ransom LP/CD - Greensleeves UK/Shanachie US)
-Tell Me Why Is This Fussing & Fighting (Message 7" JA)
-Love Me With Feeling [w/ Junior Delgado] (Rockers 7" JA)
-Poverty and Brutality (Message 7" JA)
-Ransom LP/CD (Greensleeves UK / Shanachie US)
some or all of those last 5 Rockers/Message singles might have been rel. '90, can't be sure.

'90s-present killers, my personal faves!
*i need a few of these, noted below, if you can help with vinyl or even mp3, get at me!

-Weep Not (Digital B) mr. bassie riddim
-Put Down Yuh Weapon [w/ Capleton] (Fat Eyes) african beat riddim
-African Brother (Jahara Music) youthman riddim
-Almighty One (Kennedy Int'l) mr. bassie riddim
-Free Africa (Jammy's/Kingston 11) answer riddim
-Glock War, Gun War (Yam Euphony/RAS)
-Gun Bag (JR Production) WANTED
-Mystery Babylon (Thompson Sound) voiced on '70s rhythm
-Throw Down Your Arms (Tubb Sound) a Swiss production!
-I Don't Know Why (Wacam) tempo riddim
-Leave Out The Badness (Xterminator)
-Mr. Smith & Wesson/Set Sail (Stone Love 12") give me the right riddim
-Rema & Jungle (Buffalo) VERY WANTED
-Trample (Taxi/Music City)
-Traitors & Vampires (Yam Euphony)
-It's Not Surprising (Grove Music/Parson Pickney) WANTED
-Door Peep [w/ Ruffy & Tuffy] (Rockers)
-Jah Made Them All (Rockers)
-Struggle in Babylon (Rockers/RAS)
-Bad Boys (Don One) wicked Brooklyn production from last year!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

"...through strange seas of thought, alone."



so lemme tell you about one of the best CD reissues i've ever encountered. lucky for me, it happens to be of one of my all-time favorite LP's and one of the greatest LP's ever recorded, imho - Nico's "The Marble Index." so lemme just say first, i'm not gonna get into the music of the album or how great it is, cuz this post is just about the supreme quality of this reissue. if you don't know the album, i urge you to pick up this CD and check it out - it's an amazing work of singular beauty. if you already like and own the album, even if you have an original (one of the best sounding LP's i've ever heard, fidelity-wise, though that's another post for another day), or the excellent Sundazed vinyl reissue, i still urge you to pick up this reissue, for numerous reasons i'm about to get into.

so the CD in question is called "The Frozen Borderline: 1968-1970", and it's a 2CD released by Elektra/Reprise/Rhino UK (what, you thought something this good would come out in the US? Ha!) in 2007. Disc 1 is "The Marble Index" and disc 2 is Nico's next LP, "Desertshore" (which is also great, but won't be addressed here; a future post, maybe). the packaging is a slightly-but-not-annoyingly bigger than jewelcase double-gatefold card-wallet. the discs are housed in the right and left flaps, while the center panel has a pocket containing the 16-page full color booklet (standard jewelcase size). the sleeve art (front pictured above) is simple and elegant, with the same lovely photo of Nico used for the front also on the back (but w/o the reverse-negative effect). the back cover naturally gives you the tracklisting and some credits. the inside gatefold flaps each show you a picture of the original LP jacket for the disc they house, while the center flap has a quote from "The Marble Index"'s 'Frozen Warnings' - 'frozen warnings close to mine, close to the frozen borderline.' the flip-side of the (inward-folding) right-gatefold flap shows a flyer for the "Marble Index" release/listening party, thrown by Warhol at the Factory on 9/19/68. heavy. you got all that? OK, then on to the CD contents.

tracks 1-8 are the original album. oh, everything has been remastered of course, and though that's usually a scary thing, the CD sounds great, extremely crystal and very faithful to the original LP. so have no digital fears. of course with an album like this, with such dense atmospherics and delicate instrumentation, that's a major major concern. so big test number one, passed. tracks 9-12 are the four unreleased tracks (!!!) from the LP session...three of which are sung in German! the album was recorded in only four days (one of many factoids you'll glean from the excellent booklet, getting to that) so the full recording session of 12 cuts is now here. tracks 13-19 are alternate versions of every track on the album, save for the 50-second opener, 'Prelude.' wow. i can't say any of the alt. takes struck me as radically different than the album takes, probably just minor differences in the arrangements, but maybe A/B'ing them all and outlining the differences can be a future post.

now, the booklet. this is the final triumph of this release, and really what ends up giving it the triple-crown and making this reissue a dream item for the minutiae-craving OCD head in all of us. across the six booklet pages dedicated to "The Marble Index", pictures of the following are shown: original magazine ad for the album, all three original-press LP labels for the album (US press, UK press, US white label promo; in a perfect world, this is something every good reissue depicts), and even the 8-track tape (still in package!), as well as the original LP sleeve back. terrific. i can't imagine much else if anything in the way of original-release era ephemera exists. so now, the liners - written by UK music writer Simon Goddard (can't say i knew of the cat before, but bravo Simon), these liners have it all. a very brief but not regurgitated background on Nico, the origins of the album (both from the artist and label ends of it), much terrific insight from the album's producer, Frazier Mohawk (dude cops to indulging in the inevitable free in-studio heroin during the sessions!), and even great insights from the too-oft-quiet John Cale (and certainly if you know this album, you know this LP is as much his album as it is Nico's). the liners goes on to talk about the also-inevitable critical and commercial failure of the album, and (briefly) what Nico did following it. now even if you're like me and you have read/watched/listened to every available (and unavailable) bit of info on Nico & The VU, you will still learn much from these info-packed six pages. they're truly all you can ask for in liner notes.

so yeah, that's pretty much it. the total package. a yardstick by which CD reissues should be measured, and an example to be followed. in these perilous times, joints like this one are few and far between. rejoice and be merry. 5 stars, highest possible commendation and recommendation.

one fascinating liner notes spoiler - the title "The Marble Index" is excerpted from Wordsworth's The Prelude, re: Roubiliac's sculpture of Sir Isaac Newton - "Newton with his prism and silent face, the marble index of a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone." with that context revealed, it really makes the LP's title a haunting, prophetic self-exposition from Nico the tortured artist. and how appropriate then, the iconic original LP cover, the up-close black and white portrait of Nico's gaunt and pallid visage. fuckin' heavy.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Beware


...the devil is everywhere. two roots monsters about the ultimate evil and his followers are in the heaviest of rotation here the past couple days. first we have Cultural Roots "devil ites" (mis-credited as "devil eyes" on the label) on a crisp Germain 12" circa early '80s.
"a which boat a go take some a dem across river jordan...devil ites, how you gwaan enter, inna zion?"
this one quickly became a roots all-time top-ten'er for me; lead heavy, militant, driving, a perfect crystallization of the ominous it-dread-out-deh vibe that i dig the most. the other jam is Calman Scott's "devil in the city" (sorry for the wack link, not much out there on this cat), with following deejay piece from Jah Hugh (no dice on him either). the 7" of this one (sans deejay of course) was out on Wackie's RAWSE label in '77 (though apparently not a Wackie's production), and this 12" cut, apparently around the same time via a UK press on GG's Hit label. been after this one for a hot minute, and finally dug up this ('lighty truncated') mp3 thru some diligent googling. yes, my less-than-part-time status as a roots collector has this jawn still on my want list. holler if you can help. back to business though, Calman's voice and delivery here is more on a clear '70s soul tip, and i wonder then if he was an American-Jamaican cat.
"the devil is here in the city, the city wake up with the devil, everyday is just fight, people taking each other's life..."
enough jabber, dig 'em here and here.
visuals -


*sorry, no pic of the 12" to be found, weak, i know. anyone?

Monday, April 14, 2008

Chicken Man revealed



"well they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night, now they blew up his house too..."

so maybe i'm posing here, but i never knew who/what the Chicken Man was (or bothered to investigate i guess). well, this is him. after a long overdue watching of the Boss' video collection the other night, i decided to finally find out. i had previously wondered if it was a mob thing, guess i was right. i don't feel too bad though, cuz who cares about shitty Philly. if you haven't seen the video, peep it here. no embedding allowed on this one apparently. the Playboy casino really needs to be re-opened. aight, i gotta go find the above pictured 12" single now.

np: cultural roots - devil eyes aka devil ites (germain 12")

Sunday, April 13, 2008

believe it if you need it



click here to (free, legit) download the first ever live performance of the Dead's 'box of rain', 9-17-70 @ Fillmore East, NYC. at this moment around here, s'the apex of the Dead's rural rock period. jam it. i tried to find a more 'rural/rugged' looking photo of Phil (lol) but this was the best i could find. still a good one.

np: neil young - live in London 1971 (CDR)

Saturday, April 12, 2008

inna Harry J digital stylee



for my latest reggaewiki (see the links sidebar) page, i started a discography of digital-era Harry J produced 12"s. check it out here. might want to click here and/or here if this sort of thing piques your interest. if there's any 12"s i've missed, '85ish-'89ish, lemme know. prob. at least a few i'm just failing to recall right now.

np: neil young & crazy horse - rust never sleeps (reprise LP)

LA REGGAE?


picked this one up at the recommend of a trusted fellow JA collector head. pretty interesting piece; far as i know/can see, nothing else known about the label, producer, artists, or even the year this was released. that it was apparently made in/from LA is what makes it most curious. recorded in JA or USA? American artists or JA artists? mid '80s? early '90s? who knows. definitely a solid 12incher with a nice real rock cut for the a-side "original dreadlocks man" - vocal into deejay. b-side "respect your freedom" also vocal into deejay on another nice rootsy '70s sounding rhythm. will post mp3's of both sides in a hot minute.

Friday, April 11, 2008

ENDLESS BOOGIE



one more post for this afternoon. Endless Boogie are playing in Jersey City tonight, info here. if a picture of these freaks wasn't enough to convince you, check the resume on three of these cats - A, B, C. nuff said. they've had a couple of records that are 'coming out soon' for like forever now, i hope they finally materialize sooner than later. anyway, i seen 'em live before and they were great, raw and loose extended jamming. i couldn't find a download link for their 2 also-great-and-too-limited self-released LP's from a couple years ago (their label is called A MOUND DUEL, lol), so please settle for this real audio (i know, i know) of their WFMU live set. jersey people, come out to the gig tonight! Dingo's will still be there later, i promise. PKWYSTL posse will be in full effect so leave all str33t b33f at home (unless you wanna be kontra'd, then we can take it there). see you in the pit.

EDIT: Jesse No Contest comes thru with uploads of both the aforementioned ltd. LP's! he had them labeled as 'Vol. 1' and 'Vol. 2', not sure what that means, as they seem to be generally referred to as 'white cover' or 'black cover' (both are s/t)...but here they are - click here vol. 1 and click here vol. 2. thanks jesse!

np: v/a - worries in the dance (empire LP)

Dashiell Hedayat



weirdo French head who was getting stoned with Daevid Allen, et al. in the late '60s, and made one hazy LP for Shandar in '71. jammed this today for this first time in a while. if you can deal with sometimes-whisper-spoken French vocals (not an easy task, i know), this is a grower. some nice organic jamming. don't fear the Gong connection (it's during their 'good' years anyway), this one is not overly fey or generally gross (in the bad way). features one of the great sleeve notes of all time - "warning: this record must be played as loud as possible, must be heard as stoned as impossible and thank you everybody." cop the album here or here. quick disclaimer for all future posts - unless otherwise indicated, all D/L links are stolen from other blogs/whereever and no degree of audio quality or even completeness is implied.

Yo Yo Eggbo

yo, welcome to my new blog. no bullshit, just the new place for my various ruminations, musical and otherwise. kind of necessary since the breakup of R/A/D and the de-facto death of the Parkway Steel blog. i should have started this like two months ago when i first got back, but whatevs. so get down now, from the jump off. first post in a hot minute.

np: van morrison - astral weeks (warner bros. cd)