A To Z: Incunabula - Autechre

I first decided I wanted to delve into the world of electronic music somewhere around the year 2000. This was the beginning of my teenage years, the time in our lives where we are finding out our likes and dislikes, why we like the things we do and more importantly - we are getting bored of things we have always assumed to be "good."

High school became the place for me to become the music snob of my friends. Not so much in a formal setting, but within my own mind I was discovering new things daily. Electronic music was one of these things. Like many people my age, I was inspired by Radiohead's "Kid A" album and the bleeps and bloops that were found consistently through that record. I fell in love with "Idioteque", learning the words and wanting to devour more music like it. I didn't know where to start, so I asked around the internet.

The first album someone told me to get was "Music Has The Right To Children". I loved it instantly and still consider it one of my very favorite albums of all time. Through my own narrow investigation I was discovering that my preferences heavily leaned on the side of abstract, experimental dance music. Somewhere I ran into the term "IDM" which I hung above my peers as a beacon of how I was better than them, because I listened to INTELLIGENT dance music, none of this trance shit. I soon found my way to "Tri Repetae++" a collection that is about as out there as IDM got and perhaps the genre's finest offering. I liked the album a lot, but never fell in love with it. The years have carried on and while I've recognized that Autechre fans are some of the most dedicated that I talk with, I've never quite understood the hype. Until very recently.

Over the past few months, I've begun to delve into the early days of Warp Records. I mainly credit people like Flying Lotus and the other Brainfeeder artists for this, but the Warp20 compilation is an amazing collection of music and I wanted to go back and revisit all the things I wasn't around for during the "Artificial Intelligence" days.

"Incunabula" didn't do a whole lot for me the first time I heard it. But I listened to it while commuting around for work the following day and it made sense. You've heard it before: you're driving in the rain, the traffic is start and stop, you get a few stretches of open road and the music that is playing through your car stereo is just the most perfect thing you could be listening to at that point. I've been hooked on this record a bit for the last few weeks, pulling it out about every other day during work or at night to listen to.

It may be the most "accessible" of Autechre's work, it may also be the best. It can sound a bit dated compared to today's standards and it's hard to recognize the duo that created this record in 1993 is still putting out cutting edge electronic music in 2010 that is completely different.

I'm going to fill the gaps in my Autechre collection in, but for now - "Incunabula" will strike me as the high point in what many consider to be the most forward thinking act in electronic music.



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A To Z: Eccsame The Photon Band - Lilys

There are certain records in all of our collections that we might praise, but ultimately undervalue. "Yeah, wow that IS a great record, I almost forgot about it!"

I've had Eccsame the Photon Band for years and listened to it quite a few times. At the behest of some friends and contemporaries I was constantly reminded that I should give this album it's due, but typically brushed it aside. It's underrated, under-mentioned, nearly unheard in comparison to similar records of the era. I knew it was good, but it wasn't until recently that I actually realized how good this record actually is.

Always placed within the confines of the shoegaze genre, the Lilys foray into the wonderful world of distorted guitars sounds nothing like Loveless or Nowhere. Listening to the record, you can make out individual guitar chords, hear the lyrics and never feel overwhelmed by the oft-suffocating limits and compression of records that employ sounds we typically deem "shoegaze." Eccsame sounds and feels like it has room to breathe. These are ostensibly pop songs hidden beneath the veil of distortion and slow-tempos. There are instances of extended guitar flourishes and electronic washes, but the pop songs remain just under the surface - seeking their way out of the haze, embedding themselves in your head.

No, this isn't My Bloody Valentine or even Slowdive - this is a less epic Stone Roses, a Byrds album recorded for the autumn, it's almost Yo La Tengo. This album could only be a product of the middle 1990's, a product of every band doing similar things at that time AND those bands' influences. This isn't party music, it's not music to listen to while hanging out with friends. The album is taken in best when you take it in alone. That's what I've done many times over the past week. Do I think it's an all-time classic now? No I still don't, but I don't think I'll ever undervalue Eccsame The Photon Band again. It deserves a place among the giants of the genre and the giants of your collection.


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Joey Beltram - Classics (Compilation, 1996)

I'll outright say it: there are hundreds if not thousands of other music blogs out there that will better serve your techno and dance music desires. I like lots of techno and electronic music as much as other genres, but as a single and club-based medium, I'm definitely not the guy who is going to turn you onto the new big thing. When it comes to modern stuff, I just listen to critics and some fans, get what they tell me to and assume it's going to be good. Oftentimes, it isn't. It has kept my techno and house collection fairly modest.

After trying my hand at the ever-growing current minimal scene, I've discovered that much of it isn't for me. However in that revelation, I've finally turned my attention to some of the pioneers of the dance genres, Joey Beltram (under his numerous guises) being one of them.

Classics collects 13 (classic) dance cuts from the New York based artist. Even the uninitiated techno fan has probably heard tracks like "Energy Flash" and "My Sound" but as the compilation title tells us...these are not just run of the mill compositions.

I can't tell you about Beltram's influence on any scene. I can't recollect any sort of memory of seeing the guy live. I can't tell you about the effect his tracks have in dance clubs. I can tell you that right now, July 27, this compilation is hitting me hard all over again.

When the music is this good, this..."classic"...you don't have to find yourself in the club to enjoy it.

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The Nonce - World Ultimate (1995)

Recently watched the 2008 documentary film "This is the Life" that looks at the hip hop scene known as The Good Life. Named after a restaurant in Los Angeles in the early 90s, the scene birthed such underground legends as Freestyle Fellowship (Mikah 9, Aceyalone, P.E.A.C.E and Self-Jupiter), Abstract Rude, Chali 2na, Cut Chemist, Busdriver, Pigeon John and loads of others that time has forgotten.

While The Good Life was centered around stage performances and freestyles, urging creativity and style above actual substance, there are a handful of outstanding albums to come from Good Life alumni. One of these album is "World Ultimate" by The Nonce.

I won't try to encapsulate the short-lived career of The Nonce, you can find it online or by downloading the video I have included in this post taken from the Documentary previously mentioned. The Nonce consist of Nouka Base and Yusef Afloat (RIP). The music contained within is often called the West Coast A Tribe Called Quest. Super smooth, jazzy beats that have a decent bottom, excellent rapping that just rides the beats. Hip Hop music you can get lost in. Beautiful record and definitely a forgotten classic. Posting their classic single "Mixtapes" right below this, and then the album included. Enjoy the summer, play this over and over.



Video link removed. Visit the website here!
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Dru Down - Can You Feel Me (1996)

So let's look at what I've posted recently: 70's jazz, two modern classical compositions by a Russian, another 70s experimental jazz album, awesome P-Funk related guitar album, some minimalism with Steve Reich, and then 4 Mamas & Papas easy vocal music.

Seriously lacking some hip hop.

You know I could go through the hip hop I have and post classic shit from NY or albums that were overlooked that I feel are classic (you can go back to my Scientifik post). But I'm not going to. It's slowly turning into summer, I'm graduating and moving to the Bay Area and the past 2 weekends I have heavily listened to some West Coast gangsta shit that I remember from when I was younger. This past weekend I suddenly remembered Dru Down and his classic (yes, classic) 1996 LP "Can You Feel Me"

Lots of people know Dru Down from Po Pimpin and all that shit, but this is his masterpiece. True funky west coast rap. Charismatic rapping almost solely about pimping and ho's and the bass/g-funk sound so heavy it'll rattle every speaker. I probably hadn't heard the music on this album since 6th grade...probably like 10-11 years. Yet listening to it again after all this time I'm amazed by how well I remember these songs. I can recite "Baby Bubba" and "Can You Feel Me" almost word for word, and at least know the chorus to about every other song on the album.

Listen guys and gals. Sometimes we need music like this. While I grow up and realize that I can't really listen to people like Eminem like I once obsessed over, I'm remembering my love for Bay Area and LA hip hop from the 90s, before all that hyphy bullshit. Of course I still prefer golden age NY stuff, but this music is essential weekend listening.

Enjoy.

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Alfred Schnittke - Violin Concertos No. 3 & 4 (1991)

The second set of Violin Concertos from 20th century composer Alfred Schnittke! Look, two posts in two days and about 12 hours! Got the liners on this, so I might as well...

Concerto No. 3 for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (1978)
This work was originally intended to form part of a programme in which Hindemith's Piano Concerto and the Chamber Concerto of Alban Berg were to be played. This determined the orchestral forces of my piece, which sum up those of the other two pieces but which also influenced the sound concept of my concerto: thirteen wind instruments and only four strings produce an inequality of weight. I found a solution to this problem in saving the strings for the third movement, where they enter for the first time and replace the wind sound towards the end of the composition.

The title original planned, Canticum canticorcum, which I eventually renounced since I am against programmatic explicitness, found a certain reflection in the concerto's musical language (for example, in the soloist's initial cadenza). But there are also quite different influences at work - those of Russion Orthodox church music (in the final chorale of the first and third movements) and German Romanticism (the forest music at the beginning of the third movement which, despite the horn fifths and fluctuations between major and minor, is not a quotation from Schubert or Mahler). And the atonal idiom also leads naturally on occasion to twelve-note themes, but never to twelve-tone rows. the combination of these tonal spheres is not subject to any constructional principle: I merely followed my ear's commands.

I have long been preoccupied by the opposition of the tonal and the atonal. In this work I tried to construct a unified system of intonations linking the two soundworlds organically - that is, not only through the contrasting effects of night and day but also by means of the morning and evening transitions and the ever-present play of shadows and colour modulation. Atonality can be reached from any point in tonality (and vice versa).

The Violin Concerto's three movements follow the scheme of double contrasts (slow-fast-slow) and are played without a break. The solo part makes no virtuoso demands on the soloist and is predominantly melodically conceived. The first performance took place January 1979 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
-Alfred Schnittke

The meeting and co-existence of a variety of forms of musical material, a variety of worlds of style and imagery - these probelms are central in Alfred Schnittke's Third Violin Concerto. The orchestral forces are similar to those used in Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto for violin, piano and thirteen wind players (1925). Additionally there are four string players, whose entry marks the beginning of the finale, of the illumination and alleviation of the general atmosphere.

The three movements of Schnittke's concerto are there different stages or aspects of one idea. The first movement, emerging from the soloist's tense trills, presents the 'prehistory', as it were. Here one may discern the most important spheres of imagery in the concerto: firstly the intensively expressive, tauntingly enraged, dissonant structure of intervals which serves as the point of departure for the rebelliously unbalanced second movement; secondly the light and conciliatory major/minor flickering of triad runs, which finally becomes decisive in the finale; and finally the strict chorale, the most important of the elements, which concludes the flow of events like an epitaph.

The second and third movements merely develop the 'theses' of the first; they unfold a temporally calculated concept. The strongest contrast arises before the beginning of the finale: a storm-wave of contradictions and passions crashes down in an aleatory culmination; the musical material shatters into the tiniest fragments. And here, amidst the catastrophe, like an illusion of ghostly harmony, horn fifths suddenly appear - in the music of past centuries the frequently-occurring symbol of problems happily resolved. The sound here is devoid of the unambiguity acquired through the centuries; doubt shines through the major/minor play of light and shadow...The tide of music finds no rest; it hurries on into the depths of centuries, eventually finding its hold in a universal, eternal symbol: the chorale.
-Alexander Ivashkin

Concerto No. 4 for Violin and Orchestra (1984)
My Fourth Violin Concerto, a commission from the Berlin Festival, is dedicated to my dear friend Gidon Kremer, as a sign of my great admiration and most heartfelt thanks. Gidon has contributed decisively to the spread of my works, both through countless performances and also by inspiring and stimulating other musicians. For this reason the musical material on this four-movement concerto is taken from monograms of Gidon Gremer and of myself - and in the last movement also of three other kindred souls, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina and Arvo Part. It is not, however, a constructed Babel (except for the perpetuum mobile passacaglia in the second movement); rather it is an attempt to create a melodic tension both between one note and another and also between notes and rests, with free application of techniques both 'new' and 'old'. Two beautiful plush melodies (the first running through the entire piece as a fatum banale, the second appearing as a false relief in the third movement) are merely two 'corpses decorated with make-up'. On a few occasions (for example the 'cadenza visuale', second movement) a peep is ventured behind the curtain into the soundless, hypnotic music Hereafter - into the world of silent sound (otherwise called 'rest'). But these are only moments, brief attempts to fly; the foundering descent back into the world of sound is inevitable. Or is it?
-Alfred Schnittke

The Fourth Violin Concerto dates from 1984. The concerto is unquestionably one of Schnittke's preferred musical forms. The previous violin concertos had demonstrated quite different compositional methods on Schnittke's part. This piece confirms his path towards greater simplicity, towards love for tonal, extremely straightforward musical figures. A large romantic orchestra is required, reinforced by instruments of striking sonic character such as the saxophone, the felaxatone (usually confined to lighter music) and most especially by an unconventional battery of chord instruments: xylophone, glockenspiel, marimba, vibraphone, bells, celesta, harpsichord and piano. Schnittke employs these last-named instruments principally for the support and coloration of static textures. The idea of a colossal Basso continuo, the chordal accompaniment of baroque music, must have been determining significance in this respect.

The Fourth Concerto has four movements. The sequence Andante-Vivo-Adagio-Lento makes it plain that a measured and well audible tone takes precedence over virtuoso passages. Right at the beginning of the first movement, important structural elements are presented. After a reverberating bell motif we hear a peculiarly plain, warm theme in A flat major, its instrumentation rather gentle and peaceful (woodwind and horn). With its tonic/dominant exchange it is intentionally trivial, like an exponent of another, lost musical language. The solo violin tries to attune itself to this, but upon its entry the veil of comfort is torn aside. A dissonant chord, including all twelve notes of the tonal system, is rudely inserted; the violin continues the melodic development with a harsh friction of semitones and broken chords. The mood only brightens when the violin takes up the opening bell motif. The plain theme then occurs once more, this time in C sharp minor, and - richer, as it were, in experience - shot through with distracting notes. The first movement concludes with the return of the bell motif, this time over a dissonant, static string structure.

This movement has not only seen the exposition of the musical material but also the erection of the compositional principle: the zones of insecurity lurk behind apparently tranquil beauty. The entire concerto is to be understood in this light. The lively second movement is basically one large cadenza over intricate broken chords from the soloist. At the movement's climax, with ever more rugged breakings, the tone of the soloist becomes more and more 'faded out' - Schnittke calls this a 'cadenza visuale', with the utmost passion but almost devoid of the means to express it. Only after a grandiose entry by the previously silent strings on the note G (the lowest note on the violin) does the soloist regain his tone - but at this point the movement breaks off. The remaining two movements advance other attitudes, stated at their respective outsets, onto a higher plane. In the third, the destabilization of an emphatically beautifully conceived melody is driven forwards; the fourth returns to the serene peace of the bell motif from the beginning of the work.
-Dr. Reinhard Schulz

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Alfred Schnittke - Violin Concertos No. 1 & 2 (1990)

As with lots of my classical posts, I will type up a portion of the liner notes, because they describe the music better than I can. I like this a lot. That's about as good as I get.

Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra
Schnittke' s Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra (1957, revised 1963) is rich in ideas and explores a wide range of emotions. Great inventiveness is shown in the treatment of the solo instrument, but the composer's attention is centered not on the virtuoso aspect but on violin cantilena. The wealth and unique beauty of its melodies are among the most attractive qualities of the concerto.

The principal subject of the first movement (in sonata form) begins with a flowing melody from the solo violin. The unusually complicated melodic outlines of the principal theme in combination with the complex rhythmic pattern suggest concentrated searchings, painful deliberation. The initial motives from this theme become interwoven with almost all the themes in the other movements, playing røle of leading motives. The subsidiary subject of the first movement, with a characteristic augmented second, also acquires an important place in the dramatic development.

The second movement is a rushing scherzo based on the alternation and development of three themes, all of which are related to one other. They are unified by a poignant nervous rhythm, angular melodic contours and "sharp" bowing. The concerto's leading motive is easily distinguished in the melody of the first theme.

The third movement opens with a tranquil and songful themes, also containing the leading motive. The middle section, wholly based on thematic material from the first movement, comes as a startling contrast to the calm and lucid song. After the statement of an agitated - yet flowing - theme by the solo instrument (this theme is close to the subsidiary theme for the first movement), contrapuntal development begins in the orchestra. This episode, where the evenly-paced counter-subject recalls the outlines of the leading motive, leads to a tensely dramatic climax.

The leading motive undergoes transformation in the resolute and resilient principal subject on the fourth movement (in sonata form); its melodic outlines become simpler and more definite, its rhythm clear-cut and precise. The Finale's playful and whimsical second theme resembles the subsidiary theme of the first movement. The closeness of the two themes becomes still more apparent when, after the statement of this second theme, the subsidiary subject from the first movement itself makes and appearance. A brief development section is followed by a recapitulation and an extended concluding section which presents, one after another, the two themes from the first movement and the themes of the Finale in reverse order.

The concerto was first performed over the air on 26th November 1963 by Mark Lubotsky and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
-M. Yakubov

In autumn 1956, while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, I began this violin concerto. I called it my Opus 1 - the last opus number I have hitherto assigned. The concerto was not reworked until 1963, and then to an apparent continuation with the quite different Violin Sonata No. 1 - but everything written until then was wrong, and has remained so.

Above all, I see a desperate striving to find myself in the work of this concerto. This quest as very rarely successful, indeed only on occasions - the unison theme at the beginning, the climax in the third movement, the final coda. It was a sound world of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, overshadowed by Shostakovich and adorned with the orchestral conventions of the day. But there was also a tiny breath of everything that was to come later, and for this reason it should remain, with all the faults of a first violin concerto...
-Alfred Schnittke

Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
The solo violin begins with a broad rhythmically expressive cadenza in which a central function, akin to that of a pedal point, is assigned to the note G.

At the sound of a bell a string cluster joins in, and immediately afterwards brief sound structures from the wind, piano or percussion interrupt the separate solo violin episodes. The solo violin starts a new espressivo, and like shadows the accompanying violins follow (with different bowing techniques); gradually they resolve themselves towards ever stronger independence. The thickening string sonority is ordered and driven on y impulses from the percussion (bongos and tom-tom). Then, however, the strings, which had been splayed out into total dodecaphony, unite with the soloist for a unison passage overlaid by the percussion. A double bass solo (against piano glissandi and comments from the percussion) leads to a long improvisation from all the accompanying instruments. This is followed by a very delicate sequence of non vibrato chords from the strings, with which the virtuosic soloist joins in. A further improvisatorial section from the orchestra is followed by a surprising change of scene: a brief solo cadenza introduces an episode rather like a slow foxtrot, played by the soloist accompanies by piano and percussion.

Once more the solo violin reaches the fundamental note G; as if in a reprise we hear the wind entries from the opening. A bell marks the soloist's last interlude, followed by a percussion intermezzo; then string clusters lead to the final phase of the piece. In steady rhythm, the solo instrument reaches out from his "note of departure" to fixed intervals. From individual glissando and pizzicato comments from the strings there gradually proceeds an orchestral climax of which the timpani take over the soloist's hammering motif. After this outburts, the soloist continues this motivic work - which is inexorable with its motoric drive - until, above gentle clusters from the strings and wind, the ostinato note G slips away into its opposite pole, F sharp, which had been expected throughout the piece.
-Jurgen Kochel

The Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Chamber Orchestra was written in 1966 at the behest of Mark Lubotsky, who also gave the first performanec on the occasion of the Jyvaskyla Festival in Finaland that year, conducted by Friedrich Cerha.

The concept which lies behind the work comes from a certain drama of tone colours: the soloist and the strings are treated in a linear, thematic manner whilst the wind and percussion are aggressively punctual and aleatoric. The double bass has the special role of a caricatured "anti-soloist". The sequence of several contrasting episodes shows clear signs of traditional formal structures: solo cadenza at the outset, exposition of the two sound spheres, Adagio episode, development climax, recapitulation, coda-finale.

A chromatic twelve-tone row serves as the thematic foundation, but there is nevertheless a center of melodic gravity, the constantly returning note G, which sometimes leads to an illusion of tonality, especially at the beginning and the end of the work.
-Alfred Schnittke.

Enjoy!

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Tarun Bhattacharya - Kirvani (1996)

Picked this up during one of my many visits to the university library. Didn't really expect much based on the gaudy cover, but it's pretty fantastic. Obviously, I don't know much about the musicians or anything else, so I'll type up the liner notes, which give light to it. Bear with me.

The Santur
An Indian adaptation of a stringed instrument found in Iran, turkey and elsewhere in the Middle East, the santur resembles a western hammered dulcimer, and is known technically as a box zither. The instrument contains up to one hundred strings and was developed and popularized on the Indian concert stage single-handedly by the Kashmiri musician Shivkumar Sharma, who remains the senior practitioner today. The challenge of the fixed pitch santur is to capture, as far as possible, a musical style based on traditional vocal music. Continuing the tradition of adaptation, Tarun has made some modifications to his instrument in both structure and technique.

Musical Influences
Tarun's own music education illustrates a multidirectional flow of diverse influences. Surrounded as he was by music (both is parents played the sitar) he began by playing tabla, the predominant percussion instrument of North India. As his interest in santur developed, he studied with his father's teacher, Calcutta's Pandit Dulal Roy, knowna s a performer on santur and the rare jaltarang (a series of water-tuned china bowls). Finally, Tarun chose as his ultimate mentor the world renowned Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitarist who in turn had studied with legendary Ustad Allaudin Khan (1862-1972). Allaudin Khan performed on the sarod, but he was an exceptionally versatile musician who taught more than a generation of India's senior masters on a variety of instruments.

This Recording
The performances on this CD include two South Indian (Carnatic) ragas played in North Indian style: Kirvani and Hamsa Dhwani. The Northern and Southern traditions share common historical and theoretical roots; both are based on ragas (melodic structures) and talas (rhythmic structures), but each is distinctly different in performance style, musical instruments, and ornamentation.

Track 1: Rag Kirvani
Rag Kirvani is the first selection, and its scale is the same as the western harmonic minor scale - seven notes, with flatted third and sixth. The first sounds we hear are a series of two-note chords innovatively plucked with the fingernails. These are followed by a downward cascading strumming on the full scale which introduces a brief alap, or non-rhythmic introduction. Following the crispness of his plucked notes, Tarun's continuous light hammering on the strings draws out the melody of the alap almost in a whisper. In developing the lower octave, Tarun demonstrates his innovative use of variable pitch: he has added a lower string to the instrument which he presses down and releases with one hand to create glides and sliding sounds otherwise impossible on the santur. In the continua-alap, Tarun explores the harmonic characteristic of Kirvani, often skipping notes in a type of arpeggio structure which recurs throughout the performance.
After an alap of approximately nine minutes which ascends all the way up to the top of the third octave, Tarun introduces a composition (gat) in a medium japtal rhythmic cycle (10 beats counted as 3-2-3-2). Bikram Ghosh (son of the renowned tabla master Shankar Ghosh) introduces the tala with a subtle and delightful improvisation which emphasizes the fluidity of the variably-pitched left hand drum, or bayan. The two performers, Tarun in the lead, then proceed to blend aspects of the raga with the assymetry of the tala in a sensitive and dramatic interaction. Tarun sometimes tempers bright tones by damping (lightly touching the strings) with the free hand. Both musicians, in their respective and joint improvisations, reveal their exceptional virtuosity and youthful energy.
Beginning at around nineteen and a half minutes, the performers begin the conclusion of the raga with a fast gat in tintal (sixteen beats), and a vigorous dialogue in the techniques known as sath sangat (playing the same complex rhythmic patterns together) and saval-javab (question and answer), in which one performer echoes the improvisations of the other. Once again, Tarun fully explores the tonal colors of the santur with a combination of open, muted, delicate and vigorous sounds, striking with the santur's delicate twin hammers. One of the final stages of the performance is the climactic section known as jhala, in which a sort of floating melody line is alternated with a rapid repeated striking of the tonic/drone strings.
A final saval-javab brings Rag Kirvani to its final jhala, and concludes with a thundering chakardar tihai, a cadential rhythmic pattern of three subdivisions which is repeated three times in closure.

As is customary in North Indian music after an extended performance of a serious raga, the musicians conclude with light classical pieces:

Track 2: Misra Anandi
The second piece is Misra Anandi, equivalent to the western major scale with a romantic ornamentation of a full range of accidental notes. A brief alap introduces a lyrical composition in the eight-beat tala known as kaharva. A final alap-like structure recounts the basic melodic structure of the raga.

Track 3: Folk Tune From Assam
The third piece is a beautiful Assamese folk tune, played in a scale parallel to a western major scale and with a light-hearted six-beat rhythm (tala) known as dadra.

Track 4: Rag Hamsa Dhwani
The recording concludes with a brief rendition of Rag Hamsa Dhwani, a pentatonic Carnatic raga. The scale does not use the fourth and sixth notes, and the remaining notes are played in the western major scale. After a brief alap, the musicians share a composition in medium fast ektal, a twelve-beat cycle. The variations here are simple and more traditional than those in the opening raga, and after a simple tihai, Tarun concludes this recording with a refined, sweet and gentle ending.

Awesome. Enjoy.

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Etta Baker - One-Dime Blues (1991)

Etta Baker was one of the most important and revered musicians of all time that created music in the Piedmont Blues style. For those unknown, the Piedmont blues is a finger-picking blues style that typically alternates bass strings plucked by the thumb that supports the melody on the rest of the strings. The effect is much more in line with the white string bands of the Appalachian region than with Delta Blues. The very fact that Etta Baker is so important an influential (she taught the style to Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan just to name two), is perhaps most remarkable because of the 35-year gap between her first recording in 1956, and this recording of 20 songs that came out in 1991.

The album is primarily focused on traditional and public domain blues songs and rags, and it heavily leans on instrumental numbers. However, Etta does sing on a few tracks and the aging in her voice lends something special to these songs.

You can listen to much of this album and think it is someone like a Jack Rose or John Fahey or many of the other famous ragtime guitarists that we think of, but something about the way that Etta plays just makes it connect on a whole level. It's really really beautiful and well...American.

I meant to post this on February 7th, when I uploaded it but I waited. It's great and everyone should download it.

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Etta Baker Wiki

Scientifik - Criminal (1994)

Classic (though very overlooked) 90s hip hop. Some of the all time best producers on here: Diamond D, Buckwild, RZA, some others. I believe this had real minimal distribution and that it may have not even had stateside distribution at all until like 2 years ago. Dude outta Boston. Just great shit along the lines of CL Smooth and that early 90s east coast stuff. Kinda reminds me a lot of Charizma as well for those who like him. Lots of mystery surrounding dude though, his girlfriend and him were found shot, with the initial idea that he shot her and then himself, but there was never any conclusive evidence. Anyway his two albums were re-released in 2006 and you should probably pick them up, in the last year this has become one of my all time favorite hip hop releases.

Boston area rapper Scientifik recorded at least two LPs in the 90s. But it is Criminal, which was denied a proper domestic release due to industry politricks, that lives on in the boom-bap afterlife of folklore, vinyl bootleg, hissy dub, and mp3 download. Criminal boasts a mid-90s dream team of producers – deities RZA, Buckwild, and Diamond D contribute beats – as well as a tragic, dramatic back story. Police theorize that Scientifik shot his girlfriend to death and then turned his gun on himself in late 1996, but the case is still officially unsolved due to incomplete evidence.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this record retains a cult following. It ain’t hard to tell why the music is still captivating. On the mic Scientifik is certainly competent, and by 1994 standards he operates correctly, dropping jewelz and relating crime sagas in a soldierly, commanding voice that flexes just enough to reveal his famished intensity. It doesn’t hurt that some of the beats are absolutely tremendous bangers. The mid-album string of “East Coast Jungle,” “I Got Plans,” and “Lawtown” is as good as it gets; each song typifies that ol’ brooding, moody, Gotham City at midnight hardcore rap sound that safe harbor mixshow DJs and their insomniac fans once coveted.

Criminal is a work teeming with skills that successfully panders to the consensus of aficionados; this is the album’s primary strength and its ultimate weakness. Even if we adjust for the era’s overflow of beloved gems and our current nostalgia for the cerebral street music of yesterday, we are left with mega-quality sans distinction. Guest verses from hugely magnetic legends Diamond D and Ed OG only accentuate Scientifik’s dearth of album-carrying charisma. Criminal lacks the dimension and enjoyability of similarly shelved and/or sabotaged mid-90s projects like Jemini the Gifted One’s Scars and Pain, even if its standout songs shine brighter.
-ohword.com

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Maxwell - MTV Unplugged EP (1997)

Maxwell never quite had the balls to do a music video entirely of just his naked body like D'Angelo, but he wasn't lacking any swagger. In 96-97 when Maxwell came out, he was probably a bigger commercial success than D'Angelo as well, scoring hits, getting pretty heavy MTV airplay and then of course doing this MTV Unplugged set, which at the time, seemed a little odd. It's a great set overall though. 7 songs, and just nice smooth soul of Maxwell loving himself and playing to the ladies in the audience. I like this record because the live setting allows Max to be a little more loose in his performances, really trying to channel those soul powerhouses of the 70s. They are sex jams, to be sure, but Unplugged has its own share of funky moments too.

I'm including a link to some blog that has a pretty great in depth review of the album, so you should check that out if you are at all hesitant.

Raindayjams Review

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Jerry Garcia & David Grisman - So What (1998)

So from the beginning of the 70s until his death, Jerry Garcia was an active participant (though not usually given his due) in to the "new grass" bluegrass revival scene. Most notable was his friendship with legendary mandolin player David Grisman. The two recorded many records together most of them striking a great calm balance between Grateful Dead and the bluegrass virtuosity that Rounder records was putting out at the time. This record, released in 1998 on Acoustic Disc is a collection of Miles Davis (and Milt Jackson) covers recorded in the early 90s. The disc actually has 3 different recordings of the classic "So What", two of "Bag's Groove" and "Milestones" and then right in the middle of the record is a Grisman original "16/16"

Though the record has little variety in the songs that are actually presented here, the musicianship and the unique takes on these familiar jazz tunes are perfect for fans of new grass and jazz equally. It's a really beautiful and enjoyable cd, with enough funk to get you nodding your head but enough relaxing strings to wake up with again and again. It is a great, unique recording and one of my favorites the duo put out.

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A To Z: X - XO by Elliott Smith

It is slim pickins' when you get to album titles that start with "X".

So I thought, well, why the hell not? Sure most people who come to this blog (which is what, 4 people?) have this album or heard it sometime when it was released and disregard it, maybe they love it. Who knows. It is sort of a staple of indie fans in the 90s and early 00's and a definite introduction to everyone who watched the Royal Tenenbaums as a teenager and loved the music.

It's probably my favorite Elliott Smith album and though it is sort of cool to hate on his music now, I won't. He was a great songwriter and I still love most of his songs, even if I don't listen to him nearly as much as 6 or so years ago. So, download it if you have somehow not heard it before or maybe go back through your cds or itunes and relisten to it if it has been awhile. It's a pop record that holds up.

A year before his major-label debut, XO, was released, it seemed unlikely that Elliott Smith would even be on a major, let alone having his record be one of the more anticipated releases of 1998. He had certainly earned a great deal of critical respect with his low-key, acoustic indie records and was emerging as a respected songwriter, but he hadn't made much of an impression outside of journalists, record collectors, and indie rockers. An Oscar nomination can change things, however. "Miss Misery," one of Smith's elegantly elegiac songs for Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, unexpectedly earned an Academy Award nomination, and he was immediately thrust into the spotlight. He was reluctant to embrace instant celebrity, yet he didn't refuse a contract with DreamWorks, and he didn't shy away from turning XO into a glorious fruition of his talents. Smith's songs remain intensely introspective, yet the lush, Beatlesque production provides a terrifically charming counterpoint. His sweetly dark melodies are vividly brought to life with the detailed arrangements, and they sell Smith's tormented songs -- it's easy to get caught up in the tunes and the sound of the record, then realize later what the songs are actually about. That's a sign of a good craftsman, and XO proves that not only can Elliott Smith craft a song, but he knows how to make an alluring pop record as well.
-Allmusicguide

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A To Z: W - Wanted: Dead Or Alive by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo

This is one of the first "classic" hip hop albums I ever got really into. Something about Kool G Rap's lightning quick delivery has always struck me as awesome, mainly because it just is. One of the best flows in all of hip hop history. And his lyrics are usually pretty classic to. A storyteller, a shit talker and just overall great and painting images. Love this classic east coast shit. If you're not familiar and want to see where some of those modern rappers get their fast raps from, G Rap was one of the first to do it like this.

Marley Marl remained on board, and Large Professor and Eric B. also hopped on to help produce Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's second album. With a wider range of sounds and the expansion of G Rap's lyrical range, Wanted: Dead or Alive is wholly deserving of classic status. The opening "Streets of New York" remains one of the most thrilling and unique rap singles released; the sparse rhythm, adorned with assured piano runs that complement the song to the point of almost making the song, falls somewhere between a gallop and a strut, and G RapKool G Rap's talent as an adept storyteller like nothing before or since. Likewise, "Talk Like Sex" is the nastiest, raunchiest thing he ever recorded, with "I'm pounding you down until your eyeballs pop out" acting as an exemplary claim -- as well as one of the few that is printable -- made in the song. The boasts, as ever, are in no short supply, but "Erase Racism" takes a break from the normal proceedings with guest spots from Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. It's both funny and sobering, with Biz Markie's Three Dog Night chorus providing comic relief after each verse. Adding yet another dimension to the album, DJ Polo throws in a hip-house instrumental that avoids coming off like a throwaway. This album is only part of a major swarm of brilliant rap records from 1990, but it will never be lost in it outlines more vivid scenes than one film could possibly contain. The track cemented Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's role as East Coast legends and showed .

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A To Z: S - Shleep by Robert Wyatt

I should probably first admit that I don't really know enough about Prog and the Canterbury scene to fully try to digest an artist like Robert Wyatt. No, in fact, it wasn't until last year that I actually delved into a few of Wyatt's solo releases (with the joy that Comicopera was), and I've loved most of the Soft Machine's albums for years.

Shleep is an excellent release in a pretty spotty discography, sounding very akin to a 70s ers Brian Eno record. The title of the record is apt, as it provides a great, hazy, beautiful, dream-like quality and atmosphere that is constructed around what are pretty decent pop songs. This record was not recorded in the 70s (though Eno did help), but it was recorded in 1997.

Anyway, it's a nice listen. Experimental and out there, but not nearly as bracing as much of his other work. It serves as a good introduction to an otherwise hard musician to digest.

Robert Wyatt was the drummer and founding member of the Canterbury, England based Soft Machine, who played arty, psychedelic, Pink Floyd-influenced jazz-rock fusion. Although his output has been spotty and sporadic, he has been revered for escaping the syrupy art-rock pretentiousness that his colleagues drowned in. Like Captain Beefheart, Wyatt has maintained a playfully unselfconscious experimentalism that may make for difficult listening, but is never boring. Shleep is a welcome comeback which, on first listen, reminded me of an old Brian Eno album. Sure enough, the booklet revealed that Eno did indeed arrange the first song, "Heaps of Sheeps." He also plays on two other songs. Wyatt's high, fragile voice is also similar to Eno's. Like this album, Wyatt's mid-70s solo albums, Rock Bottom (1974) and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975), mined the same cracks found between pop, art-rock and the avant-garde as Eno's post-Roxy Music solo albums of the same era. The main difference on Shleep is that the music is a gentler, prettier version of the old Wyatt, who could at times be abrasive in both sound and his ruthless politics. His lyrics are not all flight and whimsy, however. "Free Will and Testament" and "Blues in Bob minor" show that his politics have only grown more subtle in his old age, making more timelessly powerful songs in the long run.

-A.S. Van Dorsten
-Fast n Bulbous.com

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Tenner's: De La Soul

On a music message board I frequent, many of the participants have been making "tenners" over the last few weeks. What this means is that the members choose an artist that they really enjoy and choose ten tracks to make a mix. Many choose their ten favorite tracks and many opt for nice overview of the artist. It's a great concept to expose people to artists and I've made one for De La Soul: one of the most consistently great hip hop groups (if not the single most consistent) there is. It's not tagged really, but here is the tracklist and you can make the playlist if you wish. I think the "tenner" will be an addition to this blog.

1. Buddy (Three Feet High And Rising)
2. Held Down Ft. Cee-Lo (AOI: Bionix)
3. What's That? (Que Eso) Ft. Mos Def (Tony Touch Presents: The Piece Maker)
4. Copa (Cabanga)(Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump)
5. Three Days Later (Buhloone Mindstate)
6. It's A New Thing (It's Your Thing) (Isley Brothers: Taken To The Next Phase)
7. Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) (De La Soul Is Dead)
8. Itsoweezee (Hot) (Stakes Is High)
9. Freestyle (Dat Shit) 2006 (The Impossible Mission)
10. The Grind Date (The Grind Date)

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De La Soul Tenner

A To Z: J - Joya by Will Oldham

A look at my Last.Fm profile would reveal Bonnie 'Prince' Billy at the top of my most played artists. Granted, compared to many music fans like me, the number of plays is not anything to write home about, but he's still at the top. I have a certain obsession with Oldham's voice. I don't know what it is, it's not great, but it is still the best. I have an affinity for his beard, for his lyrics, for his acting in Old Joy.

Joya is an album where Will Oldham is...himself. Under his actual name, not the Palace or Bonnie moniker. The album isn't vastly different from his other recorded work, but it still retains the quality that we come to expect with an Oldham release.

As a reference point, I would say the album that sounds most similar to this record is 2005's Superwolf record with Matt Sweeney, primarily because the guitar work on this album. These aren't acoustic-in-an-unlit-room songs. These are plugged-in-but-playing-in-the-backyard-at-night songs. It's beautiful stuff, and is as essential as just about every other Oldham release, which is to say that it's very essential.

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Joya