Odawas - The Aether Eater

2005 release on the excellent jagjaguwar label. Odawas are a west coast two man psychedelic band, with ambient, spacy, and occasionally folky overtones, making them right up my street. The songs are delivered in a tremulous tenor that gels perfectly with the music. The music is generally strummed acoustic with hand drums or simple percussion, with drums on a few tracks. A fairly simple formula that is overlaid, often overloaded with a distant hazy wash of reverby keyboards, harmonica, spangles of space synth, blasts of noise and strange found sounds. It even gets a bit 'Dark Side Of The Moon' with the sax and vocals drenched 'Song Of Temptations'. It's a heady concoction, and highly successful, as well as quite lovely. The brevity of the songs helps - instead of protracted jams, we get short blasts of hazy psych sweetness.
Odawas have had two subsequent album; 'Raven And The White Night', which is also excellent, and 2009's 'The Blue Depths', which I haven't heard but will confidently predict is also very good. So check them out, and buy an album.

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Do Make Say Think -Do Make Say Think

Debut album from the still-going-strong DMST - scary to think that this came out way back in 1998. I saw them on tour shortly after at the Garage in Islington - the refurb of which I still have yet to see. I don't think I've heard all their output since, and the other albums I've heard have been decent, especially the new one; but none have bettered this. A lot of post rock albums in the intervening years are quite obviously influenced by other post rock, but this still has loads of influences from all over the shop. Like a lot of similar albums this has a strong dub element, with bass-led melodies, as well as references to post punk/industrial experimentalists; soundtracks, and prog/space rock. This music is also completely comfortable rolling along at a very slow pace, and letting the compositions unfold in their own time. Opener '1978' rumbles along for 9 low slung minutes before a guitar melody comes in. 'Highway 420', probably my favourite, is a definite throwback to the 70s - opting for a 'Wish You Were Here' style intro of shimmering synths which ushers in some space-country style guitar twanging; then a sax joins in, and the track becomes something like 1973 Gong stretched out to a 10th of its speed before dissolving into the ether in a blissful haze. It's not entirely laid back - 'Dr. Hooch' lays down a thundering and pretty menacing groove of strident bass, with alien attack siren synths cutting though the mix to slightly fry your brain. Later on, 'Disco & Haze' explodes with fuzz and wah guitar.
Another refreshing aspect of this album is that it steered away from the consciously epic crescendos of a lot of other instrumental and Constellation bands; relying on great grooves, tuneful embellishment and finely recorded analogue sounds to make its case. Terrific stuff that I've listened to countless times over the years.

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Dr John - The Sun, Moon And Herbs

Brilliant 1971 album from the swamp voodoo soul blues-meister from New Orleans. Dr John made a pretty consistent transition from the spooky twilight sounds of 'Gris Gris' to fairly standard (but still excellent) rocking R&B of mid 70s albums like 'Desitively Bonnaroo'. This album still retains some of the oddness ('Craney Crow' and 'Zu Zu Mamou' reprise the smoky voodoo feel of the previous album), and definitely the more sprawling arrangements of 'Gris Gris' - loping grooves sway along without a care in the world, in no rush at all. Dr John is in fine voice, and the interplay with the female backing group is fabulous. Everything is driven along by superb horn arrangements in a quite joyous fashion. An immensely enjoyable album, definitely recommended for lifting the spirits.

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Various - Temple Records NYC vol 1

More Germanic goodness from 1995. Despite that hippyish-looking cover this has nothing to do with trance, and comprises tracks by Khan, Walker and Jammin' Unit under various aliases. There are some nicely distorted monolithic robo-groovers in here, but the compilation is dominated by Khan rocking his 303 into oblivion on 'Blues', 'The Truckdriver' and the blistering acid of opener 'Praise The Lord' as the aptly named Madonna 303.
I went to the Temple Records shop in 2001, where I bought a couple of Khan 10"s. I wonder if it's still there.

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Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali - A Better Destiny

Stunning and spellbinding album by this group featuring two nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The MO is the same: this is intensely religious music, and the goal is to reach a higher spiritual state, or get closer to god. I feel like a bit of an amateur describing that side of it - it's the music that interests me (and quite a lot of my favourite music is religious) and the transcendent qualities come across powerfully. The group comprises two lead vocalists who perform the ecstatic improvisiational passages, in between trading call and response lines with the backing chorus, backed by harmonium and tabla and driven along by the handclaps of the chorus. This is such a brilliant formula and is richly harmonic and glorious. The opening track 'Ay Sarwey Naz Neney Mun (Holy Friend)' would be a Desert Island Disc selection for me. It's truly beautiful, and there is a tempo/key change near the end that is mind-blowing. I saw this group at Womad a few years back, and it was pretty incredible.

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State River Widening - State River Widening

1999 debut album of acoustic post rock loveliness. State River Widening are a trio featuring Kieron Phelan and David Sheppard who have also recorded an album under their own names, playing instrumental music of a very laid back and pleasing variety. Consisting almost entirely of real instruments - very nicely recorded shimmering electric guitar, acoustic, electric organ, and adorned with glockenspiel and vibes, this is music with a definitely sunny disposition, but is no less engaging for being sweet and light. It's not too dissimilar to The Sea And Cake without vocals, possibly being more syncopated and arpeggiated, and occasionally stepping up the tempo somewhat.
Ideally this music would soundtrack some hot sunny weather. We can live in hope.

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Joe Harriott - Indo Jazz Suite

You can see the full title on the cover above. Originally released in 1966 on Atlantic, this is a weird oddity - the kind of thing that sounds like it would be playing if you ever go into an Indian restaurant on acid. The opening 'Overture' is terrific: snaking eastern-tinged horns grooving over a simple foundation of tablas and sitar drone. I'm not sure how successful this is as jazz, but it's very groovy, and is pervaded by an unassailable air of strangeness. The soloing is fairly sparse, featuring plenty of muted trumpet, and there is lots of horns playing in unison - flute/sax etc, which I like a lot, being a bit of a jazz div.
My friend Sam found this on LP in a Chelmsford charity shop back in the day - what a great find. Luckily I bought the cd when it came out 10 years ago, as it now seems to have become a rarity.

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Laika -Sounds Of The Satellites

Another all-time favourite of mine from 1997. Mainly the work of Margaret Fiedler and Guy Fixsen, with Rob Ellis on drums. Fiedler and Fixsen were a seriously creative pair, and forged a unique and beautiful sound on this album especially, although all the Laika albums are pretty good.
Margaret fiedler has a breathy, gentle voice, and this is backed by a dense and rhythmical weave of layered percussion, samples and synths driven along by strong, rolling bass lines and excellent, offbeat drumming. Despite sounding quite alien, sometimes, and the strong electronica element, this music feels very organic: the synths are voice-like, and the massed percussion elements sound like insects chirruping in crepuscluar hedgerows. The sound is best showcased on 'Breather', an excellent song that goes into blissed out dub overdrive for the last two minutes. A relentlessly hypnotic rhythm is embellished with gentle percussion that sounds like it could be from any and no country in the world at once, but the really spaced out textures come from the synths - moogy and gorgeous sounds rise and fall, and weave around a tapestry of samples and percussion with perfect counter melodies. This is a track I would be quite happy to listen to if it went on for another 20 minutes. The opener 'Prairie Dog' is based around what is ostensibly a more trip-hop orientated beat, but again is raised way above the mainly pedestrian output of that genre by the brilliant amalgamation of sounds: electric piano, vibes, flute and an otherworldly, cello-like synth. 'Out Of Sight And Snowblind' has a brilliant, driving bass and drum foundation, with the same briliantly arranged synths in patterned filigree, and judicious use of echo on Guy Fixsen's voice again creating a hypnotic, rolling groove. 'Poor Gal' is a rhythmic beast in 7/8, driven by a pumping bass and punctuated with some aggressive guitar stabs to great effect.
It seems that Laika are unlikely to release any more records, which would be a great shame, as I think this is quite unique, beautiful, and very spaced out (and they were good live!). Guy Fixsen does not seem to have been too prolific as engineer/producer in the interim. However, I thought Margaret Fiedler had quit music entirely but I've just checked Wiki and she toured with Wire as guitarist on tour in 2008, so maybe it will happen.

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White Dot Techno 2

Time for some more techno, I think. 9 more top tunes from back in the day - if you were clubbing a lot in the mid 90s you may well have heard all of these tracks played out, and I'm sure a few of them are still played regularly, particularly Dave Clarke's Red 2 and Red Planet's Stardancer. The latter was absolutely hammered in London clubs when it came out, and it took me a while to track down in the days before the internet, as usually I was too busy going mental to try and see what was revolving on the decks at the time.
As far as I am concerned, these tracks are all brilliant. From the house/techno crossover anthem of Planetary Assault System's Booster; the brain-mashing sound that permeates Teste's The Wipe to the face-punching aggro of Mark Bell's Hardfloor remix.
I think my favourite, though, would have to be possibly the least well known track. Secret Cinema's Jeroen Verheij turns in an epic remix of Yantra's 360. Driven along by a bashing snare breakbeat and razor sharp cymbals and percussion, before a subtle rasping bassline comes in, this track takes off into a weird spacy soundscape with alien synths echoing around. Strange and brilliant, as well as being a terrific techno stormer.
Bitrates vary as before, but it all sounds pretty good to me.
Tracklist:
1 - Dave Clarke - Wisdom To The Wise ['Red 2', Bush]
2 - Dave Angel - Bounce Back [R&S]
3 - The Martian - Stardancer [Red Planet, by Mad Mike Banks]
4 - Teste - The Wipe (5am Synaptic) [Plus 8]
5 - Planetary Assault Systems - Booster [Peacefrog, by Luke Slater]
6 - Yantra - 360 (Flutter Mix) [Music Man, remix by Jeroen Verheij]
7 - Laurent Garnier - Astral Dreams (Speaker Mix) [F Comm]
8 - Slam - Positive Education (2nd Morganistic Mix) [Soma, remix by Luke Slater]
9 - Hardfloor - Strikeout (Orbit Mix) [Harthouse, remix by Mark Bell]

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Back Door - Back Door

Debut album from 1973 by this bass/drums/sax trio. All instrumental, this is a terrific display of musicianship by all three members - playing super-tight, punchy, proggy jazz rock for the most part. The drums and sax are both excellent, but the virtuoso bass of only surviving member Colin Hodgkinson is the real highlight, driving the sinewy melodies with some inspired percussive sounding picking and slapping, demonstrated by the dazzling ensemble playing on 'Catcote' - similar to the super-prog section of '21st Century Schizoid Man'. There are deviations - the gorgeous bass solo 'Lieutenant Loose' is splendid, the lyrical duo of bass and sax on 'Turning Point' is truly marvellous, and the flute and bass track 'Human Bed' grounds the band in the early 70s, sounding more like contemporaries Traffic. Sharp-eared listeners will spot a sample used by the Beastie Boys (on Paul's Boutique, I think) from 'Slivadiv', way back when this was a real obscurity. I actually paid £20 fro this on vinyl back in the early 90s - I was going to photograph the original artwork for this post, but I think it's been in my 'buried' vinyl stack since I got the timely cd re-issue back in 2000. Also the original artwork is not that great.
This is a real unique gem, and thoroughly enjoyable due as much to the good tunes as the playing. I recommend checking out some clips of Colin Hodgkinson on Youtube.

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Tindersticks - Waiting For The Moon

2003 album from this magnificent band. I was going to post the masterpiece that is their second album, but someone requested this one, and it's a beauty. I feel that a band as consistent and durable as this often fade almost into background noise in the world of music - only a trickle of new fans are won, although there is a significant and loyal fan base. I am guilty in this respect - I only realised they had a new album out whilst I was idly browsing discogs. I promptly bought it, and you should too: this band are a glorious institution.
Singer Stuart Staples has a unique voice - a quavering, world-weary baritone that suggests fragility as well as a plethora of hedonism experienced. This a collection of really strong songs, which are only improved by the the great arrangements: string sections along with Dickon Hinchcliffe's lead violin; horns; vintage organ all create a warm, fuzzy, sumptuous envelope around the shuffling songs which inhabit the region somewhere between Nick Cave and Lee Hazelwood (not a huge region, admittedly, but a fabulous one.) This is most evident on the beautiful, string soaked duet with Lhasa De Sela on 'Sometimes It Hurts'.
I first saw Tindersticks in Dublin promoting the second album, and it was pretty incredible - a real emotional revelation that completely blew me away, and is still one of the best gigs I've ever seen.

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I also highly recommend the second album, Curtains, Can Our Love. And everything else by them.

The Necks - The Boys OST

The Necks are an Australian instrumental 3 piece who have been around for over 20 years. The basic formula is piano, bass and drums, and they display a mastery of both their own instruments and their overall sound. This is not expressed in explosive virtuoso passages, even though they definitely play jazz tinged music: they play acoustic instruments, but they also explore the usually minimal themes of their music, with the same kind of repetition and recapitulation of motifs and themes that you would normally find in jazz. However, they usually do it in an elegant and sedate way that owes as much to post rock as it does to any jazz master, and on this album there are understated embellishments, such as small blasts of distorted guitar, some reversed atmospheric echo, and wonderful electric organ. Often their albums and gigs will be a single piece of music, but on this disc, the soundtrack to 1998 Australian film The Boys, there are seven. This does include three ten minute plus tracks to give you a good illustration of their MO, not to mention three versions of the main theme, which is superb - a brooding and noirish piano led theme, full of menace and rippling with atmosphere. Although many tracks and the addition of extra noises to the mix may make this a more expansive and less representative Necks album, they also help it to be fantastically listenable.

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Ausgang - Electric Arc

Another space rock one man band, this was released on the Foundry label in 1999. Similar in many ways to Tank, this consists of spacy instrumental jams and grooves, with a heavier sound, something akin to Tank meets Appliance. Bass and drums groove away, with some nice fuzz guitar lines rocking out, and a thick smear of psychedelia spread over the top. Moogy sputterings, warm organ drones, and lots of tape manipulation comprise most of the cosmic layer, heard to good effect on the 14 minute epic 'Projectile Crockery'. Tapes of various horns are sped up and slowed down manually, and generally messed around with; while the warmly distorted bass and guitars groove away, before it breaks down into a chaotic synthy sci fi soundscape. 'Speak To Me' adds a bit of radio noise to the mix, and there are some more ambient or Krautrock experimental passages, but the albums never strays too far from the template of cheerful freakout, and is great fun.

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Lee Perry - Produced & Directed By The Upsetter

This is probably my favourite Lee Perry compilation. Although Arkology was really thorough, and has some stupendous music on it (notably Junior Murvin's 'Tedious', which has the incredible dubbed out section that isn't on the current cd), it was just a bit overwhelmingly large. What makes this one so good is the strength of the individual songs as much as Perry's studio wizardry. The production varies from the economical and punchy, to the spacious and weird, as you would expect, but every song is excellent, with some superb horn arrangements and vocal harmonies. The vocalists on here range from well known acts like Junior Murvin and The Heptones, to more obscure names like Winstone Heywood and King Burnett. I can't help thinking of the fantastic film Rockers when I listen to these lesser known artists - they knew they had a great song, probably had to fight to get it recorded, and made bugger all money out of it. The lyrical subjects runs the gamut, from relationship traumas, to problems with the police, to politics, and serve up a brilliant snapshot of Jamaica in the mid 70s. Of course, there is a dub for every song, but I think the great element of Perry's genius demonstrated on this disc is his ability to complement the vocal versions with perfect backing tracks.
Also, this one is worth downloading for the utterly amazing 'Guide Line' by George Faith. Apparently this was from an album which he recorded in 1978, just before Lee Perry lost the plot in a big way and burned down the studio. Most of this album was never released, which is a terrible shame.

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Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira OST

Fabulous soundtrack from what is still one of the best anime films ever, in my opinion. It's scary to think that this came out in 1988. From the opening peal of thunder on 'Kaneda' this is spine tingling stuff, as a chorus of beautifully musical drums and wooden percussion introduces some brilliantly arranged choral work. It's pretty unique and breathtaking, and one of my favourite tracks ever. The themes are reprised with variations on the epic last track 'Requiem', which adds some serial/minimal keyboards, and even more layers of awesome choral lines. The whole album is a brilliant exploration of what can be done with tuned woody percussion, bells, drums and voices, with some additional sampling and sequencing - the almost techno explosion of rhythm that is 'The Battle Against The Clowns', with voices chopped in, and tiny beacons of melody. There are also the more traditionally synthy sounds on 'Winds Over Neo Tokyo', and the whole album blends these styles in a perfect balance, and the result is a unified suite of almost modern classical composition.
I always thought Geinoh Yamashirogumi was a person, but it's a musical collective. So I'm off to search the web for some more of their output, and I think another viewing of Akira is in order.
There is a shorter Akira soundtrack; this one is the 9 track, 56 minute one.

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Nodern - Nodern

A rather obscure electronica album from 2005 on the Sub Rosa label. It's a shame there seems to be no follow up releases, as this is brilliant, and Nodern clearly has some real talent. This music would definitely be at home on the Rephlex label - it has the same stuttering weird beats and synths as classic Aphex material, and both the beats and the melodies are classy. Their is also a trippy and disturbing element to a lot of this, too - 'The Coal Mine Worker' is a freaky slice of genius, with cut up whisper snippets above mysterious curdling synth drones. 'Letter Puncture Pnx Pass' rocks along with some classic electro sounds and great melodies over a swinging shuffling beat. 'The National Republic Of Hairlip' has more well programmed chopped up speech over springy beats, and builds up a sense of uneasy menace with some brooding, dark synths. Like the best parts of this album, it inhabits a strange place, where the sounds from other realities seem to be leaking in. The tunes are generally melancholic, and this makes a nice combination with the messed up beats and weirdbeard cut up and time-stretched oddments.
I hope this isn't going to be the last Nodern record ever.

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Current 93 - I Have a Special Plan for This World

Released in 2000 on Durtro. This is a single 22 minute track, consisting of David Tibet speaking words by American author Thomas Ligotti, with a minimal industrial/ambient musical backing. The words are remarkably dark, intense and apocalyptic; and David Tibet's voice is perfect for them - hinting at a kind of staring-eyed derangement. The speech is delivered in segments, as if they are being played on a portable tape player, with the sound of the play button being pressed. In between, there are weird granulated speech sounds, and a chilling tomb-like drone throbs all the way through.
Bleak and unsettling - one to listen to on your own, in the dark.

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Bill Wells et al - Pick Up Sticks

Collaborative effort of four artists coming from two distinct (-ish) backgrounds - Scot Bill Wells and prolific trombonist Annie Whitehead from a predominantly jazz background, and the Germans Barbara Morgenstern and Stefan Schneider (also in To Rococo Rot) from electronica. Of course, the boundaries of what these artists produce are not anywhere nearly so clearly defined, but the resulting mini album (just over 20 minutes) seems to be balanced perfectly in the middle. It's a set of 8 sketches that combine horns, both natural and processed, with electronica and the more laid back and glacial end of the post rock spectrum. There are often similarities with To Rococo Rot's excellent debut Veiculo, but the brass definitely adds a lot to the mix. These would perfectly soundtrack a drama of the more sombre type, although there are low glowing embers of warmth and tenderness throughout, as well as moments of stark beauty. In fact 'Three Line Prayer Pt 2' is magnificent, and a real favourite of mine.
A really nice downbeat little gem. Released on Leaf, 2004.

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Roy Harper - Stormcock

This is undoubtedly Roy Harper's masterpice. From 1971, it's ostensibly a one-man-and -his-guitar singer/songwriter album, and begins that way. Harper's beautiful, querulous voice, always betraying his roots in the north west of England, accompanied by his own acoustic (well, two tracks of acoustic). The four tracks on this album, though, are epic in every sense - in length, scope, and arrangement. Roy Harper often double-tracked his vocals, a technique that seemed to suit his voice particularly well, usually with a perfectly rich envelope of reverb, and on the first track 'Hors d'Ouvres' he is backed up halfway through by an otherworldly chorus of his own multi-tracked vocals, and electric organ. This was recorded at Abbey Road, and has that beautiful ringing clarity so redolent of that time and place, like on The Pretty Things' Parachute, or Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. 'The Same Old Rock' follows, Jimmy Page adding some glorious acoustic lead work. This is an amazing track, switching between yearning and sombre moods as the different sections move along, until Harper is backed again by his own space-choir, brilliantly arranged to spine-tingling and psychedelic effect. 'One Man Rock And Roll Band' has a touch of eastern-raga-blues, with some light phaser(?) type effects on the vocals, and strangely flowing vocal phrasing. The Final track 'Me And My Woman' is an amazing track, beginning with a more traditionally English Folky tune, and some of the most haunting and gorgeous backing vocal arrangements, and some fabulous orchestra, arranged by David Bedford. This ranges from doomy strings, to plaintive clarinet, to Atom Heart Mother-style brass, all the time melding perfectly to Harper's long and winding song structure. It is a truly brilliant way to end this masterpiece of an album.

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Buy it
Also highly recommended is Flat Baroque And Berserk.

Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit - Secret Rhythms 2

Second installment in an ongoing (and hopefully endless) series of collaborations between sound designer/genius Burnt Friedman and Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit. Although this would probably be classified as electronica, there are other musicians on this disc - notably reed player Hayden Chisholm, who I recognise from a number of other Friedman records - and the sound is definitely one of a band, although it's very hard to categorise the exact sound. It's a mellow and spacy blend of electronica, jazz and post rock. The instrumentalists provide backing, and, presumably, sound sources for Friedman to manipulate - there is always a shimmering haze of morphing and drifting ambience behind the picked acoustic guitar, reeds, vibes, and Jaki Liebezeit's springy drums. The temptation is always to describe this awesome drummer as metronomic, as he so often was in Can, but many of the tracks on this disc are in strange time signatures, and he plays around the beat, often adding an accent on unexpected drum hits.
David Sylvian sings on 'The Librarian' (also on the Nine Horses album), and this is probably the most traditional track - a sung song. The following track 'Mikrokasper' shows the other end of the spectrum - very electronic, delicate and beautiful, it sounds like it was created almost entirely in post production from samples. The next track, 'Niedrige Decken', perfectly sums up the rest of the album. Pattering along in 9/8 time, after an introduction by sombre and elegant clarinet, which continues throughout; melodica, and a mesh of intricate samples and picked guitar harmonics. For me these tracks conjure up images of sun-blasted landscapes, with an unreal blue sky, and powerful heat haze distorting the edges of visible reality. Strangely laid back and intense at the same time.
Volume 1 is also great, volume 3 is amazing, and volume 4 is due out this year. Also highly recommended is any release by Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players, and 'First Night Forever', just by Burnt Friedman. This last one features a selection of excellent vocals, creating a weird kind of acid fried electronic soul. Check out all these releases at Nonplace.de, and support the artist!

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