Sounds and Zounds

In 2005 we lost one of the more interesting blues guitarist of this era. His 1998 album “Dirt Floor” does a brilliant job of describing his sound. Textured and simple, clean and dirty, brilliantly simple with the complexes creates brilliant story telling. Dislocated blues was started at Jeff Lang studio before his death and thankfully published by Rounder. Jeff Lang is a slide guitarist, but there balance is perfect between Chris guitar. Perfect cold weather blues.

Tony Allen for many are three different people. For many listeners of Afro-beat he was the drummer for the late Fela Kuli band, for others he was a powerful Nigeria drummer that has had a successfully solo career and modern listeners think of him as the drummer for The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

HomeCooking is a solo CD that mixes the Afro-beat funk with a fusion of smart London hip-hop. It foundation is a very powerful bass and bass drum selection of songs that at times remind me Holger Czukay and then of Lilly Allen (no relation) . Though for the most part it is beats and hip-hop that has the underline theme of self awareness.

Somehow over the years I have collected more Tom Waits Records and CD,s than any other artist in my collection. It is kind of a strange, since I really have not been enjoy his work recently. But with the hopes of hearing some lost tracks from Franks Wild Years I download the 56 Track Orphans.

There is so much music here, at times too much music. The tracks seem mostly come from the vain of his more bluesy Mule Variations. Though there is some really nice story telling tracks like Missing My Son and Pontiac which remind me on what a amazing observer of life Mr. Waits is. I am glad to have the collection, but it is hard to listen to top to bottom, but a joy to listen to in the shuffle.

Called it retro or modern, but, it is highly modernized funk that at times reminds me of James Brown. Quantic, a UK DJ, created this band “Quantic Soul Orchestra” to explore the funk and fusion in a live envorment and has follow it up with this studio album “pushin on”. The disc includes the vocal of Alice Russell, that gives the tracks a timeless feel with a modern backbone. Bring on the traffic…

Sometimes the second or third CD from a artist disappoints, they get trapped in what got them there. This is one of the times that I really feel like I am listening to the artist grow, and I like what I am hearing. On “Until We Felt Red” Kaki has a band, and the sound and power bring me into a great moments of highs and lows with power and grundge and picking and peace. Kaki pulls on some of the more intriguing parts of her past CD’s her sultry vocals and masterfull guitar work. I have not had the time to dig threw the lyrics but so far I think they are a hit. At one point I would describe Kaki King and a Michael Hedges like musician, I can no longer say that with this CD. Kaki King is Kaki King.

When serching for summer music it is hard sometimes to find something upbeat and summer soaked. I have been spending the last month listen to large amounts of Afro-pop in the relization that this might be my new summer sound. Extra Golden is a enjoyable selection of tunes that have the repetitive noodling guitar nature of the Afro-pop but gives you great pop transions and drive. The tracks are long OK-Oyot System but I find this lends to the nature of listening. It’s great backgrond music to enjoy a summer night, but hard music to listen to in traffic…

There are albums (in this case) and cd’s that somewhere in you have impacts that are hard to determine when you are listen to them. Robert Fripp’s Exposure was a tide change in my musical listening. The reality was that I was listening to the artist around him, Bowie, Eno, Gabriel and Belew but when Exposure happened it changed everything. This album, released in 1979, was for me the begin concepts of sampling, experimenting and thinking creatively about music. The song water music is a fripptonics based song with a John Bennett lecture (the fourth way teacher) sampled above it all. It is followed by Peter Gabriel’s Here Comes the Flood and at times brought me to tears. These two songs became the subject of one of my first films and sit well in that place in history for me. The reissuing of this disc with the lost vocals that have been long rumored and spoken about, but never heard brings light to what it was like to be in NY in 1979. It is a great edition.

Magnet is the Norway born Even Johansen and the work consists of a folk, pop modern music feel. The new cd Tourniquet is a non interruptive disc of pleasantly constructed tunes. There is a mix of modern sampling and textures, but its weight hangs with its natural instruments and vocals. The disc consists of close felt songs that Mr. Johansen seem to have expressed his emotions and experiences in a very balanced, pleasant composition.