The Julian Bream Consort - Fantasies, Aires and Dances
Founded in the 1960s by guitarist and lutenist Julian Bream, a giant in classical music, the Julian Bream Consort was one of the first groups to present a repertory of Elizabethan and Jacobin music. Differently from other, later groups, the Julian Bream Consort was a “broken consort”, deploying a non-canonical selection of instruments (flute, lute, cittern, three violas, with the occasional addition of tenor singer), that is similar to what could be found in an upper class house in the 16th and early 17th century.
Fantasies, Airs and Dances, recorded in 1987, includes 19 works by Byrd, Dowland, Morley, Phillips and many other fundamental composers of the circa-Elizabethan era. It is light years away from what is generally and popularly associated to the concept of “classical music”, and truth to be told I do not now if I came to the Julian Bream Consort and this record in particular following the policeman’s tears in Philip K. Dick novel, or because a certain album of “galliards and lute song served in chilling ale” I quite liked, but this was for me the start of a fascination for Elizabethan music that lasts to this day.
Notably, the program includes “The Earl of Essex his Galliard”, a Dowland-scored poem written by the Earl of Essex to beg pardon of the queen for an indiscretion - the song is also known, in fact, as “Can’t she excuse”. Elizabeth did not excuse, and Essex was beheaded. There was a time when writing songs was a risky business.
Fantasies, Aires and Dances can be found on Spotify - it is a long program, and likely to be interrupted by some ad from some X Factor phenomenon. We can’t excuse them, but it’s a sacrifice worth making.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3P9KbjwwCXZO9LbDAXnFRV
#elizabethan #classicalmusic #consortmusic #rcaredseal #julianbream
Stackbridge - The Man in the Bowler Hat
Produced in 1974 by George Martin, Stackbridge’s third album, The Man in the Bowler Hat always sounded to me as a spiritual heir of the Kink’s Village Green. Granted, Stackbridge don’t sound anything like Ray Davies’ band, but the quintessential British atmosphere of the album is almost thick enough to cut with a knife.
And I mean that as a positive thing.
An eccentric band that specialized in songs about downtrodden and misunderstood animals (The Indifferent Hedgehog being the one example on this album) that still manage to be more than novelties, Bristol/Bath’s own Stackbridge fell in the confused territory between prog rock and folk, telling strange stories with arrangements that were complex but incredibly easy on the ear, and if the impression is sometimes of being witnessing a tongue-in-cheek circus act, well, it’s a damn fine act anyway.
This recipe for success failed to establish them as a household name, despite a fair number of hits, and they are today a cult object for people of excellent taste and refined culture. And you can be one of them, listen to The Man in the Bowler Hat on Spotify, and be amazed.
Do it. This is a record featuring a song called Dangerous Bacon. You know you need to listen to it.
https://open.spotify.com/album/4PuhrjdER0ER5pl8UKVT9e
#stackbridge #progrock
Mylene Farmer - Ainsi soit Je... In a career spanning three dacades and counting, Quebecois singer/songwriter Mylene Farmer has consistently shown that you can write highbrow lyrics and set them to catchy, synth-laced pop melodies, and achieve megastardom.
Ainsi soit Je..., from 1988, Farmer’s second album, is a perfect example of what has made the artist so popular with both critics and audiences. Thematically dark, melancholy and sombre, quoting from Poe and Baudelaire (his poem L’Horologe provides the lyrics for the opening track), the song are still catchy, lively, musically intriguing. You can dance to some of these tunes, never mind that they talk about sexual ambiguity, death, suicide and other not-so-top-ten-like subjects. And if the overarching mood is indeed pretty dark (so much so, the album is often classified as “darkwave”, whatever that can be), still the effect is uplifting, and in some moments even cheerful.
Endowed with a supple voice, great looks and a show-stopping persona that would make her a wonder to behold live, Farmer took full advantage of videos to promote her work - and Ainsi soit Je... sold one million copies by 1989. Not half bad, for a record produced in France and sung mostly in French. Farmer would go on to hold the record for most n° 1 hits in the French charts - twenty in total, with eight being consecutive.
Ainsi soit Je... is still considered one of her best records - if not the best - and is worth a listen. I got my copy on vinyl back in May or June ‘88, because I liked the style of the cover (sue me). Two days later I lent it to a friend. She disappeared without a trace, and kept the album, thus breaking mu heart (more for the loss of a record I loved than anything else, actually). But if you are curious, you can listen to the record on Spotify…
https://open.spotify.com/album/2Y4MGWQ2mCJ9Fr7gcEd8S0
#mylenefarmer #frenchmusic #synthpop #darkwave #baudelaire
Polkadot Stingray - Zenchizennō
Fukuoka-based Polkadot Stingray started performing in 2014 but released their first major record in November 2017. “Zenchizennō” means “Omniscience” (but I’ve also seen it translated as “All in One”) and is a very energetic collection of guitar-dominated power-pop/rock. Front-woman Shizuku shows a nice vocal range, and is backed by a team of top-notch musicians. In fact, it’s somewhat unfair that kids this young (judging by their photos and videos at least - heck, are they out of high school yet?) can sound so good and have quite obviously so much fun.
But the listener has fun too!
Thirteen tracks of up-tempo, intricate music, mixing rock, rockabilly and jazz with more experimental sounds. While the music of Polkadot Stingray is quite original and unmistakable, on at least a pair of tracks it feels like Tokyo Jihen are back - and this is as big a compliment I can pay to this very tight, very good band.
There is a second album out there, published early in 2019. We’ll talk about it further on.
For the time being, if you want a good time, you can check Polkadot Stingray’s Zenchizennō on Spotify…
https://open.spotify.com/album/74euEg7akrHdXwuHnr0WBn
#polkadotstingray #jrock #plkshizuku
The Albion Band - Under the Rose
Also known as The Albion Country Band, The Albion Dance Band, and The Albion Christmas Band, the Albion Band was founded by Ashley Hutchings - the same man that had previously founded (and left) Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, therefore acting as one of the founding fathers of the folk-rock or electric folk school of British music, a part of the larger “folk revival”.
Originally the backing band of singer Shirley Collins, through personnel changes and shifts in style from acoustic to electric and back, the Albion Band evolved into its own self-contained group. Under the Rose, from 1984, featuring the light soprano vocals of Cathy Lesurf, is a typical example from the band’s electric period. The eight tracks are mostly originals, with some traditional arrangements thrown in. With keyboards and electric guitars to the fore, the mix is reminiscent of a low-key Jethro Tull - which is not bad in itself, and Lesurf’s soaring vocals add a nice touch to an album that is quite fine on a cloudy day.
Under the Rose can be listened to on Spotify, together with a fair share of the Albion Band’s catalog
https://open.spotify.com/album/1s7lKx88BsinYWbNVwv5hT
#thealbionband #folkrock #folkrevival #cathylesurf #electricfolk
The Happy End - Turn Things Upside Down
A jazz big band playing big band jazz arrangement of socialist anthems, protest songs and the odd Maoist propaganda song - this is, basically The Happy End’s 1990 album Turn Things Upside Down.
The idea here is to give a new spin on old standards - just not the usual standards. But the project is not just a novelty thing - here is a political agenda backing the men and women in The Happy End. After all, jazz is the people’s music, and these are the people’s song. So much so that when the enthusiasm for Mao Zedong’s importance gets out of hand in “Sailing the Seas”, the band rearranges the whole song, and turns it into an anti-dictatorship song, with a strong message.
Because that’s the point, after all. Down with all kinds of tyrannies. Bring it on.
The music is smooth and exciting, the players are clearly having a lot of fun, the arrangements are quite original and the selection includes a few songs off the left field (which is rather obvious, if you think about it). Can you name a record featuring jazz arrangements of both The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Red Flag?
Well, now you know.
Turn Things Upside Down is a wonderful record from all possible points of view, and you can listen to it on Spotify for free. You’ll thank me later.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1neUExHXEhxeH3KDzzYoV2
#jazz #socialism
Big Star - #1 Record
In a world still suffering from being orphaned of the Beatles, Big Star might have appeared like a possible replacement, offering a mix of Beatles-esque melodies, Who-style energy and power chords, and vocal harmonies that came all the way from California courtesy of the Birds or the Beach Boys.
The brainchild of songwriters Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, Big Star debuted in 1972 with the cheekily-titled #1 Record, and lasted only three albums. By 1975 was out of the charts and well on its way to become a cult act.
Listening today to the songs on #1 Record brings about a lot of “this is a bit like…” T Rex, or Elton John, or power pop, or art rock… which in the end really means Big Star were very much their own genre, and their own band.
Influential but forgotten in these days of hectic musical consumption, Big Star can be listened to on Spotify, where you will find their opera omnia, starting with the remastered version of #1 Record.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0TDBkNvMV4M4VUaDtQit7i
#bigstar #powerpop #alexchilton
Sheena Ringo - Sandokushi
An album whose title references the Three Poisons of Buddhist doctrine and that offers a wild mix of rock and jazz, musical-style songs, bossa nova, lounge rhythms and traditional instruments is, all things considered, exactly what fans were expecting in 2019 from Sheena Ringo, Japanese music superstar and impossible-to-classify artist. She describes herself as Shinjuku-kei Jisaku-Jien-ya (Shinjuku-style writer-performer) and we can go with that.
Many of the albums highlights were in fact published in the past years - and these include the duets with Hiroji Miyamoto (the existential bossa nova The Narrow Road where Animals Walk), with former Tokyo Jihen guitarist Ukigumo (the snappy In Summer Night) and with Tortoise Matsumoto (the mysterious but infectious Main Street), as well as the deliciously horror-themed, aggressive No God Nor Buddha. But fitted in an ongoing narrative the old songs and the new acquire a different meaning and seem to hint at a storyline the listener has to decipher - something to do with living and dying and making the most of the time you have. And yes, the fact that almost all of the 13 songs are sung in Japanese does not help the casual listener. If tempo and key changes, genre-bending and contamination, and a palette that covers the full range from big band to stadium rock to stripped-down grungy tunes and vocal callisthenics are your kind of thing, then look no further.
But of course I am a fan, and my judgement is obviously biased.
You can check out for yourself Sandokushi via Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/63Rlb5fLx1PYeqY87U5HkY
#sheenaringo #jrock #avantgarde #jazz #fusion
Guher & Suher Pekinel - Take Bach
I first met Guher & Suher Pekinel when they collaborated with Bob James in 1989 for the recording of the Bach concertos for 2 and 3 keyboards using - among other things - a syntorch. My classically inclined friends were horrified, but it is a fact that Bach’s music - like all of the baroque canon - does offer ample opportunities for jazz. Musicians were supposed to improvise in their execution.
The Pekinel sister’s 2005 record Take Bach brings the experimentation full circle, offering interpretations of the concertos for 3 and 2 Keyboards by Bach with two pianos and a jazz trio - in this case, the Jacques Loussier Trio. Loussier also arranged the pieces.
In an interesting article on their website, the Pekinel sisters discuss how it was the multidimensional mathematics of Bach’s composition that first captivated them, leading by way of Glenn Gould to the discovery of Bill Evans and explorations further afield in the lands of jazz. And there is indeed something Bill Evans-ish in the approach to the Bach works on this record. “The multi-dimensional mathematics of Bach has always fascinated us. While various melodic arrangements develop in authentic labyrinths, the musical expression creates a rhythmical “process” as result of counter-dynamics which are created by 16’s and 32’s trioles notes. With re-arrangements of the features of this architecture, it is possible to catch jazz’s basic “swing”!
Is this an alienation of Bach’s music? Quite the contrary. Through transformation, music gains a new dimension and transparency. New ways in interpretation are opening for us through improvisation. With the dissolution of mathematical structures and their replacement, swing gains norm in its own substructure and lightens everything. But “lightness” does not mean “easiness”. Just the opposite. With the contribution of jazz, music gains a new and creatively different dimension. All these prove Bach’s timeless greatness.” You can listen to Take Bach for free on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Vtk0OLRyezkb5FfYAraOt
Or buy yourselves a copy on Amazon
https://amzn.to/2LMhcbE
#pekinels #jsbach #jazz #baroque
Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - Everybody’s Talkin’’Bout Miss Thing
Long Beach-born, sultry-voiced Lavay Smith, backed by Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, is a great provider of 1940s-style dance-hall big band swing and boogie-woogie.
While the Betty Boop/Bettie Page persona might appear as a gimmick, miss Smith’s voice and taste in music are impeccable, and the 2000 album Everybody’s Talkin’’Bout Miss Thing carries a great selection of tunes perfectly fitting the ten-piece band set-up.
The band debuted in 1996, well before the swing/electro-swing revival was actually a thing. Lavay Smith has only three albums in its catalog, but is very active in the live/swing dancing circuit. Miss Smith also acted as a producer for Everybody’s Talkin’’Bout Miss Thing, that reached the Top 10 in the Billboard Jazz Chart in the year 2000.
With tongue-in-cheek and frequently risqué lyrics and great vocal and instrumental arrangements, the 12 tracks of Everybody’s Talkin’’Bout Miss Thing are excellent party music, nostalgic without being saccharine.
As usual, you can listen to Everybody’s Talkin’’Bout Miss Thing on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/1dwJAx7zBEoBpR0UiVzSJ9
Or get yourself a copy on Amazon
https://amzn.to/2XvbUDV
#swing #lavaysmithandherredhotskilletlickers #lavaysmith #boogiewoogie #vintage #pinup
The Cleaners from Venus - Return to Bohemia
Martin Newell has been making music since 1973, sometimes under his own name, sometimes as The Cleaners from Venus. The epitome of British-style, quirky, tongue-in-cheek writer, Newell is the fulfilment of any Anglophile’s dreams, like a parallel-universe version of Ray Davies: he’s sharply observant, drily witty, terribly intelligent. His songs are like snapshots of of everyday British suburban life, with a certain patina of ‘60s and a gallery of strange, funny, often downright weird characters.
The Cleaners from Venus offer jangly guitars and elegant lo-fi arrangements of Newell’s works - and the 12 songs on Return to Bohemia, from 2014, are a nice sample of all that’s good in the Newell/Cleaners catalog.
A pillar in the cassette culture and self-distribution, Newell always distributed his works on tape and outside of the standard channels, which made his recordings often hard to get - but thus increased the cult status of the musician and his band. But beware, the cassette thing is not some kind of strange gimmick. This indie music, as indie as it can.
If you’re looking for pop records from a time continuum in which the Kinks became bigger than the Beatles and then punk happened, but in a sort of neat, folkish way, you’re in the right place and time.
You can listen to Return to Bohemia on spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/3WqJ6BB4YoFsdLISD2oRMt
And you can also catch the works of Newell and his Cleaners on Bandcamp and other places where indie music lives.
#lofi #cleanersfromvenus #pop #british
