Monday's Long Song
37 minutes ago
Sunday, 20 February 2011
fieldproducer Neal Mann
Great line from Robert Fisk 'Just because Gaddafi is a nutter does not mean his people are fools' #Libya
Jah Wobble's top ten dub tracks
1 KING TUBBY MEETS ROCKERS UPTOWN Augustus Pablo
I first heard this as a pre-release in 1976. Love the sound of Augustus Pablo's melodica; I am also kinky for the sound of the dubbed-up timbale drums that feature on this recording. King Tubby was the king of pure, heavy-duty dub at that time. It was released in this country on Island Records. Hearing 'King Tubby' for the first time had a profound effect on me: it was like hearing music from another cosmos. There are any number of good King Tubby compilations now around - Trojan Records and the Blood & Fire label are good places to look.
2 CONCRETE DUB Bob Marley
I no longer have this record... in fact, I have not heard it for probably 25 years, so I hope it does really exist and is not a figment of my imagination. If memory serves me well, it was the dub version B-side of an Island 7" single; probably of the track called 'Concrete Jungle', from the Catch a Fire album. It must have been one of the first ever domestically released dub singles. It was great to hear a dub version of a Marley track - I nearly always preferred the dub version of a tune. There was more space, and the bass and drums were pushed to the fore.
3 MARCUS GARVEY (DUB VERSION) Burning Spear
One of the very first dub versions I ever heard. I heard it in 1975 on a Friday night on the Capital Radio reggae show. I used to listen to that show religiously - Tommy Vance was the DJ. I now occasionally hear him DJing on heavy-rock stations as I channel-hop.
4 PROMISE IS A COMFORT TO A FOOL Trinity/Yabby You
A classic bassline, with a beautiful vocal refrain, and DJ chat. There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them. This is one of them. Other examples are Roy Budd's bass line to the title track of Mike Hodges Get Carter, and Cecil McBee's line on Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions' are two that come immediately to mind. The crediting of reggae musicians is notoriously lax. There are three possible players, re this particular tune. All giants of the bass - Robbie Shakespeare, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Clinton Fearon. If I had to put money down on who it is on this track, I would say it was Mr Fearon.
5 TWO SEVENS CLASH Culture
For a while back in 1977, you could not get away from this tune. It still sounds heavenly. It reminds me of walking back from a party in Hackney on a Sunday morning as the sun was coming up. I couldn't get the tune out of my head.
6 JUJU MUSIC King Sunny Ade
There was a little-known dub version of this classic album, mixed by an engineer that I worked with, called Groucho. What he did was devastating. I would love to hear it again. It was on Island (again!) and was released around 1982.
7 ROWING Dennis Bovell
One of the great musicians of his generation. I used to watch him perform this with his band Matumbi. As with "Juju Music", I hankered after hearing it again. I'm pleased to say that the label Pressure Sounds has released a compilation of Dennis's dub stuff, which includes this track.
8 THE SAME SONG Israel Vibration
Similar to our own late, and very great Ian Dury, 'Skeleton,' 'Apple' and 'Wiss' [Israel Vibration's three members] were stricken by polio in the fifties. This blend of their vocals within a dub context is wonderful. Yet again, there is a great compilation on Pressure Sounds.
9 CONSCIOUS MAN DUB Lee Perry and the Jolly Brothers
You could not have a dub selection without Lee "Scratch" Perry appearing. This is a great example of his idiosyncratic style.
10 SMILING STRANGER John Martyn
This is taken from his 1980 album One World. It was one of the first records outside reggae to utilise dub techniques. Superb.
@'Fodderstomph'
Notes:
A 'Baker's Dozen' out of Wobble's top ten dub tracks. I have included the vocal versions of the Culture & Israel Vibration songs and two versions of 'Concrete Jungle'. Is that single just a figment of the Wob's imagination? Certainly there was no dub version on the 1973 Island 7" (WIP 6164) The B side was a track called 'Reincarnation Soul' and the versions here are a much earlier cut of the tune produced by Lee Perry as well as an unreleased dub version from 1976. Regarding the King Sunny Adé Remix album. I think that may have been a perk of him being signed to Island Records at the time as to my knowledge the only dub cut to have been released was this version of 'Ja Funmi'. Lastly John Martyn spent a long time in Jamaica back around 1976 and also played on some Lee Perry & Burning Spear sessions amongst others. 'Big Muff' from 'One World' was co-written with Lee Perry and Perry's 'underwater swirling' effects are all over the album.
Get it HERE
UPDATE:
Thanx to 'Lightning Clap' the mystery of 'Concrete Dub' has been solved. It is the B side of the 'Jah Live' single released in 1975. Co-written and mixed by Lee Perry. Many thnx. You can get it HERE.Another liberated post from HerrB's sadly missed 'Pathway To Unknown Worlds' blog
Jah Wobble - Fireside Chat @ RBMAR
Public Image Limited - Memories - Virgin
Public Image Limited - Religion I - Virgin
Public Image Limited - Public Image - Virgin
Public Image Limited - Poptones - Virgin
Jah Wobble - Beat The Drum For Me - Virgin
Jah Wobble - Not Another - Virgin
Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit, Holger Czukay - How Much Are They? - Island
Jah Wobble, The Edge, Holger Czukay - Hold On To Your Dreams - Island
Jah Wobble - Enough - Southern Records
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart - Becoming More Like God - Island
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart - Visions Of You - Oval Records
Primal Scream - Higher Than The Sun (A Dub Symphony In 2 Parts) - Creation
Bjork & David Arnold - Play Dead - Island Records
Jah Wobble & Bill Laswell - Orion - Palm Pictures/Axiom
Jah Wobble - New Mexico Dub - Trojan Records
Jah Wobble - Dragon And Phoenix Dub - 30 Hertz Records
Jah Wobble & The Nippon Dub Ensemble - K Dub 05 - 30 Hertz Records
Dean Wareham - Route du Rock 2/18/11
Singer/guitarist Dean Wareham is more influential than he is usually given credit for. Often sounding like a depressed slacker, Wareham has inspired a number of indie rockers to express their sadness with a wistful tenor. Wareham was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on August 1, 1963. In 1977, Wareham and his parents relocated to New York City. Wareham then moved to Boston to attend college. After spending a year in Germany, Wareham returned to Boston, MA, in 1987 and formed Galaxie 500 with his high school and college buddies Damon Krukowski (drums) and Naomi Yang (bass). Galaxie 500 was signed to Shimmy Disc and released their first album, Today, in 1988. Although Galaxie 500 received little mainstream recognition, the band's languorous, narcotic rhythms -- recalling the Velvet Underground and Joy Division -- had a significant impact in shaping alternative subgenres such as shoegazer and slowcore. Wareham recorded three albums with Galaxie 500 before leaving the group in 1991. Galaxie 500's label, the U.S. division of Rough Trade, also folded that year, leaving the band's LPs in limbo until Krukowski later bought the master tapes at an auction. Wareham then moved back to New York City, releasing the EP Anaesthesia and contributing vocals to Mercury Rev's "Car Wash Hair." A year later Wareham started Luna with Justin Harewood (bass) of the Chills and Stanley Demeski (drums) from the Feelies. Named after Diane Keaton's character in the Woody Allen film Sleeper, Luna recorded their debut full-length, Lunapark, for Elektra Records. The track "Slash Your Tires" was a minor hit on modern rock stations, but Luna's subsequent commercial failures diminished the label's faith in the group's ability to attract a bigger audience. Elektra dropped the band before their fifth album, The Days of Our Nights, was even released; it was distributed in 1999 by Jericho instead. The lack of major label support did nothing to diminish Luna's adoring fanbase. Wareham, et al issued Luna Live (Arena Rock Recording Company) in 2001, and moved to Jetset for the acclaimed 2002 release Romantica. Wareham returned a year later with L'Avventura. The album was a breezy mixture of originals and standards recorded with latter-day Luna bassist Britta Phillips. (Michael Sutton)
directlink
00:55:26
Reggae Britannia (Documentary)
Showing how it came from Jamaica in the 1960s to influence, over the next 20 years, both British music and society, the programme includes major artists and performances from that era, including Big Youth, Max Romeo, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jerry Dammers and the Specials, the Police, UB40, Dennis Bovell, lovers rock performers Carroll Thompson and Janet Kay, bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse and reggae admirers such as Boy George and Paul Weller.
The programme celebrates the impact of reggae, the changes it brought about and its lasting musical legacy.
via
Saturday, 19 February 2011
exiledsurfer exiledsurfer
via ►@martinchulov: Bahrain's Crown Prince just announced that the army has been ordered off the streets of Manama
Scientist vs The Upsetters - Live at Fabric, London
Scientist needs no introduction. As a protégé of King Tubby at Dromilly Road he started out learning the tools of the trade, fixing electronics and working on four channels, before he moved on to the sixteen channel desk at Channel One Studio in Jamaica, where he engineered a host of albums, often working with the Roots Radics. His musical vision as well as his deep knowledge of the technical side of things have made him an undoubted godfather of dub with one of the most expansive discographies of the last three decades and counting. This set was recorded live at Fabric, during the launch party for Tectonic's new dub vs dubstep project, Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space. And while Scientist got busy in the booth, the live band on stage was latest incarnation of The Upsetters, who were not only Lee 'Scratch' Perry's house band but also form the nucleus of The Wailers. Big Showdown!
Velvet Underground - Under Review (Documentary)
The Velvet Underground Under Review is a 75 minute film reviewing the music and career of one of rock musics most influential collectives, a band which esteemed music journalist Lester Bangs claims started modern music. It features rare musical performances never available before as well as obscure footage, rare interviews and private photographs of and with Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, Sterling Morrison and John Cale. The film also features rarely seen promo films, material from Andy Warhols private film collection, interviews with colleagues, producers, musicians and friends, TV clips, location shots and a host of other features.
If the video is blocked for your country try this link
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (2011 - Albumstream)
A title like Ravedeath, 1972 is great because of all the possible associations it calls up. A time-traveling techno explosion, a John Brunner novel title, a 1960s Frug winding down in a horrible dry gulch? Whatever all the possible associations, when Tim Hecker begins the album with the at-once shuddering feedback glitch and distant soothing bliss of "The Piano Drop," the Canadian composer does seem to thrive in an intersection of possibilities from multiple sources. If the principle of plundering the past to create the future is well established, Hecker engagingly demonstrates how the many possibilities it offers remains open. Split into three multi-part pieces and several stand-alone compositions -- some with titles continuing the titular approach, such as "Analog Paralysis, 1978" -- the overall effect of Ravedeath, 1972 is a balance between sheer sonic wooziness and a focused sense of construction; nothing seems wholly random in each song's development even as the feeling can be increasingly disorienting. Of the multi-part pieces, the first, "In the Fog," lives up to the name -- instead of enveloping obscurity, however, it's more like a serene float in darkness, with the organ tone loop running throughout the second and third parts providing a bed that whirs and arcing grinds rise and fall on, an underscoring of violence that melds and contrasts with the otherwise calm progression. The concluding "In the Air" almost inverts this, with the feedback tones and growls stabbing out more directly in the first part while the second increasingly brings in the otherwise half-sensed piano. "Hatred of Music," meanwhile, doesn't sound like a radical change from the other parts in terms of overall feel or in matching with the title's sentiment, but the low rhythmic rumble of the second part, a steady progression punctuated by soft piano additions and what sounds like a howling, looming threat in the distance, is pure atmosphere at its best. Then there's "No Drums," which finds in its own calm way the kind of beautiful, dark-toned ambience that has informed the best work in the field of disturbing but never aggressive electronic music. (Ned Raggett - allmusic; 4/5)
1. The Piano Drop
2. In The Fog: I-III
3. No Drums
4. Hatred Of Music: I-II
5. Analog Paralysis, 1978
6. Studio Suicide, 1980
7. In The Air: I-III
ALBUMSTREAM
Friday, 18 February 2011
Faiz Ali Faiz & Titi Robin - Festival Au Fil des Voix 2/16/11
Faiz Ali Faiz (Urdu: فیض علی فیض; born 1962 in Sharaqpur, Pakistan) is a Pakistani qawwali singer.
Faiz was born into a family of seven generations of qawwals. He studied classical music with Ustad Ghulam Shabir Khan and Ustad Jafat Khan, and qawwali music with Muhammad Ali Faridi and Abdur Rahim Faridi Qawwal. He was a close acquaintance with the world-renown qawwali performer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and is considered the latter's spiritual successor within the genre. Faiz Ali Faiz regularly performs the qawwal "Mustt Mustt", a signature song of his deceased mentor.
Faiz Ali Faiz was nominated for a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award in 2005 and 2006.
Thierry "Titi" Robin (born 1957 in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France), is a French musician influenced by gypsy, tzigane and Arabic music, and by the musicians Camaron de la Isla and Iraqi oud player Munir Bashir. Robin plays the guitar, oud, and bouzouki. He has given numerous concerts, in South Africa, the Middle East, and France.
He has frequently collaborated with Gulabi Sapera, who has appeared on several of his albums to lend his distinctive vocals peculiar to gypsy motifs. He has also been involved in extensive collaborations with Erik Marchand, a musician from Brittany focusing on reinterpretations of that region's distinctive Celtic music.
01:10:54
directlink
A Day in the Life of a Love Doll
Opening at New York’s Salon 94 Bowery on the day after Valentine’s Day, The Love Doll: Days 1-30, presents Simmons large-scale, color photos and video of her mail order roommate, which she gradually befriends. Documenting her from day one, when she emerges from a box in only a slip, Simmons takes her under her wing — buying clothes and creating a fantasy lifestyle for her in the artist’s New York apartment and country house. The lively results expose a psychological situation, where the doll partially sheds its designated role as a sex object and begins to take on an identity projected on it from Simmons’ poetic imagination.
Laurie Simmons – The Love Doll: Days 1-30 is on view at Salon 94 Bowery February 15 to March 16.
Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution
Gene Sharp: From Dictatorship To Democracy(PDF)
Bahrain: What's at stake for America
As far as Washington is concerned, this small Persian Gulf kingdom may be where support for Middle East democracy dies. The loss of American military power that would accompany an overthrow of the regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa is incalculable.
Nestled between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Bahrain is home to 1.2 million people. It's also home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet -- a vital instrument for the Pentagon in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Fighter jets from carriers in the fleet provide close air support for American troops in Afghanistan.
The fleet is also a potential bulwark against a future nuclear Iran, analysts note.
"It's our most important strategic asset in the Persian Gulf," said Michael Rubin, a former Bahrain resident and Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
The security of America's naval presence in Bahrain was called into question when protests erupted there this week. Three people died and dozens were injured Thursday when security forces stormed a group of protesters. Witnesses described a blunt show of force, with police firing pellets and rubber bullets, as well as using tear gas.
Two other people died during disturbances earlier in the week.
"Violence is not an appropriate reaction," lectured White House press secretary Jay Carney. Leaders in Bahrain and across the Middle East region need to "be more responsive" and "live up to the hopes and dreams of their people."
But exactly how responsive?
Bahrain has been ruled by a Sunni Muslim royal family since the British left in 1971. Two-thirds of its population are Shiites. While the latest turmoil is largely a reaction to uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere, younger Shiites have routinely led protests -- often violent -- to complain about discrimination, unemployment and corruption.
They also rioted when the Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah of Iran in 1979. Since then, every time Shiite protests have become too heated, the Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia have quietly sent troops into the country, according to Rubin.
"On the one hand, Bahrain is a flash point between the United States and Iran," he told CNN. On the other, it's "a flash point between Saudi Arabia and Iran."
Bahrain was actually a Persian province through the 16th century. Iran claimed the territory when the British left, but the Bahrainis opted for independence.
"Bahrain is Iran's Kuwait," Rubin said, referencing former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's insistence that Kuwait was rightfully an Iraqi province.
If Bahrain's government falls, "there is no question -- no ifs, ands or buts -- Bahrain would become an Iranian satellite, and the Fifth Fleet would be sent packing," Rubin predicted.
The Obama administration is "not being too vocal on the riots in Bahrain because it's pretty much the one country where we can't afford regime change," he said.
Could U.S. officials find a new naval home in the Gulf? Possibly Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, Rubin said, but "if there's a sense that the dominoes are falling and the United States is the big loser, then all the regional states are going to make their accommodation with Iran whether they like us or not."
The stakes could not be higher.
Alan Silverleib @'CNN'
Baghdad wants U.S. to pay $1 billion for damage to city
The city's government issued its demands in a statement on Wednesday that said Baghdad's infrastructure and aesthetics have been seriously damaged by the American military.
"The U.S. forces changed this beautiful city to a camp in an ugly and destructive way, which reflected deliberate ignorance and carelessness about the simplest forms of public taste," the statement said.
"Due to the huge damage, leading to a loss the Baghdad municipality cannot afford...we demand the American side apologize to Baghdad's people and pay back these expenses."
The statement made no mention of damage caused by bombing.
Baghdad's neighborhoods have been sealed off by miles of concrete blast walls, transforming the city into a tangled maze that contributes to massive traffic jams. Despite a sharp reduction in overall violence in recent years only 5 percent of the walls have been removed, officials said.
The heavy blast walls have damaged sewer and water systems, pavement and parks, said Hakeem Abdul Zahra, the city spokesman.
U.S. military Humvees, driven on street medians and through gardens, have also caused major damage, he said.
"The city of Baghdad feels these violations, which have taken place for years, have caused economic and moral damage," he said.
U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq's cities in June 2009 before formally ending combat operations last August. Around 50,000 remain in Iraq but they are scheduled to withdraw by year end.
Baghdad is badly in need of a facelift. Electricity and trash collection are sporadic, streets are potholed and sewage treatment plants and pipes have not been renovated for years.
Iraq has seen growing protests in recent weeks over poor government services.
Zahra said the city's statement issued on Wednesday would be the start of its measures to get the United States to pay for damages but he did not say what other steps might be taken.
@'Reuters'
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