Alice in Chains – Dirt – Columbia, 1992.
🪨🫧🪩🤘⚒️:
A really dark and seminal Grunge album. I spent a lot of time with it and Alice in Chains was often my most favorite band from this time/genre. “Would?”I fell hard for this song after seeing the film Singles. Others had already gotten hip to Grunge with the success of Nirvana, but the film itself created a deluge of interest in Seattle bands for me. I never really warmed to Nirvana, but was into many of the other bands.
Overall = 7.5 (10) – Definitely a post High School moment for me. Get it!
VA – Anglo-American Ballads V. 2 – Library of Congress: Archive of Folk Culture, 1943. Re-issue: Rounder, 1999.
🇺🇸📣🌾✺📼⚰️:
Historic documented Folk forms in American music. Preserving Musical and Cultural traditions is a critical responsibility. Even the language here, the approach to the song writing, is noticeably different than how we speak, or write, now. It’s taken a lot of transformation to speak how we speak now, it is good to be able to preserve examples of the paths that led us here. “The Two Brothers” Ms. Texas Gladden, 1941, Salem, Virginia. Recorded by Alan Lomax.
Overall = 6.2 (10) Good stuff, important documents. Get it! *Seems like a CD sale, but the picture is of a Summer dress?
VA – Afro-American Blues & Game Songs – Library of Congress: Archive of Folk Culture, 1942. Re-issue: Rounder, 1999.
🇺🇸📣🌾✺🏙️📼⚰️🗝️:
More historic documented Folk forms in American music. These are from the same LoC collection and have the same preservationist value. The recordings are on location, so the recording quality is mixed, in some cases being outside while being recorded. The songs are great and the collection features key figures like Muddy Waters (before he became successful). “Country Blues” McKinley Morganfield, 1941, Stovall, Mississippi. Recorded by Alan Lomax and John Work (interesting history there!).
There is a considerable amount of death featured, as a subject, in these lyrics, in both LoC collections. The frequency is comparable to modern musics like Metal and Rap. And on this collection some documentation of racist, minstrelsy based songs. Somewhat jarring to go to the game songs in the second half.
Overall = 6.7 (10) – Interesting mix of songs, the kids songs in particularly. Get it!
Richard Bone/John Orsi – A Survey of Remembered Things – Quirkworks Laboratory, 1997.
🌌⚡️:
A split composer album, I figured (and was correct) that it held some type of Ambient Electronica. It is reasonably good for zoning out. Orsi’s songs are more song-like, melodic, he uses sampled voices and they have more movement. Bone’s feels more immersive, and I’m not sure about the pairing of the two together on this album. Bone’s music lulls and then Orsi’s picks it up, which feels like another jarring transition. Perhaps both of their sound choices, and musicianship, sound a bit primitive? Not available on YouTube.
Overall = 5 (10) – Get it!
Bobbi A. Le’Land – Bobbi and Friends – RCLEL, 1999.
🇺🇸📣🌳🗣️⛪️🎺👁️🗨️✆:
I picked up this independent, religious release because it has some Philly origins and featured Alto Saxophonist Tony Williams. This is a spoke word recording, a reading of scripture, with some light background Jazz. There is not a lot of explanation of the intent, but the result is simple enough to take at faith value. Not available on YouTube.
It is really for people interested in this recording only. I was hoping for a Jazz Spiritual Suite but this is less cohesive and Mr. Williams only appears on the final track.
Overall = 2.5 (10) – Get It!
Horace Andy – Dance Hall Style – Jackie’s Music, 1982.
🪨🫧🪩🇯🇲⚡️⌛️🆑🕳️🎧:
A classic of early Dancehall Reggae as it is transitioning from Dub and still maintains a little of that flavor. Andy is both a harbinger of Dancehall Reggae (here) and eventually a voice on several classic Massive Attack songs. I heard the Massive Attack songs first and snagged this recentl. My copy is of a dubious re-issue quality (not so much info there!). “Money, Money” I love the strange Cicada like percussion sweeps and his voice is so distinctive.
Overall = 8.8 (10) – A classic, formative Dancehall work by a pioneer. Get it!
VA – American Fiddle Tunes – Library of Congress: Archive of Folk Culture, 1971. Re-issue: Rounder, 2000.
🇺🇸📣🌾✺📼:
Even more historic documented Folk forms in American music. This is a slightly different collection of LoC recordings than the previous 2. I am generally questioning that the current government would preserve music and culture in any way, but while listening to these tracks I am appreciative that some cultures view history as essential. In this case essential Fiddle music. Fiddle is just a violin when it is away from the Classical tradition. The music is from the 30’s & 40’s like the other LoC collections. “Bummer’s Reel” Elmer Barton, Queechee, Va., 1939.
Overall = 5.5 (10) – Short and only for Fiddle lovers.Get it!
VA – Bells and Winter Festivals of Greek Macedonia – Smithsonian Folkways, 2002.
🇲🇰🇬🇷📣🌾✺📼🔔:
Historicdocumented Folk forms in Mediterranean music. We might not necessarily consider bells as music, maybe musical, but I love these documents. They are ambient, soothing and incidental for me. The festival music may be more interesting to most listeners, but I have a bell thing. “Belled Sheep of Dorkas”. “My Love” recorded a lonely cow bell for me when we were first courting, it was a bullseye hit, confirming we were the right match on my end. Bells are a feature in our relationship, I even wrote a song, for her, about it many years ago.
Overall = 6 (10) – It’s really only a bell thing, if you are into that. Get it!
Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu Steps Ahead – Strut, 2010.
🌍🎺⑉🇪🇹🎗️⚖️𖫪 ⚙︎🪄:
This is a really beautiful album, it offers a lot of what I love about Andrew Hill’s music with an African perspective. It has a freeness, but really develops a mood, sometimes ruminative sometimes funky. This recording is much later than the recording by Mulatu from the first ItS. And I appreciate that this musician is creating wonderful music at an older age. “Radcliffe”.
Overall = 8.2 (10) – It has a really great vibe and is very listenable.Get it!
VA – The Best Sound of Gamelan Bali – Aneka, 2015.
🇮🇩꧂:
I love Gamelan, but this is something I picked up because it seemed like a Balinese release, which is unusual to find here. There is virtually no info on it, songs, but not connected with specific performers, no dates, cool cover! “Tabuh Meradas” Gong Padma Kencana
Overall = 4.7 (10) – It’s good for a listen, but I have Gamelan favorites still to come.Get it!
Altin Gun – Ask – Ato, 2023.
🌎🇳🇱🇹🇷🫧:
A kind of Hip Turkish/Dutch Band that sounds mostly like Turkish Rock/Pop music, but a little groovy. I liked the cover, it is well played music and interesting songs, but maybe a little “clean” feeling for my tastes. I enjoy this recording most when the sound design is well explored and the songs immerse into moodiness. Most of it I find too metric, and too perfectly cohesive, which leaves me wishing for greater dissonance. “Dere Geliyor”
Overall = 4.3 (10) – It’s got a good vibe, without ever getting too deep inside me. Get it!
Nikki Giovanni – Truth is On It’s Way – (Black History Series) Collectibles, 1993.
🇺🇸📣🌳🗣️ ✆ ⛪️ 🗝️:
This has more Gospel than I expected. I picked it up for Nikki Giovanni and I think it is a historically important recording. There was a time in the 70’s where there was Black cultural agency, that was documented, and then ignored. The liner notes to this release feature Elis Haizlip the person behind the African-American Culture focused PBS show Soul!.
Soul! is something I wish people would check out. Aside from an incredible list of performers, are interviews with important people of color, including Giovanni, like dentists, poets, boxers etc.. Giovanni layers her Spoken Word in over these Gospel pieces. I wonder if Soul! presented this project (facilitated?) on TV?. I watched the available programs on Amazon Prime. There is also a documentary, Mr. Soul!, about Haizlip and the show.
“Alabama Poem”
Overall = 4.7 (10) – Important, but in some ways the poems and Gospel group feel conflicting, neither being bad. There are maybe other Nikki Giovanni recordings to find?Get it!
Found Sounds 