SBATTI IL MOSTRO IN PRIMA PAGINA - Marco Bellocchio (1972)

Watch full movie in original version on isabel puglisi youtube channel:
(Film completo in italiano)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_09z7Mlk9B0

Filmtv recensione e opinioni: http://www.filmtv.it/film/6157/sbatti-il-mostro-in-prima-pagina/opinioni/

"Un terribile omicidio sconvolge l'Italia degli anni Settanta. La redazione di un quotidiano indaga...

Anni Settanta. In un campo della periferia milanese viene ritrovato il cadavere straziato di Maria Grazia, quindicenne figlia di un noto professore. Il capo redattore di un noto quotidiano milanese dà incarico di seguire il caso a Roveda, un giornalista alle prime armi, affiancato dallo scafato Lauri. Poi inizia delle indagini per conto suo. Avvicina così la professoressa Zigai, amante di un esponente della sinistra extraparlamentare, in possesso del diario di Maria Grazia.  

Tentativo di "film di genere" politico (il modello era Lang) su un laido personaggio di giornalista. Scritto inizialemnte da Bellocchio e Goffredo Fofi, e poi da Sergio Donati. La regia di Bellocchio si adatta bene, straordinario Gian Maria Volontè nel ruolo del direttore."

Compra: http://www.ibs.it/dvd-film/sbatti-mostro-prima/marco-bellocchio/8032706215275_.html

POPOL VUH - Hosianna Mantra (1972)

Listen full album on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns2nvj-VJqQ

Scaruffi review (9/10 vote): http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/popolvuh.html

"In 1972 Fricke converted to both Christianity and Hinduism, and decided to move even further away from electronic instruments, preferring the most humble acoustic instruments over high-tech devices. A new line-up, centered around the angelic wails of Korean soprano Djong Yun, recorded Hosianna Mantra (Pilz, january 1973) in a Buddhist meditative tone, showing a solemn and elegant way to bridge the Western mass and Eastern meditation. Fricke on keyboards, Amon Duul II's guitarist Conny Veit, Between's Robert Eliscu on oboe, Fritz Sonnleitner on violino, Klaus Wiese on tambouras build up ascetic atmospheres that catapult the listener into Tibetan or Gregorian monasteries. Most of the interplay is between the piano (tenderly caressed by Fricke) and the guitar (whose phrasing simulates the Indian mantras). The other instruments add evocative power to the music, rarely altering the flow, in a manner similar to renaissance music. The key difference between this music and classical or rock music is the repudiation of rhythm: Tangerine Dream was removing rhythm (i.e., Time) from its cosmic soundpainting, and Popol Vuh removed rhythm (i.e., Time) from its spiritual soundpainting."

Buy Me:
Popol Vuh - 1972 Hosianna Mantra

The Rain Parade- "Emergency Third Rail Power Trip" (1983)

From KillingMoon Blog:
One of the definitive albums of The Paisley Underground -a music scene that was anything but clearly defined- Rain Parade's Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is an enduring and unassuming gem of post-sixties (neo) psychedelia. While taking inspiration from sixties Jangle-Pop purveyors such as The Byrds as well as the darker psychedelic textures of bands such as The Doors and early Pink Floyd, Rain Parade's debut is more than simply an homage to these psych-rock forefathers; rather, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip bristles with a spirit of inspired re-invention. Led by the Roback brothers and Matt Piucci, Rain Parade successfully integrate the blissed out Rickenbacker jangle of songs such as their first single, "What She's Done to Your Mind" with the dark haze of songs like "Look at Merri," which sounds like a blueprint for Jason Pierce's work with Spiritualized ten years later. On the Explosions in the Glass Palace EP, released the following year after David Roback had left to form Opal with Kendra Smith of The Dream Syndicate, the band takes a slightly more minimalist approach, even moving into Power-Pop territory on "Blue," which seems to conjure the ghost of Chris Bell for the lead guitar part. Despite this, the band also manages to come up with one of its best extended psych-jams, "Prisoners," which is a great mash-up of early and late Pink Floyd. Unfortunately, Rain Parade would never hit these artistic heights again, but their debut more than guarantees their status as a pillar of the neo-psychedelic movement.

Music: From KillingMoon Blog http://killingmoonmusic.blogspot.com/2011/04/paisley-underground-series-2-rain.html
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxaky41I6xU

Woody Jackson - “Dos Manos” - (Interbang, 2012)

From Interbang Records website: 

Woody Jackson is one of the cult composers of the Los Angeles new scene. His very special rereadings of west and noir genres have been integral parts of the resounding success of two videogames such as Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire that sold more than 10 millions copies.

In great demand for soundtracks as for videogames as for full lenght movies and even for advertising jingles, Woody Jackson embodies at his best the figure of the modern composer, able to lend his own art and his inspiration to several “means”, keeping always and in any case a very high level of quality. Because of his being inspired by a classical type of soundtrack, from John Barry to Morricone, from Henry Mancini to Bernstein, he has always been considered as a “contemporary classic”.

Besides his productions, Jackson collaborated in albums of great musicians such as Beck, Badly Drawn Boy, David Holmes, Daniel Johnston, Jon Hopkins, Money Mark, Friends of Dean Martinez, Green On Red.

Woody Jackson has taken part, as a composer and as a musician, in several Hollywood films, such as “The Devil Wears Prada”, “American History X”,”Youth in Revolt” (from the director of Six Feet Under), “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny” (of the musician and director Liam Lynch, with Jack Black) and several works of Steven Sodenbergh, as “Ocean’s Twelve”, “Ocean’s Thirteen”, “Haywire” and “The Girlfriend Experience”; in some documetaries, as “Fast Food Nation”, “The Real Rocky”  (documentary about Chuck Wepner, character inspiring Sylvester Stallone) and “Moog” (dedicated to Bob Moog, the famous creator of electronic instruments) and besides, in the short film “The Shore” ( winner of an Academy award as best short film)

The release of the new work, “Dos Manos” (a new soundtrack) is expected for july 2012, with the production of David Holmes and the patecipation of John Convertino (Calexico) and Sacri Cuori. The release will be on Interbang Records/ Brutture Moderne in collaboration with Strade Blu.

Listen on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/interban-records
Buy: http://www.interbangrecords.com/2012/07/woody-jackson-dos-manos-out-on-interbang-records-today/

LA PIRAMIDE DI SANGUE - "Tebe" - (Sound Of Cobra / Boring Machines, 2012)

LA PIRAMIDE DI SANGUE is a seven musicians ensemble from Italy.
The sound of the band is builded on two guitars, two basses, one clarinet, one synth, several effects, drums and percussions. The songs are a mosaic of meditative and restless sounds that could remind Sun Ra, Art Ensemble of Chicago, ballads with north-african taste, kraut rock rides under the sign of Agitation Free and Neu!

Review from Sentire Ascoltare: 

E fu così che, arrampicandosi sulla Mole Antonelliana, non si vide più soltanto la successione di Fibonacci, ma anche il lontano Oriente. Dietro il nome evocativo, già utilizzato come titolo di una cassetta a nome Gianni Giublena Rosacroce, e una iconografia in pieno stile "esoterico-massonico d'oriente", si nasconde il gotha della Torino (e dintorni) più scazzona, acida, visionaria e frikkettona: un settetto capitanato proprio dal Rosacroce citato, al secolo Stefano Isaia di Movie Star Junkiesiana memoria.

Tebe è un lavoro che per rimandi e posa in opera non ha forse uguali nel panorama contemporaneo italiano, mosso com’è da tante direttrici e tensioni diverse, tutte però orientate verso quel mondo sfocato dal sole e reso nebuloso dalla lontananza che è l’Oriente. Riannodando i fili, la congrega di visionari dietro La Piramide Di Sangue propone una psichedelia sostanziosa capace di tirare in ballo il versante più visionario e east-oriented del kraut tedesco (Agitation Free e Embryo su tutti) così come certe derive contemporanee tanto diverse quanto accomunabili come il noto gusto per la spiritualità mediorientale degli Om, la psych ottundente dei Master Musician Of Bukkake o il gusto etno-trance dei Gala Drop.

A tirar le fila, dicevamo, quell’Isaia che non pago di caveizzarsi (non è una offesa, quanto una nota di merito) coi MSJ, qui imbraccia il clarinetto e lo trasforma in una sorta di (mancante) lead voice. I pezzi, tutti strumentali, godono dell’irruenza dei compagni di sventura e a colpi di una strumentazione decisamente massimalista (doppia chitarra, doppio basso, synth, batteria e percussioni varie) rimandano effluvi mediorientali, tziganate balcaniche, aperture da colonna sonora immaginaria e spargono qua e là sabbia ed esoterismo, spezie e misticismo, incensi e trancendenza. Le svisate free di Complotti A Tebe, le contorsioni ritmiche di L'Invasione Delle Locuste, l’apparizione del fantasma (vivente) di Mulatu (Sandalo), il generale senso di spirituale abbandono al flusso incontrollabile delle musiche emergente da Sangue, Tu Getti Sale Sulle Mie Ferite, In Bici Sulla Strada Della Perdizione e Io Sono La Tigre fanno di Tebe una perla da non lasciarsi sfuggire. Che l'avvicinarsi della fine del mondo profetizzata (forse) dai Maya ci stia rendendo tutti più spirituali?

Listen Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/lapiramidedisangue
Watch: http://vimeo.com/43719425
Buy: http://www.soundofcobra.tk/ 

Quarteto Novo - Quarteto Novo (1967)

From Allmusic.com
The Quarteto Novo was a seminal group with a strong Northeastern accent. They brought the tradition of that region of Brazil and mixed it with the bebop jazz language, the result so influential that it broke cultural and physical barriers throughout the planet. It is possible to discern baião grooves in "Save the Last Dance for Me" by the Drifters, "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley, "She Loves You" by the Beatles, and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" by Burt Bacharach, among many others, not to mention the uncountable jazz renditions with that rhythm. Certainly modern, distinguished proponents of that genre, like Egberto Gismonti, have the Quarteto Novo to thank for that.
In 1966, the Rhodia company wanted live music for a fashion event, hiring the violonista/guitarist/banjo player/viola player Heraldo do Monte, drummer/percussionist Airto Moreira, and bassist/violonista Théo de Barros and forming the Trio Novo. When composer Geraldo Vandré's "Disparada" was classified on TV Record's II Festival of Brazilian Popular Music, the Trio was assigned to accompany singer Jair Rodrigues, who would interpret the song at the festival. But, due to the contract with Rhodia, they couldn't perform in that venue and the Trio Novo effectively accompanied Jair Rodrigues at that festival, but under a different formation: Aires on the Brazilian viola, Manini on the drums, and Edgar Giannullo on the violão. After pianist/brass/flute player Hermeto Pascoal joined the trio, it became the Quarteto Novo, which recorded its only LP with songs by Vandré and the group's participants, for Odeon in 1967. The album Quarteto Novo won the Troféu Roquette Pinto and the Troféu Imprensa. The Quarteto Novo was then personally sponsored by an individual, Geraldo Vandré, who had a good salary as an inspector for SUNAB, a governmental agency. They toured Brazil as Vandré's exclusive group, being the backing group for Vandré on his 1968 album Canto Geral. The group also accompanied Vandré, a host of TV shows for TV Record and TV Bandeirantes of São Paulo. The group also backed Edu Lobo and Marília Medalha on Edu Lobo's winning composition "Ponteio" at TV Record's III Festival of Brazilian Popular Music. The song was recorded by Edu with accompaniment by the Quarteto Novo, the group also accompanied Edu on his European tour. The group disbanded in 1969 and the LP was reissued by EMI/Odeon as a CD in 1993.

Listen Full Album on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y374WwqZtOI
Music: from BotecoDos Blog http://botecodosbloggers.blogspot.com/2009/12/quarteto-novo-quarteto-novo-1967.html
Buy: Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Quarteto-Novo/dp/B0018TNINS

GOBLIN - SUSPIRIA Original Soundtrack (1997)

Listen full soundtrack on amitgeva100 youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U3-GigfqmA

Goblin on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_%28band%29

"Goblin is an Italian progressive rock band known for their soundtracks for Dario Argento films (including Profondo Rosso (Deep Red) in 1975 and Suspiria in 1977).
They were initially named Cherry Five and were influenced by Genesis and King Crimson. Their early work spawned one eponymous progressive rock record. The band was then called in as a replacement for composer Giorgio Gaslini, who had left the film Profondo Rosso after a conflict with director Dario Argento. They changed their name to Goblin and rewrote most of the score, including the famous main theme. The soundtrack albums were huge hits.
A reshuffle in their line-up followed, and they put out an instrumental progressive rock album Roller, before working with Argento again for Suspiria. Other film soundtracks and a concept album (Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark) followed, then the score for the European version of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) (credited as "The Goblins") (Though track 1, 2 and 5 from the European version are also in the American version)."

Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Suspiria-Complete-Version-Goblin/dp/B00004Y801

Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (Singolarita di una ragazza bionda) - Manoel De Oliveira (2009)

Watch full movie in italian version on takkmum youtube channel:
(Film completo doppiato in italiano)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_z4v1vh3ig

Watch full movie in original portoguese version on bidsprinkhaanII youtube channel:
(Versão original)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw5a5FWIPAI

Recensione: http://www.filmtv.it/film/41052/singolarit-di-una-ragazza-bionda/

"In un film che fa della frontalità e dell’oralità la propria cifra stilistica, il maestro Manoel de Oliveira (che dopo questo ha già girato un corto, altri tre lungometraggi e, a quasi 103 anni, gode di buona salute) mette a confronto le speranze con la realtà, adattando un racconto di formazione di José Maria Eça De Queirós. La messa in scena per quadri semplici, dalla fotografia povera e dalle interpretazioni prive di virtuosismo, arriva a un cinema essenziale che trova ragion d’essere in uno sguardo concentrato sull’apologo, secco nella durata di soli 64 minuti eppure magistralmente stratificato."

Compra: http://www.ibs.it/dvd-film/singolarita-una-ragazza/manoel-de-oliveira/8033109404822_.html

Brian Eno & Robert Fripp - No Pussyfooting (1973)

Listen "swastika eyes" on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZIl9DKmcrQ
Listen "The Heavenly Music Corporation" on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elTuRy7OhgQ


Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(No_Pussyfooting)

"No Pussyfooting is a 1973 ambient music^[1] album by the British musicians Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. (No Pussyfooting) was the first of three major collaborations between the musicians, growing out of Eno's early tape recording loop experiments and Fripp's electric guitar playing.

(No Pussyfooting) was recorded in three days over the course of a year. Its release was close to that of Eno's own debut solo album Here Come the Warm Jets (1974), and it constitutes one of his early experiments in ambient music."

Buy: http://www.amazon.com/No-Pussyfooting-Fripp-Eno/dp/B001DU48XG

Try in this russian blogspot: http://progbeat-vvche.blogspot.com/2010/01/fripp-eno-no-pussyfooting-1973-uk.html

The 80`s VHS Mixtape "Sumfink Like Disco" Punk Rock Kick

Download the MP3: http://soundcloud.com/punk-rock-kick/sumfink-like-disco/download
By: https://www.facebook.com/PunkRockKicksMixtapes?sk=app_182222305144028

THE GO-BETWEENS - Before Hollywood (1983)

Listen full album on RamacureNotdead youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZJwsXXBNng

Allmusic review: http://www.allmusic.com/album/before-hollywood-mw0000690044

"The Go-Betweens were already a good band well before they made Before Hollywood, but this second album is what proved for many listeners that they were great. For good reason -- both Robert Forster's and Grant McLennan's singing sounds much more honestly theirs, finding their own voices, while collectively the trio create a series of intricate, surprising melodies and songs which balance past and present beautifully. Strange as it may sound, the band's peers at this point could and did range from the Cure (for both melancholic intensity and guitar -- check some of the electric work on "Ask") to more obvious cohorts such as Orange Juice, but The Go-Betweens already had their own identity firmly established. For many the album's reputation rests on the presence of one song alone, and understandably so: "Cattle and Cane." Arguably the band's absolute highlight of its earliest years and one of the early-'80s' utter classics, the combination of McLennan's nostalgia-laden but not soppy lyric, his flat-out lovely singing and overdubbed backing vocals, and the catchy, beautifully elegant acoustic/electric arrangement is simply to die for. There are plenty of other songs that demonstrate the threesome's collective strength. "Two Steps Step Out" is a prime example, with sudden tempo shifts, from a more straightforward beat on the chorus to the sudden breakdown on the brisk chorus, and McLennan's lovelorn lyric and quietly impassioned singing making it an instant winner. Another McLennan winner is "Dusty in Here," soft piano from Bernard Clarke adding just enough to the spare but warm arrangement. Forster gets his own share of memorable moments, not least of which is the title track, not to mention the edgy, desperate "By Chance" and slightly calmer "On My Block." Lindy Morrison's abilities as a drummer are similarly improved, the at-times strident work of Send Me a Lullaby here replaced with a good balance between impact and steady swing."


Try: http://loveinspurts.blogspot.com/2011/04/go-betweens-before-hollywood.html 

Tom Zé - Estudando o Samba (1976)

Photo taken from this blog:  
http://sinistersaladmusikal.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/sinister-vinyl-collection-tom-ze-estudando-o-samba-1976/

Review from this one: http://erasedtapes.blogspot.com/2010/01/tom-ze-estudando-o-samba-1975.html

"Though he is mainly known for his contributions to the Tropicália movement of the sixties, and by his resurface during the nineties thanks to David Byrne, Tom Zé managed to create during his obscure seventies a magnificent album, probably the masterpiece mixture between Samba ans Psychedelia.

Mixing a large variety of instruments with intricate compositions, fully immersed within the tropical sound of the psychedelic age, Estudando o Samba is definitely a latin masterpiece.

Special attention of the mandolin arrangement in Toc, and the lyrics of Ui."


Listen full album in Bob Quintal youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZevnHRcibU

Who is Tom Zé: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Z%C3%A9

NEU! - NEU! (1972)

Full album on Mafujalate329 youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQCTTvUqhOQ

Scaruffi review (9/10 vote): http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/neu.html

"Formed by guitarist Michael Rother and percussionist Klaus Dinger, both veterans of Kraftwerk, Neu (102) Neu! (1972 - Gronland, 2005) pushed to the limit the technique of iterative patterns and the impressionistic approach that were popular among contemporary cosmic musicians. Pieces such as Negativland are essentially continuums of rhythmic impulses propelled by Dinger's legendary "motorik beat" and by obsessive repetition of ferocious percussive patterns (occasionally bordering on jack-hammer noise). It was tribal drumming applied to the devastating neurosis of the post-industriale era."


Buy: http://groenland.com/en/artist/neu-2/
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Neu-75/dp/B000056IKV

Pauline alla spiaggia (Pauline à la plage) - Eric Rohmer (1983)

Full Movie on takkmum youtube channel (versione doppiata in italiano) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04SroKaLk4Q


Recensione http://www.filmtv.it/film/21138/pauline-alla-spiaggia/

"Piccoli intrighi sentimentali visti da una ragazzina.

La tredicenne Pauline sta trascorrendo gli ultimi giorni di vacanza con la zia Marion in una villetta sulle spiagge della Normandia. Mentre fa amicizia con un compagno la ragazzina assiste al complesso gioco dei sentimenti degli adulti che la circondano. Del gruppo osservato fanno parte Pierre, che un tempo era pazzo d'amore per Marion e che non ha mai smesso di amarlo. Poi c'è Henri in playboy che filosofeggia con Marion sull'amore e finisce per diventare il suo amante."

Darkstar - "News from nowhere" (Warp, 2013)

FatCat Records Podcast #77 - Staff Picks 2012

FatCat staff chose some of their favourite tracks of the year and then put them into one big lovely mp3 and here it is. Enjoy!

1. The Men - Open Your Heart
2. Ty Segall - The Hill
3. Mrs Magician - The Spells
4. DIIV - Doused
5. Playlounge - Sweet Tooth
6. Peepholes - The Overspill!
7. Goat - Goathead
8. Aesop Rock - Zero Dark Thirty
9. Kendrick Lamar - Backstreet Freestyle
10. Actress - Caves of Paradise
11. kandodo - yamadharma
12. Sierra Maestra - Elena la Cumbachera
13. Murlo - At The Knees
14. Andy Stott - Numb
15. Van Stonholdt - Simulated Tranquility
16. Peter Broderick - With the Notes in my Ears

Blue Willa - Blue Willa (Trovarobato, 2013)

Blue Willa is the debut album by the Italian art rock quartet bearing that same name.
Due for release in early 2013, the album is produced by Californian musician Carla Bozulich (Evangelista, The Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella, Ethyl Meatplow), who directed the shaping, recording and mixing of every song. She also contributed singing and playing on many tracks. This happened in Italy, India and Paris during the spring of 2012.

The affinities between the band and Carla draw a dazing route that keeps drifting halfway through Pixies and Diamanda Galás, Kurt Weill and Iggy Pop. What we have here is a mashup of sweltering Mediterranean melodic heritage and hypnotic native American calls, soundscapes that could emerge from reveries by Edgar Allan Poe or Italo Calvino, eerie noises and animals, bells, gypsies and punks.

Listen Streaming: http://www.rockit.it/bluewilla/album/blue-willa/21275
Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwjjz9ccDEs
Buy: http://www.audioglobe.it/disk.php?code=8016670101567

LOU REED & JOHN CALE - Songs For Drella (1990)

Full album on MetalMachineManiac youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKYaKzexlHY


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_for_Drella

"Songs for Drella is a concept album by Lou Reed and John Cale, both formerly of The Velvet Underground, and is dedicated to the memory of Andy Warhol, their mentor, who had died unexpectedly in 1987. Drella was a nickname for Warhol coined by Warhol Superstar Ondine, a contraction of Dracula and Cinderella, used by Warhol's crowd. The song cycle focuses on Warhol's interpersonal relations and experiences, with songs falling roughly into three categories: Warhol's first-person perspective (which makes up the vast majority of the album), third-person narratives chronicling events and affairs, and first-person commentaries on Warhol by Reed and Cale themselves. The songs on the album are, to some extent, in chronological order...Lou Reed and John Cale spoke to one another for the first time in years at Warhol's memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on April 1, 1987. The painter Julian Schnabel suggested they write a memorial piece for Andy. On January 7 and 8, 1989, Cale and Reed performed an almost completed Songs for Drella at The Church of St. Anne's in Brooklyn..."

 

JUNE OF 44 - Four Great Points (1998, Quarterstick Records)

Full album on 1cromsbeard youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngG6DqMZVeE

Scaruffi presentation of the band: http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/juneof44.html

"June Of 44, a sort of supergroup comprising Rodan's guitarist Jeff Mueller, Sonora Pine's guitarist Sean Meadows, Codeine's drummer and keyboardist Doug Scharin, and bassist and trumpet player Fred Erskine, summarized the aesthetics and ethos of post-rock. Engine Takes To The Water (1995) signaled the evolution of "slo-core" towards a coldly neurotic form, which achieved a hypnotic and catatonic tone, besides a classic austerity, on the mini-album Tropics And Meridians (1996). Sustained by abrasive and inconclusive guitar doodling, mutant rhythm and off-key counterpoint of violin and trumpet, Four Great Points (1998) metabolized dub, raga, jazz, pop in a theater of calculated gestures."

Allmusic.com http://www.allmusic.com/album/four-great-points-mw0000032704

OKKYUNG LEE - Noisy Love Song (2011, Tzadik)

"Korean cellist Okkyung Lee is one of those musicians who is not only comfortable in any genre - modern jazz, rock or classical - but in her own compositions she even goes beyond genres, not blending them, but defying them. The musicians who accompany her on this album attest to that : Cornelius Dufallo on violin, Peter Evans on trumpet, Craig Taborn on piano, Satoshi Takeishi on percussion and electronics, and Christopher Tordini on bass. Ikue Mori and John Hollenbeck join on one track - "Steely Morning" - on electronics and percussion. The second piece has a strong Asian feel, starting like soundtrack music for a Zhang Yimou movie, romantic and moving then shifting deep into avant sounds, with the strings fiddling coarsely in the higher regions, escaping sentimentalism. Some pieces, such as "Kung" have a strong rhythmic base with cello, violin and bass circling around each other in a hypnotic counterpoint dance. At the other end, you get "Steely Morning", a real avant-garde piece, with chime-like sounds forming the backbone for a weird electronic exploration, as sweet as it is bizarre. Lee's compositional approach is one of control and abandon, of structure and exploration, more accessible than much of the music reviewed on this blog, and this despite its complexity of composition and arrangements, resulting in a world of sonic and lyrical magic. Yes, control and abandon describes it well : carefully crafted pieces, with memorable themes, yet with a kind of full emotional giving in the improvisations that says it all, full of depth and subtle inventiveness, without needing to resort to extremes. A strong and beautiful album." 
VIA Free Jazz Collective.blogspot

Okkyung Lee: Cello
Ikue Mori: Electronics
Craig Taborn: Piano
Satoshi Takeishi: Percussion, Electronics
Cornelius Dufallo: Violin
Peter Evans: Trumpet
John Hollenbeck: Percussion
Christopher Tordini: Bass

WATCH Amour Discipline.org
LISTEN Taste for Rot.blogspot

ERIC ZANN - Ouroborindra (2005, Ghost Box)

"Eric Zann manipulates ancient oscillators, radios and found sounds in an attempt to tune in to voices beyond the veil. An electroacoustic journey through stark, echoing soundscapes that offer fleeting glimpses of the light and beauty beyond. Eric Zann creates cavernous echoing music from vintage oscillators and scraps of found sound. Zann’s soundscapes are haunted by half heard voices and weird amorphous entities, but he sometimes affords us fleeting glimpses of the light and beauty beyond."

READ Stylus Magazine

LISTEN Bug in the City.blogspot

BUY Ghost Box Label

RICCI RUCKER - Fuga (2005, Alphapup Records)

Some liner notes from the man himself... 

"The process I decided to use was a combination of live playing, programming, and scratching. The way I originally composed the music was from sampling bits and pieces from random records and making the skeleton to the whole album. I then took my compositions to the live musicians to play the main chords and melodies of my pre-recorded songs, and had them improvise even more. Percussion and drums were added live, then arranged. This left me with an interpretation of my original song, and a lot more material to play with. After I had all of the sounds recorded (using vintage recording equipment, thanks Jim), I pressed all of the sounds back to vinyl so they could be scratched, programmed, and arranged from the vinyl, hence the vinyl sound throughout the album. Fuga was the result. A hybrid jazz composition where I blur the lines between live, programmed, and scratch music. All playing styles coming together as one."

WATCH Youtube

LISTEN Spotify

BUY Amazon   

BUY Boomkat

MAZZY STAR - So Tonight That I Might See (1993)

Full album on Elias Eduardo youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpBeRede1X0

From Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazzy_Star

"Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Monica, California, in 1989 from the group Opal, a collaboration of guitarist David Roback and bassist Kendra Smith. Roback's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Smith left the band.^[1]
Mazzy Star is probably best known for the song "Fade into You" which brought the band some success in the mid-1990s and was the group's biggest mainstream hit, earning extensive exposure on MTV, VH1, and radio airplay. Roback and Sandoval are the creative center of the band, with Sandoval as lyricist and Roback as composer of the majority of the band's material........So Tonight That I Might See is the second studio album by  Mazzy Star, released on October 5, 1993. "

Website:  http://www.mazzystar.nu/

IORI'S EYES - Double Soul (2012, La Tempesta Dischi)

Full album and review(stefano fiz bottura) on rockit.it:
http://www.rockit.it/ioriseyes/album/double-soul/18816


"Lost in translation.
E' questa la prima immagine che mi viene nel raccontare questo 1° disco ufficiale degli Iori's Eyes. Teniamoci questo riferimento, chiudiamo gli occhi e lasciamo correre le immagini. Sì, "Double Soul" è un disco bellissimo, capace di alternare atmosfere rarefatte e lucidità improvvise, con un tocco imprecisato tra il decadente e il distaccato. Un disco dall'anima decisamente notturna: poetico, raffinato e solitario. E' il classico disco di cui il discografico major di turno (esistono ancora?) potrebbe dire che mancano le canzoni vere e proprie, ed è vero, ma è proprio quello uno dei suoi pregi, questo è un disco di atmosfere emozioni e paesaggi, qualcosa che si perderebbe a volerlo tradurre secondo i canoni pop discografici settati su standard del secolo scorso. E infatti lo produce La Tempesta International immaginandosi la Warp (Lost in translation).
I 2 numi tutelari sono James Blake (ascoltare "All the people..." ) e Massive Attack (ascoltare "Bubble Gum"), in un ideale passaggio di consegne tra il suono insieme fumoso ed elegante della Bristol anni '90 a quello tipico di questi anni '10, meno ruvido certo, ma con ancora più gelo nel cuore. Prendiamo un pezzo come "Winter Olympics": sono i The XX che cantano con i Portishead, oppure 'in Love With your...', che sembrano i The Weeknd coi Massive Attack (o con gli Aucan, visto che la base è interamente regalata dal trio bresciano). Oppure 'Something's coming...' e 'Vlad', sono i Radio Dept e James Blake che si ammazzano di gin tonic in una giornata di sole e vento gelido nel centro di Stoccolma (o Londra). E a voler continuare coi rimandi, sarà poi che si presta bene come colonna sonora per film e viaggi mentali, questo "Double Soul" starebbe bene per un "In The Mood For Love" girato d'inverno a Copenaghen o, rieccoci, come se fossimo in "Lost in Translation" girato però -appunto- a Milano, in cui l'ascoltatore si trova ad essere una Scarlett Johansson altrettanto smarrita e sola che scivola per una città che non conosce e.
Ci siamo capiti.
Un disco di giovani europei per giovani cittadini del mondo, come recita il comunicato stampa 'registrato in case in affitto a Berlino, Amsterdam e Milano', senza menate di barriere linguistiche o mentali, con quella curiosità randagia che è poesia&bellezza in 2 ragazzi di 23 anni, con quello scarto, quello 'spunto' e quella naturalezza per il mondo, diciamo così, che hanno quei meravigliosi compagni di etichetta che sono gli Aucan e gli A Classic Education.
Un disco giustamente contemporaneo quindi, di quelli pieni di rimandi sospiri codici cifrati che si perdono nel voler cercare di tradurre sentimenti in parole, come questa recensione d'altronde, come quello che ti vorrei dire e non ti dico, come quello che leggi e (non) capisci. Questo disco è il suono che fa il silenzio se lo guardi da lontano e lo vedi brulicare di immagini&desiderio.

Per Rockit è erste Wahl.
Lost in translation."

BACHI DA PIETRA - Quintale (2013, La Tempesta Dischi)

Full album on rockit.it:
http://www.rockit.it/bachidapietra/album/quintale/21279


(Fabrizio Zampighi) Sentire Ascoltare recensione:
http://www.sentireascoltare.com/recensione/11082/bachi-da-pietra-quintale.html 

"Inizia tutto come da copione nel disco "hard rock" (Dorella dixit) dei Bachi da pietra: feedback di chitarra elettrica che cincischia nell'introduttiva Haiti fino a diventare un riff tiratissimo da far invidia ai Kyuss più ispirati. Il primo ascolto di Quintale è una botta terrificante. Paolo il Tarlo cita gli Unida di John Garcia virgolettati no wave (c'è il sax stritolato di Arrington de Dionyso degli Old Time Relijun a campeggiare tra i crediti del brano), in Brutti versi la voce di Succi azzanna uno stoner urticante manco fosse un Rottweiler, in Coleottero si arriva ai confini col metal.

Un plettro e un charleston ampliano l'organico della band e d'improvviso l'universo dei Bachi è sottosopra, salvo accorgerti che la rivoluzione passa soprattutto per certi testi: accantonato il verso scolpito e sibilante del passato, si opta per una parola che è parabola, frase canonica, narrazione, in alcuni frangenti figlia di un reiterare ritmico (una Enigma che cita addetti ai lavori più o meno nell'orbita della formazione, da Ceccarelli di Estragon Lab a Chris di Bronson Produzioni, da La Tempesta Dischi ai Massimo Volume, da Mirko Spino di Wallace Records a Rico Gamondi di Uochi Toki/La morte), in altri di una spoken word quasi hip hop che non disdegna il gioco di parole (Fessura), in altri ancora di uno scorrere lineare anomalo per i canoni del gruppo (Dio del suolo).
Accanto alla voglia sacrosanta di sperimentare con gli amplificatori si assiste, paradossalmente, a una sorta di normalizzazione rispetto ai dischi precedenti. Come se la finzione "teatrale" o "letteraria" che ha retto tutta la discografia dei Bachi fino ad oggi, quell'immaginario sotterraneo e fangoso fondamento della credibilità di un suono inquietante e ridotto all'osso, cedesse il passo a un tentativo di rientrare nei canoni di "genere". Sia stata o meno la produzione (riconoscibile) di Giulio Ragno Favero a far da catalizzatore in questo senso, è innegabile come accanto ai solidi brani sopracitati, Sangue o Mari Lontani, convivano parentesi che, loro malgrado, "bromurizzano" la personalità particolarissima ed esclusiva dei Bachi. Ciò che accade, ad esempio, in Dio del suolo, in Ma anche no o con la slide guitar di Pensieri Parole Opere.
Considerata l'esperienza dei musicisti coinvolti, le aspettative per la quinta fatica di studio dei Bachi da Pietra erano altissime. Succi e Dorella rispondono con un Quintale fisico e di buone idee che convince senza sconvolgere, come se tutto fosse, in definitiva, meno pericoloso del previsto."

ZU - Igneo (2002, Wallace Records)

Full album on YourselfIsSteam youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVZWTXLGVxE

Scaruffi.com review: http://www.scaruffi.com/vol7/zu.html


"Zu, an all-instrumental Italian band (Massimo Pupillo on bass, Jacopo Battaglia on drums, Luca Mai on saxophone...played some of the most adventurous post-rock music at the turn of the century...Pared down to a trio, but boasting the collaborations of saxophonist Ken Vandermark , trombonist Jeb Bishop and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, Zu released their second album, Igneo (Wide, 2002 - Frenetic, 2006). From the beginning, The Elusive Character of Victory states an "elastic" and sometimes deliberately unfocused concept of musical dynamics. The roaring and rampant Solar Anus boasts an almost tender break spoiled by an energetic saxophone solo..."

SEEFEEL - Succour (1995, Warp)

Full album on WilderGA youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHtWt9cgEQQ

Allmusic.com review: http://www.allmusic.com/album/succour-mw0000915771

"Halfway between the often connected worlds of British indie rock and experimental techno, Seefeel continued the guitar-effects exploration of rock's My Bloody Valentine but set the whole in a framework of electronic beats and loops. Begun as a standard rock band in early 1992, the quartet soon grew bored within the restraints of normal musical forms and started working with loops and programs rather than lyrics and choruses...The resulting album, 1995's Succour, was something of a disappointment; similar to Aphex Twin's supposed major-label breakthrough one year earlier, the LP was a bit too skeletal for most rock critics or music fans."

TINDERSTICKS - The Something Rain (2012, Constellation)

Pitchfork review:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16307-tindersticks/

"Since signing to Constellation and introducing a revamped lineup with 2008's The Hungry Saw and 2010's Falling Down a Mountain, Tindersticks have gradually drifted away from the string-swept epics that defined their astounding first three albums and the studious soul tones that defined the next three; by loosening up their performances, amplifying their psychedelic side, and projecting a greater degree of playfulness, they've practically become the world's most dignified jam band...It may have taken them two albums to find their proper footing with their new line-up but, with The Something Rain, Tindersticks provide a wholly convincing reminder that they are, by definition, an incendiary device."


Full album on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/constellation-records/sets/the-something-rain

Four Tet - 0181 (Text Records, 2013)

Produced by Kieran Hebden between 1997 and 2001

Compiled 2012

TEXT021

Also available on vinyl LP soon.

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/four-tet/0181-1

AL DOUM & THE FARYDS - Positive Force (Black Sweat, 2012)

Sentire Ascoltare review:
http://www.sentireascoltare.com/recensione/11153/al-doum-the-faryds-positive-force.html

Suonare una sorta di etno-world terzomondista ma col piglio di una "noise" band, senza cioè tirar fuori annacquata robetta new age o inoffensiva musichetta da non-luogo. Questo è ciò che fa Al Doum & The Faryds, sestetto milanese formato da Domenico Davidini, Johnny Serpico, Filippo Ferrari, Riccardo Vincentini, Stefano Tamagni e Lorenzo Farolfi, che è facile da subito accomunare alla congrega messa su da Stefano Isaia aka Gianni Giublena Rosacroce con La Piramide Di Sangue. Troppo facile e scontata, però, l'assonanza se è vero che i Faryds girano da parecchio e Positive Force è il loro secondo album lungo.

Quaranta minuti scarsi di "ethnic sounds" e "psychedelic music", per loro stessa ammissione, che sorprende per la capacità di creare mondi nuovi con una sapiente mistura di musica da trip: cosmico alla maniera del kraut meno convenzionale (se tale potesse definirsi il kraut), spirituale alla maniera del jazz dei neri, avventuroso e sognante come quello del maestro riconosciuto Sun Ra. Nomi da tirare in ballo ce ne sarebbero eccome, dagli Agitation Free alla "new entry" Omar Souleyman, dagli ultimi Om a molti degli intrippati made in Italy che abbiamo incontrato ultimamente, ma la musica dei sei si regge benissimo anche senza impegnativi paragoni, tanta e tale e la forza con cui viene maneggiata la materia.

L'inaugurale Sinai ha la vorticosità delle chitarre e l'esotismo da viaggio del leading sax, la muscolarità delle percussioni e l'ascetismo spirituale delle atmosfere, gira di qua e di là dal Mediterraneo, affonda lo sguardo su epoche passate e presenti, il qui e l'altrove, noi e l'altro. Ribadendo per l'ennesima volta - l'ultima fu in occasione di Goat e Spaccamombu - la capacità della musica, di "certa" musica, di varcare confini e superare barriere, in nome di un flusso primordiale e riconoscibile in ogni tempo.

Soundcloud: http://aldoum.bandcamp.com/album/positive-force