[MusicRatty] tag: brass

Beyonce's Suspicious Grammy Nomination

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:04:00 +0000

So the 2009 Grammy Nominations came out yesterday right? What was the most surprising nomination was Beyonce being nominated in the "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" category for "Me Myself and I" from her "The Beyonce Live Experience" live audio DVD. Now I really thought my eyes were deceiving me but apparently not. I really thought Beyonce would get nominated but not in this capacity. This was truly a wasted space in my opinion. I would of expected her to be nominated for newest album but it missed the Grammy deadline. But Grammy has its favorites. They are certain artists that will always be nominated and will always win too even when you think they are more qualifying people for the award. Anyway I think any other number for females and songs could of replaced the Beyonce entry. Here is the complete list for that said category.

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)

* Me, Myself And I
Beyoncé
Track from: The Beyonce Experience Live Audio
[Columbia/Music World Music]

* Heaven Sent
Keyshia Cole
Track from: Just Like You
[Geffen]

* Spotlight
Jennifer Hudson
[Arista]

* Superwoman
Alicia Keys
Track from: As I Am
[J Records]

* Need U Bad
Jazmine Sullivan
[J Records]

For more Grammy nominations coverage click here!

Video: Nelly - One & Only
The 48th single from Nelly's "Brass Knuckles" album.

Its surprising how hard Nelly has fallen off. Nelly was once a rap powerhouse who's albums sold in the millions. Now he can barely sell 200,000 copies. I guess he simply has to dust hisself off and try again. I will say it is not easy to be gone for four years and come back. You really have to reinvent yourself and remind us why we liked you from the start. And 4 years is an eternity in the music industry. With R&B/Hip-Hop being so trendy, things are constantly changing.

Music Biz:
Kanye Tops Charts!

Kanye West earns his third straight No. 1 on The Billboard 200 as "808s & Heartbreak" bows in the top slot. The Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam set moved 450,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, the artist's lowest debut sales frame since his first album, "The College Dropout," bowed with 441,000 in 2004. His last release, "Graduation," began with 957,000 at No. 1 last year, while sophomore set "Late Registration" checked in with 860,000 at No. 1 in 2005.

New Video: Nelly - One And Only

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:03:00 +0000

Video For Nelly's Fourth "One And Only" Produced By Polow Da Don. Off His Fifth Studio Album "Brass Knuckles" In Stores Now!

LIVGREN, KERRY - One Of Several Possible Musics (1989)

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:22:54 +0000

Kerry Livgren is a master of composition, and his body of work with Kansas alone proves it. Kansas, however, was not known for their instrumentals (The two-minute exercise The Spider is the only one, and Steve Walsh wrote that). While this instrumental work may not be on the same level as Camels The Snow Goose, it has several pieces which are excellent listens, and despite the time period, solidifies Livgrens place among the great progressive rock composers. It gives one pause to consider what these pieces might have evolved into had they been preserved for the later Kansas album Somewhere to Elsewhere or one of the Proto-Kaw releases.

Ancient Wing The beginning piece on this album has an uplifting introduction, but mainly serves an opportunity right off the bat to showcase Livgrens talents as a tasteful guitarist. The bass throughout sounds almost exactly like what would appear during the instrumental section of Alt. More Worlds Than Known on the Proto-Kaw album Before Became After.

And I Saw, As it WereKonelrad This is probably the most dynamic and exciting piece on the album. There is the sound of brass instruments at first, followed by an extremely fast drum and bass beat that introduces Livgrens piano playing at his best. There is the sound of someone announcing Red alert, red alert- this is not a drill, followed by electric guitar soloing. There are sound effects, additional keyboard, and further piano that make this track quite exciting. It ends with sound of newborn baby crying.

Colonnade Gardens Following a short brass introduction, Livgren plays some soulful electric guitar over some fairly cheesy 1980s sounding music (particularly the drums). After two minutes, the piece slows to a keyboard-based section over a lone snare drum. It is highly enjoyable, but could have used to more build, especially since the piece goes into a short harmonica section that leads into a second guitar solo all of a sudden.

In the Sides of the North These strings have an epic feel, making this sound like something that belongs in a grand war movie (perhaps Braveheart)- nothing short of beautiful.

Alenna in the Sun Several stringed instruments and a Grecian feel are what this is all about. There are some fantastic guitar leads on this one, as well as further piano soloing. The only trouble is that the main riff is overused; other than that, I have no complaints. It happens to be one of my favorites on the album, though.

Tannin Danse This piece has a tribal feel, with more primitive-sounding instruments. It probably represents Livgrens urge to be diverse on this album. There are a few interesting parts, but for the most part, its decent background music, but nothing more.

The Far Country This piece sounds like it could have belonged in the Kansas discography (despite the instrumentation). Initially it makes me think of the instrumental section of Journey from Mariabronn. Livgren uses the harmonica and the electric guitar as lead instruments throughout. It is neither the best nor the worst on this offering.

Diaspora Featuring more world music sounds and blending them with other synthetic sounds, this piece is a bit unique. It features a rare organ solo, again demonstrating Livgrens prowess on the keys.

A Fistful of Drachma Another excellent piece from this album, this one again features a sound similar to what will be heard on the later Proto-Kaw releases. Livgren gives us one of his best piano performances here, one that makes me think of Distant Vision from the Kansas album Somewhere to Elsewhere. Soon enough, there is a grand guitar solo that fades out with the song.

Tenth of Nisan It was on the tenth day of Nisan (the Hebrew lunar calendar) that the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River to begin their conquest of the promised land of Canaan, beginning with the seemingly insurmountable city of Jericho. Hence the music sounds like a royal procession, with a marching snare drum and a choir.

Eerie Cove The final track (a bonus track, it seems) has strong guitar work and wonderful keyboard passages, along with what sounds like an acoustic bass guitar. It has an intriguing middle section, laden with the sound of bass and clarinet.

by Epignosis

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A Great Forecast for Future Clouds and Radar

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:27:16 +0000

As I indicated less than two weeks when featuring Benji Hughes’ excellent A Love Extreme, releasing a double-disc album as a debut can be a risky venture for numerous reasons. Inaccessibility is the primary one for sure, along with a widespread assumption that the release may play by the “quantity over quality” ideology. There is no simple way to avoid these initial beliefs, apart from releasing consistent quality of course. Taking this methodical approach of releasing a debut album with over an hours’ worth of material can also prove to be a showcase of an artist’s confidence in regard to their songwriting. After all, the production cost for producing a double-album is considerably more, packaging and distribution included. If they truly intend to take this route, they must have material that they are fully committed to and feel that audiences will feel the same way. No one knows where Benji Hughes will go from here, but another example of contemporary independent songwriters who were adventurous enough to take the double-album route upon releasing their debut was Future Clouds and Radar. The Austin-based five-piece put out a self-titled debut in 2007, featuring 27 tracks of a very diverse nature. Some listeners noted the album for its successful use of stylistic variation, but the most outstanding feature that most listeners found was related to the consistency in quality that stretched over the vast selection of material.

As a veteran songwriter who had already seen a respectable share of success with Austin favorites Cotton Mather during the mid ’90s (their 1997 album, Kontiki, is highly recommended), Robert Harrison already had the credentials to attempt such a grandiose feat. Thanks mainly in part to Oasis’ Noel Gallagher’s very convincing promotion of to the adored Kontiki, the album had become very successful in the UK when it was reissued in 1998. NME basically went on to call them the next Supergrass and Cotton Mather had a few years of ample overseas recognition before the group was abolished in 2003 after releasing The Big Picture in 2001. What occurred next consisted of a series of tragic circumstances, as Harrison’s intent to continue immediately with his songwriting was put on hold after he suffered a critical spinal injury shortly after Cotton Mather’s break-up. Restrained to his bedroom, he continued writing songs as recovery loomed in the future. Always noted as a rather prolific songwriter with three albums and two EPs in the span of seven years with Cotton Mather, it was also a tendency of his to put out at least something every year whether it was a full-length or a single. To spend such a long period of time in recovery must have been devastating, but he obviously used the time wisely to release the debut for his new project, entitled Future Clouds and Radar.

Upon the release of Future Clouds and Radar’s debut, their style tended to be consistently within the realm of psychedelic-rock. While other elements in the vein of electronica, pop, and blues were also sporadically present, psychedelia was a driving force that ultimately resulted in a cross between ‘60s pop and psych-rock experimentation. Still though, whether one was a fan of the bluesy “Devil No More”, the power-pop flair of “Let Me Get Your Coat”, or the brass-led funk cover of Bob Marley’s “Wake Up and Live”, the album offered some of the most successful interpretations of stylistic variation that I had heard all year in 2007. Harrison’s full recovery is a blessing for both him and listeners alike, as he has now reverted back to his expectedly ambitious scope. Just slightly over a year after the debut’s release, he is back again with Future Clouds and Radar’s second album, Peoria. However, this time it not “he” alone who writes and stars on the tracks. Peoria happens to be a more cumulative effort, featuring four other members who provide just the right dose of contrasting perspectives to complement Harrison’s songwriting beautifully. Peoria proves to only be about half the length of its predecessor, but Harrison’s knack for stylistic variation remains undoubtedly prevalent.

As both Future Clouds and Radar’s debut and the recently released Peoria suggest, Harrison’s excellent songwriting was not effected one bit by his five years away from the music industry. If anything, he has returned with more successful ideas than ever. However, unlike the expansive array of styles presented on a track-to-track basis on their debut, Peoria offers an overall more consistent sound that is a result of several blended musical genres and techniques. There is a decreasing emphasis on psychedelia and more on power-pop, as is presented on an infectiously concise track like “Feet on Grass” where a jazzy key progression underlies a series of sweeping strings, alternating percussion, and guitar progressions that sound like they are straight out of a ‘70s spy flick. When the next track, “Mummified”, arrives, the departure is able to illustrate a stark melodic contrast within a comparable instrumental arsenal. Over a series of familiarized strings and guitar progressions, the primary addition here is in the brass that flows seamlessly over Harrison’s excellent vocals (which sound like a cross between John Lennon and Jellyfish’s Andy Sturmer). The first four minutes prove for an illustriously brilliant pop soundscape; it is easily one of the best things Harrison has ever written. The final three minutes of the track are quite fascinating as well, equating to a mixture of avant-garde jazz, psychedelia, and sample-led electronica as this epic of a track comes to a masterful conclusion.

“Feet on Grass” and “Mummified” are just two instances of the stark contrasts on Peoria, this time more melodically and structurally than stylistically. “Eighteen Months” serves as the most linear track on the album in rather enjoyable fashion, employing a series of repetitive guitar riffs over Harrison’s vocals as it sits perfectly between the epic “Mummified” and the electro-acoustic experimentations of “The Mortal”. A few other highlights include “Mortal 296”, which sounds like some Gypsy death march with its smatterings of discordant brass, and “The Epcot View”, a catchy opener in a power-pop vein that sounds strikingly similar to Lawrence Heyward and Felt with its jangly guitar progressions and quickly adjusted keyboard enhancements. Even more so than their debut, Peoria is a remarkable stylistic achievement for Future Clouds and Radar. While the few critics of their excellent debut complained about occasional periods of stylistic indecisiveness, Peoria offers up a consistent sound while still remaining to tread in different stylistic territory throughout the entirety of the release. From avant-garde jazz to cleanly infectious power-pop, it is remarkable how Harrison and co. are able to conjure up such a fascinating sound so consistently.

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Future Clouds and Radar - Feet on Grass

Download audio file (fcloud-fee.mp3)

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Future Clouds and Radar - Mummified

Download audio file (fcloud-mum.mp3)

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Future Clouds and Radar - The Epcot View

Download audio file (fcloud-epc.mp3)

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Gunter Bialas, "Introitus - Exodus"

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:00:00 +0000

-- Liner Notes --

Gunter Bialas was born in 1907 in the town of Bielschowitz in Upper Silesia. He studied music in Berlin, particularly with M. Trapp. In 1947 he was appointed director of the composition course at the Northwest German Academy of Music in Detmold, where he became a professor three years later. From 1959 until his retirement in 1972 Bialas taught composition at the Munich Musikhochschule.

A Profile

In 19th-century Germany the history of music was largely coloured by the debate over programme vs absolute music. Here it was the theorists who tried to make a hard-and-fast distinction rather than the composers, who doubtless realized that, in the final analysis, absolute music also has its programmatic traits and programme music does not stand outside the norms of the absolute. As a result, this debate has left our century, and German composers in particular, with a somewath consorted relation to any form of illustrative music. Significantly, Gunter Bialas has noted this fact with regret. This is significant first of all because in large parts of his oeuvre he has attempted to reconcile these two admittedly never fully disparate ideals, instilling into his works a characteristic tension between the absolute and the illustrative. Bialas's music uses suggestive images to put pressure on the listener and express (its meaning intelligibly in sound. His musical language reveals with exemplary clarity the truism that music is a priori always more than something with a one-dimensional meaning. His works take illustration beyond the realm of banal tone-painting and are fully capable of standing on their own.

A good example of this point is provided by his "Haiku" series, ideally matched settings of concise Japanese lyric poetry, even though they only represent a small if characteristic segment of his work as a whole. "I intended to grow no older/But the temple (bells . . ." Bialas captures a musical image of the relentless tolling of the bells in a melodic ostinato. Yet he goes beyond this to attain a purely musical evocation of perseverance: the osoinato "stands" for a manner of musical expression that neither shuns concrete images nor falls foul of the strictures of absolute music. In this way, subjective vision and the objective shaping of time coincide for one brief instant, both image and music uniting in the "primary sound-form" of the bell strokes.

This aesthetic of reconciliation between image and music accounts not only for the strong influence of literature in Bialas's work - even in his untexted instrumental pieces - as the composer himself has emphasized. It also explains his unmistakable fondness for the miniature, or rather for musical distillation. After abandoning the driving, extrovert, dangerously mechanical music of the 1950s Bialas was able, by discovering and cultivating archaic techniques such as "primitive" heterophony in the 1960s, to attain an art of deliberate omission, choosing as his goal the greatest possible simplicity. This goal manifested itself in a judicious and calculated renunciation of plenitude and abundance: he regards technical manipulation and musical constructivism as an inescapable transitional stage which every progressive composer must pass through and leave behind. In the back of his mind is the realization that only by passing through musical technique does a form of musical compression become possible in which omission itself Is discernible. In Hegelian terms, the omissions are "sublated" in the music.

Discernibility (perhaps lucidity is a better term) is a key notion in Bialas's view of music. It doubtless accounts for his almost violent rejection of the mindless application of serial techniques which, in his opinion, leads to indiscernibility and hence to the imperceptible and meaningless. Musical meaning is the keystone of Bialas's work as a composer, though this is not to equate meaning with one-dimensional signification. Particularly in his later works Bialas's musical language becomes increasingly multi-faceted with a clear tendency toward shades of mood, always trenchantly formulated. His Heine cycle of 1983 provides a clear instance of his search for shimmering, disparate realms of expression. This, as the composer himself remarks, is fully in keeping with Heine's own personality as a poet, hovering precariously between lyricism and irony. Even Bialas's operas likewise strike a precarious balance between tragedy and comedy. Here the balance is expressed in varied devices of psychological and emotional alienation fully in accord with the aristocratic irony which marks the personality of this highly cultured composer.

Bialas sees himself as part of a sorely tried transitional generation which, though violently bereft of valuable years of creative work, nevertheless was given the opportunity of a radical and rewarding fresh start. At all events his music represents an important aspect of German post-war culture, and his art of musical illustration and expression, his abstract conaiseness and sublime shades of mood will probably be more greatly appreciated in the near future than is presently allowed by the current death-throes of hyperstructuralist music.

Introitus - Exodus

When traditional labels for musical forms and genres are applied to 20th-century compositions they most often summon up a broad panoply of meanings. Much can be learned of the work in question by examining these meanings. Was the composer seeking reassurance from the past for his novel idioms? Did he feel compelled by his neo-classical leanings to take recourse in history? Or, as in the present work, did he wish to conjure up an aura of archaism and ritual? Bialas himself addressed this matter in a brief introduction: "First of all, 'Introitus' and 'Exodus' mean exactly what the words imply when translated hiterally: entrance and exit. We are familiar with the introit as the beginning of the mass. In Greek tragedy, exodus refers to the departure of the chorus. Both of these are rituals, and it is this idea of ritual which I wish to kindle in the listener" (from "Meilensteine eines
componistenlebens - Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag" p. 66).

The "entrance", a plastic sound introduced by an initial unison figure in the strings, brass and bassoons, is fully in keeping with Bialas's distinctive approach to music:

It is no accident that this figure, an ascending whole-step with an upbeat flavour, is a prototypical incipit formula in liturgical psalmody. Hence it forms a clear link with plainsong (the "introit" as a genre never left the confines of Gregorian chant) and points to the semantic background of the work. In a sense, it announces the opening of a secular mass, a ritual pertaining to human life and death generally. However, as Bialas himself explains, the entrance is not without its difficulties: "Entrance means overcoming resistance: each advance provokes a reaction" (Festschrift). There are two ways in which resistance and reaction are at work in the "Introitus": first of all. the initial impulse is followed by an opposing process of stagnation centred from the very outset around the portentous not "a". Secondlv, onomatopoetic noise figures alternate in various groups of instruments, clustering around the stagnant central pitch "a" and frustrating the implied progress of the work:

The opening 12 bars outlined above lead to renewed effort to begin (some using the initial figure in inversion) which in turn are confronted by stagnation and frustration as resisting forces. These form the constitutive factors of the first large division of the piece. The factors are superimposed in many ways, generating a dialectical tension as dynamic entrance figures confront inhibiting layers of sound with no style emerging as predominant. By the final third of the "Introitus" only the pivotal note "a" has been firmly established. From bar 157 it serves as a starting point for a wide-ranging pendulum movement to the pitch "b" a 9th above. This expressive gesture signifies life, and serves the additional function of linking the Introitus with the adjoining "Interludium", which likewise ends in this pendulum motion. Thus the first formal division is inconclusive, and leads directly to the second large-scale section, the "Interludium" for unaccompanied organ.

The "Interludium" is a rhapsody, its free form and improvisatory manner conforming to the traditional genre of this name. The composer has described its musical function as "to extend the development of the material, to prepare new material, to separate the movements, and to give the soloist an opportunity for self-expression" (Introduction, Third "musica viva" Concert, Munich, 1977). Unexpectedly, the primary turns into the intermediate: life is revealed as an "interlude" between birth and death.

The difficult entrance is followed by an im~lacable descend: "Even where the word 'Exodus bears no relation to its familiar meaning in the like-named book or film - namely explosion - every exit involves the application of force" (Festschrift). This forced exit is immediately evident in the figures which open the third section. Now the progress of the piece is dominated by constantly descending figures driven by timpani rolls and mark-like drumbeats, distantly reminiscent of the Baroque rhetorical figure "katabasis":

The downward force overwhelms and eventually absorbs the sustained tones and sonorities in the other instrumental groups. These tones now have an almost stabilizing function, and seem to pit all their strength in an effort not to slip away entirely.

In bar 19 there begins a large-scale crescendo of apocalyptic proportions over a march rhythms. New material and figures are added layer by layer, creating an impression of wild lamentation. Following a climax and consequent collapse, a gradual process of disintegration sets in. Here too the technical analysis of the music coincides with its meaning: disintegration ("Auflosung") is also a solution ("Loesung"), and for many it means redemption ("Erloesung") - or as Bialas put it, "the music does not recognize distinctions". All that remains are the ostinato elements, which were always present as a permanent background and which ultimately, from bar 1f6, draw all of the figures into the maelstrom of a "marche funebre" leading to the original starting pitch "a". In a manner of speaking, this pitch forms the soul of the work. As Bialas wrote: "The piece also concludes with this pitch, and we hear it reverberating in the small timpani in a long after the other instruments have fallen silent" (Festschrift).

"Introitus - Exodus" provides a notable instance of a synthesis which is characteristic of Bialas's work as a whole: a semantically meaningful process is articulated within a piece of music which at the same time meets all our expectations and notions of absolute music. Clarity of form and an inborn power of musical conviction do not stand opposed in this work but are mutually conditioned. Referring to the difference between his work and Richard Strauss's "Death and Transfiguration", Bialas shed revealing light on his own intentions: whereas Strauss seeks to depict an individual destiny, however transcendant at the end, Bialas's aim in "Introitus - Exodus" is to show Life itself in its primordial, archaic conditions: entrance, consummation and exit (whatever that exit may mean) can clearly be traced in the piece, even if it "has no programme which one must know and follow" (programme notes to "musica vivau concert). Hence the progress of the music in absolute terms has an unprogrammatic exterior meaning, and turns Bialas's musical language into a vital and profound expemience. -- Siegfried Mauser
(Translation: J. Bradford Robinson)

EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER - Tiger in a Spotlight / So Far to Fall (1977)

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:57:38 +0000

Tiger in a Spotlight / So Far to Fall was a single released off the 1977 Works Volume 2 album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Both songs were penned by Peter Sinfield. Tiger in a Spotlight, originally recorded during the 1973 recording sessions for the Brain Salad Surgery, became somewhat of a minor radio hit and is considered one of few (if any, I dare to say) highlights of the Works Volume 2 album. It also was played regularly by ELP at their concerts from this time period, though I don't believe they revived it during their 1990s tours (I could be wrong about that!). It features some nice honky-tonk piano playing by Emerson and would have fit nicely if it had been included on the Brain Salad Surgery album.

So Far to Fall, the B-side, isn't nearly as interesting a song, though it is somewhat better than other numbers on this album as well as most of the Lake material from Works Volume 1. The lyrics on this one are, to put it bluntly, quite terrible. About the only thing I find that saves this song is the interesting use of brass instruments in a somewhat jazzy big band feel.

Interesting songs, but still a far cry from what ELP had been. A typical ELP single from the time period only of interest to die-hard fans, collectors, and completionists. Two stars.

by progaardvark

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How Long Ago Was 1921?

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:52:00 +0000

I talked to my mother yesterday as she celebrated her eighty-seventh birthday. She’d been able to get to a meeting of her women’s group for the first time in a while, and she was in good spirits. We chatted briefly about that, about the gifts that the Texas Gal and I had brought her on Saturday, and about plans for the week ahead. After we hung up, I sat at my desk and tried to put into perspective how long ago 1921 actually was.

There are a few ways to do that. One is purely historical: World War I had ended just more than three years earlier and was still known simply as the Great War, as its sequel was still eighteen years in the future. Babe Ruth was twenty-six and had just completed his second season with the New York Yankees. The discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming was still seven years in the future; its widespread use as a literal lifesaver would come some years after that.

Another way of thinking about how removed we are from the year of 1921 is technological. Mom was born in a farmhouse not far from the little town of Wabasso, Minnesota. There was no electricity in the house; more than a decade later, the family was living on another farm near the small town of Lamberton when the area was first wired through the work of the federal Rural Electrification Administration.

I look at the stuff on my desk as I write. The only things on it that would be recognizable to someone visiting from 1921 would be my coffee mug and the small woven mat I use as a coaster, the box of tissues, the case with a pair of eyeglasses, the antique brass urn from India I use as a pen holder, maybe some of the pens (there may be a pencil or two in the holder as well) and a small, flat stone found in the Mississippi River. Everything else, from the computer, the monitor and the CDs to the headphones, the portable telephone and the two plastic pill bottles, would be strange, ranging from the disconcertingly odd to the utterly alien.

I recall a drive in 1975 or so. My folks and I had driven down to Lamberton and were taking my grandfather – my mom’s father – out for dinner for his birthday; the nearest nice restaurant was in the town of Sleepy Eye, about thirty miles away. As we drove along U.S. Highway 14, Grandpa and I looked out the window and saw a jet plane leaving a distant contrail just above the northern horizon. As we watched the airborne white line fade into the blue sky, Grandpa shook his head. “You know,” he said, “I drove away from my wedding in a horse-drawn buggy. And I saw men walk on the moon.”

My mom was born just six years after that horse-and-buggy wedding, and it’s astounding to think of the changes she’s seen – not all of them changes she’s approved of – as she’s lived into the cyber-age. (She doesn’t use a computer, though I occasionally show her something of interest on a computer either at my home or in the library at the assisted living center. She was fascinated by the fact that I could find pictures online of the small town in Germany from which her grandfather emigrated. I occasionally send emails for her to her distant cousins there, and she occasionally buys things on the ’Net with my help.)

And as I wrote this morning, I thought of one other way of putting into perspective how long ago 1921 was, a view that takes into account my own fascination with music history: In 1921, Robert Johnson was ten years old.

A Six-Pack of Futures
“The Future’s Not What It Used To Be” by Mickey Newbury from ’Frisco Mabel Joy, 1971
“Future” by the Panama Limited Jug Band from Indian Summer, 1970
“Future Shock” by Curtis Mayfield from Back To The World, 1973
“Future Games” by Fleetwood Mac from Future Games, 1971
“Future Blues” by Canned Heat from Future Blues, 1970
“The Future” by Leonard Cohen from The Future, 1992

A few notes:

Mickey Newbury’s music has popped up here once before, as an epitaph for Dave Thomson of Blue Rose. Newbury is one of those artists whose work I always intend to share here but always forget about when doing my minimal planning. ’Frisco Mabel Joy is a forgotten gem – some call it country, others folk-rock and still others tag it as singer-songwriter. But it’s a great album, and “The Future’s Not What It Used To Be” is only a taste of it. I’ll try to remember to post the whole album very soon.

Speaking of forgotten, that wasn’t the case with the Panama Limited Jug Band, which supplied the second track here. I hadn’t forgotten the group because, honestly, I’d never heard of them until early this year, when Lisa Sinder at the blog Ezhevika Fields posted Indian Summer, the group’s fourth “and best,” Lisa says, album. The whole album is filled with trippy pieces, entirely in synch with the aesthetic of the late 1960s and early 1970s. If I had to categorize the album, I’d call it a poor man’s Jefferson Airplane: Interesting but not nearly as good as the original. “Future” is pretty representative of the album.

The Canned Heat track is an adaptation of a much older blues track, as was a lot of the group’s catalog. In this case, the original recording of “Future Blues” was done in 1930 by Willie Brown, the same Willie Brown whom Robert Johnson name-checked in “Cross Road Blues.” As was typical of their approach, Canned Heat’s members had the tune do some work in the weight room and then put it on speed before sending it out into the world in 1970.

Speaking of typical approaches, the future Leonard Cohen envisions will be one dark and unhappy place to live, at least according to the title song of his 1992 album, The Future. Musically, it’s a fascinating track – as is the entire CD – but lyrically, it’s a downer. Cohen’s songs have never been particularly cheerful, but what’s most fascinating to me about “The Future” is the matter-of-fact delivery that Cohen gives it, as if he’s saying, “Of course the future will be an obscene train-wreck. What else did you expect?”

As always, bitrates will vary.

WEB, THE - I Spider (1970)

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:05:34 +0000

Last or second last album of this group, depending on how you view the Samurai album that followed I Spider. Personally I prefer this as the second last The Web albums (making Samurai the last), but who cares anyway? Here the group went through an important shuffle, losing their singer John Watson and bassist, the former getting replaced by keyboardist and singer Dave Lawson (ex-Episode 6, ex-Almond Marzipan & future Greenslade), wholl become also the only songwriter on this third album. The latters replacement is one of the guitarist switching to bass, thus making the group a sextet down from a septet. This change, plus the label change (from Deram to Polydor) made The Web a dramatically different group, even if the music mini-suites from the two previous albums remained, here with the 10- mins+ concerto For Bedsprings. The album came with a stunning gatefold artwork, showing animals with Chinese finger-lade shadow-heads.

In itself the music of the group was greatly changed, sounding much more like a brassy King Crimson and Colosseum, starting with the five movement 10-mins+ mini-suite Concerto For Bedsprings, which from the tone of the voice is not about to please our pornographic or erotic hunger, with the depressing I Cant Sleep for first movement. The next sack Song is definitely more upbeat with the horns reminding of Charig, Miller or Evans on early Crimson albums, Lawsons voice certainly not having the strength of their previous John L Watson, but is not that bad a fit for this type of songs. The following three movement keep a Colosseum feel close by. The following track is another lengthy title track, which pumps its main slow riff from somewhere else (it could also be from atomic Rooster), with Lawsons gloomy voice towering over the guitar and the sax, while the drum take dramatic tom rolls. Excellent stuff, especially Harris soprano sax solo.

The flipside starts with the ultra slow intro-ed Love Song, which soon gets its gallon as a pure brass rock gem that unfortunately overstays its welcome by a minute or so. The following Ymphasomniac repetitive instrumental sounds like a second rate The Nice until the percussion/drum duo changes the tune, as it reprises with horns, but its a bit too late to save it, even though its got its charm. The menacing and almost brooding Always I Wait closes the album and its got some of the best instrumental interplay including some vibraphone, (which again send Colosseum comparisons) and some interesting childish vocals.

Many of these tracks from this album (including the Bedspring Concerto) will find themselves as bonus live tracks of a reissue of the Samurai album. I trust Vicky and her friends from the Esoteric label to have done a good thorough job cleaning and mastering this album in the brand new reissue of all three Web, plus the Samurai albums, which were all in dire need of it, because it takes a bit too much an effort to actually dig out what shouldnt be. In the meantime, This probably the best Dave Lawson album, possibly along with Samurai, I Spider is an excellent album that could turn your shelves into something more special than if you had a shitload of Greenslade album.

by Sean Trane

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URIAH HEEP - Salisbury (1971)

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:52:43 +0000

An Unlikely Command Performance Of Progressive Rock

Given the choice of Uriah Heep records to bring along for an extended sojourn to a desert island most connoiseurs would invariably choose either the mystical Demons and Wizards or the enchanting Magaician's Birthday adorned in all their splendour with glorious artwork from artiste extraordinaire Roger Dean. Meanwhile I would take this gem, their second recording from the autumn of 1970, on my tropical furlough.

If you lived in the UK in early 1971 and bought Uriah Heep's new album, Salisbury, you would be confronted by an angry British Army Chieftain main battle tank emerging from an orange haze with the words Uriah Heep Salisbury lovingly written in hippie lettering on back of the gatefold cover. On the other hand if you happened to live on the other side of the Atlantic you would exposed to an etching of an LSD anatomy experiment gone horribly wrong resulting in some sort of horrific man/frog/bat mutation with the words URIAH HEEP/SALISBURY splotched on in grey paint on the upper left hand side of the cover. This throwback hippie art even confused the band in an era when record companies and artists were separated by vast chasms between artistic endeavours and corporate intentions. Both cover concepts could be construed as anti-war statements as the flower power movement was still in bloom, suggesting the long haired freaky music that awaited on the grooves of the enclosed vinyl disc. The British audiences would have probably no difficulty in discerning a possible anti-war theme as Salisbury Plain is a rather well known live firing area used by the British Army which occupies roughly 100,000 acres of the Wiltshire countryside which has oddly enough also become a tourist attraction of sorts. Perhaps in order not to confuse North American audiences more than necessary an executive decision was taken to change the cover to the demented etching. Even though there is much more to be read into the latter cover, kids buying the album on both sides of the pond were hoodwinked into thinking that this was going to be another album of unpredecented heaviness and ant-war sentiments.

Fortunately, the music speaks for itself and although there is an underlying heavy aspect which was established on the band's debut album Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble and any delusions that one might have divested from the ambiguous album art are quickly dispelled. In actuality the album unfolds into a collection of fantasial love songs with the exception of two tracks with darker motifs that have nothing to do with any peace movement or the doom and gloom heavines of bands like Black Sabbath or Black Widow which were beginning to surface in the UK at the time. The work is exquisitely coloured with spacious wordless harmonies, folky acoustic guitars, stately harpsichord accompaniements and tight jazzy instrumental passages contrasted with some mean guitar freaking by Mick Box. The depth achieved on this work could be attributed in large to multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Ken Hensley's increased involvement in the composing department. He could also play keys and guitar as well as singing both harmony and lead vocal parts which gave Uriah Heep another dimension on this second album.

For sake of clarity I used the superb 2004 CD re-issue from the Sanctuary Records Group which faithfully reproduces both album covers in their entirety, albeit in reduced form including enlarged original liner notes by Ken Hensley and the inner sleeve of the original UK vinyl edition which features yet another menacing tank.

This re-issue adheres to the running sequence of the UK edition which, besides the cover, differs from it's North American counterpart in that a UK B side is substituted on the American and Canadian albums for the opening track Bird Of Prey which had previously been released in North America on the debut, Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble. The striking feature of this opening track are David Byron's multi-octave vocals, screams and harmonizations which pre-date later stratospheric vovalizations by the likes of Rob Halford of Judas Priest as well as Ian Gillian's braying with Deep Purple. Byron and Hensley extend themselves creating lofty harmonies throughout the work and integrate their voices more like instruments which is most apparent on the second track, The Park, which is a ballad built around a Harpsichord backdrop that also manages to incorporate some jazzy passages as well. Bitter tones prevail on the heavier Time To Live which tells a story of a convict who is just released from prison who has no regrets which suggests that his crime was perhaps one of passion.

The final track on side one is perchance one of the best loved and oft played Uriah Heep songs of all time which won a German music award in 1977 and has been covered by numerous bands in several languages. An acoustic guitar led folky song, the imaginary poetic lyrics were concieved by Hensley after witnessing a wintry ethereal image of a woman walking down a lane in real life. With a catchy wordless chorus the song, which is often used as a concert opener to this day, almost always turns into an audience singalong. If anything the album should have been named after this track with provocative artwork depicting the evocative imagery conveyed therein instead of a main battle tank or a cheap ripoff of symbolist painter Gustav Klimt on a bad acid trip. Que sera, that was the nature of the beast of the music business in the heady days of the early seventies when album covers that actually depicted the likeness of the artists were on the wane. High Priestess which begins side 2 captures a similar mood but in a heavier way and more upbeat.

The origin of the title of the superb title track, a 16 minute long love-suite complete with a 24 piece Woodwind/brass orchestral ensemble has something to do with a gig the band performed in the town of Salisbury where the band's fans helped them out of a sticky situation helping them move their equipment when things turned nasty with the venue's management. Lyrically it seems to be an exrension of Lady In Black and more of a musical experiment in large scale composing than anything. It succeded where others were doomed to catastrophe such as Deep Purple's Concerto for Group & Orchestra by virtue of bringing in an outside arranger who appreciated the dynamics of a rock band. The result here could be considered a rationalization of all the ingredients found on the previous shorter tracks that just flows marvelously with orchestral accents ( which were mostly added after the individual musicians themselves had laid down their tracks ) allowing the band to carry the brunt of the piece with Byron and Hensley's spacious vocal harmonies , guitarist Mick Box's masterful wah wahed out guitar inserts and metrical bass lines by Paul Newton carrying the piece with outstanding forward momentum. Brilliantly executed and not as ostenatious as other rock bands' forays with orchestral ensembles , the band probably didn't even realize what they had stumbled into at the time as it was never played live in it's entirety although parts of it could be seen as foreshadows of layered material which would appear on subsequent albums such as Demons and Wizards an The Magaician's Birthday.

With an original running time of a mere 38 minutes, seven bonus tracks are available on the Sanctuary CD re-issue which are not just thrown on to fill up time. Versions of Lady In Black, High Priestess, The Park and Time To Live are hauled out of the vaults and are actually better in many respects to the originals particularily the more fluid rendition of Lady In Black. A cut down edit of the title track with Box's guitar sections is also presented along with a gem that time forgot a dreamy piece entitled Here Am I that for some weird reason was omitted from both the North American and UK pressings. To make everything complete the UK B side, a depressing number with bluesy piano cadences that was substituted on the US release in place of Bird Of Prey, is included.

A timeles early seventies jewel from a band who fell victim to many a music critic for blowing everything out of proportion, ironically come through here with one of the more tasteful, balanced and well executed prog rock albums of that period save for the bamboozling cover art.

by Vibrationbaby

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Bold as brass - Scenta.co.uk

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Bold as brass
Scenta.co.uk, UK - 37 minutes ago
By 1973, Karlheinz Stockhausen was praising its unique commitment to music-making, and Pierre Boulez was performing his Domaines with the ensemble around ...