Jimmy Radway and The Fe Me Time All Stars - Dub I

`Dub I' was originally released in 1975 on the Micron label in Jamaica, but at the end of last year, top reggae reissue label Pressure Sounds got around to remastering and re-issuing it. I have listened to a lot of dub albums over the years, and frankly there are not many that can be digested in one sitting without slipping into a coma. sounds harsh, but true. Thankfully`Dub I' isn't in that category, this very enjoyable indeed.

Produced by Jimmy Radway - hardly a household name within his genre, produced a modest quantity of excellent tracks during the mid `70's period. A pick of the vocal cuts ended up on a great compilation entitled `Keep The Pressure Down' which came on Jimmy's Fe-Me-Time label just a few years back.

What makes this dub album worthwhile is that the rhythms are great, and the mixing by Errol Thompson is superb, varying from subtle - by letting the rhythms run with little mixing, to traditional dubbing-it-out style, utilising the mixing board to full effect. Also, there are a lot of versions to familiar songs such as `Warning' - Desmond Young (aka Desi Roots), `Black Cinderella', `Mother Lisa' and `Happiness is My Desire' both by Leroy Smart. I can't work out what versions of African Brothers `Lead Us Father' - which I believed to be a Sugar Minott production - and Glen Brown's `Slaving' rhythm are doing on here? I am sure there is a good reason, as reggae production credits are a notoriousy complicated matter. Answers on a postcard please.

The CD has 5 bonus tracks. Listen to samples here. Below is a clip of a great Jimmy Radway production. A dub version can be found on the album.

Pop Classics Part 2 - Black - Wonderful Life

A track that I have never grown tired of, despite it being overused on TV shows and adverts over the years is the gorgeous `Wonderful Life' by the English group Black, a simple but very effective, emotive and uplifting song, that pushes all the right buttons.

`Wonderful Life' had been originally released and had flopped in 1985, only to be re-recorded and re-released two years later with greater success, hitting the UK top ten in 1987.

Like The Korgis featured in my first "Pop Classics Part 1", Black are best remembered for one tune and one tune alone, despite numerous releases over the years.

Below is a clip of the video of `Wonderful Life' followed by a cover version by the Doom Metal Hungarian group Nevergreen. Enjoy!

A Certain Ratio - Mind Made Up

This is the first A Certain Ratio album for over a decade. As per usual, it's arrival hasn't really caused anything more than a mere ripple amongst their die-hard fans, like me, who have followed the band through their career, all the way back to the Factory Records days.

`Mind Made Up' doesn't hit the spot right away and needs at least two or three listens until some of the tracks make sense. For ACR it's business as usual, with a nice mix of funky pop with with some darker elements and the odd slice of spikey guitar, with understated vocals from Jeremy Kerr, contrasting with Denise Johnson's soulful warbling.

Stand-outs are `Everything Is Good', `Skunk', `Way To Escape', `Rialto 2006', `Bird To The Ground' and the latin-flavoured percussion work-out `Very Busy Man' which reminds me of `Tribeca` and the live favourite `Si Firmir O Grido'.

Note that this album has only been released in France on the Le Maquis label.

ACR are playing some dates over the coming months:
29 May 2009, Primavera Festival, Barcelona, Spain
31 May 2009, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
15 June 2009, The Beat Happening Sessions, Dingwalls, London
4 July 2009, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
6 September 2009, Offset Festival, Chigwell (near London), UK
3 October 2009, Le Plan - Factory Festival, Nr Paris, France

Here are two clips of ACR. This first is of the band in the studio recording `Mind Made Up' and the second is `I Feel Light', the opening track from the album.

DuOud - Ping Kong

DuOud have already released two successful albums - `Wild Serenade' and `Sakat' (alongside singer and musician Abdulatif Yagoub). This album`Ping Kong', like the previous ones will have the purists quaking in their boots, but let their boots quake away because this is great stuff.

DuOud aka Smadj and Mehdi Haddab are french-based oud players who combine their north African roots (Tunisian and Algerian, respectively) and contemporary electronic beats to create thier own unique sound. But there is of course more to it than that. The first track `Johnny Guitar' sounds like a score to a spaghetti western movie, other tracks sample Public Enemy (`Nude For Death'), use thrash guitar (`Gensiskan') and fuse drum n`bass (`Oud Art Corps'). Other tracks such as `Luthausore' follow a more traditional path, but are still topped off with DuOud's modern touches.

This is an excellent set and I would it recommend to those who enjoy Oojami or the output on the Barraka El Farnatshi label from the likes of Aiesha Kandisha's Jarring Effects, Amira Saqati etc

To point you in the right direction, here is a clip of DuoOud from 2004 playing `Zanzibar' taken from the album `Wild Serenade'.

New Order - Live and Very Dangerous

New Order have always been one of my favourite pop/rock groups. I have always felt that they were very misunderstood, making the decision to follow their own path, rather than continue in the footsteps of Joy Division, which I guess they did for at least two singles and one album. For those who know, for along time they remained unconsciously punk in their attitude, regardless of the music they were producing. This was especially prevalent in their live performances, not playing tracks from the current albums, hap-hazard with regular bum-notes, out of tune singing, mis-timed, forgotten and improvised lyrics. These clips are a great example. The first, a clip from a hometown gig at the Hacienda, Manchester in 1985 and the second, a clip from a one-off BBC music all-dayer TV show called `Rock Around The Clock' in 1984. The first clip is notable for Bernard Sumner's guitar-throwing strop during `Sunrise`, and the second clip, out of tune singing and swearing during `Blue Monday' from the same culprit.

Anouar Brahem - Vague

This is a clip featuring the music of Anouar Brahem, the Tunisian Oud player and composer, with the track `Vague'. All I will say is that this is a very beautiful piece of music. Enjoy.

Duncan Redmonds - Bubble and Squeak

This is a great collection of tracks from Duncan Redmonds (Snuff, Guns `n` Wankers, Billy No Mates, Toy Dolls), who over the past 5 years been taking every opportunity to collaborate with like-minded souls who he has either been in bands with, played gigs with or just bumped into. The result of these sessions is `Bubble and Squeak'.

Collaboraters include Frankie Stubbs (Leatherface), members of No Means No, members of both UK and Japanese branches of Billy No Mates (Duncan's "solo" project), and reunions with Simon Wells (Ex Snuff/currently Southport) and Guns `n' Wankers, just to name a few of the guests.

As always with Duncan's projects, there is lots of humour and nothing ever gets too serious. What you do get is heap of lively punk pop ditties, catchy choruses and even a Donovan cover version. What more do you need?

In the absence of You Tube clips of the above project, here ar some live clips of Duncan in action with Snuff, Guns `n' Wankers, and Billy No Mates.

Sizzla - Ghetto Youth-Ology

There used to be a time when a new Sizzla album was something to get excited about, especially when it came on Greensleeves Records. That time has now long passed and the same can be said for most of the other so-called "name brand" reggae artists out there right now. This album is a disappointment but I didn't expect much else. Sizzla's output has been deteriating over the past few years, to say the least.

`Ghetto Youth-Ology' kicks off with `Jah Love', the first utterance being fulled by some nasty "auto-tune" which rears its ugly head later in the album. Sizzla is obviously in need of some help in the vocal department because the chorus of `Babylon Ease Off` is so off-scale it would take more than auto-tune to fix his voice which is now long beyond repair. It has been said by some that this off-key warbling is just part of Sizzla's style. Sounds like laziness to me.

The only glimmer of light comes with `Ghetto Utes a Suffer` which is excellent, but that track and a handful of others such as `Gwaan Bear', `Future Is Yours' and `Qualities in Life' were voiced at least 10 years ago and have been dumped on new backing tracks, because the Firehouse Crew, legendary backing musicians and producers of this set have had some of these tracks in the can for sometime now. Another plus point is that the production is tight, with a good range of mostly one drop and roots rhythms.

It has to be said that the single `Black Man In The Whitehouse` is the closest we get to a borderline decent contemporary Sizzla track.

The excellent illustrated sleeve comes from Tony McDermott, who was responsible for the vast majority of artwork on the Greensleeves label for the best part of the last 30, most notably those Scientist LP sleeves back in the early `80's.

Here is a low quality clip of the title track:

Ugur Isik - Cello Invocations

Although Istanbul-born Ugur Isik is very an extremely gifted musician and cello player, I really do wonder under what circumstances one would want to listen to this album. Perhaps, like me on a whim and just took the chance, and never to play it again. To say the mostly-instrumental "Cello Invocations" is dark, depressing and doom-laden would be taking things too far. But it is most certianly dark. The very sound of a solo cello - at times multi-tracked - in minor keys will always make me think of a scary movie. However the lead instrument is topped off at times with some percussion and sporadic vocals, which does take some of these well-crafted pieces to different level.

Ugur's influences at work here are spiritual, with Islamic Sufi, Christian and Jewish "rememberance cermonies" being at the core of the inspiration of this work, which gives an indication towards the nature of less than jovial feel of the album. Not that all music has to be jovial, far from it. Make of this what you will, it's not my bag, but I will hang onto it in case the mood takes me. But I hope that doesn't happen for a while.

Pop Classics - Part 1 - Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime

The other day I heard a clip of this track from a TV show and then I remembered how much I loved it, having bought it on 7" many years ago. Released in 1980, "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" by The Korgis is an example of pop perfection. It has been covered by the likes of Glasvegas, Erasure and Baby D, to name a few.

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu - Gurrumul

It seems like I have been a bit slow on the uptake on this one. Having only heard the track "Wiyathul" a week ago on a CD sampler with the World Music magazine Songlines and being most impressed, I thought I had to investigate further and check out the album. So I did.

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, or simply Gurrumul, as he is known, isn't your run-of-the-mill artist, he is a blind-from-birth singer/songwriter/multi-musician, an indigenous Australian from Elcho Island, off the coast Northern Australia, who sings in the Yolngu language. There's nothing so strange about blind singers, but to the best of my knowledge I haven't got anything remotely Australian in my music collection whatsoever(However, I did own a cassette called "The Chant Of The Ecaluptus" featuring recordings of solo Didgeridoo tracks, which was great, for at least 30 seconds..) "Gurrumul" is a beautiful set of 12 songs sung in Gurrumul's native Yolngu language with a smattering of English. The vocals here are very fragile, sometimes double-tracked into harmonies and the arrangements boasting just acoustic guitar, occasional unintrusive electric guitar and little else. The beauty of this album is it's simplicity. The subject matter on some songs "Bäpa" and "Gurrumul History (I Was Born Blind)" could be percieved as depressing, but I found them to be quite inspiring and positve. The tempo of all the tracks are slow, there's nothing to dance to here. Only the last track "Wukun" picks up the pace, but just a little bit.

Gurrumul played a show at the Union Chapel, London last Wedneday, but I hadn't heard of him until Thursday. Shame, as I would have attended. Also it would seem that he appeared on the BBC's "Later With Jools Holland" televsion show a couple of weeks ago which means he will probably be a big star here in the UK, just like he is back in Australia where he has won several well-deserved awards.

Here is a clip of Gurrumul performing "Bäpa"

Rhythm-ites - Integration - 20 years on

It is now getting on 20 years since the Rhyhm-ites released the "Integration" LP. I bought this album in Rough Trade, Talbot Street when it was first released for no other reason that is was on the Bluurg label, a punk imprint ran by Dick Lucas (Subhumans, Culture Shock, Citizen Fish). Expecting some sort of ska punk thing, like Culture Shock, Dicks band at the time, I was horrified to discover, on listening to it for the first time that this was actually a "proper" reggae album. After the initial shock, never having ventured into reggae to any real degree before this point, I decided to give it a go and to my surprise within a few days I was hooked on the 8 songs on the album. Six months later I was officially obsessed with reggae music, going to shows and buying vast numbers of albums and 45's whenever I had to chance or had the cash.

I did see the Rhythm-ites a number of times, usually at the now defunkt Sir George Robey, a pub in Finsbury Park in the early and mid `90s. They always were fantastic and I have always considered them a real musicians band. No going-through-the motions for them. All three long-term members - Murph - Guitar. Gary - Drums and Flash - Bass are three of the most competent musicians I have ever heard within any genre. Just listen to this album and you may well hear what I mean. It's a crying shame that this album is no longer available having only gained an LP release back in `89, never getting a CD issue and is not available on i-tunes and other digital outlets. Your only chance is to try ebay and discogs and the usual suspects.

Apart from this album, to my knowledge the Rhythm-ites have only had a handful of tracks released on various compilations, one CD EP and one 12" single. The Somerset-based band are still together today albeit with line up changes and different vocalists based around the core members, usually playing 2 or 3 times a year around the festival circuit. Although, in my opinion they are one of the best life reggae bands from the last 20 years, they have never really existed within the reggae scene, more likely to play a festival or support an anarcho band. "Integration" remains one of my favourite albums of all time and if you haven't heard it, then it's your loss.

Trebunie-Tutki & Twinkle Brothers - Songs Of Glory

To call this a curious release is an understatement to say the least. Trebunie-Tutki are a Polish folk band from Bialy Dunajec, a village at the foot of Tatra Mountains, led by Krzysztof Trebunia, while the Twinkle Brothers, led by Norman Grant, are a reggae group originally from Jamaica but have based in the UK for a considerable time. So, what we have here is essentially Polish folk meets roots reggae. Now, really this isn't a fusion that would normally set pulses racing, but you would be wrong. The two bands first got together while the Twinkle Brothers were touring Poland in the late 1980's/early 1990's and they ended up recording a heap of material together. Only one album - "Higher Heights" got a UK release, which was well received from many quarters.

"Songs Of Glory" reunites the two parties to continue where they left off. For the most part it's solid reggae rhythms throughout, with swirling violins with confident vocals from Norman Grant and Krzysztof Trebunia and the gang, with the vocals alternating between English and Polish. It makes for an uplifting experience. I truly don't believe that it is possible to hear the opening track "I Built My House" without a smile on your face.

I don't know what the availability of this CD is outside Poland, but seek and I am sure you shall find, because you will be rewarded with a lavishly packaged CD complete with a 40 page booklet with information in both languages. Below is a taster from the album.

Nizar Rohana - Sard

Oud-led albums can go one away or the other. Either they can bore you within an inch of your life or they can magically transport you to another world - a better place. Happily Nizar Rohana's first solo album - "Sard" ("Narration" in Arabic) - falls into the latter category, with Palestinian born Rohana's masterful oud playing dominating proceedings and complemented by three other able musicians sharing duties on percussion, double bass and qanoun. The majority of the tracks are medium-paced - just the right tempo, I would say. For me the standout tracks are "Iraq", "Emm el Zeinat" and the title track solo piece "Sard". Five out of the seven pieces are original compositions and are a great introduction to a player that I suspect we will be hearing a lot more from in the future.

The video is a clip of Nizar performing a track from the album entitled "HiJaz".

Brother Culture - Isis

Reggae MC Brother Culture has been around for a long time, since the early 80's in fact, when he was a mic man with Jah Revelation Muzik, a south London based sound system. But I first heard of him just a few years ago when he had an excellent 10" released on the Dubhead label with Mungos Hi-Fi entitled "Ing" which used some very clever wordplay over a heavy digital roots rhythm.

This release sees Brother Culture hook up with longtine producer Nick "Manasseh" Raphael who, along with Brother Culture have put together one fine album. In fact it's the production and the variety of rhythms that swing it for me. Solid productions throughout, from the ska-flavoured opening track "The Rider" to the roots orientated "Darker Side Of Town" (also available on 7" on the Roots Garden label) and "If There Were Gods" to dancehall flavours like "How Wi Roll" and "Turn It Around". There are also occasional hints of Hip Hop, some Indian percussion and to top it off some subtle acoustic guitar, melodica and tasteful flute playing which lends the set an organic feel.

For the most Brother Culture's delivery is spot on and very clear when either singing or MCing and does not venture too far into patois, giving his music more widespread appeal. In this respect I could compare him to Macka B who is very popular throughout the world partly for this reason. "Isis" is a worthy set which I heartily recommend. Special mention must go again to Nick Manasseh one of the most creative reggae producers and remixers in the UK right now. No doubt, I will write more about him in the future.

You can listen to sound clips from the album here.

Stephan Micus - The Garden Of Mirrors

No long ago I bought a CD by Stephan Micus called "On The Wing", for the simple reason that it looked interesting and that it was on the European Jazz label ECM, a label that specialises in very distinctive and eye-catching artwork. In recent times I have been listening to some of the more left-of-centre ánd "world music" orientated artists on the label especially Dino Saluzzi , Anouar Brahem and Kayhan Kalhor. However on listening to "On The Wing" for the first time I was very disappointed, despite having some very good tracks such as "Gazelle", some tracks rendered the album as a whole almost unlistenable for reasons that would be apparent should you choose to listen to the album in question (The track "Morning Star" being a good example).

The thing about Stephan Micus is that not only does he compose all the tracks on his albums, he also plays every instrument as well, and that could be anything from a 14-string guitar, a sitar to a ney and even his own "voice". You get the picture. German born Micus takes his influences globally. I knew from the moment I became aware of what Stephan Micus was about I had to venture further, and so I did (It took me long enough. His first album was released in 1976!). This led me to "The Garden Of Mirrors" (1997), a very satisfying set indeed. Nine extremely atmospheric pieces with "Gates Of Fire" and "Words Of Truth" being choice tracks which features the likes of steel drums, bowed sinding, tin whistle and a shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). With a back catalogue of 20 or so albums under his belt, I will no doubt be venturing further into the world of this very unique artist.

You can hear clips from this album here.

Welcome One and All

To start off this blog of mine , I will share with you this fantastic clip of the Durutti Column performing `Jacqueline' in 1988. Vini Reilly's guitar playing and Bruce Mitchell's drumming are excellent and the interplay between both players is a joy to watch. I have witnessed this track being played live on many occasions but those performances have never matched this.