conexiones musicales

…so follow me on this journey through makings of the famous standard “Besame Mucho”:

Quejas o La Maja y el Ruiseñor (from Goyescas) written by Enrique Granados as performed by Alfonso Gomez:

…which inspired this piece:

Besame Mucho written and performed by Consuelo Velazquez

..which inspired a ton of covers including this piece:

Besame Mucho by Trio Los Panchos

…and this haunting one:

Besame Much by Josephine Baker

…and this surf one by a former member of the Shadows

Besame Mucho by Jet Harris

…and this one that a young group called the Beatles used to audition for their record label back in 1962:

Besame Mucho by the Beatles:

Brazilian Dub is a genre I guess

…quite randomly I found out about this guy named Arthur Joly and after checking out his videos and myspace, I have to say I’m really impressed.  You can even download his album from his homepage.  Just make sure not to confuse him with another Latin Arthur Joly who has a bunch of tunes on youtube that aren’t as good…at least I don’t think they are the same guy.

Brazilian Jungle Style by Arthur Joly

For Mason

Dearest Mason, although Paul McCartney and George Harrison were both Beatles, George Harrison was the only one who had a video in the 80s with singing animal heads.

I Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison

…but my favorite George Harrison tune(if you were wondering) is “If Not For You” which he co-wrote with Bob Dylan. Dylan did a version on his New Mornings CD(I believe Harrison plays guitar on the tune too) while Harrison did a version on his classic All Things Must Pass CD.

If Not For You by George Harrison

If Not For You by Bob Dylan - this is my favorite version - love the Nashville sounding country guitars.

If Not For You by Olivia Newton-John - Here is the happy crappy Musak version

14 Tracks

14 tracks saluting ladies who experiment

14 tracks that make you wish you played the piano

14 tracks from the Echo Chamber

…you need to bookmark the site 14tracks.com and sign up for the newsletter. In short, through association with the website boomkat.com, these folks put together themed “mix tapes” of mp3s taken from new releases. Some of the mix titles are listed above. They mostly draw from the not so obvious new releases with a strong emphasis in dance music but they still have all kinds of other music represented too. The main page will feature the latest mix tape but if you go click the “Prev” arrow at the top, it will cycle you back through previous mix tapes(there are several). I like it because the genres are super specific - rather than just being a dance comp, it will cite specific clubs that are known for their unique playlists. Anyway, for a guy like me who finds it incredibly difficult to catch all the new releases and even more difficult to discover something worth listening to these comps have been a very welcome addition to my inbox - I’m genuinely excited when I get notification that a new one is available! You can preview all the tracks online(with an unobtrusive low hum every 15-20 seconds so your forced to buy the full track to listen to it cleanly).

My only complaint is that the songs and tracks are priced in pounds which don’t fare as well to our US dollar. Actually some of the comps who heavily feature non US music are even a little more cost prohibitive - again, due to exchange rate problems….of course you can download any single track for normally a pretty good price if your into singles.

The return of the old school

Gotta love the way this new Common track sounds - like it’s straight out of Planet Rock, straight b-boy style.

Universal Mind Control by Common(ft Pharrell): I wonder who did the music? I assume it was Pharrell since he is the producer about town but it doesn’t really sound like him so maybe it was Common or even someone else and Pharrell is just a guest vocalist. Anyway, great song to an album that hasn’t been released yet. I heard this on So You Think You Can Dance the other day.  By the way, fun fact about Common - he used to be a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls - you know, one of those kids who runs on the floor and wipes sweat off the court during timeouts or fetches player’s balls for them in warm up.

Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa - just as a reference point to the Common song. This song was composed from rerecorded parts of German pioneers Kraftwerk’s song Trans-Europe Express

Transeuropa-Express by P.L. (aka Peter Low or Pit Low): You knew it couldn’t be that easy. I’m not sure which track came first Bambaataa’s or P.L.s but one clearly influenced the other. I have read interviews with the producer of the Bambaataa one and he makes it sound like they replayed parts of it in the studio modeled after the original Kraftwerk song so I”m inclined to believe this Italian disco version one came after Planet Rock but who knows. The only fishy thing is the string sound from the P.L. track sounds a lot like Italian string sounds from that time period and the A.B. track’s strings are exactly the same which would be a little out of place(but not impossible) in the New York dance scene. This one came out in early 1982 while Planet Rock came out in 82 too. You decide.

Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk: The original that inspired Planet Rock which in turn inspired the Common track…

Fact vs Fiction

When you read Clutchy Hopkins’ Bio you’ll realize pretty quick that the truth is applied very sparingly. What we do know it’s a brilliant use of jazz, funk, soul, and world music - all wrapped up in instrumental tunes. I have seen numerous musician/producer types’ names attached to his work and my best guess is it’s probably some loose collaboration among the elites of that genre. Whatever it is, I’m glad Ubiquity put it out because it’s PHAT. Buy this now.

MF Doom rapping over a Clutchy Hopkins beat: This will be a big hit with the MF Doom fans here…

More Clutchy - this time set to Stamboat Willy:

Theo Parrish

…lots of stuff to catch up on.  First, I have been digging this Theo Parrish cat out of Detroit.  Just great House music.  I like the way he tends to really break apart the samples at the beginning to create these almost abstract sounding pieces that evolve into full laid back funk & soul workouts.

Soul Control by Theo Parrish

…like Joy Division but Better Dressed

I think somewhere way back I promised a Certain Ratio post so here it is. They were a long time member of Factory Records which you’ll probably recognize as the label that had a roster of Cabaret Voltaire, ESG, OMD, Happy Mondays, Joy Division, James, Blurt, New Order, and Electronic(another Joy Division/New Order spin off band) among others. What I really like about them is the addition of funk in their sound - which at the time was a bit of a departure from most post punk bands. This song reminds me of a much cooler version of the Commodores “Brick House”. If you really like this type of music, you should listen to other bands like ESG, Liquid Liquid, Blurt, and the Big Boys(for more punk/funk).

Shack up by A Certain Ratio

…been a while.

So I have been neglecting this poor blog for a few weeks but no worries because I kept a list on my counter of songs/artists I wanted to upload at the time so I’ll be filtering through those in the next week.

So today’s post is about the TB-303(wiki here). It’s a monophonic synth with a built in sequencer that Roland made that was a complete failure at the time in the early 80s(marketed to guitarists). It was discontinued after a short production run but eventually made it into the hands of the early House electronic music creators and hip hop producers. Now it’s one of the most sought after vintage synths with a price on the used market that fetches thousands of dollars. The reason I bring it up is I’m going to build one soon thanks to a wonderful group online who has released PCBs and a bill of materials for the rest of us to build our own - but I gotta hurry because many of the original parts are also becoming just as rare of the synth itself. I figure it will be a good project for me and hopefully I can find a new applications for it besides what you hear here - but first let’s talk about the many very recognizable faces(acorss genres) of the TB-303.

Okay, lets start with Acid music - the TB-303 sound IS ACID. That shifty lead sound being filtered all to hell is something you hear in every house/acid song and it all starts with the 303. The first influential group from the genre is widely considered to be Phuture. Listen to the this track by them and hear the 303 really kick in about 1:15 into it(it’s faintly heard before that).

Acid Trax by Phuture: This is considered classic Acid - not to be confused with the later Acid music that came along in the 90s which combined the 303 with effects like distortion to produce more mind bending sounds (and the soundtrack for many many raves). Just as another geek tidbit, the drums you hear here are analog drums and likely are also of the Roland ilk. They made the Tr-606, TR-808, and Tr-909 drum machines that synced up easily with the 303 bass synth. The TR series was suppose to be drum accompaniment while the TB 303 was suppose to be bass and they were both marketed to guitars and keyboardist for an early one man band sound. Anyway, when you hear songs or musicians refer to “808″ or “909″ they are talking about the drum sounds you hear on a track like this.

Itchiban Scratch by Chris “The Glove” Taylor. -Early electro at it’s best.

Jam on It by Newcleus - I know this looks really dated, but I’m 95% positive I saw some really hip kid rockin the exact same look in a fashion magazine sometime recently.

Unknown Youtube clip - I found this one really inspiring. The clip here is part 3 of a 3 part series of a guy showing how he makes music influenced by Ethiopian music. In part 1 he uses a TB-303 to show how he constructed the bass line and a TR-606 to make the drums(with triangle & doorbell overdubs later on). It’s really amazing to see him pull this tune together so quickly.  I posted the third video because it wraps up with the finished song - the bass is the 303.

Jam by Suitandtieguy - another random youtube clip. Here a guy is creating some crazy electro/hip hop beat with the 303, a drum machine(the multi colored push button thing at the beginning) and a slew of pedals.

Antena & the Scr***m Poles

…one of the great things about living in Austin is hearing absolutely random good music any time of day on the radio(unless you happen to be listening to John Ailey in which case the music is only good to fall asleep to).   I consider myself very lucky for having KUT, KVRX, and KOOP programming to listen to on the weekends. I tend to like the stuff they play late at night because…well that’s when I’m up. Anyway, Saturday night programs are my very favorite with Stronger than Dirt on KOOP followed by Rick McNulty’s Saturday night programming over on KUT. I’m on my third weekend in a row of calling one of them to catch a song title or ask about a release. A few weeks ago, I got turned on to the Scrotum Poles from Scott’s fill in on Stronger than Dirt and this week it was a wonderful new discovery of the band Antena from Rick.  I love that all the DJs are true music lovers and not only do they have name/title info, but they can make recommendations of similar artists and tell you interesting things about the bands.  Chatting with these guys makes my week although - I’m a pretty boring guy so that might be part of it.

To Climb a Cliff by Antena - I believe one of the guys from the Pet Shop Boys dubbed this “Electro Samba” or something like that. I have to say that it sounds especially contemporary now for a band that was making records in the 80s on the Factory Record label(the one with Joy Division & Happy Mondays). The lead singer eventually split from the band and made several records under the name Isabelle Antena which aren’t bad either.

Various songs by the Scrotum Poles - I heard Pick the Cat’s Eyes Out(the second song in this clip) on Stronger than Dirt and knew I had to learn more. They sound A LOT like the Television Personalities and seeing as how I have a soft spot for DIY punk, I am certainly glad to have been turned on to this. Actually, I had to call the station because they couldn’t say “scrotum” on the air so they said “S** Poles”. I went nuts trying to find a band called the Shit Poles(or maybe I misheard and it was the Shit Holes, etc) until the DJ straightened me out. He also recommended a collection called Messthetics(several volumes) on the Hyped 2 Death record label. The Messthetics comps are early/rare DIY punk/post punk stuff from the UK while they have a Homework comp series for US bands of the same genre, a Teenline compilation series for American powerpop, and a Hyped to Death comp series for US punk. After listening to some of their stuff on the web I have to concur this is a very very very good series for music off the beaten path. According to the DJ, you can’t find these in stores so you have to order online, but it appears as though the label prices their discs fairly and luckily it doesn’t suffer from the weak dollar like import series record labels do(talking about you Soul Jazz Records).