Other Music New Release Update
July 16, 2003

In This Week's Update:

Dudley Perkins
u-Ziq
Linda Perhacs (Reissue)
Pole
Fennesz (Live in Japan)
Frog Eyes
Schaffelfieber 2 (Kompakt Compilation)
Sun Ra (2 Reissues)
Francis Bebey (Reissue)
Otomo Yoshihide
Live at the South Dallas Pop Festival 1970
Susuma Yokota
Nyahbinghi Box Set (Trojan Records)



FEATURED NEW RELEASES:

DUDLEY PERKINS "A Lil Light" (Stones Throw) CD $13.99
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The latest release from Stones Throw, "A Lil Light" is definitely my
favorite so far. Like most of their releases, this one is produced solely
by Madlib. You know the name no need to explain, but what should be
explained is the featured artist, Dudley Perkins. Does the name Declaime
mean anything? Dudley and Declaime are two sides of the same coin, one side
a rapper, the other a singer. With his debut as Dudley Perkins, we get a
true stoned soul picnic. Think of when you first heard D'Angelo sing "Brown
Sugar" or heard RZA work with a vocalist instead of a rapper. There seems
to be a trend in rappers turning into singers. It doesn't always work, ask
Q-tip, but this one does. Most of the time, they lack originality, spirit,
drive, and vibe. This one overflows with all of the above. Atop Madlib's
hip-hop collaged tracks (some of his best) that are littered with samples
of crowds clapping, Saturday morning cartoons, sci-fi flicks, black power
imagery, etc., Dudley croons like a 40 oz filled blues or whisky drenched
jazz singer. Think somewhere between Ol' Dirty B, Eugene McDaniels, Snoop
Dogg, Gary Wilson and Cody Chesnutt (without the pretension), but better.
He changes from a southern pastor to prison inmate, inspirational ghetto
poet to joyful father, thankful son, then a tortured holy ghost -- all with
a flow, consistency, and left field funk approach that's unlike anything
I've heard before. Funky as hell, more soulful than greens and cornbread, a
true outsider hip-hop, post bling era masterpiece. Check out the covers of
Sun Ra's "Nuclear War" and the protest anthem "Where Have All the Flowers
Gone." Sho 'nuff recommended!! [DG]
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U-ZIQ "Bilious Path" (Planet Mu) CD $12.99
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It's been four years since Mike Paradinis made an album; he has been busy
concentrating on running his Planet Mu label. It must have paid off because
the new u-Ziq album is self-released, and he leaves behind the larger
Astralwerks label. A lot has changed in electronic music since 1999's
"Royal Astronomy" LP and Paradinis seems to be keeping up with the times.
The tracks are all over the spectrum, from the Prefuse 73 inspired hip hop
breaks of "Silk Ties," to the hardcore influences pummeled on "Grape Nut
Beats pt. 1 and pt.2", and onto the cut up electro of "Johnny Mastricht".
Twelve tracks in all and each one different from the last. Paradinis is
definitely one of the masters of the genre, while releasing album after
album that truly keeps up with the times. IDM at its finest. [JS]
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LINDA PERHACS "Parallelograms" (Wild Places) $14.99
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An acquaintance of mine told me once of an excursion out to the woods that
involved this album, some hallucinogenics and a sun soaked day. Upon
hearing this, that idea may seem quite fitting. "Parallelograms" was
introduced to me as a holy grail of (gentle) psychedelia. Linda Perhacs'
only album was originally released in 1970 and finally reissued on CD in
1999, but has been out of print for the last two years, finally to return
to us now. SO DON'T SLEEP!!! The LP is such a rare find that I traded many
British folk records and all my Amon Duul for it (and I still feel it was
worth it when I hear the title track). The liner notes proclaim a better
sound quality than the original pressing and the CD contains two unreleased
tracks. Ms Perhacs has an exceptionally beautiful voice made even more
extraordinary by the hypnotic layering of her vocals and the general
freakiness of the lyrical content. An example: "I'm spacing out, I'm seeing
silences between leaves". Yes, this is serious hippie fare; she sings songs
about rain and dolphins, casserole dishes and funky mountain men, but it
never gets dopey or dull. There are a lot of unidentified sounds swimming
throughout. This record has a special place in the history of folk-psych,
but damned if I can tell you where or what that place is. I just know it is
great. [NL]
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POLE "Pole" (Mute) CD$15.99
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Pole's new full length is a mere change of lanes on the digital road he
travels. After preparing us for his "new" sound with the EPs "45/45" and
"90/90," his new self-titled LP fully bridges the gap between IDM, digital
dub, and vocal hip-hop. More solid and formed than his previous classic
releases, his sounds now have a weight that was MIA with his "1", "2", and
"3" albums. The digital insects are still present working together to
create a structured and linear grounding for guest rapper Fat Jon (a great
producer and rapper in his own right) who appears on half the album. His
calm, laid-back and distant approach fits well with the bubbling digital
rhythms; he never dominates. Saxophonist Thomas Hass and upright bassist
August Engkilde are also featured instrumentalists. Pole has a more soulful
sound this time around, letting slight jazz structures and solid dub
rhythms emerge with his dirty snare chops, shining pulsing beats, rolling
delay and warm sub-bass. Possibly a less cut-n-paste Funkstorung or Prefuse
73 and Daedelus -- similar in style but more dubby than hip-hop, if you   
need a new school reference point. [DG]
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FENNESZ "Live in Japan" (Headz) CD $18.99
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Ah, summer, the season of sunny beaches, girls in bikinis, and Austrian
electronic experimenters. I'll admit I was a little under-whelmed when I
first heard this play in the store, but after taking it home and sitting
down alone with it for a couple of hours, I can honestly say that "Live In
Japan" is the perfect companion piece to Fennesz's phenomenal 2001 release
"Endless Summer." Not a whole lot takes place for the first 10 minutes of
the set -- it sounds a bit like an orchestra warming up -- but after that,
the music begins to soar. Tones bubble up from beneath the surface and
dissolve, melodies and harmonies are built on top of one another from a
million sandy grains of sound, waves of guitars and bells flow in and out,
and it's all over before you've had a chance to think about what you've
been listening to. Over the course of the performance, you'll hear bits and
pieces of some of the best tracks from "Endless Summer" (notably
"Caecilia," "Shisheido," and the title cut). It make take you a couple of
listens to really get into it, but in the end "Live In Japan" is
engrossing, entrancing, and at times unbearably gorgeous. [RH]
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FROG EYES "The Golden River" (Animal World) CD $13.99
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I love Frog Eyes. Their music is so surreal and visual, I swear that every
time I listen to either of their albums I have these nightmarish visions of
Coney Island. Perhaps a funeral march for the death of an old carnie, a
procession led by snake charmers, bearded ladies, and other circus freaks
trails down the boardwalk as the rain begins to pour. Fronted by Carey
Mercer, whose larynx dramatics seems to echo an elastic-voiced Nick
Cave, this Vancouver band have often received comparisons to the
smokey cabaret moments of Waits and Beefheart. The carnival elements of
seesaw pianos, pots and pan accents, ship bells, submerged orchestration
and tightly compressed guitars plod forward at dirge like speed and swirl
around Mercer's obtuse narratives. Like a ghost theater on an old haunted
sunken ship, their new album "The Golden River" is very dark and romantic,
a record that will continue to echo in your subconscious. Disturbingly
beautiful. [GH]
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[V.A.] "Schaffelfieber 2" (Kompakt) CD $16.99
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The much anticipated "Schaffelfieber 2" compilation has arrived! This one
focuses on the perfect beat to get your robotic-strut on, the
"shufflebeat", the earliest appearance I know of being Gino Soccio's cover
of Ravel's "Bolero," and most famously featured in the middle section of
M.Mayer's unstoppable "Immer" mix CD. While "Schaffelfieber 1" concentrated
more on the advancing-tank quality of the shufflebeat, Volume 2 is a bit
more focused on off-pop applications. Artists like Superpitcher, Wighonomy
and Wruhme and Scsi-9 add vocal bits, and bubbling melodies to the ever
shifting beat. Shufflebeat track of the year goes to International Pony for
their sick, wall melting "International Snootleg." The perfect compilation
to do your piston-dance to. [SM]
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SUN RA "Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 1" (Comet) CD $16.99
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SUN RA "Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 2" (Comet) CD $16.99
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"Sometimes in the amazing ignorance I hear things and see things I never
knew I saw or heard before." I Love Sun-Ra! No one brought the future funk
to the forefront of jazz or gave electronic music a soul like he did.
"Nuits de la Fondation Maeght No. 1 & 2" are taken from two concerts in
Paris 1970, two months before he went to West Germany to record "It's After
the End of the World." Nineteen musicians and dancers in all, and the Moog
is in full effect; Ra's touch can be as sinister as a digital smear from
Aphex Twin, or as light and fluid as water. John Gilmore and Marshall Allen
are featured heavily as well as June Tyson and special guest Alan Silva.
"No. 2" begins with "Friendly Galaxy Number 2," a fierce keyboard solo by
Ra opens the piece, then grows into a six flute assembled lead pulse, with
rumbling percussion bubbling like a volcano about to overflow. "The World
of the Lightening" starts with crashing cymbals and percussive audience
clapping, and then becomes a harsh smear of Moog, cymbals, erratic sax, and
the deepest, strangest bass I've ever heard from Silva. "No.1" includes a
19-minute Moog solo by Ra and the great June Tyson vocal piece "The Star
Gazers." Both shows are described by Ra as "out of this world" and they
certainly are! [DG]
"Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 1"
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"Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 2"
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FRANCIS BEBEY "African Moonlight" (Trikont) CD $14.99
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Other Music has carried Francis Bebey's "African Moonlight" for a few years
now, yet it seems hard to believe that this outstanding album could be so
overlooked in the store. Based on the sanza (thumb piano), the Trikont
issued release is a collection of some of the musician-poet-novelist's most
fascinating work. When the Cameroon born Bebey passed away from a heart
attack in his Paris home in 2001, he left behind quite a legacy as a
guiding force in African music; yet today a majority of his music is very
hard to find in the United States. Almost all of the tracks on "African
Moonlight" are taken from his album "Akwaaba," which was released in the
mid-'80s and is probably Bebey's most original and respected work. An
accomplished guitarist, as a teenager he began playing in Cameroon bands
where he learned about Latin and American jazz, and then continued to
perform in jazz ensembles during his studies abroad in Paris and in New
York. Following college, Bebey took a job as a radio journalist where he
traveled back to Africa and became fascinated with the continent's folk
music; but it wasn't until the '80s, well after he had become a prominent
musician/novelist, that he began to master the traditional instruments
himself. With the seven songs on "African Moonlight," he explores the roots
of his homeland with hypnotizing effect as melodies from a thumb piano
circle around polyrhythmic hand drums, soukous bass lines and African
flute. Bebey's multi-tracked voice adds an even more mystical quality
utilizing guttural, double vocal techniques and breathy melodies that sound
raw and ancient. "African Moonlight" is based on Central African folk music,
all the instruments played by Bebey himself, but simple melodic electric
bass adds a modern, soulful pulse, albeit an understated, ethereal one. With
each listen, you'll find a new layer of instrumentation, another melody, or
different repetition you never heard weaving through before. [GH]
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OTOMO YOSHIHIDE "Blue" (Weather Headz) CD $18 .99
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Finally! A more widely available version of some of Otomo Yoshide's
soundtrack work. While he may be famous for his involvement in the Japanese
noise and improvised music scenes, few people are aware of Yoshide's vast
catalog of soundtrack work. Here we are presented with the soundtrack to
Ando Hiroshi's 2002 film "Blue." For someone who has never heard any of
Yoshide's soundtrack work, the 11-pieces contained on "Blue" may at first
seem like a rather extreme departure from the much noisier experiments he
has been taking part in for over 20-years. But not all too surprisingly,
there are consistent themes ingrained in his body of work that are still
evident in this suite of gentle and uncharacteristically clean productions.
While Yoshide is truly a master of restraint, his simple melodies never
become boring or arbitrary. He achieves a sense of fullness by using only
the minimum of key elements; guitar, recorder, synth and percussion are
blended together in various configurations to invoke something both
desperate and refined. From the celestial, almost Popol Vuh like guitar
playing of the 15-minute final track "The Sea," to the subtle harmonics of
"Blue 4 (Demo Version)", "Blue" is an expansive journey that becomes more
rewarding with each listen. Here's to hoping the film makes it to NYC. [KH]
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[V.A.] "South Dallas All Stars/Live at the South Dallas Pop Festival" (Stones Throw) CD $15.99
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What is this? Well, first let me tell you what it ain't. It ain't pop, it's
funk. But I'm sure you knew that just by looking at the label that put this
out. It is however, a soundboard recording of the first (and only) Dallas
festival that took place on June 22,1970, highlighting the best local funk
bands of that time -- live recordings of legendary bands such as Soul
Seven, and acts that would've been legendary if they got out there (Apollo
Commanders). These recordings never saw the light of day until this
release, and it's kind of overwhelming to be honest with you. I guess it
would be very easy for me to pontificate on the historic significance of
this record, but that's no reason to buy any dance music. Buy this because
it swings hard and it's the funkiest record I've heard all year. If you
love Dyke and the Blazers, Breakestra, Keb Darge and the like... well you
know what to do. Thanks again Egon. [DH]
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SUSUMA YOKOTA "Over Head" (Play) $17.99
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A new Susumu Yokota album! Great! But the usually serene, Asian
motif-filled cover art has been replaced with a bold, angular futurescape,
with what looks like a bullet train speeding by...  Sure enough, the visual
change is matched in the sound. Unlike his recent pastoral and cinematic
soundscapes, on "Over Head," Yokota's sound becomes much more urban.
Breakbeat treatments reminiscent of We's "As Is" LP move stealthily through
breath-y digitized voices, sci-fi melodies, various samples and
drum-n-bass-style bass disruptions. True to form, the Asian instrument
samples appear in the form of looped Indian violin, sitar bits and tabla
accents. The difference is, this time out Yokota chooses to let his samples
simply frame the breaks, while the drum patterns remain as the driving
force behind the track. The results end up being similar to early Biosphere
in the way that the beats pound relentlessly without erasing the emotive
strength of the melodies. Not the most in-fashion move he could have made,
but a successful album nonetheless. [SM]
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[V.A.] "Nyahbinghi Box Set" (Trojan) CD $16.99
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Trojan's new box set is a collection of reggae songs that utilize beautiful
Nyahbinghi drumming. The Burru style of drumming originated in Africa, was
transported to Jamaica by slaves, and became the backbone to Rastafarian
spiritual gatherings or "groundations." Three styles of drum make up the
set all referred to as a kette. Two cylinder shaped wooded drums, one a
higher tone, usually wider or taller than the other, and a massive bass
drum, all hand carved, form the rhythm to the chorus chanting of the Rasta
camps in the hills of JA. This three CD set, 49 tracks in all, showcases
the use of the drums within roots reggae as well as DJ styles, and more
jazz and soul formats. This is a great collection featuring a lot of the
work of band leaders, the "Godfather" Count Ossie and Ras Michael, but also
features tracks vocalized by Jimmy Cliff, Max Romeo, I Roy, Peter Tosh, and
the great playing of Bongo Herman. It's reminiscent of the Studio One
"Roots" and "Scorchers" comps, but with a more deliberate spiritual, Rasta
overtone. Includes informative liner notes, to help put the music in
perspective. Recommended for investigators in the connection between
roots/indigenous music and reggae/soul. [DG]
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This week's contributors: Daniel Givens [DG], Gerald Hammill [GH], Duane
Harriott [DH], Rob Hatch-Miller [RH], Kean Holtcamp [KH], Nicole Lang [NL],
Scott Mou [SM], and Jeremy Sponder [JS].



THE BIG PICTURE:

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