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Other Music Takes Austin!!
Free song download of "Sylvia," taken from the Antlers new album Hospice, also available on Other Music Digital. This one time bedroom solo project has since evolved into a full band and here they deliver a soaring set of emotionally charged atmospheric rock songs. Peter Silberman's heartbreaking falsetto melodies are sure to resonate with fans of Sigur Ros, Jeff Buckley, and Thom Yorke. Definitely a band to watch for. This Week's Featured Downloads
Well, we've been reviewing all kinds of electric guitar oriented African albums, so maybe it's time to highlight something a little more mellow. This is a lovely compilation of Palmwine guitar music from Ghana; every track is incredibly sublime, and gently rocking. Palmwine is sort of the rural, folkier cousin of Ghana's highlife music, and is named after a local fermented beverage -- definitely the kind of stuff to relax to on a warm summer night with a few beers, or at least remind you what that sensation might actually be like, considering the weather. The steel strings of the acoustic guitars quietly buzz, while wooden percussion gently percolates beneath the hushed melodies. This is a very good humored and natural sounding music that just sort of makes you feel great. If you've ever enjoyed the music of Joseph Spence or S.E. Rogie, you'll know what I'm talking about. -Michael Klausman
Before there was 50 vs. Ja Rule, Biggie vs. Tupac, BDP vs. Juice Crew and Kool Moe Dee vs. LL Cool J, there was I Roy vs. Prince Jazzbo. During the early part of the '70s, I Roy had racked up a slew of hits, making him arguably the biggest Jamaican deejay in the world. Roy's success inspired a slew of young deejay upstarts to try to knock him from his pedestal. Out of all of these young toasters, it just so happened that Roy picked Prince Jazzbo to be the recipient of his microphone wrath. Jazzbo, up for the challenge, immediately responded with "Straight to I Roy's Big Mouth," and so it went for about five sides a piece, with vocalists Derrick Morgan (on the Jazzbo side) and Johnnie Clarke (on the I Roy side) throwing in their two cents for good measure. The results are pretty hilarious, both artists taking potshots at the other. I Roy states that, "If Jazzbo was jukebox he would give him no dime inna slot." Jazzbo retorts with "I Roy you a boy. You imitate the great U Roy." I Roy gets personal with "Jazzbo Have Fe Run," in which he recounts an incident in which Jazzbo got hit by a bus. Jazzbo calls I Roy a "Gal boy who wear powder on the face"...you get the idea. But all of the name callin' and disin is accompanied by killer riddims provided by Bunny Lee and the Aggrovators with Tubby at the controls, which leads one to believe that the whole beef was manufactured by Lee and Tubby in order to move some units. Regardless, this is a great document of one of the great rivalries in reggae music. Unlike the aforementioned hip-hop beefs, this one ended with no bloodshed and the two warring emcees coming out of it friends and bigger stars than ever before. Recommended!! -Duane Harriott
Being a teenager in the Midwest during the early 90s put me off ska music for a long, long time. Between the suburban nerds with corny bands, every one of which whose name had to have a stupid pun on the word "Ska" in the title, to all the skinhead Ska fans I knew who were perfectly nice one on one but conformist pricks with a herd mentality in groups, I just couldn't deal. That was a long time ago though, best forgotten, especially whilst listening to such an incredible foundational object like Don Drummond's Jazz Ska Attack from 1964. Drummond was one of the genius original trombonists and arrangers for the Skatalites, inarguably one of the most important groups in Jamaican history. He takes center on this release though, and damn does he soar. You can definitely hear the influence of the great American jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson here, but that ska beat just gives his compositions a wonderful hard-driving edge that makes for an incredibly addictive listen. He was a troubled genius, however, and unfortunately the next attack after this album that he'd become known for was on a night club dancer that he stabbed to death the following year. He died just a few years later under contested circumstances in a Jamaican mental hospital. It's hard to believe, as there isn't even the slightest trace of darkness to this music, so full of jubilation, joy, and light. Baffling. -Michael Klausman
I overlooked this one big time when it came out a few years ago, probably assuming it was another skronky free-jazz offering from the Unheard Music Series. Wrong, this is an insanely compulsive listen, being a highly obscure 1960 soundtrack to a highly obscure European film, by a highly obscure pianist/composer named George Gruntz. It's a bit noir-y, with a nice combination of cool jazz and hot action. Grunz was capable of writing some incredibly tender and memorable melodies as well, which has caused me to basically have this album on auto-repeat since I first listened to it. As it is a soundtrack, the tunes are well contained and never, ever succumb to monotony. Seriously, check it out, you'll be listening to it all afternoon. -Michael Klausman
My first entrepreneurial project involved selling cassettes of New York hip-hop that I recorded from the radio to the kids at my junior high in Nebraska, the most popular tape being the one with "the teacher talking over breakdance beats." They were referring to the classic Double Dee & Steinski cut-up "Lesson 1 - The Payoff Mix," which is included here. After reading the liner notes to this overdue collection, I found out that vendors in Philly, NYC and London were doing the same thing, only they were selling the cassettes for 20 and 40 dollars a pop, while I was settling for five bucks and a pack of cherry-flavored Now & Later candy...damn! In any case, Steinski's funky hip-hop cut-up mixes from the '80s were extremely hard to find. None of the classic "Lessons 1-3" was ever released commercially (for fear of lawsuits), but they were extremely popular in the clubs and on New York radio. In hindsight, Steinski's remixing approach predates the sound collage production aesthetic of Prince Paul, Cut Chemist, Coldcut, Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad by 10 years, not to mention the "mash-up" style of 2manydj's, Girl Talk, Diplo, Optimo and the like. Tracks like "The Motorcade Sped On," which samples dialogue from the JFK assassination broadcast, to the hilarious ode to audio porn, "I'm Wild About That Thing," parallels the wacky, audio collage of Negativland and Stock, Hausen and Walkman. In a nutshell, these recordings are important audio documents of post-modern expression in popular music -- I guess. To these ears, this is some of the freshest dance music ever made and if you have even a passing interest in hip-hop, or are a fan of any of the aforementioned, I would consider this required listening. Judging by the name of this collection's label, I don't think this'll be around for too long. -Duane Harriott
First of all, the cover of this album is awesome. Second, this is one of my favorite albums on the legendary ZE Records label, and I don't think it's been on CD, and if it has we've never seen it. Marie and Les Garcons were a killer French new wave/post-punk/pop group with a great nervous guitar sound, and this download collects all their prime material as well as some great live tracks. They were sort of the French response to Television and Richard Hell, there's even a great French language cover of "Little Johnny Jewel" on here, but you can catch echoes of Wire and the Modern Lovers in there as well. Super catchy, appropriately snotty, and a great continuation of the French pop tradition. We don't see a lot of stuff like this from France during this era, so it's well worth grabbing. -Michael Klausman
According to the label's Web site, the story behind this album involves Wolfgang, a 25-year-old musically talented robot capable of human emotions and an encyclopedic knowledge of '80s songs, who is rescued from a rusty eternity in Fresh Kills, when someone happens to find him abandoned in a Brooklyn dumpster. Naturally, Wolfgang develops feelings for his rescuer, and begins composing these sweet electro-pop (in the truest sense of the word) tunes in order to win his hero's affections. Hmmm...didn't I already see this in a Star Trek TNG repeat, where Data beams down to Luxx and falls in love with Larry Tee? Android jesting aside, these catchy songs connect the dots between Kraftwerk and a John Hughes movie soundtrack (I dare you not to start singing the Thompson Twins' "If You Were Here" over Wolfgang's "Not in Love"), or how about I Am the World Trade Center with a vocoder? File under: Electroclash minus the cocaine buzz. The only sniffing sound here accompanies the tears of a robot with a broken heart. -Gerald Hammill
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