January 12, 2026 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto 6 1. no tempo indication (1721-ish, performance from 2007)

Let's take stock here:

2 violas (the women in the middle)
2 violas da gamba (guy and gal to their right)
1 cello (guy across the way there by himself)
1 harpsichord (large red thing)
1 violone (guy behind the two women, just doing what he does)

This is my favorite movement of the Brandenburg Concertos. I love all the intertwining delicate notes, the way the violas dance around each other, sometimes connecting, other times off on their own adventures. It feels like they get to have all the fun while the rest of the instruments are just holding down the fort and sawing away. But not true. As the piece goes on, there are opportunities for the cello to step out a bit, like at 3:45 he seems to be enjoying himself. The viola players move around a lot, I wonder if they were allowed to do that in Bach's day. Were there even women viola players back then? And even if there were, would they have been allowed to be so physically demonstrative? Magic eight ball says "I seriously doubt it." I looked up other performances, and this one is my favorite, I like the tempo.

I also like the Brandenburg concerto with the wicked harpsichord jam at the end, can't think which one that is off the top of my head. Had to look it up: Concerto 5, 1st movement, Allegro, basically the last 3 and a half minutes is crazy solo harpsichord. Bach was just in the mood that day I suppose. Those other musicians have nothing to do but sit there and listen to this guy rock out like he's playing the keyboard solo in Won't Get Fooled Again. My mom would probably say, "Where are Karl Richter's parents? Letting him mess around on the harpsichord like that? Hmmph."

Bach, the man, the myth, the master of disaster:

Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt:

January 11, 2026 - Grateful Dead - Uncle John's Band (live at Alpine Valley - July 17, 1989)

I wasn't sure I'd post something in memory of Bob Weir, but I found this video, which is from a show I attended. It's one of my favorite songs by the Dead, one of those comforting songs like Ripple or Box Of Rain.

January 9, 2026 - Halim El-Dabh - Wire Recorder Piece (1944)

This is one of the earliest works of tape music. This dude took a wire recorder from the office of a radio station in Cairo and went out into the streets to see what inspired him. He encountered a ceremony, called zaar, a type of public exorcism, and recorded the voices. He then returned to the station and started messing around with the recording, using reverb, echo chambers and voltage controllers. 

The result was this creepy, haunting two minute piece. I listen to it once in awhile, kind of amazed that this came out during World War II. It sounds both ancient and of its time. Old. Mysterious. Scary. Like the soundtrack for the people who opened King Tut's tomb.

I'm thankful it doesn't go on for twenty minutes; I would probably be hiding under my bed, willing it to go away.

January 5, 2026 - The Daktaris - Musicawi Silt (1998)

 

This is another one of the tunes I heard late at night while I was camping on the Oregon Coast at Fort Stevens during a few different Septembers from 2009 - 2011. I had also heard (the DJ emailed me the playlists):

Icarus - Spiderman

Icarus - Fantastic Four

Tame Impala - Expectations, which led me to eventually hearing Runway, Houses, City, Clouds

The London Souls - She's So Mad

Screaming Females - A New Kid/Zoo Of Death (from a Daytrotter session)

Queens Of The Stone Age - I Think I Lost My Headache

T. Rex - Mystic Lady

Lou Reed - I'm So Free

Dungen - Barnen Undar

Grizzly Bear - Colorado

...and many others, including one I'll eventually post on here.

The Daktaris were right up my alley. I loved Fela Kuti, and was probably listening to a lot of his music at the time I first heard Musicawa Silt. The big saxy sound, the funky rhythm, the beat the beat the beat!

They were actually a bunch of New York session musicians who recorded a one off album and fooled people into thinking they were some long lost Afrobeat group. The group references its own prank in the track title "Eltsuhg Ibal Lasiti", which backwards, reads "It Is All A Big Hustle".

I haven't been able to find a photo that I actually trust to be the real Daktaris, so here's a photo of their one album:

January 4, 2026 - Norma Tanega - You're Dead (1966)

Like a few million other people, I first heard this song in the film "What We Do In The Shadows", a Vampire mockumentary. Hilarious movie. Such a great choice of music.

I didn't know much about Norma Tanega until now, so here is a little bit of what I've learned: 

She had a song called Walkin' My Cat Named Dog, which is also excellent. Her mom was Panamanian and her father was Filipino. She grew up in California. She lived to be 80 years old. She was also a painter. When she was a teenager she had her art displayed at the Long Beach Public Library. She also studied classical piano. She lived an adventurous life, backpacked through Europe, had a romantic relationship with Dusty Springfield (!), became more of an experimental musician later on. 

January 2, 2026 - Manfred Mann - 5-4-3-2-1 (1964)

I picture an out of control Schoolhouse Rock jam on numerical sequences. Cartoon Manfred Mann are all over the professor from Three is A Magic Number, sending him frantically running through the 2-5 animations, while other known characters run around in Robotron-like randomness, bumping into trees and animals and whatnot. Manfred Mann are causing utter chaos trying to locate the episode for number 1. But there is no episode for the number 1. Why wasn't there one for one? 

I think it's because Three Dog Night already had THE song about ONE. How do you top that? It's the loneliest number, how could Schoolhouse Rock possibly come up with anything else? 

5-4-3-2-1 is an enthusiastic little can of nuts. That harmonica and Vox Continental organ are in your face the whole way, anchored by a jaunty bass. The organ has a couple of cool little riff chips stuck in there nicely. The lyrics indicate that not only did the Manfreds mess up the Charge of the Light Brigade but were also the ones hiding in the Trojan Horse. So there's some added Schoolhouse Rock history/fable ingredients to spice up the story.

 

January 1, 2026 - Vangelis - La petite fille de la mer (1970/1973)

In English "The little girl of the sea", recorded in 1970 but released in 1973, this is one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music that one could ever be. I sat outside in the late afternoon a few years back, watching the sun sparkling on the ocean and this cosmic lullaby appeared and cradled me in a gentle bed of melancholy and reflection that stretched out into various thoughts and feelings over the span of six minutes. It was one of those highly personal trips, like where everything is aligned and you just enjoy it while it lasts. Vangelis was 26 or 27 and he was able to access the emotional spectrum of the universe at this age? I talked about his theme from Cosmos.  He really got out there. So trippy. Even that dang over the top Chariots of Fire piece makes me tilt my head. Future music dropping out in the 1924 Olympics. 

Happy new year to the planet. We are all one. Be ye circle, to quote Jon Anderson of Yes. He hung out with Vangelis, they did some albums.

Well, peace to you all. and fun and love and kindness and easy pleasant times and elephants and music. I plan to post many more groovy instrumentals and other sounds hereafter. thanks for reading and listening!

Groovy, man...like stars.

The Shangri-Las - Paradise

Ah, the heavy teenage girl dramas of the Shangri-Las. So much pain and heartache. If only some boy would come along, on a motorcycle, take her to the beach, away from her awful home life, but what if she doesn't like him, and she breaks his heart, and then she breaks her mother's heart, and it all just sucks so much!!

Paradise was first recorded by the Ronettes. It is a daydream fantasy about how perfect life will be once a boy falls for her. She imagines flowers, rainbows, castles, and mountains. Until the boy comes along, however, I guess she'll just continue to read teen magazines and cry into her pillow.

album: Myrmidons of Melodrama

Ramones - I Don't Want To Live This Life (Anymore)

I Don't Want To Live This Life (Anymore) begins with a G-D-E chord progression. The only other song I could think of with this same pattern is Julian Cope's version of Roky Erickson's "I Have Always Been Here Before." I thought maybe Screaming Trees "Nearly Lost You" but no. Maybe another grunge song? It sounds kinda 90s grunge no?

This is a song about a guy whose girl dies and he's sad and doesn't know how he can go on. Dee Dee wrote it about Sid and Nancy. The tempo slows at the first verse. The chorus is like the intro progression but they stick an Am into it because, you know, it's sad. 

Yet another of the "I want/I don't want" Ramones songs, I think there's about fifty of them.

album:All the Stuff (And More), Vol. 2 

December 31, 2018 - Takehisa Kosugi - Mano Dharma '74 (1975)

This is a long haul electronic journey from Takehisa Kosugi (RIP, Subarashī sakkyokka) The music speaks for itself, I can't begin to put it into English. I find it fascinating and magical.

Well...the video has lots of kissing, so it must be make-out music? Appropriate stuff for New Years Eve, right? Have fun!

I hope everyone had a nice year. Thank you for tuning in, I appreciate it.

Happy 2019! I hope we will end homelessness, be peaceful in the world, and send the orange idiot to a place where the clothes match his hair. Bye!

Akemashiteomedetōgozaimasu !!!