November 11, 2018 - Amon Düül II - Between the Eyes (1970)

Ready your senses, bow to your sensei, because it's time for a visual and aural psychedelic salami tsumani tsunami (that's the one) from German rockers Amon Düül II. This is the essence of trippy, right?... Between the Eyes.

"What is this that stands before me?" - Black Sabbath...right, what are these ghostly purplish images? And what is that temple back there? Orc drums and whistling electronic sounds are joined by a menacing bass line.

At 0:25, giant swampy AMON DÜÜL II letters fade into view. Nice. The guitarists come alongside the main riff and the intensity builds. At 0:57, they turn the amps up to 11 for that extra push over the cliff and we are swept into the next movement.

We get an actual view of one of the band at 1:03, and it's our mustachioed pal, the multi-talented Chris Karrer. He rises to the moment, belting it out like the house is on fire. At 1:13, bassist Dave Anderson bops into view all shady cool.

Things change suddenly at 1:20 as the band leap into a new section of music. Don't get comfy, folks, because at 1:54...another change. Catch our breath, bass lopes along, Karrer is back on the electronics, then he switches to violin. It all quickly turns crazy. Whoa.

At 4:00, the band ready themselves for the finale and we experience a brief intermission. We hook onto the riff they're composing and the roller coaster heads towards its last summit. Everyone rocks out, and I especially love the mighty drumming of Peter Leopold. Whew, I need to have a little lie down after typing this one out.

Between the Eyes shows up as a 2:30 bonus track on a couple of Amon Düül II albums. This six-minute version is, as far as I can tell, only available on a legally sketchy German DVD called Krautrock- Volume 1.



  

November 10, 2018 Music from Bandcamp #45

45 and I wanna say bandcamp

1) Wind - jhh (Sweden)

Atmosphere. Minimal. Piano. Guitar. Trumpet? Synths bubbling underneath. Relaxing. Floating on a cloud.

2) Zona I - Atum (Poland)

A different, darker atmosphere. Industrial. Processes. Ghosts in the machine. Humming. Vibrating. What goes on in the factory when no one is there? The spirit choir appears.

3) Drowning In The Sea Of Love - Margie Evans (no location info)

Groovy R&B. Horns. Harmonica. Hot music pouring out the door of a club on a hot night in the city. Excellent vocals.

November 9, 2018 - Comets on Fire - Hatched Upon the Age (2006)

One of my favorite albums from the 2000s was Comets on Fire's Avatar. The final track, and the one I like best, is called Hatched Upon the Age. It is an epic that twists its way from elegant piano to epic, end of the world guitar.

I love some of the chord layouts on it. The opening pattern and first verses is Ab - Eb - Cb - Db - Dbm - Cb - Eb. Guess it's in Ab major. I capo at the 4th fret, then pattern-wise it's E - B - G - A. It has a tender arrangement that reminds me of a couple of lighter 60s tunes: The Monkees' Porpoise Song, and Marmalade's I See The Rain. However, lead singer Ethan Miller sounds lost or shipwrecked, not all warm and fuzzy like the other two. Dark shadows abound.

The next section is also excellent, although I am not positive about these lyrics:

Persuasion of a different kind
Hatched upon the age
Covered its weight
Grandeur betrays the kind

Huh? Well, your guess is as good as mine. This time the chords go Ab - Db with a 6th in there - Ab - to something like a Db/Fb -2nd position thing. It adds a little light jazz touch. Then Gb - Cb - Eb. Interesting to me.

Ben Chasny gets a sweetly discordant little guitar solo at 1:43, then back into the verses we go. At some point, anything coherent that Ethan Miller is singing is completely lost on me.

Breakdown at 3:23 for the piano to get moving on a sort of Funeral for a Friend Elton John section. A bit of phasing sucks us into the final movement that hits around 4:18. It's all tumbling drums and chords for a bit, some elegiac piano and organ, Pink Floyd-ish. The guitar breaks loose its chains at 5:13 and creates all sorts of swirling chaos until the end.

November 7, 2018 - Curtis Mayfield - We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue (1970)

I included a couple tunes from the great Curtis Mayfield on the 2016 blog, and here's another for you, the beautiful and poignant We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue.

It features some of his most insightful lyrics, addressing the blue feelings faced by people of color and encouraging them to find common ground and support and respect each other. Check it out:

We people who are darker than blue
Are we gonna stand around this town
And let what others say come true?
We're just good for nothing, they all figure
A boyish, grown-up, shiftless jigger
Now we can't hardly stand for that
Or is that really where it's at?

The music is equally melancholic, with slow, resigned strings and horns. There is a tempo increase at 1:52 into a percussion section of tambourines and drums, joined by bass as the drums fill up the space, and then by guitar with wah effect, finally into

Get yourself together, learn to know your sign
Shall we commit our own genocide
Before you check out your mind?
I know we've all got problems
That's why I'm here to say
Keep peace with me and I with you
Let me love in my own way 

A lovely harp solo comes in at 3:57, as if to ask, is this all a dream or can we really figure out how to overcome the odds and the bummer people who put roadblocks in our way? What a beautiful song, so full of hope.

November 5, 2018 - Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (1979)

I had K-Tel's compilation called Wings of Sound, one of my first albums. Released in 1980, I think I bought it at Kmart. I must have been 12. Of the 15 tracks, the only two I didn't like were Dylan's Gotta Serve Somebody, and France Joli's Come To Me. They were back to back, so I only had to lift the needle once.

The rest of the album was great: Little River Band's Lonesome Loser, Kenny Loggins' This Is It, Blondie's Dreaming, and two from Michael Jackson, Rock With You, and Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, both originally from his Off The Wall album. Back to back as well.

At the beginning of DSTYGE, Michael is muttering some stuff, I always imagine he's like 'so, I uh was wondering, uh, if you're uh not busy, maybe you'd uh like to go uh uh, I mean, etc etc.'. He's saying other stuff that I guess is supposed to be sexy, but in reality, Michael was more like, 'uh, I have lots of stuffed animals, and we can have ice cream and uh watch cartoons.'  I don't know, the guy was an enigma. But he could crank out the pop hits, he knew what sounded good.

Once the music starts, it doesn't stop (til it gets enough). There are so many little sounds bursting everywhere, it's like candyland for the ears. Everything is so funky and in its right place: strings, horns, little guitar licks, percussion, bass. Wrapped up so neatly. And his falsetto, wow. I never understood what he was singing, but it was great. RIP, MJ.

November 4, 2018 Music from Bandcamp #44

44 WFLD -TV Chicago

1) Just a Body - Lo Jones (White Plains, New York)

I like the piano chords, it sounds like some of the stuff I try to do. The vocals are dramatic, mysterious, intense. Good middle change. Yeah, this is a great song.

2) Abandonment in Cycles - Closet Burner (Galesburg, Illinois)

Hey, my Mom went to Knox College in G-burg. How about that? Not sure if band, label, or both from there, also. This is 34 seconds long. Nice riffage, fed up vocals. Grrrr!

3) A.P.P. (Anti Poser Patrol) - Evil Whiplash (Popayán, Colombia)

Awesome metal tune. These guys should come patrol the posers up here in Portland. They would be in their element. This rocks.

October 27, 2018 Music from Bandcamp #43

bcamp 43

1) Please Please - Matty Ann (Wisconsin)

Dark electric shoegazing beauty.

2) Advanced Tactics (Feat​.​.​.​Self Soulfuric​,​Apakalypse​,​Dr​.​solomon Grundy​,​Deadroom Professa - lord gamma (Miami, Florida)

hip hop grooves. loops, raps, you know. the story of life.

3) For People Who Like Music - Year Zero (Toronto, Ontario)

you turn me round, like a record. Spiky guitar, ratatat opening drums. pulsing bass.

November 3, 2018 - The Congos - Fisherman (1977)

A masterpiece of roots reggae psychedelia is the Lee Scratch Perry Black Ark studio production, Heart of the Congos, released in 1977. The first track is Fisherman, the portrait of a poor man who must catch fish to feed his growing family:

Living in a bamboo hut
In a little hole sea-port town
Three kids on the floor
And another one to come make four
The music rolls along gently on the waves at daybreak, the sun just coming up over the horizon. It is a mass of bass, flange effects, percussion, bubbling echoes, seashore clankings.

November 1, 2018 - I Wanna Know if it's Good to You? - Funkadelic (1970)

Funkadelic is one of my favorite bands, having made six appearances on this blog. I decided to make it a lucky seven and include I Wanna Know if it's Good to You?, from the classic 1970 album, Free Your Mind...and Your Ass Will Follow.

Here we have yet another mind-blowing rock-funk-hendrix workout from the great galactic acid mountain space wizards whose name really ties it all together. They took Hendrix and John Lee Hooker, James Brown and Sly Stone, mixed them together and sprinkled cosmic clown dust all over the place.

Listen to those opening drums, they are off balance, you have to wait a sec before the beat latches the gate and locks up the groove. I have probably said this before, but it doesn't get much better than Eddie Hazel for acid guitar rock. Jimi was already heading this way when he died, and Eddie just extrapolated the pattern. Electric rainbow colors, neon hot wires, lab beakers overflowing with swirling smoke reactions.

Eddie Hazel is also the lead vocalist on this tune, and his delivery is rooster-crowingly cool and sexy. At 2:10 the lyrics dissolve into look out here I come, right back where I started from...Electric waves of sound pour into our ears, reminding us that sexy time is all well and good, but Funkadelic will soon have to get into their spaceship and cruise the stars for their true love space goddess.

After 2:47, there are no more vocals. There is a sudden rough edit as Funkadelic make the calculations for the jump to hyperspace. Destination unknown, lay back and enjoy the ride.

Look out here I come!

October 30, 2018 - Aphrodite's Child - The Four Horsemen (1972)

From Turkey, we are just going to hop west into ancient Greece, to hang out with Vangelis and the guys in Aphrodite's Child. Their progressive rock masterpiece, 666, is literally an album of biblical proportions. My favorite song from it is The Four Horsemen.

A tinkling of bells opens right into quivering vocals offering a snippet from the book of Revelation:

And when the lamb
opened the first seal
I saw the first Horse.
The Horseman held a bow.

Big drums lead into the first chorus (which always makes me think of the Intellivision Horse Racing game):

The leading Horse is white,
the second Horse is red,
the third one is a black,
the last one is a green.

Of course, if this really were the Intellivision game, a poor yellow horse would be bringing up the rear, after being abused over the final stretch.

Get ready for the awesome thundering drums that come in before the second chorus at 2:15, they are spectacular.

An excellent guitar solo comes in just before the 3:00 mark, as the singers deliver some bah bah bahs that Jane's Addiction would later use on Been Caught Stealing.

What was the payoff on the trifecta? Eternal damnation!!










 

October 28, 2018 - 3 Hür-El - Sevenler Aglarmis (1974)

Recently, my wife and I watched a sweet documentary called Kedi, about streets cats in Istanbul and the locals who care for them. Today, I present for your listening pleasure three other cats from Istanbul, the brothers Onur, Halden, and Feridun Hürel, known collectively as 3 Hür-el. They were featured on this blog in 2016, and now they return with the sprawling, heavyweight rock of Sevenler Aglarmis, one of the greatest Turkish rock songs ever recorded.

It opens with massive slabs of descending guitars and drums, then enters into a wah wah melody that soon transforms into full on distortion. Turkish rock of this kind is usually tempered with gentle vocals, and this tune is no different. Feridun sings sweetly of lovers, tears, and dreams. I have found the title translated as both Lovers Would Cry, and The Lovers Had Cried.

Beneath and between the words, guitars strum, gurgle, and yowl. A web of guitars take off at 1:20, wah and distortion battling for a place at the table. Another clash occurs around 2:43, layers of distorted pitch bends and fast picked wah guitar. At 3:17, we take off onto a new plane, percussion transforming things into pure Turkish delight. Wah takes over at 4:19, followed by distortion at 4:33, then into solo percussion at 5:17 until the end.