Ettore Sottsass [1 book, Amazon US]
Ettore Sottsass conceived Memphis, one of the most fascinating recent phenomena in the field of furniture and object design.
In 1981 at the Milan Furniture Fair, the world of design was shattered, visitors discovered after years of rationalism a collection of strange furniture with flashily coloured plastic laminates emblazoned with kitsch geometric and leopard-skin patterns usually found in 1950s comic books or cheap cafés.
[more ...]2002, Aug 31; 14:13:
Various Artists - Respect to Studio One[2 CD, Amazon US]
Studio One was and still is one of the leading labels in Jamaican music industry. Its owner and founder Clement Seymour Dodd started producing music in late 50's. The 60's was the golden era of Jamaican music - the foundation of modern reggae music was laid inside the Jamaican Recording Studios - the studio owned by Mr. Dodd. Ska, rocksteady, reggae - all these types of music were literally created in the same premises - in that tiny studio located in 13 Brentford Road in Kingston. Many of Jamaica's leading artists have been part of Coxsone's musical family in some stage of their career, for example Bob Marley & The Wailers, Horace Andy, Bob Andy, Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor, Lee Perry etc. In addition to that many of Jamaica's top session players cut their teeth at Studio One's School Of Music.
[more ...]2002, Aug 231; 14:03:
Sex Pistol - Never Mind The Bollocks ... [1 CD, Amazon US]
Recognizing that there's no such thing as bad publicity, manager-Svengali Malcolm McLaren molded the Pistols into the most confrontational, nihilistic band rock & roll had ever seen. Propelled by Johnny Rotten's maniacal vocals, Steve Jones's buzz-saw guitar, and (most importantly) bass player Glen Matlock's hook-filled compositional skills, the Pistols' early singles "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen" defined the raging style of British punk. By the time they recorded their lone 1977 album, Matlock had been bounced, replaced by the image-correct but utterly untalented (and ultimately group-dooming) Sid Vicious. Not a 10th as good as the singles, the album nontheless remains a bile-filled emblem of the times. --Billy Altman [more ...]2002, Aug 29; 23:00:
Marquee Moon - Television [1 CD, Amazon US]
A classic bit of punk rock from 1977, that classic year of punk. Whereas most of this New York City group's peers turned up the distortion, revved up the tempo, and stripped their songs down to tight three-chord anthems, Television did something startlingly different. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd allowed themselves the space to develop clean, powerful, unexpected guitar leads. To top it off, Verlaine's songs were thought-provoking, memorable, danceable, and unlike anything else going. "Prove It" was the hit in England, but independent radio stations wore the grooves down on the title cut, "See No Evil," and the stunningly brilliant "Friction." --Percy Keegan
2002, Aug 29; 22:31:
Express Yourself - In the Jungle Babe - Charles Wright & The Watts 103d Street Rythm Band[1 CD, Amazon US] The very first R&B group signed to Warner Bros., Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band streaked forward with a solid run of hit records that have all but faded into obscurity. "Express Yourself," their best known hit (included on this disc), peaked at #3 on the R&B and #12 on the Pop charts. In the Jungle and Express Yourself represented two important steps forward from the 60s soul sound and into the raw funk of the 1970s. [more on funk]2002, Aug 28; 00:04:
Fluid Ounce - Various Artists[1 CD, Amazon US]
1. Come party - Zero DB
2. Turn off the lights - De Jojo, Frank
3. Click - Zero DB
4. Snare - Zero DB
5. Never come back - Vogado Projects
6. Mas fuerte que el sol - Vogado Projects
7. Future vision - Kong, John & Moonstarr
8. Nujazz killer - Carmel (2)
9. Harikiri blues - Carmel (2)
10. Man from Atlantis - Carmel (2)
Only available on 12" until now, this killer set of cuts has been rocking parties across the globe. At last, bowing to huge demand, the exquisite Fluid Ounce imprint has done the decent thing and made them available on CD.
2002, Aug 28; 13:36:
Psychopathia Sexualis - Richard Von Krafft-Ebing[1 book, Amazon US]
Like "Wisconsin Death Trip," this book provides strangely familiar tales of madness, perversion, and death from the 19th century. Part of the fascination of the book is that it was written *before* Freud, and that it not biased by the views of Freud or his critics. As such, it almost reads like the dispassionate report of visitors from another planet.-- Gregg Silk [more ...]2002, Aug 27; 08:16:
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita [1 book, Amazon US]
In Vladimir Nabokov's novel of 1955, the character named Lolita is the prize in a deadly struggle between two men. When Lolita was made into a film in 1961, a text that bore the name of a woman became a feminized commodity over which flesh-and-blood men struggled to gain possession. As in any such conflict when men compete for the same female object, there is an erotic tension tinged with sado-masochism. This tension pervades all of the Lolita texts, including Nabokov's novel, Stanley Kubrick's film, and the screenplay by Nabokov that Kubrick largely ignored when he made the film. A similar tension pervaded the dramas played out during the making the film and persisted at least until 1974 when Nabokov revised and published his original screenplay. In some ways, however, Nabokov's belated attempt to regain control of his text was a masochistic return to a scene in which his vision of the film would again remain unrealized. -- Krin Gabbard [...]2002, Aug 27; 07:35:
Philadelphia Experiment - Remixed by King Britt[1 CD, Amazon US]
An incredible record -- far greater than expected! Britt's really blown his top -- turning the original jazz jam album into a set of cosmic grooves, while keeping its soulful heart. The depth of the project is stunning, and shows why Philly is fast becoming the music capitol of the 21st Century!
2002, Aug 21; 23:53:
Greil Marcus - Lipstick Traces, a Secret History of 20th Century [1 book, Amazon US] ... In the 1989 ‘Lipstick Traces - A Secret History of the Twentieth Century’ Greil Marcus traces a subliminal trajectory where nearly-invisible connections arc across punk, the Situationists of 1968, Dada in 1916, the Enrages of the French Revolution and heretical millenarianism in medieval times. He isn’t describing the direct causal link of past and present but suggesting a more opaque entanglement. “Is history simply a matter of events that leave behind those things that can be weighed and measured - new institutions, new maps, new rulers - or is it also the result of moments that seem to leave nothing behind, nothing but the mystery of spectral connections between people long separated by place and time, but somehow speaking the same language?....If the language they are speaking, the impulse they are voicing, has it’s own history, might it not tell a very different story from the one we’ve been hearing all our lives?”
[more on Greil Marcus]2002, Aug 21; 17:32:
I am doing a bit of writing and studying on the Nineteenth Century underground. Off topic but interesting.
2002, Aug 17; 14:57:
Brazilica - Various Artists - Compiled by Gilles Peterson and Joe Davis [1 CD, Amazon US] 2002, Aug 17; 01:26:
I went to Kassel, Germany to visit the Documenta art show. Work that impressed me most was Thomas H's Bataille monument. Here is the offical short text: "Thomas Hirschhorn plugs himself into the communicative potential of thought discontent with the enforced definitions and limitations of a hyper- capitalist, multinational rhetoric of globalization. Neglecting material worth, his work encompasses diverse sculptural models in an impoverished taste for the product wrappings of consumer industry – aluminum foil, plastic, cardboard and plywood – suspending capitalist desires in a state of constant creative anarchy. Following a logic of ephemerality, accumulation and a potential openendedness, Hirschhorn’s perishable monuments to Benedict de Spinoza (Amsterdam, 1999), Gilles Deleuze (Avignon, 2000), Georges Bataille (2002, Kassel) and Antonio Gramsci (not yet realized), reflect upon communal commitment and “the quality of internal beauty” (Hirschhorn). Personally and socially mapping the city of Kassel for more than a year, Hirschhorn integrates the Bataille Monument actively into the lives of a marginalized local community for the duration of the exhibition. Forgoing traditional terms of knowledge production, the work returns the museum’s ritualized function of displaying and collecting to the public realm."
2002, Aug 14; 00:02:
Ernest Ranglin - Below the bassline [1 CD, Amazon US]
The man who taught Bob Marley how to play the guitar may finally get his just rewards. "BELOW THE BASSLINE" is a brilliant example of Jamaican Jazz in it's purest form. Ernest Ranglin has fast fingers for someone in his 60's. He has also mastered the technique of feathering the guitar strings with beathtaking precision. Add to this; an uncanny ability to comunicate such rich emotion through his music, and you have one sensational piece of music. This disc is testimony to his great love of Jazz, and his birth right Jamaica. Smooth, charming, and rhythmic. This is music you can either kick back and listen to, or get up and dance to. With "Below the Bassline", Ernest Ranglin has demolished any generation gap he may have had with the young or the old. This music is for everyone. Contagious to the last note. BRILLIANT!!!! -- : Dan Swan for Amazon.com
2002, Aug 06; 00:05:
Ultra Lounge, Vol. 1: Mondo Exotica - Various Artists[1 CD, Amazon US]
1. Swamp Fire - Denny, Martin
2. Moon Mist - Out-Islanders
3. Caravan - 80 Drums Around The
4. Hypnotique - Denny, Martin
5. Atlantis - Baxter, Les
6. Alika - Edwards, Webley
7. Miserlou - Denny, Martin
8. Lust - Sheva, Bas
9. Hana Maui - Floyd, Chick & His
10. Voodoo Dreams/Voodoo - Baxter, Les
11. Jungle Madness - Denny, Martin
12. Babalu - Sumac, Yma
13. Simba - Baxter, Les
14. The Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish - Denny, Martin
15. Bali Ha'i - Shindo, Tak
16. Pyramid of the Sun - Baxter, Les
17. Quiet Village - Denny, Martin
18. Wimoweh - Sumac, Yma
Vintage lounge, first installment of a 24-part series. Fits the original fifties and sixties definition of lounge music.
2002, Aug 04; 11:28:
Gilles Peterson presents Worldwide, Vol. 2 - Various Artists[1 CD, Amazon UK]
1. Worldwide Intro (Benji B)
2. Soulhack (Forss)
3. Evolution - Blows Yard Mix (Cinematic Orchestra )
4. When There Is No Sun (Sun Ra)
5. Creole (Charlie Hunter feat Mos Def)
6. A.N.G.E.L (Dwele)
7. Another New Day (Jazzanova)
8. Seis Por Ocho (original jazz session mix) (Nu Spirt Helsinki)
9. La La Li (Calladine)
10. E Ruim - Zero dB Remix (Grupo Batuque )
11. Hold It Down - Bugz In The Attic's Co-Operative Mix (4hero )
12. Loose Lips (Seiji feat Lyric L)
13. Losalamitos-latinfunklovesong (Gene Harris)
14. Flowers (Dudley Perkins)
As Radio 1's night-time guru of worldwide esoteric music, Gilles Peterson has a staggeringly broad vista of musical experience to draw on. Thankfully, Worldwide Program 2 narrows this into a focused 60-minute mix album that reflects Gilles' personal taste--slo-mo jazz, heavily blunted stoner hip-hop, classic funk--and for the most part, steers well clear of the easy-listening muzak excursions that occasionally blight his shows. In the spirit of prime-cut Mo Wax, Forss's "Soulhack' welds funk-strewn Quannum-style hip-hop rhythms to florid swathes of jazz piano. Sun Ra's "When There Is No Sun" proves a surprisingly palatable spoken-word pick from the cosmic avant-garde band leader's bulging back-catalogue. Worldwide favourites 4 Hero up the tempo with a trampolining acid bassline on "Hold It Down". And Jazzanova pay homage to classic old-skool breakbeats on "Another New Day". For Worldwide Program 2, Gilles has clearly placed his goalposts fairly close together: there's nothing here from more leftfield Worldwide favourites Manitoba or Anti-Pop Consortium, who might add further dimensions to this compilation. For Gilles' jazzhead following, however, this mix will come as manna from heaven.--Louis Pattison
2002, Aug 03; 22:49:
King Britt Presents Scuba [1 CD, Amazon US]
1. Tre con de ala (Scuba remix) - Ski Oakenfull
2. Swell - Scuba & Victor Duplaix
3. 9x9 (Scuba remix) - 4 Hero
4. Wake up (Scuba remix) - Maximum Styles
5. Heavenly - Scuba & Elena Sergi
6. High priestess (Scuba remix) - Kharma
7. Todos os dsejos (Scuba remix) - Fantastic Plastic Machine
8. If I lost you (Scuba remix) - Shaprow, Michele
9. Adore (Scuba remix) - I:Cube
10. Linoleum (Scuba remix) - Tweaker & DS
11. Bet you thought you'd never find me (Scuba remix) - UFO (2)
12. Flower (Scuba remix) - Soul Dharma
2002, Aug 03; 16:46:
Samba Soul 70! . - Various Artists [1 CD, Amazon US]
1. Cosa Nostra - Erlon Chaves
2. Nao Vem Que Nao Tem - Wilson Simonal
3. Homenagem A Mongo - Som Tres
4. A Vida Em Seus Metodos Diz Calma - Di Melo
5. Mane Joao - Wanderlea
6. Quanabara - Dom Salvador & Banda Abolicao
7. Fato Consumado - Milton Banana Trio
8. Bicho Do Mato - Elis Regina
9. Princesa Negra De Angola - Bebeto
10. Saltei De Banda - Elza Soares
11. Onde Anda O Meu Amor - Orlandivo
12. Nego Dito - Branca Di Neve
13. Maria Fumaca - Banda Black Rio
14. Jogaram O Caxanga - De Savoya Combo
15. Barato Total - Gal Costa
16. Que Nega E Essa - Trio Mocoto
A suave, romantic style which started in the 1950s, bossa nova supplanted samba as the Brazilian national music during much of the following decade. Typically, bossa nova (which means "new way" in Portuguese) is very mellow, laid-back and cool. The style was introduced to Brazilians through the stunning early work of guitarist Joao Gilberto, and to the rest of the world through the French film, Black Orpheus. In the early 1960s, bossa nova rhythms sparked a musical craze, led by jazz musicians in the U.S. and Europe. Still one of the dominant musical styles in Brazil, bossa nova remains one of the world's great musical treasures.
