JahSonic 2002 Dec Blog

1. No Agreement 2. Dog Eat Dog

Too many people have focused on the beautiful simplicity of the lyrics that make up the masterpiece No Agreement. And they would not be wrong. When Fela moans, 'My Mama talk, Your Papa talk', you know Baba 70 is feeling the pain for his people. Our ignorance...our ignorance. Yet it is Dog Eat Dog that even more of us have casually ignored simply because it is an instrumental. Dog Eat is an absolute masterpiece. Playing this track for the first time in 10 odd years was like the feeling you get when you unwrap delicious smelling moin-moin from its fresh green leaves. It is pure class. It is Baba at his band-leader best. It was recorded back in the days when he still had to vocally instruct Africa 70 but that notwithstanding it's still all about very tight musical arrangement. Improve the quality of your life and listen with intent. It would have got five stars but then what would you give Palava, Yellow Fever, BONN, Shuffering & Smiling, Unknown Soldier? You have to understand... - Abami Eda for amazon.com [...]

"Stonewall. Gay Liberation. The early days of disco. The Paradise Garage. AIDS. House Music. Finally, a New York Story that is captivating, intriguing, and educational. The sights and sounds of Manhattan will never be the same." -- Michael Paoletta, Dance Music Editor, Billboard Magazine. [...]

First of all shout out to Rockers crew. Second, the amazon review says that King Tubby was the same person as Glen Adams which is not true. King Tubby's real name was Osbourne Ruddock although he did mix an album called termination dub that was comprised of music produced by Glen Adams. Regardless, the album is an absolute classic-probably one of the top three dub albums from the roots era along with Super Ape by Lee Perry and any number of King Tubby albums from this same time period. Much respect to both A.P. and King Tubby-their music will forever be influential and loved. austin harclerode for amazon.com [...]

One of the world's most respected sociologists updates his classic work on public views of popular and high culture. Is NYPD Blue a less valid form of artistic expression than a Shakespearean drama? Who is to judge and by what standards?

In this new edition of Herbert Gans's brilliantly conceived and clearly argued landmark work, he builds on his critique of the universality of high cultural standards. While conceding that popular and high culture have converged to some extent over the twenty-five years since he wrote the book, Gans holds that the choices of typical Ivy League graduates, not to mention Ph.D.s in literature, are still very different from those of high school graduates, as are the movie houses, television channels, museums, and other cultural institutions they frequent.

"In this revised and updated edition, Herbert Gans extends his classic study of the roles popular culture and high culture play in American society. Gans argues in favor of all peoples' right to the culture they choose. He also looks at "dumbing down" and other examples of the new mass culture critique and lays out changes in America's taste cultures. Gans has added a new introduction and new postscripts to each chapter updating the original analysis to incorporate recent trends. [...]

If you liked this one, then you might want to check out Pressure Sounds' superb Firehouse Revolution compilation. Seek and ye shall find... -- wilymanc for amazon.com [...]

The Wire Magazine first appeared on news stands in 1982 and over the last 20 years it has developed from a quarterly fanzine specializing in avant garde jazz and modern composition into an award-winning and widely influential monthly that covers a vast array of underground, experimental and alternative music and culture. This 3 CD box set is the Audio Edition and spans the magazine's 20-year history. Artists include Ennio Morricone, Coil, David Toop & Max Eastley, Fela Kuti, Pan Sonic, AMM, Derek Bailey, John Cage, Diamanda Galas and more. Slipcases housed in a slimline box embossed with the word Adventures. Mute. 2002. [...]

The B side features the talents of Carl Craig reinterpreting the Marcus Belgrave jazz funk classic titled 'Space Odyssey', with some help from Marcus himself. The experiment also captured the essence of real Detroit jazz, which can be felt by the flute driven 'Midnight At The Twenty Grand'. The final track on the B side is 'Space Break', which takes a small section of the drum break in 'Space Odyssey' and leaves it open for producers and DJs to sample." [...]

[bought this, because of the "Space Odyssey" cover]

Or is it possible that the purchase and gift [thanks Caroline] of two Cheika Remitti cds has put 'soul' into a new perspective? The seventy plus year old grand lady of Rai seems to have more soul in her little finger than Peven Everett in his whole body. Dunno. Anyway, Peven's cd is pretty good, but not as good as the two magic twelve inches he recorded in the late nineties with Roy Davis Jr: 'Watch Them Come' and 'Gabriel', both of which belong in ANY crate. [...]

However "Tunes", as we shall refer to the album from here on in, was not so much a follow up but more of an initiation of a whole new genre, for what we now know today as "new roots" can track its modern development back to this album as its source. From the late seventies Sherwood had ploughed a lonely furrow, with only the likes of the underground Shaka, Dennis Bovell and Neal Fraser a.k.a. the Mad Professor vaguely approaching similar work. Dub Syndicate was, and still is, a conglomerate formed around the drums of Jamaican Style Scott and producer Adrian Sherwood. As the drummer for Roots Radics Scotty's link with Sherwood was forged via their mutual work and friendship with Prince Far I - and therefore the "correct reggae pedigree" for On U productions should have been assured. This cut no ice with the critical mass of the London based press corps who at the time had no time for reggae, let alone UK productions.

The routine for Dub Syndicate albums was that Scotty drove out the rhythms in Kingston and Sherwood manipulated the finished product in London. What was different about "Tunes" though was the discovery of some new technology, its use and abuse. Whilst in Switzerland working with Marc Hollander, of Aksak Maboul fame, Sherwood together with partner and keyboard-player Kishi Yamamoto discovered an emulator for the first time - hence the delight in pulling the sitar sound from the keyboard which resulted in the almost prosaically titled "Ravi Shankar Pt.1" (because it was!) Also, before sampling had a name, Sherwood stumbled upon the technique of what he called "captured sound" by utilising the locking function in the AMS digital harmoniser. No need to bleed all over the tape deck a la Double D & Steinski as a result of razored edits, instead you just invoke Emperor Rosko (the album's Fats Comet) via machine triggers to appear in "The show is coming".

And so in "Tunes" we have the earliest manifestation of the use of the kind of technology which is today commonplace in the production of the new roots reggae/dub all over the world. But the album, with its mad splashes of sound and out-of-time beats remains uniquely an On U Sound/Sherwood creation. The collaborative nature of the enterprise brought together ex-PIL playmates Wobble and Levene in addition to members of African Head Charge and Creation Rebel, the sweet crooning of Bim Sherman and the apparently game for anything Steve Beresford. The result was the grouping of tracks that eventually became "Tunes", one of the best-selling albums in the entire On U catalogue, re-pressed here on CD for the first time and re-mastered from the original mix-down masters. It would not do justice to "Tunes" to say that it sounds as fresh today as it did back in 1984 because for most people either their ears were just not ready.

Steve Barker - On the Wire
July 1997

[...]

Japanese Version featuring Three Bonus Tracks: "Make it Last Forever (Single Version)", "it Ain't No Big Thing (Single Version)", and "it Ain't No Big Thing (Danny Krivit Re-edit)". [...]

In The Senses of Modernism, Sara Danius develops a radically new theoretical and historical understanding of high modernism. The author closely analyzes Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, and James Joyce's Ulysses as narratives of the sweeping changes that affected high and low culture in the age of technological reproduction.

In her discussion of the years from 1880 to 1930, Danius proposes that the high-modernist aesthetic is inseparable from a technologically mediated crisis of the senses. She reveals the ways in which categories of perceiving and knowing are realigned when technological devices are capable of reproducing sense data. Sparked by innovations such as chronophotography, phonography, radiography, cinematography, and technologies of speed, this sudden shift in perceptual abilities had an effect on all arts of the time. Danius explores how perception, notably sight and hearing, is staged in the three most significant modern novels in German, French, and British literature. The Senses of Modernism connects technological change and formal innovation to transform the study of modernist aesthetics. Danius questions the longstanding acceptance of a binary relationship between high and low culture and describes the complicated relationship between modernism and technology, challenging the conceptual divide between a technological culture and a more properly aesthetic one. [...]

Fante revered and studied the great Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian, Knut Hamsun, perhaps the father of modernism, whose first novel, Hunger, published in 1890, predated James Joyce and Marcel Proust in chronicling in prose a character’s deeply interior voice, self-awareness and the dawning of consciousness. --Steve Weinstein

I read this incredible novel twenty years ago and it still holds up--as it should, always will. Hamsun is first rate here, and I disagree with that reviewer who says this isn't Dostoevsky, Kafka, or Camus--no, it isn't, because it's better. As far as I'm concerned, Dostoevsky is one of the most over-rated writers ever. Knut Hamsun nearly outdoes every writer and is, to be sure, up there with the best of the best, and I am talking about Nat West, Hemingway, Charles Bukowski, Celine, Henry Miller, Dan Fante, Nelson Algren, Eugene O'Neill (yes, I know, he wrote plays), Edward Bunker, Clarence Cooper, Jr., George Orwell (Down and Out in London and Paris), B. Traven, Jim Northrup, Carson McCullers, Jack Kerouac, James M. Cain, Chester Himes (If He Hollers Let Him Go), Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar), Vincent Van Gogh (Dear Theo), James Ross (They don't Dance Much), et al. -- tucumcaripress for amazon.com

A new book offers insight on the interrelationships between some of modern art and literature's most important and influential figures, while shedding light on the influence of African, Asian and Pacific cultures on European modernism and suggesting how we "read" paintings as narratives.

In Reconfiguring Modernism: Explorations in the Relationship Between Modern Art and Modern Literature, published by St. Martin's Press, Cornell English Professor Daniel R. Schwarz proposes, relationships between artists as varied as Edouard Manet and Henry James, Paul Eugéne Henri Gauguin and Joseph Conrad, Paul Cézanne and T.S. Eliot, as well as among Pablo Picasso, Wallace Stevens and James Joyce. In doing so, Schwarz suggests directions for studying the relationship between modern art and modern literature that erase the boundaries between visual and written texts. - Darryl Geddes [...]

"Free Man," an utterly real lyric about relationships, had no chance of being recorded by anybody on the masculinity-obsessed Philadelphia International label because of its gay theme. The Commission had no such reservations and took the song to #9 in late 1975. The extended version became a sought-after classic thanks to the breakdown by Instant Funk, their finest moment on wax prior to "I've Got My Mind Made Up" years later. "A Train Called Freedom" and a cover of "We're On the Right Track" finished off their chart ride. Anthony Rucker for allthingsdeep.com [...]

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, is the founder and publisher of MustHear.com, a music review and photography website dedicated to celebrating the brilliant and the obscure. He is an avid reader, writer, photographer, dog-walker, thrift-shopper, percussionist, and record collector. While his musical tastes are as varied as his hobbies, jazz has long been a major passion. He prefers to photograph jazz in black and white, but has recently been dabbling in color. Visit John's photo Must Hear recommendations site at http://www.musthear.com

During the seventies in Jamaica the 12" mix of popular songs became the vogue. The vocals and dubs were mated for a musical extravaganza. As a result of the popularity of these 12" singles Coxsone Dodd compiled and released some "Showcase" albums. Now the Cambridge, Massachusetts U.S.A. based Heartbeat Records has issued "Nice Up The Dance", which is a decent follow up to the previous releases 'Showcase Volume 1 & 2". Many of the songs on the album were originally released in the late sixties and re-released in their extended version ten years later. The album opens with classic late sixties lovers tune Queen Of the Minstrels from Cornell Campbell and The Eternals. He recorded many sides for Coxsone, starting in the late fifties, before teaming up with producer Bunny Lee. In the seventies his output was prolific and he still is recording quality sides for a variety of producers, such as the New York based Don One. Ken Parker comes next with his rendition of William Bells' My Whole World Is Falling Down. Ken's version topped the Jamaican charts in 1969. One of Jamaica's most underrated vocalists is the late Freddie McKay. Love Is Treasure remains his best remembered tune, the Studio One album 'Picture On The Wall' is a classic set. An often versioned riddim is Horace Andy's Mr. Bassie. It's a dancehall staple, and any producer looking for a dancehall hit will consider versioning it. Great names like Beres Hammond, Garnet Silk, Frankie Paul, Dean Fraser and Robert Ffrench have scored hits riding this riddim. The late great Delroy Wilson is one of Studio One's legends. He started out at the age of twelve, voicing popular ska sides for Coxsone Dodd. His tune Give Love A Try is one of the highlights found here. The Sound Dimension's 'Real Rock' riddim probably is reggae's most versioned riddim. Although Willie Williams' version 'Armagideon Time' is a very popular cut of the riddim, Michigan and Smiley offering Nice Up the Dance is a noteworthy track. This tune is followed by the killer tune of the album, Alton Ellis' Can I Change My Mind. This brilliant retelling of Tyrone Davis' 1968 hit tune proved Alton's most popular tune. He has recorded a few tunes over the years and his outings still remain popular with the reggae massive. The album closes with a previously unreleased tune by The Viceroys. For this release the original vocal cut Slogan On The Wall was mixed together with Tommy McCook's instrumental cut 'Tenor On The Call'. -- jo moenen for amazon.com

"Punk was always the intellectuals' favorite," says Bernard Gendron, a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. "Academics were interested in punk from the start, in England especially. One of the first really classic texts in cultural studies from the early 1980s was Dick Hebdige's Subculture, which stressed the semiotics of punk -- trying to read the 'live' texts of punk clothing's signifiers, for example. In the United States, it was the art world that was really taken with punk." Mr. Gendron traces the movement's ambivalent relationship with high culture (and vice versa) in his recent book, Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde (University of Chicago Press). -- Scott McLemee -- [...]

The relationship arcs, as does Annie's growing desire for independence. It quickly becomes clear that the two are on separate tracks, as what was once endearing becomes annoying. Annie Hall embraces Allen's central themes--his love affair with New York (and hatred of Los Angeles), how impossible relationships are, and his fear of death. But their balance is just right, the chemistry between Allen's worry-wart Alvy and Keaton's gangly, loopy Annie is one of the screen's best pairings. It couldn't be more engaging. --Susan Benson [...]

An enduring bestseller since its first printing in 1991, "Angry Women" has been equipping a new generation of women with an expanded vision of what feminism could be, influencing Riot Grrrls, neo-feminists, lipstick lesbians, and suburban breeders alike. A classic textbook widespread in college curriculae, Angry Women is the most influential book on women, culture, and radical ideology since The Second Sex.

"This is hardly the nurturing, womanist vision espoused in the 1970s. The view here is largely pro-sex, pro-porn, and pro-choice. Separatism is out, community in. Art and activism are inseparable from life and being." - The Village Voice

Juno publishes books on all aspects of modern culture, but especially those on the fringes -- the weird, the wacky, the downright disturbing. One recent title is Horror Hospital Unplugged.

In 1980, Andrea Juno co-founded Re/Search Publications. She has produced and edited 26 books and logged thousands of hours of recorded interviews with some of the most fascinating culture-shapers, from J.G. Ballard and William Burroughs to Diamanda Galas and Annie Sprinkle. In 1996, the company metamorphosed into Juno Books. [...]

We uphold the right of the individual to do with itself what it wishes, when it does not harm or transgress the rights of others.

We believe that it is better to grant people their natural right to use upon themselves any substance they desire while supplying them with factual information on use and misuse, rather than to attempt in vain to curb abuse through legislation.

We are not children; nor are we stupid. As adult human beings we are responsible for ourselves and have the right to make our own decisions.

Those who use the information in this book for personal experimentation are offered the following advice:

1. Begin with doses below those given. If no undesirable side- effects occur, gradual increases of dosage may be tried on separate occasions until desired effect occurs.

2. Do not combine drugs unless you know what you are doing. See section titled DANGEROUS COMBINATIONS.

3. Allow rest periods of at least one week between experiments.

4. When experimenting be relaxed, well rested, in good health, and momentarily relieved of responsibilities.

5. Do not permit yourself to become dependent upon any of these substances for relaxation, stimulation, etc. Seek your high in health, love, and awareness. Learn techniques of yoga, tai chi, etc., for relaxation. Employ meditation for consciousness expansion. [...]

Janey is a little girl wandering through a fantasy landscape of men who reject her-- her father, Jean Genet, the Persian Slave Trader, Tommy. This is a book communicating a world of pain-- the dialogues in the beginning between Janey and her father as he prepares to leave her for someone else carry the weight of the agony of someone being betrayed by someone so close and all the little lies and tricks we use to pull closer and push away. It's also a book about illness. Janey constantly has pain and infections and disease that cripple her, but she always pushes the physical pain to one side to focus on the men who she knows from the beginning are going to leave her.

It is not the easiest book in the world to read-- the emotion, rather than the plot, is the thread that ties the book together. There's a section in the book which is a series of drawings by Janey that provide a map to her dreams. I used this map to give the reading experience a kind of structure and I found that thinking about the book as a dream landscape made the lack of narrative much less jarring. -- frumiousb for amazon.com [...]

jahsonic@yahoo.com

[^^ Up] - [jahsonic.com] - [Take The Tour]

your Amazon recommendations - Jahsonic - early adopter products