I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the sun is back and warming the air. The evening light continues stretching. Music, being so attuned to mood for me, is very much seasonal. So here’s a round of early signals from the sonic spring.
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~ click on the covers to listen ~
Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks - One Essence (1977)
Beyond having one of my favourite middle monikers of any artist, Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks is an absolutely electrifying saxophonist + arranger who did much to stretch the world’s conception of roots reggae during its heyday. One Essence is plucked from an astounding run of albums / bands / projects that saw Brooks at the helm in the late 70s. His music often worked with roots reggae as a kind of centre point, and drew heavily from traditions like nyabinghi on the one hand and free / spiritual jazz on the other. The results on One Essence are deeply groovy and expansive. For a better perspective on his life + career, check out this primer from FACT.
Gabriela - Altas Planicies (1991)
This album is a total blessing. Argentinian-born Gabriela Marrone had a slow-drip career collecting and refracting a myriad of influences, ideas and cultures. Each of her albums are quite distinct and there’s none more entrancing than Altas Planicies. Soft touches of regional folk, ambient jazz and contemporary composition set the backdrop for Gabriela’s glimmering vocals. Put a quiet evening aside and allow these special sounds room to breathe. And if you’d like, get a deeper sense of Gabriela from the fine people at FOND/SOUND.
The Drive - Can You Feel It? (1975)
South African music is certainly having a moment right now. So it’s nice to have older music from the country like Can You Feel It? being reissued, especially since its initial reach would have been so heavily restricted under apartheid. The Drive came together from the ashes of The Heshoo Beshoo Group when three of its members (Henry and Stanley Sithole, along with drummer Nelson Magwaza) were approached about starting a band to enter the 1971 ALCO Best Band Competition, an influential annual event in Soweto. They won, of course. Just listen to this pristine good-times funk: it’s unbeatable.
The City - Now That Everything’s Been Said (1973)
This album sits in a weird blindspot. Just before the absolutely perfect Tapestry and just after she’d written some of the biggest songs of the 60s for everyone else. It’s CAROLE FUCKING KING. Bow down.
Milk Music - Mystic 100’s (2017)
Though it kicks off with a rather foreboding number, and there’s some hard-earned emotion throughout, Mystic 100’s is a gas of a record. Fuzzed guitars, heady indictments, searing solos, tender breakdowns, a motorik underbelly: it’s a modern road record. But it can also pierce the psyche plenty deep. Earnest when they need to be, playful when it counts, these Olympia rippers unleash a snotty kind of rock with anthemic aplomb.
Jim O’Rourke - Halfway To A Threeway (1999)
The music on this EP, perfectly evocative of its fuzzy cover star, is one of the most immediate points in Jim O’Rourke’s broad catalogue. It’s 20 minutes of carefully ambitious pop with no immediate parallel to my mind. There’s the obvious Bacharach touchstone common to a good chunk of O’Rourke’s pop-oriented work, then there’s glints of bossa and samba, and then there’s… prog, I guess? If only all prog felt this egoless, bouncy and bright.
Os Tincoãs - Os Tincoãs (1973)
What sets this trio apart from their contemporaries who would go on to define the era is their link to candomblé, a religion of the African diaspora that arrived in Brazil through the routing of enslaved people from West and Central Africa. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, candomblé became deeply intertwined with Roman Catholicism. On this album, Os Tincoãs draw from both the ritual aspects of the religion (warm, reverent vocals) and the ‘samba de roda’, the informal celebrations traditionally following said rituals. A deeper read on the group by Luiz Américo Lisboa Jr. can be found here.
Anthony Moore - Secrets Of The Blue Bag (1972)
Secrets Of The Blue Bag is this British composer’s third solo LP, which seems to live in constant comparison and shadow of his first. According to AllMusic “the music is based around the 120 combinations that can be drawn from the first five notes of the diatonic scale and was apparently inspired by Moore's discovery of the encryption engine developed by the 13th century hermeticist Ramon Llull”. It’s repetitive, a little shaky-on-purpose and, to my ears, really charming. It’s like the most miraculous rec hall chamber ensemble warming up.
Izabela Dłużyk - Soundscapes Of Spring (2017)
In case the seasonal mood has yet to blossom where you are, here’s a gorgeous album of springtime field recordings from the wilds of Poland.
I’m super interested in feedback / dialogue / suggestions. If you have ideas about the newsletter, want to share music with me, have specific questions / comments / requests, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Write to me: andrewdanielpatterson [at] gmail [dot] com