The sun is in full bloom and I’m finding it hard to sit at a screen too long (unless I’m watching the delightfully pathetic People Just Do Nothing). Coupled with the recent crash of my 2013 Macbook (RIP), this issue is getting out later in the month than usual. But surely it’s not too late to have a little summer fun, hmmmmmm?
click on the covers to listen ~ or go yr own way
Shadow - Mystical Moods (1984)
Winston MacGarland Bailey (aka Shadow) was a perennial misfit within the musical landscapes of soca and calypso. He had a keen ear for rhythm and an entirely unique sense of songwriting and delivery. He used these to create a lasting musical legacy, perpetually ruffling feathers on the way to becoming an indelible figure in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago. On Mystical Moods, Shadow has a lot of fun and it’s fully infectious. The opening track is a curiously detailed account of aliens arriving on earth and attempting to eat him (‘they want to make a soup with my brain / they want to barbecue me for dinner’). Always at least a few steps ahead of or beside the mainstream, this amazing clip of him performing in a skeleton suite to a bewildered, half-empty stadium crowd in 1985 speaks to his distinctive spirit. Note that the few members of the audience who seem to get it are ~really~ vibing.
Jambú e Os Míticos Sons Da Amazônia (70s~80s)
A sizzling compilation exploring a series of lesser-exported genres from Belém, a coastal city enveloped by the Amazon in northern Brazil. Curators Carlo Xavier and Samy Ben Redjeb provide really beautiful exposition on the album’s Bandcamp page, offering a vivid picture of the busy ports, bustling cities, invigorating cuisine and sweltering nightclubs that helped birth these rowdy musics. Give it a read as you dive into the undeniable rhythms.
Ali Hassan Kuban - From Nubia To Cairo (1988)
Hailed as the ‘Godfather of Nubian Music’, Ali Hassan Kuban began experimenting with blending the traditional sounds of southern Egypt with Western modes and instrumentation in the late 1950s. This practice would earn him national acclaim and plenty of shaken rumps over the following two decades and change. As his career began blossoming internationally, rather late in life, he released this remarkable collection featuring call and response vocals, oud melody, sax breaks, killer clarinet, bangin’ darbuka and more. According to lore, details about the recording sessions are hazy: it was certainly recorded at Delta Sound in Cairo, but when exactly is another question. Supposedly the musicians circled around Kuban, performing the songs live into the only working microphone available in the studio. The visceral energy of the recordings lends itself to this image.
Uku Kuut - Vision Of Estonia (1982~89)
A selection of stuttering, would-be club hazers recorded jointly in Los Angeles and Stockholm throughout the 1980s. Kuut’s productions sound as if they’ve been recorded to tape and then back to tape again and again, so that each distinct piece of the groove is sort of smooshed softly together. Sanded slabs of 80s r&b with welcomed synth runs and the occasional hushed vocal. Bonus points: Uku Kuut was the son of and (occasional producer for) Marju Kuut akaMaryn E. Coote, who was reportedly named the Best Jazz Singer of the Soviet Union in 1965 by Downbeat Magazine.
The 49 Americans - We Know Nonsense (1982)
This came to me c/o The Wire’s 100 Records That Set The World On Fire (While No One Was Listening). The 49 Americans were a shifting collective of British DIY weirdos (both musical and otherwise) who came together to shed their experimental / radical proclivities and simply play. We Know Nonsense is full of slanted cliches and dented art pop ditties; the songs wander hither and thither between rockabilly, samba, Brill Building pop, doo-wop and other deflatable touchstones.
Chris Cohen - Overgrown Path (2012)
Recently a friend was flipping through my record collection and was awestruck to see a copy of this album in the bin. I was surprised… in the music communities I was moving through nearly ten years ago, the understated pop of Overgrown Path was basically a given. Most of my close friends at the time could sing (or at least hum along to) the words. And homespun engineers poured over the warmth of the sound. When I picture living rooms of the era, there’s a copy of this LP propped somewhere along the couch or the walls. It’s always nice to encounter someone with enthusiasm for an album you keep in your pocket, and at the same time, nice to be reminded that there are ears out there yet to discover such a gem. This is Chris Cohen’s first album under his own name, following his tenure in Deerhoof and his work as The Curtains.
Baden Powell & Vinícius de Moraes - Os Afro Sambas (1966)
For anyone keeping score out there, you’ll remember that I featured Os Tincoãs a few issues back, a trio that drew heavily from candomblé. This is another album steeped in the tender tones of the same religion practiced by the African diaspora in Brazil. Os Afro Sambas is hushed music-for-evenings featuring one of the foremost Brazilian guitarists, Baden Powell, and poet/playwright/vocalist/diplomat Vinícius de Moraes, an artist whose contribution to Brazilian culture en masse simply cannot be understated. Pure mellow brilliance.
I’m super interested in feedback / dialogue / suggestions. If you have ideas about the newsletter, want to share music with me, have specific questions / requests, don’t hesitate to get in touch. And please: share this newsletter with a pal if you feel so inspired!
Yrs.,
Andrew P.
andrewdanielpatterson [at] gmail [dot] com