A crooning Bryan Ferry (what else?), Odd timing (as all songs in this album), some classical instruments. Overall, an impassioned statement, sung very persuasively.
My favorite song of all time! I can listen to this one recorded song a million times and get the same feeling every time I hear it. It makes me feel inspired.
Had it been released under different circumstances, this song might have been one of the enduring soft-rock classics of the early 70s. It's got a catchy, haunting melody and one can easily imagine it charting alongside Bread or Seals And Crofts or whoever.
Best Of Friends were essentially the East Coast-based songwriting/guitar duo of Bing Bingham and Joe Knowlton. I'm not sure how, but Eumir Deodato and legendary bossa nova producer Roberto Quartin took a shine to them and recorded this album for Brazilian release on Quartin's eponymous experimental label of the early 70s. The album even features Dom Um Romao on drums. It's actually a straight-forward pop-rock album of its era, with little to no Brazilian overtones. This same duo would later make an album on RCA as "Joe And Bing."
This title track was also covered by Astrud Gilberto on her 1972 "Now" LP, arranged by (coincidence?) Mr. Deodato himself....
If you don't know this song, there is a large void in your life (that you somehow think is filled by the Pet Shop Boys). With a beat that pounds like a jackhammer, Glósóli will grab you, smack you around and leave you wanting more.
One of the best groups immersed in the second wave of Italian progressive bands. They were able to fluidly combine classical and avant-garde elements in an involving manner with electric and acoustic instruments complemented by light, soft vocals.
Arturo Stalteri piano, organ, spinet, cembalo, synth, glockenspiel, acoustic guitar, recorder, tambourine, violin
Gaio Chiocchio electric & acoustic guitar, mandoline, harpsicord, synth, shaj baja, zither tirolese, sitar, bell
Jacqueline Darby voice
This group was formed by piano virtuoso Arturo STALTERI , it reminds me of Schoenberg+Ennio Morricone goes to the prog church with a crisp broadcast-like vocalist (experimental).
Sometimes it makes people want to skin cats.
Mid-paced, with a heartfelt string arrangement, this is a warm and tender song that you can't not like. And, along with the totally different version by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (q.v.), it makes up half of my all-time favourite pair in which the same song has been done by two artists. IMHO not even "Woodstock" or "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" come close ...
from Golden Grass (Dunhill) available on CD - Grass Roots Anthology 1965-1975 Vol. 1 (Rhino)
ronin: What's not to like about this whole album? Warren Entner's voice was the hook that drew me in, but harder numbers like "Where Were You When I Needed You?" and "Things I Should Have Said" are more to my taste. "Feelings" and "Hot Bright Lights" merit mention. Even "Bella Linda" with the sappy violins is a gem.
Fast and furious, with incendiary guitars, this one is a radically different version of the P F Sloan track covered by the Grass Roots (q.v.), and it's half of my favourite pair of song-that-was-covered-by-two-artists-differently. They didn't have much else, although "Transparent Day" is pretty good, but the third LP is just bad country-flavoured pop to my ears.
from West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Vol. 1, available on CD (Reprise)
Neko Case has dropped 'the Boyfriends' and pushed the musical boundaries with her new album 'Blacklisted.'
She's moving away from alt. country and incorporating more elements from jazz, soul and experimental music.
The best example of this is Outro for Bees (Reprise), a hidden track on the album. It incorporates jazz(ish) vocals with found sounds to create music that sounds like a badly tuned radio. Very effective and musically challenging...I'd like to hear more like this from her!
available on CD - Blacklisted (Mint Records (Canada) Bloodshot (US))
I arbitrarily chose the title track, as this is a very flowing album that needs to be listened to in one piece. Very experimental use of Brazilian sounds. It seems like Garra is the popular Valle of the period, but I give the edge on this one and Vento Sul. His other masterpiece is "Samba '68", with the best of his early compositions arranged and produced into their perfect forms by Deodato.
from Previsao Do Tempo, available on CD (EMI/Odeon)
Unreal.
First of all, there's Jill Scott. With as much respect I have for her songwriting and singing abilities, I've never thought of her as a musical genius. Her music was, and stays, consistently the best soul music being released. And I'm sure that in twenty years I'll still have great fondness listening to her tunes. Yet, I don't hesitate to state that she is not a genius.
"Slowly Surely" is a great track off Jill Scott's "Who is Jill Scott: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1" album. The track, itself, is a departure from the rest of the album in composition. It is lyrically and melodically experimental, and deosn't perform as a very commercially radio friendly tune. Having said that, this is probably my favorite track on this sublime album.
Theo Parrish is a genius, however. There are no two ways about it. His music is difficult to understand. His path to fame and stardom seems as intentional as Donald Trump's efforts at staying unnoticed. He has a tendency to compose electronic dance music with beats so slow, they'd make Big Daddy Kane half step. This isn't a salmon swimming upstream. This fish is out of the water wondering why he can't fly.
The remix, in the commercial music industry, has been tainted ever since the digital age. Starting off as a tool for DJs in night clubs, a track would have been remixed to have extended beats in the beginning and the end of the track. Thus, early remixes were plainly titled, "Extended Version". However, remixes on commercial radio are merely an effort to milk the popularity of whatever is popular at the moment. These remixes usually include a guest vocalist singing, or rapping, along the original track. Another version of the remix is the time filler. When albums were made with consideration to program times for opposing sides (as well as cassette tapes), remixes were often added when material was scarce. This practice would eventually wipe out the addition of the "Reprise" track. These remix tracks were usually the chosen radio friendly track with extra production on top of the original track.
The remix for "Slowly Surely" is none of the above. It is very unique as it's own being. It pulsates to it's own heartbeat. It moves on it's own, in no predictable direction, as if Theo Parrish had little control over his artistic output. That's his genius. That's his art.
this is a unique piece that comes from the depths of iceland, 4 piece dark electronic group Mum have there shining moment with this gem. Smell memory is a 9 minute epic of errie substance, it has grown on me since the day i bought the album - yesterday was dramatic, today is ok - to really absorb this you must be the a mood where you really want to lose yourself and see where you are at the end of it.
from Yesterday was dramatic, today is ok., available on CD
I love the WCPAEB, they really seem to encapsulate Psychedelia perfectly. Light, blurred and dreamy. And unlike many of their contemporaries seem completely untouched by Garage authenticity. Not that theres anything wrong with garage punk per se, but it means that theres none of blundering of 'talk about girls' to fray those tinted moods.
Oh, it has loud guitars and harmonies right enough, but the whole thing is pitched just right to lift the dregs of any mood enhancers you may have floating around in your bloodstream and send them spinning into your brain.
from Volume 2, available on CD
john_l: I hadn't realized it was a WCPAEB original. I've only heard the version by Southwest FOB, which was pleasant enough.
One beautifully-constructed, jazz-flavoured number.
Its jazzy chords and conga rhythm are complemented by a set of psychedelic lyrics about Tracy who "had a hard day Sunday" for "she had to be herself and no one else". Real ear-candy for me. One of the best (mildly) psychedelic tracks out there, ever.
from West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Vol. 2: Breaking Through (Reprise)
executiveslacks: I was going to recommend this one, but you beat me to it. Great song.
This song has a simple but effective instrumentation; piano, drums and bass for the most part, and brass here and there. It manages to be catchy and interesting because of the melody and chords in my opinion. It's hard to point at something specific, yet the song in its entirety just has a certain, very definitive appeal, especially the ending where it almost has an improvised feel.
This song is from what one could think of as the 'middle period' of Pizzicato Five; they had acquired Maki Nomiya as a singer, and not yet ventured into the experimental things they did in the late 90's. Another, shorter version of it is on "Big Hits & Jet Lags '94-'97'", and that's about the only difference between the two.
This is an absolutely incredible song. It's a melancholy, minor-key brooder much in the vein of the Zombies' more experimental work, and it really showcases how underrated the Troggs were compared to many of their British Invasion contemporaries. This appeared as a b-side to their second biggest US hit, "Love is All Around".
from Love is All Around (Fontana) available on CD - Archaeology 1967-1977 (Polydor)
great electronic effects-laden psychedelia from their 1969 album "an electric storm". a spooky and beautiful track with lots of echo and spacy non-melodic digressions. oddly, it stays quite coherent despite all the insane stuff going on in the background. Female singer, beautyful breathy voice, kind of a "nico light-" thing going on.
the track "firebird" from the same album is also highly recommended.
by the way, i�m pretty sure each member of broadcast have their own copy of this album. The song "marooned" on wire's 1978 album "chairs missing" shares some melodic qualities with this track. would probably sound great if mixed together..
(if you're interested in aquiring the whole album, it�s pretty hard to come by, at least in vinyl form. i think it's been reissued on cd by some obscure label, but as i only have a cd-r copy, i'm not sure. side a is very good, but from what i heard they ran out of studio time, forcing them to make side b a bit more...shall we say, "experimental" in order to make it lp lenghth...)
from an electric storm
standish: My dad's prog-rock friend brought this album over when my dad got his first proper stereo in 1972 and played us the scary side... These days, I love "Firebird" and "Here Come The Fleas". Quirky UK electronica by (BBC Radiophonic Workshop) Delia Derbyshire and David Vorhaus.