Black Lives Matter

I'm just an old Honkey, but Black Lives Matter to me.

I just come at the whole thing from a different viewpoint.

I live for musick. So the effect of violence on Black musickians is what has touched me the deepest.

I know that the focus of the current problems is on Police Murder.

Again, my own personal thoughts stem from my hatred of guns & the death that leaps unchecked from their barrels. Police wouldn't be murdering Blacks if they weren't issued a badge, a gun, & a license to kill.  Racism will be extremely hard to root out & exterminate from a basically corrupt system.

It can so easily hide behind the visage of the sweetest smile.

But gun's are much easier to recognize & eliminate. Gun violence has taken more Black musickians than I can easily chronicle.

Who can ever forget Marvin Gaye?

Through my love of Dub, Black Lives dying has hit me hard (the King himself gunned down).

Let’s start the list:

November 22, 1980 -  Earl 'General Echo' Robinson, Drunken Master DJ, second only to Big Youth. A car carrying Echo & two others was stopped by police. In the ensuing confrontation, Echo was shot dead by police along with selector Flux (who also worked with Echo on his Echo Tone Sound System) & Stereo Phonic owner Leon 'Big John' Johns. The incident has never been satisfactorily explained.

September 15, 1983 - Prince Far I, Adrian associate, Heavy Manners, Singers & Players

October 14, 1983 - Hugh Mundell, renowned songwriter, Augustus Pablo & Lee Perry associate

April 17, 1987 - Carlton Barrett, Upsetter & Wailer, brother of Aston 'Family Man' Barrett

August 9, 1987 - Wayne 'Major Worries' Jones, Prince Jammy Sound System DJ

September 11, 1987 - Peter Tosh, original Wailer (along with herbalist Wilton 'Doc' Brown & Jeff  'Free 1' Dixon)

February 6, 1989 - King Tubby, the King of Dub

June 24, 1991 - Glen 'Nitty Gritty' Holness - Zodiac Sound System & Soulite

June 2, 1999 - Junior Braithwaite - original Wailing Wailer

June 14, 1999 - Henry 'Junjo' Lawes - producer, Volcano Records & Volcano Sound System. Roots Radics

July 6, 1999 - Mikey Wallace, Chalice keyboards & Massive bass

October 18, 2007 - Lucky Dube, South Africa's greatest reggae star, former Love Brother

January 19, 2011 - Winston Riley, Techniques producer, Meditation Dub star

October 9, 2014 - Lincoln 'Style' Scott, drummer extraordinaire, Roots Radics to Dub Syndicate

So here's my offering to the current situation...

Various - Black Slavery Days, Clappers Records CLPS-1982, 1980.

Side 1 -
Black Slavery Days - Skulls
9 to 5 Dub - T.S.O.S.A. (The Sounds of Saint Ann's)
Tird World - Skulls
Third Worlds Shuffle - Mercenarys
Seek Fire - Arrows

Side 2 -
How Can a Man Dubwise - Clappers All Stars
Come Away Jah Children - Original Survivors
Theme from Ras 'G' - T.S.O.S.A.
Old Broom - Arrows
Beautiful Land (JA) - Original Survivors

Usual suspects: Earl Chinna Smith - lead guitar; Dave Zang & Tony Chin - rhythm guitar; Bobbie Kalaphat & Augustus Pablo - piano; Bernard Touter Harvey - organ; Bobbie Ellis, Herman Marquis, & Vin Trommie Gordon - horns; Robbie Shakespeare & Sidney Leftoe Gussine - bass; & Leroy Horsemouth Wallace - drums.

Although they are Gone Music still Lives on,
NØ

Bill Collection

Anyone even vaguely familiar with my musick manias knows one of my Holy Trinitiys is BILLS: Burroughs, Nelson, & Laswell.  Been ignoring them for too long so this week-end I’ve immersed myself in the Sacred System of things.  From the galactic zone to the lower ground, a greater tetralogy I doubt...

Bill Laswell - Sacred System: Chapter One - Book of Entrance, ROIR USA RUSCD 8225, 1996.

all decryption codes in comments

Babylon Ghost
Dread Iternal
Cyborg Assault
Galactic Zone
Sub Terrain


For further information about who does what, I've included insert with the files.

Bill Laswell - Sacred System: Chapter Two, ROIR RUSCD 8233, 1997.

Thunupa
Anubis
Purana
Akapana

Bill Laswell - Sacred System: Nagual Site, BMG Classics 09026-63263-2, 1998.

Raag Sohni
Black Lotus
X-Zibit-I
Dèrive
Saiya Nikasegaye
Driftwork
Aab Yaad Kar Tu

Bill Laswell - Sacred System: Dub Chamber 4 - Book of Exit, ROIR RUSCD 8280, 2002.

Ethiopia
The Lower Ground
Shashamani
Bati
Land of Look Behind
Jerusalem



Bless all life,
we are all one race,
the Human Race...
slow down,
NØ

Perhaps Tied for Third 2 - 3

As with all magickal paths, there is always confusion.

Now here’s the bit o’ confusion with the Sacred System.

Although the previously posted Bill Laswell - Sacred System: Nagual Site is considered by most to be the proper third installment of the Sacred System Tetralogy, there are those that stick by the Discordian Law of Fives & posit that the four are in fact five. That the tetralogy is actually a pentalogy.

In 2000, Bill released Dub Chamber 3, which some say is the precursor to Sacred System: Dub Chamber 4 - Book of Exit. It fits perfectly between Nagaul (1998) & Dub Chamber 4 (2002).

This from the album notes:

Nils Petter Molvaer: Trumpet, Effects (1,3)
Nicky Skopelitis: 6,12 String Guitars, Beats, Effects (1,2,3,4)
Craig Taborn: Electric Piano (2,3,4)
Bill Laswell: Bass, Keyboard, Beats (1,2,3,4)
Jah Wobble: Bass, Keyboard, Beat (2)
Karsh Kale: Drums, Tabla (1)

Produced by Bill Laswell


from ROIR USA website:

Dub Chamber 3 is Laswell's third release for ROIR (Nagaul Site was released by BMG Classics) & completes the best selling Sacred System trilogy (perhaps true at that time, perhaps sour BMG grapes ).

So listen up, decide for yourselves. Never get too many Bills.

Bill Laswell - Dub Chamber 3, ROIR RUSCD 8263, 2000.

decryption code in comments

Beyond the Zero
Cybotron
Syndrome
A Screaming Comes AcrosstThe Sky

Enjoy safely,
NØ

It's Easy - Nothin' to It

Synchronicity has been running rampant this week-end here at the Casa Nada.  I was looking through some boxes & crates of old items I had packed away in the past & over time had come to disregard.  I thought I'd get rid of some junk I definitely didn't need & make some much needed space around here.

In one box I spotted an ancient cassette tape. On futher examination I realized it was labeled Graduation Upheaval dated June 6, 1970.  50 years to the day. What's the chances of that. I had just been watching some TV news about Virtual Graduations upcoming in these days of Covid-19.

Then it kinda hit me...50 years since my own graduation, which by my own choice was more or less virtual.  I wasn't planning on attending my alma mater's stupid ass affair. I was deep in the anti-Tricky Dicky / anti-Vietnam war headspace. Just one month earlier, the day after my 18th birthday, 13 Kent State students were shot by National Guard troops on the Kent State campus, 4 killed & 9 wounded.  The eerie parallel to what was going on right now across the nation only piled on more similarities.

I remember making the cassette tape in order to prank the after-graduation festivities. My friend Mole's band, the First Mole Underground, was playing the after dinner party. Mole had been given the duties of spinning the tunes during the meal & for the after-meal dance preceeding his band's gig.  The school administration had given him a strict whitewashed list of  "appropriate"  music for the dance, but had left the dinner background Muzak to his whims.  That's where my cassette came in to play.  Mole had been persuaded (read: blackmailed by yours truly) to play the cassette during the feasting.

"They told you in school about freedom,

But when you try to be free they never let ya...

They say "It's easy...Nothin' to it"

& now the Army's out to get you

69 American terminal stasis

The air's so thick it's like drowning in molasses

I'm sick & tired of paying these dues

I'm finally getting hip to the American Ruse."

I remember I started with "American Ruse" by MC5.  The rest is part of infamy.  I chose only the newest musick from 1970 with a firm eye on chaos.  Although the C90 cassette I found in the discarded junk Saturday was beyond practical use, I have faithfully resurrected it for your listening pleasure.  I have divided the tracks into two downloads, 43 minutes each, duplicating the original tape side.

Various - Virtual Graduation 1970 Style, NØ Comps., 2020

cum side -
American Ruse - MC5
No Man's Land - Syd Barrett
Mean Mistreater - Grand Funk Railroad
Sweet Jane (live) - Velvet Underground
Pachuco Cadaver - Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band
Music for My Mother - Funkadelic
Nature's Way (live) - Spirit
Mr. & Misdemeanor - Alice Cooper
Eastwood Rides Again - The Upsetters
Crumbling Land - Pink Floyd
1970 (live) - Iggy & the Stooges

laude side -
No Time - The Guess Who
Cat Food - King Crimson
Mr. Skin / Animal Zoo (live) - Spirit
Theme from Burnt Weeny Sandwich - The Mothers
Heart Beat, Pig Meat - Pink Floyd
T.V. Eye (live) - Iggy & the Stooges
Child in Time - Deep Purple

notes:

MC5 - After spending Xmas vacation '69 in County lock-up, I was released just in time Jan. '70 to violate my probation to make a road trip out of state to Gilligan's in Buffalo, NY.  Had been wanting to see the Motor City Five since they first kicked out the jams. Had a big bag of Matanuska Valley Thunderfuck my friend Whalebait had brought back from Scottsbluff.  I smoked out with the band & washed away the straight eyes. I snuck behind the stage & stuffed my Algonquin Peace pipe full of MVT into "Machine Gun" Thompson's pie hole. He puffed & drummed & drummed & puffed until the song ended, then passed it around to the other.  That experience alone, coupled with their new album Back in the USA, garned them the coveted number one spot.

Syd - Floyd didn't want him no more, but the madcap laughed.

GFR - They're an Amerikkan band.

Velvet Underground - It wouldn't be until Nov. '70 that Loaded would appear & give us the studio "Sweet Jane", but this version is a live track from a show at the Matrix in S.F on Nov. 26 & 27, 1969. From my friend Fred (more later).

Beefheart - Trout mask was released in the fall of '69 but I never got it until the Straigh STS 1053 early 1970 RE.

Funkadelic - My first introduction to the Haze, Clinton & crew...you know, the "real" funk. Now I got a thing.

Spirit - Another jewel on the event horizon of 1970. 12 Dreams was still a wet dream, but my friend Bedhead Fred from San Johaze, CA recorded these songs at the Fillmore in May '70.

The Upsetters - Another first, my first "real" Jamaican music that I was to take to heart & imbrace as my favorite pleasure all these fifty years. Before that it was only the Israelites.

Floyd - Atom Heart Mother would be another late '70 release. They started work on that opus after recording the songs for Michaelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriske Point, from which these tracks were taken.

Iggy - Funhouse had already been recorded in May '70 but wouldn't be released until a couple more weeks, July '70.  I somehow got these live tracks from someone (fifty year memory drain) who had recorded them at the Cincinnati Pop Festival June 13.  Our actual graduation ceremony wasn't until June 21st so this barely slid on to the final cassette mix.

Crimson - Court of the Crimson King led to the Wake of Poseidon. How that leads to "cat food", I'll never know.

The Mothers - The Captain's bongo fury buddy burning Hebrew National Weenies with a bunch o' Muthas shortly after their fall.

Deep Purple - Never really loved metal, but heavy rock...Grand Funk, Mountain, James Gang, Steppenwolf...loved it. Now Deep Purple 2.0 was in rock. "Child in Time" is one of my favorite
heavy songs of all times. Definite shoe-in for set end.

Enjoy,
NØ