31 August 2020

I Spy with My Little Eye Something Beginning with T




I've always been a fan of the Legendary Pink Dots  since their inception in 1980 & their subsequent move to Amsterdam a few years later. I have seen them live more than a dozen times. I have posted up various offerings of theirs elsewhere on NSS (trapped in my mania; more pink; more more dots; return of; I put Ka-spel on you; live at cafe du nord; back to round up; lovin' life) along with offerings from various members (Niels Van Horn & Martijn de Kleer), (Ryan Moore - twilight & sunday Dub plate).



Edward Ka-Spel (D'Archangel) & Phil Knight (The Silverman) are the founding & continuous members of LPD. D'Archangel has a prolific solo career & has been involved in numerous side projects over the years. The most enduring of the is The Tear Garden.






The roots of The Tear Garden go back to 1983, before LPD had moved to the Netherlands. cEvin Key was in the early stages of forming Skinny Puppy in Vancover, British Columbia. At that time he had begun a trans-Atlantic correspondence with Edward Ka-Spel.






Three years later Ka-Spel visited Vancouver for a series of three live performances. cEvin was the sound technician for those shows. During the course of that visit, the two recorded The Tear Garden's self-titled debut EP.






In 1987, Ka-Spel opened for Skinny Puppy on their North American tour. The duo used this occasion to hit the studio for two weeks to produce the electronic-psychedelic masterpiece album Tired Eyes Slowly Burning. It was during these sessions that the project's ranks began to expand, with guest appearances by Key's fellow Skinny Puppies Dwayne Goettel & Nivek Ogre.






Four years later, The Tear Garden released their next albums. This time the group had grown well beyond the Key/Ka-Spel partnership to include not only Goettel, but a wide assortment of friends, including most of the Pink Dots (Phil Knight, Martijn de Kleer, & Ryan Moore). This fruitful month-long collaboration spawned two releases: the album The Last Man To Fly & the  EP (???)  (48+ minutes) Sheila Liked The Rodeo.






Another four years passed, four years fraught with massive changes: both Skinny Puppy & LPD split from their long-time labels; the break-up of SP; the untimely death of SP's Dwayne Goettel; the birth of Ka-Spel's son, Calyxx; the formation of Download; & Key's eventual return to his original label Nettwerk.






In late December 95, in the wake of all this turbulence, The Tear Garden headed into the studio once more. The result was To Be An Angel Blind, The Crippled Soul Divide,  an album of fragile & powerful beauty that digs even deeper into the psychedelic underground than its predecessors, adding a range of influences from dub bass to country slide guitar, all the while retaining the dark electronic melancholy that has become the project's signature.






Since that time, the group has continued to release fantastic music (six more releases from Crystal Mass to one of my favorites, The Brown Acid Caveat. Their latest release is Volume 2 of Eye Spy (2002).






Presented here for your audio pleasure...




The Tear Garden - Eye Spy with My Little Eye, Sub-Conscious Communications sub 026, 2002.
all decryption code in comments

Perforated Man
A Bitter Pill    
The Train to China    
Extract from Empathy No. 2    
Splatterflick    
Black Curtains    
The Bomb Bomb Loopapa Tribe Drown Themselves in a Vat of Marmite
All the Stars are Falling    
Extract from Empathy No. 3    
Dr Chang's Tummy Rub




The Tear Garden - Eye Spy Volume 2, Metropolis MET1084, 2017.

Georgie P / Good Evening Houston (Slight Return)    
Good Evening Houston Part 2    
Message III    
Forbidden Zone    
Nothing's Set in Stone (version)
Greener Grass    
Demons (The 3AM mix)    
The Things That Go Bump in the Night    
It's Your Karma    
Tears
 Performers: Edward Ka-Spel; Frank Verschuuren; Martijn De Kleer; Ryan Moore; The Silverman; & cEvin Key

"Forbidden Zone", "Greener Grass", "Tears" originate from lost TG pieces dating back
to 1987 which were recently finished. "Good Evening Houston is a re-interpretation of a rare bonus track which originally appeared on the Russia only compilation ,"For Those Who Walk With The Gods" (Для Тех, Кто Прогулялся Бы С Богами - 1999) ; "Message III" is
taken from that same collection & has been remastered. Other songs are remastered, having been
collected from various compilations. "Demons" is an alternative/home-made version of a song
from "Crystal Mass". "Nothing's Set in Stone" is an alternative version of a song from Have A Nice Trip (2009).

Original versions appeared on:
1 - Для Тех, Кто Прогулялся Бы С Богами
2 - Unreleased
3 - Для Тех, Кто Прогулялся Бы С Богами
4 - Unreleased
5 - Have A Nice Trip
6 - Unreleased
7 - Crystal Mass
8 - Wild Planet
9 - Unreleased
10 - Unreleased


Enjoy,

24 August 2020

Time to Dubb Rock...err...Rock Dubb

Weird times inside the Covid mind. I have been drawn on by other sounds to soothe the beast inside. I have been unnecessarrily ignoring the Dub. The Brotherhood contacted me by the Hour of the Wolf drums & I am at their command. Without further delay...






Lloyd Coxsone, sound system operator & record producer, was born Lloyd Blackford sometime around 1945 in Morant Bay, Jamaican. He moved to Wandsworth, London in 1962. He borrowed his new last name from  the great Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, himself one of Jamaica's leading sound system operators & producers. It was a fitting & justified tribute. Blackford operated his own Coxsone Sound System in London from 1965 through to the 1980s (he has since come out of semi-retirement to work Sir Coxsone Outernational).




In the 1970s he moved his Sound System to...first the Flamingo Club in Soho,






& then the Roaring 20s club (later renamed Colombo's) in Carnaby Street. It was this residency on Carnaby Street that garnered him much fame.




Bob Marley would often stop by to see Lloyd when he was in London. Marley wrote "Kinky Reggae" about a night out at Colombo's when he'd narrowly missed getting caught in a police raid. "I think I might join the fun, but I had to hit & run. Seems like I just can't settle down, in a kinky part of town..."





Lloyd was still doing his gigs at Colombo's when he started producing songs for general release. Sir Coxsone also played every Wednesday night at the Four Aces in Dalston, where he hosted a weekly talent show.






After the teenage Louisa Marks won three weeks running Lloyd took her in the studio & created "Caught You in a Lie".  Lloyd took the recording around to Reg McLean's Safari label for distribution. Then EMI got involved & Safari soon had a massive hit on their hands. Unfortunately Lloyd didn't get a penny. The only thing he got out of the deal was a year's jail sentence after he broke McLean's jaw.






The following two releases were mixes of Lloyd's own productions. The first volume features musicians from Lloyd's stable such as Matumbi along with rhythms produced at King Tubby's in Jamaica by Gussie Clarke.  The second volume features primarily cuts produced by Lloyd with additional mixes by Scientist & added vocals by Jah Pebbels & Levi Roots.




Sir Coxson Sound - King of the Dub Rock, Safari Records SFA 100, 1975.
all decryption codes in comments


Side A1 -
King of the Dubb Rock
Capital City Rock
Live & Love
Born to Love (version of Delroy Wilson’s "Dancing Mood")
Mouth of the Wicked

Side A2 -
Piccadilly Circus Dub (version of Delroy Wilson’s "Addis Ababa")
Tribute to Mohammed Ali
Many Moods of Coxson
It’s Reggae Time Dubb Rock
Sounds of Safari (another version of Delroy Wilson’s "Dancing Mood")

Title as given on the back cover, spine & center labels have it "King of the Dubb Rock". Center labels credit Lloyd Coxson instead of Sir Coxson Sound as on the front cover.






Sir Coxsone Sound - King of Dub Rock Part 2, Regal Records RLP 001, 1982,

Side A -
Black Wars Reggae
Zion Bound (version of the Skatalite's "Confusius" riddim)
Travelling Israel Dub (version of Burning Spear's "Travelling"...Scientist mix)
East of Rockfort Rock (version of "Rockfort Rock" from Coxsone Dodd/Prince Francis)
Psalm 87:2 (featuring Jah Pebbles)

Side B-
Bower Dub
So Much Dub to Give
United Africa
Reggae Fusion
Poor Man's Story (featuring Levi Roots)

Recorded at Harry J's & Channel One. Produced by Lloyd Coxsone (some mixes assisted by Scientist) with: Earl 'Chinna' Smith - lead guitar; Sangie (Anthony Horace Davis) & Brownie (Dalton Anthony Browne) - rhythm guitar; Ansell Collins & Gladstone Anderson - keyboards; Earl 'Bagga Judah' Walker, Lloyd Parks, & Robbie Shakespeare - bass; Tommy McCook - saxophone; Bobbie Ellis, Glen Da Costa, & David Madden - trumpet; Vincent 'Trommie' Gordon - trombone; Noel 'Scully' Simms & Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson - percussion; & Albert Malawi, Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace, & Sly Dunbar - drums. Center labels have it "King of the Dub Rock Part 2"

Enjoy,

23 August 2020

Quite Rightly

You may have detected a rather rabid flurry of activity here at NSS. I sent my dying hard-drive to a friend who has offered to perform life-saving surgery, but there is not assurance of outcome. I am waiting, anything but patiently, however. I'm not much of a waiter. I spill time in everyone's laps & bring dirty vinyl to their tables. 

"I'll blacken your Christmas & piss on your door. You'll cry for mercy, but still there'll be more".




Ah, yes, Procol Harum. I posted that one (Home) back in December 2010...a whole 'nother decade. At the time I said I am constantly torn trying to decide between Home & Shine on Brightly, which one I like the best. At the time I was thinking Shine on, but I posted Home nonetheless.

Well, I'll remedy that decision by posting Shine on Brightly. You can decide (but Home is where I hang my hat).

This was PH's second outing after their self-titled first. They'd honed their teeth a bit & chomped down hard. This is the Procol line-up with Keith Reid songwriting, Robin Trower on guitar, Gary Brooker on piano, Matthew Fisher on organ, David Knights on bass, & B.J. Wilson on drums. Produced by Denny Cordel (Moody Blues, The Move, Georgie Fame, Joe Cocker, etc) & Tony Visconto (David Bowie).

In the early sixties, Ash shared a flat with the blues singer Long John Baldry. They used to go busking together up Ladbroke Grove, Baldry singing and playing guitar and Ash handing round the hat.  Often, they were accompanied by a young ukulele player known as 'Long Haired Eric' (Eric Clapton) ...

Ash passed his pipe and told some more of the stories. 


"I had this cat called Procol Harum," Ash told us, "A Burmese, a sweetie she was. At this time, 1966 - 1967, I was dealing acid to the beautiful people. Sold it to Hendrix a few times. Gary Brooker was one of my regulars. He played in a group called the Paramounts. He was always around our flat."

"What's your cat called, Ash?" he asked me.

"Procol Harum," I said, "so they changed the name of the band".
                                                        from The Longest Crawl by Ian Marchant, 2006.



Procol Harum - Shine on Brightly, A&M Records 4151, 1968.
decryption code in comments

Side 1 -
Quite Rightly So
Shine On Brightly
Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
Wish Me Well
Rambling On

Side 2 -
Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)
In Held T'was in I
     a. Glimpses of Nirvana
     b. T'was Tea Time at the Circus
     c. In the Autumn of My Madness
     d. Look to Your Soul
     e. Grand Finale

Enjoy,

22 August 2020

Lost Cosmetic - Bad Complexion - Jonder Made Me Do It

Last post I directed anyone interested in all things Rough Trade over to jonderblog. Jonder is in the midst of a tremendous undertaking, presenting the chronological history of Rough Trade singles. On his second posting of the series he asked for viewers help with locating RT102, that being Cosmetic - "Cosmetics" b/w "New Complexion", Rough Trade RT102, 1982. If anyone reading this can help, head on over & leave Jonder a comment.





Cosmetic was a short lived jazz-funk band with releases in the early to mid 80's. Members included Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Timothy Murphy, & Rick McClary.


"JAMAALADEEN TACUMA is a busy man these days. As the remarkably fluent lead bassist in Ornette Coleman's trailblazing electric band Prime Time, Mr. Tacuma has been winning considerable critical acclaim.

But the 26-year-old Long Island native is also making occasional appearances with an avant-garde all-star band called the Golden Palominos, leading a band of his own called Jamaal and working with two other musicians in a cooperative band called Cosmetic.

Mr. Tacuma describes Cosmetic, which will be headlining at Danceteria on Saturday, as ''a band that performs new dance music.'' His bass playing, which combines the repeating patterns of funk and disco music with a jazz musician's ear for fresh melodic variations and modulations, is the band's most distinctive asset. But the guitarist, Timothy Murphy, is an interesting and versatile stylist who is more interested in making music than in showing off, and Rick McClary is a solid inventive drummer.

Cosmetic's first record, a 12-inch single with ''New Complexion'' on one side and ''Cosmetics'' on the other, was recently released by England's Rough Trade records and is available as an import. But the best place to hear the band is on stage at Danceteria.
"
                                                                    from The New York Times, July 14, 1982


What I have for you today is Tacuma's first solo album, Show Stopper. It was released in 1983 on the Gramavision label. This album grew out of the jazz-funk style Tacuma had developed in his work with Coleman. As Charlie Haden had played free-jazz bass for the original Ornette Coleman group, Jamaaladeen Tacuma manned the electric bass for Coleman's funky harmolodic Prime Time group. Harmolodics may loosely be defined as an expression of music in which harmony, movement of sound, & melody all share the same value. Joe Zawinul referred to harmolodics as "nobody solos, everybody solos".






Tacuma showcased his unique style of avant-garde jazz on Coleman's 1982 album Of Human Feelings &  became widely viewed as one of the most distinctive bassists since Jaco Pastorius.
In 1981 Tacuma received the highest number of votes ever for an electric bassist in the "talent deserving wider recognition" category of the Down Beat magazine critics poll.






Anyone familiar with this mess knows I have a particular fondness for bassists. I still play my red Hohner B2a Headless Stick Bass. I’m still as bad (not good bad, just bad) as on WWF (Weird White Fuckers). I have a special fondness for bassists who excel in their art.  Bill Laswell...Bootsy Collins...Robbie Shakespeare...Charlie Haden...Mike Watt...Lemmy Kilmister...Aston “Family Man” Barrett...Larry Graham, well, you get the idea (I know all of you will be saying, "What about John Paul Jones, what about Entwhistle...or Les C & Kim G & Tony L & Geddy L & Flea & Jaco P). We all have different tastes, different likes, & different heroes. The above mentioned just happen to be some of my faves.


Add to that hallowed list Jamaaladeen Tacuma...


Thanks Jonder for the reminder, opening my fog-filled brain for a moment of clarity...



Jamaaladeen Tacuma - Show Stopper, Gramavision GR 8301, 1983.
decryption code in comments

Side One -
Sunk in the Funk
Rhythm Box
From Me to You
Animated Creation

Side Two -
Bird of Paradise
Show Stopper
Tacuma Song
From the Land of Sand
Sophisticated Us

Enjoy,

21 August 2020

Into Dust



Heard "Fade Into You" drifting from a passing car stereo the other day & immediately thought about the untimely death of David Roback, founding member of Mazzy Star, guitarist & co-writer (along with Hope Sandoval) on said song.




Roback was also leader of the band Rain Parade. In 1983 he left Rain Parade to join Rainy Day, a collective featuring other musicians from the Los Angeles' Paisley Underground. Rainy Days only album was released in 1984. The Dream Syndicate vocalist Kendra Smith was also involved with this release. Roback & Smith went on to form Clay Allison later that year. They changed their name to Opal before the release of their debut album, 1987s Happy Nightmare Baby.



After Kendra Smith (Opal bassist & vocalist) left the group, Hope Sandoval was tapped as Smith's replacement. This new lineup never released any albums under the Opal moniker. They changed the name of the band to Mazzy Star in 1989.

Roback died in Los Angeles on February 24, 2020 from metastatic cancer.

I've posted up all of the Opal I could ever find at one time or another elsewhere, but kinda ignored Mazzy. Listen to some great song writing & fabulous guitar work.

Here's a limited edition release of Fade into You...



Mazzy Star - Fade Into You (plus live tracks),  Capitol Records DPRO 79401, 1994.
decryption code in comments

Fade Into You
Into Dust (live)
Ride It On (live)
Ghost Highway (live)
Blue Light (live) (all live tracks from MTV Europe performance)
I’m Gonna Bake My Biscuit
Under My Car
Bells Ring (acoustic version)
Fade Into You (alternate take)

Related News:  Mazzy Star’s first release was issued on Rough Trade (Rough US 77-2 - She Hangs Brightly) along with Rough US 77 - Blue Flower 12" single & Rough Trade singles club 45rev19 - Five String Serenade 7". If you're interested in great things Rough Trade, head over to NSS friend & guest poster Jonder’s fantastic jonderblog. He is presenting the glorious singles releases of Rough Trade. He has posted two installments so far: Part One featuring RT 001 - 011 & RT 012 - 022 followed by Part Two featuring Rough Trade BC (prior releases of Rought Trade bands) & RT 023 - 033. Much more to come. Check this monster out.

Enjoy,

17 August 2020

11,000+ DEATHS in Cali

As of today, August 17, 2020, there have been over 11,000 CONFIRMED deaths from COVID-19 here in California. The red skulls are from here in Sacramento County alone.
This shit is real.

WEAR A FUCKING MASK!!!