Intelligent Life On Planet Rock
I ♥ compilations (as long as they're not rock and pop ones)
Over the last few years I have pretty much stopped listening to rock music. I don't know why, and I don't think about it much. I now mainly listen to 'world music' (eurgh, there's that horrible term again) compilations.
It struck me that I have 30 or more of these collections yet probably only 5 or 6 compilations of pop and rock music from the US and UK. Perhaps it's because I come to the latter with all manner of cultural knowledge and fixed judgements that tend to put me off most of them. Unless the music is very obscure, I feel I know too much to be able to accept the choices of the compilers without thinking I could perhaps have done a better job. Genres like soul and reggae music are a different matter, as there have been numerous wonderful records bringing together classic songs and little-known gems that I've enjoyed greatly.
But with 'world music', the very fact that the vast majority of the tunes on compilations are new to me and I'm coming them with practically no prior cultural baggage means that I can enjoy them in a completely open-minded way. This is a good thing.
So now I must return to Panama! Latin, Calypso and Funk on the Isthmus 1965-75...
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Two of my favourite
comps are the 'London Is The Place For Me' comps of calypso\ska stuff by Lord Kitchener, The Mighty Terror etc that Honest Jon label put out.
I've only just discovered there are two more editions
I just looked them up on Amazon...
as I just know I'd love them, but they're £44 and £36 respectively!
Bollocks!
You could try
Honest Jon's website direct - think they have just put out vinyl copies. Or you can get mp3s
http://www.honestjons.com/shop.php
I've just looked on the Honest Jon's site...
and ordered the first one. And I also discovered this which I also got; it looks amazing!
http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid=34096&LabelID=14815
Enjoy
what I like about the releases is the fantastic pictures and info that goes with them - a real labour of love thats rare
That's a really good point...
and I was just thinking the same thing. If record companies made a similar effort with regards packaging pop and rock compilations the way labels like Honest Jon's, Soundway and Analog Africa do with 'world' releases, then I might buy more of them.
More Honest Jons
The trombonetastic "Light of Saba" album is available from their site again. I think it'd be right up yer strasse. The first London Is The Place is one of my favourite albums ever. For a more mixed bag the "Rough Trade Counter Culture 76" album is fantastic. The Ramones, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Candi Staton and many more and you can get it for a fiver if you look around. Any compilation that goes from "Bicarbonate of Chicken" by Ivor Cutler to "Croaking Lizard" by Prince Jazzbo is genius.
I lurrrve those LITPFM compilations
the calypso stuff (Lord Kitchener, Lord Beginner &c) is wonderful.
No. 1 is still available from
Honest Jon's though:
http://www.honestjons.com/label.php?pid=15126&LabelID=14815
Ta...
very much.
Yes, I love so many of these...
The Strut label has two 'Nigeria 70' compilations out, as well as a new CD solely of Mulatu Astatke.
Which reminds me, 'Ethiopiques' are pretty nifty, as well...
And Soul Jazz have recently started an offshoot label called World Audio Foundation. They have a CD of Georgian polyphonic singing (this is BRILLIANT) http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=16415
and another of Cuban carnival music http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/releases/?id=16414
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, WOW!
The Georgian polyphonic singing CD is *extraordinary*! I listened to the first track and ordered it immediately.
Thanks so much for drawing my attention to it, I know I'm going to play it to death!
This thread is costing me dearly in a financial sense!
ahh but you miss treats like this
it's got tony Blackburn and ed "stewpot" stewart on it and adverts for silkience shampoo and not forgeting Lulu. Don't be a fool to yourself pop is always best.
Thanks for the tip...
but I think I'll stick with Panamanian funk and calypso!
but it's really good
tony tells jokes and there's the traffic news for windsor in July 1965 come on all the other stuffs retro so why not go with radio caroline. Pop never lets you down.
Bloody great too
Have you got the Stewpot Pop Party LP?
Oh Oh Oh!!
That SO needs to be digitised and torrented for the benefit of all mankind. Go on Beany, you know you want to!
Can't remember
if it's in the temperature-controlled safe guarded by lasers and alsatian dogs or the cupboard under the stairs...
M*j*
The magazine that cannot be named has given out two very good world music collections this year. One of which was a sampler from the Honest Jon label (them again), given the title "Music Is Your Radar", featuring Tony Allen, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Terry Hall, Candi Staton, plus loads of people I've never heard of. Superb listen.
The other was "Mojo Presents Africa Rising", which I enjoyed listening to on holiday this year (my mother enjoyed it greatly as well. Again the usual suspects; Tony Allen, Staff Benda Bilili, Mulatu Astatke. All (fairly) famous names, but that doesn't stop it being a great little compilation.
Others that I would strongly recommend that weren't free:
The Beat Of Brazil (Brazilian Grooves From The Warner Vaults)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beat-Brazil-Various-Artists/dp/B00005UVA6/ref=sr...
(A good introduction to the 1960s samba and Brazilian pop, and some of the tracks that bore the Brazilian influence)
Rough Guide to the Music of Mali
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Guide-Music-Mali/dp/190606332X/ref=sr_1_1?...
(The ESSENTIAL world music purchase, of sorts. There are so many good artists on here - the gateway to something great)
Rough Guide to Brazilian Electronica
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Brazilian-Electronica-Various-Artists/dp/B...
(I bought this because the concept amazed me. What I found was sort of standard samba but with an electronic and dance music twist - updating it and making it more more accessible. Again, another strongly recommended purchase)
Furry Selection / Jonny Greenwood Is The Controller
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Furry-Selection-Various-Artists/dp/B000OMD30I/re...
(Not world music, but a great introduction to the dubbier side of Trojan records - picked by Guto Pryce of SFA - features Horace Andy, Upsetters, Junior Byles, etc)
What a response...
cheers for that. I'll look into some of them!
I discovered a Rai compilation
in our local library a few years ago which has survived some heavy recent editing of the iPod.
www.amazon.co.uk/Rai-Original-North-African-Grooves/dp/B00004VXEV/ref=sr...
and the Rough Guides to Samba, Salsa and Bhangra are also good intros. Having said that the Rough Guide to Delta Blues was very patchy where the understandable age/poor technology of some recordings overwhelmed the music.
Cover Mounts
I find that cover mount CDs, especially Word & Paste ones, tend to be mainly artists that I've never heard or heard of so I have no idea what to expect.
Every summer
- I buy loads of Buddha Bar and Hed Kandi type compilations which provide the accompaniment to long hot nights, bbqs and holidays
Hed Kandi Presents Serve Chilled last year was fabuloso - as was Jon Sa Trincha's Salinas Sessions from a year or two back
I don't like
rock/pop compilations, and probably only own about half a dozen, if that. I just find them utterly uninteresting, and will always endeavour to obtain the artists albums if i'm interested in a band.
Whereas as you have mentioned, i can see why people buy dance compilations etc
This thread is just what I've been thinking!
I love delving into compilations like this, for instance I've got one called "The World Is Shaking - Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55" - I'm tickled by the thought that some expert somewhere will pick that up and think "What? They've gone for the easy option by missing out the challenging material from 1953!".
Soul Jazz is indeed excellent, and lots of dub stuff too.