Two-Thousand Eighties

We're going on a good half decade now of rampant, synth-soaked '80s revival that's not showing any signs of slowing. Fine by me, as the 80s were the formative years of my romantic mentalism - the decade when I hardened from liquid chocolate into the cool Cadbury egg I am today.

As far as '80s nostalgia goes I like my moods a bit bleary and my keyboards way grainy. The first two tracks here - M83's "Skin of the Night" and "Freddie and the Trojan Horse" by The Radio Dept. - are the '80s in a trench coat. Theatrical and black-lipsticked.

Mondkopf's remix of Jamie Lidell's "Little Bit of Feel Good," which completely ignores the source material, and Modeselektor's "Edgar" tone down the gothic pout a bit and settle in for a wider view and some '80s droid kitsch. They're the kind of tracks that should be loudspeakered at Burning Man during the torching of surreally large effigies.

And the last couple are tried and true classics in my world: "Revista Moda" by Hexx and "Shadow of a Bomb (Instrumental Version)" by The Reflecting Skin. They're '80s in a way that's particular to me - burnt-blasted and bent for the stars, like Luke Skywalker's war-worn X-Wing. These never get old, never fail to softly electrocute me. I discovered them on a superb compilation by the Moodgadget label, a botique subsidiary of Ghostly International. They're under different aliases, but composed and produced by the same guy, Danny Scales.



If rumor serves, Scales as The Reflecting Skin is signed to Ghostly now and working on a full-length. I've had both of these pieces for over a year now, marinating in my ipod and growing digital goosebumps on its surface. Having absorbed them as well as streamed a few other pieces on The Reflecting Skin MySPace page, I'm putting down Scales as one of the few electronic artists today that I'll bother to love. He's up there with Clark, Plaid and Modeselektor to me, not for his programming prowess but for sheer prettiness - he may not be the most nimble toymaker in the miniature halls of glitchcraft, but the missing cleverness gets redirected into emotion concentrate.


M83 - Skin of the Night

The Radio Dept. - Freddie and the Trojan Horse

Mondkopf - remix of Jamie Lidell's "Little Bit of Feel Good"

Modeselektor - Edgar

Hexx - Revista Moda

The Reflecting Skin - Shadow of a Bomb

Songs About Blackness

John Martyn - "Black Man At The Shoulder"

Chosen Few - "Am I Black Enough"

Nina Simone - "Black is the Colour of My True Love's Hair" (alternate version from Legends, re-harmonized and smokier)

Ark of Love

Genesis 6:19 ...and God said to Noah, You are to bring into the ark two of every living creature...


2 DANGER MICE

Martin Topley Bird - Phoenix

Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul


2 KRAUT CREATURES

Kraftwerk - Computerwelt

Harmonia - Notre Dame



2 GRIT DEVILS

Tom Zé - Jimmy, Renda-se

Tony Allen - The Same Blood

The Other Ennio: Alessandro Alessandroni

My love of film composer Ennio Morricone goes deep and can be traced directly to the nights spent as a child watching spaghetti western marathons with my dad and brothers. My pop adored those Sergio Leone Films - A Fistfull of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, all of which Morricone scored - and raised us to adore them too.



We came away understanding the double layers that these movies were meant to be appreciated on and digging them from both sides: the zany, farcical one and the one whose every grain of bleached-out film stock was completely soaking in dusty romanticism. Partly this was by watching them through our dad's eyes. He laughed at the ridiculousness while otherwise sitting rapt through the cowboy epics, which made poetry out of their desert locales (dad was an Arizona native and the southwest was part of his personal mythology). But beyond our father's influence, what really tied those opposing moods together, in a way that even us kids could understand, were Morricone's brilliant scores, which were equal parts gorgeous and goofy.



The soundtracks Morricone recorded for the Leone epics were masterpieces of kitchen sink sound design. He blended baroque chord changes with Spanish coloring and then smothered those compositions in sound effects, with everything thrown in from snake rattles to surf guitar to whips - all smashed together in glorious analog distortion. There is nothing quite like it, and yet you can hear traces of Morricone in everything from early reggae to Phil Spector to Radiohead to Gnarls Barkley.

But in that sea of sonic madness, probably the most iconic element was the whistling, which, it turns out, came courtesy of Morricone's childhood friend, Alessandro Alessondroni.



Ennio Moriccone - "Titoli" (From A Fistful of Dollars, feat. Alessandro Alessondroni)

Beyond being a master whistler, Alessondro Alessondroni is a virtuoso instrumentalist and composer who plays piano, guitar, sitar and mandolin and has created or collaborated on over 50 soundtracks. And yet, despite his large output and prominent involvement with one of my favorite composers of all time, I had never heard of the eccentric Italian with the redundant name until one of his tracks, "Cielo Verde," appeared on a mixtape given to me by my good friend Trevor Naud, whose taste in music is so good I've hired him to curate my funeral. "Cielo Verde" has to be heard to be believed. It's a little Morricone, a little Serge, a little Fela. Super tangy fuzztone guitars and a sick, hiccuping beat.

I browbeat Trevor into giving up the few remaining Alessandroni tracks he had. It's an addicting sound, but unfortunately there's not enough supply to sustain a real habit: precious little info on Alessondroni exists on the internet, and even less in the way of releases in print. The following mp3s are from Music for Strange Situations, a compilation disc featuring the works of Alessondroni and film composer Nora Orlandi.



I can't get enough of the Alessandroni sound and can only hope that some day more Alessonroni material will find its way to my greedy, adoring heart.

Alessonro Alessondroni - Cielo Verde

Alessonro Alessondroni - Aliante Giallo

Alessonro Alessondroni - Spiagge Azzurre

The Indescribable Voice of Mark Lanegan

This is a repost of an entry from last summer. When I wrote it I felt that Mark Lanegan was working in the shadows too much for someone so good, and not getting his due. But lately it seems like he's everywhere and his project with Gred Dulli, The Gutter Twins, is getting a lot of love. So here's a rerun, with an added mp3 from the Gutter Twins album Saturnalia.



Mark Lanegan’s voice cannot be described. In fact, until recently, Mark Lanegan’s voice couldn’t even be recorded. At least not properly. It took more than 30 engineers over the course of 20 plus records in as many years just to crack the code of his baritone – a rumbling throttle so coarse you could strike a match on it. This long-overdue feat was accomplished on his 2005 album Bubblegum, on which his voice has so much low end it practically gives the bass guitar the bitch seat. 20 years is a long time for a musician to go without having their instrument accurately captured, especially a world-famous singer like Lanegan who’s fronted bands as big as The Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age. But you can’t really fault the recording engineers. After all, Lanegan’s voice is a bit of a physical anomaly and was once even the subject of scientific research:

In the mid ’90s he volunteered for a series of experiments in Phoenix that were involved with the weaponization of sound. The so-called “brown frequency” produces extremely intense resonance at very low frequencies, causing a person in its path to spontaneously shit their pants. But scientists believed that lower-midrange frequencies, like the ones in Lanegan’s baritone, had the potential to do even more damage to the human body, including shattering bones and bursting blood vessels, if wielded with enough severity. So Lanegan spent a bizarre week being the government’s guinea pig, a pretty strange move for a rebel’s rebel who’s been at odds with the law his whole life. But Lanegan is not the kind of person you want to try and understand. Like God, you’re just supposed to listen to him, not fathom him.

Click here to read the rest and for mp3s.

Spring Responds

The following was translated from Japanese using the AltaVista web translator.

Mr. Johnson,

It is being clear from your letter that you are the passionate, sentimental man. But let this get serious. This is weather we are talking over. I am having more pressing concerns than whether this John Jones is getting enough sunshine in the diet. I am not wanting to be the upsetter, but I am doing this always. Weather is the delicate process. I am hoping how strong you are, and you are staying neither high nor dry. Soon I promise Spring is being on the right track.

Sincerest,
Spring

Ernest Wilson - Sentimental Man

Rudy Mills - John Jones

Lee "Scratch" Perry - The Upsetter

Ken Parker - How Strong

Pama International Ft Dennis Alcapone - Neither High Nor Dry

Phyllis Dillon - The Right Track

Note To Spring

Look. I'm ready for springtime, even if Michigan has drearier ideas. I even bought a new polo shirt last night, and the winter coats are getting packed in the basement on principle. Today was forecasted as an ebullient, sunny, 50-degree masterpiece of refreshing April goodness. Instead we got damp, cold coal in our stocking. It's too cruel. I said to my girlfriend, the future will really be now when weather forecasting actually works. So here it is, my open letter to Spring, subtly laced with the names of essential Jamaican Soul cuts in offering.

Dear Spring,

Imagine my disappointment today when I woke to find not sun, not shine, but rain. Cold, dreary mothersoaking rain. Not that I should complain, after the totally appreciated and soul-saving sun you handed out most of this week, but let's be honest: it comes and goes with you. Make up your mind already. You and I both know that I did precious little bitching about the winter this year and so, I guess I feel that you owe it to me to deliver a legit spring. And not one of those cold Aprils into suddenly scorched Mays. But a proper, thawing, gradually warming spring. I don't want to tell you how to do your job or anything, but I'm just afraid that, if you delay any longer, too long will be too late. So, I'm here respectfully requesting that - if you don't mind - we get the festivities started. Spring? I live for it. Or rather, I live because of it, because another month of winter would literally kill my heart. So please, I'm begging you to do the right thing here.
Don't break your promise. Do it up. Send the warm!

Your number one fan,
D

Bruce Ruffin - Rain

The Melodians - It Comes and Goes

The Heptones - Make Up Your Mind (outtake)

Freddie and Jenny - Too Long Will Be Too Late

The Gaylads - If You Don't Mind

The Chosen Few - Don't Break Your Promise