Alles Lalula - Songs & Poeme - Originalaufnahmen von Valentin über Schwitters bis zur Beat-Generation

This is the first half of a four cd set spanning compilation presenting poems, songs and litaruture beyond the mainstream. The first set brings original recordings from Karl Valentin to dada artists like Kurt Schwitters and Richard Huelsenbeck to the Beat Generation.

Strongly recommended!

CD 1:
01 Richard Huelsenbeck / Hans Richter - Prolog
02 Wladimir Majakowski - Würden Sie denn
03 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti - La Battaglia di Adrianopoli
04 Karl Valentin - Valentin singt und lacht selbst dazu
05 Karl Valentin & Liesl Karlstadt - Liesl Karlstadt singt chinesisch
06 Kurt Schwitters - Die Sonata in Urlauten
07 Kurt Schwitters - An Anna Blume
08 William Butler Yeats - The Song of the Old Mother
09 Gertrude Stein - If I Told Him: A completed Portrait Of Picasso
10 Camille Bryen - Tete de Coq
11 Alexej Krutschonych Frühling mit Beköstigung?
12 - 14 Raoul Hausmann - bbbb /fmsb / kp´erioum
15 Murice Lemaitre - Lettre Rock
16 Francois Dufrene - Batteries vocales
17 Brion Gysin - I Am That I Am
18 Ezra Pound ´- Mouers contemporaines
19 - 23 H. C Artmann - blauboad 1 &2 / kindafazara / etc.
24 Allen Ginsberg - Footnote to Howl
25 William S. Burroughs / Brion Gysin - Recalling All Active Agents
26 Hans Arp - Aus der "Pyramidenrock"
27 Brion Gysin - Come To Free the Words
28 - 29 Henri Chopin - Indicatif 1 / La fusée Interplanétaire
30 Konrad Bayer - der sechste sinn (Ausschnitt)

CD 2:
01 Mimmo Rotella - 7 Poèmes Phonétiques
02 LeRoi Jones - Sweet - Black Dada Nihilismus
03 William S. Burroughs - Burroughs called the law
04 Ernst Jandl - auf dem land
05 Napoleon XIV - They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!
06 Richard Huelsenbeck - Kapitän Kuckjohns Lautgedicht
07 Richard Huelsenbeck - Chorus sanctus
08 Ermst Jandl - falamaleikum
09 Ermst Jandl - talk
10 Ernst Jandl - schtzngrmm
11 John Lennon, Yoko Ono - No Bed for Beatle John
12 Joseph Beuys - Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja, Nee Nee Nee Nee Nee (Ausschnit)
13 Taj Mahal - A Little Soulful Tune
14 Wolfgang Bauer - Tornado
15 Wolfgang Bauer - November
16 Otto Nebel - Generalverrammlung
17 Sten Hanson - Railroad Poem
18 Benno Höllteuffel - xangl
19 Benno Höllteuffel - schbas muas sei ...
20 Benno Höllteuffel - jawarum
21 Benno Höllteuffel - as resal
22 Benno Höllteuffel - de groskobfadn griang nia gnua
23 Benno Höllteuffel - anschdendige nama
24 Benno Höllteuffel - schbruch
25 Erst Jandl - ottos mops
26 Charles Amirkhanian - Each 'LL
27 John Giorno - Suicide Sutra
28 Bernhard Heidsieck - Canal Street 35
29 Don van Vliet - Apes-Ma

Alles Lalula - Songs & Poeme Vol. 1 - cd 1
Alles Lalula - Songs & Poeme Vol. 1 - cd 2
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Theodor W. Adorno - Walter Benjamin - Briefwechsel

81 years ago, on September 26, 1940, at the age of 48, Walter Benjamin committed suicide at Portbou on the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape from invading Nazi forces.

Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno first became acquainted in Frankfurt in 1923 through Siegfried Kracauer, a contributing editor at the Frankfurter Zeitung since 1921.

Kracauer had taken the young Wiesengrund under his wing, tutoring him on Kant’s "Critique of Pure Reason" on Saturday afternoons. Benjamin was in Frankfurt intermittently after 1922 arranging to do his habilitation, his last-ditch effort to obtain a professorship at a German university after losing out to Karl Mannheim in competition for a seat in Heidelberg. Adorno was still a student reading philosophy, music, psychology and sociology, but he had also begun publishing music criticism in journals.

In 1924 Adorno finished his doctoral dissertation on Husserl with Hans Cornelius, the same professor to whom, the following year, Benjamin’s habilitation thesis was referred by the professor of German, Franz Shultz, when Shultz found it incomprehensible, and with whom Max Horkeimer was working as an assistant. Benjamin was allowed to withdraw his thesis on German Baroque drama to avoid the embarrassment of rejection, and afterwards gave up his academic ambitions for a career as a literary critic. Adorno’s thesis was submitted to Cornelius in 1927, and like Benjamin, he was forced to withdraw it after Cornelius, supported by Horkeimer (who disliked it for its insufficient Marxism), refused to accept it. For the next few years, Adorno pursued a career as a music critic.

The relationship between Adorno and Benjamin was solidified in 1929 in Königsberg, when Benjamin read Adorno, Horkeimer, and Greta Karplus (whom Adorno later married) his proposal for a philosophical history of the 19th century, which would retrospectively be referred to as an intellectual watershed for everyone involved. In 1929, Paul Tillich took over Cornelius’ chair of philosophy, and Adorno, by then greatly under Benjamin’s influence, was able to gain acceptance of his habilitation on “The Construction of the Aesthetic in Kierkegaard” in 1931. In one of the first seminars offered by Adorno, the class spent the semester reading Benjamin’s “failed” habilitation.

After 1933, when Adorno and Benjamin were forced into exile, their relationship became increasingly close, as Adorno provided Benjamin with his only real financial support through the Institute for Social Research, headed by Horkeimer.

The correspondence between Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno must rank among the most significant to have come down to us from that notable age of barbarism, the twentieth century. Benjamin and Adorno formed a uniquely powerful pair. Benjamin, riddle-like in his personality and given to tactical evasion, and Adorno, full of his own importance, alternately support and compete with each other throughout the correspondence, until its imminent tragic end becomes apparent to both writers. Each had met his match, and happily, in the other. Adorno was the only person who managed to sustain an intimate intellectual relationship with Benjamin for nearly twenty years. No one else, not even Gershom Scholem, coaxed so much out of Benjamin.



Theodor W. Adorno - Walter Benjamin - Briefwechsel
(audiobook, German language)

The Ex – History Is What's Happening (1982)

History is What's Happening is an album by Dutch punk rock band The Ex, released in 1982.

This strong early outing had the most elliptical post-punk experiments of the Ex's discography. Keeping tracks around the minute-and-a-half mark without going for an agitprop squall, "History Is What's Happening" was well suited for fans of PiL or the Durutti Column. The demented disco of "Life Live" and the anti-superficial "H'Wood-W'ton" stood out, serious anxiety filtered down to its basic rock-based elements. With irregular rhythms and the usual unsettled guitar sounds, and also G.W. Sok's patented socialist drawl, the Ex's innate ability to make a statement collide with admirers and enemies was significant.                

 Tracklist                                                       

A1	Six Of One And Half A Dozen Of The Other	0:57
A2	Barricades	1:03
A3	Life Live	1:38
A4	Machinery	0:45
A5	E.M. Why	1:47
A6	Moving Pictures	1:32
A7	Shoes	1:44
A8	Watch-Dogs	1:49
A9	Dutch Disease	1:21
A10	Blessed Box At The Backseat	1:13
B1	Who Pays	2:44
B2	Strong & Muscled	1:30
B3	Grey	2:22
B4	Equals Only	1:46
B5	H'wood-W'ton	0:56
B6	Sports	1:01
B7	$	0:56
B8	Pep Talk	1:58
B9	Attacked	1:55
B10	148	2:25

 The Ex – History Is What's Happening (1982)
(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Rebel Voices - Songs Of The Industrial Workers Of The World

Flying Fish and Rounder are independent labels which started up in the '70s, specializing in various types of roots music. The former company was apparently started up by Bruce Kaplan, a dissatisfied member of the Rounder collective. One of the disagreements might have been about politics, an element that Rounder seems to avoid despite the strong presence protest songs have in many types of American folk styles. The label even went as far as to remove a controversial political song from a Hazel & Alice album, while Flying Fish, on the other hand, has actually released some product with a strong leftist bent, this compilation of labor songs among them.

The most obvious audience for music such as this are people who are upset about their jobs; based on that perhaps faulty concept, this album should have sold millions. The presence of Utah Phillips looms large. He is a combination activist, organizer, songwriter, singer, and storyteller, and there are few performers who can put across a song such as "The Two Bums" as well as he can. The album also combines its participants into various small groupings and a big ensemble finale, an idea that works just as well in an album sequence as it has on many folk festival stages. There are several numbers originating with Joe Hill, needless to say, but also a grand Malvina Reynolds cover by Faith Petric and a terrific take on the classic "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" by Bob Bovee. Besides delivering its intended messages, this collection also puts the spotlight on some fairly unknown performers in a context that brings welcome thematic strength and emotional power to their work.

The album is an amazing collection of stories and songs, that gives a good sampling of the history of the working people. The songs call for solidarity among working people, that is as relevant today as it was when the songs were originally written. The music provides a feeling of being connected, and makes you want to sing along. No matter what your interest, but especially if it's the history of the labor movement, this is a wonderful and thought-provoking collection of music.

Tracks:
1. Preamble to the IWW Constitution
2. Organizer - Jeff Cahill
3. Little Red Hen - Faith Petric
4. Which Side Are You On? - Bob Bovee
5. Two Bums - Utah Phillips
6. Banks of Marbles - Fred Holstein
7. Put It on the Ground - Marion Wade
8. Popular Wobbly - Eric Glatz
9. Song of the Rail - Mark Ross
10. Hold the Fort - Bruce Brackney
11. We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years - Bruce Brackney
12. Ain't Done Nothing If You Ain't Been Called a Red - Faith Petric
13. Hallelujah, I'm a Bum - Bob Bovee
14. Boss - Utah Phillips
15. Preacher and the Slave - Jeff Cahill
16. Mysteries of a Hobo's Life - Mark Ross
17. Stung Right - Fred Holstein
18. Jo Hill's Last Will - Kathy Taylor
19. Mr. Block - Utah Phillips
20. Power in the Union

Big up to http://newmoodswings.blogspot.com/ for the original posting.

Rebel Voices - Songs Of The Industrial Workers Of The World
(128 kbps, cover art included)

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Kollege Klatt (1972)

Lokomotive Kreuzberg was a Berlin polit-rock band founded in early 1972. The group performed in various formations touring extensively through Germany until 1977 at the dissolution of the group when finances became an issue.

The group consisted of founding member Andreas Brauer (vocals, keyboards, violin, flute, guitar, percussion), lyricist Kalle Scherfling (vocals), Volker Hiemann (vocals, guitar) and Uwe Holz (drums, vocals, harmonica, percussion). Later they were joined by Uve Müllrich (Guitars, Bass) and he also played bass in Embryo, and was founder of the Dissidenten. He was replaced from 1973 by Bernhard Potschka, Manfred Praeker and Herwig Mitteregger from 1976. Members later played in the Nina Hagen Band and later founded German rockers Spliff.

The band released a number of albums; "Kollege Klatt" (1972), "James Blond - Den Lohnräubern auf der Spur" (1973), "Fette Jahre" (1975), "Mountain Town" (1977).

Lokomotive Kreuzberg played funky krautrock, with some folk rock, sounding similar to Gong and Mother Gong. The lyrics are left wing with a direct political message. Here´s their debut "Kollege Klatt" from 1972.

Tracklist:

A1	Abfahrt	2:45
A2	Ein Mann geht die Straße lang I	4:56
A3	Was glaubst du was du bist	5:02
A4	Wenn ick nach de Arbeit	5:08
B1	Ich könnt' ein Kommunist wohl sein	5:12
B2	Ein Mann geht die Straße lang II	2:52
B3	Lohnpredigt	5:04
B4	Geldsack	5:26
B5	Solidaritätslied	3:00

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Kollege Klatt (1972)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Martha Schlamme – Yiddish - Songs From My Father's House

Today is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the passage of 81 years since the January 27, 1945, liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet soldiers. Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps built and operated in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Auschwitz I and nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau were the extermination camps where an estimated 1.1 million people - mostly Jews from across Europe, but also political opponents, prisoners of war, homosexuals, Roma and others  -were killed in gas chambers or by systematic starvation, forced labor, disease, or medical experiments. About 200,000 camp inmates survived the ordeal. 

Once described as a “Viennese Mary Martin,” Martha Schlamme began her American career singing Yiddish and Hebrew songs in the resort hotels of the Catskills in the late 1940s. She earned a national reputation in the 1950s as a performer of “Songs of Many Lands” (the title of her concert program and of a 1954 Vanguard record), and later won acclaim for her interpretations of Kurt Weill songs.

Martha Haftel Schlamme, born in Vienna in 1923, was the only child of restaurateur Meier Haftel and Gisa (Braten) Haftel. As a child, she studied the piano and learned Yiddish and German songs from her family. After the German annexation of Austria in 1938, her parents sent her to live with relatives in France. She later joined her parents in England. There she continued her education, begun in Viennese public schools, in a Jewish school. When her parents were interned as enemy aliens in a camp on the Isle of Man, she chose to remain with them. While in the camp, she studied English and secretarial subjects, and first performed on stage in a German-language production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

It was also in the internment camp that she decided to pursue a musical career after hearing the Icelandic singer Engel Lund perform folk songs in several languages, including Yiddish. She studied piano and voice in London after the war, supporting herself with office work, and began to perform on stage and for BBC radio. After moving to the United States in 1948, she continued her musical education and, despite discouragement from mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel, began a performing career that took her to concert halls and nightclubs from coast to coast. Her repertoire included songs in over a dozen languages. Among her recordings are five collections of Yiddish songs (for Vanguard, MGM, and Tikva), one each of Israeli songs and of French Christmas carols (for Vanguard), one record of German songs (with accompaniment by Pete Seeger, for Folkways), and several live performance records (for Vanguard and MGM).

In 1959, on the eve of the opening of the Edinburgh Festival, Schlamme first performed a program of Kurt Weill songs in a tiny Edinburgh club. The enthusiastic reaction of reporters in town for the festival, she later recalled, made her “a star overnight.” Her World of Kurt Weill in Song (with Will Holt, later recorded for MGM) began a long Off-Broadway run in 1963 and led to other Weill performances, including roles in The Threepenny Opera and Mahagonny, as well as A Kurt Weill Cabaret (with Alvin Epstein, also recorded for MGM). She also appeared on stage in productions ranging from Fiddler on the Roof to plays by Maxim Gorky, and performed in such one-woman shows as A Woman Without a Man Is … and The Jewish Woman.

Schlamme’s two marriages, to Hans Schlamme and to Mark Lane, ended in divorce. Martha Schlamme died in Jamestown, New York, on October 6, 1985, two months after suffering a stroke while onstage. In her nearly forty years of performing in the United States, she helped to popularize Yiddish and international folk songs and to remind Americans of the legacy of composer Kurt Weill.


Tracklist:

1 Tumbalalaika
2 Mit A Nodle
3 Papir Is Doch Vais
4 An Alte Kashe
5 Oy Avrom
6 Yankele
7 Zog Nit Keinmol
8 Reisele
9 A Genayve
10 Fisher Lid
11 A Chussedl
12 Durchn Drf Geyt A Geshrai
13 Shlof Shlof Shlof
14 Di Mezinke
15 Yosl Ber
16 Yoshke Fuhrt Avek


Martha Schlamme – Yiddish - Songs From My Father's House

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Eulenspygel - Ausschuss (1972)

Eulenspygel was one of the many German bands in the early '70s who combined rock with theater and politics, though unfortunately for the English listener, the lyrics to this are all in German. The music, though, is enough to keep it interesting, as the group blends classic and progressive rock styles with a lot of other stuff thrown in.

On this, their second album from 1972, Eulenspygel expands their range of instruments from the first record, confusingly called "Eulenspygel 2".  The album was recorded at Apple Studios on April, 4th to 8th 1972. It features razor sharp lyrics criticizing the shadowy sides of German society in the early 70's. The first track is the sidelong opus "Abfall," which is about an orphan, with many different sections segued together and lengthy instrumental parts featuring a guitar, keyboard, and horn section. This is the strongest piece on the disc, but the shorter tracks from side two of the original album are still very good. These are varied but mostly up-tempo rockers with many psychedelic and progressive flourishes. The CD also includes seven bonus tracks, either from television appearances in 1972 or some demos from 1973 and 1974, most of which have good sound quality and are similar to the album's material, though with a slightly lighter atmosphere.

On "Ausschuss", Eulenspygel continue with their left wing lyrics which have become increasingly demanding and critical of society. There is a side long suite on this their second album about orphans. Lyrics are still in German and the band certainly didn't just preach without practising their philosophies as they would visit orphanages and youth prisons which gave all the band members that emotional connection to the subject matter.

Tracklist:

1	Abfall	22:17
2	Menschenmacher	2:57
3	Teufelskreis	6:50
4	Herzliches Beileid	2:55
5	Der Fremde	5:45
6	Untertanenfabrik	3:55
	Bonus-Tracks:
7	Sechs Uhr aufstehen	2:08
8	Junge, was willste draußen	2:42
9	Mich kotzt hier alles an	2:18
10	Schlafstadt	3:56
11	Kinderlied	4:28
12	Freut Euch, Kinder	2:51
13	Zusammenstehen	6:22

Eulenspygel - Ausschuss (1972)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Research Arkestra ‎– Black Myth / Out In Space (1970)

Although portions of the "Black Myth/Out in Space" were previously issued as "It's After the End of the World", this two-disc set is far and away the definitive release of the material in question, compiling two 1970 festival appearances documenting Sun Ra at the peak of his considerable creative powers.

"Black Myth", recorded at the Donaueschingen Music Festival, is the real find here, with a series of compositions and solos written specifically for performance on that evening -- the Arkestra, including John Gilmore and Pat Patrick, is in excellent form throughout, and the music is consistently inventive and galvanizing.

The same sentiments apply to "Out in Space" as well - a set comprised primarily of cosmic journeys like "Walkin' on the Moon," "Outer Space Where I Came From" and "Theme of the Stargazers," it climaxes with a powerful rendition of "We Travel the Spaceways."               

Tracklist:

Disc One:

1. "Black Forest Myth" - 3:58
2. "Friendly Galaxy No. 2" - 5:25
3. "Journey Through the Outer Darkness" - 12:58 
4. "Strange Worlds/Black Myth/It's After the End of the World" - 15:18
5. "We'll Wait for You" - 10:13 

• Recorded at the Stadthalle as part of the Donaueschingen Musik Festival on October 17, 1970

Disc Two:

1. "Out in Space" - 37:45 
2. "Discipline Series" - 3:28 
3. "Walkin' on the Moon..." - 9:02 
4. "Outer Space Where I Came From" [recitation] - 0:23 
5. "Watusa" - 2:44
6. "Myth Versus Reality" - 14:59
7. "Theme of the Stargazers" - 0:42 
8. "Space Chants Medley: Second Stop Is Jupiter/Why Go to the Moon/Neptune" - 5:42 
9. "We Travel the Spaceways" - 3:02 

• Recorded at the Kongresshalle as part of the Berlin Jazz Festival on November 7, 1970.

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Research Arkestra ‎– Black Myth / Out In Space (1970)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Pete Seeger - American Industrial Ballads (1957)

Songs of struggle which emerged from the coal mines, textile mills and acres of farmland, and spoke of issues important to the American laborer. Twenty-four songs written about the unprecedented industrialization of the 19th century, including Peg and Awl, The Farmer is the Man, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues. Irwin Silber's notes provide a history of labor folk song and its role in American popular music. "Seeger's straightforward, sincere singing is accompanied by sparse, effective banjo and guitar...an important reissue." — Sing Out

Pete Seeger presents a history of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on working people on "American Industrial Ballads", a collection of 24 songs (over half of them shorter than two minutes each) sequenced in chronological order by date of composition, to the extent that this can be determined, from the early-1800s appearance of "Peg and Awl," in which a worker struggles to keep up with a machine, to songs written by Woody Guthrie and Les Rice in the 1940s.

Only a couple of songs are well known, and those don't fit the concept perfectly. "The Buffalo Skinners," an account of cowboys who kill their overseer after he refuses to pay them, and "Casey Jones," the famous tale of a train wreck, are both somewhat tangential to industrial concerns, though they do fit themes heard throughout the album: first, employers' abuse of workers, who then must fight back (although usually by starting unions and going out on strike); and second, the relationship between an individual worker and the system of machinery he encounters.

As the album goes on, the workers' complaints about ill treatment and low pay become more extreme, and eventually the need for unions to represent them seems overwhelming. Even then, the bosses respond with violence, as Seeger documents in such songs as Jim Garland's "The Death of Harry Simms" and Della Mae Graham's "Ballad of Barney Graham," both true stories of murdered union men. Accompanying himself mostly on banjo and sometimes guitar, Seeger presents the songs straightforwardly with only occasional flourishes, intent on getting the meanings across, although occasionally his desire to lead singalongs comes out, such as in "Raggedy," when he provides cues to sing each verse, even though he's performing alone in a recording studio. Many of these songs are too harrowing to sing along to, though. Taken together, they chronicle a century and a half of the efforts of farmers, textile workers, and miners, primarily, to get what they deserve from increasingly rich and powerful captains of industry.     

Tracklist:

A1		Peg And Awl
A2		The Blind Fiddler
A3		Buffalo Skinners
A4		Eight Hour Day
A5		Hard Times In The Mill
A6		Roll Down The Line
A7		Hayseed Like Me
A8		The Farmer Is The Man
A9		Come All You Hardy Miners
A10		He Lies In The American Land
A11		Casey Jones
A12		Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine
A13		Weave Room Blues
B1		Cotton Mill Colic
B2		7c. Cotton And 40c. Meat
B3		Mill Mother's Lament
B4		Fare Ye Well, Old Ely Branch
B5		Beans, Bacon And Gravy
B6		The Death Of Harry Simms
B7		Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues
B8		Ballad Of Barney Graham
B9		My Children Are Seven In Number
B10		Raggedy, Raggedy Are We
B11		Pittsburgh Town
B12		60% Parity

Pete Seeger - American Industrial Ballads (1957)
(256 kbps, cover art and booklet included)         

VA - Primer festival internacional de la canción popular (1973)

When the socialist politician Salvador Allende dramatically won Chile´s presidential election in 1970, a powerful cultural movement accompanied him to power. Folk singers emerged at the forefront, proving that music could help forge the birth of a new society. As the CIA actively funded opposition media against Allende during his campaign, the New Chilean Song Movement (Nueva Canción) rose to prominence, viscerally persuading voters with its music. Victor Jara, a central protagonist at the time, became an icon in Chile, Latin America, and beyond for his revolutionary lyrics and life. Inti-Illimani, Quilapayun, and other musicians contributed by singing before audiences of workers outside factories or campesinos in Chile´s rural countryside.

Primer festival internacional de la canción popular is a live album released on the DICAP label (Discoteca del Cantar Popular). It features artists from Chile (Isabel Parra, Tito Fernandez, Inti-Illimani, Quilapayun, Aparcoa, from Uruguay (Alfredo Zitarossa), from Argentina (Cesar Isella( and from Finland (Agit-Prop).


Tracklist:

A1	–Unknown Artist	Obertura
A2	–Aparcoa	Que Se Vayan Del Canal
A3	–Rolando Ojeda	Guantanamera
A4	–Marcelo	Dónde Está La Paz
A5	–Tito Fernández	Cuando Sea Grande
A6	–Alfredo Zitarrosa	Chamarrita De Los Milicos
B1	–Isabel Parra	En Esta Tierra Que Tanto Quiero
B2	–Inti-Illimani	Cueca De La CUT
B3	–Flora Margarita	A Un Ave
B4	–Agitprop	Paz, Amistad, Solidaridad
B5	–César Isella	Soneto 93
B6a	–Quilapayún	El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido
B6b	–Quilapayún	Las Ollitas

VA - Primer festival internacional de la canción popular (1973)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Henry Cow - Leg End (1973)

Political astuteness aside, Henry Cow's "Leg End" is simply a busy musical trip, comprised of snaking rhythms, unorthodox time signatures, and incongruous waves of multiple instruments that actually culminate in some appealing yet complex progressive rock.

Here, on the band's debut, both Fred Frith and woodwind man Geoff Leigh hold nothing back, creating eclectic, avant garde-styled jazz movements without any sense of direction, or so it may seem at first, but paying close attention to Henry Cow's musical wallowing results in some first-rate instrumental fusion, albeit a little too abstract at times. Through tracks like "Amygdala," "Teenbeat," and "The Tenth Chaffinch," it's simply creativity run amok, instilling the free-spiritedness of the late '60s into this, a 1974 album.

The techniques are difficult to follow, but the stewing that emerges between the piano, guitar, flute, and percussion is so animated and colorful, it actually sounds pleasant as a whole. Chris Cutler lends his uncommitted, self-governing brand of drumming to the album to help culminate the frenzy, and Leigh's tenor flute does add some extraordinary musical fabric to each of the album's ten cuts. "Nine Funerals of the Citizen King" is one of the easiest pieces to listen to, while the short but amiable "Bellycan" is an excerpt removed from the group's work with the Greasy Truckers, performed a year earlier. In 1974, Henry Cow released "Unrest", which contains the same vigor and spontaneity as "Leg End", only it didn't receive the same amount of attention. Shortly after, they united with Dagmar Krause and the rest of Slapp Happy to further their unconventional route.

Tracklist:

1. "Nirvana for Mice" (Frith) – 4:53
2. "Amygdala" (Hodgkinson) – 6:47
3. "Teenbeat (Introduction)" (Henry Cow) – 4:32
4. "Teenbeat" (Frith, Greaves) – 6:57
5. "Nirvana (Reprise)" (Frith) – 1:11
6. "Extract from 'With the Yellow Half-Moon and Blue Star' " (Frith) – 2:26
7. "Teenbeat (Reprise)" (Frith) – 5:07
8. "The Tenth Chaffinch" (Henry Cow) – 6:06
9. "Nine Funerals of the Citizen King" (Hodgkinson) – 5:34
10. "Bellycan" (Henry Cow) – 3:19

Henry Cow - Leg End (1973)              
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Woody Guthrie - Columbia River Collection (1988)

In May 1941, Woody Guthrie began working for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a job that required him to write songs to promote development (dams) on the Columbia River. He would later claim that he wrote a song per day during his month-long association with the BPA, making it one of the most productive periods of his life.

Several of his best-loved songs came from this period, including "Ramblin' Round," "Hard Travlin'," and "Pastures of Plenty." "Columbia River Collection" has two strong points to recommend it. First, it collects all of the available material that Guthrie wrote during this time in one place, giving the collection a thematic unity similar to "Dust Bowl Ballads". Next, it includes 11 versions of the songs originally recorded in Portland, OR, in 1941, and never before released.

This latter quality is "Columbia River Collection"'s strongest point, which makes it seem odd that the liner notes aren't more helpful with sorting out which of the 17 tracks are from these early sessions. It is clear, however, that versions of "Roll on Columbia" and "Roll Columbia, Roll," two favorites, are new. It's also clear that Rounder borrowed the other six songs, including "Pastures of Plenty," from Smithsonian Folkways. The important thing, though, is that the listener can now gain a better view of Guthrie's artistic vision at this important juncture in his career. It also doesn't hurt that "Columbia River Collection" is a strong group of songs that capture the Dust Bowl Balladeer in top form.

Woody Guthrie - Columbia River Collection
(ca. 192 kpbs, front cover included)

The Revolutionary Dub Warriors - State Of Evolution

Through the late eighties and early nineties new alternative cultures had been steadily expanding which had more in common with the more hard-nosed counter-culture movements of the sixties than the impending explosion of cyber-related lifestyles. Specific within the new counter-cultures was the notion of travelling, being always on the move in order to resist the seemingly pervasive control and therefore the more intrusive features of an increasingly information hungry technocracy.

For a reason that will require the more enquiring mind of a seasoned social anthropologist, new contrasting musics became to be associated with the new travellers, free festivals, eco-warriors etc. These "new" music’s were rave, ambient and dub. Possibly because of the break-neck speed of what was known as rave, chill-out alternatives were a must!

The Revolutionary Dub Warriors were formed in 1991 in the Reading area by some of the originators of the free festival scene whose prime musical interest was reggae. Their contemporaries were the like of the Megadog and Whirl-y-Gig outfits, Zion Train, Dreadzone and the Orb. The interest in bass and space were the only rules, which governed their sounds.

Revolutionary Dub Warriors - State Of Evolution

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Sun Ra - Spaceways

Here´s the third cd from the three-disc box set "Calling Plante Earth", released in 1998 on Freedom.
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This box is a confusing addition to Sun Ra's discography; while one disc is a straight reissue (of an album already available on compact disc), the other two consist of concert recordings spanning 1966-71, presumably never before released. It may be mostly for collectors, but there are hours of great music on this set in a variety of settings.

The first disc, "Outer Spaceways Incorporated", is Ra's 1968 album for Black Lion which includes as large as a 15-piece band and much chanting as well as playing. The second disc is "Calling Planet Earth", which includes a 1971 show in Denmark.

 The third and final one, called "Spaceways", includes excerpts from New York City live sessions during 1966 and 1968, with at least a dozen players on each.

Fresh link:

Sun Ra - Spaceways (256 kbps, front cover included)

Slapp Happy - Same / Casablanca Moon (Virgin, 1974)

These recordings were originally released in 1974 as the group's eponymously titled Virgin label debut (and are not the same versions of the tunes recorded earlier with Faust, first intended for release by Polydor, and ultimately issued by Recommended Records - and by Cuneiform with bonus tracks - under the title "Acnalbasac Noom").

The group's songwriting had improved since 1972's "Sort of...Slapp Happy", and Dagmar Krause's German chanteuse-influenced vocals were presented in catchier settings, although some prefer the comparatively unsophisticated and rockish Faust-backed versions from "Acnalbasac Noom" to the re-recorded "Casablanca Moon" tracks, which are backed by session musicians and even a string section. In either case, the lyrics are witty and oddball without being pretentious. Tracks like "Mr. Rainbow" recall Yoko Ono's early-'70s song-oriented material, with an important difference: Krause's vocals are much better than Ono's, while just as distinctive. "The Secret" could even be a potential commercial single.

Tracklist:

Casablanca Moon
Me & Paravati
Half-Way There
Michelangelo
Dawn
Mr. Rainbow
The Secret
A Little Something
The Drum
Haiku
Slow Moon's Rose

Slapp Happy -  Same / Casablanca Moon (Virgin, 1974)
(224 kbps, cover art included)

Quilapayun - DT 64 Single (1975)

Quilapayún is a folk music group from Chile and among the longest lasting and most influential ambassadors of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement.

Formed in Chile during the mid-1960s, the group became inseparable with the revolution that occurred in the popular music of the country under the "Unitad Popular" ("Popular Unity") Government of Salvador Allende. Since its formation and during its forty-year history - both in Chile and during its lengthy period of exile in France - the group has seen modifications to its personnel lineup and the subject and content of its work.

The GDR label Amiga released this single in the "DT 64 Polit-Song" series. This series refers to the last "Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend für Frieden und Völkerfreundschaft" in the year 1964 in East-Berlin.

"Bourgeois society wants art to be another factor contributing to social alienation, we artists should transform it into a revolutionary weapon, until the contradiction that actually exists between art and society finally comes to pass. This surpassing is called revolution and its motor and fundamental agent is the working class. Our group, loyal to the ideals of Luis Emilio Recabarren, sees its work as a continuation of what has already been achieved by many other popular/folk artists. This side of the trenches has been occupied by artists whose names are forever linked to the revolutionary struggle of our people: the first Luis Emilio Recabarren, the latest: Violeta Parra and Pablo Neruda. The example they have given us is the light that guides us."
— Quilapayún (1969)

Tracks:
A: Quilapayun - Tio Caiman (Onkel Krokodil)
B: Quilapayun - El alma Ilena de banderas (Eine Seele voller Fahnen)

Quilapayun - DT 64 Single (1975)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Ramblin´ Jack Elliott - Jack Elliott (1964)

"Nobody I know—and I mean nobody—has covered more ground and made more friends and sung more songs than the fellow you're about to meet right now. He's got a song and a friend for every mile behind him. Say hello to my good buddy, Ramblin' Jack Elliott."- Johnny Cash, The Johnny Cash Television Show, 1969.

 

"Jack Elliott" was Ramblin' Jack's Vanguard debut, notable also for the appearance of Bob Dylan (credited as Tedham Porterhouse) on harmonica.

When Ramblin' Jack Elliott's name comes up in folk magazines, he's usually identified as a Guthrie copy who later passed on his skills of impersonation to Bob Dylan. This is true to a point, but a listener doesn't have to check out but three or four tracks on Jack Elliott to find out what an original oddball he is.

It's true, he does cover Guthrie's "1913 Massacre" here, and he tends to prefer traditional material like "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and "More Pretty Girls" over originals. But his extravagant vocals deliver this material in the strangest, most startling manner. The listener can never be sure whether he's sending up a song like "Roll on Buddy" or just determined to turn tradition on its head. The most fun and fascinating piece here is "Guabi Guabi," an African folk song that Elliott learned by copying the vocal inflections. Of course, in his typical fashion, he talks through part of song explaining that he couldn't understand a certain section of the original. In his off the cuff, just for the hell of it way, Elliott has more in common with the Holy Modal Rounders than traditionalists like Pete Seeger or the New Lost City Ramblers. "Jack Elliott" manages to pay its respects to public domain material while still being entertaining.    

Tracklist:
                           

Roving Gambler
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Diamond Joe
Guabi Guabi
Sowing On The Mountain
Roll On Buddy
1913 Massacre
House Of The Rising Sun
Shade Of The Old Apple Tree
Black Snake Moan
Portland Town
More Pretty Girls

Ramblin´ Jack Elliott - Jack Elliott (1964)
(192 kbps, cover art included)        

Mikey Dread - Jungle Signal (1982)

Mikey Dread, known as "The Dread at the Controls", was one of the most influential performers and innovators in reggae music.

As well as being a reggae artist and producer with international recognition, he may best be known as the pioneer of reggae broadcasting worldwide beginning in his hometown of Port Antonio, Jamaica as selector/DJ for his sound systems, Safari and Sounds of Music, he graduated from Jamaica's College of Arts, Science and Technology before taking his landmark job at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) radio and television network in 1976. It was here he developed his "Dread At The Controls" label and trademark.

His production expertise has helped launched many artists, from Earl 16, Edi Fitzroy, Rod Taylor, Sugar Minott, Junior Murvin and the Roots Radics Band to the Clash.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Mikeys résumé grew to enviable proportions. In addition to his work with The Clash, he recorded with UB40 and helped produce the well-received "Deep Roots" documentary on Jamaican music for Channel Four TV in the United Kingdom.

On February 21st, 2007 Mikey Dread has been invited to perform and to give an interview at the “Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame,” in Cleveland, Ohio.

On March 15, 2008 he lost a battle to a brain tumor. Despite his death his legacy will continue.

Here´s "Jungle Signal" with the following tracks:

Tracklist:

A1	Signal One
A2	Jungle Signal
A3	Signal Three/Dub
A4	Rainbow Jungle
B1	Star Chaser & Jungle Gym
B2	Jungle Juice
B3	Dub Jungle
B4	Theme Signal (Jungle Theme)

Mikey Dread - Jungle Signal
(320 kbps, cover art included)

African Renaissance - Music From The South African Broadcasting Corporation Archives - Volume 9

The segregation of indigenous music by the South African Broadcasting Corporation under the National Party's policy of "separate development" has had an unintentional after-effect - apartheid has bequeathed the world a glorious legacy of recorded music. A rich archive of SABC acetates, never intended to be heard outside the townships and provinces, has at last made its way onto CD. Music listeners now get their first chance to sample this cornucopia as Eagle Records has released a bunch of double CDs under the title "African Renaissance". The set spans 30 years of recording and covers everything from Western-influenced doo-wop to gumboot, historic ceremonial to traditional dance; a capella chorus to mine and sugar mill bands.



The music in these recordings is accessible, rich and uplifting and sound quality is very good. The selection also has a historic significance; it catches traditional forms that are fast being subsumed by new influences. With the opening of South Africa, modern western forms such as hip- hop are increasingly being incorporated into the music of the young; kwaiko, for example, borrowing heavily from house music and American rappers. Many of the tracks on these compilations are immensely physical, their catchiness forcing you to your feet. Others are more spiritual, with soaring, heart-stopping moments of beauty and poignancy. Such a wide and eclectic selection gives the lie to the impression of "sameness" which resulted from willy-nilly incorporation of African elements in the early 1980s world music fad. To borrow a phrase from the jazz world, this music is the sound of surprise. On these discs you will find the polyrhythmic vocal complexity of traditional Zulu music (recently popularised by star turns like Ladysmith Black Mambazo); the reggae- ish heal of Venda artists; shimmering harmonies, epitomised by the South Soto Bohlokong Choral or the Tswana Mmabatho police choir; the stomping rhythms and exuberance of Xhosa outfits such as the Harmony Baca Gumboot Dancers; and the gentle melodic fluency of Ndebele artists such as Love Inspirations.

It would take a hard heart or leaden soul not to find something in "African Renaissance's" treasure-trove to lift the spirit or get the feet tapping. Some of the royalties from the series will go to surviving artists; the rest to a development project to help disadvantaged young musicians in South Africa.

Here´s volume 9 with Nguni choral music on the first cd and Mbhaqanga, which has been hailed as Africa´s hardest and most upbeat sound, on the second.

African Renaissance - Volume 9 pt.1

African Renaissance - Volume 9 pt. 2
(192 kbps)

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