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.
.
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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Cochise - Unter Geiern (1981)

Cochise was a German band from Dortmund (1979-1988) named by a famous indian apache chieftain. With their catchy but also political and quite critical folk music with german lyrics they reached in a short time one of the leading positions of the ecological and peace movement in Germany. The formative phase of the band was 1984 until 1987. Within this 10 years of appearance in the scene this Polit-Rocker played more than 1.000 gigs mainly in the are of the german language and sold with quite less presence in the communication media a huge amount of approximately 120.000 units of their nine albums.

In 1982, in the middle of the "hot phase" of the squatting movement in the Ruhr area and the street battles around the "Startbahn West" at the Frankfurt airport, their third LP "Unter Geiern" was released,


Tracklist:
1 Du ganz allein 1:40
2 Wir nehmen uns was wir brauchen 2:04
3 Dienstag Früh 2:27
4 Bildet Banden 1:17
5 Nachricht 3:23
6 Lass mich noch mal ziehen 2:12
7 Durch die Wüste 4:27
8 Keiner hat Zeit 2:31
9 Isumùya 4:15
10 Du kotzt mich an 2:28
11 Der Henker 4:42
12 Nils' Mondfahrt 2:45
13 Gestern hamse den Wald gefegt 2:35
14 Morgengraun 4:08
15 Gestern hamse den Wald gefegt 2:39
16 Isumuya 4:13
17 Der Henker 5:03
18 Du kotzt mich an 2:33


Tracks 1-14 rec. at Tonstudio Zuckerfabrik, january 1982.
Tracks 15-18 are previously unreleased live recordings from Dortmund and Recklinghausen.

Cochise - Unter Geiern (1981)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Uli Hundt & Der Wahnsinn - Placebo (1986, Trikont)

The political rock clown band "Schröder Roadshow" originated with members of the music projects Hoffmann and Zarah Zylinder. Die Jeilen Träumer came much later, in 1980. The band first appeared in 1976 under the name "Uli Hundt und Schroeder", and was renamed shortly afterwards as "Schroeder Roadshow". They offered biting ironic and political lyrics as well as an eclectic musical style. The band attacked more or less everything, including themselves.

Musically their main focus was 2-guitars- and saxophone-heavy rock, but with elements from many other styles. Political messages were ambiguous, though the band were on the political left [see »Anarchy in Germoney«, 1978]. They also wrote ballads, such as »Asche in den Wind« and »Die Brüder der romantischen Verlierer«. They worked with Wolf Maahn as co-producer for the »Wir lieben das Land« album in 1982, and Rockpalast director Christian Wagner, who produced bass player Rich Schwab’s two solo albums in 1980 and 1982. Schwab produced Uli Hundt und die Betablocker’s »Schweinehundt« solo album in 1982, recorded and presented live with members of the Zeltinger Band and Dunkelziffer.

Uli Hundt left the band in 1983 and published the »Placebo« solo album in 1986


Tracklist:

A1 Alles o.k. Herr Bundestagsvizepräsident 4:35
A2 Jaguarbahn 4:30
A3 Ich knall mich voll mit Rock'N'Roll 3:23
A4 Im Herzen des Sturms 4:44
A5 Kamelhaarsutra 4:31
B1 Pacman 3:28
B2 Das Gold am Ende des Regenbogens 6:02
B3 Sag ihr ich komme wenn es Frühling ist 4:23
B4 Voyeur 5:02
B5 King vun dr Stroß 3:31


Uli Hundt & Der Wahnsinn - Placebo (1986, Trikont)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Mayohuacán - Cuba (Amiga, 1980)

Mayohuacán was founded in Havana in April 1972 as a part of the Nueva Trova movement. The band interpreted music from Central and South America, influenced by Quilapayun and Inti Illimani.

This album was recorded during the "10. Festival des politischen Liedes" in East Berlin in February 1980. It was released on the Amiga label.

Tracklist:

Baja y tapa- Komm runter und schließ den Topf
El limonero - Der Zitronenbaum
Pedro Navaja
Verano - Sommer
Canción de cualquier soldado - Lied irgendeines Soldaten
Del caribe
El poco a poco - Nach und nach
La loma de belén - Der Berg von Bethlehem
Del canto y el tiempo - Vom Gesang und der Zeit
Nesta noite de amor - Diese Nacht der Liebe
Pequena serenata diurna - Kleine Morgenserenade
Canción de la unidad latinoamericana - Lied für die Einheit Lateinamerikas

Mayohuacán - Cuba (Amiga, 1980)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Fugs - Golden Filth (1970)

By the time of this recording on June 1, 1968 at the Fillmore East, the Fugs had evolved from their primitive beginnings into a pretty full and tight rock band. They'd also grown into a pretty large group, in fact, with ten musicians, including two drummers.

However, most of the material was initially recorded between 1965 and 1966, ESP era. While some listeners might be disappointed by the absence of live versions of highlights from their Reprise records, this release actually has more value than the typical live album because it has notably different arrangements of well-known songs.

On the Fugs' first recordings in particular, the sound and execution was pretty primitive, and it's good to have full, together rock versions of notable songs like "Slum Goddess," "Supergirl," "Nothing," "I Couldn't Get High," "Coca-Cola Douche," and "How Sweet I Roamed." The spoken intros haven't dated as well, with Sanders' monologues about lesbian dwarfs and zebra puke, and Kupferberg moaning at one point, "I want a titty"; what was once a shocking and taboo-breaking is now superfluous to the music. 

Tracklist:
                                             

A1	Slum Goddess
A2	CCD
A3	How Sweet I Roamed
A4	I Couldn't Get High
A5	Saran Wrap
B1	I Want To Know
B2	Homeade
B3	Nothing
B4	Supergirl

The Fugs - Golden Filth (1970)  
(320 kbps, cover art included)       

Cpt. Kirk &. – Stand Rotes Madrid (1986)

"Cpt. Kirk &." was an indie band from Hamburg. It was one of those both political and cultural informed bands in the 80ies & 90ies of the last century, when leftist activists and cultural protagonists tried to find a mutual way in opposition to the growing nationalism and racism in Germany.

The band was formed in 1984, Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. as "Cpt. Kirk & his incredible Lovers" .Members were Tobias Levin (vocals, piano), Matthias Geisler (drums), Christoph Meier (bass) and Wiebke Linneweber (keyboards, guitar). They toured with Jesus And Mary Chain and The Gun Club.

"Stand Rotes Madrid" was their debut album, released in 1986.

"Very intriguing mishmash, this. Parts sound like The Birthday Party, parts sound like Gang of Four, parts are vaguely surf/garage-y, parts seem to anticipate grunge, the B-side's got a slight power pop vibe, and there's feedback everywhere. I like their guitar player a lot. He sounds exactly like Jim Reid on A5 and exactly like Paul Leary on B4.

But the variety's a bit... much. Still, so much of the A-side is awesome that I'd recommend you find this pronto. It's one of those albums with a handful of tracks you could put on the radio and a handful you'd be immediately fired for putting on the radio."

Tracklist:
A1 House Haus 2:39
A2 Catholic Theories 2:10
A3 I Told You And You Know What I Said 4:34
A4 Just For A While 2:46
A5 Heavenly Kick For Paradise 2:55
A6 Letztes Biest (Am Himmel)  3:10

B1 How Fat You Are 4:13
B2 My Chair (In Der Republik) 4:24
B3 In For It Too Long Now 3:34
B4 Baumond (1969) 3:07
B5 Government's Head 3:50

Bonus tracks:
Neclegt
Windfall

Cpt. Kirk &. – Stand Rotes Madrid (1986)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

José Afonso - Baladas E Canções

Jose Afonso is generally regarded as one of Portugal's most influential folk musicians of the 20th century. His songs of protest and political critiques helped fuel revolutionary movements launched by the people of Portugal in the early '70s, and his music remained sharply critical and politically charged as he actively recorded and performed until just before his death in 1987. In a relatively short amount of time, Afonso was quite productive, leaving behind documents of revolution and righteous struggle such as his 1975 album "República" and many others.

Afonso was born Jose Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos on February 23, 1929, in Aveiro, Portugal. As a judge, his father was appointed to various posts throughout the Portuguese colonies in the first half of the 20th century. Jose spent his early years in countries such as Angola and Mozambique as well as Portugal, living with his parents off and on and spending many years in the city of Coimbra pursuing his education. He began singing in his teen years, and in 1953, released his first recordings in the form of two 78 singles. During this time, Afonso began studying philosophy at the Associação Académica de Coimbra, graduating in 1955. His passion for philosophy and politics would shape the course of his recording career, and he stayed active making music while working as a public school teacher through the late '50s and into the '60s. Smaller-scale releases like his 1956 EP "Fados de Coimbra" grew into more fully realized works with the release of his first studio LP, "Baladas e Canções", in 1964. His old friend Rui Pato wrote the following for the reissue of this album:

"Zeca was the first "different" companion I had. And it would be dificult to imagine the importance someone "different" has in our adolescense. On a sixties Coimbra, very closed, "Salazarous", of nights of king, poker, troupes, serenades begging for always hard and frustrating loves, on a Coimbra with houses of "pure" girls and Repúblicas filled of politic and sexual conspiracies, a man like Zeca was an hero.

His unbalanced look, his crazy things, the permanent character of the situations to which he gave a falsetto voice, his clown mimics were a success! Of what I already took as usual, like the dustbreathing and boring schools (the male and the female!), the University, where were masters, mostly conservative, full of patternalism and provincian behaviour, all that Zeca joked about with such a poison and funny we cried laughing. His destructive opinions, with a corrosive humour, full of joy, along with his constant distractions, were the usual plate at the Brasileira and Mário's cafe afternoons.

We heard records by Mouloudji, Brassens, Brel, etc. In our meetings there was no more fado. We listened to Rocha, Raínho or Abílio singing jazz of French music. Then came his ballads. His rupture with fado. At that time (I'm talking about the beginning of the sixties) Coimbra fado had rigid structure, in poetry and in musical terms. Zeca, that had turned himself a great name of that kind of fado in the previous decade, started to say bad things about it! "Because it was too saddy, because lyrics had nothing to do with our reality, because the guitar accompaniement was too limitative, because the creativity died, etc...".

He only accepted fado when it was an adaptation of the popular musical and poetic roots (Edmundo de Bettencourt was, thus, his refference) ... To him, the rest was to joke in those long talks that happened around him and on the bohemian and intelectual people that stoped at Ferreira Borges street (the "chanel" as it was then known)... And they had fun, provoking shamelessly the "impaled aligators" of the "right side" of the cafe Brasileira, that looked him with bad eyes. He was the first "subversive" in the good and real sense of the word that I met: a cultural agitator! A viola was searched and he showed his new songs that he insisted to listen and criticize. And then we would go to a República or, at that same place, to the first floor of Brasileira, when game tables closed. To us, fado addicted, those songs, with those melodies, were a delicious madness!

Luck and, maybe my playing skills, wanted that he chose me to play with him. And it was that way "Menino de Oiro", the "Vampiros", "Senhor Poeta", "Lago de Breu", "Pombas", "Vila de Olhão", and the songs that are on this record were born. We were there when truly collective creations happened on the first floor of Brasileira cafe. From that moment on it were so many songs, trips and shows to audiences that not always understood what he sang. And the dispair of some crowds, mostly the more unadvised, that waited for a very well cried and shout fado, with guitars and black capes, and to who we "throw" the "vampires", "Ronda dos Paisanos", "Altos Castelos" (High Castles), only with the viola, dressed with dirty trousers and unstraight shirts of bad night sleep, at houeses of a "comrade" that gaves the show for a good dinner and, some few times, a thousand escudos to each. But those shows were the minority, for almost every shows, back in those sixties, were to recreative societies, cultural groups, cinema clubs, well, intelectual organizations that covered all the "change" of that time." (from: rateayourmusic.com)

Tracklist:

1 Canção Longe
2 Os Bravos
3 Balada Do Aleixo
4 Balada Do Outono
5 Trovas Antigas
6 Na Fonte Está Lianor
7 Minha Mãe
8 Altos Castelos
9 O Pastor De Bensafrim
10 Canto Da Primavera
11 Elegia
12 Ronda Dos Paisanos

José Afonso - Baladas E Canções
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Die Jeilen Träumer - Die Jeilen Träumer (1982, Trikont)

The political rock clown band "Ulrich Hundt und Schroeder" was found in 1975 and renamed shortly afterwards as "Schroeder Roadshow". They offered biting ironic and political texts as well as an eclectic musical style. The band attacked more or less everything, including themselves.

With their anarchistic slogans and subversiv statements, their great live shows and their sarcastic humor Schröder Roadshow were a very important part of the german polit rock subculture. Schroeder Roadshow was – besides Ton Steine Scherben – the german political rock band in the seventies and eighties of the last century.

In 1979 Gerd Köster became a member of the anarcho-rock-theater band. A year later, Frank Hocker joined Schroeder Roadshow. In the early eighties the band was one of the busiest live acts in Germany with up to 250 concerts a year. They released seven anarchistic polit-rock-albums with different line-ups and played at the WDR "Rockpalast" and BR "Rock aus dem Alabama". 

During a "Schroeder Roadshow" break in 1982, Gerd Köster and Frank Hocker founded the rock quartet "Die Jeilen Traumer".

"You'll never break me!" sings Gerd Köster - and you believe his credo. For the band, rock music is "still the best remedy for cold showers".


Tracklist:

A
1) Jeiler Traum
2) Coca Cola im Blut
3) Schlaff
4) Nigger der Stadt
5) Bleib heut Nacht bei mir
6) Gib niemals auf

B
1) Die Kids wollen Hits
2) Geh weg
3) Mama Kind
4) Der Größte
5) Arschlecker Blues
6) Frech wie Dreck
7) Nie kapott


Die Jeilen Träumer - Die Jeilen Träumer (1982, Trikont)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Ex - Pokkeherrie (1985)

"Pokkeherrie" (Dutch for "terrible noise") is a 1985 album by The Ex, originally released on vinyl only on the Pokabilly label. 

The original release included an eleven-page booklet containing lyrics & artwork and a double sided poster. It was reissued on compact disc in 1995 on Ex Records. The album comprises a collection of songs the group had performed on an anti-military tour.

The title of the album is a Dutch word that means something like "so much noise" or "awful noise". It is the first of the Ex's albums to feature Katrin on drums, cementing the band's core lineup that would last for nearly two decades.

After releasing a record in support of Britain's coalminers' strike, The Ex wrote a collection of new songs for an anti-military tour that would form the basis for Pokkeherrie. Their drummer Sabien had just left the band to move to France and was replaced by German-born Katerina, previously of the Stuttgart trio 3Musketiere. The group recorded nine songs in the newly built Koeienverhuur Studio in the basement of a newly squatted building in Amsterdam where The Ex also rehearsed and gigged at the volunteer-run Emma venue. 

John Dougan's short review of the album for Allmusic reads: "Primal leftist politics meet primal mega-loud guitar. Stunning." An unattributed review on the band's official website calls the album "a masterful killer weapon of raw power that rattles up the spine into numbed pink brain cells and fills the vacuum with social issue."


Tracklist:

"Nurse!" - 6:09
"Soviet Threat" - 7:08
"Mmm Crisis" - 3:29
"1,000,000 Ashtrays" - 9:15
"Pokk" - 0:15
"White Liberals" - 5:42
"Everything We Never Wanted" 4:28
"Friendly Neighbours" - 4:20
"Hit the Headlines" - 5:47
"Rumours of Music (The Original Soundcrack)" - 6:29

The Ex - Pokkeherrie (1985)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

The Village Fugs – Sing Ballads Of Contemporary Protest, Point Of Views, And General Dissatisfaction (1965 LP Folkways 304)

"The Village Fugs ‎– Sing Ballads Of Contemporary Protest, Point Of Views, And General Dissatisfaction" was the first Fugs album, released in 1965 with the instructive subtitel.

Poets Tuli Kupferberg and Ed Sanders couldn’t play any instruments, but they sure knew all about the spirit of rock & roll. Sanders edited … Full Descriptionand published a profanely titled arts magazine in post-Beat, early-‘60s Greenwich Village, and local friends, including Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders, and guitarist Ken Weaver, provide most of the music on this underground classic.

Alternately angry, beautiful, rude, and gut-bustingly hilarious, these songs, recorded in 1965, are both folk classics and among the first and best punk anthems ever recorded. Weaver’s “I Couldn’t Get High” is a garage-rocking stomper that wouldn’t sound out of place in the NUGGETS series, and Weber’s ironic masterpiece “Boobs A Lot” says more about locker-room culture in two minutes than volumes of social studies. An essential album!

Peter Stampfel (fiddle, hca, vo)
Vinny Leary, Steve Weber (g, vo)
John Anderson (bag, vo)
Ken Weaver (d, vo)
Tuli Kupferberg (per, vo)
Ed Sanders (vo)

Tracklist:

01. Slum Goddess (2:01)
02. Ah, Sunflower Weary Of Time (2:15)
03. Supergirl (2:19)
04. Swinburne Stomp (2:51)
05. I Couldn’t Get High (2:08)
06. How Sweet I Roamed From Field To Field (2:15)
07. Carpe Diem (5:10)
08. My Baby Done Left Me (2:21)
09. Boobs A Lot (2:14)
10. Nothing (4:17)

The Fugs - The Village Fugs (1965)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Floh De Cologne - Geyer-Symphonie (Ohr, 1974)

Floh de Cologne were formed in 1966 as a political and anarchic collective of students from the University of Cologne. They disbanded in 1983.

Their albums contain provocative and humorous sketches about political and social facts. Musically their style can be considered as a mixture between avant-folk, sound experimentations, free rock and narratives. Recorded in 1973, "Geier-Symphonie" punctuates Floh de Cologne's original style to demonstrative, semi theatrical and symphonic rock attacks. The album caught the band in great shape, this time merging all their previously known styles into an outrageous rock symphony that has to be heard to be believed! But beware, this is hardly easy listening!
The original speeches were recorded at the funeral service for Friedrich Flick, 28th of July, 1972 at 10:30 a.m. at the Robert-Schumann-Saal, Düsseldorf, Ehrenhof 4a.


Tracklist:

01. 1. Satz: La Grande Tristesse (Requiem)  7:10
02. 2. Satz: Danse Macabre (Totentanz)  13:02
03. 3. Satz: Sérénade Des Vautours (Leichenschmaus)  23.:30


Floh De Cologne - Geyer-Symphonie (Ohr, 1974)
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Fred Ape - Im Laufe der Woche (1980)

Fred Ape was one of the most sophisticated songwriters in Germany. He died in November 2020. Rest in peace and thanks for your songs, Fred!

Fred Ape was active in the West German political folk scene since the mid-1970s. His first recordings were published on the compilation "Arbeiterjugendtag in Köln 1974" on the important "Pläne" label. His self-penned songs were influenced singer-songwriters like Reinhard Mey, Hannes Wader or Wolf Biermann and had titles such as "Festung Gorleben" - political songs for a politicized society. 

In 1979 he founded the band "Ape, Beck & Brikmann" with Klaus Beck, Peter Brinkmann and the sound engineer Klaus-Werner Wollnowski. The group quickly became one of the flagships of the German alternative folk rock scene. Their political lyrics were mainly written by Fred Ape. Later the band was extended by Rudi Mika and Klaus Heidrich.

With over 100,000 sold copies, their song "Rauchzeichen" (1979), based on the "Prophecy of the Cree", became a secret hit in the growing alternative scene. Nowadays, it is one of the best knows songs focusing on ecological problems, and is published in germen school books. 

All the activities of the 1980s West German left wing and alternative scene were accompanied by the music of  bands like Ton Steine Scherben, Cochise and - of course - Ape, Beck & Brinkmann: The demonstrations against nuclear power plants, against the "Startbahn West" in Frankfurt, against the "Volkszählung" ("census") in 1983 and for women´s emancipation. Ape, Beck & Brinkmann played their farewell concert on 19 December 1987 in Dortmund, Germany. At the end of the 1990s they did some reunion gigs in a very familiar atmosphere.

Peter Brinkmann died in October 1999, Klaus-Werner Wollnowski in 2019 - in 2020 Fred Ape followed them, one month after the release of his new album "Bedingungslos".

 
Now, nearly 40 years later, these songs may sound utopian and naive. But why should we not hope that war and hunger will be abolished at some point? And not so much has changed since these days and there is still a lot to do to show solidarity and enjoy life. We are not alone.

The album "Im Laufe der Woche" was recorded at the "Atelier für Tontechnik" in Oyten in September 1980. The songs "Festung von Gorleben" and "Tagebuch" are adapted versions of "Hotel California" and "American Pie".

The musicians:

Fred Ape (guitar, vocals)
Klaus Beck (guitar, dulcimer, percussion, vocals)
Peter Brinkmann (guitar, percussion, vocals)
Klara Brandt (bass, flute)
Pit Budde (bass, mandolin, guitar, slide-guitar, vocals, percussion)
Harald Koster (piano)
Buckelwale (vocals)
Pawnindianer (percussion, flute, vocals)
Käfer (krabbeln)

 

Titel:
01. Fuchsbau 74/77 (Ape) 5.27
02. Käferballade (Ape) 3.09
03. Streik und was weiter (Ape) 6.56
04. Rettet die Wale (Ape) 6.27
05. Im Laufe der Woche (Ape) 5.54
06. Rauchzeichen (Ape) 3.28
07. Festung von Gorleben (Felder/Henley/Frey/Ape) 4.33
08. Tagebuch (McLean/Ape) 7.02

Fred Ape - Im Laufe der Woche (1980) 

(320 kbps, cover art included)

1. Festival des politischen Liedes - Song `70 (Eterna, vinyl rip)

The "Festival of Political Songs" was one of the largest music events in East Germany. This festival provided a meeting place for politically involved musicians from around the globe with a like-minded audience.

It was founded by the group Oktoberklub and between 1970 and 1990 took place in East Berlin every February as an official event of the Free German Youth. The event was first organized by the Berlin division, but from 1975 was directed by the Central Committee of the Free German Youth.

Artists from 60 countries participated in the event over the years, and usually between 50 to 80 artists, from around 30 countries, performed, including prominent artists like Mikis Theodorakis, Miriam Makeba, Quilapayún, Inti-Illimani, Silvio Rodríguez, Mercedes Sosa, Canzoniere delle Lame, and Pete Seeger. The mascot of the festival was a red sparrow named Oki (derived from Oktoberklub).

After the collapse of East Germany, the festival lost its function and supporting infrastructure.

From 1991 to 1994 the association ZwischenWelt-Förderverein continued the tradition of the political song festival along with a progressive Cultural festival. After the break-up of this association and until 1999 no festivals took place. In 2000 a successful small-scale revival of the festival took place. The new orientation of the festival manifested itself in 2001 with the festival’s new name: "Festival Musik und Politik", taking place this week in Berlin.

We start today posting some albums documenting these festivals.

The album from the first "Festival des politischen Liedes" in 1970 features recordings from the opening and closing event at the Kongresshalle, Berlin, february 15 and 21, 1970.

1. Festival des politischen Liedes - Song `70 (Eterna)

(256 kbps, front & back cover included)

Manderley - ...fliegt, Gedanken, fliegt... (1976, Pläne)

The Dortmund based Folkrock ensemble "Manderley" belonged to the best that the german folkscene offered in the seventies. They only recorded this one album, which was released by Pläne Records. Guitarist Pit Budde and violinist Klara Brandi went ahead and founded the more famous Cochise band - probably the hottest political folk rock band in Germany from the late seveties to the mid-eighties.   

Manderley was found in 1975 in Dortmund. The band played folk and rock music with political lyrics. In 1976 they recorded in just two weeks at "Ton am Dom", Cologne the album "...fliegt, Gedanken, fliegt...", which was releasd on the Pläne label.

The re-release on CD contained two bonus tracks that were recorded Jan. 1986 live at the Fritz-Henssler-Haus, Dortmund.

Tracklist:

1	Sagt mir, wer sie sind
2	Bluhs
3	No. 6
4	Der Traum des Schmieds
5	Eine andere Frau
6	Fliegt Gedanken, fliegt
7	Da muss doch wohl ein Ausweg sein
8	Ballade vom kleinen Florestan
9	Erinnerungen an Les Saintes Maries de la Mer
10	Sacco's Brief
11	Komm mit mir
12	You'd better listen
	Bonus Tracks:
13	You'd better listen (live)
14	Jeder Traum (live)

Manderley - ...fliegt, Gedanken, fliegt... (1976, Pläne)
(320 kbps, cover art included)