Best Reissues of 2011 (part one)

Good year for audiophiles, so many good reissues and anthologies are filled my best of 2011 list. This records are usually either very underrated or forgotten by the labels. (There are some exceptions like The Jesus and Mary Chain or Can.)

15-The Faith- Subject to Change plus first demo (Anthology)

14-Void - Sessions 1981-83 (Anthology)

Thanks to Discord Records, we now have access to these beautiful ,raw D.C hardcore bands. Just warning you,these are not love songs. These are the songs made by angry,frustrated young guys in the 80’s and we need them more these days!

http://www.dischord.com/

13-Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies (1992)

After Spacemen 3 , Jason Pierce continued to make his spacey rock music with Spiritualized. This is all where it started.

12- Alice Coltrane - Universal Consciousness & Lord of the Lords (1971/1972)

Alice Coltrane made this album four years after her jazz legend husband John Coltrane died. These two albums , now together reissued in one cd are probably one of the finest example of cosmic&spiritual jazz.  

11-Harald Grosskopf- Synthesist (1980)

Drummer of Ash Ra Temple, Harald Grosskopf listened his friends advice and locked himself in his studio home after break up with his girlfriend. The result is fantastic.Fans of krautrock and electronic music must own this album.

10- Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979)

One of my favorite album cover , it is their most accessible album in their career. Great classics like “Convincing People”, “Exotica”, “What A Day”. Make sure turn on the lights when you are listening this album!

9-Serge Gainsbourg’s -Histoire De Melody Nelson (1971)

Another master cover art, with Jane Birkin played the Lolita!!!!Think about an avant-garde pop masterpiece with spoken word vocals(?) and it is all a little more than 28 minutes. One of the important element in this album is the weird but superb orchestral arrangements  . Serge Gainsbourg is one of the most important figures of France after 60’s along with Godard and he proves with this album that he deserves to be important. Merci Mr. Cool Guy for this sexy album, now time to learn some french!

8-Lee “Scratch” Perry - Return of Pipecock Jackxon [1980] [Album]

Lee Perry is the craziest man of Jamaica , and this album was made right around the time he burnt down his legendary studio(again if I’m not wrong where he produced Bob Marley  and many legend albums)... Even you aren't a dub fan, you will love this , it is definitely my favorite Lee “Scratch” Perry album.

7-Raincoats - Odyshape 1981

Definitely one of the best  female band of all times, Raincoats moved towards into more avant-garde and experimental music with this album. Robert Wyatt and Charles Hayward did play drums in this record.

6-Erkin Koray- Mechul:Singles & Rarities (2011)

King of the Turkish Psych-Rock. Made great songs , made cheesy songs but this one here my friend is a real treasure. Totally psychedelic,weird and really unique sound. His singing is in its best too. Quality of the records is very high,totally recommended if you wanna listen a different kind of rock.

Best Reissues&Anthologies of 2011 (part two)

Now it's time for the best 5 reissue of 2011!!! Enjoy.

5- Spacemen 3 - Transparent Radiation (1987) EP

Spacemen 3 formed in the late 1982 but started to get attention in the late 80's. Transparent Radiation EP was done around the time that they were recording their second album The Perfect Prescription.

It is a 39 minutes EP.It's gonna be a cliche but it is a real musical journey,feels so powerful and alive. Psychedelic rock at its best.

Turn of the lights , put the headphones and let Spacemen 3 take you to Sun Ra,while repeat the mantra

 “ I was wide awake in my dream...”

4- Dinasour L-  24-24 /Arthur Russell - Let’s Go Swimming (1986) Single

  

Arthur Russell(1951-1992)  is a genius(also a Cellist,songwriter,singer and a producer) artist . He started to get popularity after his death.Arthur's music always sound so modern and fresh.He made many recordings under different names like Dinasour L,Indian Ocean,Felix and Loose Joints. Dinasour L is pure  avant garde disco music from New York ( a perfect saturday night album) and Let's Go Swimming is more experemintal... Delicious!!!!

3- The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psycho Candy (1985)

This noisy,poetic,scary great pop album’s 2011 edition cd has songs from Peel Sessions,which is almost better than the album version. A must have...(Sofia Coppola used the song Just Like Honey in her movie Lost in Translation). A truely alternative rock classic!

2-Disco Inferno - The 5 EPs (Anthology)

Very important experimental rock band Disco Inferno has 3 albums and 5 Eps. Thanks to "One Little Indian" , now 5 Eps are avalaible. This wonderful music comes also with very smart lyrics, for example:

"I may need dreams from time to time,
But dreams aren't keeping me alive.
My dreams have torn my life in two--
Now I just need a rock to cling to." 
from A Rock to Cling to.


 or 


 "Mediocrity surrounds you...find souveniers to show your kids." It's a Kid's World 

Imagine Durutti Column meet Steve Reich in a music studio while Spacemen 3 members were producing and serving the drinks!!!!! The band formed im the late 80’s by Ian Crause (guitar and vocals), Paul Wilmott (bass), Rob Whatley (drums). They use bells,birds,children voices and just enough amount of samples to create their insanely rich sound. The 5 EPs is an amazing anthology , truely epic .

1-Can - Tago Mago (1971)

This hugely influential album made by German Krautrock stars Can. Julian Cope wrote in his cult book Krautrocksampler that Tago Mago “sounds only like itself...”.  Damo Suzuki sings in the “non-existing” language sometimes, but that’s o.k ,we all understand what he means.

Ps: That’s Damo Suzuki&me on my profile picture on this blog.

Also Recommended

-Art of Noise- (Who’s Afraid of?) The Art of Noise (1984)

-Virgo Four - Resurrection (Anthology)

-Tom Ze Grande Liquidacao 1968

-Gray - Early Work

-The Normal - T.V.O.D + Warm Leatherette (1978)

-Chris & Cosey - Songs of Love & Lust (1984)

-The Radio Dept. - Passive Aggressive:Singles 2002-2010 (Anthology)

-Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle (1993)

PORTISHEAD LIVE 2011 VANCOUVER

Portishead has lots of meaning for me , I was almost at the end  of my teenage years. They were probably one of the most important band of the beautiful 90’s , they music was weird and their video for their most famous song Glory Box was unforgettable. That song had a important role in Bertolucci’s amazing movie Stealing Beauty. 

Their sound was probably the climax of the 90’s with Beth Gibbon’s magic vocals. We know that they don’t tour much and also they don’t go to the studio very often either. Come on now , only 3 albums in 14 years!

Finally they decided to tour three years after their latest album( Third released in 2008), after that all I have to do buy the ticket to go to see them. Despite the a little high price for the ticket , I would say it was worth it , because it was one of the best show in my life.

I never seen a show at PNE before , even though I live in walk distance I had a hard time to find the venue. Whoever organized the show was must be specialized in long line ups. Entering the venue took us 20-25 minutes because of the crazy security check and this was the first line up! Then there was a beer line up , SEVEN dollars and you get a horrible Budweiser but it was not over , there were only probably 10 mobile washrooms for about 2-3000 people. Anyways at least the acoustic of the venue was nice.

Portishead was well prepared for their show.They had tiny cameras all over the stage and at the screen there was really beautiful visual shots that would impress even Jean Luc Godard. It was mostly Beth Gibbon but sometimes it was the turntable that they use or guitar of Adrian Utley. The visuals were mostly dark,dirty and blurry and that was a perfect match with the music. 

Listening their latest album  live was quite interesting , because I heard the crazy beats of german legends Neu! in their sound especially when they perform Machine Gun,We Carry On and Nylon Smile super loud. But of course my focus was the first album(first love). First they played Sour Times from Dummy and that was actually my first favorite Portishead song. But the peak of the show was when Beth Gibbon sat on a stool and sung Wandering Star in a really dark dark spooky way. Audience stopped even breathing when she was whispering the lines “ And the time that I will suffer less

Is /when I never have to wake  /Wandering stars, for whom it is reserved/The blackness of darkness forever”.

Just watch this version that I find on youtube from their 2011 tour...Amazing!

They are planning to release a new album in January 2012 but they may postpone it to 2013 and then go to the touring 2017. Well , I sure will go see them again when they come to the town and that’s what you should do too.

Cut Hands Andy Stott

I am pretty sure there is no more evil&louder band than Whitehouse in the music history. William Bennett of the legendary Whitehouse released a solo album couple of months ago under the name of Cut Hands.

The album called Afro Noise and shows the interest of William Bennett to African political&musical
 culture.

This is no Whitehouse album , so don't be afraid but it is a psychedelic album in a different scary way. The songs has the traces of Rwandan Genocide. Bennett wants you to think about it , at least each time you listen this nightmare...

The second album is by Andy Stott , an important electronic music producer from Manchester. This is a    cheeky dub-techno album and it's called Passed Me By.

 Its vibe is similar to Cut Hands , scary&hypnotic. You have to listen this album with a very good sound system or good headphones. The bass will take you away to the electronic music hell and you can't help it. I can't imagine any club who would play any song from this album , unless everybody was drugged heavily including the DJ. What is this thing called "Dubstep"?

PIXIES 2011 TOUR

Some of you young people probably never used  a cassette tape. In the late 80’s and early 90’s casettes were the big thing.

(Please check out Thurston Moore’s book about Tape Culture for extra information!)

Anyways , one of my favorite tape was a  90 minutes one , I still remember. 

Side A  - Pixies - Doolittle

Side B- Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising

That tape was a must for me for  every boring day(they were very often) or any long bus trips(airlines were not so popular back then)...And also mix tapes were very important , and there would be a song from Pixies for sure!!!!

Pixies were a little bit too early for the music industry-so they were a little unlucky that way-, right after them the 90’s came and so does indie rock and MTV. But without Pixies , indie rock probably couldn’t exist. I could easily say , they were the Velvet Underground or Stooges of 80’s , influenced many many rock bands...

Their second album Surfer Rosa(1988) accepted as their best album but Doolittle(1989) was my all time favorite Pixies album(it was also my first Pixies tape!). Kurt Cobain was a very big fan of them ,  and Nevermind was the Doolittle and Surfer Rosa was In Utero. That’s why he requested Steve Albini(ex- Big Black) to produce In Utero. He was the producer of Surfer Rosa...

Seeing them in 2004 first time was so amazing , it was probably my best show ever and when I heard they were touring again to play the full album of Doolittle I was really excited. Show started with screening some parts of the avant-garde classic film Un Chien Andalou( thank you Dali&Bunuel). But instead of Debaser , they started with some B-Sides for Die Hard fans. It was a very well organized show big screens at the back of the stage with cool videos, they played the whole album and  at the encore  they play some classics from Surfer Rosa and it made us all very happy. 

When they played Into the White , it was probably peak of the show and the funny thing  that you couldn’t see the stage at all because of the smoke and super bright white lights. They finished with Gigantic , Kim Deal was the chatty&friendly member of the band and in my opinion she was the star of the night , even though she was kind of hiding by the drum set. Her bass worked like a machine and her voice&back vocals were angelic...

I am guessing , soon there will be a Surfer Rosa tour and more likely I will see them again and monkeys gone to heaven.

BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 (JANUARY-APRIL)

2011 started with great albums...Our souls and ears enjoying the musical feast... It will be very difficult to choose my favorite one , but Radiohead,PJ Harvey and Gil Scott-Heron& Jamie XX ( member of The XX) will be on top.  






Radiohead - King of the Limbs

 PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

 Panda Bear - Tomboy

Sonic Youth - SYR 9: Simon Werner a Disparu

Akron/Family - S/T II - The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT 

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - We're New Here

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Kurt Vile - Somek Ring for my Halo

 tUnE-yArDs - WHOKILL