Spykes - Schizo Style

One of many projects from Wolf Eyes' John Olson. The sounds here dart back and forth, looping and taunting at a frenetic pace. Appropriate to the title. Artwork is by the always lovely The Walking Body Bag. Something fun and different.

A. Schizo One
B. Schizo Two

mp3/192kbps

Sun Ra - Lanquidity

Stands alone in the vast discography of Sun Ra. Plodding, fuzzy bass lines give passage to an intense, swirling and intoxicated atmosphere. The music here has almost perceptible colour, and truly seems to direct the listener towards (and perhaps into) another plane. It is easy to become lost in the lanquidity. Richard Williams' bass and Eddie Gales' trumpet are exceptional here, as are Dale Williams' guitar and, as ever, John Gilmore's tenor saxophone. Ra himself, flirting sensuously with tonality, shows us the transportive powers of his synthesiser. "They wish to speak you..."

A1. Lanquidity
A2. Where Pathways Meet
A3. That's How I Feel
B1. Twin Stars Of Thence
B2. There Are Other Worlds (They Have No Told You Of)

flac/24-bit

Yazoo - Alabama Blues, 1927-1931

An excellent early compilation of Alabama bluesmen from the unrivaled Yazoo label. The bulk of the albums tracks are the work of Clifford Gibson and Edward Thompson, who both have unique styles and some staggeringly enjoyable songs. Gibson, in particular, was unique as a musician. The liner notes state: "the semi-improvisatory [sic] nature of his guitars licks makes his style, like Blind Lemon Jefferson's, somewhat inimitable" and that "all of Gibson's solos featured instrumental breaks which were, more often than not, absent from other country blues." Musically, Thompson is just as interesting: "all of [his] blues are in the key of E, he avoids monotony by changing his vocal delivery from piece to piece, as Blind Lemon Jefferson did." Certainly a case emerges for the depth of Jefferson's effortless talents, though each musician (as well as others featured) is very much his own man. Other notable highlights are Ed Bell's guitar work on "Mean Conductor Blues", which chimes with locomotive regularity under Bell's expressive vocal, and Marshall Owens' "Try Me One More Time"—a truly exception song that speaks for itself.

A1. Barefoot Bill - Snigglin' Blues
A2. Clifford Gibson - Don't Put That Thing On Me
A3. Jay Bird Coleman - Coffee Grinder Blues
A4. Edward Thompson - Seven Sister Blues
A5. Ed Bell - Mean Conductor Blues
A6. Clifford Gibson - Tired Of Being Mistreated, Pt. 2
A7. Edward Thompson - Florida Bound
B1. Clifford Gibson - Keep Your Windows Pinned
B2. Edward Thompson - West Virginia Blues
B3. Clifford Gibson - Whiskey Moan Blues
B4. Edward Thompson - Showers Of Rain Blues
B5. Marshall Owens - Try Me One More Time
B6. Marshall Owens - Texas Blues
B7. George "Bullet" Williams - The Escaped Convict

mp3/320kbps

Blind Lemon Jefferson - King Of The Country Blues

Presented by the Yazoo label as an "in-depth documentary" of the great blues singer. The effect of this compilation of single sides on the imagination proves this accurate: very similar to reading Xenophon or Homer; while we visualise how radically different the world of the author may have been, we are struck with the overwhelming human immediacy of the works, which baffle us with ascendant simplicity, truth and pain ("the blues ain't nothin' but a good woman on your mind"). Jefferson's cousin said of him: "They were rough. Men were hustling women and selling bootleg and Lemon was singing for them all night... he'd start singing about eight and go on until four in the morning... mostly it would be just him sitting there and playing and singing all night." Jefferson would serenade criminals, bootleggers, hard drinking, near down-and-out men. The powerful dread of these songs is combined with the feeling of living life in spite of these circumstances: pain shared is some antidote to pain felt, and from death ("See That My Grave is Kept Clean"), to heartbreak ("Easy Rider Blues"), to alcoholism ("Broke and Hungry"), there is pain a-plenty on show here. 

1. That Crawlin' Baby Blues
2. Bad Luck Blues
3. Matchbox Blues
4. Hot Dogs
5. One Dime Blues
6. Shuckin' Sugar
7. Rabbit Foot Blues
8. Corrina Blues
9. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
10. Easy Rider Blues
11. Broke And Hungry
12. Black Horse Blues
13. Lonesome House Blues
14. Oil Well Blues
15. He Arose From The Dead
16. Beggin' Back
17. Prison Cell Blues
18. Rambler Blues
19. Gone Dead On You Blues
20. Wartime Blues
21. Booger Rooger Blues
22. Right Of Way Blues
23. Big Night Blues

mp3/320kbps

Bob Dylan - Tempest

Tempest is Dylan's latest collection of original material to date, and is a peak in his later career. The casual, jangling blues style underwriting Dylan's cool, wisened tenor is at its finest here. We climb into Dylan's semi-fictional mind world, inhabited by surly sinister characters ("I've been down and around, with the rowdy men", "Two-timin' Slim, who's ever heard of him?") and never ending encounters with transient heartbreaking women ("I could stone you death, for the wrongs that you done", "I ain't afraid to make love to a bitch or a hag"). Dylan long ago shed the lofty expectations certain elements held of him after his early career; there is a sense of relief and freedom here. The title track is a long, mesmerising account of the sinking of that ship; time slips away as we listen and feel for Dylan's various characters, who pass away in rhyme and in reality with the closing of the song. One thinks of Woody Guthrie's "1913 Blues", which surely had a profound effect on the formative Dylan. "Murder Most Foul", released yesterday, builds on foundations laid here: an extended, dream-like exegesis of an historical event. From his juvenile years this has been a singular talent of Dylan's, building into his own legend the dream-reality of American myth.

1. Duquesne Whistle
2. Soon After Midnight
3. Narrow Way
4. Long And Wasted Years
5. Pay In Blood
6. Scarlet Town
7. Early Roman Kings
8. Tin Angel
9. Tempest
10. Roll On John

flac, 16-bit