Heard his one in a listening booth, but didn’t buy it. Worth the bucks if you like instrumental slammin jazz grooves. Tracks like "Want Ads One" and "..Two" are like garage (jazz) band versions of something Laurie Anderson might have done: a Dr. Sbaitso-type voice reading unsettling random want ads over a repetitive beat. If you had to place the tunes in a cinematic or programmatic context, you’d quickly slot it into a Miami Vice scene (where Tubbs & Crockett are tailing a suspect), the flute, brass and piano could be from some lonely-assed Bar Fly scene, and the samples ripped off the backing track (think police scanner chatter) of Rescue 911. Clearly the drummer is the band leader here. Why didn’t I buy it? The tunes are hauntingly still with me, but holy god… nothing rose above the emotional level of half-drunk greasy-street 3:00-in-the-morning bleak. I think a few – ahem – dynamics would be in order.
Bought the drum kit. Yikes, can I ever make a racket. The cymbals are ancient, and I’m not keen on the retro pedals. Already there are major complaints about the noise in the house. Can’t wait to get the Yamaha DTXtreme.
The other I’ve been going at for the past couple of weeks is called, “1001 Drum Grooves”. Most of it is basic snare, bass and hi-hat exercises. Spectacularly good for me. I can play 60 exercises in a row before I can’t hold the sticks anymore and have to take a rest and stretch. Holy god… am I ever learning a lot. Have just started on the Funk/Rock section am just squirrelly about getting these down. The straight rock grooves just seem like exercises in endurance. The funk ones are the serious coordination exercises.
For the past couple of months I’m been religiously practicing from the book, “The Logical Approach to Snare Drum, Volume #2″. This book in unbelievable. I spend my lunchhours doing the exercises just slapping on my lap, and in the evening with sticks on a practice pad. I think I’ve learned more from this one book than every other thing I’ve done in the past two years, including lessons.
Gonna go and check out an acoustic drumkit this evening. Will probably buy it. It’s a 1971 Slingerland, varnished maple. Full kit: snare, 3 toms, bass, hi-hat, ride, and two crashes. I wasn’t planning on buying an acoustic kit, but this offer is just too good to pass up.
God… sign me up for every album these guys put together. Some of it is so loud you can’t play it often (Sing-Sing-Sing, Fever). But when I’m in the mood… whoa. A friggin outstanding anthology, head and shouders above most of the dreck out there. The Hugh Masekela track is just outstanding; electric and electronic as all get out, but wow, they’ve retained a real raw African flavor that makes it completely organic.
My god… what happened to the good old "Death by Chocolate Days" (2001) and "Plastic Love Memory" (2002) days? I was dying to listen to this on the way home from the store. But I got 5 tracks into it and had to stop it. For fuck sakes, is that the best you can do? Took me days to get over my disappointment and listen to the rest of it. Found two good tracks: #9 and #15. (What is it with bands and track #9? I must have six CDs with track #9 being head and shoulder above the rest.) The remaining tracks I will never waste my time on again. The De-Phazz machine on autopilot.
Those two tracks though… wow. Turns out they’re mostly instrumental. I don’t think it says anything about my taste (see Verve Remixed 3 above). I’ve now listened to the whole album a second time and it’s just confirmed what I said before. Blah. Track #9 has this sound – like a growly voice behind everything else – that just kills me. Track #15, man… it has sampled vocals on it… rocks the house.
Loaned a friend this honey. As soon as I heard him say, "getting into Arabic music these days", that was it. I had to put this in his hands. After opera, this is the first album Nora reaches for. Hans Zimmer (check out his music on Batman Begins) really showed his colors on this one. It’s orchestral/rock/Arabic with Rachid Taha’s best track on it to boot. Think Afro-Celt Sound system with an horrific story to tell. A serious musical journey.
Went to HMV to buy this baby and it could only be special ordered on LP. What the hell?
This is a one of kind animal. Talk about a wall of noise… It’s as if it’s a live album with twenty musicians and hundreds of people dancing and making their own racket. One BIG party. How can such blatant cacophony give me the warm fuzzies? What the hell? This is one party I wouldn’t want to miss. On my Top Five list for months.
OK, I can’t leave this album alone. I’m trying hard to play other things, but holy shit… I listened to it twice today and it just improves every time. In the Top Three now. Think of this album as yanking the ribbons out three thousand cassette tapes and making the most gloriously delightful rats nest ever assembled. This is why record companies have to give up on expensive licences for sample artists. This is why the media has to go give it’s hydra heads a shake and stop stomping guy’s who want to snip piece of track here and there. OK, enough ranting. "Since I Left You" is a perfect example of the whole exceeding the sum of its parts. And trust me, there are a hell of a lot of parts, woven into an endless series of take-no-prisoners melodies. How’d they do this? Decide from the outset that every little noise had to have a tune? In tune? I tell you if this were pictures at an exhibition, there’d be a few Jackson Pollocks, not a little Pop Art and just to pull your guts in some unexpected directions, a little side gallery of Diane Arbus.
