Independent Music Podcast #32 24/01/11
Independent Music Podcast #32 24/01/11 by Independent Music Podcast on Mixcloud
50 for 2010 - Gareth #1
Well, after 24 records I’ve pulled out to celebrate for 2010, here’s the final one.
Pierre Raph - Jeunes Filles Impudiques (Finders Keepers)
Out of all the incredible releases of 2010, it’s little surprise that my favourite comes from the ever incredible Finders Keepers Records.
Jeunes Filles Impudiques is the soundtrack to the long-lost Parisian skin flick and this sexy 7” gives more pleasure than most erotic films. From the incessant tribal drumming of ‘Gilda & Gunshots’ to the swinging brass finale five tracks later of ‘Schoolgirl Hitchhikers’, this EP is, for me, the most enjoyable release of the year. I hope you enjoy it too.
LISTEN TO PIERRE RAPH - JEUNES FILLES IMPUDIQUES ON SPOTIFY
Gareth’s favourite records of 2010:
Various Artists - Thai Beat a Go Go (Subliminal Sounds)
Young Prisms - Young Prisms EP (Mexican Summer)
Thus:Owls - Cardiac Malformations (Almost Musique)
Konono No.1 - Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs)
The Jellies - Jive Baby on a Saturday Night (Trunk)
Maria & the Mirrors - Omar (Parlour)
Various Artists – Soundway Records Presents The World Ends Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria
Starkey - OK Luv (Planet Mu)
Kenny Graham and His Satellites – Moondog And Suncat Suites (Trunk)
Leona Anderson - Music to Suffer By (Trunk)
Jacky Chalard - Superman, Supercool (Cache Cache)
Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime (In the Red)
The Budos Band - The Budos Band III (Daptone)
Various Artists - Pomegranates (Finders Keepers)
Pretty Lights - High School Art Class (self-release)
Gold Panda - Snow & Taxis (Throwing Snow Remix) (Ghostly International)
Basil Kirchin - Primitive London (Trunk)
Tobacco - Maniac Meat (Anticon)
Various Artists - Study Series (Ghost Box)
Drum Eyes - Gira Gira (Upset the Rhythm)
Sam Spence - Sam Spence Sounds (Finders Keepers)
The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (Domino)
Master Musicians of Bukkake - Theme From The Science Fiction Television Show “Ban Be Cua Anh Ay” (Conspiracy)
Soft Healer - Movie Light (Captured Tracks)
Pierre Raph - Jeunes Filles Impudiques (Finders Keepers)
50 for 2010 - Gareth #5
So we’re at the top five. Are you excited? No, me neither, but there is goodness included…
Sam Spence - Sam Spence Sounds (Finders Keepers)
This record wasn’t going to make my list. This slot was going to be taken by the fantastic Cloud Cuckooland comp from Finders Keepers but a few things have changed my mind. First, the fact that we opened this week’s podcast with ‘Wie Ein Blitz’ from this album and second, that Anthony was guaranteed to have it in his list, and has been poor at keeping up with the ‘daily shoutout’ format of the blog.
Needless to say, this is an incredible record. Described by the label as ‘a peculiar piece in the komplicated [sic] krautrock puzzle’, Sam Spence is an American from Berlin, or perhaps a German from San Francisco. Either way, he is an American ex pat who was studying music in Berlin in the 1970s and has a story that I could crudely edit, but would prefer you to read in the liner notes form:
Born in San Francisco in 1927 Samuel Lloyd Spence is a peculiar piece in the komplicated krautrock puzzle.
As an American expat working in a community of German rock musicians in the early 70s Spence shared his alien status with the likes of David Johnson and Malcolm Mooney (Can), Carole Muriel (Brainticket), Maria Archer (Embryo), Bill Barone (Wallenstein) and the band Sweet Smoke, but in Spence’s case it wasn’t the free-love and communal living that attracted him to Germanic pastures - Spence’s European travel plan was academic.
Over a decade earlier Spence had travelled from California to Paris to study “serious music” composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique with the great composers Arthur Honegger and Francis Poulenc where he conducted alongside Jean Fournier. After settling in Europe he would later make his way to Austria and later Germany in search of a supportive community of symphony orchestras to help him develop music for film and television. Due to Communism it became difficult for Spence to enter the classical epicentre of Eastern Berlin so he settled for Munich.
Throughout the mid 60s Spence kept his hand in popular music via his US connections. His original roots playing clarinet and sax in Californian swing bands had lead to paid work sending compositions to commercial Hollywood groups which lead to a part time interest in electronic instruments and the development of the synthesiser. To balance his classical composition Spence was able to use his Hollywood credentials to score German TV commissions making dozens of groovy symphonic scores with electronic flourishes and towards the end of the decade, with the help of a long term contract composing motivational music for the National Football League, Spence had raised enough capital to bring one of the very first Moog sythesisers to Germany.
While in Munich Spence met an American disc jockey called Mal Sondock who had recently struck a production deal with a new German pop music label called Kuckuck. Sondock introduced Spence to a 24 year old Eckart Rahn who owned the record company and after an initial agreement to release a single of Spence’s soundtrack to the Francis Durbridge thriller series entitled ‘WIE EIN BLITZ’ (‘Like Lightning’) the pair discussed the idea of recording an LP of electronic music which would appeal to ambient and experimental enthusiasts who were searching for cosmic sounds after the rise of krautrock bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. After the release of two moog-fuelled singles including a cover version of Focus’ 1972 hit single ‘Sylvia’ Rahn agreed to release Spence’s debut LP of synthesiser based pop music which would sit amongst his eclectic Kuckuck roster including the minimal electronic pulses of Deuter, the experimental field recordings of Ernst Schultz and the avant-garde releases of Peter Michael Hamel and Terry Riley.
Signed exclusively to Kuckuck in Germany Rahn recognised the potential in Spence’s synthesiser music amongst production music circles and television advertising companies so he struck up deals throughout Europe with library labels such as Brull and Dewolfe who would distribute Spence’s LPs and sublicense new Sam Spence recordings from Kuckuck for potential commercial usage. This included a whole LP of entirely electronic tracks entitled ‘The Art Of The Sythesiser’ on which he used a Moog 55 to stunning effect creating melodic pastoral pop music, freakish suspense themes and a selection of short bursts of bubbling ‘Moog Shots’ which would soon find their way into crime thrillers and action films (such as Taylor Wong’s Kung Fu fantasy film “Ru Lai Shen Zhang”)
Having continued to expand his successful career in symphonic music Sam would, by the end of the 1970s, return to orchestral film music seizing further opportunities to work as a composer recording over 500 cues for films made by the NFL back in his native USA. For vinyl junkies Spence’s American Football music existed on a series Library records manufactured by NFL until it was finally commercially released in the mid-90s. Still residing in Germany, the country where he can find the best orchestras, Spence continues to make theme music. In recent years he has been heard on shows like The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond, King Of Queens, Saturday Night Live, FBI’s Most Wanted, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Sponge Bob and several TV and radio commercials.
LISTEN TO SAM SPENCE - SAM SPENCE SOUNDS ON SPOTIFY
Gareth’s 25 of 2010 so far
Various Artists - Thai Beat a Go Go (Subliminal Sounds)
Young Prisms - Young Prisms EP (Mexican Summer)
Thus:Owls - Cardiac Malformations (Almost Musique)
Konono No.1 - Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs)
The Jellies - Jive Baby on a Saturday Night (Trunk)
Maria & the Mirrors - Omar (Parlour)
Various Artists – Soundway Records Presents The World Ends Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria
Starkey - OK Luv (Planet Mu)
Kenny Graham and His Satellites – Moondog And Suncat Suites (Trunk)
Leona Anderson - Music to Suffer By (Trunk)
Jacky Chalard - Superman, Supercool (Cache Cache)
Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime (In the Red)
The Budos Band - The Budos Band III (Daptone)
Various Artists - Pomegranates (Finders Keepers)
Pretty Lights - High School Art Class (self-release)
Gold Panda - Snow & Taxis (Throwing Snow Remix) (Ghostly International)
Basil Kirchin - Primitive London (Trunk)
Tobacco - Maniac Meat (Anticon)
Various Artists - Study Series (Ghost Box)
Drum Eyes - Gira Gira (Upset the Rhythm)
50 for 2010 - Gareth #12
I have a number of new releases to shout about today but before I do that, here’s the next amazing musical thing from this year:
Various Artists - Pomegranates (Finders Keepers)
Without doubt one of the best compilations of the year (indeed The Quietus named it their 12th favourite reissue or compilation of the year this week), Pomegranates is a collection of Persian funk, folk, psych and idiosyncratic pop gems from the 60s and 70s. It is truly a mesmerising collection.
But as with many of these records, the liner notes reveal more insight than I ever could, so read on:
It’s no accident that the phoenix is an exalted moral, mythical, and figurative symbol in Iran. Like the phoenix, Iranian culture is in constant flux and, at times, elusive, with its existential wavering and blurred panoramas. Most of contemporary Iran’s artistic and creative leanings, its grapples with history and identity, are loosely and mystically conjoined and contested in memory. Iran is marked by the complex interplay of diverse constituencies, philosophies, and influences: ethnic, religious, political, geopolitical and historical. The glorification of pre-Islamic antiquity (in search of authentication) marked the socio-cultural attitude of a bygone era and is witnessing revival in the present day. The discordant reality of eastern traditions complicated by the rampant confusions of modernity has become a norm in Persian dialogue, not to mention revolution, exile, and diaspora. Like many other countries, the Sixties and Seventies were a time of tumult in Iran, bringing growth (via petrodollars) and freedom (under the banner of socioeconomic development) while exacerbating inequalities within the country.
My personal favourite track is the brilliantly titled ‘Soul Raga’ by Mehrpouya. Listen to it below:
BUY VARIOUS ARTISTS - POMEGRANATES
Gareth’s 25 of 2010 so far
Various Artists - Thai Beat a Go Go (Subliminal Sounds)
Young Prisms - Young Prisms EP (Mexican Summer)
Thus:Owls - Cardiac Malformations (Almost Musique)
Konono No.1 - Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs)
The Jellies - Jive Baby on a Saturday Night (Trunk)
Maria & the Mirrors - Omar (Parlour)
Various Artists – Soundway Records Presents The World Ends Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria
Starkey - OK Luv (Planet Mu)
Kenny Graham and His Satellites – Moondog And Suncat Suites (Trunk)
Leona Anderson - Music to Suffer By (Trunk)
Jacky Chalard - Superman, Supercool (Cache Cache)
Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime (In the Red)
The Budos Band - The Budos Band III (Daptone)
50 for 2010 - Gareth #15
Jacky Chalard - Superman, Supercool (Cache Cache)
One of many fantastic records the prolific Finders Keepers put out in 2010. Cache Cache is a new label that is “dedicated to seeking out shyly excitable pop music from the not too distant past,” and their second release is an absolute gem.
French funk jazz fusion is one way of describing the incredible ‘Superman, Supercool’, originally released in 1978, listen below and hear for yourself.
Gareth’s 25 of 2010 so far
Various Artists - Thai Beat a Go Go (Subliminal Sounds)
Young Prisms - Young Prisms EP (Mexican Summer)
Thus:Owls - Cardiac Malformations (Almost Musique)
Konono No.1 - Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs)
The Jellies - Jive Baby on a Saturday Night (Trunk)
Maria & the Mirrors - Omar (Parlour)
Various Artists – Soundway Records Presents The World Ends Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria
Starkey - OK Luv (Planet Mu)
Kenny Graham and His Satellites – Moondog And Suncat Suites (Trunk)
Leona Anderson - Music to Suffer By (Trunk)
Some phenomenal French funk for you here. If you were listening intently to last week’s Finders Keepers mix, you would have heard an excerpt from this track from Jacky Chalard. Entitled ‘Superman, Supercool’, this is an epic 8-minute slab of pure, unadulterated funk goodness, released on Finders Keepers as a maxi single on gorgeous yellow vinyl.
It really is something special and I hope you agree.
Finders Keepers Quietus Mix
Finders Keepers: A Quietus Mix by theQuietus
A perfect Friday mix for you this morning thanks to the coming together of two of my favourite musical people - Finders Keepers Records (mentioned frequently in the podcast) and best music website by a mile The Quietus. This is a mix by Dom Thomas - one third of the label - showcasing recent and forthcoming releases on the label.
Read more about the mix and the tracks included on The Quietus website.
