Classics
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C86
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The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap
Smithsonian Folkways in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture present "nine CDs, more than 120 tracks and a 300-page book" which "captures the evolution of hip-hop from its earliest days in the late '70s up to contemporary artists of today." (All quotes from Smithsonian website). Exciting! Release date some undetermined point in 2018...
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Fly / Approximately Infinite Universe
Secretly Canadian is in the process of re-issuing Yoko Ono albums from the '70s. From Pitchfork: "It's fascinating to hear how, as [John Lennon] becomes less involved in each subsequent album, her vision widens and strengthens, both personally and politically. This development coincides with Ono's music becoming broader and more accessible. The 1971 album Fly is a natural followup to Ono's 1970 Plastic Ono Band [not to be confused with the John Lennon album of the same title, on which Ono also appears], filled with raucous freak-out jams and conceptual experiments, with lots of Lennon participation. Things take a turn on 1973's Approximately Infinite Universe, which adopts rock, glam, and funk tropes for sociopolitical protest."
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Seafaring Strangers: Private Yacht
The latest in Numero Group's consistently excellent ___faring Strangers compilation series of forgotten private press masterworks exhumed from the mists of time. This time the focus is on the crisp California rock sounds known as Yacht Rock. Enjoy!
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World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane-Turiyasangitananda
Volume one in David Byrne's label Luaka Bop's new crate-digging series, World Spirituality Classics, focuses on the work of Alice Coltrane-Turiyasangitananda. She's hardly as obscure as some of the finds unearthed by Luaka Bop for their World Psychedelic Classics series, but if you haven't heard it, it's new to you.
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Hamburg Recordings 1967
Monks, in addition to the trivia of their MN connection, were one of the best, most distinctive bands that flourished in the brief mid-'60s heyday of proto-punky garage-rock. This collection more or less doubles their officially released material, for which we should all be thankful.
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I Hear a New World
An electroacoustic pop oddity from 1961, credited to Joe Meek (who's been described as England's Phil Spector), and sounding a little like if The Chipmunks lived in an Ennio Morricone dream sequence.
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I Am Sitting In A Room
A fascinating and singular piece of music. British pan-avant music magazine The Wire says, "Lucier is the undoubted genius of process music; and this is his masterpiece." The entirety of the album is built out of repeated playbacks and re-recordings of Lucier describing the process by which he will make the album, the sonic characteristics of the room affecting each successive recording slightly more than the last. You might be forgiven for getting ten minutes in and thinking that it sounds basically the same, but more reverby. However, to once again quote The Wire, "With each repetition, the frequencies of Lucier's voice that most closely match the room's resonant frequencies are enhanced, and soon he becomes incomprehensible, only the dim memory of his text animating glistening spools of sound. The music is its own score, but it's not the formal simplicity of technique that impresses the most. Towards the end, once Lucier has gone and only the inarticulate room remains, it's a gorgeous and quite extraordinary experience."
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Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed
Seriously? How is this not already a movie? A shipwreck full of synthesizers on an island with limited electricity off the coast of Africa in 1968? And... and... I don't even want to spoil it for you. For real, read the liner notes! It's The Gods Must Be Crazy meets the X-Files only set during a Vietnam-era rebellion againt a repressive colonial government. Plus it's got grooves and hooks to spare. It's the only behind-the-music story I know that might even top that of Leon Theremin. A tremendous find for the crate-digging label Analog Africa. If there's any justice, they'll be getting a lot more exposure when the movie version is lining up its Oscar noms.
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Boombox 1
The UK's Soul Jazz Records just keeps spitting out fascinating compilations. Boombox, the latest, promises "Early independent Hip Hop, Electro and Disco Rap 1979-82."
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The Sun Rock Box
While there were numerous other important labels, and artists not represented here, the early evolution of Rock & Roll gets extensively covered through the lens of Sun Records in this exhaustive 8 disc set. Also includes a mammoth hardcover book filled with stories and photos. Sun Records' non-Rock contributions are covered in the equally magnificent Sun Blues Box and Sun Country Box.
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The Complete Them (1964-1967)
Glo-o-o-o-ria!