arDATE = new Array( "August 2005" ) arARTIST = new Array( "Climax Golden Twins", "Mote", "Theta Wave State", "Tall Bald Grandfather", "Secret Stars", "Iron Curtain", "Scritti Politti", "Ike Yard", "Lush", "Pale Saints", "Scarling", "Velocity Girl", "Ja Kki", "Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton", "The Nutty Squirrels", "Eleventh Episode", "Huey 'Piano' Smith and the Clowns", "The Nutmegs", "Richard Hayman", "Eartha Kitt", "MB (Maurizio Bianchi)", "thefatrooster", "hungryhippo1970", "John Fahey", "Muudo", "Ilhan Mimaroglu", "Ronnie Gann", "Gigi Gryce & Donald Byrd", "Duet Emmo", "Various Artists", "Crispy Ambulance" ) arTRACK = new Array( "1. Dead People", "1.1 Battery", "2. Symmetry", "1.2 Broadcast", "2. Shoe In", "1.1 Tarantula Scream", "3. 28-8-78", "1.1 M. Kurtz", "1.3 Scarlet", "1.2 Baby Maker", "A Side", "1. I Don't Care If You Go", "Side A", "Side A", "Side B", "Side B", "Side A", "Side A", "Body and Soul", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", "Industrial Murder", "thefatrooster", "hungryhippo1970", "Record 1, Side 1", "M68", "Part I (excerpt)", "Part 1, excerpt", "Xtacy", "Side B", "E1: Spring Heel Jack", "A: Deaf" ) arTITLE = new Array( "Highly Bred and Sweetley Tempered", "Speed of Glasses", "-", "Broken Wallpaper", "Genealogies", "Tarantula Scream", "Early", "A Secon A Fact", "Scar", "Half Life", "Crispin Glover", "EP", "Sun...Sun...Sun...", "Hound Dog", "Uh, Oh! Part 2", "Excuses", "Don't You Just Know It", "Story Untold", "Tender Moments", "That Bad Eartha!", "Industrial Murder/Menstrual Bleeding", "thefatrooster", "hungryhippo1970", "Morning, PArt 1", "No Title", "Tract", "The Wonderful World of ESP", "-", "Heart of Hearts (Or So It Seems)", "Root", "Unsightly and Serene" ) arLABEL = new Array( "North East Indie", "Black Bean and Placenta", "North of January", "Mrs. Tuis' Records", "Shrimper", "-", "Rough Trade", "Factory America", "4AD", "4AD", "Sympathy for the Record Industry", "Slumberland", "Pyramid", "Peacock", "Hanover", "Playime", "Ace", "Herald", "Time Series 2000", "RCA", "Banned", "thefatrooster", "hungryhippo1970", "Perfect", "No Label", "Folkways", "Musicor", "Josie", "Mute", "Lo Recordings", "Factory" ) arFORMAT = new Array( "CD", "LP", "LP", "LP", "CD", "12-inch EP", "CD", "12-inch EP", "12-inch EP", "12-inch EP", "7-inch Single", "CD EP", "Disco 12-inch single", "78 RPM 10-inch", "45 RPM 7-inch", "33 RPM 7-inch", "45 RPM 7-inch", "45 RPM 7-inch", "LP", "10-inch LP", "LP", "thefatrooster", "hungryhippo1970", "10-inch 78 RPM album", "cassette", "LP", "LP", "LP", "12-inch Single", "5LP Boxed Set", "10-inch LP" ) arDESC = new Array( "Climax Golden Twins is a Seattle, WA based experimental collage outfit originally consisting of Rob Millis and Jeffery Taylor, then picking up Scott Colburn in 1996. The group's earliest material was recorded in 1993 but wasn't released until their 1996 album Imperial Household Orchestra. In 1994 they started Fire Breathing Turtle to distribute their work along with audio exotica, especially their ongoing “Victrola Favorites,' complations of rare 78s from around the world. With numerous tapes, CDRs, mini-CDs, singles, side and solo projects, audiophile records and other aural collectables, being a CGT fan is no simple, or inexpensive, task. Early CGT albums Climax Golden Hiss (1995) and Imperial Houshold Orchestra (1996) offer a glimpse into their unique world of lo-fi collage -- organic, acoustic instruments mix with found sounds, electronics, and clips of sampled exotica. Their fascination with bygone days of phonography begins here, and their quirky sense of humor is already present as well. Locations (1998) focuses on voice and found sound. Dream Cut Short In The Mysterious Clouds (Anomalous, 2000), is a studio album that returns to their earlier formula with random noise-punk interludes, dreamy scapes and acoustics mixed with field recordings.Also in 2000 was the album known as “TheRock Album' (Fire Breathing Turtle), a critically acclaimed tongue and cheek foray into the rock mindset, with a nod to prog rock and the math rockers who loved it.Session 9 arrived in 2001 and is one of CGT's many music for film projects, a weird, haunted mix of non-objective soundscaping. Lovely (Anomalous, 2002) reworked older material. (^ Highly Bred and Sweetly Tempered appeared in 2004 and contains a collection of samples from eerie 78s, found speech, excellent Godspeed You Black Emperor style apocalyptic post-rock and shimmery guitar tracks. Member Rob Millis put out Leaf Music Drunks Distant Drums - Recordings from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar also in 2004. Scott Colburn owns and engineers at Seattle's Gravelvoice Studios and Jeffery Taylor owns and runs Seattle's Wall of Sound record store. The band shares a special kinship with one of the city's most famous cult bands -- The Sun City Girls and have worked since their inception to support the American experimental music underground.", "A beautiful album from this band from Bruges, Belgium - a place that seems to be a hotbed for this kind of music. Another gem from your friedns at Blackbean and Placenta records... ", "With atmospheric guitar sweeps, hazy vocals and carefully constructed noise, the post-rock of Theta Wave State is consistently psychedelic, but powerfully attentive. Which makes sense given the meaning of the band¹s name: a blurring of the line between sleep and consciousness. And with influences like Sonic Youth, Stereolab, and My Bloody Valentine, it¹s no wonder that Theta Wave State has taken on such a hypnotic approach. After a two-year stint with a lead vocalist and an attempt to play without a bassist, the band began toying with alternate guitar tunings and effects pedals. Iadevaia was acquired and their vocalist departed. With vocal duties now shared by Hanna and Hamedani, Theta Wave State was ready to rock. Theta Wave State has released a 3 song 12-inch, presented here, as well as The Freedom Downtime soundtrack for the documentary on famed computer hacker Kevin Mitnick. Theta Wave State also tours under the name Asobi Seksu. They have played many shows up and down the east coast including the great NYC clubs such as CBGB's and the main stage at the Knitting Factory.", "Obscure and wonderful, this local band immediately calls to mind Mauve Sideshow and Kangaroo Court.", "Concurrent with his work in the emo band Karate, in mid-1993 singer/guitarist Geoff Farina formed the Boston-based lo-fi folk-pop duo the Secret Stars with best friend Jodi Buonanno. Imagined more as an ongoing media project than a traditional band, they self-released their eponymous debut cassette in 1994, re-releasing the material on the Shrimper label the following year. Farina spent much of the mid-1990s focusing on Karate, and as a result no new Secret Stars material was forthcoming prior to the 1998 release of the LP Genealogies; a seven-inch, 'Abner Louima,' appeared later that same year.", "This band from Santa BArbara mnanaged to release some of the most sought after indie synth-pop records from the early 80's. This EP recently traded on eBay for over $400. As far as I know, this has not been reissued anywhere, so you're unlikely to hear this anywhere but here anytime soon. Dark, gloom, monotine vocals and a cold, robotic beat. ", "Scritti Politti is the primary vehicle for Welsh singer/songwriter Green Gartside. Few figures in pop music can claim Gartside's distinctive credentials: an artist who began in London's subcutaneous underground in the late '70s but ultimately rose to the top of the U.K. pop charts, a serious devotee of linguistic structuralism who can hold his own in a conversation with his friend, arch deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, and a handsome, dreamy-eyed gentleman who has, in the opinion of one critic, 'a voice that's eternally 14 years old' yet nonetheless stands six foot six in his stocking feet.Gartside grew up in South Wales, a brainy underachiever and, in his teen years, a member of the Young Communist League. Through the League he met future Scritti Politti bassist Nial Jinks. Gartside earned a scholarship to Leeds Art College, where he made the acquaintance of Scritti's future drummer, Tom Morley. In June 1978 Gartside and Morley dropped out of school and took up a flat in London, and Gartside invited Jinks to come out and join them. Inspired by the example of another little-known English group of that time, Desperate Bicycles, Scritti Politti made their first record when they were barely three months old, hand printing the covers and rubber-stamping the labels themselves. This record, Skank Bloc Bologna, sold a surprising 2,500 copies in this handmade edition. Afterward, Rough Trade took it over, ultimately moving about 15,000 copies of the title. Although listed as a member of the group on records and in photographs, Matthew Kay was the band's business manager and had little to contribute to Scritti Politti's music. At this stage, Scritti Politti's sound was scrappy, taut, and forthrightly experimental in style, utilizing abrupt changes, rhythmic displacements, and gritty and discordant harmonies tempered by Gartside's sweet vocalizing of impenetrably obscure lyrics, vaguely political in sense but temporal and abstract in meaning. Yet there was something catchy about what they were doing that stuck with the listener, and Rough Trade in particular was very excited about it. In quick succession, Rough Trade released the 12' EP 4 A-Sides (also known as Pre-Langue EP) and a four-track single of Scritti Politti's second Peel Session. The band was then added to a U.K. tour featuring Gang of Four and Joy Division, but Gartside was consumed by stage fright and anxiety, leading to his first heart attack at age 23. After completing the tour, Gartside decided to take a year off from music and returned to South Wales to refresh himself.When Gartside returned, it was a with a new Scritti Politti sound, now centered in pop but still retaining the obscure lyrical elements. A demo track, 'The Sweetest Girl,' was issued on a giveaway cassette in conjunction with an issue of NME, and it soon proved extremely popular in England. While the finished single of 'The Sweetest Girl' did not appear for several months, sapping some of the momentum gained by the pre-release, the follow-up album, Songs to Remember, was issued to considerable critical acclaim in September 1981. The album made it to number one on the U.K. independent album chart and number six on the main U.K. pop chart. By this time, however, the band had fallen apart, and the last original member, drummer Tom Morley, departed that November. Gartside once again took time out to review his position, and in the meantime a bidding war began among major labels for his talents.Gartside had spent some time in New York on holiday during the making of Songs to Remember and had met another aspiring Rough Trade songwriter, David Gamson, who in turn introduced him to the drummer from Material, Fred Maher. They began to record as Scritti Politti in 1983 in sessions produced by Nile Rodgers, but Gartside decided, rightly, that Rough Trade didn't have the kind of budget that could support the type of pop music that he was then interested in pursuing. With Gartside and Rough Trade parting ways, the Rodgers-produced sessions never saw the light of day. After negotiating with various labels, including Atlantic Records, Gartside finally settled on an offer made by Virgin. Then he, Gamson, and Maher began slowly recording the group of singles that ultimately made up Cupid & Psyche 85.Cupid & Psyche 85, released in June of 1985, was a landmark album in many respects. No prior pop album had integrated the techniques of sampling and sequencing to such a great degree, and the technology of that time was both expensive to use and barely up to the task Scritti Politti demanded of it. Gartside's typically high-flown verbiage was as evident here as anywhere, but you didn't need to understand what he sang in order to enjoy the music. Certain songs are dialogues between Gartside and a female singer; as such, 'A Little Knowledge' is a rare pop song that retains the characteristics of a mini-tragedy. Likewise, the bonus track of 'Flesh and Blood,' featuring Jamaican rapper Ann Swinton, sounds remarkably fresh and contemporary 20 years on. But the big hits from Cupid & Psyche 85 were 'Wood Beez' and 'The Word Girl' in the U.K., and 'The Perfect Way' in the U.S., which reached number 11 in the Billboard Hot 100 and got heavy rotation on MTV. Not many albums from smack in the middle of the 'Big '80s' can be said to possess the quality of timelessness, but Cupid & Psyche 85 most certainly does. The innovative aspects of Cupid & Psyche 85 were not lost on other musicians, who absorbed the technological lessons therein so quickly that few, if any, critics stopped to take note of where these ideas originally came from. After touring and promoting Cupid & Psyche 85, Gartside took some time off to work with other artists, notably Chaka Khan. Scritti Politti returned in 1988 with a new album, Provision, of which the intended hit, 'Boom! There She Was,' featured the talents of the late Roger Troutman. Provision found favor in the U.K., but had no effect whatsoever in the U.S., and worse, Gartside was personally unhappy with the album. By this time Gartside's stage fright had caused him to abandon live performance altogether, and the only promotional outlet for him was to do a grueling round of local talk shows answering dumb questions from interviewers who hadn't the slightest clue about Gartside or his work. Disgusted with music as a whole, Gartside dropped from sight again, and this time he did so for nearly a decade.Released in 1999, Anomie & Bonhomie marked Gartside and Scritti Politti's return to music, and it shows that he had by no means lost touch with current trends, working with rappers Mos Def and Jimahl and extending the Scritti Politti compass to include a full-blown hip-hop sound. It was a fine comeback effort, but received only a lukewarm response from the public. One can only hope that Gartside can keep at it, as while bands may come and bands may go, there is only one Green Gartside, a popular artist of rare integrity, poetry, and intelligence.

The U.S. misunderstood a lot of foreign bands during the '70s and '80s. Ask fans of Gang of 'I Love a Man in a Uniform' Four or pre-stadium Simple Minds, and they'll be happy to bitterly confirm it. Ask the average music fan who came of age during Scritti Politti's mainstream peak and he or she is likely to recall a one-hit wonder (wrong), a Color Me Badd precursor that appeared out of thin air (wrong again and yet again). Cupid & Psyche 85's end-to-end brilliance is another argument, but when that album was on the charts, few stateside listeners knew that Scritti Politti had a history. Several years before 'Perfect Way,' Scritti were post-punks who made frail political songs with guitars as linear as a balled-up entanglement of holiday lights, a rhythm section as slantwise as it was dubwise, and boyish vocals as sweet as they were hesitant. Though the voice of central member Green Gartside would eventually lose the latter characteristic, it seems to have remained a part of his personality. This disc, a compilation of his group's first four singles/EPs, wouldn't exist if he hadn't been badgered so much. Reading his liner notes that double as a disclaimer, it's not hard to understand why, because he's not off base when he says, 'It sounds like some anti-produced labour of negativity, kind of structurally unsound and exposed, by design and default.' However, it's these factors that help make the songs unpredictable, exciting, and ultimately thrilling -- hear the lazy lurch and hypnotic spirals in 'Skank Bloc Bologna,' the barely controlled tangents and tempo shifts in 'Is and Ought the Western World,' and all the retractions and stammering in 'Messthetics,' all seemingly happenstance works of sloppy borderline genius. 'Hegemony,' just as crucial, begins as a sprightly love song to a woman with an exotic name ('The fairest creature that ever I have seen') before turning into a seething rant against, well, hegemony ('You are the foulest creature that set apart a race'). It's not all leftist ideals and prone seams, though, with the inclusion of 'The Sweetest Girl' and 'Lions After Slumber,' two glorious nudges toward the bright-eyed soul that was bubbling under the whole time. The sound of the recordings, mastered from vinyl, is vibrant enough to trick listeners into thinking that the masters were never 'lost.'", "New York quartet Ike Yard mixed vocals not unlike the zombie mutterings of a bum in the subway (and barely more intelligible) with spurts of electronic noise to create minimalist 'music' with a funny sort of force. The recorded emphasis was on percussion and rhythm, although there are traces of pitch, courtesy assorted drones and grunts. By and large, the sounds resemble audio vérité — street noises, howling winds, guns, clanging doors — more so on A Fact a Second, the preceding EP being more musical.

Stuart Arbright (né Argabright) followed Ike Yard with Dominatrix. The charming and catchy club hit consists of passionless dada femme recitation over light, atmospheric music with scratch mix effects by producer Ivan Ivan and Ken Lockie of Cowboys International. The 12-inch offers two full-scale versions plus two additional remixes ('Chants' and 'Beat Me').

With Lockie as co-producer, Arbright then launched the Death Comet Crew with a 12-inch electro-funk exercise that's not as exceptional as Dominatrix, but still amusing and offbeat. 'At the Marble Bar' offers a varied collection of percussion sounds; 'Exterior St.' has rap vocals by Rammellzee; 'Funky Dream' is an amusingly reductionist cut-up edit of the word 'funky.'

Taking a rocking Billy Idolish approach without much dance-club potential, Arbright and the rest of the DCC crew — guitarist Michael Diekmann and bassist Shinichi Shimokawa — did a nice cover of Van Morrison's 'Mystic Eyes' on the Death Comet 12-inch, sticking a similar-sounding but inferior original on the flip.

Argabright has since done what he calls 'Haitian cyber voudou' as the Voodooists and post-punk in a band called Black Rain. He remains active as a producer and remixer.", "Meshing dreamy, feedback-drenched guitars with airy, catchy melodies, Lush were one of the most prominent shoegazing bands of the early '90s. Led by guitarists Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson, the British band earned a cult following within the British and American undergrounds with its first EPs, yet the group never quite attained the critical respect given to its peers My Bloody Valentine and Ride. Even so, Lush lasted longer than any other of their contemporaries (with the exception of the Boo Radleys), developing sharp pop skills as their career progressed. By the time of their final album, 1996's Lovelife, they had converted themselves into a power pop band with dream pop overtones, which resulted in the greatest chart success of their career. Their success was dealt a blow when drummer Chris Acland committed suicide in the fall of 1996, effectively bringing the band to an end.

Miki Berenyi, Emma Anderson, Chris Acland, Steve Rippon (bass), and Meriel Barham (guitar) formed Lush in 1988 in London, England. Prior to the group's formation, school friends Berenyi and Anderson had collaborated on a fanzine together, as well as played in a number of other bands individually. Anderson, who had been working as a DHSS clerical assistant, had played bass with the Rover Girls, while Berenyi had been a member of I-Goat, Fuhrer Five, and the Lillies. Berenyi's then-boyfriend, Acland had previous played with several other groups as well, including Panik, Infection, and A Touch of Hysteria. Barham left Lush soon after the band's formation to form the Pale Saints, and the remaining members began playing around London, quickly earning a number of fans, including Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. Guthrie helped the band secure a contract with 4AD Records, and they released their acclaimed debut EP, Scar, in 1989. Lush supported the EP with opening tours for Loop and the Darling Buds, and by 1990, they had graduated to headlining tours of their own.

Throughout 1990, the band's reputation in the British music press began to grow as they released the acclaimed EPs Mad Love and Sweetness and Light, played high-profile gigs like the Glastonbury Festival, and became favorites of the music weeklies' gossip columns. Gala, an album compiling their three EPs, became the band's first American release at the end of 1990. Lush spent most of 1991 recording their debut album, releasing the Black Spring EP in the spring. Rippon left the band during the sessions, and was replaced by Philip King, a former picture researcher for NME and a previous member of Felt, Servants, and Biff Bang Pow. Lush finally released their delayed debut album, Spooky, in the spring of 1992. While the album sold well, reaching the British Top Ten and topping the U.K. indie charts, it was criticized in the press for Guthrie's heavy-handed production. The band supported the album in America by appearing on the second Lollapalooza tour, but their dream pop wasn't well-received by an audience hungry for metal. Lush released their second album, Split, in the summer of 1994 to mixed reviews. Split was lost in the twin waves of Brit-pop and American post-grunge, even through the band's songwriting was more pop-oriented than ever.

After regrouping during 1995, Lush returned in early 1996 with Lovelife, an album that showcased a debt to the pop-single ideals of Brit-pop. The musical changeover paid off as 'Single Girl' and 'Ladykiller' became their two biggest hit singles, and the album became a British Top 20 hit; in America, it was their highest-charting album, even if it just scraped the charts at 189. Lush had completed their supporting tours and summer festival appearances when Chris Acland unexpectedly hanged himself in his parent's house on October 17, 1996. Devastated by his death, the remaining members of Lush went into a long period of mourning, eventually disbanding. ", "Ethereal pop band the Pale Saints formed in Leeds, England, in 1987. Ian Masters (bass/vocals), Chris Cooper (drums), and Graeme Naysmith (guitar) were signed by Ivo Watts-Russell to his 4AD label on the strength of their first London appearance. The three-song Barging Into the Presence of God was released two years later, receiving praise for it's lead track, the melancholy 'Sight of You' (which was later covered by Oxford's Ride for a radio session). In 1990, the debut LP The Comforts of Madness appeared in the bins, produced separately by Gil Norton (Echo & the Bunnymen, Pixies) and John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode). Categorized within the current shoegaze scene with My Bloody Valentine and Lush, the billowy Comforts of Madness had just about all the features of the sub-genre, as well as a bizarre experimental bent. Masters' boyish vocals also stood out, not needing any production treatments to carry a wispy, levitational quality.

Meriel Barham, who was thanked for guitars and vocals on 1990's Half Life single, joined as a full member by the end of the year. Barham had been Lush's original vocalist (when they were calling themselves the Babymakers), recording a demo that was viewed as awful by all parties involved. The Pale Saints had been performing with a second guitarist, but wanted a permanent fourth member. Lush's Miki Berenyi suggested Barham to the band, and they obliged.

Ace producer Hugh Jones leant his skills for 1992's In Ribbons. Yet another Bunnymen associate (the Pale Saints were obviously big fans of them, though you wouldn't know from their recordings), Jones captured a power and liveliness that Norton and Fryer didn't provide. Stronger musically and sound-wise, In Ribbons was another excellent album, though it sacrificed some of the band's original charms and quirks in favor of more pop accessibility. This and a growing disdain for touring led to Masters' departure in 1993. The remaining members replaced him with session hand and former Heart Throbs bassist Colleen Browne.

Many were surprised that the band continued, especially under the same name; mainly due to Masters' twists on facts and fun with the press, the Pale Saints were considered his band. Interviews with the later lineup would reveal that the band was more of a democratic process than originally perceived. Obviously -- why would Masters leave a band that he had control over to gain more control? Continuing their allegiance with Hugh Jones, 1994's Slow Buildings ended up being the band's final album. Lacking from the absence of Masters, the album also lacked focus. After touring, the band called it quits prior to 1997.

The eccentric Masters continued to work under a vast array of guises, most notably paring up with AC Temple's Chris Trout for Spoonfed Hybrid and His Name Is Alive's Warren Defever for the lovely ESP Summer. Cooper and Naysmith continued with Lorimer, and Browne resumed her utility work for the likes of Warm Jets and Rialto. ", "Combining elements of pop and goth with a massive guitar-based sound, Scarling is the brainchild of guitarist Christian Hejnal, a former member of the Drummed, and vocalist Jessicka, who was the frontwoman of Jack Off Jill. The two met at a Los Angeles rock club, and a few weeks later they began writing songs together; their writing sessions led them to form a band to perform their new material. Joining Hejnal and Jessicka in the project are guitarist Rickey Lime, bassist Kyle Lime, and drummer Garey Snider; the group released their first single, 'Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole' (produced by Chris Vrenna) in the spring of 2003. A seven-song, 33-minute album, Sweet Heart Dealer, followed in 2004.", "Marrying the feedback-drenched sonic assault of the British shoegazer scene with the melodic immediacy of classic pop—an approach critics dubbed 'bubblegrunge', Velocity Girl emerged as one of the most successful and acclaimed indie-rock bands of the early 1990s. Their roots lie in the short-lived Gotterdammacrats, which formed in Silver Spring, MD in September 1988 around the nucleus of singer/guitarist Archie Moore, bassist Kelly Riles, guitarist John Barnett and drummer Berny Grindel. Barnett exited following the first performance, and after playing a series of gigs as a three-piece, in the summer of 1989 the group welcomed vocalist Bridget Cross and adopted the name Velocity Girl, borrowing the moniker from an early B-side by the then-obscure British band Primal Scream. As the year drew to a close, the band made its recorded debut with “Clock,' a contribution to the compilation What Kind of Heaven Do You Want?, the first release on the fledgling local label Slumberland. Drummer Jim Spellman replaced Grindel in the fall of 1990, and after completing the single “I Don't Care If You Go,' Cross left the lineup early the following year; she soon resurfaced in another seminal D.C. indie band, Unrest.

Singer Sarah Shannon was tapped as Cross' replacement, and a week after adding second guitarist Brian Nelson—Moore's bandmate in the pioneering Black Tambourine—Velocity Girl entered the studio to record its breakthrough single, 1991's “My Forgotten Favorite.' The record was a major college radio favorite, and brought the group to the attention of the Sub Pop label, which released a split single featuring Velocity Girl and fellow D.C.-area band Tsunami in early 1992. Velocity Girl remained with Sub Pop to issue its 1993 full-length debut Copacetic—a much-acclaimed set featuring the singles “Crazy Town' and “Audrey's Eyes,' its ingratiating noise-pop approach proved pivotal in expanding Sub Pop's image beyond that of merely a Seattle grunge label, and at the time was the second biggest seller in the company's history, behind only Nirvana's Bleach. The follow-up, ¡Simpatico!, was even more successful, generating the minor hit “Sorry Again.' 1996's Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts was far less fulfilling creatively and commercially, however, and after completing the album Shannon relocated to Seattle. The group's days were clearly numbered, and a U.S. tour culminated in a farewell show at Baltimore's 8x10 Club that September. After Velocity Girl dissolved, Shannon, Riles and Spellman reunited in the short-lived Starry Eyes, while Moore—who also helmed a side project, the Heartworms—later resurfaced as a member of the acclaimed Saturday People. ", "Fully orchestrated, slightly funky and distinctive sounding disco group. 'Sun... sun... sun...' was on D. C. LaRue's Pyramid label, and was written by Johnny Melfi - who also wrote 'Find my way' for Cameo and '...Like her' for Gentlemen And Their Lady. 'You are the star' was an early 12-inch release on New York's West End label - available as a Tom Moulton mix on both a single and double artist 12-inch. Both records are undated although they were known to be released in 1977.", "Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton only notched one national hit in her lifetime, but it was a true monster. 'Hound Dog' held down the top slot on Billboard's R&B charts for seven long weeks in 1953. Alas, Elvis Presley's rocking 1956 cover was even bigger, effectively obscuring Thornton's chief claim to immortality.

That's a damned shame, because Thornton's menacing growl was indeed something special. The hefty belter first opened her pipes in church but soon embraced the blues. She toured with Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue during the 1940s. Thornton was ensconced on the Houston circuit when Peacock Records boss Don Robey signed her in 1951. She debuted on Peacock with 'Partnership Blues' that year, backed by trumpeter Joe Scott's band.

But it was her third Peacock date with Johnny Otis's band that proved the winner. With Pete Lewis laying down some truly nasty guitar behind her, Big Mama shouted 'Hound Dog,' a tune whose authorship remains a bone of contention to this day (both Otis and the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller claim responsibility) and soon hit the road a star.

But it was an isolated incident. Though Thornton cut some fine Peacock follow-ups -- 'I Smell a Rat,' 'Stop Hoppin' on Me,' 'The Fish,' 'Just like a Dog' -- through 1957, she never again reached the hit parade. Even Elvis was apparently unaware of her; he was handed 'Hound Dog' by Freddie Bell, a Vegas lounge rocker. Early-'60s 45s for Irma, Bay-Tone, Kent, and Sotoplay did little to revive her sagging fortunes, but a series of dates for Arhoolie that included her first vinyl rendition of 'Ball and Chain' in 1968 and two albums for Mercury in 1969-70 put her back in circulation (Janis Joplin's overwrought but well-intentioned cover of 'Ball and Chain' didn't hurt either). Along with her imposing vocals, Thornton began to emphasize her harmonica skills during the 1960s.

Thornton was a tough cookie. She dressed like a man and took no guff from anyone, even as the pounds fell off her once-ample frame and she became downright scrawny during the last years of her life. Medical personnel found her lifeless body in an L.A. rooming house in 1984.", "Alvin & the Chipmunks may have done it first, but when it came to cartoon-pop rodents, nobody did it better than the Nutty Squirrels. The brainchild of jazz vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Don Elliott and jingle composer Alexander 'Sascha' Burland, the Nutty Squirrels employed the same sped-up vocal playback techniques as Ross Bagdasarian's Chipmunks, but added to the mix a far stronger musical approach, a sharper, hipper sense of humor, and the studio support of jazz greats including saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. And though the Chipmunks beat their many rivals in the race to record stores, the Nutty Squirrels actually outpaced Alvin, Simon, and Theodore to television by a year.

Both Elliott and Burland had enjoyed commercial success prior to the Nutty Squirrels' 1959 formation -- the former was arguably the most notable proponent of the jazz mellophone as well as a gifted and innovative scat vocalist, experimenting with multi-tracking and tape speeds to dub as many as nine different vocal tracks per tune on his LP The Voices of Don Elliott. Burland, meanwhile, was a Hollywood-based orchestra leader perhaps best known for composing the theme song for the hit game show What's My Line? The author of a number of commercial jingles (including, most famously, Alka-Seltzer's 'No Matter What Shape Your Stomach's In'), for Riverside he recorded the album Swingin' the Jingles, a collection marrying advertising themes with jazz. (The session even included an appearance by Maynard Ferguson.) By the late '50s, both Elliott and Burland were devoting much of their energy to writing advertising music for Madison Avenue, and when 'The Chipmunk Song' emerged as an enormous hit in late 1958, their own commercial instincts began to take over.

The Chipmunks -- the creation of composer Bagdasarian, aka David Seville -- were the product of a clever studio process whereby vocals were recorded at 16 rpm and played back over twice as fast at the conventional 33-and-one-third rpm speed, resulting in a chirpy, high-pitched sound akin to the standard human voice following the inhalation of helium. After the massive success of 'The Chipmunk Song,' imitators lined up in droves, but few if any boasted the pedigree or ingenuity of Elliott and Burland. Unlike the bland, cutesy Chipmunks, the Nutty Squirrels were cool, with goatees, dark suits, and berets, complete with beatnik lingo to match. Drawing upon Elliott's singular scat approach, the duo capitalized upon stereo technology to separate their vocals to one speaker apiece, and recruited top-flight jazzmen like Adderley, flutist Bobby Jaspar, and clarinetist Sam Most to cut the Nutty Squirrels' self-titled 1959 debut, issued on comedian Steve Allen and producer Bob Thiele's Hanover label.

When the single 'Uh-Oh, Pt. 2' cracked the pop Top 20 at year's end, plans for a Nutty Squirrels animated series were quickly announced. Format Films had already announced an animated Chipmunks program, but when production was beset by problems, rival Transfilm-Wilde was able to rush-release 100 five-minute Nutty Squirrels cartoons into syndication in September 1960. (The Chipmunks did not premiere until a year later.) Although the Squirrels' 'radical' jazz content prompted many small-market stations to pass on the show, it was a hit in larger metropolitan markets, especially Chicago, where it aired on superstation WGN six days a week. A second LP, Bird Watching, appeared that same year, but failed to enjoy the chart success of its predecessor. After one final collaboration, the Beatles tribute The Nutty Squirrels Sing 'A Hard Day's Night', in 1964 Elliott and Burland split. ", "A local Boston band with a spectacular minimal electronic release. The 'Excuses' side has us eavesdropping on a conversation between two friends from Hyde Pahk, and the band has a remarkable sense of the rhythm of language here.", "Huey 'Piano' Smith was an important part of the great New Orleans piano tradition, following in the footsteps of Professor Longhair and Fats Domino to take his place among the Crescent City's R&B elite. He was also one of R&B's great comedians, his best singles matching the Coasters for genial, good-time humor, although his taste often ran more towards nonsense lyrics. Smith's sound was too earthy to match the pop crossover appeal of Domino or the Coasters, which limited his exposure, and he couldn't match the latter's amazing consistency, lacking their reliable supply of material. But at the peak of his game, Smith epitomized New Orleans R&B at its most infectious and rollicking, as showcased on his classic signature tune 'Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu.'

Huey Smith was born in New Orleans on January 26, 1934, and began playing the piano at age 15. At the dawn of the '50s, Smith backed New Orleans guitar legends Earl King and Guitar Slim, and quickly became a popular session pianist, playing on records by the cream of the New Orleans R&B scene: Smiley Lewis (the classic 'I Hear You Knockin''), Lloyd Price, and Little Richard. During the mid-'50s, Smith began leading his own band, the Clowns, which usually featured popular local blues singer and female impersonator Bobby Marchan on lead vocals. Smith & the Clowns signed with the Ace label and scored a breakout Top Five R&B hit in 1957 with 'Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu,' which despite becoming a classic rock & roll standard didn't even make the pop Top 40, thanks to reticent white radio programmers. The following year, Smith scored his biggest hit with the double-sided smash 'Don't You Just Know It'/'High Blood Pressure,' which reached the pop Top Ten and the R&B Top Five. In 1959, Smith cut the original tune 'Sea Cruise,' and seeking pop radio airplay, Ace had white teenage R&B singer Frankie Ford overdub his own vocal onto Smith's backing track; the result became a nationwide hit.

Smith cut a few novelty numbers in an attempt to duplicate the success of 'Rockin' Pneumonia,' some even using the same type of illness joke ('Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues,' for example). It didn't work, and Marchan left the Clowns after scoring a solo hit with 'There Is Something on Your Mind' in 1960; he was replaced by female singer Gerry Hall and male vocalist Curley Moore. Smith switched briefly to the Imperial label, then returned to Ace for one last chart single in 1962, 'Pop Eye.' Smith spent part of the '60s recording for Instant and touring not only with the Clowns, but alternate groups the Hueys and the Pitter Pats as well. Unable to return to the charts, he eventually converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses and left the music industry permanently. ", "The Nutmegs are remembered today for their enduring East Coast doo wop classic, 1955's R&B smash hit 'Story Untold' (number two in the U.S.). The group continued to have regional success in the northeastern U.S., scoring a Top 20 regional hit with 'Ship of Love.' Nearly a decade later, the Nutmegs unwittingly became the founders of an a cappella craze that swept the East Coast between 1963 and 1966, scoring numerous Top Five regional hits with a cappella versions of previously recorded singles. 'Let Me Tell You' (number five), 'The Way Love Should Be' (number three), 'Why Must We Go to School' (number four), 'Down in Mexico' (number five), and 'You're Crying' (number four) were all popular in the greater New York-area, but the group was never able to gain enough national exposure to chart across the country again. After their first tenor and songwriter Leroy Griffin died in an accident, they broke up and then reformed, calling themselves the Rajahs.

Hailing from New Haven, CT, (home of the Five Satins, the Scarlets, the Chestnuts, and the Four Haven Knights), the original Nutmegs -- lead Leroy Griffin, Sonny Griffin (born James, he was Leroy's brother), Dieder Cobb, and a second Leroy Griffin (yes, there were two men with the same exact name) who later became Leroy Gomez -- all sang together with other members -- Walter Singleterry, Bill Emery, and Gomez's brother Tommy Griffin -- moving in and out of the lineup. The group performed on the street corners of New Haven, especially Webster and Dixon Streets, where Jimmy 'Co Co' Tyson was asked to join the key lineup and soon they were a quintet. (Tyson left the group that he was singing with behind, three of whom eventually formed the rival Chestnuts combo). The Nutmegs fragmented again and some of the members left to form a group of their own, the Lyres; the Gomez brothers formed the Four Haven Knights.

Now comprised of a lineup that included Bill Emery (lead), Walter Singleterry (first tenor), Sonny Griffin (second tenor), Jimmy Tyson (baritone), and Leroy Griffin (bass), the new Nutmegs met promoter Charlie Johnson in 1953, who fell for their sound and decided to record two of Leroy's songs, 'Ship of Love' and 'Playboy,' for his small J&G label after the group was passed over by the local Klik label (who had actually recorded the session). The single failed to sell, however, and Johnson lacked the funds to promote it properly.

By 1954, the Nutmegs revised their hierarchy and Leroy Griffin switched over to lead, with Sonny Griffin now filling in as first tenor, Tyson (second tenor), Emery (baritone), and they added yet another Leroy, Leroy McNeil, for the bass vocals. Leroy Griffin's nephew Harold (Harry James, not the musician), would often sit in and listen, little knowing the part he would come to play in the group.

Late in 1954, the quintet traveled to New York and met RCA/Groove recording artists the Du-Droppers, who introduced them to Herald Records executive Al Silver. By then, the Nutmegs had recorded four more sides, including a song called 'Story Untold.' Three of the four would eventually become the group's first singles for Herald, who opted to tack on the new name the Nutmegs for the first of these, 'Story Untold,' after the group decided on the name, telling Silver they were from Connecticut, the 'nutmeg' state.

In March 1955, 'Story Untold' was released and leaped immediately into the R&B charts; by July, it was number two in the nation. Meanwhile, the Crew Cuts covered the song (scoring number 16 on the pop charts), which effectively eliminated the Nutmegs' version from staying on the charts any longer than it did. In August, Herald followed up with 'Ship of Love' which, by October, had climbed to number 13 R&B and number five pop in the New York area, but failed to catch on across the country.

The group traveled to N.Y.C. to appear at the Apollo, where they were accused to doing an obscene dance. When DJ Alan Freed caught wind of it, he pulled the group off his play list and they had to go back to Freed and apologize before they would get any additional airplay from him. McNeil and Emery actually went on Freed's show and apologized for the stunt, explaining that they were only doing a dance called the 'Hunch' which amounted to 'pulling your arms in and out at the sides.' Freed accepted the explanation and apology and forgave them enough to add them to his next Brooklyn Paramount show. He also added them to his touring road show, where they performed alongside the Moonglows, the Spaniels, the Harptones, Chuck Berry, and others. Meanwhile, 'Whispering Sorrows' was the next single released, but Herald opted to push 'Betty Lou,' the flip side, which failed to connect. Soon, Bill Emery was leaving the group and was replaced by Sonny Washburn of the Five Dukes ('Cross Your Fingers' on Atlas.

The Nutmegs' fourth single, 'Key to the Kingdom,' was released in June and was even reviewed in the pages of Billboard (June 16, 1956), who called it 'a ballad in the refined, celestial groove, garnished with a few ecstatic sighs.' It failed to sell, however. The next single, 'Comin' Home,' was released in December, but by then the Nutmegs had lost their momentum and a final 45, 'My Story' proved it.

By now, Sonny Griffin had also fled their ranks; he was replaced by Eddie Martin (late of the Chestnuts). The group was now bravely soldiering on, but the next single was issued under a different name: the Rajahs. 'Shifting Sands' (Klick 7805, released January 1958) bore the same results and slipped through the cracks, as did the group's next single, 'A Dream of Love' (released on Morty Craft's Tel label in 1960). Leroy Griffin's nephew, meanwhile, joined the group in 1962. Now the lineup featured Griffin, Sonny Washburn, Leroy McNeil, Jimmy Tyson, and new kid on the block Harry James. The group released one more single for Herald in 1962. Then something quite remarkable happened.

Times Square Records, a label based in New York City, began issuing 45s by the Nutmegs culled from mid-'50s demos which featured no musical accompaniment. They were called a cappella singles. The Nutmegs quickly became the leaders of a new strain of the doo wop genre and held up the standard for others to follow. ", "Hayman started at 18 as a harmonica virtuoso in Borrah Minevitch's Harmonica Rascals, then went with Leo Diamond when Diamond left to form the Solidaires. He worked a variety of jobs, including assistant arranger on 'Meet Me in St. Louis,' arranger for Vaughn Monroe, and soloist with Horace Heidt before he won a contract under his own name with Mercury in 1950. Hayman's Mercury productions were dramatic and passionate, and often featured his harmonica work. He had several hit singles during this time, the most successful being his cover of 'Ruby' from the movie, 'Ruby Gentry.'

After arranging and conducting a strings album with jazz saxophonist Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, Hayman dropped out of the recording scene for much of the 1960s, then reappeared on Command label late in its run, after Enoch Light had departed to found Project 3. The highlight of Hayman's Command days was the much-coveted early Moog album, The Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine. Much of his efforts were devoted to his work with the Boston Pops. He was the backbone of the Pops arranging staff, and he often served as a back-up conductor for Arthur Fiedler. He appeared annually as a featured conductor, usually bringing out his harmonica for one showcase number. He returned to recording in the 1970s, and a number of his later albums, featuring mostly light classical and popular orchestral works, are still available on CD. ", "Eartha Kitt epitomized the idea of the sex-kitten chanteuse, rising to fame with a nightclub act centered around her slinky stage presence and her throaty purr of a voice. As much as she enjoyed vamping it up, she also projected the image of an exotic international sophisticate, especially since she sang in several different languages. She brought a definite zest to her torch songs, and favored lyrics that painted her as the Material Girl of her time. Kitt's persona was so vivid and well-developed that she remained easily identifiable well after her early-'50s heyday, and it also helped her find success as an actress in movies, TV, and theater. Even if many remember her best as one of the actresses to play Catwoman on the '60s Batman series, Kitt was always a cabaret performer at heart, one whose act translated best in a live setting. After a dramatic rise to fame from a childhood of neglect and poverty, Kitt endured a ten-year blacklisting owing to her sharp criticism of the Vietnam War. She returned to performing in the '80s and '90s, both as an actress and as a singer on the nightclub circuit.

Eartha Mae Kitt's actual origins are somewhat in doubt. It's likely she was born on January 17, 1927, on a cotton plantation in the small South Carolina town of North. A birth certificate discovered in the late '90s seemed to corroborate that information, but Kitt was never entirely sure, because she lost contact with both her parents at a very young age. Her white father (sometimes alleged to be one of the plantation owner's sons) abandoned her when she was very young, and her mother, a black sharecropper, later remarried and sent her to live with neighbors. Kitt's mother died not long afterwards. Overworked, overlooked, and teased for being biracial, Kitt was finally sent to live with an aunt in Harlem when she was eight. Although she remained at the edge of poverty, things improved somewhat, as she began piano and dance lessons, and also got some singing and acting opportunities through church. Kitt was admitted to New York's High School for the Performing Arts, but unfortunately, her home life took a turn for the worse, and her aunt threw her out. Kitt was forced to drop out of school and worked a few odd jobs to support herself.

A chance meeting with a dancer led Kitt to audition for Katherine Dunham's dance school at age 16. She won a scholarship, and went on tour with the school company all over Europe and the Americas. When the company stopped in Paris, Kitt got the chance to fill in for a singer who was too ill to perform. She was spotted by a nightclub owner who signed her on as a vocalist, and she stayed in Paris to work the cabaret circuit. There she was discovered by the legendary director Orson Welles, who called her 'the most exciting woman alive' and, in 1950, cast her as Helen of Troy in his stage production Time Runs, an adaptation of Faust. Kitt returned to the United States and immediately found bookings on the New York nightclub scene, including lengthy runs at the Blue Angel and the Village Vanguard. She was also tapped for the Broadway revue New Faces of 1952, and her numbers -- especially 'Monotonous' -- easily stole the show; they also led to a recording contract with RCA Victor.

Kitt recorded her debut album, RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, in 1953, and it was a major hit, climbing into the Top Five on the LP charts. She scored a minor success with 'Uska Dara (A Turkish Tale),' and had a breakout Top Ten hit that August with the French-language 'C'est Si Bon (It's So Good),' which became her signature song. Her second album, That Bad Eartha, was released before the year's end, and also reached the Top Five; it featured much of her core repertoire, with songs like 'I Want to Be Evil,' 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy,' and 'Under the Bridges of Paris.' Kitt scored a holiday hit at the end of 1953 with the breathy, over-the-top 'Santa Baby,' which proved to be the biggest single of her career. It also marked the peak of her popularity; audiences who couldn't get enough of her act in 1953 were growing accustomed to her style, and she was a less dominant presence in 1954, though she did enjoy limited success with 'Somebody Bad Stole de Wedding Bell (Who's Got de Ding Dong)' and the R&B-flavored '(If I Love Ya, Then I Need Ya) I Wantcha Around.' She also returned to Broadway in the drama Mrs. Patterson, which earned her a Tony nomination, and made her film debut in the movie adaptation of New Faces.

Kitt's third LP, Down to Eartha, appeared in 1955 to a more muted response than her first two. She was still a top draw on the nightclub circuit, however, and found increasing success as an actress. In 1957, she starred in the Broadway show Shinbone Alley and appeared alongside Sidney Poitier in the film The Mark of the Hawk; the following year, she co-starred in two more films, the W.C. Handy biopic St. Louis Blues (with Nat King Cole) and Anna Lucasta (with Sammy Davis, Jr.). In 1959, Kitt left RCA and joined her producer David Kapp's new Kapp label; many of her recordings there were updated versions of her past successes. In 1960, she began a five-year marriage to real estate developer Bill McDonald, which produced a daughter, Kitt McDonald. Kitt continued to record sporadically over the '60s, including the 1965 live set Eartha Kitt in Person at the Plaza, a fan favorite. In 1967, she replaced Julie Newmar as the sultry villain Catwoman on the Batman TV series, which remains her best-known role as an actress.

It was not to last, however. In 1968, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson invited Kitt to a celebrity women's luncheon at the White House to offer her views on inner-city youth. Taking the event seriously, not as a publicity stunt, Kitt pointedly criticized the Vietnam War and its impact on poor minorities. An infuriated Johnson put out the word that Kitt's rudeness had reduced the First Lady to tears, and Kitt found herself essentially blacklisted across the country -- afraid of incurring the government's wrath, venues simply refused to book her. It was later revealed that Kitt was made the subject of a secret federal investigation; her house was bugged and she was tailed by Secret Service agents. When the FBI failed to find evidence that Kitt was a subversive, the CIA compiled a highly speculative dossier that attempted to portray her as a nymphomaniac. Unable to find work in America, Kitt moved to Europe, where she would spend most of the following decade. In 1974, she courted controversy once again by touring South Africa; although she performed for white-only audiences, her show was racially integrated, and she raised money for black schools by selling autographs.

Kitt finally returned to the U.S. for good in 1978 as a cast member of the Broadway show Timbuktu, an all-black adaptation of Kismet. The audience greeted her with a standing ovation, and she went on to earn a second Tony nomination; President Carter even welcomed her back personally. Her career in America rehabilitated, Kitt returned to the cabaret/supper club circuit, and also revived her film career starting in the late '80s, appearing in comedies like Erik the Viking, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Eddie Murphy's Boomerang. She recorded a series of albums for the ITM label during the '90s, and earned a Grammy nomination (Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance) for 1994's cocktail-lounge set Back in Business on DRG. She also continued her acting career, and toward the end of the '90s she moved into voice-over work as well, appearing in the animated series The Wild Thornberrys and the Disney film The Emperor's New Groove. In 2000, she received a third Tony nomination for her work in the musical drama The Wild Party. ", "Italian composer Maurizio Bianchi (1955) produced his first tapes of noise in the early 1980s, at the peak of the industrial scene, but his chaotic dissonant orgies harked back to the musique concrete of the 1950s, despite similarities with Nocturnal Emissions, Metabolist, Whitehouse, early Throbbing Gristle. He debuted under the moniker Sacher-Pelz with the home-made cassettes Cainus (1979), Venus (1980), Cease To Exist and Velours, later collected on Mutation For A Continuity (Ees'T). They were all-instrumental collages of electronic sounds. Mectpyo/Blut (1980) was the first cassette to be released under his own name. Under the moniker Leibstandarte, Bianchi released his first vinyl albums: Triumph of the Will (Come Organization, 1981), which recycled material already released on cassette, and Weltanschauung (1982). His most relevant works came out under his own name: Symphony For A Genocide (Sterile, 1981), possibly his most terrifying work, Nh/Hn (Grafika Airlines, 1981), Menses (EEs'T, 1982), another classic of horror-shock musical reportage, divided in two lengthy suites (particularly Scent). There followed less powerful works, such as the film soundtrack Morder Unter Uns (Mectpyo Sounds, 1982), and two 'softer' albums divided in two lengthy halves each, Regel (EEs'T, 1982) and Mectpyo Bakterium (DYS, 1982), possibly his softest album of the decade.

He quickly return to his usual standards with Endometrio (EEs'T, 1983), the manifesto of his 'bionic' aesthetics and theoretically less hostile than previous releases, the more accessible Carcinosi (EEs'T, 1983), Das Testament (Mectpyo Sounds, 1983), announced as his last record and containing two of his most extreme suites, and the film soundtrack Armaghedon (EEs'T, 1984), all of them comprised of lengthy free-form suites of noise. The one notable exception was The Plain Truth (Broken Flag, 1983), in the vein of German electronic music. Industrial Murder (Banned Production, 1992), presented here, contains complete versions of track previously excerpted for various copmpilations.", "thefatrooster", "hungryhippo1970", "A brilliant package concept; John Fahey's recordings packaged as a 78 RPM album. The album book and the label and pressing look totally credible, but for the modern vinyl material. You must be able to playback 78 RPM recordings to hear this.

One of acoustic music's true innovators and eccentrics, John Fahey was a crucial figure in expanding the boundaries of the acoustic guitar over the last few decades. His music was so eclectic that it's arguable whether he should be defined as a 'folk' artist. In a career that saw him issue several dozen albums, he drew from blues, Native American music, Indian ragas, experimental dissonance, and pop. His good friend Dr. Demento has noted that Fahey 'was the first to demonstrate that the finger-picking techniques of traditional country and blues steel-string guitar could be used to express a world of non-traditional musical ideas -- harmonies and melodies you'd associate with Bartok, Charles Ives, or maybe the music of India.' The more meditative aspects of his work foreshadowed new age music, yet Fahey played with a fierce imagination and versatility that outshone any of the guitarists in that category. His idiosyncrasy may have limited him to a cult following, but it also ensured that his work continues to sound fresh.

Fahey was a colorful figure from the time he became an accomplished guitarist in his teens. Already a collector of rare early blues and country music, he made his first album in 1959, ascribing part of it to the pseudonymous 'Blind Joe Death.' Only 95 copies of the LP were pressed, making it a coveted collector's item today. (In the 1960s, Fahey would re-record the material for wider circulation.) In college, he wrote a thesis on Charley Patton (an exotic subject at the time). Yet Fahey did not perform publicly for money until the mid-'60s, after his third album.

Fahey's early albums for Takoma in the mid-'60s laid out much of the territory he would explore. His instrumentals, filtering numerous genres of music into his own style, evoked haunting and open spaces. At times they could be soothing and plaintive; at other times they were disquieting, even dissonant. The more experimental aspects of his material even foreshadowed psychedelia in their lengthy improvisations (some cuts lasted as long as 20 minutes), use of Indian modes, unpredictable stylistic shifts, and overall eerie strangeness. His persona as a weirdo of sorts was amplified by his bizarre and lengthy song titles and liner notes. He also employed odd guitar tunings that continue to exert an overlooked influence on contemporary musicians to this day.

Fahey remained consistently popular on a cult level through the mid-'80s. His most commercially successful efforts, oddly, were probably his Christmas albums, which are among the more interesting holiday records of any genre. For a time he ran the Takoma label, where he was instrumental in starting the career of Leo Kottke (who owes much of his stylistic inspiration to Fahey), as well as promoting lesser-known talents like Robbie Basho. He was a catalyst in other subtle ways, helping to form Canned Heat by introducing Al Wilson (who played on a Fahey album in 1965) to Bob Hite, and rediscovering Delta bluesman Bukka White with his friend Ed Denson.

Fahey sold Takoma to Chrysalis in the mid-'70s, but continued to record regularly, and also tour (though his live performances were erratic). In 1986, he contracted Epstein-Barr syndrome, a long-lasting viral infection that, combined with diabetes and other health problems, sapped his energy and resources. Although the Epstein-Barr virus was finally overcome, the mid-'90s found him living in poverty in Oregon, where he paid his rent by pawning his guitar and reselling rare classical records. The appearance of a major career retrospective on Rhino, Return of the Repressed, in 1994 boosted his profile to its highest level in years. In 1997, he returned to active recording with City of Refuge and was planning a Revenant definitive package of Charley Patton's work when he died following sextuple-bypass surgery at the age of 61. The Fahey discography is dauntingly large and diverse; the neophyte is advised to start with the two-disc Return of the Repressed, but those who wish to dig deeper will be very pleased with Takoma's extensive reissues, which started to appear in the late nineties. ", "One of the most mysterious artists ever, I received these cassettes anonymously over a period of a year. No return address, no information, just the cassette packaging you see in the image. I loved the whole 80's cassette counterculture for precisely this reason. Geniuses lurking in their bedroom producing passionate, urgent music. While the fidelity here is low, and the execution is less than, shall we say, produced, the notion of producing menacing choral music from cheap synth banks was captivating - especially given that there are apparently many, many hours of this in this artist's archive. ", "Ilhan Mimaroglu is a Turkish-born composer, writer, and photographer who was one of the early pioneers of electronic music as well as producing several important jazz artists during the '60s and '70s. Born in Istanbul, son of an architect, he started as a broadcaster and writer on music in his native land, until leaving for the U.S. in 1955 on the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation, taking classes at Columbia University in musicology. He joined the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center a few years later -- the place to be for the new advances in electronic 'tape music' -- and studied under the master, and his mentor, Vladimir Ussachevsky. Many of the compositions that he made in this time are available on the CRI releases. Among his production work: a seven-year stint at public radio WBAI New York, producing electronic music programs, and working under the Ertegun brothers (also Turkish) for 30 years at Atlantic Records. Here he produced many important jazz records, including those for Freddie Hubbard, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus, certainly bringing his own ear to their avant-garde leanings. His close relationship with Atlantic allowed him to set up the successful (comparatively so) Finnadar imprint, which released important modern works from John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as himself. Mimaroglu's releases are few and far between, but the major works are still available on CD, either under his own name (the compilations Criminal Record and Outstanding Warrants) or as part of early electronic music compilations. He continues to write and composes at his home in New York.", "Captivating and naive all at once, this spoken word gem from the late sixties takes on on a pre-Kreskin tour of theretofore unheard of phenomenon. Isn't that wild??", "Gryce was born George General Grice(sic) on 28th November, 1925 (not 1927) in Pensacola, Florida - although he was brought up in Hartford, Connecticut. He spent a short period in the Navy where he met musicians such as Clark Terry, Jimmy Nottingham and Willie Smith, who were to turn his thoughts from pursuing medicine to the possibility of making music for a living. In 1948 he began studying classical composition at the Boston Conservatory under Daniel Pinkham and Alan Hovhaness. It has been reported that he won a Fulbright scholarship and went to Paris to study under Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Honegger, although confirmation of this has been hard to establish. Although illness interrupted his studies abroad, the fruits of this immersion in classical modernism were the production of three symphonies, a ballet (The Dance of the Green Witches), a symphonic tone-poem (Gashiya-The Overwhelming Event) and chamber works, including various fugues and sonatas, piano works for two and four hands, and string quartets.

Gryce strictly separated his classical composing from his work in jazz and received inspiration and instruction from a number of 'unsung' jazz saxophonists. The first of these was alto player Ray Shep, also from Pensacola, who had played with Noble Sissle. Then there were three musicians Gryce had met whilst based in the Navy in North Carolina. Altoists, Andrew 'Goon' Gardner, who played with the Earl Hines Band and Harry Curtis, who performed with Cab Calloway, as did tenorman Julius Pogue, for whom Gryce reserved the highest accolade. As well as alto saxophone Gryce performed on tenor and baritone saxes, clarinet, flute and piccolo - a 1958 recording for the Metrojazz label saw him multitracking all these instruments over a conventionally-recorded rhythm section.

Whilst in Boston (from 1948) Gryce arranged for Sabby Lewis, and had working gigs with Howard McGhee and Thelonious Monk. When playing at the Symphony Hall he attracted the attention of Stan Getz who asked Gryce to arrange for him - Getz subsequently recorded three Gryce originals: Yvette, Wildwood and Mosquito Knees. Dissatisfied with these and other earlier compositions Gryce went on the Fulbright scholarship outlined previously. Returning to New York, Gryce arranged on record dates for Howard McGhee (Shabozz) and Max Roach (Glow Worm). In the summer of 1953 Gryce joined Tadd Dameron's band, and in the autumn of that year was with the Lionel Hampton band when they made their legendary European tour. Through Hampton's band Gryce met many musicians with which he was to collaborate with later, including Clifford Brown , Art Farmer, Quincy Jones and Benny Golson. Against Hampton's wishes this emerging nucleus of talent recorded a number of sessions in Paris for French Vogue in between Hampton gigs. There were many different permutations from quartets to a small big-band, interestingly labelled as an orchestra, alluding to Gryce's exploration of new orchestrations. Later that year Gryce married Eleanor Sears - they had three children together: Bashir, Laila and Lynette - before separating in 1964.

On returning to Manhattan after the Hampton tour, Gryce settled near to his former colleague Art Farmer, with whom he was to collaborate in a most productive quintet. In 1957 further memorable recordings were made with a group led by Thelonious Monk ('Monk's Music'), which Gryce described as one of the hardest and most humbling sessions he had known - in stark contrast with mostly first takes being used for an earlier 1955 session involving Monk. The Jazz Laboratory name, used previously for play-along records, was revived and shortened into the Jazz Lab Quintet, co-led by Gryce and trumpeter Donald Byrd. Oscar Pettiford made use of Gryce as player, composer and arranger for a couple of sessions which echoed the small orchestra Gryce had used for some French Vogue recordings. Some of the last jazz recordings Gryce made were in 1960, when he fronted a blues-oriented quintet which introduced the exuberant trumpet talent of Richard Williams.

After less than ten years in the jazz limelight Gryce decided to withdraw to the relative 'anonymity of the Long Island school system,' as jazz critic Ira Gitler critic put it. There has been much speculation as to the reasons for Gryce's sudden departure from the mainstream jazz scene, but it appears that a variety of influences and circumstances contributed to this: psychological pressures, business and publishing interests, and personal tragedy. It is often overlooked that Gryce was one of the first black musicians to form his own publishing company in order to have control over his and fellow musicians' creative output - many of the prominent black jazz musicians of the day were with Gryce's Melotone publishing company. It became clear, however, that Gryce couldn't buck the deeply ingrained system of record companies controlling (at least in part) music publishing rights as part of recording deals. Upon retiring from active involvement in the jazz scene suffering from a variety of psychological pressures, Gryce turned instead to music teaching (predominantly instrumental) - and such was his devotion that there exists a school in The Bronx named after him (PS53 Basheer Qusim School). He also married again and his second wife Ollie took his Muslim surname Qusim - it is believed that whilst in Paris, Gryce changed his name to Basheer Qusim on converting to Islam. He died of a massive heart attack upon recuperating in the town of his birth, Pensacola, on 17th March, 1983.

Donald Byrd captured the tenor of his times as did like Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard. He studied music at Wayne State University, from which he received his bachelor's degree in 1954. He went on to receive a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music in the mid-'50's. At the same time, he recorded for the Prestige, Riverside, and Blue Note, and Savoy labels (among others), both as a leader and as a sideman. Following stints with the likes of Max Roach, Art Blakey, and Sonny Rollins, Byrd co-led a band with the baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams from 1958-61. Byrd studied composition in Europe from 1962-63, then returned to the U.S., where he established himself as an academician, teaching at Rutgers, Howard University, and the Hampton Institute. Byrd received his law degree in 1976; he subsequently taught at North Carolina Central University. In 1982, he received his doctorate from Columbia Teachers College. Byrd continued to perform and record, releasing a number of fine straight-ahead Blue Note albums throughout the '60's.In the '70's, his music took a decidedly commercial turn.During the early Seventies, Byrd put together a group of his students, forming a band whose title became based around his surname. The Blackbyrds.They recorded a string of successful chart singles which included the song 'Walking In Rhythm', an enormous pop hit both sides of the Atlantic.Byrd recorded a number of heavily produced, pop-oriented albums on which his horn was subjugated by disco-fied vocals and string sections.Byrd worked alongside producers 'The Mizell Brothers' throughout this period with 'Places & Spaces' being considered his finest work at this time.In the '80's and '90's Byrd returned to his jazz roots, recording with peers such as Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson, and with younger musicians like Kenny Garrett and Mulgrew Miller.", "Duet Emmo", "It's a premise that must have seemed quite promising at the time: Lo Recordings mailed 100 Thurston Moore guitar warblings to a myriad of artists. The artists were asked to create new works using Moore's original music as a starting point. While the list of artists who accepted the challenge is impressive, including Mogwai, Luke Vibert, Blur, Stereolab, Add N to X, Springheel Jack, and Bruce Gilbert, among others, the end result isn't cohesive as a slab of experimental music. Too many of the 'additional producers' reach for all-out noise in the name of 'art.' It's not the big names who turn in the standout tracks. Springheel Jack's song is vexing and beautiful, sounding like a continuation of the ambient style Disco Inferno once traversed. The Mellowtrons create a fierce driving beat punctuated by Moore's squelching guitar. Echo Park masters the trippy electronic style of Luke Vibert, who falls a bit flat in his own lo-fi contribution. Without placing blame, there are a number of contributors whose uninspired work didn't deserve to make the cut. Striving for experimentation and artistic credibility, many of the contributors to Root dug themselves into holes of musical meaninglessness, to the point where the only salvation is the 'skip' button on one's remote control. Root would have worked better as an EP than a nearly 80-minute album. It's impenetrable, not because of any inherent artistic sensibility, but because three-fourths of the contributions sound as if they were thrown together in mere minutes.", "Inspired after witnessing gigs by the Sex Pistols and Magazine, vocalist Alan Hempsall formed Crispy Ambulance with guitarist Robert Davenport, bassist Keith Darbyshire, and drummer Gary Madeley. After several shows, including a support slot for Joy Division, they recorded their first single and contacted labels such as Rough Trade and Factory, only to be turned down. Upset but resourceful, the band released it on their own Aural Assault imprint. Rob Gretton (Joy Division's manager) was soon hired by Factory, and his first priority was signing Crispy Ambulance -- ironic since the label had earlier rejected the band. After a couple singles were derided in the press for their resemblance to Joy Division, the band was shifted to Factory's Belgian subsidiary. Their lone proper studio LP, The Plateau Phase, was released in 1982 and received more comparisons to their brethren, as well as '70s prog rock. The Crispies broke up later that year, but a number of posthumous releases containing studio extras, live material, and radio sessions saw issue. Most significant were the 1999 reissues of The Plateau Phase and live compilation Fin; the band re-formed in November of that year for a reunion show in Manchester to celebrate the fact. A live documention of the show was issued the following year, and the band opted to continue operating as a fully functioning entity. The Graham Massey-produced Scissorgun, a full-length LP for Darla, was released in 2002." )