Melancholic serenity

The title pretty much nails it. I usually associate Morricone soundtracks with the visceral, near-terror body sensations that their accompanying films try to achieve. Of course, the movies have the advantage of huge screens, while the maestro did it all with well-placed dissonance amid the hooks and momentum. This one is an outlier, with its breezy beat and sultry melody. Which actually seems to give it more tension. I haven't seen Il Mostro, but I suspect this track was used in a moment of calm before a murder or as an interlude of contemplation in which a terrible truth is glimpsed. Or maybe just during some sunset driving. I suppose it's worth finding out.

Ennio Morricone — Malinconica serenitá (Part 1)

Up and away

Comes a time when you need to sweep the chimes across your earspace, sit back luxuriously in a bed of strings, let the bongos percolate, and let Mr. Upchurch's guitar be a feather all over your body, as your mind ascends into dream dimensions. Now, if only I could get my 3-week old into that groove, all would be perfect.

Phil Upchurch — Free

Independance days

I'm not sure if I more tired of being fried by work or complaining about how I keep getting fried by work. Not a great loop to be in, which makes this a well-timed holiday break, even if I can't help but feel like I'm neglecting at least a few responsibilities. So goes the self-inflicted psychological masochism. 

But let's forget all that and luxuriate in some classic disco. Nile Rodgers and company cooked up some irresistible tunes, and this is one of their early best. Some say this laid down the whole template — full-band lock groove, gospel-ish voices, and some fancy chordal moves to raise your eyebrows. Have yourselves a fabbo couple of days to unwind, assuming your schedule works out that way. And let's hope that power grid holds up.

Chic - Everybody Dance

Sunshower

Have I really made it more than 35 years into this life without having a Weather Report phase? Sure, various band members have made their presence felt on great albums (Shorter and Zawinul helping Miles Davis reach magical heights). Others I think of mostly in the context of instructional drums videos and endorsement deals. And let's not forget the very rock star-ish life and death of Jaco Pastorius. His headband lives on though.

At any rate, I'm in it now, and I'm not foggy-eared enough to ignore the fact that a good half of this band's work is peacock showoff stuff. But it's threaded through some compelling passages. Then there's the thick layer of cheese, which I enjoy heartily despite (or because) of its high fat content. Such as this ballad, which probably launched a thousand unfortunate saxophone careers, to say nothing of the fretless bass odysseys. You may find it impossible to keep a straight face. Me neither. And yet I will not stop listening. 

Weather Report — A Remark You Made

Sweet feet

Gotta give it up for this unlikely assemblage of talent. Patrice Rushen, Freddie Hubbard, Ian Underwood, Airto Moreira, and others join very smiley trombonist Raul de Souza to bust out the Latin fusion disco jams. There's not much to say about a groove like this. Just tuck your shirt in and keep your sweat in check as you throw yourself around the room. (Oh also, join me in a little raised glass for Songblague's 4th anniversary.)

Raul de Souza - Sweet Lucy

Miles of pavement

Highway to highway to New Jersey and back, through industrial mysteries and then between the trees, it's easy to fall into a hypnotic trance. Complementary songs need just one chord to sooth and disturb.

Cedric Im Brooks - Give Rasta Glory

We're what's happening

Labor Day approacheth. And I'm ready to drag my weary self into a much-needed weekend of battery recharging. Speaking of weary, here's a nice song to stumble around town to with your gang of wasted clowns, seeking deeper degrees of numbness in the druggy night.

I suppose that's a good enough note to mention a little break from the 'blague. How does a week sound? Pretty good to me. See you back around 9/10.

Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing

Procession into the beyond

Uh-oh, it seems I've entered into a Tangerine Dream vortex. Which means there's a real chance I may disappear into the depths of space or melt into the floor. Before I meet either of these fates, allow me to give you a solo tune from frontdude Edgar Froese. While it's tempting to embark on a 20-minute epic drift from TD's far-out heyday, I'll go with an anomaly instead — a linear groove with flesh n' drums and some baked guitar action.

As for this album's cover art, gotta say I really don't need to be reminded that it's humans making the music. Talk about a face made for light shows.

Edgar Froese - Icarus

New environs

I had a nightmare recently. I was traversing some sinister alien version of New York through an endless, rain-soaked night. Then I found myself on an even more sinister structure that was a hybrid of a mile-high scaffold and the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Holding on for dear life, the thing transported me from a far-flung district to some version of midtown, where all the skyscrapers looked like serrated knives. I put myself low to the ground to combat the vertigo.

I guess it's some kind of anxiety dream that comes along when you're planning on upsetting your domestic habits. I also guess it deserves a song that suggests an alien world that doesn't offer a legend. But then the notes warm up, and that harmonica comes in, and you realize you may be in your new home.

David Bowie - A New Career in a New Town

You the man(zanera)

Roxy Music swordsman Phil Manzanera gets props for not aping Bryan Ferry's nocturnal croon on his solo efforts. And also for fitting some sweet guitar moves into this equally sweet '70s groover. The bits right before and after the solo just melt me, though I'm just as drawn to the giddy ride cymbal gallop in the outro.

Not that that it's an anniversary post or anything, but it's worth noting that this gem comes courtesy of the same man who supplied Songblague's inaugural track. Memories...if you can remember them.

Phil Manzanera/801 - Flight 19

Horrorshow

I'm in soundtrack land, and I can't stop now. Not with a recent windfall of Goblin records I just scored (thanks Adam). If you haven't heard much from this Italian prog-rock band/horror film soundtrack specialists (most frequently in collaboration with the eminent director Dario Argento), well, get listening. If yesterday was a majestic tune coming in through morning light, here are some haunting sounds for descending into the troubled night.

Goblin - Suspiria
Goblin - Sighs

Two sides of the moon

Rounding out a very non-comprehensive week of Krautrock, we're taking it back to the mighty Can. This jam is another favorite of mine, and uncharacteristically short. Clock-precise and sunset-beach-party-decadent at once.

Can - Moonshake

And here's one that's pretty much a "Moonshake" re-do, from one their less-than-perfect later albums. Clearly, their future days were no Future Days. You can hear the '70s finally catching up with them. Still a sweet hypnotic groove.

Can - Don't Say No

Happy Memorial Day/bbq/whatever you do! Back Tuesday.

Space Capades

From cold hinterlands to deep space nebulae. I trust there are forms of life out there whose native language sounds a lot like Manuel Göttsching's guitar. Fun fact — Göttsching is prominently exhibited as a wax model in the Tokyo Tower Wax Museum, which is the largest wax museum in Asia. Now you know.

Ashra - Don't Trust The Kids
Ashra - Blackouts

No alibis tonight

More love for Bill Nelson, going back to his "I'm not Bowie, and I'm only sort of a guitar hero" days in Be Bop Deluxe. I try not to devote too many posts to one artist, but this musical crush keeps holding strong.

Be Bop Deluxe - Orphans of Babylon

Theme Week - À la bibliothèque, bébé! (3/5)

One summer during college, I had a habit of getting baked in the morning and then proceeding on my mellow way to the supermarket to buy a whole lot of things that made no sense. Most of the groceries would eventually go bad in the fridge, the concept of the ingredients having passed into the ether by early afternoon. Everything about those little excursions — my mismatched clothes, the gentle swerve of my driving, and the very absent expression on my face — comes back to me as this track plays.

Geoff Bastow - Bubble And Squeak

Francofilthia

I like to think that I'm not a particularly sleazy person. Most people who know me would say I generally live on the clean side, even if my mind immediately goes to the most tasteless joke that any situation suggests. Which makes me a bit disgusted with myself for the things that force themselves into my mind when this song comes on.

What's going on here? A teenage Jodie Foster coquettishly singing a greasy, mid-temp disco number about how "life is cool when you have a crush...surrounded by meadow flowers and violence" etc. Apparently, it's from this movie that she also starred in about an American schoolgirl getting deflowered in Paris. I haven't seen it, but the song suggests a drugging and brainwashing subplot. Maybe it's the album cover—Jodie all awkward and toothy kid-faced—but the whole vibe just seems wrong. Of course, musically speaking, it's so right. Cheers to whoever did that synth bit! It sounds like an evil ghost hand holding something forbidden in front of your eyes and then pulling away as you try to grab it. Or whatever.

Songs like this won't do anything to dispel any stereotypes about French depravity. I don't think Serge Gainsbourg had anything to do with this, but his spirit is all over it. Let's hope that's the only part of him that got all over it. Alright, I'm going to go take a shower now.

Jodie Foster - La Vie C'est Chouette

Soul reflections

I realize summertime is all about things turning outward, but let's take a moment to put that impulse in reverse. Even in the hours of stretched sunshine and heat that eclipses subtle impressions, there are moments of piercing introspection. If there's a music for taking a microscope to the soul, it's this. I love the mysterious, spare interplay at the beginning, but it's the haunting voices in the middle that kill me, like sirens pushing at every contour of your fear, dread, and bewilderment. And then suddenly, piano and guitar again—less mysterious now—shedding a redemptive light on the way out. I feel like I need to spend about a month alone with this piece out in the woods.

Luciano Cilio - Primo Quadro da Della Conoscenza

Rock a Fela

A little self-promotion today. The Dees are playing some Fela tunes for a protest-themed show at the Knitting Factory on Saturday. Getting to learn them has been a lesson in the subtle intricacies of his music. So much to love about it—every thing doing its unselfish part to form a colossal whole, the undeniable groove, the righteous voice. I always say I love the stuff. And then sometimes I feel it profoundly and want to live inside it for several weeks. Here's a fine one to get lost in.

Fela Kuti - Colonial Mentality

Dappling

The snow is melting. The sun is out, which isn't stopping the cold from cracking my fingerskin. Time for some pulsing electronic warmth to hasten the thaw. It's probably no accident that seeing the (awesome) Bauhaus exhibit at MOMA has put me in a mood for this Berlin School masterpiece.

Manuel Göttsching titled the album New Age of Earth, and this leadoff track dances maybe a little too close to the piffle that "New Age" would come to signify in the '80s. Still, this stuff is miles away from California ponytails, even if its got similar hippie roots. I like the terrestrial era that Göttsching is envisioning—placid, sun-dappled melody and sequencers that manage to be robotic and benign. How do we get back to that future?

Ashra - Sunrain

Good like my Jesus

Who doesn't love Al Green? And who hasn't clumsily tried to enlist his smooth pipes in the service of serenade? On the other hand, who thought it was a good idea to go full-on Gospel? Does getting burned by your girlfriend with hot grits really mean you have to become a pastor? I'm not sure I follow the logic. So it goes. But I think the '80s would've been a lot more tender if Al hadn't spent them in church.

I remember a couple years back, Other Music was really hot on The Belle Album. I gotta thank them for turning me on to it. It's his last secular album, and it's a weird negotiation of the sweet lovin' and the Jesus. I guess he's trying to figure out how to have it both ways, gettin' it on without gettin' on God's bad side. My advice would've been to keep grits out of the house.

Al Green - Loving You