English version, deutsche Version in print-skug #86 (translated by Friederike Kulcsar )

Everybody needs some metal, sometime ?? never say yes to »no«. BULLET’s »Highway Pirates« is pure classic hard-rock from the AC/DC, Saxon & Scorpions days (which bands they seemed to have opened for in various festivals, logically). Despite no one here really matches totally the original Bon Scott nor Angus Young. They do provide a…

Soul Funk with a beat, deep, low, sexy waterfalls, pre glitter balls up the dance floor. Again here all the tricks pop in the nice prod (bass synth, wide percussion range, etc.). Although it tends to be smoked up and dubbed, with endless intros to stay where we were already. I’m sorry to repeat myself…

Badass Sputnik Founkee and all? – Don’t know … The opening track gives it away: Soul Transportation (Sun Ra, Afro Hair, Soul Samples). Space Invadas are just another (1000th this year?) Soul rereading, rewinding, re & re, again & again. It’s very good, that’s not the question. The question would rather be: why always? Yes…

Jo Stance produced by Teddy Rok, those names rings a bell, but which one? I can’t remember yet. I like the sound a lot. It’s alive, Chicagoans, sharp and electrifying. Even it sounds like recorded 1964 and could well be mistaken for a Stax & Motown left aside session. Gog Bells, Tambourine, Pulpy Bass, Baritone…

From Sidney, Australia: The Liberators, a 10 pieces instrumental orchestra dedicated to the legacy, sounds and future of the Afro-Beat. If it all sounds real, incarnated, seriously studied and digested, then lovely played all at once. I as often with such cultural stretches, wonder a bit. I cannot help admire the enterprise for many reasons…

Interesting cover and artwork that makes you feel you’re holding in your hands a Carly Simon reissue or some folk west coast 1971 album, though you don’t. But actually are so close to (clone to) a James Taylor, Michael Franks, Steely Dan and so on production (badly missing the lavish sessionners around of those days,…

Wanda Jackson already belongs to the Americana hall of fame, in the early rock ?n‘ roll and country section (along Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Elvis or Little Richard). She comes back here in a now common »diggin‘ from ya grave« production of the also pretty known and talked about Jack White III (Heavy Surfer’s Tremolos,…

As far as I remember, »Body Talk« was so far a 1973 pre-disco-funk period, George Benson album (CTI). But Robyn does deliver rather a sort of Robot-Electro-Pop, also pretty 70’s in its sounds, forms, and global taste. Most of those tracks could well fit in some reissue-redux of original Japanese animation from those same days…

The larger ensemble version from Jazzwerkstatt is here at play and work. An open instrumentarium for all purposes, from modern soundings to earlier ones, it’s important to use a door that leads into another room where more doors will reveal … There’s a lot of collages at first and it’s a hair hard for me…

A beautiful Klezmer repertoire’s reading that melts and echoes (balkanic intonations here and there) even further than the usual late understanding or expectations recently back into scope. If Klezmer has it’s known repertoire (known but wide and of many origins) it also is a unique history of its people. One could even say that it’s all about »Klezmerizing« the music of where the jews happened to live, play and settle. A traditional melody or song often entered the repertoire because they had to be played in certain and local situations, whether they had any relation to jewish cultural traditions or […]

Finnish Big Band Orchestra and approach to the whole area. It immediately takes me into its great interpretation and arrangements, a very, very smart writing and balance of lines, counterpoints, swing and colours (amazing combinations of horns, mutes, clarinets, brass. Funny again, cause sure we are here in front of many references but not a…

Very fine lullaby piano intro that raises your chicken skin out again, now awaiting to where it will lead us. »Little« songs, slightly baroque-folk, very, very soft, a bit withered, a bit … and a bit. A very coherent together inner world sung by an old & young girl, or maybe a woman fully returning…

»Minitel« is that unique French communication technology which is still in use actually and was introduced to us long before internet came to our houses (the 80s), but as often with French ideas, didn’t make it anywhere else. Therefore »Minitel Rose« stand for the sex pages and other horny rendezvous which reached a sort of…

When I first saw this double digipacked album, it smacked of a Blue Note Jazz issue, but in fact it’s a Blue Note license reissue from 2004 (legal problems?). The press release tells: »This record represents Nicola Conte’s music aesthetic from every angle«, good. Recorded in Bari, it credits many italian musicians in a sort…

A raised fist and open hearts: the Native Americans Flag and Call. While the Sitting Bull, Peace Pipe and Feather Crown often come as a cliché nowadays, these sort of united indians tribute albums, for some reason I can’t explain to you, always sound slightly the same. A chief recitating and preachin‘ over some New…

Turkish Power-F.M.-Rock from Australia, so it seems. A touch of gently constrained metal guitars in a wider pop-landscape-frame, sometimes near progressive, tough all english lyrics. It’s a nice start although it doesn’t deliver further and would have needed some pre-production decision and work to hit the target faster. Like a very good local band, the…

Guitar, electronics and again: electronics. Not a CDR, lively recorded at »La Saline Royale d?Arc-et-Senans« (sounds like royal salt stock or so), in France, during summer (July) 2001. It?s been a while since I heard these two musicians and generally such areas of search and play. When it starts, I recognize immediately that sort of…

It opens with a fat and farty gross synth bassline. Ok … Juno and other 80s synths added on top, all a bit like in a Marching Circus or maybe some disarticulated alternative cartoon character musical theme? Sometimes the most efficient film music is the one you heard but didn’t stop to. Of course the…

I thought I had seen the body of a Portuguese guitar, kept safe on stones by the water (sea, ocean, river) and a knee belonging to the same ensemble as the harm. The title is a code with no clue, and the guitar turns out to be more like a mandolin. The music sails gently,…

As glad as I am to hear Lol Coxhill again and find out about a new guitarist here, as keen I am on such a live recording, I must admit that it momentarily feels like something we?ve heard many times already. Nothing bad at all, but maybe a little deficit on Rocco?s side to shape,…

Next chapter in the Scott Fields journey. Two string duets (guitars, theorbo) based on compositional and interpretations studies. Pretty focused and sharp, not the usual lengthy improv tapes at least. While listening to these two albums I find and booknote many passages I would like to hear again, pause and think of, enter. Scott Fields…

Chicagoan Willie Dixon is this unique blues and early rock crossover visionary artist at Chess Records (owned by the famous Phil & Leonard (Czyz) Polish Brothers) and comrade upright bass player to be heard on an infinite of albums, with the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Howlin‘ Wolf, Koko Taylor, Otis Rush…

Karma-Soutra or? As I never enjoyed a single second smoking dope (sorry I m »rooted«, I like the way grapes grow and get transformed into red wine for my own pleasures that I always shared with others), I’m a bit dubious about the Elektrohasch label deal here. But listening to the album I totally see what…

»Acoustic guitar and live electronics« says the CD, but this time from Istanbul (rather than Linz, Manchester, Berlin or Toyko). While entering this series of seven solo guitar compositions I try to forget about previous things I may naturally link this album with. All is very open and often melodical here, more of a soundtrack,…

Es gibt eine merkwürdige französische Redewendung, die ich nie so ganz verstanden habe, sagt sie doch offensichtlich das eine und behauptet gleichzeitig das genaue Gegenteil: »On n’a pas tous les jours vingts ans« (»Man wird nicht alle Tage zwanzig«). Twenty what/What »twenty«?

In French there is an odd common expression that I never quite got right as it obviously states one thing and its radical contrary at the same time: »On n’a pas tous les jours vingts ans« (»one doesn’t turn twenty every day«). Twenty What/What »twenty«?

Bientôt l‘ été ? Pour l‘ instant je ne vois rien venir ?? ni soleil, ni chaleur, etc. : peu d‘ horizon. Sans doute le moment de faire une pause, un bilan, les comptes. Un monde profondément faux peut-il vraiment courir à sa perte ? Et si oui : comment. Poursuivons, comme d‘ habitude, ne serait-ce que pour voir par quoi demain sera défait.

Beim »W« beschleicht einen das Gefühl, dass es langsam, aber unaufhaltsam zu Ende geht. Dabei hat dieser Buchstabe so viel zu bieten, wie Warp, Waco (Texas), Mary Lou Williams, West Coast, Chick Webb, Tony Williams, Wu Tang Clan, Ween, ?? We want »W«!

»Ach, ihr Frauen! La-la-la-la! Ach, ihr Frauen! La-la-la-la!« Und selbst wenn nur Herr Julio Iglesias bliebe, um den Buchstaben I vorzustellen – ich könnte eine so traumhafte Möglichkeit nicht an mir vorüberziehen lassen. Darüber hinaus hat aber der Buchstabe I die charmante Besonderheit, sehr oft feminin zu sein. Und deshalb widme ich hier einige Buchstaben den Frauen!