Jan
10
Many things baffle me; women, higher order partial derivatives, the continued existence of the elderly, but most importantly the fact that Fela Kuti is not well-known in America.
For those whose haven’t heard of Fela Kuti, he was a true renegade in Nigerian music and politics. In music, Fela Kuti was a trailblazer throughout his entire career in which he founded a form of fusion called Afro-beat (amalgam of funk, jazz, and African highlife). But, his activist activities are the true proof of his bad-assness. In 1970, Fela Kuti and his band “the Afrika 70″ founded a commune/record studio named Kalakuta Republic that Fela would declare to be independent from Nigeria. Here, Kuti would compose numerous songs/albums that attacked the issues troubling Africa; the most important being dictatorship and militarism. Considering he was immensely popular in Nigeria and throughout all of Africa, the local juntas did not take so kindly to his musical messages. Many times the then corrupt Nigerian government would attempted to silence Fela by beatings and one time they tried to frame Fela Kuti with marijuana (humorous story told on the album, Expensive Shit). The worst and most barbarous of these attacks occurred in 1977 due to the album Zombie, when a force of a thousand stormed Kalakuta Republic. The troops burned down the commune, nearly pummeled Fela Kuti to death, and Fela’s elderly mother was thrown out of a window giving her fatal wounds. An activist at heart, Fela sent his mother’s coffin (was she in it?) to the main barracks as a protest the unscrupulous inquiry into the tragic event (a story told on the album, Coffin for Head of State).
Since, now that I have spoken about the tragic aftermath of Zombie, I believe that I should write more about the music itself. 
The album Zombie is more or less the title track. The U.S. release of the record, which I own, contains the controversial title track and two songs that were initially title tracks on albums recorded a few years early, “Monkey Banana”, “Everything Scatter”. “Zombie” is a commentary on the soldiers of the military-based dictatorship in Nigeria at the time, so Fela is comparing these soldiers to mindless zombies willing to murder or die based on their orders. This theme can be seen easily in the pidgin English of Fela Kuti’s lyrics, but the song’s thesis plays a large part in the rhythm and pacing of the song. For without being blunt or overstated like certain songs about the military (Primus’ Sgt. Baker) “Zombie” cadence is that of a march and the subtly of it allows for Fela to make his point without simplifying the Afrika 70 and Tony Allen (drummer) rhythmically. Fela and all of the Afrika 70 are extremely sharp with their instrumentation and interplay; allowing the funky horns and rump-shaking beat to take over a nation. It did, but unfortunately it also angered the ruling powers.
Now, “Monkey Banana” and “Everything Scatter” aren’t bad , they are just mediocre in comparison to wonder of “Zombie”. “Monkey Banana” is a nice slow number that has a wonder groove and “Everything Scatter” is the Goldilocks of the trio (medium) when it comes to tempo and has some moments itself. But, both of these songs aren’t as captivating as the title track. Nevertheless, the album as a whole is strong due to the mesmerizing eleven minute opener and the interesting yet deadly history behind it.
Jan
2
There are three loves in my life. Music. Science fiction. And beautiful nerdy women.
And Ornette Coleman’s aptly named Science Fiction. Contains the first two of my three loves. Ornette Coleman, if you aren’t well versed on the man, is one of primary innovators in the sub-genre of free jazz and one hell of a saxophonist. He is often spoken in the same breath with some of the most influential jazz musicians; like Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis. His album titled The Shape of Jazz to Come, has be parodied numerous time, but my personal favorite would be Refused’s The Shape of Punk to Come.
Now historically Ornette Coleman was not at the top of his game in the later years of the 1960′s, he fell into somewhat of a pattern and really wasn’t pushing the boundaries of jazz as he did earlier at Atlantic Records. But, after putting some weak material on Blue Note and Impulse Records, Ornette created one hell of a record with his first release on Columbia Records, Science Fiction.
Science Fiction is a collection of what is really two ensembles, one being a reunion of the classic quartet that can be heard on numerous earlier Atlantic recordings, such as The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century, and Art of Improvisers. 
The historic quartet includes (other than Ornette) includes Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Billy Higgins on the drums. This group puts out two of the strongest tracks on Science Fiction, “Civilization Day” and “Street Woman”. The interplay with the two horns are fantastic. Personally I can imagine Coleman and Cherry being able to spend thousands of years apart, yet when they inevitably got back together they would play like brothers who practice every day with each other. The six other songs on this album contain three horn players, Bobby Bradford fills the large shoes of Don Cherry, and a tenor saxophonist is added with the inclusion of Dewey Redman. But, I must not forget about the rhythm section of this album who keeps an astoundingly furious pace on most of these songs. Now, Charlie Haden, the bassist preforms on all of the tracks but Ed Blackwell (who also preformed on some of Ornette’s Atlantic records) takes Billy Higgins place on the rest of the cuts on the album.
Yet, unlike most of Ornette’s albums we find a handful of vocal tracks. Asha Puthli, an Indian vocalist, sings two ballads that sound like pieces Kuato would enjoy, “All My Life” and “What Reason Could I Give”. These bizarre songs are much more structured and have a much slower tempo than the rest of Science Fiction, but the other-worldliness of harmonies of these alien pop songs seem to mingle well with rest of the album (though they are not my favorites). The album-titled track also includes a vocal performance, though this time in the form of poetry spoken by David Henderson. Along with his poetry are the cries of a child, which are down right creepy at certain moments. Especially when you are imaging Kuato as the child chest-fetus doing the crying.
I know that in “Rock the Clock” Charlie Haden uses pedals to distort his bass, but the majority of this album is acoustic instruments; yet when I close my eyes while listening to this album I imagine dark futuristic worlds similar to those seen in Blade Runner. I find it amazing that the speed and the fury of the technological future can be so wonderfully portrayed by the incalculably skillful performances that are without the benefits of circuit boards and electrical engineering. And I know while I wait for the writers’ strike to end, so I can finally watch new episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Heroes; I can just turn off the lights, put Science Fiction on my turntable, and find myself in a world brought to me by Ornette Coleman.
Ornette Coleman – Civilization Day
Jan
2
Colossal Youth by the Young Marble Giants was the eighth full length album released on the Rough Trade label and that is surprising considering their other releases were primarily experimental post-punk acts like, Pere Ubu, The Fall, Essential Logic, etc.
For the Young Marble Giants play charming minimal pop songs, in which their lead vocalist, Alison Statton shines. I don’t care what gender or sexual orientation you are, there is no one in this world that isn’t attracted to Alison’s sweet tender voice. She is accompanied by simple, yet extremely catchy tunes played on the guitar, bass, organ, and drum machine by the Moxham brothers (Stuart and Phillip). These deconstructed pop songs are a decade or so ahead of their time, for they can be seen as an influence in the sub-genre known as indie pop that includes artists like Stereolab and Beat Happening.
Colossal Youth is constructed like a perfect pop album, for it is filled with 15 songs (none longer than three and a half minutes). Keeping these songs short is part of their strength, for each track keeps you wanting more rather than becoming bored of the simple melodies. Another great aspect of this record is that there is no weak side, the strongest tracks like, “Searching for Mr. Right”, “N.I.T.A.”, “The Man Amplifier”, and “Salad Days” are spread evenly throughout the disc. Two instrumental tracks find their way onto this album, “The Taxi” and “Wind in the Rigging”; these lovely songs just make me want to purchase a small organ and drum machine and lock myself in a room for three months.
It is disappointing that Colossal Youth ended up being YMG’s only full length album, for maybe they could have changed music history. And maybe we wouldn’t have struggle the atrocities of the New Romantic genre.
Young Marble Giants – N.I.T.A.
Jan
2
Technology, even though unintentionally, changes not only the world in general, but also the world of art. If you look at the digital camera, you can see how profoundly it has changed the photography world. Now photographers are no longer slaves saving each shot in their film rolls, they can take thousands of pictures that lay in waiting on their memory cards. No longer are photographers doomed to countless hours in the fumed filled dark rooms, they are free to perfect their masterpieces in Photoshop. But, does that mean art and music now are essentially more dynamic than their primitive counterparts?
No.
White Noise’s An Electric Storm is a simmering example proving that methods don’t create outstanding work, it is the artists themselves. An Electric Storm was created by two BBC Radiophonic Workshop employees; Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson with American-born David Vorhaus. Before mixing software or even the Moog, White Noise created a complex electronic pop album over months by the time-consuming method of tape splicing and manipulation. This was certainly the era of mad scientists, not angry professors or disgruntled graduate students, but brilliant obsessive scientists who loved creating experimental music.
An Electric Storm is one of the gems of psychedelic music, at times the electronic landscape is extremely haunting or at times the abstract sounds from the early synthesizers reminds you of that one bad acid trip. Either way these twisted songs are a step above and beyond the often repetitive psychedelic ragas, which were overly abundant in 1968.
Side one or “Phase-In” contains all of the shorter more pop-influenced tracks, if you could consider any of the songs on this album a proper single, it would be “Here Comes the Fleas”. The opposite side “Phase-Out” contains half the amount of songs with just two tracks. “The Visitation” is a chilling saga containing a teenage motorcycle crash and ghosts, which took three months to record. The final track though “The Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell”, the weakest of the album, which is reasonable considering it was rushed and put together in a single day due to label pressure. With the anti-climatic finish aside, An Electric Storm is fantastic album that is still as inventive and experimental nearly forty years after its inception.
White Noise – Love Without Sound
Jan
2
Welcome Comrades.
I apologize for not updating the website in a while, I have been quite busy with work and due to a particular error I have had to delete all of my posts. But because I saved the text I will put them up again as soon as possible. I am working at this moment on a review of Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction, it will be up before the weekend.
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