the of mirror eye

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been listening non-stop to a couple of tunes. They all just happened to be from artists/compilations that I’ve featured before, so I decided to put them all together in this post.

* Doris Duke: He’s Gone (6.5 mb)
From Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures Vol 3 : Kent Soul : CDKEND 200

I guess, technically, I haven’t really featured this compilation. I posted some tracks from Volume 2 in this incredible series, instead. But everything I said about Volume 2 goes just the same for this one. In fact, I think all four in this series are totally essential. This track, in particular, really gets me. The track starts off with a simple piano melody with drum accents. Then Doris Duke starts singing. And it’s all over from there. Her voice is magnificent. A deep, dark, sultry voice that gets my heart going everytime. Then, and this is where it starts to get exciting, about 3:40 into the piece, they bring it down a little, just voice, piano and drums. You know something’s gonna happen soon. And at 3:56, things start happening. And I just love when that snare starts up again with it’s constant patter. You can never tell when the drummer is going to emphasize a beat or not. Brilliant. I can listen to that last minute of song over and over and over.

* Devendra Banhart: The Light Come On In The Middle Of The Night (6.5 mb)
From Lille Vega : Oct 15, 2004 : Copenhagen, Denmark

I wrote about Devendra Banhart shortly before I stupidly erased my whole site. So, look here and go to the second section down to see what I thought about him then. This one comes from a concert in 2004 at Lille Vega. This is actually a song by CocoRosie, who also joined him on stage for it. What I really love about this song is that even though they, Devendra Banhart and the gal from CocoRosie (I’m not sure which one is singing here), both have very unique vocal stylings, they somehow manage to mesh perfectly together.

* Guided By Voices: Alone, Stinking And Unafraid (4.5 mb)
From Sokol Underground : Apr 08, 2000 : Omaha, Nebraska

I wrote about Guided By Voices (RIP) very early on and didn’t manage to salvage it after my mass deletion. This band rocks, plain and simple. Robert Pollard (their intrepid leader) manages to come up with song after song of pure rock genius. They’ve unfortunately disbanded, playing their final shows at the Metro in Chicago over New Year’s Eve. But don’t fret, I’m sure Robert Pollard will be releasing albums for years to come. I absolutely love this song. Especially when the chorus kicks in: this was that look > that has driven me > from the parade > left me alone > stinking and unafraid > stinking and unafraid…

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* Sandie Shaw: As Long As You’re Happy, Baby (4 mb) | (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me (4 mb) | Don’t Run Away (Early Version) (3 mb)
From Nothing Comes Easy : EMI : 7243 866070 2 7

I first heard about Sandie Shaw while perusing Tuning. And I was immediately blown away. This lady looked like she had attitude and moxie, and the pipes to back it up. So, when I chanced upon her newly released boxset, I decided to take the plunge and see what I’ve been missing.

This set is absolutely amazing. It collects all of her singles (A and B sides) into one neat package, remastered and with great liner notes. Her story is pretty amazing and is way too long to even paraphrase. But I’ll leave you with this great passage from the liner notes.

The onset of fame in 1964 didn’t exactly seem to phase her or make her forget where she came from. A lot of the time she seemed fantastically bored by it, as if she was still pushing buttons back at Ford’s. Mum ran her fan club. She ate toffees all day long. No mugging to the camera (Lulu), or Victorian poses (Marianne) for Sandie. She stayed true to her school.

Her complete indifference to the giddy pop whirl was captured for posterity when she was due to perform ‘Long live love’ on ‘Top of the Pops’. Sandie was asked to stand in various positions while they worked out the camera angles. Somebody, thankfully, kept the camera running. As Chris Andrews’ clangurous calypso rings out, Sandie just stands and pouts, all angles and sleek straight hair. Bored stiff, she looks typically teenage and quite irresistable.

(from the liner notes)

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* King Geedorah: Krazy World [feat. Gigan] (6.5 mb) | Anti-Matter [feat. MF Doom & Mr Fantastik] (4.0 mb) | I Wonder [feat. Hassan Chop] (5.5 mb)
From Take Me To Your Leader : Big Dada : BDCD051

MF Doom has got to be the most prolific hip-hop artist out there. Ever since he dropped Operation Doomsday on the unsuspecting public in 1998, he hasn’t stopped for a breath since. In 2004 he put out something like four full length albums, and that’s not including singles and guest appearances. You’d think that there’d be some drop in quality with all those releases, but somehow he keeps the quality high and the filler low.

King Geedorah is one of his many alter-egos - who just happens to be a three-headed lizard from outer space.

“This whole album is Geedorah’s alien perspective on humans,” he explains. “This is done intentionally to show the listener a mirror image of his/herself and the way we see each other. On the album we cover different subjects ranging from race issues to the neglect of children. Some might find the word “Nigger” offensive, or the line about the young girl not being able to read maybe considered a “bad taste” joke. All these insecurities are within us.”

(from the Press release)

This album is totally a one man, er, one lizard show, with MF Doom doing everything (aside from the guest vocals) on this album. Take Me To Your Leader has got all of your trademark MF Doom elements. Old sci-fi movie samples, lo-fi production, incredible raps and off-kilter beats. It’s a remarkable document and really gives us an incredible glimpse into one of the many minds of MF Doom.

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* Sein Sah Thin: Really Strange And Weird Things (5 mb)
* Tonte Theintan: Lover of The Winter and Snow (9 mb)
* Ni Ni Win Schwe: My Darling’s Love Arrow (4.5 mb)
From Princess Nicotine : Sublime Frequencies : SF 006

My Gawd! I’m listening to Sein Sah Thin and my mind is on the verge of having a meltdown. I’m having a great deal of trouble comprehending what’s going on here. I mean, this sounds like some machine gone wild and crazy. All I’ve gotta say is, I’ll take two of whatever those musicians are on!

Sublime Frequencies does it again with this release, Princess Nicotine : Folk And Pop Music Of Myanmar (Burma) Vol. 1. For those who don’t know this label has been quietly, but very quickly, releasing ethnographic musical/visual treasures for a little while now. I’ve found that Ethnographic music explorations are either one of two things. They are either super slick/well produced pseudo-global music stylings or they are very well documented, academic exercises. Sublime Frequencies does neither of those things. Their releases are often raw sound-collages of street sounds, musicians, and blasts from short wave transmissions. Listening to their releases is almost like walking the dusty streets of whatever region they’ve been exploring. They also include almost no extra information in their packaging. This can be somewhat frustrating, as I’d really like to know more about the musicians and the music.

Princess Nicotine is one of their more straight forward releases, eschewing sound-collages for a more straight up presentation of the music. These tracks are simply amazing.

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Sorry about the late post! I was working on it when I decided that I might have a virus on my computer. So I took care of that, but then it was time to go see about 20 old dudes rock out on various banjos, jugs, brass instruments and sing olde timey songs. Totally rockin’.

If you’re into M.C. Escher and Legoes, check out this awesome site. You know what? Even if you’re not into either of those things, you should check it out. This dude and his friend have made lego models of various M.C. Escher drawings! I mean, if that’s not cool, I’m not exactly sure what is.

* Deep Throat Anthology: She’s Got To Have It (5.5 mb) | Run Linda Run (6.5 mb) | Love Is Strange (12 mb)
From Deep Throat Anthology, Parts I & II : Light In The Attic : LITA 010

These sounds come to you straight from the movie that set off a revolution. Yes, I’m talking about THAT movie. When Deep Throat was launched on the unsuspecting public in 1972, no one knew that this movie would introduce the mainstream world to pornographic movies. But this $22,000 production went on to gross over 600 million dollars and was one of the first hard-core sex films to be shown in mainstream movie theaters.

But no accountant could explain what a sensation Deep Throat had become. This little flick was spreading like Chlamydia at a rural college. It was worldwide news. …Within its first month of release, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. owned personal reels, and even President Richard Nixon demanded that a copy be sent to the White House for a private screening….Mayor John Lindsay banned the fim in New York, no doubt after wanking to it several times in the course of his investigation, and loads of obscenity suits were launched across America.

(from the liner notes)

But enough about the movie. On to the music. By all accounts, this soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to what’s being shown on the screen. Believe it or not, I’ve never actually seen this move, but thanks to this music, I can really imagine what’s going on. The thing of it is, is that the director actually took his work very seriously. The music for this movie isn’t just your standard boom-chika-chika porn preset on the keyboard. This is some artfully crafted funk/lounge music. So, take a listen to this and get ready to cue up those images in your head.

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* The Archies: Everythings Archie (2.5 mb) | Bang Shang A Lang (3.5 mb) | Sugar Sugar (4 mb) | Carousel Man (3.5 mb)
From The Archies Anthology

We want to dance and we want to sing > Have some fun and go adventuring > All our friends are here, but it ain’t complete > We ain’t the Archies without the Jughead beat!

And with those immortal lines, the Archies were born. When the comic book Archies got together and decided to form a band, they obviously needed someone else to fulfill that dream. Luckily, Don Kirshner who, after having a bad experience dealing with human beings and their associated egos managing the Monkees, was looking to craft the perfect band (i.e. one that would do whatever he wanted them to!). It was a match made in bubblegum pop heaven. Of course, there was one more thing they needed to complete the dream. Archie himself needed a voice. They turned to the vocal talents of Ron Dante and never looked back.

Now, this honestly sounds like a recipe for disaster. I mean, a studio band based on characters from a comic book?!?! Nothing could be further from the truth. This band rocks! Well, “rocks” might be too strong of a word. But they definitely do something right. They even scored a number one hit with their song, sugar sugar. The name of this song really says it all, as this music is delightfully sweet. These songs give me warm fuzzies and bring me back to a time in my life when things were nice and innocent.

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