the of mirror eye

* Ghost: Hazy Paradise (7mb) | Piper (9.5 mb) | Dominoes - Celebration For The Gray Days (10.5 mb)
From Hypnotic Underworld : Drag City Incorporated : DC249CD

The seasons are changing where I live and it’s slowly but surely becoming that time of misery otherwise known as summer. I’m not really sure why people love this season so much. All I know is that: sweat + stink + city = not a good combination for this old man. Anyways, every once in a while though, I really enjoy summer and it’s usually in conjunction with an afternoon grill session and copious amounts of ice cold beer and/or Uncle Grandpas Lemonade. And it’s especially great at dusk. The hot sun is about to finally retire for the day, the air is so humid that it’s slightly hazy out, and just enough alcohol was drunk that your own brain feels just like the air.

And Ghost is the music that’s going through my mind during those times. This is another band whose origins and history are shrouded in mystery. They’ve been recording their brand of spiritual-psych music for over twenty years, and I first heard about them when they released their first album for Drag City. Upon first listen, I was completely blown away by their sound and tried to find out more about them. There wasn’t too much information available. But I kept hearing enticing snippets like: “The band members and the peripheral friends/members all lived in this crumbling, soon to be condemned, building called the Ghost House. And they all just sat around doing drugs and playing/recording music all day.”

I quickly snatched up all of their available recordings and got way into their music. They have an amazing ability to bring together all of the elements of psychedelic and spiritual music and combine that with the ethereal vocals of Masaki Batoh without turning it all into one huge musical cliche. And that’s a fantastic thing in my book.

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* Maher Shalal Hash Baz: Unknown Happiness (3.0 mb) | Wings Of The Dawn (2.5 mb) | Flowerages (4.5 mb) | September Come I Will (6 mb)
From From A Summer To Another Summer (An Egypt To Another Egypt) : Geographic : geographic1cd

This band has always been shrouded with mystery. So, I’m going to do my best to keep it that way. But some basic information (which actually might be completely wrong) that has travelled through the ether is this: The band is lead by Tori and Reiko Kudo and are from Japan. They were both in other bands previous to this, but some sort of religious epiphany prompted them to start this band and record epics such as a box set entitled Return Visit To Rock Mass.

Since then they’ve been quietly releasing some of the most endearingly cute and refreshing pop music out there. Their records seem almost more like sketchbooks and diaries than “proper” records. But that’s the sort of sound that this band revels in. They’re decidedly non-pro musicians who just want to make a joyful noise.

Error in performance dominates MSHB cassette,
Which is like our imperfect life.
If perfect music is only heard through imperfection
At this state of the things,
MSHB, the king of error, could barely be heard

(Tori Kudo)

And that’s pretty much all I know about them.

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* East River Pipe: Shiny, Shiny Pimpmobile (5 mb) | My Little Rainbow (3 mb) | Astrofarm (6 mb)
From The Gasoline Age : Merge Records : MRG164

When most people think of the lowly 8-track cassette recording, it’s usually in conjunction with demos, or with bands like Guided By Voices. Sebadoh, or Pavement, who used the inherent limitations of the medium to craft instantly recognizable lo-fidelity pop songs full of tape hiss and drop outs. East River Pipe on the other hand, is a completely different beast.

East River Pipe is one F.M. Cornog, who wrote, performed, recorded and mixed all of the sounds you hear on this record at his home in New Jersey on a Tascam 388 mini-studio. But the music herein could hardly be accused of sounding “lo-fi”; it practically shimmers. Cornog is a master at his craft; an artisan of melody and emotional lyricism. A connoisseur of simple yet uplifting pop songs. A genius at gleaning a lot from a little. There’s no fancy pants producer behind the glass, no six figure recording budget, and there will be no huge marketing blitz. No cross country tours. No flashy music videos. What we have here is simply some of the most enchanting music you are likely to hear this or in any other year. Sometimes, it’s the music itself that matters.

(from Merge Records)

I didn’t really get East River Pipe the first time I heard them. I was in the midst of my infatuation with the previously mentioned lo-fi bands because their sound seemed to be more “authentic”, whatever that means. I was puzzled, because everything I’d heard about F.M. Cornog lead me to believe that I would totally be into him. Here was a one man band that crafted pop songs in his bedroom after having escaped the mean streets of New York City where he’d been a homeless alcoholic for two years. But I just couldn’t get into the songs. They sounded much too produced and were way too simple with these weird little throw-away lyrics. It sounded like anyone and their grandmother could’ve written them (But trust me on this one, these songs are much harder to write than they sound. I should know…I tried! And the results were horrible).

But they stuck with me, those songs. They ingrained themselves in my mind until I was randomly singing lines like “shiny, shiny pimpmobile > runnin’ through the night > shiny, shiny pimpmobile > runnin’ through the night” or “yeah, it’s alright > my little rainbow > my little rainbow is here > and it’s alright now > my little rainbow > and it’s alright now” in my dreams. And I started to realize the beauty in what he was doing. The beauty in the minimalist instrumentation. The beauty in his lyrics, with their bittersweet glances into the human life. And ultimately, the beauty in the simple, shimmering bedroom pop that he produces.

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Went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry to see the Body Worlds exhibit. And wow! That whole exhibit was incredible.

Throughout the ages, medical scholars and students have strived to understand how our bodies function through exploration of real human specimens. BODY WORLDS, one of the most highly attended touring exhibitions in the world, takes this tradition one step further by presenting a new look at the human body.

The exhibition features more than 200 authentic human specimens, including entire bodies, individual organs and transparent body slices that have been preserved through the process of “plastination,” a technique that replaces bodily fluids and fat. BODY WORLDS offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see and understand our own physiology and health and to gain new appreciation and respect for what it means to be human.

(from the website)

Highly recommended.

* Irma Thomas: In Between Tears (3.5 mb)
* Voices Of East Harlem: New York Lightening (3 mb)
* Marion Williams: I Shall Be Released (7 mb)
From Soul Gospel : Soul Jazz Records : SJR CD107

How do they keep doing it? That’s the question that runs through my head whenever I see another release from the Soul Jazz Records label. They’re probably one of the most consistent reissue labels out there. Whether it’s reggae, soul, funk, jazz, disco or punk, they’ve got all the best tracks. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to obtain as many of their releases as I’ve wanted because they’re priced as imports and I can’t really afford them. After seeing an advertisement for this release though, I knew that I just had to get it.

This is an incredible release. Simple as that. There’s not really that much more to say about it. From the striking photo of Odetta gracing the front cover, to the great music that they’ve collected together, to the insightful liner notes, to the photos of the musicians, this whole thing is one class act. Soul Jazz Records has created an amazing album based on the concept of exploring the connections between soul and gospel

Like jazz, gospel is something that we recognise, but often know very little about: the point of reference may be a robed choir stirring up a congregation through complex harmonies, or it could be some old footage of Mahalia Jackson giving a heartfelt rendition of ‘Walk In Jerusalem.’ In such contexts, the music is easy to identify. But do we hear it in Little Richard’s holler, Muddy Waters’ tremulous moan, or ever Chuck D’s polemical hectoring? In the delivery, and even some of the social principles, the soul and spirit of gospel music has permeated our consciousness, often without us even realizing it.

(from the liner notes)

Irma Thomas leads off this post with my favorite track from this compilation, the bittersweet In Between Tears. Then we move on to the politically aware Voices Of East Harlem with their song New York Lightning. And last but least, we’ve got Marion Williams giving her soulful rendition of the Bob Dylan classic, I Shall Be Released.

In all honesy, Soul Jazz Records have really outdone themselves this time. This compilation is so sublime that it really begs the question raised in the title of my post, where do they go from here?

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* The Magnetic Fields: I Don’t Really Love You Anymore (4 mb) | I Looked All Over Town (3.5 mb) | It’s Only Time (6.5 mb)
From i : Nonesuch Records : 79683-2

As a one man Brill Building, Stephen Merritt (the main man behind The Magnetic Fields) has been, for the past 14 years, churning out genius pop song after genius pop song. Over the years, he’s built an amazing body of work that spans over 15 albums. 69 Love Songs, his last album for Merge Records, was a tour de force of songwriting. An incredible exploration of love in all its forms, it was all the more amazing due to the fact that he recorded and played almost everything by himself.

Normally his albums are synth-pop based, but for this one, he enlisted the help of his touring band. And the results sound fantastic. He’s managed to achieve an incredibly warm sound and that, along with a more stripped down feel, have combined to produce some very intimate songs.

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Head on over to Honey, Where You Been So Long? for an incredible look at the many faces of Stagolee (look here and here). It’s an incredible series of posts and if you hurry on over, you can still get most of the songs.

But don’t despair all you late comers, the dude is going to have a permanent place for the whole series. So keep a watch on his page for more news.

I sure hope all of you are following the Kiddie Records series. There’s really only two words for what those folks are doing: Absolutely amazing!

* The Vibrations: Watusi (4 mb) | Feel So Bad (3.5 mb) | Peanut Butter (3 mb) | What Made You Change Your Mind (3.5 mb)
From Out Of Sight: The Checker Years : RPM Records : RPMDSH 278

Imagine what would happen if Chicago and Los Angeles got together and had a bastard love child. Well now you can, courtesy of the magic sounds of The Vibrations. Originally hailing from Los Angeles under a different name, they really found their stride when they were picked up by Checker, a subsidiary of the great Chicago label, Chess Records. They quickly took off with the recording of Watusi.

Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy opens with a strident phrase, Leake provides insistent triplets on the keyboard, Thomas lays down a toe-tapping backbeat, Board blows a rasping reed solo and Boyd gives rock-steady bass rhythm while the Vibrations add hand-clapping support while urging ALL to slide to the left and to the right, two steps forward, keep it tight, there’s a dance called the Watusi, it’s outta sight!. Hypnotic, rhythmic, insistent, a great R&B dance record…

(from the liner notes)

For whatever reason, this band never really achieved the success that they deserved. One issue that they faced was the changing popularity of doo-wop vocal groups in favor of soul music. Also, being known as a slightly gimmicky dance band probably didn’t help out. But a listen through their catalog shows that they were much more than just a dance band. They could really do it all.

And thanks to the efforts of RPM Records, you can now bask in the incredible sounds that they produced while they were on the Checker label. So, strap on your dancin’ shoes, crank that stereo up to 11, put on Watusi and be prepared to shake your rump off.

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