bub@ames.UUCP (Bubbette McLeod) (10/08/84)
Okay, gang, now we've discussed what albums we'd take to the fallout shelter
with us, worst lyrics of all times (which in some people's opinion
seemed to mean "dirty" since it lapsed into "songs I wouldn't play for
my mother"), best guitar players (for at least the second time since
I've been reading this group) ... yawn ....
Now, I have a question ...
*******************************************************
What interesting NEW music have you heard lately?
*******************************************************
I mean music that's come out in the last six months, at the very most.
I would like to hear from those of you who live in Europe, too. When I
was in London, a little over a month ago, Frank Goes to Hollywood was
VERY big (I've pretty much played myself out on that) and the music
press was raving about Malcom McLaren's new single (which I've kicked
myself for not bring back since it's not available on the west coast).
I want to hear about anything in the general rock genre - my ears
crave new sounds.
SO .... WHAT'S NEW???!!!???
Bubbette
{dual,hao,hplabs,ihnp4,philabs,vortex}!ames!bub
P.S. Go see REPO MAN, it's GREAT!jtm@syteka.UUCP (Jim McCrae) (10/10/84)
The most interesting "new" music I've heard lately comes from Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana. I've been hearing a lot on KFJC, Los Altos. (where else?) The popular name for the form is JuJu music, although JuJu is actually a subset of a much larger movement in Africa. The dominant sound is similar to Salsa with a little street funk thrown in. The rhythms are extremely infectious; the first time I heard Faela (don't know how it's spelled or the rest of his name), a Nigerian mainstay with a sharp political bite to his songs, I couldn't get the rhythm guitar part out of my head for days. The song was "Colonial Mentality" I believe, and the guitar was doing this incessant 16th note triplet pattern over just a bunch of drums and the continual rapid tension-release cycle was just short of hypnotic. The influence of this stuff is already with us; David Byrne has done probably the best job of bringing the ideas to the attention of modern-electric-music listeners (isn't that better that rock/pop/new-wave/blah-blah?). In the March "Guitar Player"he said that the main difference between African music and Western was that African music is about losing oneself in the community while Western music is about expressing one's individuality and separateness from the community. "Rolling Stone" has a group record review on several imports from Africa this month. I didn't read the article closely - it was at a friends house - but it conveyed the main story and might serve to get anyone interested started on where to find this stuff. ~e oops...this isn't mail is it. Jim McCrae - ...!hplabs!sytek!jtm
gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (10/12/84)
Mr. McCrae, the person you're talking about is the *famous* Fela Ransome-Kuti,
now just Fela, he was Fela Anikulapo-Kuti for awhile, etc. His current band
is Africa '80m which replaced Africa '70. I'd suggest you try out "Original
Sufferhead", which is about his best bit of work in terms of putting his
riffing together with his Politics. And we aren't talking just sloganeering
here...this turkey gets pitched into jail on a regular basis before the
elections because he's perceived as a threat to the government.
Juju, on the other hand, is of a different tribal origin...it's a sort
of Yoruba moon-spoon-june music, with more lilt and less bite. I'm
tailing this article out with a recent review I penned for a regional
University newsmagazine here. I hope that it encourages you to go and
find the stuff. Note: the more distinctly African stuff is found on Ade's
"juju music" lp. The new, hybrid stuff might be of more interest to you right
off.
The market system that puts much of the music you hear
(and _s_o_m_e of the music we review here) in your ears is by
nature acquisitive. In much the same sense that "the music
business" needs a record--buying public as a source of capi-
tal, they also need a stock of "new ideas" every so often to
keep the aforementioned public coming back to the well.
Contained in this regular transaction is one of the great
paradoxes of what we call "style"--for the artist or
artists, style is a collection of choices made: decisions
about _w_h_a_t it is that you do best, and the commitment to _d_o
it. To the system, "style" is convenient way of defining
groups of similar products or objects--it's a sort of utili-
tarian way of figuring out what something is, so that you
can tell who will buy it.
And you'd better believe that anyone who sits down to write
a review runs headlong into the same paradox. It's a reason-
ably rare occurrence to come upon an album that is continues
an artist's personal concerns and still manages to be suc-
cessful in terms of a well-defined genre: That is a _v_e_r_y
delicate balancing act.
In a way, that search for "new ideas" isn't all bad...some
major record company _i_s responsible for putting King Sunny
Ade and His African Beats' _A_u_r_a on the turntables of Amer-
ica. His exuberant potpourri of African percussion, dub
technology, and pedal steel guitar (yes, that's right--your
favorite country and western weeper instrument in the hands
of the Nigerians) has made his own "juju" music tremendously
successful in Africa, and in turn he has become one of the
major figures in the recent interest in African popular
music, along with Fela Kuti, Chief Ebeneezer Obey, and Sonny
Okusun.
_A_u_r_a does a marvelous job of solidifying Sunny Ade's posi-
tion as the most commercially viable of the crossover Afri-
can stars: he's even got Stevie Wonder riffing frenetically
away on the album's opening cut. What makes the album a
slightly more subversive success involves King Sunny's
talent at a sort of "reverse colonialism"--he's made an
interesting African album by judiciously plundering the day-
lights out of current musical fashions, and mixing it in
with his own work in a way that compromises neither source:
this album manages to be interesting _m_u_s_i_c, without the
modifying adjectives that denote source.
As a case in point, take the opening cut "Ase": the track
opens like the 1 millionth generic breakancing single--with
an opening flurry of drumbox. But something is afoot. The
drum machine picks a fight with a bongo drum. King Sunny
separates the combatants with a Guitar lick stolen from B.B.
King, Stevie Wonder drops into the mix on harp (at this
point, it sounds a little like the old War stuff, with Lee
Oskar on harp). In comes the talking drum, a bunch of people
start singing away in Yoruba, and all bets are off as to _w_h_a_t
comes from where. In any case, the agreeable percolations
tumbling out of your speakers render it a moot point. You
don't need Italian to cry when Mimi kicks off in "La
Boheme", and you don't need a dictionary for this.
I've also noted an unusual side effect of this album that
may be of interest to the hardened partygoer, partygiver, or
dancer. In a way, it's not surprising in any situation where
the drummers in the band outnumber the guitars by about
three to one. Nearly every cut on this record comes with
about three or four radically different dance tempos built
in. The discriminating terpsichorean can choose among them
depending on the state of fatigue or excitement at any given
moment. In addition, this album also sounds very nice at
lower volumes and more intimate surroundings. That ability
to be listenable _a_n_d danceable is no mean feat in _a_n_y cul-
ture.
________________________________________________________________________________
Traditionele communicatie is een controlemiddel omdat het gestructureerde,
omlijnde visies opdringt. Door die communicatie te versplinteren halen we
ook de controle eruit, en krijgt persoonlijke intuitie weer en plaats.
________________________________________________________________________________ahearn@convex.UUCP (10/16/84)
New stuff... Try Maximum Rock `n' Roll's recent compilation album, "Welcome to 1984." The album is an international punk/thrash sampler, with some excellent songs by Oklahoma's own N.O.T.A., among others (Okie punks?! The mind boggles...) I also like D.O.A.'s 7" called "Right to Be Wild." Features "Burn It Down," backed with the Subhuman's "F*ck You." Proceeds from the record go to free the so-called "Vancouver Five." Great stuff. Nothing else in the new/pop/punk category seems particularly noteworthy at the moment. Now if you want to talk about classical records ... --joe ahearn convex computer corp.
mike@smu.UUCP (10/27/84)
If the "Carmina Burana" album mentioned is the one by Ray Manzarek, I would not recommend purchase. It is mildly entertaining dancey stuff, but I would never consider listening to it instead of the real thing. Nowhere near as good as other attempts like this, such as ELP doing "Pictures at an Exhibition". I'm not sure I like that better than the Philadelphia Symphony, but it's way better than the Manzarek. Perhaps it's because Carmina Burana is a pretty wild and bizarre piece anyway. Mike McNally ...convex!smu!mike
asente@decwrl.UUCP (Paul Asente) (10/28/84)
The new version of Carmina Burana is by Ray Manzarek (keyboardist for the Doors) and is, in my opinion, quite listenable. -paul asente O Fortuna, O Fortune velut Luna, Like the Moon statu variablilis, Everchanging semper crescis, Rising first aut decrescis; Then declining; vita detestabilis Hateful life nunc obdurat Treats us badly et tunc curat Then with kindness ludo mentis aciem, Making sport with our desires, egestatem, Causing power potestatem And poverty alike disolvit ut glaciem. To melt like ice.