Strut Records the !K7 sublabel who gave us the Nigeria 70 compilation a few months ago is back with a new compilation from the same time period in a new setting : Calypsoul 70: Caribbean Soul 1969-1979.

Not much to dissect about the compilation, as we’re basically worthless with our elementary calypso knowledge, however as we love most of the stuff that comes from the Caribbean except cheap dancehall and knowing a few of the tracks on it; one from Lancelot Layne that has already been on undomondo before and another from the the steel drums orchestra Amral’s Trinidad Cavaliers, it’s safe to say that Calypsoul 70 is a hot fuzz of tasty calypso, latin and soul. Out on September 2 but till then can stream the rest from the minisite!

Just heard the news that Skatalites original Johnny “Dizzy” Moore has passed away at the age of 70. So this post is a small tribute to what he’s given to us together with the inspirational Skatalites. 4 more calypso and ska pieces one from Dizzy himself.

Sambo - Woman
Lancelot Layne - Yo tink it sorf
Lord Beginner - Fed-a-ray
Harold Richardson - Healing in the Balmyard
Count Owen - Take her to Jamaica
Johnny ”Dizzy” Moore - Sudden Destruction

(Noone)

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Oy! Back from what seems to be the last vacation of this summer. Let’s end the one week drought with one of the best albums of 2008, from the powerhouse sextet of the downtown scene (which I’ve been holding back since April). The second Masada songbook releases this year were impressive with fab albums from Bar Kokhba, Secret Chiefs 3 and finally Medeski Martin and Wood!

There’s not much to say about Bar Kokhba; with an unsurpassed line up from the downtown contemporary jazz circle: the foundation of the original Masada line-up Greg Cohen on bass and Joey Baron on drums, the iconic Marc Ribot on guitar, Mark Feldman on violin, Erik Friedlander on cello and the percussion wiz Cyro Baptista, who cements the Bar Kokhba sound.

Lucifer Book of Angels, the 10th installment of the second Masada series and their first album in 12 years (if you don’t count the 3CD live) has similarities with The Dreamers and 2001’s The Gift; traditional Sephardic music meets, surf music meets jazz meets cinema. I’m such a fool for this sound and I’m confident that the world will be a better place if everyone listened to this, yet I think it might be out of touch with the young indie crowd who happen to frequent here time and time again.

This is a mature album (perhaps a bit too much with Mr. John Zorn seemingly leaving all the edgy bits out for this one) as expected from a 6 piece chamber trio + a composer who’re all past 50 years of age. Yet it’s timeless and as opposed to other Zorn stuff pretty easy to get into at the same time (yes even for your elderly neighbour) and if you don’t have a disdain against non-western musical scales, you might be marveling at the otherworldly blend of romantic melodies and cinematic ambience - which I feel I have to stress once again, comes singlehandedly from the brilliant Cyro Baptista.

Lovely photo of a young John Zorn playing sax by A23H

Bar Kokhba Sextet - Sother
Bar Kokhba Sextet - Zazel

(1 votes)

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Undomondo’s taking another break for a week or so, mainly because I need to work on my MA thesis and the net’s being a black hole of distraction. In the meantime there are two muxtape’s that you can check both by our colleague Darita from Istanbul, the first is his own, and one for dugumkume a blog he co-writes. Both have in his words “selected obscure electronic, disco music from 1978-1986″, some great gems here and there.

Anyways, I’m a huge fan of Michigan’s Nomo, No.7 on my last.fm after a total of ~110K listens, which means something. I’ve been listening to their new one Ghost Rock for a month or so and it’s simply another amazing album under their belt. I first heard the term Post Fela Afrobeat while reading reviews of their previous album “New Tones” on the net. I’ve never thought of deconstructing the link between Fela and afrobeat and how we take his form for granted. Now I love Fela and his afrobeat, I even love his clones, but Nomo is a different beast altogether.

The 8 piece Ann Arbor orchestra tested me with their innovations on the first two tracks, which wasn’t remotely what I was expecting, seems I was content with the “post-Fela” on “New Tones” while the band was hell bent on destroying any traces of it. (Not in a bad/unrespectful way though).

They’ve found a habitable space where it seems to be some kind of a big band afrofunk but at the same time it’s dark and psychedelic, severing its ties with the traditional African music and incorporating contemporary ideas & methods.

What I’ve chosen for you to listen is two songs which are more in vein with the previous album, Rings with its majestic horn riff on galloping beats, and the title track Ghost Rock with an equally infectious horn section and rocking beat, although these still sound very very fresh. I don’t know if the horns are composed by one person or the whole band, but I’ve yet to see a band as successful as Nomo that can come up with tunes as complex and memorable as these.

Out on Ubiquity,a serious contender for top 10 of 2008 and thankfully equally felt by Pitchfork with a whopping 8.3. Don’t miss the album and the remaining dates on their US tour!

Nomo - Rings
Nomo - Ghost Rock

(Noone)

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Swims

A few weeks ago I’ve been contacted by Pierrick from Distile Records, an up and coming Paris/NY label focusing on instrumental/noise/math rock. I listened to one of their bands,SWIMS and right away the amazing Claypoolesque bass-tapping hit me. After listening to most of the label back-catalogue, I’m amazed with the quality of their roster.

Planets

Sacramento’s SWIMS is a twopiece with the bass sensation Paul Slack, who also plays for another amazing duo Planets once again on Distile. In fact Planets has just finished an east coast tour with one of my fave bands Ahleuchatistas and that was the reason I got contacted initially but fuckin’ failed to report in time as always.

Anyways at least we had the chance to check out the other bands on the Distile roster like French duo 37500 Yens, Geneva power trio Commodor who’ve just released a new album called Driving out of Focus, and Sacramento’s O! the joy, Looking for John G., Neptune, Sincabeza and One Second Riot.

Distile seems to have found their niche in no-bullshit rock music with fast, technical and noisy bands which will make mature listeners with a special taste in engaging music, salivate right away.

Commodor - Liquid Fire

SWIMS - Pegasus
Planets - O People
Looking for John G. - Derrabas
Commodor - Don Starsky
O! the joy - Under the Radar
37500 Yens - Canard Boiteux

(Noone)

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Here we are with #61 of our weekly (and sometimes bi-weekly) installments of our radio show. This is loosely based on the muxtape I did after our summer vacation. Starts off with ambient sounds by Pepe Bradock and a spoken horror sketch by Boris Karloff on top of it, a Japanese koto piece by Chieko Mori, and then a short trip through Africa. The second part begins with my current favourite old composer the late Piero Umiliani, we stroll through some roots reggae and dub, with Prince Buster, Burning Spear, Roland Alphonso of Skatalites. Two proto-electronic songs off Roger Roger & Nino Nardini’s Informatic 2000 LP from 1982 and JJ Perrey’s Moog Sensations, then some rare funk from The Meters and Alan Hawkshaw. The show ends with Coming Home Babe, now whoever listens to this knows this tune, but no one remembers from where. If any of you actually read my babblings about shows and know this song, please comment cos it’s been on the tip of our tongues for ages, but we it’s still not coming out. (Tip : I’m positive it’s a tv ad/theme)

Stream from archive.org

Pepe Bradock – Intriguing Feathered Creatures AK Pella Mix
Boris Karloff – The deadly dress
Chieko Mori – Spiral Wave
Hallelujah Chicken Run Band – Alikulla
Beyene Habte – Embi Ila
Mulatu Astatke – Yekermo Sew
Piero Umiliani – Mahe
Piero Umiliani – Cinque Bambole Rosa (Organo E Ritmi)
Sven Libaek – Start Growing Up Now
Roland Alphonso – Born to be Loved
Burning Spear – Invasion
Roger Roger & Nino Nardini – Expectation
Jean-Jacques Perrey – Ballet Intersideral
Holger Czukay & Jah Wobble & Jaki Liebezeit – Twilight World
Prince Buster – Saladin
Gaylads – Portland Rock Love in Action
The Meters – Cissy Strut
Alan Hawkshaw – Speed Run
Le London All Star - Coming Home Babe

Undomondo Radio Show #61

(3 votes)

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Our friend from UK, Jonathan Radford aka Diesler (Tru Thoughts, Freestyle and also remixes on Ninja Tune, Sundays Best and others) has made an exclusive summer mix for us. A 40 minute mix of the best beat, nujazz & latin grooves mixed flawlessly, this mix might be a lifesaver in case of being subject to bad commercial music on your holiday trips. (Which I’m sure will happen at one step).

Added a Mediafire link for peeps who can’t dl from rapidshare.

Diesler - Undomondo Mix 29.07.08 (rapidshare) (mediafire)

(3 votes)

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