Chris Thomas King Angola review

 

ANGOLA by Chris Thomas King 2020

When an album is named after a notorious US prison, and the first thing you hear as the needle drops is a crowd chanting "George Floyd, George Floyd" to a background of police sirens and rumbling guitar, you know there's a lot of anger here. And anger doesn't always translate into approachable art. 

Fortunately, there's a lot more here than anger; there's pity, and, in a brilliant cover of Dylan's I Shall Be Released, compassion. The Dylan connection is also relevant in that Dylan himself recorded Hurricane, a song that also challenged the institutionalised  racism that we know as the US of A. 

This is not Johnny Cash at Folsom or BB King at Sing-Sing, this is an altogether different event. The album begins, as already noted, with a mash of real-world noises, hip-hop sensibilities and created music centreing on the brutal viral story of George Floyd and moves into a rendition of the US national anthem where CTK channels Hendrix to remind us of Woodstock's famous deconstruction of the Vietnam war. People still, CTK reminds us, have to face off with the Man, the system that dehumanises every one of us, especially people of colour.

Next up is Drenched With Our Blood; in fact just looking at the album's tracklist tells you what's going on here:

 

 

 

 

 

But it's not all doom and gloom. In CTK's hands this becomes an existential crisis full of pathos: 

Why do we do this to each other? What happened to respecting our common humanity? 

In this context, I Shall Be Released is transformed from a moving song about an individual to a song of hope for humankind. In this year of lockdowns and terrors it wells up in our chests and becomes a song of hope for us all.

[swazifiction, October 2020]

Classical Sunday 1: JS Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos

JS Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are amongst the gems of the entire classical repertoire, not only the Baroque period. Composed throughout his career then selected, assembled and reorganised, Bach presented these works to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721. Bach may not have heard these pieces performed as a complete work; the Margrave certainly didn't. He didn't have enough musicians in his Berlin orchestra to have them performed and so the manuscripts went straight into his library and were only discovered over a hundred years later, in 1849! How fortunate for us that they were! The manuscripts were first published the following year, in 1850, and have since then become regularly performed, frequently recorded, and very popular works.

The youtube performance given here is of the 5th concerto, performed by one of the best period performance ensembles, the Freiburger Barockorchester, and filmed at Cothen, where Bach worked as a court musician.

This is the concerto that includes an amazing section written to spotlight the harpsichord. I hope you enjoy it.



c Kenneth Rowley 2015

Spirit(ual) Music!

Spirit(ual) Music

I WOKE UP with Bach's 3rd Orchestral Suite in my head, so I listened to Savall's recording of it, and it seemed to me that it was like the Creation of the World as described in the book of Genesis. Like the biggest of big bangs, it begins with a bubble of energy, effervescent, from which a few themes emerge. It's turbulent and pregnant with possibilities. Then there's a movement of transcendent beauty (the famous Air)--this is 'the Spirit of God hovering over the waters'. It's impossible not to be charmed by the serenity and pace of this music. This movement is the spiritual heart of this suite and it really does take you to another place, a place of movement in repose. The rest of the Suite introduces different forms, some rhythmic in purpose and others with soft beauty. These are the forms that emerge from the primal emptiness at the beginning of the work. The Heart Sutra is relevant here, 'form is emptiness, emptiness is form'. It might be fanciful to think of Bach having such thoughts in mind as he composed the work, but who knows? We know that he wrote everything to the glory of God. It's a fancy I enjoy.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG0CnCZXbUE

c Kenneth Rowley 2015

It's Smooth!

THE CRITICS HATED the Carpenters, saying that Karen's voice was invariably bland and that Richard's arrangements were almost always MOR. But then, they've never forgiven Bob James for creating 'Smooth' jazz either. The Carpenters and Bob James have similar characteristics: both musical acts are highly professional, polished, and extremely popular. And, natch, they're both smooth on the ear.

That of course is the point. We don't always look for something demanding or challenging or adrenalin-boosting; sometimes we want to just go to a party and unwind, smooch a little, cuddle a little, and maybe enjoy a slow dance or two. And that, exactly, is why we bought the Carpenters Singles album by the millions.







Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfixkzWT6qw

The Death of Rootedness

The Death of Rootedness

The death of Donna Summer reveals the problems we're facing: the loss of rootedness and context. You see, without Donna Summer, there'd be no house music, no club dance scene, no Channel O, but most people who listen extensively (many exclusively) to these musics and inhabit these contexts have never heard of her. We have as a species shifted (a seismic shift, equivalent to the Industrial Revolution) from nationalism towards a global village, one unified worldwide culture, that contains a bit of everything, a genuine mash-up, but in so doing we have disconnected our ties to the particular histories that allowed this social world to come into being.

And, of course, it's not just the dance scene. During the late seventies (think Eagles' Hotel California, think Fleetwood Mac's Rumours), rock music was also changed forever because of Donna Summer. When Brian Eno arrived in Berlin to join David Bowie for his Low and Heroes albums, he had a copy of Summer's I Feel Love and was telling everyone, "This is the future". He was correct, and Bowie (who was a new convert to the electronica of Neu!, Can, and Kraftwerk) agreed. That nascent sound is all over Bowie's Berlin albums and the changes that followed were tidal.

Music is central to the new global village and our lives; it will continue to be, but without rootedness we can justifiably be apprehensive. I recently saw some youtube comments on a piece of classical music: "Oh, this music is just for the old people, and they'll be dying out soon." Our sense of history is dying, and with it goes our sense of proportion and rightness. Everything is now up for grabs.

Remixing the art

Remixing the art, as opposed to the art of remixing... Originally, vinyl singles had an A side & a B side, the B side being a different song usually written & recorded specifically for the single. Frequently these B sides were very good-- sometimes becoming bigger hits than the A sides. The Beatles' Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever single is just one example. Then came CD singles & our first experience of remixes rather than different tracks. Frequently these remixes were no good & we thought, 'What the heck? We're being cheated here!' But we didn't realise for a while that remixes have little to do with the original song. The remixes were often there to provide a better drug experience (think House, Rave, etc). Then the remix became the single itself to revive interest in the original single & album it was culled from (think commerce here). Nowadays of course the single is moribund, replaced by the video of the song. The record companies haven't realised this yet & so they are complaining about 'music piracy'. I think if they started selling albums in video single form, they would probably start making money again.

posted from Bloggeroid

Worth saving?

Bach, Handel, Telemann, Corelli, Vivaldi, Mozart: proof that the human race was worth saving. But now? Hip hop, rap, kwaito? Goth?

posted from Bloggeroid

Valentine R.I.P.

Valentine R.I.P.

I don't know if you've yet seen the new Rihanna video, S&M, but it's already done its promo job by stirring debate and controversy across the blogosphere. Coming hard on the heels of 2010's massive singles Eminem's Love the Way You Lie and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, its bondage/men as dogs/scenes with bananas and dolls etc effectively means that kids growing up today will come to accept obsessive behaviour and domestic violence as the norm for what were once seen as romantic relationships. Cupid is still a fat boy, but his arrows are now valued for their pain rather than for warm fuzzy feelings of love.
   Love the Way You Lie was of course classic s&m: the ending especially, when the rapper warns, 'If you try to leave me, I'll tie you to the bed and set the house on fire.' Rihanna explains: "You'll stand there and watch me burn. That's all right cos' I like the way it hurts. You'll just stand there and watch me cry. That's all right cos I love the way you lie." Eminem as the sadist; Rihanna as the masochist.
   On Rihanna's latest, the chorus is
"'Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it/Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it/Sticks and stones may break my bones,/But chains and whips excite me."
   Yes, it's clear from the video that she's responding to her critics, putting a finger in the air to especially the media, but still the other elements disturb. Even if the video is banned worldwide (it already has been banned in some places) it is obviously going to influence teens and others. In time, nothing in this video will be considered shocking or even abnormal. Don't get me wrong: I actually appreciate Rihanna's style and talent; but February 2011 surely marks the death of romance and a quick farewell to that old gentleman once known as Mr Valentine. 

Chems Play Beatles

Listening for the umpteenth time to the Chemical Brothers' magnificent return to form, 2010's Forward, it finally clicked where all the trippiness was coming from -- not so much from allusions to Private Psychedelic Reel, but the Beatles' work circa 1967. Specifically, sections of Forward are reminiscent of the Fab's Strawberry Fields-Sgt Pepper-Baby, you're a rich man-Magical Mystery Tour period. This is apparent from as early as Forward's track 2, Escape Velocity: in this song there's even an upward-scaling chord crescendo that sounds so like A day in the life that at one point I began thinking of Radio London's Final Hour broadcast (A day in the life was the last track played by that pirate station).

But it's not just that crescendo. It's the figuration, the sounds themselves, the swirling effects, and the abrupt shifts in the musical textures the Chems have fashioned here. This album, not those of  E.L.O, is the culmination of I am the Walrus's and Blue Jay Way's legacy. The Beatles, of course, made trippiness a mass phenomenon, so evoking that period makes a lot of sense. On track 4, Dissolve, the trippy elements are there at the beginning, but then there's the refrain, Caroline, Caroline. At first I assumed it was a reference to a girl. But now I'm not so sure. Maybe it's a reference (even if unconscious) to the other big pirate station of 1967, Radio Caroline?

Kings of Leon Come Around Sundown snippet

As a huge KOL fan, I should have written a review of the new album Come Around Sundown about eight weeks ago, when I first heard it. This is not that review, just a snippet from the front line.

Mixtapemaestro recently posted a Cee-Lo cover of Radioactive (the new KOL single) on his excellent blog with the comment that the cover makes the KOL original 'irrelevant'. Unfortunately, I hear what he means. I don't particularly like Cee-Lo's version but I hadn't realised before what a great gospel song this could be with the right performance and arrangement. (I'm thinking Sharon Jones or Mavis Staples or even Aretha here.)

Come Around Sundown is KOL's most polished album yet. And to my ears that's the problem. I put the Cee-Lo cover on replay, listened to it ten times or so, and then listened to KOL's original. I got about half-way through when I ejected it and played Aha Shake Heartbreak instead. Now, that's the music I like.

Form Determines Content: LP to CD

It's almost become a truism to say that form determines content; that is, any message is altered by the form used to express it. As a Literature teacher I use this phrase regularly. Here today I'm reflecting again on the change from LP to CD and how that has impacted the artwork (by this I mean the total package, sound and liner notes and image) involved.

My selected example is the Beatles' Abbey Road album. I've been listening to the remastered version recently and thinking about the overwhelming shock of silence that comes at the end of the LP's side one. Let me take you back: the last track of side one as originally envisioned and issued was Lennon's I Want You, seven-and-a-half minutes of desire and its aftermath. The band gets into a lazy, compulsive, hypnotic riff that feels like it could go on forever. Apparently-- I remember reading at the time-- The Beatles weren't sure how best to end the track so they simply cut the tape (btw, I later discovered that the South African cassette edition had a fade-out instead: which was a horrible perversion of the original). Well, that sudden silence always came as a shock, and with the original vinyl that shock lingered and bled into a moment or longer of pondering it and indeed some thinking about the whole of side one. You see, the music quite literally stopped at that point. If you wanted to hear some more you had to get up, walk over to the record player, and turn the album over.

In literature terms, the silence was followed by white space-- the space between stanzas or the space of a chapter break. I Want You was intended to be followed by silence.

But this is not so any longer: I Want You is now followed after a very short pause by Here Comes The Sun and the brilliant segueing drama of the album's original side two.

As useful and convenient as this might be, it obviously does damage to the original artwork. It is like repainting a canvas of Renoir's or reshaping a hand of Michaelangelo's David.

Nowadays Abbey Road can be played in the background, on continuous replay, as an aural wallpaper.

This, for sure, is a pity.

On the other hand, of course, Abbey Road becomes almost a new work. That could be a good thing.

In any event, form determines content.

Furthermore, and more obviously, the imagery of the cover doesn't carry the same weight and impact as with the original LP. Abbey Road's cover is now iconic; but the CD age has diminished the power of the packaging. When The Byrds first flew to rarified heights of influence and glory, their leader, Roger McGuinn, said that LPs were 'electronic magazines'. It was a useful way to think of them then. The newer CDs are obviously of a different kind: more pamphlets than magazines.

Janee Bennett

Verdi is gr8 4 yr heart!

Verdi is gr8 4 yr heart!



The researchers tested out various combinations of music and silence on the volunteers and found tracks rich in emphasis that alternated between fast and slow, like operatic music, appeared to be the best for the circulation and the heart.Verdi's arias, which follow music phrases that are 10 seconds long, appeared to synchronise perfectly with the natural cardiovascular rhythm.

BBC NEWS | Health | Opera 'is music for the heart'

The Great Gig in è Sky

The news of Larry Norman's death (on Feb 24) has affected me far more than I could have imagined. He was one of è biggest influences in my life. As a long-haired faded-jeans non-conformist zest-4-life teenager, è church never welcomed me with open arms: itz organisation was rigid, itz creativity non-existent, & itz music quite likely è worst on è planet. Larry (è man) & his music exploded into my life & I'm major thankful 4 that. I don't know what inspired me è most, Larry (I met him 6 times) or his music (I still listen regularly to 4 of his albums). This weekend I was @ a prefect camp & told è teenagers abt role models & people being inspirations in yr life. Then I picked up a gtr & sang 'è Outlaw'. Thank u Larry; go in peace.

Early English Music (update)

This is not to say that melancholy music can't be beautiful~ listening to the CD transfer, most of it clearly is~ but the beauty is severe, as for example a statue of the Virgin is beautiful; it doesn't come across as a beauty of joy.

English Music 1600-1750

The title comes from a record that I recently transferred from tape to CD. I have no idea who the performers are, but the composers are the usual suspects: Purcell, Adison, Boyce, Brade and Handel. The tape was made from a record borrowed from Wimbledon library sometime in the early 1970s.
What strikes me most listening to this recording now, apart from the performing style (more about that later), is how minor-key, sombre, almost mournful, the music is~ even with dotted rhythms; even the 'dances'.
Of course, 'mournful' is my appellation; others might call this music 'serious and stately'.
Then again, it might be the performance that is the culprit. As a teenager I loved a recording of concerti by the Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante (1684-1741). It was an old recording and quite rare~ recordings of Durante are not common. Anyway, a few years ago a different, CD, recording that included a couple of the Durante concerti appeared and I bought it: but I recognised nothing! Contemporary period perfomance really makes these old works new...