Karl Hector & The Malcouns are another incarnation of the German funk band Poets Of Rhythm, who are incidentally also The Whitefield Brothers. In 2008 they released the Sahara Swing LP, which combined funk, afro-jazz and psychedelic krautrock to inspire hugemongous erections for music nerds the world over. Since then the band has been quiet, presumably working on their new one as The Whitefield Brothers, meanwhile releasing only 1 single in this incarnation (I posted the bside from it here) The one shred of anything approaching new material that has surfaced recently has been this live show recorded in Dublin.
The set list here contains several selections from Sahara Swing, a couple of tracks that I hope are new material and one or two songs recorded by this band in their other guises. There are also a few covers, among which are a Mulatu Astatke classic and a take on Rob Kanda’s weirdo afro-psych favorite “Make it fast, make it slow” which the nerds should recognize as the original to J.Dilla’s “Make it fast”.
Let’s call this a placeholder post, one to return to in a few months. I’m seeing faint whispers of this album here and there, but only 2 songs from the band have surfaces so far. It seems to be something along the lines of The Whitefield Brothers / JD And The Evil’s Dynamite Band / Daktaris. It looks promising. But information is scarce, so scarce in fact that the two songs I’m posting were actually released under different band names (judging by the cover Skeletons is the right moniker). The only thing I know is that Ben Lamdin from Nostalgia 77 is behind this in some way.
Whatever they’re called, what they’re offering here is relevant to my interests. Heavy instrumental funk (possibly leaning towards the african side of things), a little on the weird side, with some notable jazz overtones. I have a feeling this one might be a little more accessible than The Whitfield Bros latest effort (read here). I also suspect Stones Throw will re-release this a year from now. We’ll see. For the moment let’s say there is a good chance I will be enjoying this album (tentatively) around March or so.
About 7 years ago The Whitefield Brothers (aka Poets of Rhythm) released a psych-funk cult classic In The Raw. Now they’re back with a follow-up called Earthology.
This right here seems like a song that’s destined to end up on some obscure psych compilation 20 years from now, issued perhaps by Finders Keepers or maybe Stones Throw\Now Again.
What it is – an unholy collision of electro-soul, reggae and freakyass jazz, where layers of woozy narcotic bass and keyboard swirl in with all sorts of weird synths and distortions and sound effects. While all that is going on, the odd barely harmonized and slightly off-kilter vocals plead with the listener to ’show me how to roll with a planet.’ Judging by the overall vibe of the song, I’m assuming the guy is trying to score some tabs.
The guy himself is an Australian by the name of Ari Roze. Unfortunately I could find no info on the man, nor any more work from him. For the sake of the story we can assume that Roze is some sort of Aborigine shaman who cooked this up while drinking fermented platypus milk on a walkabout through the darkest reaches of the Great Kangaroo Pouch In The Sky.
But wait, there is more. There is a dub on the b-side, and it might be almost better than the original. Here the weird vocals are stripped away in favor of some slow burning jazzy horns (possibly some melodica too), while the tension between the bass and keyboard is cranked up just a bit to unnerving effect. And of course, as this is a dub a few more strange sound effects and a bit more distortion are thrown in for good measure.
Hooray for bootlegs. The cover is self explanatory – this is a compilation collecting the original sources used by Large Pro in creating Breaking Atoms. Naturally the main target demographic here are the sample nerds. However this also works as a good mix of assorted classic rock/funk/soul/jazz jams so you can enjoy it even if you don’t give two shits about what the original for Vamos A Rapiar was.
Tracklist (the individual file names in the zip note the corresponding Main Source tracks)
01. Jesse Anderson – Mighty Mighty
02. Ike Turner – Getting Nasty
03. Melvin Van Peebles – Sweetback’s Theme
04. Johnnie Taylor – Watermelon Man
05. Gwen McCrae – 90% Of Me Is You
06. Skull Snaps – I Turn My Back On Love
07. Ike & Tina Turner – Bold Soul Sister
08. Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper & Stephen Stills – Season Of The Witch
09. Sister Nancy – “Bam Bam”
10. The Detroit Emeralds – You’re Getting A Little Too Smart
11. Pazant Bros – Chick A Boom
12. Donald Byrd – Think Twice
13. Third Guitar – Baby Don’t Cry
14. The Mohawks – The Champ
15. 9th Creation – Rule Of Mind
16. Ruby Andrews – Didn’t I Fool You
17. Melvin Van Peebles – Love That’s America
18. Lou Donaldson – Pot Belly
19. Elephant’s Memory – Mongoose
20. Kool & The Gang – NT
21. MFSB – TLC (Tender Lovin’ Care)
22. The Meters – Britches
23. Milly & Silly – Getting Down For Xmas
24. The Three Sounds – Repeat After Me
25. Vicki Anderson – Message From The Soul Sisters
26. Lou Courtney – “Hey Joyce”
27. Vicki Anderson – I Want To Be In The Land Of Milk & Honey
28. Bob James – Nautilus
29. Melvin Van Peebles – Won’t Bleed Me
30. Funkadelic – You’ll Like It Too
The Whitefield Brothers (nom de plume for the veteran german funk band Poets of Rhythm) recorded their gritty dark kinda weird 2001 album In The Raw back when The Menahan Street Band were still a bunch of marching band geeks in an Iowa high school (this is a completely arbitrary and likely wildly erroneous assumption). As these things often go the album became a bit of a cult hit, and was recently re-issued in expanded form by Now Again records.
The Gift is the first single from their upcoming followup Earthology. It features Edan and Mr. Lif. It sounds like it could’ve been on Edan’s Beauty and The Beat, albeit slightly mellower and more organic. Naturally it sounds like it was recorded inside a rusty bucket. There’s a lot of tuba and echo-effects, and a little Ron Burgundy-esque jazz flute. I can dig it.
The Whitefield Bros – The Gift ft Edan and Mr Lif
Above is an artist’s rendering of a turkish bath, circa 1862. Judging by the apparent predilection for trashy thick vaguely lesbian square-jawed white women, the artist was probably Ice T.
Below is a mix of rare Turkish jazz courtesy of a Turkish dj/producer Onur Engin. Like the majority of Turkish music that has flooded the obscure/rare music scene in the past few years, what’s presented here successfully combines traditional Turkish elements with Westernized influences. The selection dabbles in all sorts of jazz, from modal to soul jazz to funk fusion to spacey lounge and exotica to psychedelia to something that sounds a whole lot like an excerpt from an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. All this of course is set against a backdrop of that brassy eurasian sound which inevitably reminds of belly dancers and those Fez wearing grail protectors from Indiana Jones. I gotta say, as much as I enjoy Oh No’s oxperiments with this kind of music they usually have nothing on the original article and such is the case here. This is verily an advanced jam for the discerning and sophisticated space cadet
A tracklist for the diehard rares nerds:
Okay Temiz – Muş (Sun/1979)
Erdoğan Çaplı – Üsküdara (Time S/1961)
Nükhet Ruacan – Gölge (Birnumara/1979)
Muvaffak “Maffy” Falay & Sevda – Tamzara (Caprice/1972)
Durul Gence – Concerto de Aranjuez (EMI-Regal/1968)
Erol Pekcan – Aliyi Gördüm Aliyi (Nova/1968)
Burhan Tonguç Ritm Grubu ve İsmet Sıral, Fundacık – Du-Bi-Ba (White/1972)
İlhan Mimaroğlu & Freddie Hubbard – Threnody for Sharon Tate (Atlantic/1971)
Arif Mardin – Forms (Wounded Bird/1975)
This post is really juvenile in many ways, no way around it.
It’s in the mid 70s today, likely the last time that will happen for months. I’ve made a huge mistake. I should have taken a day off, but I didn’t. Instead I’m sitting inside next to some guy with a cold who is a prodigy virtuoso of the bodily noises. This fucker blows his nose like John Bonham played the drums – hard and loud in extended 30 minute stretches. I am at least 50 feet from anything resembling a window but I know the sun is out there and it’s making fun of me. I can tell, and it’s not psychotic paranoia. That yellow ass bastard is actually sitting on my roof right now, listening to music and calling me a bitch. I’m thinking about writing an anti-sun diss record called Sunned.
So I’m lashing out by taking a staunchly un-productive stance and passing the dwindling afternoon by ripping some songs from MySpace. This is a desperate measure, but I can’t find any of these via more legitimate means of purchasing (lol) or downloading. As per my blogging obligations I’m sharing the plunder. And of course a trip to MySpace isn’t complete without some jailbait girls exploring their self esteem issues in the most constructive manner possible.
That guy just cleared his throat again. Next time he does it I’m gonna shit in his mouth.
JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound are a from Chicago. They’ve been getting some buzz around the ‘net on the strength of their album Beat Of Our Own Drum (recommended) and a youtube vid of them covering Wilco’s “I’m trying to break your heart”. After the video made blog rounds all summer a studio version of the cover now popped up on their myspace page, albeit with no official release date even hinted. So here it is.
The band will be backing Numero’s traveling Eccentric Soul Review this November, which could potentially be the best show to see this year.
Karl Hector & The Malcouns’ Sahara Swing was one of my favorites for 2008. The album combined African jazz, krautrock and some good ole funk with face melting results. This myspace gem is in the same spacejazzedout vein. As far as I can tell it hasn’t been released officially yet, hopefully it’s an accurate preview of what their next release will sound like.
Ikebe Shakedown are from Brooklyn. Their sound bears more than passing similarity to several other Brooklyn bands AHEM El Menahem Michels Budos Affair Street Band AHEM, but the horns on this song are so deadly that it’s really hard to hold a grudge. The second half of the track is where the real magic happens. They will be releasing an EP called Hard Steppin on Oct 27, which seems promising.
I’ve posted some Red Astaire stuff before, he is a Swedish producer who dabbles in all sorts of musical styles. This light bouncy reggae/rocksteady/soul number would’ve been the perfect summer song if I got a hold of it a few months ago. Now it’s frankly just pissing me off considering the current situation.
This is the first taste of Inspiration Information 4 by Strut records, the next installment of the series combining talents of veteran musicians with those of younger artists. This volume is a collaboration between legendary Afro-beat drummer Tony Allen and Finish composer Jimi Tenor. I wasn’t really sure what to expect here, but this first song has me optimistic. A little light soul, a little afro jazz, some reggae touches – if the whole album sounds like this than it’s a shame it wasn’t released in the summer. It would’ve done nicely for sitting in the shade.
