beneath the waves.

the voice of god singing to you through clouds of flaxen gold wisps & rainbows of the brightest gems in the prairieland of minnetrista.

that's an atrocious type.

FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL The ever-reliable Johnny Trunk has outdone himself yet again, pressing up and reissuing the previously unavailable Edward Williams soundtrack to the 1979 BBC TV series 'Life On Earth'। According to the backstory behind this treasure, a lucky digger stumbled upon one of the original handful of copies privately pressed up by the composer for the musicians involved with the score। Trunk got wind of this, and as you can imagine became quite rightly overjoyed, as to his knowledge it was never commercially available. David Attenborough's original series was considered a groundbreaking piece of natural history television, and as anyone who has viewed any of the BBC's nature programmes will know, the music always plays a crucial role in the narration and ambience of such viewing. In contrast to the slightly ripe ebullience of soundtracks to todays HD, slow-motion nature-porn, 'Life On Earth' has a rich, and often haunting chamber suite backing, played by a majestic orchestral array of flutes, clarinets, strings and harp with subtle embellishments of Radiophonic electronics. The effect is remarkable still, even without the visuals, but we do have small markers in the titles, like 'Fish of the Sea - Shoals and Loners on the Reef' mirrored by shimmering harps, warbling clarinets and dreamy washes of synthesizer, or the gracefully alien drift of 'Comb Jellies - Gymnopedie for Jellyfish', with Satie-like flutes and angelic harps. It's an overwhelmingly wonderous and magical listen that any fans of Trunk records should be salivating over, while everyone else should really make the investment for the good of your record collection. Amazing. - boomkat.

this is absolutely stunning godtier stuff here.

pines of rome.

vangelis is on this shit! how does that not immediately sell this to you? this is one of my favorite new records, & it will definitely be yrs as well.

to gil hodges.

this one's for you buddy. i don't even know where to begin with this... i think any description i try to give is going to fall short of the glory of this tape. i got this in a batch along with the two reyog tapes. where the reyog tapes are transcendental vision quests, this is made for the tribal dance floor. i'm sure i butchered the tags, sorry. & if anyone has any sort of information about this, then get at me. i have some more aces up my sleeve that may have to wait for a little bit, but should be on the same level as these. dig it.

the eighth wave.

Sham Palace, the label owned and operated by Sublime Frequencies associate Mark Gergis, presents an amazing selection of intense and driving Dabke - the regional folk dance style popularised to some extent in the west by Omar Souleyman। Not limited to Souleyman's native Syria, this selection spans the Houran region "...a swathe of south Syria and north western Jordan, beginning just below Damascus, and encompassing the Syrian cities of Daraa, Suweida, Bosra, and the Golan Heights। Its populations include Syrians, Bedouin, Druze, Palestinians and Jordanians." It takes in seven stunning examples culled from cassettes and discs found in the cities of Daraa, Suweida, and Damascus, Syria between 1997-2010, predominantly using native microtonal keyboards to play both the rhythms and sampled mejwiz tones - that distinctively shrill, droning and hypnotic bamboo flute cadence - together with vocals drenched in echo and reverb to emphasise their impassioned emotional messages. They range from Ahmad Al Kosem's incendiary warning shot 'Love Is Not A Joke' to the EuroTechno-like arpeggios and pitched childrens voices on 'Mili Alay' by Mohamed Al Ali, through the steppin' torque and whooping delirium of Abu Sultan's 'Your Love Made Me Head Hurt' to an incredibly warped and near-psychedelic wedding celebration called 'Afrah Houran'. For exotic-minded DJs, open-minded parties and clued-up dancers, this is a must-have record!!! - boomkat

straight up face melting party jams right here.

o l d m o m s - melt jams ep.

i know one half of this group & that dude is a real stand up guy. modern r & b for codeine black outs. i can picture the xerox group from lfm being really into this if that means anything to any one outside of the ten vektroid listeners. call me man we should hang out soon. i owe you a beer.

cola cola.

more of the maestro. i don't know duders... this is good & all, but it has shit that fire star does as well. i would recommend getting this for the third song alone, it's some fantastique beauty. although what do i know? i'm just some dude on the internet.

the sighs.

Astonishing compendium of late '80s electro-funk and sweetest synth-pop from India (of all places!), issued on Bombay Connection - the label which unearthed Charanjit Singh's equally incredible 1982 acid raga LP!!! After the cherished 'Play That Beat Mr. Raja' LP bowled us out, and Finders Keepers' equally badass exposition, the work of "the Maestro" Illaiyaraaja is again exposed to full sunlight with this collection of 16 mindblowing themes from South India's Kollywood film industry. Crafted from almost entirely synthetic, electronic means, Ilaiyaraaja twisted the same machines which were being used elsewhere in the world to his own agenda, hatching a vividly colourful, eccentrically captivating adjunct to well known electro-funk and synth-pop imagined with bewildering attention to detail and lushly ornate arrangements. If you're only going to check a few of these, make sure to clock Yesudas & S. Janaki's coy, strutting duet 'Disco King', S.P. Balasubramaniam & Lata Mangeshkar's romantic dancefloor symphony 'Valaiyosai', and Anuradha's 'Baby', but you're encouraged to give them all a go! A huge recommendation। - boomkat

cannot recommend this enough. superbly exotique & fascinatingly catchy. the maestro deals in ear worms on this one. i swear you'll be humming vikram throughout yr day fershure.

122 hours of fear.

Zendooni celebrates a time when Pop artists in Iran ruled the country. During the 70s, before the Revolution, Occidental and Middle East mannerisms collided and the result was a new kind of Iranian Pop which incorpotated different genres and arrangements to its Persian roots. Touches of Funk, Jazz, Latin, Bossa, Progressive- Psychedelic sounds and Morricone / Blaxploitation styled soundtracks can be heard on this collection, culled from miraculously survived vinyls and cassettes.

A surreal voyage back to the Golden Age of Persian Pop. A vibrant time when female singers like Nooshafarin, Azita, Pouran or Ramesh appeared in colourful teen mags dressed in full hippie fashion. We are proud to present for the first time to Western ears amazing examples of Persian psych-prog like “Safar” by Hassan Shamaizadeh and “Vi Bafa” by Kambiz ; Persian funk by Azita, Nooshafarin, Emad Raam, Pooneh ; Bollywood styled sounds by Ahmad Wali & Hangama and much more. - light in the attic

i've been really digging this lately. if you were into the rangarang comp i posted before, then get this one folks.

ps i'll be trying to post something everyday from here on out till i get taken down.

to wfmu with love.

the follow up volume in the reyog ponorogo series. i hope you enjoy this as much as i have been lately.

ps finally have finished moving into my new place & got the internet, so i'll be seeing you cats around.

cairo sword unsheathed.

The Millennium was an american super group based in california, who were conceived by curt boettcher The group consisted of psychedelic rock musicians, and they incorporated sunshine pop harmonies.

The roots of the band lie in several groups. Boettcher had originally worked with drummer Ron Edgar for a brief time in the folk group the goldebriars. Following the dissolution of The GoldeBriars, Edgar joined the group the music machine which also featured doug rhodes on bass. The Music Machine scored a top 20 hit with the song "Talk Talk" before disbanding. Boettcher had also formed a group called The Ballroom, which featured sandy salisbury as a vocalist. lee mallory had worked as a songwriter and solo performer, and Boettcher had produced some of his recordings, including a cover of phil ochs' "That's The Way It's Gonna Be." The group also featured support from session musicians such as jerry scheff.

The Millennium recorded one album, begin, in 1968. Before disbanding, the group recorded one follow-up single: "Just About The Same" b/w "Blight," as well as several tracks that were later released on compilation albums. Boettcher went on to make several attempts at recording solo albums (only one was released during his lifetime, there's an innocent face), as did Salisbury and joey stec. michael fennelly would end up in the early 1970s group crabby appleton, who signed with elektra records and released two albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with the single "Go Back."

Stec founded the record label sonic past music in the late 1990s, and this label has subsequently released previously unavailable albums from The Millennium, Boettcher, Salisbury, Mallory, and Stec. - wikipedia

sorry for the delay, my internet has been faulty at best & i haven't been able to upload any of the things i have been really wanting to post. anyway, here is some summer psychedelia for you cats.

bengali in platforms.

Chellapilla Satyanarayana Sastry, better known as Chellapilla Satyam (Telugu: చెళ్ళపిళ్ళ సత్యం) (1933 - 12 January 1989) was an eminent Indian music director. He was popular in the telugu & kannanda cinema fields in 1960s and 1980s. Sathyam is best remembered as "Andhra RD Burman".

He was born in komarada village in vizianagaram district, andhra pradesh. He has acted in some plays with popular writer Rajasri and others at Vizianagaram. He later shifted to madras worked in the orchestra under p. adinarayana rao and t.v. raju. He was assistant composer in the magnum opus film suvarna sundari (1957). His debut film as a full fledged music director is pala manasulu in 1967, though he was credited as a music director in 1963 with NTR's savati koduku.

Some of his memorable hit songs are E divilO virisina pArijAtamO, O bangaru rangula chilaka, kalisE kaLLa lOna, pUchE pUla lOna, toli valapE teeyanidi, madhumAsa vELalO, kurisindi vAna and many more.

In memory of this great music giant a musical night was organized by Bay Area Telugu Association and Chimata Music in California, USA in 2009. - wikipedia

been vibing real hard on tamil & bengali soundtracks lately. this sorcerer conjures some fucking serious fyre in line with what those shankar jaikishan cats were cranking out back in the golden era. & if you haven't yet, get yr hands on that fire star comp. that one has been melting my face lately.

modulo lunare.

With a sonic portfolio that boasts commissions for the Xenon classic pinball machine, the sounds for the Meco Star Wars theme, the Atari TV commercials and the electronic sound effects in the original Stepford Wives film (amongst many others) the mutant electronic music CV of Suzanne Ciani is proof that in a 1970s commercial world of boys toys, monopolised by a male dominated media industry, a womanÕs touch was the essential secret ingredient to successful sonic seduction. A classically trained musician with an MA in music composition this American Italian pianist was first introduced to the synthesizer via her connections in the art world when abstract Sculptor and collaborator Harold Paris introduced Suzanne to synthesizer designer Don Buchla who created the instrument that would come to define Ciani's synthetic sound (The Buchla Synthesiser). Cutting her teeth providing self-initiated electronic music projects for art galleries, experimental film directors, pop record producers and proto-video nasties Suzanne soon located to New York where she quickly became the first point of call for electronic music services in both the underground experimental fields and the commercial advertising worlds alike. Counting names like Vangelis and Harald Bode amongst her close friends Suzanne and her Ciani Musica companybecame the testing ground for virtually any type of new developments in electronic and computerized music amassing an expansive vault of commercially unexposed electronic experiments which have remained untouched for over 30 years... until now.

Finders Keepers Records are happy to announce a new creative archive based relationship with Suzanne Ciani and as a precursor to the release of our Lixiviation compilation next month we present a very special limited edition double cassette studio portfolio and as well as a rare KPFA Interview. - finders keepers website

i have been obsessed with everything that this woman does. she has profoundly changed my viewpoint of electronic music & art, & i'm always on the look out for new stuff from her. how does everyone feel about that seven waves i posted? her music just has this dreamy quality, like jan hammer as seen through a soft focus lens. they only put out 55 copies of this double tape compilation, good luck getting one.

love letters from hell.

Vampisoul is pleased to invite you to the second bone-breaking session with the most danceable sounds “made in Spain” from the 1960s and early 70s. Welcome again to the Sensacional Soul party!

Soul turned Spanish pop into the fuel that ignited the dance floors and parties of Spain in the second half of the 60s. For most bands, the soul explosion meant facing the “renovate or die” dilemma. After years of trying to emulate The Shadows and later The Beatles, the groups had two alternatives: joining the psychedelic movement or adapting the soul genre to the Spanish taste.

Those who wanted to follow the rock path had to bear in mind the advances in the recording techniques that led to Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, something that was virtually impossible for most Spanish bands. Besides, the record companies, radio stations and especially the public were not ready to “open their minds” to the psychedelic revolution.

Soul, however, did enjoy a bigger success thanks to the hits by the Tamla Motown and Atlantic artists, and thus many guitar groups decided to incorporate a horn section. Spanish soul became hugely popular, and during the second half of the 60s was the dominant music genre in a country still under Franco’s dictatorship.

Apart from artists that imitated the purest sounds from the US, others took risks and tried subgenres such as progressive R&B, freakbeat soul, sunshine soul or psych-pop with soulish influences. This new volume offers a fantastic selection of all of them, including tracks by hit acts such as Los Bravos, Los Pekenikes, Manolo y Ramón (aka Dúo Dinámico) and obscure bands such as Jae’s Soul and Conjunto Brillant’s. - amazon

the sun is shining outside & this music is made for lazy days. psych influenced soul from the hazy outer reaches of the long gone beaches of spain.

once upon a time in ye ol' western daze.

Once Upon a Time in the West is a soundtrack composed by ennio morricone from the once upon a time in the west western film of the same name directed by sergio leone, released in 1968. the film score sold between 5 and 10 million copies worldwide. - wikipedia

imma post the follow up to the indonesian tape i posted a while ago with the reyog ponorogo vol. 4 very soon dudes, but until then, here is an old favorite around these parts. figured since i dragged out ol' serge, why not some morricone as well?

my apologies to all...

for the lack of posts, i have been without the internet for the last week. as a make up gift, i offer one of my favorites from the hippest cat since rilke.

someone's alone in the city tonight.

Finding a dilapidated, old accordion in a junk store was the major cause in turning Susan Dietrich's life around. At the time, back in the early seventies when Richard Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate fiasco and the Vietnam war was still raging in Southeast Asia, she and her husband, Joel, and their tiny daughter were political exiles living like refugees in their own country, terrified that Joel would be imprisoned for having resisted the draft. For nine years they had subsisted on spare change and meager sales of their artwork on the streets of Boston. The discovery and purchase of that little squeeze-box inspired Susan to take it into battle, the war on their own personal poverty. Down into the dark, noisy subway stations of subterranean Boston she went, where she slowly learned to pick out simple, familiar tunes like Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and When Irish Eyes Are Shining. There must have been something rather quaintly charming about this thin little street waif literally singing for her supper, for in the very first hour she made twenty dollars in change plus a twenty dollar bill from an elderly couple wishing her well. She soon discovered that by playing from early morning rush hour through the entire day, she could pull in over eighty dollars, an impressive amount for the times and on the street, while Joel stayed home caring for the baby. The accordion was eventually retired in favor of the very first Casio keyboard released on the American market, a toy by today's standards. But with Joel's previous experience playing in various 60s rock bands, they plugged the Casio into a phase-shifter, mic-ed Susan's voice through an echo unit, created a light show by wiring her tip box with twinkling lights, and crowned her with a winged helmet complete with a blinking red ball on top. She worked out arrangements for songs with other-worldly themes, such as Fly Me to the Moon, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Ghost Riders in the Sky, Radar Love and Major Tom. The response from the public was overwhelming. Suddenly she was being referred to as The Space Lady, and pictures of her began appearing in the papers and on TV. The cash flow became phenomenal; a cassette of space music soon followed (as did another baby), and the small family was finally able to return to San Francisco where Joel and Susan had met back in the glory days of Haight/Ashbury. Her music was received even more enthusiastically there, and she was flocked by people asking for interviews or requesting to make videos. To this day, 20-some years later, she still receives letters and emails from her fans from coast to coast and around the world. But she says the most valuable and treasured aspects of her career were those of personal growth: acquiring street smarts, becoming humble and compassionate, appreciating people from all walks of life, and discovering her talents and inner strengths, such as her lovely voice, her creativity, her originality, courage, tenacity, and her ability to find humor in the most difficult of situations. And she owes it all to that little Stomach Steinway found in a junk store back in Beantown, Massachusetts. - myspace (whoever knew that site could be helpful in this day & age?)

some amazing lo-fi oddball casio covers of major tom & radar love brush shoulders with even more oddball covers of all shook up & the electric prunes' i had too much to dream last night. what's bizarre about this is that this sounds so now ya dig? as if this could have come out on night people instead of being a street performer from the eighties. just cop it folks & reach out yr hands to the one alone in yr city tonight.

i still love the girl from bennington.

Suzanne Ciani (born June 4, 1946) is an italian american pianist and music composer who found early success with innovative electronic music.

She received classical music training at wellesley college and obtained her m.a. in music composition in 1970 at UCB where she met and was influenced by the synthesizer designer, don buchla. She studied computer generated music with john chowning and max matthews at stanford's artificial intelligence labs in the early 1970s.

In 1982 Ciani began to record albums in the new age genre, characterized by a mix of electronic and traditional instruments. Her first album, Seven Waves was first released in 1982 in Japan, and was later released in her native US in 1984 through atlantic records. Her 1986 album [[The Velocity Of Love, released by rca records, featured Ciani's best known song, the title track. In 1987 she signed to the private music label, which released a number of albums from 1988 to 1992, including re-issues of her first two albums. Although emphasizing electronic music in her recordings, her solo piano album Pianissimo, from 1990, became her best-selling album. Ciani ended her contract with Private Music with the compilation The Private Music Of Suzanne Ciani, in 1992.
In the 1990s Ciani founded her own music label, Seventh Wave, from which she has released all her subsequent albums, which have been more classically oriented than her previous recordings. 1994's Dream Suite was recorded in moscow with the Young Russia Orchestra, and was Grammy-nominated. 1999's Turning featured her first composition with lyrics, in the title track, sung by Taiwanese artist chyi yu.
In early 2006, Ciani's Silver Ship won in The 5th Annual independent music awards for Best New Age Album. Ciani was also an inaugural member of the independent music awards judging panel to support independent artists.
Five of Ciani's albums have been nominated for grammy awards. - wikipedia

just discovered her recently. ridiculously good. sublimely beautiful & utterly essential for everyone remotely interested in catchphrases like ambient, drone or finding yr footing in an ever shifting & boundless genre. for the lo-fi tweens out there in ripped sweaters & skinny jeans, here is yr new ferraro.

worried man blues.

thrillington is a 1977 album by paul mccartney under the pseudonym of percy "thrills" thrillington. the album is an instrumental version of paul and linda mccartney's 1971 album, ram. - wikipedia

i've had this one sitting in my queue for a while now. pretty amazing, even if yr not a fan of macca. & if you haven't picked up the reissue of ram, then i highly recommend it. it changed my opinion of him for the better fershure.

for flashstrap with love.

6- and 12-String Guitar is the second album by leo kottke, a solo instrumental steel string acoustic guitar album originally released by john fahey's takoma records in 1969. It is popularly known as the armadillo album after the animal illustrated in the distinctive cover art (by Annie Elliott). Although Kottke has recorded dozens of additional albums 6- and 12-String Guitar remains his best-known album. - wikipedia

yr the best bbgrrl.