What are you listening to? June 2020

[axolotl]

The Appleseed Cast ~ Sagarmatha (2009)

 

[axolotl]

Lunz (Hans Joachim Roedelius / Tim Story) ~ Lunz (2003)



Modern Classical, Ambient

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Fela Kuti - Zombie (1977)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

John Zorn - Calculus (2020)

 

[Nickyboy]

John Zorn - Calculus (2020)

Why would you name your album after hardened dental plaque? Gross.

 

[Nickyboy]

David Bowie- Heroes (1977)


Side 1:
Side 2:

Desert Island Disc in the Top 10 for me.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Witch 'n' Monk - s/t (2020)

 

[JazzyRandy]

John Zorn - Calculus (2020)

There was a time long ago when I pretended to like both Zorn and Calculus. Now I actually love Zorn, but for my kids' sake, I still pretend to love calculus.

 

[JazzyRandy]

Wayne Escoffery - The Humble Warrior (2020)
fLiSteN
This is outstanding Jazz from this Yale professor. There are a cycle of songs where he adapts British composer Benjamin Britten's music to a Jazz setting.

Overall, this is some great stuff. I was stuck waiting in the car, parked and just sitting there when I decided to play this. I had heard it once before, but was driving with the kids and didn't really get to listen to it. This time, sitting parked, I was able to really focus and had no distractions except looking at passersby on a beautiful day with the temperature in the 70s. I was all in for this listen, and this disc delivered in spades. Can't wait to listen to it again.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Neil Young - Homegrown (2020)

 

[JazzyRandy]

Various Artists - Rough Guide To Highlife (2012)

I bought this a few years ago when I was reading Half Of A Yellow Sun (and another Nigerian book I can't recall at the moment) and the author kept referencing Highlife music throughout the book. I received this CD halfway through and used it as reading music for the rest of the book. It set the scene nicely.

//e.snmc.io/i/300/s/a976c5060852d98d3a952147cd8be77e/4286232

Highlife originated in Ghana and Sierra Leone in the early twentieth century and was born out of a fusion of American jazz rhythms and myriad African roots musics. Originally dance orchestras played the music to entertain the colonial elite in high-class clubs along the coast, thus garnering the nickname ‘highlife’.
...
Most strikingly the punchy party number that opens this Rough Guide features none other than the Nigerian legend, Fela Kuti singing out, ‘Its highlife time’. These days everyone knows Fela as the Afrobeat superstar supreme. But, in fact, during his early career Fela played with the band Koola Lobitos, peddling a different sound: the highlife vibe heard here.

I post the above link not to pimp purchases for the site, but only because it was the source for the most concise description of Highlife music I could find.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Black Bombaim & João Pais Filipe - Dragonflies With Birds and Snake (2019)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Wire - 10:20 (2020)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Fela Kuti - ODOO (1989)

 

[axolotl]

Black Bombaim & João Pais Filipe - Dragonflies With Birds and Snake (2019)

This.

Surprisingly good.

For me, at least.

 

[axolotl]

Wayne Escoffery - The Humble Warrior (2020)
fLiSteN
This is outstanding Jazz from this Yale professor. There are a cycle of songs where he adapts British composer Benjamin Britten's music to a Jazz setting.

Overall, this is some great stuff. I was stuck waiting in the car, parked and just sitting there when I decided to play this. I had heard it once before, but was driving with the kids and didn't really get to listen to it. This time, sitting parked, I was able to really focus and had no distractions except looking at passersby on a beautiful day with the temperature in the 70s. I was all in for this listen, and this disc delivered in spades. Can't wait to listen to it again.

Now, this.

Enjoying it immensely.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Goon - Heaven Is Humming (2019)

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Led Zeppelin - IV (1971)



If I only had a nickel for every time I heard something from this playing on the radio growing up.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Sonic Youth - Perspectives Musicales: Live At Cat's Cradle 2000 (2020)