Ennio Morricone - Molto Mondo Morricone (197x)

I'll start off this mondo madness with an album full of torrid, love-fueled, dripping-with-desire Ennio Morricone. Check this groovy cabaret-ish walking bassline track with some nasty horns and scatty vocal.





Morricone is a fitting starting point. Everything that draws me to the Euro lounge groove/cinematic funk genre starts and ends with Morricone. He is easily the most prolific and important pop musician Italy has ever produced, and along with the handful of British and American artists of the same era, among the most influential popular musicians of all time. Certainly when it comes to scoring a film, the man has no peer.

This album collects tracks from various Morricone-scored films from the late 1960s and early 1970s. This era of Morricone's work is some of the most glorious music you'll ever lay ears on, so incredibly sexy, and undoubtedly the soundtrack to the lives of thousands of lovers.

In addition to Morricone's mellow, unforced eroticism, there's also some very cool uptempo stuff, like the infectious "Intermezzino Pop" from Luciano Ercoli's Giallo film Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene (Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion).





Essential listening from a genius of our time.

Molto Mondo Morricone

Euro Lounge Groove

I DJ-ed my friend Oliver's wedding last week. Had a blast first spinning some cocktail and jazz, a bit of Pachabel's D Minor for the bridal march, followed by erotic rare groove revelry at the Well Bar after dinner. Tales of extreme drunkeness and unique behavior... Props to Olly for putting on an excellent time. Best. Wedding. Ever.

In the next month High Plains Drifter will feature some of my favorite sleazy European albums from the '70s. Much of it will derive from sexploitation flicks, Library music, downtempo, lounge groove... I never know what to call it, but generally think of it as The Right Side of Cheese. Before that I thought I'd start by getting peeps in the mood with a custom compilation of some of the tunes from Olly's wedding reception party, mostly erotic Italian cinematic stuff, heavy on funky bass and breakbeats from the early to mid '70s with one or two non-Euro tracks thrown in. Here be the fruits...


First a little sample:

DOWNLOAD EUROPEAN LOUNGE GROOVE & ELECTRO SOUL

#1: Linton Kwesi Johnson - Forces of Victory (1979)

Preview...

LKJ in Cardiff, 1980

While Ras Michael's Dadawah is the more intensely meditative, if not spiritual listening experience, it is LKJ's Forces of Victory that garners the top spot as the greatest reggae album on this deserted island.

Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in Jamaica, but like many Jamaicans in the middle to late 20th Century, his family moved to the UK, the Brixton suburb of London when Linton was a child. Johnson got his degree in sociology in London in the early '70s and later became a Black Panther with whom he began writing and organizing poetry sessions. Later he set his poetry, which dealt with socio-politcal problems like "fascism", racism, poverty in Thatcherist England, to infectious dub-heavy rhythms. His troika of releases in successive years starting in 1978, Dread, Beat and Blood, Forces of Victory and Bass Culture and later Making History, released in 1984, solidify him as one of the greatest artists of any genre.

The insert of Johnson's most recent release, Live in Paris, has this to say about his impressive resume:

"As recently as 1982, The Spectator (the oldest continuously published magazine in English) wrote that the Jamaican patois and phonetic spelling used by Johnson “wreaked havoc in schools and helped to create a generation of rioters and illiterates.” But this year Johnson was voted #22 in a poll of the top 100 Black Britons of all times. He became the first Black poet and the second living poet to be included in Penguin Books’ iconic Modern Classics series, with the publication of Mi Revalueshanary Fren. He was made an Honorary Visiting Professor of Middlesex University and received an Honorary Fellowship from his alma mater Goldsmiths College, part of the University of London. The UK’s original dub poet has come of age."


Get the album at Babe (B) Logue

Linton Kwesi Johnson

#2: Ras Michael & the Sons of Negus - Dadawah Peace & Love (1974)

"The hotter the battle is the sweeter Jah victory..." Underappreciated, underrated, mostly unknown, this is Ras Michael's opus to Jah, the ultimate Nyabinghi evangelical Rastafarian experience. Sparse, dark, foreboding, ominous, positive, uplifting. One imagines observing the gathering through a cloud of ganja from just outside the group's drum circle, where in reality drummings and chantings would be interspersed with poetry and speeches hailing Jah Rastafari--the Rastas were true bohemians. Beautiful piano and hand drums from the dark Jamaican night couple with Ras Michael's calls for brotherhood and repatriation to Zion.

Link to Dadawah at this interestingly named site...

#3: Yabby You - Jesus Dread 1972-1977

A double disc compilation of 47 killer tracks with a list of star artists--King Tubby, Tommy McCook, Dillinger, Big Youth and Michael Rose performing on Yabby You penned and produced rhythms. Yabby You's work in the six year stretch between 1972-'77 is the pinnacle of deep roots reggae. If you are not a fan of spectacularly raw, versioning roots reggae, then this album is definitely not for you. If not, check your soul because the problem is definitely not with the music.

Link to Jesus Dread at Oufarkhan.

Vivien Jackson, aka Yabby You

#4: Hugh Mundell - Africa Must Be Free by 1983 (1978)

Hugh Mundell wrote and cut every one of these songs on this his debut album when he was 16 years old with the help of some people with a bit of experience--Jacob Miller, Prince Jammy, Robbie Shakespeare, Lee Perry recording two of the songs and Augustus Pablo producing and supervising the sessions. The socially conscious young Rastafarian delivers an impassioned statement on society, religion and politics. The sad irony to the title is that Mundell was murdered in 1983.

The most recent release of this album comes with the dub versions tacked on, making it a double album of sorts.

Hugh Mundell and Augustus Pablo

#5: Burning Spear - Hail H.I.M. (1980)

Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey is rightly acknowledged by reggae fanatics as among the greatest albums ever cut. But for me his Hail H.I.M., a tribute to Haile Selassie, is slightly the better work. Maybe its my penchant for dub roots and lots of negative space that lets the music breathe, a sound that defines this album, that acts as the decisive factor. Like LKJ's Dread Beat An' Blood (#10 on the Desert Island list), this is a record with songs like "Foggy Road" that can and should be cranked to extreme volumes...it's the kind of music one should not just listen too, but feel.. as in let the literal vibrations wreak havoc upon your desktop/home stereo/headphones. When I get serious about listening, I bust out the Skullcandy, a headphone I cannot recommend highly enough.

Get Hail H.I.M. at Dub Roots

Winston Rodney, aka Burning Spear

#6: Ini Kamoze - Ini Kamoze (1983)

 

I'm not a real big fan of Ini Kamoze's work after this, but this album he cut with Sly & Robbie is sick. Honestly, just about anyone could have laid some vocals over these rhythms and the record would still be hot, but the youthful Kamoze lays down the perfect vocal for this session and vaults the album into one of the greatest ever recorded. Only 6 songs with lots of jamming and the familiar, heavy Sly & Robbie bass and drum.The greatest of the latest that reggae had to offer before digital dancehall ruined the party...for me at least.

Get it over at Global Groove.

#7: Keith Hudson - Flesh of My Skin, Blood of My Blood (1974)

The darkest of dark roots that reggae has to offer. Not one to put on at a party. Rather, wait until all but a few of your guests go home, dim the lights, light some candles and a spliff and take the trip. A socio-political black [Jamaican] album, an indictment on colonial culture, a call to arms and revolution to blacks delivered with some great, great rhythms. Check the swamp-drenched understated funk rhythms of "Darkest Night", "Talk Some Sense" and the dub "My Nocturne". One of the top ranking, most unique reggae albums from one of its most under-appreciated talents.

Link to Flesh of My Skin, Blood of My Blood 

#8: Sugar Minott - At Studio One (197x)

 

Sugar Minott had the sweetest voice in reggae. He was given the best of the best rhythms from Coxsone Dodd's Studio One and makes good on each and every one. It's truly sickening how many classic songs there are here. It does, however, get docked a few notches to #8 by virtue of being a collection. Otherwise, the selections here are pretty much unsurpassed.

Link to Sugar Minott at Studio One

As always with proper releases, buy it if you like it. This one is available through Soul Jazz Records. 

#9: Ken Boothe - Black, Gold & Green (1972)

Technically Rocksteady, proto-regggae or whatever you want to call it, and not an obvious choice even as the best Ken Boothe album as most would probably nominate his Everything I Own, which is also terrific. This was one of the first reggae/rocksteady albums I ever bought, as much a soul record as anything that falls under the reggae heading. I've always felt Boothe had the best, most soulful voice in reggae, something like Jamaica's Al Green. I love every song on this record. When people talk of the uplifting, positive vibrations of reggae music, this is the kind of stuff they mean.

Link to Black, Gold & Green

#10: Linton Kwesi Johnson - Dread Beat An' Blood (1978)

Sample...

The first of two albums from dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson that I rate in my top ten. Several tracks from Dread Beat An' Blood have been staples in my own DJ sets for years, perfect because of the deep bass and negative space that gets people feeling it. It's the kind of foreground music you can play at max volume without disturbing those whom the vibe is lost on. Most of the time, though, even the unknowing are sucked into the LKJ groove.

Link to Babe(B)logue site for the download. Scroll to the comments. After you choose Sharebee.com, take the Megaupload option.

Electric Blues from the Sahara

In 1999 I acquired a copy of an Ali Farka Toure album. It was my introduction to African music. Ali was first described to me as the "African Bob Marley", a comment which, stereotypical of an American university student, initially appealed to me. It's an assertion which now comes off as ridiculously under-informed, a shortcut to thinking as Mr. Morrison would say. Though I appreciated its novelty, the affair was brief, the music didn't stick, and I was in the midst of discovering Miles Davis, so perhaps I wasn't quite ready for it.

African music has come a long way in the decade or so since my first foray into it, and we no longer need to make unthinking statements like, "The African Bob Marley". Unquestionably, the internet has been the harbinger of musical fortune when it comes to the unearthing of rare treasures from around the globe. I think it's fair to say our musical sensibilities, if we allow them to take hold, are able to grow exponentially in the climate fostered by the world of the internet. The good people who procure and share the wealth have become almost as important as the music itself, for without them we would never be able to hear and learn about stuff like Desert Blues. It ultimately allows us to extend beyond the typically narrow temporal, race and gender-specific fields of vision in which we tend to pigeonhole ourselves. For me at least, music has always been the central gateway from which I set out to discover unfamiliar histories and cultures. Undoubtedly, an understanding of the various musics of a people suggests at least some understanding of their traditions and history, etc.

Late 2004 I had my precipitating African music moment when I first heard Tinariwen's Amassakoul. I felt like I was in possession of something truly rare and significant. Cranking that album to deafening levels in my Circuit City bought Sennheisers brought me tears of euphoria. I simply could not believe this kind of music existed. In many ways it was the album that set me on the path of discovery. Like Steve Martin enthusiastically exclaimed when hearing a jazz number in The Jerk: "If this is out there, think how much more is out there!"

Ali Farka Toure ca. early 1970s

At that time there was literally one internet page (that I could find) that had any unique biographical information on Tinariwen. Now the band is a huge international success, their most recent album involving a collaboration with the guys from TV on the Radio. As great as they still are, nothing the band has done since approaches the high energy, electric Amassakoul. The last several years have seen a great number of recordings from Tuareg bands like Tartit and Group Inerane and, while not nearly as well-known internationally, they should be among the earliest selections if one wishes to reference the rawest of the Desert Blues sound.

Lobi Traore

Martin Scorsese's first volume of his Blues series did a lot to bring African Blues into the the public eye. In it the great Corey Harris visits West Africa and meets various musicians, Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate and Malian star Habibe Koite among them. The connection between American bluesmen like John Lee Hooker and Ali are highlighted. Early deep Delta Blues performers like Charley Patton and Son House are juxtaposed with indigenous African rhythms, revealing some of the similarities and the reciprocity between African and Delta Blues.

A great website for music of this sort and other African stuff is freedomblues. I've been visiting the site for years and owe a great thanks to nauma for his fantastic shares and information over there.

The mix here will not surprise anyone with deeper interest in Desert Blues. It's more of a primer, a selection of the songs that have been with me the last several years. If you have any appreciation for American Blues and an operative pulse, I guarantee you cannot possibly be disappointed with this selection.
 

Download Electric Blues from the Sahara 

Just a song before you go:

Tartit

Nippon Soul: Pinky Funk from the Land of the Rising Sun

Pinky Violence was the Japanese version of the sexploitation-gangster movie. The basic premise is beautiful women with well-developed bosoms and abnormally developed martial arts skills take on either a rival female gang, or band together to battle some group of badly behaved Yakuza. The soundtracks ranged from Lounge Jazz and Downtempo to a version of Funk that borrowed heavily from American Blaxploitation soundtracks, Soul-Jazz, Flamenco and surf guitar, bossa-nova inspired pieces--even Spaghetti Western influences.

Trash cinema? Absolutely, in the best way imaginable. The Girl Boss collection comes most highly recommended here. As far as the music is concerned, there's not an awful lot of it out there. My collection of Pinky/Japanese albums number around 100. That may seem like a lot to the uninitiated, but it's only a fraction of what's available in other cinematic genres.

For this post I've compiled some of my favorite Pinky Violence, or Pinky influenced songs from my collection. These 14 rollicking funk and soul tracks are taken from various soundtracks. My personal favorite soundtrack collection is the Miki Sugimoto vs. Reiko Ike album which is pictured below. The rival actresses were often pitted against one another in some of the best Pinky Violence movies and are probably its most well known and recognizable fixtures.


A sample of the kick-ass girl funk on this volume:
                

 

DOWNLOAD NIPPON SOUL

Miki Sugimoto vs. Reiko Ike

The Spaghetti Western is a criminally overlooked film genre. Many wrongly pass it off as silly, trash cinema, a cheap imitation of “real” American westerns. But for a few publications, namely director Alex Cox’s college dissertation which has recently been given a new name and a proper release, and several works by Christopher Frayling, the genre is given the shaft in “serious” film discussions.

Have a listen as you read. Takes a second to load...

Franco Nero as the hero in "Django"

I’ll grant that a lot of Italian Westerns are glorious pieces of crap. I’ve seen enough of them to know. One thing they definitely are not is boring. The Italian Western takes the traditional American western to the extreme, particularly in its depiction of violence and characterization. The plots are rather simple tales of revenge, but whereas the American Western tends to define characters in a simple black and white, good and bad, the Italians are, without a doubt, character-driven pieces. The good, the hero, is almost never good in the traditional sense. He tends to be an outlaw with an unknown but presumably dark past. Someone either killed his brother of father, or massacred his whole family when he was a child. He has likely had to engage in theft and murder as the ends justify his means, which is ultimately to exact revenge. But he’s much more complex than his American counterpart. There are many more ethical questions, and questions of motive, that we have about him.

Villain Klaus Kinski in Sergio Corbucci's
"The Great Silence"

Spaghetti villains can be exceedingly immoral. They're often nihilists who rape and kill women and torture their victims out of pleasure. There's usually no real reason except that they are just evil incarnations. Hell on Earth brandishing a Colt. Though we’re not usually meant to sympathize with the villain, along the hero’s journey, we’ll be given plenty of reasons to question his morality or motive, and when we arrive at the point of reckoning, we may not be left with the question of which is the good guy and which is the bad, but rather which one is worse.

Spaghettis are highly stylized and the characters are given a savoir faire that traditional western leads never had. Yes, Shane was cool in a way, as was John Wayne, particularly in later films like Rio Bravo, but they were more iconic figures to an audience who still saw the cinema as something grand and fantastic, heroes as heroes of the old west to model our lives on. No one would cite the ethics of a Spaghetti hero. The Italians molded their heroes and villains as much on non-western genre cinema characters, like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, or Marlon Brando in The Wild One. The baddies weren’t just a bunch of rowdies who would steal your cattle and off a few people who stood as obstacles in their way of treasure or a land-grab like in John Ford’s My Darling Clementine or Red River. They were much more likely to be bloodthirsty sociopaths, schizoids who’d keep their dead mother in the basement like Hitchcock’s Norman Bates in Psycho. Perhaps part of the reason for this was that the Italian Western genre rose with the counter-culture. Its style and bold attitude is similar to what was happening in other burgeoning pop arts of the 1960s. A film like The Good, the Bad & the Ugly has as much in common in spirit and irreverence with Easy Rider or The Rolling Stones as it does with The Searchers.

Claudio Camoso plays Manuel, one of Spaghetti's best ever villain roles in "$10,000 Blood Money"

The brashness of the Spaghetti Western was in need of equally daring scores. Though Ennio Morricone is rightly the first name that comes to mind, there are a number of other prolific composers like Nora Orlandi, Bruno Nicolai, Stelvio Cipriani, Riz Ortolani, Piero Umiliani and Nico Fidenco, who did a whole lot more than just score Italian Westerns.  These composers, led by Morricone, referenced all kinds of musical genres. Obviously the American Western would have been the foundation on which all of this was built. The use of the Fender Stratocaster and the stretching and bending of traditional orchestral arrangements gave the soundtracks and hipper, rawer sound--Dick Dale-like surf guitar riffs, an arsenal of whips, clicks, whistles, gallops and bass drums are brought to the fore and are often featured parts that build scenes into incredible climaxes. The Mariachi element that existed in westerns previously is accented and occasionally given a clownish personality. And, naturally, the composers came wired with their Italian influences, the grandiosity of Italian opera, the hymns of Catholic masses.

Gian Maria Volonte and Lou Castel in the Damiano
Damiani masterpiece, "A Bullet for the General"

The influence of Spaghetti Western film scores, particularly Ennio Morricone’s work, run deep. Besides modern alternative bands like Calexico, who pay direct homage to the music, the number of musicians influenced by Morricone is incalculable, in songs from Muse to Metallica to Jay-Z and The Orb--a sufficient list is impossible to compile. Quentin Tarantino has done much to introduce Morricone to a new generation as he has a most visible obsession with the Italian Westerns. There are also a few fine cover bands like Death Valley from Melbourne, who give a healthy boost in sound and production to the older, often out of print and obscure scores.

This mix is heavy on Morricone, as it should be. Sit back and imagine the deserts of Spanish Almeria or the Sardinian village of San Salvatore di Cabras…

  
DOWNLOAD HOW THE SPAGHETTI WEST WAS WON



The translations of the Italian film titles into English is half the fun of Spaghetti Westerns. For the unintiated, curious, or argumentative, here are my personal Top 20 Italian Westerns:

1. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone) 1968

2.   For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone) 1965

3.      The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Sergio Leone) 1966

4.      The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci) 1968

5.   10,000 Dollars Blood Money (Romolo Guerrieri) 1967

6.    Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone) 1964

7.      A Bullet for the General (Damiano Damiani) 1966

8.      The Hellbenders (Sergio Corbucci) 1966

9.      Django Kill…If You Live Shoot! (Giulio Questi) 1967

10.   For 10,000 Dollars, Vengeance Is Mine! (Giovanni Fago) 1968

11.   Django (Sergio Corbucci) 1966

12.   The Mercenary (Sergio Corbucci) 1968

13.   Death Rides a Horse (Giulio Petroni) 1967

14.   The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima) 1966

15.   Requiescant (Carlo Lizzani) 1967

16.   Cemetery Without Crosses (Robert Hossein) 1968

17.   The Hills Run Red (Carlo Lizzani) [1966]

18.   Bandidos (Massimo Dallamano) 1967

19.   A Coffin for the Sheriff (Mario Cajano) 1965
20.   Kill Them All…And Come Back Alone (Enzo G. Castellari) 1967