Author – Azrael Abyss

WOW.

Great record of field recordings that I’m happy to have finally recently acquired. It’s of an Indian woman sitting around eating mushrooms with her friend. Her friend seems much more helpful than mine was the time I ate mushrooms. We put them on cold pizza & sat around drinking tea & listening to a Zombies […]

Crazy electro-reggae, which sounds kinda scary, but everything is right about this lp. It’s hard to explain, but it really does sound like all of the goodness you could hope to expect from Cluster playing strange reggae and stuff. Such an awesome record! [audio:rastakraut.mp3]

Naughty, naughty Canadians. Tisk, tisk…

Absolutely compelling music made by little black school children. I often see this described as a “funk record”, but I feel that is somewhat misleading and probably has some people expecting a Jackson 5/Sylvers type thing, which it isn’t. What we do have here is far more interesting. Just Dupree on piano & the kid’s […]

Kind of a confusing record ’cause there are two nearly identical versions, but one is missing the best track “Something For Every-Body Suite”. For the most part though, both versions are almost identical to Halpern’s classic “Spectrum Suite”, which can surely be found in a dollar bin near you. Confused? OK, so here is the […]

This lp was my introduction to Kupka, and it’s still my favorite of his records. First heard it on a mix Anthony Pearson sent me (god, I hate it when people name drop like that) and it really blew my mind. The following are Anthony’s notes on the track.. I met this guy recently and […]

Bearded man plays 150 gongs all by himself.

I like this record more every time I listen to it, and I listen to it a lot. And I really, really liked it the first time I heard it! Bay area soul/funk with a “real people” edge that really takes it one step beyond. When I first heard about this record I remember thinking, […]

While it seems every piece of crap is is being called “psych/folk”, this truly is psychedelic folk music. This German folk duo who recorded a few lp’s on the German OHR label started out playing normal European folk music, until, from what I’ve read, were given a psych makeover by Kolf-Ulrich Kaiser. What really makes […]

While by far the best Port Authority lp, it’s still only about half good. But, the good half is pretty killer! There are about three good uptempo funk tracks with femal vocals that almost remind me of the Dap Kings, a decent instrumental, and my favorite track “Can’t Get Down If I Can’t Get Up” […]

One of the best common Moog lp’s you can buy. Peep the track “Hey, Hey”

I originally bought this record because of the guy in the bunny suit. When I lived in Orange County, CA I’d find cool looking Spanish records all day, every day, but they almost always were horrible polka. So, I didn’t have super high hopes for this one either. Wrong, It’s awesome! I think these guys […]

Bay area psych funk with a hard rocking rhythm section, wailing, wah-ed out guitars, and bombastic horns. The more I listen to this album the more I wonder if this was a Christian group. Found it in a four for a dollar box 6 months ago where it’d probably been sitting for years. I knew […]

One of the most unique & beautiful jazz albums I’ve ever heard. Sounds ranging from exotica with wordless female vocals, to free jazz – often all within the same track. Worlds away from the typical one dimensional soul jazz that Prestige was cranking out at the time, and from most jazz albums that came before […]

Follow up to his “Clouds” lp. Same deal here – music intended to be played in old folks homes & drug rehab clinics. This one is all echoed out trombones, or at least one whole side is. I like Clouds a bit better, but this one is still very, very cool.

Good question.

First of all, I’d just like to say that I celebrate this dude’s entire catalog. But, this may very well be my favorite. I believe I once described this to a friend as Brian Eno meets spiritual jazz. Released on Folkways in 1981 or so, this along with it’s sister album “Crystals” was intended as […]

My girlfriend says that this is the most offensive record cover in my collection.

Yet another record that Will Louviere’s Show And Tell site put me up on. This is a hard one to classify. It’s definitely raw enough to appeal to garage or rockabilly enthusiasts, yet it lacks the naive quality of most records of that genre. The mix of crooner vocals with charging overdrive at times reminds […]

I think this guy was Liberace’s boy toy… no, really!

I am a sucker for both word jazz and Folkways so I figured I’d give it a try. Glad I did! Crazy beatnik vibe the likes of which so many records with wild covers promise but rarely deliver. The Alan Neil Quartet is backing him on this, and are super tight, but in no way […]

Well know local Sonoma county jazz rarity allegedly recorded in a chicken coop in Petaluma. Because of the track “Cotati Funk” this record seems to have a reputation as a “private press jazz funk monster”, which it isn’t, and is hated upon for not living up to the hype that surrounds it. When you see […]

Really solid Xian folk/pop lp from late 60’s West Covina, CA. Seriously, this guy could kick both Jonathan & Charles’ ass’ & still have the strength left to sit down & write a nice jazzy Jesus folk ballad about it. I know it is the spirit of the times to call stuff like this “psych”, […]

Definitely one of the better Hotor lp’s out there. As with most of these dance records, there isn’t any info given as to players, arrangers, etc. I seem to remember reading somewhere that some of these tracks were done by Allan Tew (the library dude) dunno how accurate that info is though though. Anyhow, pretty […]