File this one under ‘Japanese Easy Listening Steel Guitar Exotica’. All the text on this record is in Japanese except for ‘Made In Japan’ on the back cover and ‘Stereo Steal Guitar Mood’ (with the typo) on the record label. Maybe a Japanese reader can tell me the name of the artist or what the [...]
Okay, the music on this Indonesian reggae record might not be all that good, but hey, how often do you stumble into Indonesian reggae? The accompanying track, called Reggae Beat, is actually quite charming. Especially the flute parts are rather exotic, with a gamelan scale that blends in nicely. The organ sounds pretty spaced out [...]
If you dig “east meets west” style exotica ala Ananda Shankar then prepare to have your mind blown, cause Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid is one of the giants! A swirling blend of snakey rhythms played with Moog, organ, belly dance percussion, and of course Omar’s driving electric guitar in the foreground. Check out the track [...]
 “Suite from the original music of the seven coproduction films of the Bulgarian and Hungarian red cross societies.” Composers Victor Tschoutschkov and Georgi Genkov did an excellent job on this soundtrack for several Red Cross documentaries and educational films from the sixties. This is something of a politically correct Mondo affair where director Gyorgy Karpati [...]
What can be said about Pino Manci? When entering his name on Google you get the reply “Did you mean: Pino Manic?” So all we know is the little information that is offered on the cover. Pino led a combo in the Safari Room at the Kyalami Ranch, South Africa. The repertoire that made it [...]
Here’s a James Bond exploitation jazz album on the Los Angeles-based Mirwood label, which other than this LP, released soul 45s. The sextet features local session players such as bassist Jimmy “James” Bond and sax/flutist Buddy Collette along with Harold Land and Bobby Bryant. Audio coming soon…
Johnny Keating was yet another victim of the whole “a Moog will make me appear younger & hipper” syndrome. But overall this is really a pretty decent cheesey listening Moog funk lp. Of the mostly contemporary (at the time) pop covers that the album is comprised of, his version of “I Feel the Earth Move” [...]
I grew up in southern California. So, I have often been asked by unfortunate souls doomed to live in places like Wisconsin what it’s like – “Is it really sunny on Xmas day?” “Do bikini-clad girls really frolic 365 days a year?” “Does everyone dress like Don Johnson circa Miami Vice?” In way of answer [...]
Really cool Mexican surf guitar lp on the Dimsa label. Lots of reverb/tremoloed out versions of 60′s pop hits. His version of the Beatles “Michelle” is especially nice. Love the cover too.
Quebecois record of cartoony guitar instrumentals that I recently got from Danno. Most of the info on the web about these guys leads me to believe they were a “beat-era” group, but this (later) lp sounds very much like one of those wacky-studio-musician-exploit-o type things that were pouring out of labels like Pickwick, Alshire, Design, [...]
Beach Boy Mike Love’s sister played the harp – who knew?
One of those records that keyboard companies used to fund to show off their new gear – in this case the Yamaha “Electone E-70″. This one is actually quite a fun listen if, like me, your idea of a good time is video-game-core versions of pop songs of the late 70′s. There is a pretty [...]
An early “Sitar-sploitation” record on Deram from 1966 which has much more of an MOR pop sound that stuff like Ananda Shankar which would come later. There are two originals on here that are in a Raga sort of mode, but it’s mostly comprised of pop covers of the day. The Sitar is superimposed over [...]
I spent fives years searching for marginal Quebecois records and this is one of my favourites from that period. It’s a lounge LP recorded live at “Chez Bourgetel”, the storied Montreal club where in the 70s anybody who was anybody gathered for mirth and mayhem. The record is a mediocre exercise in the day’s lounge [...]