Charles Mingus - 1960 - Blues and Roots

Mingus is one of those artists where his personality is often more talked about than his music but I think I'll skip the stories and anecdotes and just get straight to the point. Blues & Roots is precisely that, blues and other roots of jazz music. The best track perhaps is Moanin (an original, not a cover of Moanin')  but each track is its own beast played with a lot skill and passion. All of them are quite good and a testament of the passion that Mingus had for music. Recommended.

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Gorephilia - 2012 - Embodiment Of Death

Gorephilia is a fantastic new band coming from Finland. So far they have two albums and both are fantastic with Embodiment of Death being their first. Their sound is a mixture of various old school death metal bands but I think their main influences were Morbid Angel (the fast parts) and Entombed (the slow parts). Everything on this record is brimming with energy and potential although some tremolo parts can get a bit boring. Some variety would do them good and it did on their second album but here they're more primal and upfront. Even with at times mediocre riffs this is an excellent album of a promising band that you should check out if you're into death metal.

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Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe - 1987 - Onye Lusia Olie

Is there anything more happier than the highlife genre? I wouldn't know but it's definitely hard to top it. I recently started to explore the genre in more detail and even though the genre is very repetitive and insular the feeling of joy is ever present. Harmonies and jingle guitars is sometimes all you need to have a bit of fun and highlife is just that. Check it out sometimes, you might fall in love with it like I did.

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Sun Ra - 1972 - Life Is Splendid

Here's a pretty good live album by Sun Ra. The production is something that could have been improved like with a lot of Sun Ra albums (especially live ones) but if you're into Sun Ra you already know what to expect. The set they played contains most of their standards that they played at the time (Space is The Place, Watusi etc.) but with a renewed intensity. I don't know what was going on there but something compelled them to really play the shit out of these songs. Everything is turbo here and it's fucking glorious. This intensity is perhaps most obvious on the fifth track where the band yell s their astro-philosophy at the audience, even laughing at them. Really surreal and amazing at the same time. Even the track Watusi which is always a lively track seems like it's about to implode. Stars really spoke to them that night and lucky for us it was recorded. This a must for any Sun Ra fan in my opinion.

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Ignivomous - 2012 - Contragenesis

Sometimes you just want to be a lump of flesh on the anvil of an uncaring void that keeps mutilating your body and your sanity. That's pretty much this album, its ethos of contragenesis is preserved throughout this album from start to finish. Once it starts there is no going back from the swirling muck that this album conveyed. In all seriousness though as far as Incantation love letters go this one is among the top. I especially love the fact that they preserved some of their more thrashy kind of riffs that were more present on their demos.

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Sonny Rollins - 1957 - Sonny Side Up

I have to admit I was never much of a fan of Sonny Rollins. I hate St. Thomas, it's so fucking tedious and I hate the base melody for it. I know this is sacrilegious as Sonny is one of the greatest giants in jazz that ever lived (and still lives!) but I just could never get into his music or style of playing. With that being said I can't say I haven't tried a bunch of his albums and out of all of them this one came out on top for me. The cover alone should make you wanna pick this up as the lineup is completely stellar with Dizzy and Stitt sharing the spotlight. The album kicks off with a standard I always loved called On the Sunny Side of the Street but it's a complete filler of a song. It's not long and Dizzy even chimes in with some singing but ultimately it's just there to have pop tune at the begging. The real meat and potato of this album are the two +10 minute tracks where there is plenty of room for all leads to jive in with their instruments. Both tracks absolutely rip apart everything in the room (you can even hear Dizzy yelling "YEAAAH" in the back at times) and it's just one fantastic solo after another. They enjoyed making this and you can really hear it. Absolutely recommended.

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Junior Kimbrough - 1997 - Most Things Haven't Worked Out

Junior Kimborough made this record shortly before his death and you can hear on the record that he's about had it with this world. The album will start eerily with an (almost) instrumental of just Juniour and his guitar, surveying the land and telling you how much he's lonely. But like all good blues even if it's sad it makes you happy and pumped when you listen to it and shortly enough after this melancholic introduction song the album kicks in proper with some heavy drum pounding and vocal wailing. When it kicks into fifth gear it does not stop until the end and then it just leaves you wondering how much more this man could do if he kept on living. But we should happy with what we got because this is (to me at least) the closest perfection to electric blues that I'll ever hear. Raw, hard and sad this is what's it all about!

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Allo Darlin' - 2010 - Allo Darlin'

Once upon a time twee pop and jangly indie garbage was all the rage on the internet but it all died down relatively fast. What was left were a bunch of two-three album bands that are no longer active. Allo Darlin' is one of those short lived bands and this is probably their best and most famous effort. For what it is it's an enjoyable trek through twee pop songs about food, movies and love. They're all trite but ultimately lovable and catchy. If you are in a mood for it can be great. Check it out.

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Meiko Kaji

Like many other people I discovered Meiko Kaji through Kill Bill, it could very well be my first enka discovery for that matter. Ever since I heard her voice I was enamored with it and I come back to her albums often. Years ago I shared her most common album (or compilation) called Zenkyoku Shu and someone in the comments left megaupload links to a boxset of her. Recently I went through this boxset and considering how the links are long dead I decided to share it again, this time giving it a proper post. The set includes 6 of her albums containing large volumes of songs making this pretty much the go to collection of Meiko Kaji. The songs of course vary in quality, some are absolute cheese garbage while others tend to be more subtle and refined. All in all she's a great singer and this collection is essential if you like her music.

CD1 - Gincho Wataridori

CD2 - Kaji Meiko no Hajiki Uta

CD3 - Yadokari. Kaji Meiko Original Best 12

CD4 - Sareyo Sareyo Kanashimi no Shirabe

CD5 - Kyou no Wagami wa

CD6 - Onna wo Yametai Soshite

Scans

Sun Ra - 1984 - Celestial Love

If there ever was a constant in my life it was probably the music of Sun Ra. It doesn't matter what record it is, it can be his wildest or his tamest I will always feel like I came home when I put on some Sun Ra. I haven't posted anything by him in a long time so I've decided to share this little gem of his. This was late in his career and it's a quiet contemplative album and quite a conventional one (in context of improvisation) but that shouldn't be a bad thing. It's a testament to the fact that even though players in the arkestra often played wildly and free they still were capable and learned musicians. Despite it being a conventional album some sharp edges and the usual oddity of Sun Ra still peeks out every once in a while, reminding you and hinting at you a different dimension of music. Good stuff.

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