LTRblog
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The Memories - The Memories (2012)
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Marcos Valle Previsão do Tempo (1973)
While Garra had seen all of Marcos Valle’s talented parts — songwriting, production, singing, and performing — coalesce into the most beautiful whole ever seen in Brazilian music, Previsão do Temporepresented a slight pulling back from those lofty heights. Easygoing and relaxed where Garra had been nearly giddy with joy, the album still didn’t lack for career-topping moments — most of them due to the sunny groove produced by Valle with his backing band (soon to break away and form the boundary-pushing Azymuth). With Valle on Fender Rhodes and Jose Roberto Bertrami on Mini-Moog and ARP, the album is more electronic than electric, but with soloists as talented as these, and a lifetime of musical instincts to draw on, the results are absolutely pristine. (Only Stevie Wonder was capable of coaxing the same type of warm, fluid grooves from his coterie of synthesizers, and integrating them so flawlessly into his productions.) As could be expected, narrative songwriting takes a backseat. In its place are loose, aqueous, funk-filled jams with synth and electric bass leading the way. Garra is still the peak of Marcos Valle’s ’70s output, but Previsão do Tempo is its own masterpiece, one where a listener plays connect-the-dots to hear the beauty inside.
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Terry Callier - What Color is Love (1973)
Like the artist himself, the music on this brilliant album defies all categories, embracing Terry Callier’s wide range of influences and experiences. Callier’s musical kaleidoscope is filled with funk, rock, folk, jazz, and even classical influences. “Dancing Girl” opens the album with Charles Stepney’s majestic orchestration. This opus is the album’s pinnacle, moving with soft intensity toward soul-stirring crescendos. Songs like “What Color Is Love” and “Ho Tsing Mee (A Song of the Sun),” an elegant antiwar prayer of confusion, somehow avoid clichés or take them to another level. “You Goin’ to Miss Your Candyman” was made popular by Urban Species when they sampled it on “Listen” in the early ’90s, and not surprisingly, it sounds better in its original form. No matter where you turn, Callier’s passionate voice captures the sweeping drama of the human condition. A lost romantic amid “concrete front yards,” this album is a must-have for any music connoisseur.
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Kanda Bongo Man - Sai-Liza (1988)
The recording that introduced the kouassa-kouassa dance has been a runaway smash in Paris and Africa. Unsure why this has been one of the biggest hits in quite a while? Try Dibala on lead guitar,Lokassa ya Mbongo backing him up, and Pablo Lubadika on bass guitar, all of them in top form. AddKBM’s admirable liking for a small tight group — aside from those mentioned, there’s only synth, drum, and a two-voice backup vocal group. Kanda Bongo Man is one musician who almost always deserves the semi-adulation Western buffs have given him.
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Mongo Santamaria - Mighty Mongo (1964)
http://www.discogs.com/Mongo-Santamaria-Mighty-Mongo/release/1685901
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Burial - Truant / Roughsleeper (2012)
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LL Cool J - Going Back to Cali (1988)
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Gang Gang Dance - Kamakura EP (2010)
