I love amazon. Without it I'd be stuck paying $150.00 for a Miles box set as opposed to just over $40 on amazon. Sweet sweet amazon. Anyway, a decent and compact summation of my basic musical tastes. Been on a bit of a Miles binge for a good year now I think, reaching a head soon I think, really love the period that these box sets represent. Kind of weird to see why everyone was so excited about Bob Dylan when this shit was being recorded, phenomenal stuff.
Quick rundown of grading:
0.0 - 2.0/10 - Shit Purchase
2.1 - 4.0/10 - Poor Purchase
4.1 - 6.0/10 - Average Purchase
6.1 - 8.0/10 - Good Purchase
8.1 - 9.0/10 - Great Purchase
9.1 - 10/10 - Excellent Purchase
So from front to back, L-R, row by row:
Flying Lotus - 1983
His first album, pretty good, Los Angeles shits all over it though. In between making this album and LA, I think he learnt that ambient dusty instrumentals aren't really designed to go for 6 minutes and that sometimes it is possible to be too minimalistic in his beats. At only a few listens, it has some great ideas and the sound that everyone loves about FlyLo is definitely there, but not flourishing as it has later on. 6.5/10 - Good Purchase.
"1983" by Flying Lotus
Miles Davis - Filles De Kilimanjaro
One of my favourites. The second electric outing of Miles' Second Great Quintet. Tony Williams is amazing on this album, but when isn't he, really? Released in 1969, preceding both In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, the themes that started on Miles In The Sky return for a more rhythmically free exploration of early jazz fusion. Not that fucking distasteful Weather Report synthy shit, or anything Chick Corea did after about 1972. No way, genuinelly innovative and captivating, a great listen. 8.5/10 - Great Purchase.
*Note: I did have a copy of this previously that I bought second hand in NYC, but upon further inspection the CD was a bit scratched, so I thought I'd order another copy to fit in with my pristine Miles collection. So there.
"Frelon Brun" by Miles Davis
Miles Davis - Water Babies
Haven't really had enough of a listen to this one to give it a rating. Basically it's a collection of B-Sides from the period of Filles De Kilimanjaro/In A Silent Way etc., will report further upon further listening. Not expecting amazing things, but who knows.
Various Artists - African Scream Contest
Sub-title reads: "Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo 70s". Probably one of the greatest album/compilation titles of all time. Basically this guy (can't be stuffed to look up his name now) travelled to Africa a couple of years ago to investigate some of the music of this period, and actually met with and interviewed the artists whose tracks he wanted for this compilation, some very interesting stories inside. So he got personal permission from the dudes who wrote and played this music and then just puts it out for the world to see, very cool stuff. The music is an eye-opener, the opening track is killer. You hear the western influences of James Brown etc etc, but the whole sound is totally unique and infinitely listenable. I can't speak African, but the music seriously speaks for itself. A great collection of otherwise certain-to-remain-unheard tracks from the continent that gave us humanity, AIDS and Fela Kuti, also the liner notes would've been a total mission to compile, and the music is fucking rad. 9.2/10 - Excellent Purchase.
"Mi Kple Dogbekpo" by Lokonon André & Les Volcans
Eddie Kendricks - The Motown Solo Albums Vol. 1: Keep On Truckin'/Vol. 2: The Thin Man
Former Temptations frontman Eddie Kendricks. You know he must've been cool when the liner notes start by saying how handsome he was and how it was basically inescapable that he pulled bitches above and beyond what the rest of Motown was capable of at the time. Having a distinctive falsetto voice, maybe a little less earnest than Curtis Mayfield, it's interesting to see what Eddie's albums actually contained. The results may shock you. For being famous for that one voice, he has a great range of timbres and a strange affinity for male back-up singers on quite a number of his songs. An odd choice, or so I would've thought. I basically bought this for three songs: My People....Hold On, Intimate Friends, and Girl You Need A Change Of Mind. Also because I thought that the rest would be quite decent. I was mostly right, but again, if you're presented out of the blue with about 5 CDs worth of Eddie Kendricks (88 Tracks), 85 of which you've never really heard before, there's going to be some dud, standard Motown-filler material. Aside from all the baby-missing and sugar-loving and mind-changing there's a real talent in Kendricks himself, a versatile and honest voice that is entertaining and convincing. Definitely would not recommend this to anyone who has no idea what the fuck I'm talking about, but if you like your soul smooth, and your voices high, and your heart on the verge of breaking, you clearly need these. Vol. 1 is marginally better than Vol. 2 because from about 1975 onward Eddie does just a little too much blow and gets caught up in the disco thing. Inevitable really, but quite good. Overall though.... 8.0/10 - Good Purchase.
"Intimate Friends" by Eddie Kendricks
Miles Davis - The Complete In A Silent Way/Bitches Brew Sessions
Quick and easy review. If you know and love the two albums which these are documents of, then the purchase is essential. But if you decide to buy these on a wing you'll be severely disappointed. Here's what's on them: All, or nearly all, of the complete takes of the recording sessions which produced both albums. Lots of experiments, some work, some don't, some 3 minutes long, some 26 minutes long. This is Miles Davis in transition. The best thing about these is you can actually HEAR the transition, you can hear the band figuring out what to play, exploring new musical territory. The finished products (aka album cuts) are included here too, so you can again hear what innovation sounds like. Not to mention read about it in the gorgeous and extremely detailed booklets that come with each set. It will tell you when what was recorded, where it was recorded, who played on it, where it appears in the final album and general notes and awesome photos from the sessions. A blow by blow account of how Miles changed jazz forever. You'd be hard pressed to find more innovative albums in the world of jazz (relative to the time period, of course) and to have them documented in their (almost) entirety is such a great treat and worth the price, which still isn't that hexing. 10/10 - Excellent Purchase.
So yeah. That's about it for this round of purchases. Let me know what you think, I have a ton of other music to sift through, which I'll no doubt get to at some point.
Til next time -
No comments:
Post a Comment