The Magnificent Four – You’ve Got Me

Of all the songs it was my pleasure to play on Sunday for the Wardell Quezergue tribute, it is this one that sticks in my mind the most of all. I’m always amazed at the extraordinary quality of “previoulsy unissued” tracks. This is something that was likely recorded in 1971 and might have been heard only a few times until it was finally reissued on this 2006 collection by Grapevine, the title of which refers back to the chorus of this sweet soul song. In some ways I can understand why a song like this wouldn’t have been issued in the 1970s. It doesn’t sound quite like a finished song. More like a demo, with a largerly stripped down sound out of step with many of the lush orchestrations already making their way into the sweet soul sound of the time. Additionally, the quality is not top notch, it’s clear that the source had begun to deteriorate over the years, but still thank God this song made it through the years and someone had the good sense to release it even with the imperfections.

There are so many things to love in this song, that stripped down sound and that slight bounce to the beat, the flat out fantastic lyrics and singing. I keep thinking that this must be a cover, no song this good, could be an original and be almost completely lost to time, but I can’t find another song with that “Strung Out, Wrapped Up, Chained & Bound” chorus.  Beyond the fantastic chorus, there’s just a great sentiment throughout and when the lead sings the line, “You’re just the missing piece of the puzzle to make my life complete” with that falsetto on “complete,” my heart just melts.

One of the biggest drawbacks of getting music digitally these days is the lack of all the information from liner notes and the like, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s not a lot of info about this group. The sound reminds me of the Penny & the Quarters  lost soul gem “You & Me” that Numero unearthed and Ryan Gosling immortalized in Blue Valentine. That kind of exposure eventually led to Numero tracking down the group’s members. I doubt there will be a similar story for the Magnificent Four, but I still wanted to do my part and bring this exceptional bit of sweet soul to as many people as I can for as long as I can.

Quantic – Cuidad Del Swing

I’m not sure that I agree with the title “Best Of” for this collection of music from the first 10 years of recordings from Will Holland aka Quantic. It’s not that the music on the collection isn’t fantastic. Much of it is (as a “Best Of” I think they could have condensed the best of the best tracks into a single disc, but that’s just me), but Quantic is a very young musician. In the last several years he’s released some of his best work (particularly Tradition In Transition with his Combo Barbaro) and it’s very likely that his best is yet to come…if that’s the case, will they just have Vol. 2 in another 5 – 10 years? Or will it be, “The Even Better Best” of Quantic? No matter what, as long as Holland keeps releasing stellar tracks like I’ll keep listening and playing his music, and so should you.

Rob – More

Probably the next several weeks worth of Heavy Rotation will be devoted to all these exceptional reissues that just came my way recently. This one is a split-release between the legendary Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and Ghanian “Funky” Rob Raindorf. Both sides of the split are heavy duty African funk, I’ll highlight something from Funky Rob, just cause he (and the band put together by Amponsah Rockson) were completely new to me. “Funky” Rob is an apt title cause the music is seriously funky, with Rob’s contribution mostly being a few shouts and choice lines. Of the 5 tracks here, “More” is the one I find the most fascinating, clearly inspired by The JB’s “Blow Your Head,” without sounding anything remotely like a cover of that song…Funky Rob Indeed!

Googoosh – Shekayat

I spent about a week out of town and when I came back there was literally a reissue party on my doorstep.  Reissues from a number of labels and a number of countries which just happened to arrive just before my birthday.  This collection of the music of Faegheh Atashin, aka Googoosh, might be the best of the bunch.  Finders Keepers can always be counted on for top shelf material, but this collection of 1970s Iranian music is truly exceptional.

The Bandana Splits – All You Gotta Do Is Fall In Love

The Bandana Splits are a trio from Brooklyn who style themselves as a sugary sweet mash-up of Andrew Sisters’ vocal harmonies with 40s-60s kitsch, country and rock’n'roll. While this is the debut of the group, it seems like these girls have been at it for a bit, particularly Dawn Landes who makes some rather lovely country-inspired singer songwriter music on her own. As a group, I’m actually more interested to see where this all goes. With their photogenic good looks, matching attire and Brooklyn hipster cred, the band seems poised to make a mighty splash as soon as they are plucked from obscurity. But what will the next record sound like? That’s a question that interests me more than everything on this debut.  In fact, there are so many moments on this debut that are just so self-consciously cutesy that I hesitated to suggest it at all.  But when the girls just get down to the business, as they do on what I think is the best and most effective song on this album “All You Gotta Do Is Fall In Love,” the sound is damn near perfection.

As more evidence of what I was saying above (both for better and for worse) here’s the video for their lead single “Sometimes”…good luck washing the cuteness off of you after watching this:

Father’s Children – Dirt and Grime

Sometimes I get things so far in advance it slips my mind to post on them when they’ve actually been released and they are available for consumption by y’all more widely. This fantastic collection of music from DC’s Father’s Children got to me a cool two months before it was released early in the summer. Who’s Gonna Save The World features music recorded for a debut release around 1972, but most of it, save a 7″ or two, has been unreleased until now. All we’d previously had of Father’s Children was a 1979 “debut” on Mercury that is in that beautiful in-between disco/boogie sound. The music on this collection hits hard, is super righteous and sounds almost like a totally different group. Super-duper case in point is my favorite track, “Dirt & Grime,” which I’ve played several times, as well as a couple of other tracks, on Melting Pot. It’s a fascinating slice of early 1970s socially conscious ghetto funk, just the kind of thing you would expect to show up in a RZA production.  Numero strikes again…

Headnodic – Movin’ On Up feat. Latyrx and Kat

Seems like this year has been a bit lacking on the Hip-Hop front, at least for my tastes. Things have been heating up a bit more lately, with Shabazz Palaces releasing a fine LP and with this project from the Bay Area’s Headnodic. Headnodic is a member of several crews, including the Crown City Rockers and the Mighty Underdogs (the latter with Lateef of Latyrx and Gift of Gab from Blackalicious) but as far as I know this is solo debut. Red Line Radio is packed with a ton of guest appearances, of the bunch this lead single might be the best, with slightly spaced out funky production, guest verses from both members of Latyrx, an assist from the Jefferson’s Theme and a slinky vocal line from Kat that seals the deal…Peanut butter with banana and the honey on top for real!

Amor De Días – Late Mornings

I’m not sure exactly how I missed this one when it came out in May, I can only blame a particularly stressful finals grading season, but thankfully it found its way into my hands very recently. Amor de Días is a new project featuring Alasdair MacLean of the Clientele and Lupe Núñez-Hernández of Pipas. Those two bands share a love of 60s style but they’ve kicked things up a notch with this project, which is at it’s best when the musicians focus their talent on producing the kind of lush soundscapes that would befit a group named “Love of Days.” The experience of listening to the record evokes a Sunday summer afternoon perfectly, hazy, lazy and dreamy in all the best possible ways. Though all of the song titles are in English, Núñez-Hernández unexpectedly sings several songs in Castellano spanish, and the particular phrasing of that language adds an even breezier quality to this music, particularly on the opener “Foxes” and on my favorite track, the more uptempo but no less lovely, “Late Mornings.”

Brilliant Colors – Hey Dan

Rather lovely second LP from the Bay Area’s Brilliant Colors. Sweet vocals, jingly jangly guitars, subtle bass and head nodding drums. If sound could have a “soft-focus” lens, it’d likely sound just like this. All that’s missing are the hand claps for pure pop perfection…

Vieux Farka Toure feat. Derek Trucks – Aigna

I’m not sure if he is the biggest star of African music at this moment, but Vieux Farka Toure might be the most talented. Three records into his musical career, Toure continues to shine with his latest LP “The Secret,” in my opinion his best release. While his father styled (or was marketed) as an African bluesman, Vieux pushes boundaries especially here with some interesting collaborations. I’ll admit that I was worried when I heard Dave Matthews was doing a song with Vieux, as well as John Scofield and Derek Trucks, but things never devlove into Paul Simon-ville. In fact, I think the collab with Derek Trucks is one of the most fantastic things I’ve heard this year, particularly because by playing with Toure highlights a facet of Trucks guitar playing that can be drowned out when plays with his own band or with the Allman Bros. Playing simple slide electric blues would have been fine, but Trucks melds the slide with Qawwali and other influences to match Toure. Here you have two men with enormous shadows hanging over them, Ali Farka Toure and Duane Allman, and both create a separate space all their own. Guaranteed to be on my year end “Best of 2011″ list.

Bigott – Pachanga

One of the few tracks I was not able to fit into the “Best So Far” from this past week’s radio show was this lovely one from an equally lovely little record from Bigott. Bigott (I’m guessing pronounced “Bi-Go-Te,” as in spanish for mustache) is the stage name for Borja Laudo an artist out of Spain, Zaragoza to be exact, though he sings all in English. I’d received this record a few months ago, but the blitz of papers, finals and grading caused it to be a bit underappreciated until last month’s all-vinyl edition. “Pachanga” struck me as a perfect Sunday afternoon kind of song, not just because of the references to Sundays in it but because of the breezy quality to the acoustic guitar and those handclaps which I’m a well known sucker for. Though there are a quite a few special shows planned in the coming months, you’ll likely hear other tracks from this record quite a bit on the radio, in addition to the recently re-released, also on KuDeTa, Bruno EP from Jovenes y Sexys (“re-released” isn’t quite right, after all, the prior EP and Remixed Ep were only available online).

Shabazz Palaces – An Echo From The Hosts Profess Infinitum

Just released this week is this gem of an abstract Hip-Hop album from Shabazz Palaces. Aside from the music, the band is noteworthy for a couple of reasons, they are the first Hip-Hop group signed to venerable indie-rock label Sub Pop and they feature Ishmael Butler better known as Butterfly from the seminal Hip-Hop crew Digable Planets. Butterfly is now known as Palaceer Lazaro fronting this outfit, which in live performances appears to mainly be Butler at a laptop, sampler and mic with a percussionist/hype man behind him and guests. Aside from the overly long and just slightly pretentious titles of all the songs, the tracks on this album, of which “Echo” is probably my favorite, are really quite fantastic.  From the inventive and surprising beats to the depth in lyricism on display.  They also remind me quite a bit of the late 1990s, especially this classic from Company Flow/Indelible MCs.  Expect a pairing of the two in a future radio broadcast.  Definitely one of the more intriguing releases of 2011.

Amon Tobin – Journeyman

Had problems playing this track during my show on Sunday so I thought I’d share it here. I’ve been a big fan of Amon Tobin from all the way back in the 1990s when he seemed to fall fairly securely into the Drum’n'bass camp. As he’s progressed as a musician and an artist, labels have been more and more difficult to apply to Tobin’s music. Isam, his 9th full length recording, connects sonically & aesthetically with 2007′s Foley Room, where instead of building his music from breaks and samples of other people’s records, Tobin uses organic field recordings to construct his samples and what he describes as “sound sculptures.” Tobin’s work isn’t the easiest thing in the world to listen to, but it’s visionary, both sonically and in terms of how he’s going to perform music from this album and his catalog.

Isam is as much a piece of performance art as it is a piece of music, here’s a short film that details the conception of this project and the work that was necessary to create a truly unique experience for Tobin’s music and for those who will see him live during this tour.

An additional treat, Amon Tobin has shared the whole album on Soundcloud.com with running commentary about the process of putting together this fascinating album:

‘ISAM’ – Full album with track-by-track commentary from Amon Tobin by Amon Tobin

The Sandwitches – Over The Moon

Here’s another release that I’ve had for quite a while, but never gave it quite the number of listens or spins that it deserved in the spring. I first heard San Francisco’s the Sandwitches on KALX during a quick juant back to the Bay Area. I loved the haunting quality of their work, which I remember being a bit more lo-fi than this, their third release. The sound is mostly on the midnight dream pop tip, but those vocals are what stick in the mind, heavy country twang and vocalizing but very very distinctive especially in their almost otherworldly harmonies. Their sound might not be for everyone, but it is a fantastic sound as evidenced on “Over The Moon” which seems especially appropriate with the full moon and lunar eclipse tonight.

Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs – The Rest Of Your Life

Few artists have matched the consitency of Holly Golightly over her now 20+ year career. Beginning with Thee Headcoatees, as a solo artist and now with Lawyer Dave as Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs, I’d wager that she’s never released a poor album (just some poor sounding albums in terms of fidelity). Her latest release No Help Coming continues with the more overtly country tinged music of the last few years as she settled into rural life outside of Athens, GA. But every now and again a bit of the old down-home gritty garage blues sound that defined her comes out, as it does here on what is not too suprisingly my favorite track on this new album, “The Rest Of Your Life.”