Among this week’s musical selections: We pay our respects to an unsung hero of late 20th century bass playing; discover a recent record of Indian-inspired, library-funk-breaks from Australia; veer into a historic heap of garage and psych gems; rediscover a great 2011 garage-rock stomper that’s just been re-issued; wax poetic about a recent experimental electro-jazz release on Warp; get classy with a solo piano recording celebrating African American composers of the early 20th century; and more!
A few things that I’ve been meaning to mention from this month…
RIP Herbie Flowers
In the first week of September, an under-appreciated bass-legend departed this mortal coil, Herbie Flowers. Who? You might ask. Herbie created two of the most iconic bass sounds of all time, including Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into the Fire”. Yeah, those were both played by ONE GUY. An absolute legend. Two of many feathers in his cap, career-wise. He was also the bass player in T.Rex, and played on Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, among others. Total badass (even if this photo below doesn’t scream it).
It’s hard for me to articulate how influential “Walk on the Wild Side” was to shaping my early understanding of what cool meant. Even to my 11 or 12 year old self, it was obvious Lou Reed was cool.
The story of how Herbie accomplished that bass sound on “Walk on the Wild Side” is also pretty interesting. Here’s an interview with Flowers from a British TV show more than 10 years ago where he talks more about how that opportunity came along, and the way he layered acoustic and electric bass to create the instantly recognizable tone.
Glass Beams – Mahal
Making a quick jump-cut on the bass-related cue, I just stumbled across this EP, which was released in March by an Australian group called Glass Beams. The sound on this EP is very much in the tradition of Ananda Shankar records that fuse Indian traditions with funky jazz and rock influences. If you enjoyed Sven Wunder’s Eastern Flowers, then this one is right up your alley. Press play on the title track here and you’ll understand very quickly what it is about.
Nuggets Appreciation Post
You might enjoy this post celebrating Nuggets and the many psych/garage comps it inspired. If you aren’t familiar, the original was assembled by Lenny Kaye for Elektra Records in the early 1970s and became a deeply researched compendium of the late ‘60s rock underground. In the link above, writer Ned Raggett recounts the history of Nuggets, and then explores a bunch of related compilations of rock oddities and deep cuts — so that link is a great gateway to oodles of well curated tunes that’ve been dusted off over the years. Fun digging.
On the topic of underground garage rock jams…
Night Beats – Night Beats
I didn’t know about this record when it was originally released in 2011, so I’m glad to say it’s been re-issued recently by the label Fuzz Club. It rocks. Press play on “Puppet on a String” for a surf-y psych romp. The sharper side of The Black Lips’ catalog, mingled with some Dirtbombs and White Stripes. Fuzzy, thrashing and pounding with a dose of attitude and several fat layers of distortion. Highly combustible material.
File Under: It’s only OK when I do it…
A quick juxtaposition that illustrates something about the world in which we live today.
A man is being charged with fraud for creating a bunch of AI-generated music and then having bots play the streaming audio over and over again. He made a bunch of money from the streaming royalties.
Spotify is increasing its profitability by inserting AI-generated music into users’ playlists to reduce the amount of royalties they pay to real artists. It’s in service to their shareholders, so it’s enshittification but not fraud.
🤷🏻♂️
Here are two records that were not created by AI…
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
This is some compelling listening that just dropped on Warp Records from a Belgian-Caribbean composer living in the UK. Each of the continuums here has its own shape. The record opens with a lovely piece of ambient-spiritual-jazz-musing that combines organic and analog-electric contributions to weave spells of enchantment. It’s a whole journey. It’s chased by cascades of piano and saxophone breezes on the second continuum, which then gives way to cinematic visions of light dancing across water vapor trails and rainbow refractions in the third. As the album unfurls, it is a rich tapestry that’s unveiled, but it doesn’t all appear at once. Like a series of sound paintings hanging on a specific wall.
Beatrice - Black and Classical
Beatrice Nicholas is a British pianist who just released this album in mid-September. Based on a two-day solo session in June, Beatrice explores the works of African American composers from Chicago in the 1930s and ‘40s. From the album notes:
A celebration of classical music written by African American composers Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and Betty Jackson King. Price, Bonds and King were key parts of the 1930s-40s Chicago Renaissance; an African American creative movement that blossomed out of Chicago. The movement became characterized by Artists mixing western and African heritage Art forms together. This created unique expressions of music, theatre, poetry and art which empowered the black identity, community and powerfully impacted civil rights activism.
All of the material is quite unique. The opener is a light and delicate number that feels a bit like Erik Satie interpreting a slow rag, and also fits nicely in the vicinity of Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, if any of her re-issued records have been in your rotation during the past few years. It’s followed by the powerfully played spiritual rework composed by Margaret Bonds. The different work really shows off Beatrice’s dexterity and range as a player. Excellent listen.
Hooson & Johnson - None More Rollers Vol. 1
We’ll put a cherry on top with this balearic pool party groove. Hang on for the fun breakdown almost 3 minutes into “Ambient Juice” which builds from overheard snippets and texture washes to a super smooth chill-house situation in the vein of early Tycho. This is one of those pacific sunsets from a Marine Layer catalog color palette, but in Ibiza instead. The whole EP from this British duo rides about like that. “Return Leg” picks up a quirky tropical riddim before delivering late ‘80s keytar lead vibes, and then closing out with the chugging, dubby acid-synth blackout “Small Zhuzh”. A certain kind of cool.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for spending some time listening. We’ll be back next week with something completely different. Until then, keep your ears open.