Maximum Stax

On the flight back from a work trip last week I had time to watch all four episodes of the HBO documentary series 'Stax: Soulsville U.S.A.', which was originally broadcast last year.

It is definitely worth watching for the vintage clips of the performers and of the social context of the time like the Memphis sanitation strike and the King assassination. But as the series progressed I found myself getting a bit irritated, for two reasons.

The first was that proceedings became increasingly dominated by Al Bell, a man who appears to be a stranger to self-reflection. According to him he was the prime reason for the label's rise but bore absolutely no responsibility at all for its demise, being just a victim of circumstance and a racist plot.

To be fair he undoubtedly made a major contribution from the time he arrived as director of promotions in 1965 and later as co-owner and then sole owner. Arguably the label would not have survived Atlantic Records severing ties in 1968 and taking the whole back catalogue without him. It is also true that CBS treated Stax very shabbily after Mr Bell signed a distribution deal with them in 1972 shortly after becoming sole owner.

But at the time he took over Stax had just had chart-topping singles and albums from the likes of Jean Knight, Isaac Hayes and the Staple Singers and the studios were generating fees as a result of being hired by the likes of Elvis Presley. Yet they were bankrupt in under three years, and you have to suspect that some of the decisions Mr Bell took - such as trying to expand into the rock and pop markets - may have contributed. 

The second irritation was all the artists who didn't get a look in. Quite rightly there was a lot of focus on the likes of Booker T & The MGs, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave and the clips of them live on stage are fantastic (especially Sam & Dave).

They managed to fit in a clip featuring one of Mr Bell's late signings, the Scottish Queen of Soul herself, Lena Zavaroni (no disrespect intended to Lena, but possibly a sign that they had lost their way a bit by then). But somehow across the four hours that the series lasts they could not find room for the likes of Eddie Floyd, William Bell or even the mighty Staple Singers (which must be bordering on sacrilege).  

In summary, its a good series but it could have been better still with a more balanced commentary and by including more of the many amazing artists on the label.

Here are some of those who did not make the cut, and one who did.  

"Born Under A Bad Sign" - Albert King

"Big Bird" - Eddie Floyd

"Backfield In Motion" - Mel & Tim

"My Main Man" - The Staple Singers

"I'm Gonna Cry A River" - Little Milton

"I Forgot To Be Your Lover" - William Bell

Monday's Long Song

I don't often join in the Monday's Long Song thing as there are several other top notch blogs that already have it well covered, as you can see from the list on the right. But when I do I like to go proper long. There's none of those weedy seven or eight minute efforts here.

It is that spirit that we bring you some vintage Hausa Afrobeat from Kano in Nigeria. If you have 17 minutes 44 seconds to fill there won't be many better ways of doing so than giving this a listen. And after that you can go over to the BBE label's Bandcamp page and listen to some more.

"Wakar Alhazai" - Tabansi Studio Band

Needless to say I could not find any videos of the Studio Band, so here instead are their fine compatriots Mad Melon and Mountain Black with Monday's Long Video. Nine minutes long, the music starts about a third of the way in.

Go!-A-Go-Go!

Last week I featured the groovy pop sound of Chinese American Bear. In the comments on the post the ever astute Khayem observed that their "joyous energy" reminded him of The Go! Team, a band that I have long admired.

A quick search through the archives revealed that, apart from a couple of videos, the Team have not featured on these pages since way back in 2012. Time to put that right.

Here is a track apiece from their three most recent albums, "Semicircle" (2018) and "Get Up Sequences Part One" and "Part Two" (2021 and 2023). Set your energy to joyous and go, team, go!

"Mayday" - The Go! Team

"A Memo For Maceo" - The Go! Team

 "Look Away, Look Away" - The Go! Team (with Star Feminine Band)

Other energetic Go's are available.

Poetry Corner

A bit of culture to round off the week courtesy of The Last Poets.

"Holy Terror" came out in 1995 and featured two of the three original poets, Umar Bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole. It is one of their funkier albums which may be explained by the nifty band they put together - Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Bernie Worrall, Bill Laswell, Aiyb Dieng and Grandmaster Melle Mel. It would be hard not to be funky with that lot behind you.

The Last Poets are the last post on here for a short while as I'm off on a work trip on Sunday, getting back towards the end of next week. Behave yourselves while I'm away.

"Funk" - The Last Poets

"Black And Strong (Homesick)" - The Last Poets

Other socially aware poets are also available.

Grizzly Panda Music

I have a new pop enthusiasm: Chinese American Bear, a married couple based in Seattle whose music is highly infectious (in a good way, not in a Wuhan lab way).

Lucius of Promoland, who alerted me to the band, describes their sound as "full of comedy, groove, quirk, and cuteness, with melodically rich instrumentation, bits of psychedelia, and a razor sharp pop sensibility", and who am I to say he's wrong.

Their second album "Wah!!!" came out last October and last week they issued their new single "Dim Sum". You can find both records on their Bandcamp page along with their back catalogue, including their self-titled 2022 debut album from which both today's tracks come. 

"饺子 (Dumpling)" - Chinese American Bear

"再见 (Goodbye)" - Chinese American Bear

Ankara Unhinged

What has been missing from these pages for far too long is some heavy Turkish psych. I know you have all been thinking that but didn't want to say anything. Next time, please speak up. Don't worry about being rude. Sometimes I need to be told.

Hayvanlar Alemi are among Ankara's finest freaks and have been for a good twenty years now. If you are not familiar with them you can find out all you need to know at their website which has lots of clips, videos and links to where you can buy their records.

Back in the mid to late 2000s they self-released a series of CD-Rs before being picked up by sensible record labels like Sublime Frequencies and Glitterbeat. Somewhere along the line I acquired a job lot of those early recordings, possibly when I was in Trabzon in 2011 en route to sneaking into Georgia by bus (an irrelevant detail but added to fuel Rol's theory).

Here is one track apiece from "Hayvanlar Alemi Tatilde" and "Demolar 2007-2008" (both from 2008), "666" (2009) and "Visions Of A Psychedelic Ankara" (2010, reissued by Glitterbeat on 2015).  

"Hayalgücü Spor Kulübü" - Hayvanlar Alemi 

"8:15 Kargosu" - Hayvanlar Alemi 

"Med Cezir" - Hayvanlar Alemi 

"Monsoon Circus Dub" - Hayvanlar Alemi 

On the subject of Turkish psychedelia, the slightly mellower but even more magnificent Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek have a new album called "Yarin Yoksa" coming out in March. Here they are with the first single from the album.

Derya and the gang will be touring the UK then to promote the album including London, Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow - more details here. Unfortunately I'll be away when they are in London but I can thoroughly recommend them as a live act.  

Love Songs To Lagos

Some African Reggae for you today. It's not MAR because now we have completed the Odyssey it is no longer mandatory. I thought about calling it Voluntary African Reggae but the abbreviation has too many unwanted connotations for those of us of a footballing persuasion.

We are taking a trip back to 1987 and to Klix recording studios in Lagos where three young lads have turned up looking for a chance to record their songs. Individually they went by the names Field Marshall Leyrics, Puppa Flaggar and Jah Myrah. Collectively they were Too Low For Zero (or TLZ for short).  

Those recordings were released on an album called "Emergency", which was to be their only record. Field Marshall Leyrics shortened his name to The Marshall and released a couple of solo albums. As for the other two, who knows.

And that would have been it until some bright spark at Jamwax Records decided to release one of tracks from the album ("Molue") as a 12" single and make the whole album available as a download. Even then it didn't exactly set the world alight. I probably spend more time in the dustier corners of Bandcamp than is healthy and it took me five years to find it.

I won't make any overstated claims for "Emergency" being a lost classic but it has a certain period charm that I rather enjoy. I hope you will too. I've chosen two songs about their home city for you, the first promoting it as a tourist destination, the second extolling the virtues of its public transport system. 

"Lagos Collection" - TLZ

"Molue" - TLZ

Unsurprisingly I could not find any clips of TLZ on YouTube but here is some Nigerian pop reggae from the same year as "Emergency" was first released. Not the best quality but it is 37 years old so it has an excuse.