Missing In Action

I am not going to around here much between now and mid-April. I would not want you worrying so I thought I should mention it now.

The reason is because I won't be in the UK much. I fly off tomorrow afternoon for a work trip to Mumbai after which my schedule goes: a side trip to Udaipur in Rajasthan to see the sights, home for two days, work trip to Brussels, home for four days, a visit to Cape Town to see Mother Goggins and other family members, home for three days, one more work trip - this one to the bleak, desolate island of Mauritius - before finally coming home for a lie-down.

I'll try to do an occasional post while I'm home doing my laundry and changing my socks but just in case I don't manage it I thought I would prepare a mini version of my tour for you covering all the stops. So we have a song about Mumbai (Mr Dixit himself is from Mysore) followed by musicians from Rajasthan, Brussels, Cape Town and Mauritius.

I'll be seeing Khateÿm live while I am in Brussels as a sort of phonetic warm-up for seeing Khayem while I am in Bristol later in the year. They are teaming up with an outfit called Mange Ferraille for an evening of metal drone bouzouki music. That's far too mainstream for some of you hipsters I expect, but I'm not afraid to be naff.

The only aspect of the grand tour that I wasn't looking forward was the amount of flying - it involves six flights of 10-12 hours duration - but then I remembered the wise words of Chris Farlowe. Air travel is thing of the day!

"I'm In Mumbai Waiting For A Miracle" - Raghu Dixit

"Hari Om Shiva Song" - Dewara Family

"Soukout" - Khateÿm

"Woza" - Louis Moholo-Moholo's Viva La Black 

"Eliza" - Georgie Joe

"Air Travel" - Chris Farlowe

Maybe one day they'll make a movie of my adventures.

Too Many R.I.P.s

There are just far too many good artists dying at the moment. In the last five days alone we've lost Jerry Butler, Gwen McCrae, Ken Parker, Bill Fay and Roberta Flack. This has to stop.

RIP to all of them but particularly Ms Flack who I had the pleasure of meeting once forty years ago when I was a youthful security guard at the Barbican in London and she performed there. I was designated to act as her minder at the merch stall. Very gracious she was too.

"Need To Belong" - Jerry Butler

"Maybe I'll Find Somebody New" - Gwen McCrae

"My Whole World Is Falling Down (Extended Mix)" - Ken Parker

"The Healing Day" - Bill Fay

"When It's Over" - Roberta Flack

The Wikki-Wookie Song

It is sometimes claimed that resistance is futile but that is not a charge you could level at Brother Resistance.

His Brotherness was a leading purveyor of the Trinidadian music style known as rapso, a combination of rap and soca pioneered in the 1970s by Lancelot Layne, Trinidad's equivalent of Gil Scott-Heron and The Last Poets.

Brother Resistance himself was active as a recording artist from 1981 to the mid 2000s, initially with the Network Rapso Riddim Band and then under his own name. He sadly passed away in 2021 aged only 66. Today's selection are the opening two tracks from his 1986 album "Rapso Take Over", the second being the dub version of the first.

"Star Warz Rapso" - Brother Resistance

"Rapso Space Dub" - Brother Resistance

The break-dancers among may have spotted that the title of this post is a very poor pun on "The Wikki-Wikki Song", the sub-title of Newcleus's 1983 smash "Jam On Revenge". Here are assorted young folks of the era doing their thing to it, followed by Brother and Band from around the same time.

Bedsitter Images

Sir Khayem of Dubhed has been working his way through the 1990s using his customarily excellent mixtapes as a year by year guide.It is all a bit dangerously modern to me but I tune in to learn about what the young people are listening to.

If you happened to dip into the comments section of his recent review of 1994 you will find some desperate individuals trying to outdo each other by boasting about the squalor of the bedsits they lived in at the start of their working lives. C won thanks to the bloodstained clothes she found left in the wardrobe (and she has now followed that up with another trip down Memory Lane over at her place).

All the bedsit talk got me thinking about Al Stewart's 1967 debut album "Bedsitter Images". It is somewhat patchy - 1969's "Love Chronicles" was a great leap forward - but it has its moments, including these two.

I have been a fan of Al for many years, partly due to the influence of my cool Auntie who first heard him when she used to hang out at the likes of Les Cousins back in the day. She and I saw him live at the Albert Hall some years ago and I am off to see him again when he tours in October. He will be turning 80 just before then and this is billed as his last tour of the UK and Ireland. If you are keen to catch him the full tour dates are here.

"Bedsitter Images" - Al Stewart

"Beleeka Doodle Day" - Al Stewart

Some more Al, then some more bedsits. I encourage you to join in the chorus on Al's song. All together now - "Pork Sausages!"

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.

The Sounds Of Smogness

Those of you who saw Monday's post may remember that I promised you another version of Bobby Patterson's classic tune "She Don't Have To See You (To See Through You)". Well here it is.

Golden Smog is an on/off alt.country -or whatever it is called these days - 'supergroup' whose members have included assorted Jayhawks, Wilcos and Soul Asylums (among others) at various times. 

They have had three iterations. The first released a couple of albums in the 1990s, the second did the same in the mid 2000s while the third has got together to gig annually since 2019.

We are going back to the first line-up today, and their excellent 1995 debut album "Down By The Old Mainstream". As well as "She Don't Have To See You" we have a Faces cover and an original by Gary Louris from The Jayhawks.

"V" - Golden Smog

"She Don't Have To See You (To See Through You)" - Golden Smog 

"Glad And Sorry" - The Faces

Here's a slightly ropy audience video of the current line-up performing "Glad And Sorry" in 2022 with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco on vocals. I couldn't find any clips of The Faces or Ronnie Lane (who wrote it) doing the song but other Ronnie clips were available, including this gem from 1974. 

Bobby Likes Brackets

Some vintage soul to start the week, and a welcome debut for Mr Bobby Patterson. The fact that he has not featured before is a clear dereliction of duty on my part.

Mr Patterson is a singer, songwriter and producer from Dallas. Unlike many of the soul stars we have featured here previously he is happily still with us, having celebrated his 80th birthday last year.

While this may be Bobby's first time on the blog we have heard one of his songs before, in the form of Ms Tommie Young's sublime take on "She Don't Have To See You (To See Through You)". I have another good cover version of the same song. Tune in on Wednesday to hear that.

"If A Man Ever Loved A Woman (Baby I Love You)" - Bobby Patterson

"She Don't Have To See You (To See Through You)" - Bobby Patterson

"Married Lady" - Bobby Patterson

Barrington's Back

I have long been a fan of Barrington Levy. If I were asked to list my Top 5 Barringtons he would definitely be in there along with Ken, Jonah and Pheloung.

One of the many highlights of his extensive catalogue is the "Prison Oval Rock" album, which I bought when it first came out at the late and much lamented Daddy Kool Records in London's swinging Soho. I remember it as if it were yesterday, so I was slightly traumatised to discover that it was actually 40 years ago.

I know that because the good folks at VP Records have put together a digital only 40th Anniversary edition of the album which is due out at the end of January, at which point it will presumably appear on their Bandcamp page. I am very grateful to them for sending me an advance copy.

As well as the original album the anniversary edition includes multiple dub versions, 12" mixes and other goodies adding up to a whopping 39 tracks in total. Here is just one of them, together with a couple of other unrelated old favourites.

"Prison Oval Rock (Greensleeves 12" Mix)" - Barrington Levy

"Money Move" - Barrington Levy

"Shine Eye Gal" - Barrington Levy 

If you have ever wanted to see Nicholas Parsons and a very young Sandi Toksvig on children's TV skanking to a song promoting recreational drug use just fast forward to 3:55 in this video - although personally I would recommend watching the whole thing

Return To The Centre

I popped in to our local second hand record shop for the first time in a while on Monday and discovered to my great delight that they had got hold a small job lot of African CDs since I was last there. 

With great restraint I bought only three. Two of them are by artists who have featured here previously, Algerian desert rockers Imarhan and the Zambian who conquered Zimbabwe, Robson Banda. Mr Banda appeared very recently in the final post of the African Odyssey.

I know I am going to enjoy both those albums and there is a fair chance they will feature here in due course. But the one I was most excited to listen to was a 1997 compilation from the Central African Republic that goes by the self-explanatory name of "Centrafrica Compil'".

I could really have done with this album way back in July 2023 when the Odyssey visited CAR. One of the acts we featured then also appears on the CD (Formidable Musiki - in the first of the videos) but the other 12 artists on the album are new names to me.

There is plenty of sparkling soukous guitar work on display of the sort you will associate with their southern neighbours in DRC, with Zokela possibly being the pick of the bunch. To that I have added something mildly funky courtesy of Centro Mix. 

The videos feature other acts that appear on the compilation, including a welcome return for the Formidables.

"Ignition" - Zokela

"Sanza Nostalgie" - Centro Mix

Dyke-Wake Dirge

Today's post was prompted by a recent edition of Rol's widely acclaimed 'Namesakes' series - a concept so good its somewhat surprising nobody else had thought of it before. 

Last week's episode featured a ropy Dutch string band called The Crooks who mutated over time to become a slightly less ropy Dutch folk band called King's Galliard. That name was familiar to me because they are included on a compilation of Dutch folk and folk-rock that I picked up from a market stall in The Hague many years ago.

The album rejoices under the title "Dutch Rare Folk: 43 Lost Classics". Having dusted it off for possibly the first time since I bought it I don't think you could describe all, or indeed any, of them as lost classics. But it is better than I remember it being and it seems that the Netherlands were awash with fine female folk singers back in the 1970s.

"De Boerenplof / De Skotse Trije" - King's Galliard

"It Gefang" - Irolt

"'t Visserke" - Deirdre

Further Dutch sounds of the seventies below...

Happy Birthday Sweet 16

It is a momentous day here in Leggies Land. It is our 16th birthday and we are celebrating in style -  some themed tunes and the first song that we ever played. That song also gave the blog its name. With hindsight we should have started with something less stupid.

"I'm Sixteen / Chnam Oun Dop Pram Mouy" - Cambodian Space Project

"Sixteen" - Iggy Pop

"Sixteen" - Winnetka Bowling League

"Sixteen Tons Of Pressure" - O.B.F. & Charlie P

"They'm" - Rainbow Ffolly

The first video goes out especially to a Mr John Medd of Nottingham. He is welcome to lay claim to the others as well if he wants to, although he may prefer not to.

Sidi Bou Soul

I got back from a very enjoyable break in Tunisia a couple of days ago. I would recommend it. The wry, urbane hipsters who make up most of my readership won't be interested in anything as predictable as my holiday snaps but if anyone else is you can find them on Flickr.

I had hoped to bring back lots of Tunisian music to share with you but failed dismally. I searched high, low and in between for CDs or old LPs but found none. Not a merguez. 

So instead we are catching up again with one of the bands that featured when the African Odyssey bandwagon rolled through town a few months back - Carthago, the disco kings who wowed the crowds in the clubs of Tunis and Sousse back in the day.

Carthago were formed in the late 1970s by former members of Dalton and Marhaba Band, and we have a track from each of them as well. The first two tunes come courtesy of Habibi Funk, the other courtesy of the nice person who posted it on YouTube.

"Hanen" - Carthago

"Soul Brother" - Dalton

For the video I thought about selecting something by the first queen of Carthage but decided to spare you from that. Instead we've gone with the band named after the delightful village next door to Carthage that hailed from the equally delightful Lewisham.

 

In The Year 2025

To paraphrase Messrs Zager & Evans, "In the year 2025, if the world is still alive...".

At a global level it is hard to make an argument for being optimistic about the year ahead. Perhaps the best we can hope for is that it isn't quite as sh*t as its shaping up to be. 

At a personal level it is a different matter. I hope all you lovely people have a good year full of life's simple pleasures like the uplifting power of music. May all your eggs be sunny side up and may any bad things be left locked away in last year.

"Simple Things" - Minnie Riperton

"In Our Bedroom After The War" - Stars

"Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War" - Paul Simon

I'm off on holiday at the crack of dawn tomorrow, and will be back on here in a couple of weeks. Until then I leave you not with the dreary dirge with which I opened this post but a different Zager with a much more upbeat outlook.