Ernie's El Dorado Pt 16 - Nicaragua

We have now made it two-thirds of the way through our musical tour of continental America and we have arrived in Nicaragua.

The political history of the country is pretty much the same as all the other Central American countries that have featured in the series and sadly the noble Sandinistas of our youth have turned out to be no better than the dynasties before them. Daniel Ortega is now in the 19th year of his reign and passes the time jailing opponents, closing media outlets, fiddling elections and doing the whole despot thing.

So lets instead praise Nicaragua's scenery, architecture, folklore and people, all of which I had the pleasure of encountering when I went there on holiday in 2014. There are photos of my visit over on Flickr if you are interested. There are lots of bright colours, fine buildings and smiling faces and a fair old dollop of weirdness as well, like so...

That's enough of me, let's get on with the show. We'll start with a couple of bands from among the small pile of mp3 discs I chose pretty much at random when I was there. 

The cumbia funsters Fuzion 4 are still going strong and are active on Facebook and probably other places as well. The same can be said for Los Nuevos Panzer's (their apostrophe not mine) who are not to be confused with the original Los Panzer's, whose heyday was in the 1970s. I have not yet been able to establish what if any connection there is between them. Perhaps our many Nicaraguan readers can help.

Speaking of the 1970s as we were, that's where we are heading next for some soulful Latin sounds. I have not been able to find out anything at all about Grupo Africans but this 1974 single is decidedly funky. You can find it on the "Sonidos Perdidos de Centroamérica" compilation that has featured a few times in this series.

By contrast I am positively awash with information about Poder Del Alma, a local supergroup originally put together for a benefit concert following an earthquake that hit Managua in 1972. They enjoyed it so much they went on to release a couple of albums in 1974 and 1975. The first, from which this track comes, is mainly cool Latin rock and soul. The second goes a bit more jazz-funk with liberal splashes of mini-Moog, but they are both worth a listen.

Speaking of the 1970s and jazz-funk as we were, Alfonso Lovo has an interesting tale to tell. The son of a government minister in the Somoza regime, he was shot by Sandinista hijackers on a flight from the US to Nicaragua in 1971 and got his dodgy dad to finance his music career. 

So far so bad you may think, but he was no dilettante and in 1976 he recorded some really far out psychedelic jazz sessions for an album that was to be called "La Gigantora", named for the giant lady who features in street festivals around the country (like this one that I met in León, standing next to a moustachioed Frank Sidebottom). For one reason and another it was never released at the time, only finally seeing the light of day in 2015 thanks to the Numero Group.

In the interests of balance we probably should have some music from old school Sandinista supporters now. It was a toss up between Carlos Meija Godoy and Grupo Pancasan and for the mp3s I have opted for the latter, specifically the self-titled song from their 1978 debut. Carlos can be found in the video clips (when the cameraman can tear himself away from the ladies in the audience). 

Grupo Pancasan wound up in 1990 when the first Sandinista government lost the election. Carlos is still going strong at 83 and unlike Ortega has stayed true to his principles, including taking part in the 2018 protests than resulted in multiple deaths and the banning of political marches. 

For the last couple of tunes we are off to Caribbean coast where we encounter the Miskito people (you may remember meeting them when we were in Costa Rica). There is a lively music scene in the main city of Bluefields and the Bluefields Sound System label does a great job in capturing it on record. From their catalogue I have chosen this track from "Palo De Mayo", the 2012 album by Barbaros Del Ritmo. 

If you head about 50 miles north from Bluefields you'll find the small town of Tasbapauni, birthplace of Philip Montalbán, provider of this episode's MAR. You can read all about him in this article if you are so inclined  You can find today's track is on a 2023 album called "Viva La Vida" although the song itself has been available on YouTube since 2009.

"El Jincadito" - Fuzion 4

"La Gorda De Las Esquinas" - Los Nuevos Panzer's

"La Guinoma" - Grupo Africans

"Caperucita Roja" - Poder Del Alma

"La Bomba De Neutron" - Alfonso Lovo

"Pancasán" - Grupo Pancasán

"Judith Drownded" - Barbaros Del Ritmo

"Salvemos El Planeta" -  Philip Montalbán

Mr. Montalbán's solo work is pretty good but his old band Soul Vibrations were a bit special. I couldn't track down any of their records but I think the first clip below from 1989 will explain their appeal.

Back To The Barbican

Me and that Swiss Adam bloke are currently engaged in a fiercely fought game of Japanese psych band tag (although he may not know that yet).

I opened with Nagisa Ni Te. He raised the stakes with Yura Yura Teikoku. It requires a strong response so I'm going with Barbican Estate, originally from Tokyo but now based in London, much closer to the brutalist block from which they took their name (and where I used to work many years ago).

To make sure they were the right choice I went to watch them live in the hipster haven of Hackney last week. My friend Mr F saw them last year and has been raving about them ever since. He was right to do so, they were great. Their records don't fully prepare you for the storm of sound they conjure up live.

Barbican Estate are Miri on vocals, bass, flute and mellotron and Kazuki Toneri on guitar and songwriting. Koh Hamada has drummed on all their records to date but he's back in Japan so for gigs they have a rotating cast of drummers (probably because the poor buggers need to go for a lie down after a few sets). Go and see them if they come to your town.

You can find their back catalogue on Bandcamp. I have picked a track from each of their two most recent EPs, "Viscum" (2024) and "The Fall" (2022).

"Barn Burning" - Barbican Estate

"Reconquista" - Barbican Estate

Pun Fun 5: The Theme

Hello, Pun People! We are back with a fifth instalment of this feast of fun, timed to help those of you who celebrate Easter to retrieve your minds from a chocolate haze.

Our themes are chosen with the aim of providing food for thought. So this time round we are paying our respects to the people who literally help to put food on your table, including our most recent winner George and his goats-to-peanuts agricultural empire. The theme is:

DOWN ON THE FARM

Animals, crops, workforce, buildings, equipment, anything to do with running a farm is in scope. The only things I might rule out are repeats of entries received when we did fruit and vegetables back in Pun Fun 2.

You are all familiar with the rules by now -  one entry only, to be sent to leggies27@hotmail.co.uk by Sunday 12 April. Voting will open next Monday.

I hope to get a bumper crop of cringeworthy puns. Maybe these hordes of horny-handed sons of the soil from the 1980s can help inspire you.

Competitive Wailing

I was leafing through the latest issue of Uncut the other day. When I reached the last page there was Ziggy Marley telling us all about his favourite records. Obviously his Dad featured, and we learned that the album that means most to Ziggy is "Survival" (1979). 

It is also my favourite of Bob's albums, but its not the album by one of the founding members of The Wailers that I listen to most often. That would be Bunny Wailer's "Protest" (1977) followed by Peter Tosh's "Bush Doctor" (1978). 

Here's one from each of them, then one from them all together.

"Ride Natty Ride" - Bob Marley & The Wailers

"Moses Children" - Bunny Wailer

"Pick Myself Up" - Peter Tosh

Pity The Fools

In the wise words of Kevin Coyne, the world is full of fools - and never more so than at this time of year. Here are just a few of them.

A personal request. Please read this before midday or Etta James will be singing her song to me.

"The World Is Full Of Fools" - Kevin Coyne

"Fool" - Trees

"Liverpool Fool" - Browning Bryant

"Immaculate Fools" - Immaculate Fools

"A Fool Will Fail" - Wailing Souls

"You're The Fool" - Etta James 

Lucas In London

My live music experiences this month have been mostly Brazilian. After Nyron Higor and the gang in Brussels in the middle of the month, last Friday Mr F and I went to see Lucas Santtana nearer to home at the 229 in London's groovy Great Portland Street.

Mr Santtana was in town to promote his new album "Brasiliano", the tenth of his career that now stretches back a quarter of a century. It features eight different language and a long list of collaborators from Brrazil and elsewhere of which Gilberto Gil is the best known.

According to the blurb, on the album Lucas "questions cultural heritage, identity, colonial memory, and the possibility of a shared language" - something he evidently feels strongly about as he had a bit of a rant in response to a comment from an audience member that I didn't catch. The gist of the rant was that Brazilian culture and language was much richer than just its colonial inheritance. 

On first listen I quite like the new album and I think it will be a grower, but it is a lot mellower than the only other album of his that I have - "3 Sessions In A Greenhouse", described by Mojo on its release in 2006 as a "futuristic splicing of samba with Black Ark-style dub". Maybe that is just the effect of time passing.

As for the show itself, I enjoyed it. Lucas was fronting a four piece band so had to manage without some of the nuance and enhancements you can get in the studio, but they got all our toes tapping and our hands clapping. I particularly enjoyed the louder and more up tempo numbers on which they were almost able to drown out the idiots talking.

For your delectation and delight here is a track apiece from the new album and "3 Sessions In A Greenhouse". The latter features an American journalist reading extracts from Virginia Woolf - because you can - and clocks in nearly nine minutes for you long Monday fans. 

"Cuando Mi Lengua (feat. Maria Lado)" - Lucas Santtana

"A Natureza Espera (feat. Phylis Huber)" - Lucas Santtana

Oceanic Consistency

On Wednesday evening I was inside the Japanese Embassy in London's swinging Piccadilly. I can't say why but hopefully the Cadbury's Milk Tray reached the intended recipient. 

More importantly for the purposes of this post my visit prompted me to dig out some albums by my favourite Japanese band, Nagisa Ni Te. It is only a few months since they were last featured here but it is never too soon to have them back.

This time out we have a couple of tracks from their most recent album "Newocean", released in 2022. Between them the two songs clock in at 15 minutes so purists may want to wait until Monday before listening to them.

Thank you once again to the Random Adjective/ Noun Generator which I used last time The Nagisas joined us for the title of the post. It seemed suitable for the album title. Two of the other options that the generator offered up were "fanatical words" and "oily allegiance". Its randomness appears to be in sync with the randomness of the so-called real world.

"Despair" - Nagisa Ni Te

"Something Wicked This Sky Comes" - Nagisa Ni Te