Last Friday I was in Beaconsfield on family business and took time out to visit Bekonscot Model Village for the first time since 1972.
We lived a few towns over for a while in the 1960s and early 1970s and I always enjoyed going to Bekonscot then. I enjoyed it almost as much as an adult and there are some aspects that I am better able to appreciate now, for example their takes on local landmarks such as the wonderful Hoover Building on the A40.
My friend Little Ernie came with me and he enjoyed it even more as he is small enough to make use of all the local facilities. Here he is about to board the funicular railway; you can find a full account of his big day out on Flickr.
Most of today's musical choices are fairly obvious but they are all pretty marvellous too. Take it away folks.
If you are based in London or the eastern Home Counties and want to do something a bit different for a day out, I can recommend following the directions from these gentlemen of the village.
I have been to two gigs in the last week, both in churches. Maybe I should have titled this post Gigs-a-God-God. Then again maybe not.
Last Saturday we were at St John's in London's leafy Leytonstone for a lunchtime show to mark Midsummer. It was a triple header. First up was Lucine Musaelian with her viola de gamba and some baroque and Armenian folk tunes, and last up were The Memory Band. I enjoyed them both.
But it was the woman in between who were mainly there to see - Lisa Knapp. She did not disappoint. I first saw her taking part in an all star Bert Jansch tribute back in 2013, around the time of her fine second album "Hidden Seam". Her follow-up album in 2017 was a collection of May songs and given the time of year she drew quite heavily on it during her set, including today's selection.
On Wednesday it was off to St. Pancras Old Church in London's... (you can probably work that bit out for yourself) to see Kassi Valazza on the opening night of a very brief European tour. She is over here to promote her new album "From Newman Street", a copy of which I picked up at the gig. I've not had a chance to listen to it yet but judging by the songs she played on Wednesday it is well up to the standard she set on "Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing" (from which today's track comes).
How much she really knows is hard to judge. It may just have been the jetlag but she wasn't what you would call a Chatty Kassi. Not that it mattered. Together with her band she put on a very good show with a fine selection of songs from across her career to date. As an unexpected bonus they galloped through "Matty Groves" as an encore. Obviously nobody can match Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson but they gave it a bloody good go.
On Monday I was in Henley-on-Thames for reasons that I won't bore you with. There was lots of activity as the folks down there were preparing for the annual rowing regatta which starts next week. As a tribute to them, and in the absence of any other ideas for a post, here are two songs with "row" in the title.
The first song ties in with Walter's post from yesterday in an attempt to turn this into The Congos Week on the world of blogs (please join in). I have also bunged in a wonderfully wonky Thai version of the second as a special treat for you all.
In my previous post I made the foolish mistake of offending Alyson by taking the mickey out of Lulu's ex and his brothers and her favourite ever love song. I have no wish to be on the wrong side of the Queen of the Blogging Scene, so to make amends here are the lads with what may be my two personal favourites from their catalogue. I hope you enjoy them more than the audience in the first clip.
We have a stripped down Single Song Sunday for you today. Severely stripped down - just the Mandatory Reggae Version. It is a Lee 'Scratch' Perry production of "How Deep Is Your Love" credited to The Inamans.
I know nothing about The Inamans. There is an online rumour that this gentleman was the inspiration for their name but it seems unlikely.
According to Discogs they only ever released one side of a single, with Dillinger on the other side, and this was not it. It seems this track was only ever released on a compilation called "Black Ark Volume 2", which came out in 1981 but was reissued a few years ago by VP Records.
Confusingly the reissue credits the whole album to Black Ark Players not the individual artists and changes the album title to "Black Ark in Dub Volume 2", possibly in an effort to trick people into buying it thinking it is a different record.
Our musical journey around the Americas is finally beginning, and as Andy Cameron might put it: "we're on the march wi' Ernie's army, we're going to the Argentine".
Unlike Ally's Tartan Army we're not off to win the World Cup, just to find musical gold. I think we have done it, although I had to sit through quite a lot of drab 1-1 draws with Iran before I found the aural equivalents of Archie Gemmill's wonder goal below.
We can't visit Argentina without taking in some tango, so we will start there. Astor Piazzolla pretty much invented nuevo tango in the 1950s, adding elements of jazz and classical music to traditional tango. He also scandalised polite society by playing the bandoneon standing up not sitting down. Today's track was first released in 1960 but can be found on plenty of compilations, and there's more Astor in the videos.
Astor may have caused a stir when he first burst onto the scene but by 1960 the hep cats in Buenos Aires were hankering for the groovy new sounds filtering down from further north. Which explains the success of Johny Tedesco whose 1961 single "Rock Del Tom Tom" is considered to be the first Argentinian rock 'n roll record. Johny went on to make bad films and country albums - if not quite the Argentine Elvis at least the Argentine Johnny Hallyday.
A few years passed and Johny suffered the same fate as Astor. The hep cats kept getting hepper and in the mid 1960s some of them formed a band called Los Gatos (presumably the word 'hep' does not have a direct equivalent in Spanish). Their big rivals locally were Los Beatniks.
We haven't got either of them. Instead we have the band that Pajarito Zaguri of Los Beatniks formed next, the mighty La Barra De Chocolate. This little sizzler can be found on their self-titled (and only album) from 1969, available on Bandcamp thanks to the good folks over at Munster Records.
As sure as night turns into day, the psychedelic rockers of the 1960s turned into weedy Cañón Laurel singer-songwriters in the early 1970s. Pre-eminent amongst them was Sui Generis. We've chosen the opening track from their 1972 album "Vida", once ranked by Rolling Stone as #11 in a list of the 100 most outstanding songs in Argentinian rock. Judge for yourselves.
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are one of the most successful Argentinian bands, having achieved multiple gold records since they started in 1984. They also won a Grammy for their album "Fabulosos Calavera" in 1997, becoming the first Argentinian act to win a Grammy outside the classical (Daniel Barenboim) and jazz (Lalo Schifrin) categories. We have the title track from their 1989 album "El Satánico Dr. Cadillac" for you.
Next up is a singer that I was lucky enough to see live back in 2019 and would love to see again - La Yegros. Her Bandcamp blurb puts it better than I ever could: "Her incredible live concerts are a challenge thrown at those who do not have dancing feet. The singer never fails to unlock even the stiffest bodies, her energy radiating as if she was spitting balls of fire". Today's choice is from 2016's "Magnetismo" album.
Juana Molina is a rather different kettle of fish, being more at the electronic and experimental end of the pop scene in Argentina, but she can ride a groove as well as anyone when she puts her mind to it. The title track from her 2008 album "Un Dia" may well be the pick of today's bunch.
We finish as we mean to continue (if you follow me) with some MAR - Mandatory American Reggae. Los Pericos have been knocking about since 1988 when their debut album went triple platinum. We've opted for the title track from their 1994 album "Big Yuyo". 1994 was also the year they headlined at the Sunsplash festival in Jamaica, so they must have been doing something right.
We'll start the videos with a proud son of the city of Venado Tuerto in Santa Fe Province. You may prefer to skip ahead to the second video. Viewers of a sensitive nature may want to skip the last one as well.
This will be the last time you'll see me round here for a week or so. I will be spending a few days in sunny Southport with a pair of my oldest and dearest pals, and then after I get back to London I will be engaging with Uzbeks (I can say no more).
But before I go I have a couple of updates on the new series covering the music of the Americas, which will kick off shortly after I return. The first is that I have settled on a title - Ernie's El Dorado, named after the mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America not the short-lived 1990s soap opera. I can't promise that we will find musical gold at every stop on our journey, but that's the quest.
I am also able to report on developments since I petitioned the US and Canadian governments to rename Lake Erie 'Lake Ernie' for the duration of the tour. I have not heard back from the orange oligarch's acolytes yet but the Canadians have been in touch. They have politely declined for two reasons - the cost of changing all the signs and stationery, and because people might get confused if two lakes have the same name.
That's right, there is already a Lake Ernie in Canada, less well known than its near namesake but the pride of Clearwater County, Alberta. Two hours north of Calgary, or even less if you can afford to charter a flight into nearby Rocky Mountain House Airport, Lake Ernie offers plenty of opportunities for fishing. There are probably other things to do as well but the only activity anyone mentions is the fishing.
If you take a trip up there to bag some largemouth bass you will need somewhere to stay. The Voyageur Motel in the Otway district of Rocky Mountain House is a ten minutes drive from Lake Ernie and comes highly recommended.
In the world of cheesy country music videos going fishing takes priority over anything else God, the devil or Mrs Brad Paisley might try to tempt you with.
It is time for one or our irregular round-ups of new sounds sent to me by the good folks in Promo Land. There have been some goodies in recent weeks. Here are just five of them.
We will start with a new record from some old favourites. I enjoyed Jeanines' jangle-tastic last album "Don't Wait For A Sign" very much when it came out back in 2022. Their new album "How Long Can It Last" is a worthy successor. It will be released from captivity on 27 June and can is available for pre-order on Bandcamp.
Jeanines will be touring the UK in July. I have seem them before and can heartily recommend them. I'm hoping to make their London gig and they will also be playing Brighton, Exeter, Oxford, Coventry, Manchester and Glasgow. For some gigs they will be joined by their label mates Lightheaded who are also pretty nifty. But not London unfortunately.
One band I am definitely going to see are The Thing from fashionable Brooklyn who are playing at the Shacklewell Arms in London's equally fashionable Dalston tomorrow (their only other UK gig is Nottingham on Friday). You can find the new single below on Spotify and their previous releases on Bandcamp, but the upcoming self-titled album due out in August is currently nowhere to be seen.
The PR wiz that came up with the headline "Ugandan industrial hip-hop gone psychedelic" knows exactly how to press my buttons. That is the phrase they used to describe "Magada Biwuka", the new collaboration between Ugandan MC Swordman Kitala and UK-based producer Soft-Bodied Humans which comes out on 11 July. Once you have pre-ordered it make sure to pick up a copy of their previous effort "Kaiju Kitala" as well.
Stocking with the vaguely exotic, next up we have La Banda Chuska, who describe themselves as being "Brooklyn-based purveyors of cumbia and surf". I wonder if they hang out with The Thing? Their debut album "Basic Bichos" came out at the end of May and is just what you need to get in the mood for our forthcoming tour of the Americas.
Last but definitely not least is Montreal's own Common Holly whose new album "Anything Glass" is out this Friday. The selected track is described as "a cinematic and delicate piece of lyrical imagery that unfolds like an apocalyptic folklore tale, grappling with themes like the acceptance of finality and the relentless force of mother nature". So now you know.
Speaking of gigs as we were, last night I had the pleasure of seeing the Zawose Queens at the Curve Garden, yet another venue in London's fashionable Dalston. The Queens last appeared on these pages when the African Odyssey visited Tanzania. There was just the two of them and lots of percussion but they made a splendid sound.
Yesterday Khayem a.k.a. the King of Kool treated us to another of his always excellent reggae and dub mixes, this one featuring exclusively tracks from 1975.
Tucked away in the middle of the mix was "Baby I Love You So" by Jacob Miller & Augustus Pablo. Jacob was one of the greatest reggae singers of the 1970s and as well as his work under his own name he had a parallel career as the singer with Inner Circle.
By coincidence, earlier in the day Khayem and I met in person last week I had picked up a 45 track compilation bringing together many of Jacob and the gang's finest moments. It included half a dozen tracks credited to Augustus Pablo & Inner Circle. Here a couple of them, both of which also date from 1975.
In unrelated news, 1975 was also the year The Shadows represented the UK at Eurovision with "Let Me Be The One". It came second behind "Ding-A-Dong", but haven't we all.
Following the worldwide acclaim for George's recent guest 'Single Song Sunday' I thought I should pull my finger out and do one myself. After reviewing the long list for all of a minute or two I opted for Gerry & The Pacemakers' "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying".
There are two reasons why perhaps I should not have done. The first is that that I had forgotten about the blues song "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'" (no 'g') first made famous by Louis Jordan. Both songs have been covered extensively and several cover artists stray onto the wrong side of the 'g/ no g' boundary, which added considerably to the amount of time required for weeding out.
The second is that you really only need Gerry's version (which I adore). But the work has been done now so we are going ahead.
We start with the original recording which, to my surprise, turns out not to be the one by Gerry and the lads even though they wrote the song. They gave first dibs to Louise Cordet, a singer who had toured with them and The Beatles, and her version came out in February 1964. It was only after Louise failed to bother the charts that the band decided to release it themselves.
Gerry's version was a relative failure in the UK when it was issued in April 1964. The band's first three singles all went to #1 and their fourth made it to #2 but this peaked at #6. However it was their first big hit in the US were it got to #4. a position they never subsequently bettered.
I am going to partially retract my earlier comment about only needing Gerry's version and add one more to my personal 'must haves'. That is the rendition by the always magnificent Rickie Lee Jones on her "Flying Cowboys" album (1989). We follow that with another iconic female singer, Ronnie Spector. Her take can be found on "English Heart", her final album that was released in 2016.
We go mildly Latin next, first with the ever reliable Jose Feliciano (from 1967) and then an obscure Latin Soul take credited to The Mumy. I have not been able to find any information about it but it sounds like it dates to the late 1960s and the label says it is produced by Pagan, Alvarez & Mingo. I suppose it is possible that Pagan is Ralfi Pagan, who performed with some success on the Fania label in the 1970s, but I have no proof that is the case.
From Latin to Continental. We commence with a super smooth French version by Lucky Blondo from 1965 followed by a marginally less smooth Greek version from 1970 by The Olympians. Lucky (real name Gerard Blondiot) later went on to record in Nashville with The Jordanaires. The Olympians did not later go on to record an album on Daptone in 2016 - that was another band of the same name - but they did churn out a lot of singles.
We end in the traditional way with some MRVs. In fact we have a double dose for you today. The first is by Dave Barker (1970), produced by Lee 'Scratch' Perry with backing by an obscure band called The Wailers. The second is from 1982 and is performed by a man who sings so smoothly he is sometimes known as "the Jamaican Lucky Blondo", Mr Barry Biggs.
I got home yesterday afternoon after spending a few days hanging out with the cool kids in Bristol in such fine establishments as the Crafty Egg and the Kings Head. It was great to see everyone, and particularly good to meet Khayem, Walter and The Swede for the first time.
It wasn't just eating and drinking though, there was plenty of culture too. Bristol has some fantastic street art as you would expect from Banksy's hometown - you can find a few examples in my holiday snaps - and some pretty nifty museums and galleries too.
In one of them - possibly the Arnolfini - I found another piece by our old friend George Ginnis. This one was rather different in style to previous examples of his work I have seen but reflects the same preoccupations.
This one is called 'Water, The Destroyer' and was produced using some technique involving photographic negatives and zinc plates. According to the blurb the piece is "a literal and metaphorical representation of the impact of over-development on the urban environment". I'm not sure I get it, but then what do I know.
Bristol's musical heritage is as storied as its artistic one, and many of those stories have been collected and compiled by the good folks at Bristol Archive Records. Pretty much everything in their catalogue is worth a listen and I have opted for a couple of examples of 1980s MAR (Mandatory Avon Reggae) from their 'Bristol Reggae Explosion' series.
And some more vintage Bristol sounds to send you into the weekend. I have saved the best to last. It may be a slightly controversial inclusion but Brother Adge was originally from Portishead so I think it counts (also he mentions me three minutes in).
Friday evening found me in London's fashionable Dalston at Cafe Oto, home to all that is weird and/or wonderful.
Some of it is too weird for me. In your average week there will be some musique concrète, some atonal jazz squawking and some other stuff that I can neither describe nor tolerate.
But there is a lot of wonder as well. Lonnie Holley, James Blood Ulmer, This Is The Kit, Trembling Bells, Bas Jan, Hiss Golden Messenger, Meg Baird and Josephine Foster are just some of the many fantastic acts I have seen there over the years.
Then there are the gigs that manage to be both weird and wonderful. Last Friday was one example, as travelling musical family Tennger were in town. I can't really describe the experience but here is a brief factual summary to give you the general idea.
The band consists of a funky Japanese synth dude, his wife a Korean vocalist who also wields a mean harmonium and their 12 year old son who expresses himself through the medium of interpretative dance. They dress all in white and wear gongs around their necks. At one point in the show mother and son wander around the venue waving jingle bells in the faces of the audience and bar staff. Add in some bird noises and that is about it.
The music is pretty good too. I suspect if I has listened to it before seeing the band I might have dismissed some of it as being too 'new age' for my tastes but live it works really well. Today's selection comes from their most recent self-titled album that came out in 2023.
I also enjoyed the support act Marina Moore who arrived armed with two violins and more buttons and switches than the cockpit of Concorde.
Marina is no slouch on the old fiddle, having worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry and Peter Gabriel. Her own music has been described as 'pastoral' and 'bucolic' and I agree even though I'm not entirely sure what either of those words mean. Her brand new album 'Baroque Era' is worth a listen.
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