Ernie's El Dorado Part 8 - Costa Rica

This time out we are in Costa Rica, a country I have very fond memories of having been lucky enough to spend over a month there way back in the mid 1990s.

Costa Rica is considered to possess the highest density of biodiversity of any country in the world and is home to over half a million species of flora and fauna. Mountains, volcanos, swamps, rainforests, coral reefs, golden beaches - it has them all and much more.

I didn't have a digital camera back when I was there and I have only been able to find a few old snaps. They don't remotely do the place justice, but here we have: a parade of the saints in Tilaran, the beach in Puntarenas and finally the mean streets of Puerto Limón.

Limón was a rough old town when I visited back in the 1990s and by all accounts it still is. It is Costa Rica's main port and has all the fun and faults that go with that. It is the only place I have ever been where a lady introduced herself with the words "Hello Sailor". But it was where you had to go to pick up a dory that would take you north through the rainforest to Tortaguero to see the leatherback turtles lay their eggs - possibly the single biggest highlight of my visit.

If I had kept going north towards the border with Nicaragua I might have bumped into a member of the Moskito people. They are of mixed African and indigenous ancestry and mostly live in Nicaragua but some of them can be found in Honduras and Costa Rica. 

One such is Johnny Hall who with his fine band (whose name translates as 'Coconut Milk') released an album of their traditional music in 2020.

On the other hand, if I had headed south from Limón I may have met our next artist. Walter Gavitt Ferguson hailed from the small village of Cahuita down by the Panama border and lived there for most of his 103 years before passing away in 2023. 

Mr Ferguson was by some distance Costa Rica's preeminent calypsonian, performing mostly in the local Creole language commonly spoken on the Caribbean coast. You can find today's selection on a compilation called "The Legendary Tape Recordings Vol.1". 

Other former residents of Cahuita include Bocaraca who were making some fine funky sounds in the mid 1970s. Isidor Asch and Luis Jákamo from the band went on to have success with a number of subsequent groups including Marfil who you will find in the videos.

Before Bocoraca there was Los Gatos, one of many bands of that name to be found across Spain and Latin America (Rol may wish to bear that in mind for his Namesakes series). According to the original drummer they were the coolest cats in Costa Rica back in the 1960s, releasing a series of singles on the Indica label of which this is one.

We leap forward to modern times for the rest of today's selections, and a varied bunch they are too. Guadalupe Urbina is a folk musician from the Guanacaste Province in the north-west of the country. Guanacaste has a fancy international airport for tourists these days but it was still being developed when I was there so I had to fly to Tamarindo Airport instead. This was it.

Enough of me, back to Guadalupe. She has been active since the 1980s and during her career has hung out with numerous well known artists, as her Wikipedia entry explains, as well as overcoming brain cancer and other challenges. This track comes from her 2016 album "Cantos Simples del Amor de la Tierra". 

From Guadalupe we move to on a different kettle full of an unfeasibly large number of fish. It is the self-styled post-punk luminaries Mal Visto. This track is from their second EP "Fuera De Juego" which came out last year.

Next, the bastard sons of Bocaraca, better known to their many fans as Cocofunka. I considered using them in the MAR slot as reggae numbers feature regularly in their repertoire but personally I favour their funkier side. "Mundo" is from their 2012 album "Hacer Ecoo". They are still going strong and playing regularly in Costa Rica and beyond.

For the actual MAR slot we have Earthstrong, whose new single "Lonely" was issued a whole ten days ago. If you like it you might also check out their album "With Love From Costa Rica". I am sure they speak on behalf of all the artists featured today when they say that.

"Sirpiki Mairin" - Johnny Hall y su Banda Kuku Suban Laya

"Long Tongue Man" - Walter Gavitt Ferguson

"Talvez Mañana" - Bocaraca

"Ven Que Estoy Hirviendo" - Los Gatos

"Cancioncilla Simple de Hojas Secas" - Guadalupe Urbina

"Fiesta Para Uno" - Mal Visto

"Mundo" - Cocofunka

"Lonely" - Earthstrong

We start off the videos with Marfil, the band built from the ashes of Bocoraca. Judging by the video a law was passed in 1987 requiring all men to have identical haircuts with only the decision on whether to have an accompanying moustache left to the individual.

If you enjoy that and the Costa Rican Jive Bunny that follows then I suggest you check out José@DJ Mix's excellent YouTube channel. Hours of fun for everyone.

On The Other Hand

Following Wednesday's post featuring songs with 'left' in the title here are some 'right' songs. In an effort to create the illusion of coherence they include some vintage Nigerian highlife (see Monday's post).

That's all. Have a good weekend.

"Doing It Right" - The Go! Team

"Jump Right Out Of The Jukebox" - Onie Wheeler

"Right, Tight, And Out Of Sight" - Branding Iron

"Right Now Train" - Dewey Martin & Medicine Ball

"Nigeria Drive On The Right" - Bola Johnson

Sinister Sounds

I have a Saturday morning routine. I set the alarm for 7.30am then make a strong coffee to make sure my brain is wide awake by 8.30am. That is when I join all the cool kids over at My Top Ten in our collective effort to work out the answer to Rol's fiendish Saturday Snapshots quiz.

Last Saturday Sir Rol very kindly allowed me to have a go at setting the quiz. It was a great honour and one that left me even more in awe than before of his ability to maintain the high quality week in week out. 

My theme was songs with 'left' or 'right' in the title. There is no shortage of them so after selecting the ones for the quiz I had a load remaining. Rather than let them go to waste I decided to make a couple of posts out of some of them. Left songs today, Right songs on Friday. 

"Two Left Shoes" - Left Cassette

"Third From The Left In The Top Row" - 2 Belgen

"Left-Handed Angel" - Courtney Marie Andrews

"That's All That's Left" - Z.Z. Hill

"The Girl I Left Behind" - Freddie McKay

Our left-sided videos will be introduced by Ms Dolly Parton.

Culture Corner: Nigerian Modernism

Last Friday I went to the Tate Modern with my pal the noted polymath Mr Perfect (real name) to see a new exhibition of Nigerian art of the last century which opened earlier this month. Titled 'Nigerian Modernism', the exhibition runs until May next year and it definitely worth seeing if you have the chance.

My reviewing skills are slim to non-existent, being as I am very much in the "I don't know much about art but I know what I like" camp, so I will refer you instead to this Guardian article which includes an interview with the curator and this one on the BBC website with lots of photos of the exhibits.

My own photos of the exhibition are on Flickr for anyone who might be interested. Here are some of my favourite exhibits plus a small display of early highlife albums that was tucked away in one corner, presumably as a nod to the cultural revolution in Nigerian music that was happening in parallel with that in Nigerian art.

Eagle-eyed readers will spot that the display includes three albums by Cardinal Rex Lawson and one by Dr. Victor Olaiya. They will be providing the music today.

On the subject of musical movers and shakers, while at the exhibition we bumped into Allan Jones of Melody Maker and Uncut fame. It is only a few weeks ago that I was pestering him at the Slow Motion Cowboys gig in the Betsey Trotwood. The poor man will be taking a restraining order out on me at this rate.

"Mekine Wa Bo Te" - Cardinal Rex Lawson

"Ekwe Ngbaduga" - Dr. Victor Olaiya

Live clips of Cardinal Rex are hard to find, probably because he died in 1971 aged only 32, so instead here is a record by Idahams from earlier this year which samples him extensively. Dr Victor left us only five years ago at the grand old age of 89 so had the chance to collaborate more actively with the newer generation of Nigerian musicians.

The Rough And The Smooth

I went to two gigs in successive nights earlier this week and they were quite a contrast in terms of both venue and music.

On Tuesday I was at my regular haunt The Shacklewell Arms in Dalston for one of their free gigs. This one featured three bands: Great Silkie, marcel (no caps please we're belgian) and Bureau de Change.

I'm not sure any of them will live long in the memory to be honest but the pick of the bunch were probably Bureau de Change. They are a bit hackneyed but were shouty, energetic and quite fun. They also kindly make their music available on a 'name your own price' basis - click on the links on each band's name if you wish to explore further.

After a quick scrub up and a wash behind my ears, the next night I went up west to the far famed London Palladium to see the great Al Stewart on his farewell tour of UK and Ireland. 

It was an excellent show. Al was in fine voice for a man of 80, with great backing from The Empty Pockets and special guest Peter White, the man whose nifty guitar licks enhanced "On The Border", "Time Passages" and many more back in the day. Al has written so many fantastic songs that he could never fit them all into one set but I was pleased to hear some favourite 'deep cuts' (or album tracks as we called them then).

Another point of contrast between Al and Bureau de Change - at least in today's selections - is song length. The two tracks together clock in at 20 minutes; Al accounts for 90% of that.

They do have something in common though. Bureau de Change are very sweary. Its not big, its not clever, and its not original either. Respectable Al was doing that way back in 1969 when he traumatised the nation by putting a rude word in "Love Chronicles". It is believed to be the first time this word was committed to vinyl. I won't mention it but its roughly sixteen and a half minutes in, shortly after he says "plucking".

 

"Shaken Not Stirred" - Bureau de Change

"Love Chronicles" - Al Stewart

Listen To The Voices

Guided By Voices have their latest album coming out at the end of the month. It is called "Thick Rich and Delicious" and having been sent an advance copy by the excellent Jack at Tell All Your Friends PR I can assure you it is an absolute corker. You can pre-order a copy over at Bandcamp. Actually, delete 'can' and replace it with 'should'. 

Robert Pollard had been the guiding light and only constant of Guided By Voices for 40 years now. During that time they have churned through almost as many members as The Fall, but they have had the same five man line-up now since 2016. Familiarity is clearly breeding whatever the opposite of contempt is as the recent run of albums is as good as anything in the back catalogue. 

And it is a big old back catalogue too. "Thick Rich and Delicious" is the 42nd studio album released by Guided By Voices, with 13 of them in the 2010s alone. In addition Mr Pollard has released 23 albums under his own name, 16 as Circus Devils and over 20 others using different aliases and with various collaborators. He is so prolific that he will probably have issued another album by the time you finish this sentence.

Here is one of the two advance tracks from the new album and golden oldies from "Mirrored Aztec" and "Its Not Them, It Couldn't Be Them" (in 2020 and 2021 respectively).

"(You Can't Go Back To) Oxford Talawatha" - Guided By Voices

"To Keep An Area" - Guided By Voices

"High In The Rain" - Guided By Voices

One of the members of the current line-up is Bobby Bare Jr, who as some of you will know has had a pretty good career in his own right. While he's nowhere near as prolific as Mr Pollard he has been working even longer. Here he is way back in 1973 helping his dear old Dad to #2 in the country charts.

Monday's Long Song

I don't often participate in the multi-blog phenomenon that is Monday's Long Song, but I recently acquired a piece of music that I thought would be a good way of testing the concept - possibly to destruction.

Junior Brother is a man whose voice was described by the woman from Manchester I found myself sitting next to at a recent live performance as "grating". I wouldn't agree but it is certainly wayward and lacking in some of the conventional virtues like hitting all the right notes. 

For me that is part of JB's charm. But can that charm by maintained over nearly twenty minutes and can you the listener make it all the way through? That's the test today.

I strongly suspect that George will be the only person to even attempt the task so let's rephrase the question using his famous 2B scale - is this bobbins or bifter?

Sock it to 'em, JB.

"Junior Brother's Favourite" - Junior Brother