Tung Yung-Shen - Compositions on Chinese Music

Obscure LP issued in Taiwan, consisting of Tung Yung-Shen's interpretations of nine "traditional Chinese tunes". Musicians and instruments unidentified; no date - possibly released in the 1970s. Maybe a soundtrack for a festive nightmare.

1. Greetings to the Coming and Fortunes
2. Festival Music
3. On Spring Festival
4. Song of Water-Dragon
5. The Music for Dragon Dance
6. The Music for Lion Dance
7. Ta-Pu-Pu-Kao
8. Lantern Exhibition
9. Ba-Shan-Shian-Shou

link @192 [vinyl rip]

V/A - Ethiopian Groove: The Golden Seventies (1994)

1. Alemayehu Eshete & Shebelles Band - Tashamanaletch
2. Hirut Bekele & Police Orchestra - Ewnetegna Feker
3. Alemayehu Eshete & Shebelles Band - Wededku Afkerkush
4. Tamrat Ferendji & Sensation Band - Anchin Yagegnulet
5. Aster Aweke & Sensation Band - Antiye
6. Bzunesh Bekele & Dahlak Band - Atrakegn
7. Wallias Band - Musicawi Silt
8. Aster Aweke & Sensation Band - Etetu Beredegne
9. Ayalew Mesfin & Black Lion Band - Feker Aydelmwey
10. Aster Aweke & Sensation Band - Lomiye
11. Tamrat Ferendji & Sensation Band - Ya Jaleleto
12. Bzunesh Bekele & Dahlak Band - Tigel New
13. Ayalew Mesfin & Black Lion Band - Good Aderegechegn
14. Ayalew Mesfin & Black Lion Band - Gedawo
15. Asselefetch Ashine & Getenesh Kebret & Army Band - Meche New
16. Asselefetch Ashine & Getenesh Kebret & Army Band - Amlak Abet Abet

link @192

Read Empire and Revolution, a very informative interview with Francis Falceto, the creator of the Ethiopiques collection.

Rodgers & Hammerstein - South Pacific (1958)

"With South Pacific, Rodgers and Hammerstein rose to new towering heights of success, both commercially and artistically, following their triumph with Oklahoma! and Carousel. There was hardly any question in anybody's mind at the première performance of South Pacific that this was a classic of the musical theatre of the stature of Oklahoma! and Carousel. The veteran producer Arthur Hammerstein called it the greatest musical show Broadway had ever seen, perfect in every respect. The critic Richard Watts, Jr., described it as "a thrilling and exultant musical play, an utterly captivating work of theatrical art". The response at the box-office was as exultant as that of critics and veteran theatre-goers. South Pacific ran five years on Broadway (1,925 performances), earning nine million dollars. The tour of the national company over a period of several years earned several more millions. The motion picture adaptation grossed domestically more than sixteen million dollars, the sixth highest (at that time) in the history of talking pictures in America. South Pacific played two and a half years in London, after which the company went on a tour that lasted another year and a half. It was also given in foreign translations in many other leading European capitals. The sheet music and the long-playing score also sold in record numbers. The name "South Pacific" was licensed for cosmetics, dresses and lingerie. In addition to all this, South Pacific received most of the coveted awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Award as the season's best musical, seven Antoinette Perry and nine Donaldson Awards."

Mark Lubbock, The Complete Book of Light Opera


link @192

This post is dedicated to Melvin of the Apes, who is now heading to the Pacific South.

Zeni Geva - Desire for Agony (1993)

"Desire for Agony, by Japcore refuseniks Zeni Geva, sounds like an assemblage of all the most implosive moments of the past decade's rock, linking Cop-era Swans to death metal's first masterpiece, Death's 1988 Leprosy album, right up to the abstract sculptures of Caspar Brotzmann Massaker." Jakubowski, The Wire (April 1994)

"The Albini-helmed Desire for Agony is an exercise in guitar brutality and avant-extreme noise execution. However, it is not as directional in its attack; that is to say, Desire for Agony is a bit more oblique, jazzy even, at least in notational structure. Either way, there is no suppressing or sublimating KK Null's devastating guitar work -- not to mention his Samurai war vocals. Having developed his morbid fascination many years before, what with early album titles like Autofuck, How to Kill, and Skullfuck Live, Null certainly keeps the spirit -- Mishima-like -- alive with tracks like the titular "Desire for Agony" and "Autopsy Love," the latter of which steamrolls like Motorhead meets King Crimson (...) Desire for Agony, as with any Zeni Geva release, is about as intense as humanly possible". Patrick Kennedy, All Music Guide

K.K. Null: vocals and guitar

Mitsuro Tabata: guitar

Eito Noro: drums

link @320

Bravo Clippings #9

Advertisement to the Kristian von Hornsleth's artworks published in Flash Art (November-December 1999)

Ruins - Burning Stone (1992)

"Ruins is a contemporary Japanese band that represents the harsh, aggressive side of Zeuhl music. They are compared equally often with Magma and the hardcore band The Boredoms - that should give you an idea of the kind of crossover they pull off. After a pair of so-so noise-fest albums, Ruins really hit their stride in 1992 with the relentless album "Burning Stone", full to the brim with impossible drumming and zeuhlogies by Tatsuya Yoshida, a perfect disciple of Christian Vander (...) Hardly a second is wasted in this kamikaze hurricane".

"What you have here are neck snapping prog attacks with wild effects zooming all over, alternating falsetto vocals with faux-death metal growling and vocoder enhanced madness. Yoshida took a cue from Magma and makes up his own meaningless words to sing, and reading the lyric sheet they are quite something to get your tongue around, a brief example being: "GDRASSI GUASSIWOH ZEASSI GDRASSIGORRTHO" (...) Yes, this stuff is definitely wacky, it's very strange: even though Yoshida's music owes a lot to Magma and other prog rockers,it's STILL beyond weird".

Tatsuya Yoshida: drums, vocals, percussion
Ryuichi Masuda: steinberger 5-string bass

link @320

V/A - Resonance 7.1 (1999)

1. Philip Corner - Earth Breath

2. Philip Corner + Anton Lukoszevieze - Soloist Piece

3. Pauline Oliveros - Deep Listening (for LMC)

4. John Cage - Musicircus (excerpt; 1967)
Clarinet - Linda Merrick
Conductor [Eight Trumpet Group] - Gregory Rose
Fiddle [Folk] - Pete Cooper
Performer - COMA Ensemble, COMA Voices, Daryl Runswick, Dave Ryan, Dave Smith, Ensemble Bash, Guidhall Percussion Ensemble, Gweneth-Ann Jeffers, Hugh Davies, Ian Mitchell, LSO Education Project, Simon Deorgher, Stefan Szcelkun
Piano - Lois Svard, Philip Mead, Yoko Ono
Directed By - Stephen Montague
Soprano Vocals - Allison Bell, Heather Edwards

5. Thurston Moore & John Tilbury, with Bryn Harris, Michael Parsons, Sophie Hampshire: Concerto for Guitar and Posthumous Scratch Orchestra
Guitar - Thurston Moore
Tape [Live Mix Of Various Archive Recordings Of The Scratch Orchestra] - Bryn Harris, John Tilbury, Michael Parsons, Sophie Hampshire

6. Mass Producers: PLSE (Mass)
Alto Saxophone - Annie Quicke, Belinda Braggins, Caroline McCookweir, Louise Petts, Sarah Osborne, Sarah Tobias, Sarha Moore, Yvonne Brown
Baritone Saxophone - Angele Veltmeijer, Beverly Chadwick, Caroline Kraabel, Felicity Vernon
Tenor Saxophone - Bettina Schmid, Claire Carayannis, Corinne Pollard, Kate Gittins, Rachel Bartlett, Sian MacDonald, Sue Lynch, Viv Soan

7. Xentos Jones: The Misanthrope
Performer [Machines] - Andy Lowe , Xentos
Voice Actor [Alceste] - Paul Wilcocks
Based on a Play by Molière


link@320

Check our other Resonance (Vol. 6.2) post and see the comments for Vol. 6.1 (courtesy of Lucky).
This is dedicated to Lucky, who sort of requested it.

Bravo Clippings #8

Mojo Classic: Johnny Cash & the Story of Country Rock (2006)

Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)

link @320

Also see our Desperado Cash post for a double CD collection of hits and misses.

Morton Feldman - Three Voices for Joan La Barbara (1989)

"Three Voices, composed for Joan La Barbara and completed in 1982, uses delicate repeating patterns of precise pitches and rhythms and is indicated to be sung very softly. It is a setting of fragments from the poem Wind, by Frank O'Hara (dedicated to Feldman). The composition is sung in vocalise until just before the midpoint of the piece when the text appears. It was first performed in March 1983 at the California Institute of the Arts at Valencia" (CD Notes)

"Here is one of the great contemporary masterpieces for voice. Three Voices was composed for Joan La Barbara, a singer and performer of avant-garde music in the tradition of Cathy Berberian or Jan DeGaetani. In live performance, the singer stands next to two loudspeakers that play two prerecorded tapes of her voice, to which she synchronizes herself. At the center of the work is a setting of the poem Wind by Frank O'Hara. The various vocal patterns on either side of the poem were inspired, as in all Feldman's late music, by the patterns on Oriental carpets, and you actually can hear the slow modification of shape and form as the music proceeds. It's a remarkable work, and La Barbara's performance is definitive". David Hurwitz

link@320 [rapidshare]
link@320 [megaupload]

V/A - Chants Révolutionnaires du Monde

"This is the music of struggle and suffering, of sorrow and hope, of certitude and joy. Who can then hear these chants without hearing the voice of men from all times? Make no mistake about it: from all times, for even if these revolutionary hymns stem from modern times, they express a timeless struggle. We do not know what chants Spartacus' revolting slaves sang, but their revolt is sung here, their voice creating an unison with the voice of men in 1917 (...) We can listen to this revolution in this recording, roaring in the partisans' chant. 15 chants of justice, liberty, fraternity. Let us listen: it is the honor of Man singing here"
Max-Pol Fouchet, liner notes

1. L'Internationale [The International]
2. Les Partisans [The Partisans]
3. La Varsovienne [The Varsovian]
4. Le Chant des Survivants [The Survivors Chant]
5. Le Drapeau Rouge [The Red Flag]
6. Fleur Cueillie (Il est mort l'ami Lénine) [Plucked Flower (our friend Lenin is dead)]
7. Hardi, Camarades [Fear Not, Comrades]
8. Les Quatre Généraux (chant de la guerre d'Espagne) [The Four Generals (Spanish war song)]
9. L'Appel du Komintern [The Komintern's Call]
10. Le Chant des Marais [The Swamps Chant]
11. La Jeune Garde [The Young Guard]
12. Le Chant des Martyrs [The Martyrs Song]
13. Le Front des Travailleurs [The Workers Front]
14. Bandiera Rossa [Red Flag]
15. Solidarité [Solidarity]

link @256

Bravo Clippings #7

Daniel Clowes, "Why I Hate Christians" (Eightball #11, June 1993)