Sunday at Bob's #24 - Roaming onwards (by Lena)

 

Hello to you all,

As our receptionist is on temporary leave - to go and explore the volumes earth has to offer (yes, think about us when you see mountains) - I will take you for a walk on our flat land.

Lucky for us, music is here to make us feel more lively.

            My name is Lena and I am in charge of today’s playlist. I am not a receptionist, or a music connoisseur however, I’d be happy to take you on stroll, hopefully with music that’ll make you w(a-o)nder.

            Coming first on today’s selection, helping us to get over our receptionist’s departure, is “Carry On” from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Listen to it while your determined feet pull your legs forward. Even without knowing our destination, the unison of their voices will push your chest to flow ahead. Who needs mountains, when you can listen to them and imagine flying very close to the ground, on a magic carpet?

            Keeping the magic carpet's point of view, we will follow with “This masquerade” by The Carpenters. Our journey takes on a different rhythm as our carpet brings us further away from the concrete floor. As they say: “Are we really happy, with this lonely game we play?”. As we let them guide our minds, these ones keep on dwelling on the carpet, dreaming of flying higher as “We tried to talk it over, but the words got in the way”.

            Our walk now needs to take a different turn. The coming up junction is complicated, we don’t want to be daydreaming, our noses lost in the air, to cross that one. Stepping off of our carpet, we are happy to stand again and to run on the rhythm of “Ballad of Accounting” by Karan Casey. We are more determined. Our lonely stroll becomes a bounce.

            Stepping further, maintaining our straight stare, we have “Fat ass joint” by Cujo (Amon Tobin), which pushes our walk into a trample. No, we are not trying to crush anything but this song brings us substance and matter. I personally listen to it when any kind of challenge is coming up. It makes my ankles stand straighter. 

            Determination took a hold of us but now it’s time to exhale. It’s time for our journey’s intermission with Galt MacDermot and his song “Meard Street”. Let’s forget direction again, and find pleasure in our saunter.

            Coming next is “The beggar and the thief” by Piers Faccini, who carries our roaming beautifully with four great musicians, as Ibrahim Maalouf at the trumpet (the others are probably worth mentioning as well, but unfortunately he is the only one whose name is familiar to me).

            We’ve been out for quite some time now and it starts to rain again. Let’s get lost in these small streets, there. The pavement is slippery, maybe we’ll find shelter with “Between the bars” by Madeleine Peyroux.

            The rain calmed down. Come with me, let’s continue our journey! Coming out of the bar, we can smell the outside again. Spring is flirting with us, it’s stimulating our senses without giving in. For such a moment, I will share “Dandelion wine” with you, from the Clancy Brothers and Lou Killen. My favorite one of today’s playlist, probably more for having heard it in my family from so young, but here it is.

            The next one, whose discovery I can’t take credit for, is “Gold mine” from Take 6 (again, family influence). This American a cappella gospel group will change our pace again. We have been walking for too long now, our minds get goofy, our legs are hanging without feeling the floor anymore. This song is perfect for a flash of fantasy out of this gravitational world.

            And now the last song, as I bring you back to Bob’s. As you may have noticed, the Anglo-Saxon influence is very present in the songs I shared with you today. Strangely, this is one of the reasons why Sunday at Bob’s is a necessity for me. So to finish our slow ride, I tapped on my friend Maisa Imamović’s shoulder for a different tone. I was craving for her Bosnian emotion. That’s when you can trade your Jenever for a Rakja! I'm telling you, it’s worthwhile. Here is “Dva se draga” from Damir Imamović (na, they are not related).

Hope you enjoyed your walk, you’re now back and safe at the hostel.

Check out time is still 10h30.

Back to you receptionist !

 PS: The next playlist might only come to you in April, as our receptionist didn't yet find someone for the next playlist

Playlist :

1.     Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – Carry on

2.     The Carpenters – This masquerade

3.     Karan Casey – Ballad of accounting

4.     Fat ass joint – Cujo

5.     Galt Macdermot – Meard street

6.     Piers Faccini – The beggar and the thief

7.     Madeleine Peyroux – Between the bars

8.     Clancy Brothers and Lou Killen – Dandelion Wine

9.     Take 6 – Gold mine

10.  Damir Imamović - Dva se draga

Sunday at Bob's #23 - This Must Be Deep

Hello and welcome back for another sunday at Bob's! I hope you are all doing well. I shall start by telling you that I will be away for the whole month of March, I was invited to a painting residency in the Norwegian village of Høyanger and most likely won't have the time to keep up with the playlists. However, to our great pleasure, a good friend of mine and a Sunday at Bob's early afficionado will take over for one session. I don't know yet what will happen to the second one but I should figure something out by then, no worries. Now let's have a look at what we have this week.

Today we begin and end with piano. Here is a wonderful Hungarian dance composed by Schubert in 1824 and performed by Alfred Brendel, who is also a poet and a musicology writer. I heard this composition for the first time in Bertrand Blier's Préparez vos mouchoirs, which is really not his best work if you ask me, but presents this asset that it features really cool classical music, thanks to Georges Delerue I guess.

Now what follows Schubert is a bit taken from a live concert of the immense Gil Scott Heron and it is not randomly that I feature it right after a piece of classical music. The problematic expressed by this monument of music and poetry is one that has messed with my mind continuously during my art studies and still does on daily basis. He presents it from his point of vue, of course, to which I cannot relate. However I can say that: I have had many discussions since the first time I read The Society of Spectacle up until now about a fact that appeared to me, at the time, as contradictory. If the author was reaching to a working class audience, why was he using what appeared to me as a "bourgeois" vocabulary and mode of expression? To that contradiction at first sight I believe we can object that it is even more "bourgeois" to assume that the working class is unable to understand a sophisticated vocabulary. I heard in a conference a communist thinker saying on that matter that if a thing is complicated, it can only be described with as complicated words since these words are supposed to designate it.
The second (intertwined) problematic I hear is one that has been sharply expressed by a French rapper I don't particularly enjoy but who managed to slide a sentence in my head that will probably never get out:

C'est pas parce qu'on comprend pas ce que t'écris que tu fais de la poésie (It's not because we don't understand what you write, that you are doing poetry) source

How many times have I entered an exhibition with works so heavily encrypted that I felt I was being mocked? Add to that the unbearable doubt constantly in the back of one's head that maybe, just maybe, one simply isn't fit to understand? What a relief to hear such a great artist, in the smoothest voice telling you that you are not alone trapped in that artistic dilemma.

We go on with still Gil Scott Heron on an album that was recently released. It is Heron's last album skillfully revisited by Chicago drummer Mackaya McCraven. I really recommend it, even if like a friend confessed, we would love it to last (a lot) longer. But I don't think we can blame McCraven who did such a wonderful, and difficult job.

After that comes another recent release with a track from Michael Kiwanuka's impressive last album.

We then take a turn and meet again with the fantastic Erkin Koray, this time sampled by Gonjasufi, for a crazy song that opened to me the universe of Anatolian rock when Turkish tourists, while checking in, indicated to me the nature of the sample. I cannot thank them enough. We pursue with the very dancable Africaspaceprogram by Nacho Patrol, one of Legowelt's alias if I am not mistaken. It is followed by another track I have to thank Disco Arabesquo for. I don't know much about Simone, a close friend from Palestine told me she was probably from a Greek family of Egypt, and that she was very famous at some point, however I am having difficulties finding out more music from her and more informations about her. Don't hesitate to share if you do!

Mohamed Lamouri was introduced to me by a very skilled French sculptor who heard him play in the subway of Paris during his childhood way to school. I had one listen and purchased the album on bandcamp, I think there is a documentary about him, but I haven't taken the time to look more into it so far.

Then we have a pleasant surprise with a song that is using the same melody as Aris San's Boumpam which we heard last time I believe. I am really intrigued by that, and I am once again calling out to you for clues as to where does that melody come from. The two songs seem very different beside it, not the same language, not the same lyrics (actually what do I know?).  Anyway, this blog has precisely zero comments so far, if the first one could be a piece of that puzzle it would be wonderful.

We end with Keith Jarrett, introduced by a Greek tune relating to a local event.

What can I say about Keith Jarrett?

Enjoy,

Check out time is 10h30.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Alfred Brendel - Hungarian melody in B minor, D. 817

2. Gil Scott Heron - This Must Be Deep

3. Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya Mccraven - I’m New Here

4. Michael Kiwanuka - Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love)

5. Gonjasufi - I’ve Given

6. Nacho Patrol - Africaspaceprogram

7. Simone - Merci

8. Mohamed Lamouri & Groupe Mostla - Sbart Ou Tal Adabi

9. Schal Sick Brass Band - Anschab

10. Panajótis Brátzos, Stávros Ródhanos, Harílaos Ródhanos - Ta Tabánia (The Beams) A Tune Relating To A Local Event

11. Keith Jarrett - I Fall In Love Too Easily / The Fire Within

Sunday at Bob's #22 - In Between Places

Hello again and welcome back for another Sunday at Bob's! This week I have been moving out/in a new flat right accross the street of my old one. I am very excited about it, so excited that today's playlist will be dedicated to this event. The wind, oh my god the wind today, I heard Amsterdam had been put on yellow alert, I have no clue what it means but I know I was practically alone on the bicycle roads today. There even was waves on the Sloter lake. The wind, I talk to the wind, the wind does not hear. Let's see what we have today.

The opening song is from a much impressive record. Black String is an elegant South Korean folk jazz band, as Neil Spencer from The Guardian puts it. Hanging Gardens of Babylon is nine frenzied minutes led by an oud-like horn, his description still, to which I subscribe. I first thought it might a bit too intense to begin with it however a good friend once told me that variety is the spice of life. Anyhow, if you haven't listened to it yet, I suggest you run to your favourite record shop and purchase Karma because it is worth it, oh yes it is.

Right after comes the famous Lhesa de Sela, who I first heard (like millions, I guess) on a mix of Nicolas Jaar when I was a teenager. I don't think she needs introduction however and once again, if you haven't heard her album, don't think twice and run back to your favourite record shop (I suggest you do it all at once, after listening to the entire playlist). Oh mama, it is followed by a most magnificent song from a most outstanding album and at this point I am too ashamed to suggest you once again another purchase. But... you know. I first listened to Khaled Kurbeh & Raman Khalaf Ensemble in my home town of Geneva while visiting my sister. I think the first song I heard from them was the very dancable but rather short Shamal. What was not my surprise when I listened to the album and found a greatly diverse and ever exciting piece. Today I introduce you (or not) to Al Baseet, a composition which starts in a quite classic jazzy way and goes on with rythms my biased mind links to gnaoua music.

One of the greatest French poets to have been put into music, in my opinion and from my current knowledge, is Louis Aragon. He wrote Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux, beautifully sang by Georges Brassens, and Est-ce ainsi que les hommes vivent? Greatly interprated by Léo Ferré or Marc Ogeret who we have the honour of hearing tonight. La rose du premier de l'an is a very moving piece, and I will take the risk of repeating myself but, I you are a French poetry afficionado, I strongly recommend you purchase Ogeret's album singing Aragon's poems.

I talk to the wind, the wind does not hear. What a nice song! And how suiting for such a windy day!

It is the second time Sampa the Great is featured here, she released a new album recently and... well.

It is Andy Bey's turn to remind us how fragile we are on this windy foating track where his voice becomes a horn and merges with the other instruments as well as with the topic and the lyrics themselves. And then... a U turn with some electric reggae all the way from Lybia! Stay tuned because Habibi Funk is about to release a whole EP of this guy. And... you know... you might wanna purchase it... maybe, who knows?

The next song I took from one of the USB keys I brought back from Morocco. Now if you have ever bought music in Morocco you know it can be very tricky to keep track of what is what. Basically you can buy a USB key filled with whatever stuff you want (it is nice to keep it vague because you wanna discover don't you?). So what happens is that you talk a bit with the shop guy, tell him what you are into, go have a walk and an hour later come back to pick up your treasure. The thing is these guys they just fill up your key with shitloads of stuff and most of it is named Track1.mp3, etc. Therefore I have no clue what I am featuring here. My guess is that it is from the most recent Gnawa Festival in Essaouira.

I thought I'd close this playlist with one of the songs I had in mind when I was thinking of making a Ethiopian/Berber playlist. The Moan of the Stone, can you feel it?

Here it is, the end again, but only until next time isn't it? I hope you liked it and I send you kisses from the reception.

Do not forget about the check out time (10h30) no excuses will be accepted.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Black Strings - Hanging Gardens of Babylon
2. Lhasa de Sela - La celestina
3. Khaled Kurbeh & Raman Khalaf Ensemble - Al Baseet
4. Marc Ogeret - La rose du premier de l'an
5. King Crimson - I Talk to the Wind
6. Sampa the Great - Grass Is Greener
7. Andy Bey - Fragile
8. Ahmed Ben Ali - Subhana
9. Unknown - Unknown
10. Hassan Awarug - Asmammi-n-uzru (La plainte de la pierre / The Moan of the Stone)

Sunday at Bob's #21 Do You See Me Sailing?

 
Hello again my dears,

I must apologize for I had completely forgotten to publish last week. In my mind everything was floating safely and today was the day I would post the last playlist on date. Well I was wrong and realized it last monday. However I had taken a few days off to visit my family and friends in my native country and thought: what is Sunday at Bob's really, if it's not on a sunday nor at Bob's? I shall apologize one more time because today's text might be very short for I have fallen sick a couple of hours after landing. Probably due to the fact that the sun rarely visits Amsterdam. Regardless, let's take a look at what we have this week.

We start with a wonderful acapella piece taken from a very well made compilation of Ethiopian love songs. I had planned to give this playlist a general direction that would highlight the outstanding similarities between Ethiopian music and Moroccan berber music (starting with the fact that they use sibling instruments, the masinko being the Ethiopian version of the rbab). It is a phenomenon I can't wrap my head around and that fascinates me more all the time. If you have any clue as to what event could have provoked such result, probably dating back from way earlier than the arab conquests in the VIIth century and the birth of Islam, feel free to contact me.

"Solo song in the bati mode by Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw. A woman who is in love, living in Bati, longs for her lover. She wants him to come join her so that at last they may share their happiness together. The song also describes the beauty of the landscapes of Raya and Tobo, and the kindness of the inhabitants. 

Come, come, why are you leaving?
My eyes are so hungry. (...)
The desire I feel for your body draws me,
draws me out of Bati. (...)
I saw the tracks of his horse,
I hear the sound of his hooves.
Gone...gone... He is really gone

(source)

 After that comes an extremely deep solo violin taksim (which means improvisation if I am not mistaken) by Takis Papageorgiou. I am working on a list of blogs to recommend to our readers, it includes the one where I discovered this masterpiece. We pursue with a jazzy tune from a jazzy album by a wonderful trio composed of Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain and Chris Potter. I very much recommend their album Good Hope.

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices) was released in 1975 by Swiss organist, ethnomusicologist and music producer Marcel Cellier. It is a compilation album of modern arrangements of Bulgarian folk songs featuring, among others, the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir. Talking about deep music, this compilation (the result of a fifteen year long research) puts you in a state not much music can.

We move on but we don't go too far with the Greek/Israeli superstar Aris San and his hommage to Oum Khaltoum's Nta Omri (you are my life). It is followed by a musician I discovered recently and can't get enough of: Abu Obaida Hassan and his tambour. Then we can enjoy an extract from a great compilation straight from Brazil, Jambú e Os Míticos Sons Da Amazônia that you can purchase here.

"This revelatory survey of the music of Northern Brazil from the 1970s and ’80s is by turns alien and familiar, sacred and profane, always raw and thrilling." (source)

I don't think the next band needs much introduction as its saxophonist has been featured and praised here more than once. Here are the Sons of Kemet with the chillest song of their magnificent album Your Queen Is A Reptile.

We end with a half hour of jazz played for us by Resavoir and Chick Corea & Steve Gadd Band.

I apologize again for the short post and I hope you have a pleasant listen! I see you in two weeks with more surprises.

Check out time is still 10h30

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. Ejigayehu Gigi Shibabaw - Tirut Yebatin Lig
2. Takis Papageorgiou - Taksim In The Makām Hidžazkar
3. Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain & Chris Potter - Suvarna
4. Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir - Kalimankou Denkou
5. Aris San - Boumpam
6. Abu Obaida Hassan - La...La (Don‚t Say I Am Betraying You)
7. Grupo da Pesada - Lundun Da Yaya
8. Sons of Kemet - My Queen Is Nanny Of The Maroons
9. Resavoir - Escalator
10. Chick Corea & Steve Gadd Band - Wake-Up Call

Sunday at Bob's #20 Some Go Some Stay

First of all, happy new year. In Amsterdam, after the always very intense firework session that enlights the city for a few hours after midnight, we woke up with a hangover symbolised by the new laws concerning housing (but also tourism as you will notice in the  salty taste of your bill at the check in) effective starting 2020. These laws, here to give a new kick in the gentrification program of the city, convinced a lot of my friends to leave the beautiful capital and sail for new horizons and new adventures. This playlist is dedicated to those who go, and those who stay. It is also dedicated to the wonderful guests we have had the chance to host in the past weeks, from the Brazilian girls who grabbed our guitar at midnight and started to sing the most delightful songs, leaving the whole lobby amazed, to the group of Turkish guests who shared their favourite music from Barış Manço (who is featured here today) and many more. Come back anytime. Cheers.

Last time, I talked about the music I find once in a while thanks to rap samples. Today we start with an amazing song I first heard in the banger Grindin' My Whole Life from Hit-Boy & HS87's. I realised recently most of my friends knew about John Surman but did not know Hit-Boy and I am not sure what to make of that. Regardless this is another example of thanks deserved to a rap beatmaker. In bonus I present you one of the best ever french rap group Lunatic and their sample of Edges of Illusions that dates back to 2000. Eventhough it is taken from an album I destroyed due to multiple listenings, I never realised the sample was the same as Hit-Boy's.

I think a couple of weeks back we had a song by the greatest of the greats Fairuz. Today we have a composition by her son Ziad Rahbani, who I think, wrote the song from Fairuz we had here last time. I remember reading somewhere that he was responsible for the jazzy sparkles in some of her albums. Anyhow we have the chance to appreciate 13 minute of Rahbani's 1978's gem Abu Ali.

It is followed by a song I fell in love with the first time I heard it. I did not know anything about Mike James Kirkland until recently but he has been cycling with me the 10km that seperate my home from the city center many times since then. Hang On In There feels like many songs in one, the transitions are exquisite and some lines just hit you hard. Yoooou can't make me love, and IIII don't wanna leave! still in the thematic aren't we?

We pursue with the above mentionned groove magician, the Turkish Panoramix Barış Manço and the Kurtalan Ekspres. I strongly recommend you go around and dig in that musician's career, there is some rare diamonds to be found and some very dancable sounds. 

Then comes another album found thanks to samples, this time from Gonjasufi's masterpiece A Sufi and A Killer, I could make a playlist only consisting of songs he sampled for that album. Sheep allowed me to be introduced to Ilaiyaraaja's wonderful work, especially on the soundtrack of the 1983 movie Sadma. I strongly recommend to listen to the whole thing, it goes from sad to fun, from odd to very catchy.

There is no need to introduce the fantastic Harry Belafonte who caresses us today with the smooth Come Back Liza, who wouldn't if called so gently? Then we have a song by Sessa from Brazil, who was amongst the few good surprises I got while browsing the annual top albums established by journals and websites.

Grandeza is an album about the natural gesture of love and the softness of the human body. It’s also about my love for Brazilian music and its many shapes and colors. I like to think that it exists somewhere among the rituals that celebrate life. It’s a reminder that amongst all the pain, music comes to reaffirm the beauty in living. Source

We go on with another great surprise of 2019. The sound of Trey Gruber is one I don't naturally lean towards however it gave me chills I hadn't felt for a while. May he rest in peace.

Trey Gruber’s time in Chicago's indie rock community was brief but his presence was deeply felt, and still resonates today. With his band Parent, he wrote searching and vulnerable songs with an authenticity that transcended the crowded field of bands translating classic records from the ‘70s into a current Midwestern context. Source

I have to apologize but I am going to use someone else's words for the third time in a row.

Earth Rot is in effect a cantata for the planet, or, in Axe's own words "contemporary music with ancient yet timely words set to the theme of ecology." Those ancient yet timely words come from the book of Isaiah in the Bible and for a Navajo legend called "Song of the Earth Spirit." (...) Axelrod's musical begins by celebrating the earth's lorry and then indicting humans for messing it up. Source

This album is probably amongst the craziest thing I have heard in a long time. I can't get enough of it and if you happen to listen to it from beggining to end you will understand what I meant two weeks ago. That album is a work, it is one thing. It reminds me of discussions I had where we would speculate as to why it is so difficult to find decent recordings of gnawa music, for instance. One of the reasons we proposed was that in some places music is only meant to be experienced fully, in the presence of the musicians. Music must have had a function at some point (that is a topic Christopher King develops in Lament from Epirus) amongst the gnawas it still does, it is here to cure, to heal. The idea of listening to gnawa music from a walkman or any sound system is probably so absurd given its prime purpose that there is no need to even record it properly, or at least it is a strange gesture in itself. In our western world however we got used to that album format, which is pretty recent in the history of music (I recommend the documentaries American Epic to have a glimpse at how that industry started). David Axelrod takes that format and makes music within it, or acknowledging it, a bit like when painters started to question their medium's potential and gave birth to movements like support-surface in France, shaped canvas in the USA. Keep in mind that these are only speculations though.

I thought it would be interesting to end lightly. After that powerful warning about global warming, I chose to put a song that makes a precise image pop up in my head. Whenever I listen to it, I imagine to be the last human on earth but in the beggining of the experience, when it is still fun. When I can pick where I want to go, chose what I want to eat from deserted stores, what I want to drink. I fill a shopping cart with booze, junk food and cigars, jump in a boat on herengracht and take off. A good friend wrote a song about a similar fantasy. It was very nice, we did the best we could.

Enjoy, I see you in two weeks!

Check out time will always be 10h30 (pas op!)

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. John Surman - Edges of Illusion
2. Ziad Rahbani - Abu Ali
3. Mike James Kirkland - Hang On In There
4. Barış Manço & Kurtalan Ekspres - Çoban Yildizi/Bir Selam Sana Gönül Dağlarından
5. Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar - Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza Deewano Ko
6. Harry Belafonte - Come Back Liza
7. Sessa - Toda Instância do Prazer
8. Trey Gruber - Get Your Fix
9. David Axelrod - The Warnings Part II
10. Blind Blake and The Royal Victoria Hotel Calypsos - The Cigar Song

Sunday at Bob's #19 Much Love

Winter is here, hello again. It feels great to be back after a quite long break during which we had the chance to appreciate a playlist shared by a good friend and loyal follower of Sunday at Bob's who goes by the nickname of Mr.B (except in real life, but to be fair no one calls me Sunday at Bob's either thank god). I am very thrilled he played the game until the end and delivered a much fascinating text filled with tools to research new areas of music. Much love.

Today's playlist begins with a track from a very beautiful album I heard for the first time through the great Zakia's NTS radio show Questing. I don't know much about René Zambrano but I invite you to enjoy the album he released in tribute to Carlos Bonilla Chávez, pioneer of Ecuadorian classical guitar. Very beautiful piece of work to accompany these times of snow and celebrations.

We go on with a song I really enjoy due to its unexpected horns slapping you a couple of times at a specific moment. Every time I listen to it I wonder how did that happen while they recorded, was it a mistake they turned out to consider fortunate or was it written with precision on a score? Regardless it is a very beautiful song.

Then we have one of the bands I have listened to the most in the past month. I discovered The Outlaw Blues Band the same way I discovered a lot of music that stayed with me up until now: rap songs samples. Actually I could make a playlist in tribute to the wide musical knowledge of rap beatmakers, that could be an idea. The Outlaw Blues Band was sampled by the Californians of Cypress Hill, for their song When The Shit Goes Down they borrowed Deep Gully. And I am forever thankful.

It is followed by a song I found in a playlist from a website recommended by a friend but its name slipped my mind at this time, I shall update the article when I find it back. Then we meet someone I have been dying to feature here but never really figured out how, namely the giant Gil Scott Heron, who need no introduction so I will content myself with a link to a recent show on NTS (wow so much NTS at once right? I should calm down) dedicated to this precursor of many things.

We then enter the Greek zone of today's playlist with Thanasis Papakonstantinou who I know little about except what my Greek friends have been willing to tell me which I could modestly attempt to sum up as follows: he is the shit. I am so far only familiar with his album Agrypnia (Insomnia) which is built in a really interesting way, as a whole, that makes it heartbreaking to extract one song and selfishly add it to my playlist. Sometimes albums make so much sense as a whole (I don't think I could ever start listening to David Axelrod's Earth Rot from track 2 nor either listen to track 2 only, for instance) that I want to feature a whole album here and call it a playlist. But then my head gets filled with contradictory reflexions about what it is I am actually doing here and chose to stick with good old playlists for the time being.

Last summer I have been roaming in Morocco looking for many things, one of these things was music and I found a lot. I also spent time reading about it and amongst what I read was a gem of a book about music from the region of Epirus in Greece. A Lament From Epirus was written by the great Christopher King who you must have heard of if you ever got interested in Cajun or old american folk music. I couldn't recommend this reading more, it answered many questions I had about music from Greece such as where does the link my subconscious is making with arabic music of my childhood comes from? Is there a bridge between Oum Kalthoum and Markos Vamvakaris? It also gives us many tools to understand what purpose music serves and what it actually is. In my practice as a painter I deal with similar topics and to meet these questions in other art forms was fruitful beyond expectations. However I made a few attempts to include the deep sound of Alexis Zoumbas or Kitsos Harisiadis in Sunday at Bob's, never succeeded. Today we have the chance to have a song by some of their heirs Petroloukas Halkias and Vasilis Kostas taken from their album The Soul of Epirus which I recommend as well. It is possible that in the coming weeks we meet Epirus again.

The playlist carries on with a very fun song from an Indian composer who I believe is a master in the art of movie soundtracks. T.K. Ramamoorthy is amongst these artists I know nothing about but own one of their works and wouldn't exchange it against anything in the world. That work is called Fabulous Notes and Beats of the Indian Carnatic-Jazz and surfs with me on everyday life on regular basis. Then we have a song I found on the website of Disco Arabesquo whose parties I have attended recently. You can find some very cool stuff over there. The playlist closes with one of my all time favourite moroccan bands, isn't it fascinating how the banjo took such an important dimension in Morocco with Nass El Ghiwan amongst other? Recently I have been to the concert of a friend who happens to play the banjo and got smashed at how much that sound is related to Morocco in my mind, while having a strong american identity as well. As if when played by Izenzaren it becomes another instrument, somehow.

I apologize for the one day delay, I started to write yesterday but got a rather busy shift. I hope you enjoy it and see you in two weeks!

Remember to check out before 10h30.

The receptionist

Playlist:

1. René Zambrano - Preludio y Yumbo
2. Johnnie Jackson And The Blazers Featuring Merle Spears - Wisdom Of A Fool
3. The Outlaw Blues Band -  Plastic Man
4. Makers - Don’t Challenge Me
5. Gil Scott Heron - Gun
6. Thanasis Papakonstantinou - Σ'αφήνω Γεια
7. Petroloukas Halkias, Vasilis Kostas - Skaros
8. T.K. Ramamoorthy - Udaya Ravu Chandrika
9. Al Pharana - Ya Habibi (Instrumental)
10. Izenzaren - Unknown

Sunday at Bob's #18 - A Guest Appearance (by Mr.B)

Hello everybody, I'm Mr. B and I will be hosting Sunday at Bob's this time round, with big thanks Sunday at Bob's for the invite.

    Cutting right to the chase, first up we have Percy Faith and his Orchestra with their 1960 easy-listening arrangement of “Theme from A Summer Place”.  Named "the most successful instrumental single of the rock era.", it remained number one in the U.S. for a record breaking 9 weeks early in 1960, with Canadian Percy recognised as being key to the popularisation of the genre, and supposedly one of only three artists, along with Elvis Presley and The Beatles, to have the best-selling single of the year twice. To give some context, this was the same year John Coltrane's “Giant Steps” was released, as well as Elvis Presley's “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”. 
    I find it perfectly captures that feeling of gleefully skipping through wild flowers under an azure sky, without a care in the world, whilst gently rocking to-and-fro in the corner of a padded cell, tightly secured in a brilliant white straight-jacket.  Additionally, I think it makes a great introduction to this whistle-stop tour around a selection of my very own musical pick-and-mix.

    Next up we have the first track from a 1996 album that I still consider the quintessence of cool after being introduced to the artist's work back when I was a teenager.  Named “Ki-Oku” (translated as memory, note, remembrance), it quickly became a trip-hop classic during the heyday of the genre, and is a mind-bending collaboration between Japanese hip-hop artist DJ Krush (often found at Melkweg) and fusion-jazz trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. It stands alone as an intoxicating mixture of hip-hop turntablism, trumpet improvisation, and the ineffable Japanese style. Incidentally, this track is called “Toh-Sui”, which is Japanese for compassion.

    Directly into the next piece, from one of my all-time favourite record labels Ninja Tune who will make more than one appearance here, home of Bonobo, Mr. Scruff, Roots Manuva, The Herbaliser, Amon Tobin, to name but a few, providing reliably stellar releases since 1990.  They recently signed Floating Points, adding to their enormous list of past and present electronica heavy-weights.  This track is taken from the DJ Food album “Refried Food”, and is a remix of one of DJ Food's own tracks by Squarepusher. 
    To explain just how deeply Ninja this tune is, DJ Food was a project conceived by the inimitable Coldcut, a British duo who started the record label itself.  The DJ Food project begun by making their own brand of snacks for DJs to chew away on, but the project soon gained its own personality. After their first proper main-meal of an album “A Recipe for Disaster”, came “Refried Food”, an album of remixes made by giving the tracks of the prior album over to their nearest and dearest musician pals including Fila Brazillia, Luke Vibert, and Autechre.

    Then we have the “Theme from Midnight Express” by the legendary Italian synth prodigy and disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder, which won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Score in 1978, and in my mind remains such an iconic piece in the history of disco evolution that it had to be included, not less because I happen to have been enjoying it lately and it was already here on my PC.

    From there we go to a sublime piece of electronica from 1995 named “A Zed and Two L's” by the aforementioned Fila Brazillia, a British duo and again another I was introduced to in my teenage years, much to my intense pleasure.  The track takes a drum sample from the Lafayette Afro Rock Band's famous track “Hihache”, as well as some vocals in an African sounding language I can't identify, and seems to be named after an apparently terrible film called “A Zed and Two Noughts” but with reference to the word Brazillia.  I wasn't going to play the whole thing originally but I've gone for it, I really think it's worth the extra time even if it might make one a bit sleepy.

    Anyway now that you are suitably hypnotised, time for a little transhumanist reprogramming with a very rare 1979 piece of electronic disco / proto house.  This B-side from the record “Disco Computer” named “You Are Disco” was produced in Belgium by another pioneer of the disco genre Dan Lacksman, under alias Transvolta. I have no recollection of how or when I came about it exactly but I am mighty glad I did, the friendly robotoid singer allays any fears I have of a dystopian AI-dominated future.  He even says he makes the drinks alright.

    Following this odd little gem we have something from the other end of the disco spectrum, a superbly funky and widely-sampled 1982 number called “Risin'  To The Top”, signature song of funk and soul extraordinaire Keni Burke.  I first heard this song dancing to the last tune of a fantastic post-King's-day disco set at Noorderlicht two years ago and I immediately had to find out what it was, and find myself a copy.  The bassline is directly sampled on the more famous funky disco classic "All Night Long" by the Mary Jane Girls, but best to remember where it first originated and give credit to Keni for bringing this amazing piece of bass guitar funk forth.

    Then we have a very aesthetically pleasing piece from British electronic nu-jazz group The Cinematic Orchestra, named “Necrology” after a short film by American experimental film-maker Standish Lawder, where in one continuous shot he films the faces of a 5pm crowd descending a Pan-Am building escalator. This is another track from the previously discussed Ninja Tune label, and as per TCO's mission and similar to all of their work, it is an attempt to elicit something of a moving image in the mind of the listener.

    Gliding somewhat skittishly from one piano to another, we fly to a 1950 bebop version of “My Melancholy Baby” by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, from their record Bird & Diz released a few years after, and which was their final collaborative studio recording.  Essentially creating the bebop scene as a closely working and intensely studious pair, Diz being a rather straight laced and religious musical academic, and Bird having sadly fallen victim of the ravages of heroin and alcohol addiction, I can only imagine their professional relationship was sometimes rather strained, as close as they were.
    I don't have much to say about this record apart from that I think it is one of the finest examples of each of the artist's virtuoso styles I have in my possession, and let's be honest, a bit more brass is always a fine thing.

    Finally we have “Justified & Ancient”, an understatedly rebellious and ironic 1991 track from the final studio album of The KLF called “The White Room”. The KLF were a British/Scottish duo of multi-disciplinary artists who famously set fire to a million pounds on the Scottish island of Jura back in 1994.   This song was remade the same year of release into a pop-house single which reached number 2 in the UK pop charts, greatly to the amusement and no doubt bemusement of the original artists, whose entire careers revolved around undermining the music industry and other questionable establishments. 
    It is said that the collaborations following the success of the remake contributed to The KLF's abandonment of music production, as their rampant success in the pop music world was distinctly at odds with their personal distaste for the machinery of the pop industry.  Absolute wizards of subversion, their music and other work is well worth a thorough perusal.

    Well there we have it folks, I hope you enjoy the music and any related research you might delve into hereafter.

    Listen to the receptionist.
    Over and out.

Playlist:



1. Percy Faith and his Orchestra – Theme from A Summer Place

2. DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo - Toh-Sui

3. Dj Food – Scratch Yer Hed (Squarepusher mix)

4. Giorgio Moroder - Theme from Midnight Express

5. Fila Brazillia - A Zed and Two L's

6. Transvolta - You Are Disco

7. Keni Burke – Risin' To The Top

8. The Cinematic Orchestra - Necrology

9. Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie - My Melancholy Baby

10. The KLF - Justified & Ancient