About stupidity and holiday

Got rid of Windows when I installed Linux, by accident. That cleaned up my mp3's rigourously too but shouldn't be hard to replace them. Difficulty is that Linux doesn't recognize my wireless so I've no connection to internet atm unless on a borrowed pc.
Will sort that out next week as I'm first going to check out Cyprus in search of better weather. You can find me at the local McDonalds, Irish pub or Chinese takeaway, unless I feel brave enough to try the local cuisine.
Bye for now!

The Chi-Lites - The Best Of

"The original Brunswick recordings 1969 - 1967", vocal soul-funk. You can look at the Chi-Lites as just another vocal trio (quartet) making the music of their time. I'm often reminded of one of those 'Naked Gun' movies where, in a flashback, Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) has to enter a room sideways due to the size of his afro.
Founded by Marshall Thompson but made big by lead vocalist (the tenor falsetto with the glasses) Eugene Record who was also the main song writer of the band. I'm from '73 so I don't have many direct recollections of the band but the majority of the songs sound very familiar, an indication of the size of the hits they were and they're still being played. You may hear something familiar in 'Are You My Woman' but Beyonce wasn't born then either.
Things went downhill when Brunswick (and the Chi-Lites) were being scrutinized by the IRS which lead to an outpour of artists. Eugene Record took up this opportunity to try for a solo career, with good results but little success. The popularity of disco probably had something to do with this.
They re-united, had some hits in the 80's and disbanded again, Record became a reverend. Marshall Thompson and Robert Lester are supposedly still touring: Google smartly but save your work, the Chi-Lites and Soul-Patrol sites made my FireFox dissappear immediately (Opera held up better).
Kent / Ace 2004

The Chi-Lites - The Best Of
Part 1
Part 2

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's been here before on this blog, with a more 'original' album. Original in the sense that he played his version of his native music with his band.
This is different. "Fusion cooking" would be an apt description where musicians and influences from all over the world are used to create the final product. Producer / guitarist Michael Brook has been an important factor in building this music but it also features a remix by Massive Attack.
Nusrat here is an 'instrument', his voice used for it's vocal expression instead of singing words with a meaning and the music reflects that emphasis on emotion rather than structured approach. Shouldn't come as a real surprise that this work was recorded in Peter Gabriel's Real World studio.
There's a follow up for those who want to hear more, which is called 'Night Song' where the people behind this release take their ideas further.
Real World records / WOMAD music 1990

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

Arthur Alexander - The Greatest

Unfinished business #2: Arthur Alexander.
With The Monument Years I mentioned the Dot years and this is it. 21 tracks from 1961 to 1965, including the originals of 'Anna', 'You Better Move On' and 'A shot Of Rhythm And Blues'.
Romantic soul and funky R&B show the diversity of Arthur Alexander, this is a great CD for those fond of early 60's music. Arthur Alexander had a beautiful voice and great backing musicians which can be determined in great detail because the sound quality is very good.
It's an ancient Ace release, from 1989 and the linernotes even date back to 1982. It's still in the Ace catalog so I simply assume it can still be ordered, just like the Monument CD.
Ace records 1989

Arthur Alexander - The Greatest
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

Ghost World OST

Unfinished business #1: Ghost World.
There's too much to say about the movie (the movie, its story, Daniel Clowes, cast & crew, etc.) so I won't even attempt it. You've got Google and the DVD shouldn't be expensive anymore.
For those who haven't seen the movie, the soundtrack may surprise a little; once you've heard all the songs you should have some idea what kind of selection it is but there are some songs that clearly shouldn't be on it. Bollywood music and powerblues, to mention something. It'll fall into place when you see the movie but the songs remain out of place. The Bollywood track is magnificent though, I wouldn't have minded a CD full of those songs.
The large part is made up from 78 RPM records from the personal collection of director Terry Zwigoff. If that doesn't provide a link to the dream stuff set then know he's a member of Crumb's Cheap Suit Serenaders.
Shanachie 2001

Ghost World OST
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

Joe Meek - Portrait Of A Genius The RGM Legacy

This CD set has been lying on the shelf for some time. Not only because it's 4 CDs to listen through but an enormous book that comes with it; which I still haven't finished completely. Joe Meek was a producer, recording from 1955 to 1966. There's too much to tell about him so I point you to this website.
It's enough to know for now that he was an independent producer, recording in his home and then selling the music to larger companies. He worked in a time when the possibilities of audio recording weren't fully discovered and that's the main reason we could remember Joe Meek. Well, that and a great set of hits and his extraordinary personality and perhaps his tragic end.
There are many more compilations made centering on Joe Meek. This one is a "portrait" and contains more than just hits, you'll also find rarities, unreleased tracks, messages left on answering machines... (thanks Amazon for the tracklist)
It comes in a large box with an incredible 45 page book, describing the man, his times, his achievements, quotes from people who knew him and worked with him and many, many pictures. An extraordinary release about an extraordinary person.
Castle Music / Sanctuary Records 2005

Joe Meek - Portrait Of A Genius The RGM Legacy
CD 1
CD 2
CD 3
CD 4
Extra
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

On the files: Each CD packed into a little over 100 MB, rather inconvenient. I took the last 3 files of each CD and put them into the 'extra' RAR (which thus isn't really extra). Each archive can be downloaded and unpacked separately but in order to listen to the whole package you need to move the files from the extra archive to it's respective folders (should be obvious when you unpack it). Enjoy!

Joe Tex - You're Right

For those who enjoyed the Dial Records Southern Soul Story here's some more of the big star: Joseph Arrington Jr.
From the solo Joe Tex compilations of Dial material is this part 2: fans need to have 'Skinny Legs And All (the classic early Dial sides)' too.
This is material from 1967 to 1972, compiled by Ace in 1995 so this is a perfect package and pales only in comparison with the booklets Ace puts with their CDs nowadays. Compiled by John Broven, notes by Cliff White.
Joe Tex is FANTASTIC! Damn fine stuff!
Kent / Ace 1995

Joe Tex - You're Right
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' The Blues

There's been some Howlin' Wolf on this blog before for the perfectly simple reason that I love his music and regret dearly that I've never been able to see the man live. This CD is curiously enough a relatively cheap one, of French origin so I'm not sure if it's readily available somewhere else.
It contains recordings from 1951 produced by Sam Phillips for his Memphis Recording Service and recordings produced by Ike Turner for RPM from LA. The rest is Chess output made in Chicago, continuing 'till 1954. References therefore to like half this blog.
The CD is released by Saga Blues, with brief linernotes in French and English in a lovely digipak. The linernotes also have good info on the recordings like date, label and personnel. This is volume 21 and they've got more nice goodies.
Saga 2005

Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' The Blues
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

A little on the project

Blogger is fantastic in that you can have a blog up and running in seconds. Less great is some unpredictable behaviour and slowness, although I've always managed to do what I wanted (just not always when I wanted it).
So I went looking for a better solution since I also had some ideas about what could be done and what would be really cool if it was done. The essence of blogging is that it's a specialized form of content management, I envisioned something a bit more complex (backend-wise, I know I don't need rocket science for the frontend of my blog) so I disregarded Wordpress, Moveable Type, etc. and went straigth for a Content Management System.
After looking around a bit I found Drupal, which is actually a CMS development kit.

See screenshot (the fuzziness & blur is JPEG compression): that didn't take particularly long to set up but getting customized modules to work is a whole different story. If I only wanted to move this blog to that blog, I could already with sacrificing a little bit and gaining a lot of functionality (like categories, for example). I also haven't reached the stage where I "understand" Drupal; something seemingly trivial like getting a button or a select box to work is still beyond my abilities (don't let the screenshot fool you: apart from the built-in stuff like links and menu's nothing works yet).

I'm going to look into hosting pretty soon, after some more cursing, swearing & other typical computer related activities like debugging. But I'll get some music up before that, promised.