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Top 20 Reissues/Historical Releases of 2006, Part 2
This was my favorite of several excellent post-punk reissue projects. Until this compilation, I’d only heard a few tracks on anthologies; suffice it to say that the Bristolians live up to their legend (two members went from The Pop Group to Glaxo Babies to Maximum Joy, subject of one of 2005’s best post-punk reissues). It helps that I always dig post-punk groups with sax, but this band has plenty of other positives going for it: juggernaut rhythms, VERY jagged guitar, insolently blurted vocals, and dark energy galore. I just wish more stuff like “Seven Days,” a cross between post-punk and avant-garde jazz that still sounds radical, had been included.
Another post-punk gem, proving that this Leeds quintet was more than just “Mind Your Own Business” (their debut single, recently covered by Chick on Speed. This disc compiles their singles, BBC sessions, and a 1980 concert, displaying their mixture of yelping gleefulness, two-bass anchored rhythms, and sociopolitical yet witty lyrics.
One of the most bizarre bands ever, yet historically crucial. The Incredible Bongo Band was an indulgent side project of label executive Michael Viner, who really did play bongos but who had the good sense to hire some excellent musicians, notably studio drum ace Jim Gordon. The band mostly played covers, but with imaginative and colorful – and, yes, percussion-heavy – arrangements. This is its debut album, which spawned the unexpected hit “Apache,” a hyper rendition of an old Shadows instrumental. Its drum breaks became extremely popular hip-hop samples, the source immortalized in the Sugarhill Gang’s hit “Apache.” This disc is a bit goofy at times, but always great fun, and the odd versions of the surf instrumentals “Wipeout” and “Pipeline” have to be heard to be believed.
Yup, more post-punk, this time from Glasgow. It’s actually the first U.S. release this band’s received, a quarter-century after its brief existence. This is the sound of young alienation in a dank climate, sometimes combating the gloom with percolating rhythms, sometimes going with the flow on moody tracks.
This is Crazy Horse when Danny Whitten and Jack Nitzsche were in the band – its prime period, compared to which everything since pales in imagination and power. Yes, it’s shorter than it should be, and Billy Talbot spends half the lengthy concluding jam on “Cowgirl in the Sand” letting his bottom string get more and more slack and out of tune. But even with those two strikes against it, this is an indispensable release, one of the greatest moments in Neil Young’s long and distinguished career.
New York Noise 2; New York Noise 3 (Soul Jazz)
These two multi-artist collections document the incredible creative ferment of New York City in the late 1970s and early ‘80s – which means much more than post-punk; avant-garde jazz guitarist/gutbucket vocalist James “Blood” Ulmer is represented, while funk, disco, and hip-hop rhythms abound. The artists range from famous (Sonic Youth) to cult icons (Rhys Chatham, Arthur Russell, Glenn Branca, Suicide’s Martin Rev) to entities fondly remembered by those who were there (Mofungo, Ike Yard, Snatch) to the truly obscure (Pulsallama, Y Pants) to utterly wacko eccentricity (Boris Policeband). Ah, the music of my formative years. Now you know why I’m such a freak.
Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label (Numero)
This compilation covers a lot of stylistic ground, from doo-wop to soul to garage rock to psychedelic funk. Big Mack was a Detroit label in operation on a shoestring budget from 1962 to ‘72. It never had much distribution, or a good sound engineer, but it had more than its share of talent, and there are some real gems here even if the performers – Bob & Fred, Ms. Tyree “Sugar” Jones, Soul President, Performers, Grand Prix’s, Essence – are now obscure. Another interesting release in this great series.
Two of the twelve performances from this December 1993 solo concert had been issued before (though not in the U.S.), but the rest were released for the first time here. The only feedback here is accidental, but the Dinosaur Jr. songs hold up anyway because they’re well-written (especially “Get Me”), and because as ragged as Mascis’s singing is, it’s full of distinctive character. He also “cooked up” (his words) two excellent covers, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Every Mother’s Son” and Greg Sage’s (Wipers) “On the Run” (“because he’s one of my idols”). Supposedly a limited edition, so don’t hesitate.
Overwhelmingly best known as a founder of the Velvet Underground, Cale has had much more to offer even than that. His classical training tilted him toward the avant-garde, but his most radical music lay hidden in obscurity or was just plain unreleased until recently. This box set (which really is in a small, elegant wooden box) is revelatory, reflecting his work with LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, and other avant-gardists.
Perhaps few Americans have heard of the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, but aficionados of African music are certainly familiar with Thomas Mapfumo. This compilation catches him early in his career, when he first started melding pop and traditional Zimbabwean music by giving the guitars patterns taken from mbira (thumb piano) music, making the improbably named band the biggest influence on the next three decades of his country’s music. Even on the half of the tracks made after he’d gone solo, the sound is irresistibly exuberant.