Tune of the Week: RIP Lee "Scratch" Perry

Lee “Scratch” Perry was enigmatic. On top of doing very peculiar things, he often would speak in coded language. He would play with words: at times to mask any true feelings or meanings, at other times to simply mess with people’s minds. In this song, taken from “Rainford” his fourth album made with Adrian Sherwood, we hear the Upsetter earnestly tell his own life story. The honesty he brings to the microphone is disarming and endearing. Lots of people will be talking about Scratch in the coming weeks, but there was only one true authority on the matter. RIP one of the true Masters of the Universe.

Tune of the Week: OFF!

Off! is a punk rock supergroup from southern California. Their style is very much in the original America hardcore punk vein: short, political songs and confrontational artwork by punk art pioneer Raymond Pettibon. Featuring members in their 40s, 50s and 60s, Off’s songs are more mature in content than most. “Void You Out” is a prime example, dealing with the grim reality of living in a brutal capalitalist society that hopeless clings to any notion of “freedom”. Before the live take of the tune you get small “slice of life” segments with each member of the band, wherein you can get some sort of idea of where they are coming from, seriously or not. While unheard of for a while (and not getting any younger), the band is working on a full length feature film and has a half new line-up that they announced this year. Long live punk rock! Long live OFF!

Tune of the Week: Funky Reggae

Jamaican popular music has always had a connection to rhythm and blues music from the United States. The owners of the earliest sound systems on the island would travel to New Orleans and return with steamer trunks filled with 7” singles of the latest and greatest from the Mississippi basin. With the advent of reggae music amidst a swelling of political violence songs reflecting the civil rights struggle in the States became popular in JA, spawning many cover versions. George Saulé had a top 40 r’n’b hit in 1972 entitled “Get Involved”. His empassioned plea for greater political involvement became popular in Jamaica and the UK as well. The following year Freddie McGregor scored a hit by recording a reggae-fied version for the World Champ label. Someone could have a hit covering this song today as the message continue to resonate. People in power do not do enough for those in need. Everyone must feel a responsibility to do their part to make things more equal. You’ve got to get involved!

Tune of the Week: Acid House

Acid House can be seen as a turning point in terms of accessibilty to the means of electronic music production. When electronic music started it was created on machines that would take up whole rooms. These devices would generally only be owned by huge organizations such as universities. In 1982 the Roland corporation came up with a series of small instruments designed to provide accompaniment for musicians. The TR-606 and TB-303 were created to help fill one’s sound with a virtual rhythm section- the 606 for drums and the 303 for basslines. The sounds were a bit too electronic for most tastes and by the mid 80s these devices were regularly found second hand at much more affordable prices. Chicago became a hotbed of this electronically reclaimed sound. The Warehouse club was in full bloom and artists such as Phuture were looking to add fuel to the nightclub fire with original productions. The minimal beats created with these cast aside pieces of technology went on inspire fledgling electronic musicians the world over for decades. The first notable place to catch the acid burn was the UK. The late 80s saw night clubs full of drug addled attendees gleefully boogeying to psychedelic electronics in cities such as London and Manchester. This island-wide scene helped give birth to the massively influential rave movement, which would reverberate throughout the entire world the following decade.

Ecstacy Club were a duo from Birmingham, UK that produced only two singles in the late 80s. This club classic typifies the UK acid sound. Compared to its Chicago counterparts, it features more sounds and variations, as well as a more psychedelic feel. The Pope John Paul II sample at the beginning is a bit unnerving to say the least! The way the lead melody seems to duck behind the kick drum also leads to an offkilter atmosphere to the proceedings. It’s definitely hard for me not to imagine the smell of fog machine juice when hearing this one again. Turn off the lights and turn on your mind!

Tune of the Week: Prefuse 73

The turn of the 21st century found North American electronic musicians gaining ground on their counterparts in the UK and Europe. Labels the likes of Hefty and Schematic were releasing electronic music that held the same production savvy and influences as that of bigger, more renown labels as Warp and Skam. A major connector for this worldwide zeitgeist was hiphop. After two decades of growth, its influence was permeating into more abstract and experimental music. Its affinity for sampling was fed back onto itself and taken to extremes. Prefuse 73’s music from 2001 is a shining example. Hiphop samples have been chopped up and rearranged to create what sounds like an alien language created from English. The beats skitter, falling in and out of the groove. Glitch Hop was born and its extreme audio editing reverberates through the musical world today within the forms of EDM and dubstep. However, rarely has it ever been done with as much care and funk as with Prefuse’s early 00s work.

Tune of the Week: Ghost Dog

The Wu Tang Clan are one of HipHop’s most influential groups. Founding member RZA has been a driving force behind (as well as in front) of the group. He plays the role of writer, producer, emcee, cultural guru and business manager. RZA’s sample based beats have helped to create numerous classics of east coast golden era HipHop. Despite his production savvy and prolific nature, he has put out very little in terms of solo material and no collections of beats. The only thing that comes close is his soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s film, “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai". Jarmusch considered RZA the “Thelonious Monk of HipHop” and tapped him to not only provide the soundtrack, but also make a cameo in the film. With the film being a east coast take on Japanese film themes, the RZA provides a perfect accompaniment with his atmospheric and gritty beats. Also included are a couple of great Wu Tang Clan tracks like the one above. Like Ghost Dog’s makeshift boombox made from car stereo parts and wood the track is raw. Method Man, Old Dirty Bastard and the RZA all seem to attack the track with energy and attitude. Also included at the beginning and end of the clip are some of the more eastern sounding bits RZA created for the film. If you haven’t seen the whole movie you should definitely treat yourself to it soon!

Tune of the Week: Naked City

John Zorn is a musician and composer that refuses to be pinned down. The jazz world may claim him as one of their own. Indeed, the works of Ornette Coleman do form a considerable influence on him. However, so does Ennio Morricone, Japanese noise rock, surf music, classical and hardcore punk music. His late 80s/early 90s band Naked City perfectly exemplifies Zorn’s range of influences by cramming them all into short compositions. Born out of a desire to test the limits of the rock band format, one Naked City tune can include sections that emulate free jazz, funk-rock, thrash metal, bebop and even television station IDs. It’s like a “No Attention Span Theater” for your ears!

Bonus tune below: a live television performance of the same composition featuring David Sanborn. Generally considered a more corny and/or soft player, Sanborn proves he can keep up with Zorn’s breakneck changes with ease!

Tune of the Week: Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy had a unique relationship. As evident here, they could converse through their instruments. The discussion starts with Mingus’ solo around the 4:20 mark and continues for about eight minutes. What do think they are discussing through their music? Leave a comment below,

Tune of the Week: Keith Hudson

Keith Hudson was a singer-songwriter and producer from Kingston, JA. Having utilizied his dentistry skills to help fund his initial productions, he was known as the “Dub Dentist”. His most famous dental work being the red, gold and green jewels on Big Youth’s front teeth. Hudson was a US soul music fan, often borrowing themes from popular tunes. With its “Slipping Into Darkness” referencing and a heaping helping of reverb, this tune typifies his “dread” aesthetic. Vibe out!

Tune of the Week: Stones

“Exile on Main St.” is a defining statement of The Rolling Stones. It incorporates not just blues but gospel, country and swing influences. The double album was recorded a variety of difficult circumstances: living abroad as tax exiles, drug dependence, miscellaneous work schedules and in-fighting. Despite these obstacles, the Stones achieve a work that both defines and transcends the genre of Rock ‘n’ Roll. There is a looseness and swagger to the proceedings that is more common among jazz musicians. The unique surroundings and atmosphere of the sessions lend the entire record a feel of a different reality; one which reflects the mentality of its musicians feelings and attitudes about life and the nature of the music they are creating. Here, in the album’s closer, you can hear what sounds like a culmination of all that the musicians and the listener have been through while on the sonic journey. The layered vocals and guitars create what sounds like a prayer at the alter of Rock ‘n’ Roll and all the forces that helped create it.

Tune of the Week: Godley and Creme

Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were an innovative multimedia duo from the 70s and 80s. After leaving the rock band 10cc they became a production duo. Their first album, “Consequences”, was a three LP box set that promoted their guitar accessory invention, the Gizmotron. On their third album, “Freeze Frame”, they experimented on the above track with what would commonly be referred to as “autotune”, a method of vocal pitch correction popular in the early 21st century.

In an interview for The Idler magazine in 2007, Kevin Godley explained how that song was realized:

Recently, I played I Pity Inanimate Objects from Freeze Frame and I remembered how and why we actually did that. The idea was driven by a new piece of equipment called a harmoniser. It's used in studios all the time these days as a corrective device to get performances in tune, but this early version came with a keyboard. You could put a sound through a harmoniser and if you wanted an instrument or voice to hit a certain note that it hadn't, you could play that note on the keyboard. So we got to thinking, 'Let's forget about singing for the moment. What happens if I vocalize these words in a monotone - do an entire song on one note - and get Lol to play my vocal on the harmoniser keyboard?' That was the experiment. It worked pretty well. Predated Cher's digital gurglings by a few years. I don't know where the lyric came from. Maybe because the harmoniser was inanimate.[3]

Tune of the Week: The Fall

The Fall were a post punk group from Manchester, UK centered around singer-songwriter Mark E. Smith. Mr. Smith was in attendence at the infamous Sex Pistols show in Manchester that help birth a rash of influential bands whose members all felt that “if they can do it, so can we.” Not only is Smith’s vocal delivery unique but his writing is also thoroughly modern, incorporating cut-up and Dada techniques. Having featured at least as many band members as years active (42), The Fall are one of rock’s most turbulent as well as prolific bands. By the time of Smith’s death in 2018 there were as many as 32 studio albums released by the group. Released in 1983, this song was their ninth single and features an appearance by an early consumer keyboard, the Casio VL-1. Smith lovingly refers to it as “the bloody blimey Space Invader” in his vocal performance, proving that his renown attitude could directed at inanimate objects as well those living beings trying to create with him.

Tune of the Week: Stereolab

Stereolab are a London based avant-pop/post-rock groop. Founded by Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier, they are known for mixing elements of krautrock and exotica music with ideologies taken from the Situationism, Surrealism and Marxism. In their thirty-plus years of existence their have been at least three distictly different incarnations of the Stereolab sound. However, a solid groove is always at the forefront of any of these mutations. In this tune from 1996 you can get your groove on while ruminating on the building blocks of modern society.

Tune of the Week: Paul White

Paul White is a London based music producer that specializes in off-kilter hiphop. Mr. White generally used way off the beat path samples for his beats. Here is a great example from his 2010 release, “Paul White & The Purple Brain”. The entire album is created with samples from Swedish psych-rock artist ST Mikael’s songs. The tripped out video utilizes footage from “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship”, a Russian fairy tale translated and animated in the UK in 1990. Trip out to the funkiness!

Tune of the Week: This Heat

This Heat were a post-punk band from London that in short period of time created music that has had a lasting influence. With their polyrhythmic drumming and tonalities taken from disparate world music traditions they are very much the godfathers of the post-rock genre. The above track is taken from their second, and final, album “Deceit”. The record is very much of its time, concerned with the threat of nuclear war and its consequences on humanity as well as totalitarian governments. This track references the fallen Roman empire to make a political statement that rings far too true today.

Tune of the Week: Adam Ant

Adam Ant is a true individual. Very few musicians have even attempted to bring together as many disparate elements as he. In terms of music, he and collaborator Marco Pirroni fused tribal drumming, Latin horn, spaghetti western guitars and whistiling alongside new wave methods of production. The visual presentation of this musical synthesis was pirate clothing and Native American facepaint. On top of this was Adam’s unabashed boasting alongside a healthy dose of sex. After achieving success with this unique concoction came the requisite celebrity backlash in the press. Subsequent songs would reflect Ant’s thoughts on his status in the mainstream, often results in lyrics obsessed with his relationship with mass media and the music industry. Here is a perfect example of such a tune. The production really saves this from being a total ego-driven bore. The guitar and vocal layering are a technical marvel that elevates what could be a tedious bitchfest from someone talented and lucky enough to catch the public’s eye and imagination. Recorded in 1982, the second verse’s lyrics seem to prophesize the coming AIDS epidemic. Once again, Adam Ant seemed perhaps to be well ahead of his time.

Tune of the Week: Colin Newman

Colin Newman is a singer-songwriter best known as the frontman for the influential group Wire. Said group has formed, broken up and re-formed multiple times. Every time there’s been a breakup of the band Newman has taken the opportunity to expand his own creative horizons. His second solo album “provisionally entitled the singing fish” is a great example. On this release Newman casts away conventional notions of songwriting and adopts an Eno-esque method of mood creation through sound. Each song is entitled “Fish” with the corresponding track number. In the track above you can Newman create a swirling soundscape centered around a persistant drum pattern and simple melody sung without words. Sounds build on top of each other until the fade out at the end suggesting an endless cycle of aural mania. These pieces were orginally intended to be used as soundtrack pieces. I’m not sure anyone has ever answered that call. Hopefully in the future someone will!

Tune of the Week: Rain

“Rain” is a turning point in The Beatles discography to the psychedelic sound that would define their music for the next few years. Basically being a song about how people love to complain about the weather, it also is the first mainstream song to feature backwards vocals. It also features varied tape recording speeds that adds to the disorienting effect the song has. Additionally, Ringo Starr considers this is finest drum performance. This can easily be seen as a prelude to the far more psychedelic sounds that would emerge from the albums “Revolver”, “Sgt. Peppers…”, “Magical Mystery Tour” and the “White Album”. Supposedly there were three promo films shot by music video pioneer Michael Lindsay- Hogg. Below is an additional clip with lots of outtakes from the outdoor shoot. Sit back and enjoy the trip!

Tune of the Week: Twilight Circus

Twilight Circus Dub Sound System is reggae embodiment of multi-instrumentalist Ryan Moore. Orginally from Vancouver, Moore moved to the Netherlands in the 90s and joined the Legendary Pink Dots taking on drumming and bass duties. As his interest in dub music grew, so did a desire to create it. Soon Moore was opening for his own band as Twilight Circus, taking turns between playing drum and bass parts for sketches of songs he had recorded. After leaving the Dots, Moore began to take his reggae production more seriously. He began to create vocal version of his instrumentals and connected with many well known vocalists. Michael Rose, Ranking Joe, Luciano and Big Youth have all blessed the microphone for Twilight Circus productions. Ryan Moore’s work exemplifies the international, or should we say “outernational”, aspect of reggae in the present day. Here is some earlier work from Moore, showcasing the atmosphere he can create with the more critical aspects of dub music: drums, bass, keys and effects. Dub it!

Tune of the Week: OMD

Orchestral Manoeures in the Dark are a UK based post punk/synth pop band. Their journey took them from opening for Joy Division to being a poster band for the John Hughes movie generation. While their later material was much more digital and processed, their earlier tunes blended electronic with acoustic instrumentation. The Speak-And-Spell sampled “lyrics” show a clear Kraftwerk influence. The song’s grim message of the present day’s actions repercussions on future generations is still relevant today, unfortunately. While technologically it seems like a lifetime ago, thematically, 1983 doesn’t seem like that long ago at all.