Tune of the Week: Patrick Cowley
Patrick Cowley was an electronic dance music pioneer, becoming most famous for producing hits for disco maven Sylvester. Originally from Buffalo, NY, Cowley moved and attended the City College of San Francisco. He later went on to found the Electronic Music Lab there. He ended up selling quite a few of the creations he made experimenting with the school’s equipment to John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. The above is an example of one of these pieces. Far from the “bow-chicka-bow-wow” music typical of porno soundtracks, Cowley’s productions have a sophisticated funk to them and show a great deal of programming and playing prowess. Unfortunately, Cowley suffered from the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Doctors were unable to successfully diagnose his illness and he died at the ripe young age of 32.
Tune of the Week: Mykki Blanco
Mykki Blanco is a lot of things: a rapper, a writer, and activist, a performance artist, a poet. But most of all they are FIERCE. Always coming with loads of rhymes and lots of attitude, Mykki has put themselves in a special place in the rap game worldwide. Lately they have been taking a more singer-songwriter route. They have even gotten Mike Stipe on a track, which is no small feat in itself! Reign on, Mykki!
Tune of the Week: Tainted Love
Coil’s second album, “Horse Rotorvator”, was created during the AIDS epidemic. Then member Stephen Thrower said in a recent interview that the album was absolutely a reflection of those horrendous times for LBGTQ+ people. “We felt that other gay artists weren’t really getting to the dark heart of it, and the sheer horror of what was going on. But we had a toolkit to confront it.”
A B-Side for a single released just a year before was for their cover of Soft Cell’s cover of Glora Jones’ “Tainted Love”. Whereas Soft Cell had turned the R’n’B number into a synthpop classic, Coil opts for a funeral dirge interpretation. The desperate theme continues through the music video which features a cameo from Marc Almond, the singer for Soft Cell.
Tune of the Week: Sons of Kemet
Sons of Kemet are a London based quartet of saxophone, tuba and two drummers. With this unique lineup they create an alchemy of West Indian funk jazz reggae. Their jams are self-propulsive with effortless grooves. Their momentum has been so great that they have to break up. Drummer Tom Skinner is now playing with Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood in The Smile. Tuba player Theon Cross just released his own solo LP. Saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings continues to amaze with his numerous projects, all of high quality. Long live the Sons of Kemet!
Tune of the Week: RIP Fletch
Andy Fletcher was a founding member of Depeche Mode. While he did not perform a great deal of musical responsiblities within the group, he did survive the ups and downs the band endured throughout the years of being the world’s most successful electronic act.
Fletch was said to have handled more of the business side of things for Depeche. This 1982 TV performance was a breaking point for the young band in terms of having more control over your public image. Sometimes you have to know when to say no:
Here is a great conversation between Fletch and Mute label owner Daniel Miller about the beginnings of Depeche as well as Mute Records:
RIP Fletch. Thanks for helping keep the boat afloat!
Tune of the Week: Nilsson on Fire
I can’t find any evidence of Harry Nilsson’s mental health history other than in his musical works. Part of the uniqueness of his style lay in his treading the line between an ordinary mentality and one that is either depressed or agitated. Certainly, his history of substance abuse supports a narrative of mental illness. The above tune is about as manic as you can get. It was used to powerful effect in the film “Good Fellas” to help express the paranoia felt in the overuse of cocaine. Maybe he was manic-depressive, bu tone thing is for sure: no one could write an off-kilter song with as much intensity as the great Nilsson!
Tune of the Week: Wesley Willis
In the late 90s Wesley Willis was a fixture in the Chicago music scene. On any given night you could find him at any number of venues checking out shows or in any of the numerous dive bars in Wicker Park or Bucktown. By day Wesley would write songs about his experiences, shows he had seen, altercations, businesses he past by while extensively utilizing the CTA’s buses and trains. He would draw landscapes featuring the transportation system and sell them to people at shows. He take a consumer keyboard into Airwave Studios in the suburbs and record his songs for inclusion on CDs he would also sell. Every Wesley song is basically the same with minor variations. Here is an ode to the late, great MC Eazy-E. Wesley definitely shows the all-incompassing power of music to move people of all kinds of mental conditions. Long live Wesley Willis! Scream Dracula Scream!
Tune of the Week: XTC
By 1982 punky new wavers XTC were at the top of their game in the UK and Europe. They had scored several top 40 hits in the UK in a short period of time. Singer-songwriter Andy Patridge had always been anxious, but the success and momentum of the band drove his condition to new heights. After intentionally trying to make an album of difficult to play live music, they scored their largest LP to date, “English Settlement”. The subsequent tour aligned with Patridge’s wife flushing his prescripted Valium down the toilet. They only made it a few dates before Andy succumbed to his mental condition. He not only quit the tour, but XTC would never again perform live.
One date from the short-lived tour was captured for German TV’s “Rockpalast”. As they rip into their set with the “Black Sea” opener, “Respectable Street”, Andy makes rocking look too easy with his stage presence and spactic energy. It just goes to show that just because someone LOOKS like they’re having an easy go of it, they might not be FEELING very well at all.
Tune of the Week: Blech: Warp vs. Ninja Tune
Dating back to 1996, this mix sees PC and Strictly Kev from the Ninja Tune label mixing up tunes from the all mighty Warp catalog. Featuring daring mixing and blending, this is truly some next-level DJing that continues to impress here in the 21st century!
Tune of the Week: Tim Maia
Tim Maia was a Rio de Janiero based singer-songwriter known informally as the James Brown of Brazil. The majority of his musical life was devoted to marrying US funk and soul with Brazilian music. In this early tune he even writes and sings in English. While the lyrics may not be an exact replica of what rock ‘n’ roll songs sounded like at the time, the music mimics what was popping off in the dancehalls for teens in the States during the early 60s.
Tune of the Week: The Mystic at the Black Ark
Anthony Johnson achieved great fame in Jamaica and beyond with his dancehall hit, “Gunshot”. Before that he spent time with Rastas on Selassie Drive in Kingston. Him, Les Clarke and Balvin Fials sang songs of righteousness as the Mystics Eyes. They recorded an album worth of songs for Linval Thompson and this golden nugget at the Black Ark for Lee ‘Scratch” Perry. Happy tax season, one and all. Oh, and burn down babylon while you’re at it!
Tune of the Week: Phoenecia
Here’s a slice of audio alchemy courtesy of US electronic wizards Phoenecia. In addition to running the Schematic Music Company, Joshua Kay and Romulo Del Castillo make beats that seem to depict an alternate version of the swamplands of their native Florida. While deploying very digital techniques, they manage to create natural sounding transitions between sounds and grooves. Every layer sounds filtered, adding to the murkiness as well as adding a sense of mystery. Get in the boat and get lost in the abstract tones!
Tune of the Week: Alabaster dePlume
Alabaster dePlume is a saxophonist, guitarist, bandleader, poet, activist and all around good person. He is a true advocate for inclusion and kindness. Amongst many nuggets of wisdom he can lay on you, this piece has some of the best.
Tune of the Week: Laetitia Sadier on Her Own
Laetitia Sadier has always made her Marxist mentality obvious. Her lyrics for McCarthy and Stereolab never shied away from anti-Capitalist messaging. Stereolab songs like “Ping Pong” would occasionally provide a tonal counterbalance with a poppy arrangement. Here, in a song from her second solo album, she opts for a lush and more somber tone for her pleas to humanity to ride on. The result is even more emotionally engaging and beautiful.
Tune of the Week: The Amps
The 90s were a great time for women in Rock music. The alternative rock scene saw several all female groups emerge: Luscious Jackson, L7, Bikini Kill and the supergroup The Breeders all came about in the original Lollapalooza days. After achieving great success with their second album “Last Splash”, The Breeders needed a break. However, Kim Deal had an itch to record more songs. She changed her nom de plum to Tammy Ampersand and recorded an album with a different group of musicians called The Amps. “Pacer” has all the unhinged drive of any other Kim Deal record and provides further proof of her musical prowess. As off-the-rails as Kim’s version of rock can veer, she can also write some pretty and sweet stuff too, as “Dedicated” illustrates well. Long live Rock ‘n’ Roll and Kim Deal!
Tune of the Week: Jlin
No other footwork artist has done as much to expand the possiblities of the genre as Jlin. On top being one of a handful (at best) producers in a male dominated field, her music has been incorporated into other modern dance performances than that which the form is named after. In addition to the above example, she has also collaborated with British choreographer Wayne McGregor. The Metropolitan Museum of Art chose her for their Sonic Cloisters series, as well:
Finally, the modern string ensemble Kronos Quartet chose one of her tunes to interpret in their unique way:
Big up Jlin! Taking footwork into more and more cultural spaces!
Tune of the Week: Otis at Monterey Pop
Here is Otis Redding and his band hipping the 1967 hippy crowd onto some serious funk. Closing out the second night of the Monterey Pop Festival, the Stax Records crew proceed to wreck shop. Otis closes the set out with a fiery version of one of his best songs. D.A. Pennebaker catches the sentiment of the song and wraps up the flim about the festival with a montage of tender moments, and then rolls credits. There is no way to follow a perfomance that soulful! Indeed, the performance ended up being one of Otis’ biggest. Six months later he would tragically die in a plane crash.
Tune of the Week: Spaced Sly
Sly and the Family Stone provided a soundtrack to the societal changes happening in the late 60s. They achieved stardom with a balance of good time tunes and politically charged songs. The turn of the decade into the 70s brought lethargy, cynicism and decadence into a musical scene that had been charged with hope for a better tomorrow just a few years prior. Sly Stone was no exemption to this trend. He stopped recording and began abusing cocaine and PCP. What recording he would do involved very few other people. Early drum machines replaced drummers. He was said to have recorded his vocals lying in bed with a wireless microphone. Taken from the resulting album “There’s A Riot Goin’ On”, “Space Cowboy” does seem to be evidence of this methodology. Where his previous songs were brimming with life and energy, this sounds sludgy and mired in a downward inertia. Apparently these unconventional techniques resonated with the public sentiment as the album went on to be a smash hit. What may have seemed paranoid and gratuitous was actually quite contemporary, and it’s vibe still manages to resonate today.
Tune of the Week: Georgia Anne Muldrow
As far as I’m concerned, if Madlb produces a whole album for you, you must be a badass. Georgia Anne Muldrow is certainly proof positive. She is as brash and funky as they come. She also is quite the producer herself. Witness the heavy, otherworldly vibes she crafts below. Big up Georgia! Keep the funk flag flying!