Just because everyone should have a little Raster Norton in their lives. 
Soul Jazz, what a label. The systematic reissuing of music from around the world may not always produce consistant gems but it certainly can expand your mind.
Exotica. The name conjures images of tiki gods and bamboo matting. Drinks with umbrellas in them sipped by suburban housewives completes the picture. Is exotica nothing more than a dead genre that has recently been raided for lounge music or is it something more?
I am taking a short break from my techno posting to fill you in on an album that has really started to grow on me. I picked this up on a whim a couple of weeks ago and was immediately blown away by the first song on the album "Sun Song". On further listening "Music for Mijwiz," the track I am posting today, also jumped out at me.
Dave Clark, if you were in England in the 90s it was impossible to escape this guy. He produced a strain of straight ahead techno that was impossible to ignore and the ep this track came off of actually made the top 40. Crazy days and crazy nights. This style of techno actually reminds me a lot of the acid techno that I was very much involved with at Escape from Samsara. Although the site claims to be Trance, in the early days they were very much more on the hard acid side. If you have ever listened to the Liberator DJs or Stay up Forever you know what I am talking about.
Finishing off the week, I am going to go with another artist with whom I know very little other than I like it. He is Spanish and to my mind sounds very like a stripped down Matthew Dear. As usual I was hipped to him by the inimitable Philip Sherburne. In his vital column for online magazine Pitchfork, he made Mr. Under to be the second coming of Carl Craig. I wouldn't go that far yet, but it is fun.
In thinking about yesterday's post and the difficulty that can sometimes arise with trying to classify things, I started to think about defining techno. Hmmm. A hard kick at around 120 bpm, is that the definition? Is it the sounds that are used? That led me to think about the history of techno which inevidably led me to its originator. That man on the left is Juan Atkins who, as legend has it, first used the word techno to define his own music. As I went back and listened to my favorite tunes of his I realized that they fell far outside the traditional bounds of techno. His rhythms are complex and in the second track he uses vocals extensively.
Moving forward through techno week I am encountering the difficulty of classification. Trentmoller, a recent infatuation of mine, comes from a deep house backround. His early releases were on the SF label Naked Music but still had sounds which did not quite fit their roster. As his music has progressed it has more of the hallmarks of minimal techno, but still retains quite a bit of funk from the house days.
Lets do techno...
Growing up in Texas, Country music was everywhere. Although primarily associated with the ever present redneck, its popularity made it all pervasive. Although by temperment I preferred classic rock growing up, I could probably sing the full lyrics to any number of 70s country hits. The Devil Goes Down to Georgia, Coalminers Daughter, Swingin', all those songs bubbled into my subconcious due to repetition and surroundings.
This is the film that brought me and my wife together. After living in Europe for several years in the 1990s I found myself down on my luck and back in the states. After a series of misadventures I landed in a warehouse space that I shared with an old high school friend. In the process of being converted to a liveable home, it was filled with roaches and power tools but had 20 foot ceilings and called out for conversion. Halfway through the project he picked up and moved to Houston, leaving me alone but still paying half the rent. Unknown to me, he was contacted by my future wife and sublet his half of the rent under the condition that she would move in several months later. Much to my surprise she showed up and demanded my removal! I declined and we compromised that I would stay until she returned from a trip to Europe that she planned. Needless to say, she was beautiful. However, her determination to get rid of me initially cooled any ardor I might have felt towards her. Several days into her stay I discovered her movie stash and was overwhelmed. Blade Runner! My favorite movie of all time! Not to mention the complete Star Wars trilogy, Dune, Casablanca... a treasure trove of films!
I have been wanting to do a post like this for a while. I recently rediscovered the first few Black Sabbath albums and have been playing them mercilessly. I generally concentrate on the heavier stuff as is my wont, but I am endlessly facinated by the softer side of Sabbath.
