Boogaloo

Can't miss! Hear all about boogaloo at Soul Sides:

It's a genre that, for a long time, didn't get much respect. Latin purists treated it as a pop fad - beneath the majesty of the mambo and older, more classic Laitn dances. Certainly, the boogaloo was a fad-driven music - blazing hot in 1966 and then tapering into oblivion by the late '60s. However, that doesn't automatically make it bad. The reason why boogaloos were so popular was because dancers loved the easy accessibility of the boogaloo rhythm - usually a simple 4/4 dressed up with tasty piano and brass riffs.

I recently reviewed the new Rough Guide to Boogaloo for NPR and wanted to expand on it vis a vis a few podcasts that call attention to the genre and its legacy. Today's podcast is an introduction to the boogaloo, its history and sound. Next time, I'll discuss the evolution of the boogaloo and its phenomenal growth in the mid-1960s. My third podcast will examine the lingering influence of the boogaloo as was as showcase a few of my favorites.

Darjeeling, India Field Recordings

Darjeeling Field Recordings, a tender collection of songs recorded by Damien Shingleton in January 2005

"I made some field recordings in Darjeeling, most significant of which were those of a blind Nepalese beggar at the Chowk Bazaar and the family at the Tenzing restaurant on Burdwan Road.

I was apprehensive about recording the beggar, afraid of looking like a tourist vulture. As you can hear in the recording, I don't think he knew he was being recorded although a friend of his explained afterwards.

The family are Gelong Bhutia, Tenzing Wongmo, Yangchen Dolker (15) and Tenzing Loden (12). I suggested recording Gelong after hearing him when he was at work. I came back the following day and he had prepared the rest of the family to sing as well. Gelong was especially happy for particular songs to be recorded because he is one of the many Tibetan failies in exile, and he hope to preserve something of Tibetan culture...."

Brought to the world by the Internet Archive and Hippocamp.

Tunes in Overplay

Tunes in Overplay for March are up for the rest of the month a little early. My machine and I have viruses, and all is busy busy right now, so jumping ahead a bit there. Four weeks behind on lists, groups, email. You know how life goes.

Psyched about these sites showcased in the March Tunes in Overplay. You'll want to check them out, too. The one for the Pack shares an entire album of psychedelia, for instance. The David Fenech track is from his Demosaurus Records, which shares an interesting collection. You might already know David as David_F, excellent mp3 blogger. A couple Song Fight entries made the overplay list this month. The Terror at the Opera and R. Stevie Moore tracks are from Japanese netlabel Lost Frog, host to a catalog of similar releases.

You are bound to find some joy in the Tunes in Overplay showcases. Bon appetit.

Comments and Content

Hey folks, for those who read this via syndication feeds, the comments capability is enabled once more. Did it a couple weeks ago, but, shame on me, I forgot to tell you.

I do remember that I want to let you know that the Living Room has had an update. Pack a lunch and swing on by. There are even more I want to include soon.

They are popping up all over the planet. BasicHip.com started a very cool trend, eh? Bravo! Was he the first sharing old LPs? Bubblegum Machine was the first mp3 blog-style site I can remember. Who was the first you can recall?

Have yourself a happy little weekend!

Sunday Nights Live

Shirley and Spinoza, the greatest living oddio Internet radio station, is now broadcasting performances live on Sunday nights at 8PM PST! Fabulous news!

This Sunday, 13 March 2005, the remarkable Sagan will link studios with Shirley and Spinoza.

Sagan is, "a quartet comprised of the [brilliant minds of] musicians Blevin Blectum, J Lesser, and Jon Leidecker and video artist Ryan Junell. Blevin Blectum was one half of the late lamented electronic duo Blectum from Blechdom; her newest solo album is forthcoming on Praemedia. J Lesser also makes records as Lesser for labels like Matador and Irritant; he is currently co-owner of six birds. Jon Leidecker makes records as Wobbly for Tigerbeat 6; he crashes software for a living. Ryan Junell has directed videos for bands like Gravy Train!!!, Spoon, and The Soft Pink Truth; he is currently at work on a political documentary."

Kooky, bouncing, mixed up radio waves from your planet - as generated, intercepted and relayed back to you via Shirley and Spinoza Internet Radio

Tune In | Stream

[Would you be a darling, and record this marvelous event for me? I will be out of town, and would be so sad to miss this.]

Brand New Netlabel Releases

Here are some of the brand new netlabel releases at the Internet Archive. These are currently in play in our environments. The set opens up with R. Stevie Moore. Personally, I think his Comfort Stand release is more fun, but that may just be from overplaying it! The Winter Tales compilation is quite varied, so even if the first tracks aren't your cup of tea, you might get lucky! I'm feeling pretty lucky hearing all of these releases that I'd have never found without the Internet and the Internet Archive! Enjoy!


R. Stevie Moore - Hobbies Galore [LF060MP3]
March 5th, 2005
"Legendary American DIY godfather RSM. This is a monumental 16 songs retrospective of his most appealing pop originals of over 1000 songs for 35 years."
Netlabel: Lost Frog Productions, Japan
Categories: Acoustic; Lo-Fi; Pop; Rock



allthatfall - hopecrash [luv005]
March 2005
"kevin (allthatfall) has a way with tiny sounds. his samples sometimes flow and sometimes fight - guitars crashing through a quintet of humming radiators or maybe the fey voices of children and passersby. it's probably because he sometimes records as panda kommander that i can't shake the image of monochrome figures of panda bears bubbling out of his synthesizers like so many angled bleeps and crackles... pandacore!"
Source: allthatfall.em411.com
Categories: microtones; electronic; breakbeat



Eloi Brunelle - Psychotonic EP [EPS14]
March 4th, 2005
"Here's a man who definitely needs no introduction: Eloi Brunelle, man at the center and founder of the Epsilonlab label. This explosive release still red hot from the lab's furnaces and destined to shine demonstrates how his sound is threaded with his personality. Open those ears and receive the very essence of Epsilonlab, via four distinctive tracks with souls of their own. It's a roller-coaster ride starting with a biting, deep intro transforming into the energy of the mad scientist and his contraptions sliding through a warm, festive jet stream rouding up with a slow concoction that will make you smile.
Netlabel: Epsilonlab, Quebec
Categories: Electronic; Techhouse



Various Artists - Winter Tales [open005]
February 28th, 2005
"Winter Tales is a compilation of four tracks choosen by the users of openlabrecords.com among those submitted for the OpenLab Winter Tales project. Spirit of the project was to create tracks based on winter moods: ice outside and fire inside. Procaine, Vudeux, Cube and Mais told us the best tales gathered round the fireside."
Netlabel: Open Lab Records, Italy?
Categories: Ambient; Chill; Ballad



Night Look Back - Early Summer EP
February 2005
"Release from Ukraine breakbeat band. 4 tunes with breakbeats, massive bass line, and guitars"
Netlabel: reamp3 Underground, Russia
Categories: Breakbeat



Various Artists - Soft then Hard LP [clever005]
February 2005
Netlabel: Clever Music, Britain
Categories: Minimal Techno; electronic





D'incise - Detour EP [ac012]
February 28th, 2005
"Alpinechic presents it s twelfth release: D'Incise "Detour". From Geneva in the french part of Switzerland D'Incise takes us in a 5 track journey of micro breakbeats, bleep electronica, dubby subbass, minimal sound exploration and sets us in an almost 30 minutes dream that will keep you pressing play and repeat without even noticing."
Netlabel: AlpineChic, Switzerland
Categories: micro breakbeats, bleep electronica, dubby subbass, minimal sound

Musicmakers' Communities and Collectives

The results are in folks! The 2nd Annual February Album Writing Month [FAWM.com] has wrapped up for the year. This year 68 people posted at least one song, 7 made it at least halfway there with 7 songs, and 25 met the 14-song minimum 'album' goal.

The goal isn't to record an album, it's to write an album. We're only posting demos, which likely means a live recording in one or two takes just to get down the feel of an embryonic song. This also allows fellow FAWMmers and visitors to post comments for feedback, which may influence future directions of the song (arrangement, lyric changes, etc.) Ultimately we'd like to make more polished recordings for our albums, but for now we're focusing on the writing process.

I checked out Andrew Grimm [who is living in one of the many towns where I grew up, oddly enough], and his country folk work brought to mind early REM, the Eagles, and Gordon Lightfoot. Quite a tale is told in his Pope of Mexico.

The 28 Days of Rock challenge is also complete. There were 6 men and 168 songs. Each challenger recorded a brand new song every day for the entire month of February. They were permitted one cover song each week. Brought to you by the filmakers of Bootlegrobot.com.


More Online Musicmakers' Communities and Collectives
[get involved or just enjoy the harvest!]

:: Songfight - "a title is given, songs are submitted, the public votes on their favorite, the artists cavort, bicker, and blather on the message boards. A new fight every week." [Glenn Case posts his 365 favorites, one a day all year]

:: Tapeworm Collective - "a consortium of underground composers, dj's, and musicians united in the purpose of forging new sound. Members swap audio files and collaborate on various projects over the Internet. The goal of this site is to promote the collective works of our collaborative efforts, as well as the talents of each independent artist." [hear them on Comfort Stand, too!]

:: The Art Conspiracy - "an online community of artists who have come together to share their talents with the world"

:: Panospria - Canadian artist collective featuring a top-notch netlabel

:: Cultural Foundation - a music collective based in the North York Moors loosly based around reggae band Culture, but creating all sorts of music

:: Chain Tape Collective - collaboration of over 50 musicians, originally begun as a chain tape group whose members recorded music by mailing a master tape throughout the United States and Europe.

:: Some Songs - directory of free online music; artists post song link and users rate and comment on the works

:: infinite sector.org - "a non-profit collective and netlabel dedicated to sharing and promoting free experimental music, noise, and electronica"

:: SoniCabal - "a free-form collective of rule bending musicians and sound manipulators. About once a month, this group will converge to exchange information and ideas, share works-in-progress, and occasionally collaborate on specific projects"

:: Tapegerm - open remix projects, "download tons of free loops and create some new music with us"

:: Album-A-Day - the original Crap Art project, centered less on quality, more on quantity.

:: Pandemonium Symposium - "a collective for electronic musicians in the NJ area. It's goal is to facilitate collaborations and bring artists together for jams, recordings, and performances"

:: Invisible Agent - an electronica collective in Ireland

:: Trummerflora Collective - musicians collective dedicated to the performance, distribution, and promotion of creative music

:: alpha CAT boogie - an experimental musicians collective bent on a communal approach to sound creation, archived on the Internet Archive

:: Iron Chef of Music - Kracfive Records hosts battles with the most insane samples provided, like this one

There are so many more out there, to say nothing of the mashup/remix communities. Netlabels are often looking for artists with whom to collaborate, as well. If you want to get involved, you will find countless opportunities. Go get the world!

One Million Free and Legal Music Tracks!

That free music WIKI over at The Red Ferret Journal is growing all the time! The list begins with Erik Brown's MP3 Links, my personal fave. Erik invests time in looking for quality music. He is a reliable music filter, a fabulous visual artist, and a great guy. He also has an interesting netlabel running on his site.

There are some entries on the The Red Ferret list that bend the rules a bit, like eSpew and SingingFish. Those search engines pull up as much material under strict copyright as not. Still, this list is a fabulous resource.

For those who haven't heard, The Red Ferret Journal is edited, produced, designed and written by Red, a tech-savvy black footed, red sable Mustela furo hybrid. That in itself is astonishing, but coupled with the "One Million Free and Legal Music Tracks!" WIKI, I mean, whoa! Do yourself a favor and get on over there.

One Million Free and Legal Music Tracks!

Marching Along!

A new month means new music at Oddio Overplay! The February Tunes in Overplay playlist needs to be wrapped up, but there is a new Featured Site and a new page of Super Sounds. Hope you find something you love!

Panning for Gold

Pucca Pan / Pangenitor is letting his domain expire. It is a real shame. I hope he will continue to make and perform music.
"Listen to some of the music before it fades into smoky halls of memory."