With the events in Turkey of late, my mind has been on international affairs and that led me to this post, focusing just on a few international 45s that I’ve picked up of late. High quality 45s are tough enough to come by for stateside music. Finding great international ones digging has been next to impossible for me (with one exception below). I’m not a world traveler so I don’t get to dig in foreign lands, so like so many Ebay remains my main enabler when it comes to music from outside of the US.

Edip Akbayram & Dolstar – Daglar Dagladi Beni

I relayed this story on my guest post at Nerdtorious a while back, but it bears repeating. At some point as I was buzzing through youtube videos looking for a track that was stuck in my head, I came across this video promising “Crazy Turkish Heavy Psych Funk Breaks.”   The link did not disappoint, fuzzy guitars, heavy drums, cool singing in Turkish and, strangely, stills from Team America: World Police of turban wearing puppets.  What was not shown or mentioned in the video was the name of the artist or the song.  Having been led to youtube in an attempt to solve one riddle I had been led into another one and after hearing all those fuzzy guitars I was determined to figure it all out.  Through some deductive reasoning (starting with the label, cross checking Ebay, moving to 1970s artists on that label and then back to youtube) I finally discovered that the artist was Edip Akbayram along with his group Dostlar.

The video featured excerpts from both sides of a  45 the band released in the early 1970s, “Daglar Dagladi Beni” on one side and the equally heavy “Ince Ince Bir Kar Yagar” on the flipside (each of these tracks are also featured on Edip’s super rare debut LP though they’ve also been compiled together by Shadoks, but even that collection is tough to find these days).   As luck would have it the 45 was just waiting for me to get it on Ebay and I was more than happy to snatch it up.  Whenever I hear the opening first minute of “Daglar” I immediately envision it being used in the soundtrack of a Quentin Tarantino film, as two characters are about to face off.  It just has THAT kind of sound.

Erkin Koray – Yagmur

Though I’ve dug Turkish music from the 1960s & 1970s from some time, I hadn’t heard of Erkin Koray until Gas Lamp Killer & Gonjasufi liberally sampled his extraordinary “Yagmur” for the song “Kobwebz” on Gonjasufi’s debut. The original is perhaps one of my favorite psychedelic songs from this period of time from any country. With all those cascading waves of guitar, the song unfolds like a hallucination.

Ginger Ale – Seventh Floor

This 45 from Dutch group Ginger Ale is one of the very few international 7″s that I’ve run across in a store. I’m not sure why I didn’t pass this up while digging for Funk 45s at Bagatelle, but I’m glad I added it to my pile of things to check out. Ginger Ale only recorded a handful of singles, before the members went in other directions (notably to Ekspetion and Windjammer). The single “In The Sand” is nothing to write home about, but I really dig the production on the sample-worthy “Seventh Floor.” Like a number of international 45s, there is a picture sleeve for this one, it just wasn’t there at Bagatelle. With the way that rhythm rolls out, I wouldn’t let that, or the fact that they sing in English and not Dutch, keep me from adding it to my collection.

Jacques Dutronc – J’ai Tout Lu, Tout Vu, Tout Bu

Though Serge Gainsburg is the most recognized “bad man” of French music, Jacques Dutronc gave him a good run for his money. If Serge was more of a “dirty old man,” I like to think of Dutronc as a “merry prankster.” Virtually all of his music from the mid/late 1960s was great style and swagger to it. “J’ai Tout” is almost a half song, clocking in at only 1:36, but it packs a big punch. Interestingly enough, it’s not only his delivery that seems almost like proto-rap, but even what he’s talking about is pure Hip-Hop braggadocio as Dutronc runs down all that he’s read, all that he knows and all that he’s seen just to let you know how bad he is. It’s a great satire of more than a few people I’ve know, who seem uncomfortable admitting that there are some people they’ve never heard of, or actually read. At some point I’m gonna dedicate some time to remixing this into a proper song (inspired by what Matthew Africa, RIP, did to the Ohio Players “Ecstasy”) and if I do I’ll be sure to share it with all of you.

Cheers,

Michael

Red Allen & Kid Ory – Blues For Jimmy
Red Allen & Kid Ory – Keep Off Of Katie’s Head
Red Allen & Kid Ory – Tishomingo Blues

It’s just about to become summer here in LA, the days and nights are quite as hot as they will be and most times there’s a nice breeze that for whatever reason puts traditional Dixieland/Hot Jazz sounds into my mind. Something about the prospect of just hanging out in our house with the windows open and that breeze flowing in and those sounds pouring out of my speakers just makes my heart glad (as does the old school Verve label on the LP). It’s hard not to smile with a collaboration like this featuring two of masters at their craft. In fact, if there was a trad jazz record that someone who has never bought any trad jazz was going to get, I’d likely suggest this one. Kid Ory cut hs teeth in perhaps the first great jazz band along with King Oliver and Pops, he’s a New Orleans trombonist through and through. Red Allen always gets lumped in with the traditional crowd, but his playing on trumpet was always thoroughly modern, to the point where I doubt there are many contemporary trumpet players that could match his wit and skill when he solos. The pair together are pure heaven on the mid-tempo “blues” one of which is dedicated to Kid Ory’s former partner, a legend in his own right, clarinetist Jimmy Noone. The way the music swoons and sways always inspires me to do a little dance as if I’ve been transported back in time to a speakeasy where these sounds would have found a home in the 1930s, let alone during the revival of the late 1950s/early 1960s.

The most interesting track is “Keep Off Of Katie’s Head.” From the title alone, the song seems like a threat or a warning, but once Kid Ory tells this man to not only “Keep Of Of Katie’s Head” but also to “Please Keep Out Of Katie’s Bed” it gives the song a bt more of a playful bent, which seems to be less about domestic violence and more about some oral funtimes. If I was Katie’s neighbor I’m sure I’d probably still call the Cops on the person he’s singing to, but I think things might get awfully awkward for everyone once they showed up. For maximum effect I suggest playing the record with the windows open and loud enough to let your neighbors be aware that some misbehavin’ is goin’ on next door.

Cheers,

Michael

Black Ivory – Don’t Turn Around
Black Ivory – Surrender
Black Ivory – You And I

My Wife and I have been listening to a fair amount of Sweet Soul or Oldies of late. It’s interesting because we have very different relationships with this music. For me, growing up in Atlanta and the South, I always associated this music with the Northeast, since most Southern Soul is grittier and “deeper,” but the really sweet stuff always seemed to come from Philly, New York, Detroit or Chicago. It’s a sound for slow dancing late in the summer for me. My wife however grew up in the LA Area, and this style of music is really strongly connected to Mexican/Mexican-American communities out here to the point where we actually get in arguments over “Who’s Music Is This?” (which is the kind of thing that might just spark a bit of academic inquiry in the future).

What’s not up for debate is how lovely a lot of this music is. Black Ivory’s “Don’t Turn Around” has been something I’ve been on the look out for years and years, after hearing comedian Tommy Davidson request it during a radio appearance at a Bay Area station. Generally if I run into the album out and about it’s all beat up from being overplayed. With Sweet Soul on my mind more and more I made sure to pick up a decent copy off of Ebay and here it is. It’s pretty amazing to note how young all the members of this group were when they released “Don’t Turn Around”, not even in their twenties at that time. While it shares a lot of elements from other Sweet Soul tunes, slow tempo, falsetto lead, etc., it’s THOSE strings that keep bringing me back to this one again and again. It wasn’t until I came across this video of the group’s only Soul Train appearance that I realize that the dude in the center of the LP cover wasn’t singing that falsetto, but instead it was Leroy Burgess, who really was the creative force behind the band. In addition to missing harmonies like these, I really wish bands still choreographed their moves they way they used to:

“You And I” treads similar territory, but cranks up the levels of epic-ness as it builds and builds, ending with some sample-worthy instrumentation (especially after some says, “Don’t Stop Now,” in the background during that last minute). “Surrender” is a bit more upbeat, as are a couple of the other tracks on the album. But really what it all comes down to is that truly sweet soul sound. Hearing that, I don’t know how anyone could resist turning around for another glance. I’m sure you’re like me, once you’ve heard “Don’t Turn Around” you keep coming back for more and more.

Cheers,

Michael

Wilson Pickett – Get Me Back On Time (Engine Number Nine)
Wilson Pickett – Bumblebee
Wilson Pickett – Run Joey Run

The kind of record that should be in just about every self-respecting DJs collection, Wilson Pickett in Philadelphia is a perfect combination of contrasting styles, the grit and gruff of Southern Soul with the stately fuzz of Philly’s Holland & Dozier. “Get Me Back On Time” is an absolute classic, sampled by a few. “Run Joey Run” is a fairly weak song overall, but man oh man does it have a monster introduction and “Bumblebee” is a nice tune for the dancefloors with punchy horns and big expansive drums. For years I’d always assumed that the whole “Engine Engine Number 9” line from Black Sheep was inspired by this song, but then again there’s a “Engine #9” mention in “Super Good” too, and it gets me to thinking of how little I actually know about this titular engine, since I grew up in the South and have spent most of the rest of my time on the West Coast. Maybe there are a bunch of other “Engine #9” songs out there, but even if there are, I highly doubt any are as thrilling, wild and funky as this classic.

Cheers,

Michael