About
In my 20s, I became an artsier guy when I fell in love with both music and film.
All feedback (276)
- byfrm_me (28426)- Feedback left by buyer.More than a year agoVerified purchaseQuick response and fast payment. Perfect! THANKS!!
- s***e (580)- Feedback left by buyer.More than a year agoVerified purchaseGreat seller. Buy with confidence!
- musicmagpie (13101484)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchasemusicMagpie°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°ºGREAT BUYER THANK YOUº¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°ºmusicMagpie
- entertainmentus (5947)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseHope to deal with you again. Thank you.
- gaoutdoors477 (163)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseThank you for an easy, pleasant transaction. Excellent buyer. A++++++.
- *****- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseThank you for an easy, pleasant transaction. Excellent buyer. A++++++.
Reviews (6)
08 October 2007
A Post-Riot Workout
Two years after Sly and The Family Stone provoked amazement from their audience with There's A Riot Goin' On, they released Fresh, a respectable follow-up. Most of the familiar Family Stone members returned for this album. Bass genius Larry Graham has been replaced with Rusty Allen, who thumps the bass guitar with required funkiness. These songs are more "developed"-sounding than most of the cuts on Riot. Hence, this product may prove more satisfying to listeners who desire polished R & B tracks full of vocal panache. Fresh boasts a more mainstream sensibility than Riot's fare. On one hand, this is an important work in funk. On the other, the band's halcyon days seem like they may be fading behind them. The energy one can find on the album Stand! is nowhere to be found here. Highlights include: "Thankful N' Thoughtful," which has pulsing horn lines along with background vocalists repeating a soulful refrain endlessly, and "If You Want Me To Stay," balancing very catchy funk with brilliant lyric-writing. "Que Sera, Sera" brings affecting wit and maybe irony to a 1956 tune by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. This is simply a crucial work of...there's that word again...funk.
19 January 2007
My Awesome Valentine
6 of 6 found this helpful It didn't take long for me to realize after relocating to Georgia that I was in need of a copy of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. I had misplaced my other copy of it. It's a landmark recording that many critics consider to be flawless. Years of struggling to top themselves creatively led this band in 1991 to present this album, one that placed them far beyond their imitators and is to this day a "tough act to follow." The roaring guitars tear through 10 transcendental songs before settling into the rhythms of "Soon," a danceable rocker. But listener, be warned: coded and layered into the pulsating grooves and soundscapes is resonant angst and heartache. This music is not for the weak of heart.
28 October 2007
Victorious Rave
With his second release, Forces of Victory, dub poet and committed activist Linton Kwesi Johnson showed the world he was a major talent. While dub poetry has its similarities to dancehall and dub reggae, it truly possesses its own personality. Johnson's poetry is more scripted and terse than its predecessor, toasting, which is descended from the vocal styles of U-Roy and I-Roy. Notably, Johnson himself finds the term "dub poetry" misleading when applied to his work - which starts as and focuses on poetry.
This 1979 album showcases Johnson's poetry to dazzling effect. Reggae guitarist Dennis Bovell (sometimes known simply as Blackbeard) arranged Johnson's backing music. The result is pulsating, sometimes swinging (as in jazzy), crisp reggae tunes punctuated by Johnson's sing-song Jamaican patois. The dub band benefits from the melodic guitar playing of John Kpiaye and the recent addition of horns to the mix. The band swings hard, as on the opener, "Want Fi Goh Rave." While the music and narrative here feel cheery, the album often feels claustrophobic to the point of being dark. Johnson speaks about coming across people who want to "rave," meaning either to party or to act politically.
While "It Noh Funny" laments the shabby state of the youth in Britain, the third track, "Sonny's Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem)," is a bracing depiction of life that's best heard to be believed. The Afro-brits in Johnson's poetry are routinely persecuted by the police. The titular letter in the song is delivered from a prison where a young male, Sonny, is detained for killing a cop. Johnson's effective narrative describes a man who feels he must step in to keep a friend from being fatally brutalized by the police.
More insurrection is evoked with "Fite Dem Back," a song with a driving rhythm that starts with the words: "smash their brains in ... 'cause they ain't got nothing in 'em." Johnson's over-the-top calls for violence actually ring prophetic in an England governed by Tories. Any mention of the Dub Band is incomplete without the complimentary sounds of dub all over Forces of Victory, which come up in this cut. Perhaps the best dubbing on the album - which is the production technique of following a sound with its echo - is in the aforementioned "It Noh Funny": a ruckus that establishes new forms but never compromises the song's musical personality.
Still more musical political clarification comes later on, but the album never grows tiresome. Indeed, because of its often tempestuous feel, Forces of Victory is an amazingly vital work that stands up to numerous replays very well.