MUSIC TO OBSESS OVER
Face it: Buying music for serious fans can be a complete drag. It can really be a case of not knowing what to get for the person who seems to have heard everything. Stuart Derdeyn highlights the releases that will make even total music nerds take notice.
ISAAC HAYES The Spirit of Memphis 1962-1976 Stax/Craft Recordings
Isaac Hayes would have turned 75 this year. This four CD/ seven-inch, vinyl-combo box set documents the late composer, singer, player and producer’s rise from the southern American club scene into one of the historic greats of soul music behind such global smashes as the Theme from Shaft and — perhaps not the best memory — voicing the character of Chef in numerous seasons of South Park.
Read about how this prolific artist developed the “Memphis Sound” in the 60-page hardcover book loaded with archival photos and intelligent essays as you marvel at how futuristic such rare tracks as Sir Isaac and the Do-Dad’s Blue Groove or The Mad Lads Patch My Heart sound. Quite an appropriate collection coming in the year that Stax Records celebrates its 60th anniversary. And Craft Recordings has had a banner year with box sets, as documented by its comprehensive projects on John Lee Hooker, Thelonious Monk and more.
BERT JANSCH A Man I’d Rather Be (Part 1 and 2) Earth Recordings
As a member of the Pentangle with the incredible guitarist John Renbourn, English folkblues artist Bert Jansch was key in shaping the entire U.K. folkrock sound, as well as developing the distinctive guitar-hero aspects of the acoustic guitar. In terms of influence, Jansch’s fans include such luminaries as Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Johnny Marr and many more. You’ll know why when you hear him tackle heroin addiction in the telling Needle of Death and then jump into the country shuffle of Courting Blues or get political on Anti-Apartheid.
Given that these songs were coming in the mid-’60s, they were ahead of the curve to be sure. The four discs in Part 1 present Jansch’s first two 1965 albums, 1966’s Jack Orion and the reuniting of Jansch and Renbourn on 1966’s Bert and John. Just listen to how these two aces cover Charles Mingus’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat and start practising.
CAN The Singles Mute
As one of the most important bands in the influential and experimental German Krautrock movement of the ’70s, Cologne’s Can moved freely within avantgarde and protoambient grooves to jazz, global sounds and sometimes screeching psychedelic funk. No surprise that the band members would veer off wildly into unique directions on their solo recordings, too, as they had a seemingly endless source of ideas during the 1966-79 era.
Even after reforming in the early 1990s, one thing Can was never known for was releasing singles. Turns out the band better known for long, meandering jams could take it all down into an under-four-minute-long track, such as the swinging She Brings the Rain or the zippy Vitamin C. In a perfect world, many of the songs collected here should have charted. Now that they’re getting a second exposure, expect to hear some of these tunes covered by a band near you. They’re deserving.
VARIOUS ARTISTS Space, Energy & Light Soul Jazz Records
If the only music you owned was compilations from London’s Soul Jazz Records, you would have an amazing collection. Quite simply one of the world’s best compilation labels, its releases frequently target specific themes. This particular compilation collects music that was influenced by the space race from artists in the 1960s to the late 1980s.
Trying to find most of these original tracks would be impossible, as early computer musicians like Laurie Spiegel and Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company have been out of print for ages, and they didn’t exactly produce many copies of the original recordings anyway. From seriously experimental attempts at sonic exploration with new technologies to underground ’80s grit that would shape the contemporary electronic music scene, this is a fantastic voyage.
VARIOUS ARTISTS Even a Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk Rock 1969-1973 Light in the Attic
From the folks at the label that gave us the brilliant two-volume, Native North America collection comes this compilation of rare music licensed for the first time outside of Japan. Turns out, the island nation had its own distinct ’60s sound emerge with the “new music” sound of artists such as Kazuhiko Kato and Akai Tori. Mixing rock, jazz, psychedelia and traditional folk protest tunes, this often-experimental music scene — check out Gu’s Marianne for an interesting use of bird calls — helped provide the soundtrack for the Land of the Rising Sun in that era.