Isaac Hayes - Shaft

If you read this blog, you know how I got to know the main song of this album, it's a funny story (read it here). In that moment I immediately fell in love with it, so I clicked on Amazon to listen to the other songs and realized: I need it, it would be a great album on my shelf next to Hot buttered soul. Days passed by and soon I found the package in the letter box and it was a really notable moment when the first sounds filled the room. Since that moment it's a very close thing in my mind and an always re-appearing inspiration for humming in my daydreams.

It starts with the main theme of course. The melody and the arrangement is simply genious, but if you saw the first scene of the film where it plays in the background, that would be the time when the picture becomes complete in your head. That's the perfect score.

And there are many soundtrack albums which are only interesting because of the main themes. Now it's a nice exception, all of the songs are lovable. My favourites are Bumpy's lament and Ellie's love theme (and of course the main theme), but I can't help noticing again that blackish melody & mood combination which I always been surprised by, that strange difference to "other" music. It broadcasts something different, and it's usually the mix of feelings like (light) melancholy and peace at the same time, hope and looseness. As we walk through the scenes of the film by listening to the soundtracks, after the almost 20 minutes long Do your thing we reach the beautiful closing theme (The end theme) which is a shorter variation of the main theme. I have a special edition and it also contains a 2009 mix version of the main theme, so I have it after the closing theme - it's very good. I think it's not a coincidence that Isaac Hayes won the Oscar prize for the best soundtrack in that year, so this album is not "only" a soundtrack album. It's something more.

Ellie's love theme:

The intro of the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehg2EaYhoJs

Isaac Hayes winning the Oscar prize:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DEZy5ZEQTU

Earlier posts related to Shaft:
Theme from Shaft
Shaft

Empire State of Mind

There was a time when I was fond of hip-hop music, but that time passed by long ago. I don't really often like today's hits either, but there rare occassions when something keeps running in my head and I realize that it's quite good. Now Jay-Z did it to me with one of his latest singles featuring Alicia Keys: Empire State of Mind, or shortly New York. With the fascinating melody in the refrain and the nice New York related words in the lyrics it has been a cool colour patch in my days recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8

Happy Birthday!

It was precisely one year ago when I wrote the first blog post of my life. Since I didn't know anything about it, I continued... and liked writing very much, so it turned out that this would be a blog where one or two posts appear every week. Now it's over eighty but it still contain so little amount of good music which I know, so I hope this blog will stay alive for years.

That first post was about John Coltrane's Alabama. Then it took an incredible effect on me, and it hasn't changed till today. It's in my top5 ever-heard songs (man, that's quite a good topic for a new post).

See the first post of this blog:
Alabama

Let me celebrate this day with Pet Shop Boys' Birthday boy.

Quincy Jones - You've got it bad girl

If the standard says it might as well be spring, I'll say it might as well be summer - at least here, in Budapest, where I live. Spring has arrived very quickly and everything started to live again.

I've known this album for approximately one year. It gave me some very fine moments and also inspiration to my own music. As we could get used to it Quincy adapts movie themes and the songs are supported by clever and cool arrangements. Summer in the city is the slow-midtempo intro song which gives the album a fine start. It broadcasts something warm, something mysterious which remains at least until the half of the album. There something happens, the arrangement becomes wilder, somehow harder and funkier. It is Stevie Wonder's Superstition which changes the mood. But my favourite song is Tribute to A.F. which starts with a perfect daydreaming-melody and evolves into a very nice and loose music with cosy lyrics. To sum up, it's the second best album of Quincy's behind Smackwater Jack. And the harmonica player is not else as Toots Thielemans.

Daydreaming and I'm thinking of you
Daydreaming and I'm thinking of you
Hey baby let's get away let's go somewhere far...

Summer in the city (Lovin' Spoonful):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWXcjYNZais

Summer in the city (Quincy Jones):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd9wMHKMj6E

Tribute to A.F.:

Concerts coming

It's only a few days ago when I got to know that Pet Shop Boys and Jean Michel Jarre, two of my old half-nostalgic favourites will come to my country: PSB to BalatonSound in summer, JMJ to Papp László Budapest SportArena, in May. There was no question in my mind about going or not. As you can see it in this blog, I follow PSB's life every now and then, and I was glad to see them on VoltFestival maybe three years ago. Now Yes has come out and there are lots of new concert videos which make me very curious. About Jean Michel Jarre: being a fan of him started in secondary school, such as of Kraftwerk, these two were the coolest music which we could imagine with my best friend with whom I shared a desk in the classroom, and if we even listened to many other music nowadays, it would be a huge effect on us maybe for good. I had the chance to see his concert last year, that was the Oxygene tour, where he played the whole album from its first sound to its last, and songs from Oxygene 7-13 as well - on analogue devices. And now it's the World Tour, with which my old dream will come true.

PSB in your living room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rEVeyDukGE
(visit mypricelessgig.co.uk)

Watch PSB concert videos in older posts:
Did you see me coming?
Yes

About the JMJ World Tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJLm0jHh4b0

JMJ playing Oxygene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kQEvGmnkCQ

Marissa Nadler - Little hells

Conversation between two young men in early spring, 2009, as the first strange sounds fill the room.

- See? It's very fresh, it has been released in February*.

- Oh. If the world is like this today, I would...

I don't really remember what he said but it was some kind of negativitiy I think. It isn't surprising: the first sounds of Heart paper lover on Marissa Nadler's Little hells are not too friendly (* - I always think that the music being made in a year or decade shows the feelings of that milieu and not just the product of somebody's soul/mind). But later it changes, and melt into a strange mood which is melancholic, yes, but also hopeful and sometimes peaceful. The atmosphere is painted very well by the songs. This album is another fruit of my 2009 winter/early spring singer-songwriter research-era. Marissa Nadler is a singer-songwriter from America and has a very special voice and singing technique: it's depressing, but soft and enchanting. I don't listen to her music too often, but every now and then it can take a nice effect on us - related to our actual feelings and the season. Last.fm says the following: Nadler writes strange, yet classic, melancholy songs. Her voice is often bathed in a wash of reverb and space echo and creates a ghostly, atmospheric feeling to the music.

She also has a blog, visit it at: http://marissanadler.blogspot.com/

Little hells:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziLDpVYXwXg

Ghosts and lovers (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvPdNCbUq5c

Bobbi Humphrey - Blacks and blues

It was a great discovery for me at Amazon in the autumn, when I found this album. Bobbi Humphrey? I've never heard about her.

And it's the same story again. When you have many favourite melodies, and hear the new one, it shockingly touches your heart and became a top-x one. The first impression was in Harlem River Drive, as the black chorus comes in and they sing a beautiful melody. Later, when Humphrey doesn't just play on flute, she sings as well, it's a perfect match to the slightly hoarse men's voice. The whole album is great. I don't know how but all the melodies broadcast some kind of piece and not real happiness... just the feeling of happiness. It's hard to describe, it needs to be heard: do it below and give yourself to this world, it'll surely make your day. It made my days as well and so strong that it also inspired me to make a new part in my own long song. A black reportage from the past.

From the cover:

Bobbi Humphrey. Where's she coming from? Where's she going to? If we're straight on our priorities, you'll be listening to her album while I tell you about some of the answers...
First principle: she's positive energy. Black energy, a black woman leaping oceans and continents at a single bound. With positive strength of purpose.
Further, she's black purity. Hear that in her intonation. Without trickery. She knows the gimmicks, scorns to use 'em. Rather, she'll face you and relate what's in her heart, faithfully and incorruptibly.

Harlem River Drive:

5 minutes before lying down CALENDAR 2010

This blog has just reached a milestone in its history, because here's the first annual calendar: a special interpretation of a year, because it starts in March. As you could get used to it, this blog introduces the songs by its mood and connection to seasons. The calendar was made in the same atmosphere, and it's just the first step to the large-letter CALENDAR which will have an album proposal for each day in a year. Until that, 5 minutes before lying down will give you annual calendars each year. Click on the image to view it larger and download.

Madonna - American life

Now it's someone who doesn't need to be introduced, but besides her biggest hits she has some notable albums, too. Being driven by a sudden emotion, I chose an old cd, American life a few days ago, which is her second best after Ray of light (it's an outstanding one amongst her albums).

1. American life

2. Hollywood

3. I'm so stupid:

4. Love profusion

5. Nobody knows me

6. Nothing fails

7. Intervention

8. X-static process

9. Mother and father

10. Die another day

11. Easy ride

After the first two faster and widely known songs, she sings slower songs. Nice songs in a cosy pop-atmosphere, and one of the advantages of this album is the clearness. At last a pop album which isn't too dense. If something wants to be expressive, it doesn't need to be "big". By the way, the singing voice sounds much better if there aren't too many instruments playing. Just enough. Whatever Madonna does these days, it's something notable in her interesting and colourful carreer.

Pet Shop Boys' new products

It seems like the Pet Shop Boys never rest, they always come up with something new. Now, the Pandemonium concert dvd and cd, released on the 15th of February. Quite a cool choice with those new "two songs in one" types.
Or the ep Christmas, released on the 14th of December, 2009, containing the new version of It doesn't often snow at Christmas, a cool remix of Madness' My girl, or the Viva la vida / Domino dancing mix. Now they have an own YouTube channel, too.

Pandemonium dvd trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/petshopboys#p/c/CC5459DB602B6963

Domino dancing / Viva la vida:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJp-0kKgvlA

My girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M37TnocXUSc

Madness - My girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ARfGbCfMs

Katya Chehova & Vortex involute - Вторая жизнь

It's always a pleasure to hear other performances, adaptations and remixes of a song which you've known for a long time, let it be a jazz standard or even a techno song. Vortex involute, the Russian drum'n'bass band (in fact one person) reinterpreted Katya Chehova's music and created something, a deeply expressive atmospheric sound-world. The songs became slower, they don't hurry, there's enough time to express themselves and to make experiments with sound & noise. For example Po provodam (По прoвoдaм) got an other meaning, it became slower and ambient, such as Oblakami (Oблaкaми). And the closing song is the beautiful Вторая жизнь which - as I told you earlier - is my favourite song by her and also got a nice video. The whole album can be downloaded for free by registered users at www.station20.ru.

I remember listening to this album perfectly one year ago, in the cold, grey and hopeless February. Music stays with us, luckily.

Вторая жизнь:

http://www.youtube.com/user/katyachehova?blend=2&ob=1#p/a/DBCFD010ECF5BA8A/1/SONUYhlJ7nQ

Beтpoм:

Katya Chehova's music

It was the same time ago when I discovered Station 2.0 and Katya Chehova (Катя Чехова). In the beginning I didn't really know what I hear, just see the strange unreadable characters of titles on the screen. I had to go further, I liked it: I realized soon that it was much better than today's music played on radio and at clubs, but the main reason for it was the amazing atmosphere provided by the cold techno music and the Russian singing voice. The meeting happened, and even if it wasn't love at first sight (hear), later it got on a higher level.

Katya Chehova made three albums released by the Russian label Uplifto. Unfortunately her project ended, but there's something she created and left. Her, first, introducing, Ya robot, then the most known, Love 2.0, and after that K4, her latest and last. I think Love 2.0 is the best, with her biggest hit, Ya ne s toboy. The album is about another love, a love made today when everything changed. My first experience with her belongs to the song Вторая жизнь - Vtoraya zhiesn which has a very special atmosphere for me, see below. All of the mentioned albums can be downloaded at www.uplifto.ru or www.station20.ru.

Я не c тобой - Ya ne s toboy (I'm not with you):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRw3paHNF_Q

Я тебя люблю - Ya tebya lublu (I love you):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wb6uW2NuiA

Making of Нас больше не будет - Nas bolshe ne budet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cak5_Sfs16s

Вторая жизнь - Vtoraya zhiesn (Second life):

Нас больше не будет - Nas bolshe ne budet:

Shaft

At last I learned who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man by watching the American movie Shaft (1971) which theme is written by Isaac Hayes. The movie is a nice thing, and its music perfectly matches to the pictures. It was also released in 2000, with Samuel L. Jackson in the main role.

You can watch the full movie here:

http://stagevu.com/video/zmqauwrufrtu

Listen to the theme

Station 2.0

My first meeting with Russian electronic music was a few years ago while downloading from last.fm's free downloads. Somehow I got to uplifto.ru which is an electronic record label, and also runs a webradio called Station 2.0 (СТАНЦИИ 2.0). I was glad to hear Russian voices, it was exotic. As I haven't visited this site for a while, it has been developing very well and now it's not only a radio, but a music community site as well with a lot of members and activities. The radio became a source of every kind of music let it be today's hits, Russian electronic and underground, or everything else. It also features live track information and a possibility for downloading archive streams back to a few days.

Visit www.station20.ru or www.uplifto.ru

To download music, click on Музыка (music).

To download archive streams, click on АРХИВ (archive).

Eberhard Weber Colours - Little movements

Music is somehow more than other arts. I think it's the most undescribable kind of art, that's what we talked about with my friend approximately a week ago. When you hear one of your favourite music, you don't just say "it's really, really cool", but you feel something, something of fullness, which effect is "the world cannot be so dark as I see it in other moments". Somehow everything gets to its right place. And it's a fantastic power of this art.

Eberhard Weber's Little movement album did the same with me this morning. As the sun shined into the room at the middle of the day, in the silent deepness of the moveless winter, the room has been filled with something... some kind of new atmosphere. The most exciting thing on this album is the piano-flute melody in the first piece, The last stage of a long journey. It has an extremely strange nostalgic and expressive effect, which I hear and say "that's something for which it's worth to live". And it's a serious sentence, I think. After it, Bali has a repetitive mood, again with beautiful melodies.

Little movements is unfortunately out of press, so it's a rarity and hard to get. eBay can help you, if you want an original one, but the rarity has its price as well. And, as ice on the cake, it has a very nice cover, designed by Maja Weber.

Eberhard Weber made many albums for ECM, many with his keyboardist cooperate Rainer Brüninghaus (read about one of his albums, Continuum). They can make very expressive and qualitative things together.

Let's find something more amongst old lps.

Read about another ECM album, Meredith Monk - Dolmen music, and a commendation about few ECM albums.

Visit http://www.ecmrecords.com/

Tilos radio

Let me show you which radio I think the best in my country. It's name is "Tilos", which means "forbidden", an underground little channel which has a rough history. Starting in a state of "almost-dying" and many times "vegetating" but Tilos survived everything and remains a nice piece of underground culture. The music broadcasted varies amongst a wide range of styles: from electronic / drum 'n' bass / hip-hop through experimental psychedelic songs to world / jazz music you can find everything. And it's a miracle of the new century that you can hear it from another country, too by the possibility of web radios.

Listen to it online at http://www.tilos.hu/

Animal

Miike Snow is quite a new Swedish indie-pop band (formed in 2007), and when I heard the song Animal yesterday, I didn't know where have I known it. I don't really know now either... perhaps it remains a quest forever. But the song is nice, and can make your day. It's located on their one and only album Miike Snow - Miike Snow (2009).

Watch Animal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niKT-kJfUz4

Visit their official website:

http://www.miikesnow.co.uk/

Osibisa - Woyaya

It's always a great pleasure to hear new music, music which isn't really similar to other music. I know it seems to be impossible, but music is the kind of art which always keeps new potential in itself and something more to show. I mean, there are undescribable thoughts in our minds, or call them feelings, which you can truly live whilst listening to a song and say: yes, that's it. Somehow it reaches our soul.



Osibisa did the same with me this morning. This music shows the power of nature, emotions of the world which differ by folks and nations - and now it's the African way of expression. Translated from Ghanaian, Osibisa means "criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness". And you can feel it very well: this music is the fruit of happiness, the happines of playing music, the happiness of living and the world which surrounds us. Besides their well-known songs, like Sunshine day and Welcome home, this album deserves at least the same attention. With the black chorus singing, with the cool and loose rhythms they created one of the most important meanings of music: to add beauty to the world. Maybe music roots in the world, and because of this it just shows its beauty, but I'm sure that it also creates beauty. Beautiful seven makes you feel The world around you. Woyaya makes you feel You live inside it.

Woyaya (live):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqxU_LNrdDg

Woyaya by Art Garfunkel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWzQKjSn4Cc

Beautiful seven:

(from the cover)

We, through the spirit of our ancestors,

Bring you love,

Our treasured gift of happiness.

Forget your problems,

See beyond dark clouds

And be happy.

Your birthright is happiness

Born from the dawn of time,

A gift to be cherished.

Be happy! Be happy!

Hanne Hukkelberg - Rykestrasse 68

Staring out the window, and watching the snow as it falls, as it's being thickened, as it doesn't want to stop. Rykestrasse 68 is a real "winter" album by the Norwegian singer-songwriter - but rather experimental music maker - lady, Hanne Hukkelberg. It's her second album, a much more listenable than her first, Little things, but it fortunately keeps the advantages of that earlier one. These advantages are: widening and mixing the styles, using both English and Norwegian language on the same album (it's an exciting thing for foreigners, like me), making melodies and rhythms of noises and other sounds, creating a new little world, making experiments and exciting effects with her own voice. This mix leads to a half acoustic-half electronic sound, which is half-natural and half-strange.

My favourite songs on this album: the first one, Berlin (a nice introducing melody, with a cosy lyrics, see below), A cheater's armoury (the most "pop" song on this disc - if I can say this - which also got a video, see below, too), Northwind (with a more and more strenghtening refrain and some typewriting sounds), the rhythmic Ticking bomb, and the last song, Pynt, with the speciality of Norwegian singing.

Have a nice trip to Rykestrasse 68.

Read about her newest album, Blood from a stone.

Berlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UCf5NDRmXY

A cheater's armoury:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aXZkHSVo3U

Northwind (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JERZ9NuYdWk

Ticking bomb (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCg9DWsv6DU

Genesis - Trespass

To start the new year most of the people would propose a happy or soul-stirring music to listen to, but somehow January is cold and very uncertain for me. It's the middle of the long and dark winter, and it doesn't want to be over. The last year has gone, and no one knows, what will the new year give. Now, because of these things, I would listen to Genesis' second album from 1970, Trespass. That music is cold, too. And full of energy. Emotions, which can reach your deepest mind, and give a nice colour to this month. "Nobody needs to discover me" - Peter Gabriel sings, and it's a cool sentence, another kind of expressing loneliness. "Trying to find a memory in a dark room... trying to find a needle in a haystack" -it's the first song, Looking for someone, a hard start for the album. These thoughts are true to the month January for me. Man has to put the pieces of his mind in their correct place again, revising them or overwriting them. And in White mountain, as it starts, that's the perfect emotional expression, it always remembers me to the cover. Amongst the serious emotions there's some lightness on the album, too, for example Visions of angels, which is light, yes, but also has a hiding melancholy and a celebrational mood. This is true to the whole album. The whole feeling becomes clear by the last track, the wild and faster Knife, which also cuts apart the cover. Nice! You can see it as you bend out the cover of the lp version (or on the back of the cd).

Looking for someome (just music):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD6MZ4SSVWw

The knife (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XhDHJNuyXw

Visions of angels:


Read about Foxtrot and Wind & wuthering.