Never been a huge fan of covers albums. Not going to make an exception for this one.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Motörhead - Under Cöver: 3.5 stars
Never been a huge fan of covers albums. Not going to make an exception for this one.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Friday, October 20, 2017
Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life: 4 stars
I'm Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner) is pure genius.
Diblo Dibala - Ami Eh! Bougez!: 8.5 (high A-)
This one's so rare it's hard to even get a decent cover image. His first solo album, as far as I know. Probably more of a 7.5 (high B+), except that the track "Malika" is not only his best, but maybe the best '80s style soukous I have ever heard, which bumps it up to 8.5 (high A-). I found a copy of this on nearly pristine vinyl.
Butthole Surfers - Independent Worm Saloon: 4 stars
Completing my very eclectic Surfers collection, I've got this and the eponymous EP (as a huge EP fan), the latter necessarily purchased with Live PCPPEP. I realize it doesn't make much sense, but that's what I'm going with.
Bumba Massa - Dovi: 4 stars
I'm quibbling, but I think this is marginally better than L'argent et La Femme. Mostly because when I downloaded this, I printed it out nicely on physical, I'm putting this one on the shelves. Really, they probably both belong. With Syran M'Benza.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
The Breeders - Title TK: 3.5 stars
Not central enough to their catalog for me to collect, especially at the B+ level.
Various Artists - New York Noise: 3.5 stars
Decent compilation - does what it says it will. Good to hear some Lizzy Mercier Descloux. Not paying import prices for it though.
Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures: 3.5 stars
Again, not that into free jazz, so I freely admit you should pay no attention to my ratings.
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician: 3.5 stars
I don't really know what I am doing with this band. I admire them more than I like them. At this point, I am sticking with one early work and one later period work, and skipping their fertile middle period. Not a rabbit hole I really want to go down too much. I also listened to Hairway to Steven two or three times and am stopping with that. Not entirely rational, but pretty low stakes choices here. Also, weirdly over-priced for a punk band.
Loketo - Acte II: Confirmation
:-| [This and the other latter-day Loketo albums have Diblo on guitar, and some good tracks, but are hard to distinguish in any way]
George Peter Kinyonga - Hits of Orch. Jobiso: 4 stars
Very strong Tanzanian rumba. But so digital I'm not even trying.
Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited - Gwindingwi Rine Shumba: 9 (A)
Definitely one of the coolest album covers of all time. Also, a great album, but since the best three tracks (the first three) are all on Chimurenga Forever, and they are by far the best, I will skip this one. The first three are A quality or higher, while the remaining 5 are B+ quality, averaging out to 8 (A-). [Later upped to 9 (A). Yes, the middle tracks are not as strong, but it's still a beautiful album on the whole.]
Umphrey's McGee - Zonkey: 4 stars
The rare A minus I won't be shelving. Mash-ups, although they can be very great listens, like this one, are just too limited as artistic statements for me to always buy in.
Brad Paisley - Love and War: 3.5 stars
I think I'm going to stop with the one-two punch of American Saturday Night and This is Country Music with this artist. Have to stop somewhere. My greatest country music advisor sadly passed away, and he can't inspire me to stick with this one like he did with the other two.
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Aurlus Mabele - Maracas d'Or (Remix): 3.5 stars
Early Diblo album. Note that this is the "remix" -- but it contains one or two of the "originals" as well. Those sound crude and clutter up the release. All of which means that while this is good early Diblo (Loketo even), I will not be collecting it, especially since it costs a fortune. They really ought to re-release this together with Nicoletta filles des Antilles, cleaned-up for the digital era. As it is, I start collecting Diblo/Aurlus/Loketo in the CD era with Africa Mousso (although some of the releases during that era I actually ended up with on vinyl).
Aurlus Mabele - Nicoletta fille des Antilles: 3.5 stars
Definitely wish I could get this in physical, but as usual it costs way more than it's worth to have in physical. I will also skip it because it doesn't have the "Loketo" label, it's not on Jimmy's Production where all the other early Aurlus and Loketo albums were, but on Afro-Rythmes where alot of early random soukous albums were released. In other words, this is one of a half dozen albums where Diblo first started appearing as a session soloist, rather than a Loketo stalwart or solo artist. The only early Diblo that isn't in that category is a Kanda Bongo Man release that was later put out on a more widely available release (Non Stop Non Stop). How's that for an elaborate excuse to not spend a fortune on a copy, or years hoping to find one? Valuable early Diblo nevertheless.
Augustus Pablo - Rockers Meets King Tubbys in a Fire House: 7 (B+)
Upgraded from neutral (listened 3 or 4 more times). Still not buying it at inflated used prices at this grade though. [Got a like-new copy for a reasonable price in April 2024, different cover]
Albert Ayler Trio - Spiritual Unity: 7.5 (high B+)
# [jazz/free jazz] Penguin crown winner in all but the first edition, whatever that means. In fact, they don't even mention the album in the first edition and in the next one it's a "crown" album.
Sunday, October 1, 2017
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