#8 Curated Focus Weekly | Music rebels in the 60's
A musical exploratory experiment to discover music to focus ◄(^_^)►
THIS WEEK: · Electronic rock · Jazz light pop · Avant-garde Jazz · Electronic ambient · Jazz · Psychedelic
Today we are not visiting the underground music of a place, but rather from a time. The time is the decade of the 60’s. Yet most of our selection today is from the year 1968, is still the 60’s.
During the late 1960’s is when when rock was enriched enormously by a combination of electronic music technology, psychedelic drugs, ideas from the classical avant-garde and the innovations of jazzmen like Miles Davis. Music genres started to mix and take elements from world’s folk music. Yet, nowadays we are used to it, today’s selection of music is made up a group of rebels who dared to experiment, think of the box, and be different.
Curating today’s selection was hard, there is a lot of music to explore from this time. Maybe we will have to share a second part to share more of the hidden gems of this time.
Word of warning: Some of this week’s selection can sound weird… But hey, you’re reading this, you are weird.
UP
Album: Silver Apples by Silver Apples 68’
Electronic “rock” group from NY
Genre: electronic rock
Pair with: Move the feet under the table
Silver Apples is, in sensibility and intent, a straightforward rock record – it just happens to be played on one of the weirdest electronic set-ups imaginable.
The group was formed by Simeon Coxe, performing the sythetizer and as drummer Danny Taylor. They were very active playing between 1967 and 1970, and in mid 1990’s they regrouped and you can find more music of them in spotify.
In their website they tell the story of how the band was born: “One night, as a lark, Simeon plugged in an oscillator and began sweeping sounds around the room with gleeful abandon while the drummer, named Danny Taylor (who had previously worked with a young guitar sensation named Jimi Hendrix) pounded out rhythms in cutting edge experimentation. This so outraged the three guitar players in the band that they quit, leaving just Simeon and Danny . . . and Silver Apples was born.“
MID
Song: Summertime by Albert Ayler 63’
Listen on: Spotify / Bandcamp / Youtube
Genre: Jazz
Pair with: Let the music sooth your pain
A bit of Ayle’s story: He had a short life, and during the time, his music got some good critics, but it was rejected by the jazz public at large. He continued trying to “explain” his music. Was the time where Avant-garde Jazz found its way.
But today we want to share a version he recored from George Gershwin’s song Summertime, which has been recorded countless times in countless ways by countless artists. This version is a heartbreaking expression of pain and anguish performed by the great Albert Ayler.
Album: Take a Picture by Margo Guryan 68’
Singer from NY
Genre: Jazz light pop
Margo’s style is an atypical singing musical style. We got her first album for you today: “Take a Picture”. Musically speaking, will get you to travel to the 60’s in a different and enjoyable way.
There is a very interesting story behind this album. When it was launched, it was called a “fine sound” album, and was meant to be a “comercial” album to get lots of sales. However, as the wikipedia article reports that Margo refused to tour as the number of performances required her to get a manager, agent, layer, booking person, etc. She said: “I didn’t want that… I guess I had enough of “daddy” when I was five, and I just didn’t want to be told what to do”. As a consequence, the label stoped promoting her album and became more of an underground non commercial gem.
All Music’s review says: “an album that you invariably want to wrap up in. Better than most similar efforts from the time, the album maintains a vibrant resonance outside the milieu in which it was created because the songcraft is not only infectious but also highly intelligent, and because Guryan's performance is so delicious”.
LP: Dreams by Gábor Szabó 68’
Hungarian American guitarist
Genre: Avant-garde Jazz
Pair with: Need of calm
In 2008 there was a fire in Universal studios, that destroyed precious original material of about 118.000 to 175.000 albums in forms of master tape analogues, phonograps, master discs, lacquers, acetates. Material of Gábor Szabó was sadly among those.
But today we got to share with you this LP. It is a masterpiece that plays with experimental sounds, multi layered music and surprises you with a French horn on the song “Fire dance”. This is really a masterpiece, that lets you hear how a great play with feedback sounds like. Not only that, its illustration feels like telling you a story on its own.
If you feel like choosing one song to listen to, we recommend you to pick: The lady in the moon
DOWN
LP: What?? by Folke Rabe 67’
Swedish composer
Genre: Electronic ambient
Pair with: Need to practice hypnosis skills
This incredibly complex yet soothingly sensitive, What??, or also known by “Was??” is a master piece that was first written and released as one side of a split LP. The album we got for you features a 25 minute original and its half-speed 50’ version.
Your listening experience of this LP will feel a little like starring at an illuminated screen, by what seems to be a plain white light, steady and unchanging. And when you do so, you realize that there is a rainbow of colors changing, merging and at the same time in war with each other. What seems at first to be neutral and serene becomes wild and untamed, a total spectral headfuck, and the more deeply you listen, the more intense it becomes. (Words from Philip Sherburne)
LP: A Rainbow in Curved Air by Terry Riley 69’
US musician pioneer of the minimalism school of composition
Listen on: Spotify / Youtube / Deezer
Genre: Psychedelic
Pair with: Concentration
This LP can be seen as having three distinct sections or "movements," like a classical sonata or concerto, as explained in the wikipedia article: The first "fast" section gives way to a more contemplative "slow movement" at 6:39. Then, at 11:41, the final more rhythmic section begins.
The full piece gives you a warm feeling, it awakens a feel of sensorium optimism of repeated notes. This LP was one of the first electronic-made music that creates a sense of “weirdness” among commercial music lovers, but yet still sounds fitting in an incense-filled ashram or a hazy dorm room. (words from Kevin Lozano)
The original LP came with an utopian poem, which is still very relevant today with our current environmental crisis; The poem starts with: “And then all wars ended”.
Here is the original source online in Terry’s official site, which visual design is exactly the visual representation of the sounds experience you will get listening to this LP.
We decided to share the poem here, because will be easier to read:
And then all wars ended / Arms of every kind were outlawed and the masses gladly contributed them to giant foundries in which they were melted down and the metal poured back into the earth / The Pentagon was turned on its side and painted purple, yellow & green / All boundaries were dissolved / The slaughter of animals was forbidden / The whole of lower Manhattan became a meadow in which unfortunates from the Bowery were allowed to live out their fantasies in the sunshine and were cured / People swam in the sparkling rivers under blue skies streaked only with incense pouring from the new factories / The energy from dismantled nuclear weapons provided free heat and light / World health was restored / An abundance of organic vegetables, fruits and grains was growing wild along the discarded highways / National flags were sewn together into brightly colored circus tents under which politicians were allowed to perform harmless theatrical games / The concept of work was forgotten
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Until the next!