This past weekend I was in LA for the Masayoshi Takanaka concert. I arrived the morning of the day before, in order to make sure I would be in peak condition to absorb the magic that was about to take place, and boy did Takanaka-san deliver. But since I was in town for quite some time, I did what any reasonable person in LA would do: go to the La Brea Tar Pits, hike up in the Hollywood Hills, eat lots of incredible Mexican food and, of course, hit up Amoeba Music. It's a gigantic store and I figured they would have quite the collection hidden in their clearance bin for anyone with eyes to look. In these days where vinyl has become a hot commodity and it's difficult to find true gems in the US without paying an arm and a leg, the tape section is still financially your friend for the most part, while also opening you up to the possibility of finding local acts whose only recordings are on cassette in the first place.

Amoeba's tape clearance bin neatly overlapped with the "world music" section, and within that section I found this strange tape with a Greek name on it, for 50 cents. My Greek is terrible, so I gambled on the fact that whatever happened, it would at least be interesting. The result of this dig is a pretty interesting tape which offers a modernized take on Greek folk music, with the title track being almost prog-like in its delivery, which I liked a whole lot. But I think it belies a greater point about "world" music, or at least how it's perceived in the US. See, Mr. Pantazis here is one of the greatest Greek folk artists of modern times. He's sold millions of records in Greece, he's been performing for 40 years, he is greatly beloved, and here he is for 50 cents in a bargain bin because "world" music only means anything once it has gone through the eyes of a curator or a compilation which can make it worth money. This is not to harp on the work of great labels like Analog Africa, WeWantSounds, Los Palmas Music or Luaka Bop, but at the end of the day the music is treated with this disdain until it is "discovered" in a way that feels deeply colonialist. And it certainly doesn't help that in places like my own home country, we greatly value foreign music so much that our stuff still kind of feels like "world music" all the same!

The only way to get out of this loop is to share it widely and hype up everything you can, and to let the stories of the people who wrote them speak, especially if it's your own culture! That's why I've pushed so hard for Venezuelan music on this blog and will continue to in future installments. Today I learned about a living Greek legend, and I hope you also will have a good time with this tape.

...With all that said, however, it's entirely possible that the reason this is 50 cents is because it's a bootleg. The label print is of very low quality, the tape itself sounds like it had something else recorded beforehand, or it's so thin that I'm getting crosstalk from the other side, and I should make clear that this is not due to my tape deck, which is a lovely Nakamichi DR-3 that can make anything sing. Definitely a mystery.

Hey, at least when you pick this up you know it's high quality!

Liner Notes

None! There's not even a tracklist printed on this thing. Amazing.

Track List & Rip

Just because the cassette won't give you a track list doesn't mean I won't.

A1 - Έρχεται
A2 - Ό,τι Καλύτερο
A3 - Συγχώρεσέ Με
A4 - Δεν Υπάρχω
A5 - Ήξεις - Αφίξεις
B1 - Όλα
B2 - Πυρκαγιά
B3 - Γεννήθηκα Να Σ' Αγαπώ
B4 - Εσύ
B5 - Αναισθητικό

Get the rip here!

Switched-On Bach fundamentally changed music as we know it. Wendy Carlos' demonstration of the leading edge of electronic music equipment in America, the Moog synthesizer, as something truly musical and joyful, unlike the dissonant musique concrète-adjacent experimental works that came before it, sent shockwaves that changed the world in their wake. On the one hand, you had composers realize the power that now lay before them: some went to great extents to even get their hands on a Moog, like Isao Tomita, who imported the first specimen into Japan and had to convince customs authorities that it wasn't a spying device due to how new and fascinating it was. Heck, he did it even though the manual had no translation (and was mostly just circuit diagrams anyway) - he had to figure it all out, and in doing so he laid the foundation for the entire electronic music wave in Japan that followed, with a direct throughline to YMO as Hideki Matsutake, their synth programmer, was Tomita's apprentice.

On the other hand, a whole lot of people realized the simple equation that Moog = cash. The sound was fresh, demand was enormous, and all it would take was get one of these beasts, churn out some covers, and make out like a bandit. Thus began not only the era of true electronic invention, but also of "Moogsploitation", where anyone who could try and pivot to Moog, did. There were some amazing artists who gave it their all in this commercial enterprise, like Jean-Jacques Perrey or Dick Hyman, but also a whole lot of dreck like the eternally baffling Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine by Richard Hayman (no relation to Mr. Hyman). It is in this environment of commercial exploitation of the latest trend that we meet today's subject, Larry Taylor.

Mr. Taylor was also not one of those avant-garde types that championed the Moog pre-Switched-On Bach. But he was also not really that distant from the Moog either. While best known as a Chicago jazz musician who played in very traditional combos and did many a radio show, he was also known for consulting with organ manufacturers to create programs for their instruments. Because of his skill with organ electronics, it wasn't much of a leap to the Moog - as we've seen before on this blog, the leap from "electronic organ" to "synthesizer" is not much, and in the case of the Electone they are one and the same. And thus, here we have a jazz musician coming in to showcase the Moog, much like Wendy Carlos had come before him to showcase Bach.

The final piece of the puzzle for this album is the very strange record label that produced it. Unless you're a fanatic of American pop culture deep cuts, you wouldn't know anything about Cozy Records, or its sister labels "Reinbeau", "Premere" and "Calamo". All of these were "vanity" record labels owned by one person - the CEO of the Solo Cup Company, Leo Hulseman. See, Hulseman was convinced, as often happens, that his wife Dora Hall, who had not performed live since the 1920s and was at that point in her sixties, was going to be a superstar, and he would use his considerable fortune as a disposable cup magnate to make it happen by hook or by crook. He started all these record labels just to put her music out, and put out ads on the packages of Solo cups with free record offers for a "Top Tune Record" which would of course give you a Dora Hall 45. Leo's push for his wife's superstardom kept escalating until he put her on TV with a huge special, Dora's World. Multiple TV specials, even. Some people really loved her, to the point of maintaining a sadly now-defunct fansite for many many years. For the purposes of this post, I have refrained from listening to Mrs. Hall, as regardless of the opinion I end up having of her, it would detract from Larry Taylor, who should be the actual focus here. Point is, while Leo Hulseman primarily used Cozy Records et al to assist his wife's superstar dreams, it was also wide open for them to release whatever other music they wanted, and this of course included Dora Hall's musician friends...like Larry Taylor. And that's how we go full circle, folks!

So we have a well-known area musician, who almost released a strange album in the early 60s off his radio show, pairing up with the wife of a disposable cup tycoon to release his experiments with the Moog, which he is unexpectedly more than qualified to do. And the results are...really good, actually!

I had originally found this record by way of a compilation named Moog Madness which I got from a friend in college's brother's 1 TB music collection he'd left on a Google Drive back before Google stopped offering unlimited storage to colleges. Quite frankly, I've never been able to find the actual source for this compilation, but this person was drenched in late-2000s music blog culture, clearly followed legends like Mutant Sounds religiously...and I think he got it from this blog. The other tracks in Moog Madness are interesting, but Just A Gigolo captured me in how it was whimsical like a lot of Moogsploitation, but had a precision and care to the arrangement that belied a history of working in the genre, which turns out to be completely true.

The arrangements here are lovely. Everything here is just a Moog and a mystery drummer, but he makes them sound so lush, so real. He dedicates himself to replicating a big band jazz combo like the ones he led for so many years, all on his own, and he nails it, track after track. I Cover the Waterfront is just as impactful as performances predating this one by 30 years. Moonlight Serenade is smooth, elegant, something you can really sink yourself into. Of course, as noted before Just A Gigolo is just so much fun while still demonstrating cleaer-headed musicianships. And at the very end of an album of knocking jazz standards out of the park, you get Synamoog, Larry's own original composition entirely based around the Moog, and it's clear that he understood its potential to not just emulate the big band but become something entirely its own. It's a fun time from start to finish, a love letter to both the jazz traditions of a decades-long career and the possibilities of the Moog synthesizer, and it's a record I cherish very much. I hope today you can enjoy it too.

Larry Taylor, pictured in front of a Moog on the back cover of the record

Liner Notes

[Editor's note: super straightforward ones for once, with some...interesting references. The Solo Cup empire spared some expense here, especially with the monochrome art throughout. The reference to "Playable on Stereo and Most Mono Phonographs" for a record referring to the "sounds of the '70's" is absolutely baffling, however, and makes me wonder precisely when this was published.]

There is no other musical instrument quite like a Moog Synthesizer. It's a kind of space-age musical computer capable of producing an almost infinite variety of sounds.

Larry Taylor has combined his considerable musical talent with his considerable technical know-how to come up with a most unusual Moog album. By hand-picking a group of the best-remembered songs of the golden big band era, Larry has produced a startling re-creation of the music of those bright days when girls wore corsages and evening gowns. [sic] And he has added just enough sounds of the '70's to bridge the generation gap.

The amazing thing is that Larry has put it all together using just drums and the incredibly versatile Moog Synthesizer.

And the sounds you hear in this fantastic album were all conceived, arranged, performed and engineered by Larry Taylor along with the help of one percussionist.

You're in for an electronic listening experience like nothing else on record. In fact you would swear that the great bands of those wonderful times have been magically transported to today.

Just listen. And then listen again.

You won't believe your ears.

Playable on Stereo and Most Mono Phonographs

Track List & Rip

I know this recording has issues. It's got a ton of pre-echo. It isn't always clear. But it's honestly a miracle that I got this at all - the record got atrociously warped right before playing this because it had been put in the wrong place and I accidentally sat on it, bending it, the surface dust looked like this:

SO MUCH DUST

Heck, my turntable had not seen use in months and the tracking and balance were horrendously off, yet it sounds...fine. It sounds totally, completely fine. And I haven't been able to play it without serious skips ever since.

I'm not buying this record again given I'm pretty satisfied with this rip, and I hope you can enjoy it too. If you really want me to try again, send me an email (contact info can be found here ).

Also, I find it neat that this record lists the publishing company for the music, making this a very old artifact indeed.

A1 - In A Sentimental Mood (Ellington-Mills-Kurtz), American Academy of Music.
A2 - Sweet and Lovely (Arnheim-Tobias-Lemare), Robbins Music Corp.
A3 - I Cover the Waterfront (Green-Hayman), Warner Bros. Music [should actually be Heyman]
A4 - Moonlight Serenade (Miller-Parrish), Robbins Music Corp.
A5 - Our Love is Here to Stay (Gershwin), Chappell & Co., Inc.
B1 - In My Solitude (Ellington-DeLange), American Academy of Music
B2 - Easy to Love (Porter), Chappell & Co., Inc.
B3 - Careless (Quadling-Howard-Jurgens), Bourne Co.
B4 - Just A Gigolo (Erammer-Ceasar-Cesucci), DeSylva, Brown & Henderson [should be Brammer and Casucci]
B5 - Synamoog (Taylor), Telco Music Pub. Co.

Get the rip HERE!

In a previous post, I talked about the HMV in Shibuya and how a record in its J-Pop section caught my eye that was so arresting, so bizarre that I had to get it. You can see it in the header image of this post: open it in a new tab (it's not cropped), and really stare at it for a moment. It's incredible. A true classic collage. A girl playing with a dollhouse (perhaps from some toy catalog?), George Adamski's original UFO picture colorized, a boy that has clearly been enlarged from his original resolution many times over with a photocopier, and two large embossed pieces (yes - those look glued on top but it's embossing. Very clever printing work), one for 3D glasses and one for a chunk of Thai text I cannot decipher. The moment I saw this I was transfixed. Whatever music was on here had to be something interesting. I had no idea who these people were, or what I was getting into, but the cover sold me.

Sometimes you really should judge a book by its cover, and this is one of them: I expected weird new wave, and that's exactly what I got. The album is divided into the "Light Side" and "Dark Side", with the former sounding almost like corrupted surf rock in the vein of Moonriders, and the latter having the band really explore electronic landscapes, with some truly baffling tunes. Throughout the entire record, Shinya Oe's voice is run through very heavy distortion, making him sound like he's underwater. This is a deliberate choice - he had already been the frontman for other bands for years with no distortion, and it just stacks on the weirdness. You get the idea that the band was just having a lot of fun with this album and throwing whatever at the wall to see what stuck. All songs except 春霞 are in English (with two instrumentals: Space 1999 and Sorrow), but the lyrics sheet has Japanese translations for three of them: ゲルの生誕 - Birth of Gel, 鉄の柩 - Iron Coffins and 惡夢 - Bad Dreams). I've never seen anything like it.

The band, with no labels on any of the pictures other than to clarify some of them were not taken by Hiromi Fujita

It's a profoundly baffling package all the way through, but it's so captivating in the process. You have the punk of Birth of Gel and The Hunter Was Drowned, the very traditional-sounding 春霞 which looks structured like old Japanese poetry but I don't know the language well enough to know if it's serious or a parody, the sampler-driven Space 1999 that ends in a runout groove loop...it's just so cool, so fresh. Rebellious, majestic, you start to enjoy the ambient again in Sorrow, and then you get hit like a truck by the lyric "Pablo Picasso never got called asshole" [sic] on the "Dark Side". I'm genuinely surprised this hasn't been found or talked about by anyone before, when this is the kind of stuff that gets glossy reissues on Finders Keepers Records or someone of similar caliber. This is the kind of incredible stuff that showed up in independent Japanese levels during the Bubble Era, and I'm very happy to share it with you today. Take the advice of the back cover and...

I went in to listen to this record with absolutely zero knowledge, so that nothing would cloud my experience with the music. Thing is, if I'd done research beforehand, I would have found...almost nothing about 1984 in specific. The frontman, Shinya Oe, was the original frontman for massively influential band "The Roosters", and he'd been a member of that band for at least 5 years before recording this album. He still performs, and he even has an Instagram! But why he decided to go for this project on Portrait records...nothing. Kazuhiko Sakuyama was at one time the bass player for The Roosters, but his tenure appears to have been so short that he didn't get credited on any of their albums. Tamotsu Tominaga and Tomone Kaburagi would follow Oe to his solo ventures, and then are never heard from since. They credit Fukuoka band D.O.B., who also recorded on Portrait, for use of their Kurzweil K250, which was massively expensive at the time (the best estimate I can get, from Sound on Sound is about £12,000 , so not quite an ARP 2500 but still up there), but I don't know a whole lot about D.O.B. either. They definitely loved their samplers as you can hear in Space 1999, and the QX-1 cited here cost ¥480,000 at the time, so this was quite an expensive record in terms of gear as well.

The producer is Shozo Kashiwagi, owner of Portrait Records, who went on to produce a lot of Oe's solo albums as well. The answer may be buried in the liner notes of one of the many compilations of Shinya Oe's work, but as it stands, the best theory I have is that this was a sort of prototype for the kinds of music Oe would pursue as he was growing distant from Roosters. I don't know the story well enough to tell it here, and if you have any idea, I'd love the help!

That said, one thing that caught my eye is that the label was in Shinjuku, and I have no reason to believe that the "Starship" recording studio was located anywhere other than the label office. I was staying nearby, but I couldn't locate the building...one day I kind of want to go check it out for myself.

Another strange thing about this particular copy, is that it has inside a flyer for shows at the Cotton Club, a prestigious jazz club...for tours in 2020. That means that this record most likely has been sitting on the shelf of HMV Shibuya since March 2020, and I'm the first to pay any mind to the sheer coolness on display. What a world we live in.

Finally, while most online sources claim that this was recorded in 1986, there is no specific evidence on the record that indicates this. So, I put a question mark on it, and if I find more concrete evidence I'll add more, but as it stands, I got nothing.

Usually for these obscurities I at least find something, or I get thrown a bone by the liner notes, but I'm frustratingly low on information this time around. Though, it does add to the mystique of a record bursting at the seams with creativity!

Another baffling image from this record

Liner Notes

[Editor's Note: Romanization of Japanese is different when produced for use inside Japan, versus "for export". Therefore, certain constructions are a little different like "Syo" where we would normally expect "Sho", but they're functionally equivalent. Similarly, l and r are treated as equivalent, and "k" sounds are often represented with "c" instead. These have been left unaltered below.]

Syozo Kashiwagi - Vocal, Keyboards
Tomone Kaburagi - Keyboards
Tamotsu Tominaga - Vocal, Guitar, QX-1
Kazuhiko Sakuyama - Bass
Shinya Oe - Vocal
D.O.B - Kurzweil 250 [sic]

Produced by: Syozo Kashiwagi
Arranged by: 1984
Engineered by: Yasuyuki Moriyama
Recorded at: Starship

Mixed at F.R.S by D.O.B

Cover Art: Yasuhilo Mulacami
Design: Tomone Kaburagi
Production Manager: Bun Sato
Artist Manager: Yuichi Kasamatsu

Portrait Records
Dai2 Koa building 301, 22-39,
Nishishinjuku 7-Chome, Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo, Japan
03-365-5774

Lyrics/歌詞

On request of a YouTube comment, I've uploaded the lyrics. The lyrics are written in Japanese despite the songs being sung in English - a strange choice. I do not know the proper method for writing vertical text so I can present them as-is, so I will show them as images.

Lyrics to "Birth of Gel", presented as ゲルの生誕

Lyrics to "春霞"

Lyrics to "Bad Dreams", presented as 悪夢

Lyrics to "Iron Coffins", presented as 鉄の柩

Track List and Rip

Because there is "Light side" and "Dark side" instead of A and B on this record, I will refer to them as such.

Minor processing was applied using iZotope RX.

Light side

1. Birth of Gel (Mary/Syozo)
2. The Hunter was Drowned (Hell)
3. 春霞 (Tomone/1984)
4. Strange Days (The Doors)
5. Space 1999 (1984)

Dark side

1. Sorrow (Jun, 1984)
2. Pablo Picasso (Richman)
3. Bad Dreams (Mary/Syozo)
4. Iron Coffins (Mary/Syozo)

Get the album here!

I didn't want to make another post quite so soon, but neither did I expect that fate would decide to have such a strange turn a few days back. You see, I was going to a pizza joint that just opened up near me on a rainy day, and on the way there I spot someone dropped some sort of electronics on the street. I take a closer look.

I reel back. It's a Nakamichi DR-3. I've never even seen a Nakamichi "in the flesh", and here it is on the street, in the rain. I immediately double back, get home, and dry it up. I check inside - head looks clean, pinch rollers look pristine.

I pray that it works, and I focus entirely on this, mostly ignoring the tape that was stacked on top of the machine. I go to buy some tapes the next day to test, since I can't really trust that it's any good, even considering that it's one of the fancy Maxell Type IIs. The record store owner is baffled that I'd pick out tapes so fast, so I tell him the circumstances that led to this moment, and he's taken aback. He says, and I quote, "finding cool shit on the street like that is a 90s thing". Heck, he's probably right, it's not even the season to find anything like this on the street. I pop one of the tapes in when I get home and I find out it works perfectly - absolutely gorgeous sound, and if you have Dolby NR it executes it so well, you barely even hear any tape noise. It's a spectacular, well-built tank of a deck. I love it.

Here it is in my kitchen. No, that's not where it is now.

After I came back down to planet Earth from the high of having one of the best tape decks ever made land in my lap by fate, I realize - the tape! I gotta find out what's on it! I take one look at the label - "Billy [sic] Holiday at O.SB". I try to find anything on the net about this - nothing. Turns out her live recordings are very prized due to their scarcity which, as someone who grew up listening to Billie Holiday compilations, I can respect. I put it on, and try to identify the recording it by comparing it to any live album I can find...also nothing. They come from vinyl probably based on the surface noise, but she performed mostly in an era before magnetic tape recording really took off, so that's not that surprising, they could be radio transcription discs. I hear a song I definitely recognize, It Might As Well Be Spring, but it's an instrumental, and I can't find any evidence of that on any record of hers either. The plot thickens until a very non-1950s fadeout happens, and after the next track (which I don't recognize), a very modern FM radio voice says "That was Billie Holiday..".

That's when it hits me. This is someone's personal Billie Holiday mixtape, and they used Type II tape to record it. They spent good money to get the best quality possible, and probably recorded it on this very deck. These are deep cuts - I recognize basically none of these recordings, and the ones that sound familiar are new takes I've never heard before. It's wondrous. It's lovely. It's...exciting. They even nailed the recording level dead on - there's plenty of room at the top and no clipping at any point, but it's not quiet either. I don't know who the previous owner of this tape deck was - even if I went back to where I picked it up, it's an apartment building - but based on this tape, they must have been a pretty cool cat!

I don't know the circumstances here. I wish I did, I wish I understood why fate has decided that I am now a Tape Guy. I wish I could thank whoever has left this behind, that I can compensate them, even if just to tell them that it's going to a good home. There's no way that a perfectly working Nakamichi DR-3 ends up on the street for happy reasons, but if nothing else, at least it now will be somewhere it'll get lots of love.

Now, I ask you, the reader - please help me identify these songs. I have no idea where any of these recordings come from. She's one of the most written-about American singers of the 20th Century, rivalled only by Ella; there's plenty of Billie Holiday scholars out there. So I ask, can you help?

And for Boston readers specifically: Do you recognize the radio host? What station is this? "OSB" also brings up no results other than a baseball station, so I can tell you I have no clue who's playing this. You can skip to 47:03 to get what I think is the clearest sample of the radio host. Every instance appears to be the same guy, so I think these were all recorded closely apart from one another.

Rip

No Track List this time. I recognize like two songs on here - these ain't the hits, that's for sure, but what a selection! The trumpet player on the first cluster is out of this world.

Get the rip here! Normally I embed a YouTube video, but I had to compress the music a lot to get it to fit in my workflow so this time please just download the file. You'll be happier.

As you can tell from my other posts on this blog, I'm a huge enthusiast in forgotten synthesizers and the people who used them, with a particular emphasis on Electone models. As I explained in the previous Electone-related post, the Electone is a direct predecessor to the synthesizers that would become mainstays in popular media, either via the DX-7 and CS-80 fueling every synthwave and city pop enthusiast's dreams, or the YM2612 and its relatives powering Sega's arcade and home console sounds. The difference of the Electone compared to other synthesizer assemblies that makes it so enchanting to me, is the fact that it is ultimately still an organ, and therefore encourages the player to be their own accompaniment, using both hands and their feet to create a lively soundscape live, all at once. And that's how we get to this record.

I was out in Tokyo in September of this year, and of course one of the stops was to go to Shibuya to hunt a few things for my friends and, on the way, hunt stuff for my own. Shibuya is dense, overwhelming, and the record stores really worth chasing in it are hidden in plain sight, like Manhattan Records, which pops out in a corner and has an incredible hip-hop selection.

It truly is a wonderful place - if you're a hip-hop enthusiast and you're anywhere near Shibuya, go there and be amazed

On the way back from Manhattan Records I spotted an HMV branch that was quite spacious. The main draw was the new vinyl rereleases from Tatsuro Yamashita that had just come out that week, but I was there for the used sections. The J-pop section had a record that caught my eye immediately that I will discuss at a later date once I'm able to finish up more research on it, and while it was tempting to leave right after such a find, I went upstairs and was faced with a fundamental truth I wasn't aware of before then: buying Japanese jazz in Japan is actually kind of hard. The Japanese jazz section is a sliver compared to the space occupied to foreign (read: mostly American) jazz, and even the space at HMV was actually pretty big compared to the tiny little fraction seen at the enormous landmark Tower Records just down the road, where if it wasn't for the help of one of the clerks I would've just missed it entirely. There were some absolutely amazing cuts up here at jaw-dropping prices...

This record is truly phenomenal, it floored me. I can understand why people would pay so much to have such an exquisite work

...and this record right here, which caught me immediately as I'd been looking for more performances on the GX-1 for years, and there it was, clear as day, for a price so low I genuinely forget how much it was beyond being lower than the original sticker price of ¥2000. The GX-1 is, in many respects, a pioneering instrument allowing people to layer sounds live in ways that wouldn't be commonplace until MIDI had really gotten going, and its unique sound that rings as though a Sega Genesis is playing in the mid-70s has always intrigued me ever since I heard Keiko Ohta's baffling but entrancing cover of Sunny on the GX-1, further deepend by the knowledge that one of the ~100 total produced somehow made its way to the hands of Venezuela's pre-eminent organist, Tulio Enrique León. So, I had to buy this record, no matter what.

And now, after a few tumultuous months where I've been traveling and been disrupted too much to make high quality rips, I am happy to report that I'm very glad I did.

Matsuda is, above all else, elegant. His arrangements are so light and airy, it feels like he's floating above the keys, delivering utter delight. The album opens with such a captivating ethereal feeling, that I was immediately stunned and locked in for the whole thing. This is one of those albums that from the first measure, you know there's something really special going on.

Side A I think is the stronger of the two. The flow from Ebb Tide into Scarborough Fair is so perfect as to be nearly imperceptible, his arrangement of El Bimbo drags out a sweetness that I didn't realize could be in there, and A Whiter Shade of Pale becomes downright majestic. All this beauty, played by one man, all at once, sitting down at the endless possibilities of the GX-1 alongside drummer Akira Ishikawa, who wanders in and out of the record, just as ethereal as Matsuda. I especially like his lively beat on El Bimbo - it's quite rare that organists choose to have a live percussion accompaniment for this piece, and I think it was the right choice, as it leaves Matsuda with a third layer of sound at his fingertips.

Side B still has standouts, like Micalizzi's The Last Snow of Spring Time (L'ultima neve di primavera) which takes on new flight here, and a dazzling arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave that goes far beyond the bossa nova standard and explores variations I don't think I've ever heard from it before.

I really adore this record. I didn't know what to expect from it, and I was absolutely blown away. Give it a chance for yourself, let yourself sink in, and whether you know these songs and are hearing new takes you've never seen before, or hearing them for the first time, I know you'll enjoy them a whole lot. This absolutely belongs in the same pantheon as Koichi Oki and Shigeo Sekito's great works on the instrument, and I believe Matsuda to be the most elegant arranger of them all.

Masa at the Electone. I wish I could use the much livelier color picture from the back cover, but I cannot figure out how to remove the obi strip from this record without destroying it. They used to make them really well in 1975!

Liner Notes

Translation by hinata.yume on Discord. Message them if you need something translated! They do great work!

One neat thing I learned from the liner notes that I don't believe any online source currently cites, is that Masa Matsuda studied under Koichi Oki, one of the first masters of the Electone known for his incredible arrangements of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Oki was the first generation of Electone masters, and Matsuda is the second generation that started in the era where the Electone went from organ to synthesizer system with fully customizable patches that just happened to be shaped like an organ.

The brand-new world of music opened by GX-1.

A few words on GX-1.

Thanks to its wide variety of tones and simplicity of ensemble effects, many people came to love Yamaha Electone, and learned minute intricacies of these electronic keyboards. At present, this model has earned international recognition as an exemplary electronic organ. A lot of research has been conducted in 15 years since its initial release in Showa 34 (1959). Engineers of Yamaha used the results of their research to produce a new Electone with much more natural and rich-sounding tones. Said new model, GX-1, was used to record this album.

GX-1 has been designed around the core idea of "natural sound". For example, lifespan of a human consists of their birth, life, and death. The same is applicable to the world of sounds: a sound is created, has a certain duration, then fades. Additionally, a sound's expression (tone) changes with the passage of time. Previously, electronic organs used to create sustained waveforms in order to synthesize tones. However, GX-1 records the changes in tone over time, thus creating more natural sounds. That's what adds glistening radiance to each individual sound, and makes them resonate in a lively harmony.

A synthesizer system utilizes the sonorous principles to produce this "natural sound". This system consists of an oscillator which produces the sounds, a wave filter which creates tones, and an amplifier which amplifies the sounds. Together, said elements are controlled by a voltage control system. Consequently, GX-1 doesn't have a tone lever which is present in older Electone models.

Tone modules installed in the body of the instrument control the tones using preset elements of sound change. The performer can use the tone selector to pick a tone appropriate for the overall melodic motif. Usually, GX-1 performers use tone modules from a standard tone array table. Being a revolutionary electronic keyboard, GX-1 also allows the user to freely create original tones.
Matsuda Masa, who recorded this album, used both standard tones and custom, original modules to create the most appropriate sounds for the overall melodic motif. We hope you enjoy Matsuda Masa's dynamic and sensitive performance, as well as the richness of the tones produced by GX-1.

Ebb Tide

Robert Maxwell, a harpist, joined the Coast Guard in World War II. Apparently, this song is based on his experiences out in the sea. "La mer" by Debussy became an inspiration for my arrangement of this song. The intro which was originally performed on strings in a manner resembling raging waves, has been changed into an electronic melody. The strings in the part leading to the climax have been used to invoke the image of waves crashing in spray. Is the sound of the GX-1 electronic orchestra up to your liking?

Scarborough Fair

This hit by Simon and Garfunkel has a very beautiful melody, and resembles a prayer with its pure spirit. Both in arrangement and performance of the melody, I took extreme care to preserve the mood of this song. I wanted it to sound like a monologue of a lonely soul...

El Bimbo

This is Paul Mauriat's most recent hit. Despite its generic chord progression, this melody is truly bright and cheerful. Flute, brass, bass guitar, strings and drums of the GX-1 electronic orchestra have been arranged in a manner which highlights the dialogue between the strings and the flute.　Additionally, I made the brass section more lively.

The Shadow of Your Smile

Theme song from "The Sandpiper", a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. I played it as a light bossa nova. The first half of the theme is performed freely like a ballad, followed by a chorus and flute improvisation.

A Whiter Shade of Pale

A hit song from 1967 by the English rock band, Procol Harum. This is a beautiful song with classic harmonic progression. The vocal theme has been performed with synthesizer tones, while the intro has been performed with strings and electronic sounds. The theme is followed by 8-measure sections, synthesizer improvisation, string variations I and II, and concluded with a reprise of the theme.

The Exorcist

Theme song from a popular horror movie, The Exorcist. The bell melody which can be heard in the beginning and at the end of the song is Dies Irae, an old church music used in Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz. It perfectly matches the mood of this theme song. When the church bells gradually quiet down, the sound of distant demonic laughter approaches. Then the black sabbath begins.

The Last Snows of Spring

To outline the story of this movie, the moment a father and son finally obtain happiness they've been striving for, they are cruelly separated again. The death of a cute freckled boy brought tears to my eyes. The melody was originally calm and quiet, but this record features a dramatic arrangement. The middle part of the theme was originally played in minor key, but I changed it to major key.

Stella by Starlight

A jazz standard number, made famous by Miles Davis. It has been arranged as an opera interlude. The first six notes of the theme are used as a central motif of this composition, with Debussy's Clair de Lune inserted in the middle as a free improvisation.

Wave

A famous Bossa Nova song composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim. I imagined an electronic harp singing and freely floating on the waves.

Bali Ha'i

A song from a musical "South Pacific", by a famous team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It is arranged with brass strings, electric harp, and bass, with brass strings playing a central role.
(By Matsuda Masa)

Matsuda Masa's profile:

Born in Takarazuka City, dropped out of Tokyo University of the Arts.
Matsuda Masa has 15 years of experience playing piano. He was charmed by the sound of the Electone, and mastered the instrument by himself. He studied under Oki Kouichi and Kitano Tadao. His favorite musicians are Miles, Takemitsu Tooru, and Oki Kouichi. His music blends elements of jazz and contemporary music, and he is considered to be an up-and-coming star of the emerging Electone scene.

Musical career:

Winner of the 9th Electone Grand Prix in 1972. Winner of the 1973 Annual Grand Prix. Matsuda Masa provides extensive guidance to junior performers at concerts. In 1975, he taught courses for Australian Electone teachers. He held concert performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and so on.

Track List and Rip

Note there's a slight skip in A5. I've had pretty bad luck getting around skips lately, and I think this is fine enough as the beauty of the track still comes through, and this is otherwise a very clean copy.

Minor processing was applied using iZotope RX.

I think the translations of the song titles are interesting, so I've put them here in the blog post, but I didn't add them to the ID3 tags. I hope that's okay. When the JP title is just a katakana rendition of the title, I left it blank. Why L'ultima neve de primavera is rendered as "merry go round", I have no idea, but that's what it says.

A1 - Ebb Tide (ひき潮) (R. Maxwell, C.Sigman)
A2 - Scarborough Fair (P. Simon)
A3 - El Bimbo (オリーブの首飾り) (C.Morgan)
A4 - The Shadow of your Smile (いそしぎ) (P.F.Webster, J.Mandel)
A5 - A Whiter Shade of Pale (青い影) (K.Reid, G.Brooker)
B1 - Tubular Bells from "The Exorcist" (M.Oldfield0
B2 - The Last Snow of Spring Time (メリー・ゴーランド) (F.Micalizzi)
B3 - Stella by Starlight (星影のステラ) (N.Washington, V.Young)
B4 - Wave (A.C.Jobim)
B5 - Bali Ha'i (R.Rodgers, O.Hammerstein II)

Get the album here!

While for most people the Space Race ended when the Americans landed on the moon in 1969, there was a second, smaller-scoped space race going on in Germany afterward: which of the two would have someone in space first? Would it be the East Germans or the West Germans? In 1978, this was decisively concluded by Sigmund Jähn, the first East German cosmonaut, who was selected by the Soviet Interkosmos program for training and sent off on the Soyuz 29/31 mission pair to spend a week at the Salyut 6 space station before returning to his home a hero, and immediately being assigned to lead the Nationale Volksarmee's (East German Army) Cosmonaut Training Center. He later became a Major General in said army, was awarded with the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union, and would later join the European Space Agency (ESA) and train (now unified) German astronauts for the Mir-92, Euromir-94, Euromir-96 and Mir-97 missions.

Diagram of the Salyut 6 space station from the back cover; see the liner notes for details on what the numbers mean.

In short, this was a big deal for East Germany, and it was worthy of great celebration for their hero. That's where this record comes in - and you can see this immediately in the cover, with Jähn seated next to Valery Bykovsky, posing in their space suits next to their docking module. Famous orchestras of the Berlin radio and TV, pioneer choirs (think of them like the East German Komsomol), even rock bands like the famous prog legends Stern-Combo Meißen were dragged in to come together and celebrate this great achievement. The result is an album that refuses to stick to any one aesthetic other than a positive, euphoric mood, and of course lyrics about how cool it is that there's a German in space and how nice our friends over at the USSR are. If you don't know German, I think some of the impact is lost as some of these songs positively drip with socialist realism-like melodrama, but unfortunately I don't think I have it in me to transcribe everything.

Side A is what you'd expect from a propaganda record: children's choirs (Guten Tag, ihr goldenen Sterne, Gruß der Kosmonautenbrüdern, etc.), big bands (Unser Mann aus dem All), and Schlager (Die Erde dreht sich linksherum, Acht Tage lang im Weltraum), that very German kind of pop music which is united by its happy-go-lucky, carefree vibe. Side B is where it gets interesting. Clearly satisfied with checking off their socialist melodrama quota, the government backers let the more experimental bands take over this side, and immediately you get these gorgeous Moroder-like synths in "Hoch im All" from the Orchester Lothar Kehr, the lovely folk-rock of Gruppe Drei on "Steigen wie ein Falk", the striking In den Kosmos from the famed Stern-Combo Meißen, or the epic Kosmoslied from Hansi Klemm and the Günter-Fischer Quintett, which is the reason I bought this record in the first place as I believe it's the only time this song was pressed to disk. It's a lovely collection of some of the great talent in the DDR, and I'm glad to be able to show it to you all.

However, a word of warning. As much as I have tried, and tried, and tried again, there are two issues with this rip: A1 and A2 are basically unlistenable due to huge skips, and overall there's this clipping sticking to the left channel whenever things get even a little loud. I've checked my cartridge, tracking force, anti-skate, tested other records...it's just this one. For the skips, I'm not surprised if the previous owner of this record played "Die Erde dreht sich linksherum" to death, as it's quite catchy (or "Hoch im All" which also has some more minor skips), but given how cheaply made the cover for this record is - it's very thin cardboard and was practically falling apart when I touched it, despite being visually in great shape - I wouldn't be surprised if they cheaped out on the production, especially since they needed to churn out a lot of these. That said, AMIGA is not exactly known for low quality vinyl either, so I genuinely don't know what's going on here. I'm just glad I could salvage what I did, and that we can all listen to it together now!

Liner Notes

These are dense (and in tiny print, too.) Coming from a country where we barely credit our musicians or composers on records and every release is a mystery (Venezuela), there is just a ton of information here. In the interests of accuracy, I will copy these down twice; first in the original German, then translated. I know this will make for a probably too long post, but I think it's important.

German Liner Notes

Seite 1
Die Erde dreht sich linksherum
K: Klaus Schneider / T: Günter Hansel / A: Lothar Kehr
Unternehmen Münchehofe, Orchester Lothar Kehr
1:35

Unser Mann aus dem All
K u. A: Arndt Bause / T: Dieter Schneider
Jürgen Erbe-Chor, Pionierchor »Omnibus«
Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Berlin
Leitung: Günter Kretschmer
3:20

Kannste globn, da komm' wir alle hin [sic]
K: Traditional / T: Kollektiv / A: Klaus Schneider
Gerhard Kegel, Singegruppe, Instrumentalgruppe und eine Gruppe des Rundfunk-Kinderchores Leipzig
2:00

Bruder Gagarins
K: Rainer Neumann / T: Gerd Eggers / A: Helmut Frommhold
Rainer Neumann, Jahrgang '49 und Streichergruppe
2:40

Gute Mutter Erde
K u. A: Klaus Schneider / T: Bärbel Milchmeyer
Gerhard Neef und Uta Wilke, eine Gruppe des Rundunk-Kinderchores Leipzig, Instrumentalgruppe
2:00

Eine Reise zu den Sternen
K u. A: Harald Röser / T: Hans-Georg Herde
Die Spreeathener, Instrumentalgruppe
Leitung: Wolfgang Latarius
2:10

Gruß dem Kosmonauten
K u. T: Gerhard Graul
Rundfunk-Kinderchor Berlin, Leitung: Manfred Roost
0:40

Wenn ich einmal groß sein werde
K: Hajo Lehmann / T: Rudi Bienert / A: Jürgen Peter
Heiko vom Rundfunk-Kinderchor Berlin Studio-Ensemble,
Leitung: Jürgen Peter
0:55

Guten Tag, ihr goldenen Sterne
K: Hajo Lehmann / T: Rudi Bienert / A: Jürgen Peter
Pionierchor »Omnibus«, Studio-Ensemble
Leitung: Jürgen Peter

Gruß den Kosmonautenbrüdern
K, deutscher Text u. A: Paul Funk / T: Pionierleiter aus Artek
Rundfunk-Kinderchor Berlin, Leitung: Paul Funk
Paul Funk, Klavier
1:45

Acht Tage lang im Weltraum
K: Klaus Schneider / T: Wolfgang Brandenstein / A: Jürgen Peter
Monika Hauff und Klaus-Dieter Henkler, Die Unentwegten Studio-Orchester
Leitung: Jürgen Peter
2:30

Seite 2

Hoch im All
K: Klaus Hugo / T: Dieter Schneider / A: Lothar Kehr
Cantus-Chor, Orchester Lothar Kehr
2:40

Steigen wie ein Falk [sic]
K u. A: Ingo Koster / T: Jochen Kramer
Gruppe »Drei«
3:25

In den Kosmos
K: Thomas Kurzhals / Norbert Jäger / T: Norbert Jäger
A: Thomas Kurzhals
Stern-Combo Meißen
5:00

Eroberung der Venus
K: Horst Krüger / T: Roland Kästner
Unternehmen Münchehofe, Horst Krüger-Studioband
4:05

...in dieser Zeit
K: Klaus Hugo / T: Ingeburg Branoner / A: Horst Krüger
Alfons Frank
Undernehmen Münchehofe, Horst Krüger-Studioband
3:55

Kosmoslied
K u. A: Günther Fischer / T: Eberhard Fensch
Hansi Klemm, Günther Fischer-Quintett
4:35

Titel 1-17 Aufnahmen Rundfunk der DDR

VEB DEUTSCHE SCHALLPLATTEN BERLIN DDR
Made in German Democratic Republic [sic]

Lithografie und Druck: VEB Gotha-Druck
Mikrorillenplatten nur mit einem Mikro- oder Stereoabtaster abspielen.
Für Stereoplatten (auch bei Monowiedergabe) nur einen Stereo-Tonabnehmer verwenden.
Platte und Abtastspitze stets von Staub reinigen.
Ag 511/01/78 Verpackung nach TGL 10609

16,10 M

Wissenschaftliche Raumstation Salut 6, Sojus 29/31
Zeichnung: Roland Jäger

Legende:

1. Sojus-Raumschiffe 29/31
2. Durchstiegsluke
3. Sonnenbatterien
4. Station Salut 6
5. Antennen des Anlegesystems
6. Zentrales Steuerpult
7. Multispektralkamera MKF 6
8. Duschkabine
9. Wissenschaftliche Gerätesektion

Translated Liner Notes

[Editor’s note: These are written a little weird, but I’m fairly certain every time it says “Studio Ensemble” or similar, it means the studio orchestra of DDR national radio, as that’s where all but the last track were recorded]

Side 1
Die Erde dreht sich linksherum (The Earth turns counterclockwise)
Composed by: Klaus Schneider / Lyrics: Günter Hansel / Arrangement: Lothar Kehr
Unternehmen Münchehofe, Lothar Kehr Orchestra
1:35

Unser Mann aus dem All (Our man in the universe)
Composed and arranged by: Arndt Bause / Lyrics: Dieter Schneider
Jürgen Erbe chorus, Pioneer chorus »Omnibus«
Dance Orchestra of Radio Berlin
Director: Günter Kretschmer
3:20

Kannste globn, da komm' wir alle hin (Can you believe it, we're all coming) [Editor’s note: "globn" means glauben. It's a Kölsch thing apparently, which is kind of ironic since that is in the far west of Germany.]
Composed by: Traditional / Lyrics: Kollektiv / Arrangement: Klaus Schneider [Editor’s Note: Pretty sure “Kollektiv” here just means that the lyrics are folk knowledge, but it’s a little unclear]
Gerhard Kegel, vocal group, instrumental group and a group from the children’s chorus of Radio Leipzig
2:00

Bruder Gagarins (Brother Gagarin)
Composed by: Rainer Neumann / Lyrics: Gerd Eggers / Arrangement: Helmut Frommhold
Rainer Neumann, Jahrgang '49 and Streichergruppe
2:40

Gute Mutter Erde (Good Mother Earth)
Composed and arranged by: Klaus Schneder / Lyrics: Bärbel Milchmeyer
Gerhard Neef and Uta Wilke, a vocal and an instrumental group and children’s chorus from Radio Leipzig [Editor’s note: The original is super unclear. Pretty sure it’s that they had a bunch of people from Radio Leipzig help out here.]
2:00

Eine Reise zu den Sternen (A trip to the stars) [Editor’s note: a Star Trek, if you will]
Composed and arranged by: Harald Röser / Lyrics: Hans-Georg Herde
Die Spreeathener, instrumental group
Director: Wolfgang Latarius
2:10

Gruß dem Kosmonauten (Greeting of the cosmonauts)
Composed by, Lyrics: Gerhard Graul
Children’s chorus of Radio Berlin, Director: Manfred Roost
0:40

Wenn ich einmal groß sein werde (When I grow up)
Composed by: Hajo Lehmann / Lyrics: Rudi Bienert / Arrangement: Jürgen Peter
Heiko from the Radio Berlin children’s chorus and studio ensemble
Director: Jürgen Peter
0:55

Guten Tag, ihr goldenen Sterne (Good day, you golden stars)
Composed by: Hajo Lehmann / Lyrics: Rudi Bienert / Arrangement: Jürgen Peter
Pioneer chorus »Omnibus« and studio ensemble
Director: Jürgen Peter
2:10

Gruß den Kosmonautenbrüdern (Greeting of the Cosmonaut Brotherhood)
Composed, arranged and German lyrics: Paul Funk / Original lyrics: Pioneer leaders from Artek [Editor’s note: Artek was the central and most important Pioneer Camp in the Soviet Union]
Children’s chorus of Radio Berlin, Director: Paul Funk
Paul Funk, keyboard
1:45

Acht Tage lang im Weltraum (Eight days in space)
Composed by: Klaus Schneider / Lyrics: Wolfgang Brandenstein / Arrangement: Jürgen Peter
Monika Hauff and Klaus-Dieter Henkler, Die Unentwegten and studio orchestra [Editor’s Note: Die Unentwegten were a choir]
Director: Jürgen Peter
2:30

Side 2
Hoch im All (High in the universe)
Composed by: Klaus Hugo / Lyrics: Dieter Schneider / Arrangement: Lothar Kehr
Cantus-Chor, Lothar Kehr orchestra [Editor’s note: Cantus-Chor just means Cantus Chorus but it’s easier to look up this way.]
2:40

Steigen wie ein Falk (Rising like a [hawk?]) [Editor’s Note: Do they mean Falke???]
Composed and arranged by: Ingo Koster / Lyrics: Jochen Kramer
Gruppe »Drei«
3:25

In den Kosmos (In the cosmos)
Composed by: Thomas Kurzhals & Norbert Jäger / Lyrics: Norbert Jäger
Arrangement: Thomas Kurzhals
Stern-Combo Meißen
5:00

Eroberung der Venus (Conquest of Venus)
Composed by: Horst Krüger / Lyrics: Roland Kästner
Unternehmen Münchehofe, Horst Krüger-Studioband
4:05

...in dieser Zeit (…in these times)
Composed by: Klaus Hugo / Lyrics: Ingeburg Branoner / Arrangement: Horst Krüger
Alfons Frank
Undernehmen Münchehofe, Horst Krüger-Studioband
3:55

Kosmoslied (Cosmos song)
Composed and arranged by: Günther Fischer / Lyrics: Eberhard Fensch
Hansi Klemm, Günther Fischer-Quintett
4:35

Titel 1-17 recorded at National Radio of the GDR [Editor's note: Somehow, they don't tell us where Kosmoslied was recorded. Super weird given how detailed these are otherwise.]

VEB DEUTSCHE SCHALLPLATTEN BERLIN DDR [Editor’s note: company name. VEB: Volkseigener Betrieb, Publicly Owned Enterprise]
Made in German Democratic Republic [sic]

Lithography and printing: VEB Gotha-Druck
Only play microgroove records with a micro- or stereo players.
For stereo records (even for mono playback), only use a stereo pickup.
Clean dust from records and stylus .
Ag 511/01/78 packed under TGL 10609 [Editor’s Note: this is a manufacturing standard similar to the GOST of the Soviet Union/Russian Federation or the ISO/NIST standards used today. I can find the original documents for other standards like TGL 10600 in the Spezialarchiv Bauen in der DDR but I can’t seem to find TGL 10609…]

16,10 M [Editor’s Note: This is the price in marks, and more dedicated readers than me can go find out how much this would’ve cost in terms of wages and also on the black market in 1978.]

Scientific space station Salyut 6, Soyuz 29/31
Illustration: Roland Jäger

Legend:

1: Soyuz space ship 29/31 [Editor’s Note: They park at different ends, and are considered two separate missions, one for deployment and one for return]
2.

1. Sojus-Raumschiffe 29/31
2. Airlock [Editor’s note: I’m only about 80% sure this is a correct translation]
3. Solar batteries
4. Space Station Salyut 6
5. Antennae of the landing systems
6. Central control console
7. Multi-spectral camera MKF 6
8. Shower cabin
9. Scientific device section

Track List and Rip

Very fun album throughout, even if you're not much of a Schlager person and just jump straight to the positively majestic stuff on offer on Side 2. I am really excited to share this with everyone, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did - I was floored by Stern-Combo Meißen's contribution.

Please note that despite the fact that East German records use "Side 1" and "Side 2", for the sake of an easier-to-read track list I'm using standard American A/B instead. For details on each track, see Liner Notes above. I've tried tagging as best I can but frankly this amount of detail is exhausting so you can just read the Liner Notes.

**Please be aware that A1 and A2 skip so much they are almost unsalvageable, and B1 has some uncomfortable skips too. They are included due to the rarity of this record and how good B1 is. If you think you can do better at ripping than me, my contact details are in the About page, let's arrange a delivery.]

A1 - Die Erde dreht sich linksherum
A2 - Unser Mann im All
A3 - Kannste globn, da komm' wir alle hin
A4 - Bruder Gagarins
A5 - Gute Mutter Erde
A6 - Eine Reise zu den Sternen
A7 - Flieg, Raumschiff, Flieg
A8 - Gruß den Kosmonauten
A9 - Wenn ich einmal groß sein werde
A10 - Guten Tag, ih goldenen Sterne
A11 - Gruß den Kosmonautenbrüdern
A12 - Acht Tage lang im Weltraum
B1 - Hoch im All
B2 - Steigen wie ein Falk
B3 - In den Kosmos
B4 - Eroberung der Venus
B5 - ...in dieser Zeit
B6 - Kosmoslied

Get the album HERE!

I really wanted to write this post in January of 2021. However, due to issues with the blog software that took a very long time to resolve, the post has instead been delayed all the way until now, and it seems there is another copy of this recording floating around. However, since mine is of superior quality with less clipping, I still find it prudent to finally sit down and write what I wanted to, as well as provide a download link as per usual.

In the middle of a sleepless night brought on by the multifarious pressure of COVID lockdowns, a somewhat unsteady home situation and the toll of permanent WFH, something magical happened. I got a Discogs message at 3 AM. Normally these are either updates on my wantlist, or the very occasional sale from a shop I'd done business in the past, but here it was, very late at night, a message from a DJ in Kazakhstan with the title "Ekvodin":

Hi
Maybe you are interested in this records?
https://www.discogs.com/Ансамбль-Электромузыкальных-Инструментов-ПУ-М-Кадомц/release/16222350

I was instantly captivated. Yes! Of course I was interested! There's so few recordings of the Ekvodin that actually tell you they're the Ekvodin, so I jumped at the chance, no matter what the cost was, no matter how hard it would be to ship it.

Our friend in Kazakhstan offered reasonable rates and fast shipping. Five stars.

It didn't take long before I obtained the record. Just like our previous exploration of the Ekvodin, the record came in a perfectly plain generic Melodiya sleeve, with the price striked out and "уценненая" (discounted) stamped with a big sticker. It seems that whoever had previously tried to sell this before it came into the hands of our Kazakhstani accomplice did not really see much value in it, and I can understand why, as the history of the Ekvodin is often told in hushed tones and old documents, despite being a profoundly visionary instrument predating the Moog revolution by almost 30 years. I personally was just excited to get a full EP of the stuff; as fun as the demonstration of the previous record was, I wanted to see more of what Mikhail Kadomtsev's group could do with the instrument. In particular, the fact that the first track on Side A was composed by him intrigued me - the Suite he composed and performed as part of the Ekvodin Quartet on side B of the Ekvodin Demonstration Record was impeccable, delightful and very memorable, and I wanted more.

I cleaned the record, and I put the needle down.

Haunting bells, then the characteristic sound of Ekvodin strings. A perfectly set scene, reverberating powerfully - was this recorded in a big hall? - as we fall into a sweet waltz more than an elegy. I knew immediately that, noise and all, this was worth sharing.

The other song on side A is a strange, pulsing mazurka from Aleksey Muravlev, someone who I found almost nothing on beyond a singular album that got taken off YouTube because of a terminated account. Very sad, as I wanted to see what kind of piano pieces Mr. Muravlev did later on in life. It is, again, a great demonstration of the Ekvodin's capabilities - if you put this as a film soundtrack of the era, due to the limitations in optical sound recording at the time, it would be hard to distinguish from a "real" orchestra by your average listener, and I think that speaks to the strengths of the Ekvodin of sounding almost in the uncanny valley of what "real" strings sound like, something we wouldn't get again for many, many years later due to the known (and thoroughly enjoyed) artificiality of the Moog and the early FM synthesis from Yamaha.

Side A is much shorter than Side B. Side B is traditional Russian songs (Кукует Кукушечка and Зимушка-Зима) and Pushkin's Waltz in C# minor from Prokofiev. These are themselves also well-executed, though they are presented differently as being the "Ekvodin Quartet" without a mention of director Kadomtsev. Since on the Demonstration Record it was made clear that Kadomtsev was performing alongside the Ekvodin Quartet, I believe that this is the same case here. Still, we hear a lot of the similar voices, and I think these are very well-executed; the winter scene brought to mind by Кукует Кукушечка is as crystal clear as the best renditions I've heard.

Overall, I enjoyed this little taste a lot, and I am glad to have more clear Ekvodin sounds to share with you all. I hope you give it as much love as the previous record got on YouTube, and that we can all bring a little more love to this beautiful instrument.

Liner Notes

None this time! Comes in a generic sleeve. Everything will be in the next section.

Track List and Rip

Side A is credited to Ансамбль Электронных Муз. Инструментов, Дирижер М. Кадомцев while Side B is credited to Квартет Экводинов. Per the Demonstration Record, Kadomtsev is playing as part of the Quartet on Side B rather than directing.

The date of this pressing is confirmed by the fact that Melodiya kept impeccable and consistent catalog numbering for every single release from 1933 through to 1991, and we can therefore slot Д-0008913 squarely as a late release for 1961 according to this table on rockdisco.lv. This is likely to be a post-1964 reissue of a 1961 recording, as the different record plants in the USSR didn't merge until 1964, and our previous Ekvodin recording wasn't on Melodiya at all.

A1 - Элегия (composer Mikhail Kadomtsev)
A2 - Мазурка-Каприс (composer Aleksey Muravlev)
B1 - Кукует Кукушечка (traditional)
B2 - Зимушка-Зима (traditional)
B3 - Пушкинский Вальс (Ми Минор) (Pushkin Waltz in C# minor, composer Sergei Prokofiev)

A short but sweet time to be had. I'm glad I can share beautiful gems like this with the world.

Get the album HERE!

The Electone. What started as a way for Yamaha to engineer a more reliable, futuristic organ (with their prototype sounding fascinating ) and over time became the testing ground the leading edge of their FM Synthesis technology that would become so famous in the DX-7 and chips like the YM2612, as they could command much higher prices for full organ consoles. Whether you're a fan of them for historical reasons, because Himemori Luna streams herself playing it and Yamaha has made her a showcase model, or simply because they look cool and sound cool, there's a rich history to the Electone itself.

The incredibly cool-looking EX-42 stage model, shown in the Niavaran Palace as one of the artifacts left behind by the deposed Shah of Iran

One part of this history that I've found of particular interest is the Yamaha Electone Festival series of concerts, where students at Yamaha certified music schools gather to perform pieces and impress a panel of judges, starting from regional concerts up to the Yamaha International Electone Festival, where a narrow group of finalists would perform in Japan. The first International Electone Festival of this type was held in 1970, featuring participants from "five countries" (which five - no idea!). Finding documentation of past festivals is difficult beyond 2019 - Yamaha keeps at least that much information on their Japanese website, but it's hard to know how many of these events happen worldwide, and recordings of them are even rarer. Which is why it's all the more interesting to find a record like this, from a regional final held in Lisbon, Portugal on June 27th 1986, where a panel of students from Italy, Portugal, Spain, France and the Canary Islands gathered to show off ther skills. It's not the International/Global finals, which makes it all the more fascinating - someone in Portugal, specifically Valentim de Carvalho, thought that this was a worthy thing to record, and I am so glad that I can share it with you. I think the Electone has such a rich sound palette that allows the performer to become a true one-man band with a vast array of sound textures at their disposal, allowing you to either lift up the traditional music of your people, create fascinating alien soundscapes or simply play your heart out. They are very, very cool, even though they have a reputation in Japan for being "lesson instruments", though this hasn't stopped people like TUCKER from taking the Electone to new, raw highs. The potential of the instrument is limitless.

And that, in turn, is why I find this album so delightful. Every contestant brings a totally different set of sound textures and a different ideal to the mix even though there were only two Electone models available to play on, meaning every contestant was on an even footing. The age range is quite wide as well, from youngster Antonio Bucci (16) from Italy, to Philipp Bataille (37) from France, and as this is a contest, these are all live performances, warts and all - for some contestants, you can tell the nerves are getting to them a bit, but that just makes it all the more precious a real, raw moment on tape.

All Participants of the contest standing together

There's a lot of styles on display, from classics as performed by Felipe Ruiz Hernandez and Antonio Bucci, to energetic, relentless mid-80s pop by Marta Padros y Torra, and cosmic prog soundscapes as performed by Louis Tortora. I found it really fun! Even for things I've heard a thousand times like Carmina Burana, there's something special about the textural choices on display here and the creative ways that every contestant used to pull everything they could out of the Electone FX-1 and FX-20.

It's quite difficult to find where the contestants ended up. Some have very common names (sorry, Soomie Lee), for others there's much more famous people named the same thing, and others just disappeared without a trace. So let's go over them one by one:

Antonio Bucci: At first I found nothing, but then I put this album into iTunes and it auto-generated a cover that matches this YouTube channel. I can't be 100% sure since his personal website is down and the WayBack machine irritatingly didn't save his biography page, but if he was born in 1969 or 1970 this is likely to be him.

José Telmo R. Marques: According to ResearchGate he was the head of the department of music at the Politécnico no Porto, but he doesn't seem to work there anymore. Here's a Portuguese equivalent of ResearchGate that tells me he definitely goes by Telmo Marques now, and I found his compositions as well! He seems to be focused on composition these days, so I'll share some easy to find stuff from YouTube.

Pascual Gracia Royo: Either he's the son of a very famous Spanish chemist, or he's somehow related. Either way, the chemist overwhelms the search engines, but I can at least tell you for sure that this is not a misspelling of Pascual García Royo. He may have composed for a short movie in 2001 but it's impossible to tell.

José J.R.S. Machado: Without knowing what the J.R.S. stand for this is basically impossible as this might as well be the Portuguese equivalent of John Smith. No clue. The J is Joaquín, but I cannot understand the announcer enough to make out the other initials in a way that matters.

Soomie Lee: Also a very common name. I found a few artists and musicians but none of them are remotely a match for the picture on the back cover even considering how many years have passed.

María Padros y Torra: Either she pivoted hard to be a pedagogical researcher or she disappeared without a trace, which is a shame because she plays with incredible energy and vitality here.

Felipe Ruiz Hernandez: Either he plays guitar now or I got nothin'.

Louis Tortora: I was so happy with how easy it was to find him - he has a several active YouTube channels which you should check out (they all link to each other) and is now a music teacher. I left him a comment saying as much; it's the least I can do.

Ana Paula de Medeiros Andrade: Pretty sure she's now a master pianist of Azores music. You can find lots of videos of her performing!

Riccardo Burattini: I found him in a jazz organ database playing an Electone and he seems like quite the big shot! They also provide a sample of him playing "Bésame Mucho" in an ensemble as well. If you look for him otherwise you will mostly find this lovely house piece which, after seeing that jazz organ article, am reasonable confident is also one of his compositions.

Philipp Bataille: He's just straight up on Spotify, though it seems like he spells it Philippe Bataille now.

This album is a delight through and through, and it blew through my expectations when I listened to it. I hope you too can become enchanted, and if you've never given any thought to the Electone, give this a shot!

Liner Notes

[Editor's Note: There's a lot of minor errors here, but they put in a good effort. I definitely have to spam [sic] though.]

June 27th 86 [sic]

The International South European Electone Festival Final took place at the "Trinidade" Theater, in Lisbon, Portugal.
Again this year, the very best Electone Players gathering from South Europe participated to this Festival [sic] (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal)
Now in its Fifth year, the Festival was born from the First National Competition held in 1964 at Yamaha Hall in Ginza, Tokyo.
The First International Electone Festival included participants from five countries in 1970.
This impressive growth reflects the ever-expanding popularity of the Electone and its fast growing world renown, as an instrument with unlimited creative possibilitees.[sic]
In addition, to present all those fine artists together for an outstanding musical event the Festival provides an opportunity, for young musicians from all countries, to meet in a friendship atmosphere musical enjoyment. [sic]
Listen to them in this Selection of outstanding pieces the exciting sounds of Electone Festival 1986!!! [sic]

Contestants (in their performance order):

Antonio Bucci (16), Italy

José Telmo R. Marques (22), Portugal

Pascual Gracia Royo (24), Spain

José J.R.S. Machado (36), Portugal

Soomie Lee (17), Canarys Islands [sic]

Marta Padros y Torra (24), Spain

Felipe Ruiz Hernandez (16), Canarys Islands [sic]

Louis Tortora (34), France

Ana Paula M. Andrade (22), Portugal

Riccardo Burattini (23), Italy

Philipp Bataille (37), France [sic]

Track List & Rip

A1 - Sinfonia per un Addio (Giordano Televio) performed by Antonio Bucci on the FX-1
A2 - Maker (José Telmo R. Marques) performed by José Telmo R. Marques on the FX-20
A3 - Night Crawler (Bob James) performed by Pascual Gracia Royo on the FX-1
A4 - Nights in Rio (Shakatak) performed by José J.R.S. Machado on the FX-20
A5 - Penelope (A. Algueró) performed by Soomie Lee on the FX-20
A6 - Boogie Wonderland (J. Lind) performed by Marta Padros y Torra on the FX-1
B1 - Carmina Burana (Carl Orff) performed by Felipe Ruiz Hernandez on the FX-20
B2 - Suspiria (Goblin-Argento) performed by Louis Tortora on the FX-1
B3 - Mosaico (Ana Paula M. Andrade) performed by Ana Paula M. Andrade on the FX-20
B4 - Spain (Chick Corea) performed by Riccardo Burattini on the FX-1
B5 - Birdland (Joe Zawinul, somehow credited as "D. Zawinul") performed by Philippe Bataille on the FX-1

It's extra recommended that you download the rip this time, as I had to reduce the bitrate for the YouTube upload.

Download the album here!

Charanjit Singh is a legend of electronic music, accidentally inventing a genre after becoming enchanted with the Roland TB-303, TR-808 and the Jupiter-8 on a trip to Singapore, making one groundbreaking outlier of an album, Synthesizing - Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, which sounds so mystifying and powerful even today that it led quite the revival some 30 years after its release in 1982, leading to him being tracked down in Mumbai and eventually performing his outstanding work all over the world, which would seem like quite the departure for his apparently quiet life given how hard he was to reach, but as his wife noted in 2010, they'd been touring all over the world already, playing just the same ragas at private shows, though perhaps not through the trio of instruments that made him so beloved from that fateful re-release of his album.

Charanjit Singh would pass away in 2015 at the age of 75, surrounded by adoration and still touring with his music to the end. However, one strange question remained - in article after article, a mysterious "calypso album" keeps coming up. here it is in Bruzz, here in an Indian obit, and even as early as 2010 alongside the reissue it was being talked about.

Article from Mojo magazine, 2010, with a final paragraph hinting at the "Experiments in Calypso" album

I first found out about Charanjit Singh around 2013 or so, and while I've always been a huge fan of Synthesizing - Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, I've also been haunted by this calypso album. I struggled to find any details about it - hardly surprising given how hard it must have been to find the original record that shot him to stardom! But around 2015 I noticed this Discogs page which seemed to be the fabled calypso album. Problem was, it sold once in 2015 and then...never again. This was likely never going to show up, but I put it on my watchlist on a whim, in case it ever came up. Days turned into months which turned into years, and I had long given up on ever finding it this way, but sure enough, a few weeks back I got that email notification that got me to leap out of my chair and order it as soon as humanly possible, lest it fall into some other collector's hands and perhaps destined to rot in obscurity. I was so profoundly excited, I started collecting up the articles I had read all those years ago for this post and...found out that Sony Music India had beat me to the punch by about a month. This is up on Spotify, Tidal, you name it, it's probably on there, out of the blue, with no explanation. It had around 20 views on YouTube when I ordered the CD. My heart sank, but I still had my holy grail, and I was going to post about it!

Until, at least, I realized upon arrival that I got a "Generic" sleeve which I did not notice at the time of ordering. Not that I'd mind normally - this is one-of-a-kind after all - but I really was hoping I would get a tiny scrap of liner notes I could share with the world about why this came to be. Instead, all I have is a mystery, as even if Mr. Singh were alive today, he was always very reserved about his work and focused more on playing than talking about it. Perhaps some day someone will come forward with more info, but as it is, let's just enjoy the music together.

If you come in expecting the same as Synthesizing - Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, you'd be half right. It's the same trio of synthesizers, with lots of acid house moments, though he definitely is using much more lush percussion in this album, including some really delightful conga samples that he pitch shifts throughout in interesting ways. The base material for the album is also no longer ragas - it's Bollywood film music, which I assume are hits from his long career as a film composer, but I am not remotely a Bollywood expert and I leave it to my readers more well-versed in Indian culture to let me know how big of a deal the individual songs are. The format is also quite different, as opposed to distinct tracks, this is one long megamix that seamlessly goes from one to the next, something easy to lose yourself in as you listen. It doesn't feel nearly as "serious" as his previous work, overall, but is it good? Yes! It's a great fun time, and I definitely advise sitting down with it. I don't know if it's "brain-melting" as noted in that Mojo article, but I do love it, and it sure does nail the calypso rhythm while being distinctly electronic and artificial like his other work. Fantastic overall.

Liner Notes

None this time! I got a generic sleeve and didn't realize. It's unfortunate, but this is also the only copy that's been on sale in seven years, so I take what I can get.

Track List and Rip

Fortunately, unlike in my previous post involving a CD from 1990, this CD was made in Switzerland and has absolutely no flaws despite having fingerprints and scratches all over. Fantastic work by whoever Audiorec in London contracted with, I would definitely have expected a little rot by now.

Please note that the CD is just one single long track and is intended to be listened as such - even the YouTube upload splitting it in two is strictly an erroneous presentation of the music. I have therefore labeled the "song" with all the individual track titles separated by slashes; this should work for most modern music players, but I do worry about hitting some hidden character limit in car entertainment systems, so my apologies if I crash your sound system!

As for the orthography, this comes straight from the CD. If you know the titles in their original script, or what these translate to, please let me know.

1. Om Shanti Om
2. Shola Jo Bhadke
3. He Mujhe Dil
4. Main Hoon Jhumroo
5. Ye Dil Na Hota Bechara
6. Dil Dil Se Milakar
7. Pyar Huwa Hai
8. Hai Apna Dil To Awara
9. Gore Gore
10. Dil Deke Dekho
11. Khwaab Ho Tum Ya

Get the music HERE! No ZIP this time because it's just one big file.

When the pandemic descended upon the world, I had a really hard time adjusting to perpetual working from home. Most of my colleagues didn't seem to, but I was having a terrible time with every day looking vaguely the same. Shaking the routine proved to be extremely difficult, and this extended to the music I was listening to, which felt like I was stuck in a hole. But then, a friend of mine linked me this wonderful radio station on YouTube that I had been ignoring for quite some time. I never trust "city pop radio" or mixes except by very trusted individuals, lest I end up listening to the same core of Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi, Kaoru Akimoto and Meiko Nakahara that gets passed around over and over. But this one was special - they seemed to have deep cuts that even in my years of experience I had never, ever seen, lots of which weren't even on Discogs. I was in heaven: every day I could get brand new music that I had never heard before, and even if they didn't always match my mood, the discoveries I made during those times were amazing. This was New J Radio, which has been streaming continuously since mid-2020 up until recently on youtube and also on mixcloud since late 2021, though they were on a break for a couple weeks recently. I cannot recommend them enough - if you are remotely into city pop or New Music in general, please take a moment and drop by on the stream. There could always a gem waiting for you.

This owl is my friend.

In any case, my favorite genre of tune that I would discover in New J was the cover version. The heavy cultural differences between Japan and the US combined with the undying love of Japanese musicians for American pop tracks results in some of the most wonderful covers of these that I've ever heard. Heck, I even compiled a mix of some of my favorite strange covers a while back, it was a fun time! One song that kept reappearing over the hunderds of songs that played in that radio, though, was Bobby Hebb's Sunny. Already famous for being one of the most covered songs of all time, it's no surprise that it came up here. But one of the versions that came up was really special - it started with a smooth, cool beat, a strong soulful voice, before transitioning into a lively, almost violent rendition with drumming that was out of this world. I was obsessed with it immediately, and I knew I had to track it down. Unsurprisingly, like with many things played on New J, you couldn't really find it anywhere, and the songs that could be found around the net from the album were not the all-important Sunny. I did manage to track down a copy of the record, and was bursting with excitement for what could be in store. It could be a complete dud with Sunny at the end and it'd still be worth it - and I am glad to report that it is more than that.

Hiro Tsunoda himself, from the back cover of the record

Tsunoda-san is a Japanese rock OG: Flied Egg, Monsieur Kamayatsu, Yuming, Sadistic Mika Band, Kazumi Watanabe - he's played with and written songs for lots of foundational artists in the 70s and 80s rock scene. Heck, he even wrote songs for pro wrestling - here he is writing themes for Tiger Mask and playing drums for wrestling legend Antonio Inoki. Plus, these days rock conoisseurs have descended upon his band Captain "Hiro" and the Space Band, with a wonderful record called Lost? Or Found? which I'd post here but it's not my rip, and that would go against my philosophy. After these high-flying years, it's a bit difficult to track down what he was up to, but from what I can tell from his deliciously late 90s website, he's now principal of a music school called Wild Music, and I certainly think he's extensively qualified to be teaching drums with the masterful display on here.

And speaking of which, oh boy, what a nice time this is. Side A is all Tsunoda-san's original compositions, which starts with a riff straight from Stairway to Heaven on Lorie, which took me quite by surprise. Some "strong inspiration" aside, the songs here are delightful, and he gets to use the full range of his soulful voice to great effect. My favorite is the last track of this side, Mary Jane On My Mind, a stirring ballad of a lost love. Side B is all covers, some reaching back into the 50s (like Neil Sedaka's The Diary), and some more modern (Stevie Wonder's You Are The Sunshine of My Life). Outside of Sunny whose praises I cannot sing enough, my favorite here is You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, with deliciously intricate percussion. Heck, that's the running theme of this album - Tsunoda-san delivers by going above any beyond with his drumming on every track, even on slow ballads. It puts a big smile on your face throughout, and I must say I was charmed by it.

Liner Notes

Normally I have plenty to write here, but this time it's just lyrics for the various songs, a large chunk of which are in Japanese and I'm really not good enough at reading kanji to be transcribing them here. There is no additional info that I can provide on any other performers on the record; though, of course, the vocals and the drums are provided by Hiro Tsunoda.

If you'd like the lyrics, let me know. I did have someone transcribe them into romaji, so you can sing along!

Track List & Rip

I implore anyone reading this post to at least listen to Sunny for its sheer technical excellence. If you like it, stick around for the rest!

All tracks composed by Hiro Tsunoda unless noted otherwise.

A1 - Lorie
A2 - Blue Eyed Secille
A3 - Alice
A4 - Roberta
A5 - In March
A6 - Mary Jane On My Mind (co-written with Christopher Lynn)
B1 - Sunny (Bobby Hebb)
B2 - The Diary (Howard Greenfield, Neil Sedaka)
B3 - You're The Sunshine of My Life [sic] (Stevie Wonder)
B4 - Stop, Look, Listen (Linda Creed, Thomas Bell)
B5 - Five Pennies (Sylvia Fine)
B6 - Georgia On My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell; latter is spelled as S.Carroll for some reason.)

Get the album HERE

For many years I've been mystified by the rich tapestry of American culture that can be found by trawling private press records, home recordings, and the like. My first exposure to these was WFMU's 365 days project, which brought so many fascinating nuggets of gold within them. So, of course, when I saw the book "Enjoy the Experience: Homemade Records 1958–1992", I thought it was fascinating. I never ended up buying it while it was in print - a shame - but I did listen to Sinecure Books' samples on their YouTube channel, and they were wonderful, strange, Out There things that delighted me. But one of them rose above the rest - a Reverend O.L. Jaggers, who sang a cover of Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon's song "That's Life", accompanied by this vigorous, intense organist with him. I loved it, but there was a problem: the video was 6 minutes long, but it seemed as though their recording of the vinyl cut off about halfway through, leaving 3 minutes of silence. When I asked Sinecure Books about this via YouTube comments they...deleted the video, never to be seen again. It was at that moment that a quest built up within me to track down this record (which they helpfully provided the cover to in that video, at least), and finally listen to the full version, along with any further work of the Reverend and this wonderful mystery organist.

Sure enough, many years after I first encountered this song, someone put it up on Discogs and I snapped it up since I knew it would likely never be seen again. (It has popped up for sale twice since then, at least.)

So now that the record is in our hands, who exactly is the Reverend Dr. O.L. Jaggers? Well, the back cover of the record helps us here, displaying his title:
The Reverend, Dr. O.L. Jaggers --- Arch Elder --- The World Church

The World Church here refers to the Universal World Church, which began operation in 1952 and still exists in one form or another today - at the very least, they still operate a website mostly dedicated to the memory of the Reverend and his wife, Miss Velma, along with a backup of their incredible "vintage" site from the 90s which shows the Reverend and Miss Velma in their later years. I won't mince words here - the Universal World Church is one of many Christian "healing revival" sects that appeared in America after World War II with bombastic rhetoric that promised miracles, all while asking for large monetary donations - the televangelists (and their radio equivalents) that are the predecessors of today's megachurches and their pastors.
The Reverend Dr. himself was known to give sermons about UFOs, with flashy theatrics alongside them. He even had a vision of a planned "World Church City" in Dos Vientos, CA. In 1956, he put down $839,000 on a $2.9 million ranch using money from his church patrons, and the project quickly became embroiled in lawsuits for years from those same patrons. The ranch ultimately ended up being sold to a real estate developer for $2 million in 1965, which turned it into what is now Rancho Dos Vientos. For more details, see the details on this file photo.

Even reading articles on the Universal World Church's own website gives a clear idea of the kind of operation the Reverend ran, and it lines up well with that of many of these kinds of churches. This blog makes no endorsement of the Church and invites readers to draw their own conclusions about their operations based on the information presented both here and in well-researched online biographies. The Reverend passed in 2004, as did Miss Velma, a few years after the Church announced it was performing a move to a new site after spending nearly 50 years at 123 N Lake Street in Los Angeles, CA. The church building was demolished in 2003, and the move never occurred, with the field sitting empty for a few years before being turned into a primary school.

Whatever the moral character of the Reverend, what is clear is that this record of his musical prowess is a clear demonstration of religious American culture of the time period, and offers an interesting view into what might have been part of his sermons all those decades ago.

The record is split in two - the first track of Side A and Side B feature accompaniment on the organ, and on all other tracks the Reverend accompanies himself on the piano. The real gems here are the organ tracks, with a stunning, passionate performance that almost sounds like Ms. Perry is striking the instrument with all her strength, putting her entire body into every moment. It's truly something that needs to be heard to be believed, and the second half of the song that Sinecure Books was not able to provide on their YouTube channel certainly lives up to the ideal concept I had in my head all those years that I was trying to find it.

It's a shame that there is very little information about Ms. Perry outside of a tiny mention on the Universal World Church website, from "The Christian Century" magazine, 1966:

Singing at the World Church is usually a jazzed-up version of hymns. Jaggers considers Rose Perry, the choir director, "the world's greatest musician." Miss Perry shouts out a hymn like a torch singer, unmercifully distorting the tempo of such old favorites as "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Holding tones, giving them whole and half-note values in an artless manner, she is accompanied by an organist whose ascending and descending passages remind one of what he heard from the theater organs in the days of the silent film. Jaggers himself plays the electric guitar,"talking" the lyrics.

So not only was she the church organist, she was also the choir director, and the Reverend himself called her "the world's greatest musician". Perhaps a bit grandiose, but I certainly think her skill is on full display here, and I wish we had more than these two tracks to remember her by. I have tried to no avail to find more information on Ms. Perry - if you know anything about her, please contact us by way of the links in the About page. I have contacted the Universal World Church to try and get any information on her, to no avail.

Liner Notes

[Editor's note: There is very little here in terms of traditional liner notes, other than an address and the title of the Reverend. That said, lyrics are provided for A1 and B1, and therefore I have diligently copied them on here.]

A Ministry of Music And Songs
By
The Reverend, Dr. O.L. Jaggers --- Arch Elder --- The World Church

1. That's Life

That's Life!
That's what Jesus said
Preach The Word, Heal the sick
Raise up the dead!
Jesus gave his mighty Resurrection power
And this is the message of the hour!
Life!
This is Immortality!
Some think that they have power
But their spirit isn't free!
But you need not let it-let it-get you down
Cause The World Church just keeps on going around!

I've been a preacher, a teacher, a singer, a healer-
But now I'm king!
I've been hot and cold and froze and dry
But I know one thing!
When I was without power, and no spirit left in me
At The mighty Golden Altar
God's Spirit set me free!
This Life!
Oh this is Resurrection Power!
Eternal Life is here - at his Altar this hour!
He's in the Temple and his Altar here below
He comes down here where he dwells forever more!

1. Born Free!

Born Free!
I'm born of his great Love!
Born again from above
Born Free to follow The Lord!
Live Free!
God's Life is worth living
Life freely is given
When you are Born from above!
Born Free!
Of water and Spirit!
The New Birth is won
And now you are God's Son!
Made Free!
At God's Golden Altar!
You'e Born of the Water!
And you're Born Free!

Track List and Rip

I will be frank here - while I enjoyed the organ tracks (A1, B1) a lot and am very excited to share them with you all, enough to have gotten the blog working again purely to do so, I am not remotely as enthusiastic about the Reverend's piano pieces. The process of ripping this album was kind of a slog, and it took me a long time to actually split it all up into FLAC files because of how much of a slog it was. For this reason, I am only uploading the organ tracks to YouTube, and the rest will remain in the ZIP file only. I can't bear the thought of inflicting the rest of the album on unsuspecting subscribers of my channel...

Also, a point to note - it's unclear whether the title of this record is "Life" as on the cover, or "Life!" as on the record itself. I've gone with the cover for all tagging purposes.

A1 - That's Life (Dean Kay, Kelly Gordon, with new lyrics by the Reverend Dr. O.L. Jaggers)
A2 - Holy -- What the Angels Sing
A3 - What A Friend
A4 - The Peace That Jesus Gives

B1 - Born Free!
B2 - It Took A Miracle And Amazing Grace
B3 - It Is No Secret
B4 - Victory in Jesus

Get the album: HERE

Oscar Peterson is the last person you'd expect to show up on this blog of forgotten musical gems. Peterson was Canada's foremost jazz pianist, with a career spanning five decades, a performing résumé that looks like an extensive list of jazz nobility (my personal favorite is his record with Stan Getz, which is an absolute gem), and dozens of records. So, why am I featuring him here today? Well, a few months ago, I came across a fascinating video on YouTube, titled simply "Oscar Peterson Synth". In it, a jovial Oscar plays fascinating jazz melodies on his Synclavier II, and talks about the wonderful experience he has had experimenting with electronic instruments, and how it had expanded his horizons in both how he can expand what he can do with his sounds, but also in him recording his backing band exactly as he wished it. As he said, "I wish I could make people hear things, the way [Picasso] makes them see things".

Oscar Peterson Synth - the start of this post

In this recording, he seemed excited to share these new horizons he was finding with his Synclavier with everyone, but as far as I could see from the comments on that video and my own searches, it never did get recorded. That is, until I saw a small blurb on a minor release in Oscar's discography for a 1992 album for "Vocal Vision Productions, Inc." titled In the Key of Oscar. It simply said, "5 tracks recorded live at the Bermuda Onion, Toronto, 11 June 1991 + 7 electronic selections". Further complicating matters, In the Key of Oscar is also the name of a documentary on his life, which made it very difficult to find this recording. Nevertheless, with a lot of patience, I finally tracked down someone selling it and I am happy to confirm to you today that yes - this is in fact the first release of Oscar Peterson's Synclavier compositions, and if his liner notes are any indication, he is just as happy to share his work here as he was in that video, though it took him quite a long time to put them down on a record.

As that little blurb I found when I started my research on this many months ago said, this is in fact a two-part record. The first half is five selections from the Oscar Peterson Quartet, recorded at the Bermuda Onion, a famed jazz club in Toronto, on June 11th, 1991 (a club which would close around a year later). The quartet is in top form here, performing both standards and Oscar's own compositions with virtuosity and an infectious groove. In Oscar's own words, the selections "represent an honest portrait of my involvement as the leader of what, I believe, is the world's best quartet". Quite a boast, though nevertheless the performance is excellent and comes highly recommended. The second half of the record is all forays into electronic music from Oscar, some of which are more traditional jazz selections (J.G.P., Duke of the Bayou, On the Mall), and some more experimental (Simba, Meadowlands). Right in the middle of all this is a three-track suite titled Uranus Bound, which Oscar says was "done years ago as a salute to America's gallant astronauts on their varied journeys into space", a good description of how he uses the Synclavier to its fullest potential to go into the cosmos, while still keeping the wondrous groove that Oscar fits into all his compositions. All in all, a wondrous piece both for Oscar Peterson enthusiasts and jazz fans as a whole, and a real show of the versatility of the Synclavier. My personal favorite is Should I Ever Dream of Being Without You.

Liner Notes

These are a good show into the mind of Oscar at the time, and I hope they're enlightening to those who wonder why it was so hard to find this recording.

Personnel:

Oscar Peterson - The Performer, The Composer, The Man

Bermuda Onion Performance:

Oscar Peterson - Piano
Herb Ellis - Guitar
Ray Brown - Bass
Jeff Hamilton - Drums

Music recorded by: Comfort Sound Audio Mobile Toronto
Recording Engineer: Doug McClement
Audio Assistant: Bob Rogers
Bermuda Onion Mix: Andy Hermant
Graphic Design: Richard Whyte
Sleeve Cover Concept: Scott Thornley
Concept Coordinators: Gary Fishbein, Aline Robichaud

All electronic selections:

Produced, Performed, Mixed by Oscar Peterson

Special thanks to the National Film Board of Canada/Office national du film du Canada

© Vocal Vision Productions Inc.
Executive Producers: Sylvia Sweeney, Sara Levinson

Printed in Canada

The live selections performed by the quartet at the Bermuda Onion in Toronto, certainly in my opinion represent an honest portrait of my involvement as the leader of what, I believe, is the world's best quartet. It would be almost impossible to go wrong musically with the availability of talents such as Herbie Ellis, Ray Brown, and Jeff Hamilton. To my way of thinking, the twenty year gap in our musical relationship has served to help us mature musically rather than deteriorating from our separation. To me, it has been a musical honour being able to revive and relive these marvelous musical moments.

The electronic side of the album hopefully gives my listeners a peek into another side of my musical personality. These are selected musical views of my more recent involvement in the world of high tech keyboard invention. These again are merely snippets from the larger electronic work that I intend to unveil in the near future. (Sorry to disappoint you, Herbie.)*

I would like to make special mention of the piece entitled "Uranus Bound", which was done years ago as a salute to America's gallant astronauts on their varied journeys into space. The first segment, "Blast Off", is obviously dedicated to their departure, as the name implies. The second segment, "Settling In", is a retrospective look-in on the astronauts as they settle down to make themselves comfortable in their capsule. The final segment hopefully typifies their journey through limitless space as the ship wends its way through various starfields, occasionally passing the odd huge planet as they move deeper and deeper into the unknown galactic night.

I hope that these views of me wearing the assorted musical hats will help to broaden my listeners' understanding of the ongoing curiosity that I'm sure most artists suffer from in our search to broaden and diversify our musical world.

* Referring to Herbie Hancock, who didn't believe Oscar would ever release his electronic music.

Track List and Rip

I went in on this with no expectations, thinking I might end up writing a relatively boring post as the "electronic selections" shown on the back may not have been what I thought. But instead I got Oscar Peterson and his Quartet in peak performance, and a view into the expanded musical horizons he found through the Synclavier. I'm very happy to share this with you, and I hope you too find this as much of a musical treasure as I did.

Recorded live at the Bermuda Onion in Toronto, Canada, on June 11th, 1991.

1 - Anything Goes [7:02] (Cole Porter/Warner/Chappell Music)
2 - Old Folks [7:02] (Dedette Lee Hill/Willard Robison/Remick Music Corp.) [Editor's Note: This is a typo in the back cover, the actual duration is 4:41.]
3 - Nighttime [8:30] (Oscar Peterson/Tomi Music Company)
4 - Medley: Sweet Lady/Better Luck Next Time/Waltz for Debby [4:18] (Monty Alexander/Irving Berlin/Bill Evans & Gene Lees)
5 - Kelly's Blues [4:53] (Oscar Peterson/Tomi Music Company)

All electronic selections Produced, Performed, Mixed [and composed] by Oscar Peterson

6. J.G.P [4:18]
7. Duke of the Bayou [5:26]
8. On the Mall [5:26] [Editor's note: Another typo, this one is 3:11]
9. Should I Ever Dream of Being Without You [3:11] [Editor's note: Again, a typo, this one is 2:22]
10. Simba [1:54]

Suite: Uranus Bound
11. Blast Off [2:14]
12. Settling In [5:12]
13. Into Deep Space [5:07]

14. Meadowlands [2:22]

Get the album: HERE