Alex - There, You Can Have My Youth

A fantastic new guest mix, yes. Sorry for the wait, folks!
Here's a festive trip from Basel's very own Alex aka Plattenalexander. A great mix of pensive pop, deep contemporary jazz, dubby wave and all that.  And a lot of never heard before jams. Thanks a lot for your youth Alex!!

Merge - Long Distance LP PRESALE

yippeeeee!!

our first record is being pressed these days and will arrive around
october 24th. there will be no more than 420 copies worldwide ...
you can preorder here:

RUSH HOUR 

GROWING BIN RECORDS

Cheers, Basso

Synthesizer Samba under the Radar

Here's some lovely synthesized Samba by the group Radar from Estonia. They recorded 2 LPs which both are excellent Jazz Funk / Fusion records. This mighty fine track here is unfortunately only available on a estonian compilation from the early 80s (available over at my shop, of course ; )
cheers, Basso

Austria Drei Illinois Eins

Here we have something Austrian that doesn't quite sound "austrian". It's mainly Werner Pirchner's Marimba that gives this fusion outfit an ethnic/world music feel and some of those tricky rhythmic structures make you forget completely about alpine idyllic scenes. Adelhard Roidinger's bass workouts might make you forget about everything else (Check Lonely Frog).  I'll also mention "fast fingers" Harry Pepl on guitar and "tight" Todd Canedy, former member of the legendary Rhythm Combination & Brass, on drums. I'll also mention that I hope you'll enjoy this fine album!
Cheers, Basso

Coo-Coo, Coo-Coo!

Being released privately by the group and Josef Alterbaum (who recorded and mixed it) and pressed in limited quantities makes it almost impossible to find on original vinyl. The wonderful person I got my copy from bought it directly from the group when they were touring Germany in 1978.
The music is somewhere between Krautrock and proper Jazzrock (with Jazzrock being the stronger part in the mix)) and I guess it will appeal to Jazzheads as to Kraut-Fans. Partially very funky and then there's that Ethno vibe in some of the tracks that we love a lot. Supposingly Gert Lueken is responsible for these vibes. He wrote, arranged and played synths, piano, percussion and clarinet on Tri Atma records some years later! In 1975 he played live with the Krautjazzers Thirsty Moon (highly recommended too and a lot easier to find... reissues!!!)
Over at Green Brain and Friends they say that the guys were also responsible for the Malcom Locks LP but I couldn't find any more information on that, so I dare to call it a rumour. If you know more, please TELL US! Cheers!

Get some info here
and the link from the comments.

Chee - Now and Then

I'm very happy to announce that we have another great mix from my friend Chee at the growing bin. In this mix he plays favourite discoveries from his last digging trip to the mediterranean. So be prepared for some excellent balearic fusion, MPB, portugese Pearls, italian Disco Pop, sundried ambient and a lot more... Thanks a lot for this Chee!



check out also his mic for LNCC here

Melting wax ....

As far as I know there are 5 "interesting" libraries on UBM. Two of them posted here already and off we go with a third. Icarus by David Rosenstein. Mr Rosenstein is just another Ralph Haldenby, I suppose. Nobody else but Uwe Buschkötter and his crew... most of the tracks were written by famous german jazzman Manfred Schoof. And so the record is in fact a little jazzy. First track - Weather Report, if that doesn't give a direction? Well actually they're going many directions again on this one. Excellent Jazz Funk and Fusion is one of them, of course. But also some cosmic electronics and to my personal pleasure some ambient tunes as well. Check out Nucleus on the B-Side. Doesn't the synth sound exactly like on Skyracer? And don't you think that Icarus might be a sequel of Skyracer, thematically?
Nuff talk - time for a listen. Link in the comments.
Cheers, Basso

Coke Tales .....

while preparing the stock for my new online record store with a name borrowed from this place here I discovered having a double copy of this French Fusion LP by Laurent Cokelaere from 1983 and immediately recorded the whole thing.
Bassman Cokelaere is accompanied by a big group of musicians. Most of these are completely unknown to me, but I realy adore their work : )
A juicy and heterogenous gem in my humble opinion. Listen and please let me know what you think about it. (link in comments)

And of course, if you're not just a downloader, but do love music played from grooves carved into plastic plates - come and visit GROWING BIN RECORDS opening VERY soon. free shipping and tons of soundclips guaranteed.
stock updates avaialable here and here

Cheers, Basso

Turquoise Flusion

you like flutes? yeah me too. Love 'em! If only all sax guys changed to flutes....
As your eyes told you we have Wally Shorts' Turquoise album here. No year indicated but it sounds like early 80s. And it sounds like lovely fusion jams made in Holland. A bit of latin, a bit of funk plus a little prog and off to dreamland. According to the liner notes Wally played with Hans Dulfer, Sail, Burton Greene and Tito Puente. If that isn't enough take this: Rob V. D. Broeck on Keyboards, Neppie Noya on Percussion (of course!) and Danny Wood (whoever this is) is doing pretty well with his SYNTHI.

cheers, Basso

the joy of cooking #20: a coffe, a beer, green tea and some fresh orange juice

at least i found a pic with green tea and orange juice (kyoto!). please imagine the coffe and the beer - and feel free to check out another show of the joy of cooking aired tuesday 12th of april:

here (stream)
service
the lovely restaurant

including tracks by Sloe Gin, Radar, Aragon, Kaseke, Wolfgang Käfer, Exkurs and others.... Cheers, Basso

in the wake of Cabinboy's sunshine

Fal Frett – Fal Frett 2
LP 3A [3A 167]  (1979)

Personnel:

Piano, Synthesizer, Vocal, Composer - Jacky Bernard
Bass, Vocal - Alex Bernard
Saxophone, Vocal, Composer - Bib Monville
Lead Vocal, Percussions - Ralph Thamar
Flute, Vocal, Composer - Robin Vautor
Percussions, Vocal - Nicol Bernard
Drums, Vocal - Jacky Alpha

Engineer, Mixer - Robert Denis
Photo - Philippe Bourgade

Buy it here or here.

You have to thank Cabinboy who shared with me this fantastic record. Thank you Cabinboy!

Maricha - Illumination

woohoo! another guest mix  - and not just another guest mix. This lovely one comes from Maritina aka fantastic DJ Maricha from Thessaloniki, Greece. She is running a great place called HIGHER LOVE, that you have to visit immediately!

But make sure to download and listen to this before you leave

Tracks:
Jan Akkerman & Kaz Lux - Fairy Tale
Giorgio Moroder - Irena's Theme
Kulpowicz - Ananda
Gal Costa - Minha Estrela E Do Oriente
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Thousand Knives
Alan Sorrenti - Casablanca
Caldera - Exaltation
Roland Bocquet - Djerba
Bo Hannson - Flight To The Ford
Jean-Luc Ponty - In Spiritual Love
Synthesizers Unlimited - Funky Dromedary
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - From The Beginning
Miki Petkovski - Iluminacija

χίλια ευχαριστώ Maricha!!

badrena

Manolo – Manolo LP A&M Records [SP 4783]  (1979)

Personnel:
Bass - Abraham Laboriel, Jaco Pastorius
Drums - Jorge Fattoruso, Manolo Badrena
Guitar - Carlos Rios
Keyboards - Hugo Fattoruso, Manolo Badrena
Percussion, Composer - Manolo Badrena
Piano - Hugo Fattoruso
Trombone, Trumpet - Gary Gazaway
Violin - Alfredo De La Fe
Vocals - Manolo Badrena, Maria Fatima, Sybil Thomas
Backing Vocals - Carmen Twillie, Gary Gazaway, Hugo Fattoruso, Jorge Fattoruso, Lani Hall, Manolo Badrena, Maria Fatima, Venette Gloud
Producer - Herb Alpert, Manolo Badrena
Engineer - Mark Smith
Engineer [Assistant] - Steve Katz.

Art Direction - Roland Young
Design - Amy Nagasawa
Photo - Michael Going

new jazz quintett

Naima New Jazz Quintett – Morning Part One  LP Jazz Haus Musik [JHM 05 ST]  (1980) Bass - Andreas Lonardoni; Drums - Kurt Bilker; Guitar, Composer - Ralf Schlüssel; Saxophone [Tenor, Soprano], Bass Flute, Composer - Wollie Kaiser; Vibraphone, Composer - Jochen Schmidt; Engineer - Ansgar Ballhorn; Cover - Ernst P. Schmutz; Photos - Jürgen Kling.  Buy it here.

Hirsch & Baum & Abendstern

here's one of my favourite finds of the last years - Thierfeldt's "Dilattantischer Sentimentalismus".
Wolfgang Thierfeld, a member of the amazing Release Music Orchestra,  is accompanied by Krzystof Scieranski, Hans-Dieter Lorenz, Friedemann Graef, Albrecht Riermeier, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Paul B. Engel and Bubacar Jameh. Their jazz is contemporary and it's awsome imho. Ambient fusion? I don't know - listen and tell me what you hear!

Heavy Metal

The name speaks for itself. Not for the stylistic orientation, but for the heavy use of brass! These guys are highly energetic and pretty fast. I'd bet my ass they visited the music conservatorium. When I listened to it first I got stuck at Klimat Dialogu, a sambaesque tune (the final track) and then worked my way back throught the album. Now I really enjoy every little bit and that's why I'd like to share it with you here.......
Cheers,
Basso

Fez

Au right! Here's something for the Jazzheads again. From the former GDR, a quartet of young jazzers called Fez (what might be translated "Fun"). Have fun with them guys.........
Cheers,
Basso

Berlin Fusion

How many of those guy are shaved? Back to the year 1979. Beardos were hip back in those days! It's not really easier to find some shaved faces in Berlin today...... Anyway - four groups, who didn't have the money to record their own LPs gathered to record just one LP together. With a bit of finacial encouragement by the Berlin's "Senator for Cultural Affairs" they had 8 studio days to record what is heard on the here featured LP.
Pretty nice stuff though. I wonder what else might pop up by these guys. I know of a Live-LP by Arakontis and a studio LP by Chameleon. By now there was nothing to be found about Changes and Margò.
Here's some Berlin Fusion

Cheers,
Basso


UPDATE: I FOUND MARGO!!!
Update2: and two LPs by Chameleon

Schlüssel on Calig

"Schlüssel" is the german word for key. It's the one that unlocks the door.
Another german word for key is "Taste". It's a part of the piano.
There's not much info about Key in the net (my first time using this common phrase), so I'll have to work with whats' given on the backcover. Key consists of 5 very young musicians. My guess is that they all are students at that time. The leading figure seems to be Markus Stockhausen, son of Karl Heinz Stockhausen, and he's 20 years old when recording that particular album. Actually he's the only one of the group I have ever heard about, but as you probably know my knowledge is very limited. The liner notes by Manfred Schoof report about an exciting and interesting young group ..... all compositions were written by members of the group ...... group of great promise....
The only thing I might add is that I like this LP because of the playful variation of styles. Even within the tracks. "Please be good to me" starts off rather powerful switches into funky and slips into a more loveboatish Bob James part.
My favourites are the modal "Birds flying" and the free ballad "Rheda".
It's yours.

Key (1977 Calig)
recorded @ Dierks Sudio Stommeln
Recording Engineer: Justus Liebig

Bouillabass versus Lauren

The Crew's 3rd release on Calig featuring Lauren Newton.
There's a lot more freedom in here and it's not my cup of tea.
But ( and this is a very big but) "Bouillabass" is a monster of a tune
and I like "Flying Bird" just as much (check out KEY's same titled LP
from 1977 on Calig including the wonderful "Birds Flying").
Please understand that I cannot say too much about the rest of the tracks
except from "great instrumentation" or "interesting structures" and a "voice".

Cheers,
Basso