Bollywood Breaks
- title
Bollywood Breaks
- label
Outcaste
- format
- various artists CD
About the Bollywood Breaks CD Outcaste's site says 'This eight track offering was intended as a sampling tool for DJs. It has string orchestras and flutes of the east, funky drums, thumping bass licks and distorted guitar from the west'. I've listened to this many times and like it a lot, just as I enjoyed the 'Bollywood Funk' compilation this is a sequel to. Only 3 of the songs have vocals. 'In the Garden' (#4) has a female traditional Indian sounding vocal and instrumentation set into a rhythm that really gives it a groove. There are sitar and flute breaks that work 'just so' to make the song even better. 'Lover's Paradise' (#5) is probably my fave track on the disc. It blends the funkiness of songs from the 'Le Jazzbeat' french soundtrack comp added 2 weeks ago with a laugh like on the song 'Sesso Mato' from Armando Trovajoli on the Eighteenth Street Lounge compilation 'Easy Tempo', or the song by Rocketman (the title is in Japanese) on Readymade's 'La Generation' comp (both of which were reviewed in the gullbuy). It doesn't have any real vocals, just the laughs. What Peter Ledebur calls 'the wordless vocal'. 'Temptation' (#8) is a version of an old song I've heard from a Shirley Bassey type artist I can't quite identify. It has the lyric 'You came, I was alone. I should have known, you were temptation'. the song is great and the version on this disc works like a charm. The instrumentals are pretty good too. 'The Chase' (#7) has a 'Get Carter' feel. 'Cosmic Flute' (#1) sounds like it could be on Compost Records, or on a remix by Jazzanova. It and the second song 'Tonight My Love' have Bollywood string sections in them. 'Tonight My Love' has a snake charmer type clarinet and a guitar played sitar-style over the strings plus bass and drum background. 'Saffron Sunset' (#3) is similar except it has a muted trumpet as it's feature instrument over the funky background sans strings. 'Traffic Jam' (#6) is my fave of the instrumentals as it has a neat drum/percusion break that keeps reoccurring in it. Faves: 4,5,6,8
From the liner notes: 'NYC in the early 80's was a bit of a hotbed, both socially and musically. The diametrically opposed genres of Punk and disco exploded through their respective outlets: the former in downtown clubs like Max's Kansas City and CBGB's, the latter percolating in joints like the Paradise Garage and Studio 54. By the time Disco's supernova started to burn out and Punk was getting a bit silly, boundaries began to melt and practitioners were looking over the garden fence at what the others were up to.' When WZBC DJ Pip (Psychotic Reactions, Wednesdays 5-6PM) put this disc in the hold bag at Newbury Comics I really was not into buying it. I grew up in Long Island at the time all this was going down, and I remember the disdain I had towards the disco/punk crossovers (except ESG). And here they all were again, staring me in the face with an album cover like a takeoff on the Pistols LP (on the back cover) and an Andy Warhol painting (on the front). When I got home and put the disc in, it was OK. Now, many listens later, I actually like just about all of this disc. I have learned in life that value judgments must always be revisited after time. There are many things in music I've come to love that I NEVER would have checked out earlier in time. So I guess it was time to re-evaluate the NYC club scene of the early 80's. The music on this disc was happening at the same time as the No Wave bands (which I totally loved at the time), and many people I knew used to go from No Wave shows to one of the clubs uptown to dance. Looking with today's eyes, I'd say I missed out on some neat stuff. My favorite song on this disc is Loose Joints 'Tell You Today' (#3). I really really like the female vocal and the whole beat. The song was mixed by Larry Levan in 1983. My second fave is Dinosaur's 'Kiss Me Again' (#7). No, this is not J Mascis. this is a 1978 track by Arthur Russell. In fact 3 of the bands here came from the mind of Arthur Russel. Dinosaur, Loose Joints, and Indian Ocean are him. Next fave is Yoko Ono's 'Walking On Thin Ice' (#1) which really sounds very modern. I didn't know she could sound like this, I only knew her as a screaming shocker. My last 2 faves are the very familiar sounding 'Cavern' by Liquid Liquid (infamously lifted by Grandmaster Flash to cut 'White Lines') and Common Sense's 'Voices In My Head' which is a Police cover that beats the original a google times over. Pip - Thanks for making me buy this! Faves: 1,2,3,7,9 
In the liner of this disc, Burnt Friedman offers a quote from Andy Warhol to explain his increasingly opaque working methods: "The acquisition of my tape recorder really finished whatever emotional life I might have had, but I was glad to see it go - Nothing was ever a problem again, because a problem just meant a good tape' - Andy Warhol. Burnt Friedman released three 12's just before this CD. All of the songs on the 'Nonplays/Love Songs EP3' 12' are on this disc. Burnt Friedman is a German who collaborates with Uwe Schmidt on the 2 CD's by Flanger. He has another CD under his own name called 'Con Ritmo'. He has a disc on Stefan Betke's ~scape label as 'Burnt Friedman & the Nu Dub Players'. I like 5 of the 10 tracks on 'Plays Love Songs'. My favorite tracks: 'Fucking Long Time' (#1), an instrumental with real move (the title is repeated 5 times almost indecipherably, I'd say the song could be played on the air). 'It Hurts' (#2) which contains a story by a 17 year old kid who works in a store and tells the story of how he locked himself out and had to climb on the roof to get back in. He is spotted by 3 construction workers who, thinking him a thief, push him off the roof, breaking his arm in the 4 story fall. Like most of this record it is a slightly perverse reading. Burnt Friedman, even though he plays jazzy fairly mellow electronic music, definitely has set out to shock with this CD. 'I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm' (#3) is an instrumental that sounds very clipped, modern, and organic. Real nice. 'I Go With You' (#4) is my fave on this disc. It has 2 vocals on it. One is a electronically processed male voice serving as a background chorus, and the other is a female vocal that starts in the second half with a smooth delivery. The song has a walking bass part that I like. The last of my faves is 'Conjoined' (#8). It is (again) a mellow track that in its last minute has an electronic vocal countdown, then the sound of 'Prince Henri's Hospital boom', explained by David Franzke, who recorded it: '...one of Melbourne's biggest hospitals was demolished to make way for the development of inner city houses/flats. there was a lot of opposition! I went down to the site early one saturday morning when the hospital was scheduled to be blown up. Lots of protesters, drunk guys, people with film and 
Thanks to Peter Ledebur we have the original CD this remix disc is based upon. He burned a copy then delivered it in a fab new double CD jewel box so the 2 discs will be stored cozily together. My fave tracks on the original disc are 'Let's Rock Baby' (#13), 'Rock Your Body' (#16), and 'What's Happening' (#18). Among the 23 songs on the original CD are 5 different versions of 'Let's Rock Baby' (#'s 1,12,13,16,20). They each have slightly different names but are based on the same song. Now lets talk about the remix CD, which I like a lot better than the original. Many bands I like are on the remix disc. Surprisingly, contributions by some of the bands I like best (Chicks On Speed, Sam & Valley, Console, or Sylvester Boy for instance) do not contribute songs that are on my faves list. My absolute favorite song on the remix disc is by GD Luxxe, which is a project of Gerard Potuznik. He does music for Chicks On Speed as well as oodles of other projects. My second fave would be by Adult, who sound so much like Chicks On Speed that I'll bet most people would think Adult are remixing a COS song, not a Michiko Kusaki piece. The bands who do the remixes record new versions of the originals, they don't just remix tracks. My third fave is the DMX Krew track. I also like the tracks by Shinto, Curd Duca, and Felix Kubin. Here is a description of this disc found on the Mego site: 'Does anyone remember the sweet and fragile songs of Osaka born songwriter and singer Michiko Kusaki? Her beautiful Angelika-Koehlermann-album called 'Bye Bye Babe' , which was released back in 1999? No? You missed it? What a shame! But here is your second chance: Michikos soft and melancholic tracks in bright new clothes - strong colors, abstract patterns and cosy textures. The remixed version of 'Bye Bye Babe', delivered by some of today's most talented artists! They are all here:
26 song mix CD by Yamasuka Eye of The Boredoms. Lots of interesting source material is used. The second track 'Water Drums' uses the Rykodisk CD 'Heart of the Forest' with it's Baka Forest people splashing water in rhythm. 'Burrega 1 Theme' (#7) uses Cambridge MA's own hardcore band Fat Day as it's source. The Fat Day track has vocals that sound like ESG. There is a really hard to read (ultra tiny font) insert that lists the track names and sample sources. The insert lists 48 tracks, so I'm not even sure that you can match up tracks in the insert to those on the disc. The bottom line is that the whole disc plays without any pauses as one big mix CD, and that it uses up all of 72:36 in very engaging minutes. Faves: 1,7,8,9,13 
Ladytron runs this Liverpool label. 'Special Skool' is the first label compilation, and 8 of the 17 songs are faves of mine. About my faves: The compilation starts off with DHK (Dolf, Hans, and Karl), a German band I had always read about but never heard. Guaranteed, I am seeking out more stuff now. Except for the Saint Etienne cover done by Collette this is my fave track on the comp. It has female vocals and a Jpop feel throughout. If I didn't know better it could easily be mistaken as a Mansfield or Losfeld track. Baxendale have a different version of 'Electric Trains' (#4) which I like even better than the one on their CD. From this point on all my faves are by bands I've never heard of before. Japanese band Os Monstro play '2010 Summer Party' (#5) with Kahimi Karie styled vocals and coed 'bah-bah-ba' wordless vocals over a guitar/electronic song that sounds like it would fit well on the Cafe Superstar Beat comp added last week (Stereolabby pop). The Apes 'Beach at the End of the World' (#6) reminds me of early Squeeze with the 'Take Me I'm Yours' (the song recently covered by the new Glen Tilbrook band 'White Rabbit' with Jane Birkin singing) in it's vocal. Vada's 'Martini in the Park' (#7) is like a reggae beat Bananarama song, without the gloss or fakeness. Third fave from this comp is the song 'Happening in the Night' by Buffet (#9). It sounds like Tony Rivers and the Castaways (who I really love, including the later 'Harmony Grass' period) or Willy Alexander's 60's band The Lost. Uptempo beat music ala early Beatles. They are from Shinasaibashi, Osaka and they describe themselves as 'Rubinoos 2000 live and direct'. Funsize Lions song 'Dusseldorf Airport' (#12) has a vocoder vocal (kind of like 'Trans Europe Express') and a Giorgio Moroder styled synth part leading into a German female voiceover. Finally, my fave song - the cover of Saint Etienne's 'You're In A Bad Way' (#16) by the French band Collette. there is also a Pulp cover, but I don't much care for it. It is a Ladytron remix of Kool Aid covering 'Intercity Firm'. Faves: 1,4,5,6,7,9,12,16 
I've had my eye on the 100% (now up to 400%) Dynamite compilations of Jamaican ska and rocksteady that Soul Jazz have put out in the last year. This comp is the newest release by Soul Jazz and seemed like the right place to jump on and see what we've been missing. About this comp Soul Jazz says 'A wonderful experience of rolling up your sleeves and getting in under the counter at Studio One to discover known and unknown gems of music from Jamaica.' This comp was compiled through the vaults of Mr C.S. 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd (as were the 'Dynamite' comps, I believe). My favorite of the instrumentals are Lennie Hibbert's 'Village Soul' (#5) and Brentford All-Stars 'Greedy G' (#6). My favorite of the vocal tracks are Marcia Griffiths 'Feel Like Jumping' (#2), Michigan & Smiley 'Eye Of Danger' (#9), the very ska 'Phoenix City' by (natch) The Skatalites (#11), and Prince Jazzbo's 'Crabwalking' (#12). Faves: 2,5,6,9,11,12
Debut CD from Boston-based songcrafter DARRYL BLOOD, following a slew of self released cassettes which garnered him critical praise and comparisons to Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Pavement, and even Sonic Youth. Twelve tracks that move from solid rock tunes to stark acoustic folk songs, throwing noise and gorgeously plaintive ballads in along the way. To me Darryl will always be most fondly thought of as Darryl Green of Turkish Delight. Darryl, Dave, Leah and I practiced and played for 3 years as TD, releasing two 7's and two CDs before burning ourselves out. Currently Leah fronts the new band Butterfield 8, named after an Elizabeth Taylor film, Dave is the manager at Crate and Barrel (both Leah and Dave also played together in Betwixt), I am a Web Developer, and Darryl is a budding solo artist with a brand new debut CD under his belt, his followup to countless cassette-only releases. Darryl has been going to the Art Institute of Boston, from which he will graduate this year. The BlueSanct site (run by Darryl's charismatic cousin Mike Anderson, who records as Drekka) calls Darryl 'Boston's Master of Solemn'. BlueSanc describes the disc as 'Lyrical mastery which vacillates wildly from eerily poignant simplicity to staggeringly beautiful poetics. Musically, it also swings maniacally between stark acoustic songs, plaintive piano ballads, and rockish noisy abandon.' My favorite tracks are the first song 'Airship', which has a vocal part that reminds me of Thurston Moore, 'Waterbased' (#5) and 'Negative Suffice' (#6), which are the two loud songs, the Syd Barrett-ish (my favorite song on the CD) 'Respite', and the mellow 'Sore' with the lyric that will catch your ear. Darryl has something of his own to really be proud of here. I wish him the very best. Faves: 1,5,6,10,11