Youtube Channel & The Political Middle Eastern & North African Vinyl Project

As you might have noticed already for some years, I unfortunately don't have time to maintain this oddity blog next to my regular one. It's unfortunate because it gave me another platform for more "off" projects and culturally interesting oddities in the world of Vinyl and Music. I often find strange records and want to share them with you, mostly: political, strange easy listening, spoken word, theatre, anthropological field recordings etc. etc.

The content of this blog basically moved directly to the YouTube channel of Archaic Inventions. Most rips are still my own and information on the music is written in the description box of the video instead of on this blog. You can subscribe to the YouTube Channel HERE or follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVDLT5trSx_bAFcRCEykCyA/videos

As of right now the ongoing project aims at uncovering and preserving Political Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) records (Vinyl) from the collection of my dear friend David Oranje (@DavidOranje) who is a MENA journalist and collector of these specific records.

Our aim is to collect and upload these records solely because of their exceptional cultural, historical, and political value, and because we wish to grant interested persons the opportunity to listen to them as well, not because we necessarily agree with their contents. The views represented on these records by no means represent those of the collector and uploader. We moreover wish to shed light on the political vinyl output of the Middle East and North Africa because of its contemporary (and obviously historical) importance.

We want to create a platform for this specific musical realm and hope to eventually create artistic, theoretical and musical projects. First by creating mixtapes accompanied by written narratives that show paths in the musical and sono-political history of the Middle East and North-Africa. Once this project holds more ground, chances are that it moves to a new platform or website specifically dedicated to this topic.

All physical and digital donations (specially vinyl records with titles in Arabic) that are not listed on Discogs or that are very hard to find in Europe are highly appreciated. Feel free to contact us. You can find the Political Middle Eastern and North African Vinyl Project here:

Louis Andriessen - Golven -1982- (LP, Attacca), Netherlands

Louis Andriessen is a renowned Dutch modern Composer. He comes from a family of composers and created many works. Some of them very improvisational or in collaboration with other Dutch experimental musicians. This here is a soundtrack he did for the film "Golven" (meaning "Waves") by Dutch director Annette Apon. The music is quite soft and beautiful with subtle impro-based piano-work and other instruments invoking images of the (Dutch) sea. Many musicians on here were part of the Willem Breuker Collective or other Dutch Modern Composed, Jazz and Impro groups. Golven is a film based on the book The Waves by Vriginia Woolf from 1931. The plot of the film tells us:

"Six characters try to rediscover their childhood feeling of harmony. Through streams of thought the intensity of their childhood, their optimism of youthfulnes and the desillusion of getting older is being described. In its form, Golven is not just a cinematographic adaptation of the book. The images are inspired by the structure of the book. The viewer is being taken on a journey. Through elements of the here and now he is slowly escorted into a historical fiction."

Get it HERE

Donated by Kim

Gloria Martin - En Concierto -1972- (LP, Philips), Venezuela

Finally I am able to present another album by my favorite Venezuelan singer Gloria Martín. For all information about her and her absolute masterpiece album I direct you to this post over at Archaic Inventions. This Live album by Gloria Martín from 1972 is evidently more revolutionary than her self-titled album, allthough some of those songs are present here as well. It conforms much more to the Nueva Canción music she is known for. Martín knows like no other how to combine simple everyday life themes with more revolutionary discourse throughout her songs. She does it all with great intelligence and elegance through which the early seventies in Caracas is being heard. It's a pure insight into the intellectual and student-revolt mentality of Venezuela during that era and pure beauty of the mind of a poetical, rebellious and intellectual left-wing girl. I won't go too much further into the music, because I want the songs to speak for themselves.

Absolutely essential and highly recommended!

HERE

North Korean Music Box (Pyongyang 1977, 10 Inch)

So here is something quite rare I suppose. The music is reminiscent of revolutionary Chinese opera, but more militaristic and probably about the promised land ruled by the supreme commander. Some songs are reflecting North-Korea's idyllic landscapes in which everyone is happy and satisfied.

Most North-Korean records were only distributed as presents to other composers from communist countries like Cuba or Eastern Europe. I'm absolutely unsure whether these records were sold within North Korea to the people. I'm not even sure whether people had record players in North Korea. Since the communist takeover North Korea has been completely closed to outsiders making it nearly impossible to find music from the People's Republic.

If you want to know everything about the history of Korean Grammaphone Records and records from Korea in general you should go here to this excellent blog.

I did not seperate the songs as I couldn't read the Korean language. Moreover I just uploaded the whole albums to Youtube. Anyone interested in the labels of the vinyl can contact me.

Get it HERE

  

Various Artists - Cumbias Cumbias Cumbias (Fuentes), Colombia

Discos Fuentes was and still is Colombia's most important record label. Specially if we are talking about Cumbia. Fuentes is based in Medellín and was founded by Antonio Fuentes Estrada. You can blindly buy anything this label has put out in Cumbia realms. This one here is a killer record with fourteen amazing Cumbia's sure to blow up the dancefloor. Although some songs are quite classically played most of the tracks are played pretty fast and energetic. My personal favourite is the song "Esperma y Ron" (can it get any more Colombian!?) which has also been played by famous Colombian Cumbia group Afrosound among others. You can find many Fuentes releases over at this great blog here. I'd recommend it to you!

UPDATE: The word "Esperma" in Colombia refers to the liquid that drops off of candles. Hence the great album cover!

Get this great record HERE ¡Cumbia! ¡Cumbia!

Kabouter Chismus - Same -1970- (LP, Pluf, Dutch Private Pressing), Holland

Kabouter Chismus was a short-lived project of Dutch singer-songwriter Nico Denhoorn (who died last year), who also made a private pressing solo album during that time, and singer Minneke Walstra. Nico Denhoorn later also became a writer of Dutch marginal literature.

This record represents a certain Dutch hippie movement that started out in the early sixties called Provo. Provo in Holland was one of the first worldwide movements of youth culture created in 1964 and in a way precedes many of the later proper hippie movements of America. It was very much influenced by Beat Generation writers, Marquis de Sade, Dada and anarchism. The Provo generation were one of the first generations to question environmental problems, challenge conservatism and advocate for women emancipation and progressive acadamic innovations in post-war Europe.

When the provo movement somewhat vanished in the same way Dada had decades earlier it gradually transformed into a movement in which people called themselves Kabouters, meaning Gnomes. basically the Kabouters took the provo mentality further into the years to come. They called The Netherlands Oranje Vrijstaat, which means Orange Free State, opposing the monarchy and wars western countries were engaging in during cold war. During that time Amsterdam was globally regarded as a liberal hippie capital. Its reputation of freedom to smoke weed and absolute freedom for gays is also rooted in this era.

Kabouter Chismus is a band that incorporates all these countercultural elements from Holland. The songs are sung in Dutch and English and deal with emancipatory subjects of the sixties. It's a combination of typical pop songs and acid folk songs. A real counter-cultural pearl from The Netherlands with an emphasis on Amsterdam as Kabouter City.

Get it HERE

Medical Records Vol. 01: Mama's Muziek - Uterus Sounds -1975- (LP, EMI), Netherlands

This is the first instalment of a series of medical records. Some of them will be quite disturbing whilst others are just kind of insane. It's a vinyl genre that's really weird in general I suppose. I don't know how I got into this.

Mama's Muziek means, Moms' Music and it was the idea of a Japanese doctor called Dr. Murooka. Supposedly he helped hundreds of mothers with giving birth and created the perfect pedagogical remedy for babies that cry too much and disturb their parents' peace. What you hear on this record are amplified sounds of human hearbeats within the uterus to calm the baby down. I haven't ripped the B-Side of the record because it consists of only classical music, which also apparently works soothing. The last two songs of the A-Side however are a combination of amplified uterus blood-pumping and classical music. Most pieces sound like Industrial music made by Whitehouse or Throbbing Gristle. The song "Combined Uterus Sounds" sounds like it came straight from the first Tangerine Dream album Electronic Meditation. This record gets close to the concept of the Soothing sounds for Baby series created by Raymond Scott, but isn't as innocent. I've kept the tracklist in Dutch, but it says "Uterus Sounds with something" every piece.

To get the best results the liner notes tell us this:

1. Put your stereo-installation on the lowest bass position.
2. Turn up the volume slightly higher than normally for optimal results.
3. Put your baby close to the speakers as if he has hearing problems.
4. Whilst playing this record try and make your baby fall asleep for the first two weeks.
5. Try and play the record as much as you can the first two weeks to make your baby get used to it.
6. If your baby is older than a month, preferably play the pieces that have uterus sounds combined with classical music.
 7.If your baby is younger than 2 weeks and doesn't respond to the record, inform your doctor.

This is insane! Get it HERE