The Eminent Stars - Bar Shift

Release date: 1 September 2017

Genre: Funk / Soul / R&B

Label: Tramp Records

Format(s): 7" EP / Digital

Cat #: TR1043

The Eminent Stars were founded by saxophonist Ben Mendes and drummer Toon Oomen. They both share the love for the great music emerging from cities like New Orleans in the ‘60s and ‘70s: Dr. John, Freddie King, The Meters and many more! Just mix up some soul, rhythm & blues, funk and blues and there you have it: a sound that consists of authentic elements: danceable, intriguing, vibrant and fresh!

Their debut Sittin' In With was released in February 2014, accompanied by a single. In the past three years The Eminent Stars heavily toured in their home country Netherlands and in Europe. They kept writing new songs and here we go with two new, fresh cuts. “Bar Shift” features guest vocalist Bruce James while “Brown Thang” is a smokin' blues-funk instrumental. These two sides give you an excellent foretaste of their second full-length album, scheduled for release in early 2018.

Check out this awesome live performance on video 

 

Pre-order now available from the Tramp Bandcamp store
https://tramprecords.bandcamp.com/album/pre-order-bar-shift-b-w-brown-thang

Charity Shop Gem of the Week - 9 - The Bonzo Dog Band - Keynsham

As a rule I try to steer clear of these sort of knowingly 'wacky' records that seemed so abundant in the 60's and 70's, and as such never paid too much attention to the Bonzo Dog Band. Having recently stumbled across a Keynsham however, I found myself drawn by it's title - a small and not particularly cool civil parish near where I grew up. Musically the album is pretty adept, with some quite lovely arrangements spread across guitars, drums, horns, flutes and basses, all held together by lyrics than oscillate from the overwrought prog fare one might expect, and the intensely silly. The album harbours a penchant for sudden changes in style and various spoken word/comedy segments, akin to Monty Python, and manages to be (nearly) as funny. Gems such as Tent offer up passages such as 'my love is so inscrutable / in a stoic sort of way / my baby is as beautiful / as a tourniquet' in a charged, almost punkish manner, whilst the operatic Sport has a wonderfully overblown chorus, ostensibly about the wonders of P.E.
Lyrics aside, there is actually some surprisingly contemporary aspects at play - whilst many of the tracks sound a bit like The Beatles (or perhaps more suitably, The Rutles), tracks like Noises for my leg sound like an early incarnation of Add N to X, and there are even a few dashes of what might be considered Musique Concrete, were it in any other context.

Were this an entirely serious late 60's pop/rock album, it would be a very, very good one. I fear the addition of humour relegates it to 'oddity' rather than 'classic', perhaps explaining it's lack of commercial success, especially given it comes not long after the bands fairly popular television show.

Freak of The Week - 7 - The In Sound From Way Out! (Perrey-Kingsley)

Beastie Boys fans will recognise this record title, and indeed cover art, font and graphic style - the Beasties released a 1995 album of the same name that looks remarkably similar to Perrey-Kingsley's 1966 escapade into experimental synth-pop psychedlia. In turn, that record owes a lot to the influence of another 'delia' - not psyche-delia, but Delia Derbyshire, the pioneering sound designer famous for her work with the BBC during the 60s. See what i did there? That's journalism, baby.

The In Sound From Way Out is a remarkable collection of standards and hits a la mode, reimagined using the trusty Moog synthesizer, plus field recordings, found sounds, tape splicing and many other experimental techniques... from children laughing and splashing about in the bath to what sounds like someone snoring, sped up. The results are some quite remarkable sounds, with some choice loops appearing throughout that will delight many a producer.

Also worth mentioning is some superior recording and mixing - many similar records suffered from muddy, dull mixes, but this record has splendid depth of sound and is beautifully mixed. Well worth searching out... but let us do the work for you... here's its Discogs entry 

And you want to hear it as well? Bloody hell... alright, fine!

Freak of The Week - 6 - Jungle Exotica 2

I'm almost certain that all the bands on this record are white-American, which probably makes it all a bit racist. At the very least, it's almost offensive in its caricaturing of 'tribal' music, like blacking up and shouting 'Um Bongo, Um Bongo, they drink it in the Congo' while your band plays polyrhythyms and make gorilla noises.

But, having said all that, there is something interestingly playful about this collection of madcap 50's/60's 'exotic' rock n' rollers. Occasionally catchy riffs, and a genuine sense of fun pervade. It's probably akin to the Black and White Minstrel Show in its cultural sensitivity. Only the music is actually pretty wild and you kind of can't help but be charmed by the whole thing. Songs called things like 'Arabian Jerk' maybe a touch on the offensive side, but there are a few stand out moments such as The Tides' Midnight Limbo. Annoyingly, a few of the tracks from the CD didn't make the vinyl release, but overall it's a pretty interesting compilation from Crypt Records, and a worthy winner of our Freak of The Week!

Incidentally, I've featured Volume 2 purely because that's the copy I picked up - no idea what Volume 1 is like but I'm interested to find out!

Have a listen here

And buy it direct from Crypt here (US) or Discogs here 

Week 5(ish) Freak Of The Week: Wong Ching Yuan – A-Go-Go & Off Beat Cha Cha

This week, we welcome our esteemed guest contributor Dan Wall from Funky Navigation, to provide our features...

Following on coincidentally from the Betty Chung / Jun Mayuzumi 45 featured here back in August, the Orient coughs up another curiosity for us this week in the form of this four- track EP of Singaporean Popcorn/Beat coolness. Now this is all a matter of perspective because our friend Wong Ching Yuan here - responsible for this slice of Mandarin Suave, also happens to be incredibly popular with grannies all across Asia and has recorded around 800 songs in a career spanning 40+ years! That being said, here he manages to craft a sound that is haunting and other worldly. Twanging guitars drenched in echo and a hypnotising vocal style float through the air like wisps of opium smoke. This is a great example of the 'a-go-go' sound he helped proliferate throughout Singapore, Malaysia, and beyond. Check it out on this month's Curious Music For Curious People podcast.