Johann Georg Albrechtsberger - Concerto for Jew's Harp, Mandora and Orchestra

I was going to upload a Milva album of Berthold Brecht covers, but as I was preparing it for this blog, this album became the backdrop, and thus, plans changed.

Johann Georg Alberectsberger was an Austrian composer of the Viennese school of classical music. He was a classmate with Haydn and a teacher to Beethoven. He composed several concertos for orchestra, lute and the Jew's harp.

He wrote at least 7 concertos for Jew's harp, three survive, and this album compiles two of them.

It's bizarre to hear the Jew's harp in a serious concept, outside of a Morricone soundtrack, especially in a classical context... but that just gives it extra charm!

Download album here!

Ken Nordine - Colors (1967)

Renaissance man and voice actor Ken Nordine released some of the hippest jazz albums of the 50's and 60's. His Word Jazz recordings are profound, prolific, occasionally subliminal and at times philosophical.

Nordine's commercial work falls in all those categories as well. He's the everyman whom you've heard a million times and yet can never place him. That's his magic.

Ken Nordine's Colors album is crescendo that encompases both world's beautifuly to exemplify what makes his work special.

Originally done as a series of Fuller paint ads, the campaign proved to be extremely popular. Thus, Ken jotted down several more color-based tracks and recorded this album.

The original album is sought after and hard to find in the wild, and the compact disc is many a year out of print as well and can sometimes run up in price. I got my copy by accident! A friend of mine called me to as if I wanted him to buy a copy of Nordine's "Twink" and I'd reimburse him later... I said YES and when I got it, it was a perfect Twink cover, but with a near mint copy of Colors inside.

Nordine? He's still at it! He blogs, he podcasts, he's 95 years old and has a facebook. May he live forever, and reside in your subconscious.

Download album here!

Gerardo Lacoucci & H. Caiage - L'Aventure (1971)

Don't know much about this one. To my understanding, it's an Italian library music record pressed in France. It blends Funk, pop, soul & psych rock melodies and every track feels really hip. If you were to judge this record by the title, I would say it's spot on. It feels cinematic and has a lot of flavors that maintain uptempo, upbeat action jazz and borderline instrumental rock. All in all this music is tops and won't disappoint. Strictly bachelor pad.

Download album here!

Lucifer - Black Mass (1977)

In the late 60's and into the 70's Mort Garson's music got epic. Switching over from pop arrangements to Synthesizer driven concept albums, he released a slew of classic albums. Electronic Hair Pieces, a moog staple to this day; Plantasia, a favorite among hip hop samplers and crate diggers alike; An Electronic Odyssey, under the alias The Wozard Of Iz and regarded by many as the best of his experimental phase. The Zodiac Cosmic Sounds, probably a cash-in on the late sixties star sign/zodiac craze, so popular it also spawned a series of synth albums devoted to each individual sign. The Unexplained, a late 70's transcendental album bordering on New Age and at times even disco, but, for the most part sounding like an Euro-Italian Goblin soundtrack for an Argento film. I could go on, and probably will post some of these gems on future blogs.

 My favorite however, is Black Mass. He recorded under the alias "Lucifer" and this album is filled with some great electronic moodscapes, or moogscapes? Ride of Aida is the track that made me seek out the album. Incubus, under the heavy pulsating electronic rhythms, has pleasure moanings laid in the mix. The Evil Eye sounds like late night B-movie sci-fi, whereas Exorcism reminds me of the type of music Raymond Scott was working on a decade earlier.

I passed it up once, regretted it, and was happy when I found an even cheaper (and cleaner copy) than the first one I skipped. If you find this gem, don't pass it up. Still one of my favorite electronic records.

Download album here!

Blue Light Yokohama! The Singles of Ayumi Ishida

I first became hip to Ayumi Ishida on the wonderful comp "Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966-1970" with the track "Taiyou Wa Naiteru." That record made me want to seek more of the groups out, which is how I think I came across this double disc set, compiling the bulk (if not all) of actress/singer Ayumi Ishida's singles from her hey-day.

It has a lot of uptempo rock, as well as beautiful ballads, beat and latin influenced melodies. Not much more to say, the music speaks for itself! Enjoy!

Download discs here!

Anita Kerr goes German

Anita Kerr and her Anita Kerr singers were heard on countless Country singles and albums throughout the fifties. By the sixties she was helming one of the largest vocal groups in the country, backing up several pop artists, making several appearances on television and even winning a grammy for the fantastic 1965 LP "We Dig Mancini" all out of Nashville Tennessee.

By the late 60's she relocated to Los Angeles where she reformed the Kerr singers, recorded lounge covers of Beatles, Bacharach, and Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass (under the Mexicali Brass moniker,) as well as branching off into radio jingles and producing other groups. My favorite recordings from this period are the Rod McKuen concept albums... but that is definitely an acquired taste.

BUT... what I offer today is none of the above. Here we have a collection of singles she recorded to capture the European market. Most were recorded the early 60's during the peak of her international fame... the last couple after she relocated to the Netherlands in the 70's.

Download here!

Podcast Episode 16 (playlist in the comments)

Weeeeee're baaaack! After a nearly two month hiatus, we have a NEW SHOW!!! We scaled back to an episode a month with distractions such as work, holidays and just plain life keeping us from doing our usual weekly show.

Lotsa Christmas gifts played on this episode, and with this being the last episode of the year, we tried to make it one of our best shows to date.

We would also like to thank all of our fellow listeners for making it through year one with us! Including our vacation specials, we did 19 eps! Not bad for a half year. Hopefully next year we can do twice as many, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Enjoy, and more to come...

- Otter & Caroline.


Click here to download or listen!