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| taishokoto |
Various Artists
J-Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-1984
(BBE, 2018)
more details
320 kbps | 355 MB | LINKS
A singer/songwriter and poet, Rupert Holmes has performed and written for many music legends, and gained fame on his own with a series of successful pop singles during the 1970s and ’80s. Although a reserved playwright and book writer, his contributions to the rock music industry and Broadway have been numerous. Holmes was born in England because of his father’s involvement in the U.S. Air Force. After the family moved to New York, Holmes developed an interest in music. He attended the Manhattan School of Music and, after graduation, began seriously considering a career as a songwriter. He played piano with the Cuff Links and the Buoys in the ’70s, also arranging and composing songs for Gene Pitney, the Platters, the Drifters, and the Partridge Family. In 1971, at the age of 24, Holmes gained a hit on both the American and U.K. charts with “Timothy.”
Tracklist:
01. Widescreen 4:00
02. Terminal (Widescereen) 4:18
03. Second Saxophone (Widescreen) 4:29
04. Phantom of the Opera (Widescreen) 3:02
05. Talk (Widescreen) 3:15
06. Bagdad (Widescreen) 4:32
07. Our National Pastime (Widescreen) 2:57
08. Letters That Cross in the Mail (Widescreen) 3:14
09. Soap Opera (Widescreen) 4:16
10. Psycho Drama 10:17
11. Terminal (Single Edit) (Widescreen) 3:25
12. Philly (Widescreen) 3:28
13. Introduction: Terminal (Widescreen) 1:27
14. Terminal (Live at the Bottom Line, Nyc, 23/04/78) (Widescreen) 5:22
15. Introduction: Widescreen 1:45
16. Widescreen (Live at the Bottom Line, Nyc, 23/04/78) 5:53
17. Phantom of the Opera (Live at the Bottom Line, Nyc, 23/04/78) (Widescreen) 5:09
18. Too Scared to Sing (Rupert Holmes) 3:23
19. Brass Knuckles (Rupert Holmes) 4:31
20. You Burned Yourself Out (Rupert Holmes) 3:50
21. Deco Lady (Rupert Holmes) 3:46
22. I Don’t Want to Hold Your Hand (Rupert Holmes) 3:05
23. Rifles and Rum (Rupert Holmes) 3:15
24. Studio Musician (Rupert Holmes) 3:48
25. Everything Gets Better When Your Drunk (Rupert Holmes) 2:55
26. The Man Behind the Woman (Rupert Holmes) 3:49
27. The Place Where Failure Goes (Rupert Holmes) 3:06
28. Queen Bee (Rupert Holmes) 3:01
29. Love out of Time (Rupert Holmes) 3:34
30. The One of Us (Rupert Holmes) 2:51
31. Lullaby for Myself (Rupert Holmes) 3:20
32. You Burned Yourself out (Rehearsal, Brooklyn 1975) (Rupert Holmes) 3:47
33. Queen Bee (Live at the Bijou) (Rupert Holmes) 4:25
34. Introduction: Studio Musician (Rupert Holmes) 2:11
35. Studio Musician (Live at the Bottom Line, Nyc, 23/04/78) (Rupert Holmes) 4:32
36. Who, What, When, Where, Why (Singles) 3:35
37. Weekend Lover (Singles) 3:29
38. I Don’t Want to Get over You (Sinlges) 3:01
39. You Make Me Real (Sinlges) 3:43
40. Aw Shucks (Singles) 2:44
41. The Last of the Romantics (Singles) 4:23
42. For Beginners Only (Sinlges) 3:53
43. Touch and Go (Singles) 4:08
44. Annabella (Singles) 2:39
45. Singles 4:44
46. Magic Trick (Singles) 3:12
Touareg guitar music started out in the 1980s as an amalgam of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and Dire Straits, filtered through rebel fighters in exile from Mali and sheltered by Colonel Gaddafi in the Libyan Desert. They dreamt of cleaving Azawad, their region of the south-western Sahara, away from Mali: the music was half campfire party, half party political broadcast.
The genre now belongs decidedly to a younger generation. Tamikrest gain energy from their association with the indie band Dirtmusic (and vice versa); Bombino has teamed up with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Imarhan (in Tamashek, “the posse”) keep things more in line with the original Touareg band Tinariwen — indeed, their frontman Sadam plays with Tinariwen when their…
…wayward frontman Ibrahim Ag Alhabib is unwilling to tour. He is also a cousin of Tinariwen’s peerless bassist Eyadou Ag Leche, who produced much of Imarhan’s first album.
Temet, the follow-up, promises “connections”. There is nostalgia for the desert (Imarhan are now based partly in Paris). “I’m homesick”, sings Sadam on “Alwa”; “I long for my country/And for all that I’ve left behind.” Later, on “Tarha Nam”, he implores a lover to “remember those valleys/And the afternoons we spent together, under the trees.” The music here is quieter, meditative, almost dreamy.
Then there are fiery, bluesy political songs, buoyed on gritty riffs the width of a wadi. The renewed rebellion of 2012 was a disaster for the Touareg, as it was hijacked by al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and the territory was reclaimed by Malian and French soldiers. The aftereffects ripple through the album. “Any uprising bears its share of risks” concedes Sadam, “And capitulation is a humiliation.”
So on “Ehad Wa Dagh” (“that night”) he laments “the day that Satan, the sower of discord,/Sharpens his swords with hatred.” On “Imuhagh” he begs, “Touareg, stop hating each other.” And he concludes “Since independence has still not been achieved,/We might as well unite the community.”
The album ends on the downbeat “Ma S-Abok”. The music barely ticks over; Sadam sings in a cracked whisper: “I see people destroying their own town,/A shame about which they still manage to boast.” It is a bleak close to an energetic album. — FT
