dfbm #82 - Songs of Wild Nothing

dfbm #82
Songs of Wild Nothing

dfbm #82 - Songs of Wild Nothing

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Wild Nothing is like an elaborate dream. A lot of wild things happen and then you wake up and there is nothing left. In the worst (or best) case there is an echo that fades away. It's similar with the music: so much music got recorded in the past, so much music is fading away. In many cases, records got digitalized and stored, which itself is the echo of a once released vinyl album, cassette or a cd reissue. At some point all digital music will be lost. There is almost no notation of this music, like with Beethoven's work and playable copies or devices will vanish. Maybe folk songs will survive. Folk songs about computers, algorithms and facebook.

Whatever, I just tried to make sense out of the title - I might make this a new series, next to the Morning Raga.

Spread over two hours, this mix compiles music from all over the world. Ethnic recordings are paired with contemporary songwriters, outsider gospel, fingerstyle guitar, blues, avantgarde music and bedroom productions. Tracklist and download and a little contest, see below. You can win something!

The story of Chemirocha is a fascinating one. A field recording made in the 50s of a Kenyian tribe who is singing about Country Legend Jimmie Rodgers a deity half-man half-antelope.

The Renaissance is a church group that I would describe as a mix between The Polyphonic Spree and recordings by the Manson Family. Very basement sounding stuff pressed on wax and almost forgotten if not somebody took the time to transfer it into the digital age. The New Creation is a similar gem and probably better known since it already got reissued. Outsider-Gospel at its best.

Contrary to that is Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, with his version of "Kingdom Come" (The Year of Jubilo), an American Civil War song. It's all played on a synthesizer, even if the banjo and the cornet sound pretty real - that what the liner notes says. The 10" "Strange Music" is a weird record, but it makes sense for someone who was close to Boyd Rice, an expert of incredible strange music and the weird aspects of American pop culture. LaVey's daughter Zeena Schreck continued to make weird music.

Leo Wijnkamp Jr. is one of many guitar pickers from this wave of solo guitarists in the seventies. He released on Stefan Grossman's Kicking Mule Records label. I think that gives you an idea of the music. Solo guitar ditties, rags and blues - nothing groundbreaking, but there is one or another little gem

Slide guitar is not only played in Hawaii by the Sol Hoopii Trio it's also played in Vietnam by Nguyen Van Thong.

A curiosity is the song The Steam Arm by Jerry Henderson. Some sort of science fiction folk about a prosthetic arm that got - out of hands.

Buell Kazee is my favorite banjo guy. I am happy that I found a copy of his June Appal release from 1978. Not only because the cover artwork looks like a post-punk record from the eighties, but that was a major reason to try and find that record and I just love Kazee's music.

Leonard Bowles & Irvin Cook is an old time duo that I found in the online collection of some university (see link below). That's one of the rawest fiddling and banjo playing I've ever heard. It's awesome (heads up to Daniel Bachman who introduced me to this via his Smithsonian guest mix).

But this is not all about dead artists. There are the caveman serenades by Urpf Lanze, Belgian visual artist Wouter Vanhaelemeesch and urban lo-fi blues by Ignatz. Weird loner folk/noise by bodytunnel some obscure solo project from Brooklyn, a great new tune by Norwegian loner folklorist and old-time aficionado C.Strøm. (Fellow Scandinavians on this mix are Moongazing Hare from Denmark/Sweden and Swedish psych folk ensemble Harvester)

The Moses Nesh song is from his recent release here on Dying For Bad Music. You can still buy it!

The Robbie Basho song is from the latest reissue of an private cassette that the good people at Grass-Tops Recordings restored and released as free high quality download (along with tons of other Robbie Basho stuff).

I know this is a pretty weird mix were it goes from questionable personalities like Manson or LaVey to preachers like Buell Kazee or Reverent Robert Wilkins, from American folk to cell phone recordings by Abba Gargando and further to guitar poetry from Japan - but, music is the key

Contest

The cover to this mix is an adaption of the artwork from a folk label that released a handful instructional records back in the late 70s, to learn various stringed instruments. The label is out of Florida and probably still active, at least there are reissues on cd available. Notable is the quilt they used as background image. What's the name of the label?

Send your answer and win a Dying For bad Music t-shirt (if you can wear a slim size M, else no shirt) and a last copy of Daniel Bachman's 7" Perigee Moon + a last copy of Steven Palmer's cd "Unblinking Sun"
A second prize will be either the Crystalline Roses or the Moses Nesh cassette.

TL;DR
Give me that Old Time R
eligion...

Download  Stream @ Mixcloud

Tracklist

  1. Ben Collier Song of Amergin Bardo Junction 2016 web
  2. Moongazing Hare Wild Nothing Wild Nothing 2016 web
  3. Marika Papagika Zmirneikos Balos I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore 2007 web
  4. Unknown Artist Chemirocha Love Is Love web
  5. Moses Nesh The Duel The Lovely Ohio 2014 web
  6. Buell Kazee Steel A-Going Down Buell Kazee 1978 discogs
  7. Robbie Basho The Golden Medallion Bouquet 2016 web
  8. C.Strøm The Ninety and Nine Pastoral Underground 2016 web
  9. Leonard Bowles & Irvin Cook Wish To The Lord That I'd Never Been Born PS-223 1979 web
  10. Ignatz Some People Keep Their Change Because Time Is Too Short 2012 discogs
  11. Urpf Lanze The Hypnotic Defense New Music for Old Instruments 2012 web
  12. The Renaissance Understanding Love web
  13. Jim Price Title 03 Collected Songs- 2002-2014 2014 web
  14. Nguyen Van Thong Uho Chicu Khu web
  15. Arthur Dimension's/Plain Talk In Search Of Arthur 2002 discogs
  16. Good Stuff House 1 Good Stuff House 2006 web
  17. Abba Gargando Tarha Lamon Ines Abba Gargando 2015 web
  18. Anton LaVey The Year Of Jubilo Strange Music 1994 discogs
  19. Mucip Arcıman Evlenmeyin Erkekler Naylon Kızlar Çıkacak Columbia RT 17944b web
  20. The New Creation Wind Troubled 1970 discogs
  21. Montezuma Valley String Band Fire Named Mavrick Four Songs 2015 web
  22. Leo Wijnkamp Jr. Ragtime Annie Rags To Riches 1975 discogs
  23. Capt. M. J. Bonner (The Texas Fiddler) Dusty Miller / Ma Ferguson Joe Bussard Presents: The Year Of Jubilo - 78 RPM Recordings Of Songs From The Civil War 2015 web
  24. Jerry Henderson The Steam Arm Historical Ballads Of The Tennessee Valley discogs
  25. Sol Hoopii Trio Palolo Hawaiian Steel Guitar Classics 1927 - 1938 1993 discogs
  26. Charles Manson Bet You Think I Care All The Way Alive 2003 discogs
  27. bodytunnel Forest, Geoff Wade Lonesome 2015 web
  28. Robert Wilkins Old Time Religion Prodigal Son 2014 discogs
  29. Harvester När lingonen mognar Hemåt discogs
  30. Lucky Luke First Eastern Snow Simon Of The Desert 2003 discogs
  31. Yuichi Ushioda Slumberland 8 Songs 2011 web
  32. Shep And Me Squaler (Trad.) CFE#34: Spring Creeper 2011 discogs

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