your top ten albums ... that haven't yet been mentioned on ILM

here's an attempt to get everyone to recommend music that we haven't gotten around to talking about in over eight years of ILM.

list ten of your very favorite albums that have yet to be cited on any ILM threads (use the search function wisely, searching posts and not just thread titles). annotate the list if you please.

the albums don't have to be hyper-obscure, just foreign to this board.

i will start in just a moment.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SEHFZ6ATL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
lonnie johnson with victoria spivey, idle hours (prestige, 1961)

two veterans of the pre- and postwar urban blues scene. most of this is lonnie solo, with occasional piano accompaniment. spivey sings and plays on four tracks. brilliantly relaxed, often funny.

http://www.elijahwald.com/images/mukabi.jpg
george mukabi, sengula nakupenda (music world, 1993)

CD reissue of 1950s sides by this kenyan guitarist. no longer available except as a MP3 download (on amazon and elsewhere). anyone who favors the "african acoustic" series of LPs on john storm roberts's original music label should hear this.

http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/images/album_covers/SF270/FW02427.jpg
jean ritchie, precious memories (folkways, 1962)

ritchie takes a break from the traditional songs and ballads that are her stock-in-trade and performs a variety of sentimental country songs that were family favorites. still available from smithosnian folkways: http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=308

Here's a song I love that I've never seen discussed on ILM: Dreams, by The Duncan Bros. It's on the Soundways compilation disc Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical & Calypso Funk on the Isthmus 1967-77. That guitar sound is spectacular.

This is a very hard thread question, BTW.

http://bassland.sakura.ne.jp/sblo_files/bassland/image/stcl.jpg

steely & clevie play studio one vintage (heartbeat, 1992)

notes from the digital reggae blog: "Rather then have performers voice new lyrics over modern reworkings of Studio One rhythms, Steely & Clevie bought in the original artists to again sing the original song. The result is exemplary, mainly because of the enthusiasm that the process obviously involved. Dawn Penn's "You don't love me" was the crossover hit, but everyone - including Alton Ellis, Leroy Sibbles and the Cables - deserved similar succes."

http://www.wirz.de/music/takoma/grafik/10134.jpg
tony thomas, old style texas & oklahoma fiddlin' (takoma, 1966)

a brilliant fiddle album, mostly forgotten. impassioned versions of "bonaparte's retreat," "rye whiskey," "shall we gather together." guitar on some tracks by john fahey (who released the album on his takoma label).

(sorry for the cropped cover image. this was all i could find online.)

http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/music/cconverse0509.jpg

Connie Converse - How Sad, How Lovely...(Lau derette Recordings, 2009)

At first listen, Connie’s music seems to keep close company with the female folk artists who were her contemporaries. The knack for plaintive storytelling shares much with Peggy Seeger and Susan Reed. Reed knew Connie’s music well, and performed a set of her songs in 1961 at the Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York. But Connie’s music stands out from that of the American folk revival of the 1950’s. Her fluid and disarmingly intelligent poetry reflects an urban perspective, that of a new New Yorker becoming disenchanted by the bucolic tropes of folk music. She is at once a maverick and a romantic, intellectual and spiritual, a staunch independent and a tender, pining lover.

holy file-sharing sites are so sleazy and annoying now.

this thread is awesome btw

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pPnymkCZItc/SrJvlRd6C7I/AAAAAAAAASU/km3dWUy4IWA/s400/SAsoulAweb.jpg
ice cream & suckers: south african soul (mercury, 1966)

one of several "samplers" of south african mbaqanga released around the world in the mid-1960s (riding the international popularity of miriam makeba et al). incredibly infectious, syncretic, vital music that doesn't seem to have captured the world's attention until two decades later.

http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/images/album_covers/SF270/FWRBF13.jpg
the real calypso 1927-1946 (RBF, 1966)

"RBF," which stands for "records, books, films," was a folkways imprint dedicated to reissuing old music from 78 RPM discs, cylinders, and the like. i've been told that moe asch came up with the imprint so that he might be able to distance himself should one of the albums capture the attention of a copyright holder or two. even so, the same address used for proper folkways records is right there on the back cover. it's got all the hits: "edward the VIII" by caresser, lord invader's "yankee dollar," executors "three friends advice," and on and on. still available from smithsonian folkways: http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=305

anyhow, this is a collection of prewar calypsos compiled by sam charters. it's probably the best introduction to the genre one could ask for.

(oops. the sentence starting "it's got all the hits" should come after the sentence beginning "anyhow.")

(and for those interested in ice cream & suckers, you might want to check here: http://electricjive.blogspot.com/2009/09/friday-treats.html)

http://www.afrisson.com/local/cache-vignettes/L350xH350/arton3686-4a781.jpg
roots of OK jazz: zaïre classics 1955–1956 (crammed, 1994)

this is actually the third volume in a series compiling 78s from the loningisa label, based in léopoldville. the first two volumes have been reissued as roots of rumba rock: congo classics 1953–1955 (zaïre having reverted to the name "congo" after mobutu's 1997 departure). this volume remains out of print. which is a shame, because it is a beautiful collection of stunning music. it features the core of what would become the OK jazz band (later the tout puissant OK jazz of franco makiadi), but still recording as "bana loningisa"--the loningisa house band. both this volume and the first two are among my favorite things ever. there's a bit more info here (en français): http://www.afrisson.com/Roots-of-OK-Jazz-Zaire-Classics-3686.html

(eight down, two to go.)

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-1829179-1248301593.jpeg
string ragtime: to do this you got to know how (yazoo, 1974)

another of those brilliant yazoo compilations, with a cover by r. crumb. this one's purview is pretty large, covering a variety of (white and black, solo and group) music on string instruments from the 1920s and 1930s (and one track from the 1950s). favorites on this LP include: john dilleshaw's hard-driving "cotton patch rag," lonnie johnson's exciting title track, hayes & prater's aggressive "arizona stomp." super awesome stuff.

...and last but not least...

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/joseph.taylor/images/largerec/untobriggfair.jpg
unto brigg fair: joseph taylor and other traditional lincolnshire singers
recorded in 1908 by percy grainger (trailer, 1972)

nearly the entire catalog of trailer and leader labels is out of print, for sad reasons that i won't get into here.

the series of which this LP is a part all feature modest gray covers and astonishingly detailed booklets with discographic, historiographic, musicological essays. the booklet here is one of the most enlightening things i have ever read about english traditional music.

but what about the music? it's a series of recordings (originally on cylinders) of british ballad singers recorded by the composer and musicologist percy grainger in 1908. they represent some of the only (if not the only) recorded evidence of ballad-singing styles in this period. the singing of joseph taylor is astonishing in its virtuosity--its use of melisma, its improvisations to the main melody.

this LP is one-of-a-kind and its both criminal and not surprising that it's never been reissued.

now it's your turn.

OK I've got one. It's an EP. The band was fronted by a buddy of mine. He does all the singing, lyrics and bass. The band is The Khe Sanh Approach. The EP is The Extraordinary Rendition Of The Khe Sanh Approach. It's a five-track EP. Four of the tracks are decent hard-edged British rock, Fall-obsessed and terse. The final track is the one I come back to. It's absolutely phenomenal, and if you're a fan of kickass noisy agit-rock (except in this case railing largely AGAINST the agitators), feedback, protracted angry workouts or songs that sound like they've something goddamned urgent to say, you owe it to yourself... http://www.sendspace.com/file/r2r8dm

Disclaimer: My taste is subject to weird vagaries and you're not obliged to like this stuff. Bloke who sings is truly lovely tho and he is one of the most sincere music fans I know.

Disclaimer 2: Yes, it is 14 minutes long. Posts very much in character.

thanks for telling us about all these awesome-sounding albums we'll never be able to hear :(

billy childish - der henkermann - excellent german collection of home recordings

libraness - yesterday and tomorrow's shells - cool solo odds n sods lp by polvo's ash bowie

bummed by albums that have exactly ONE mention: the aesthetics - my right to riches

/indie

amazed at (and not a little shamed by) the depth of musical knowledge & interest on display by mr. op there

which is to say thank you amateurist

Haha, contenderizer, that you should be talking about depth and knowledge and little shames. You are a very smart person!

amazed at (and not a little shamed by) the depth of musical knowledge & interest on display by mr. op there

hey, i linked to where you can get them in most cases!

oops, i meant to quote:

thanks for telling us about all these awesome-sounding albums we'll never be able to hear :(

(sorry, i'm a bit distracted right now. downstairs neighbors are having a loud fight.)

memphis slim & roosevelt sykes - double-barreled boogie - awesome 1970 session from slim and his musical godfather, bawdy roadhouse piano boogie/blues

recently reissued/expanded, available to all

Could not find any mentions of this, though there is a Carnatic thread:

http://images.emusic.com/music/images/album/288/109/071/10907190/300x300.jpg

Incredible, insanely frenetic music.

Lili Boulanger - Du fond de l'abîme · Psaume 24 · Psaume 129 · Vielle prière Bouddhique · Pie Jesu / Markevitch

http://www.arkivmusic.com/graphics/covers/non-muze/full/emi64281.jpg

The liner notes point out how much of her work anticipates Honegger's "oratorio" vein of Le Roi David and Judith. What there is of Boulanger is of very high quality indeed. For me, however, she wrote her masterpiece on her deathbed: the Pie Jesu for boy treble, organ, string quartet, and harp. Not only is it beautiful in its own right, it looks forward to Messiaen twenty-five years before the fact. I find her strongest suit a chant-like, hypnotic quality, repeating a few very strong motives to powerful effect, as in the Pie Jesu, Psaume 129, and the Vielle prière bouddhique. Boulanger was a composer mainly of promise - I would easily say of great promise. Her death robbed us all.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boulanger-Vocal-Chamber-Works/dp/B000026O53

http://www.amazon.com/Lili-Boulanger-lab%C3%AEme-Bouddhique-Markevitch/dp/B0000023H5/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1258944196&sr=8-5

Eric Dolphy -Conversations
Eric Dolphy - Iron Man
Louis Armstrong - Satchmo Plays King Oliver
Abdullah Ibrahim - Water from an Ancient Well
Wilson Pickett - The Sound of Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett - In Philadelphia
Chris Clark - Soul Sounds
John Entwistle - Smash Your Head Against the Wall
Otis Redding - In Person at the Whisky a Go Go
Anna King - Back to Soul

Wilson Pickett - In Philadelphia

this is a great record!

Some of Mumbles' must have been mentioned

The Otis Redding one has been mentioned twice

hmm Iron Man on other boards but not ILM

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/612RZ57Y70L._SL500_AA280_.jpg

mostly just for the incredible Vester Jones tracks

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ryz40B6bO2c/SP3KjkNSxdI/AAAAAAAAFfs/b-oeHHqJPVI/s400/Front.jpg
A fairly "traditional" gnawa healing ceremony recording, as opposed to some of the more world-fusiony collaborations that have come out. Great intensity, infectious polyrhythms and a gut-busting sintir.

(note: I have mentioned some of these, but no one else has)

This is a good thread. Here is link to a somewhat similar thread for reference: Albums With A Cult Following -- You and Only You

Hard to search, but couldn't find. Love this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r9BHjNdFgbI/SoV5IeinoxI/AAAAAAAACBs/BG9fWII3xMk/s400/Charles+Mingus+1955+Quartet+plus+Max+Roach+a%5B520%5D.jpg

The Otis Redding one has been mentioned twice

Really? I found it hard to believe myself, but all I ever came up with in my search was a post on songs mentioning alcohol, which contained "Otis Redding" and "Whisky," but no actual reference to the album.

http://www.dougpayne.com/ssma.jpg

I love her exuberant sound, and also I still crack up a little inside at the title "queen of the organ."

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HPNNJ2CTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

The Busoni works are fascinating and Jacobs' piano work is excellent on everything. Plus check out the awesome mansonesque cover photo.

...

What if we don't want to give away our treasures?

i feel like i mention at least ten albums a week on ilm that i've never seen mentioned, so i'm good for now. plus, i just posted some big list on some other thread about albums you love that are never mentioned. it was a good list!

okay, here's one:

Latitude 15.09 N (Longitude 108.5 E) - an oratorio by Louis Calabro (private press record featuring the Bennington Community Orchestra and Chorus. modern classical oratorio about the My Lai massacre. i'm a big fan of the frenzied narration at the beginning of the piece: "My lie laments a lullabye/Dead children listen.../Quietly.../Piously.../As flies ooze from their eyes...and die.")

i don't know why i said frenzied. the narration isn't really frenzied at all. i REMEMBERED it as frenzied. wish my copy was in a little better shape.

With all due respect, scott, sometimes you recommend TOO MANY albums. It's hard for mere mortals to keep up with the information overload. Maybe the youth of today can manage, but sometimes you've gotta help the aged.

the youth of today can barely manage. although that said i'm not really the youth of today. there's a certain ilxor who's got 17 years on me. perhaps we should ask him about scott's demonic overload...

That Unto Brigg Fair album looks like a thing I need to hear. Luckily the first page of Google results is quite helpful in that regard.

http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/000/920/0000092042_350.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bCArBSVhcTI/SqwcRP8erfI/AAAAAAAAAEE/BGO-43FwwpA/s320/folder.jpg

^ possibly cheating, but this has only ever had the v. briefest of mentions, but it's a wonderful record that justly deserves yr utmost reverence. It's kind of experimental folk music played on a homemade instrument. It's hard to pin down quite where it's coming from, it's a bit of mixture of Gaelic, North African and Indian influences - lots of beautifully fluid and shimmering passages interspersed with more minimal meditational stuff. The guy was quite the outsider, but seemingly had connections with Wire, The The and Rick Wakeman!

More info here:
http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2008/02/michael-o-shea-stcd20011982usauk.html

Didn't realise that O'Shea was now TOD though :o(

I've got that album

It's a good album to got!

Mine is Demon Boyz 'Recognition' so it gets an official mention on ILM. It is an immense early 90s UK Hip-Hop album.

That Unto Brigg Fair album looks like a thing I need to hear. Luckily the first page of Google results is quite helpful in that regard.

make sure you get the liner notes too--they are phenomenally interesting.

http://media.israel-music.com/images/38187522.jpg

i wish the term alt. country had been invented to describe what really is alternative country, instead of what i think it's come to mean: Alt. bands that have some sort of country influence.

My understanding is that it was very much the intent -- fully realized or not -- of a lot of the bands originally termed "alt country" to actually create an alternative country music, like a kind of what-if country music that imagined things had split a different way after the outlaw era. I'm not sure most achieved that exactly, perhaps because they tended to have too much rock music in their blood.

plus, a lot of them couldn't write or play very well.

Scott OTM. Spare me from rock musicians who think playing country music is easy.

sort of defines whiskeytown no?

Slim Harpo – Sill Raining In My Heart – best non-compilation of his I’ve heard, though so many of these songs are so classic you could easily pass this off as a comp. Sexiest songs ever.
Abdullah Ibrahim – Mindif – also known as the soundtrack to Chocolat (the 80s one). “African Market” was my first ideal of how a jazz band would sound.
Various artists - Shakin’ Fit – a megaton of rocked-out soul. "Welfare Cheese"!
The Spurs – Go, Man, Go! – top-notch current western swing band from Eastern Massachusetts (yes such a thing is possible). They played our wedding and people danced.
Ken Emerson – Slack & Steel - my favorite contemporary Hawaiian record.
Otis Spann Is The Blues – first solo record by Muddy Waters’ piano player. He's my favorite discovery of 2009, I could listen to him nonstop for days. Somebody remind me to go start an Otis Spann youtube dump thread.
New Radiant Storm King - My Little Bastard Soul – their first! They’re great!
New Radiant Storm King – Rival Time – their second! Even more great!
Mofungo – End of the World, Part 2 – not 100% sure this has never been mentioned but I got really tired of wading through REM/Cure/PSB references in Search Results. Anyway: a big hurrah for post-no wave didacticism.
Maxine Brown – Not My Baby – dime a dozen packaging, throwaway liner notes, and a phenomenal voice.

sweet! thanks dude.

revive

Telectu, an 80s sometimes-Supersilent othertimes-Cluster duo from Portugal: their 1983 album Belzebu has risen the ranks.

pictures or it didn't happen

Change - The Glow of Love

xxp I have definitely seen telectu mentioned on ilm because you mentioned them about a week and a half ago.

Change - The Glow of Love

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, October 22, 2011 2:54 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

awesome album. It's A Girl's Affair!

"Angel in My Pocket"!

"lumber up, limbaugh down"!!! Soto, you do crack me up!

@ bamcquern whoops

How freaky it is that I downloaded "The Glow Of Love" last night before I saw this thread today! Very enjoyable album..

Is there a Change thread that I'm missing? Hold tight is one of my favorite disco jams EVER.

Change - The Glow of Love

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 21, 2011 9:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

deej recommended this in the j0rdan s listening club but i'd be v surprised if that was the only mention

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9035/tmtmf1mq9.jpg http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4357/tmtmb1wh4.jpg

I did a search and it came up blank, but this album deserves so much more recognition. Taro Meyer's 's/t'. Mostly upbeat soul/pop from 1973, strong and deep voice at times. When the music slows down the arrangements remind me a little of Minnie Riperton's best solo work.

I got to know it through ilxor Jacob Sanders' magnificent blog, can't thank him enough. It's here. Hope you don't mind the plug Jacob :-)

(oops, sorry for hueg)

she just ate my soul

thx for hueg, she pretty

She had mine for breakfast too, Owen, and I am perfectly fine with it

xp yeah I shouldn't apologize for hueg

Is this where I am supposed to post 10 of my favourite Norwegian albums?

Here's an interesting Top 100 Best Norwegian Albums countdown on a website for a popular Norwegian weekly newspaper

Morgenbladet. Norwegian Spotify-copy Wimp are running a countdown presenting the album of the week every week there. Some leading essayists will apparently write one piece each for the Top 10.

If you follow Lorax's link now, Google Translate is translating Jokke & Valentinerne as "Foo Fighters", wtf o_O

"Those were the days! But darkness. And so were all torn. In any case, the music scene like Foo Fighters around 1986 was both a part and a relief from . . . In this world it was the Foo Fighters their first lp, everything can be repaired, was so convenient for those who would pick music: Mad and blues NOK for the police."

uh I really came back here to say that I was listening to the Telectu album and digging it. "Opera" is like a really fuckin' weird remix of the Orb's "Towers of Dub", echoing dog-like noises and all

fyi: daughter of taro meyer is kate & allie pumpkin face ari meyers. for all you kate & allie fanatics out there.

X-Post: The Norwegian music scene is very ahead of its time. Jokke predated Foo Fighters in 1986 already. ;)

lol @ replacing bands in google translate

Actually this translation tool may become a bit useless for these articles now. I tried Google Translate for the following:

DeLillos --> Frank Sinatra
Seigmen --> Nightwish
Trang Fødsel --> Chevelle
Jokke med Tourettes --> Bobby with Tourette

revive! i finally caught up with

Connie Converse - How Sad, How Lovely...(Lau derette Recordings, 2009)

At first listen, Connie’s music seems to keep close company with the female folk artists who were her contemporaries. The knack for plaintive storytelling shares much with Peggy Seeger and Susan Reed. Reed knew Connie’s music well, and performed a set of her songs in 1961 at the Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York. But Connie’s music stands out from that of the American folk revival of the 1950’s. Her fluid and disarmingly intelligent poetry reflects an urban perspective, that of a new New Yorker becoming disenchanted by the bucolic tropes of folk music. She is at once a maverick and a romantic, intellectual and spiritual, a staunch independent and a tender, pining lover.

― Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Sunday, November 22, 2009 6:48 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and it's fantastic!

NOW, a lot of people are playing fast and loose with the thread concept. by all means, tell us about some awesome albums, but be sure they have never before been mentioned on ILM!

...

Connie Converse is a household name now! (sort of :)

Toni Harper - Toni (1956)

http://i.imgur.com/XLI5Zgp.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq4IQIJDDGY

former child star sings jazz standards with the backing of the Oscar Peterson Quartet. classy as fuc.

Roy Lanham and the Whipporrwills - The Hard Life Blues: Standard Transcriptions (1950)

http://i.imgur.com/6zYExxe.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v54DpZy0Bs

swinging country-pop with jazzy, fingerpicked electric guitar — it reminds me a lot of Les Paul and Mary Ford, but without all the tape experimentation. this is a collection of radio transcriptions with a mix of vocal pieces and instrumentals. Roy's instrumental guitar albums Sizzling Strings and Fabulous Guitar are also excellent.

Elisabeth Waldo and Her Concert Orchestra - Rites Of The Pagan: Mystic Realm of the Ancient Americas (1960)

http://i.imgur.com/vJWyfnG.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ80Av17OOM

faux-ethnic music played on reconstructed pre-Columbian instruments (including a rasp made from a human femur). the musicology is dubious, but the music is more imaginative and less loungy than Les Baxter and Martin Denny's exotica in its earnest evocation of occult ritual. very spooky stuff.

(ok, that Elisabeth Waldo album has been mentioned a couple times on ilx, once by myself)

Dorival Caymmi - Eu vou pra Maracangalha (1957)

http://i.imgur.com/cJf4oFQ.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIiaHFxiAhA

classic samba

José Mauro - Obnoxius (Brasil, 1970)
Jose was never promoted because he died in a car accident prior to release of this album.
This is a sentimental favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsrvN6_9usQ