Black Pumas – Black Pumas

Over a whatsapp video call, David showed me a new CD he had bought, I nodded politely as though I recognised the band and knew all about them and we moved on to the next one of three. The album was Black Pumas by Black Pumas and I thought little more of it until the very next day I somehow found myself in a record store for the first time in months since the lockdown started. I didn’t really have anything in mind to buy and was browsing around when I stumbled upon a vinyl copy of the album. I bought it, unheard, on a sort of recommendation by David. I think if I had gone to the store with a purpose, looking for something specific, I probably wouldn’t have, but apart from the recommendation it was on a nice splatter vinyl and came with a bonus CD, also it wasn’t particularly expensive.

I’ve played it several times since then and really do rather like it. If you haven’t heard them yet here is their track ‘Colours’ (which I’ve spelt correctly) for you to have a listen to before I go on:

So who are they? They are singer Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada who got together in 2017 and released their debut album, Black Pumas, on June 21, 2019. They performed at South by Southwest in 2019 and won a best new band trophy at the 2019 Austin Music Awards. On November 20, 2019, they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. That’s quite a start.

Black Pumas performed “Colors” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! following their network TV debut on CBS This Morning along with a taping on season 45 of Austin City Limits. The band’s single “Colors” later reached number one on AAA radio. The single has been streamed over 60 million times across all platforms. Meanwhile, the official live video of “Colors” has been viewed over 25 million times on YouTube. Despite all this, nobody has pointed out that Colours has a U in it.

In their hometown of Austin, Texas, Black Pumas became the first band to sell out four consecutive shows at Stubbs, one of the city’s live venues, and on May 7, 2020, mayor Steve Adler proclaimed the date as Black Pumas Day.

The whole album is consistently good and doesn’t step outside it’s aesthtic with the production staying true troughout to a sort of modern 70’s feel that has been quite popular of late.

This is roughly what the vinyl looks like, not my picture but my copy is pretty similar:

Tracklist

A1	Black Moon Rising
A2	Colors
A3	Know You Better
A4	Fire
A5	OCT 33
B1	Stay Gold
B2	Old Man
B3	Confines
B4	Touch The Sky
B5	Sweet Conversations
	Bonus CD
CD-1	Black Moon Rising
CD-2	Colors
CD-3	Fire
CD-4	Eleanor Rigby

I’ve yet to listen to the bonus CD, I’m not sure if they are demos or live or something else. I just checked, it’s a live session. SO that’s something to look forward to.

33 1/3 Radio – Show 12 – Funk and Soul

At last, what nobody has been waiting for! A new radio show episode!

Manuel Göttsching ‎– Inventions For Electric Guitar

Shortly before Lockdown I saw a copy of ‘Inventions For Electric Guitar’ in my local record store and completely ignored it as, based on the cover, it was probabaly not my thing at all, soI flicked past it and pretty much forgot about it. Then, about a month ago I was reading an article on Krautrock and I realised that he was from Ash Ra Temple, which made me listen to them and then try and find this album on spotify and, to my suprise, it wasn’t there. I did find it on youtube and have put it down below if you would like a listen.

1.	“Echo Waves”	17:45
2.	“Quasarsphere”	6:34
3.	“Pluralis”	21:36

Although it is a solo album and all the instruments (Guitar) are played by Göttsching it was originally subtittled Ash Ra Tempel VI, technically making it the sixth and final album under the Ash Ra Tempel name.

Göttsching started his career in music at a young age, with various Berlin pop and blues bands in the late-1960’s, including the Steeple Chase Bluesband. He was the mainstay of Ash Ra Tempel and Ashra, and also worked with The Cosmic Jokers, and other Kosmische Kuriere projects. Later he established a project together with Michael Hoenig, and on numerous occasions he also played as a guest/collaborator along with Klaus Schulze.

I like repetitive music that I can get lost in, I also like complex music, this album is both, and at times it can get pretty heavy. I can identify with it too as I released a couple of albums of my own that utilised only one guitar and it is difficult to differentiate the tones and sounds when you have only a single instrument. While Manuel was decades before me and is much better at it than I could ever be, I’m going to put a track called ‘Firefly Dance’ from the album ‘Massive’ that was recorded using only one guitar and nothing else.

Verian Thomas – Firefly Dance – From the album ‘Massive’

I get a lot of inspiration from artists like Göttsching and whenever I listen back to tracks I’ve done in the past I get the urge to set all the gear up again and have another go, then something mundane happens, like needing to take the recycling out, and that urge fades as quickly as it arrived, but maybe, one of these days, I will inflict further noise pollution on a world that really already has enough, the only thing I really need, is time.

Nashville Skyline Contemporaries

I played my copy of Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan at the weekend and it had one of those inner sleeves that advertises other albums, that I like. I knew most of the artists on it, although there were a couple I didn’t know and some I don’t remember listening to ever, even though I knew of them.

Here are the inner sleeves:

I find these really interesting and I do wish that it was still a thing, or more of a thing as it does happen occasionally. It’s a good way to find other music that one might normally overlook. For my own listening pleasure I made a playlist of the artists on the inner sleeve, which you can listen to if you wish, although it is ‘Old Timey’ music.

I would also like to point out how far ahead of his time Dylan was. As far back as 1969 he included a youtube play button on the album cover which is extraordinary foresight.

Record Store Day Picks – 1

Due to the global pandemic RSD 2020 was put on hold and re-designed so that instead of a single day there will be three ‘Drops’ over a period of three months begining in August. From a budgeting perspective this is actually rather advantageous and probabaly good for the stores as well, however, the majority of items will be on the first drop with the next two being mini drops really.

A full list of what is being released is available HERE but I am just going to talk about the records I’m interested in picking up. So, starting with August:

The Amorphous Androgynous – A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble

This is a project involving The Future Sound of London, who seem to always have something out for RSD recenty, and appear futher down. Not 100% on this one, it depends very much on the price.

Asha Puthli – Asha Puthli

I’ve been listening to this on Spotify and I really liked it so if I see a copy I will give serious consideration to picking it up.

The Cure – Bloodflowers

One to add to my very slowly expanding Cure collection. I think Disintergration was around where I stopped listening to new cure releases as much so anything after that is sort of new to me, which is nice.

Future Sound Of London – Cascade 2020

I already have the original 1993 release but this is a 2020 update, much as they previously did with Yage and My Kingdom.

Gary Numan with The Skaparis Orchestra – When the Sky Came Down (Live at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester)

I like GN and this seemed interesting, again, price will be the decider.

Gorillaz – D-Sides & G-Sides

So this is 2 albums and I’m on the fence, I suspect they will be £50 for the two, which is probabaly more than I want to pay.

Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit, Jah Wobble – A Full Circle

If I see it and I have money left to spend then I’ll get it.

Ennio Morricone – Peur Sur La Ville OST

RSD Morricone releases have been very overpriced in my view, single albums being in the £38 range ( and then often discounted months later into the mid twenties, where thwy should have been in the first place).