Marty Paich - The Modern Touch

Beautiful 'now' sounds and one of my most played items. This is a CD rip done by yours truly in Ogg Vorbis 360k vbr. If you're a luddite that is confounded by these new fangled doo hicky formats don't ask for a re-up as there's lots of conversion programs out there if you really must.

I must re-iterate however that I have done some rips at 360k MP3 and to my ears Ogg definitely sounds better.

Anyhow thanks to the kind person who sent me this CDR sometime ago and my faltering memory just can't remember who it was. Its actually a twofer "The Broadway Bit" and "I Get a Boot Out of You" both albums very fine indeed.

Part 1

Part 2

Leon Theremin and Clara Rockmore

Theremin: an Electronic Odyssey

Just viewed this fascinating documentary. Made around 1994 it tells the story of the theremin or rather the story of Leon Theremin the Russian inventor and Clara Rockmore the instruments greatest exponent.



Starting with early footage of Theremin and Rockmore in the 1920s there's some great archive footage of the introduction of the theremin to American audiences. The video also has interviews with such luminaries as Bob Moog who designed and built his own theremins in his teenage years using designs in a popular hobby magazine.

There's footage of the use of the theremin in classic movies and songs by the Beach Boys etc. Brian Wilson has an embarrassing interview and he sounded like he was talking in a foreign language, he's so off the planet.

The film is marred by not telling us who is being interviewed and there's no subtitles for some portions in Russian.



Clara is simply stunning in concert footage taken for the film and she plays classical pieces flawlessly even though she must have been in her nineties. She uses the original Theremin valve driven instruments from the twenties because, as she explains, the newer models just don't have the same sound quality and I believe her.

Theremin was unbelievably kidnapped from his New York home in the late 30s on Stalin's orders and it was assumed he died in 1947. He survived however and even was awarded a medal for inventing a spy bug for the Soviets.

The most poignant sequences are when Leon now in his late nineties is brought back to New York and has a meeting with his early protege Clara Rockmore. To see Leon as a bent old man wandering the glittering streets of his younger days like a child wandering around Santa's workshop is a sight to behold.



His meeting with Clara is emotional as she seems to be surrounded by the same instruments and photographs of the 20s and she plays beautifully for Leon on one of the antique instruments. Sadly Leon, nearly 100, died a couple of years after his visit.



Get the movie here, very highly recommended.

Kava Kon - Tiki for the Atomic Age

Dionysus Records have kindly sent me a copy of Kava Kon's new CD to have a listen to. I've only listened a couple of times but already I can see its going to be one of my favourites.

Trip hop meets modern exotica, the elements all mix smoothly like a martini shaken not stirred. I strongly recommend going to their myspace page and listen to about half the album and I think you'll be convinced its worth having. Not much money for the mp3 album so a good buy in these difficult times.

The first album was an interesting listen but this is smoother and more assured. The following blurb probably explains the music better than I can:

Kava Kon - Tiki for the Atomic Age

In 2004, Nels Truesdell and Bob Kress formed Kava Kon as a magical escape from the urban decay surrounding them in their former home city of Detroit. The duo created a new form of music combining the modern with the primitive; electronica and exotica! Kava Kon's music is influenced by the classic exotica sound of Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Bob Drasnin, obscure thrift store vinyl, Hollywood B-movie soundtracks of the '50s and '60s, Dub pioneers of Jamaica such as King Tubby, Scientist, and Lee 'Scratch Perry' and early Detroit techno sounds of Juan Atkins, Drexciya and Jeff Mills.

Bob Kress draws from his background of writing and recording jazz and classical music using exotic instruments from all corners of the globe. Nels Truesdell's eclectic background in electronic music production and his collection of vintage electronic music equipment gives 'Tiki for the Atomic Age' a hypnotic, flowing and modern sound. Tiki for the Atomic Age is the group's second album. The entire run of Kava Kon's debut 2005 self release 'Departure Exotica' sold to the band's fanbase via POP sales at shows. Cover art by Canadian pop surrealist painter Heather Watts takes Kava Kon's unique sound into the visual realm.

Myspace sounds

Bettie Page desktop

For those of you who like Bettie (or Betty) Page or rather the idealised image of her I've done a little desktop background which I thought came out rather nicely. Its 1280 x 720 which happens to be my desktop resolution. Just click the pic and then save.

Betty passed away late last year at the grand old age of 85. Guess she must have been doing something right.

Amazing 'frozen' video of clowns vs police shootout.

See the original here its even better. Its from an ad for the new Phillips cinema resolution TVs - I want one!

Betty Page

The great burlesque queen Betty Page in her prime. This is a wonderfully clear and colourful clip of the queen. She hardly takes anything off and the performance is very tasteful but sexy also. A touch of class the others could only dream of.

The music's pretty spiffy too.

Red Ingle

STOP PRESS:

Jeff Ball sent me an email advising that he'd found a couple of dozen Red Ingle tracks on "Pet's playin her old platters" blog here. So thanks to Jeff and Pet or whoever as well.

I've downloaded all the tracks and uploaded them to a zip file here which may be a bit easier than individually downloading each track.

The site in question also has a policy of deleting shares after about a week so they probably won't last on that site. They're all from 78s so expect some surface noise. They're still a very good and fun listen.

I've also added some Ingle stuff to Youtube here. I'll probably add to it as well.

I saw this on PCL Linkdump I think it was and its an interesting video from the late 40s. The preamble was also used in the Hombre's Let it All Hang Out. A drunkard's dream, if there ever was one.

Here's an mp3 version probably in much better fidelity.

Cigareets Whuskey And Wild Wild Women - Ingle, Red & Natural Seven & Might And Main Street Choral Society


Here's another Ingle tune sung by Jo Stafford, a great version of Timtayshun (Temptation) also done in comedy style.

Tim-Tayshun - Cinderella G. Stump (Jo Stafford) and Red Ingle

Now does anyone have any more stuff by Ingle? I can't seem to find it anywhere so any help would be welcome.

W & G Instrumental Story

This is posted on Endless Summer together with the Denvermen collection. Lots of great early 60s Aussie instrumental sounds.

Thunderbirds - Rat Race


Thunderbirds - Wild Weekend


Denvermen - Surfside

Yma Sumac - Voice of the Xtabay & Inca Taqui

In response to a request here's either May Camus (NY housewife), Amy Mucas (Hungarian opera singer with a nasal problem) or Yma Sumac (exotic singer and Peruvian princess) take your pick of which rumour you want to believe.

Conducted by the great Les Baxter it was rumoured that Xtabay was almost an anagram of Baxter.

This is my own LP rip of an Australian re-issue which was an unlikely find in an op shop. Nice clean vinyl copy it didn't need any restoration and the 96kps mono rip (192kps equivalent stereo) sounds just fine. It includes both albums Voice of the Xtabay and Inca Taqui one on each side of the platter

Xtabay

Tony Hatch - The Essential 3CD set re-up

Another stellar set I picked up when I used to be a regular at the bargain bins of music shops.

This one is a 3Cd set of 60s and 70s band leader maestro Tony Hatch who mentored such acts as Petula Clark and the Searchers and had a handy number of albums in his own right.

Each disc concentrates on a different aspect of Tony's career: easy listening guru, hitmaker for various vocal acts and hip TV themes.

Thanks for the comments and votes so far even the people who ticked no thanks and yet took the time to vote, around 30 votes and comments so far in the first day so this seems popular enough to upload and share.

MP3 160kps

I've re-upped to a multiple file service so lets see how that goes. Link

A Primer for Primer

I like movies such as Memento and Mulholland Drive where you have to see the movie a number of times to get an understanding of what's going on. Of course the movie has to be of such quality that you actually care enough to research the movie and eventually understand kind of what's happening.

I'm not comparing Primer with either of those masterpieces but for an indie film with a budget of a few pesetas Primer is very good indeed and in fact won an award at Sundance. I knew I was watching something pretty good when a bunch of nerds talking engineering speak stumble on what turns out to be a time machine.

This aint no big budget schlock with wizzbang special effects no these dweebs build their machines (yes there's more than one) out of what looks like old packing boxes and duct tape.

Now I was following this all pretty well even when finding a growth of mould gave them a clue as to what they had built (no I don't know why). Once they'd found a safe place to build their machines (a Uhaul storage facility) things got interesting and frankly completely out of my limited understanding. Somehow or other there are three or four versions of our heroes wandering around and the later ones needed tapes of what had been said by previous iterations hence the title Primer.

The later versions also had problems like bleeding ears and bad handwriting which may or may not help you pick them out.

Apparently you can only go back in time for as long as you stay in the box and you can't go forwards in time. What time travel film restricts itself like that and yet it seems much more realistic than wizzing about the centuries fighting dinosaurs and such.

I gleaned what info I could from IMDB forums and one chap was so confused he said the sets and production values were high but the acting was bad which I think was completely the other way around.

Anyway some egghead masters student with too much time on his hands has written a scholarly treatise on the film entitled "Primer: The Perils and Paradoxes of Restricted Time Travel Narration." (http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Gendler.pdf].

I made it through 2 pages of the 19 page document when I started bleeding from the ears and my handwriting inexplicably started looking like a two year olds. I did learn two new words however "fabula" and "suyuzhet" which have something to do with the narrative flow of the film.

Some of the idiots, err sorry, fans of the film have seen it 20 times or more and still argue about whether Aaron 2 or Aaron 3 had wrestled the gun off a party crasher.

Anyway go see it, there's bound to be torrents available or see comments for RS links (thanks Trustar).

Maurice Jarre (13 September 1924 – 29 March 2009)

To celebrate the life of Maurice Jarre here's a very nice overview of some of his more decorated work and conducted by the great man himself. If you want a one disc sample of his music this is a great place to start.

Thanks to the original provider of this album but I uploaded before I noticed some typos (Lawerence?).

I've got a lot of his soundtrack work but I'm thinking of upping the soundtrack to Top Secret which includes some great songs by Val Kilmer (helped out by Flo and Eddie). If you would like a copy of this album let me know in the comments or poll in sidebar.

Jarre by Jarre 320kps MP3.

Del Rubio Triplets Hollyweird

Dr Forrest is sharing a twofer of the Del Rubio Triplets (see the sidebar). Intrigued by their rather campy appearance and after listening to their low fi versions of such 'hits' as Devo's Whip It I investigated further.

They came to fame in the eighties due to their campy appeal and the fact they appeared usually in mini shorts and skirts showing off their not bad gams. That wouldn't be too bad except they were well into their sixties at the time. Thank god for soft focus I suppose.

Apparently they all lived together in the same house for many years and always dressed alike and went everywhere together. Unfortunately two of the sisters have passed away leaving one sibling. Not surprising when you consider they were born within minutes of each other in 1921.

Anyway have a look at the above video which gives a good idea of their musical ability and camp appeal. I tried to find a vid of Whip It but am so far unsuccesful although the song is featured on their myspace site.

Myspace site

Wikipedia entry

Instant beer is here!