Undomondo’s best reissues and compilations of 2020.
UDW playlist selects 2020's best reissues and past brilliances.
Howdy folks,
It’s time for a short recap of the best reissues and some vintage material that I dug last year to bring 2020 to a nice closure. Here’s the accompanying playlist.
Starting this off with the late Swedish Bo Hansson’s Lord of the Rings themed prog album from 1972, - which he is best known for. I discovered this one through a mutual friend on our Discord (send a msg if you want to get invited). Two reissues on everyone’s list this year was Brasilian Priscilla Ermel’s Origens da Luz on Music from Memory which covers her material between 1986-1994 and Jon Hassell’s Vernal Equinox from 1977, first time reissued on vinyl by his own label. The aptly titled Black Sound from White People (1970s) by Augusto Martelli on the wonderful Italian reissue label SONOR Music Editions segues into maestro Ennio Morricone’s Uccidete Il Vitello Grasso E Arrostitelo reissued on LP for the first time on the French Transversales Disques label.
Through Ethos a Turkish Netflix series, I found out about this absolute gem from the stalwart Turkish rock singer Cem Karaca, and it’s the second piece related to Turkey, the first being the Cafe Turk release by the wonderful Zel Zele label which I’ve also selected for The Attic magazine. This previously unreleased material from a gastarbeiter Turk in Switzerland playing NDW to unsuspecting audiences in the 80s is total bonkers. Suffice to say this album is an evidence that parallel universes exist.
What follows the minimal wave/new wave bit is a gem celebrating the 90th birthday of Danish composer Lotte Kærså. Don’t miss this one if you are a sucker for children’s chorus music like I am.
Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, Kærså used music and dance as an educational tool, and went on to produce children’s TV, as well as writing compositions and teaching music education – which she still does today.
Kærså formed Græsrødderne in 1979 with her children, with their sound drawing on jazz funk, samba, and dub-reggae rhythms, alongside nods to psychedelia and upbeat lyricism. The Vinyl Factory.
We roll through the Caribbean with a calypso track from The Mighty Sparrow, a rocksteady track by Bunny Brown’s The Chosen Few, and come back to the UK with an early Jungle reissue on Soul Jazz. The always on point Habibi Funk spots a gem again with Sharhabil Ahmed, and we leave mediterranean and levant with a a wonderful early Greek/Ottoman/Rebetiko compilation on Death is Not the End, a radio show/soundsystem/record label, that I’ve recently found out about.
The following two vintage samba pieces by Djalma Dias and Anisio Silva don’t come off reissues but from my own digs, seguing into another SONOR Music Reissue - from 2019 - Italian composer Giuliano Sorgini’s library music and we end on a high note with one of the most amazing reissue stories this year, the underrated and extremely rare soul album from 1981. Ending this transmission with some emotional words by Al Brown Jr. from the band.
“After 38 years, I still have the euphoric feeling while listening to this album. I would say that this was one of my greatest achievements. I want to say "Thank you" Pascal Rioux and associates for sharing the group's vision with the rest of the world. I pray the listeners will feel a portion of what we tried to convey through these songs. When I first began this project, I thought it was just killing time. Being 17 years old at the time, I didn't see the music we worked on being recorded. We (Frank and I) were in a basement practicing each song. Who knew that this music would be recorded let alone picked up 38 years later? I still remember every beat, drum roll, every stop/start; everything. Wow, the nostalgia of it all. I wish this album much success and I hope in the future I can perform this album live.”
Hope you enjoy this selection, send this newsletter and/or the spotify playlist to friends who enjoy good music!
Talk soon!