it's all good…
8th September, 2009 | 110 views
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Massive selling album in the seventies but apart from the hit singles taken from it, you have this dreamy piece of post-psychedelia progressive rock. Sounds like something that Steve Hackett would have composed at the beginning of his solo career but without the overt mystical references to wizards, princesses etc. Instead it reflects the mellow vibe of the West Coast rather than the Old World of the United Kingdom.
13th August, 2009 | 28 views
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Despite my gushing praise of a mix that I bought back in ‘92 and owning quite a few of the drum’n'bass releases by him and others on the Good Looking band of labels (sadly mostly lost to water damage in an incident); I paid no attention to any of his releases after I went to live abroad at the end of the nineties or even after I returned. It wasn’t until Jenifa Mayanja played this track on one of her early shows on MotionFM.com that I was enjoying via the archives they keep and KERRR-POW!!! I was knocked over by the polished ethereal-ness for which Bukem is reknowned. Listen, close your eyes and dream dreams of sunrises over utopian dancefloors in woodlands of elation… which sounds quite wanky but we all deserve a moment of blissful rapture though some can articulate it better than others.
30th July, 2009 | 17 views
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The definitive version of this track which has been recorded numerous times, although I also have the version by We Five on seven. Love, peace and flowers drip out of the grooves in this universal paean to just getting along maaan, provoking big smiles and the involuntary rocking of the head from side to side to any listeners. Indelibly connected in my mind to the movie adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, as it was used in the soundtrack that introduced me to some outstanding ‘new’ music. Dialogue from the movie is used to bridge some of the songs on it and Johnny Depp utters the monologue below (adjusted only slightly from the novel) just before the Youngbloods track fades in:
San Francisco in middle of the sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive, in that corner of time in the world, whatever it meant. There was madness in any direction, at any hour, you could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning and that I think was the handle.
That sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil, not in any mean or military sense, we didn’t need that; our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum, we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west and with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high water mark; that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
15th June, 2009 | 76 views
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Been getting immersed in this twelve since I bought it, Sammy Gouyette certainly has his finger on a deep pulse. It’s been out for almost a month, appears to be a vinyl-only release and, as such, probably only available in a limited quantity. Have chosen the long B side to blog but the other two tracks were easily worthy of inclusion, (listen to the samples on juno here and here) plus with it being executively produced by Anthony Pearson, you know you’re in safe hands. Then again, if you’ve got Sammy’s other production under his Izmo alias such a recommendation would be unnecessary. A rolling bassline, smooth perpetual chords and a little bit of piano whisk you off to the nearest asteroid belt – this is dreamy space music.
Artist info:
Vinyl may be available from:
27th February, 2009 | 26 views
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This track has been played by more than one presenter on the EstimuloShow which is testament to it’s strength and it deserves a post in it’s own right. Released at the tail end of 2008, it’s a sleeper that gets better with repeated listens and it still widely available now. Like drinking that ‘extra’ glass of wine, it brings intoxication to the ears, a tapestry of swirling sounds that sweeps you up on a magic carpet ride into that perfect world that few tracks conjure up. Nor should the lushness of this track overshadow the other two tracks by Ron Trent and Trinidadian Deep, which in themselves still make this release worth buying. Seek and buy on sight!
