Erik XI

by Zel Quartet

By the end of my stay here, I start to discover some bands from Porvoo. At least I think they are from Porvoo. Zel Quartet is one. The other day I saw an old (two or three year old?) poster of them on the wall close to the town centre. (Which made me think that either nobody dared to paste anything over or the glue used for the latter posters was of inferior quality.)

The title of the album sounds like a name of an Old Norse king but I think it simply reflects the fact that the bandleader, Erik Lindroth, wrote eleven compositions (if you count Spacetip — Introduction and Spacetip as one). In any case, Viking metal it ain’t. The music is more like “old-school” jazz-rock, which is surprising as that the band members appear in their late 20s or early 30s. All in all, a very impressive debut album, recorded in just three days. I have been listening to it for about a week now and I am still not bored.

Any reservations? Well, somebody should have proofread the liner notes. Given that you are highly unlikely to buy the real CD, this should be the least of your worries.

Erik XI

Spacetip — Introduction Spacetip (Beck’s Slide) — inspired by Jeff Beck Octa B (GB Octaves) — inspired by George Benson Jimmy Zep — inspired by Jimmy Page sCo — inspired by John Scofield Mindflick Too Slow To Part M Drop — inspired by John McLaughlin Wes — inspired by Wes Montgomery Thoughts Of You — inspired by Al DiMeola Six Through Eight Shifting Zel Quartet is: Erik “Zerick” Lindroth: guitar Lasse Rantanen: bass Mikko Seppä: keys Wille Granö: drums All songs written by Erik Lindroth Arrangement: Lindroth, Rantanen, Seppä, Granö Recorded live between 6 and 9.8.2012 Recording engineer: Jonas “Blomman” Blomqvist Producer: Erik Lindroth Custom Music Records © & ℗ 2013

Revival

by Timur Kulikov

An absolutely fantastic work. This is what Timur says:

Another idea for a movie. Haven’t thought of a name yet but I’ve thought of the story. After an evil alchemist killed half the people in the kingdom, five people were sent to bring him to justice. The currently dead guy and the four guys with their backs turned. From left to right: a human alchemist, a gargoyle, a mercenary of a race that have one eye on the front and another on the back, a mushroom man who mainly carries stuff and fights when the group is endangered. Currently the four-armed one has had his soul expelled and they’re using a spell triggered by music to get him back.

Of course, there is more to it. Who are the guys who face us? (I like the guitarist.) What is this place? Who are the dark figures on the top? You think about it.

Revival

Right Ho, Jeeves

by P. G. Wodehouse

It’s funny that, though being a fan of the old J. & W. show, I never read anything by P. G. Wodehouse himself, until now that is. But — listen. Last Christmas two young feline creatures named Jeeves and Wooster made their first short appearance around here. Since then, I completely forgot about them. And then I went away for a month and learned that they were visiting again and made themselves at home, to the extent that they viewed the living room rightly theirs and regarded anyone else as visitors. Right ho, I said to myself, what a wonderful world, or something on those lines. So I downloaded this book onto Kindle and read most of it in the air, somewhere between Las Palmas and Helsinki. Marvellous. And did it have anything on cats? What cats? It never was about cats.

I remember when I was a kid at school having to learn a poem of sorts about a fellow named Pig-something — a sculptor he would have been, no doubt — who made a statue of a girl, and what should happen one morning but that the bally thing suddenly came to life. A pretty nasty shock for the chap, of course, but the point I’m working round to is that there were a couple of lines that went, if I remember correctly:

She starts. She moves. She seems to feel
The stir of life along her keel.

♥ ♥ ♥

The discovery of a toy duck in the soap dish, presumably the property of some former juvenile visitor, contributed not a little to this new and happier frame of mind. What with one thing and another, I hadn’t played with toy ducks in my bath for years, and I found the novel experience most invigorating. For the benefit of those interested, I may mention that if you shove the thing under the surface with the sponge and then let it go, it shoots out of the water in a manner calculated to divert the most careworn.

♥ ♥ ♥

His hair was full of twigs, and there was a beetle hanging to the side of his head which would have interested Gussie Fink-Nottle. To this, however, I paid scant attention. There is a time for studying beetles and a time for not studying beetles.

♥ ♥ ♥

I consulted Jeeves once more in the language of the eyebrow. He raised one of his. I raised one of mine. He raised his other. I raised my other. Then we both raised both.

♥ ♥ ♥

“Curse all dancing chauffeurs! What on earth does a chauffeur want to dance for? I mistrusted that man from the start. Something told me he was a dancer.”

♥ ♥ ♥

“Bertie, I have something to say to you.”
“What?”
“I have something to say to you.”
“I know. I said ‘What?’”
“Oh, I thought you didn’t hear what I said.”
“Yes, I heard what you said, all right, but not what you were going to say.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Right-ho.”

Ariadna Castellanos Trio live

Yesterday, I went to see the Ariadna Castellanos Trio in the Auditorium of the ULPGC (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). The most shocking thing about this concert was that the Auditorium was not even half-full. It wasn’t even one-third-full. They really could should have advertised it better. Anyway, I was there, and that’s what counts. And the music was pure magic.

By the time the concert finished, I realised that I had a camera with me. Damn. Luckily, the (small but devoted) audience managed to deliver a standing ovation and the trio came back for an encore.

Ariadna’s album Flamenco En Black & White is out now.

Novel Notes

by Jerome K. Jerome

As already mentioned, there is no such thing as common or garden Englishman who read Three Men in a Boat. I guess those who read Novel Notes are even rarer and... what is the opposite of garden?

Compared to Three Men, this book (featuring four men) is altogether more reflective, at times sombre affair. Still, Jerome’s incomparable humour shines through here and there. Read it.

؂ ؂ ؂

Another time he showed us how to make coffee — according to the Arabian method. Arabia must be a very untidy country if they made coffee often over there. He dirtied two saucepans, three jugs, one tablecloth, one nutmeg-grater, one hearthrug, three cups, and himself. This made coffee for two — what would have been necessary in the case of a party, one dares not think.

؂ ؂ ؂

Houseboats then were not built to the scale of Mississippi steamers, but this boat was a small one, even for that primitive age. The man from whom we hired it described it as “compact”. The man to whom, at the end of the first month, we tried to sub-let it, characterised it as “poky”. In our letters we traversed this definition. In our hearts we agreed with it.

؂ ؂ ؂

“What the intellectual woman requires in man is not something to argue with, but something to look at. To an empty-headed woman I can imagine the soldier type proving vapid and uninteresting; to the woman of mind he represents her ideal of man — a creature strong, handsome, well-dressed, and not too clever”.

؂ ؂ ؂

There is a story told of an elderly tramp, who, overtaken by misfortune, was compelled to retire for a while to the seclusion of Portland. His hosts, desiring to see as much as possible of their guest during his limited stay with them, proceeded to bath him. They bathed him twice a day for a week, each time learning more of him; until at last they reached a flannel shirt.

Lapland-Balkan

by Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha

Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha had two songs featured on the Balkan Fever Helsinki album. And since I managed to remember the band’s name (Väärä Raha means “False Money”), I couldn’t simply ignore their new album. Not with that cover art.

According to Finnish Wikipedia, all members of the Helsinki-based band are originally from Lapland. If you ignore for a second the fact that it is sung in Finnish-ish, the music sounds more Balkan than what is offered by many “real” Balkan bands. Most of the songs on Lapland-Balkan are originals, apart from Verkkaan and Kiidä troikka (at first, I read the title as “kinda troika”), the latter being a Finnish version of Тройка мчится, тройка скачет by Pyotr Bulakhov.

Lapland-Balkan

Kasa tuhkaa (Jarkko Niemelä & Lucie Niemelä) Verkkaan (trad.) Pölyiset tiet (Jaakko Laitinen) Pettymys (Jarkko Niemelä & Lucie Niemelä) Raikas henkäys (Jarkko Niemelä) Unta vai totta (Janne Hast) Ihmehyrrä (Marko Roininen) Keisari (Janne Hast, Jarkko Niemelä & Jaakko Laitinen) Mies menestyvin (Jaakko Laitinen) Kuollut rakkaus (Marko Roininen) Kiidä troikka (Pjotr Bulahov) Suuren maailman suurilla teillä (Jarkko Niemelä & Lucie Niemelä) Jaakko Laitinen: vocals Jarkko Niemelä: trumpet, alto horn, bouzouki, backing vocals; organ (5) Marko Roininen: accordion, backing vocals Tuomo Kuuri: double bass, backing vocals Janne Hast: drums Guests: Antti Kujanpää: organ (1, 8) Matti Pitkänen: violin (2, 9) Laura Airola: violin (3, 6) Lucie Niemelä: vocals (6) Juho Kanervo: cello (6) Tomi Rikkola: viola (6) Petri Kautto: guitar (7, 11) Heikki Tuhkanen: trombone (10) Valtteri Bruun: guitar (12) Recorded at Hästholmen 13—24.2.2013 Recording and mixing by Valtteri Bruun Mastering by Pentti Dassum Cover illustration by Fanny Felicia Svanberg

The Original Sound of Cumbia: The History of Colombian Cumbia & Porro as Told by the Phonograph 1948—79

compilation, research and liner notes by Will Holland

If Diablos del Ritmo focus on Afro-Colombian fusion styles other than cumbia, The Original Sound of Cumbia, as the title suggests, is mostly cumbia. This monumental 55-track compilation is the result of five years research by Will ‘Quantic’ Holland, the English DJ now based in Colombia. The first CD (or, if you prefer vinyl, the first three LPs) contains some of the earliest cumbia recordings, of 1940s and 1950s, taken from the original 78s, while the material for the second CD (the second triple LP album) is derived from the later 45s and LPs. If I had a permanent address and a turntable, I would certainly go for the vinyl version which come with free MP3 bundle and has, well, vinyl-only bonus tracks: Cumbia Alegre by Angel Martínez con Los Sabaneros and Cumbia Linda by Heber Macias.

In a post-internet world of traffic light CD compilations and auto-tune Tropi-pop, the 78 format is out of both context and fashion, rather like asking for Edison wax cylinders in your local HMV. But the 78 format does seem to provide some respite in the digital audio circus; it’t that old workhorse that keeps on pulling, the cartwheel that keeps on turning regardless of losing its tread. It’s for the same reason that sound engineers still use microphones engineered in the 1950s and children still marvel at the sound of a spinning disc with a vibrating stylus, an effect that no-one can truly replicate, no matter how many ‘i’s you put in front of the name.

By the way, I learned from the very informative liner notes that “Colombia continued to produce 78 rpm records well into the late ’70s, partly due to the country’s network of jukeboxes that still utilised the 78 over the 45”. This probably also explains why Holland was able to acquire his 78s on Colombian flea markets well into the 21^st century.