|
 |
Dusted Features
Every Friday, Dusted Magazine publishes a series of music-related lists compiled by our favorite artists. This week: Swedish psych artists Witchcraft and Soot Records DJ Maga Bo.
|
|
|
|
Listed: Witchcraft + Maga Bo
Witchcraft
Swedish stoner-rockers Witchcraft made a huge splash back in 2004 with their self-titled debut on TMC. Vocalist and mastermind Magnus Pelander channeled Black Sabbath and Pentagram with foreboding authenticity, and once Jonas Arneson (drums), John Hoyles (guitar) and Ola Henriksson (bass) filled out the band, the foursome had psych fans everywhere clamoring for more.
Firewood didn’t cause quite as much applause in 2005, but the band is back with a new album, The Alchemist, due out Oct. 23 on Rise Above. Hoyles took part in this week’s Listed.
1. Captain Beyond - S/T (1972)
This is one of my best hard rock albums ever! With Rod Evans (former Deep Purple) on vocals and also members from Iron Butterfly its amazing how tight and well written this album is. My ex-girlfriend introduced me to them, she had a really rare video of them performing in Switzerland from 1971 and it blew me away. I think you can find it on YouTube nowadays. I bought the album on original vinyl for quite a lot of money but it was well worth it. Anyway this album has meant a lot to me also the guitar player Rhino. What a great guitarist!
2. Comus - First Utterance (1971)
A friend of mine bought the album at a record fair and taped it for me. Its one of the scariest albums I've ever heard. Its sort of acidy folk-rock mixed with loads of different styles, very gothic with lyrics about murder, rape and mental illness. The singer Roger Wootton has this great vibrato to his voice I think he's been inspired by the singer of another band from England called family who are also really good. The whole vibe and atmosphere of the album really freaks me out but it's really good!
3. Pentagram - First Daze Here (collection from 1972-1976)
This is the band that has meant most to Witchcraft and its just mind-boggling why they never got a record contract during the 70s. They are the best of all the 70s bands. I mean, Sabbath and Zeppelin are great bands and have got the recognition they deserve, its just really sad that Pentagram never got the chance because they had everything!
4. Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come (1971)
A band from Brooklyn. It's a really crazy album, hard rock but with a punish attitude. Its produced by Eddie Kramer who also produced Hendrix and its recorded at electric lady studios. Its cool because its production is really raw and primitive. I like alot! They recorded a follow up which is more progressive and is also great but I like Kingdom Come more because of its energy.
5. MC5 - Back In the USA (1970)
It took me awhile before I started liking them but now I really appreciate their sleazy rock n roll attitude and their mix of politics and rock music. Its quite a slick recording compared to their other albums and what they were like live but I really like the songs.My favorite tracks are American Ruse and Looking At You. Also Wayne Kramer is a true guitar hero. Really cool!
6. The Strollers - Falling Right Down (1999)
This is a band from our hometown Örebro and is friends of ours. I saw them the first time when I was 16 and got into a club where they were playing underage and I was in awe! They play fuzzed out 60s garage rock and are inspired by 60s garage punk collections like Back from the Grave and The Nuggets Box. They split up in 2000 and released two full albums and a couple of singles. I remember they played a great live version of the Pentagram song Be Forewarned and they were the first real band I ever saw.
7. Bang - S/T (1971)
A great band from the States that are very heavy and the singer sounds like Ozzy Osbourne. I was given a tape from a friend with the song Lions, Christians which is a great track and found the album at a flee market! This was lucky because the album is pretty rare. They recorded three albums that are all good but their first is the heaviest.
8. Free - Tons of Sobs (1968)
A band formed from the ashes of the British blues scene. They became really big later on with their hit Allright Now. I love this album, their first and best, I think they became too much light weight after this album. It's very raw with awesome heavy blues songs. Their guitarist Paul Kossoff is such a cool guitar player, playing very simple but has such a great tone.
9. Coven - Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls (1969)
This album is really evil, sounds like an occult Jefferson Airplane. I bought their record on reissue from Akarma records because their album cover looked so cool. The singer Jinx Dawson has such s great voice and it's a shame they never got bigger. I think they must have been the first occult band ever and its weird, the opening track on the album is called Black Sabbath and their bass player is called Oz Osborne and that's a year before Black Sabbath S/T came out.
10. Art - Supernatural Fairytales (1967)
I think this band was really before its time, being so heavy. They sound very English, very psychedelic and very hard rock. I really like the singer Mike Harrison's soulish voice who later also played in a great band called Spooky Tooth. I really like the song "Rome Take Away three" which I always play when I DJ.
Maga Bo
Based in Rio de Janeiro, Maga Bo is a DJ/producer working with an international collision of styles, sounds, location recordings from all continents and beats that have yet to be classified. A study in the digital contortions of transnational breakbeat based bass music, his sound is an amalgamation of smashed up batucada, rai, capoeira, bhangra, loudspeaker jitter and skewed electronic beats in a borderless conundrum of gritty street sounds, found, stolen and modified rhythms and melodies from Brazil, Morocco, India and beyond.
Aside from his musical production and DJing, he works in other areas as well. He produces a monthly program of strictly Brazilian music on BrazilNetwork.org and frequently contributes one-off mixes to terrestrial and online radio shows. As an active contributor to his community, he gives workshops on digital audio production and is currently working with AfroReggae in Rio de Janeiro to setup an electronic music recording studio in the favela, Parada de Lucas
His debut full length album, Archipelagoes, will be released in December on Soot Records. He'll be performing tonight (Oct. 5) at The Bowery Poetry Club, New York City, NY with DJ /rupture, Filastine, Matt Shadetek, Geko Jones and Reaganomics.
1. Cajú e Castanha Sensaç- "Roda, Rodete, Rodiano" (from o Estranha)
Old school repente masters Cajú and Castanha bustin' it out. This was the original version that Chico Science (RIP) based his post-humously released hip hop remake on. Super simple - voice and pandeiro. This is Northeastern Brazilian original ragga rap. These guys are master shit talkers. They could rap about staring at the wall for a half an hour and it'd be interesting. Not to mention some seriously tight flow.
2. Positive Black Soul - "Xoima feat. Red Rat" (from Run Cool)
From Dakar, Senegal, PBS when Duggy Tee (they then became PBS radical when Duggy Tee left, and is now mostly just Didier Awadi) was still with them, they did several versions of this track (another with Nuttea from France, a reggae version and the original), this is Red Rat's voicing. Slow 80 bpm hip hop with super fast double time rhymes and polyrhythms to push it forward and Red Rat inserting his trademark, "oh, no! You don't know!" Dakar bounce with a Jamaican pounce to it.
3. Waraba - "Kagnie" (Unreleased)
Passed to me by Keyti (Dakar All Stars and R.A.P.A.D.I.O.) while I was in Dakar recently. Produced by Tombass, a french producer who lives in Mauritania and has been producing crazy amounts of hip hop, ragga and even jungle with local rappers, Waraba being the at the forefront of the Nouakchott scene. Again, hip hop with double time rhymes and a ragga bent to it. Weird dog panting in the background and electrical kind of zaps make it kind of dirty and tough.
4. Aaron Spectre - "Say More Fire" (Unreleased)
A super long track (clocks in at 7:30), this one takes it time to work itself up to a massive groove. Low and heavy dub(step) bass, syncopated zaps and Aaron's trademark cut up breaks crashing in every now and then. More Fire!
5. Dub Gabriel - "Spirit Made Flesh" (from Anarchy & Alchemy)
Heavy dub bass with lots of warped out dynamics echoes swirling around Karen Gibson Roc's spoken word slam poetry and just enough background vocal melodies to keep it light somehow. "Positive vibrations as steady as a tree."
6. Omar Souleyman - "Leh Jani" (from Highway To Hassake - Folk And Pop Sounds Of Syria)
Omar Souleyman is a super star singer from Syria who recently moved to Columbus, Ohio. Based on cheesy electronic looped groove, the singing and slithery keyboard lines totally make up for the casio-esque-ness of it. There's even a Youtube video for it with adulating young women shaking their shoulders and showering him with money.
7. Playero mixtapes
Somebody just made a whole bunch of them available on line. I had a few bit and pieces in bad quality mp3 with no labels that I loved, but never knew what they were. They run the gamut from original reggaeton to ragga dancehall and hip hop. Jamaican riddims with voicings in spanish. This is classic.
8. Jahcoozi - "Ali Mc Bills" (from Pure Breed Mongrel)
Jahcoozi is a trio based in Berlin doing, um, music. Don't really know what to call it. A bit of hip hop, dub, breaks, dubstep, clicks and cuts and micro whatever the fuck it's called. Very detailed programming, heavy grooves, interesting sound selections and processing, cheeky but thoughtful lyrics, they've got some very special and different going on.
9. DJ Elected - "Crazy Potato" (Jacked Potatoes)
Digital dancehall ragga mashup. I can't quite identify all of the elements in there...but, I think it's the telephone love riddim, cutup, with a bit of shabba ranks, the vox from "Just be Good" and some other stuff. Almost moves into breakcore territory there at moments.
10. DJ C - "Ransom The Senator (ft. Zulu)" and "Let it Billie (ft. Quality Diamond)" (from Sonic Weapons)
My 2 favorite tracks from DJ C's new record. This inimitable bashment Boston bounce right here. Well, actually Boston bouonce relocated to Chicago, where he is now. This is playful, fun and never pretentious. Secure enough to poke fun at itself, but not in a gimmicky way. Serious groove, surprising breaks, big bass and excellent production all around.
By Dusted Magazine
|
View all articles by Dusted Magazine