Listen Up - A preamble
Might as well start from the beginning…
My buddy is a fan of esoteric music. So am I, but he’s a champ. So, I welcome his occasional links to new and/or offbeat sounds.
Here’s a little example. I saved the text threads because I find it’s sometimes convenient to go back through threads to find stuff. But it also jams up the phone’s storage space, and I have had a phone or two turn to bricks on me. So, might as well save the content elsewhere. If someone else enjoys it, that is a sweet bonus.
The links for the cited music are listed below. I will try to provide workakble links for all Listen Up posts.
Anyway, as the title to this post states, this is a preamble to something I am currently calling Listen Up Sessions. Maybe Listen Here is better. But whatever that are called, they are filled with great music I want to remember and share. Next Up - Needle Drop Proto Session with some noise bands from DC.
Blind Tom Wiggins
He was born a slave in 1850 Georgia, almost killed as small child because his blindness prevented him from enriching his owners by way of standard slave labor. His playing would eventually provide his owners a fortune and he would become the highest earning pianist of his time. The fact that his talents enriched slaveowners complicated his relationship with the African American community at the time. Here’s his wikipage.
His most famous piece, Battle of Manassas, witten in 1861 is a tour de force that, if written today, could be described as including “Industrial-inspired soundscapes and sampling of contemporary hits”
A link - Battle of Manassas
Magical Power Mako
Not much about this Japanese Prog master from the 70’s, but here’s a little write up from Julian Cope to get get you started: Magical Power Mako by Julian Cope
And finally a link to a track with very some pretty piano and some very strange prettiness.
Bittova and Vaclavek
Crazy Super Fun SUper awesome crazy super Czech Strings and Vocals. Name of the track is Sto Let
and, super duper - promise ya’ finally… A Sampling of some off beat Piano