This is a Recording

Several of my musical discoveries of the '00s were sparked by listening to the Now Hear This! promotional CDs affixed to The Word magazine. The disc that came with the May 2006 issue kicked off with the track 'Diferente' by The Gotan Project, which I enjoyed well enough to place an Amazon order for the trio's album Lunático . I must have clicked carelessly, as I was taken by surprise when a large, flat, square parcel arrived the following week. I'd meant to order it on CD, but instead had procured a 2-LP vinyl copy. That year happened to be when vinyl sales were at their nadir, and, although I had by then acquired a small collection of second-hand LPs, I'd no intention of buying new records, imagining them to be virtually a thing of the past (outside of club culture). Lunático is about an hour long - as was commonplace for albums then - an inconvenient duration for vinyl, so it had been split into four roughly quarter-hour-long sides, necessitating annoying...

'Concrete and Clay' by Unit 4 + 2 was among the singles my mother bought when she was a teenager, that she later misguidedly gave to me and my sister. The other singles from her collection I can specifically recall ran a gamut between the cool ('Mr. Tambourine Man' by The Byrds; Lee Dorsey's 'Working in the Coal Mine') and the uncool ('Deck of Cards' by Wink Martindale) by way of the likes of The Springfields' 'Island of Dreams' and 'Glad All Over' by The Dave Clark Five. She would have probably owned some Beatles 45s too, had her big sister not already acquired them. Unit 4 + 2 came by their name by virtue of having been a quartet that became a sextet. 'Concrete and Clay' was their sole big hit, reaching the heights of Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart for a single week in April 1965. It's a protestation of undying love clad in a rather lovely Latin-influenced arrangement. There's a promotional film-clip of the ba...

A correspondent had recommended the album Friday Night in San Francisco by the all-star guitar trio of Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía, and I'd checked it out, but for me it seemed a tad too heavy on virtuosity for its own sake. A year or two later I spotted the present LP, Paco , in one of my usual haunts, recalled the recommendation, and thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did, as it proved much more to my liking. It's the 1975 UK release (on Island Records) of a record that had been previously been issued in the Spanish-speaking world under the title Fuente Y Caudal . Ralph Denyer's sleeve-notes say it was de Lucía's sixth album overall, but the first to be issued in the UK. Frustratingly, a manufacturing mix-up has left my copy with the Side B label on both sides of the LP. The opening track 'Entre Dos Agaus' blends de Lucía's native flamenco style with South American ingredients to beguiling effect. Elsewhere things are more sp...

I bought the Buena Vista Social Club album on CD the year after its release, with a great profusion of laudatory reviews having piqued my curiosity. I'd not had any significant encounters with Cuban music up to that point (nor indeed with Latin music in general) and at first hadn't imagined it would interest me.  As so very often, I was wrong, and I did enjoy it, if only half-heartedly on first acquaintance. It took repeated listenings over several years for me to better appreciate its many charms. A major part of the record's appeal for me is its atmosphere: expert musicians playing together in a big room with joyful spontaneity.  Initial favourite songs from it were the insistent 'El Cuarto de Tula' and the wistful 'Amor de Loca Juventud'. Nowadays I love the whole thing & it still gets a few outings every year - an excellent soundtrack for a warm summer evening.

I'm still getting to know Calexico's second full-length release The Black Light . It's a relatively recent acquisition, and, while I enjoy it when I play it, I haven't played it that often. I listened anew last night, taking some notes as it went on: once again the music was good - but no fresh insights were forthcoming, and the notes are mostly useless. It didn't help that I was also drinking a large glass of cheap Sicilian wine. I found my way to Calexico's work around the time their fourth album Feast of Wire came out; then lost interest again after Carried to Dust (album number six). Only in recent years have I sought out their earlier stuff. Among the tracks here are a few akin to rough sketches; while others are more fully fleshed-out artworks - but in combination they make for a pleasingly varied exhibition. What seldom fails to impress is the warmth and living presence of their sound, and of the distinctive atmosphere it conjures up. A chilly January e...