Puente, Tito - 1957 - Dance Manía

Dance Mania, Tito Puente's best-known and best-selling album, came ten years into his career, but at a time (1957) when the craze for mambo and Latin music was beginning to crest. (Another landmark LP, Pérez Prado's Havana 3 A.M., had been released the previous year, and Prado's "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" had hit number one in 1955.) Recorded as part of a just-signed exclusive contract with RCA and appearing in vibrant sound as part of the label's Living Stereo series, Dance Mania exploded with a series of tight arrangements, propulsive playing, and the features of new additions in vocalist Santos Colón and conguero Ray Barretto (who helped, in part, make up for the recent loss of Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria to Cal Tjader's group). Puente didn't dilute his sound for Dance Mania -- unlike the many commercial crossover LPs that were released by both established groups and ad hoc studio collectives -- but his hard mambos here were performed at tempos that encouraged dancing by more staid LP-buyers, slightly slower than the high paces of his Tico sides or Palladium shows. Brassy and swinging, yes, and certainly as precise as a great Latin band could get, but not as torrid as Spanish Harlem dancers would be accustomed to. Most were Puente originals, spanning mambo and cha-cha and guaguanco, and Dance Mania built the foundation for great Latin LPs to come.

1 El Cayuco Puente 2:33
2 Complicación Aguabella 3:18
3 3-D Mambo Santos 2:23
4 Llego Mijan Puente 3:10
5 Cuando Te Vea Puente 4:10
6 Hong Kong Mambo Puente 3:42
7 Mambo Gozón Puente 2:44
8 Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembe Puente 3:55
9 Varsity Drag [Mambo] Brown, DeSylva, Henderson 2:48
10 Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti Delgado 3:10
11 Agua Limpia Todo Aguabella 2:55
12 Saca Tu Mujer Puente 3:02

¡Aquí!

Popol Vuh

Of the many now-legendary artists to emerge from the Krautrock movement, few anticipated the rise of modern electronic music with the same prescience as Popol Vuh -- the first German band to employ a Moog synthesizer, their work not only anticipated the emergence of ambient, but also proved pioneering in its absorption of worldbeat textures. At much the same time Popol Vuh was formed in Munich in 1969, another group, of Norwegian descent, adopted the same name, an endless source of confusion in the years to follow; both were inspired by the holy book of Guatemala's Quiche Indians, and according to Mayan researchers the title roughly translates as "meeting place." Keyboardist Florian Fricke was deeply immersed in Mayan myth at the time he formed the group with synth player Frank Fiedler and percussionist Holger Trulzsch, and his interests were reflected in the spiritual themes of their 1970 debut, Affenstunde.

The follow-up two years later, In den Garten Pharaos, was Popol Vuh's creative breakthrough, an intensely meditative work fusing ambient textures with organic percussion. In its wake, however, Fricke converted to Christianity, a move which sparked a rejection of electronics in favor of traditional ethnic instrumentation including guitars, oboe and tamboura; he then tapped korean soprano Djong Yun to lend vocals to 1972's lovely Hosianna Mantra. Fricke next teamed with onetime Amon Duul II drummer Daniel Fichelscher for the next Popol Vuh LP, Seligpreisung; its follow-up, 1975's Einjager und Siebenjager, remains widely considered among the group's most stunning efforts. That same year, they began a lengthy creative partnership with the celebrated filmmaker Werner Herzog which yielded soundtracks for features including Aguirre, Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo and Nosferatu.

Throughout the latter half of the 1970s, Popol Vuh's fascination with global sounds and instruments continued, with the prominence of sitars, tablas and tamboura percussion on LPs like 1977's Herz aus Glas and 1979's Die Nacht der Seele: Tantric Songs earning their latter-day sound descriptions like "raga rock." In 1978, Fricke founded the Working Group for Creative Singing and also became a member of the Breathing Therapy Society, travelling the world to lecture on both subjects; ultimately, his outside passions began to overshadow his work in Popol Vuh, and as the 1980s dawned the group began losing steam, calling it quits after 1983's excellent Agape Agape. After reuniting two years later for Spirit of Peace, Fricke again reassembled Popol Vuh for the 1997 LP Shepherd's Symphony.

1974 - Seligpreisung

Popol Vuh - 1974 - Seligpreisung

Released in 1973, Seligpreisung was, if anything, a complete shock after the gorgeous "religious" rock of Hosianna Mantra. Gone are the hypnotic Gregorian chants and overtone layers of drone. In their place is a kind of shimmering, spacy jazz-rock where, despite a few instances of Florian Fricke chant-singing, the effect is one where his piano becomes the steadiest backdrop, playing hypnotic, repetitive chords and phrases while Conny Veit improvises with David Gilmour-like blues guitar phrases over the gently swirling music. Elsewhere, the rest of the group (the same cats who played on Hosianna Mantra) is heard in classically tinged miniatures that float through the mix with a kind of meandering insistence on instantly recognizable Western thematics and standard conceptions of beauty rather than confrontations -- however subtle -- with the East/West space-time continuum. This is not to say that Seligpreisung is a disappointment; rather, it is only a shock for its giant step backward into the realm of the conventional. Perhaps Hosianna Mantra presented an abyss, and as Fricke looked over it musically, he realized that its beauty was unbearable. For whatever the reason, Seligpreisung is a meditative, generally quiet, and lovely album, but it doesn't go near the precipice.

		1		Selig Sind, Die da Hungern, Selig Sind, Die da Dürsten Nach ...	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	5:59
		2		Tanz der Chassidim	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	3:12
		3		Selig Sind, Die da Hier Weinen, Ja, Sie Sollen Später Lachen	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	5:07
		4		Selig Sind, Die da Willig Arm Sind, Ja, Ihrer Ist das Himmelreich	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	3:10
		5		Selig Sind, Die da Leid Klagen, Ja Sie Sollen Getröstet Werden	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	3:39
		6		Selig Sind Die Sanfmütigen, Ja, Sie Werden Einst Die Erde Erben	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	2:30
		7		Selig Sind, Die da Reinen Herzens Sind, Ja, Sie Sollen Gott Schauen	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	2:33
		8		Ja, Sie Sollen Gottes Kinder Heissen Beißen, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei	Evangelium, Fricke, Matth.	2:39

¡Aquí!

Pogues - 1988 - If I Should Fall From Grace With God

If Rum Sodomy & the Lash captured the Pogues on plastic in all their rough-and-tumble glory, If I Should Fall from Grace with God proved they could learn the rudiments of proper record making and still come up with an album that captured all the sharp edges of their musical personality. Producer Steve Lillywhite imposed a more disciplined approach in the studio than Elvis Costello had, but he had the good sense not to squeeze the life out of the band in the process; as a result, the Pogues sound tighter and more precise than ever, while still summoning up the glorious howling fury that made Rum Sodomy & the Lash so powerful. And Shane MacGowan continued to grow as a songwriter, as his lyrics and melodies captured with brilliant detail his obsession with the finer points of Anglo-Irish culture. "Fairytale of New York," a glorious sweet-and-sour duet with Kirsty MacColl, and "The Broad Majestic Shannon" were subtle in a way many of his previous work was not, "Birmingham Six" found him addressing political issues for the first time (and with all the expected venom), and "Fiesta" and "Turkish Song of the Damned" found him adding (respectively) faux-Spanish and Middle Eastern flavors into the Pogues' heady mix. And if you want to hear the Pogues blaze through some fast ones, "Bottle of Smoke" and the title song find them doing just what they've always done best. Brilliantly mixing passion, street smarts, and musical ambition, If I Should Fall from Grace with God is the best album the Pogues would ever make.

		1		If I Should Fall From Grace with God	MacGowan	2:20
		2		Turkish Song of the Damned	Finer, MacGowan	3:27
		3		Bottle of Smoke	Finer, MacGowan	2:47
		4		Fairytale of New York	Finer, MacGowan	4:36
		5		Metropolis	Finer	2:50
		6		Thousands Are Sailing	Chevron	5:28
		7		South Australia	Traditional	3:27
		8		Fiesta	Finer, Kotscher, MacGowan	4:13
		9		Medley	Traditional	4:01
		10		Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six	MacGowan, Woods	4:39
		11		Lullaby of London	MacGowan	3:32
		12		The Battle March Medley	MacGowan	4:10
		13		Sit Down by the Fire	MacGowan	2:17
		14		The Broad Majestic Shannon	MacGowan	2:55
		15		Worms	Traditional	1:01

¡Aquí!

Prince - 1982 - 1999

With Dirty Mind, Prince had established a wild fusion of funk, rock, new wave, and soul that signaled he was an original, maverick talent, but it failed to win him a large audience. After delivering the sound-alike album, Controversy, Prince revamped his sound and delivered the double album 1999. Where his earlier albums had been a fusion of organic and electronic sounds, 1999 was constructed almost entirely on synthesizers by Prince himself. Naturally, the effect was slightly more mechanical and robotic than his previous work and strongly recalled the electro-funk experiments of several underground funk and hip-hop artists at the time. Prince had also constructed an album dominated by computer funk, but he didn't simply rely on the extended instrumental grooves to carry the album -- he didn't have to when his songwriting was improving by leaps and bounds. The first side of the record contained all of the hit singles, and, unsurprisingly, they were the ones that contained the least amount of electronics. "1999" parties to the apocalypse with a P-Funk groove much tighter than anything George Clinton ever did, "Little Red Corvette" is pure pop, and "Delirious" takes rockabilly riffs into the computer age. After that opening salvo, all the rules go out the window -- "Let's Pretend We're Married" is a salacious extended lust letter, "Free" is an elegiac anthem, "All the Critics Love U in New York" is a vicious attack at hipsters, and "Lady Cab Driver," with its notorious bridge, is the culmination of all of his sexual fantasies. Sure, Prince stretches out a bit too much over the course of 1999, but the result is a stunning display of raw talent, not wallowing indulgence.

		1		1999	Prince	06:15
		2		Little Red Corvette	Prince	05:03
		3		Delirious	Prince	04:00
		4		Let's Pretend We're Married	Prince	07:21
		5		D.M.S.R.	Prince	08:17
		6		Automatic	Prince	09:28
		7		Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)	Prince	04:02
		8		Free	Prince	05:08
		9		Lady Cab Driver	Prince	08:19
		10		All the Critics Love U in New York	Prince	05:59
		11		International Lover	Prince	06:37

¡Aquí!

Pungent Stench - 1997 - Praise The Names Of The Musical Assasins

This compilation of rare and unreleased material appeared four years after Club Mondo Bizarre, Pungent Stench's final album. Well packaged, Praise the Names of the Musical Assasins effectively sums up the group's early days when they were strictly a brutal splatter metal group, before they would eventually slow down their music and write songs about sex rather than gore. Not a greatest-hits album by any means, this release is strictly for hardcore fans of the group.

		1		Protoplasma		2:51
		2		Dead Body Love		3:59
		3		Miscarriage		2:20
		4		In the Vault		2:59
		5		Rip You Without Care		3:39
		6		Festered Offals		2:54
		7		Pungent Stench		2:20
		8		Extreme Deformity		4:04
		9		Mucous Secretion		2:52
		10		Molecular Disembowelment		5:26
		11		Ballad of Mangled Homeboys		3:29
		12		Daddy Cruel		3:31
		13		Tony		4:04
		14		Madcatmachopsychrormantik		9:14
		15		Extreme Deformity		5:15
		16		Festered Offals		2:59
		17		Pulsating Protoplasma		2:41
		18		Pungent Stench		2:27
		19		Embalmed in Sulphuric Acid		1:58

¡Aquí!