Czech 60s star Marta Kubišová and her Parisian counterpart Christie Laume make for a swingin' 7" double-sider from Munster.
Here's the scoop...
Munster Records' new split single comprises two killer pop dancers with plenty of psych fuzz guitars, punchy horns and funky beats: Marta Kubišová’s ‘Tak Dej Se K Nám A Projdem Svět’ a glorious LP-only song that has never available on a 45 before comes backed with Christie Laume’s in-demand mod anthem ‘Rouge-Rouge.’ Have a listen to both sides of the single below. Get a copy of Munster's limited edition vinyl seven-inch via Bandcamp right here.
Marta Kubišová was the most popular Czechoslovak female singer of the late 1960s, heading for an international career but banned by the communist regime until 1989. Compiled from the Supraphon archives, this 1966–1970 selection focuses on her roughest songs, with plenty of fuzz guitars and funky beats, punchy horns and razor-sharp organs underlying her deep and soulful voice.
Marta Kubišová’s first professional recordings for Supraphon date back to 1963, when she was aged 21. After spending three years singing jazzy tunes in provincial theatres, in late 1964 she followed her discoverer and mentor, the composer and future Supraphon producer Bohuslav Ondracek, to the renowned Rokoko theatre in Prague. There she performed with superstar Waldemar Matuška and with her later Golden Kids bandmates Helena Vondrackova and Václav Neckar until 1968. In November 1968 Kubisova, Vondrackova and Neckar, along with producer Ondracek, formed The Golden Kids. They recruited a rhythm section of young beat musicians, giving the sound a progressive contemporary touch. The horn section, on the other hand, featured top players from various pop, jazz and even classical orchestras. This explosive blend of personalities was responsible for some of the funkiest grooves that emerged from the rather conservative Supraphon studios.
In 1969 Marta Kubišová and The Golden Kids recorded dozens of songs which were released on numerous seven-inch singles as well as on two albums: Micro-Magic-Circus and Golden Kids 1 (aka Music Box No. 1). The repertoire contained original compositions as well as cover versions of international pop, beat and soul hits with Czech lyrics. Within the group Marta was usually given the soulful or melancholic material, as it would suit her deep and dark timbre. Additionally, Supraphon finally released Marta’s first solo LP, Songy a balady, presenting a more personal selection of songs. Unlike most other Czechoslovak mainstream artists after the 1968 Soviet invasion, Marta was not scared to stand up for her opinions in public and her choice of lyrics reflected the cheerless political and social situation in the country. Hence at the peak of her popularity she became unbearable for the communist regime.
By the end of 1969 she disappeared from radio and TV broadcast, and from February 1970 on she was prohibited from performing in public at all. Her last Supraphon single from summer 1970 – ‘Jakoby nic’ b/w ‘Hare Krisna’ – was already pressed, but save for a handful of stolen copies the complete edition was destroyed by the communist censors. Marta spent the next 20 years as a working mother, and also as a brave spokeswoman of the dissident civic movement Charter 77 with her close friend and the future Czech president Václav Havel. Eventually, with the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in late 1989 and in the slipstream of the velvet revolution, her voice returned to stages and recording studios. She sings actively to the present day.
Check out the excellent Marta Kubišová compilation Ne! The Soul Of Marta Kubisova released by Vampi Soul right here.
A chaotic and intense Craig Leon-produced hybrid of Dolls, Stooges and most of the Nuggets bands by Jeff ‘Mono Mann’ Conolly’s pre-Lyres group DMZ then featuring guitarists J.J. Rassler and Peter Greenberg, bassist Rick Corraccio, drummer Paul Murphy and of course, Mono Mann on Vox Continental organ, vocals, maracas and tambourine.
Unavailable for over three decades, Spain's Munster Records has just reissued this garage rock’s essential gem, originally released in the early days of Greg Shaw’s Bomp! label.
Bomp! Records of Burbank, California was likely the most significant American independent record label of the 1970s. It was the first in this country to recognize and actively support the punk rock and new wave revolution with its releases, at a time when both America’s vast regional disparity and an extremely conservative record business had deemed this new, strange idiom anathema. In its first five years Bomp! the label wore its heart on its sleeve with a series of fascinating, unpredictable, and memorable 45 RPM releases. And the whole was brainstormed by Greg Shaw, likely the only maverick alive at that time who could have created and populated such a scenario.
The winter 1976 issue of Who Put The Bomp (Greg Shaw’s fanzine) had featured a detailed report on the Boston scene, with favorable mentions of two future Bomp! acts. Willie ‘Loco’ Alexander was a local legend, the storied former lead singer of the Lost, and his 1975 single ‘Kerouac’ (reissued on Bomp!) was a suitably eccentric, Dylan-ish ode to the beat maven. DMZ was a more predictable proposition, sporting obvious glam roots and an eccentric but dedicated rock & roll fan in lead singer, Jeff ‘Mono Mann’ Conolly.
Conolly and crew went for a chaotic and intense hybrid of Dolls, Stooges and most of the Nuggets bands, so Bomp! the label was a natural choice. With killer cuts like ‘Busy Man’ and ‘When I Get Off,’ their Craig Leon-produced 1977 EP captured the DMZ zeitgeist considerably better than the album they would later record for Sire.
Get a repro copy of DMZ's fantastic 4-song EP directly from Munster Records right here. Have a listen below and check out J.J. Rassler's chat with Mike Hoban about his DMZ days and more.
Caracas-based Grupo Pan hid their whumpin' heavy rock workout "Dices" on the flip of their 1972 Promus-label single.
Munster Records reissues Grupo Pan's overlooked gem "Dices"
The mind-blowing ‘Dices’ somehow did not make it onto the Grupo Pan’s only album and instead found its home on the B side of a long-forgotten 1972 single. One can only wonder why this great song with a devastating guitar riff and an irresistible rhythm section was not granted a place in the grooves of the LP of the Venezuelan band… Late 60s hard rock sounds made by salsa musicians!
First time reissue!
On the flip, a rare hard psych gem from Peru by the one and only Jean Paul “El Troglodita”. First time single reissue! Get a copy via Bandcamp right here.
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El alucinante ‘Dices’ no logró hacerse un hueco entre los surcos del único disco del Grupo Pan y, en su lugar, encontró su sitio en la cara B de un ya olvidadísimo single de 1972. Solo cabe preguntarse cómo un temazo de este calibre, con un riff de guitarra devastador y una sección rítmica irresistible, no fue incluido en su álbum homónimo… Sonido hard rock de finales de los 60 grabado por salseros!
Reeditado por primera vez.
En la otra cara, una rarísima joya de hard psych peruano a cargo del único Jean Paul “El Troglodita”. Primera reedición en vinilo!
Venezuela's Velvet label launched with the salsa dura album Manicomio a Locha! album from Ray Perez's Los Dementes in 1967.
Here's the scoop...
The Manicomio a Locha! album was the debut release for Venezuela’s Velvet label by gifted Caracas-based pianist Ramon Epiphanio 'Ray' Pérez and his trombone-led band Los Dementes employing a heady mix of styles which would come to be known as salsa. Drum heavy dance numbers featuring the percussion of the Quintero brothers and the distinctive vocals of sonero Pedro 'Perucho' Torcat make this historic 1967 rarity a sought-after collector’s item.
Now the LP has been lovingly restored, mastered from the original tapes, with its crazy-cool original artwork intact, preserving the legacy of Los Dementes for today’s generation of salsa lovers everywhere.
Get a copy of this first-ever reissue of the Los Dementes classic from Munster Records' subsidiary label Vampi Soul via Bandcamp right here. Check it out following the track listing below. Find out more about Ray Pérez from the Superfly Records blog right here.
Conjunto Miramar was formed by a group of childhood friends in the Colombian city of Manizales back in 1957.
“Cumbias con el Miramar” is a very hard-to-find and sought-after album from Conjunto Miramar released by Discos Fuentes in 1965. Full of excellent cumbias and gaitas for dancing, the record actually is a lot more diverse than the title leads one to believe – as there are lots of other hot rhythms and arrangements on it – taken from Cuban genres like guajira, guaracha, guaguancó, charanga and son montuno. All but one of its compositions come from the conjunto’s own musicians, with the bulk being written by Hernán Builes and Héctor Quintero.
Throughout the album the very simple, spare elemental sound is consistent. The band members at this time included Darío Restrepo (aka “Guayabita”) on piano, Rubén Darío Restrepo (“El Mago”) on guitar, Héctor Quintero on saxophone, clarinet, flute, xylophone and vocals, Hugo Gil (“Chamizo”) behind the drum set as well as on tumbadora (conga) and vocals, with Hernán Builes being the band’s director and bassist (and occasional accordionist). Darío Restrepo has said that the xylophone used on this record was a small children’s model that the band purchased in Medellín, and there is an engagingly youthful exuberance, brevity and playful simplicity on this album that belies the band members’ obvious maturity and the prodigious talent displayed therein.
The childlike aspect to the band is indeed appropriate because Conjunto Miramar was formed by a group of very young music enthusiasts (some under the age of 10!) in 1957 in Manizales (although some sources say Medellín). The Miramar boys were all childhood friends that wanted to play music together during the holidays, led by Medellín native Jairo Grisales (accordion) and bassist Hernán Builes. They were joined by an ever-changing line-up that included siblings Jairo Darío Gil aka “Dargil” and Hugo Gil, as well as Hernán Pabón, Augusto Zapata, Roberto de la Barrera and Héctor Quintero. Conjunto Miramar recorded their first singles for the Medellín-based Discos Ondina label in 1961. These Ondina 45 singles were later collected on an album titled “Carruseles” (Sonico/INS, 1977); however, their first proper long play recording was for the Zeida label (probably recorded in 1962/63) but by then Grisales had left the group and Hernán Builes took over, signing with Discos Fuentes in 1965. Watch the trailer for VampiSoul's reissue of Cumbias con el Miramar below.
Soon after “Cumbias con el Miramar” was released, Builes reformatted the line-up and instrumentation, updating the sound to reflect recent developments in Caracas, San Juan and New York, adding vibraphone in the fashion of The Joe Cuba Sextet (as well as hiring vocalists Humberto “Huango” Muriel, Rodolfo Aicardi and Johnny Moré), renaming the group Sexteto Mirarmar and debuting the groundbreaking album “¡Salsa! Mi Hermana” (the band left Fuentes in 1969 after four more successful records). Interestingly, Cumbias con el Miramar contains superior versions of ‘Cumbia del sol’ – arguably one of the band’s most famous and internationally influential songs – and ‘Lelogua’, both of which had also been recorded earlier for their Zeida LP. In addition, several other tunes from the record – ‘Cumbia loca’, ‘Cumbia de estrellas’ and ‘Noche y cumbia’ – have been popular among DJs, “sonideros” and dancers for 50 years.
But while these cumbias form the backbone of the album and situate it firmly in the folklore of the band’s native Colombia, the LP’s Cuban-styled songs like ‘Mensaje guajiro’ and ‘Lelogua’ point to the other obsession of Colombian audiences, namely that of Afro-Antillean music (that would be marketed as “salsa” in the following decade).
The album offers us a fascinating snapshot of a pivotal period in Colombian music when outside influences (such as salsa from New York) and the wildly popular phenomenon of so-called “raspa” or “chucu-chucu” cumbia groups from the interior (described as “paisa”, i.e. not from the Afro-Colombian coastal regions where cumbia began) were initiating a transition from the old sound (and generation) to the new. Conjunto Miramar certainly influenced and inspired the rise of the youthful “teenager” raspa groups like Los Teenagers, Hispanos, Bobby Soxers, Graduados, Black Stars, Éxitos and Falcons, but at the same time, as the newly christened Sexteto Miramar, they helped inspire Discos Fuentes to usher in the new decade of the 1970s with the modern salsa dura of Fruko y Sus Tesos, as Fruko himself has admitted. Pablo Iglesias aka DJ Bongohead
Get a copy of Conjunto Miramar's album Cumbias con el Miramar right here. Listen to a few tracks below.
The fourth volume of VampiSoul's ¡Gózalo! series documents Peru's transition from the boogaloo era of the 60s to the 70s salsa takeover.
¡GÓZALO! Volume 4: Bugalú Tropical (VampiSoul)
Volume 4 of VampiSoul's successful ¡Gózalo! series of tropical Peruvian music of the 60s is an exciting mix of musical gems which link the mambo era to the dawn of salsa in South America. Another great selection of tracks from a little known but essential period in the development of Latin Music. A terrific, dance-inducing mix of genres across 28 tracks: boogaloo, mambo, son, guaracha, cumbia – check the track list below. Get a copy from the Munster Records site right here.
1. Saludo Maracaibo - Pedro Miguel y sus Maracaibos 00:00 2. Boogaloo en ambiente - Alfredo Linares y su Sonora 2:51
3. Yo traigo boogaloo - El Combo de Pepe 5:17
4. Cumbayea - Mario Allison y su Combo 7:40
5. Psicosis - La Sonora de Lucho Macedo 10:31
6. El Diablo - Compay Quinto 13:30
7. Yo no pido nada - Orquesta Casino de Hugo Macedo 16:17
8. Guarachera - Ñico Estrada y su Sonora 18:37
9. Guajireate - Coco Lagos y sus Orates 21:12
10. Pa gozar candela - Betico Salas y su Sonora 23:38
11. Boogaloo boogaloo - Joe Di Roma y su Orquesta 25:59
12. Descarga Maracaibo - Pedro Miguel y sus Maracaibos 29:07
13. Guayaba - Popi y sus Pirañas 32:01
14. Peruvian guajira - Melcochita y Karamanduka 34:14
15. Kintos instrumental - Los Kintos 37:12
16. Boogaloo en España - La Sonora de Lucho Macedo 39:52
17. Yenyere cuma - Pedro Miguel y sus Maracaibos 43:27
18. Pollo atrasado - Chivirico Dávila y Sonora MAG 47:17
19. Busco una chiquita - Coco Lagos y sus Orates 50:00
20. Caliente - Mario Allison y sus Estrellas 52:59
21. La charanga del espacio - Carlos Pickling y Orquesta 56:21
22. Por tu amor - Willy Marambio 58:48
23. Canta, canta - Los Hilton's 1:01:18
24. Descarga - Alfredo Linares y su Sonora 1:04:04
25. El carbonero - Compay Quinto 1:07:34
26. Aguanile - Los Girasoles 1:09:47
27. Malambo - Los Diablos Rojos 1:13:15
28. Mambo Ravel - Andrés de Colbert y Orquesta 1:16:16
When drawing the musical map of Latin America, the mistake is often made to identify the zone of influence of Afro-Latin music only around the Caribbean. It’s true that the great creators are Cuban and Puerto Rican, but when their music spread out across Latin America, similar scenes sprung up in other parts of the continent. It was during the 50s that the genre captivated Peru. Tropical orchestras appeared everywhere with a repertoire based on mambos, guarachas and, to a lesser extent, boleros and merengues. However, over the Afro-Cuban foundation they added diverse influences and reached a new sound, different from their inspiration. Within the core of the tropical music scene, the Sonora de Lucho Macedo clearly stands out; they were the first group of its kind in the middle of an environment exclusively populated by orchestras. The Sonora released more than 80 LPs and countless singles. Of all the ensembles, it had the greatest international success. Beyond his irrefutable professional merits, Macedo’s essential contribution was to recruit musicians that later on would start the most important boogaloo groups. At times, Macedo’s career seems the backbone of this whole story.
The first one to leave his band and go his own way was Joe Di Roma. Bongoist Ñiko Estrada left a little later to create his Sonora Antillana. From Macedo’s band also came double bass player José “Pepe” Hernández, percussionists Mario Allison and Coco Lagos, trumpet player Tito Chicoma and singer Charlie Palomares – almost all of the main artists of the golden age of boogaloo in the mid-60s, each of them a director of their own band. 1962 saw the arrival of Nilo Espinosa, a saxophonist with a solid academic formation and a deep knowledge of jazz. He started to record with his own orchestra and in 1965 he would form the group Los Hilton’s. The puzzle was completed with the self-taught pianist Otto de Rojas. They all knew each other from the hotels, parties and TV sets, but especially from the recording studio sessions. Although the main record labels, El Virrey, Sono Radio and Iempsa, also recorded tropical music, it was MAG, run by Manuel A Guerrero, which most focused on the genre. Lucho Macedo, once again, was the pioneer. In 1955 he already had a contract. All his disciples stayed at MAG and made a big part of the great recordings from the boogaloo era in the label’s studio. MAG possessed the best infrastructure. Guerrero used to take his recordings to Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the United States, among other countries, and would sell them to foreign record labels. He chose the repertoire for the recordings himself. He built his own musical factory.
MAG studio’s group of musicians in the 60s was rather eclectic. Some of them would come and go, but there was a core of players who became more or less the house band. The permanent members were Mario Allison, Coco Lagos and Nilo Espinosa. On trumpets were Tito Chicoma and Betico Salas; Alfredo Linares would sometimes play the vibraphone and was the most regular pianist. Víctor Fuentes, Melcochita and the multi-instrumentalist Charlie Palomares were in charge of the vocals. They all played for each other’s bands. The height of the tropical orchestras coincided with boogaloo but the massive migration inland towards the capital brought along a radical change in popular music, giving rise to Peruvian cumbia, which also had a tropical foundation. The Afro-Cuban influence, while remaining, left room for a Colombian influence. With the new decade the market was taken over by cumbia and salsa bringing the boogaloo era to a close.
The deep digging VampiSoul crew are recirculating Bruce Powell and Wladyslaw Jagiello's Reality LP from 1970.
When you come across a sleeve like this – hypnotic artwork, enigmatic title, unusual Hammond and drums set-up – it's a reasonably safe bet that the record is gonna be dope. However, The Reality album credited to Bruce and Vlady didn't sell well when it originally came out in Sweden on the tiny Svensk American label back in 1970 and has since become a sought-after item for collectors of European out-jazz, funk and small press curios who can't get enough of Hansson & Karlsson. VampiSoul's welcome reissue reveals the previously undocumented back story of this crazy rare prog jazz masterwork for first time thanks to its co-creator, keyboardist Bruce Powell.
"I had returned from an eight month engagement in Tokyo and decided to go back to Las Vegas, Nevada," explains Powell. "While there, I was introduced to trumpeter Ernie Englund. He told me he needed an organist who could read music and had his own instrument. I said yes and he hired me to play with his big band at the Grande Hotel in Stockholm. That was December 1969.
"My Hammond B-3 was somehow damaged on the trip over and Ernie decided to send me back to the United States. My wife, however, had arrived two days after I got there, so I decided to stay in Stockholm and make a go of it on my own. I found someone called Bengt who repaired my Hammond organ.
"I met Vlady (respected Polish jazz drummer Wladyslaw Jagiello) one night at a rock club. He and I both were sitting in with another band. He liked the way I played and I liked him. We talked about doing something together and Bengt told us about the jazz venue, Klub Ernst, so Vlady and I approached the owner. We got hired for several engagements there.
"A friend of Svensk American Records boss Rune Wallebom heard us one night and told him about our music. One day Vlady and I had a concert to do in downtown Stockholm and Rune came to hear us and loved it. After the show he offered me a recording contract. The deal was that I would record all my original music. He also said that if the album sold 20,000 copies in Sweden, it would then be promoted in England (under EMI/Columbia Records) and would also get us a booking at Ronnie Scott's in London.
"I don't remember the name of the studio but I do remember that we did four takes. After reviewing them all, we decided upon the ones that appear on the album. There are two more takes out there somewhere. I had the tapes from the sessions but they got lost over time…
"Vlady and I performed the album in Stockholm at the Gyllene Cirkeln. I had heard about this place and that such greats as Jack McDuff, Ornette Coleman and Eddie Harris had performed there. When I approached the owner, he said he had been booking groups for a two-night engagement. However, he liked our music so much that he signed us for 16 nights! It was a great success.
"Not long after, Rune came to me with a sad face and told me his wife was divorcing him. She was co-owner of Svensk American Records and was dissolving the company. This happened just after the album was released; therefore it went no further. The promotion and distribution ceased. I never received any monies or royalties for my work… When my grandmother passed, I decided to return to the United States (September 1970). I lost track of Vlady and never was able to contact Rune about what happened to the album."
