Panabrite — Octopus in Your Dreams

from Sub-Aquatic Meditation (Aguirre Records, 2012)

Lovely scuba-diving sounds from Portland’s amazingly prolific Panabrite, aka Norm Chambers, a lover of “library production music, nature/science documentaries, and vintage electronic sounds.”

Analog at its most magical. Get it at bandcamp. (along with a huge number of other slow thrillers!) Or visit Panabrite at soundcloud / blogspot.

Haruomi Hosono, Suzuki Shigeru, Tatsuro Yamashita — Passion Flower

from Pacific (1978)

Aw yeah. Three incomparable instrumentalists, one sparkling disco rhinestone. You might call this elevator music. But it’s the kind you’d hear as you breeze out of the elevator at your Hanalei Bay resort, hiding behind your Ray-Bans, and someone hands you a coconut with a straw in it. Oh yes.

Jiro over at the fantastic Ying Yangs hooked me up with this album and I thank him warmly from my cabana.

Walsh — Welcome to 2k12

from Back 2 the High Life (2k12)

Been digging on the new Walsh release all week. Brandon Biondo strikes again! Get yer funk on at bandcamp or the sublime AMDISCS. And pop open a High Life while yer at it.

Jimmy Takeuchi — Soulful Strut

from R&B Drumming (1969)

Jazz drummer and drum break king Jimmy Takeuchi’s take on the smooth jazz classic ‘Soulful Strut,’ recorded in 1968 by the Chicago jazz group Young-Holt Unlimited. [original here]

There are some nice breaks in this version, but the thing that really sets Takeuchi’s version apart is, of course, the VIBRASLAP. Niiiice…

Guido & Maurizio De Angelis — Speed Fever

from Formula uno, febbre della velocità (Speed Fever) (1979)

More robotic De Angelis beat magic from the soundtrack to Speed Fever, a Formula 1 documentary.

Jimmy Takeuchi — La Pioggia

from Drum Drum Drum (1968?)

Yesterday we heard Gigliola Cinquetti singing her San Remo entry ‘La Pioggia.’ Here’s an instrumental version, as performed by Japanese R&B/soul/surf drummer Jimmy Takeuchi and his group The Exciters.

Les Paul — Lady of Spain (1952)

I’ve no doubt many have tried, but no one can make a guitar sound like Les Paul. It’s almost a “look at me” sort of fantasy tour through guitar effects. And this was in, oh, 1952.

Pedro Santos — Dual

from Krishnanda (1968, Brazil)

Well this is delightful. I’m gonna have to track this album down…

tothemaxxx:

I probably won’t play this at NOMERICA tomorrow night, but it’s the best. Maybe I’ll play it if nobody’s dancing.

Mother Maybelle Carter — Wildwood Flower

from Mother Maybelle Carter (1973, Columbia)

This is a really interesting old LP recorded in February 1973 at the House of Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee, with a formidable cast of musicians, including Fred Carter Jr. on electric guitar, Pete Drake on pedal steel, Charlie McCoy on harmonica and of course Mother Maybelle on autoharp and guitar.

Many of the tracks, including this one, feature in-studio banter between Mother Maybelle and the other musicians, with so much joking and relaxing you get the feeling they were shuffling into the kitchen between songs for turkey sandwiches and beers.

On this track, Mother Maybelle says she’d “like to try to do it” on her autoharp first, before starting in with her guitar. Well she tries it on her autoharp alright. Nails it, is what she does. Then she begins picking a mean guitar, and the rest of the guys join in. This is like country music instrumentation 101. Study it. Mother Maybelle really was something else.