Ludovicotechnique

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Marlie Mul

We discovered this series of photos through Gatefold Records.

Apparently, after French photographer Fréderic Thiphagne took these photos, the building and its contents were destroyed.

Read his story and view all of the photos at his blog.

 

Photographs by Michael Wolf Folkert

This is the story of how an eighteen-year-old influenced the sound of an era. It is the story of how one man’s musical craftsmanship artfully bridged the rough funk of the ’70s and the polished dance-floor grooves of the ’80s. It is the story of Brass Construction’s Randy Muller, a Guyanese-born, Brooklyn-bred intellectual with three college degrees who lives and breathes music.

Randy Muller is a true unsung hero and behind-the-scenes master of the disco era. His compositions have powered a string of anthems, and his trendsetting arrangements continue to be emulated. An incredible talent, he is a fluent flautist and keyboard player as well as a percussionist, and has contributed vocals to numerous recordings.

 

Originally published as “Disco Architect” in Wax Poetics Issue 10, Fall 2004

 

Born in Guyana, the tiny nation on the southern fringe of the Caribbean whose people represent a wonderful confluence of ethnicities, he was eight when he moved to Brooklyn to live with his grandmother in 1964. There, in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, he found a place he describes as magical. “The first night I arrived, I couldn’t sleep, I was so excited. In those days in Bed-Stuy, guys walked around the streets singing doo-wop. Listening to three-, four-part harmony outside my window, it was just like the movies.”

Possessing a tremendous intellect and a near-photographic memory, he excelled in school but found himself irresistibly drawn to the vibrant local music scene. “Every West Indian mother’s dream is for their kid to be a doctor or scientist, and for me that meant going to Brooklyn Tech. But all my friends were going to Jefferson High School, which is where the music scene was. I had to lie and tell my grandmother that I wasn’t accepted at Tech just so I could get over to Jefferson where the action was!” Here at the famed Brooklyn institute that counted global stars Danny Kaye, Hal David, and Peter Nero as alumni, Muller devoured musical theory with the encouragement of his teachers, who often fed his voracious appetite with extracurricular musical assignments.

Since junior high, Muller had been gigging on the local West Indian dance scene with a group of older men in a group called the Panharmonics. Muller remembers them as being somewhat unusual, because they not only had the traditional steel-drum setup, but members also doubled on instruments like the electric bass and, in Muller’s case, flute, enabling them to play hip versions of popular tunes of the day. At many of the gigs, the Panharmonics would be paired with a horn-led band, and it was then that Muller first became fascinated with the power of good brass arrangements, an obsession he would develop into a formidable expertise. “I used to stand there and fantasize about having a band like that,” he recalls, and it wasn’t long before he did.

At Jefferson he was also playing with a group of friends in an outfit called the Dynamic Souls who had originally assembled after school, let into their junior high building to practice after hours by a sympathetic custodian. Relationships with many of Muller’s future collaborators were solidified at this time, and the group of schoolmates began formulating the sound that would comprise Brass Construction. “The original members were Larry Payton and Wade Williamson [drums and bass], and I played piano.” Muller was a fan of Mongo Santamaria’s big, brassy, soulful charts, and tried to emulate those arrangements with his band.

His obvious talent caught the eye of more than a few, including the organizers of the state Miss Black America Pageant, and the young man was hired as the music director for the show. “It was great training, since I would have to come up with arrangements on the spot when girls would say they wanted to sing this or that show tune,” he remembers.

Around this time Muller was scouted by none other than Detroit powerhouse Motown. “A lot of people don’t know that Brass Construction had an affiliation with Motown,” he reveals. “They wanted to sign us to the Rare Earth label; we actually auditioned with some Motown songs.” Muller eventually decided against the opportunity. “I even had the contract signed but just never sent it back. They wanted us to change up our sound, they had someone who was going to be the front guy; it was just becoming something totally different.”

As Muller’s reputation in Brooklyn grew, the long-distance relationship with Detroit probably didn’t seem as appealing as the things percolating in his own backyard. “I had started working with Jeff Lane, who was much older than me, a sort of Don King–like music impresario.” Muller became Lane’s go-to guy, doing a wide variety of arrangements for him, one of the earliest for singer Nat Kennedy’s “What’s Happening Brother.” A gospel tune with an R&B flavor, Muller remembers it as “kinda corny stuff, but it was helping me get my chops together.”

The first Brass Construction recording came on Lane’s Docc label, so named after a prominent Black doctor, Coolidge Abel-Bey, who bankrolled the operation. “Two-Timin’ Lady,” backed by the frantic “Take It Easy,” was released in 1972. While shopping for a major-label deal with the single, Lane called Muller in to do arrangements for a band that had gone through a few name changes, but was by then known as Brooklyn Trucking Express. For a tough funk band like B.T., as the moniker was abbreviated, strings were unusual, if not unheard of. To make their horn and guitar–led tunes stand out, Lane wanted a different feel and called in his boy genius to write string parts for a few songs. “Before then, I had never really done string parts, but Jeff, not being a musician, thought since I could do horn charts, strings would be no problem. I remember him saying, ‘By tomorrow I want a violin section there!’” Muller shakes his head, laughing. “The parts for ‘Express’ I did in fifteen minutes because Jeff was outside my grandmother’s house in his car waiting for me, beeping the horn while I was furiously writing!” The string motifs the teenager came up with, self-described as “so simple,” got worldwide exposure when the album and “Express” in particular became smash hits. Even James Brown took notice and came up with one of his funkiest tunes in reply (“JB’s Monorail”).

The B.T. Express record was the first time this style of string arrangement was used, a texture that later became de rigueur for “disco,” as the new trend of dance music was being called. As a pioneering example of this global phenomenon, it was only natural that others would pick up on it. Listen to Silver Convention’s “Fly Robin Fly,” and the similarities are striking. “A lot of that fall-off stuff on the strings,” Muller describes the sound, “comes from me as a horn guy basically writing horn parts for strings because I didn’t know any better.” His arrangements fused the horns and the strings but still kept the track lean and funky, not overdone. “It’s about prudence,” Muller explains. “It doesn’t get in the way, and it’s supportive. It brings the track to another level, and that, to me, is what good arranging is.”

With Muller’s star on the rise, he continued to devote himself to broadening his knowledge in music as well as other areas, getting a degree in arranging and social science. His insatiable hunger for musical knowledge and his professional dedication to seeing projects through made him a highly sought-after component of the thriving New York City club music scene, though by his own admission he was a studio fiend, only occasionally venturing into nightclubs themselves. “I knew Larry Levan,” he says of the legendary DJ. “We used to go down to the Paradise Garage and bring our latest acetates to test out. Larry would listen to the track and say something like, ‘Okay, this is three o’clock.’” Muller would be obliged to hang out in Levan’s spacious booth until the temperamental jock was ready to play the song, and he would watch the crowd’s reaction. “We made changes based on that, bringing a part up or down in the mix, say.”

Below is a personal selection of a few of Muller’s classic productions, running the gamut from his early work with Brass Construction and some classic late-’70s rarities, to his essential work with Skyy and Salsoul, up to an overlooked ’90s rarity. Muller contributes comments on each phase of his development.

 

Brass Construction “Movin’” b/w “Changin’ ” (United Artists) 1975

Randy Muller: I loved instrumental stuff, especially groups who had great horn sections, like Kool & the Gang; Blood, Sweat & Tears; and Chicago. But at the insistence of the label, I had to put some lyrics on the instrumentals. So, as a concept, I used verbs for all the song titles and came up with some very simple, abstract vocal chants to go with the music. Later I would hear from fans how much these songs spoke to them—they would have a whole story for these one-word songs! [laughs] That’s the trick to writing good songs: Let people plug in their own experiences.

At that time, I was going to Hunter College, studying music theory. I actually ended up using some of my Brass Construction arrangements for class assignments in counterpoint! [laughs] If you listen to “Changin’,” for example, you’ll hear all these displacements where a phrase is shifted over a bar.

“Movin’” came from a studio jam session. The way I always set it up was that I would have a mic at the keyboards and all the guys would have cans [headphones], since a lot of them couldn’t remember charts. Wade Williamson started playing the bass line and I came up with some ideas as we were playing and would just shout them out to the guys. That’s why you hear some off [drum] rolls in there, since I would yell to Larry [Payton, the drummer], “Okay, let’s go! Roll coming up!” But sometimes the serendipity of what happens in a live setting makes it sound good—it’s funky, you know! So we jammed on the riff for the whole sixteen minutes, which in those days was the entire reel of tape. Then I came home and wrote the “Got myself together” hook, wrote the horn sections, and we overdubbed it.

U.A. wasn’t doing 12-inch singles at that time, but several versions were issued later, including a British version that has a spoken intro from Randy on “Changin’.”

The post 12 records crafted by disco architect Randy Muller of Brass Construction appeared first on Wax Poetics.

Lost twins, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Sly Stone’s dark soul opus, and Naturally, J. J. Cale’s debut album, came into the world together, in the last weeks of 1971. They were adopted by different families—Riot became a beloved template of eccentric, innovative Black music, while Eric Clapton and Lynyrd Skynyrd thrust Naturally into the spotlight by turning two of its songs into classic rock staples—but on the rare occasion that they’re reunited, you’ll hear them hum in a shared midnight motorik pulse.

 

Originally published as “Pace Relations” in Wax Poetics Issue 19

 

When these albums were recorded, Sly was living a lapse of luxury in the Hollywood Hills. There were drugs, the mansion was dark, and Sly would record under a giant American flag over the fireplace, as players and pals chimed in from the fringe. Cale, a native of Oklahoma, recorded his album two thousand miles away, among session players and close friends, in Nashville and Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Naturally is more of a back-porch affair, but through all its country dust, you can tell it was recorded in the same late hours as Riot.

Sly and Cale used live drums on their debuts, but that was beside the point. On Riot and Naturally, the drum machine was more oracle than instrument: even when it wasn’t being used, its influence hung in the air above each song. The electronic drums sound spare and primitive on both records, but Cale and Sly warm their robotic ticks. Riot’s pulsations are provided by the Maestro Rhythm King, while Naturally used the King’s main competitor, the Ace Tone Rhythm Ace. The King offered multiple presets that could be played at different speeds, while the Ace allowed for some programming. They were competing brands, but they arrived at the same time, were available on the same aisles, and, like Naturally and Riot, they spoke the same whispered language.

On Naturally, the drum machine is the ticking of the Oklahoma highway line, steadily coaxing your brain into a open-eyed narcosis. Sly used his drum machine more like a stripper pole—a solid, stable median around which he could allow his woozy music to writhe and gyrate. Though they’re different, and attracted different audiences, it’s not hard to imagine these records meeting up on the jukebox in some dark roadside stop. Songs from each album alternate in a mix—Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze,” a tumbleweed skeletal swing, into Sly’s “Family Affair,” a late night’s poignant shadow of a club song—as the pimp and the trucker trade stories at a counter.

On some sleepless nights, after I’ve played out my copies of these albums, I imagine the pair on a double bill in 1972, in front of an audience that’s part Soul Train, part coal train. Sly comes out first, Cale in the second half. Throughout the show, the drum machine sits on a stool at center stage. Its tappings hang in the air at the set change, the last notes of Sly’s eight-bar blues “Just Like a Baby” fading into the first shuffling notes of Cale’s “Crazy Mama,” as band members emerge on the stage. They end the show together, on a long version of “River Runs Deep.” Sly sings from his tar throat: “River runs deep and the water is cold as ice.” You forget whose song it is. The drum machine tsst-tsst-taps in the center, code between kin.

The post Sly Stone’s dark soul opus There’s a Riot Goin’ On and J. J. Cale’s debut album, Naturally, are linked by the nascent drum machine appeared first on Wax Poetics.

Terreur et Tangos  Etienne Lorin  Pacific Records (France)  An EP with four tangos:  Kriminal Tango, Mystere Tango, Texas Tango and Tango Della Morte!

Drawings by Michael DeLucia Title: Malaclypse the Younger Folkert

Luto, Lisbon.

at the pool, Carcavelos.

Where are you based? My space base is in Los Angeles, California. Always usually sunny with a slight chance of clouds. Is this your hometown? Los Angeles is indeed where I was born and raised. What is your first musical memory? Apart from Disney kids stuff, I have heavy memories of Roller Disco and Disco being on the radio at all times. I was super down with the Roller Disco. I lived in Laurel Canyon and we used to skate around the school yard and they played disco like “Funky Town”. I went to a few proper Roller Discos as well and they would be playing like Rod Stewart and “Miss You” and that kind of jam. I remember skating up to the DJ booth, which was glassed in with round glass. I had to know what the song they were playing was. It ended out being “Galaxy” by War. I have a distinct vision of seeing that album cover on its side on a chair. It was perfect. I also remember hearing “Rock Lobster” around that time and thought that sounded intriguing. My parents were always listening to cool music too for sure. Can you remember what kind of [...]

 

Title of publication: Shoebox Memories
Name of artist: Topo Copy
Additional contributor/s: Brecht Van Dingenen, Jonas Nachtergaele, Jens Weynendaele
Design: Jens Weynendaele
Editor: Dieter Durinck, Brecht Van Dingenen, Jonas Nachtergaele
Publication date: January 2013
Place of publication: Ghent, Belgium
Edition size: 100
Format: Softcover
Size: 19,5 cm width / 25 height
Number of pages: 80
Type of printing: Risography
Type of paper: Inside -> Old Mill bianco 100 /m², outside Muskat New Grey 300 gr/m²
Name of printer: Topo Copy
Number of pictures: 63
Price: 20€
Description of book: Shoebox Memories: images from the Ghent (BE) skate scene between 1989 & 1999. Together with key figures from this legendary period we went on a trip down memory lane. Analogue snapshots, moments, people and places. Told and untold stories captured in time!
The best thing about self-publishing: a little late is right on time
Artist website: http://www.topocopy.org
Press website: http://www.topocopy.org
Book Soundtrack:

Pigs are the only inhabitants on the place, which goes by the name of Big Major Cay aka Pig Beach.

Source

electripipedream:

The Psychedelic Nudes of William Graham
Classic Line & Form
1967

Cientistas estão a discutir se as propriedades das entidades abstractas, como números, figuras geométricas ou símbolos, e as suas relações, são uma propriedade do universo ou uma interpretação humana da realidade, segundo um artigo divulgado nesta segunda-feira.

Tape to tape.

“So what’s a cassette store?”, we hear you ask. Well to be honest we’re not entirely sure either, but since the event has been modelled on the incredibly popular Record Store Day concept, it’s probably got more than just a little bit to do with that recognizable brand than anything else. That is unless they’re literally talking about trouserless youngsters sitting in their Mid-Western basements duping cassette tapes and selling them on blogs, but we have a feeling they’re not.

Taking place on September 7, Cassette Store Day will see a string of exclusive releases and special events, and while there are still only a few details about the exact releases it looks like there’s involvement from a healthy spread of labels. Heavy hitters 4AD, Bella Union, Transgressive, Domino and Wichita lead the pack, with young guns such as SEXBEAT, Kissability and Suplex Cassettes repping the underground. Artists reported to be involved are Deerhunter, The Flaming Lips, The Pastels, The Birthday Party, Efterklang, Fucked Up and more.

Billed as less record store-centric than Record Store Day itself, there are events planned in LA, Tokyo, New York and at London’s Rough Trade East. You can find out more information directly from the Cassette Store Day website.

If you fancy delving deeper into the sprawling world of the cassette tape, take a look at Brad Rose’s monthly FACT column that find the Digitalis boss separating the wheat from the chaff each month. [via NME]

“When in doubt, tidy up.”
—Brian Eno

(via Austin Kleon)

Fontastic graffiti, stencilled on a wall in Guelph, Ontario.

“The plague of Times New Roman is the unspoken disease of our age….[S]urprisingly, given a visual training, some architects have fallen victim to the plague. Times New Roman is often incised into new buildings in major cities, unrelated to the essence of their architectural character. Before the TNR outbreak, beautiful signage was normal, whether a take on a classic of architectural typography, or a font pushing the progressive zeitgeist of the building style. Those were the old times. Now a 1930s newspaper font is a default setting for monumental inscription. It’s one that we must switch off.”

-Jonathan Foyle, CEO of World Monuments Fund Britain, in the Financial Times

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

at the opening of the new exhibitions by Ana Léon + José Pedro Croft, Catarina Branco, Catarina Botelho, João Grama, José Pedro Cortes, Cristina Lamas, Heleno Bernardi, Raúl Hevia + Antonio Díaz Grande, Carpe Diem, Lisbon.

Where are you based? New York. Is this your hometown? No. I`m from Los Angeles, California. A neighbourhood called Atwater. What is your first musical memory? There was always music at the house. Hundreds of records in the living room and people over listening to music, drinking and carrying on. My parents were young so I spent time in bars when the only entertainment was pinball & jukeboxes, 1970′s. My mom would give me quarters and I would go choose the tunes. Early DJing I guess. What was the first record you bought? I remember this. It was 1983 and I was 12 years old. I rode my bike up to Rainbow Records, I think it`s still there but has moved across the street, and bought The Clash’s “Combat Rock” & The Specials first LP. I got them to play at my 6th grade graduation party. Another early DJ experience.. What was the last record you bought? A new one at Phonica last week in London. I bought a few but don’t recall the names. One sounded Italian with a colorful jacket. What inspired you to start DJing / making music? There wasn’t just one thing that I can pinpoint. [...]

Old School #23 D.A.E.S. at Escola das Gaivotas (DNA)
July 13th 2013

Aleksandar @ P-Town, Lisbon.

tadashi-ueda:

石崎孝多さんのコラム「そこそこ音楽室」第4回 100円で見つけたCDたち

http://heathaze.tokyo.jp/2013/07/ishizaki4/

今回もグラフィックを作らせていただきました。

とてもおもしろいので、読んでみて下さい。

Design : Tadashi Ueda

Client : Kota Ishizaki

Shriekback`s broken but undefeated soldier, sounding like Tom Waits` piano after a good drink. The Art Of Noise beaten. Penn & Ciccone`s wedding march. OMD use the then future to pastiche 50s family Pop and come across like Matt Johnson`s The The. Red-eyed from waiting for morning to come. Sylivan`s unmistakable croon. Blue Nile`s simple genius. KTP`s broken choir and “Third Man” Tango. Tracey and Ben`s Wag Club Soho Swing. Miss Jones` Zang Tuum Tumb Go-Go repro Jam played with a touch of Bamboo. Two S&M classics, the groans from one of which I`m pretty sure Weatherall sampled when forcing Meat Beat Manifesto into submission. Loose Ends cover Bowie, have him watching Badarou`s “keys”. Kuti-a-like Afrobeat, Spanish Punks and Sakamoto`s seminal alien Funk transmission. I think Leo must have played every track off that Redskins LP. Like a red machine. Keep on keeping on. Download

Herbert - I Hadn’t Known (I Only Heard) (by timelessm24)

"A Retrospective" by Mariana Tengner Barros and Raquel Castro, Negócio, Lisbon.

Friday & Saturday we’re having a special sale event at the store! Drinks will be provided (of course) and there will be instore sessions by Mooner and Salvador from Mexico! Drop by, good discount on selected items!

Steve Moore, metade dos Zombi, tem novo maxi na Future Times, uma excursão cósmica que oferece a enésima resposta à pergunta «a que soaria a música de Klaus Schulze se este músico alemão se tivesse apaixonado pela atmosfera do Paradise Garage?» Ou algo assim. A progressão rítmica é moderada, perfeita para dias de sol preguiçosos, como o que se faz sentir hoje, e os sintetizadores soam a banda sonora para estudos sobre a refracção da luz na superfície de uma piscina. Isto no lado A, «Zen Spiders», porque no reverso «Lwaxana» traz uma toada mais crepuscular, embora se mantenha a aura de música para temperaturas propícias à submersão aquática.

Para ouvir aqui:

 

Defesa pedia nulidade do acórdão ao alegar falta de fundamentação da decisão.

Confronto entre um jogador e um árbitro acabou em tragédia no Brasil.