Showing posts with label Western. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Bruce Langhorne - Hired Hand O.S.T. (vinyl release Scissor Tail Editions, 2012)


How this slipped through the cracks for 40 years is beyond me. First, the film is an 'Acid Western', and second,   the music is light years ahead of its time. Supposedly, Bruce Langhorne is literally Zimmy's inspiration for 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and he must have had magic powers, because his music is even compared to contemporary electronic and experimental artists.

From the Bandcamp:

Bruce Langhorne is most known for his session work with artists in and around the Greenwich Village folk scene during the 1960’s. He’s been credited as working with such artists as Bob Dylan, Odetta, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Babatunde Olatunji, Richie Havens, Carolyn Hester, Peter LaFarge, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot... practically everyone active during that era. In addition to being the inspiration for Bob Dylan’s "Mr. Tambourine Man", Langhorne also played the electric guitar countermelody on the song. His guitar is also prominent on several other songs on Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album, particularly "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "She Belongs to Me", but also "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Outlaw Blues", "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" and "Maggie's Farm", on which he played the lead guitar part. He also played the guitar with Dylan for Dylan's television performances of "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue on the Les Crane Show a month after the Bringing It All Back Home sessions. Two years earlier, Langhorne had performed on Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan on "Corrina, Corrina" as well as the outtake "Mixed-Up Confusion".

 In 1969 Langhorne was asked by Peter Fonda to score his directorial debut. He decided to opt out of scoring the film in a projection room, instead chose to shoot the film onto a small black and white camera to take back to his home in Laurel Canyon. He would watch the film and play along to it as his girlfriend at the time would record him and play it back, allowing him to overdub Farfisa Organ, piano, banjo, fiddle, harmonica, recorder, and Appalachian dulcimer onto his Revox reel to reel. Bruce's 1920 Martin guitar is most prominent throughout the record. The Results were a uniquely wide and lonesome soundscape. The closest comparison might be Sandy Bull or possibly John Fahey, but nothing of its kind or even of it's time poses a resemblance to Langhorne's minimal masterpiece displayed here on vinyl for the first time.

The vinyl is hopelessly out of print but you can listen to the album and download it HERE.

Monday, January 28, 2013

El Topo - OST (1971, Abkco / 2012 LP Re-issue by Real Gone)


Its always strange talking about Jodorowsky films, so I'll keep that aspect to a minimum. We all know what a wonderfully bizarre film-maker he was (I say "we all" because you wouldn't be reading this blog if you weren't fucked in the head like me, in which case you're a weirdo who also loves this man's work), but does everyone know he made the music for his films as well? That's right, and let me tell you, the sounds are equally bizarre and wonderful. He composed this with John Barham, in a working relationship similar to David Lynch and Angelo Badalementi's, only this relationship had much more blood and an infinite amount of hallucinogenics.
 
Taking cues from Rota and Morriconne, the instrumentation includes flutes, horns, accordions and organs. There are orchestral waltzes, mariachi flavors, parlor jazz and some classic 70's "tripped out with sunshine on the camera" ballads. This is a real treat and I'm very happy that it has been re-issued on 180 gram vinyl. The gatefold package also includes a lovely 4 page booklet of photo stills. Now you too can own a copy of the score to this twisted, blood-drenched, drugged out, Christian allegorical, Zen Buddhist, avant garde, psychedelic fantasy / nightmare that changed film forever.



Get the LP HERE


Monday, August 13, 2012

Vestibule - The Kid's Lamentations via The Judge's Conflagrations (Mixtape, 2012)

So I hadn't made a mixtape in a while and decided to make a soundtrack to "An Evening Redness in the West". If ya know, then ya know. If ya don't, sorry. Enjoy these contemplative dirges of western sounds. Nobody beats the McC.  Peace and scalping...

Download it Here

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Barn Owl - Lost in the Glare (Thrill Jockey, 2011)

Do you love Earth? Do you find yourself listening to those three dirgey western rock records over and over to the point of obsession? Do you get tired of it? Do you ever ask yourself "Is there more? Will I ever feel satisfied by something like this besides Dylan Carlson?" Well pardner, do I have good news for you. Today, right now, right here, you can download your very own copy of the brightest, biggest, hottest star this side of the Mojave. All for the one time low low price of absolutely free. It'd be the right thing to do if you go out and buy the vinyl real soon though. Fellers gotta make a livin'.

Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras' dueling guitars mixed with farfisa, blissful e-bow drones and electronics create what sounds to me like the most creative take on Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" I've ever heard. Lost in the dry heat, beat down by the sun only to freeze in the cold Sonoran night, Carlson, O'malley and Anderson could never have made a record this interesting. I kid you not. This is fucking incredible. Still waiting for my vinyl so I can do it right. I need that full analog signal. It's gonna be one I spend many hours listening to in the future.

Get it Here

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