extracted from "Totally Shuffled: A Year of Listening To Music on a Broken iPod". I can't find any YouTube clip of this; I wish I could as I'm sure you'd enjoy it. If I ever find one then I'll update the blog but for now read on...
March 27
Voodoo Ceremony in Haiti-Olympic LP, 1974
First off-just so there is a flavour of what this is all about- here is the track listing of this record:
Side One
1. Voodoo Drums (5:26)
2. Nibo Rhythms (1:19)
3. Prayer to Shango (1:56)
4. Petro Rhythms (0:47)
5. Nago Rhythms (2:40)
Side Two
1. Invocation to Papa Legba (5:59)
2. Dahomey Rhythms “The Paul’L” - Maize Rhythm - Diouba Rhythm “Cousin Zaca” (6:06)
It doesn’t really help much. Maybe the titles of the tracks should assist-but as I have no idea who Papa Legba is or who or what a Shango is, I’m stumped. It does give an indication, a feeling. You get a sense that it was recorded in a slightly threatening atmosphere. Maybe it’s just my imagination and I’m falling into a stereotypical cultural trap, but there’s a definite impression of chickens being slaughtered, bones being rattled and shrunken skulls used for percussion. I’m sure that there are goats in the mix as well. It’s a generally disquieting record and leaves a sense of unease.
It’s one of the few compilation albums I have where I’ve no idea who the artists are. What else do I know about this record? It was recorded in Haiti, sometime before 1974, on less than sparkling equipment. Like many of these types of recordings, it wasn’t made in a studio, but is termed as a field recording. I don’t think it was made in gentle rolling green hills though, but in the backstreets of Port-Au-Prince, probably in the middle of the night. (The back of the sleeve states “Recorded on location”). I have a feeling that it was recorded by some bloke cowering behind a wall, holding a microphone and crapping himself. It sounds as if the tracks are being played a fair old distance away, and every so often you can hear a woman’s voice, speaking French and sounding very scary. No wonder the album is relatively short-I’ll bet that he hightailed it out of there as soon as he could.
The album was released in 1974 on Olympic, which was a French record label, and although it’s now probably available as mp3’s, this was ripped from the original album, as the references to side one and side two attest.
I did think that this was the only record I have of actual voodoo music. It is the only one on the iPod, but somewhere in the house I do have a compilation of field recordings made by Alan Lomax in the 50’s, which has a whole CD of voodoo music from Haiti. I think I’ve only listened to it once and I remember it being even scarier than this record.
I’d like to have a massive sound system in my little car. The next time some scally stops next to me at the traffic lights in his Subaru blasting out some generic r & b, I’d slap on this album, turn the volume as high as it would go, and put the fear of God into him. Unless of course, I was driving round Port-Au Prince, where this stuff is probably the equivalent of listening to Songs of Praise.
"Totally Shuffled" is available here as a Kindle book (bit of a massive tome; 600 or so pages)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA
and here as a paperback (Part 1:The First Six Months)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Broken-iPod-/dp/149495687X
This is what it ("Totally Shuffled", the book) is all about:
One track per day for 366 days on a broken iPod. 366 tracks out of a possible 9553.
From the obvious (The Rolling Stones), to the obscure (Karen Cooper Complex).
From the sublime (The Flaming Lips) to the risible (Muse).
From field recordings of Haitian Voodoo music to The Monkees.
From Heavy Metal to Rap by way of 1930’s blues, jazz, classical, punk, and every possible genre of music in between.
This is what I listened to and wrote about for a whole year, to the point of never wanting to hear any more music again.
Some songs I listened to I loved, and some I hated.
Some artists ended up getting praised to the skies and others received a bit of critical kicking.
There’s memories of spending too many hours in record shops, prevaricating over the next big thing and surprising myself over tracks that I’d completely forgotten about.
But with 40 years of listening to music, I realised that I’ll never get sick of it.
I may have fallen out of love with some of the songs in this book, but I’ll never fall out of love with music.
The Full List of all the Artists
Like me, there must be some artists you love, some you don't love and some you've probably not heard of.
Or never want to hear again.
But that's the way it goes with nearly 10,000 tracks to shuffle through at random.
These are the artists in the order they shuffled up on my iPod, starting on January 1st and finishing on December 31st.
January
The Clash/ Half
Man Half Biscuit/ Steinski /Carl Smith with the Carter Sisters & Mother
Maybelle
Big Star/ The
Upsettters / AC/DC /Buddy Holly/Wilco/Joy Division/High Rise
Bulgarian State
Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir/Jackie Brenston
William &
Versey Smith/Boards of Canada/Randy Newman/The Blue Nile/The Chords
Wire/Steely Dan/Mercury
Rev/Sigur Ros/Massive Attack v Mad Professor
Steve Reich/TheSugarcubes/U2/A
Sudden Sway/Laura Cantrell/Genesis
Mbuti Pygmies of
the Iruti Rainforest/The Sisters of Mercy
February
Holy Fuck/
Swans/The Sundays/My Bloody Valentine/Ja-Man
Charles Wright
& the 103rd Street Rhythm Band/Juana Molina/Sparklehorse/ The
White Stripes
New Order/Dennis
McGee & Ernest Fruge/Beethoven/ You.May.Die.In.The.Desert
Kate
Bush/Cabaret Voltaire/Blind Lemon Jefferson/Bill Drummond/Gong
The Hold
Steady/Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston/ Sunn O)))/Crass
Jelly Roll
Morton/Grandmaster Flash/Led Zeppelin/Status Quo
March
Karen Cooper
Complex/Spiritualized/Professor Longhair/Coldplay
Dee
Clark/Prince/Teenage Jesus & The Jerks/Jeff Buckley
Young Marble
Giants/Rovo/Lazy Lester/She & Him
Voodoo Ceremony
in Haiti/Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers/The Woodentops
Tinariwen/Blind
Blake/ Arctic Monkeys/Van Morrison/Burial/Boozoo Chavais/Teenage Fanclub
Mogwai/Nirvana/Girls/Skip
James/The Lemonheads/Air Traffic Controllers
A Gril Called
Eddy/ Aztec Camera/Goldfrapp
April
Evil Gazebo/ The Durutti Column/Cymbals Eat Guitars/Swell Maps/Warren Smith
The Go-Betweens/Fats Domino/Joanna
Newsom/Dave Dudley/Fleetwood Mac/Lightnin Hopkins
Neil Young/Chin Up Chin Up/The
Jesus Lizard/Mel & Tim/XTC/Faron Young/Electro Hippies
Rev. Gary Davies/ Robyn
Hitchcock/Lee Perry/Fuck Buttons/Portastatic/The Jesus & Mary Chain
Blind Willie Davis/The
Misunderstood/ The Art of Noise/The Feelies/Francoise Hardy
The Rolling Stones
May
Dracula’s Daughter/American Music
Club/Godspeed You! Black Emperor/Echo & the Bunnymen
Link Davis/Television/This Mortal
Coil/Elder Curry/Vampire Weekend/Scritti Politti/Battles
Immortal Technique/Pavement/Jad
Fair/The Everly Brothers/Impact All Stars
Hambone Wille Newbern/The
Zimmermen/Chic/Buzzcocks/Ellis Regina & Toots Theilman
The Silver/Lights In A Fat
City/Althea & Donna/Phew!/Eddie & Ernie/Sly & The Family Stone/
The Parliaments/The Ruts/Muddy
Waters
June
Captain Beefheart/Emmylou Harris/Jimmy
Rodgers/Bob Dylan/Lush/Foetus Interruptus
Johnny Cash/Lattie Moore/Satan Alfa
Beel Atem/Freddie Hall/The Ravens/Robert Parker
David Sylvian/The Stone
Roses/Charlie Parker/SonnyBoy Williamson/Steve Earle/Tiny Bradshaw
Lonnie Johnson/Blind Alred Reed/Southside
Johnny/The Showstoppers/L/Roy Orbison/The KLF
Tony Bennett/The Chantells/The
Nightingales/Luciole
July
Some Chicken/The Meters/Kris
Kristofferson/Rev A W Nix/The Flaming Lips/Big In Japan/Morphine
The Greenhornes/Ron
Sexsmith/DoMaJe/Girls At Our Best! /The Masterdon Committee
Umm Kulthun/Alton Ellis & The
Flames/James Brown/Brownsville Station/ The O’Jays
Jimmy Lewis/Tom Archia/Big
Youth/The Smiths/The Fuckers/Nat King Cole/The 012/Group Doueh
Louis Prima/Jonsi &
Alex/Carolina Buddies/Jerry Lee Lewis/Lori & The Chameleons/Dogie O’Dell
August
Frank Sinatra/Roy Head/Lara &
the Trailers/King Solomon Hill/Central African Pygmies
The Beach Boys/The Pixies/ Billy
Ward & His Dominos/Shep & The Limelites/The Adverts
Los Campesinos!/Elmore James/”Do
you ever have a night when you don’t dream about The Fall?”
Aramic Wedding Chants/Camille/The
Anemic Boyfriends/Trinity/Prefab Sprout/Bobby Marchan
The Grateful Dead/A Certain
Ratio/The Beta Band/The Bell Rays/ DJ Food/
Booby Saffron & The Postal
Bargains/Miles Davis/Anne Peebles/Marvin Rainwater
The Manavishnu
Orchestra/Culture/Clannad
September
Gormenghast/Tammy Wynette/Wah!
Heat/Mississipi John Hurt/The Henchman/Elvis Costello
The Velvetones/Mott the Hoople/
Armando/Walter “Kid” Smith /Junior Parker/Sandy Denny
The The/The Pilgrim
Travellers/Muslimgauze/The Marvelettes/Elf Power/Ry Cooder
Johnny Burnette Trio/Big Amos/Johnnie
Taylor/Ronny Jordan/Brahms/John Coltrane/ O V Wright
The Fall/George Jones/The Gang of
Four/Pink Floyd/Mickey Lee Lewis
October
Young Fresh Fellows/ the
passage/System Fucker/The Bays/Molton Rock/De La Soul/Muse
Popol Vuh/Schubert/Curtis
Mayfield/Joe South/The Beat/Sleepy John Estes/Bruce Springsteen
I Roy/Soledad Brothers/Roshell
Anderson/Louis Armstrong/The Nitecaps/The Clovers
Clarence Ashby/Emitt Rhodes/Black
Uhuru/Gram Parsons/Chuck Willis/Johnny Fortune/
Blind Willie McTell/Dinosaur
Jr./Charles Brown
November
Billie Holliday/Rocketship/Johnny
Dove & the Magnolia Playboys/MGMT/Chrome/Blue Angel
Little Axe/The Delgados/Mahler/Novem/Siouxsie
& The Banshees/Charlie Mingus/The Monkees
P J Harvey/Riley Puckett/Roger
Miller/The Sonics/Louis Jordan/The Raincoats/Paul McCartney
Tampa Red & Georgia Tom/ The
Upholsterers/Kristina Bruuk/Green Bailey/The Blue Orchids
Harry Pussy/Shostakovich/The
National/Don Covay/K T Tunstall
December
Bill Monroe/Sonic Youth/Electric
Light Orchestra/Johnny Adams/The Cocteau Twins/Squeeze
The Latin Playboys/The Cherry
Pies/Stevie Wonder/Toussaint McCall/Eva Cassidy
Howling Wolf/Crowded House/Stanley
Winston/The Velvet Underground
Pat Metheny/Elbow/Alternative TV /Long
Gone Miles/The Pernice Brothers/Paddy McAloon
Al Green/Talking
Heads/Radiohead/AMM/Smokey Robinson & The Miracles/
Big Black/Joni Mitchell/Madonna/The
Birthday Party/Honeyboy
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