3 Days of the Carlos is officially over. Thank God. I'm so sick of Carlos that I could puke. It looks like Los Lobos got the short end of the stick, but that's life. We've ran out of gas.
Technical Information:
Artist: Los Lobos Album: La Pistola y El Corazón Year: 1988
01. La Guacamaya (2:06) 02. Las Amarillas (3:04) 03. Si Yo Quisiera (2:42) 04. (Sonajas) Mananitas Michoacanas (2:23) 05. Estoy Sentado Aqui (2:31) 06. El Gosto (2:59) 07. Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir (2:30) 08. El Canelo (3:28) 09. La Pistola Y El Corazón (3:29)
I've been turned onto such unbelievably great music as a result of this jag that my head is swimming. It's almost too much. This album is in mp3 (sorry...), but we have another Davy Graham album in lossless waiting in the wings, and we'll upgrade this post when we get a lossless version.
Technical Information:
Artist: Davy Graham Album: Large as Life and Twice as Natural Year: 1968
01. Both Sides Now (5:23) 02. Bad Boy Blues (2:08) 03. Tristano (3:56) 04. Baby It Ain't No Lie (2:27) 05. Brunton Town (3:57) 06. Sunshine Raga (6:14) 07. Freight Train Blues (4:06) 08. Jenra (3:06) 09. Electric Chair (2:42) 10. Good Morning Blues (5:16) 11. Beautiful City (2:29) 12. Blue Raga (5:50)
Listen in awe as every song slowly engraves itself, like a blue print on your soul. Each song is like a dance. Beautiful in it's fragility. Desperation, ecstasy, cynicism, doubt. Broudie's voice may sound plain but with every listen you hear that glint of sadness of a man repressed and alone. The life of Riley, Lucky You, Ready or Not, Sugar Coated Iceburgs, Perfect and What if. Music doesn't get much more powerful than this. These songs will take turns lifting you up, spinning you around dropping you out the other side with the tune whistling from your mouth. Before you know it, Broudie's stealth-like talent has made you a closet lightning seeds fan.
Technical Information:
Artist: The Lightning Seeds Album: Like You Do... Best of The Lightning Seeds Year: 1997
01. What You Say (4:27) 02. The Life of Riley (4:04) 03. Lucky You (4:22) 04. You Showed Me (4:10) 05. Change (3:41) 06. Waiting for Today to Happen (97 Version) (3:54) 07. Pure (3:49) 08. Sugar Coated Iceberg (3:53) 09. Ready or Not (3:50) 10. All I Want (2:55) 11. Perfect (3:30) 12. What If... (3:24) 13. Sense (4:08) 14. Brain Drain (3:52) 15. Marvellous (5:44) 16. Three Lions (3:45)
01. I Should Have Known Better (3:53) 02. Two People in a Room (2:11) 03. The 15th (3:06) 04. The Other Window (2:08) 05. Single K.O. (2:24) 06. A Touching Display (6:57) 07. On Returning (2:07) 08. A Mutual Friend (4:29) 09. Blessed State (3:28) 10. Once Is Enough (3:24) 11. Map Ref. 41 Deg N 93 Deg W (3:41) 12. Indirect Enquiries (3:37)
Bonus tracks:
13. 40 Versions (3:28) 14. Song 1 (3:04) 15. Get Down (Part I & II) (4:30) 16. Let's Panic Later (3:22) 17. Small Electric Piece (3:33) 18. Go Ahead (4:04) 19. Stepping Off Too Quick (1:24) 20. Indirect Inquiries (3:20) 21. Map Ref. 41 Deg N 93 Deg W (3:51) 22. A Question of Degree (2:58) 23. Two People in a Room (2:04) 24. Former Airline (1:13)
If any of you out there happen to be getting married and need a song for your first dance, then look no further...Sag Irh Acht is it. And if, after the wedding, you need to sign up for Eurovision, do a cover of Ich Will Noch Nicht Nach Haus, and I'll guarantee a win. Enjoy the Schlagererfolge!
Technical Information:
Artist: Various Artists Album: Amiga Schlagererfolge der 70er & 80er Jahre (Disc 1) Year: 2007
01. Maja Catrin Fritsche- Freundliches Wort (3:14) 02. Klaus-Dieter Henkler & Monika Hauff- Schon, Dass Wir Uns Wiederseh'n (3:17) 03. Andreas Holm- Geh mit Mir Ins Heu (2:40) 04. Roland Neudert- Jeder Tag mit Dir (2:31) 05. Regina Thoss- Ich Bin auf dem Weg Zu Dir (3:03) 06. Achim Mentzel- Gott Sei Dank Ist Sie Schlank (3:57) 07. Rolf Herricht- Die Eiszeit Kommt Wieder (2:46) 08. Winni II- Ich Geh' Kaputt (2:44) 09. Molly Sisters- He, Hallo, Du Bist ein Mann Geworden (3:08) 10. Jens Heller- He, He, He (2:21) 11. Sabine Bruhns- Ich Kenn' Einen (3:26) 12. Norbert Gebhardt- Wenn Meine Freunde Geh'n (2:46) 13. Aniko- Gute Reise (3:24) 14. Peter & Paul- Jeden Tag Scheint Die Sonne (4:41) 15. Zsuzsa Koncz- He, Mama (2:48) 16. G.E.S.- Das Land Meiner Wahl (3:07) 17. Michael Lindt- Weites Land (Orenburg-Lied) (2:35) 18. Dina Straat- Du Bist Wieder (3:18) 19. Michael Hansen & Nancies- Morgen Ist ein Neuer Tag (2:40) 20. Ingrid Raack- Konigin der Nacht (2:43) 21. Sound G.M.- Links ein Engel, Rechts ein Teufel (2:58) 22. Pavel Novak- Das Lied Vom Tag (4:21)
Disc 2:
01. Gerd Christian- Sag Ihr Auch (3:54) 02. Ivica Serfezi- Meine Erste Liebe (3:31) 03. Nina Lizell- Lass Mich Bitte Nicht Warten (2:50) 04. Frank Schobel- Leben Zu Zwein (3:10) 05. Monika Herz- Der Sommer in Berlin War Schon (3:46) 06. Ljupka Dimitrovska- Der Cottbuser Postkutscher (3:09) 07. Lutz Jahoda- Der Datschen-Apache (2:26) 08. Jurgen Hart- Urlaub mit Bruni (3:12) 09. Wolfgang Lippert- Detektiv (3:51) 10. H&N- Flic Flac in Die Nacht (3:33) 11. Tima & Traumboot- Oh Mi Amore (3:38) 12. Barbel Naumann- Hallo, Sunnyboy (2:54) 13. Olaf Berger- Es Brennt Wie Feuer (3:16) 14. Helga Hahnemann- Ich Hab Dich Lieb (3:18) 15. Judith Szucs- Regen im Tanz (1:58) 16. Klaus Sommer- Balalaikaklange in der Nacht (3:03) 17. Ingrid Pollow- Paganini (3:52) 18. Jiri Korn- Matuschka (3:58) 19. Monika Hauff- Und Wir Tanzten (2:29) 20. Sonja Schmidt- Ich Hab Immer fur Dich Zeit (2:40) 21. Dani Marsan- Gib Mir Dich Die Hande (3:15) 22. Dagmar Frederic- Abends Kommen Die Sterne (2:49)
Disc 3:
01. Ute & Jean- Feuer in der Nacht (3:47) 02. Jorg Hindemith- Marylin Monroe (4:16) 03. Inka- Eine Lady Sein (3:45) 04. Beppo Kuster- Der Superfotograf (2:24) 05. Peter Tschernig- Die Falsche Spur (2:46) 06. Ina-Maria Federowski- April, April (3:13) 07. Chris Doerk- Billy Lehmann (1:51) 08. Thomas Luck- Komm auf Meine Hazienda (2:34) 09. Hans-Jurgen Beyer- Der Neue Tag (3:14) 10. Anne Mehner- Weiss der Himmel (2:10) 11. Peter Albert- Ausverkauf in Fundburo (3:31) 12. Britt Kersten- Ich Liebe Die Liebe (2:51) 13. Kathrin Andree- Ich Seh' des Meer (3:35) 14. Peter & Cott'n- Dam di del Dei (3:23) 15. Eva-Maria Pieckert- Als Es Dich Noch Nicht Gab (5:13) 16. Wolfgang Ziegler- Halt Mich Fest (Hold Me Now) (3:05) 17. Jan Gregor & Sandra Mo- Wo Ist Uns're Spur im Sand (Jamaica Farwell) (3:05) 18. Uwe Jensen- Einmal Mochte Ich ein Maler Sein (3:50) 19. Ekki Gopelt- Oh, Rosalie (3:00) 20. Muck- Zum Ersten Mal (4:02) 21. Aurora Lacasa- Der Baum (3:20) 22. Jurgen-Erbe-Chor- Tschuss (2:10)
01. Reuters (3:04) 02. Field Day for the Sundays (0:29) 03. Three Girl Rhumba (1:24) 04. Ex Lion Tamer (2:19) 05. Lowdown (2:26) 06. Start to Move (1:13) 07. Brazil (0:41) 08. It's So Obvious (0:53) 09. Surgeon's Girl (1:16) 10. Pink Flag (3:49) 11. The Commercial (0:50) 12. Straight Line (0:44) 13. 106 Beats That (1:13) 14. Mr. Suit (1:24) 15. Strange (3:59) 16. Fragile (1:20) 17. Mannequin (2:37) 18. Different to Me (0:44) 19. Champs (1:46) 20. Feeling Called Love (1:22) 21. 12XU (1:56)
Bonus tracks:
22. Dot Dash (2:25) 23. Options R (1:36) 24. Love Ain't Polite (1:10) 25. Oh No Not So (1:37) 26. It's the Motive (1:23) 27. Practice Makes Perfect (3:50) 28. Sand In My Joints (1:51) 29. Stablemate (2:18) 30. I Feel Mysterious Today (1:43) 31. Underwater Experiences (3:16) 32. Mary Is a Dyke (1:07) 33. Too True (1:07) 34. Just Don't Care (1:22) 35. TV (1:26) 36. New York City (1:13) 37. After Midnight (1:28) 38. Pink Flag (2:37)
Day three of 3 Days of the Carlos, and this is making Jesus Week look like a walk in the park. But what's so cool about it is that L&S, the staff and I are becoming quite expert in GDR Schlager and Volk music. I realize that this knowledge along with a buck fifty will buy us a cup of coffee, but if I ever run into any aged East Germans I could have one hell of a conversation involving Gerd Christian and Cantus-Chor. Could you say the same? Well...I'm waiting.
Now that I've put you on the spot, here's more Carlos-related material to pore over before the bluebook exam on Friday. Here's hoping you're paying attention...
When we first meet Jacques Vergès — even before the opening titles of “Terror’s Advocate,” Barbet Schroeder’s astonishing new documentary — he is playing down the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s. Of course terrible things happened, he says, making use of the rhetorical tactic favored by revisionists and deniers of all stripes, but let’s not exaggerate. And this attitude is what you might expect from someone who counts Pol Pot, the principal author of the Cambodian slaughter, as one of his old friends. Charming.
But Mr. Vergès, a well-known French lawyer whose clients have included Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal, does show himself, in the long interviews that are the backbone of Mr. Schroeder’s film, to be charming, as well as eloquent and witty. Sitting in the mellow light and elegant décor of his office, brandishing what must be a very fine cigar, he is sometimes candid, sometimes sly, and never at a loss for words.
Mr. Schroeder’s decision to begin the film with Mr. Vergès’s remarks on Cambodia, out of sequence in a story that stretches from World War II into the 1990s, seems like an attempt to inoculate the audience against Mr. Vergès’s powers of seduction, as well as a foreshadowing of the film’s case against him.
Not that this case is made overtly. The bulk of the interviews are with Mr. Vergès’s colleagues, clients and comrades in various causes, and most of the journalists and scholars called in to testify range from scrupulously neutral to implicitly sympathetic. Mr. Schroeder’s methods of documentation are thorough and objective, and the extent and doggedness of his research are remarkable. His crew speaks with old lions of the Algerian resistance, with aging militants of the European new left and even with Carlos himself, the mysterious Venezuelan terrorist mastermind who chats by telephone from a French prison. Mr. Schroeder’s only obvious manipulation is in his use of Jorge Arriagada’s score, which gives “Terror’s Advocate” the sinister, foreboding ambience of a thriller.
And indeed it is one of the most engaging, morally unsettling political thrillers in quite some time, with the extra advantage of being true. Mr. Vergès, who all but vanished for eight years in the 1970s, who tried to steal Carlos’s girlfriend, who is more of a celebrity than a pariah in France, is a character worthy of Graham Greene or Joseph Conrad. He’s far too subtle and strange for the average Hollywood potboiler-maker. And he is lucky (though he might not think so) to have found so capable a chronicler as Mr. Schroeder, whose previous real-life subjects include Claus von Bülow (played by Jeremy Irons in “Reversal of Fortune”) and Idi Amin (playing himself in the documentary “General Idi Amin Dada”).
How did Mr. Vergès earn his place in this gallery? If not for the early Cambodia sequence, you might mistake the first part of “Terror’s Advocate” for a portrait in political heroism. The child of a Vietnamese mother and a father from Réunion, a French outpost in the Indian Ocean, Mr. Vergès came of age in the French Resistance and then in the anti-colonialist movement. His ideals were impeccable.
“For me,” he says, explaining his decision to join de Gaulle and fight the Germans, “France was Montaigne, Diderot, the Revolution, and it was intolerable to me that that could disappear.”
But France was also the country whose soldiers, on May 8, 1945 — V-E Day — massacred thousands of demonstrators on the streets of Sétif and other Algerian cities. A decade later Mr. Vergès was in Algiers, defending members of the Algerian independence movement, including bombers recruited by Saadi Yacef, who would go on to play himself in “The Battle of Algiers” and who shares some reminiscences with Mr. Schroeder in this film. One of the most famous bombers was Djamila Bouhired, a kind of Pasionaria of the anti-colonialist struggle, whom Mr. Vergès later married.
The tactics of the National Liberation Front were brutal, but so were those of the French occupiers, who tortured suspected militants and ordered the assassination of their representatives, including Mr. Vergès. As the film traces his subsequent career, though, it begins to seem as if Mr. Vergès would ally himself with anyone willing to plant a bomb or hijack a plane in the name of the oppressed.
And so he became the smiling, civilized mouthpiece for members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Red Army Faction in Germany, defending their bloodiest actions as the work of “soldiers in a noble cause.” (It is not clear that he would say the same thing about Mr. Barbie, killer and torturer of Jews and Resistance fighters in World War II, or about Slobodan Milosevic, another client. But then again, it’s not clear that he wouldn’t.)
Whether Mr. Vergès’s activities went beyond courtroom advocacy is one of the questions Mr. Schroeder explores. He marshals considerable evidence, including documents from the files of the East German secret police, to suggest that Mr. Vergès was much more than the favorite lawyer of some of the world’s most notorious terrorists. Mr. Vergès’s involvement with Carlos, which he minimizes when he is not bragging about it, is particularly intriguing. And his association with François Genoud, a Swiss Nazi and financier of terrorism, is downright chilling.
In chronicling Mr. Vergès’s various adventures, Mr. Schroeder writes a rich and disturbing chapter in the history of political violence in our time, a story in which the pursuit of justice leads down the crooked path of nihilism.
The most disturbing aspect of this sorry tale is that Mr. Vergès, as he moves from the nationalism of the National Liberation Front through the Marxism of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Red Army Faction toward the radical Islamism of his later, Iranian-backed clients, continues to speak in the soothing, familiar idiom of humanism. And also in the relaxed, self-satisfied tones of a man who believes himself a hero, even in a movie that proves otherwise.
Technical Information:
Title: L'Avocat de la terreur/Terror's Advocate Year: 2007 Country: France Director: Barbet Schroeder
Source: DVD Rip Video Codec: 480p-x264 Container: .mkv Size: 2.57 GB Length: 2:17:12 Programs used: Mac the Ripper, tsMuxer, RipBot, mkvmerge
Can you blame us for ending Day Two of The 3 Days of Carlos with some Frippertronics? I would hope not. Now's the time to stock up on your vitamin C intake, because Day Three is going to be a bitch. See you tamale.
While the technology was, in retrospect, remarkably simple, guitarist Robert Fripp , best known for his work with the perennial King Crimson, and synthesist/producer Brian Eno literally invented a new musical form when they hooked up two Revox reel-to-reel tape recorders in '73, allowing Fripp to layer an almost infinite number of loops to create a groundbreaking technique called Frippertronics. On '73's No Pussyfooting and the '75 follow-up, the more sublime Evening Star , Fripp truly developed the orchestral possibilities of the guitar, while Eno's studio finesse coaxed the sounds into hitherto unheard of aural landscapes.
In the ensuing thirty years both artists have evolved textural potentials in music. Eno, of course, has been responsible for taking the rhythmically and harmonically static concepts of his early work with Fripp, evolving them into a series of trend-setting recordings called Ambient Music, with the idea that the music could be part of the cultural whole, felt as much as heard. His experiments with sound processing and loops have spawned a whole musical subculture that has often imitated, but never quite copied, his unique musical sound and concept. Fripp, on the other hand, has continued to develop the Frippertronics technique, utilizing guitar synthesis and digital sampling and looping technologies to evolve a more advanced sound process called Soundscapes that is used regularly with King Crimson, but has also resulted in a number of fine recordings dedicated exclusively to the methodology.
With The Equatorial Stars , Fripp and Eno reunite, and the result is unquestionably the finest recording they have made to date. Combining the all-encompassing textures of Eno's Ambient Music with Fripp's more sonically-broad Soundscapes, the two create a recording that may be steeped in technology, but feels somehow independent of it. While there is no way that untreated instruments could sound this way, the whole process feels somehow more organic than its predecessors. Fripp's tone is warmer and more subtle; Eno's processing creates lush and unique timbres. And while, with the exception of the heartbeat-driven "Lupus" and the more insistently pulsing "Altair" there is no real rhythmic or, for that matter harmonic, development, the end result is something that succeeds on two levels. This is music that can be played at a quiet level, supplanting the other ambient sounds around it but in a completely subtle way; or it can be played at a louder volume, creating a hypnotic and wholly involving space that demands attention in a strangely non-intrusive fashion.
Much like Eno's '83 ambient recording, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks , The Equatorial Stars can be imagined as a soundtrack to imagery that is highly personal. Broader in framework than its predecessors, The Equatorial Stars emerges as the finest addition to Fripp and Eno's collaborative efforts, the result of two completely unhindered and musically uninhibited minds.
Technical Information:
Artist: Fripp & Eno Album: The Equatorial Stars Year: 2004
Late 70's punk is always welcome at ForTheDishwasher. Here's a killer re-issue of Young Loud and Snotty for your ears to rest awhile on as we traverse through The 3 Days of Carlos. Bonus tracks galore!
Technical Information:
Artist: Dead Boys Album: Younger, Louder and Snottyer Year: 1989
01. Sonic Reducer (2:58) 02. All This or More (I Wanna Be a Dead Boy) (2:45) 03. What Love Is (2:06) 04. Not Anymore (3:34) 05. Ain't Nothing to Do (3:28) 06. Li'l Girl (2:54) 07. I Need Lunch (3:29) 08. Caught with the Meat in Your Mouth (2:04) 09. High Tension Wire (2:59) 10. Down in Flames (2:10) 11. Search & Destroy (Live) (3:50)
This is such a rare find, and Oumou Sangare's voice is simply beautiful. Along with La Portuaria, this is my favorite song from "the stuff I've never heard" pile. Beautiful.
