Happy equinox all. For Seasons Change this year we’re looking at the equinoxes and the solstices taking place across 2021, splitting the starting points for our sonic offerings between the four elements of Earth, Wind, Fire and Water.
And while Jimmy Monsta Funk and Kamikaze aka Paul Ackroyd have never stopped peddling the goods, it’s definitely been a minute since I’ve joined them on a session. Here’s our first offering for the year to whatever equinox deity might be listening.
Essentially one show in three pieces, Kamikaze opens it up, serving mostly beatless selections. All classical, choral, experimental, synth, jazz and the like somehow compressed in to the ten track limit we’d agreed on. Jimmy Monsta Funk picks up after an hour or so with tracks that cross musical genres and touch on the many aspects of earth from living down here to viewing the planet from space, before I finish it off with a bunch of joints that have no business talking to each other, but do anyway. There’s a min-essay on my track selection right down the bottom here, feel free to read along as you listen.
Full show and selections below.
Kamikaze (0:00 – 58:25)
Eric Whitacre, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Eric Whitacre Singers, Virtual Choir 5 – Deep Field Earth Choir
Meredith Monk, Vocal Ensemble, Wayne Hankin – Atlas – Part 3 : Invisible Light : Earth Seen From Above
Terry Riley, Kronos Quartet – One Earth, One People, One Love (From Sun Rings)
Tina Davidson, Hilary Hahn, Cory Smythe – Blue Curve Of The Earth
Jonny Trunk – Seven Tenths Of The Earth
Teresa Winter – สวรรค์ and Earth
Sun Ra And The Arkestra – Planet Earth
Baudouin de Jaer – Movements Of The Earth Around The Sun / Mouvements de la Terre Autour du Soleil
Bruce Lacey – Earth Spirit 7
Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane – Earth
Jimmy Monsta Funk (58:25 – 1:46:20)
20th Century Steel Band – Heaven And Hell Is On Earth (Steel Funk)
X-Clan – Earth Bound (4th and Broadway)
D Mob – That’s The Way Of The World (Dub-Me Mix) (FFRR)
Nathan Haines Featuring Verna Francis – Earth Is The Place (DJ Gregory & Julien Jabre Voxy Pass) (Chilli Funk)
Armando – World Beat (Radikal Fear)
Armand Van Helden ft. Tekitha – Mother Earth (Armed)
Coldcut – This Island Earth Featuring Mpho Skeef (Ninja Tune)
Appaloosa – Travelling (Good Looking Records)
Asend & Ultravibe – What Kind Of World (Back 2 Basics)
Sterac Electronics – Legacy Of A Lost World (Interpersonal XP)
Keith P (1:46:20 – 2:33:50)
Quick story (hopefully): I have no idea where my copy of The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull by Earth is.
The reason I bring that up is that my selection of tracks here was driven entirely by a search for that record. When Paul and JMF table an idea for a session, theme or general direction for us to come together with some radio on it sometimes becomes a process. It can become deep very quickly. I can spend days pondering years, alternative meanings, record sleeves and my state of purchasing items in my collection to find threads to tell a story. This is where the culling becomes, trying to create a narrative, and some of the best records are often lost to the fact that you just can’t make them work at any point in the the mix.
And keep in mind I bring the shallowest level of thought to this between the three of us: the other two go proper deep.
This time, however, it was not the case. When it was decided that the Seasons Change for 2021 would follow the four elements I started looking for my only Earth record which seemed appropriate. As I shifted through the shelves and boxes I started pulling out records that caught my eye as having an ‘Earth’ theme or connection; some on cover art, some on names and some on concept. When I got to ten I stopped. Despite genres or regrets of what I pulled together I wanted to see where it would go.
And that might answer the question as to why there’s no Ras G. The man we’ve spent more time bonding over, playing and writing about got no airtime despite his themes of space and the series called Down 2 Earth. I guess sometimes you just want to work for it a bit more.
Annoyingly, I still haven’t found my Earth record. I spent a few more days looking for it but never added to my stash of records that I’d already pulled for this show. I even went on to Discogs to see when I logged it, hoping for a clue, only for the database to tell me I never owned it. This is an outright lie. I know it’s in my house somewhere and now I can’t wait to find it, if only to prove my online collection wrong.
Track list below.
Galarrwuy Yunupingu – ‘Gurindji Blues’ (taken from Buried Country: An Anthology Of Aboriginal Australian Country Music)
There was no more logical place for me to start than with something from Mississippi Records’ compilation of Aboriginal Australian country music. The indigenous population of Aboriginal Australians are the world’s oldest civilisation, and as a culture have an unfathomable connection to the land.
The Beastie Boys – ‘Electric Worm’ (taken from The Mix Up)
As I passed The Mix Up I was reminded of the 7″ that came off the album, ‘Electric Worm.’ A lot of what we consider a connection to Earth comes from a necessity and dependency on the planet and the element, in a lot of cases it’s a mostly take-take relationship. Things growing from it, using it as a home, drawing nutrients and the rest. If my Year 4 science has stood up (hi Mrs. Burns), then these earth worms might be an exception to this rule. Much like trees taking on polluted air and creating fresh oxygen, earth worms pass the soil through their bodies and actually improve it’s fertility as a result.
King Geedorah – ‘Fazers’ (taken from Take Me To Your Leader)
“King Geedorah / Take me to your leader…” – one of the greatest and rememberable album opening lines of all time. MF Doom’s Take Me To Your Leader was the mother of all concept albums at the time of release and has held up almost 20 years on. 45 minutes of tracks written from the perspective of a giant three-headed lizard invading Earth…enough said?
Curtis Mayfield – Back To The World (taken from Back To The World)
Taking on a view of the Earth as the World, I couldn’t go pass this Curtis Mayfield classic. The title track from the 1973 album always struck me as odd that it says ‘back in the world’ constantly despite the LP and song being ‘back to the world’. As opening cut it actually references the later parts of the record that are yet to come, which again always struck me as odd but speaks to Mayfield’s ability to release LPs that take you on a full journey, more like movies than records in some cases.
The Dirtbombs – ‘Jaguar’ (taken from Party Store)
Self-explanatory reference to dirt and earth, I’ve definitely not played this LP out as much as I should have. I was actually a big fan of The Dirtbombs about ten years before this crossover album of Detroit techno covers slung them to a new audience. Might be why I never gelled with this one as much as I could have as Party Store sounded nothing like anything they did during that earlier era when Jack White was touting them as an early influence.
Drexciya – ‘Surface Terrestrial Colonization’ (taken from Neptune’s Lair)
Artists that I listen to are generally obsessed with space, and understandably so. Perhaps it was Sun-Ra’s influence, or our desire to be unbound but the infiniteness of space, but for whatever reason it’s a key driver in a lot of my favourite musical projects. Drexciya bucked this trend by creating their nautical afrofuturist myth of a civilisation underwater, born from slaves that were tossed overboard. We’re looking up for the future, maybe we should be looking down. This track sits in their storytelling as the meeting of the Drexciyans and those who walk on the Earth.
Pangaea – ‘Router’ (taken from Stepper’s Delight 2)
Listening back now, I could’ve done better here. I grabbed Pangaea to be resemblant of the largest supercontinent that ever existed, combining all of Earth’s landmass some 250 million years ago. I don’t want to bash anyone’s work here, as I’ve played this out and was a big fan of ‘Memories’ amongst other, but like so much else from this era this just hasn’t held up.
Zomby – ‘Digital Flora’ (taken from Digtal Fauna / Digital Flora)
Zomby’s catalogue, on the other hand, is like a bottle of Grange (I’ve heard, truth told I’ve never had as much as a sip). Not the whole thing (I mean who’s is?) sure, but it’s one of the most distinguishable sounds and seems to draw me back more regularly than is probably healthy. I’ve gone with one ‘Digital Flora’ here for obvious reasons, from the 10″ that has ‘Digital Fauna’ on the flip. This is one of those records that’s amazing on both sides, but never gets played out due to lack of intro/outro and time signature changes.
Linkwood and House of Traps – ‘Barely Eagle’ (taken from Firecracker EP 4)
Another 10″ plate…what a great format that is. Firecracker Recordings were the ones doing 10″ records and screen printing sleeves way before it was cool. This one was the first time I ever heard them and represents a pivotal point in my house education. I’ve spoken before about the love that Lindsay Todd and crew put in to their music and artwork (https://awkmo.co/firecracker-recordings/), and this one is no exception. Drawing inspiration from old comic book style dot matrix printing, EP 4 depicts a world exploded, fragments of Earth showering through space. A no-brainer selection based on the cover.
The Pixies – ‘Digging For Fire’ (taken from Bossanova)
Maybe this would have sat better when we got to fire, but looking at the words of ‘digging’ and ‘fire’ in the same sentence the symbiotic nature of “the four elements” struck me. Rarely are they separated out in any way. Maybe getting too far in to it by this point but it’s also a nice conclusion to part one of four, next up is Wind coming in June.