Da Bottomless Pit

Blindfold Test #21

Every day is Bratwurst Taco Day at Hot Banditoz’ haus.

Insects audible in first and last songs, and a third of the way in, a pair of reggae toasters gunned down in Jamaica within three years. Not to mention a song I give a score of “8” to that’s only a decade old. My wife says I should list the artist names and song titles after my descriptions of the songs, for more surprise. I’m skeptical.

Honor Role get bent.

Honor Role “Break The Ice“ (from Rictus, 1989, and compiled on Album, 1997; Richmond, Virginia post-hardcore band in the ’80s sense of the term): An insect buzzing around your ear turns into a dark guitar strum. A woodwind of some sort wafts in, mournfully, and the drums start slowly, one instrument entering at a time. Pretty, actually. British folk from the medieval forest? Well, folk rock at least — in the distance, a noisy guitar races back and forth like a jousting knight. Dead C, or somebody else on Xpressway Records out of New Zealand? Ends in a morose mood, due to inclement weather. 6.5

SRC “Paragon Council” (from SRC, 1968, and compiled on Black Sheep, 2000; Birmingham, Michigan psychedelic rock band): Three bwaaaanging notes introduce a twee Brit-style ’60s vocal. But the lyrics are more kings and queens than cups and cakes, so maybe ’70s. Fancy and prancy but not overly fey, at least vocally; the guy’s mouth is loaded with gravel or at least sand, not obscured even if his words aren’t exactly easy to make out. The drumkit comprises whatever the drummer can hang on his neck while he marches around, and when the guitar comes in, the tempo picks up slightly and noises rain down politely at odd angles. “Deep in every memory sleeps the paradigm the sign,” the singer philosophizes. Clearly an abuser of marijuana. 6.5

Without Aurra, would anyone be datin’ in Dayton?

Aurra “Checking You Out” (single and on A Little Love, 1982, and later best-of LPs; Dayton disco-funk group):”I got my eye on you, and I’m checking you out.” Disco rhythm, but feels more early ’80s so-called “boogie” r&b than late ’70s. “I would like to get together, tell me if you feel the same.” A girl singing at first, but then a guy replies that he would, as a matter of fact, enjoy getting together with her as well. What a coincidence! She compliments his personality. I’m thinking it might be Aurra, or a likeminded early ’80s r&b duo — Rene & Angela, Skipworth & Turner? Oh wait, S&T were two guys, post-McFadden & Whitehead when this pair is more post-Ashford & Simpson. Unless Aurra count more as a band — they were some sort of Slave spinoff, but always just had a couple on their album covers. Either way, this is healthy wholesome subject matter for mingling nightclub singles. Eventually there’s a funky drum break, over which their eyes continue to check each others’ out. A cozy groove, through and through. 7.5

Roogalator “All Aboard” (single, 1976, and on Play it By Ear, 1977, Cincinnati Fatback, 1998, Danny Adler’s The Roogalator Years, 1986, and various Stiff Records compilations and box sets; London pub-rock band): Jim-jam jumpin’ jive gettin’ hep-hep on the mellow side — jump blues, that is, about a ch’boogieing choo-choo train. But straight out the terminal, this has the distanced, play-acted feel of a “revival” rather than the genuine ’40s/’50s article, which might explain why Joe Jackson’s ’80s version came immediately to mind. The train’s trekking across Ohio — stuff about “Cincinnati fatback” and “Hello Cleveland, it’s a beautiful evenin’, shine your light on me.” Actually I think this is Roogalator, who were a ’70s UK pub rock band, and who I remember had a song called “Cincinnati Fatback” despite neither being based there nor in the Fatback Band for that matter. Also remember reading in Dave Thompson’s Third Ear Funk record guide that Roogalator had developed their own unique subspecies of funk, so maybe Thompson (or his UK sub-author) had never heard Louis Jordan or Wynonie Harris or Roy Brown. There’s a bit of boogie woogie piano, and plenty of “Aaah yeh!,” and “Hey! hey! hey!” exclamations — clearly meant to be performed live (in a pub), but no matter how rare and forgotten its style might have been in the mid ’70s, it was still not remotely original, and in retrospect it feels even less exciting. Not much of a song, either. “Hey man, did you see that train go by?” “What train??” “That’s the train with those new crazy sounds!” “Allllllll aboooooard….” But this feels neither new nor crazy. Its blues finale is all she rote. 5.5

Disco 4 (+ 1) — but which 1 is the 1?

Disco Four “Move to the Groove” (single, 1980, later included on compilations such as Street Sounds UK’s 1988 The Enjoy! Story; Harlem rap group): Bobby D, Fred G, Roddy D in harmony, a whole buncha names I may not be getting right. They call themselves the Disco Four but say “we got the five MCs,” which, uh, doesn’t quite add up except they boast “we give you more than what you bargained for,” which maybe you’re supposed to take literally? Craig G, my name is Ray T — how many is that so far? They all recite their zodiac signs too, of course; let’s see here, there’s an Aries, a Scorpio, a Sagittarius like me, others I didn’t catch. They float like butterflies and sting like bees and young lay-deez drive them cuh-ray-zee and they’re too cold to burn but too hot to freeze, even in depths of hell. “Me and my crew, the Disco Four,” one says, so maybe the main guy is the fifth guy, not technically one of the four? The music opens up, a customer orders “git-tar!” off the menu, and they’re served a stingy portion. “It’s a known fact that we can never be the wack, we sell cassettes and we sell eight tracks.” They even get, I think, self-deprecating: “Some call us the wack, some call us the cat (??), some even wanna beat us with a baseball bat.” Ouch!! “We got charms, we got five arms (shouldn’t it be eight? Or ten??) just in case of alarm.” They keep trading off voices, naturally, and one just seemed to call himself “Cut D,” so I’m clearly way over the limit when it comes to names. And you couldn’t get more generic than all their readymade lemon to lime to cherry to plum rhymes. Now I’m hearing Ronnie D, Rick D, Greg D — okay, unless they’re brothers (in which case why use surname initials at all?), that’s way too many D’s! They eye a young lady “with a nice round butt” and “it’s bad enough to make ya nature rise,” and after 45 years I finally just realized “nature” means “penis”! They interpolate Wild Cherry: “Cuz we were dancin’, and singin’, and movin’ to the groovin’, and just when it hit me, somebody shouted out and said, the Disco Four is number one, rockin’ like MC brothers, you can’t listen to one of us, without listenin’ to the others.” (Clever line I never heard before! But again, if they are brothers, what are the initials for?) Deep “hungh” grunts and “clap ya hands everybody” and “nick nack paddywack give ya dog a bone” and “bop to da bop ta bop ta bop diggy diggy”….on and on and on, to the break of dawn and into the afternoon. 7.5

Singers & Players feat. Prince Far I “African Blood” (from Staggering Heights, 1983, “first mutation of a loose collective of 15 to 20 vocalists, musicians & DJ’s to form the core of Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound label” [discogs], including the reggae deejay born Michael James Williams in Spanish Town, Jamaica, who was murdered by a gun-toting burglar in 1983): Deep, slow dub reggae backing a deep, strong male voice, ranting or toasting or is it sing-jaying about “African blloo-uh she donna” and how some culprit “committed all kind of crime.” Though I still prefer the music behind him, especially those sour, slanted horns. Who, or what, is “she donna,” or “she donn-ya”?? He repeats it all through, as does the chorus answering him. Eventually all the voices get sliced, diced, cubed and julliened. 6

General Echo “Armagedion” (from Rocking and Swinging, 1979, and on Teacher Fe Di Class, 2006; “one of the first reggae deejays to move away from ‘cultural’ lyrics towards ‘slackness’,” “shot dead by police in Kingston, Jamaica in 1980” [Wikipedia]): More reggae, slightly less dubbish this time, and starring a righteous doomsday prophet warning about “da bottomless pit” of “brimstone and fire” and “dread inna dissa Armagideon” on “the road to Zion.” Circles of hell to which the wicked are damned, that is, and give him this: Compared to most of the competition, he certainly gets his point across — while also thematically demonstrating another way dub and metal intersect, by which I mean Black Sabbath sang about basically the same stuff. 6

The Lafeyette Afro-Rock Band try not to tease their one Afro-challenged member.

The Lafeyette Afro-Rock Band “Darkest Light” (from Malik, 1974, and compiled on Darkest Light: The Best of the Lafeyette Afro-Rock Band, 1999; much-sampled Long Island funk band): Raincloud of brass, I think saxophone, at the start is really familiar; I expect it was sampled in a famous hip hop song or two. Suggests the mood of War’s great summer songs. Eventually retains its subliminal Afro-Latin undercurrent by turning into Santana doing wah-wah blues rock. Percussion takes over, whereupon it gets louder, darker and more intense, the barrio at night. Then more wah-wah blues soloing. 6.5

Hot Banditoz “Shake Your Balla (1,2,3 Alarma)” (single and on Bodyshaker, both 2005, and on numerous European compilations such as EMI Germany’s Ballerman Hits 2005; “German Latino Pop band… chosen by the residents of the fifth season of the TV show
Big Brother [Wikipedia]): Wooomp wooomp woooomp fire alarm, then somebody with a cartoon Mexican-stereotype accent yells out something about banditos, whereupon a woman starts urging us to “come on shake your bailalalalalala!” Somebody counts “eins zwei drei” then instructs our feet to move “to the left to the right, ” and a guy also begs us to shake our balalalas all night long. They make that cartoon bandito r-and-l-rolling blrlrlrlrlahaha!! scream (still no idea what it’s technically called), and what sound like a cute girl and goofy guy babble about “bitty bitty bang bitty bitty bong.” Clearly some sort of Eurodance mimicry of Latin music, arguably racist and unarguably ridiculous, no doubt spun at drunken ski-lodge parties on vacation islands in the Mediterranean, if there are any hills there to ski on. 7

Exodus “Together Forever” (single, 1982; included on compilations such as Timber!’s 1998 The Perfect Beats Vol. 2 and vinyl version of Strut UK’s 2010 The Blank Generation [Blank Tapes NYC 1975-1987]; “garage disco” act that recorded its lone single for a Jamaica, Queens, NY label): Choral voices light and high pitched like early ’80s club nebula the NYC Peech Boys, chant out disco optimism — “together, we can make forever,” reaching for stars, feeling ecstasy when touched — while a lower-pitched man delivers “hooooph!!!” dog barks. “Gimme some mo-wah, gimme some mo-wah” — sounds like the kind of Paradise Garage music that preceeded, and to a large extent inspired, Chicago house. When the barrelhouse ivories kick in, I wonder if it actually might be Chicago house. The main male voice could almost be Luther Vandross. A horn line comes and goes, and percussives rattle from inside a snare drum, as skeletal, hollow, and dry as dub, without being remotely reggae. Hands clap, one of the voices scats a bit, a bassline waddles in, horns play charts, and a lone voice interjects “Hold me!”: All sorts of stuff happening in the context and in service of the rhythm. A dance mix that earns its extension. 8

J.J. Cale “Going Down” (single and on Really, 1972, and The J.J. Cale Collection, 2010; Oklahoma City “Americana/cajun/blues/swamp rock…guitarist, singer and songwriter” [Wikipedia]): Ominous tone, with an almost swamp blues feel at the outset. “I’m goin’ down, goin’ down down down down down…,” his voice descending one onomatopoeic stairstep with each word. A blues, but a tentative and almost atmospheric one, probably by a rock guy. Those are pretty much the whole lyrics. Wonder if he ever came back up, poor fella. 6

United States of America “Coming Down” (from The United States of America, 1968; L.A. “experimental/psychedelic rock/avant-garde/ acid rock/proto-prog” band [Wikipedia]): Witchy woman stirs her psychedelic cauldron. “There is some time for major secondary phase, it’s not unusual for it to last for days and everything gets magnified…. reality is only temporary.” This is your rock on drugs. Drums rush ahead and turns aggressive at points, guitar plays ragas. “There is no time for second answers from the past, yesterday is gone don’t try to make it last.” William Faulkner might argue otherwise. 6.5

Are we not Men? We are Volts.

Men & Volts “Texas“ (from Tramps in Bloom, 1984; folk-rooted Boston post-punk band): A modified Diddley rhythm as done by the early J. Geils Band, under a rough and ragged but jumpity hoppity hyperactive shouter suggesting we “go to Texas, where the freaks are” — fairly certain this is Men and Volts. A kind of warped and cockeyed art-rock version of boogiefied blues-rock, owing obviously to Captain Beefheart. “C’mon c’mon pack your bags, why doncha wanna go?” Four decades ago, Austin really was weird. Or so legend has it. 7

Afflicted Man “Dustbins” (from I’m Off Me ‘Ead, 1980, and on The Complete Recordings, 2007; alias of self-proclaimed Kent, UK “hippy punk” Steve Hall): Meaty, hardy, once again blues-based guitar chords, fattened up one spare-rib of a riff at a time. Drums smash unexpectedly, at meters you can’t pin down. Voice very British but also very doped up; could be the Deviants, Afflicted Man, the Accursed (same guy as Afflicted Man), Hawkwind. Something about gospel grace, or was it hospice? Too blues for PiL, too tripped-out for Kevin Coyne, too British for the ESP Disk Godz, but still somebody in that general vicinity. Could imagine the Fall doing something like this — especially the stuff about “dustbins” everywhere — but that’s clearly not Mark E. Smith on the microphone. All through, guitar spurts back and forth over a one-note drum drone, super thick and insistent. Awesome sound; impressively focused singularity of purpose. 8

Xeerox “Excerpt Number Five” (fourth untitled track on 2020 archival collection 1979-1981 Recuerdo Espectral De Un Viejo Decorado Eléctrico; post-punk experimental electronic band from Barcelona): Horror-show noise and clank torturing victims trapped in an arsoned building; you can hear them yell and burn. Would not be surprised if there’s some kind of sadomasochistic ritual going on. 6.5

Marie et les Garçons “Attitudes” (single, 1978, and on Marie et les Garçons, 1980, and 2017 Ze France compilation French Pop: Frenchy & Chic 77/87; Lyon, France new wave band): Ringing and jangling and somebody singing in another language. Or maybe backwards. I guess he does maybe seem to be saying “my” something, but I can’t really decipher anything else. Clinks and clanks floating in space, augmented by a baroque piano figure. Then he starts repeating “I-TT I-TT I-TT I-TT” or maybe “I pee peed, I pee peed…” The power-strum guitar reminds me of …Joy Division, early Roxy Music? Something in there. 7

Fabienne Shine, keeping Shakin’ Street in line with her microphone whip.

Shakin’ Street “Breaks My Toys“ (from Psychic, 2014; Paris hard rock/metal band fronted by Fabienne Shine 1975 to 1981, then revived with her in the 21st Century): Heaviest chordage in this stack of songs so far by far — doom metal bridging prog and goth, with medieval background mantras and what initially seems to be a Ouija-board-proficient woman worshipping the sun. “I thought I’d see the door opened, here you come to break my toys, here he comes to break my toys agayn [rhymes with rain]…here he comes to pick my dreams.” Who is “he”?? “Here he comes to show me the chains [or maybe change?] Here he comes to make me sleeeep [or maybe sneeeeze?])….Here he comes to tell me noe-woe-woe, here he comes to tell me I’m not allowed, here he comes to tell me doe-woe-woent, here he comes to tell me I’m a no good child.” A father? Some kind of male authority figure, clearly. And sung as it is from the point of a view of a tormented child, legitimately foreboding. I recognize her voice, but can’t place what band she fronted. Curved Air? Not Babe Ruth. Shocking Blue? Not Sadistic Mika Band. The singer’s repeated warning that the bully’s on his way can’t be good news, and the doom riffs continuing all through sound like bad news themselves. 8

Freeez “Freeezin’“ (from Gonna Get You, 1983, compiled on Freeez Frame: The Best of Freeez, 1993; John Rocca-led London electro-funk project): Nimble, brittle electronic funk keyboard notes, sprinkled like raindrops. “Takin’ it slow, reason’s the way to go” — which is, in itself, reasonable — or maybe “resent’s the way to go,” also reasonable though this song does not sound remotely resentful. Is the gentle backdrop to the delicate woman’s voice what people used to mean by “sophistopop”? I’d call it morning music — a surprisingly sweet and light variety of funk, but the funk is unmistakably there, in the bassline mostly. If we were playing concentration, you could match this song with the earlier one about checking somebody out (similar early ’80s post-disco vibe), but here what’s being checked out seems less fleshy, more spiritual. Energy picks up and there’s a guitar solo, which I did not expect. And in general the music takes its sweet time gradually accumulating body. The longer it lasts, the better it feels. 7.5

The Flying Lizards “Another Story“ (from Fourth Wall, 1981; avant-garde UK new wave collective): An electronic goose honking, then a funk bassline, but an artsy one. The muffled near-whisper of a vocal feels artsy, too. And that’s even before it all starts getting strangely shuffled up like a deck of cards, and maybe backwards-masked like a Satanic rite. The instruments seem to be a veritable menagerie or circus of different synths, all engaged in a crazy back-and-forth battle of the wits, increasingly noisy and again all weirded out yet somehow not randomly — there’s a method to the mad-scientist’s madness. 7

Grass Roots rarely appeared on their hits. But posters? Sure!

Grass Roots “Things I Should Have Said” (single and on Let’s Live for Today, both 1967, then Their 16 Greatest Hits, 1971, and subsequent best-of collections; prefab L.A. “folk rock/blue eyed soul/psychedelic pop/pop rock/sunshine pop” band [Wikipedia]): Piano kicks off rustic early ’70s pop sung in an airy male voice tending toward the higher end of the spectrum: “I didn’t cry, I just stood and watched her say goodbye. She pulled the door saying I don’t wanna see you anymore.” He’s obsessing over second thoughts about what he should’ve said to her (“I love you,” basically) and how maybe she just couldn’t understand a man like him since he left too many things unexplained. I like the clattery, almost isolated, yet somehow prominent sound of the drums, and it seems like there might even be a tambourine. It eventually occurs to me they’re trying to sound like the mid-career/mid-decade Beatles (who may or may not have used tambourines.) At any rate, I changed my mind: ’60s, not ’70s. 6.5

J.J.’s Powerhouse “Running for the Line” (single, 1983, included on 2022 Riding Easy compilation Scrap Metal Volume 2: Excavated Heavy Metal From The Era Of Excess; Southport, Merseyside, UK NWOBHM band): Heavy zooming axe riff starts fast then speeds up faster. High-pitched vocal shrieking, hence clearly metal, almost definitely early ’80s, though still pre-thrash. Motörhead tempo, rapid and robust, but more mainstream than Motörhead. Something’s in the singer’s sights and he’s tryin’ with all his might and “where there’s a will, there’s always a way.” Not what you’d call at all articulate or distinctive, but so musically powerful that it doesn’t really matter. Same bludgeoning musclebound riff over and over, which is as it should be. He’s “heading for the light” and “no one’s gonna make me wait.” Rock to drive your car really fast to! I drive kinda slow but approve anyway. 7

Spitfire “Rio Rita ( Рио-Ритa)” (from Night Hunting, 1996, and on Spitfire & St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review split CD, 2006, and 2003 Trikont Germany compilation Russendisko Hits; St. Petersburg, Russia rockabilly/garage rock/ska-punk band): Eastern European gypsy rock with an oompah-pah rhythm rolling out Gogol Bordello’s barrel, fairly fast in its own right. Turns into a spy movie theme, then fake south Asian exotica, then screaming cats somewhere in the middle. 6.5

Creme Soda “Keep it Heavy” (single, 1974, and from Tricky Zingers, 1975; “garage/hippie kinda band based in Milwaukee” [last.fm]) A woman croons slowly through her Puffs Plus Lotion, “woaagh woaagh woaagh she’s a…” something, vaguely congruent to Tom Jones in “She’s a Lady.” Intentionally blurred, though guitar congeals slightly midway in, and the rhythm hints at just a wee pinch of Jamaican lilt. “She’s a heavy,” maybe? “He’s in heaven?” At the end harmony vocals climb up and down the scale, repeating….again, something. 6

Vacum “Den Perfekta Människan” (from Maskerad EP, 1980, and on 2003 Massproduktion Sweden compilation Punksvall 1979-80; “punk band from Sundsvall, Sweden” [discogs]): European of some sort, though at first I figured British (in fact, I figured it was about a “shop.”) I like this one’s off-kilter staccato herky jerk, the feeling that the musicians are not always necessarily on the same page, but they keep trying to get back in line and straighten things out. The guy’s voice has a punk rock bite, but on his own terms. Ample and chunky, as well. 6

The blurting blokes of Dandelion Adventure.

Dandelion Adventure “Armadillo Tabernacle” (from Puppy Shrine, 1989; Lancashire, UK indie rock band): Insects in a quiet field, then free jazz/no wave saxophone blurts in the ominous night, building suspense. After a while, a British bloke starts ranting crazed hearsay about somebody else yelling out “save the whales!” (stated more passionately than anything he says himself.) “And you said I’m insane, inn-sane.” He’s clearly schooled on Mark E. Smith. “In my heart I found the pain, destruction, corruption, agayn and agayn.” Something about a lobster’s back as a hefty guitar revs up — not metal but informed by it somehow, in the same sense the rhythm is not funk but informed by it somehow, via the Gang of Four no doubt. Ends with chatter. 7

Impressively focused dustbin dweller and Afflicted Man Steve Hall.

Eliminated for Reasons of Space, 21 October 2024