õde carrie

tänase väga intelligentse postituse on kirjutanud mu sõber Will ameerikast. Theodore Dreiseri romaani "Õde Carrie" on muusikaks valanud läti helilooja Raimonds Pauls. 1980ndate aastate algusest pärit plaat on täis diskolikke rütme ja teatraalsust, seda plaati on sämplinud muide salapärane hiphop artist Apasnõi Luk (loo leiab kogumikult Volüüm 1).
today's guest post is by my friend Will. this record has been sampled by mysterious estonian hiphop group Apasnõi Luk.




The Detectives


Prologue


"Sister Carrie"
A musical after T. Dreiser's novel
C60-12355-6
Music: Raimonds Pauls
Texts: J. Peters
Arranged by G. Rozenbergs

Latvian composer and keyboardist Raimonds Pauls is arguably the most famous post-war Soviet pop songwriter. Pauls' has a gift for pairing music with texts in a way that formally justifies his use of modern western styles to the listener and notorious Soviet cultural censors. Sister Carrie, with its negative portrayal of modern capitalism, was an excellent text to adapt for a western-style musical in 1978. Soviets loved the musical; Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar proved irrepressible in the early 70's soviet era. To soviet censors, songs about dirty capitalists were a fine excuse to use rock guitars. In fact, 1978 was the disco era, and the major struggles over western music were over; jazz, rock, and musicals had received official sanction as long as the state controlled them. Soviet authorities felt that disco wasn't a vessel for subversive political messages, and didn't fight it in the same way. I like the proto-hip-hop moody loopz and frantic orchestral disco arrangement (by trumpeter Gunars Rozenbergs) of Prologue. To me it evokes the bustle of the city. I also like jazzy scatting by Pauls' protege Mirdza Zivere on "Carrie's Ditty", and the singing and electric instrumentation on "The Detectives". I feel like Pauls also captured Drouet's character quality well with his dixie jazz-meets-pop musical motif. Anyways, its no secret why the theme of Sister Carrie appealed to Soviet authorities. The album notes read something about how sister carrie's story is bigger than her, it is the story of markets rising as stars ride, then crashing into the puddles in the street.

lithuanian disco 2

nii, leedu üritas eurovisioonil muljet avaldada kõigile kollektoritele, õnneks ei läinud see odav trikk neil läbi, kuigi ebay otsingud on igatahes mõneks ajaks häiritud.
mul on tunne, et õnneks me ei tea suurt midagi leedu muusikast. leedu vinüüle liigub ka väga harva. palju lihtsam on näiteks saada leedu päritolu bootlegvinüülil Cocteau Twins kolmas album kui mõni leedu estraadiplaat. üks maailmas tuntumaid leedu plaate on muidugi Argo "Discophonia" - kaunase muusikateadlaste sünteesitud instrumentaaldisko.
puhtalt empiirilise tähelepaneku järgi tundub kõige tuntum vokaalinstrumentaalansambel olevat Nerija. nende kohta leiab isegi kohalikukeelset infot netis. neil on ilmunud päris palju albumeid, minul on kolm erinevat ja üks duubel-lp on neil kindlasti veel. nende esimesest plaadist tuleb veel suvel juttu, nii et loodan selleks ajaks nende kohta parema info kokku koguda.
kui mõned aastad hiljem lindistati üks kummaline Stevie Wonderi kaver ja aastad varem saadi hakkama psych versiooniga leedu rahvamuusikast, siis selle 1981. aasta plaadi olin ma kõrvale heitnud kui jama plaadi. põhiliselt häirisid mind vokaalid. nüüd, kui ma olen plaati saatmas austavamasse plaadikogusse, hakkan isegi igatsema seda plaati. siin on ju kaks täiesti lahedat disko lugu ja see häiriv vokaal hakkab muutuma hoopis loo parimaks küljeks. Liutauras Čeprackas on ikka laheda häälega mees...

here in estonia, i don't know many old lithuanian groups, even if i'm hardcore melodiya collector. i have posted here different lithuanian records already. then there is also Argo, famous group of lithuanian disco technicians. their "Discophonia" LP is pretty known and was pressed in big quantities. by records i have found it looks like most popular VIA was Nerija. i have three LPs by them and there's even more.
you can find information in lithuanian and russian on Nerija. i'm going to do post about their first album in summer, so i'll try to get more trivia for that time. i bought this album on strength of their debut i already had. also sleeve has lovely band photo. though i didn't like it. later i realized there's some nice disco tracks, but i don't like vocals. as i'm just giving it away to right hands, i listened to it again. and now i found even her vocals amusing... or is she she, isn't Liutauras Čeprackas boy's name?