Can I Call You Rose?

 

Can I Call You Rose? is one of my favourite recent soul tracks. Its by San Diego's Thee Sacred Souls.   A great write up HERE in the Guardian on the Low-Rider soul scene, and this band.

Rebel Music (1979)

 

 

I got this reggae compilation when it was released in 1979. It was then, and remains, the best double album compilation introduction to the richness, and sweetness, of Jamaician reggae. It was compiled by David Headley from the Trojan back catalogue. Some of these tracks have haunted me for decades, and there is not a clunker on the album. Listen to Little Roy's Hard Fighter and Bob Andy's You don't Know to learn what reggae, in its hey-day, could achieve. Even today I can sing along with almost every track on this album. The cover art remains gloriously, colourfully, out there.  

Hooton Tennis Club (31-1-2024)

 

A superb poster for a brilliant gig last night at Future Yard.

Iechyd Da

 

Bill Ryder Jones is a West Kirby based singer, guitarist and song writer. He co-founded The Coral when he was 13 and has been making great music ever since. Last summer he organised and headlined Yawnfest at Future Yard in Birkenhead (his set is easily in my top 10 gigs of all time -  along with The Coral's gig at Future Yard in May last year). 

He has just released his latest album, Iechyd Da, and it is his best yet. The album has had a slew of excellent reviews in The Guardian, The Times, NME, etc, but perhaps the most insightful is the 4 1/2 star review by Laura Barton in Uncut magazine.   

... Iechyd Da feels a culmination of all he set out to do. It’s a record that beckons you over and invites you in, that rewards your faith and careful listening with moments of extraordinary beauty, unflinching honesty, a sonic exchange of love. 

 

Human Cumulative Culture & Innovation

 

After a long break...

This paper (HERE) by Maxime Derex is the best academic paper I have read for a very long while. It explains in the context of human cultural evolution the difference between the optomisation of shared human cultural activities and innovation in them.