El Senor Ciuf Ciuf

El Senor Ciuf Ciuf (Italian for a child's name for a steam train - chuff chuff) presents an intriguing proposition. The music is equal parts house music and Beach Boys style harmonies, all mixed up into a intriguing brew that brings Jamie Liddell, early Aphex Twin and the Flaming Lips in minds.

I Think I Saw A Dead Person Walking Yesterday is the best track from his debut EP, and much like Good Vibrations, it creates a series of mood-scenes, loosely connected with a common theme. It's stupendous.

You can download the entire EP, As Seen From Above released free over the intertubes by those pleasant people at 12rec.

I thought the EP was spoiled by the interminably long track The Unspeakable Chant Of A Collapsing Universe, which is nine-minutes of monotonous industrial techno-noise that sits at odds with the rest of the album. But that may be the entire point.

Alice Coltrane

Imagine yourself to be lying flat out on a raft.
Imagine that raft to be slowly floating down a calm, barely moving stream.
Imagine the sun caressing your face.
Imagine yourself with no cares in the world.

That's the only way I can describe how 'Journey in Satchidananda' sounds.
Taken from the 1970 album of the same name, this track sees Alice backed up by some serious heavyweights of the Jazz world - Pharoah Sanders on soprano saxophone and percussion, Cecil McBee on bass and Rashied Ali on drums. They combine to create one of the spaciest tracks I've ever heard.
No notes are rushed, nothing is busy.....everything just moves along at the right pace.

Sadly, Alice passed away on the 12th of January this year.

Please excuse me, I have to get back to my raft.

Journey In Satchidananda