Beschreibung
Media Condition: Mint (M)
Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
unplayed stock copy
Notes:
The Paths Of Pain
The CAIFE Label, Quito, 1960-68
A dazzling survey of the last, bohemian flowering of the so-called Golden Era of Ecuadorian musica national, before the oil boom and incoming musical styles — especially cumbia — swept away its achingly beautiful, phantasmagorical, utopian juggling of indigenous and mestizo traditions.
Forms like the tonada, albazo, danzante, yaravi, carnaval, and sanjuanito; the yambo, with roots in pre-Incan ritual, and the pasillo, a take on the Viennese waltz, arriving through the Caribbean via Portugal and Spain.
Exhumations like the astoundingly out-there organist Lucho Munoz, from Panama, toying with the expressive and technical limits of his instrument; and our curtain-raiser Biluka, who travelled to Quito from Rio, naming his new band Los Canibales in honour of the late-twenties Cannibalist movement back home, dedicated to cannibalising other cultures in the fight against post-colonial, Eurocentric hegemony. He played the ficus leaf, hands-free, laying it on his tongue. One leaf was playable for ten hours. He spent long periods living on the street, in rags, when he wasn’t in the CAIFE studio recording his chamber jazz-from-space, with the swing, elegance and detail of Ellington’s small groups, crossed with the brassy energy of ska — try Cashari Shunguito — and an enthralling other-worldliness.
Utterly scintillating guitar-playing, prowling double bass, piercing dulzaina, wailing organ, rollicking gypsy violin, brass, accordion, harps, and flutes. Bangers to get drunk and dance to. Slow songs galore to drown your sorrows in, with wildly sentimental lyrics drawn from the Generacion Decapitada group of poets (who all killed themselves); expert heart-breakers, with the raw passion of the best rembetica, but reined in, like the best fado.
Fabulous music, like nothing else, exquisitely suffused with sadness and soul. Hotly recommended.
Sumptuously presented, in a gatefold sleeve and printed inners, with a full-size, full-colour booklet, with wonderful photos and excellent notes. Limpid sound, too, courtesy of original reels in Quito, and Abbey Road in London; pressed at Pallas.
A1. Cotopaxi
A2. Cansados Pies Corazon Mio
A3. Ingratitud
A4. Dulce Mirada –
A5. Ensonacion
A6. Taita Salasaca
B1. Desesperacion
B2. Legos De Ti
B3. Vaca Lechera
B4. Amor De Mi Linda Guambra
B5. El Anacu De Mi Guambra
B6. Pasional
C1. Carnaval De Guaranda
C2. La Naranja
C3. Mi Dulce Amor
C4. Sangrante Corazon
C5. Plegaria
C6. Los Huachis
D1. Chola Cuencana
D2. Cashari Shunguito
D3. Longuito Enamorado
D4. Desde Que TuTe Fuiste
D5. Sendero Del Dolor
D6. Corazon Que No Olvida
Matrix / Runout Side A (Runout etched) HJRLP 82 A DAM [-56971-] [Stamped]
Matrix / Runout Side B (Runout etched) HJRLP 82 B DAM [-56971-] [Stamped]
Matrix / Runout Side C (Runout etched) HJRLP 82 C DAM [-56972-] [Stamped]
Matrix / Runout Side D (Runout etched) HJRLP 82 D DAM [-56972-] [Stamped]
