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This Sunday Eamon open’s up the Mister with a full airing of a record called ‘Palace of Wind’ by Battle Trance a band he came across last winter at Winter Jazz Fest here in New York. Battle Trance are comprised for 4 saxophonists who concoct a dense wall of sound using an impressive and exhausting circular breathing technique. It’s trance music of the right kind.
Every week of this outdoor Mister Sunday season, the party begins with the airing of an entire album. This week our special guest, JD Twitch, a Glasgow resident who is one of our favorite DJs in the world, selects. He’s chosen Super Ape by The Upsetters. This is what he has to say about it.
At the first hint of summer, one of the records I most want to hear is Super Ape by The Upsetters, the 1976 Lee “Scratch” Perry album recorded at the height of his powers. This summer in Scotland summer pretty much went awol, but I’m optimistic I’ll get to experience a bit of a late summer in New York, so I chose this perennial favourite of mine. While the entire album is bathed in a murky dread, there is an inherent golden warmth to it. Familiar rhythms are revisited and reworked with chanting vocals, distant melodicas and mystical flutes rising up in the mix. It is a gentle ride that leaves me feeling as if I am wrapped in cotton wool. It also holds off on giving away all its joys too soon with side two in particular being just about a perfect side of music. I’ve never heard this played on a proper sound system so am very much looking forward to spending forty minutes basking in its sonic rays of light.
JD Twitch, one of our DJ heroes, joins Justin Carter** behind the turntables for this weekend’s edition of Mister Sunday. Twitch runs the excellent Optimo Music label; he DJed and ran the long running Optimo parties in Glasgow for thirteen years (and still does the occasional Optimo party); and he is one of the world’s finest DJs. He played for us last year, and it was lovely. Tickets are here, and if you come down early, you’ll probably be able to get them at the door.
**Both will be less somber than in the pictures above, and Justin will be about ten years older.
Every week of this outdoor Mister Sunday season, the party begins with the airing of an entire album. This week Justin Carter selects. He’s chosen Shahen-Shah by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. This is what he has to say about it.
Last Friday I went to the Shinnecock Nation’s Pow Wow in Southampton, NY. There were representatives of tribes from all over North America dancing in absolutely beautiful traditional clothes, and accompanying them were a couple of groups of singers and drummers. The music was an entrancing polyrhythmic, polyphonic combination of singers and drummers. I’ve been dreaming about it since and trying to find recordings.
I haven’t yet found anything, but I’ve pulled out this album by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the master of Qawwali, a devotional Sufi music that’s most often heard in Muslim areas of Pakistan and India. One day, when I go back to school to get my doctorate in musicology, I’ll figure out the cultural and migrational connections between the Native American music I heard Friday and Qawwali, but for now, all I can say is that both are evocative and trance inducing, and both are stunningly beautiful. I can’t wait to play Nusrat for you on Sunday…
It’s Labor Day weekend, so best be prepared to WORK on that dancefloor. Eamon and Justin are playing together for the first time since early August, and you know it’s gonna be good.
Our holiday weekend parties are almost always busy, and this year we’ve filled to capacity on quite a few regular weekends, so if you want to come, getting a ticket is more than just a good idea.
If you’re headed out of town this weekend, have a great time, and we’ll see you when you’re back. We’ll be Mistering outdoors until October 18th this year, so plenty of time to get down with us in the late summer and autumn…
All the best,
Mister Saturday Night