 Supernatural, the 17th album by Santana.
One album, 9 Grammy Awards, 15 times platinum in the USA, 3 Latin Grammy Awards. Now isn't that success "Supernatural". Dig that? It is by far THE most SUCCESSFUL album from Carlos Santana and sold over 27 million copies worldwide. I remember being in 8th grade when this album came out and I saw the first music video "Smooth" and it actually took some time to grow on me. However, very next thing I see is the "Maria Maria" video and voila! I am SOO hooked on to it. Everything about it was just so fabulous. What caught my eye was Santana's smooth transition from the Acoustic guitar to the awesome PRS Santana II guitar. Infact, Carlos is my biggest inspiration and made me pick up guitar as an instrument of choice. I remember buying this album on a cassette format and then I played it in loop till the music, the guitar solos, the lyrics were tattooed to my brain. Its just grows on you and keeps on growing. Indeed, Latin Rock with Afro-Cuban beats. Such a treat for the ears! No wonder the record still sells like hot cakes even in present day. Everytime they play a song from this album on the radio, I always drive slow to my workplace or anywhere just to make sure I listen through. Always make sure I have the entire album on my external hard drive, cell phone and in my iPod. Well treat yourself to Santana's Supernatural melodies people. Gimme yo heart.....make it real......OR else forget about it :) https://rapidshare.com/files/169517667/S-S.rar
2 Comments
 Lalo Schifrin! The man of FuNk!
This is the guy behind some of THE funkiest movie themes EVER made. Begininng with Steve McQueen's 1968 classic "Bullitt" to Bruce Lee's "Enter The Dragon", his music gave those stars an image. One could associate those melodies with their favorite celebrities. Indeed, music creates the required state-of-mind and atmosphere for any movie. Those action sequences, car chases, fight scenes, swaggering, swashbuckling vistas need to be fueled by complementing music or its not even half the epoch of what it otherwise could be. Check out some of his famous themes from movies like St. Ives, Dirty Harry, Jaws, Enter The Dragon, Bullitt etc. There's plenty available on YouTube for instant listening. Meanwhile, go grab this DiSco/Funk Jazz gem back from 1976. Its an eerie, haunting, recurring, addictive n funky opus from Mr. Schifrin. Puts you back in your leather boots, fancy coats and swaggerin' persona. Don't believe me? Well, sit down and take a listen; there could be somethin' you might be missin'. Part # 1 - http://lix.in/-bd0599 Part # 2 - http://lix.in/-bb7ef8  Carlos Santana. I am sure you've heard of this name. No? Shame on you! A lot of people have a strong following for guitarists like Jimmy Page, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton etc etc. Well, Santana is ma MAN! What Carlos plays, never failed to impress me. Specially this album "Abraxas" that came out in 1969 is totally occult and just takes me to a different plane of existence. Try listening to the first track and tell me that's not something eerie, occult and transcendental. I also love the tagline for the album that reads:
"We stood before it and began to freeze inside from the exertion. We questioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and slut, called it our beloved, called it Abraxas...." The word "Abraxas" has use within Gnostic cosmology. I also recommend tracks that Santana played at the 1969 WoodStock festival. What can go wrong with Latin influenced Rock music, afro-cuban beats and a totally spiritual outlook towards producing music. Indeed a hitmaker!   Here is a record from the hair-dresser turned drummer, French record producer Jean-Marc Cerrone. Now this guy has his own story. It was the year 1975 (France) when Cerrone finally quit his day-job of a hairdresser to do something he had a strong passion for - Music. He was earlier associated with a band called Kongas which was a pretty impressive lot. Try getting your hands on Kongas - Anikana-O album which is magnificent. After meeting Alec R. Costandinos, the Costandinos-Cerrone due produced their very first album Love In C-Minor which was an immediate hit in the New York City clubs and Paris. Costandinos was furious when Cerrone did not credit him for any work on the album and they departed for good.
The early albums by Cerrone have massively orchestrated Disco music with mind blowing violin ensemble and great basslines. Courtesy of Alec Costandinos. With his album Supernature that came out in 1977 and proved to be his most successful opus, Cerrone went totally electronic. We can hear a bunch of synths and other electronica playing. Courtesy of Alan Hawkshaw and Don Ray. We move to 1980s when Cerrone came out with "Cerrone IX : Your Love Survived" which featured a couple of great grooves. The rest was the cliche 1980s style stuff. Take a listen ! I specially like "Look for Love" and "Give Me Love". The track "Back To Champs Elysées" has some more of the 1980s essence to it. Here's a decent vinyl rip. :) *Link in comments*  Kalyanji-Anandji were better known as the Funk brothers of India. Having a completely different approach in music direction, they composed some of the best Spy music/Funk scores during the 1970s and 1980s for Hindi Cinema. They were heavily influenced by Lalo Schifrin. Here's an example of Sleaze Funk from the movie Bombay 405 Miles. The single was published on a rare 45 with Side-B containing a really funky groove or I must say Turkish Funk groove from around 1979-80 by an artist called Baris Manckow. Never heard of that guy before. However, the track seems to be really rare since I did not find much information on Google. Also, the artist seems to be gone from people's minds too. No info on him either. Here we are, with my very first vinyl rip. Currently I am using Audacity and Sony Sound Forge to rip and edit the records. If you have any suggestions regarding the quality of the sound or anything related, please let me know. I am still learning. Thanks! *Link in comments*  Even before I could understand what music is, I was already listening to it. I am talking about the time around the end of 1980s when vinyl was dying and making way for audio cassettes and compact discs to come in. People started trashing their old turntables and records, some went on the walls as souvenirs some to the child to play some for the dog to chew and the rest, to the trash can. However, there were people who cherished their collections and have held on to it till date. I'm glad my Dad did not trash his treasure. Somehow, I had this keen inclination toward listening to music on the turntable. Of course, analog quality is un-beatable. :)
It was my teen-age when I started paying serious attention to the old vinyl treasure lying in my own room and that gave birth to a passion which was never to be defied. Fifteen years after record production stopped in India, I hit the stores that once sold records in city. I started calling the stores asking them for "records" (if any). The kind of responses I got were indeed interesting. Like, "Hi, Kohinoor Stores, do you still have any records left in the store?" The response would not be a Yes or No but would be something like "Huh ! May I know with whom I am speaking??" I also once over-heard a faint voice in the background saying "Some wacko wants records. Is he new to the town or something? What do you want me to tell him?" Well, anyway, they did have some stock left. All I did was, "weigh" the records and bought the entire stock by weight. Paid Rs 2000 for like 1500 records (Over 50 kilograms). I did that with 4 other stores and soon had a room full of records. Due to the random stock buying adventure, I also ended up having over 10 copies of the same record. I ended up keeping them. The picture changed when I left home to study in California, USA and the story remained back there. The passion never died and so I started collecting all over again right here. Sometimes spending half of my pay checks on rare records and sometimes just grabbing some great ones at local record stores at Haight-Ashbury and Berkeley areas, there was just no stopping. I discovered some people ripping their old vinyls and putting them to blogs. What specially took my attention was a blog called "The Third Floor Music" blog by a person from Norway who collects, rips and posts records in a language totally unknown to him. Just for the sake of good music! Now that was impressive. Gaining inspiration, I decided to do the same thing to my blog. So here I am with my very first attempt at digitalizing my old vinyl records - EPs, 78s and LPs. Have fun listening to them. :)  Every person who grew up in INDIA definitely knows what Vividhbharati is and also has some nostalgic connections of some sort with those songs which he/she listened to as a child and even as an adult. Those melodies of childhood have a deep impact over our mind forever and listening to them completely freshens the mind. A new zeal indeed arises inside the mind. Of course, it has something to do with the sub-conscious too. Today when millions of Indians are out in various parts of the world right from United States to Australia, they do want to have that scent of the homeland as close to them as possible. Eating food of the native land gives immense pleasure and so does listening to songs from home. To cater to the love of all the millions of Indians around the globe and away from home, I have this simple homely dish. It can be relished anywhere and anytime just as soon as the heart wishes.  The first english song to be ever composed by an Indian composer R D BURMAN! Back in action again! The coolest hippest and grooviest always amazing and numero uno hitmaker from India does it again hereby creating history and sets a new milestone in Hindi cinema. Enjoy this rarity.  Music holds its own sweet place in every human being's heart. It has proved to have remarkable results on trees and animals as well. Music heals, it soothes, it elevates.  This is about my new found love. EUROPEAN DISCO MUSIC! |  AuthorThe whole point is to entertain. You will find articles that are funny, related to Music or that have just some interesting information. So have fun reading, laugh, cry, dance, freak out and make the most of it. ArchivesApril 2012 CategoriesAll  |
RSS Feed