V.A.: The Trip
Corvo Rec. V.A.: The Trip. Psychedelic Music from the Hippie Trail
- Pt. 4/4 From South Korea to Singapore - –LP- (VAR,2016)***°
After a couple more releases of this kind, this fourth LP gave all attention to groovy and slightly exotic music from the east and Far East, from groove to garage and easy pop.
A1. The first track, is a well-re-mastered track by 김희갑 / Kim Hee-Gap (South Korea), in a very well contrasting production, in which we hear powerful drums into two layers, mixed with groovy bass and sax at first. Kim Hee-Gap was known for his skills on drums. He made a great psych GoGo album, which I hope some day will be released (I added some tracks of it on YouTube). After a while, there’s added some funky organ, which first appears in the background, then comes forward more in the second half of this groovy instrumental.
A2. The second track continues this kind of groovy bass power with good drumming, this time with a track from the to me unknown Akari Ishikawa & His Group (Japan). It features a fuzz guitar solo. Also this instrumental has a slightly funky groove in the direction of psych, fitting pretty well to the first track.
A3. Priti or Preeti Sagar is a female high-voice singing in a typical Indian Bollywood style. Her track features vocal arrangements that are echoing or with added repeated voices. The background arrangements is with groovy bass, handclaps and strings.
A4. Corresponding to the previous track is the next track by female singer Rita Zahara with Brigadier General R. Pringadie (Indonesia). Still, its atmosphere is different. In the background you hears something like Indonesian gamelan and guitar pickings and something vaguely reminiscent to Middle Eastern orchestral strings. Its exotic fusion is very attractive, let you dream into this exotic atmosphere.
5 B1 The second side is more garage-like and rockier. Manja Ria (Malaysia) is the most rocky/bluesy track, the heaviest electric track, still with a simple repetitive garage rhythmic repetition, a somewhat chaotic mix with bluesy guitars, and with a lead singing which for some reason has an exotic flavour.
6 B2 Kassim Slamat & The Swallows (Singapore/Malaysia) is another garage rocker with also a certain exotic primitive flavor, a bluesy singing and surfing guitar, simple drums and bass. They call the band a “yéyé band” on their website.
7 B3 Pattie Bersaudara or Pattie Sisters (Indonesia) is a duo sister girl harmony vocal pop band. Also this track is close to garage and 60 pop. The band sung in Ambonese dialect, Indonesian, but also Dutch (exported to Holland, who once colonized Indonesia and who kept contact) and English songs.
8 B4 The last track is even more exotic, a high voice mandarine pop song by Chinese singer Pancy Lau (also called Liu Feng Pi) accompanied by electric rhythm and sparse melody-accompanying guitars, xylophone-like approaches and synth rhythms and other synth-based exotic fantasy melodies.
See also Kassim Slamat & The Swallows on http://swallowerwins.blogspot.be
