Easy Listenin'
Mark Turner (mturner@netcom.com)
Sun, 31 Mar 1996 19:18:14 -0800 (PST)
Michael sez:
> As far as the easy listening thing goes, I find myself a bit hesitant at
> the whole 'resurgence' of this thing. Kind of weird for me to be, as I own
> tons of the original vinyl copies of this stuff (up to 18 original Martin
> Dennys, weee) and bought the Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack like everyone else.
> But I can't sit around and listen to this stuff... most of it is pretty
> awful, and it is mostly out of irony that people would listen to some of it
> at all ("Check it out, we're jamming to the Perspectives in Percussion
> series... we're so wacky!"). Yeah, it sometimes is fun, and I've thrown on
> my fair share of this junk on at parties to amuse, but a 'resurgence'? Huh?
> I mean, I still have a hard time trying to imagine people choosing to
> listen to this 'bachelor pad' stuff over the Future Sound of Jazz 2
> compilation or the new Fugees or whatever. I own a lot of it, but I got
> into buying thrift shop LPs for the cover art and the non-tracable sample
> sources. I bought Vampyros Lesbos for a few cool possible samples I picked
> out on it, but I would never listen to this as an entertaining musical
> work. I'd rather listen to something like the LTJ Bukem Mixmag CD. Someone
> explain this fascination to me!
I agree with much of what you're saying, Michael. However, I hope I don't
ever have to choose between LTJ Bukem and Martin Denny; I want it all! As
someone who grew up hearing nothing but "rock," I now have a voracious
appetite for almost anything but! Ambient, jazz, jungle, techno, exotica,
you name it. The VAMPYROS LESBOS soundtrack or [fill-in-the-blank] PERCUSSION
albums may not be in my current top ten list, but the reissue of Martin Denny's
AFRO-DESIA sure is! Big props to Scamp Records for reissuing this and a
couple of other amazing albums: Maya Angelou's MISS CALYPSO and Robert Mitchum's
CALYPSO...IS LIKE SO. I don't think any of these would have ever been reissued
if not for the current "easy listening" resurgence.
I'm not the kind of person who enjoys scouring thrift stores and flea markets
for rare vinyl; you have to dig through too much crap just to find an occasional
gem. And I also resent the profiteers who try to charge you $50 at record fairs
for something that cost them 50 cents. But for the adventurous music lover,
there are now at least a dozen excellent CD compilations of "lounge music" which
could greatly enhance your record collection and/or DJ set. I would recommend
any of the volumes in Capitol's "ULTRA LOUNGE" series (6 so far), or a budget CD
from Sony called "COCKTAIL HOUR" for starters.
A brief word about RE/Search. Their "Incredibly Strange Music" book and CD
series can certainly take a lot of the blame for kicking off this resurgence.
And the books and CDs *are* entertaining. But a lot of what they focus
on are essentially "novelty" records, which as you say are only good for a
laugh or two. (Then it's back to LTJ Bukem.) But I think most of the artists
on the reissues and compilations I've mentioned above are worth more than a
cursory listen. And I would encourage all you acid jazz fans to give them a
try!
Excuse me, I have to go make myself a martini now. :-)
--
Mark Turner
mturner@netcom.com