Soul To Blow You Away

Carolyn Franklin: What Cha Gonna Do and I Don't Want To Lose You
From: Baby Dynamite [RCA, 1969]

Shee-yit, how do I follow that post by Maru? Well how about a no bullshit, straight down the line, forgotten soul gem?

Being the younger sibling of a famous artist must be both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side you would no doubt have easy access to connections beyond the dreams of most up and coming singers. On the down side you will have to suffer comparisons with your established sibling for the rest of your career.

Carolyn Franklin had it worse than most as not only did she have to deal with the overwhelming shadow of one of the greatest voices to ever grace soul music in the shape of Aretha but her eldest sister Erma also had one of the soul songs of the sixties in her catalogue with the brilliant Piece Of My Heart.

Carolyn took the sensible road in all this, spending a number of years performing backing vocals for Aretha and penning tracks for her big sisters before unleashing her own debut, Baby Dynamite, in 1969.

The hard work was worth it cos this is a hell of an assured debut by the then 25 year old Carolyn. Full to the brim of northern soul stompers and sultry slow numbers this album really should have blown up far greater than RCA's pretty lame attempts to sell it.

It quickly becomes clear that Carolyn's vocal range doesn't match Aretha's but that's hardly damning information. In fact, what Carolyn does share is an infectious raw edge and a similar timbre to Aretha; adding additional power and emotional weight to the recordings.

What Cha Gonna Do is a firey track in the northern soul tradition propelled along by the stomping percussion and horn lead with Franklin showing some grit with her vocal performance. Great breakdown in the middle section too.

I Don't Want To Lose You on the other hand is something else entirely. An absolutely sublime slow and sultry number with a top drawer arrangement by Horace Ott, it's a heavy rotation personal favourite and one I highly recommend adding to your playlist. The only criticism I can lay at it that I'd happily double the length to 5 minutes. Like I say, pure brilliance.

The easiest way to get a hold of Carolyn's output now is via the Sister Soul: The Best of the RCA Years 1969-1976 compilation of her RCA albums. Though I would personally rate Baby Dynamite quite a bit higher than the other long players I've sampled of Carolyn's it's a good introduction to the forgotten Franklin sister.

Guess Who's Back?

Oh damn! It's been a long time since I last posted here. Let me just start off by saying that Junior and the writing staff have done a wonderful job keeping this place, not only alive, but thriving since my last post (almost a year ago? yikes). Anyways, the truth of the matter is that real world moves have taken a major toll on my free time; finishing up grad school, moving across the country, finding a job, adopting a dog and cat, and beginning an amazing relationship have been the major factors. Fortunately I have had time to listen to a ton of amazing music.

So I'm back in a limited capacity. Basically I'll try to post when I can, but at the very least I want to try to do a large post maybe quarterly that highlights the tracks that have been killing me over the past few months, this being my first. Heavy on the psych, with some folk, jazz, and soul thrown in.

Enjoy.

Note: Because of the files size, downloads have been moved to rapidshare in 2 zipped packages.

Brian's Picks January 2007 Pt. 1
Brian's Picks January 2007 Pt. 2














Lee Moses: California Dreamin’
From: Time and Place [Castle, 197?]
Major nostalgia here having lived in California my whole life and now finding myself in the midst of a very cold Philadelphia winter. One of the most powerful covers of "California Dreamin'" you'll find.













Arthur Verocai: Na Boca do Sol
From: Arthur Verocai [1972]
One of the true Brazilian holy grails full of beautiful soul laced funk and jazz. I have a hard time picking a favorite from his self-titled album, but "Na Boca do Sol" has been in heavy rotation the past few months.













Jack Wilkins: Red Clay
From: Windows [Mainstream, 1973]
This is the type of stuff that will get people into records. Classic sample for "Sucka Nigga." Pretty good guitar playing too.















J.K. & Co.: Break of Dawn + Fly
From: Suddenly One Summer [White Whale, 1968]
I first heard this at the end of the first Trap Door mix compiled by the folks at The Groove Merchant. I think I listened to it about five times in a row. Beautiful acid folk psych from Canada. Headphones recommended.













Jacques Dutronc: Hippie Hippie Hourrah
From: Il Est Cinq Heures Paris S'Eveille [Vogue, 1968]
Jacques Dutronc had a very successful career in the shadows of his more prolific counterpart, Serge Gainsbourg. While Gainsbourg constantly reinvented himself for fifty years, Dutronc only had about a ten year run, but what a ten years it was. This is one of my favs, from his second album I believe.














Jimmy Smith: Root Down
From: Root Down, Jimmy Smith Live! [Verve, 1972]
Another classic sample from Jimmy Smith's 1972 concert. A surprising listen if you've ever heard his other straight-ahead jazz output.















Listening: Stoned Is
From: Listening [Vanguard, 1968]
I first heard this on Diplo & Tripledouble's AEIOU 2 mix and was instantly sold. Not sure if it's contributed to the record's rising price, but even at it's current going rate of $100 it's still worth the price of admission. Unique blend of psych, blues, and jazz here, with "Stoned Is" being my personal highlight.













Marcus: Million Grains of Sand
From: Marcus [Kinetic, 1970]
This guy kind of reminds me of a sleepier creepier Donovan. I've heard his only release in 1970 isn’t very good besides this track, but I'll take it.















McDonald & Giles: Birdman
From: McDonald & Giles [Cotillion, 1971]
Mike Giles and Ian McDonald from King Crimson fame. The last track on their 1970 release is a 21-minute opus divided into 6 different sub-tracks, but intended to be listened as a whole. I hate to rip out just an excerpt, but the final movement always sends me off in a good mood. I strongly encourage you to seek out the entire track if you dig this.














Food: Leaves
From: Forever is a Dream [Capitol, 1969]
Kind of a weird name for a band; luckily their music is stellar. This is probably my favorite type of psych: soft, dreamy, haunted, yet beautiful all at the same time. Goes for some cheddar despite being a major label release.













Mu: Calling From a Star
From: The Last Album [Appalloosa, 1981]
From Acid Archives - Although not released until the 1980s, the 1974 Maui recordings may be even better than the debut LP. This is music as pure as you're ever going to hear, a seemingly effortless flow of tremendous melodic psych and folkrock most bands can only dream of attaining. This and the "Mu" LP are cornerstones in any decent psych collection. Hawaiian vegetarian UFO hallucinations! It should be mentioned that while this is seen mostly as a Merrell vehicle, many of Mu's best tracks were written or co-written by ex-Beefheart Jeff Cotton.














Marcus Belgrave: Glue Fingers (part 2)
From: Gemini [Tribe, 1974]
Great spiritual jazz session by this trumpet player from Chester, PA. In the true tradition of the legendary Tribe label.















Caetano Veloso: The Empty Boat
From: Caetano Veloso [Phillips, 1969]
One of the most prolific Brazilian singer/songwriters. This happens to be one of the few songs he ever sang in English before his 2004 release A Foreign Sound.















Nancy Priddy: Ebony Glass
From: You've Come This Way Before [Dot, 1968]
Turns out this is Christina Applegate's mom - no joke. Surprisingly, her 1968 album is a really good mix of dark psychedelic folk with funky tendencies. I especially like the child singing the chorus on this one. Kinda spooky.














Nick Drake: Northern Sky
From: Bryter Lyter [Island, 1970]
If you've seen the Royal Tenanbaums you might recognize "Fly" which originally came from the album Bryter Lyter. Northern Sky is another favorite from that session. I read somewhere that Bryter Lyter was the one album he wouldn't change a thing to; he thought it was perfect. If you’re into beautiful folk, Nick Drake's got it on lock.













Thorinshield: Prelude to a Postlude
From: Thorinshield [Phillips, 1968]
I don't know much about this group other than that they were a California-based rock group that made this song that I like. Sorry, that was kind of shitty.














Gandalf: Me About You
From: Gandalf [Capitol, 1968]
Like Food, this is another psych monster released on Capitol that most fans of the era go nuts over. Beautiful orchestration, chilling vocals, poppy and trippy at the same time.













Wolfgang Dauner: Kamasutram
From: Rischkas Soul [Brian, 1972]
An accomplished composer and pianist, German musician Dauner is known for fusing jazz, rock, and electronic music. I think Kamasutram is a prime example of his far-reaching work, and the hypnotic and claustrophobic Kraut sound. The tense builds are what really makes this track work for me.

Classics Again For the First Time

David Bowie: Hang On To Yourself, White Light/White Heat, Moonage Daydream
From: Bowie at the Beeb: The Best of the BBC Radio Sessions 68-72 [BBC Music, EMI 2000]

Sometimes nothings hits the spot like a big beautiful heavy dose of rock.

I used to be a casual Bowie fan; that was before I heard the full-throttle takes of Ziggy Stardust classics and the amped Velvet Underground covers featured on Bowie at the Beeb disc 2. Upon hearing it, I found myself bowing at the altar of rock to pay my respects to the greatness that is David Bowie and the Rats from Hull (aka: the Spiders from Mars). This release is a fantastic document of a now legendary band fighting to convince the world of its relevance. History tells us that Ziggy Stardust was the break-through success that finally launched Mr. Space Oddity into the annals of rock superstardom. However, back in 1971-2, before the acceptance and the accolades: David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, and Mick Woodmansey were each 5+ years into a frustrating string of professional near-misses and broke and starving. They must have known that this was their moment because they blaze through each song with a hungry intensity unmatched by many bands past or present (except for perhaps Sir Stanley). These performances really show how a band's collective, unwavering commitment to a song can transform its humble ingredients into something transcendent.

Kudos to the engineer and producer for capturing the magic so well; they mix the rhythm section particularly nicely. And, um, the acoustic, folky, non-rocking disc 1 makes a nice coaster.

The Strange Language of Sylvia's Pillow Talk

Sylvia: Gimme a Little Action and Sunday
From Pillow Talk [Vibration 1973]

The Moments: Sunday
From Not on the Outside, But Inside In! [Stang 1968]

'70s Soul has always been about summertime and sunshine for me, so during these dreary days of January I'll occasionally have to remind myself that June is only... six... months... away by digging out some of the more ignored Soul records in my collection. Recently I've taken a certain fascination with Sylvia Robinson's Pillow Talk, and the more I listen, the more I become attuned to how utterly strange this record is. Allow me to explain.

Regardless of one's feelings about Robinson as a cold, heartless businesswoman (see: The Sugarhill Gang, a discussion for another time), she nevertheless had a long and successful career in the music industry, beginning in the late '50s as the latter half of Mickey & Sylvia, most remembered for their single "Love is Strange." During the '60s she worked behind the scenes, nurturing New Jersey trio The Moments to stardom while raising her family. She began releasing solo records under her first name in the '70s, moving into bedroom disco and even hip hop during the '80s.

Yet while many of her contemporaries patiently waited by the assembly line for producers to churn out chart-toppers for them, Robinson actively played a hand in shaping her own career, writing or co-writing most of her material and supervising the daily operations of running her record label with her husband, Joe. She was also a hell of a guitar player to boot.

Still, listening to Pillow Talk, one gets the impression that something just isn't right, but it's difficult to place a finger on what it. It's a pleasant listen, to be sure, gorgeously sensual and full of slithering, late-night grooves. Perhaps it's Sylvia's presence and delivery, at times sounding as if she's curled up on the couch in the control room, intimidated and cradling the microphone; others, her whispery coos and moans have all the sincerity of a minimum-wage phone-sex operator. But there is a certain intimacy in her voice that connects with the listener despite the fact that it's quizzically buried in the mix most of the time. "Gimme a Little Action" is one such example, a sleeper track that would have benefitted tremendously from a boost of Sylvia's presence, yet she seems content to cuddle into her surroundings, treating her voice as equally as the other instruments of pleasure. And oddly enough, it works.

"Sunday" was written for Sylvia's brother's fiancee, who tragically died in a car accident the night before they were to be married. It sounds unlike any of the other selections here, a haunting ballad with just Sylvia, her acoustic guitar, and a lone cello. The atmosphere calls to mind something out of a Country-Western musical from the '60s, with Sylvia's cries echoing throughout the moonlit desert canyon long after her companions have fallen asleep by the campfire. (Attentive listeners will recognize this track as the basis for Ghostface's "The Letter" skit from The Pretty Tony Album.) Compared to the relatively standard instrumentation and arrangements of the original Moments' version, the two are like night and day.

Pillow Talk is definitely worth checking out, if only for two reasons: 1) there are few records of the era that sound remotely similar to it (keep in mind that this stuff was pretty risque for the time), and 2) a seven-minute version of "Not on the Outside" where Sylvia seductively introduces her "little band," then instructs her guitar player on how to play his solo as if he were forcibly pleasuring her. It's bizarre, to say the least.

Three Times Dope

Three Times Dope: I Got It and I Ain't Try'n 2 Hear It
From: Live From Acknickulous Land [Arista, 1990]

Apparently today is the most depressing day of the whole calender year which is good to know. Things were getting a little bit Office Space this month and logically if we peak today then life can only get better tomorrow. We hope.

Combating those January blues and in a desperate attempt to slow down the people throwing themselves in front of trains and slowing my journey home lets have some turn of the nineties hip hop by the foolishly forgotten Three Times Dope.

Although TTD's first album Original Stylin' was a reasonably big success their 1990 follow up, Live from Acknikulous Land, was pretty much buried as soon as it came out. As with 99% of other listeners I've gotta hold my hands up and admit that I've been sleeping on this one for a long long time but boredom will eventually cause you to revisit a collection and on hearing it again I can't stop playing it - full of simple loops and quality rhymes the album is a more than solid listen from start to finish.

I Got It is an unashamedly party orientated anthem as they flip the classic James Brown Super Bad sample with rapper EST's fluid mcing over the top. The instruction for "Chuck Nice hit me twice" followed by the horn stabs gets me every time.

I Ain't Try'n 2 Hear It is a more introspective track with some lovely guitar led production by Chuck Nice and some top drawer verses by EST. I've missed having tracks like this in my life.

TTD did release a third album in 1998 but by that time they were resigned to the waste bin in my brain and I never bothered checking it out. Any idea about whether I'm sleeping once again?

Dude Dude Dude, The Earl

Bonus Beat 13 - The Earl
from the 12" Remixes, Vol. 5 on Footlong Development Records (2006).

Here's The Proof - The Earl
Unreal - The Earl
from the EP Loaded Ensemble on Footlong Development Records (2003). "Proof" also released as 12" in Japan in Subcontact (2006).

More instrumental hip hop for your heads today. I L-O-V-E the tradition of fledgeling producers putting out gray-market bootlegs of popular or classic hip hop tunes to showcase their beats and aesthetic. Something new and something familiar all in one, like a truffle burger at a tenth the price and with longer lasting enjoyment. I first came across Los Angeles are producer The Earl for exactly this reason because he was releasing remixes of Big Daddy Kane, Q-Tip, and J-Live on his own Footlong Development label. In a brilliant bit of decision making he also included his instrumentals and Bonus Beat productions on each Remix Volume he did. Up today is the assiduously named "Bonus Beat 13" from Remixes Vol. 5, which works the exotica/spy vibe extremely well. Reminds me of Herbaliser's "Missing Suitcase."

Also up are two tracks from his solo release in 2003. "Here's The Proof" is the instrumental to "Proof" which is on the flipside of the record and features Khalil of Fresh Air as the voice. I went back and forth as to the throwing up the instrumental or the vocal version and narrowly went with the instro, even if it does get a bit repetitive at the end (like all tracks meant to have verses flowing over them). Tasty, super-recognizable Tribe whip sample tossed in with chunky drums a vampy little piano element. Regular readers of Ear Fuzz may be noting a deeply felt love for piano lick along side thick, slow drums for me.

"Unreal" from the same album leaves out the piano for lots of horn loops and some unrecognizable to me high-pitched accents (is that high register electric piano? synthetic piccalo?). For the last minute or so The Earl works his drum elements around solo style...maybe not the most intricate chopping ever, but it has the nice effect of moving off the rigid beat enough to move me to the edge of my seat.

R.I.P. Alice Coltrane

Alice Coltrane: Galaxy In Satchidananda
From: World Galaxy [Impulse!, 1972]

Alice Coltrane 27.08.1937 - 12.01.2007

It seems like very other post at the moment is paying tribute to the passing of an artist but mention had to be made of the death of Alice Coltrane last Friday.

I featured Alice's work in a post last August and don't really have much more to add to my previous statement that Alice produced gorgeous, timeless, music of the highest quality. The fact that Alice stepped out of the shadow of the genius of John Coltrane to make her own permanent mark on jazz is a testament to the skills and determination she had in her life.

While I would highly, highly, recommend picking up the two albums mentioned in the previous post (Journey In Satchidananda in particular is one of the most beautiful records I've ever heard) I thought I'd share another album from Alice's seventies period that I'd been meaning to post for some time and never got round to.

Galaxy In Satchidananda follows on from Alice's previous work with it's lush mixture of harp, strings and organs - it displays Alice's ability to arrange compositions that while breathtakingly beautiful and mellow, never threaten to fall into background music. While there are funkier offerings out there the sombre mood of this piece just seemed appropriate for this moment.

She will be missed.

1 Part Glue, 2 Parts Maker's Mark = sticky, drunk beats

Never Really Know - Glue
from the album Catch As Catch Can on FatBeats (2006).
Live It (Part 1&2) - Maker
from the album Shooting The Breeze on Galapagos4 (2005).
Honestly f/ Qwel - Maker
from the 12" single on Birthwrite Records (2004).

I was really caught out of nowhere by Glue's release this year. I feel like I say this about every hip hop album I like, but the beats just carry this through. MC Adeem says positive things and doesn't bother me, but overall I'd rather listen to this album as an instrumental, which blissfully is packaged write in there with the full album in the CD release. Maker is the producer for 75% of the album (other credits go to DJ DQ, who gets under-utilized as a DJ through the rest of the album) and it is some of his finest work. Picking just 1 of 4 possible favorites, I chose the "Never Really Know," which features excellent horns and minor key piano over crunchy boom-bap beats. Its a little hard to find someone making old-styled sample boom-bap these days with all the keyboard wizardry running amuk.

Maker's put out quite a few production releases (he's the fuzzy chinned fella on the left in the above picture of Glue), 1 of which I was surprised to find buried somehow forgotten in my stacks. That would be his track with Qwel called "Honestly" from 2004. They also recorded a full album together, but I haven't been fortunate to hear it yet. Anywhats, Qwel does the perfect white Mos Def sing-rant about the appropriation of hip hop by the money hungry bitches folks and channels Kurt Cobain in what could be a corny but applicable reference concerning artistry vs. industry but amazingly just works beautifully.

Finally a proper Maker instrumental where he loops up big, fat drums to make an almost live sounding cine-funk track sounding a lot like ultra-early DJ Shadow. I know I could use more of that sound in my life today. Neither Maker nor Glue are doing something completely new, and they're not the only ones embracing this older style of hip hop but for right now they are up on it better than anyone else. And if they end up near you, Glue is a fine show live.

Soul Fit For A King: The Royalettes

The Royalettes: Baby Are You Putting Me On and Lonely Girl
From: The Elegant Sound Of The Royalettes [MGM, 1966]

I don't know about you guys but I fucking hate January. I have an unfortunate habit of believing all outstanding tasks and worries will disappear in the new year and totally forget that they'll still be waiting for me on the other side of Auld Lang Syne.

To add to the back-at-work-blues my trusty car decided to give up the ghost last weekend and it's going to cost up to a Boscoe to fix it. Roll on Xmas '07 I say.

With the above in mind it seemed appropriate to post some gorgeous soul to counter my foul mood. It's also something I wouldn't have been surprised to see on London Lee's now terminated Number One Songs In Heaven, one of the three sites (along with Soul Sides and Cocaine Blunts) that hooked me on the idea of blogging in the first place. Sad to see it go though I can sympathise with the feelings expressed.

Anyway, the music. The Royalettes were a great uptown soul outfit that, despite a plethora of great songs, never had the impact of some of their contemporaries. Their second album, The Elegant Sounds Of The Royalettes, featured production work by the late great singer, writer, producer, Teddy Randazzo and is rather unique from that period in that it's put together as an album of songs rather than hits plus filler giving a far more satisfying overall listen.

Baby Are You Putting Me On is a fine example of the group's style, mixing Bacharach-esque changes of tempo with fluid horns and lovely harmonies. I love the vocal spacing on the chorus, rising and falling with the accompanying melody.

Lonely Girl once again proves that heartbreak is so much appealing than bliss when it comes to soul music. A more uptempo number it may also offer up a hint to why the band didn't succeed, offering a more old school sound than was the fashion in 1966. The stereo recording highlights the drums in this one, nice and thumping on the right speaker.

Oh yeah, as the winter months drag on I'm sure I'll sometimes lose all thought on what to post so requests are always welcome. Feel free to drop me or any of the other writers an email about them.

The Third World Underground

The Third World Underground: Don's Song/Cherry
From: The Third World Underground [Trio Records (Japan), 1972]

Since I'm about a week from a new computer that will enable me to dig in and make some posts from the vinyl collection, I'll follow up floodwatch's post with a track from a CD which also bears the distinction of being an annoyingly difficult to find Japanese release.

This is one of those jazz "albums" that is really a concert selection: Nov. 14, 1972 : Jazz-House Montmartre : Copenhagen, Denmark. The Third World Underground is actually: Don Cherry, Dollar Brand (one of my favorites), and Carlos Ward. I couldn't find much info about this specific show or the circumstances of this collaboration, but, a little research reveals that Dollar Brand and Carlos Ward played together fairly regularly. Don Cherry seems to be a temporary addition. Most of the compositions here are credited to Brand though Cherry is credited for writing Don's Song. I did find this which hints that this trio might have played a few shows together in 1972.

Don's Song/Cherry is the first of the disc's two "songs" (more like medleys) and it contains all of the things I love about Dollar Brand's piano-playing: his steady rolling left hand, a minimalism in chord changes, and an almost architectural quality in his chord variety and phrasing. He does a beautiful job of both laying a solid foundation and creating an open space in which the soloists can explore. The consistently adventurous (career highlights often involve work with Ornette Coleman) Cherry jumps right in with the trumpet. Meawhile, Ward's saxophone playing is nicely supportive keeping Cherry aloft on the trumpet and filling in potential gaps throughout the entirety of the performance. The three groove along in a very natural, relaxed fashion.

The mp3 is a little over 20min which I hope isn't a problem. I thought about editing it shorter, but just didn't have the heart. If you want to hear the rest, I found the disc States side here.

The Substance of the Way of the Samurai

RZA: Opening Theme (Raise Your Sword), RZA #7, and RZA's Theme
From: Ghost Dog (Japanese Version) [JVC Japan, 2000]

Hungover and suspiciously aware of those first signs of the flu, a cold and overcast day like today has me searching for a record to soothe the repetitive pounding in my head. A gritty soundtrack to urban decay? A collection of of haunting, claustrophobic beats? An unofficial sequel (sonically speaking) to GZA's Liquid Swords? Enter RZA's original score to Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.

For those late to this magnificient film as I was, I can't recommend it highly enough. Forest Whitaker gives a stunning performance as the deceptively gentle and introspective Ghost Dog, a modern-day samurai who makes a living by carrying out hits for the Italian mafia. I've always been a fan of Jarmusch's bizarre and distinctive visual narratives, but for me, Ghost Dog is the pinnacle of his filmography, in no small measure due to RZA's participation in the project. Wisely, Jarmusch specifically instructed the Wu abbott to compose a score that shared the sound and feel of Rae's Cuban Linx and the aforementioned Liquid Swords instead of the somewhat sterile Bobby Digital material he was into at the time. So RZA (presumably) dusted off his Ensoniq ASR-10 and crafted what I believe is some of the finest music of his career.

The selections here are the stuff Wu diehards go apeshit over, and for good reason. One of RZA's singular contributions to hip hop was his masterful embracement of the limitations of sampling technology: by deliberately extending the length of a sample, he was forced to lower its quality, resulting in the raw, gritty sound he is best known for today. Ghost Dog adheres to that ethos beautifully, and the tracks are painstakingly unquantized to boot; perhaps its only flaw is that the 16 cues here are too brief. The opening theme ("Raise Your Sword") sets the tone effectively: ominous and menacing, RZA places clunky electric piano chords and apocalyptic strings atop a beat based around a percussive metal scraping. "RZA #7" is probably my favorite cue, if only because it's so reminiscent of Black Planet-era Bomb Squad. The nightmarish "RZA's Theme" sounds like something GZA and Masta Killa would absolutely destroy.

Of course, there was a catch: fans of the film's soundtrack understandably purchased what was available at the time (the domestic Sony edition) only to be disappointed to find non-film tracks from Wu satellite members like North Star and La the Darkman (yet questionably missing Killah Priest's "From Then til Now," a key moment in the film) and little of RZA's actual score. A Japanese version of the film's music is available, but fetches outrageous prices on Amazon and eBay, especially considering the length of the disc; phenomenal as the music is, I can't advocate dropping $50 on a CD containing less than 35 minutes of music. (I was fortunate enough to discover a vinyl edition on Razor Sharp Records a year ago.) Suffice it to say if you come across this soundtrack at an affordable price, by all means snatch it up immediately - but take careful note of the track listing.

The RZA has two upcoming soundtracks to be released in the next month or so: The Protector, a collaboration with video game composer Howard Drossin, and music for the upcoming series Afro Samurai on Spike TV. Let's hope one of them bears similarity to the brilliance of Ghost Dog.