Day 0732 - Devotional Songs

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party "Devotional Songs" (1992)

The list yet again throws up a little surprise.  In amongst the grunge, hip hop and electronic albums populating much of this part of the 1001; suddenly an album of devotional ragas sung in a passionate, strong voice with a fantastic range.

I would say that the only annoyance was that this was that it was another of those albums that was hard to track down.  I had to piece it together using a collection of youtube clips.  At one point I accidentally clicked the wrong link and ended up listening to a full uninterrupted half hour performance of one of these songs.   It's a credit to the music (a) that I didn't notice it had been going on that long, (b) that it held my interest throughout, and (c) that Fateh and his group seem to be able to maintain their intensity across a half hour of non-stop music!

Day 0516 - Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren "Duck Rock" (1983)

Having become well known through his involvement in the punk scene (in particular, his management of the Sex Pistols); McLaren was keen to translate that notoriety into pop stardom for himself.

McLaren teamed up with producer Trevor Horn, who was given a reasonable amount of creative control due to McLaren's lack of musicality and specific direction for how the album should be.  The book states that such was McLaren's lack of musical ability that he had to have Horn slapping him in time to the beat of the music to keep his vocal delivery in time.

Music from various nationalities was brought into the mix along with McLaren's interest in the nascent hip-hop and turntablism scene.  The resulting tracks could be seen as a precursor to the world music craze that would later arise.