Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Blues du Jour

Above all, Tori Kudo’s music reminds me of a strange merging of Nick Drake delicacy and whimsy with Stereolab-influenced pop. I’d never really heard of the group before, so finding out Kudo’s a Jehovah’s Witness was rather interesting, although it was impossible from a once through to detect exactly how this might influence what is something of an eclectic and occasionally “out” blend. It’s as if MSHB took the naivete of the late 60s and early 70s singer songwriter types (evidently Syd Barrett’s a big influence, although as I said the mood is more Nick Drake) and updated it for the techno/British pop generation. The results are certainly idiosyncratic, particularly when the music moves occasionally to a different genre or two with the naivete and gentle accessibility intact. Unique, although maybe not quite to my tastes.

Various Artists - Beyond the Valley of the Dolls OST
Various Artists - Birds Do It

While one of these is a soundtrack and and the other a collection of soundtrack excerpts, both albums plumb the late 60s/early 70s period of psychedelia from widely different musical perspectives. The soundtrack to the Beyond the Valley of Dolls album definitely portrays the mainstream, bubblegum end of the psychedelic spectrum and like with Hair, the classic late 60s group Strawberry Alarm Clock gets a couple tracks, although for my ears this is slightly late for the group. But in comparison to the Lynn Cary and Barbara Robison tracks, they sound quite a bit more out. If this period wasn’t so user friendly for my tastes, an album like this might be something I’d toss aside easily, but SAC broke the incense and peppermints vibe for me when I was 15 years old and even if I can recognize the cheesy and exploitive nature of the music, well at least it’s my cheese.

Birds Do It is an even more fun package featuring instrumental music from 60s and 70s German sex education movies. I recognize less names than I thought I would have, Kristian Schulze being the only one, but almost all of the music has the feel of the era, although perhaps a bit more along the soul or souljazz axis than the pop one. Every one in a few tracks actually gets the energy up and one is left wondering exactly which parts of the movies these various songs back up (short of reading the liners of course). Looking forward to getting back to this one as there’s definitely some impressive stuff her, especially for what was basically library music of a sort.