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View Poll Results: How Much Did You Enjoy The Album?
Loved it 3 30.00%
Liked it 2 20.00%
Meh 3 30.00%
Disliked it 0 0%
Hated it 2 20.00%
Voters: 10. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 06-03-2018, 05:21 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Default The Album Club: "We Be All Africans" by Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids



Psy-Fi's picks usually go down well. Here's another. Rate, vote, discuss, debate and review here.
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Old 06-03-2018, 06:43 AM   #2 (permalink)
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Some of the songs feel more like sketches than a full picture. The beginning to "Clarion Call" especially. It's going nowhere for most of the track. There's an incredibly basic sliver of an idea that isn't significantly built on. I guess that's what happens when you're just a little too proud of a single little riff.

Nice enough sound quality and the blend of instruments feels novel, but at the same time, some of the jamming feels pretty standard and loses me after a while. Real talk: The worst thing I can think of in music is drum solos. The second worst is aimless jamming.

"Traponga" is little bit of not a lot. I thought it was gonna really start doing something, but then it ended before it got going.

The few more fully realized tracks so far tend enough towards repetition that I suspect they're intended as dance tunes. They'd be fine for that, actually, but I'm getting fidgety trying to listen to this album on it's own.

The last track starts out with a pretty nice vibe going for it, but I'm also reminded how I'm not a massive fan of any of the singers on this album. It was worse in the opening track though - in which I felt like the vocals were constantly, slightly off-key.
Yeah, the last track is fine. I like it. The rest of the album doesn't do a whole lot for me. As an album, this doesn't feel like a substantial musical project, but a half-assed doodle.

8/10 for the last track.
4/10 for the rest of the album.

It's a "meh" from me.
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Old 06-03-2018, 08:57 AM   #3 (permalink)
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Great ensemble-oriented spiritual jazz that doesn't making any glaring missteps. The only sin it commits is it is pulling so hard from the Pharoah Sanders' late 60's sound with a touch of On The Corner-era Miles Davis that it sometimes comes across as pure idol worship rather than trying to do anything that justifies its own existence. But that's where personal perception comes into play: what I just described at criticism could easily be levied at some of style-derivative albums I enjoy in my own favorite genres.

Clarion Call was my favorite cut overall: a freakin' zither of all things showed up in the second half and that's just awesome.

7.5 out of 10
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Old 06-04-2018, 05:48 AM   #4 (permalink)
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Quote:
Clarion Call was my favorite cut overall
Good ear!

This is a direct baton pass from the masters: Art Ensemble of Chicago and Cecil Taylor mostly

You can hear Pharoah Sanders, Fela Kuti, Albert Ayler

Pure as virgin snow - beautiful- soulful

10/10 obviously
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Old 06-05-2018, 08:39 PM   #5 (permalink)
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At first I thought it was just OK. There were things about it that were likable. When I got to track 4. Rhapsody in Berlin, the drums and rhythm guitar reminded of another song. So I went about searching for the song. Didn't find an exact match. My initial hunch was either Look Ka Py Py or Cissy Strut, but let's be realistic those songs are twenty times more funky. Yeah, those songs completely done me in for the night. When I went back to "We Be All Africans" I couldn't take any of it anymore. I should have just stuck to the album, and not wonder off from it trying to figure what song Rhapsody in Berlin reminded me of. So thanks The Meters for ruining this album for me.

meh
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Old 06-05-2018, 08:44 PM   #6 (permalink)
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Maybe you need Prozac

That sounds ocd af
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Old 06-05-2018, 09:00 PM   #7 (permalink)
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Maybe you need Prozac

That sounds ocd af
Why do I need Prozac? Cause track four reminds me of another song? Cause I prefer The Meters over this? Get bent.

I gave it a fair shot. In comparison to other music I realized it was only middle-of-the-road. motr=meh
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Actually, I like you a lot, Nea. That's why I treat you like ****. It's the MB way.

"it counts in our hearts" ?ºº?
“I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion.” Jack Kerouac.
“If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.” Aristotle.
"If you tried to give Rock and Roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'." John Lennon
"I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous." Keith Richards
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Old 06-06-2018, 12:55 AM   #8 (permalink)
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When I hear a motif that I can’t place and drives me nuts I think it’s an ocd thing and it’s one of the few things you can’t google.

I also think you’re lowballing the record but that’s not why I said that and I meant it more as just a joke.
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Old 06-06-2018, 03:48 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Lacks in grammar.
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Old 06-06-2018, 02:57 PM   #10 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by grindy View Post
Lacks in grammar.
It's called "Ebonics" or "Blammar" depending if you are talking about phonics or grammar respectively. "We Be All Africans" is acceptable Blammar. Honestly you should be hip to that fact, and it shouldn't bother you enough where you have to point it out.

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When I hear a motif that I can’t place and drives me nuts I think it’s an ocd thing and it’s one of the few things you can’t google.

I also think you’re lowballing the record but that’s not why I said that and I meant it more as just a joke.
How exactly does one low ball an opinion? Do you believe members of the Album Club 2017 should eschew personal opinions for group think?
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Actually, I like you a lot, Nea. That's why I treat you like ****. It's the MB way.

"it counts in our hearts" ?ºº?
“I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion.” Jack Kerouac.
“If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.” Aristotle.
"If you tried to give Rock and Roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'." John Lennon
"I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous." Keith Richards
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