Caribbeana Esoterica #1: Spouge

Ahoy, maniacs, and welcome to a new year...of blogging! Which will began the same way last year's ended: with Caribbean music. Even here in L.A. we're suffering from a bad case of weather. Who needs weather, eh? Weather sucks. But this series of posts that we're embarking on today is the feel-good, sunny, party antidote.

Ska? Pshaw! Calypso? Salsa? That stuff's for amateurs. We'll be cruising far beyond Jamaica, Trinidad and Cuba to explore such other exciting rhythms as goombay, punta, boom and chime, and fungi music, among others. No, I'm not making this stuff up. Listening to this awesomely life-affirming music makes me wonder why it's all so unknown. There's a million reggae shows out there - why is the music of other islands ignored? It takes a blog like this one dedicated to the hopelessly obscure to cover 'em.

The all too short-lived spouge music of Barbados is a great example of how to put a unique spin on Afro-Carib rhythms. Listening to this all-killer-no-filler 1973 album makes me realize how cliched and predictable ska and calypso can be, much as I like those styles. The Sam and Dave-like powerful/sweet soul vocal harmonies of The Draytons Two, the intense energy and drive of The Lunar 7 Orchestra (what a great name), the cowbell-driven ka-THUMP-ah, ka-THUMP-ah rhythm, all add up to a ka-ray-zee Caribbean classic.

Aaah, the smell of Raw Spouge

A1		Drink Milk
A2		Tighten Up
A3		Row Boat
A4		Six & Seven Books Of Moses (covering Toots & The Maytalls)
A5		Soul & Inspiration (a Righteous Brothers cover)
B1		Hush Baby
B2		Can't Keep A Good Man Down
B3		I Don't Want To Have To Wait
B4		Too Late
B5		Spouge All The Way

I have another collection of Draytons Two odds-and-ends that I'll be putting up in the near future. So who were these geniuses? No idea. Anyone planning on taking a trip to Barbados, feel free to do some research, won't ya?