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Artist: COOPER, MIKE Title: World Slide Format: 12" Label: Ethbo Country: UK Price: $11.00 |
| "Preceding the Killing Melody LP by ten years, this EP was recorded by Mike in the late 90s and originally released on his own CDr label Hipshot. A 500 only pressing, these are the last remaining copies. Mike is a British blues legend. In the early 60s he supported John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Howling Wolf, Son House and many more American blues artists on their UK visits - as well as backing British R&B bands. He honed his guitar skills to later include steel blues and Hawaiian lap steel guitar. From the 80s onwards, he ventured into more avant garde territory and has continued to beat a path somewhere between all these styles. The three tracks here represent his later experiments with lo-fi loops and Hawaiian steel guitar. They were recorded in his kitchen in Rome, on a primitive computer, dumped onto minidisc and then CD. The result is a quiet and multilayered recording. This was a challenge even for Porkys George Peckham to master, but after a few takes, the record was pressed at the old EMI plant, shortly before their machinery was sold off. World Slide and New Hula Slide demonstrate Mikes fusion of the traditional Hawaiian melody with dirty avant garde loops. New Hard Times is a slide guitar and vocal blues, stripped down and angry." -Ethbo |
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Artist: COOPER, MIKE Title: Live At The Hint House Format: LP Label: QBICO Country: Italy Price: $24.00 |
| "Recorded in NYC, 2000. Live At The Hint House might be considered a field recording in as much as it is a recording of an ambience or soundscape. Made on my first ever trip to mainland America to play music this is the 2nd set of that evening, the 1st set had been an acoustic one of songs and slide guitar. At the start of the 2nd set I quickly realized that my guitar was not working and rather than stop and attempt to find out what was wrong I decided to just continue and improvise with what was at hand on the table in front of me. A Casio SK1 sampler keyboard, a Yamaha SU10 sampling unit with some pre-recorded samples loaded, a mini disc with some tropical ambience rec. from Malaysia and a pitch shifter delay pedal. I was not very happy with what happened that night and when Matt Zwed gave me two CD-Rs the next day I dont remember giving much attention to the 2nd set. Five years on, coincidently to the day as I write this, I realized he had captured more than me trying to get through the piece. It was me, the people in the room, the dog that ran around barking, the traffic sounds coming through the door that was open right behind me and a whole host of magically transported tropical birds and insects that suddenly found themselves reciting whatever it was in the loft space on the edge of Harlem, competing or colluding with all of the above to produce a piece of urban exotica." -Mike Cooper |
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Artist: COOPER, MIKE Title: Tu Fuego Format: LP Label: QBICO Country: Italy Price: $24.00 |
| "Jeff Henderson - alto sax; Mike Cooper- lap steel, electronics; Tom Callwood- bass; Anthony Donaldson- drums. Rec. February 2005 live @ Happy, Wellington, New Zealand. Fascinating and one-of-a-kind country western free mUZic." - QBICO. |