2015.06.25 Wizard's Guild

The Wizard's Tower in happier times

5 Players: W, K, I, G
Game:  Woolyverse: Tower of the Wizard's Guild
Location: W
Choice: W



 

Dueling in the Bailey
I'm not sure which one best represents me but that's only because I can't tell who is losing

Round One:

G(33pts), W(32pts), K(25pts) & I(21pts) 

 

Final Tally:

G was declared this week's victor.

 

Enter the Labyrinth at your own peril

 

Notes:

• 3rd win in a row for G for this game
• Relaxing pace meat that we only had time for one game.
• Adhoc game planned for the coming Saturday at K's  

I'll let you guess which player this closely resembles.
Here's a hint: I can't grow a beard.

 

Music Features

Thunderball: Scorpio Rising (2001)

 

[Notes from AllMusic.com] On the heels of their critically acclaimed (and very appropriately titled) debut, Ambassadors of Style, Scorpio Rising is an even more seamless imaginary soundtrack. In Thunderball's world, blaxploitation funk, cinematic soul, bossa nova lounge, downtempo dub, and downtown drum'n'bass all come together to create a hipster vibe few other groups could even aspire to, let alone create. From the Curtis Mayfield tribute of the opening "Heart of the Hustler" and the airy jungle jazz of "Vai Vai" to the ambient, Indian-influenced hip-hop of "Stereo Tonic," these guys blend styles like Esquivel mixes drinks, making this the coolest album you'll hear since United Future Organization disappeared.

 

Various Artists: White Martini (2004)

 

[Notes from AllMusic.com] Subtitled "La Musique Lounge Moderne Deux," White Martini picks up where 2002's left off, serving both as a nicely selected program of contemporary lounge music and downtempo electronica and as an advertisement for Players brand flavored vodka (a recipe for the titular cocktail is included in the liner notes, as is a full-page ad for the booze). Sure, it's maybe a bit crass, but this is lounge music, folks -- a certain degree of crassness is part of its charm. By the time you're halfway through "Riviera Rendezvous," the Ursula 1000 track that opens this album, you'll no doubt be hunting through the closet for your pipe and smoking jacket, and setting up highballs for your guests. Not everything here partakes so explicitly of the esprit de lounge, however; Praful's "Sigh" is straight-up house music with a sighing hint of strings and a smooth saxophone; "Naturally," by Slow Train Soul, is laid-back acid jazz, as is Puddu Varano's gorgeous "Hide Your Ways"; Rafe Gomez contributes a funky and faintly Latin-flavored little number called "Icy." Everything is nicely chilled and goes down smooth.

 

King Tubby Meets Jacob Miller in a Tenement Yard (2006)

 

[Notes from AllMusic.com] The creative talents of two reggae titans converge on this previously ultra-rare, somewhat frustrating but ultimately fine collection. The late King Tubby is generally considered the architect of dub, the practice of stripping the vocals off of a reggae record in the studio, then slicing up the remaining instrumental tracks and pasting them back together in a spacy, stretched-out, echoey, often very trippy pattern to create a new whole that often bears little resemblance to the source material. Some of the greatest dub albums ever recorded have been the work of King Tubby, who had toyed with the music of the late Jacob Miller prior to making this album -- released in Jamaica on a small label and virtually disappearing from circulation -- circa 1976. Most notably, Tubby reworked Miller's "Baby I Love You So" as the title track for the landmark King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown, credited to Augustus Pablo but created alongside Tubby. Miller is best remembered as the lead vocalist for the underrated Jamaican vocal group Inner Circle(in its pre-"Cops" days), but he'd already logged a number of memorable singles on his own before joining that band in 1976, among them "Tenement Yard" and "Forward Jah Jah Children." His quivering, mesmerizing voice was one of the most unique in reggae, and the virtual absence of that voice in Tubby's remixes (except in the first bonus track, "Dub the Weak Heart"), gives them something of an emptiness. Granted, that is the nature of dub; it is largely an instrumental genre that exists to create atmospheres, not to convey lyrics or spotlight human vocals. And on its own terms, the project succeeds: the backing tracks played by the Fatman Riddim Section gave Tubby plenty to work with, and there are some deep grooves within (i.e., "Judgment Yard Dub," which draws on "Tenement Yard"). But although this project is consistently intoxicating overall, King Tubby produced more satisfying work in his lifetime.