On my travels, by the internationalist (2025)

The internationalist is a new studio and remix project, based loosely around global sounds, by Andy from The Oxbow Lake Band (regulars on the scottish festival/venue circuit, bbc6 music funk n soul, radio 2 blues shows, shindig mag etc)

'On my travels' has mixed up world music influences and subjected them to pop and soulful melodies and Technicolor sound filters.

Added to this fairly irreverent sound mix, is a lyrical content reflecting on the human condition, brought into focus from experiences of travelling and also reinforced by spoken words from Mahatma Gandhi and Sorley MacLean (Gaelic poet).

Check out the amazing animated film to go with Uprising on youtube

youtu.be/938fG9_1cr4?si=wWWQ7cSUDV5DeMsL

Based in the north of Scotland

Some comments from Andy;

“I wrote these tunes on my travels or after I returned. They were all influenced by the history and culture of the places visited and I realise now, with hindsight, focused on culture clashes, for example, between East and West, Africa and Colonialism etc.”

“As an traveller, I just tend to absorb the surroundings and I write a lot was I have plenty of time to sit about with my guitar and the songs flood out and a lot of them reflect the surroundings”

“Although ‘The Internationalist’ is an ongoing studio project, I have been kindly helped by various amazing friends and musicians to achieve the vision, notably on this project; On Double bass, Roberto Cassani (on Tracks Yobo Yobo, Liberte, Euro pop Ska!, Uprising, Om Mani Padme Hum and Please leave your egos outside); on Electric bass Mr Kenny McKenzie (On track Mumbai soul) and on Organ , Daryl Short (On track Uprising). All other instruments and vocals, I bashed out myself!”

Cover design by pip! pip! Barry Pease.

Background

Internationalists (or Modernists) were a loose group of aspiring youths, who in the late 50’s and 60’s discovered the coolest in global culture, whether;
• The best global music (from the states rising black music of the blues, jazz and soul or latin or Jamaican Ska etc.)
• The coolest clothes from the past or the present in Italy, American Ivy League etc
• The most accessible 2 wheel transport in the form of Italian scooters
• And generally anything of a certain good taste

This open mindedness to culture, regardless of manmade international barriers, has always inspired me and the ability to assimilate cultures, into a groups or individuals perceptions of good taste.

I am an internationalist and believe that we need to remind ourselves that all cultures have value.

Bit of further background to the tracks;

• Mumbai Soul - I came back from Mumbai and came up with an idea to write a soul tune with an Indian flavour, as if it’d been written for Indian radio to mimic the emerging sounds of soul, in the 60's.
• Euro Pop Ska! – I was in France listening to local radio (when I wrote this tune) and thought it could sound like those cheesy Euro pop radio hits, like you heard in European ski resorts in the 80’s, trying to combine the new hip sound with their euro pop!
• Liberte (Colonial Solder) - A lot of these tunes were written in France (where I get time to play the guitar!) when I was thinking of North African French Colonial soldiers fighting in WW1, gathering in the square of the village to go to the trenches to fight for Liberty in this foreign land.
• Uprising is an Afrobeat remix and a call to revolt! It uses a part of a Sorley MacLean poem about James Connolly and the Easter Risings (The Shirt that was on Connolly), in Scottish Gaelic;

Anns na làithean dona seo
is seann leòn Uladh ’na ghaoid
lionnrachaidh ’n cridhe na h-Eòrpa
agus an cridhe gach Gàidheil
dhan aithne gur h-e th’ ann an Gàidheal,

English translation;
In these evil days
when the old wound of Ulster is a disease
suppurating in the heart of Europe
and in the heart of every Gael,
who knows he is a Gael

• Yobo – Obvious Brazilian influences and was written after a visit to the Americas and seeing first hand, the anger and lawlessness generated from poverty and tried to understand the helplessness and anger.
• Dream time for Coltrane – Is a 12bar blues about john Coltrane (Jazz saxophonist and composer) his spiritual music and it’s meditative qualities.
• Drowning is my take on 'my London'. The city reminds me of my love of mid-60’s beat combo garage bands, just as the world was going psychedelic (about 65 or 66?) that you would of heard on Decca records. Proto Punk!
• Om Mani Padme Hum is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation and the intro uses a sample of Gandhi giving a message in 1931 about spirituality. Which then leads onto 'Please leave your ego outside'.
xxxx

Uprising is a track by The Oxbow Lake Band, where by Andy created this Afrobeat Remix.

On my travels, by the internationalist (2025)

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