2006年 12月 10日 日曜日 20:44
We Have a Map of the Piano
I cannot explain the magic of this song, but saying that it's Icelandic should suffice. It's enough to explain that same magic found in Bjork, Sigur Ros, Emiliana Torrini, Gus Gus, Mugison, Hjalmar (icelandic reggae!), Storsveit Nix Noltes (icelandic bulgarian folk!), etc… Also, for those who are into really unnecessary music trivia, the twin sisters who were members of Mum from the beginning are pictured on the cover of Belle and Sebastian's "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant".
Transpiralo
Sweaty ass Chilean post-punk by way of France. Hard to understand yet somehow vulgar lyrics. I speak Spanish and English and that doesn't really help because I think they just speak Panico. But hey, that's good enough for me. It's truly oh so sexy.
Que sera
A French DJ inspired by much-loved the trip-hop movement of those glorious days we called the 90's. The vocal samples will be familiar to most, but what he does with them is unthinkably amazing and sort of haunting in its own little way.
California Rhinoplasty
Just listening to this track once through without knowing anything about it is pretty awesome, but once you discover that the song was composed almost entirely of samples recorded during cosmetic surgeries all around California and the only real instrument on it is a nose flute, then you can't listen to it the same way ever again.
The Way Young Lovers Do(Live at Sin E)
This is a Van Morrison cover, but stretched out and twisted in a way that only Jeff Buckley could have imagined it. It's really an incredibly dynamic and captivating recording considering it's just one guy and his guitar for just over 10 minutes. Astral Weeks (the original album by Van that this tune comes from) is a great album in its own right, but Buckley's reading may just kick its ass in the same way that his "Hallelujah" came close to kicking Leonard Cohen's ass.
Lost in the Paradise
Caetano recorded his vocal and guitar tracks for this song after being put on house arrest by Brazil's military dictatorship. Why was he on house arrest? Basically, his music (along with that of Gilberto Gil and numerous others) was just too awesome for any dictatorial regime to handle. The whole tropicalia movement had effectively said "fuck you" to fascism in a way that only a bunch of high Brazilian kids ever could have. Lost in the Paradise is tropicalia at its most cryptic, due to the obvious circumstances of him being locked up in his own house, but that's part of what makes it beautiful. Gal Costa also did a version that was trippier, but not quite as emotionally intense.
Absence Heard, Presence Felt
Will Holland once again proving he is thinking about music on a different level than most people. Beautiful.
War
This is not the same Bob Marley material that most soccer moms like, though I am glad that many soccer moms do in fact like Bob Marley and I hope that they start listening to his deeper material because they may be able to get a lot from it. This song is about the international struggle to overcome the racism and ethnocentricity that perpetuate mass exploitation, because without that struggly there will never be true peace. The lyrics were taken from a speech by Haile Selassie. What I get from his philosophy is that whether we are fighting in an actual war or not, a time of relatively 'uneventful' mass oppression is not a time of true peace. We will not know peace until we cease to exploit. In this sense there is as much a war going on in Honduras and Indonesia and other sites of cheap labor and exploitation as there is in Iraq. That is hard to swallow, but it's something we have to do if we are to overcome our society's shortcomings.
Den her sang handler om at fa det bedste ud af det
I'm not going to make a joke about how fucking hard that is to pronounce, but seriously…. yeah. Anyway, this band is very promising. They sort of sound like Blonde Redhead if they did scores for creepy ass Danish noir films. Beautiful arrangements. Not available for streaming, but I got it for free from one of my favorite sites: 3Hive
Coffin for Head of State
I could write an entire essay about this song and its social context, or any number of other Fela songs, but I won't because Fela basically says it all himself. In this song, he calls out the Nigerian General Abasanjo and Lieutenant Colonal Yaradua for committing countless atrocities (among them being the murder of Fela's own mother and the military-ordered devastation of Fela's Kalakuta Republic) while still claiming to be men of religion. The government officials lived luxurious lives while the poor masses were in despair. In the end, Fela and other members of the Movement of the People take a replica of his mother's coffin to the military barracks to confront them with what they have done. Truly a powerful story and a freakin' amazing song to boot. If you have trouble figuring out what he's saying, you can ask me or consult a linguistic approach to fela kuti's lyrics.
The Creator Has a Master Plan
I am not a Christian or of any other sort of organized religious denomination. You may not be either. That really doesn't matter because this song will still put you in a transcendental state at some point during its half hour of tripped out madness. No, it doesn't live up to the fire of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", but I can't think of anything that can. It's still absolutely worth your time, though.
La Ritournelle
Schmaltzy, yes. I'm aware of that. But Andrew, is it the greatest song ever? In my opinion, yes. I am aware that I use the "greatest ____ ever" thing a lot, but seriously, this song is #1 and all the other things I say are #1 are actually tied for #2. This song was enough to make me decide to be Sébastien Tellier for Halloween. Yes, it's that good. He also sort of looks like me but slightly more insane, so it wasn't hard to pull off the whole costume thing. By the way, Tony Allen is a drum God, and he also happens to be on this song.
The Horse
This is my favorite Madlib-produced tune so far, and I've always felt like he should experiment with a little more uptempo stuff because it sounds unstoppable here. I'm undoubtedly biased, though, because I'm one of his few die-hard fans that doesn't get ridiculously high before each listening. Who knows. All I do know is that this sounds like the theme song to some classic 70's TV show with cops and awesome sideburns, which is sweet ass sweet. Too bad it was not a single and didn't get much recognition.
Unspoken
A relatively unknown Austrian singer produced by one of the guys from Dzihan and Khamien, a slightly less unknown but still more or less unknown electronic duo. I had to go through hell to get a hold of her album, but I got it, and it was so worth it. This single is iTunes only and well worth 99 cents.
Since I Left You/Stay Another Season
They are finally, finally coming out with a new album. I am going to wet myself when it comes out. As for these two tracks, they really are two separate songs but they run together immaculately. Each track uses the same vocal sample, but a more or less different chord progression altogether. Both are breathtaking individually, but they truly can't be appreciated to their fullest unless they're together.
You're So Gangsta
Ugh, this is soooo good. I don't understand. How… God… so good. Better than Gunther on the sleaze scale. I'm not even afraid to say it. Thank you Javier for introducing me to this sheer wonder.
You Were There With Me
Since this is my proverbial mix to you, the anonymous reader, I'm going to end it on a soft note because I love you and I love wind chimes too. This song has wind chimes. Or things that sound like wind chimes.
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If any of these songs sound appealing to you, send me a message or e-mail at carfight@gmail.com and I will e-mail them to you. If you want a whole mix personalized for you, I would have a lot of fun doing that too. Music is meant to be shared, not hoarded, so we best start putting out like we was 2 cent ho's. If you have any music you want to share with me, reply to this or message me or do something.
Peace through music,
Andres