Prisms all the way up. Or down.

See what you can do with some echo, solid guitar and bass lines, and a black and white camera?

The Crystal Stilts
"Converging in the Quiet"
Alight of Night

Tradition!

Heard tell that morris dancing is a corruption of "moresque" (or "Moorish") court dances imported from Spain/France and originally using swords (I've seen some traditional dance numbers in Mexico involving machetes and they are most entertaining indeed).

Though the tunes were less kickass than what they've got backing this number courtesy of the good Mr. Four Tet. Good beats for whatever ails ya.

Four Tet
"As Serious As Your Life"
Rounds



Next: Crystal clear.

DF pride

This is the Mexico City anthem, from a Mexico City band named after a historic cafe.

I lived in Mexico City for years and picked up on maybe a third of the (copious) slang terms used in this song - those who speak no Spanish will be less inconvenienced than they might imagine.

Cafe Tacuba is a quirky band and this track is no exception. Witness the obvious alliteration, the...unique character of the lead singer's vocals (he changes his name with every album...seriously...), and the fabulous old-school stylings of the video.

It's like the band went to art school and made a 50's inspired song-then-video about street-level life among 25 million people.

Funny what can trigger nostalgia.

Cafe Tacuba
"Chilanga Banda"
Avalancha de Exitos



Next: No...seriously...

Beastly

Richie Ray & Bobbie Cruz are salsa legends, and this was supposedly their 1991 "farewell performance" (big hair and all). The keyboards are solid, the horns groove, the vocals sound like salsa vocals should sound but the song is about the awesomess of Richie Ray, percussionist, on the timbales. Thus the most important bit is the timbal solo at the end.

(Geeky aside: Spanish forms the plural by adding "-es" so you can tell that the Spanish "tamal" came into English in the plural as it's been singular-ized to "tamale" in English).

I seem to recall reading or hearing somewhere that they have since gotten back together (they might even be touring). This is them at the top of their game.

Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz
"Sonido Bestial"
Live World Salsa Festival 1991



Next: To live (and not die) in Mexico City.

Back to your Roots

Roots Manuva is among the better known UK rappers, with a sound that borrows more from dub reggae than the Motown/funk/soul classics that stateside rappers tend to appropriate. This is 10 years old and it shows, but still good times.

Fair to say that this is an idea that only the good Mr. Manuva could pull off.

Roots Manuva
"Witness"
Run Come Save Me



Next: The Sound of the Beast

I insist

No tricks, no bells, no whistles. Just a solid, good ole fashioned rock song with an good ole fashioned-looking video to go with it.

Y'all enjoy now, y'hear?

Tapes 'n' Tapes
Insistor
The Loon



Next: Roots! Dub! Gym class!

Space! Liquids! Awesomeness!

This track manages to be simultaneously breathless, earthy, space-y/sci-fi/digital and urban-ironic. No small feat for a song featuring a video about drunk people.

Both the special effects and the outfits are a tad dated, but I think the track itself has held up nicely over the last few years.

Junior Boys
"In The Morning"
So This Is Goodbye



Next: You can never have enough tape.

To have & have not

A better take on the Hair tune than the original, as one might expect from Nina Simone.

The way she delivers this song is very Harlem 1969. The original reads off the "ain't got no" list with defiance, the implication being that he chose to live without as a protest against some system or other.

Nina Simone delivers the same lines less enthusiastically, more quiet determination than melodrama. The feeling is more "ain't never had no" rather than "ain't got no" and you could tack on a "and we demand justice" for good measure at the end.

Nina Simone
"Ain't Got No"
Live in Harlem, 1969



Next: Drunk people!

The median

Josh Pyke is Australian. I first heard this song December '07; just found out he was at SXSW but didn't investigate much further since the rest of the songs on the EP weren't nearly as good as this one.

That doesn't mean this isn't a very good song, though, almost despite itself.

Josh Pyke
"Middle of the Hill"
Feeding the Wolves EP



Next: Nina Simone.

Boom!

This track seems to still be in the idea stage - a lot of room to play with the sounds left. A fairly good representation of the Boom Bip sound. Eerie & haunting; short & sweet.

Boom Bip
"In The Tree Tops"



Next: The middle path.

Fly away with me...in the night...

This is an El-P/Trent Reznor collaboration; it sounds exactly like an El-P/Trent Reznor collaboration. Dissonant noise - check; commentary on the less pleasant parts of modern living- check; interplay between keys, guitar, orchestration: check. It even comes complete with a dark, surreal and distopian video.

The whole mocking-of-Scientology angle is just a little bonus.

El-P ft. Trent Reznor
"Flyentology"
I'll Sleep When You're Dead



Next: Boom! Bip!

Access denied

I find this video more interesting than the track it accompanies, even with the quite excellent chorus. The rest of the track is solid Aesop Rock but the chorus stands out even by his standards.

Exactly what's this video (much less the song) all about? Not sure. Not sure that it matters.

Aesop Rock
"None Shall Pass"
None Shall Pass



Next: So El-P and Trent Reznor fall out of a plane...

A project by any other name

"Solvent" works quite well as a name, with nods to artificial/man-made nature of the project, the process of dissolving things and mixing them together, and the psychoactive properties of (for example) paint thinner.

All classic blippy synthpop with the addition of post-production vocal "scratching" - something that works better than usual.

Solvent
"Black Turtleneck"
Solvently One Listens



Next: Fables and passage.

Distinguished clientele

The Clientele are all about expansive, lush echo-drenched rainy-day/really stoned tunes. Not the sort of thing to go jogging to, but excellent for slowing things down a little. This particular track is short, sweet and expansive, delicious as a long siesta after paella and red wine. Only minus the calories.

The Clientele
"6 AM Morningside"
Suburban Light



Next: Airing dirty laundry.

Liminal

Cokemachineglow.com thinks "the glitch production providing a stirring atmosphere to the sparse underlying piano" is good, and "waves of synths blend in and out to mimic a vocal melody that never appears" is also good, and who am I to argue?

The video mimics said production by being captivating-ly amateurish (dig the quick cuts timed to the snares).

No words to this track. Still a fan. Happy St. Paddy's day.

B. Fleischmann
"Pass By"
Welcome Tourist



Next: Supreme clientele!

Oh, Boards of Canada!

Boards of Canada are deservedly well known as among the OG of ambient electronic music.

No, they're not from Canada, but it's good stuff nonetheless - even better at around 1:45 when the twinkly intro leads into to the track proper. All dark and dreamy and dense, with images to match courtesy of a a bicycle safety video from what looks to be the 60's.

Beware the mounted monkey men!

Boards of Canada
"Everything You Do Is a Balloon"
Boc Maxima



Next: On the road again...

Get a lil' soul in ya life...

Sam & Dave
"Hold On, I'm Comin'"

Sam & Dave are one of the bedrock artists in the world of soul. The Blues Brothers covered some of their tunes, most notably "Soul Man" and this one right here.

Yeah, the video doesn't quite track the audio, but it's been modified to work. More or less. And the music is the important thing, no?

Incidentally, I'm surprised such a classic horn line hasn't been hip hop-appropriated yet.



Next: I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...

La verdad y la justicia, a lo mexicano!

This is one of those few occasions where I actually like the video more than the song it's based on. It's not that the song is bad, rather that after living in Mexico I have a soft spot in my heart for old lucha libre movies (this is all a pastiche of the old Santo flicks). Dig the mariachi outfits too, goes well with the sounds-and-sight ambiance.

Noah and the Whale
"Shape of My Heart"
Peaceful The World Lays Me Down



Next: Soul power!

Working the angles

Aw, yeah, it's karaoke time!

The Decemberists are well-known for their lyrics, and in this song there's a useful ambiguity to them - it's readily apparent that you can get "angels" from "angles" readily enough, but what that means is quite open to interpretation. This tells me a very different story now than the first time I heard it, and that's a good thing. One of those songs that grows with you.

(Incidentally, when I was teaching English I had this song in my head a lot. "English" is derived from the Angles (as in Anglo-Saxon), and I kept all my teaching-English stuff in the "Angles" folder.)

Not really a rousing karaoke number, but still good to sing along with once in a while.

The Decemberists
"Of Angels and Angles"
Picaresque



Next: Lucha libre!

gonna wrap you up in my song, all over

when i think of covers, a couple of things pop into my head. it always seems like the best ones are those that wrap you around into a different mood than that of the original song. therefore, the best covers for me are those accomplished artists who can cover an already brilliant song by tainting it with their own kind of music. it just wraps you up. rufus wainwright, for example, does an amazing "hallelujah" (jeff buckley, of course) and a fantastic "hotel chelsea" (leaonard cohen). but here's one that surpasses everything, the ultimate cover. of course, everone knows this is not a tori amos song, but it feels like hers.



notice the way she moves around her waist on the bench? love it.

stat!

Travel

Veronica comes in today for an 11-day visit, so a song about travel and geography seemed appropriate.

Stories about difficult voyages always have potential - you could probably turn this song into a movie fairly easily. There's also a heartfelt sound in the music, the result of vocals, keys and guitar playing extremely well together (I had to listen closely to notice the interactions) and excellent use of minor vs. major keys.

Here's a quite different take on the "trying to get back" idea...

Deer Tick
"These Old Shoes"


Next: Celestial geometry.

The Kids are all right

So this is a song about being cool by Chicago-based Cool Kids. Other than excellent use of 80's-era sounds (and much, much bass), The Cool Kids are interesting because they're the first step towards something that had to evolve eventually: indie-kid hip hop.

There's still a fair amount of swagger, but it's hard to imagine anybody else in hip hop bragging about Fruity Pebbles, Star Wars belts, Sega Genesis (with Street Fighter, no less) and bikes-as-in-bicycles. It's the same ironic, hipster-cool that's a big part of indie, only with massive, massive bass.

The Cool Kids
"A Little Bit Cooler"
Totally Flossed Out


Next: Inappropriate clothing while traveling in the woods can lead to insect bites.

Keeping mum

Icelandic is my favorite language.

I remember being a big fan of the Icelandic version of Sugarcubes songs when I was in high school, and (her eccentricities aside) I always thought that Bjork's accent was pretty cool. Had a few opportunities to listen to Icelandic people speak Icelandic among themselves while I was in SF and always rather enjoyed it.

So the recent financial collapse of Iceland (Q: What's the capital of Iceland? A: About $4.60) actually caught my attention, and I somehow know that Iceland has recently become the first country to have an openly gay head of government.

Mum are from Iceland. Like their more famous compatriots Sigur Ros and Bjork, they have an relatively unorthodox approach to music. There's a certain amount of glitchiness in the sound, but the focus is on aesthetics - dreamy, light and airy prettiness. And the accent doesn't hurt either.

mum
"Green Grass of Tunnel"
Finally We Are No One



Next: Fruity Pebbles: not gangster at all.

Eye of the tigress

For a while I thought Marnie Stern was a Japanese band (or at least a band with a Japanese singer along the lines of Deerhoof or Asobi Seksu) due to the staccato, choppy-in-a-good-way quality of the sound and the high pitch of the vocals.

But no, Marnie Stern is a most decidedly white New York "experimental rocker." And this track sounds like what would happen if you sped up an American Idol-appropriate pop song and took out large chunks of it to save time. Appropriately enough, the video is a hilarious retelling of Rocky boiled down to three minutes (the actual music doesn't start until about 40 seconds in).

I can't tell exactly what she's singing (except for that bit about "ruler of the world") but I'm inclined to agree with whatever it is regardless, I'm so inspired.

Marnie Stern
"Ruler"
This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That


Next: The wonders of Icelandic.

Manners maketh man, and woman

This song has been rattling around my head of late. The Bird & The Bee are bringing back some of the better parts of the 60's aesthetic, including the vocal style of their lead singer. The verse and the chorus also seem to be completely different songs, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were composed separately - the keyboard chords in the chorus sound like refugees from an UNKLE or Radiohead track while the quasi-kaleidoscope sounds in the verse might have been put together by Cafe Tacuba.

I'm actually not a big fan of the video, it tends to distract from the lyrics and their delivery - simultaneously wistful, offhand and bored. A cute, clever idea executed in a cute, clever fashion.

And with excellent manners.

The Bird & The Bee
"Polite Dance Song"
Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future



Next: Like a Rocky.

The possessive

Rachel's (yes, the possessive is part of the name) nestles comfortably in the gap between classical and indie/post-rock, writing either classically-influenced songs or song-length classical pieces; it's one of those figure/ground perception things.

This track is from the soundtrack to a "theatrical dance production" on the life of Egon Schiele they did a while back. Perfect music for reading in a comfy chair on a rainy afternoon.

Rachel's
Wally, Egon and the Models in the Studio
Music for Egon Schiele


Next: Ray guns!

Sublime

Electronic music has a notsogood reputation in some quarters. Zahira (again, my cousin-in-a-band) is a not-fan of M.I.A., and I'm guessing it's because:

A) The melody takes a back seat to the rhythm.
B) There's some degree of repetitiveness (see A).
C) There's a not insignificant amount of exuberant distortion.

That opinion is understandable as the sound of her band (again, Wild Moccasins) leans towards melodic, jingly-jangly indie-pop, but both are good stuff if that's the kind of thing you're into.

Likewise, this track isn't going to change anybody's opinions about electronic music. It's a little repetitive, it sacrifices melody for rhythm and it is not without distortion - solid warehouse/open field/desert-at-3 AM electronic music, not really about anything per se, but it kind of draws you in for the ride. Your humble commentator at times finds myself head-a-nodding, suddenly realizing more than a few minutes have passed.

Plus how can you say no to 7+ minutes of Wacky Races?

The Field
Everday
From Here We Go Sublime


Next: Biography in piano, violin and cello.

The executive summary leaves out a lot

The Books are simultaneously folky and electronic, accenting their live shows with old-school visuals produced by high-tech equipment.

I tend to read everything I come in contact with (menu-back restaurant histories, ingredients, the fine print on boarding passes), so I have a tendency to get sucked into this video.

Listen a couple of times, though, and it's a soothing, overly-complicated song about how people deal with the interconnected complexities of life, and how it's all tends to work out if you don't over-complicated it.

Thought it's entirely possible I'm reading too much into it.

The Books
"Smells Like Content"
Lost And Safe


Next: Taking the field.

Add it up

Volatility is a part of life (and international finance).

After the good times, faced with a center falling apart, staring into sound and fury (and understanding nothing), it may seem like a good idea to pretend and fake the books until the cycle turns around.

Sometimes, it actually is.

Lali Puna
"Faking the Books"
Faking the Books



Next: The Books.

Music therapy

I don't know much about Lykke Li other than that she's probably Scandinavian and has a remarkable wide-eyed, open hearted innocence, even for a Scandinavian.

I think anybody who cares about their music knows that notes do things that words can't: a Bach fugue, an old Hank Williams 45, a 25-piece salsa orchestra, the calls of a drum & bass vocalist or the guitar of a hippie-chick on a corner all have sounds that move you to move.

Nerdy to the core, I loved a recent Economist article on the role of music in evolution. It starts with a Shakespeare quote, “If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it” and I thought of that article when I first heard this song - there is something about the motion and sound that ends up written in the air, and there is something about this song that seems to make her pretty cute.

Lykke Li
"Dance Dance Dance"
Youth Novel


Next: Accounting fraud!

Sweet dreams are made of other things

Black Milk seems to have taken up J Dilla's mantle as Detroit's resident creator of lush, motown-flavored, meticulously orchestrated production, putting together tracks for himself, Invincible, and Elzhi, among others. The lyrics in this track are interesting enough but nothing like the music - I'd almost prefer instrumentals of a good chunk of recent Detroit hip hop. It's that good. (So good, as a matter of fact, it doesn't need any actual video in the video...)

Elzhi
"Talkin' In My Sleep"
The Preface



Next: Dance music!

Along for the ride

Another fairly well-known song by a fairly well-known artist (to the point that the upcoming Iggy Pop biopic is entitled The Passenger), but another listen never hurts with such a classic track. Especially if (as is your humble commentator) one is a fan of old black and white Hollywood motion pictures.

Iggy Pop
"The Passenger"
Lust For Life


Next: To sleep...perchance to dream...