Surreal Brazil

I haven't been posting much Latin music of late, and I figure I'll start fixing that with some people my friend Linda from Chicago introduced me to.

The music on this track sounds like a classic Tricky cut, and the vocals actually add to the effect (no small feat) even if I'm not entirely sure what it's all about.

Other than that the Copacabana seems to be involved somehow.

Add a most surreal-entertaining video involving dancing and a beach (though the music doesn't start until 33 seconds in) and you've got something well worth spending five minutes of your life to experience.

Otto
"Bob"

Yes, you can be wistfully defiant

Sometimes things go wrong, and you end up listening to sad, wistfully defiant songs over and over and over again.

This is a track with a warm and captivating voice in that vein.

Mirah
"Don't Die In Me"

Vengeance! Politics! Cellos!

The music actually starts at 0:44, so start & pause the video now to avoid the (boring, pointless) intro.

What with the cellos, distorted vocals and pained lyrics, there's an obvious comparison to Rasputina. Which is valid. The key difference, though, is Matson Jones doesn't do the whole Victorian retro thing and comes up with a sound that's less fanciful, more straight up songwriting.

Which is not a bad thing at all.

Matson Jones
"Sympathy"

Electric kalimba!

I wonder if they just inverted MONO to get the name, capitalization and all?

Anyway, this track has good horns. It has good percussion. It has nice African/latin influences. The most striking thing, however, is that it also has an electric kalimba (African thumb-piano), providing a most interesting and gratification accompaniment to the horns/percussion/etc.

NOMO
"Nu Tone"

Minty fresh

On paper, this track is notsogood, what with the new-age-y sweeping synthesizers, a repetitive chime-y synth line that sounds like a first year music student trying to "do" Asian music, and a whole mess of bleepy, scratchy machine-y noises. It walks right up to the edge of suckiness but doesn't go over, but rather lies down to ponder how the fluffy clouds play with the sounds of the ocean below.

The video is busy, but in a most agreeably soothing way.

Mint
"Keiji's Dream"



They're out of Belgium btw.

The science of life and death

Some more classic dub reggae - Scientist was...unique in having a theme for each of his magnificent dub creations. The first one I heard was Scientist Wins the World Cup, followed by Scientist Meets the Space Invaders.

This is off of Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires, one of the greatest, most underappreciated Halloween records of all time.

With a creepy video to boot.

Scientist
"Night of the Living Dead"
Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires

Kokolo on a low note

Went to see Kokolo the day before yesterday, a good show but not much of an audience (partially because it had been raining previously), and like a lot of dancing-focused music, half the charm of afrobeat is bouncing around with a bunch of other people lost in the sounds.

Unfortunate, really.

No video to the video, but they played this tune and it was good stuff.

Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra
"Donkey"

Ethnic-acoustic-Afro-Peruvian lounge

Went to see the last bit of Novalima's free show at Millenium Park yesterday and this song was playing as we came in. This is a folk tune given a facelift (this is a more world-music-y take on the same track). They're actually a lot more electronica-lounge-y than I had thought.

Novalima
"El Machete"

Sonic psychoses

This is one of those tracks that you recognize without necessarily being able to say what it is, exactly. A tribute to the classic quality of The Sonics, I suppose.

Heh, go-go dancing...

The Sonics
"Psycho a Go-Go"

1

MONO has always sounded like soundtrack music to me.

My take on this particular track is none-too-happy, winter-atmospheric soundtrack music - somebody is out in the woods alone, in winter, and then something happens, which gets resolved towards the end as the protagonist returns home.

The difference between good and bad sountrack music is that the good stuff makes you want to make videos.

MONO
"A Thousand Paper Cranes"
Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sky Shined

More than one way to beat a bullet

I was getting ready to do a post on Kokolo, an afrobeat orchestra I have plans to see on Thursday, when I noticed I hadn't mentioned Antibalas here yet.

Which is just wrong.

I've been wanting to see Antibalas for a while, but the geography has never quite worked out. No singing or video on this track, but still well worth a listen.

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra
"Go Je Je"
Government Magic



"Antibalas" is essentially "bulletproof" in Spanish, and the title of the EP, Government Magic, references a Fela Kuti song which (among other things) comments on the apparent magical realism between government accounts and the facts on the ground.

Caution: Contents May Contain Accordion

So once upon a time in Tijuana, a group of musicians heavy into electronic, sample-based music decided to record a bunch of local street musicians and use the samples to make an album. Which they did. This was 1999.

Ten years later and still going strong, two members of the collective put out an album all to themselves.

Not sure how much this will appeal to the non-Mexican-influenced crowd, but if you've lived in Mexico and like your electronic music this is good stuff.

It does contain a fair bit of accordion, though.

Nortec Collective Presents Bostich & Fussible
"Tijuana Sound Machine"

Electrical punk phenomena

Because sometimes you just need a little Australian garage-punk in your life. Unlike many Aussie bands, though, you can very much tell that they come from a land down under.

Plus they rock too.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring
"Get Up Morning"



Nerdy PS: I like the fact that the band's name comes from a part of a machine designed to limit an electromagnetic phenomenon.

Soul puppet no. 1

The beginning guitar line would have earned it a mention - the puppets are just a very large, deliciously triple-sec-marinated cherry on top.

The Greyboy Allstars
"Still Waiting"

SF Pride

This is track is not bad, but unremarkable. Throw in a bear costume, breakdancing and a number of nostalgia-inducing San Francisco scenes, however, and I can´t stop grinning through the whole damn thing.

The BellRays
"Infection"

Fiery raining lava-encrusted death!

Speaking of the Budos Band, here´s another example of their inimitable Afro-Soul stylings, without all that rapping over it this time.

Bonus: 40´s-inspired animation!

Budos Band
"Volcano Song"

Rhymes with café

Wale was supposed to play the Montreal Jazz Fest and subsequently didn´t, but I find it hard to feel too much animosity towards somebody who remixed Seinfeld and produced The Mixtape About Nothing.

Which includes this most excellent track, featuring some nice afrobeat vibes from the Budos Band.

Wale ft. The Budos Band
"The Chicago Falcon Remix"

Joy in the machine

Any song featured as a discovery download on iTunes can't be that underground, but there was such joyful, excited anticipation I couldn´t resist.

Espeically with such an 80's-new-wave-inspired video. (It always reminds me of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" for some reason...)

Passion Pit
"Sleepyhead"

Freedom's just another word

Discovered this songwriter on another podcast, back in Houston.

Always been a big fan of the blues. Buck 65 likes this guy, and who am I to argue with Buck 65?

Al Tuck
"Free Me"
food for the moon

Where's my jetpack?

I was a fan of science fiction as a young lad, and rather enjoyed the stories of robots, climate-controlled cities with a protective bubble shells, rayguns and jetpacks. There's a book all about everything that science fiction promised and the scientists have yet to deliver.

I can't say if the Scottish lads in We Were Promised Jetpacks actually read this book before choosing their name. I can say that I'm rather fond of this song, even if it involves only one person and a guitar. Or, rather, quite possibly because it only involves one person and a guitar.

We Were Promised Jetpacks
"An Almighty Thud" (on Bandstand Busking)

And on the seventh day, you might consider resting

The man bringing you this soulful tune for your Sunday-relax-time enjoyment goes by the name of Boubacar Traore, a classic guitarsman from Mali also known as Kar Kar.

(Spellcheck says "guitarsman" isn't a word, but hell, spellcheck also says "spellcheck" isn't a word).

Boubacar Traore
Just playing at his house, apparently.

Cuuuumbiaaaaaa!

Or electrocumbia, rather. I can't keep still while listening to this.

Back with the Latin vibe, this is a track from one of the founding members of the electrocumbia genre, Bomba Estereo.

Bright cut-out colors? Check.
Traditional beats fused with modern production techniques? Check.
Social consciousness? Check.
Fun to dance to? Oh hells yeah, check.

And the legacy of Manu Chao lives on! (Y'know, I wonder what ever happened to him...)

Bomba Estereo
"Huepaje"

Two dimensional

Also known as Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re, I saw this band open for the Suicide Girls live show in SF a while back, and it seems like they've mellowed some in their old age, as I remember the show being a bit more...crunchy.

Still, this video wins the prize of most joy per dollar (or yen) of production cost.

Tsushimamire
"Air Control Remote Control"

Beleza

Looking in the Village Voice for what to do on my last day in NYC, I found that the Latin Alternative Music Conference was sponsoring a free, live show in Central Park featuring Juana Molina (whom I have mentioned), the Zizek electro-cumbia collective (whom I have also mentioned) and Curumin, whom I had never heard of. The set included a most soulful rendition of "The Message" and a cover of "Beat It" to end.

With lots of good fun in between.

Curumin
"Tudo Bem Malandro"

NYC/Berlin

This somehow feels very New York, even though Barbara Morgenstern is very Berlin.

Go figure.

Barbara Morgenstern
"Operator"

Steal your thunder

Exploding the stereotype of Canadians as polite, well-behaved and innocuous comes Thunderheist with a tune matching a nasty electro line with equally nasty lyrics. (Come to think of it, isn't Peaches Canadian as well?)

Believe it or not, the live show was even nastier (the lead singer has a penchant for Scotch) and much more high-tempo.

Thunderheist
"Jerk It"