Review: The Zydepunks - Exile Waltz
Posted on 17 January 2008 | No Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, World Music
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Things began this morning just as they do most weekdays. I got up way too late, showered, quickly got dressed, and kissed my still sleeping wife before grabbing a Diet Coke, a multivitamin, two Omega-3 fish oil capsules, and heading out the door into the cold cruel world. (Really, it was pretty cold this morning). Anyhow, I flipped on NPR since I forgot (as I often do) to grab my Zune off one of the living room side tables and heard some interesting talk about steroids in baseball and Roger Clemens, the U.S. military’s involvement in Iraq, and even a short conversation with former Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. It was all good and well, but just sorta blah. On a cold January morning where gray skies just seem to flatten the already plain landscape, I just needed a little something more to wake me up. This would have done the trick.
Seriously though, Exile Waltz from The Zydepunks is a raucous blast of gypsy punk gumbo straight from New Orleans. The band creates a melange of Cajun-inspired zydeco-folk filled with fiddles, accordions, and more. Almost like Beirut at Dragonforce like speeds.
MP3 | The Zydepunks – Boudreaux Crosses The Danube Exile Waltz
MP3 | The Zydepunks – Ma Tisere Exile Waltz
Review: Swaggerin' Growlers - The Bottle And The Bow
Posted on 29 December 2007 | 2 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Punk, World Music
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WI’m no expert when it comes to Celtic/Irish anything since I’m not of Irish heritage. I have (however) been listening to my fair share of Celtic-influenced music. Everyone likes The Pogues, but a record I’ve really been digging lately is from the Boston, Massachusetts based Celtic folk-punk band the Swaggerin’ Growlers. As to be expected, the band uses traditional Celtic instrumentation like fiddles, tin whistles, accordions, and mandolins accompanied by a fast-paced punk rock rhythm section and rough-edged vocals. Sorta like Flogging Molly or (perhaps even) the Dropkick Murphys.
I’d been meaning to post this for awhile now, but I was reminded that I needed to post about this album after unearthing “Fairytale Of New York” from my library of Christmas songs. Anyhow, The Swaggerin’ Growlers’ debut album The Bottle And The Bow is fast, frenetic, and just plain fun. As to be expected, it is great music to down a pint to and drown your sorrows with and also great for jigging around the living room. So by the boys and girls another round and and stumble out onto the dance floor.
NOTE: Songs below don’t seem to be streaming. You can D/L and listen, but I’m in Pennsylvania right now so deal with it.
MP3 | Swaggerin’ Growlers – Barley Boys The Bottle And The Bow
MP3 | Swaggerin’ Growlers – Dover Tenement The Bottle And The Bow
Review: Mocean Worker - Cinco de Mowo (or) five is a magic number
Posted on 25 June 2007 | No Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Electronic, Jazz, World Music
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Have you heard the latest from Mocean Worker (pronounced Motion Worker)? Well, on Cinco de MOWO! (his fifth album as Mocean Worker) producer Adam Dorn takes upbeat jazz, funk, and big band brass stabs and adds hip-hop style beats and production to create a danceable fusion of old and new sounds.
The grooves are tight and Dorn’s samples intertwine effortlessly with the killer chops of of such jazz notables as Rashaan Roland Kirk, Herb Alpert, and Marcus Miller. It is an all-out party album that is full of life and sounds just like a sweaty summer night. Cinco de MOWO! will be released tomorrow via MOWO’s own label.
MP3 | Mocean Worker – Shake Ya Boogie Cinco de MOWO!
MP3 | Mocean Worker – Changes (ft. Herb Alpert) Cinco de MOWO!
Review: Erik Mongrain - Fates (or) French is a language I don't understand
Posted on 3 June 2007 | 1 Comment
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Folk, World Music
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Erik Mongrain is a self-taught French-Canadian guitar player that absolutely shreds. On his recently released debut full-length Fates Mongrain demonstrates the percussive two-handed tapping technique he calls “air-tap” that makes an acoustic guitar emit tones I never thought it could. Its like Van Halen meets James Taylor; furious but soothing. Fates is an album brimming with virtuosic performances, but for all the technical wizardry demonstrated by Mongrain, he also knows when to slow down and let his music and the melodies breathe. I could get lost in it and (IMHO) that’s the most impressive part.
Check out this You Tube clip below of him playing in his signature air-tap style. As a guitar player myself, I think it is pretty amazing. Fates is due out June 27th on Propahse Music/ MVD and is something you need to check out.
MP3 | Erik Mongrain – PercusienFa Fates
MP3 | Erik Mongrain – Air Tap! Fates
Review: The Jai-Alai Savant - Fight Of The Bass Delegate (or) Scarlett Johansson why don't you love me
Posted on 2 May 2007 | No Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Indie Rock, Noise, World Music
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Ahh yes. Flight Of The Bass Delegate is the debut full-length from the Chicago-by-way-of-Philadelphia group called The Jai-Alai Savant. It is full of danceable dub and reggae-influenced proto post-punk that has taken my iPod by storm. The music on Bass Delegate (in some ways) is reminiscent of The Eternals’ latest album Heavy International, but is more straightforward and pop-oriented. Even so, there are some meandering dub jams that are simply otherworldly. I mean, who doesn’t love the horns? There are also moments that rock with the same punkish guitar punch and angular skronk that Fugazi made famous.
Is it a dance record? Is it a post-punk record? Is it a dub record? Yes. Bass Delegate is all of the above and more. It is an eclectic and adventurous album that refuses to adhere to conventions. The Jai-Alai Savant is unafraid of making challenging and scorching music that also has catchy hooks. Because of this the first album I instantly thought to compare it to was The Clash’s sprawling masterpiece Sandinista. You know I think highly of it.
Recently frontman Ralph Darden (formerly of Philly reggae hardcore band Franklin) seems to have found a steady group of band mates, but on Bass Delegate also gets contributions from members of The Eternals, Mars Volta, The Watchers, and more. I really really like this record a lot. It is really refreshing to hear a band that is confident enough to make music that is hard to define but easy to love. Flight Of The Bass Delegate is available now from the highly bitchin’ Gold Standard Labs.
MP3 | The Jai-Alai Savant – Scarlett Johansson, Why Don’t You Love Me? Flight Of The Bass Delegate
MP3 | The Jai-Alai Savant – Transmission From The Delegate Flight Of The Bass Delegate
Review: Canpamento Nec Nec - Presenta Alimana (or) nec nec in a tom tom bang
Posted on 23 December 2006 | No Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Emo, Punk, World Music
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Molly Neuman is a founding member of the riot grrrl band Bratmobile and is also a co-owner of Lookout! Records. She (however) is now focusing on her brand new label called Simple Social Graces Discos. Which was (according to Neuman) started “to promote the most exciting emerging artists from the global underground.”
One of those emerging artists is Spain’s Campamento Nec Nec. They are a band that plays some seriously crazy (and I mean crazy) but really outstandingly awesome music. And while I should probably stop there, because words can’t really describe this, I won’t.
Spastic like Deerhoof and disjointed like Cap ‘n Jazz is a good tarting point. From there virtually unintelligible vocals and furious drumming that stops as quickly as it begins emerges from the glorious wreckage that is Presenta Alimana. Rhythmically and sonically dense, the sounds that Campamento Nec Nec spit out come so fast, it is hard for your ears to make sense of it all. I don’t mean to imply any real level of dissonance, but whenever that tiny fragmented bit of melody finds you, its like pure magic. Maybe what They Might Be Giants would sound like covering the Locust. A far fetched maybe. I’ve heard that this might appeal to fans of influential Spanish emo hardcore band A Room With A View, but that means nothing to me.
MP3 | Campamento Nec Nec – Corteza Mandril Presenta Alimana
MP3 | Campamento Nec Nec – Pinata Presenta Alimana
Review: Headland - Un Monde Imaginaire (or) going to the sun
Posted on 6 November 2006 | No Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Folk, World Music
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When my father went out west earlier this year, he and my step mom made a trip to Montana’s Glacier National Park and its neighbor to the north, Waterton Lakes Provincial Park in Canada. At a small Italian restaurant in Waterton, they caught a live set from a little group called Head Land and picked up their CD.
I know virtually nothing about this French-Canadian guitar duo and have been able to find almost zero (and I mean nothing) about this group on the internet even after an extensive search. Now the only artifact I have from Head Land is a CD-R that contains their album Un Monde Imaginaire, so all I can tell you about is the music.
The music can be gentle and beautiful but oftentimes has an underlying moody ferocity. The percussive sounds they manage to coax from their instruments using their unique finger tapping technique are almost tribal and conjure images of bloodshed on the frontier. Like the soothing sounds of a babbling brook, Head Land’s music is meditative without being new-agey.
While I long to see the majestic landscapes that dominate the West, at least I have Head Land’s Un Monde Imaginaire to keep my ears happy. Below are all the songs from the album.
MP3 | Head Land – Nuit Blanche Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – Cap-E-L Anse Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – Danse St. Georges Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – Quartier De Lune Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – Chevy Ride Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – Dead On The Trail Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – Malgre Tout Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – Bleu Un Monde Imaginaire
MP3 | Head Land – La Premiere Un Monde Imaginaire
Review: Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (or) postcards from across the atlantic
Posted on 31 October 2006 | No Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Indie Rock, World Music
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First, congratulations to Nate from Bethesda, MD who is the lucky winner of the signed copy of the new Ben Folds album Supersunnyspeedgraphic album. You lucky bastard!
Secondly, if I had a dollar for every time I missed the “next big thing,” I’d be at least a few bucks richer. When all you other bloggers said that Beirut’s album Gulag Orkestar was phenomenal a few months back, you were right. Now for those that don’t already know, Beirut is the creation of 20-year-old Santa Fe native Zach Condon and friends. Beirut creates old-world Eastern European influenced (but totally pop) soundscapes that are brought to life by mandolins, ukuleles, accordions, violins, trumpets, ragged percussion, and (even) some unexpected electronics. It evokes images of Balkan gypsys in medieval times. Images of the rise and fall of the Hapsburg Empire. Images of my grandparents in pre-WWII Germany that I’ve only seen in worn, tattered, and faded photographs that have long since seen better days.
As my wife commented, the music “sounds old.” In this case (however) it is a good thing. The melodies often sound decades (if not centuries) old and despite having a festive flair, the songs are strangely mournful and sorrowful. The largely indecipherable vocals somehow manage to be very personal and (like the music itself) has a huge emotional resonance with me. This is the celebratory music of the downtrodden; of peasants. Its ultimately simple music conveying complex emotions that are totally applicable in these modern times that is (unexpectedly) made by a guy from the Southwest.
Gulag Orkestar is a brilliant album full of marches, near-waltzes, and (gasp!) eclectic indie-pop. Out now on Ba Da Bing Records and highly rec’d by CYSTSFTS.
MP3 | Beirut – Postcards From Italy Gulag Orkestar
MP3 | Beirut – Brandenburg Gulag Orkestar
Review: Goran Ivanovic Group - Balkan Songs (or) the most vicious crime around
Posted on 3 October 2006 | No Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, World Music
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The Goran Ivanovic Group is a pan-cultural quartet that (for now) calls Chicago home. Their music (as stated by Goran) has been inspired by the beautiful folkloric music of the Balkans (focusing on Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Serbia). More musically interestingly (though) the band also fuses modern jazz with Balkan roots music and creates a sound like nothing you’ve probably heard.
On the group’s full-length Balkan Songs, roughly half the songs are modern arrangements of traditional Balkan songs, while many of the others are original Ivanovic compositions originally intended for solo guitar that have since been fully orchestrated for the band. Ivanovic (and the rest of the band) showcase their technical prowess and (Goran especially) a passion for flamenco music. This is not typical CYSTSFTS fare, but I really enjoy this album and think you might as well.
MP3 | Goran Ivanovic Group – Blacksmith’s Dance Balkan Songs
MP3 | Goran Ivanovic Group – White Walls Balkan Songs
Review: Nomo - Nu Tones (or) picking up what i'm putting down
Posted on 26 September 2006 | 3 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Jazz, World Music
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If you feel like dancing, I’d highly recommend putting a copy of the latest NOMO record, Nu Tones on the stereo and turning it way up. The Ann Arbor based band plays some great polyrhythmic Afrobeat with free jazz influences that is punctuated by sharp brass stabs and a funky low-end. And while I’m not really schooled in this type of music, I do know that it is ridiculously good.
“NOMO performs a style of Afrobeat heavier on the jazz influences (without neglecting the funk or African musics) and lightly touching on electronic play. The group could be a dissection specimen for a look at the confluence of various sounds in a new setting, but what you really need to know is that its new album will get you moving, even if (perhaps especially if), you’re more used to sitting and nodding your head to post-bop sax solos.” – Pop Matters
Nu Tones is out now on Ubiquity Records. Can u dig it? RIYL: YNQ, Pharoah Sanders, afro-pop, etc…
MP3 | Nomo – Nu Tones Nu Tones
MP3 | Nomo – Hand And Mouth Nu Tones
Review: Rodrigo y Gabriela - Rodrigo y Gabriela (or) decadent and deprived
Posted on 18 September 2006 | 1 Comment
Filed Under: Album Reviews, World Music
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Last week or the week before I got a copy of the forthcoming CD from Rodrigo y Gabriela. I was actually a bit hesitant to listen, but as soon as the first few furious flamenco-esqe tones hit my speakers, I was hooked. The duo’s music is instrumental that weaves Latin harmonies around a percussive “fusion” of rock and classic flamenco-esqe music. Their heavy metal roots also show through (at times) in both style and composition and has to be heard to be fully appreciated. Rodrigo y Gabriela’s sound has such a percussive punch that it oftentimes sounds like much more than just two musicians with acoustic guitars. They also do amazing covers (on the album) of “Stairway To Heaven” and Metallica’s “Orion.” This is easily one of the best albums I’ve heard all year and will leave you speechless.
The debut CD from these two Mexicans by way of Dublin is due out October 3rd on ATO Records (also the home of MMJ and David Gray). They are also on tour in the US, so go check them out if you can.
MP3 | Rodrigo Y Gabriela – Tamacun S/T
MP3 | Rodrigo Y Gabriela – Diablo Rojo S/T
Review: The Mars Volta - Amputechture (or) hush the wind the music died
Posted on 11 September 2006 | 2 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Noise, Post Rock, World Music
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Amputechture. A combination of the words amputate and architecture, but (even so) what does it mean? Is it a reference to designing and engineering artificial limbs? Maybe constructing structures from leftover body parts? Perhaps we can all find out by listening the The Mars Volta’s adventurous third full-length album conveniently titled Amputechture.
The music of The Mars Volta is the creation of Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (both ex-members of post-hardcore mega stars At The Drive-In). But it is (in most ways) almost completely dissimilar to the work of their former band. Both musics are intense and impassioned, but musically speaking (as most of you know), The Mars Volta has jumped headfirst off the ledge. Amputechture is even more far-out than their last studio album Frances The Mute (an impressive accomplishment indeed).
Amputechture is not an easy listen. The first time I put it on the stereo, I eagerly anticipated the end of the record for a little aural and mental relief. I couldn’t (and still really can’t) wrap my head around the album. Gone are the concise (relatively speaking) songs from De-loused. The interludes have gotten longer and the freakout jams have grown more intense. When you think a song should naturally end, it doesn’t. To even think in terms of songs will simply confuse you more. Blending elements of rock, dub, Latin music, free jazz, funk, flamenco, and more, the Mars Volta creates a complex, cacophonous, and oftentimes chaotic album, but is it necessary? Is it all gratuitous?
At first, I kept thinking that Amputechture had devolved into pretentious sonic noodling and guitar wankery. It seemed to me that Omar & Cedric had become a little too free-spirited without Jim Ward (former ATDI guitarist and current Sparta frontman) to impart a little structure on the songs. But I kept listening, and then listened some more. I heard horns blaring in a wash of squelching feedback. I heard the psychedelic dissonance of John Frusciante’s ever-present guitar riffage. I heard a lot that I had a hard time fully making sense of.
I like fee jazz as much as the next guy (OK, probably more than the next guy), and like so many great albums and great artists of that genre, The Mars Volta’s Amputechture can be a difficult and exhausting listen. The music takes time to seep into your mind and into your soul, but once you finally “get it” the music becomes magical, almost like an escape from reality. This is a rich, dark, and complex album that is like treasure chest filled with the world’s greatest riches. But it’s up to you to find the key.
The album is out September, 12th (tomorrow) and will feature the first single “Viscera Eyes,” which evolved from a song that was originally intended for At The Drive-In. The Mars Volta will also be on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers for most of the fall. Check their Myspace page for tour dates.
MP3 | The Mars Volta – Viscera Eyes Amputechture
Review: Flook -Haven (or) my wife will hate this
Posted on 2 May 2006 | 5 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, World Music
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My wife will cringe when she reads this. Not because I am writing about some crazy free-form art noise group or even some great metallic hardcore band, no, its much worse than that.
Flook is a instrumental quartet that takes an innovative approach to neo-Celtic/Irish music. I first heard them a month or two ago on NPR (I think) and I’ve been really digging them a lot since then. Flook’s newest album Haven is full of acoustic guitars, bodhran (a type of Irish drum), soaring dual flutes, and other assorted instrumentation that combine to form an amazing collection of rhythmic (almost Afro) Celtic tunes. The two flutes create intense interwoven and totally fucking melodic structures that reamin airy and that don’t ever get boring (yes I felt the f-bomb was totally necessary).
While I am not an expert in Celtic folk music by any means (I’m barely a novice), I have read a number of rave reviews of Haven and it didn’t surprise me at all to learn that Flook was named Best Group at the 2006 BBC Folk Awards. Just trust me. This shit is awesome and you can buy it here.
MP3 | Flook – The Tortoise And The Hare Haven
MP3 | Flook – Souter Creek Haven
Review: Omar Rodriguez - Omar Rodriguez (or) and how they disappoint
Posted on 19 March 2006 | 2 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Jazz, Post Rock, World Music
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The latest offering from former At The Drive-In and current Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez is a self-titled effort that is an exciting adventure into prog-jazz that only he could lead.
“Recorded in Amsterdam last June, these songs are an extension of the Omar Rodriguez Quintet side project, and along for the ride are various musicians on horns, keys, and percussion, including several ATDI and Mars Volta cohorts. The results are extended, improv-style jams that mix wailing guitar solos, spasmodic drumming, and computer and tape effects with more traditional jazz elements. – Pitchfork
The music is great. Sonically adventurous and something this is (undeniably) of Rodriguez’s making. Maybe a little something like the crazy jazz-funk of Bitches Brew.
MP3 | Omar Rodriguez – Regenbogen Stelen Van Prostituees ST
Review: Paavoharju - Yhä hämmärää (or) our lady of the worthless miracle
Posted on 26 January 2006 | 3 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, Atmospheric, World Music
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Paavoharju hails from a remote corner of Finland and (perhaps) because of their isolation (at least to my ears) their music is quite unique. The music on their latest album Yhä hämmärää is very hard to pinpoint or label. There are certainly nods to the music of India and the east and almost medieval sounding melodies, but there is also the influence of modern electronica and avant-garde music as well.
If you aren’t listening intently you might (at times) mistake them for Cirque du Soleil performers, but if you listen closer they reveal so much more. Songs are complex and abstract but have a little pop familiarity that sometimes makes them seem like part of the fabric of humanity. The vocals are gorgeous, soaring, operatic, and almost ghostly. They drift in and out of a haze of skittering beats, acoustic guitars, lo-fi synths, and piano that is then wrapped up tight in a blanket of electronic static and noise into an almost alien musical landscape.
Because I don’t understand any of lyrics as they are being sung, the album is that much more obtuse and exotic. The vocals are sometimes echoed, covered with delay, or even pushed out of the forefront as the fuzz of static and feedback are pushed louder. They are used very instrumentally similar to the way Sigur Ros treats their vocals. No sounds are safe from ambient effects and atmospheric textures and as the electronic elements are combined with field recordings the music is swirled into a beautiful haze.
The music is dense. There is so much going on that one can easily become disoriented listening, but I think thats part of the magic. When translated to English, some lyrics from the song “Syvyys” read “Into the mysterious veil of the opaque/To be heard only as a whisper to the gardens of earth/When I was listening to the earth’s song and traveling further/Too much dusty earth/I could not help but scream.” They aren’t concrete and concise (but rather) poetic and conceptual as is Paavoharju’s music. It transports the listener to somewhere else, even if it is a place that only exists in dreamscapes. Yhä hämmärää is out now on Fonal Records.
MP3 | Paavoharju – Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Lapi Yhä hämmärää
MP3 | Paavoharju – Puhuri Yhä hämmärää
Review: Konono No. 1 - Congotronics (or) the icing on the branches
Posted on 22 January 2006 | 3 Comments
Filed Under: Album Reviews, World Music
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If you have never heard the music of Konono No.1 stop whatever you are doing and download this track. They make some of the most strangely mesmerizing music I’ve ever heard. The music sounds like it was scooped fresh from the pot that contained earth’s primordial soup.
Konono No.1 was founded some 25 years ago by Mawangu Mingiedi in the Kinshasa area on the Congo/Angola (formerly Zaire) border, and is steeped in traditional Bazombo trance music. They use a combination of three amplified likembes (thumb pianos) pitched to bass, middle, and treble along with a collection of makeshift percussion instruments constructed from (among other things) hubcaps, pots, pans, and scrap metal.
What makes them even more interesting is that in order to hear their music over the din of the city streets, Mingiedi created his own lo-fi system. He built pick-ups for the likembes from magnets salvaged from old car parts, wooden microphones (for the call and response chanting), and plugged them all into home-made amplifiers powered by car batteries and megaphones left behind by Belgian colonists.
Vincent Kenis (a music producer from Brussels) searched out the band in 2000 and discovered it sounded exactly as it did 20 years earlier when he first heard Konono No.1 on a French radio station. He was shocked to find that none of their outdated equipment had been replaced. Kenis recorded Congotronics outdoors using an Apple laptop and a few microphones and mixed the entire thing in his hotel room with members of the band. You can read more detailed version of that story here.
The results are oftentimes harsh and otherworldly trance-inducing percussive jams that have almost as much in common with modern experimental electronic music as they do with traditional African music. Congotronics is out now on Crammed Discs.
MP3 | Konono No.1 – Lufuala Ndonga Congotronics
