The last few weeks haven’t been short of thrills for music fans.
Beginning with ‘Tumbélé: Biguine, Afro & Latin sounds from the French Caribbean, 1963-74′ a festive anthology of songs from Guadalupe and Martinica taken from the region’s golden musical decade. Focused in the common Afro-Latin influence that’s shared around the area, it’s a look at a musical heritage often ignored due to the wealth of influential rhythms coming from their surrounding neighbors. Some of its highlights can be checked here. Read more…
The throne of Popular Music was conquered by two very different females in 2009: It was Lady Gaga vs. Susan Boyle. Luckily, around the world a few local artists have challenged their chart supremacy. Beginning in Germany with Peter Fox, a hip-hop musician member of the dancehall band Seed, whose solo career has provided two of the biggest selling records in Teutonic lands. His late 2008 debut ‘Stadtaffe’ ranked high in the end of the year Eurochart, having sold over 700,000 copies. It was rapidly followed up with a live album with Coldsteel as backing band.
Having Sweden as main hub, Scandinavia is becoming a new Mecca for popular music. Be it leftfield indie, Chamber pop, Balearic Beats or 80’s retro infused electrodance; there’s not a single week passing without a new artist or DJ being discovered and joining a growing list of critical favourites such as Lindstrøm, Tough Alliance, jj, Air France, Studio or Annie. Here’s a look at a few recent releases coming from Swedish shores.
The most popular of them is Victoria Bergsman’s latest project Taken By Trees. The former singer of The Concretes – also the female voice in Peter, Bjorn & John’s whistling great ‘Young Folks’- released ‘East Of Eden’, the second album under her new moniker, to widespread acclaim. In one of the record’s highlights, she even dares to cover what’s probably 2009’s most iconic song, Animal Collective’s ‘My Girls’, changing its genre to ‘My Boys’ and turning it into a tropical feast. Read more…
The influence of French legend Serge Gainsbourg can still be felt among today’s most forward-minded pop artists. This week two releases by high profile Gallic stars bring his name back to memory.
Since his 2001 debut, ‘Rose Kennedy’, singer-songwriter Benjamin Biolay has often been compared to Gainsbourg. His penchant for dramatic string and orchestral arrangements, combined with his XXI century update of ‘La Chanson’ melancholic spirit, has established him as one of the new French pop’s key figures.
His reputation has been cemented not only through his own records, but also by giving a hand to other artists; both veteran – Henri Salvador, Françoise Hardy – and new – his sister Coralie Clement and Keren Ann. He was also one of the arrangers in France’s first lady, Carla Bruni, recording debut ‘Quelqu’un M’a Dit’.
Biolay will unveil on October the 19th ‘La Superbe’, his sixth studio work. An ambitious double album, conceived as a cinematographic narration through characters such as Miss Catastrophe, in which the singer-songwriter reflects about the moments when a person is forced to reconsider his life. It mixes his country’s nostalgia-tinged pop heritage with a rich diversity of elements taken from classical, jazz, post-punk and his personal admiration for such British pop-rock greats as The Beatles or The Smiths. The title track track can be downloaded through his website.
And if Biolay is often considered one of Gaingsbourg’s musical heirs; his real daughter Charlotte Gainsbough has also grown up to become a multidisciplinary artist. Her 2006 debut album ‘5:55′ was largely ignored, despite having on board such illustrious guests as Air and Jarvis Cocker.
While she’s now better known for her film career, after scooping the best actress gong at Cannes film festival for her disturbing performance in Lars Von Trier’s latest shocker ‘Antichrist’. Charlotte is ready to show the world that music is on her genes with the arrival early next year of her second album ‘IRM’. This time she’s hired Beck on production duties - with whom she sings first single ‘Heaven Can Wait’. However, to start the anticipation building process, the title track is now also available as a free download.
Shazam’s Jason Keck gives us the low down from Burningman, one of the world’s most spectaular, psychedelic and all round mind blowing music events:
Having just gotten back from Black Rock City, Nevada USA site of the annual Burningman Festival, people haven’t stopped asking me, “How was it? What was it like?” So here goes…
I’ve included some pictures to help, but they don’t do it justice. Burningman is more than the art and costumes you see in the photos, it’s the creativity, the innovation and the production level required to put on such an amazing event. It’s also about the music, mostly electronic, but live shows as well. There is no line up, just camp after camp of some guy or girl mixing their favorite tracks and the best ones tend to draw the biggest crowds. A few big names were on show this year including Armen Van Burren and Carl Cox, but the best set I heard was by a DJ named “Mike” from Victoria Canada who played on the Esplanade at 2 am on Tuesday night. We rocked up after a night of cruising the playa on our bikes and decided that THIS was the place to end our night, dancing till our feet hurt. We followed Mike’s gigs that week and heard two more great shows from him by the end of the festival.
Burningman is about the community experience which is so far removed from big city life the most people can’t even imagine the level of civic responsibility and neighborly good will that is such a differentiated part of the experience.
So don’t ask, just go. But be prepared. Bring everything you need to survive for the week including food, water, a dust mask and goggles. Take a tent or a motor home, but make sure to leave no trace and, above all, don’t be a spectator. Burningman is the amazing festival that it is because people get involved and contribute by do the things they enjoy doing, amazingly, for the benefit and enjoyment of everyone else there. Contribute in any way you want, but make sure you contribute.
In our endless search for the newest sounds across the globe, this week we have a look at the world of Asian Indie pop through some interesting recent releases. We begin in South Korea with EE, a boy-girl duo, currently earning rave reviews as one of the country’s best electro-pop acts. About to unveil their debut album ‘Imperfect, I’mperfect’; an eighties retro, techno pop feast that include such highlights as last year’s debut single ‘Curiosity Kills’ or the track that anticipates the record ‘High Collor’. Their highly kitsch videos, exploring the typical visual excesses of the decade they revisit, are a big part of their charm. You can watch and listen to some more EE tracks here. Read more…
Our new music explorations across the globe get a stopover in Latin America to gather a few samples of the continent’s cutting-edge talent. Beginning with Chilean born/German raised minimal techno Legend Ricardo Villalobos, about to be given a well-deserved tribute thanks to filmmaker Romuald Karmakar - who is completing a trilogy of documentaries about electronic music. After ‘196 bpm’ and ‘Between The devil & The Wide Blue Sea’ Karmakar dedicates his last installment to the influential DJ’s body of work. ‘Villalobos’ will preview at next week’s Venice Film Festival.
But if Villalobos is a well established European based artist, there are some other more obscure local propositions currently making waves across the Spanish speaking countries. Read more…
Mungolian Jet Set may well be one of the world’s hardest bands to pin down and decipher. Far from being actual jet setters or hailing the central Asian country of Mongolia, as the name may suggest, Mungolian Jet Set are actually Norwegian DJ Pal “Strangefruit” Nyhus and his collaborators Knut Sævik and Reidar Skår.
Mixing jazz, disco, afro-beats, techno and folk with a hefty dose of tongue in cheek prog-rock epicness, Mongolian Jet Set make unclassifiable and often conceptually insane records. Add to this a whole range of pseudo mystical vernacular coupled with a load of crazy far Eastern imagery and you get one of the most un-pigeon-holeable groups on the planet.
Their latest release is a collection of their finest remixes including their re-works of tracks from Lindstrøm, The Shortwave Set and PizzyYelliot – whose cover of Bob Marley’s ‘Could You Be Loved’ is nothing short of deranged. Entitled ‘We Gave It All Away, Now We Are Taking It Back’, the record has already had serious props from dance music bible Resident Advisor who have hailed it as one of the finest releases of the year.
If you’ve never experienced the Mungolian Jet Set sound check out this video, which throws together (deep breath) afro drumming, dancing aliens, a keyboard thwacking Norwegian Spaceman, a chanting face painted cowboy, a two minute jazz piano solo and a pummeling disco bass.
Since Vampire Weekend and other NY hipsters began digging out Afrobeat treasures and using their findings as a musical reference in their records, the interest for African music has experienced a significant boost, affecting not only classics but also helping current artists to leave the World music circuits they are normally confined to and reach wider audiences. Recent examples are aplenty. The following are some of the most relevant:
To begin with, The Very Best, a duo formed in London by Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit. Last year, their presentation mixtape earned rave reviews and set sky-high expectations for their forthcoming debut “Warm Heart Of Africa”. The title track doesn’t disappoint. It benefits from a helping hand courtesy of Vampire Weekend’s own Ezra Koening and can be streamed at the band’s My space page. Read more…
Summer’s already here. Millions are packing their stuff in order to get a well deserved rest in sunny latitudes around the world, the perfect targets of the many contenders for the title of Summer Song 2009. Dozens of dance crazes, Uber cheesy Europop or pseudo reggae numbers will compete against each other to become part of the holiday experience of many. The lucky ones will be inescapable and may turn into global smashes after the season finishes and holidaymakers recall their pleasant memories.
Shazam wants to give a glimpse at this year’s candidates, currently breaking the airwaves and clubs in all the usual places. Beginning with the perfect novelty record, Mexican film star Gael Garcia Bernal’s tongue-in-cheek Spanish cover of Cheap Trick’s rock classic “I want you to want me”, as included in the soundtrack of his latest film “Rudo & Cursi”.
The film tells the story of two brothers who become big football stars, although Cursi’s real dream is to be a singer. Showcasing his enthusiasm, yet lack of artistic talent through this fake promo for “Quiero Que Me Quieras”, Originally it was just one of the jokes in the screenplay, but thanks to Garcia Bernal’s star power is already hitting radio stations across the Latin World. Read more…
