And so I've managed to get hold of a connection and a little bit of time to come back to you, my dear ULL .I did listen to some music yesterday, let me tell you about about it.
First, I listened to my mp3 player on the train, on my way down to Niort, a sleepy midwestern town that has recently turned UMP (the predominant right-wing party) after 60 years of so-called socialism. Can't say I noticed the difference, it's as sleepy as ever. Anyway.
My mp3 playlist consists of only albums from 2014, that I generally first listen to while commuting. Commuting takes me some 40 minutes, which wometimes allow me to listen to a full album, most often not so I listen to the end on the way back.
Presently, in my mp3 player, are: AGE, Micah P. Hinson & The Nothing, Asiatisch, Black Mill Tapes, Boneset, Burn Your Fire For No Witness, Drop the Vowels, Electric Balloon, Here and Nowhere Else, I Am the Last of All the Fields..., LA REH 012, Luminous, Mo Kolours, Moodymann, Piano Nights, Pre-Human Ideas, Rave Tapes, Salad Days, Sisyphus, So Much Forever, Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles, Teeth Dreams, Terrestrials, The Future's Void, Tin Wooki, and Truce plus a few leftovers from 2013.
and found it excellent. There is almost a post-Blue Lines feel to this urban mix of African rhythms, post-dubsomething, with a clear Jamaican feel sometimes, and sometimes a post-Trickyite atmosphere. Very good indeed. "In Her Eyes" is one of the best songs of the current decade, up there with "Me & the Devil" by Scott-Heron and "Ancestors" by Gonjasufi, two songs that are very close to this in spirit. That's how good this LP is. Top 5 for 2014 so far, maybe higher up as the year unfolds.
Beforehand, I knew only of Black Mahogani which I like very much. This is a departure from what I knew and is not as good as Black Mahogani, still, it's a very enjoyable album. First of all, it's hilarious. Lyrics considered as sleazy slogans for maximum efficiency, sometimes to an absurd level, along with beats that are nowhere near as innovative as Mo Kolours', granted, but are still solid fun.
There was no time for another listen and we alighted at the wanted destination, and in time. The in-laws collected us, and I was left alone with the Spanish brother-in-law I have. First, I ventured to ask what was the music playing in the car, thinking of your information, my dear ULL. I even was bold enough to state the music was plain awful: some sort of synth reggae sung in French, with "concerned" lyrics ("Yes I'm back, beware, life has taught me, at bottom I'm not evil" etc.) about which I simply said the poor fellow needed a lyricist. Of course, that was a cousin of the family who was singing and had burned a CD for family and friends, and I realised I'd better have shut my trap, as always.
Waiting for the wife and kid to come back from the seaside where she had gone to collect him (it's a complicated business, I give up on explaining it), I stood waiting at the in-laws listening tothe man's favourite artist it appears, an Uruguayan singer-songwriter called Jorge Drexler, who sings some sophisticated pop canciones with heartfelt lyrics my in-law said were very much appreciated in some intellectual milieux in Uruguay.
This is when things got really interesting. Not that I liked the music, mind you, it reminded me of a French singer called Julien Baer who plays this sort of bossa-influenced light-headed chanson pop with elaborate lyrics. Not my cuppa. But it initiated a discussion about how voices are differently mixed according to which language is spoken. I had noticed the voice was very forward in this Uruguayan fellow mix, and I wondered whether it was the case in all Spanish-speaking pop, as my theory about these matters was that languages that don't have any word stress (e.g. French) need to mix the voice much more forward if you want the lyrics to be clearly heard, whereas stressed languages (e.g. English and Spanish) didn't need this, as the stressed syllables would necessarily spring out anyway.
Well, he didn't agree with this, told me this was me trying to be a teacher again, etc. True enough tbh. He exemplified this with an extract from
, "Rendez-nous la lumière". Wrong example, said I, for here you can notice the voice is precisely forward in the mix. Whereas on another extract from the same artist, on
, "L'un dans l'autre",
the voice is drowned in the other instruments, and as a result, the lyrics are not clear at all because you have no stress to hang on to. btw dope album, check it out. Young Marble Giants/New Order influenced minimal synthpop, masterpiece.
Anyway, he then went on to prove his point by making me listen to a track he was working on on GarageBand, a downtempo tango affair (but not in the style of Gotan Project: much dreamier, with reverb' on the accordion, etc.), he recorded his voice saying "Maintenant" and applied various effects to it, to show me something, but at this stage I was pretty drunk and he was too, and all I could was remark that
1. He should keep the voice sample he had just recorded on his track,
2. He should change the frequency with which he repated that voice sample,
3. He should cut the synth sample at a point when just his voice and the bongos would remain, to put it back later.
He tried all this, it sounded much better, he acknowledged it, I am now credited as co-producer.
hahahahahahahahahaha c you fellas I'm starting a new career
No music for the last twenty-four hours
Kids howling in the background, either that or the cartoons
Totally broke and stuck at the in-laws
Can't even post a link cause I'm on a fucking cheap tablet
Get me away from here I'm dying is what I wanted to post
Just before I let the floor to Our Esteemed Member Jack, just a closer for the week.
*Apologies*
Due to circumstances I could not master, there was no opportunity for me to keep up with the pace & spirit that was this ULL's at the beginning of the week. I tried to keep contact, but the second half sucked, sorry.
*For whom the bell tolls*
Here's a list of a all the albums I have referred to, and what I have rated them :
Madonna, Like A Prayer, 70/100
Above the Law, Livin' Like Hustlers 85/100
Bad Brains, Rise 20/100
Curtis Mayfield, Love 100/100
ZNR; Barricade 3 90/100
Merzbow, Ecobondage 70/100
Caetano Veloso, Caetano Veloso (1969) 60/100
Migala, Restos de un incendio 70/100
Electric Wizard, Dopethrone 70/100
Thelonious Monk Quartet, Misterioso 90/100
Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out 90/100
Sonic Youth, Dirty 90/100
The Velvet Underground, White Light/White Heat 100/100
Vic Chesnutt, At the Cut 80/100
Fennesz, Becs at least 80/100
VCan Morrison, Tupelo Honey 85/1400
Jelly Rool Morton, random comp 70/100
Hank Mobley, Roll Call 80/100
Nits, Giant Normal Dwarf 70/100
Omega Testing, Omega Testing 70/100
Jean Grae, Jeanius 65/100
Optimo, How to Kill the DJ Part Two 40/100
Kevin Gates, The Luca Brasi Story 85/100
Chris Weeks & The Sadmachine Orchestra, Conductor 85/100
Patti Smith, Horses 100/100
Patti Smith, Dream of Life 70/100
Lazy Lester, True Blues 80/100
Mo Kolours, Mo Kolours 90/100 *best new music*
Moodymann, Moodymann 80/100
Dominique A., Vers les lueurs 85/100
Dominique A., La fossette 100/100
*Thankyous and Withoutwhoms*
Emma
Maurice
The Extraordinary '14 Recs Team: lethal, Geevy, DBZ.
The extraordinarily fine people who reacted to this ULL. I didn't think the context was fine for discussing as it was a diary, but I appreciated the input and encouragement. Cheers lethal, drako, sp4cetiger, Hayden. Love ya more, already loved ya, 'nuff said.
Javier
All the people from other sites who gave me some recs
All the fine people where I am today and whom that rescue call was totally unfair to
YOU
KNOW
WHO
YOU ARE
PEACE LOVELY BEA PEOPLE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS LOVE YA
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