Music

I'm not satisfied with the sidebar music section. Don't ask me why. I'd rather throw my recent favorites up here in a post. I'll do it infrequently. Here we go...

• Matrix & Futurebound - Universal Truth
  • From 2007, a great straight-ahead drum&bass album with some subtly but interesting sounds/samples. Well selected MCs on a few tracks.
• Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
  • Enough has been written about this, it's just a beautiful album.
• The Berg Sans Nipple - Along the Quai
  • Warm and soft sounding electronic/post-rock mix.
• London Elektricity - Syncopated City
  • One of my two all time favorite dnb producers (the other is LTJ Bukem), Tony Coleman puts together another good full-length. I'm not sure I quite like his singing lead, but good in all other areas.
• The Slapped Eyeballers - Sloppy Future Manipulations
  • A one-off EP Dimlite and Balt Mirczok, with Balt's achingly beautiful, breathy vocals. And yes, the title track is in waltz time.
• Home Cooking: Soulfood Served by Jazzanova and Friends
  • Jazzanova put together a soulful, loungey mix that is a definite must have.
• High Contrast - Tough Guys Don't Dance
  • A solid drum&bass album. Has a retro sound (tell me you don't hear 'Timeless' in the first track), with a great epic quality to many of the tracks.

 By way of The Medium, I found this Israeli producer who chopped up YouTube videos and made - good music. Not that this hasn't been done before, but these tracks are good - enough that you can ignore the video and still like them. The official site while cool is a bit flakey, you can check out at least one video here.

Not familiar with Furney, but quite a big fan of Tayla - always a big fan of the GoodLooking connected artists. Really good rolling mix.

Wow. Went last night to see Ustad Shujaat Khan, Karsh Kale, Vijay Iyer, and Jonathon Maron in a show at the new Alice Tully Hall (and a good deal - tickets only $25). I figured it would be good, but we were both just blown away. I had wanted to go see Karsh Kale and a few other people this past summer at Prospect Park doing live accompaniment to Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon, but it was seriously hot out that day and we didn't go. I knew Karsh was quality as I'm a fan of Tabla Beat Science. But the amazing fusion of these four players last night was beyond what I had expected. Khan played sitar, Jonathon Maron played electric bass, Karsh Kale played alternately tabla and a regular drum set, and Vijay Iyer switched between piano and Rhodes electric keyboard, and all five songs just worked. They took their leads in jazz style during the extended songs, with their jams flowing smoothly with what could have been a mismatched set of instruments.

We went to see The Necks tonight at le poisson rouge. Great show - they played one song, and it was a hour long, so essentially they played the whole show without stopping. The music of this Australian trio is hard to describe - I'd say ambient avant-garde jazz is probably the closest. But their structures remind me of the post-rock bands (like Tortoise) that I like. They play repeating patterns that shift, progressions that build up to something resembling a crescendo and back. They were intense in concert, much more so than on their albums.

By way of the Listening Post, I found out about Wolfgang's Vault. What a collection of live concert streams and downloads. Wolfgang was Bill Graham, the legendary convert promoter from San Francisco (originally the Bronx), and one big section of the archives is his concert recordings. Another big section is shows from the King Biscuit Flower Hour (seems to be another Wolfgang's site) for those of you old enough to remember that FM radio show. Much of the archives are classic rock, funk, and R&B, but they seem to have a good selection of recent rock/pop.

So on the way from work home today I ran into the Hypnotic Brass Orchestra in the subway (just like how I found out about them!). I love this group. Seriously funky jazz, hypnotic like their name, and so full of energy it blows through like a tornado. I saw them this summer at the eastvillageradio.com fest at South Street Seaport, and we just got tickets to see them again on 12/5 at the Jazz Standard (mmm... jazz and barbecue). Definitely check them out.

We went to see Tricky play at Irving Plaza (sorry, The Fillmore at Irving Plaza) on thursday night. Wow. I haven't seen and probably won't see a show that heavy in a long while. And I never thought that I would hear Cornucopia live. He played many songs from Maxinquaye, not exact album versions, but they still sounded brilliant.

He's touring for his new album Knowle West Boy, and it seems like a good mix of styles from his career (comes out in a few days). One of the ways I know it was a good show - songs I didn't even know sounded awesome. He even did a cover of Dear God by XTC. Sweet.

I just have to say that his first three albums (as Tricky) are pure genius. Maxinquaye, Pre-Millenium Tension, and Angels With Dirty Faces. Beyonds words, all of them.

I even liked the opening group, Telepathique, from Brazil. The singer occasionally sounds a bit goofy, but the music is solid electronics - like most things these days, a mix of styles that builds and sounded great in performance. It even looked good, the guy playing laptop and keyboards looked like he was having fun, with a presence on stage unlike most knob-twiddlers.

From the Listening Post, more ways than you could ever want - Wonderwall by Oasis. My favorite is the Aggro1 (vs. LCD Soundsystem) version.

Jamendo, a site based in Luxembourg, has a ton of CC-licensed freely downloadable music. And I was even able to find some pretty good stuff in only a few minutes of looking around and listening. That's pretty good for free music. And you can 'tip' or donate to artists you like.