Active Music Listening Thursday May 16, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 378
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 243
Not good music: 106
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe, Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood, Inzinzac

@@@ Inzinzac: Inzinzac (High Two, 2011)  I caught this group via a PR email for a free improv series run in Philadelphia.  This record is a bit of a hard nugget to classify.  Jagged in the opener, 71, with sax bouncing on top of a slashing thin Telecaster sound.  Usually with these genre spanners, the music has an overall soft feel to it, which I think defeats the purpose of it.  This record is mixed as a hot mess.  Drums up super high in the mix (awesome!) with the guitar tucked behind.  The playing is both meandering and cycling and creates an old school freak punk flow.  This is what I thought indie rock was going to turn into instead of the diarrhea-like synth poopage so common today.  Up in your grill and flying the freak flag.  The temperature of the second is less in your face but the playing remains out and interesting.

@@@ Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt (Don Giovanni Records, 2013).  I saw this record reviewed on the Guardian over here.  As it says there, it’s a shout to early ’90′s guitar-o-centric indie rock/grunge.  It sports a very nice array of guitar sound, and it’s slacker-y but not too dour.  Check it for yourself.  I dig the simplicity and straight forward-ness of the third tune Lips and Limbs.

@@@ Wild Nothing: Empty Estate (Captured Tracks, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  Tuneful vocals with a super compressed power chords and lilting melodic synthesizers.  Heavy on the ’80s influences here.  Somebody dig up Ronald Reagan, we’re going back!  I honestly don’t know who listens to this kind of music, how they would find it, and what about it they find pleasing.  Well, the third tune does get into a pretty nice spot with a big swirling synth loop-fest which I think is well done, but otherwise….not really my cup of tea.

Active Music Listening Wednesday May 15, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 375
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 242
Not good music: 105
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe, Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood

@@@ Matt Bauder: Paper Gardens (Porter Records, 2010).  A record recommended to me by the MOG recommendator.  A jazz record heavy on the drones and long tones that I find very relaxing.  There are passages that break out of the long mode but it’s infrequent.  As with so much jazz, it’s very underground so here’s a live clip of Bauder.  The record should be up on all the streaming stores.

@@@ Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City (XL, 2013).  You can read a brief interview over here at NME where the singer denounces those who denounced them as preppy kids ripping off African music.  And as a person who listens and blogs about a lot of African music, this kid can deny all he wants but that’s exactly what they were doing.  So they did the right thing and started playing white boy music in the genre they belong.  And it’s better than their pale faced African efforts.  I can only hear this tune, Step, because they’ve made it very difficult to stream this record on the net.  Fuckers, right?  I like the lyrics and the singer’s flow on the mic, the arrangement I like less but it sure beats the shit out the fake African horse shit.  Denounced, that’s right.

@@@ Bibio: Silver Wilkinson (Warp, 2013).  Listed as an electronica record on its MOG page, this one is slightly different.  I hear a lot of looped and manipulated guitars in the opener, The First Daffodils — stacks of single notes, some pushing against each other.  But alas, it was not meant to be as the second tune brings on the pillowy soft 1970′s FM radio male voice.  Dreamy and enveloping like your favorite sweater.  And the arrangements have moved from cock eyed to New Age.  Oy, I feel duped.  Baited and switched.  The third tune, Wulf, is a bit of a chorus-y mess.

@@@ Sam Amidon: Bright Sunny South (Nonesuch, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  As this is a Nonesuch release, I’m expecting something brunch-y and fake sophisticated.  First tune and title track, I dig the oddness of Amidon’s voice.  I can’t really describe its oddness but I like different and it’s different.  The second tune, I Wish I Wish, follows the stripped down folk of the first tune with a pretty brunch-y, wee bit of New Age vibe.  I don’t want to hang myself per se, and I don’t bear any ill will towards the singer.  Most likely he’s doing whatever the label tells him to do so they can sell it to all the boring white people out there who love this soft, baby food music.

Active Music Listening Tuesday May 14, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 371
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 240
Not good music: 103
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe, Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood

@@@ Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood: Black Pudding (Ipecac, 2013).  Another MOG new release page release.  The first track is an all guitar instrumental piece, more pastoral and folk than the second tune which opens with a gothic drone-y and blues vibe.  I don’t know if Lanegan smokes but it sounds that way — his gruffness and low register darkens down the show.  I like the guitar playing, it’s pretty fresh.  There are no drums until the fourth tune, Mescalito, and when you get one it’s a drum machine.  This is dark and refreshingly un-cheesy dark music.  Stripped down and fresh.  I think I’m going to return to this record and listen some more as it could quite possibly make my best of year list.

@@@ Yasmine Hamdan: Ya Nass (Crammed Discs, 2013).  I listen to releases on Crammed because of the Konono No. 1 records.  I dig those so I think I will dig other music they put out.   Hamdan does a world music/downtempo electronica hybrid on the single Deny.  The whole record is not up on MOG, but this single is.  I checked her bio and she’s of Lebanese descent and now lives in Paris.  That explains the hybrid.  I like the spareseness of this tune as less makes you listen more closely to what’s presented.  Tambourine, acoustic guitar, vocals, some backgrounds, that’s the core here.

@@@ Lorelle Meets the Obsolete: On Welfare (Captcha, 2011).  I saw their new record listed as one of Aquarius Records’ records of the week.  The musical formula hear is a rhythmically stomping melodic hybrid of garage/indie without being exclusively one or the other.  The songs are purposely repetitive and soaked in reverb for opportunities to space out on the drone.

@@@ Small Black: Limits of Desire (Jagjaguwar, 2013) This record is up on the MOG new release page.  Tuesday is new release day, bitches!  This is a dreamy, indie electronica record, at least the opening track, Free At Dawn, is.  The singer here is like a warm blanket for a cold world.  I’m not sure who this record is aimed at, but it’s not me.

Active Music Listening Monday May 13, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 367
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 238
Not good music: 102
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ She and Him: Volume 3 (Merge, 2013).  I was really into M. Ward when I first heard him.  The back in the day vibe, the dark American desolate country thing.  Then he went for the hipster cheese injection.  The first number, I’ve Got Your Number, Son, is straight up FM rock pop.  Which is fine, this is America and you can make whatever music you like but I don’t have to like it.  I know that Miss Deschannel is a big deal, but honestly outside of her cuteness, I don’t see the appeal.  Her voice has a wee bit of woof in it and I don’t hear great things going on here.  It’s pop music being served to hipsters as indie folk.

@@@ Still Corners: Strange Pleasures (Sub Pop, 2013).  From Merge to Sub Pop, we just can’t get enough of the indie heavyweights.  The first tune, The Trip, sounds like the bastard child of The Cure and Gerry Rafferty.  By that I mean the combination of strummed acoustic guitar and that 1980′s chorused guitar sound, which I don’t like.  After the strum-dee-dum of the opening tune, we are treated to a steady diet of sleek sci-fi pillowy synths and a short tailed reverbed, dreamy female voice.  Oy.  I say oy.  Not horrible, but there’s just so much femme-fronted indie electronic.  Let’s move on before I say something mean.

@@@ Kenny Chesney: Life on a Rock (Columbia Nashville, 2013).  From the MOG new release page.  This is the first country record I’ve ever heard with two pirate references in the first two songs.  And you might ask yourself is this the end of civilization when party music buffoon Jimmy Buffett has become a source of inspiration to other musicians?  Oh Christ, we’re in deep doo doo.  There’s also more than a tablespoon of arena rock power chord action here.  Oh no, the third tune is a reggae jam!  Fucking awesome.  This records was tailor made for a mental hospital.  My head hurts but this has been real.

@@@ Lorde: The Love Club EP (Lava, 2013).  Over here at Pigeons and Planes they’re hawking this New Zealand singer as the best thing since sliced bread.  I tell you one thing, she sounds almost identical to Regina Spektor but  the musical backing is mostly club music oriented.  She has some decent flow on the mic in the first tune, Bravado, but I could use a smaller helping of the whoa whoas.  I know English, let’s use words.  I guess she’s only 17 years old, so she’s not in charge of shit — she’s a voice and a pretty face to get pushed around.  Oh man, the second tune is about private planes and consumption — I can’t stand that shit.  Straight into the dumper with this nonsense.

Honorable Mention 2013 Pick 9

Har Mar Superstar: Bye Bye 17 (Cult Records, 2013)

Great opening track — Lady You Shot Me.  It pulls you right in, the horn section is blazing and the singer just pumps the drama.  I’m not a huge fan of the soul disco blend, but the second track, Prisoner, has a very bumpin’ rhythm section performance.

The singer, who I shall refer to as Mr. Har, has a loose singing style with a bout of shouter in him that I find pleasing.  The third tune, Everywhere I’m Local, refers back to early 1960′s r&b pop and Mr. Har does a good job selling the sweetness of this track.  The fourth tune, Restless leg, is a midtempo jaunt and I tune where I wanted more funk than the pop injection. The next tune 12:12 continues with the sweet vocals and arrangement over a brisk and bumpin’ drum/bass combo continues the theme of this record.

I think this guy is very talented, especially as an arranger and a vocalist, but I wanted more funk and that’s why I’m giving this record honorable mention rather than best of year status.  If he had made it just a bit funkier I would be all over this record all the time.

And of course as soon as I typed that Mr. Har drops a funky burner called ‘We Don’t Sleep’ and then bounces back to that sweeter early ’60s sound with the tune Www.

So there you have it.  Crushing rhythm section, you could build a house on that shit.  Great singer with some looseness and flavor on the microphone, far above average arrangements, correction really straight up excellent arrangements with some particularly ear catching changes in a couple of songs, but I just wanted just a bit more funk.

Favorite Tracks: Lady, You Shot Me (1), We Don’t Sleep (6), Late Night Morning Light (10).

Active Music Listening Friday May 10, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 363
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 245
Not good music: 100
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ Retox: Ugly Animals (Ipecac, 2010).  I was looking for their new record on Epitaph, but this fine 2010 effort is up on MOG.  This is not your nerdy cousin’s bouncy Orange County California Republican punk — this is your slashing, messy, anti-social and fed up punk.  Touches of metal, hardcore but with some fine lurching and rhythmic smashing around.  The world needs more of this — get those negative emotions out people, you’ll feel much better afterwards.

@@@ Patty Griffin: American Kid (New West, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  I like the slow unfolding of the first song (clipped below) and was not as big a fan of the lyrics.  I didn’t like the second tune ‘Don’t Let Me Die in Florida’ as much as the opener.  I thought the third tune Ohio was the best lyrically and the best tune of what I heard.  I would give this record a B+ — I would have put that third tune as the opener but that’s just me.  Oh man, the fourth tune is pretty beautiful with lovely lyrics.  Whoever sequenced this record did not do it for me that’s for sure.

@@@ Ginger Baker: No Material (ITM, 2013)  A bevy of downtown New York heavyweights including Peter Brotzmann, Sonny Sharrock and others.  This is a re-issue of a live album from the late 1980′s.  The first tune (clipped below) unfolds slowly with some stylish blues shredding.  A two guitar attack accompanies a healthy dose of nasty sax skronk.  What starts out bluesy slowly decays into a fiery noisefest.  The second tune.  The music here is an interesting blend of rock, blues, world and free jazz.  I really felt the drummer on this record.

Active Music Listening Thursday May 9, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 360
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 242
Not good music: 100
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ Wovenhand: The Threshing Floor (Sounds Familyre, 2010)  A staff pick on the Omega weekly email.  Opens up with an ominous folk vibe on Sinking Hands, acoustic guitar picking with reverbed out drums booming ominously in the background and a low, detached voice.  The second tune, the title track, picks up the tempo and retains some of the darkness of the first tune but adds some more instrumentation.  I don’t usually go voice for this style of singing, but the band is interesting to listen to and the vibe is unique.

@@@  Dailey and Vincent: The Brothers of the Highway (Rounder, 2013).  From the All Music weekly email.  This is player’s music, as in playing instruments not balling.  Opens up almost heavy metal meth head style with the tune ‘Steel Drivin’ Man’ where the fiddle, the guitar and banjo all get a short but ripping solos.  The production is a bit brighter and more modern than what I like in this genre, but I do not disrespect folks who play at this level.

@@@ X Ambassadors: Love Songs Drug Songs (Kid Ina Korner, 2013).  Off the All Music weekly email I wasn’t sure what to expect with the reference to X and drugs in the band/album title.  The music is mainstream groomed rock/pop, better than most of its kind.  The singer has that mainstream bounce and tone to his voice.  Not really a style of music I spend a lot of time with, but if you roll this way these guys are all right.

@@@ Savages: Silence Yourself (Matador, 2013).  From the All Music weekly email.  This  is pretty mainstream rock with indie flourishes like a fuzzy bass and a pouty female singer.  Production is a big and shiny.  The first tune, Shut Up, functions on a tension created by the uptempo guitar damping in the verse hat gives way to the power chords in the chorus.  Ah, the classics.  I’m three songs in and all of them share this coil and release approach.  I don’t really love the tunes — not awful by any means but not really pulling me in.  I think they should have opened with the fourth tune, Strife, as it works much better but I’m not the boss of them.

Here’s a raw as fuck version of that tune which almost beats out the record take:

 

Active Music Listening Wednesday May 8, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 356
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 234
Not good music: 100
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ The Callum Au Big Band: Something’s Coming (Callum Au Records, 2013).  I caught wind of this British big band release over here at London Jazz.  This record is well recorded with a focus on sweet and swinging rather than bowling you over with brass.  I like the old school-ness of the first tune, September in the Rain, over the second tune, Roots which sounds a bit like a sitcom theme.  The third tune (and title track) returns to what I consider more traditional big band workings.  Intricate arrangements and extensive spaces for solos highlight the skills of the musicians in the band.  If you’re a big band listener check these guys out.

@@@ Marijuana Deathsquads: Piano Hits (Rhymesayers, 2013).  Off an upcoming album called We Don’t Even Live Here and I got to this recording via a music publicist email.  I really like that breathing low end whoomp that opens up the track and I like that the tune changes up and has some sections to it.  However, like much of today’s music, the focus is more on the sound and not on saying anything.  P.O.S.  sounds like one of the rappers from De La Soul and his flow is quick and not anti-social (as in hateful towards women).  I really like the sounds, the lyrics are not as strong, check it for yourself.

@@@ Pistol Annies: Annie Up (RCA, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  The first tune, I Feel a Sin Coming On, which inspires me to say I Feel a Corporate Country Record Coming On.  I wish I was wrong.  I do like the fuzzed out bass in the first song — it really trashes up an otherwise pristine sonic environment.  When I hear these sorts of records I wonder if all the arena rock influences come as a business decision of some sort of secret shame for old timey, redneck country music.  I’m guessin’ a combo platter on this pressing cultural conversation.

Active Music Listening Tuesday May 7, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 353
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 232
Not good music: 99
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ Grim Tower: Anarchic Breezes (Outer Battery, 2013).  Got a shout out from the music director at CFUV in Canada.  One of the members of Black Mountain (I liked the first record the most) the marketing phrase here is ‘new American death folk’ or some such concept.  I didn’t like the way the electric guitar follows the banjo playing so closely but I guess they had to do that to draw the hipsters in.  I have many miserable folk records about death in my collection and frankly this is pretty light on the misery.  Even Johnny Cash got more nihilistic than this.  It’s all right and the video is below for your peeping at your convenience:

@@@ Eshon Burgundy: Tell you Why.  I’m on the righteously ethical hip hop label Humble Beast and got an email about a week ago that they had signed Eshon Burgundy.  I’m on their email list because I am way into Propaganda’s record Excellent last year.  This is Christian hip hop, which I have not trafficked much in.  Uplifting, obviously with major r&b production influences Burgundy’s flow is not flashy.  I’m not a huge fan of the slicker hip hop production, I dig the funkier style so that did not help me get into this tune.

@@@ Deerhunter: Monomania (4AD, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  My first impression is that this record is more about production than songs.  It sports a thick, psychedelic guitar sound with a lot of chopped up and distorted vocal action.  The third tune, the Missing, moves out of the pyschedelic sound collages into a more straightforward rock tune and other songs are in the vintage mid-1960′s neighborhood of songs with threads of strangeness woven into them.  I’d put this in the solid B range.

@@@ Noah and the Whale: Heart of Nowhere (Mercury UK, 2013).  I found this recording via the MOG new release page. Mainstream British/Irish rock with a big bounce and some interesting flourishes.  A zippy string hook in the second tune, Heart of Nowhere.  The third tune, All Through the Night, got a larger pop injection.  It’s a very melodic, big, and shiny record.  The use of fiddles/strings on a mainstream rock is the most interesting thing going on here.

@@@ Hands: Synesthesia (Kill Rock Stars, 2013).  Today’s music publicist fun show.  Check out what Filter has to say about this band: “Hands play the instruments that induce you to dance and hear those sounds that make you want to feel it all.” Fuckin’ really?  It’s a decent tune, but I think you’re shitting your pants prematurely. The song is an uptempo indie rocker with a big blast off chorus hook.  As I’m a music obsessive, I’m checking out more of this band’s record.  The first tune is much tamer affair and does not have that blast off of the single below. It is perfectly competent and pretty ordinary and I’m not feeling it all at all.  I feel lied to.  Again.

Active Music Listening Monday May 7, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 348
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 228
Not good music: 98
Buys: 10

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ Eluvium: Nightmare Ending (Temporary Residence, 2013). Let’s give our fantastic Music PR industry a shot with this record.  You can stream this record over here at NPR.  I got an email about this record which was supposedly created with ‘equal parts wonder and abandon’.  That’s an awful big matzoh ball for a musician to carry — was it really made with equal parts wonder and abandon?  How do I know you’re not pissing on my head and telling me it’s raining.

Thus far, it’s pretty straightforward acoustic ambient music — the first tune ‘Don’t Come any Closer’ is a circle of piano chords in front of some swirls of the feedback type without being made of actual guitar feedback.  Towards the end of the tune we’re getting some church organ which is nice and lends solemnity to the tune, but honestly I’m not feeling this is a particularly risky set of choices that have been made here.  The second tune, Warm, is all right again not very surprising.  A walking synth melody with a vibrato like static guitar wamble opposing it.  This is a good record being hyped, nothing more nothing less.

Remember kids, just because somebody says something is awesome doesn’t make it so.  Even when it’s a music publicist in conjunction with the totally uncompromised music blog Stereogum and NPR which relies very heavily on the PR slingers for their content.  And just because a record has a bunch of money behind it doesn’t mean it’s good.  I’ve clipped a record down below by an un-publicist outfit.  I found this record via Anti-Gravity Bunny, which is a great source for ambient music and I find this record to be far more beautiful than the Eluvium record which I’ve done a full cavity search on.

@@@ Orchestra Super Mezembe: Mazembe @ 45rpm Vol. 1 (Stern’s, 2013).  Off WRIR’s music review email.  Heavy on the melodic guitar playing, which I love.  Not focused on a pounding funk/rock vibe, and more on steady, laidback flow.  I started listening to this record last week and then started with fourth song, Mwana Mazembe, this morning and thought it was some very sweet singing and guitar playing.  I’ve clipped the fourth tune below — it’s a seven minute excerpt.

@@@ DIEUF-DIEUL DE THIES: Aw Sa Yone Vol. 1 (Teranga Beat, 2013) As opposed to the Orchestra Super Mezembe this is a much more driving African music record.  More uptempo and the guitars are fuzzed out.  I find myself listening to the excellent work put in by the horns and the conga player.  I’m a sucker for that high register singing on track 2, Mariama Yayou Salam.  I like the record but not as much as the Orchestra Super Mazembe.  It’s just personal taste, check them out for yourselves.  Oh wait, I was about to move on and they tore it out with the third tune, Sibaye.  A 10+ minute slow moving, deep ass groove with over the top singing.  I’m liking this record more and more.

@@@ !!!: Thr!!!ler (Warp, 2013)  Off the MOG new release page.  This is straight up disco — exquisitely crafted and not completely awful, but stupidizing no doubt.  This low IQ pollution music will make you stupid.  You’ve been warned.