Mary Lou Williams
After an intense year of being completely molested by lo-fi-glo-wave-surf-chill-rock. I said “ENOUGH! of this shenanigans.” ”Grant me some music of not ‘over’, but respectable-saturation. Lead, these ears beyond the realms of the ever grim genre chasms” but my plea was unheard and so i was stricken down with a mighty illness which lasted a whole five days.
With silence all around, i caught wind of a dark magus, and astray i went, following the scent of his crack fuelled sax.
My journey was filled with sheer wonderment, horror, sweat and hunger, with no delay between symptoms. After what appeared to be eons, i began to partially decipher what tongue he was speaking.
It was clear he said, pointing in the direction of the sky and chewing the opium laced grime from his fingernails… “No earthly product will ever cleanse a broken mind. LOOK, and ‘listen’ to the constellations, these archaic and perhaps slightly fictitious gods of the cosmos have heard every instance in every conceivable fashion ad infinitum. You and your reproduction-driven biological brain have brushed not even half a hair from the maine of a wild beast with saturation” and slapped me into the fire.
While the burning started to creep into the very corners of my mental, i knelt down with hands in the ashes, and realised i had been given a brief moment of clarity. My flirt with enlightenment was seductive enough to cast out whichever devil had been occupying and causing the un-hinged spiralling depressive temper towards modern times and, really, self-created indulging of whatever and any material was placed before me.
Start fresh.
Less compromise. Moderate. And educate the filter.
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Listen to the whole album in Spotify
BORE OFF MERCURY! Listen to this instead (click m’face).
Person 1: Hey there, have you heard of the Brazilian band Os Mutantes?
Person 2: Yer, didn’t they use one of their songs on a McDonald’s adverts?
——END CONVERSATION——
So they may have let A Minha Menina slip a couple of times into ads (PROOF), but Os Mutantes are the most important rock band of Brazilian history. Their 1968 debut set a benchmark for experimental rock music and jetted them (and Gilberto Gil) off as they honed in on the Tropicalia sound.
Forty two years on, when they’re not chilling out in the studio with Beck, Os Mutantes are still a formidable force live. Playing a one off gig at the Royal Festival Hall last night as part of the Southbank’s Brazil Festival, founding member Sergio Diaz & co get a SEATED CROWD jumping (god knows how, but it happened) with their kooky jives.
It may sound like a bit of a cop out, but if you want to check them out it literally is best to start with their best of Everything Is Possible! From there check out their ‘English-orientated’ later stuff such as the Tecnicolour album as well as their 2009 reunion album Haih Or Amortecedor which sees them reunite with writing Brazilian amigos Tom Ze and Jorge Ben.
Yes your dad has probably heard of them, no that’s not a bad thing.
Vanilla
Hyper Gradient Symphony by Vanilla
The completely overlooked ‘Chrometrails’ album by Vanilla. There’s a whole lot of info on the chrometrails tumblr if you want the in depth process behind the album.
Everyone on here is fighting their case for the album of the summer. This is my stab. Vanilla states his influences pretty clearly, and it can be heard no doubt. However it does it’s standalone thing pretty well without being another genre-gap filler. The guy can make music to get you nodding to, if nothing else, he’ll provide a bit of exercise for your excessive computer-neck.
Take this one out on some headphones and get some fresh air.
You can listen to and download the entire thing over on soundcloud.
Not only do The Furries encapsulate the sound of the summer (as mentioned yesterday), but Dr John and his gumbo sure do have a good crack at it too.
Contrary to popular belief, perfect summer music doesn’t come from California…
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Sea Oleena
I was made aware of Sea Oleena this morning and I think she is just wonderful. Her self-titled album is a rich collection of beautifully performed songs, with layers of tender vocals and a gentle ambience. The variation in style between the songs allows the album to work as a whole very well, with songs like “Swimming Story” and “Asleep at the Wheel” being catchy single-material, while the instrumental track “And” is a calm yet emotive piece that stands alone perfectly while breaking up the record before the more intense “Little Army”.
If I had to compare her to anyone I would say Gregory and the Hawk, while Jami says she reminds him of Cibelle, but she has her own idiosyncrasies to allow her to stand on her own, apart from lazy comparisons with other female artists.
If you’ll excuse me I’ll be over here falling in love.
You can download ‘Sea Oleena’ over at Bandcamp.