Abstract Index Playlist - March 31/10

An early contender for album cover of the year.

I suspect Very Be Careful wouldn't stand for too much analysis of their music, though they boast a two page press release.

This is some heavy duty vallenato delivered with a slack, alcohol friendly lope. On the one hand,this is absolutely traditional music delivered as it was intended to be performed (albeit often with new lyrics). But it's all about the 'tude. It's as if the Pogues hailed from northern Mexico via L.A., but were able to remain a bit more upright after many consecutive nights of revelry. The accordion is so rheumatic it ought to be quarantined.

I can't decide whether the similarity in BPMs through most of the album is a blessing or a damper, but it makes for a steady rolling hip hop aesthetic that keeps heads nodding hypnotically. Nobody rushes tempos, but everyone sounds like they could instigate a bar brawl with a chord change. The term "punk vallenato" has been thrown around this band, but to me it sounds like a slower burn with equal parts festiveness and menace.

Escape Room comes out April 13.

Podcast

yekermo sew - mulatu astatke rmx by te'amir (mochilla)
taj mahal - gilberto gil & jorge ben (philips)
departure - kieran hebden & steve reid (domino)
dunya - bibi tanga & le professeur inlassable (nat geo)
throat IV - little women (aum fidelity)
the root - tommy meier (intakt)
el viajero del tiempo - very be careful (downtown pijao)
onu kwulunjo - chief stephen osita osadebe (phonogram)
umtshi tshimbo - dark city sisters (gallo)
wha la la lent - poirier feat. face t rmx by uproot andy (ninja tune)
song for the solstice - out to lunch (accurate)
auterzonik - calamalka (plug research)
bigfoot dub - echo (in tha chamber)
harmoniser dub - dennis bovell (pressure sounds)
black foundation - gussie clarke (motion)
natty bring the cochi - lion youth (virgo stomach)
wa do dub - citizen sound feat ammoye (vx)
coulda never - solo banton & jahtari rhythm force (jahtari)
down town - the dynamites (pressure sounds)