Abstract Index Playlist - December 23/10

We're barely past the solstice and already we're deep into the Cold Weather. For most of North America, that signals the end of the reggae season.

Reggae as we all know is skankin' on the beach music with a bottle of Red Stripe in each hand.

Never mind the reality that reggae and dancehall are more entrenched, discussed and distributed than ever before, and that quality releases in long and short form varieties continue to be issued throughout the year.

However, as I have of late dwelt on the perception of music as much as the expression of music, mass media and even prominent blogs continue to ignore reggae unless the weather is right. Year end lists of pop music seem to be more narrow than ever. Hip hop rightly graduated to such lists many years ago (and Kanye has demonstrated that a hip hop album can actually epitomize a year - take that, Arcade Fire!), but for all the promise contained in the breezy aphorism "I don't care where it comes from, good music is good music", rock-based music from the United States, Britain, and here of course, Canada continues to represent the vast majority of pop year-end lists. Where is Gyptian's "Hold You", or for that matter the soca hit of the decade JW & Blaze's "Palance", both of which moved millions of bodies this year? Getting deeper, it's not as though tropically-derived music isn't massively popular in North America, it's just that we fail to paint a true picture of ourselves in terms of musical activity (maybe social activity too, Toronto?) when the ends of years/decades necessitate one. For the umpteenth year, music lags far behind food, movies, and cuisine in terms of critical endorsement of widespread popularity.

Jahdan's new album Babylon Nightmare isn't going to change that - especially with a December 2010 release all but guaranteeing it will be forgotten by December 2011. Too bad. This is a fine record which combines hip hop with upfull reggae in a way that a wider swath of North Americans should get with. Babylon Nightmare is no simple grafting of hip hop beats onto reggae basslines, it's a virtuous circle in which reggae hooks and hip hop rhythms combine in ways that make them difficult to tease them apart. Discreet acoustic guitars, string flourishes and bits of reggae's past (Ras Michael, Eek A Mouse) add variety. In short, it's a reggae album that should play well with all kinds of hip hop influenced music of these sub-arctic climes.

Perhaps the lyrics, which dwell on traditional Rasta concerns of living right and denouncing the ways and means of Babylon, may not be as accessible as the music (so few reggae artists on this continent have found ways to address cold weather themes of urban isolation and working against natural elements to survive. Jahdan had a great song on his last album which hit some of these nerves) but in terms of delivery, Jahdan is always a wonder. Switching off easily between singing and chanting, his dexterity in bending a phrase around several bars is his primary appeal. This is no criticism of the substance of the lyrics; just that cultural reggae lyrics tend not to appeal to the unconverted.

Thanks to Jahdan's association with Major Lazer, Dutty Artz et al, this should go further than a typical reggae release, but I can only hope that someone like Jody Rosen at Rolling Stone (writing about Busy Signal's "fearsome flow and great taste in beats" on D.O.B.) will take notice and consider this album as an important, memorable album regardless of genre.

Of course, I'm still here running my mouth, bringing today's crucial rhythms and textures to a mass audience FWIW. I may not be on the front lines of every style, but I'll always strive to build and reinforce the big tent. Que Viva CIUT!

Podcast

a wah dat - junior dread (trojan)
christmas day pt 1 - les kilimambogo (nairobi)
arbolito - willie colon & hector lavoe (fania)
christmas in jamaica - brent dowe (studio one)
let's try - heptones (studio one/heartbeat)
cocody rock (dub) - alpha blondy (shanachie/vp)
rewind - jahdan blakkamoore (lustre kings)
humano - lido pimienta rmx by sonora (no label)
si hecho palante - ticklah (easy star)
blast off - sonnymoon (plug research)
to care (like you) - james blake (a&m)
underground (fat freddy's drop vs. celeda) - le freak selector (no label)
zuluairlines - bert on beats (man)
nahoda - damily (unknown)
what do you think happens when you get too far from your house? - peripheral vision (no label)
space jungle funk - oneness of juju (strut)
no matter what - nicole mitchell black earth strings (delmark)
crime in the pale moonlight - flanger rmx by rashad becker (nonplace)
ruff way - rhythm & sound feat. tikiman (burial mix)
lakeviews - resoe (echochord)
bearcat dreads - john hornak (no label)
rubadub anthem - high tone rmx by twelve (jarring effects)
tired of fighting - menahan street band (dunham)
funky in here - dayton sidewinders (funkadelphia)
get down santa - the jive turkeys (colemine)
christmas tree - king stitt (studio one)

Abstract Index Playlist - December 16/10

I was all set to write about how this funny little project takes the hatchet to a wide range of pop songs past and present, but then Lonely Island's "I Just Had Sex" dropped and arguably did an even better job of lampooning today's hottest hits. Its silly, positive spirit is more evocative of what sex is actually like than Katy's limp double-entendres and Xtina's bionic coochie music.

That video was a fitting way to end a year in which I spent more time listening to Top 30 pop music I don't like than ever before. Sure, I enjoy and play my fair share of pop music (if not usually chartbusters - except from Jamaica...), but it's part of my job to keep in touch with what's going on outside of the music I tend to write about. How can any self-respecting World Music 2.0 journalist write about the brave new sounds around the world without familiarity with how North American hip hop, dance and power pop influences travel throughout the globe? How can I write about jazz without acknowledging what the Bad Plus, Jamie Cullum and Vijay Iyer have done with contemporary pop songs as an update of the Miles and Trane transformations of Broadway standards in the 50s? More tellingly, how can I be taken seriously as a music critic if I high-handedly dismiss this era's "in da club" generation while lionizing previous ones?

I only wish that some of my professional peers would have the same courtesy to explore beyond their comfort zones as I have been trying to do for years since "poptimism" legitimized the scholarly analysis of pop music half a decade ago. But since there's no easy money writing about world music and experimental traditions around the world, I shouldn't be surprised. It still bugs me when the musical territory to which I gravitate most is dismissed out of hand as irrelevant (not enough hype, clicks n' cash behind it), when such criticism is coming from a fundamental lack of curiosity of what's going on in the wide world beyond pop and rock being produced in North America and the UK (to be fair, the editors I work with most frequently do not think this way). With the music industry in tremendous flux, sudden popularity can come from the most unlikely sources, and to dismiss genres and continents as irrelevant is simply bad journalism.

Anyways, I'm happy to have received Pop Massacre: a Christmas gift which combines freeform electronic exploration with hits from yesterday and today: I've always been Hooked On Plunderphonics. Last week's track "La Bamba" was once a radical reinvention of a world music classic, and this version by Mexicans With Guns accomplishes much the same thing more than 50 years later. Starting with a creaky, slowed down representation of the main guitar riff, it quickly collapses into a burbling mess of electronics and reconfigures itself into the Low End Theory glitch-shuffle that Friends of Friends have done such a great job of showcasing to the world this past year. By song's end, it's gone double time, getting into modern day nuevo-tropical beats at the cutting edge of 'global South' dance music. And so it goes elsewhere: the many, many hooks and cultural signposts of these songs are pureed into tongue and cheek remixes which nonetheless hold up for repeated listening. The best parts of Pop Massacre go several steps beyond Girl Talk's serial money-shot shtick, while still tickling those pop music taste buds. Here are empty calories and expert cuisine folded together then cooked until well done.

Save some room for Lonely Island's affectionate satire as dessert.

Podcast

kifo - remmy ongala & orchestre super matimala (real world)
dr. j abuya - daniel owino misiani & shirati band (earthworks)
gborei adesai - psychedelic aliens (voodoo funk)
threeball jazz - yelram selectah (no label)
moon pupils - boxcutter (kinnego)
hot gyal - tnt rmx by bassanova (t & a)
get on downz - switch rmx by le freak selector (no label)
mountains to climb - jahdan blakkamoore (lustre kings)
let it up - empresarios (fort knox)
gusto a nada - les reyes del milanga rmx by teswuino & dj linterna (cabeza)
fulaninha - luisa maita rmx by maga bo (cumbancha)
silbando - los riberios rmx by grc (barbes)
herencia rumbera - roberto roena y su apollo sound (fania)
mr. freedom x - miles davis (columbia)
latin power - eero koivisitoinen (porter)
treehouse - peripheral vision (no label)
no rest for the wicked - a hawk and a hacksaw (lm duplication)
snakes at the euxine - rembetika hipsters (no label)
track 3 - french kiss orchestra (no label)
la bamba - richie valens rmx by mexicans with guns (friends of friends)
bandwagon - kotchy (done right)

Abstract Index Playlist - May 20/10

There's a lot to say about Janelle Monae.

First up, read my piece at Exclaim for the June issue.

I was extremely impressed with her, or at least with her phone manner. She was very professional, but frequently went off script into concise but illuminating asides. That's not a bad metaphor for the album. It's a polished major-label release with fascinating and well-developed tangents.

At its heart is the concept adapted from Metropolis. Though Monae told me she hadn't researched the various remakes of the movie, hers is both a departure from the usual themes associated with it, as well as a strong reaffirmation. Basically, she attaches perspectives of race and gender to a story of workers and elites. With that as the lyrical focus to the album, she explores many different flavours of future soul, psychedelia and pop. And it all comes out well - from neo-folk interludes to gurgling guitar solos which actually feel appropriate to her overall vision rather than a cheap add on.

So many different ideas come up within the space of one song. Take the single "Tightrope" (have you seen the Letterman performance by now?). The lyrics are deep on many levels. First, there's the infectious wordplay with its rapping cadences to draw the listener into the song and dig in to the message. The message itself - whether you're high or low, you're always walking on a tightrope, because that's what 'the machine' wants from you - is something you might find in punk, metal or 'conscious' hip hop lyrics, but certainly not in most egregiously self-aggrandizing, status-seeking, product-placing, party-starting pop music (of which her parent label Bad Boy has released more than its fair share). Is she referring to the entertainment industry/society's expectations of women? Black Americans? Or just her character, the android 'Cindi Mayweather' in the four part Metropolis saga? Either way, the song is brilliant as music that moves the story along and on its own as a terrific JB-infused pop song. And that's before the ukulele break (don't think Fritz Lang ever had that in mind with the movie...) whose chord changes strongly suggest samba, one aspect of a great range of global musical influences on The ArchAndroid, along with a bit of Afrobeat, references to different eras of reggae, Eastern European prog, ye olde English folk and orchestral touches.

I keep thinking about comparing it to Purple Rain when listening to it; except Prince was several years into his career by the time he put it all together into a mass-market friendly style of individuality. The fact that this fully developed sci-fi concept is the debut album by a black woman on a very mainstream label is simply remarkable. If Lady Gaga is supposed to be the standard for boundary pushing dance music today, Monae whups her ass by being more eclectic, more ambitious, more accomplished, writing better lyrics and above all being a better singer by far. And she's got a kickass crown designed by the guy who built the Iron Man suit.

Podcast

mra - brotherhood of breath (rca neon)
assunta - zane massey (delmark)
and when to come back - harris eisenstadt (clean feed)
fadeen to - bako dagnon (discograph)
dub for cascadia - locsil (kranky)
dub y guaguanco - flowering inferno (tru thoughts)
guiyome - konono no. 1 (crammed)
atou - youssou n'dour & super etoile de dakar (no label)
lotis - menwar (no label)
balkumbia - balkan beat box vs. sub swara (no label)
avante me fante - mahala rai banda (asphalt tango)
trouble - citizen sound (balanced)
dance or die - janelle monae feat. saul williams (wondaland arts/bad boy)
you - funkineven (eglo)
dance with me - twilight (luv n haight)
lucifer went to church - afrobutt (electric minds)
africa - dub all sense meets abassi all stars (universal egg)
peace and love - dubmatix feat linval thompson rmx by nate wize (7 arts)
the promised land - nas & damian marley (republic)
dub fire - aswad (mango)
heads of government - leroy sibbles (attic)
roots radics rockers reggae - bunny wailer (shanachie)
palo bonito - katunga (arcando)
cabo de vela - tatico hernandez (discolando)
el tembleque - panchitron/sonido mundial mix (no label)
boiling over - kush arora (no label)
sinian dub - tassilli players (universal egg)

Abstract Index Playlist - April 21/10

It's not the greatest band name, but it's accurate.

I was trying to describe this record to someone and talked about the hooky, melodic, heavily filtered synth workouts, the sometimes robotic, sometimes swinging beats and terse vocals. She responded "So they could be from anywhere, right?" Which was exactly the point. They could be just a band from Toronto, or London, or even Kenya.

Just A Band is worldly, but coming from a different place in the world, and theirs is a well-curated survey of many contemporary trends and sounds in hipster dance music. There are several obvious questions: do I like this particular collage because it's African, whereas I might not give it a second thought if it were some buzz band from Brooklyn? By the same token, do I, or other listeners, expect something more African or specifically Kenyan out of this music? To what extent is a band like this a new phenomenon?

Though there are plenty of historical examples of transglobal African sounds produced by Africans and non-Africans alike, there are surely more examples than ever these days. The local origins of this band aren't downplayed or watered down, they're updated and placed on equal footing with all the other international musical and technological influences; there's no subordination or fetishization of geographically based stereotypes. Probably the clincher for me in this case are the vocals, which sound like a seriously spliffed-out Tone Loc wrung out through an autotuned vocoder. The declamatory singing and spoken word style combined with the melodic sweetness is quite appealing.

This album represents yet another round in the continuing debate over "what do North Americans expect from African music?" We should know by now that contemporary African sounds are not just furious drums, chanting and nine-minute dance til you drop workouts; but manifestations of a continuous flow of music from and back to Africa as channeled by myriad individual, local and national circumstances. Even so, Just A Band anticipates and leads such conversations rather than simply follow them. These guys may be Just A Band, but they're far more talented than Just An Example.

Podcast

kamiki - orchestre kiam (syllart)
carruseles - afrosound (vampisoul)
latin roots - larry harlow (fania)
tingiza kichna - just a band (akwaaba)
thermodynamic orchestra - pierre bastien (western vinyl)
chocolate - l'ordi (zonda)
maze - actress (honest jons)
hela mmaneyu - kabasa (atlantic)
pecoussa - francois lougah (syllart)
united nation/saidi style - mahmoud fadl (piranha)
immigrant visa - poirier feat mc zulu rmx by maga bo (ninja tune)
cancion para colombia - huelepega sound system (inyrdisk)
alergia - very be careful (barbes)
n'ouhoumba - bako dagnon (discograph)
think twice - gilles peterson's havana cultural band rmx by 4 hero (brownswood)
end titles - jamshied sharifi rmx by solar lion (kiahkeya productions)
brigadier sabari - alpha blondy (syllart)
time tough - romain virgo (vp)
tribute - jah cutta (stomp)
don't fool the young girls version - the gladiators (studio one)
flash gordon meets luke skywalker - roots radics rmx by bill laswell (trojan)
log on dub - horsepower productions (tempa)

Abstract Index Playlist - June 24/09

I never really cared for Michael Jackson. Maybe given enough time, I'll move from a dispassionate appreciation of his talents to something more heartfelt, but it's 25 years and counting. Lost in the increasingly hyperbolic memorials are the equally visceral reactions against MJ's grip on popular culture for most of the 80s. Thriller hit when I was in grade 10 and I couldn't stand it. His hair, his clothes but especially the cold, calculated music represented everything the budding "alternative" movement was against. I'm quite certain that many critics writing tearfully about the passing of a legend were card-carrying members of this particular subculture at the time, which scorned anything so popular. (Prince, on the other hand, was a life changing experience)

Over the years I've learned to love big productions with heavy studio confectionary. This brings me to 24 Carat Black. By 1973, Stax records were increasingly baroque, singles had great fidelity and cool sounds but were thin on soul. Dale Warren was the arranger on many Stax products - and they were products - of the time, and like his primary employer, Isaac Hayes, Warren was trying to get his studio project off the ground. 24CB were three vocalists and a working band, at one point called the Ditalians, but their previous mix of soul standards and a few few originals was entirely overhauled by Warren into a post-Superfly meditation on race and poverty. They released their one and only album Ghetto: Misfortune Wealth that year. Its simmering breaks, organ and orchestration made it a veritable prototype for Cinematic Orchestra and a brace of dark-sounding hip hop more than twenty years later. With no out-of-the-box singles and Stax beginning to experience cash flow issues, the album sank without a trace until become a rare groove collectors item in the UK two decades later.

The Numero Group found the mouldering masters of 24 Carat Black's second album decaying in a Chicago basement. The tapes were in such poor condition, only six out of twenty tracks survived. Fortunately this was enough for a 40 minute release. Gone! The Promises Of Yesterday is an even darker and, because of the lack of budget & subsequent final mixes, sparer piece of work. It's not all gold - some operatic moments don't succeed, and other bits are impossibly pretentious. But most of it represents that rare state where pre-fab meets substance - this is an album about Dale Warren - that an arranger (ahem, Quincy Jones) could create a sound that used major strains in pop culture to invert expectations about what ground a pop act ought to cover.

Maybe my lingering indifference towards Michael Jackson came from his attempt to hold the centre at all costs. 24 Carat Black is just as calculated, maybe more so, since none of the individual members of the group had one tenth the talent as MJ. This music was strikingly original. It didn't try to be everything to everybody but still provoked that involuntary head nod. Even when my favorite reggae singers are willing to sing anything for anybody, they just try to be themselves. For decades I never got the sense from MJ that being himself was a major priority in his music; he was more likely to inflate his image to suit his grandiose productions. After a certain point, soul didn't seem to matter in his music except as a backdrop to his dance routines.

'Alternative' is a word that hardly has meaning anymore, the embrace of pop by my music critic peers is complete and supposedly genuine (it's genuine if you want to make money as a freelancer...). But I just can't reason my way out of a dislike that's so deeply seated. Like the disco this white boy was conditioned to hate in 1982, I'm sure the some of MJ's catalog will hit me just right at some point. Then again, I still hate the Supremes.

Podcast

summer madness (live) - kool and the gang (de-lite/mercury)
rectangle man - john stetch trio (justin time)
pattern 1 - moritz von oswald trio (honest jons)
for si I - arraymusic comp. by christian wolff (artifact)
crossroads - nicole mitchell black earth strings (delmark)
mopti - tribecastan (evergreene)
the pillars of baalbek - sir richard bishop (drag city)
gone! the promises of yesterday - 24 carat black (numero)
very goode - die enttauschung (intakt)
consolacao - tenorio jr (far out)
make your mind pt 2 - mr something something (world)
equality and justice - leroy brown (dakarai)
qualities in life - sizzla (greensleeves)
cash flow - major lazer feat. jahdan blakkamoore (downtown)
love's contagious - tarrus riley (vp)
love me in the evening - stranger cole & gladstone anderson (moll selekta)
mama she don't like you - alborosie (vp)
that's the way nature planned it - ken boothe (trojan)
words of wisdom/silver hour - u roy/tommy mccook and the supersonics (pressure sounds)

Abstract Index Playlist - September 10/08

Lately, I've cottoned on to a few recommendations by my colleague Cam Lindsay who is Exclaim's Associate Editor.

I've seen this album compared to Outhud and LCD Soundsystem and I can get with that. But there's more going on here without being too self indulgent. I'm a fan of any artist who will use a wide variety of rhythms, sounds and songwriting ideas - regardless of genre. Having not paid much mind to GGD's (purportedly more experimental - I'll have to do some digging) work before this, Saint Dymphna presses all my buttons. Grooves bounce from the punk-dub of this week's track "Desert Storm", to fractured Afrobeat, to a "Darling Nikki"-type groove, to a loopy if not entirely succesful collaboration with grime-y vocalist Tinchy Stryder.

When the inevitable 80s inspired synths hit like a sledgehammer, at least they make interesting music rather than barf up semi digested Depeche Mode or Arthur Baker riffs. But the range of ideas impresses, and the flow of the disc is superb. Expect more airplay...

Podcast


demented lullaby - adam niewood (innova)
recall - lina allemano (lumo)
pollen and spores - secret frequency crew (schematic)
desert storm - gang gang dance (social registry)
baiao one two - a filial (verge)
ohlos coloridos - sandra de sa (milan)
la mareada - spam allstars (riverboat)
brother man sister ann - clemon smith (charly)
tour to africa - tarig abubukar & the afro nubians (no label)
secret - adrian miller (black night)
ma hine cocore - vieux farka toure rmx. by yossi fine (modiba)
ahe sira bila - issa bagayogo (six degrees)
18" speaker - ragga twins (soul jazz)
army arrangement (bill laswell version) - fela anikulapo kuti (celluloid)
battle of the righteous man - dub gabriel feat. dr. israel (destroy all concepts)
jah jah live forever - johnny osborne (light in the attic)
don't look back (don't space out) - peter tosh & mick jagger (rolling stones)

Abstract Index Playlist - December 19/07

I'd have blogged about this weeks ago, but I was hoping a better quality image would turn up. As it is, the rough and rugged colour photocopy on my CDR copy is somehow appropriate to the music within.

I'm a latecomer to this thrilling and deranged band. Those deeper (and darker and more united) into the scene formerly known as Torontopia have already lionized Alex Lukashevsky's band as one of the truly unique sounds of this city. How fitting that Rat Drifting - home to so many strange visions in songcraft - should be releasing this. This marvellous live album has pop songs at its core, complete with catchy rhymes, whose basic progressions are exploded by the improv-minded band. The balance between songs and freakouts gets perilous at times but is always maintained.

It doesn't hurt that the band contains a few of my favourite musicians in Toronto. Ryan Driver is someone I've written about before at length, and here he sticks largely to synthesizer (though also chiming in on flute and ruler-bass). Nonetheless, between his synth tones, Brodie West's sympathetic sax squawks and Tania Gill's keyboard sounds, there's a great din happening at around 1K Hz in all these songs. It's difficult to tell who's doing what, and we like it that way - Lukashevsky's guitar tones (which sounds - probably just a coincidence - like main Rat Drifter Eric Chenaux) play the Ornette role in this music, corralling the musicians into changes, stating and modifying the main themes as he goes. Speaking of Ornette, I'd call this music harmolodic, although rooted in pop, not jazz. 'Harmolodic' is a term that I probably use too frequently, but it's a good description of the give and take between the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic (and textural) elements within these songs.

Can't write about this disc without a tip of the hat to Nick Fraser, who is the funkiest drummer in Toronto not playing funk.
-----------------------

This was my final show of the year, rounding up some of my favourites from 2007. It was by no means systematic or ranking-oriented (one might say I have "ranking dread") - I had to leave one or two of my faves at home simply because I couldn't track down the damn paper sleeves. Do I go more digital next year? Consulting my magic '08 ball, all I get is: "reply hazy, try again"...

Hour 1 Podcast
Hour 2 Podcast

izdiucz - thilges (staubgold)
downstairs - nublu orchestra (nublu)
kirui - co streiff sextet (intakt)
rug boy - claudia quintet (cuneiform)
the alien - ananda shankar (fallout)
mera nam hai shabnam - asha bhosle/r.d. burman (bombay connection)
are you tired of me already? - thongmark leacha (sublime frequencies)
feso jaiye - the sahara all stars of jos (soundway)
imidiwan winakalin - tinariwen (harmonia mundi)
ma hine cocore - vieux farka toure remix by yossi fine (modiba)
cachaca - juba dance (audio 8)
elsa - los destellos (barbes)
masterpiece - deep city band (numero)
thunder - lord thunder (vampisoul)
family tree - sandro perri (constellation)
blues for a bright day - drumheller (rat drifting)
sweet misery - tony wilson/peggy lee/jon bentley (drip audio)
was - michel f cote (ambiances magnetiques)
i saved a junky once - deep dark united (rat drifting)
light of day - lal (PTR)
casa diamante - maracatu nunca antes (no label)
evolution - treson & burna (canadian reggae world)
favi rock - abassi all stars (universal egg)
version galore - love trio and u roy (nublu)
nine years - ticklah (easy star)
cumbia del leon - the lions (ubiquity)
peace version - brentford disco set (soul jazz)
how can i leave you/one love - heptones (heartbeat)