Category Archives: music

World music classics #24

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“Can You Feel It” (1986) by Larry Heard

In the beginning, there was Jack. And Jack had a groove. And from this groove came the groove of all grooves. And while one day viciously throwing down on his box, Jack boldly declared, “Let there be House!” –first lines from the lyrics

I remember listenin to this song on Grand Theft Auto! I was speeding down the highway then ended up in the ocean and the song stopped and I went crazy and jumped off my house (in the game). -Youtube comment

Previous World Music Classics.

Guilty pleasures #6

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gl-7fbIrpQ]

Ever since buying Die Grosse Jux-Box [1] late last year, I’ve been crazy about the La la la la la singing/laughing chant on that record. Today I hear it on Radio Centraal in a version by French singer Henri Salvador (1917 – 2008) who died last Wednesday. The track is called “Juanita Banana”. The eponymous heroine Juanita Banana is a banana grower’s daughter singing “Caro Nome” from Verdi‘s Rigoletto.


Introducing Praxis

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It’s actually strange that I’ve never actively come across this band besides of having heard of them. I am a big fan of Bill Laswell and all P-Funkiana, both are canonical to my encyclopedic work. Praxis introduces a whole collective of adventurous culture, from cutting edge music to exciting graphics, rebellious texts and tetsuoesque performances (is the life-size doll by Rammellzee?).

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUL_gcHv0EA]

“Animal Behavior” (1992) from the Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) album.

Praxis is the name of an ever-changing Bill Laswell musical project. Praxis combines elements of different musical genres such as funk, jazz, hip-hop and heavy metal into highly improvised music. First appearing in 1992 with the critically acclaimed Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis), Buckethead, Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell and Brain have defined the direction of the band over the last 15 years.

Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) is the first album by Bill Laswell‘s everchanging “supergroup” Praxis. This first album features Buckethead on guitar, Bootsy Collins on bass and vocals, Brain on drums, Bernie Worrell on keyboards and DJ AF Next Man Flip on turntables and mixer.

Transmutation features a wide range of musical styles, all mixed together to make a very diverse and unique album. Styles such as heavy metal, funk, hip hop, ambient, jazz and blues are blended together to form a strange style of avant-garde, with extended guitar and keyboard solos, and highly improvised passages.

The artwork is by James Koehnline, photography by Thi-Linh Le and liner notes by Hakim Bey.

 

A reappraisal of Amélie

I had seen Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain in the winter of 2001 when it came out in theatres in Belgium and had not taken to it because of its faux happiness and its European hollywoodity. I’ve seen it again today and I think it is time for a reappraisal. This clever film shows a unique understanding of visual and auditory culture. It is told by an omniscient narrator* in an extremely writerly and accomplished style.**

The visuals and the score from Yann Tiersen are virtually symbiotic. One peep show scene features music from French house musician Alex Gopher‘s “The Child” (1999) (“them that’s got, shall get”). I wanted to give you the Kenny Dope remix (the one actually featured in Amélie). In stead, here Youtube is a slower version with many intrusive voices but interesting visuals (animation made out of typography by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet). If you badly need the Kenny Dope remix, buy Beats & Pieces vol. 2 on the highly recommended series out on BBE Records.

*On the omniscient narrator, see scenes in the recent film Stranger Than Fiction in which Dustin Hoffman teaches a whole seminar on the omniscient narrator phrase par excellence “little did he know”, illustrating the excesses of literary theory.

** Films such as Reconstruction (which I liked immensely) owe a lot to the Ameliesque aesthetic.

World music classics #23

In 1994 I was crazy about the “Wilmot” track (see clip below) by Andrew Weatherall‘s Sabres of Paradise project. I had since lost the record but the mesmerizing horns kept spooking through my head over the years.

Last week, I am listening with my children to a commercial radio station and I hear a track by Shantel Youtube, a Balkan artist in a “techno” remix. I recognize the mesmerizing horns.

Today, I am making my 1980s music page and re-discover the composition by The Sabres of Paradise, find its Youtube clip Youtube and discover that the original version of the horns dates back to 1931, is called “Black But Sweet”, and is composed by calypso artist Wilmoth Houdini.

Another case closed in the history of cultural appropriation in western music.

World music classics #22

Funky Nassau, The Compass Point Story 1980 - 1986

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L762HQ-ha7I&]

“Funky Nassau” (1971) Beginning of the End

“Funky Nassau” was a proto-disco composition released in 1971 by Bahamian group The Beginning of the End.

“Funky Nassau” is now also the title of a music compilation of Compass Point Studios recordings by Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and Grace Jones, as well as lesser known compositions from the fringes of rock, soul, and dance music. The compilation will be released on March 11, 2008 by Strut Records.

Ode to MTV and the contemporary grotesque

If – as Adonis Kyrou contended – “the modern marvelous is popular, and the best and most exciting films are, beginning with Méliès and Fantômas, the films shown in local fleapits” – the contemporary marvelous is shown in video games and on MTV. I’m not an video game expert, but have been a big fan of MTV since its inception, and it still is my favorite television station, celebrating the wonder of visual culture hour after hour.

So if the modern marvelous is popular, the modern grotesque is popular as well.

Here is an example of those sensibilities we look for in visual culture: “Perfect”, a single by Princess Superstar. The sound is similar to Bodyrox‘s “Yeah Yeah”, the visuals (the make-up of the ladies) fit our bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZl165WDjDA

“Perfect” by Princess Superstar

And here is the clip by Bodyrox I referred to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8YqHu3k7pU

“Yeah Yeah” by Bodyrox (uncensored version)

World music classics #21

[Youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=RBJYQMntyRg]

“Amigo” (1980) – Black Slate

I was going to give you the rarer track “Sticks Man” (robberman … why you do dat?), but it’s not on Youtube.

Notice in this clip the use of Spaghetti Western imagery, which was quite common at the time in reggae circles and exemplified by Lee Perry’s late 1960s and early 1970s output with The Upsetters.

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