I'm not going to pretend to be any kind of expert on the Indian/Bollywood thing. I'm still just getting into it. But one thing I've figured out is that R.D. Burman is a good place to start. I have nothing to back this statement up with, but I'll just go ahead and say he was the John Williams of Bollywood. Again, I have no idea if that is even remotely accurate, but I'm sticking with it. ACCEPT IT AS GOSPEL, BITCHES!
Dubstep is practically a dirty word these days as far as I'm concerned, thanks to what the American EDM scene has done to it.
This 2009 track by Subscape is a nice example of the sound that the Skrillexes of the world took and ran with. Ran with right off a cliff into a pool of Drakkar Noir and Rohypnol. Sigh...
For a low-to-mid level music blogger, I go out to surprisingly few shows. Chalk it up to the fact that I'm old and spend most of my time TELLING THOSE GODDAMN KIDS TO GET OFF MY LAWN! But I actually made it out last Saturday a couple weeks ago, and it was a good one...
Yeah, fucking Bonobo. Holy shit. An act that's basically one dude plus vocalists in the studio throws down live with a something like 12 piece band including a horn section, string section, live drummer... all of which were, let's just say, fucking good at music. It's taken so long to get this post up that I won't try to give you a detailed review. It was just a mesmerising display of stellar musicianship. Let's just say that if you have the chance to see this show and miss it, YOU ARE BAD AT LIFE!
I wanted to take some video of my own, but I was way too out-of-my-mind stoned from this teeeeny-tiiiiny little pot brownie my friend gave me.
"It's waffer theen!"
I actually forgot it was possible to get that high off the weed. And of course after I tell you about the huge band I'm gonna post a vid of the one song that he plays practically by himself. You're used to that kind of thing from this blog by now, I'd imagine... But anyhoo... Holy moly. Good times. And apparently everyone else there was too fucked up to shoot anything as well, because I can't find a damn thing from the L.A. show on YouTube. So here's a clip from Boston, where it seems that their lighting rig was a little less LED-riffic, but still...
So basically, my entire review of the concert is "It was very good". You're welcome, world.
Not a particularly meaty post today... the artist is meaty enough himself...
Fat Man Ridim Section may be the best named studio backing band ever. The Fat Man himself was a dude named Roger Lewis... which is all the information I got about him. But Reggae legends Sly & Robbie were also members, so yeah... they were pretty good, too.
Can you imagine what it would be like if the rest of the world was as big a cultural wasteland as America? This planet would be so awful, meteors wouldn't even want to hit it...
You wouldn't normally expect a 60+ year-old Jazz man to hook up with a young Electronic producer and make something good, let alone worthy of a label like Tru Thoughts. But that's exactly what British saxman Larry "Stonephace" Stabbins (awesome last name, btw) did in 2009. The DJ is one Krzysztof Oktalski, who doesn't really have much else on his resume... but the product is dope, dope, dope. Dig it...
Sometimes tough love is required in this music game, and I'm here to deliver some today...
Oneness Of Juju, back in the day, were one of the most bad-ass African Funk bands around, even though they were all American. I did not know that. I even led off my legendary (sure) (what?) Funk D'Afrique mix with one of their tunes. Now? Well, they're doing Smooth Jazz covers of John Legend. Go ahead to click through and have a listen. Just know... it's Kenny G-riffic not great. Let it go, Plunky. Let it go... let us remember tunes like this one...
Obscure French Funk? Oui, S'il vous plait! Did I spell that right? (Quickly checks) YES! NAILED IT, MOTHERFUCKER!
Bernard Estardy was a French dude who mostly did Library music... and that's really all I know about the backstory, as I do not speak French. But I do know that he put out this album under his own name, and it's pretty fucking amazing. I'd think the record had been sampled more than it has... somebody needs to get on that, because there's shit like this going on...
But I don't want you to think that more-or-less straightforward Funk track is ALL there is going on... it's really a unique set. Probably the most famous track from the album is this one, which you'll agree is, well, something completely WTF... in a good way. I think the Chemical Brothers sampled that one... because of course they did.
It's the second most highly anticipated music event of 2013, next to the release of the new Daft Punk album... a new tune by Tonegent! Okay, maybe not in this universe, but definitely in the one that exists in my head. You know, the universe where trees are made of bacon and the rivers flow with beer. Mmmmm... beer... But yeah, it's been a while, and I'm pretty happy with myself to actually get something completed. Hope you like it, but if you don't... keep it to yourself, jagoff.
The music posted on this blog is for evaluation purposes only and will be removed after a short time... so if you like it... support the artists, dammit! Buy the records, go to the shows, give them a ride to the airport if they need it! Don't be a schmuck! If you are an artist or scary lawyer type and want something removed from here, just holla and it's gone! I'm easy like that!
