Miriam Makeba Review / The Louvin Brothers Preview (Album 14)

(Mariam preview here) Wow. That was a very interesting listen. I was absolutely blown away by the click song. When she opens the song, she starts with explaining that the song isn't really called "The Click Song", but that is what the "white people called it" because they couldn't pronounce...the name of the song. That is the kind of language that is going to some day be lost to the world, it wasn't meant for being written down, and it is being eradicated because people are being pushed to change their way of life. It makes me glad that we have this music recorded. But enough politics. One song sounded very very familiar to what I know as the opening scene of The Lion King. Disney seems to know what they are doing (Simba, means lion in Swahili I'm pretty sure), and may have used that same exact sound for their movie. If it was stealing or not, I don't know. But it's recognizable enough. Fun album. I like the renditions of House Of The Rising Sun. The song "Naughty Little Flea" actually creeped me out. During this song, which sounded like it was about a lady losing her husband, there is a dude laughing in the background. Huh? Just weird. Anyways, probably not an album I will listen to often, but great for expanding horizons.

Favorite Songs:
     The Click Song
     Mbube
     The Naughty Little Flea
     House Of The Rising Sun

Whoops. Turns out I skipped the 50s this time around. Let's go back a little and do that one...

Album: Tragic Songs Of Life

Artist: The Louvin Brothers

(Footnote: I couldn't find a good image of the album art the book used)

Release Year: 1956

"You don't have to be mad murderous, drunken, driven, lonesome, ornery, or blue to sing country music... but it sure helps. This, their first full album, remains one of country's essential bedrock releases. Charlies baritone and Ira's pure high tenor trade and fuse with lilting style and beauteous grace. It is gospel-fired bluegrass shot straight from the heart." - Ross Fortune

01 - Kentucky

02 - I'll Be All Smiles Tonght

03 - Let Her Go God Bless You

04 - What Is Home Without Love

05 - A Tiny Broken Heart

07 - Alabama

08 - Katie Dear

09 - My Brother's Will

10 - Knoxville Girl

11 - Take The News To Mother

12 - Mary Of The Wild Moor

Streaming: Radio3.net

iTunes: Louvin Brothers

Spotify: Louvin Brothers

Country music...

~mfm

Air Review / Miriam Makeba Preview (Album 13)

(Air preview here) So. This album album is really cool. Sadly, I didn't watch it with the movie, which would greatly improve it I'm sure. I still plan on watching it. Listening to it was interesting, and I definitively could see how it would greatly improve everything with the movie. The songs are all pretty short, considering they are all just for the movie and probably used over and over again. The songs are also really cool, with their strings and their vocals being used as sounds, there are a couple with really really cool crescendos that I can imagine hearing during the apex of the movie. Pretty sweet stuff.

Favorite Songs:
     Playground Love
     Clouds Up
     Ghost Song
     Dead Bodies (Awesome crescendo)

Back around the horn...

Album: Miriam Makeba

Artist: Miriam Makeba

Release Year: 1960

"Traditional Xhosa wedding songs swing into airy African jazz moods, mellifluous Indoneasian lullabies, and infectious Calypso romps - myriad influences and styles working to enormous effect." - Miles Keylock

I don't know what half of those words mean, but I am willing to find out.

01 - The Retreat Song

02 - Sullram

03 - The Click Song

04 - Umhome

05 - Olilili

06 - Lakutshn, Ilanga

07 - Mbube

08 - The Naughty Little Flea

09 - Where Does It Lead

10 - Nomeva

11 - House Of The Rising Sun

12 - Saduva

13 - One More Dance

14 - Iya Guduza

Streaming: Radio3.net

iTunes: iTunes

Spotify: Spotify

Sounds worldly....

~mfm

The Shamen Review / Air Preview (Album 12)

(Shamen preview here) 2011 Grammys were on last night. I totally called who was gonna be Song of the Year.

Anyways.

I have said this before, it's hard to tell sometimes what makes some of these albums make the cut. I think that it has more to do with timing than anything really. The first album to do something - and it doesn't necessarily have to be super-awesome at it - is usually considered the groundbreaking album. So what we have here is an early 90s club banger. The songs are very house style (house techno), and from what I know the first album from the UK to really bring this kind of sound to the mainstream. I like it.

Favorite Songs:

     666 Edit

     Progen 91

     Possible Worlds

     Move Any Mountain (This song wasn't on the Book's list of songs, but when I downloaded it, it was added on as probably an after effect)

Album: The Virgin Suicides

Artist: Air

Release Year: 2000

"Seldom has sound and vision collided so gracefully as it did on Air's soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's directorial debut. The synergy between the images, which tell the tragic tale of five sisters with nothing to live for, and the French electronica duo's mesmerizing, drama-rish score is so great that it is impossible to imagine either existing without the other." - Jim Harrington

01 - Playground Love

02 - Clouds Up

03 - Bathroom Girl

04 - Cemetary Party

05 - Dark Messages

06 - The World "hurricane"

07 - Dirty Trip

08 - Highschool Lover

09 - Afternoon Sister

10 - Ghost Song

11 - Empty House

12 - Dead Bodies

13 - Suicide Underground

Streaming: The Virgin Suicides

iTunes: The Virgin Suicides

Spotify: The Virgin Suicides

The review made this album sound AMAZING. I may have to watch the movie as well.

~mfm

Dexy's Midnight Runners Review / The Shamen Preview (Album 11)

(Dexy's preview here) What up everybody. Hope things are going well.
Alright enough chit-chat. This is business. 10 Albums done already. Only...990 to go. Dexy's Midnight Runners is a band I had never heard of before. But I think that I can tell you why. My music taste is based a lot on my fathers, as I may have said before. And...This is nothing like anything he has listened to before. Probably, again, because there is a lot of foreign music in this book. And this album falls directly into that category. I like some of the music, groovy and jam-tastic, but the main singers voice didn't do it for me. Too British or something. It wasn't as powerful as I thought it should have been or could have been. I do like the horn section during many of the songs though, they add something that is missing from a lot of music these days: music.

Favorite Songs:
     The Team That Met In The Caffs [Mostly Instrumental]
     Love Part One [Monologue]

The 90s, aka the oddest decade of the 90s.

Album: En-Tact

Artist: The Shamen

Release Year: 1990

"The Shamen combined underground dance culture with pop sensibility, resulting in 100,000 sales of their 1990 album En-Tact. A coded love letter to the joys of extacy, it led to one million album sales in the UK alone. In retrospect, time has been kinder to En-Tact's more innocent, less earnest dance anthems." - Andy Pickering

01 - Human NRG

02 - Pro-Gen (Land Of Oz Mix)

03 - Possible Words

04 - Omega Amigo (Steve Osbourne Mix) 

05 - Evil Is Even

06 - Hyperreal

07 - Lightspan (Will Sinnott / Irresistible Force Mix)

08 - Make It Mine (V2.5 Evil Ed)

09 - Oxygen Restriction

10 - Hear Me O My People

Streaming: Radio3net.ro

iTunes: En-Tact

Spotify: En-Tact

I like electro music. Could be interesting.

~mfmf