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The M/F Thread 2009: The Quickening

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Scarychips:
He already stopped like 12 posts before you said that.

JD:
I guess nobody really likes that guy huh

ImRonBurgundy?:
Haha, I always thought that was someone slapping their cheek with their mouth open in an "o" of shock.

o/

JD:
Some things I have been listening to:

The Very Best - Warm Heart Of Africa[2009]
Afro pop


--- Quote ---There was a David and Goliath quality to the simultaneous performances that closed out the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. Against the Flaming Lips' grid-draining light show and extravagant confetti budget, the Very Best pitted a grinning guy in a rakishly cocked plaid hat, a stocky Euro-hipster with a console-laden table, and a couple of head-wrapped backup singers. The crowd seemed thin and politely engaged during the first song. By the last, the audience had swelled considerably, and everyone was bouncing up and down-- a sea of genuinely happy faces. That's the simplest and most important thing about the Very Best. Their enthusiasm is contagious.

The group debuted last year with the superlative mixtape Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit Are the Very Best. The Malawi-born singer ran a secondhand shop in London, where he met Etienne Tron of Radioclit (Tron is French; his partner Johan Karlberg is Swedish). Radioclit's prior work had leaned heavily on grime, Miami bass, crunk, and other aggressive genres; they dubbed their style "ghetto-pop." But with the Very Best mixtape, they turned from dark, druggy hedonism to effervescent productions that blended Afropop-laced originals with mixes of M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend. It was feel-good music that felt fresh and healthful, just like Mwamwaya's voice. He sang ebulliently in Chichewa, English, and other languages, and the foreignness of the words only cleared the way for the life-affirming feeling that shined through them.

Warm Heart of Africa, the group's official debut, rises to the high standard set by the mixtape, from which only two tracks are held over: "Kamphopo", where Mwamwaya swaggers through sun-streaked Architecture in Helsinki samples, and a dance mix of "Kada Manja", with added drums and some of its strings gathered up into a loping rhythm. A couple of guest stars also return. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend duets with Mwamwaya on the title track, which will probably be the first song on the album that knocks out most listeners. "The boys move fast/ You should take it slow," they advise coquettishly, in an irresistible hopscotch cadence, over splashes of sampled guitar and hand percussion. And M.I.A. appears on "Rain Dance", panting and purring over a taut drumline, in one of the album's few respites from blaring melody. This sense of continuity with the mixtape is bolstered by the fact that some of these songs are so immediate you'll swear you've heard them before, like "Julia", which sounds like some kind of sublimely cheerful G-funk.

Radioclit deserve a lot of credit for keeping the vibe upbeat but diverse: Whether they're cooking up a snap track with pizzicato accents on "Yalira", pinging 1980s synth-pop on "Chalo", tropical dreams on "Angonde", or kwaito-inspired pulses on "Ntdende Uli", they stay out of Mwamwaya's way, using small and tactile rhythmic embellishments to give him extra kick-- always lively, never cluttered. Which is smart, because Mwamwaya is a scene-stealer, for the uncomplicated reason that he sings like an angel and takes evident pleasure in doing so. On "Zam'dziko", his voice weaves in and out of itself, adorned only with sporadic drum claps. For Mwamwaya, a hot beat is always nice, but pretty much optional. The album's biggest asset has to do with his presence, and it's hard to put a name to-- "spiritual generosity" sounds too grand, but that's what it feels like.

Some people tend to get up in arms whenever African music gets mixed up with Western genres-- as if they haven't always been in a dialogue, like how marabi is related to American jazz. The Very Best inspired me to learn more about some of the genres they employ, and if you do the same, that's great-- but an Afropop primer isn't what Mwamwaya's about here. In drawing lines between older African genres, like highlife, and newer ones, like kwaito, and then linking those to international pop styles of various eras, Warm Heart of Africa pictures a glittering web of connectivity where national and cultural boundaries dissolve. People care about socio-cultural chin-stroking; music does not. This record simply wants to be heard, by whomever will listen and enjoy. There's no cynical play for authenticity, no implication that Afropop is somehow piously cordoned off from Western music. It's a true global-pop album, and a hopeful template for things to come.
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Captan, obvio - Die Captan, obvio Die![2009]
Psychedelic punk/rock


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Theirspace

Bonaparte - Too Much[2008]
Dance Punk


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Theirspace

Radio 4 - Gotham![2002]
Dance Punk


--- Quote ---2002 should be remembered as being a fine year for American groups bringing their British '80s influences bang up to date and relevant again. So whilst Liars capture the essence of Gang Of Four, Interpol tackle Joy Division and this year's Jesus And Mary Chain are Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Radio 4 aim for The Clash's post-'London Calling' phase. It's another ambitious step to take and one which should provide many pitfalls but once again it's another brave and successful excursion. With vocals recalling the vitriol of Mick Jones and a sustained melodic intensity 'Gotham!' is another post-punk exemplar. 'Our Town', 'Dance To The Underground' and 'Save Your City' are driven, urgent anthems which sound a rallying cry for the disenfranchised. Perhaps even more satisfyingly, 'Struggle' and 'Pipe Bombs' re-enact The Clash's experimental dubbing techniques. Purists may scoff that this music is unoriginal but it would be foolish to moan when some of this revivalist material has a level of consistency which surpasses the original work.
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Our Town

The Broken West - Now Or Heaven[2008]


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Theirspace

Daft pun:
The Field Mice - For Keeps



Sounds like: Twee meets shoegaze, they're quite fond of each other and things seem to be getting serious but it just wasn't meant to last. Twee likes to think it has grown though.


--- Quote from: AMG ---What turned out to be the only full studio album the Field Mice released was also nothing less than a quietly triumphant masterpiece. Building on the strength of its string of great singles while keeping its own particular character and mood, For Keeps -- a sly and sharp title, given how many of the band's songs reflected both love's creation and dissolution -- found the five piece full of gently impassioned creativity. It could be the subtle funk wah-wah guitars on the opening "Five Moments" or the blissout psych droning of "Tilting at Windmills," but writing the Field Mice off as simple twee pop types would be a hard task for anyone after a listen to this album. In the end, the group stood apart from all the early '90s scenes swirling around it to make its own mark. Davies' softly cool vocals, winsome without being cloying, brought both greater variety and range of emotion to the songs. Wratten's still in fine voice, and together their duets work perfectly, almost defining the form that many other bands clearly inspired by them would take. On his own Wratten experiments with his voice, adding flanging to the just-epic-enough guitar build of "This Is Not Here" and elsewhere piling on the echo and other tricks for fine variety. The subtle musical nods all over the map fit the band's impressive range of influences, while avoiding drowning in them. There's the hint of late-'50s/early-'60s tearjerker drama in "Star of David," for instance, heightened by the sharp growl of the guitars against the slow, building punch of the drums. In the end it's the Field Mice, but it's a much more accomplished and intriguing Field Mice than the band's detractors (and possibly many of its followers) would ever give it real credit for.
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