06/22 - I Had It Bad But Now I'm Back In The Saddle

Spending sunny early spring days on the island, working on translations out on the cliffs and listening to non-Western-centric reinterpretations of "rock" on high volume with the windows open:

 

Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

What a fucking rush! This might be the single best track released in 2021. I've listened to it so many times, that everything – from the introductory wail, to the galloping drums, to the mighty guitar freak out at the end – feels like it pulses through my blood immediately after hearing the first few seconds. Like a benevolent dose of heroine. Or something similar; I don't know.

 

 

Illuminati Hotties - MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA

If any song from 2021 was to give Afrique Victime a run for the money, it would be this earworm to gobble up all other earworms. Pure unadulterated, hellraising fun.

If you're not laughing, baby, then you're not making money!

 

 

John Fahey - In A Persian Market

Breaking away from the contemporary for a bit, with an equally infectious melody. For a bit it is an almost abrasively jaunty ditty, but then comes that twice-repeated gorgeous breakdown and evens things out. The fact that it is such an utterly unadorned recording just puts the tune centerstage and makes it even more impossible to get out of one's head once it has gotten a grip there.

 

Yasmin Williams ft. Amadou Kouyate - Urban Driftwood

Another lesson in the strength of purified melody lines. Treating a tune this economically allows for a simple smattering of tablas, like the one at 2:46, to raise the intensity several levels and thrill me to no end. Gorgeous kora lines too (can anything be less than gorgeous when played on the kora?).

 

 

Aragehonzi - Detarame Kagura

How to end such a joyous romp of a playlist? Why, with crazy Japanese fusion of course! And with the most exciting vocal glissando put to record in recent years! Discovered thanks to the excellent podcast James Acaster's Perfect Sounds, endlessly mining the odds and ends of the musical output of 2016, with one of the most brilliant comedians of our times.

yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOH!

05/22 - Either Side You're On, It's Not What You Deserve

You can't argue with this music. Stop arguing.

 

Najwa - Bella Ciao

So, the other day I couldn't make it last any longer, and finished the final episode of La Casa de Papel – one of the most thrilling TV shows I've seen. So here's to El Profesor, to Nairobi, to Murillo, to Helsinki, to Palermo, to Estocolmo... and of course, here's to Najwa Nimri, aka Alicia Sierra, aka my main current TV crush. 

And, some words of solidarity for the brave Ukrainian people:

 

Una mattina mi sono alzato
E ho trovato l'invasor 

O partigiano portami via
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao

 Questo è il fiore del partigiano 

🌻

 

 

Tirzah - Send Me

This is very cool music. If you're not with this, I'm afraid you're not very cool.

 

 

Joe Goddard ft. Valentina - Gabriel

From the first time I heard this on BBC6 I've been in awe of the way it holds back and keeps you wondering what kind of tune this is for a good minute and a half, before releasing this absolute monster of a disco torch song.

Gabrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!!! Gabrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!!!!

Mandy, Indiana - Bottle Episode

I don't know what this is, but it makes me all tingly inside. I want to headbang in a crowd until my thoughts are scrambled like.

 

 

Low - The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)

By now it's worth asking whether any band has ever aged as well as Low. The previous album and this one are absolute masterpieces. Possibly the best of their three-decade long career. Devastating music for our fractured times.