Nonwrestler Blog

Weekly mp3 #93: Hulk - Elephant Memory

The Frozen Elephants Music net label released this track on its first compilation, The Map Is Not The Territory.

Little snippets of a woman singing give way to plucked strings. A higher plucked instrument is fitfully accompanied by pizzicato bass. Is that muted brass or distant foghorns passing through? Are we lost at sea? Should I be happy about this? (Because I'm pretty stoked.) The vocal fragments come and go and the track shifts restlessly. Higher drawn out notes might be strings. Lower drawn out notes definitely are strings, and are playing something quite beautiful. Is that an old film projector left running after the end of the reel?

Irish producer Hulk evidently runs a label called Osaka. He's released some other good stuff and seems to be good. I picked up his most recent album last year via Amie Street and it's pretty good.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Corey Haim + lots of drugs

I found this video pretty sincerely odd. He seems so broken. The Youtube uploader wrote this about it:

After Corey fucked himself up on tons of drugs (vicodin, valium, percodin, soma -which was the killer according to him on his THS) and was negatively plastered all over magazines he attempted to convince the public he was better by making this video. The purpose of the video was immediately defeated the minute they began taping Haim. Corey was obviously on drugs (probably his favorite combo ten valium 10 mg, 10 vicodin extra strength and 15 somas)and made a complete fool of himself, He's obviously delusional in this believing he has some musical ability.

the lucky guy is probably out swimming with dolphins and sea horses right now. He still bangs on keyboards according to his E! THS, however his ability has not improved.

If you're looking at this via Facebook you're missing an embedded video. Click "View Original Post" down the bottom.

Labels: youtube

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Weekly mp3 #92: Mulatu Astatke & Menelik Wossenatchew - Fikratchin

Get this from The Fader magazine.

Heavier rhythm than the tracks from the Broken Flowers soundtrack, which is surely the most famous Mulatu Astatke stuff outside Ethiopia, and this is a vocal track rather than being led by those huge modal horn lines. Classic jazz rhythm section - drums played with brushes, bass (well, guitar) and piano. There's a pretty solid backbeat there, but there's also enough craziness in the timing on both bass and drums to mess with my head whenever I pay enough attention. Mr. Wossenatchew's got a light tone and the whole thing's pretty restrained.

These guys are both from Ethiopia and this track was recorded sometime between 65 and 75. There have been some interesting interviews with Astatke online, such as on the StinkInc blog and The Quietus.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Weekly mp3 #91: Bot'Ox - Blue Steel (Azari & III Remix)

XLR8R for the download.

Menacing house, basically. Those who know Get Physical stuff, it's a lot like if Booka Shade decided to turn to the dark side. Doofs along with a repeating distorted noise filling in as a bassline, some acid bits squelching about, trancey stabs that swell and fade. When the vocals from the original come in they're often distant and ringing, like she's singing through a long pipe. Flurries of handclaps add to the cold rush of the thing...

Bot'Ox are a French duo, consisting of the guys pictured in the above shot. Cosmo Vitelli is the one I knew of beforehand. They seem to have a car thing going on. On this track they have a guest singer, who I guess is the passenger in the back seat.

My heart's yearning, cos Paris is freezing.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Weekly mp3 #90: Taken By Trees - My Boys

Farewell 2009. Here's something 2009-enough to close out on, and summery enough for the time of year here - nice cover of Animal Collective's 'My Girls', with one of the guys from Studio producing it and the recordings done in Pakistan. Better Propaganda gives up the goods.

Handclaps, tuned percussion and a harmonium / pump organ. Chipper guitar melodies and plucked bass sounds that makes me think of Cuban music. The singer sings in a hazy way that makes me think of a euro version of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. Street sounds of Pakistan can be heard at the end, but sadly it cuts off cos that flows into the next track on the album. Oh well.

The Swedish singer behind Taken By Trees is someone I'd only heard doing the Bardot-ish deadpan on Peter Bjorn & John's 'Young Folks'. Turns out she's done three albums under this name, as well as fronting a band called The Concretes outside that. Ah well.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Dubai is built on slavery

The Independent site has a depressing article about what Dubai might actually be like, called rather banally The Dark Side Of Dubai.
The writing is a bit shit, but the content is well worth a read, especially if you're unaware of all the slave labour there.

Labels: life

Posted at 10:10 AM  0 Comments Links to this post