Sound Travels this week is less an exercise built on a theme and more about playing some cuts that I have been unable to fit into a particular vein, songs that need to be played or simply connect to the day...from Manu Chao, to Cameroonian guitar to this lovely lady on the right...
Started with another tune from Manu Chao's Clandestino album, an album that rather curiously seems to have gone out of print. Curious if only because of how awesome it is and really, may be Chao's best. Clandestino is so good, that it has at times been mentioned in the same breath as Bob Marley's classic albums for it's directness, and its honesty. At the turn of the century, the attitude was the right note to strike and still is...
At 11am, a tune from LA-based indie-pop group Fools Gold, who on their 2009 eponymous debut album was very intriguing. Although their sound has gone more in the direction of synthpop, in 2009 it was oddly, enjoyably and decidedly afro-poppy. I played "Surprise Hotel" and thought about what could have been...not that they sound bad now, but they sounded dope back then...
Sawa Blues at noon from Cameroonian guitarist Muntu Valdo. A one man band, his sound is actually more modern than the implication of bluesiness carries with it. Oh it's plenty organic, but also a multi-layered sound built on layers of loops in a way that would perhaps make a older era blues player green with envy.
Sometimes I wonder "what I was thinking when I listened to this the first time?" Such was the case with French chanteuse Zaz, whose eponymous debut in 2009, came back around in my player. A truly remarkable talent, the album went diamond in France, Platinum in Belgium and is really just huge almost everywhere where French is spoken. This time around, I let the album go and apparently listened far longer than previous times. While that's not unusual, it's just odd that on an album I enjoyed immensely at the time (and even more these days,) that I never heard "Eblouie Par la Nuit." This song is AMAZING! Shoulda played it during Bastille week, but I got it triangulated and sated that desire to share with you all at 1pm...enjoy it again. Also...if Zaz is your temperatue for tea, I'll be blasting something from her brand new album Recto Verso tomorrow sometime...
