blog: Page 17

2018: concerts of the year

December 16, 2018 · by thor · in sound

Fever Ray at RBMA NYC

A comprehensively amazing thing. From the big tunes to the latex accordion number to the world’s most joyous muscle suit, this was pretty great.

London Philharmonic & Patricia Kopatchinskaja at Royal Festival Hall, London.

Well, heck, I got to see Symphony of Psalms live for the first time, and found a new favorite violinist in the astonishing Patricia Kopatchinskaja. I’ve heard recordings of the Stravinsky concerto several times, and none of them prepared me for Kopatchinskaja playing the piece like it was filled with terrible secrets.

Janelle Monáe at Afropunk, Brooklyn

The queen. I saw her at both the small room at MSG and at Afropunk. The MSG set was longer, but Afropunk was clearly who she was talking to, and the show was all the better for it.

Manthe Ribane & Okzharp at Afropunk, Brooklyn

Lucky me, I walked past this duo doing their thing on the small stage to find amazing dance moves, dubby beats, and futuristic vibes. Oh, they’re signed to Hyperdub and are from South Africa? Of course.

Confidence Man at Elsewhere, Brooklyn

You too can have multiple costume changes, never smile, LED underwear, and play straight Aussie electropop bangers for an hour.

The most honorable of honorable mentions to Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith doing Abstractions at National Sawdust, to John Luther Adams’ premiere of In The Name Of The Earth at Christ Church Cathedral, to the stupendous Yaeji at Warmup, to Sarah Davachi at Issue Project and to Zeena Parkins’s harp apocalypse at National Sawdust.

2018: sets of the year

December 16, 2018 · by thor · in sound

Floating Points, Jamie XX, Four Tet, & Daphne – NTS Radio, 2018-10-29.

Another low-key set of anything goes from four of the world’s best, just sort of fucking around in London in the best possible way.

Underground Resistance – RA 623

Mark Flash on the decks for a near-perfect collection of kinetic, colorful, Detroit.

Logos b2b Slakk – A Boxed Mix

Grime and instrumental grime still give me the most what is going on feeling – and this set of secret weapons more than most.

Wata Igarashi – RA 617

After maybe a year and a half of what to me has been plodding, dark-grey techno, Igarashi and co have brought color, texture, and light. Which sounds like a bad architecture magazine, but hey, it is a really great-sounding architecture magazine.

Honorable mentions to Mr. Mitch’s Techno Dancehall masterpiece, Lil’ Mofo’s RA mix, Riobamba’s explosive set for FACT, and Objekt’s kick-less RA podcast.

much less than zero

September 12, 2018 · by thor · in sound, tracks

I was going to keep assembling music from south of the equator until the proper end of summer, on September 23, but it is raining and overcast here in NYC, so let’s line it up – the entire playlist is here, highlights follow.

Tim Maia: I knew about the man of Brazilian music before, but his ultrajam ‘Rational Culture‘ remains too good to ignore.

Valiha: Basically on a whim, I went to Madagascar next, and discovered this zither called the valiha that is utterly spectacular; it sounds like a small guitar one day and a square wave / xylophone the next.

Kuduro: Working backwards from Principe and the Lisbon batida, you come to Angolan Kuduro – which, yes, means ‘hard ass’, and yes, for the reasons you think so.

Madagascar guitar / pop music: Madagascar basically won the summer – this stuff sounds suspiciously like a backing track from Graceland, just a bit weirder and lighter and more interesting

Villalobos: So Ricardo, so Chile, and I am sure Ricardo is cheating, but the RE:ECM album is really pretty fantastic, and was all I went for.

Tango / Piazzola: Argentina. I am not the biggest fan of tango, on the whole, but Piazzolla was a funny man.

Jaipong: So this is probably a shallow reading of wikipedia, but Jaipong appears to be a revival of old old old Javanese music, brought on by a 1961 ban on rock & roll … and which may or may not be a correct version of Javanese folk music, which is of course more fun. Also has rad tempo changes.

Violeta Parra: Chilean music legend, is basically all you need to know.

Tanzanian / Zanzibar “Jazz”: Not jazz (kinda more south/east African guitar music, but maybe with a bigger band), but it is pretty great.

Mr. Bow / Mozambique pop: The whole 6/8 thing with the “four four” kick is just 100% my jam, really.

WITCH / Zamrock: We Intend To Cause Havoc – fuzzy guitars, rock & roll, garage vibes.

Madagascar flute music: I told you that Madagascar was ‘way ahead of everyone here. This is on the more traditional side, but sounds like five Sousa march leads played all at once.

Manthe Ribane: I went to Afropunk to see Janelle Monáe, and ended up seeing this force of nature who is, of course, signed to Hyperdub, as one does.