Romain Axisa – In the Mood for Love
Beautiful piece. I’ve been thinking about young people and their internet lives. Longer post about that on the way. Meanwhile, here’s a new artist touted by Ren, one of the many young artists who keep me hopeful that creativity will not die out.
Sometimes a new rabbit hole opens so suddenly and unexpectedly it feels like I’ve been struck by lightning.
I just found a type of Madagascan music I never heard before and I can’t wait to hear as much of it as I can. It’s called Salegy.
Wawa Salegy – 400 Volts
I never heard of it before this, although it’s apparently getting popular in the French-speaking world. So funky.
I wish I knew Madagascan music better than I do, but life is short when you’re curious about everything. I just know whenever I look for music from that island, I find gold.
They have a culture you just can’t put your finger on, African influenced, traces of Indonesia. I’ve been fascinated for years.
Mily Clement – Ho Meva
This is why I like world music, to discover things like this. I’ve loved Malagasy music since the 90s. Once you give up the idea of having to know the language, you get beautiful surprises like Salegy music.
Auli and Kilema – Taltalu
Madagascan and and Latvian? Who would’ve expected that? It’s the combo I didn’t know I needed.
I’ve been a fan of Madagascan music since the ’90s. I’ll be digging into that on the blog at some point. Latvian music, I’ve barely dipped my toe in those icy waters.
Here’s one Madagascan song, just to give you an idea why I love it. How could you not? I’m especially captivated by the tubular zither known as the Valiha.
Linda Volahasiniaina plays Valiha
Coincidentally (or not, I have superstition about “signposts”), a wonderfully pagan member of our Unitarian church chose a Latvian song for the congregation. It kinda fit with her talk to go along with her talk on Ostara.
Tautumeitas – Raganu Nakts
Daniel Knox is the man I listen to when I’m feeling blackpilled about human nature and he makes me smile. No one else sounds like him.
He’s like yeah, humans suck. And here’s why that’s funny and here’s why it’s sad. And why it’s still beautiful.
I always get over the doomerism I have for humanity. But if I didn’t, I think I’d be like Daniel Knox. His songwriter persona at any rate.
Daniel Knox – Ghost Song
I quit following his career for years. Just played the hell out of his first two albums Everyman for Himself, Disaster, and lately anything I could find on Spotify.
I’ve checked up on him recently and was happy to see he’s been having a lot of success while my mind was elsewhere.
He’s worked with David Lynch, The Handsome Family (and others I probably should recognize but don’t).
And he continues to make beautiful music. Never heard anything like his songs, yet they sound like American standards that could have been around forever.
Daniel Knox – Hollow
Looked up the lyrics to “Hollow” and Genius says “*The author prefers the lyrics to remain unprinted until all of them have been accurately guessed“. How fun! A puzzle. He’s gonna make us slow down and listen for ourselves.
His backstory alone ought to make him a legend. He taught himself to play piano on a grand piano in a Chicago hotel lobby. He used to be a projectionist at the historic Music Box Theater which gave him access to the theater organ.
Still working my way through the rest of his catalog. I’ll be talking about him again.
Daniel Knox – Blue Car
Score! Just found my Alien mp3 playlist on a long lost CDR that I thought we lost in the move. Let me share a few of the fun/beautiful/strange alien songs from that playlist.
I used to make playlists where I would pick a topic and find all the mp3s on that topic. It exposed me to a crazy variety of genres in a short time. So many cool songs I probably wouldn’t have heard otherwise.
Then I’d go on RateYourMusic and nerd out over them with my online friends.
I’m hearing songs right now I probably haven’t played since 2012. Didn’t find any of the other themed playlists.
If they turn up I might share some old favorites I’d forgotten.
Now that I think of it, that playlist could come in really handy. I think I’ll be bringing up aliens a lot. I’m a lifelong Science Fiction fan. How could I not?
#Aliens, #MP3s, #ComsatAngels, #IComeFromTheSun, #Brownsville Station, #MartianBoogie
So glad I kept my CDs. If I’d gone 100 percent streaming, I’d probably never hear these albums again. Arrhythmia 1-3 are compilations from experimental San Francisco label Charnel Music.
Part of my always growing collection of music I can’t listen to with my wife around.
I got these back when I was into what I’ll call esoteric music. Avant Garde doesn’t quite do it. Not the museum crowd. More like the underground newspaper set. These are the kind of people who will kill themselves to make music few will like or understand.
Transcendence, by Voice of Eye, one of the songs I first fell in love with when I started to explore “esoteric” music. Strange but beautiful. It’s on Transmigration, an album about the soul’s journey after death. Inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
If you’re like I was, you might hate it at first. You might not even call it music. But then it clicks and you realize it came straight from the Beyond. Some artists have a muse that’s frightening until you figure out it’s beautiful. Cherubim and Seraphim.
The scene I’m talking about is a whole other underground world I discovered by accident. I was driving late at night on a Texas FM road at night, on the way to see my folks for the weekend, nothing good on the radio.
I got just enough signal from a station out of Houston to hear something so strange I wasn’t even sure it was music.
It didn’t even have a melody or a proper time signature, but whatever it was, it was tantalizing. I had to find out what it was. Before it faded away again I got the name: Voice of Eye – Ascension of Jolene. It took years to hunt it down.
That sent me down so many rabbit holes I almost forgot what normal people like any more. Esoteric, experimental, whatever you want to call it. It’s one of my main “genres” now.
#Charnel Music, #Esoteric, #Avant Garde, #Dark Ambient, #Experimental Music
“On the Computer” – by Treasure Mammal. A song from a more innocent age. I saw these guys during “Yeast by Sweet Beast” in Austin and they were so fun.
I fell in love with the Internet, even though it nearly put me in the street. I was in denial for years. Newspapers would adapt. Only the dailies had to worry. The weeklies and semi-weeklies would always be in demand.
It looked like my salvation at first. It was a wild and sometimes dangerous place, but it was exciting. So much knowledge, so many possibilities.
The Internet let me experience a world I couldn’t afford to travel to. I lived most of my life in small country towns, always broke. People weren’t interested in my favorite bands or sci fi books. They never seemed to get my jokes.
On the Internet I found my people. Or thought I had. I could talk to other music geeks and women who weren’t looking to marry a church-going cowboy.
I wasn’t a liberal, but I got along with liberals. They were usually good for a band rec. Even during the Iraq War you could agree to disagree.
Looking back, I feel so naïve. I thought it would always be about LOLcats and David After the Dentist and Charlie Bit My Finger. I might have been helping to put myself out of a job, but it kept me sane. For a time.
Now it feels like the hot stripper girlfriend who stalks my every move and keeps slashing my tires. I should probably hide someplace she will never find me, but I keep waiting for the magic to return.
What are we gonna do with this thing we’ve created together?
#Internet, #LOLcats, #Newspapers, #Yeast By Sweet Beast, #Treasure Mammal, #Traps
Courir de Mardi Gras in Mamou Louisiana. The other Mardi Gras.
I love Louisiana culture, especially the way they celebrate Mardi Gras – even though I often forget, since I was raised protestant. Most of the fun has probably been had by now or is under way.
When I remember, I usually play music from Lousiana. Close as I’m probably going to get.
I recently found out they don’t just do Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Cajuns have their own version. It comes with its own set of traditions including some wild looking costumes and a chicken chase. I love that traditions like that still survive.
Like a lot of folks outside Louisiana tend to think of New Orleans first, but the only time I ever celebrated Mardi Gras properly, it was a Cajun event – Charles Thibodeaux of Beaumont, Texas put on a concert at Central Market in Austin.
Lots of transplanted Cajuns were there, dancing and drinking wine, kids were doing their own thing. I envy cultures like that, where drinking can be family friendly. When I was a Baptist I drank plenty, but only when I was sinning.
#Mardi Gras, #Cajun, #Courir de Mardi Gras, #Louisiana, #Charles Thibodeaux
Still dipping into the Algerian music. Still having a hard time figuring out what kind of music Houda Hamouda was doing. – just that it was definitely not rai, the rock ‘n’ roll of Algeria and probably beyond.
With the control of Saleh-( a wonderful musical). Per Google Translate – best I can do.
Going back to one of the channels that posted some of her videos I keep finding other cool stuff. I found several jam sessions by this same group, The Nafis family I guess. Love the rhythms and that mix of tradition and new tech.
Karzika Bilal – (Tehivalt & Tabarlem) New. Per Google Translate. Just wait till those crazy beats kick in at around 1:50. I love the way Arabic looks, by the way: كرزيكة بيلال -(تهيڨالت & تبرلم) جديد
I may be wrong, but I think these guys are likely Berbers in the Red Oasis part of Algeria. I would love to be corrected if I’m wrong. I’m just an old country boy, figuring things out the best I can.
#Algeria, #Algerian, #World Music, #World Folk, #Arabic, #North Africa, #Africa, #Ethnomusicology
Being the old codger that I am, I have “get off my lawn” moments. I can’t deal with autotune, for one thing – keeps me from getting into music I might otherwise like.
I just had a conversation with a friend about how growing up on the internet has turned Gen Z into aliens. We don’t get their memes, their references. I tried a couple of songs his teenagers like and it was nails on a chalkboard. To be fair, Dad felt the same way about AC/DC.
Still I believe there is talent in every generation, even that one. I usually find a young artist or band that impresses me. When I do, that gives me hope. The latest of those is Ren, a young musician who just went viral with his song “Hi Ren.”
To be honest, I didn’t quite get it. What even is it? Song? Spoken word poetry? Acoustic hip hop with an English spin? I wasn’t sure if I liked it or hated it.
But there’s something to it. It’s original. Inspired. I think the world has been craving something like that. As he states in the song above, Ren has been sick a lot in his young life (from effects of long misdiagnosed Lyme Disease). He’s been able to channel his suffering into something creative and amazing.
And wouldn’t you know it? As soon as “Hi Ren” went viral, Ren got sick again and will take several months to recover.
In the meantime give his other music a listen and don’t forget him. I’ve subscribe to his YouTube channel and will be going through his other songs.
#Ren, #Music, #Gen Z, #Generation Z, #Hip Hop, #Guitar, #Singer Songwriter, #Troubador
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