Two guys from Glasgow, Scotland made this song. A song which I really enjoy. They didn’t make this video though.
I was in Glasgow for a week once in March, it was cold. I saw a Rangers-Celtic game on St Patrick’s Day in the university pub where pints of Guinness went flying across the room when the Celtics tied Rangers. I was told by a crying drunk Celtics fan “Ya don’t understand the passion!”
The next night, a drunk Glaswegian guy talked to me for like fifteen minutes at a rave at the People’s Palace, a museum for the working class of Scotland. For fifteen minutes in a glass house surrounded by palm trees that grow out in the open here in Los Angeles, this guy went on and on and I did not understand one single word he said but nodded my head like I did until he finally yelled “Yuh doonut unduhstand a single wud I’m saying!” I’m sorry, I replied. There were so many things I didn’t understand in Glasgow like Branston pickles, for instance.
People do lots of drugs in Glasgow…when they’re not drunk. In Glasgow was the first time I met poor White people. My friend (who went by the name DJ Loco, do you know him?) said I was from Mexico because he didn’t like Americans. Someone asked me how I spoke English so well. I would not recommend eating a burrito in Glasgow unless you like white rice wrapped up in a cold flour tortilla.
I would say I’m only a tiny bit obsessed with this song. Repeated listenings only add up to maybe twenty times? Oh, but there are so many more to come! Continue reading →
I’ve been driving my housemate crazy with repeated listenings of this one. Actually, it’s probably my neighbor who is more annoyed – that deep, bouncing bass gets into the walls and rattles the wood of my 1917 duplex. And it’s meant too, it’s the kinda bass for cars with loud stereos, where you can feel the air being compressed around you as the car gets closer and you began to wonder if some kinda assault is about to begin. Yes, this song is an aural assault on your ears.
Solid gold anthem business from Girl Unit on the follow-up to the killer ‘I.R.L’ 12″ for Night Slugs. It would appear from his form this year that Girl Unit specialises only in BIG tunes, which is no bad thing when you’ve got a rave to rub up the right way. At the pinnacle of this particular monolith is ‘Wut’, his scorching fusion of Araab Muzik-style martial 808’s and purest R&B synthline saturation that’s become a staple in the sets of Jackmaster, Ikonika and Oneman since the summer. There’s no avoiding it’s lazered brilliance, beaming rapturous organ and that earworming vocal snippet like the light of the second coming. OK, maybe that’s a bit strong, but we’ve definitely seen nerds prostrating at the speakers when this is dropped.
Visti & Meyland made some waves with their Yes Maam release which featured some huge remixes by Trentemoller and Kasper Bjorke. Now they are back with their latest “Stars.†Its quite unique and could be easily mistaken as instrumental because the vocal comes in late at around the 5 and half minute mark. The release is through Bear Funk and includes remixes by The Time and Space Machine, and Rodion & Mammeralla which is my favourite. Another winner from Visti & Meyland.
In fact – you could say that if fellow Dane Trentemoeller is the Dark Prince of Denmark – Visti & Meyland – are the Speedo-equipped, sandal-wearing Balearic Disco opposite bringing in the light, the fun, the Disco and the Funk on the arms of a coked-up Grace Jones!
Arabella, denim-clad dance sensation of the mahala is mocked by her family and neighbors for her modern “disco” Romani style of dance. While her father entertains with hoots and jeers, the mahala laughs but also watches. Perhaps in a few years, the children circling her now will dance as she does, learning, much the way she did: village gatherings, impromptu parties, adults twirling, swaying and shimmying around them. Little gestures caught by the eyes and heart. Arabella is the descendant of master interpreters; her legacy, to create new languages of movement. A lineage stretching from Rajasthan to Romania made up of bits and pieces of everywhere.
Traditional Romanes mixes with the bumps, grinds and pops of the video vixens Arabella watches on satellite TV. The result is a fusion of old and new, rooted, looking back and moving forward and infused with the swing of her ancestors. Called forth by two polyrhythmic violins and a syncopated bass doubling as a drum, Arabella’s hips offer tiny kisses to the wind. Around her, the Rajasthani/Romanian sands rise and warm her body, preparing it for the long night of revelry.
It’s uncommon for me to come across really good pop music. I often try and listen to the latest buzz bands and I find them lacking. Usually I’m like, really? I don’t get it. This song I get. Mark Smith of The Fall is part of this collaboration, no wonder. Von Sudenfed have been around for awhile and there are rumors of their dis-collaboration – hope this isn’t true.
More from their website:
But Von Sudenfed does more than take a spin, via Düsseldorf and Salford, through the terrain of London pirates. It combines the genre-smashing attack of early-millennia club music with Mark E. Smith’s free-associating visionary wordplay. To adapt the Situationists, under the dancefloor, the beach. Or in the case of a track like “Flooded,” over the dancefloor, a sea – Mark’s lyric retells a dream of Jan’s in which he booked a club to DJ at, only for an interloping DJ to turn up and commandeer the decks. The Von Sudenfed response? Carnivalesque anarchist sabotage: flood the club. This is unmistakably club music, but it’s club music that’s liable to spark off outbreaks of lucid dreaming, mid-move.
The music cuts out at the end, probably some weird record company thing.
It’s strange but I’ve always been on the fence about Bjork. I’m not sure why, I feel like I should be a fan but with the exception of a few tunes which I absolutely love, I can’t claim to follow her music. To be honest, it’s the Plaid remix I’m most fond of in this song. This video though, wow…who knew robot love could inspire such passion?
(you will have to click the link to view the whole video) Fofodji-Toi Fais Gaffe from the Lisbon kuduro scene. Check out the lowrider bikes, the contribution from my people!
You might remember awhile back when I was crazy over the Sound of Kuduro by Buraka Som Sistema. This was back when I was eager to share all kinds of global dance trends with you all. I kept thinking, nothing new’s come along but more likely, it’s just that I hadn’t had much time to seek these things out. And then I remembered these kuduro videos I was going to post long ago and forgot.
More on Kuduro (from Wikipedia, sorry!):
The roots of kuduro can be traced to the late 1980s when producers in Luanda, Angola started mixing African percussion samples with simple calypso and soca rhythms to create a style of music then known as “batida”. European and American electronic music had begun appearing in the market, which attracted Angolan musicians and inspired them to incorporate their own musical styles.[2] An Angolan MC, Sebem, began toasting over this and is credited with starting the genre.[3]
The name itself is a word with a specific meaning to location in the Kimbundu language, which is native to the northern portion of Angola. It has a double meaning in that it also translates to “hard ass” or “stiff bottom” in Portuguese, which is the official language of Angola. Kuduro dancing is similar to Dancehall dancing of Jamaica. It is mostly influenced by zouk, soca, and rara music genres. It also combines Western house and techno with traditional Angolan kilapanga and semba music.[4] As Vivian Host points out in her article, despite the common assumption that “world music” from non-Western countries holds no commonalities with Western modern music, Angolan kuduro does contain “elements in common with punk, deep tribal house, and even Daft Punk.”[5] It is thus the case that cultural boundaries and limitations within the musical spectrum are constantly shifting and being redefined. And though Angolan kuduro reflects an understanding and, further, an interpretation of Western musical forms, the world music category that it fits under tends to reject the idea of Western musical imperialism.[5] The larger idea here is that advancements in technology and communications and the thrust of music through an electronic medium have made transcending cultural and sonic musical structures possible. According to Blentwell Podcasts, kuduro is a “mixture of house, hip-hop, and ragga elements,”[6] which illustrates how this is at once an Angolan-local and global music. Indeed, this “musical cross-pollination”[5], as Vivian Host calls it, represents a local appropriation of global musical forms, such that the blending of different musics creates the music of a “new world.”
Costileta – Xiriri
This is a popular kuduro tune from Angola. The dancing is impressive!
Kuduro is also extremely popular in France as evidenced by this compilation clip of French youth under the kuduro spell. The dancing gets particularly good around 1:28.
The new Deerhunter album was released last week but I’ve been enjoying these pre-release tunes non-stop for the past week. It’s now time to share them with you. They fit in perfectly with today’s gray, damp and gorgeous weather.
