Global Souljah #19.12.2009
hosted by James Barrie
Metamatics – Blue Water from The Grandfather Paradox CD (BBE Records)
Mudd & Fakroun – Drago, Brennan Green version (Claremont 56)
Floating Points – Love Me Like This (R2 Records)
Mayer Hawthorne – Maybe So, Maybe No (Stonesthrow)
Mount Kimbie – Vertical (Hot Flush)
Boxcutter & Kinnego Flux – A Familiar Sound (Kinnego)
Kotchy – Check Out My Key Chain (Civil Music)
Mark Pritchard & Om’Mas Keith – Wind It Up, Freak Mix (Hyperdub)
Oblong – Playing On My Mind (Exceptional)
Nacho Patrol – Africa Space Program (Kindred Spirits)
Staff Benda Bilili – Je T’Aime (Crammed Discs)
Lord Cobra – Colon Colon (Soundway)
K’naan – America (A&M/Octone)
Paul White – Versus The BBC (One Handed Music)
Finn Peters – Moyse, 2bo4 rmx (Accidental)
Words:
So here it is my end of year roundup, my little addition to the abundance of end of year/end of decade charts though after the Copenhagen debacle I’m personally looking forward to the impending end of the world charts coming in the not too distant future – but that’s another story.
So despite much doom and gloom in the record sales business it appears that music creation shows no sign in slowing down and whilst none of the brave new generation of producers and bands will be driving luxury cars into swimming pools more and more artists and groups are trying their hand in this murky and exciting business. The trick these days seems to be not the tricky second or third album but actually producing a coherent album if you manage to make it past the 3 weeks when you are suddenly the hottest new thing on the planet before the attention deficit disordered blogoshpere and public chews you up, spits you out and proclaims you are history and crowns a new king or queen.
Sure the digital age has democratised the music industry but it’s becoming harder and harder sifting through all the hype, dross, RSS feeds, newsletters, record lists and badly mastered digital releases to reach the decent shit.
It’s increasingly not about the quality, depth and longevity of the art, simply what’s new or some apparently ‘fresh’ micro genre. What’s the rush people? Stop trying to keep up with the Jones – it’s a thankless task, sit back, have a listen to that album, think for a moment and then maybe even listen again, I’m sure your brain will appreciate the respite.
Rather perculiarly I start the show with a pre 2009 track but one which appeared on my favourite compilation and mix CD of the year – The Grandfather Paradox selected and mix by Ame, Dixon and Henrick Schwarz. It worked on so many levels for me, as an introduction into the world of minimal music, one which I had largely overlooked. The breadth of the selection spanning decades was truly inspired and the final mix was outstanding, a true labour of love.
Being a bit of a Balearic bunny the Brennan Green remix of Mudd & Fakround tickled my fancy and sounded particularly wonderful when I played it in a little festival in a beautiful location in the Pyrenees during the summer. Floating Points was one of the success stories of the year, managing a whole 9 months in the limelight, but for me his first release on R2 records was the best of his 2009 output. Mayer Hawthorne created one of the sing along tunes of the year and a track that will mature with age and just shows that soul will never die as new fads and genres mutate, cross pollinate and then rapidly wither.
Mount Kimbie produced one of the best dubstep eps of the year as they took the genre, swung it round by the balls and reassembled it’s dna into an experimental and melodic thing of wonder. Kinnego Flux teamed up with Boxcutter to create a Belfast dream team and add some much needed musicality and soul into the bassline genre. Watch out for the Kinnego boys and their various guises, they’re versatile, musical and I’m predicting big things for them in 2010.
Civil Music were undoubtedly one of the labels of the year with more good releases and artists than most and Kotchy created a wonderful album fusing a love of the latest studio trickery with some wonderful pop moments, weighty basslines and nice lyrics – a pleasingly rounded producer. After languishing with much credibility in the leftfield jazz scene for longer than I care to remember Mark Pritchard is finally getting the props he deserves and Wind It Up was a wonderful crazy dubstep banger, ignoring what everyone else was doing and carving it’s own path through the sea of unimaginative clones and sheep.
Oblong produced another slice of wonderful pop as I started to dip my toe into a genre I had long decided was a dirty word – thanks to people like Oblong, Mocky, Alif Tree and Kotchy for fusing musical credibility with those pop hooks and showing me the light. The Nacho Patrol ep was a genre bending fusion that sounded like Mulatu Astake was fed pyschedlic drugs and ended up in a padded recording studio with Logic and the latest technology somewhere just outside Kinshasa – Love It.
Staff Benda Bilili were one of the feel good success stories of the year. Four paraplegic street dwelling polio suffers, one adopted street orphan with a home made one stringed instrument made from a tin can and 3 able bodied Congolese musicians came together to create a great modern rumba album with touches of funk and reggae. I had the pleasure to see them live as well and I can report they rock it and when you see a musician with no legs jump from his wheel chair and start rolling about the floor in time to the music with a big smile on his face you can only be amazed and humbled, check the videos below for a bit more info. K’Naan released his second album and unfortunately seems to be going for the money (good for him I guess but bad for those who liked his more quirky productions which have largely bitten the dust) but he still managed to produce the hip hop track of the year – America, tropical hip hop banger!
Lord Cobra was one of many great tracks I could have picked from any of the Soundway compilations that came out this year but special respect has to go out for their Ghana Special release and the Panama series of comps. Any labels looking to release a compilation should really have a look at the sleeve notes and packaging on the Soundway releases – BIG respect to the crew. Another young producer whose star shone in 2009 and who looks like he’ll still be talked about in 2009 was Paul White and as well as loving the unique packaging on his great debut album I also loved his ‘versus the BBC’ single, hip hop never sounded so interesting and less like hip hop. Finn Peters, my favourite UK sax player, got the remix treatment for some of his Butterfly album tracks which took his spiritual jazz sound in some crazy dark electronic directions but it was jazz inclined producers 2b04 who really did the business.
So that’s it for this year, I’m going to park my lazy arse up for a couple of weeks before I get back into the show in 2010. Big thanks to all the listeners on the various stations and increasingly the thousands on the podcast. Love to all the record labels and producers who send me their music to keep the show nice and fresh, I hope I repaid you by helping spread your musical message a little bit wider.
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