Music For Your Weekend

 

Nüshu - Sexe Étranger

Some of my favorite music over the past 10 years has come from the Montreal. It's to the point that, if I'm browsing music websites and I see a band from Montreal, I will drop everything to listen to them. 

I mean literally. My dinner will burn. My dog won't get walked. My son will go hungry. So of course, when I saw Nüshu's Sexe Étranger some through the pipeline, my family ate charred pizza that night. 

This release is wonderfully produced, the songs are unconventional rock in the best way, and I listened to the whole thing from start to finish several times this week. Maybe they will cast a similar spell on you.

Kendra Morris - Nine Lives I'm equally a sucker for modern soul. Kendra Morris is from New York City by way of Florida, but she sounds like she's from 1960's Detroit. 

Soulful, funky jams lay the foundation over Kendra's smooth and sultry vocals. It brings to mind other soul revivalists of recent such as Adrian Younge, Nicole Willis, and Daptone label artists. 

Ms. Morris is not a new-comer by any means, with an impressive list of collaborators including DJ Premier, MF Doom, and Ghostface Killah, she is both a seasoned musician and filmmaker to boot. She does great music videos, check out the awesome animation she did for this MF Doom/Czarface video.

Datach'i - Bones

One of the things I want to accomplish with these "music dumps", as the kids call them, is to explore other genres perhaps less familiar to typical Spacerockmountain fare. 

While rock music is my love, I've flirted heavily with electronic music in my day. Love me some Plaid, Venetian Snares, and Aphex Twin. Those are basically the only electronic groups I know. 

Luckily for me, this release by LA-based electronic artist Datach'i brings all those three references to mind. There's something truly beautiful about this record... melodically it's pretty obvious... but I also enjoyed reading about how it's a tribute of sorts to his recently departed father. Immediately engaging. 

Shitty Life - Limits To Growth

There are certain things that will grab my attention when looking through the vast ocean of music that is Bandcamp. One thing that will always catch my attention is album artwork that's clearly the insert for a cassette tape release. Music therein will be worth my time, nearly 75% of the time. The other is profanity. 

I cannot help it. Arrested development is not just a funny TV show, it's something that happened to me in my youth. Poop jokes never have fallen out of fashion for me, unfortunately for my wife. 

This is just a great Italian punk band that I have no notes for. The music is catchy and hard without the trappings of that pop punk schlock. 10/10.

EP Grab Bag vol. 98

Another truly international Grab Bag this week, pilgrims. From across Europe to Australia and of course some from these United States. Runs a range in genres as well, look at all the fucking tags I had to throw on this one, and I still feel that doesn't quite cover it.

To be had here:

Shortbus 1999 - Olga EP 2015

A Russian musician making wonderfully loud, lo-fi punk in his bedroom, at least I'm assuming this is largely a solo effort. It's all sung in Russian, which only adds to the considerable punk feeling of the thumping drum machine and fuzzy guitar. I adore this type of self-produced rock and found this EP a great example. This isn't the first effort by Shortbus 1999 either, nor the first appearance on Spacerockmountain. Elvis wrote up the self-titled release last year.



Daddy Issues - Double Loser EP (2015)

Actually stumbled on to this through twitter and couldn't be more happy to have across it. A four song EP by an all-girl garage rock/dreamy indie pop outfit hailing from Greensboro, NC. I'm completely on board, and the songs are every inch as good as I'd hoped for. Definitely a must listen and most especially for anyone that like the Pretty Greens from the last Grab Bag or any of the bands I referenced in that post. They've got a touch of surf in that guitar that's amazing, check out "So Hard" to hear what I am talking about.

Prisons - EP (2015)

Third Grab Bag in a row to feature a band from Sweden. More Scandinavians the better, I say, they can make a song. In particular for Prisons, they can make a heavy, distorted post-metal song. This shit is pretty dark and strangely alluring. The guitars are droney enough to lean a psychedelic tinge to the tracks of the EP. Finally, it has the trademark screaming vocals of metal. Something that as younger man I didn't get, but I've since come to appreciate the stark brutality it expresses.

Sounds Like Winter - Demos (2015)

Australians making new wave music. Sounds Like Winter saw that Killwave, a Chicago new wave band that bears a likeness, was posted about and wanted to get in on that. I can see how they'd assume I'd be into their music and indeed I am quite into it. More on upbeat and dancey end of snyth-heavy post-punk, but still has that gothy sing that faintly mimics the Scottish accent of many great 80s new wave bands. Seven tracks, so settle in and enjoy yourself.

Comfort Food - Dr. Faizan's Feel​-​Good Brain Pills (2013)

Now this band is from Chicago. Comfort Food makes sounds hard to categorize but I'll take a stab at it: experimental progressive jazz-funk. The key to know there is a beat, and it's funky, upon which all of the rest of the this EP formed around. The songs are way more compelling than this description might lead you to believe. The songs feel irreverent and lighthearted, yet they can't be discounted as poorly conceived. Quite the opposite, they're damned entertaining.


VidaGuerrilla - Blues pa cabras ácratas (2015)

Here we have a demo EP from Spain's VidaGuerrilla has put out. It seems to me they're still producing full-length albums at the same time and in fact it looks like they've got pretty damned new one up on bandcamp, but for whatever reason they sent me this. Guess what, I loved it. It is fuzzy, fairly slow-paced garage rock with exceptional bluesy sound compared to what I'd heard from them prior. Lo-fi bliss at its simplistic best. I just know that our boy Elvis Dracula is gonna dig this whenever he get it in his eardrums.

DUSU Mali Band - Doni Doni Che Bi Jdimi (2011)

Since much of the US is at the mercy of an oppressive heat wave, I thought I'd post some hot weather music to help y'all keep your swagger in spite of those sweaty rivers pouring from your pits.

Sometimes, hot weather music needs to be from a place that's hot. Even better if it's in a foreign language, so your brain can disassociate and focus on finding that frosty booze beverage ASAP. Here we have a group that kills those two birds. The DUSU Mali Band are Portland-based, but their lead singer, Ibrahim Kelly, is from Mali and sings in an African language I'm too ignorant to identify (one of the most common of Mali is Bambara but he is of Dogon descent which has several of it's own dialects). An immediate point of comparison for those unfamiliar with music of this region might be Nigerian-born saxophonist Fela Kuti who incorporated similar jazz flavors into his brand of West African funk. While saxophones make appearances in some DUSU Mali Band songs as well, the music here is much more guitar driven. This is most likely due to the fact that Ibrahim Kelly is the nephew of an internationally renowned Mali guitarist Ali Farka Touré ... perhaps playing a mean guitar simply runs in the family.


The tunes here are mostly upbeat, lively, and repetitive enough that you can easily get lost in the music while you find yourself that margarita.


10 songs. 


DUSU Mali Band - Doni Doni Che Bi Jdimi

King Khan & the Shrines - Mr. Supernatural (2004)

King Khan is coming to Detroit, well, technically his Indian themed duo with Bloodshot Bill, the Tandoori Knights are. However, I've posted the only album by that outfit so I have resorted to an album I've been playing at the coffee shop lately, Mr. Supernatural. With was an earlier phase of King Khan's ever-changing styles of lo-fi rock. This album nearly straight-up funk. Soulful singing, horns galore, and jangling guitars make for a funky sound that can easily summon memories of James Brown. Super exciting and wildly busy with instrumentation it is a great album for getting worked up. Sadly this digital version still has that horrible, disdainful hangover from the era of compact discs where there's a long blank spot to "conceal" an obvious "hidden track." Excepting that technologically outdated feature, it is a wonderful listen and grab up the later album, What Is?! if you haven't got it already.

To be had here:
King Khan & the Shrines - Mr. Supernatural [192 VBR kbps]

Josef K - The Only Fun In Town (1981, Postcard Records)

Ah yes, Josef K. My first experience with these Scottish post-punk funk masters was several years ago when I was exposed to the 2004 One, Two, Twee: An Indie pop Retrospective compilation, in which the single version of the band's seminal hit Sorry For Laughing appeared. It wasn't until I listened to their fellow Postcard Records label mates, Orange Juice, that I acquired an actual interest in them.

Anyways, formed in the early 1980's, Josef K created a unique sound that combined funk, new wave, and disco, while retaining a sort of post-punk dignity.

Download: Josef K - Sorry For Laughing.zip (38.4 MB)

Nomo

Ann Arbor's Nomo is a large band with much to thank for Fela Kuti's pioneering afro-beat, along with other greats from the wide world of jazz. Starting with a University of Michigan grad named Elliot Bergman and friends. By the time of the first full length release, the self-titled Nomo, there were more than 60 contributing persons when records and live performances are totaled. The music is complex, as so many members might hint at, with clear infusions of jazz and funk but all of it in a theme very much part of afro-beat. The seocnd album, entitled New Tones, is far more polished in production, but this doesn't harm anything. The sharpness allows for the jazzy sound to really come alive. The songs are both average over five minutes, but with more consistency in length on the latter. The horns found in Nomo's music are absolutely terrificly played and make the songs loudly awesome. The first track of New Tones, "Nu Tones", is a favorite of mine for social events of nearly any nature. Oh boy, there's handclaps too, and who doesn't love that shit? Basically, this stuff has soul, and it can't be denied a good several listens.

To be had here:



Nomo (2004) @ 160 kbps














New Tones (2006) @ 224 VBR kbps

Liquid, Liquid - Self-Titled LP (1981)

Liquid, Liquid is a post-punk band from New York that blends funk, dub, and the DIY ethics of punk together to make records that have been sampled and played in clubs since the bands formation in the early eighties. Releasing only a little more than 3 EPs in their time together as a band, Liquid, Liquid managed to redirect the energy of New York and spit it back out as something equally amazing.

Fourteen tracks, 14 minutes long.
Liquid, Liquid - Self-Titled LP (1981)58MB

Lefties Soul Connection - Hutspot (2006)

Deep funk might never cease bringing happiness into my computer bound moments. Lefties Soul Connection certainly meets all requirements for enjoyable funk tunes. Not simply rehashes of James Brown, well, not any more than is mandated to be deep funk, they've got their own swagger and have managed to keep the genre fresh in my opinion. These fellas sure knew what they were doing on the track "Organ Donor" to make my ears perk. Not much more can be said than to just listen to this shit next time your stuck in the house and don't want to feel like a slug, maybe even play it for the friends. If you like Poets of Rhythm you'll dig this, and if you haven't heard those guys and you like this, vice versa applies.

To be had here:
Lefties Soul Connection - Hutspot