I'm going to call this

an FMGT semi-exclusive. I'm not sure how many times this has made the rounds, but full credit goes to the fine Si1ent K for unearthing these pearls.

There really isn't much to say about this, as it speaks for itself. It's the best 2 minutes and 53 seconds you'll have all day.

Check this out here.

Fun with a Banjo, and a weird Weekend to boot

IT NEVER CHANGES TO STOP
The Books
Lost and Safe 2005
[Download It]


This is a moody little song, in honour of a couple of (moody) things:

1. The release of a what seems-to-be-awful remake of the Amityville Horror (but who knows, I might check it out regardless)
2. The fact that I've been listening to this album all week in order to review it for a magazine.


Since I received it, I downloaded their entire catalogue (more or less), I came to a few conclusions about them and their style.

The Books, a Massachusettes duo, revel in understatement. There is a strong sense of atmosphere behind their acoustically-driven and yet electronically playful music. A gentle approach, for the most part, goes in to creating a mood or a feeling whether it's in the instruments that pop up, or in the way they use them. The use of voice snippets and samples rounds out the overall effect of their music - the samples evoke every piece of the human emotional experience in some way, augmenting their sound and adding a bit of "flesh" to the active listener.

Fascinated with odd noise and drowning in these bizarre audio samples, The Books manage to do a lot with very little. There is a homemade quality amongst their craft - the ability to sound intimate, to listen like it's a secret between you and the music.

This particular track is my early favourite from the album. It has a clear arc to it, dynamically, but it never builds to a point where it gets out of control. Sweeping orchestral string arrangements bring the Kronos Quartet/Philip Glass collaborations - sweeping, deliberate., haunting.

Growing out of a solitary banjo loop, the song grabs you by the throat, percussion-less and beat-free, into a quirky and unsettling sample of an man shouting orders at children, getting progressively more irritated. There is that ambiguous quality about The Books that never makes you feel like you "understand" what's going on: the voice could belong to a school teacher, or it could be a kidnapper or escaped lunatic - the last voice we hear in the song sounds like a woman being interviewed:

"And he thought he could stop when he wanted to, you know, he thought he could stop when he wanted to stop, and I don't think he ever really believe he couldn't stop.."


The Books are an interesting addition to that niche of homegrown electronica - Mouse on Mars, Albion Rose, Manitoba/Caribou, even someone like Four Tet - and their use of a broad range of instrumentation and sampling aside from the blip-boop-beep approach makes them worth at least a couple of listens.

In a rush to pull a Funk push

SUPER BAD
Idris Muhammad
Black Rhythm Revolution 1970
[Download It] [Buy It]

Idris M. is a sick sick jazz/funk drummer, and this track from his release "Black Rhythm" is just an intense and yet pleasurable springtime put a spring in yr step and let rip track. He worked with Roberta Flack, Pharaoh Sanders, Randy Brecker, and still had room for grooving smack like this. What a man.


Not much else to say, I think the title and the tune says it all. Enjoy.

Smoky, Seductive - One for the Spring (k)nights

RISE UP
Medeski, Martin and Wood
Tonic 2000
[Download It] [Buy It]


This is an undeniably essential album. While the Piano/Bass/Drums trio MMW are better known for their sonically-stretching and more electronic jazz/funk work (albums like the stoner-classic "Shack-Man", the cool groove of "Uninvisible", and the playful and seductive melodies of "End of the World Party (Just in Case)"), this all-acoustic show from the downtown NYC venue Tonic is a huge treat. It's a chance to hear their sound unfettered by analog and amplifiers, circuitry and wires. Their natural rapport shines as each song evolves from something gentle into an honest and yet unsettling groove, making you want to dance around the room or somewhere better.

An ominous piano riff from John Medeski kicks off the song, and it is carried throughout by Chris Wood's attack on the stand-up bass. It's an updated, refreshing boogie-woogie funky heart-stopper that anchors the set, and the trio revels in its innate groove. Billy Martin's drums clash and clatter with momentum and meaning, while Wood darts around the chromatic riffs of Medeski with a stuttering and thoroughly be-bop bass core. The song wakes up kicking, collapses, and builds again, keeping the listener on edge craving its return.

Of the three, it is not entirely unreasonable to imagine the keys getting the lion's share of the attention throughout this set - drummer Martin commands the attention of the audience, with his inventive and engaging variations on a vast drum and percusssion outfit. Every snap, pop, snare roll, rasp, cowbell slap, the wide range of cymbals and textures - it adds up to an extremely dynamic and fluid set from a man with a talented pedigree (Trained under Bob Moses and many others - check out their duets and other drum-oriented/DJ projects on Martin's boutique record label, Amulet Records)

MMW made their stamp on the jazz/funk world with their command of electronics and the latest instrument technologies, and this album, wedged in-between some of their more experimental and futuristic work, serves as an excellent reminder that they are still more than capable of holding their own musically with a return to the jazz roots - stripping everything down, taking away the toys and implementing a raw groove.

This song is a highlight of an album full of peaks and spikes in the action. Pick it up, and transport yrself to the Lower East side music venue, March 16-20 and 23-26, when these tracks were played live to a small, intimate crowd late into the night.

Sesame Beat

Drum roll. Pull back. BOING! And there goes the pinball off on a journey over which I have no control. My lack of control has nothing to do with the flippers being inaccessible, but rather the flippers not existing in the first place. Because I'm 5 years old and I'm watching Sesame Street on the tube.

If you were raised in the U.S. or have been exposed to that which was regarded as quality children’s programming before they days of Dora the Explorer & the like, then you'll remember the Pinball Number Count that was an almost daily occurrence on Sesame Street, at least in my memory. It was a smooth animation of a pinball popping around a pinball machine and smacking into numbers accompanied by the narration of said numbers by way of vocals & funky beats by the Pointer Sisters. I had all but completely forgotten about this tune until one night over a haze of smoke, a buddy of mine by the name of Mark, started to hum the tune. In acapella fashion we belted it out, just as The Pointer Sisters had done so many years before:

"one-two, three, four-five, six, seven-eight-nine-ten, eleven twee-ee-ee-ee-elve!"

I would continue to search for this tune in media archives and shady internet resources to no avail. A piece of my childhood had been lost to media erasure or copyright law. That would have been true, until 2003, the 35th anniversary of Sesame Street and a nice little project by Strictly Kev (one of the two or sometimes four members of DJ Food) via the Ninjatune label.

In a direct response to JT's post of 'Kookies' by MF Doom which samples that Sesame Street bell all throughout (and Cookie Monster to boot) - I present another Sesame street influenced track. Strictly Kev has taken the original, re-worked it a bit to a funk glory that will catch your ear regardless of nostalgic memory, love fo' the funk or maybe some sick obsession with The Pointer Sisters (yeah you, sicko!)

This very limited Vinyl EP has two other mixes worth noting. For all Fans of Cookie Monster's 'C is for Cookie' drug-addicted banter of how he needs his fix - there are two quality mixes by Larry Levan & Roy Thode. Just give him a cookie or else he'll pilfer your television and sell it for crack, err, cookies.


PINBALL NUMBER COUNT (Strictly Kev Re-Edit)
The Pointer Sisters
Solid Steel Presents Sesame Street (12" EP) 2003

[Download It]
Click here to visit Ninjatune for more info.

Park-side and prophetic

SUPERSTARR
MC Solaar
Prose Combat 1994
[Download It]


Rap, in French, is still rap. But it comes across as more elegant given the tongue, and, surprise surprise, the lyrics delve a little deeper along hackneyed rap themes. This track is superb, although there are no weak links on this disc. His beats are smooth and spare, and his words cut close to the bone - here he muses about a good friend of his who is famous and yet has no skills, no talent, nothing worthwhile to contribute, and yet he's still a superstar.

Sampling 50s jazz licks and sensual ditties, the mode of delivery is perfect as a conveyor for his tight vocal style. French or otherwise, his command of time and pacing is excellent - long strings of close-fit rhymes that roll off the tongue. His diction is tight, and the funky jazz hook throughout the song lends just enough humour to an otherwise interesting track.

The whole album is fantastic. If you can find it, you'll love it. It adds a worthwhile voice to the great conversation of hip-hop, thoughtful and pensive and yet rhythmically playful and upbeat. Standout tracks aside from 'Superstarr' include:

- 'Nouveau Western', a musing on the cowboy culture and stereotypes of the USA (even more relevant now), and samples Gainsbourg, the quintessential French songwriter

- 'I'm doin' Fine' which includes a fine instrumental backing by the Roots, as well as some anglo-franco-rapp crossovers

and

- 'Temps Mort', one of the funkiest vehicles on the album.

It eschews the harsh American approach to most mainstream hip-hop that champions a scratchy and aggressive DJ sound, whereby instruments and samples are sharp and rough to the ear. In its place, something reminiscent of the dark, smoky Parisian nightclubs. It's calmer, more groove-oriented, more enjoyable.

I saw this available online for 24, so I don't know how heavy it is in circulation state-side, but it's worth the effort.

The UpNod continues

ME, YOU AND EVERYBODY
Gomez
Split the Difference 2004
[Download It] [Buy It]


If there's a more upbeat-sounding breakup song, I've yet to hear it. This is kinda in keeping with the rapidly-improving weather outside, and the desire/need for some sunnier songs.

This is what a breakup song should be. Forget that downtrodden stuff. Can the depressing, low-tempo, minor chord-ravaged tearjerkers. Get back off the kitchen floor and onto the dancefloor. Find yrself again and turn it around, put a positive spin on things. It's their loss, right? Yr a good person, yr attractive, you have good qualities, so it has to be their fault.


Gomez has some insanely infectious vocal hooks, with dense, thick layers of vocal harmonies over some (in this case) sugary and jingle-jangle guitars. Nothing about this suggests the old "I've been dumped" - here it's more appropriate to think "I've been freed."

Sunny Day Rapp Estate

KOOKIES
MF Doom
mmm.... Food 2004
[Download It]


It's perhaps the nicest day outside, but it's still a little early for hyperbole, so I'll retract that statement.

MF Doom is one of my favourites. Period. (I even spelled out the period. Period.) His rhymes are so inventive and off-the-beaten-path; the days of rapping about straight-up guns and drugs and bitches, I hope, is waning. Instead, this entire album revolves around food, and his apparent love for it. The final track off the album, Kookies, splices a delicate bell-sounding childish sample over a pounding beat track, and MF Doom raps about snacks and the depression in his life. It's funny, it's addictive, and in true MF Doom style, the track comes to a close with a long string of comic book/saturday morning cartoon samples.

It's a great song to strut to. Walking through the park, the weather just a shade above average, was the perfect backdrop. Some kid flew by me on a skateboard. A woman was walking her toy dog. A young boy was trying (in vain) to hit wiffleballs with a big wooden bat. Two old men in anoraks and flat caps were sitting, legs crossed towards one another, putting the world to rights and gesturing to the same effect. The whole time, Kookies rang in my ears, and it felt pretty right. I'm always one to link songs to feelings, as some friends have heard me ramble about ad nauseam, and I implore you, if you have the power to set up the environment that I just laid out and then listen to this song as you wade through it, it'll be worth it.

Indifference gets you a room in a lonely house

EROS' ENTROPIC TUNDRA
Of Montreal
Satanic Panic in the Attic 2004
[Download It]


It's been a long day, decidedly. The music of choice is offbeat for today, but from a band I love. There are shades of other "goofy" melodic bands I enjoy also, but today it's Of Montreal that get the FMGT treatment.

Creators of several quality albums, OM have a unique sound. It's equal parts shimmering psychedelia and bouncy pop, kind of in the vein of the Shins but also inheriting a lot of the oddball lyrical qualities of the White Album or something from the Meat Puppets or the Kinks (Village Green Preservation Society). It's electro-pop, it's catchy, it's infectious, it's new-wave, it's worthy of repeated listens.

It's shunting bassline darts about over a train track drumbeat, and it works well with the falsettos and catcall-sounding harmonies. It just gives me a little nudge of energy after a tiring period of time.

I don't think you could run around to this, but you could surely bounce. Anyone ever see that Kids in the Hall sketch where Elvis was the landlord, and it starts with 4 of the Kids bouncing up and down in different coloured jumpsuits. Their dancing was erratic and awkward, yet undeniably fun.

They could dance to this song any day.

Bond on Holiday

No one is going to ask you to save the world tonight, and if they do? Fuck 'em. It's just you, the Astin Martin and the road. Who is to say where you may end up? No doubt they'll have silent bartenders and Yo La Tengo's unmistakeable brand of somber guitar served neat.

DR. CRASH
Yo La Tengo
Today is the Day [ep] 2003

[Download It]
[Or click here to buy the CD]