Casual Listening -- The Real Sound of Chicago, 2009 Playlist

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

January 8, 2010

One new review, and a new year’s treat. The website is almost ready – I’ll let you know when the grand opening is happening.

! The Real Sound of Chicago: Underground Disco From The Windy City (dance)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one…an underground musical movement emerges in the 1970’s in response to the banality of what rock music had become. Kids everywhere responded to the new do-it-yourself ethic by picking up guitars and putting music on wax, if for no one else than their friends and the few die-hard fans who’d show up at a club and listen.

This is disco??? More than you’d imagine, and this collection brings together the best of the forgotten disco bands of one city in that era. Four-on-the-floor beats, slap-and-pop bass, big orchestral arrangements, and a surprising amount of artistry. At its best, disco is the progressive evolution of funk, and this is disco at its best.

Listen to samples from The Real Sound of Chicago here, including “Too Far Gone” and “Open Soul”

Casual Listening 2009 playlist

People will argue whether these songs are the best of the year, but these are the songs that I’ll remember the year by.

Listen to the full playlist on Rhapsody here.

And here’s what’s on it:

2009 Playlist

1. Invisible Cities – NOMO

2. Saudades de Manezinho Araujo – Forro in the Dark

3. Soul do Samba – Marcio Local

4. Sounsouomba – Oumou Sangare

5. Kalemba (Wegue–Wegue) – Buraka Som Sistema

6. Frenzy – Bobby Sanabria

7. Quiet Dog – Mos Def

8. The Spirit vs. the Kick Drum – Derek Webb

9. Give Blood – Rain Machine

10. The Passenger – Art Brut

11. Electric Twist – A Fine Frenzy

12. Mama’s Little Baby – Delbert McClinton

13. Don’t Lie Down – Round Mountain

14. Throw Down Your Heart – Bela Fleck

15. Winnipeg – Chris Pandolfi

16. Williamine – Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard

17. Such Great Heights – Iron & Wine

18. Goodbye – Tingsek

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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