Casual Listening

MOVING ON UP

2010-02-25T22:01:00.004-06:00

CASUAL LISTENING IS MOVING ON UP

(moooo-vin' on up!)

TO THE SKY

(we're a-movin' on up!)

TO A DE-LUXE NEW WEBSITE, AT:

http://casuallistening.com

Casual Listening - Nick Curran and the Lowlifes, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dessa

2010-02-18T21:55:00.000-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

February 19, 2010

I think we’ll be ready to launch the new website in a week. Expect a slew of special features as a kind of Grand Opening.

! Nick Curran and the Lowlifes – Reform School Girl (rock)

In the beginning, there was Rock & Roll.

Before the art form got micro-marketed as classic rock, shoegazer, dream pop, and a hundred others, there was one sound that set the world on its ear. That’s the sound Nick Curran plays with uncompromising energy. You can hear echoes of Little Richard in Curran’s bluesy shout, and the rhythm drives hard underneath. There’s even enough edge in the lyrics to make parents nervous. Curran drinks deeply from the source of rock & roll, and listening gives you the same rebellious thrill that launched a cultural revolution almost 60 years ago.

Listen to Nick Curran and the Lowlifes “Tough Lover”

* Preservation Hall Jazz Band – Preservation (jazz)

The kings of New Orleans-style hot jazz team up with a slew of name artists for charity. Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, and Ani DiFranco are all here, but it’s Andrew Bird’s whistling solo that steals the show.

Listen to Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Andrew Bird “Shake it and Break it”

* Dessa – A Badly Broken Code (rap)

Dessa’s hip-hop persona is stripped of braggadocio, leaving clear stories told in straightforward language. Breakbeats are layered with eccentric instruments (hammered dulcimer, bassoon) to surprisingly hip effect. Dessa’s rap won’t sell sneakers, but it has the potential to inspire a thousand young street poets.

Listen to Dessa “Children’s Work”

Jaga Jazzist – One-Armed Bandit (jazz)

These Norwegian fusionistas are advancing the flag of jazz without limits. Broad instrumental range – electric guitar, flute, marimba, harpsichord, electronics – wash in a tidal wave of jazz-rock instrumentals. Shifting keys and time signatures bring complexity to songs that still have clear hooks – M.C. Escher in sound.

Listen to Jaga Jazzist “One-Armed Bandit”

Joyo Velarde – Love & Understanding (R&B)

Velarde’s debut draws heavily from 70’s funk and soul – lush and occasionally psychedelic orchestration. Her voice is impassioned both with romantic love songs, and love-the-world songs. There’s a lot of hope in her music.

Listen to Joyo Velarde “Build This World”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Abdullah Ibrahim, Galactic, My Name is Khan

2010-02-11T22:24:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

February 12, 2010

First things first. For those whose hearts are with the protesters in Iran tonight, there’s a new recording by Iranian-Canadian band Blurred Focus of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Check it out here.

! Abdullah Ibrahim – Bombella (jazz)

Ibrahim is the most important jazz musician you’ve never heard of. A South African talent who found a patron in Duke Ellington, his musical style rolled with the changes in jazz through the 1960’s and 70’s. Now back with a big band, his clear sense of melody and skillful use of a huge horn section would do Ellington proud. Ibrahim’s compositions are joyous, and the band really swings.

Listen to Abdullah Ibrahim “Bombella”

! Galactic – Ya-Ka-May (funk)

No city has given more to the evolution of funk than New Orleans – Professor Longhair, Dr. John, The Meters, and now Galactic. Freely mixing jazz, hip hop, soul, and Mardi Gras brass band music, the group’s sound is downright stanky. A who’s who of Big Easy players in all those styles fills out the album. New Orleans is celebrating this week – join the party.

Listen to Galactic “Boe Money” featuring Rebirth Brass Band

* My Name is Khan – Original Soundtrack (world)

Judging from the previews, this movie is a powerful statement about post-9/11 America; judging from the soundtrack, we’re looking at a Bollywood music sensation that’s about to infect two continents. Some of the best voices and arrangers in the industry are here, and the Islamic themes give deep spiritual overtones to several of the songs.

Listen to Rashid Khan “Allah Hi Rahim” from My Name is Khan

* Tecupae – Tiempo (Latin)

Tecupae is driving a new sound that incorporates the groovy accordion of Venezuelan Vallenato music into Latin pop and rock-en-español stylings. It’s a potent mix that earns the band a place alongside other Latin rock crowdpleasers like Los Lonely Boys.

Listen to Tecupae “Amor Chiquitico”

Living Corpse – Metaphysical Collapse (metal)

Seriously heavy, and seriously listenable. Power chords and a driving double-kick-drum serve as musical lifelines that carry you through the volcanic fury. Some slower passages give emotional contrast. Shouted vocals provide energy without stealing focus, even if the lyrics are unintelligible.

Listen to Living Corpse “Metaphysical Collapse”

Josh Turner – Haywire (country)

Turner’s full-on bass vocals and honky-tonk tendencies distinguish this album from the pop country masses. Kick back and enjoy this easy ride.

Listen to Josh Turner “Why Don’t We Just Dance”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening wins 5 Grammys, plus Bassekou Kouyate, Bela Fleck, Yo-Yo Ma

2010-02-04T23:13:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

February 5, 2010

Casual Listening Wins 5 Grammys

While the Grammy voters are notorious for choosing star power over musical integrity, the down-ballot categories tend to be a reasonable benchmark for how much quality and diversity of music you can find on Casual Listening. The following grammy winners had garnered a starred review or better here when they were first released:

Best Regional Mexican Album: Vicente Fernandez – Necesito de Ti

Best Americana Album: Levon Helm – Electric Dirt

Best Bluegrass Album: Steve Martin – The Crow

Best Contemporary World Music Album: Bela Fleck – Throw Down Your Heart

Best Musical Album for Children: Ziggy Marley – Family Time

Anyone can turn you on to Beyonce, but Vicente Fernandez? That’s what we’re here for.

! Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – I Speak Fula (world)

How do you say “guitar god” in Fula? The ngoni is an ancestor of the banjo native to Mali, and Kouyate leads a band full of them. The rhythms are devastating, and multiple vocalists give elegant contrast to the furious strings. This album will be 2010’s must-hear world music album.

Listen to Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba “Musow (For Our Women)”

! Bela Fleck – Throw Down Your Heart: Africa Sessions Part 2 (world)

A welcome companion to last year’s must-hear world music album. This and the first should be considered a complete set, with volume 2 containing more music from the movie, more field recordings, and more studio tracks from the African voyage of the world’s most versatile banjoist. More mind-opening, world-shrinking, jaw-dropping musical collaborations.

Listen to Bela Fleck “Salam Aleikum” available only at his website here.

* Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, & Itzhak Perlman – Mendelssohn Piano Trios (classical)

While I’m not expert enough on Mendelssohn to do this recording justice, it’s worth checking out just to hear three of the most accomplished musicians of our age playing together. The second trio in particular has some exquisite moments.

Listen to “II – Andante Espressivo” from Piano Trio No. 2

Kasper Fredhom Groove Syndrome – Naked Brunch (jazz)

Wicked jazz-funk that’d be at home on the shelf next to Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. Electric organ, sax, guitar, drums, and smoky female vocals put the band in the shades-at-midnight coolness league.

Listen to Kasper Fredhom Groove Syndrome “Naked Brunch”

Akai – The Coldest Hour (Is Just Before Dawn) (rock)

Sprinkle your ipod with fairy dust. Gossamer pop-rock with piano, glockenspiel, and reverb-heavy harmonies. Tight, sweet tunes hold the package together.

Listen to Akai “Satellite”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Corinne Bailey Rae, Four Tet, Eric Bibb

2010-01-28T23:32:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

January 29, 2010

! Corinne Bailey Ray – The Sea (rock)

Writing a convincing love song is almost as hard as love itself. Corinne Bailey Ray makes it sound impossibly easy. She lends a perfectly bittersweet delivery to this collection of pop-soul beauties. Impressionistic guitars and tasteful use of strings makes this feel already like a classic.

Listen to Corinne Bailey Ray “Are You Here?’”

* Four Tet – There is Love in You (electronic)

This is electronic artistry designed for headphones, not the dance floor. Four Tet employs a warm, clean palate of slowly shifting sounds reminiscent of bells, chimes, cymbals, and voices. Four Tet’s music is utilitarian in the best sense, a slow-turning kaleidoscope that gently agitates your mind.

Listen to Four Tet “Circling”

Eric Bibb – Booker’s Guitar (blues)

For a bluesman, having a chance to touch the strings of the guitar of a musical ancestor like Booker (Bukka) White is a fairy tale come true. Eric Bibb was inspired enough by the experience to write an album’s worth of fables. He channels ancient spirits into new blues, and the emotional power is palpable.

Listen to Eric Bibb “With My Maker I Am One”

Pat Metheny – Orchestrion (jazz)

Metheny ups the instrumental ante in wiring an orchestra like a player piano. His jazz fusion guitar riffs still cascade over the top, but the breadth of sound possibilities available make these recordings stand out.

Listen to Pat Metheny“Orchestrion”

And see the Orchestrion in action here.

Youssou N’Dour – Music From The Motion Picture “I Bring What I Love” (world)

One of the most famous voices in world music finally gets his close-up on the silver screen. The soundtrack puts his Senegalese pop in a more deliberately global setting, which N’Dour takes in stride.

Listen to “Mame Bamba/Touba - Daru Salaam”

Cyrille Aimee & Diego Figueiredo – Smile (jazz)

A reminder of the power of a simple voice and guitar. Aimee has tremendous vocal control, and Figueiredo’s guitar is powerful yet understated. Cabaret, Bossa Nova, and jazz standards all rub elbows comfortably here.

Listen to Cyrille Aimee & Diego Figueiredo “La Vie En Rose”

Citay – Dream Get Together (rock)

I’m risking my critic’s credibility in admitting that I love a good jam band. Citay is one of the best I’ve heard in a long while. Acoustically based with vocal harmonies and a swirl of psychedelic classic rock. This band deserves their own Ben & Jerry’s flavor.

Listen to Citay “Return From Silence”

It’s an amazing week for music, and I’ve just scratched the surface. Great stuff also out by Patty Griffin, Magnetic Fields, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Fredrik, Lady Antebellum, Never Shout Never, Basement Jaxx, Brooklyn Rider, Gorevette.

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

Check out the blog at http://casuallistening.blogspot.com . Follow me on Lala here

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Casual Listening - Eels, Makoto Ozone, Sizzla

2010-01-21T22:21:00.000-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

January 15, 2010

! Eels – End Times (rock)

Heaven help us if the end of the world sounds this beautiful. The songwriting sparkles like diamonds intentionally left in the rough. Simple guitar on some tracks, pedal steel and electronics fill in behind the band on others. The apocalyptic theme that runs through this song cycle works to intensify a sense of nostalgia and isolation. Above all, these are songs that will bear a hundred listens without getting old.

Listen to Eels “End Times’”

* Makoto Ozone featuring No Name Horses – Jungle (jazz)

Listening to a great big band is one of the true pleasures of jazz. Ozone’s manages to do it all – heavy swing, sizzling mambo, and several modern compositions that show the potential of the form to cover new ground. Big brass, lots of percussion, and fluid piano work from Ozone.

Listen to Makoto Ozone “Coconuts Meeting”

Sizzla – Crucial Times (reggae)

Sunny Jamaican roots music with a heavy dose of Rastafarian devotion. Electric organ and saxes bounce along with Sizzla’s rubberband voice, along with a couple of tracks with more experimental settings.

Listen to Sizzla “Precious Gift”

Tracy Thornton – Steel Drum Fever (world)

Carnival time is coming, and in Trinidad, that means steel drum bands playing in the streets. This is a representative set of Calypso and other party music that’ll help melt away the snow.

Listen to Tracy Thornton“Bum Shaker”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Vampire Weekend, La Otrabanda,

2010-01-14T23:03:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

January 15, 2010

* Vampire Weekend – Contra (world)

* La Otrabanda – Pueblo Vivo/Vibrant People (world)

Two impressive releases with a cosmopolitan vibe bode well for new directions in global fusion. Vampire Weekend combines pop instincts and bouncy energy with southern African rhythms and guitar styles. La Otrabanda combines Venezuelan, American, and a smattering of other musical traditions to create a sound with mellower, dreamier grooves. Vampire Weekend’s production is expansive, including tasteful electronics alongside xylophones, assorted percussion, occasional strings and a core of guitar/bass/drums. La Ortrabanda isn’t far behind, with a rock band augmented by acoustic guitar, cuatro, percussion, and even bagpipes on one tune. Both of these represent the possibility of adventurous sounds infiltrating unsuspecting American ears.

Listen to Vampire Weekend “White Sky”

Listen to La Otrabanda “Indigenas”

* Ray Wylie Hubbard – A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) (country)

Hubbard’s is the Americana of fallen angels. He’s drawn to the redemption of old gospel hymns, but is more at home with hard-living blues and honky-tonk. His sound digs deep in the gutbucket with bottleneck slide, blue harmonica, and a voice with edges like a chainsaw. His lyrics reveal a literary mind and a barroom brawler’s fists.

Listen to Ray Wylie Hubbard “Drunken Poet’s Dream”

Sean Corbett – Keep On Walkin’ (R&B)

Louisiana-style keyboard funk that’d give Dr. John himself a mischevious grin. Horns and backup singers build a thick sound over a rhythm section that cooks.

Listen to Sean Corbett “Keep On Walkin’”

T-Model Ford – The Ladies Man (blues)

T-Model is one of the last of the backwoods bluesmen, and on this album delivers a stripped-down acoustic set that’s miles deep. If Lightnin’ Hopkins were still around, he’d be making albums like this one.

Listen to T-Model Ford “Two Trains”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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

2010-01-07T21:14:00.000-06:00

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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Casual Listening - Best of the Decade (2K-D1)

2009-12-18T00:07:00.000-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

December 18, 2009

Here’s what’s left of the end-of-the-year calendar:

Dec 18: The best of the decade

Dec 25 & Jan 1: No reviews, possibly some special features

Jan 8: Launch of the new casuallistening.com

Best of the Decade (2K-D1)

1. Kanye West – Late Registration (rap)

If the story of music in the last 10 years was the switch from the "we culture" of radio and record stores to the iCulture of the digital download, the moral is that we've lost any sort of common musical reference point. Except one: Kanye West. I dare you to find someone other than your grandmother who escaped hearing "Gold Digger" this decade (your grandma may surprise you, too), and I dare you to find any other song this decade that would pass that test.

Beyond this, Kanye's music represents a renaissance in hip hop. Aesthetically, it raised the bar for production, introducing a new "wall of sound" that drew heavily on classic soul as well as electronic music. Lyrically, it broke the stranglehold of gangsta rap, unmasking and embracing the music as the province of nerdy Black kids far more than actual thugs. Kanye is responsible for defining the Chicago School of hip hop, which inspired artists such as Lupe Fiasco and Rhymefest as well as rejuvenating older heads like Common through brilliant production work. All this in addition to Kanye's production work on several definitive albums by Jay-Z.

Kanye has given us some of the most enduring pop music of the decade, with indelible hooks set against exquisite sonic backdrops. There's a musical complexity to much of his work that will be rewarding listeners for decades more.

Listen to Kanye West “Touch the Sky”

Honorable Mention: Common – Be; Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor; Jay-Z – The Black Album; Q-Tip – The Renaissance, Outkast – Stankonia

2. Green Day - American Idiot (rock)

By the middle of the decade, the absurdity of the Bush years was beginning to collapse on itself: two failed wars, torture scandals, and a hurricane made worse by government ineptitude. All this the result of an administration that was democratically elected. Twice.

There was only one possible response, and although the album wasn't explicitly a political rallying cry, young America embraced it as such. American Idiot became a giant upturned middle finger to the Bush administration and all those who blindly supported it. That it came from a punk band was fitting, although in 30 years punk has only turned out a handful of pop anthems of this magnitude.

American Idiot is driving energy, tuneful melodies, and tight vocal harmonies. Green Day manages to create a more penetrating sound than seems possible for a 3-piece guitar band. Slower pieces like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” take the same core thread of alienation and pull it inward. This album will be remembered as the one that captured the zeitgeist of the Bush years, tied it to a tree, and drove a stake through its heart.

Listen to Green Day “American Idiot”

Honorable Mention: Radiohead – In Rainbows; Bruce Springsteen – The Rising; The White Stripes – Red Blood Cells; TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain; Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere

3. Bela Fleck – Throw Down Your Heart (world)

Barack Obama won the Nobel peace prize because people around the world heard him – and America by extension – speaking in their own languages, whether quoting from the Qur'an, Chinese proverbs, or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bela Fleck is our musical Obama, one of the few musicians with the musicianship and the desire to have a dialogue with nearly anyone on the globe.

Throw Down Your Heart may be the strongest statement of American engagement with the world community since Paul Simon's Graceland. It's a banjo travelogue to the land where the instrument was born, notable because most of the songs here are not a fusion of east and west, but rather Fleck playing fundamentally African music with African musicians. He navigates about a dozen distinct styles in five countries brilliantly and with minimal rehearsal time. Even more than the virtuosity of Fleck's playing, we are witness to the depth of his listening.

As with Obama's Nobel, Fleck represents the possibility of a new relationship with the world, if not yet its full realization. This is still cause for celebration. We have on our hands the kind of global cultural ambassador America hasn’t seen since Dizzy Gillespie, with the talent and grace to take a seat at the global jam session.

Listen to Bela Fleck “Zawose”

Honorable Mention: M.I.A. – Kala; Amadou & Mariam – Dimanche e Bamako, Mariza – Fado Curvo; Antibalas – Talkatif; Manu Chao – Proxima Estación: Esperanza

4. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (folk)

The surprise of the decade in folk music was who was playing it – namely young musicians, including a lot of barefoot guys with big beards. The generational shift is as profound as the folk revival of the 1960's, when the Greenwich Village kids reconfigured old American music for an urban scene. The stylistic shift in this decade has been equally profound, with the new music sounding as different from Bob Dylan as Dylan sounded from Blind Willie McTell.

Stevens is of this group, but brings a classical sensibility to his art. He's drawn to paint grand orchestral narratives of The American People, shot through with populist, pastoral aspirations, tempered with the post-modern self-consciousness that such grandiosity is drastically out-of-vogue. He is Aaron Copland for a new Millennium.

"Illinois" is a pastiche of culture and kitsch, a wax museum where Carl Sandburg stands beside the Superman statue from downstate Metropolis. Woven through this landscape are intensely personal narratives. "Casimir Pulaski Day" is representative: known to Illinois schoolchildren less as a Polish heritage celebration than a gift of state-sanctioned hookey, it becomes a song about the day Stevens must come to grips with the death of a lover. With grief and memory tightly spun over a simple melody, the effect is breathtaking.

Listen to Sufjan Stevens “Casimir Pulaski Day”

Honorable Mention: Various Artists – O Brother Where Art Thou (soundtrack); Iron & Wine – Around the Well; Nickel Creek – This Time; Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

5. Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around (country)

At a time of growing Balkanization in the world of country music, Johnny Cash was the one figure that inspired everybody. His late recordings are a remarkable document of man dealing with the reality of his own death. Under the guiding hand of producer Rick Rubin, Cash began putting on tape as much music as he could manage. He sang folk standards and church hymns, pop chestnuts, murder ballads, and a handful of songs made popular by much younger musicians.

The Man Comes Around shows both the range and depth of Cash’s late work. From the apocalyptic prophesy of the title track to the unexpected tenderness of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" to the devastating honesty of "Hurt," he holds nothing back. The deep tremor of his voice – pained, hopeful, determined – turns every song to gold.

These recordings are a hope chest for the ages. In preparing it, Cash became an American Folk Hero. He played to beat the steam drill, and victorious, he laid down his guitar and he died.

Listen to Johnny Cash “Hurt”

Honorable Mention: Chuck Ragan & Austin Lucas – Bristle Ridge; Lucinda Williams – World Without Tears; Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose; Steve Earle – Jerusalem

6. Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble – Black Unstoppable (jazz)

While many jazz veterans are still making innovative music, the untold story of this decade is that many of the most important young lions are women. The best-selling new jazz artist of the decade is Norah Jones, while the most critically acclaimed new voice is Esperanza Spaulding. Both have real talent that has yet to find full expression. Nicole Mitchell is the rising star of this decade that actually produced a masterpiece.

Black Unstoppable acknowledges the broad inheritance that is Black music, with aural nods to blues, gospel, Motown, and classic jazz, as well as the avant-garde with which Mitchell is most closely identified. Her vision is a profoundly feminist one, a rarity in a field where even the most talented female musicians rely on conventional love ballads.

She has the confidence of a lion, with muscular themes that become the basis for free improvisation. Alongside the most challenging pieces are passages haunting in their simplicity – the final riff of “Thanking the Universe” seems to linger in your ears for hours after the final note has gone silent. Mitchell's is a bold and beautiful vision, the new shape of jazz to come.

Listen to Nicole Mitchell “Thanking the Universe”

Honorable Mention: Herbie Hancock – River: The Joni Letters , Dave Holland – What Goes Around; Dianne Reeves – Good Night and Good Luck (soundtrack); Ornette Coleman – Sound Grammar

7. Mavis Staples – Live: Hope at the Hideout (gospel)

It's a matter of cosmic symbolism that this album was released on election day, 2008. The spirituals that gave courage to the civil rights movement seemed to be finding their fulfillment that day. While Mavis Sings "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" and adds "We're going to get that prize!" election returns showed Americans turning over at least a piece of that prize to a Black President. One can't help but feel goosebumps all through this record.

Staples had developed this project a year earlier with guitarist and producer Ry Cooder for the album "We'll Never Turn Back." Although the Cooder arrangements have stayed, the sound is exponentially better without him, trading the pristine studio for a flesh-and-blood audience. The call-and-response, as well as Mavis' storytelling, is as captivating as the songs themselves.

One election can't fix the world. We're going to need the courage of these songs for years to come.

Listen to Mavis Staples “Eyes on the Prize”

Honorable Mention: Mike Farris – Salvation in Lights

8. The Silk Road Ensemble – New Impossibilities (classical)

Twentieth-century classical music broke down nearly every remaining aesthetic barrier attached to the art form. What distinguishes the 21st century so far is the breaking of cultural barriers. From the recognition of composers such as Osvaldo Golijov and Tan Dun to the buzz over Gustavo Dudamel's premiere with the L.A. Symphony, it's clear that the classical idiom is no longer exclusively Western art.

The Silk Road Ensemble exemplifies this trend, breaking cultural barriers through most of the decade. Led by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the ensemble features virtuoso players on a number of Eastern instruments - Sheng, Pi-pa, Koto, Tabla and others. While each of the ensemble's recordings break new ground, the collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra covers the broadest stylistic range, as well as showing the creative possibilities of this music in conventional classical performance.

The Silk Road is itself a powerful symbol of what this music represents, the name referring to the legendary trade route across Asia connecting Europe and the Far East. It speaks of pan-Asian continuity, relations built on exchange rather than colonialism, and a metaphorical crossroads of history, wealth, and culture. The Silk Road journey is the artistic paradigm of the new millennium.

Listen to Silk Road Ensemble “Ambush From Ten Sides”

Honorable Mention: John Adams – On the Transmigration of Souls; Osvaldo Golijov – La Pasion Segun San Marcos; John Williams – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (soundtrack)

9. Daddy Yankee – Barrio Fino (Latin)

It's a rare treat to watch an entire new style of music emerge. The mix of dancehall reggae and North American rap known as Reggaeton had its passport stamped in Panama, Puerto Rico, and the United States (among other places) on its way to becoming a hemispheric if not global phenomenon. Reggaeton blew up mid-decade to the point where there were entire radio stations playing nothing but. That fever has subsided, but the influence of the music is still strong in rap and rap-en-espanol, while the most prominent Reggaeton artists are still making records and touring.

Daddy Yankee was the first artist to go Big with a capital B, and this was the album that did it. You'll hear the quintessential stutter-step beat, hyper-masculine boasting, and wickedly addictive hooks on “Gasolina.” Yankee's convincing bad-boy personality and biting delivery help distinguish him from the crowd of performers who drove this sound throughout the decade.

Listen to Daddy Yankee “Gasolina”

Honorable Mention: Vicente Fernandez – Primera Fila, Chicha Libre – Sonido Amazonico; Paulina Rubio – Pau-Latina; Café Tacuba – Cuatro Caminos

10. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (kids)

The last ten years saw a proliferation of kids albums, often by alternative rockers who now have young kids of their own. The vast majority of this music will be forgotten. To get a sense of what may endure, strip away all the clever cookies-and-naptime lyrics. If the raw music can hold the kids' (and parents') attention, you've got a keeper. By this test, much of the best music for kids you'll find in other categories in the virtual record store.

Springsteen's Seeger Sessions succeeds for the same reason that Seeger's music has succeeded for going-on-70 years: time-tested songs delivered with a palpable sense of joy. In Springsteen's case, a fifteen-piece band gives this recording the feel of an old-time hootenanny. There's also the satisfaction of exposing kids to several American classics, including "O Mary Don't You Weep'' and "We Shall Overcome." Pete Seeger's music made the generational leap, as I'm now playing my childhood records for my own kids; I'm hoping Springsteen makes the leap for my kids’ kids thirty years from now.

Listen to Bruce Springsteen “Jacob’s Ladder”

Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Mitchell – You Are My Little Bird; Ellis Paul – The Dragonfly Races; They Might Be Giants – Here Comes Science

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Casual Listening - Best of 2009

2009-12-10T23:41:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

December 11, 2009

In addition to the year-end special features, check the blog for some additional stocking-stuffers. This week it’s the top ten kids albums by guest reviewer Lee Winkelman, a special guest review of the Bob Dylan Christmas album by Steve McManus, and more greatest misses by Rain Machine and Cedric Watson. Here’s the end-of the year lineup:

Dec 11: The best of 2009

Dec 18: The best of the decade

Dec 25 & Jan 1: No reviews, possibly some special features

Jan 8: Launch of the new casuallistening.com

Best Albums of 2009

(All reviews as they originally appeared)

1. Bela Fleck – Throw Down Your Heart (world)

Some albums require more than three sentences to really understand. Today, I have an essay about Bela Fleck's "Throw Down Your Heart" on the Pop Matters website. You can read the full article here.

And then there's the music. To my ears, it's one of the most significant world music releases since Paul Simon's Graceland. Check out the album here. There is also a documentary of Bela Fleck's travels to Africa that's racking up prizes at film festivals. You can find out more about the film and when it may be coming to your town here.

Listen to Bela Fleck “Wairenziante”

2. NOMO – Invisible Cities (jazz)

A musical layer cake - the base is Afrobeat (heavy, horn-laden funk) filled with improvisational jazz and iced with bells, gongs, and other creative percussion that give the music a psychedelic sheen. It's a brilliant combination, either for dancing till you drop or a hypnotic journey to another plane.

Listen to NOMO “Invisible Cities”

3. Derek Webb – Stockholm Syndrome (rock)

One of the most interesting recordings of the year, in any genre. Meticulously produced, with elegant pop songcraft over heavy drums and electronic samples – if you dug Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” you’ll be equally entranced with Webb’s sonic collage. The album has also become the center of serious controversy, as Webb’s label refused to release it as written due to inappropriate content (namely, he used the s-word in one song, and railed against the pervasive homophobia in conservative Christian circles). Whatever your religious persuasion (or lack thereof), you’ll appreciate this as art with a progressive, righteous vision.

Listen to the song that kicked off the controversy "What Matters More” on myspace.

Then spend the $8 for the uncensored album here. When someone sticks their neck out like he did, it’s important to show your support.

4. Bobby Sanabria conducting the Manhattan Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra – Kenya Revisited Live (Latin)

It doesn’t get any hotter than this. Sanabria is the new millennium apostle of Latin jazz, and he’s enlisted an orchestra to recreate one of the masterpieces of the genre. He’s even got Candido Camero, who played congas on the original recording with Machito 50 years ago. Five minutes listening and you’ll realize why every jazz musician of the day dropped everything they were doing and taught themselves to play this music.

Listen to Bobby Sanabria “Wild Jungle”

And for those who are interested, here’s Machito’s original “Wild Jungle”

5. (tie)

Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light (vocal)

Quiet songs sung with a beautifully fragile voice with spare accompaniments of piano guitar, and strings. Aching, tender, and not easily forgotten.

Listen to Antony and the Johnsons “Her Eyes are Underneath the Ground”

Ami Saraiya– Archaeologist (vocal)

I don’t invoke names like Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday lightly, but I also don’t come across voices anywhere near that caliber very often. You’ve just got to hear Ami Saraiya to believe it. She’s able to pull emotional strings across the musical spectrum: her cabaret is romantic, her blues gritty, and her rock downright sinister. The orchestration is exquisite, with occasional strings, muted trumpet, guitar, and heavy doses of accordion. You can’t help but be swept off your feet by this album.

Disclaimer: I know Ami and have followed her work for years. I can assure you no favors were traded in preparing this review. This is legitimately a world-class album.

Listen to Ami Sariaiya’s “Vegas Moon” on MySpace, and order the album at www.amisaraiya.com.

6. Iron & Wine – Around the Well (folk)

Iron & Wine is an ambassador from the future of American folk music. With impressionistic use of traditional instruments (banjo, steel guitar) and styles (ballads & blues), Iron & Wine unfolds quiet, penetrating lyrical portraits that approach the greatness of the best bards of the ‘60s. This two-disc set of previously (and inexplicably) unreleased work is split between early acoustic home recordings and more recent forays into psychedelia.

Listen to Iron & Wine “Loud as Hope” and “Carried Home”

7. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE: The Motion Picture Soundtrack (classical)

Beethoven wrote an ode to joy. Pablo Neruda wrote an ode to his socks. Sufjan Stevens wrote an ode to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. All three pieces make transcendent art out of something that otherwise would go unnoticed. In this case, it’s a multimedia symphony that draws into itself the best of the last century of classical composition and takes it another step. It’s time to start treating this cat as a real American composer.

Listen to Sufjan Stevens “Movement V: Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns”

8. Rihanna – Rated R (R&B)

I’m having trouble figuring out which of these is more shocking to me:

1. The best mainstream pop album of the year is about domestic abuse.

2. The most powerful public statement about domestic abuse this year is a mainstream pop album.

While I’m getting over the shock, let me say that the album sounds great. Slower tempos and dancehall inflections give a sense of gravity that’s uncommon for an artist aiming for the top 40. Rihanna portrays herself on this set as hardened. She evokes images of gang fights and Russian roulette not because she has a deathwish, but because she doesn’t. She’s been forced to face her mortality and somehow has to rebuild a life afterwards. Heavy stuff, powerful art.

Listen to Rihanna “Stupid in Love”

9. K’Naan – Troubador (rap)

Anyone looking for proof of the global scope of rap music should consider K’Naan exhibit A. Raised in Somalia and relocated to Canada, K’Naan testifies to the redeeming power of hip hop on streets far more dangerous than urban America. With a hopeful vibe and a powerfully spoken message, K’Naan digs this music deeper than all but the most skilled American rappers.

Listen to K’Naan “Dreamer”

10. The Dixie Bee-Liners – Susanville (Bluegrass)

A one-hour road trip for the mind, “Susanville” captures the restlessness and discovery of barreling across middle America. The string band sound evokes just enough nostalgia to capture the feel of truck stops and diners without getting too comfortable – after all, it’s the road that calls. These songs carry a sense of velocity, always moving us along to somewhere new.

Listen to The Dixie Bee-Liners “Restless”

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Casual Listening Guest Review - Best Kids Music 2009

2009-12-10T23:39:00.003-06:00

Casual Listening

Extra!

December 11, 2009

Lee Winkelman is a Casual Listener who follows kids music releases way more closely than I do. Here are his picks in this category for the year:

Best Kids Music of 2009

The golden age of kids music continues with another strong year. There is nothing on this list that I wouldn’t be willing to listen to without my kid around

Here are my (and my five year old son Henry’s) 12 favorite kids albums of 2009, listed in order:

1. Duplex - Worser (Mint Records). This record is an indie music delight. It is by a collective of Vancouver musicians led by Veda Hille and Justin Kellam. Musical styles include heavy metal (about the nobel gases), synthpop, powerpop, and folk rock (about why two dads are splitting up), with everything just enough off kilter to be interesting. You have to order this record online from their record company, but it is worth it.

2. They Might Be Giants - Here Comes Science (Walt Disney Records). This great kids record isn’t much of a departure from TMBG’s adult records. I remember dancing to one of the songs on the record – Why Does the Sun Shine? – at TMBG concerts in the 1990s long before they released a kids record. Be sure and get the version with the DVD because the videos that accompany each song are a lot of fun.

3. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - Easy (Happiness Records). Kid-hop music with a positive message. Luck is the best hip-hop song of the year to prominently feature a banjo.

4. Peter Himmelman - My Trampoline (Minivan Record). Straight ahead, upbeat rock and roll that will appeal to fans of Bruce Springsteen or John Fogherty. Fun to dance to. I love the organ on “Florie Loves Flowers” and the ballad that asks the plaintive question: “Are There Any Kids Named Steve Anymore?”

5. The Macaroons - Let's Go Coconuts! (JDub Records). You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this kids record, but it helps. The lyrics may be a bit puzzling to the goyim (what's a mezuzah? A talis?), but the fun, rocking tunes will appeal to everyone. For those looking for a Jewish religioius experience, please note that the lyrics are silly with very little spiritual content.

6. Ziggy Marley - Family Time (TUFF GONG WORLDWIDE). An easy-going, likeable record. Ziggy sings with members of his family and special guests stars. It is not a hard core reggae record (unless you consider his father’s “Redemption Song” to be hard core reggae). Guests include Willie Nelson, Toots Hibbert, Paul Simon, Elizabeth Mitchell and Laurie Berkner. Produced by Don Was.

7. Renee & Jeremy - C'mon (One Melody Records). They’ve left the gentle lullabies of their first record behind, rocking out on pretty melodies with real drums. It still has a sweet, lo-fi quality to it, like it was recorded in their living room.

8. Dan Zanes - 76 Trombones (Festival Five Records). The dean of contemporary kids music takes on Broadway standards. His loose and ragged style roughs up the songs in an appealing way. A fun album.

9. Los Lobos - Los Lobos Goes Disney (Walt Disney Records). The souped up rhumba of Los Lobos’ Heigh Ho is completely contagious. Los Lobos takes (mostly) familiar Disney songs and puts their own spin on them, making them sound fresh again. I am especially fond of the surf-guitar instrumental Wish Upon A Star/Small World medley.

10. Randy Kaplan - Loquat Rooftop (Yellow Thing Records). An urban folk troubadour sings a mix of originals and well chosen covers (Leadbelly, the Coasters, Hank Williams). He’s a charming story teller with a good sense of humor.

11. Robbert Bobbert - Bubble Machine (Little Monster Records). Robbert Bobbert is the leader of the power-pop band Apples in Stereo. On this kids record, he brings the same infectious energy and catchy melodies to his kids music.

12. Gustafer Yellowgold - Mellow Fever (Apple-Eye Productions/Redeye). Gustafer Yellowgold is the creation and alter-ego of singer-songwriter and graphic artist Morgan Taylor. Taylor creates gorgeous music and charming drawings on this CD/DVD set, telling the story of Gustafer, an immigrant from the Sun, and his friends. The music is would fit in well with Cat Stevens or the gentler side of the Beatles.

12. The Sippy Cups - The Time Machine (Snacker Disc). The San Francisco sound is updated and made appropriate for kids (alas, no drug references). Even when the songs have a message (like the global warming song “Don’t Remove the Groove”), they are never preachy, always silly. Though this album is all originals, when they play live, they are likely to do kid-friendly covers of the Monkeys, the Ramones, and who knows who else.

Most (but not all) of the records above can be found at www.pokeypup.com or cdbaby.com. The rest can be found by googling the record company.

Casual Listening Guest Review - Bob Dylan Christmas

2009-12-10T23:39:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

Extra!

December 11, 2009

I haven’t seen a Dylan music polarize the musical community as much as I’ve seen with Christmas in the Heart. I’m having trouble giving an objective review, so I’ve turned to one of Casual Listening’s greatest Dylanophiles for this review. Here’s Steve McManus

Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart (holiday)

I suppose a review of "Christmas in the Heart" by Bob Dylan could start with a discussion of how the album falls in line with his Christian Gospel work of the late 1970s. Some folks may look at it as another collection of Dylan folk songs. Perhaps some reviewers may analyze the irony of Dylan, who has been called a prophet by many, singing about the birth of the man many consider to the Messiah. Yes, there is plenty of material here for the Dylan scholars, historians, critics, zealots, lecturers, and biographers. But I'm going to look past all that and simply say that this a sincere and enjoyable record to add to your holiday collection, and the proceeds go to Feeding America. And if "Christmas in the Heart" doesn't make it into your stocking, you can still donate to Feeding America and find out more information here: http://feedingamerica.org/."

Casual Listening - More Greatest Misses

2009-12-10T23:28:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

Extra!

December 11, 2009

Two more greatest misses from this year:

! Rain Machine – Rain Machine (rock)

Rain Machine is the project of art-rock phenom Kip Malone, whose other band (TV on the Radio) is showing up on a lot of best-of-the-decade lists. This album is brilliant as well, with a frayed-around-the-edges voice that ricochets between shouts and falsetto. All of his music comes from a deep emotional place, and it’s the centerpiece of a sound that ranges from heavy rockers to stripped down acoustic guitar. A sophisticated listen.

Listen to Rain Machine “Give Blood”

* Cedric Watson – L’esprit Creole (folk)

This is what Zydeco is all about. Great bluesy accordion dance music with evident Creole roots, mostly sung in French. Watson manages both authenticity and adventurousness, showing off the breadth of this still-vital musical form.

Listen to Cedric Watson “Le Sud de la Louisiane”

Casual Listening - Greatest Misses 2009

2009-12-03T23:23:00.000-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

December 4, 2009

The parade of end-of-the-year features continues:

Dec 4: Greatest Misses: stuff I’ve overlooked

Dec 11: The best of 2009

Dec 18: The best of the decade

Dec 25 & Jan 1: No reviews, possibly some special features

Jan 8: Launch of the new casuallistening.com

Greatest Misses: Overlooked in 2009

! Ami Saraiya– Archaeologist (vocal)

Disclaimer: I know Ami and have followed her work for years. I can assure you no favors were traded in preparing this review. This is legitimately a world-class album.

Listen to Ami Sariaiya’s “Vegas Moon” on MySpace, and order the album at www.amisaraiya.com.

! Anne Akiko Meyers – Smile (classical)

Eclectic pieces for virtuoso violin connected by a deep sense of joy. With achingly pure tone, Meyers does equal justice to Schubert, Astor Piazzola, and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The title piece is originally by silent film star Charlie Chaplin, and it’s a chaplinesque broad smile that’s the product of every piece on this recording.

Listen to Anne Akiko Meyers “Smile”

! Rihanna – Rated R (R&B)

I’m having trouble figuring out which of these is more shocking to me:

1. The best mainstream pop album of the year is about domestic abuse.

2. The most powerful public statement about domestic abuse this year is a mainstream pop album.

Listen to Rihanna “Stupid in Love”

! Hiram and Huddie – various artists (country, blues)

A group of folk and blues players wrench two American music legends off their pedestals and make them dance again. Hiram is the given name of Hank Williams, and Huddie somehow got the nickname Leadbelly. The new interpretations of their honky-tonk and jailhouse classics are amazingly vital. The performers here – William Elliot Whitmore, Scott H. Biram, and Reverend Payton’s Big Damn Band are the tip of the iceberg – have the collective potential to turn the roots rock world upside down.

Listen to Hiram and Huddie “Gallis Pole”

* Filisko & Noden – I. C. Special (blues)

Two top-shelf instrumentalists wail on the forgotten blues of the 1920s and 1930s. Filisko is a legend in harmonica circles, and Noden deserves to be one for his slide guitar work. They find plenty of life left in songs and styles from the dawn of recorded music.

Disclaimer: I know these guys, too. What can I say? Genius loves company.

Listen to “Gridlock Blues” and buy the album here.

Ori Dakari – Entrances (jazz)

Dakari’s compositions blend Israeli music traditions with the jazz tradition. A talented sax-focused quintet gives these pieces life, with Dakari himself on guitar.

Listen to Ori Dakari “Beresheet”

Dunkelbunt – Raindrops and Elephants (world)

Master DJ’s alongside drums and instruments from across sound like a musical dispatch from the electronic Amazon. Dunkelbunt surprises at every turn, rolling a global amalgam over a big beat.

Listen to Dunkelbunt “Balkan Qoulou”

Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind (rock)

You’ll see the group’s earlier release “Merriweather Post Pavilion” on many critics’ best-of lists this year. This 5-song EP is a good introduction to their freak-out pop style.

Listen to Animal Collective “What Would I Want? Sky”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Christmas Album Roundup

2009-11-27T21:11:00.000-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

November 27, 2009

Happy post-Thanksgiving, all. We’re into the end of the year, and new releases slow to a crawl, so I’ve got a series of special features for you over the next few weeks:

Nov 27: Christmas Album Roundup

Dec 4: Greatest Misses: stuff I’ve overlooked

Dec 11: The best of 2009

Dec 18: The best of the decade

Dec 25 & Jan 1: No reviews, possibly some special features

Jan 8: Launch of the new casuallistening.com

Christmas Album Roundup

* Kermit Ruffins – Have a Crazy Cool Christmas (jazz)

It doesn’t snow in New Orleans in December, but that doesn’t keep Ruffins from spreading some holiday cheer. Spot-on Dixieland and funk jazz renditions of the classics along with a few surprises.

Listen to Kermit Ruffins “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”

Andrea Bocelli – My Christmas (vocal)

As a recording of a beautiful voice with over-the-top orchestration, Bocelli’s album belongs in the same category as Bing Crosby’s Christmas recordings. Some of the carols have a more classical bent, others more pop, but all of the have the kind of sentimental feel that brings families together around the hearth this time of year.

Listen to Andrea Bocelli “White Christmas”

Bifrost Arts – Salvation is Created (rock)

This collective of indie rock artists came together as a group to explore Christian themes in traditional music – which made a Christmas album a natural. The settings draw on a chamber orchestra, with various tracks having violins, xylophone, and electric guitar. These are adventurous and often dark takes on mostly familiar standards.

Listen to Bifrost Arts “Let All Mortal Flesh”

Straight No Chaser – Christmas Cheers (A Capella)

The novelty song is a venerable Christmas tradition, and Straight No Chaser carry it on honorably. Both more listenable and more clever than “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,” this album is a big dose of jolly.

Listen to Straight No Chaser “The 12 Days of Christmas”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Dave Rawlings Machine, Them Crooked Vultures, CAGE MATCH: Lady Gaga vs. Kid Sister

2009-11-19T22:05:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

November 20, 2009

* Dave Rawlings Machine – A Friend of a Friend (folk)

Best known as Gillian Welch’s guitar-playing sidekick, Rawlings shows he can kick out the back porch jams. Tight harmonies, lots of mandolin, and an enthusiasm reminiscent of The Band brings on a big hippie grin.

Listen to Dave Rawlings Machine “To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)”

* Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures (rock)

A Frankenstein of a rock project. With superstars from bands like Nirvana and Led Zeppelin grafted together, the full assembly is menacing, but it’s alive. Sludgy guitar riffs and a trashcan drum sound make for a heavy but inventive set of tunes.

Listen to Them Crooked Vultures “Elephants”

Alan Lomax – Alan Lomax in Haiti (folk)

An enormous time capsule from one of the most important documenters of the world’s traditional music. Ten discs of field recordings from the island made in 1936 and 1937 are being made available for the first time. There are whole albums of voodoo music and carnival music, as well as three songs sung by folklorist and writer Zora Neale Hurston. It’s worth just picking through a few tracks at random to give yourself the sound of another place and time.

Listen to Alan Lomax in Haiti “Woy-O Woy-O Plus Ochan”

Grupo Pesado – Desde La Cantina (Latin)

While most only encounter the radio version of Nortena music, to catch its true spirit you need to hear it live with friends, accompanied by a few beers. Grupo Pesado’s new album comes as close as I’ve heard to capturing that setting. Perfectly harmonized ballads and brawny accordion solos show off a band playing their hearts out.

Listen to Grupo Pesado “Cielo Nublado”

Larry Sparks – I Just Want to Thank You Lord (country)

Gospel numbers have always been part of bluegrass, and Bill Monroe always had several hymns among the ballads and breakdowns. This album is all bluegrass gospel, in the best old traditional style. High and lonesome with plenty of serious picking, it’s also a window on an era when church music was one of the universals of rural life.

Listen to Larry Sparks “Little White Frame Church”

CAGE MATCH: Lady Gaga: The Fame Monster -vs- Kid Sister: Ultraviolet

The Contest: Dance Dance Revolution!

On the left dancepad, the new darling of dance-pop, so cool you need a refrigerator just to dig her, Lady Gaga! (GAGAGAGA!!!) And on the right dancepad, the princess of the hip-hop underworld, patron saint of nail technicians everywhere, Kid Sister! (HOOYAHH!!!!)

Lady Gaga drops a mid-tempo disco noir. Step-step, twirl (you’re doin’ great!) Stomp to the beat! Stomp to the beat! (you’re on fire!) Now she’s signing like Madonna! Hophophop-step (let’s do it again!) That score’s going to be tough to beat.

Kid Sister punches up the electro beats (let’s dance!) Step-step-jump! (all riiiight!) Bop to the left, Bop to the right, feel the funky flow (your moves are refreshing!) and the screen shuts off! Her stare is too seductive for the computer to handle!!! Kid Sister wins!!! (HOOYAHH!!!!)

Listen to Lady Gaga “Bad Romance”

Listen to Kid Sister “Right Hand Hi”

Giuliano & I Baroni – Faccia d’Angelo (rock)

Every once in a while, I run across an album so unbelievably bad, I can only marvel at the evil geniusness of the artist who concocted such a monster. This is hands down the worst album I’ve heard all year, possibly the most horrendous album I’ve heard since I started reviewing music. From the embarrassing cover photo to the pop trash sung in Italian, this is a true tour de farce. And if you think the album’s a nightmare, the YouTube video will have you screaming.

Listen to Giuliano & I Baroni “Piccola Stella”

Or if you dare, go to the website and watch the YouTube video of “Arrivano I Cow Boy”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Asobi Seksu, Wale, Silk Road Ensemble

2009-11-12T22:41:00.000-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

November 13, 2009

* Asobi Seksu – Rewolf (rock)

Like strolling across a meadow made of clouds, this is dream pop with a heavy emphasis on the dream. Xylophone, flute, toy piano, soprano vocals with heavy reverb, and anything else that weights the sound toward treble. A beautiful, fragile sound.

Listen to Asobi Seksu “Walk on the Moon”

Wale – Attention Deficit (rap)

Deftly syncopated flow over backgrounds painted with an extensive palate: afrobeat , retro R&B, and space-age synths. Amidst the party jams and boasting are a few tracks that speak fearless truths.

Listen to Wale “Shades”

Silk Road Ensemble – Off the Map (classical)

Even without founder Yo-Yo Ma, this is a formidable ensemble. With pan-Asian instrumentation including koto, er-hu, sheng, and tabla alongside orchestral strings, Silk Road is redefining the classical tradition to include east and west, ancient and contemporary. Four major pieces each present a different vantage point on this unexplored, challenging terrain.

Listen to Silk Road Ensemble “Sulvasutra: Letter to Pythagoras”

Julia Wolfe – Dark Full Ride: Music in Multiples (classical)

Contemporary classical music that still passes the coolness test. Layering of single instruments and repetition characterize the sound. The opening is a jaw-dropper – I guarantee you’ve never heard bagpipes quite like this.

Listen to Julia Wolfe “LAD Part 1”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Dixie Bee-Liners, Celia Mur, Emma Lou Diemer

2009-11-05T22:47:00.001-06:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 30, 2009

! The Dixie Bee-Liners – Susanville (Bluegrass)

Listen to The Dixie Bee-Liners “Restless”

* Celia Mur – Simpatia (jazz)

Nightclub jazz with sultry vocals in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Mur is a delight to listen to, and her improvisations show the confidence she feels with her voice. Mark Turner’s sax is a welcome bonus. A couple of flamenco tunes round out the set.

Listen to Celia Mur “Tres Morillas”

Emma Lou Diemer – Summer Day: The Complete Works for Violin and Piano (classical)

Diemer’s compositions are characterized by a strong sense of melody, a quality that is rare to find in the world of modern composition. The duet format leaves plenty of space for the melodies to emerge.

Listen to Emma Lou Diemer “Suite for Violin and Piano: Summer Day”

Rickie Lee Jones – Balm in Gilead (rock)

Jones’ unpolished but enthusiastic voice always brings a smile to my face. Whether she’s doing retro soul, honky tonk, jazz, or just her own thing, there’s an underlying joy to the music that’s irresistible. Not to mention songwriting that’s head and shoulders above most of what gets produced today.

Listen to Rickie Lee Jones “Eucalyptus Trail”

Amerie – In Love & War (R&B)

High quality pop candy. Amerie’s buoyant voice bobs across a clear sheen of energy that manages not to be too much of anything, but draws elements of soul, rock, rap, and funk. Nearly every song on here could see radio airplay.

Listen to Amerie “Dangerous”

Kate Earl – Kate Earl (rock)

While she’s cribbed a page from Lily Allen’s playbook, she does it so well that you really don’t mind. Slick, sexy, and aloof, this is an enjoyable listen.

Listen to Kate Earl “Nobody”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening -- Havana Cultura plus Rock & Roll CAGE MATCH and Halloween Special!

2009-10-29T23:42:00.002-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 30, 2009

! Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound (Latin)

In the musical world, Cuba is the gift that keeps on giving. In this case, it’s giving to a DJ from the BBC who brought back two albums of material, one from a recording session he engineered and another that features recordings of artists he came across while on the island. It’s all hot. The first disc runs from mambo to afrobeat, while the other has strong hip hop, jazz, and reggaeton influences. One of these days the U.S. will lift the embargo and Cuba will become a global musician’s paradise. Until then, we’ve got Gilles Peterson to give us a taste of what we’re missing.

Listen to Havana Cultura Band “Pa’ Gozar”

And Ogguere “La Revolucion del Cuerpo”

* Jessica Pavone – Songs of Synastry and Solitude (classical)

A collection of tuneful compositions that captures a brooding introspection in the midst of the mundane. These pieces for string quartet move quietly, evenly, and effortlessly. Beautiful stuff.

Listen to Jessica Pavone “Hope Dawson is Missing”

The Blind Boys of Alabama – Duets (gospel)

A lineup of A-list musicians from rock, blues, country, and gospel each get a turn with the world’s best backup singers. It’s fun to hear descent singers suddenly sound awesome when surrounded by the Blind Boys’ enormous gospel harmonies. Lou Reed, Ben Harper, and Jars of Clay all get the royal treatment.

Listen to The Blind Boys of Alabama with Dan Zanes “Welcome Table”

The Lawrence Arms – Buttsweat and Tears (rock)

OK, so I couldn’t resist the title, but the music’s surprisingly good. High octane, three-chord punk-pop.

Listen to The Lawrence Arms “Them Angels Been Talkin’”

ROCK & ROLL CAGE MATCH!!!

Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg vs. Winger – Karma

In this corner, the young guns of retro-rock, the monsters of the mainstream, Wolfmother! (YAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!) And in the other corner, it’s the killers from the crypt, the band that would not die, Winger! (yay.) Wolfmother tears through the power chords, taunting Winger with vocals that sound ripped from the throat of Robert Plant himself! Winger seems laughably uncool by comparison. Is there a slaughter rule in the cage match? But wait! Winger cranks it up and launches barrage after barrage of screaming guitar solos! It’s a classic rope-a-dope! Winger unleashes a massive dosage of Rawk and double back even harder at Wolfmother. Wolfmother’s on the ropes! The referee steps in! It’s Winger!!!!!! (yay.)

Listen to Wolfmother “New Moon Rising”

Listen to Winger “Deal With the Devil”

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: THE WEEK’S SCARIEST MUSIC

The Red Shore – Unconsecrated (metal)

Boo!

Listen to The Red Shore “Slain by the Serpent”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Sufjan Stevens, Forro in the Dark, Round Mountain

2009-10-22T23:10:00.000-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 23, 2009

Welcome to all the new folks this week. I’ve got two weeks of music to give you, so you’ll get a lot to listen too, albeit with a little less to read about each one.

! Sufjan Stevens – The BQE: The Motion Picture Soundtrack (classical)

Listen to Sufjan Stevens “Movement V: Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns”

! Forro in the Dark – Light a Candle (world)

Forro is Brazillian party music, and this quartet carries it off with enthusiasm. Fantastic flute playing with electric guitar and a boatload of drums and percussion. It’s an inviting beat that’ll give you a grin the size of a Cheshire cat.

Listen to Forro in the Dark – “Saudades de Manezinho Araujo”

* Round Mountain – Windward (folk)

Round Mountain gave their acoustic sound a passport and sent it around the world. It still invokes the melodies and harmonies of American roots music, but through a prism of global drums, accordion, musical bow, and bagpipes.

Listen to Round Mountain “Don’t Lie Down”

* Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard – One Fast Move and I’m Gone: Music From Kerouac’s Big Sur (rock)

Lonely pedal steel guitar winds along the coastal mountains on this literary journey. The album includes original songs by rock royalty (Farrar: Son Volt, Gibbard: Death Cab for Cutie) based on texts taken from Jack Kerouac’s book Big Sur. What’s most interesting musically is hearing the fragile clarity of Gibbard’s voice in Farrar’s rugged Americana milieu.

Listen to Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard “Williamine”

Jello Biafra – The Audacity of Hype (rock)

For those who missed out on the 80’s, this is what great punk rock sounds like. Biafra is a master, and his piercing voice alongside roaring electric guitar comes across as a steamroller of righteous indignation. He’s one of a handful of artists with the brains and the gumption to pull off a song about NAFTA.

Listen to Jello Biafra “New Feudalism”

Electric Six – Kill (rock)

This is gonzo rock & roll. Macho vocals and guitars wrapped in disco. Tongue in cheek, but not so far to miss some really catchy music.

Listen to Electric Six “Egyptian Cowboy” (explicit)

Del Tha Funky Homosapien & Tame One – Parallel Uni-Verses (rock)

Two very clever lyricists rhyming over jazz-inspired grooves. The strength of their flow is impressive, and evokes what made old school rap such a phenomenon in the first place.

Listen to Del Tha Funky Homosapien & Tame One “Flashback” (explicit)

Doug Cox & Sahlil Bhatt – Slide to Freedom II (world)

Slide playing is a sound that crosses continents. In this case North America and Asia, with two musicians playing a mix of blues and Indian classical on modified instruments that are half-guitar, half-sitar.

Listen to samples of the album at CDBaby

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic (rock)

Weirrrrrrrrrd. In a good way.

Listen to The Flaming Lips “Evil”

Twilight: New Moon (soundtrack)

I guess when vampires aren’t sucking blood, they’re hanging around indie record stores. This will be one of the most talked about soundtracks of the year, and there are several worthy cuts here, from a who’s who of hip artists.

Listen to Bon Iver & St. Vincent on Twilight: New Moon, “Roslyn”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Dudamel Concert Review

2009-10-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 16, 2009

I’ve been away at a conference this week, without a chance to listen to new music. Next week will be a double issue. In the meantime, here’s a review of a concert that you ought to be aware of.

Dudamel's Winning Premiere

In an age when a “classical event” feels like an oxymoron, the national simulcast and webcast of opening night at the Los Angeles Philharmonic will be the talk of the music world for a long time to come. Gustavo Dudamel, a 28-year old Venezuelan, took the baton of one of the top North American orchestras, and powerfully so. People are nuts about Dudamel – not just the musical elite, but a lot of ordinary Angelinos, many who are paying attention to classical music for the first time. His story is inspirational; his music even moreso.

It's hard to see a year go by without another major study being done tolling the decline of classical music. Audiences are graying and shrinking, and 21st century audiences have less patience for music of the 18^th and 19th. In the last few years these studies started grudgingly to include an asterisk: Venezuela. There's been a major effort in that country to put instruments and classical instruction in every school in the country. "El Sistema" (the system) has resulted in an unbelievable pipeline of new classical musicians that are just now coming of age through institutions like the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. So while Cuba's exporting shortstops to American baseball teams and Brazil's exporting midfielders to soccer leagues, Venezuela's starting to export principal violinists to American orchestras.

Dudamel has spent more than half of his life on the podium. He toured internationally as conductor of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, where he made an impression on the folks at the L.A. Philharmonic. From the sound of it, he makes an impression on everybody. Exuberant, flamboyant, engaging - it's emblematic that he made his major pre-season appearance with the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth.

The program for opening night juxtaposed novelty and tradition, the adventurous and the familiar. "City Noir" is a symphony commissioned from John Adams, one of America's most lauded living composers. This was paired on the program with Mahler's First Symphony, a crowd-pleaser with a second movement that's among the most recognizable passages this side of Beethoven.

The orchestra attacked the Adams symphony. Opening with brash, honking tones, it could easily have been the soundtrack to a lost Hitchcock movie. A cymbal and woodblock kicked in a syncopated beat while the wind section staggered over the top, invoking the pace of jazz with none of the familiar harmonies. Slower passages provided no respite, with eerie xylophone cascades rising from droning strings.

A trumpet solo at midpoint provided the piece’s only melodic handle, and it disappeared almost as soon as it appeared, replaced by violent lurches in the low brass. A saxophone picked through a wreck of notes. The arrival of bongos ultimately carried the piece to a dramatic climax, leaving a profound dread to hover in the silent air.

For a populist conductor, it's an odd introduction, although one that Dudamel managed to sell with tremendous energy and athleticism. He conveyed vividly this portrait of a dark, senseless city, a heightened dramatization of a place synonymous with drama. Despite enthusiastic applause, this isn't the kind of piece that's going to win over curious new listeners to contemporary music. Any commission involves risk, and this is an atypical entry for Adams, generally known for his accessibility. What it does show us is Dudamel’s willingness to take risk as well as his appetite for new music.

Dudamel's Mahler was exquisite. The pianissimo, lento opening of the first movement is a difficult one to conduct, and Dudamel showed above all a patience with the music that carried through the entire piece. He turned over each note with attentiveness, an expectation that there might be surprises hiding even under these familiar passages.

His approach to the second movement was romantic in the Hollywood sense - seductive, playful, lusty. He managed total intensity at a relaxed tempo, releasing the big, booming fourths with gusto. It was here that Dudamel the Epicure arrived, and that’s the persona that turns serious music connoisseurs into starry-eyed teenagers.

Long silences between movements served as palate-cleansers, giving the listener a chance to savor the finish of the prior emotion and prepare for the next one. Dudamel brought a dose of levity to the moodier third movement. His direction was measured and serious, but not too serious. The final movement broke with alarm, echoing the Adams symphony. Deliberately, Dudamel led the orchestra deliberately toward a grand, not grandiose conclusion.

As a conductor, Dudamel shows way more emotional range than you’d expect from a 28-year-old, and yet it’s the energy and audacity of his youth that’s spellbinding. Performances like this ought to be inspiring audiences for years to come.

You can catch a TV broadcast of the full concert on PBS October 21.

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Casual Listening - Osso & Sufjan Stevens, Califone, Me'Shell Ndegeocello

2009-10-08T23:28:00.001-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 9, 2009

Slightly abbreviated this week to make time for the Dudamel premiere. Who’s Dudamel, you ask? Tune in next week for full report.

! Osso & Sufjan Stevens – Run Rabbit Run (classical)

A song cycle of compelling modern compositions arranged for string quartet and based on the Chinese zodiac. Its composer Sufjan Stevens is better known in other circles, although his classical training shows through in pieces of both great resonance and dissonance. Originally written as an electronic piece, members of the Osso quartet have reinterpreted it for live instruments. Listening without access to the original, one can only speculate what was lost and gained in translation. The current work holds its own as a piece of serious music.

Listen to Osso & Sufjan Stevens “Year of the Horse”

* Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (rock)

It’s no ordinary musical mind that says “I picture this song accompanied by a theramin and a bucket of bolts.” Understated vocals and acoustic guitar are petrified in an amber of experimental sound, reminiscent of Wilco at its most adventurous. Albums like this are why headphones were invented.

Listen to Califone – “Polish Girls”

Me’Shell Ndegeocello – Devil’s Halo (R&B)

Ndegeocello’s cosmic visions hail from the same galaxy as Sun Ra and Jimi Hendrix. Her fearless experimentalism is belied by easy melodies and steady grooves.

Listen to Me’Shell Ndegeocello “Love You Down”

Maria Muldaur: Garden of Joy (blues)

As the unemployment rate continues to climb, people are finding new meaning in the hard-times rags and blues of the Great Depression. Maria Muldaur is an able blues traditionalist, and she brings real emotion to these rarely performed laments.

Listen to Maria Muldaur “Bank Failure Blues”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Barbra Streisand, Alice in Chains, Poncho Sanchez

2009-10-01T22:50:00.000-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 2, 2009

! Barbra Steisand – Love is the Answer (easy listening)

Really?

Really.

As someone with almost no context for Barbara (Funny Girl, Yentl) and no prior experience of her singing offscreen, this album caught me completely off-guard. Her voice is unbelievably smooth and powerful – still one of the best in the business. Every vocal gesture is considered, and even with a voice that big, she still manages to come across as understated. The songs on this collection are available both in full orchestral and quartet settings. I love the full-on orchestra, but the quartet settings may help to convince those with a more jazz-attuned ear.

Listen to Barbra Streisand “Gentle Rain (orchestral)” or “Gentle Rain (quartet)”

! Tingsek – Restless Soul (R&B)

This is deep soul, reminiscent of Stevie Wonder’s creative excursions of the 70’s. Electric piano, acoustic guitar, and layered vocals give a heavy romantic feel intensified with a harmonic sophistication rarely found in contemporary R&B. I’m conflicted as to whether to recommend this as a make-out album – the music’s good enough to be distracting.

Listen to Tingsek – “Coming Back to You”

! Anthony Coleman – Freakish: Anthony Coleman Plays Jelly Roll Morton (jazz)

While Jelly Roll Morton’s claim to be the inventor of jazz is disputed, he was certainly the bridge between ragtime and the eternal sound of Louis Armstrong. Coleman’s renditions for solo piano are definitive modern recordings, showing tremendous emotional and technical range. His sureness of hand is absolute. Bravo.

Listen to Anthony Coleman “Fickle Fay Creep (Soap Suds)”

* Kris Kristofferson: Closer to the Bone (country)

Like Johnny Cash’s American recordings, the magic in this recording is of a man confronting his own mortality, and the freedom it gives him to sing his heart out fearlessly. Much of this is solo guitar, voice, and an occasional harmonica.

Listen to Kris Kristofferson “Sister Sinead”

Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue (rock)

I always imagined this band as Crosby, Stills, Hetfield, and Ulrich. Heavy, twisted rock that still manages to hook you with impeccable harmonies. As the title implies, this album isn’t nearly as dark as the band’s early work, and consequently has the potential to attract a new circle of fans.

Listen to Alice in Chains “Check My Brain”

Poncho Sanchez – Psychedelic Blues (Latin)

Sanchez is one of the greatest living conga players. His latest is a textbook example of the musical hybrid that is contemporary Latin jazz, with an emphasis on the jazz. His “Canteloupe Island” is smokin’.

Listen to Poncho Sanchez “Canteloupe Island”

The reviews above are, in my opinion, the best of the best. Still, it’s been an amazing week for music, possibly the heaviest week for new releases all year. Here’s a list of some of the rest that still caught my attention: Ramsey Lewis, Robert Earle Keen, Karen O. and the Kids (Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack), Dethklok, Patty Loveless, La Roux, Miranda Lambert, Samuel James, Selena Gomez, Bebel Gilberto, Fred Hammond, Zero 7, State Radio, and Fungus.

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - They Might Be Giants, Claudia Cunha, Volcano Choir

2009-09-24T22:21:00.001-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

September 25, 2009

* They Might Be Giants – Here Comes Science (kids)

If there’s anyone that could make science cool…it’s probably Beyonce or someone like that. TMBG only intensifies its nerdy allure through pop gems with titles such as “I Am a Paleontologist” and “Photosynthesis.” Still, my money’s on this album for cementing the fascination of a younger generation with phenomena like solar plasma

Listen to They Might Be Giants “Why Does the Sun Really Shine?”

And courtesy of Lee Winkelman, one of our Casual Listeners, a recommendation for another great new kids rock album: “Worser” by Duplex! You can catch one new song from the album here, and the whole thing for sale here.

* Claudia Cunha – Responde a Roda (world)

Cunha has the attitude to pull off perfect Bossa Nova: a fine balance of laid-back and playful that seems to underlie all good Brazilian music. The arrangements are smart, using snappy percussion, quiet guitar, accordion and musical bow.

Listen to Claudia Cunha – “Baiao Dividido”

* Volcano Choir – Unmap (folk)

Angelic choral tapestries stretched over neo-rustic frames – it’s no surprise that a key architect of this Midwest pastorale is Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. The hypnotic background patterns are reminiscent of classical minimalism. A little guitar, stray thumb piano, and lots of love.

Listen to Volcano Choir “And Gather”

Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill (folk)

Don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of Judee Sill before either. She was a shooting star of a folk singer in the ‘70s who wrote beautiful melodies that deserve to be revisited. An able cast of young singers (Ron Sexmith, Beth Orton, etc.) provide gentle re-visions of these works.

Listen to “Jesus Was a Cross Maker” from “Crayon Angel”

Adam Steffey – One More for the Road (bluegrass)

Solid traditional bluegrass, alongside a few contemporary riffs. The instrumental tunes in particular add a welcome bit of harmonic adventurousness.

Listen to Adam Steffey “Deep Rough”

Dan Tepfer/Lee Konitz – Duos With Lee (jazz)

Konitz has been a household name in the jazz world for 50 years. Tepfer may be the next one. Tepfer’s classically inspired compositions for saxophone and piano have an appealing sweetness. Konitz is still in fine form, although it’s Tepfer that sets the pace of this album.

Listen to Dan Tepfer & Lee Konitz “Elande #2 (Bb)”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Mujerez, Q-Tip, Chris Knight

2009-09-17T23:00:00.000-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

September 18, 2009

! Mujerez: Juana/Dolores/Tomasa (world)

Hands down the most powerful flamenco I’ve heard. The passion you hear in the voices of these three women is enough to knock you off your chair. Despite wide differences in vocal style, they share the soulfulness that’s made people across the globe fall for this music.

Listen to Mujerez “Te Quise Sin Darme Cuenta”

* Q-Tip – Kamaal the Abstract (rap)

Abstract is the operative word, and in this case it signals masterful creativity. Q-tip is embracing a tradition of Black experimental music, and you can hear its overtones throughout the album: Miles Davis’ fusion and Prince’s pop-funk are two reference points. This album is a challenging listen, but it rewards you with a sophistication that mainstream rap doesn’t even attempt.

Listen to Q-Tip – “Heels”

* Chris Knight – Trailer II (country)

Knight wears country lonesome like a favorite flannel shirt. He has a gutsy drawl that’s more troubadour than twang, and a simple guitar accompaniment leaves plenty of space for beautifully crafted, heartbreaking songs.

Listen to Chris Knight “It Ain’t Easy Being Me”

Muse – The Resistance (rock)

Muse creates for a giant-sized world: epic, dramatic, and with grand scale. Driving rhythms with guitars, synths, and earnest vocals characterize most of the songs. File this next to The Killers, although their palate is broad enough to pull in everything from Queen to Beethoven.

Listen to Muse “The Resistance”

Simian Mobile Disco – Temporary Pleasure (electronic)

This one’s just a pleasure to dance to. Simple electronic beats carry big hooks and harmonies, more music than metronome.

Listen to Simian Mobile Disco “Cruel Intentions”

Chris Russell – Merge (ambient)

While Casual Listening often strives to present music you can enjoy while doing other things, ambient music is purposely designed as creative background noise. Chris Russell’s newest project presents a range of electronic textures that manage to convey a sense of warmth amidst the machines. Let this wash through your subconscious while you’re going about your day.

Listen to Chris Russell’s track “Sky Watcher” at AtmoWorks

Cowboy Troy – Demolition Mission: Studio Blue Sessions (rock, etc.)

Cowboy Troy is one of my guilty pleasures. Best known as the inventor of the county-rap hybrid “Hick-Hop,” Troy takes this album in the direction of straight-ahead rock. Whatever he’s playing, he’s got a real pop sensibility that works.

Listen to Cowboy Troy “That’s Me”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Jay-Z, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Come O Spirit!

2009-09-10T21:56:00.000-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

September 11, 2009

Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3 (rap)

An inventive album from a megastar who largely delivers on his promise “I don’t run rap no more, I run the map.” Thanks to Kanye West’s production, you’ll hear overtones of classic soul, rock, and jazz, shout-outs to Frank Sinatra, and even a klezmer clarinet riff. Jay-Z’s rhymes promise a peek at the secret to his success, both financial and musical, as well as tributes to neighborhood New York.

Listen to Jay-Z “Empire State of Mind”

Rodrigo y Gabriela – 11:11 (world)

Punk flamenco? Fiery acoustic guitar propels this set of funky instrumentals. For sheer kinetic energy, this duo is in the same caffeinated neighborhood as Ani Difranco.

Listen to Rodrigo y Gabriela – “Hanuman”

Come O Spirit!: Anthology of Hymns and Spiritual Songs Vol. 1 (folk)

Folklorists of the last century scoured the mountain villages of West Virginia for ordinary people doing simple renditions of traditional church songs. Now, a new wave of hip folksters are singing their way into the tradition. Sufjan Stevens, Damien Jurado, and friends sound like they just pulled the dulcimer off the wall for John Hammond to record on an old reel-to-reel for posterity.

Listen to “Hard Times” from Come O Spirit!

Les Triaboliques – rivermudtwilight (world)

The combination of guitar, saz, and bouzouki roll across the open landscapes of the world: Arabian Desert, Cuban Tropic, the Mississippi Delta. Laid-back traveling music to accompany a well-worn passport.

Listen to Les Triaboliques “afasundi (I have been corrupted)”

A Fine Frenzy – Bomb in a Birdcage (rock)

Sweet vocals cruise along an understated pulse with intricate pop production. Place this one in the Feist/Jem galaxy.

Listen to A Fine Frenzy “Electric Twist”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Bernstein Mass, James Moody, Bela Fleck

2009-09-03T22:14:00.002-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

September 4, 2009

! Bernstein: Mass – Jubilant Sykes, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop conductor

A new recording of the least-performed work of one of America’s most beloved composers is in itself a cause for celebration. It’s an immense piece – full orchestra, adult choir, children’s chorus, and rock band – with some amazingly difficult music and a rebellious social message. It also contains moments of such beauty as can bring you to tears. Jubilant Sykes is an inspired choice in the role of the celebrant, and his interpretation brings both an expanded dynamic and emotional range to the work. The supporting cast often surpasses but sometimes under-reaches the mark set by the original recording. Some extremely quiet passages demand that it be listened to at full volume, so be aware it’s designed for your stereo system, not your ipod. All said, you’ll thank yourself spending two hours with this recording.

Listen to Bernstein: Mass “A Simple Song”

* James Moody – 4A (jazz)

Even at 85, years old, Moody’s tone on tenor sax is blazing. With a simple quartet and a set of such standards as Round Midnight and Stella by Starlight, he once again proves himself worthy of the moniker “living legend.”

Listen to James Moody “East of the Sun”

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer – The Melody of Rhythm (classical)

Blistering virtuosity on a newly composed triple concerto for banjo, bass, and table drums, accompanied by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It’s often over even my head, but there’s still some powerful new music here. Hussain’s drumming is wondrous, and between the pitched drums and the banjo (which itself contains a drum), the paradox implied in the title is well-explored.

Listen to Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer – “The Melody of Rhythm, Mvmt. 2”

Susana Baca – Seis Poemas (Latin)

An emotionally packed short set from a fantastic Peruvian folk singer. The lyrics come from poems of another Peruvian singer, Chabuca Granda. The language is exquisite, and the voicing even moreso.

Listen to Susana Baca “Resbalosas”

Drive-By Truckers – The Fine Print (Country)

When your B-sides are as good as the ones collected on this album, you can begin to legitimately stake your claim as king of the hill in alternative country. Ragged guitars, mournful pedal steel, and lyrics that read like short stories are DBT’s calling cards, and they’re all powerfully in evidence here.

Listen to Drive By Truckers “George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues”

The Black Crowes – Before the Frost…Until the Freeze (rock)

Three-quarters of this double-album is skippable, but the five remaining songs would make an EP than points to a powerful new direction for the Black Crowes. In place of the vocal high-wire act that characterized their early records, they’ve come done in the fertile soil of folk Americana. To the extent they continue down this road, they’ll find themselves in the illustrious footsteps of The Band and moving toward the psychedelic folk that’s increasingly being rediscovered by younger bands. Here are my picks for an EP:

Listen to The Black Crowes:

“What is Home”

“The Last Place That Love Lives”

“Aimless Peacock”

“Garden Gate”

“Shine Along”

Juliette Lewis – Terra Incognita (rock)

Perfect punk attitude in the vein of Patti Smith. She shows herself to be a woman not afraid of her own voice.

Listen to Juliette Lewis “Ghosts”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening -- Matisyahu, The Very Best, Imogen Heap

2009-08-27T21:33:00.001-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

August 28, 2009

Matisyahu – Light (rap)

Matisyahu’s musical utopia seamlessly fuses rap, reggae, and cosmopolitan pop in a sonically adventurous, politically conscious cocktail. Thickly laid percussion tracks keep the party moving.

Listen to Matisyahu “We Will Walk”

The Very Best – Warm Heart of Africa (world)

Call it “Africa: The Remix.” Malawi vocals shine over percussion, synthesizers, and samples with a bounce that sets it a step above most crossover efforts. Guests include M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig.

Listen to The Very Best “Warm Heart of Africa”

Imogen Heap – Ellipse (rock)

While “quirky female singer-songwriter” describes an awful lot of artists these days, Imogen Heap’s new album is top shelf. Vocals counterbalance electronic sounds to deliver songs that crack with the pain and joy of relationships.

Listen to Imogen Heap “Earth”

Roy Hargrove Big Band – Emergence (jazz)

Hargrove has one foot in classic big band styles and one in modern jazz harmony. He’s obviously enjoying the expanded possibilities, from a standard like “My Funny Valentine” to a Coltrane-meets-Ellington art piece like “Requiem”

Listen to Roy Hargrove Big Band “Requiem”

Mariachi El Bronx – Mariachi El Bronx (Latin)

There’s an additional layer of romance to mariachi that’s sung in your native tongue. This set of English-language tracks has the tunefulness of Simon & Garfunkel set to trumpets. A fun concept well-executed.

Listen to Mariachi El Bronx “Cell Mates”

Skillet – Awake (rock)

Heavy rock just this side of metal, with plenty of hooks amid loud, distorted guitars.

Listen to Skillet – “Hero”

p.s. The music’s old, but the recordings are pristine on Woody Guthrie’s box set My Dusty Road. If you’re a Woody fan, it’s priceless. If you’ve never really spent time with Woody, this is the collection to get. Here’s This Land is Your Land.

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Delbert McClinton, Cachao's Mambo All-Stars, Terence Blanchard

2009-08-20T22:30:00.002-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

August 21, 2009

! Delbert McClinton – Acquired Taste (blues)

You’ll hear more of the American landscape in this album than anything short of hopping a cross-country freight train. Soul, blues, bajou, rhum-boogie, all with pitch-perfect production. Rattletrap drums, warbling organ, and a voice that’ll burn the rust off an old Cadillac. After more than 40 years in the business, McClinton’s at the top of his game.

Listen to Delbert McClinton “Mama’s Little Baby”

* Cachao’s Mambo All-Stars – Como Siempre (Latin)

Mambo is where salsa came from, and its brassy, dance-demanding sound plays as well today as it did 70 years ago. The band carries on the legacy of Israel “Cachao” Lopez, one of the originators of the mambo in Havana. A big horn section with flute, guitars, chorus, and lots of percussion – ¡Qué sabroso!

Listen to Cachao’s Mambo All-Stars “Alto Songo”

Terence Blanchard – Choices (jazz)

Give Blanchard credit for adding a most unusual instrumentalist to his ensemble: Cornell West on mystical rumination. The spoken word makes an interesting counterpoint to cool jazz charts stamped with Blanchard’s unconventional melodies and shimmering trumpet work.

Listen to Terence Blanchard “Jazz Man in the World of Ideas” and “Him or Me”

Sean Paul – Imperial Blaze (reggae)

Paul is a master of the singsong delivery and hopscotch rhythm that distinguishes dancehall from conventional hip-hop. You’ll find big hooks and boisterous attitude in this crowd-pleasing set.

Listen to Sean Paul “So Fine”

Choo Choo La Rouge – Black Clouds (rock)

Scruffy, tuneful rock & roll with retro tendencies. Wilco fans should feel right at home.

Listen to Choo Choo La Rouge “Here Come the Guns”

Linzay Young & Joel Savoy – Linzay Young & Joel Savoy (Folk)

Honest, unpretentious Cajun music with two fiddles and two voices. Spare, beautiful songs and some uptempo numbers whose charm lies in their simplicity.

Listen to Linzay Young & Joel Savoy – “Mercredi Soir”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Polkastra, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

2009-08-13T22:05:00.001-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

August 14, 2009

! Ayelet Rose Gottlieb – Upto Here/From Here (jazz)

After a hundred years, is it still possible to say something new in jazz? Gottlieb demonstrates powerfully that there is. Harmonically intricate compositions weave cords of melody out of voice, saxophone and trumpet. Blank verse, sometimes her own words and sometimes Middle-Eastern poetry, matches the unexpected, beautiful, and sometimes jarring music.

Listen to Ayelet Rose Gottlieb “Wrong Rain (Bird Thoughts)”

Polkastra – Apolkalypse Now (world)

If polka is musical comfort food, Polkastra is your immigrant grandmother who knows the secret ingredient that makes it taste so good. Here, they play a global sampling of polka music, played on everything from accordion to bassoon to didgeridoo.

Listen to Polkastra “Clarinet Polka” (on Bassoon)

Kitty, Daisy, & Lewis – Kitty, Daisy, & Lewis (blues)

Blues is one of a handful of art forms where sounding raw and unpolished is a sign that you’r doing it right. The trio captures the grit of classic blues without any glitz. It’s music that belongs on an old 78rpm record (and believe it or not you can actually get this album as a series of 78’s).

Listen to Kitty, Daisy, & Lewis “I Got My Mojo Working”

I’m going to stop here this week, because you should all be listening to the treasure trove of concerts NPR managed to pull down from this year’s Newport Folk Festival. Legends such as Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, and Del McCoury and rising stars such as Gillian Welch, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes – 30 concerts in all. Find it all here.

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening -- Cyro Baptista's Banquet of the Senses, John Zorn, Junkyard Rebellion

2009-08-06T21:58:00.003-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

August 7, 2009

* Cyro Baptista’s Banquet of the Senses – Infinito (world)

In the best Brazilian tradition of borrowing something from everywhere and swirling it all together. Drums and percussion drive each song, and you'll find everything from flutes and gongs to melodica and bird whistles to carry the tune. This truly is a "banquet of the senses," so go and eat well.

Listen to Cyro Baptista “Kwanza”

John Zorn – O’o (jazz)

A small, vibraphone-led jazz ensemble with tropical overtones. This set is lively and tuneful, with straight-ahead numbers and even some rock-influenced tracks. If the regular reviews of his various projects in this space haven't convinced you, the music should: this guy can do anything.

Listen to John Zorn “Miller’s Crake”

Junkyard Rebellion – Rebellion Politik (rap)

The "rebellion" moniker fits both the sonic innovation and the progressive politics of the group. Some live instrumentation as well as studio wizardry, and more than a little spoken-word influence among the rhymes.

Listen to Junkyard Rebellion “Original Assumption”

Aphrodesia – Precious Commodity (world)

Animated Nigerian-style funk from an American band. Aphrodesia has a solid horn section and full-throttle drumming designed to get you moving.

Listen to Aphrodesia “Special Girl”

Watermelon Slim – Escape From the Chicken Coop (blues)

Slim is one of the more innovative bluesmen playing today, bringing a sense of immediacy to a venerable form. This set mixes in enough country twang to make for good driving music, especially if your vehicle of choice is an 18-wheeler on a cross-country haul.

Listen to Watermelon Slim “Caterpillar Whine”

Yim Yames – Tribute To (folk)

A 6-song solo tribute to George Harrison. Reverb-laden and ruminative, Yames' intimate re-interpretations manage to find new emotional terrain in familiar songs.

Listen to Yim Yames “Long, Long, Long”

Also worth a listen: Selaelo Selota, Solillaquists of Sound, Zabe da Loca

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Derek Webb, Bill Frisell, Eyedea & Abilities

2009-07-23T22:58:00.002-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

July 24, 2009

! Derek Webb – Stockholm Syndrome (Christian)

Listen to the song that kicked off the controversy "What Matters More” on myspace.

Then spend the $8 for the uncensored album here. When someone sticks their neck out like he did, it’s important to show your support.

Bill Frisell – Disfarmer (jazz)

Frisell is a modern guitarist who paints American musical landscapes in shimmery watercolor. This collection was inspired by another artistic original: self-taught depression-era photographer Mike Disfarmer. Reverb-soaked guitar draws out folk and country styles to convey an American Gothic atmosphere, with fiddle and bass to fill out these instrumental portraits.

Listen to Bill Frisell “No One Gets In”

Eyedea & Abilities – By the Throat (rap)

Underground rap performed with a rock band tending toward an industrial sound. Lyrically, it’s dark, but thought-provoking. These mad scientists of hip hop are succeeding with some pretty daring experiments.

Listen to Eyedea & Abilities “Spin Cycle”

Blue Roses –Blue Roses (folk)

Echoes of Joni Mitchell come through in a beautiful voice and songs that defy easy chord structures. Piano and guitar alternate in backing these songs, with multi-layered vocals, and occasional strings or glockenspiel.

Listen to Blue Roses “Greatest Thoughts”

The Takers – Taker Easy (country)

Barroom country with electric guitars and ballads of hard living. Along with a sharp album of their own this week, The Takers also have an EP out with labelmate and Casual Listening fave Austin Lucas.

Listen to The Takers “Friends in Bottles”

Listen to Austin Lucas with The Takers “My Momma’s Son”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Present Music, Debashish Bhattacharya, The Dandy Warhols

2009-07-16T22:15:00.001-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

July 17, 2009

* Present Music – Graffiti (classical)

Motown meets Mozart? “Motor City Requiem” is one of three smart, comtemporary pieces for small ensemble that grace this collection. “Village Idiot” is energetic and accessible in a post-minimalist style reminiscent of John Adams, while “Graffiti” is a series of humorous scribbles that put on the style and affectations of famous jazz and classical composers without any recognizable melody. Clever, vibrant, and beautiful.

Listen to Present Music "Motor City Requiem"

Debashish Bhattacharya – O Shakuntala! (world)

Despite not being included in the video game pantheon, Bhattacharya is a real guitar hero. Having re-engineered the instrument to play Indian classical music, he plays mesmerizing lines accompanied by a simple table drum.

Listen to Debashish Bhattacharya “Baarish!”

The Dandy Warhols – The Dandy Warhols Are Sound (rock)

Artsy-cool electropop. Synthesizers, drums, and whispery vocals. The hipness quotient is so high, I almost feel like a poseur just talking about them.

Listen to The Dandy Warhols “We Used To Be Friends”

Gina Villalobos – Days On Their Side (rock)

She’s got a voice that’ll break your heart. Alternative country bliss with pedal steel, acoustic, and electric guitars side-by-side and just enough twang to reel you in.

Listen to Gina Villalobos on myspace here.

Clutch – Strange Cousins From the West (blues)

Clutch continues the classic rock tradition of buying a bluesmobile and hot-rodding the engine almost beyond recognition. Clutch brings power guitar riffs, hellhound-on-my-trail vocal delivery, and a proto-metal love of extreme volume.

Listen to Clutch memorialize our 16^th president in rawk: “Abraham Lincoln”

The Panic Is On: The Great Depression As Seen By the Common Man (folk)

This collection of 1930’s sides is just too timely to pass up. Twenty-three songs about hard times, including tunes from Woody Guthrie, Roy Acuff, and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Listen to Bessie Smith “Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down and Out)”

Schoolhouse Funk

Speaking of too good to pass up, how about a collection of funk tracks from high school bands off of self-produced albums in the 70’s? Yes, it’s as crazy as it sounds.

For purchase here, and some sound samples here. Check out “Camel Back”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening -- Ivan Villazon, Vicente Fernandez, Hannah Montana

2009-07-09T22:27:00.001-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

July 10, 2009

* Iván Villazón & José María “Chema” Ramos – El Vallenato Mayor (Latin)

Vallenato is the accordion-based party music of Colombia, and these two play it with gusto. Villazon’s tenor is bright and energetic, and Chema’s skills as a former world champion accordionist are still intact. Finding Vallenato this good is a rare treat.

Listen to Ivan Villazon & Chema Ramos "El Errante"

* Vicente Fernandez – Necesito De Ti (Latin)

Fernandez is something like the Bob Dylan of Mexican folk music – after decades of recording iconic songs that qualify him as a living legend, he finds a way to keep putting out amazing new music. The style is ranchera: rustic ballads well-orchestrated with strings, horns, and guitars.

Listen to Vicente Hernandez “Tengo”

Hannah Montana – Hannah Montana 3 (rock)

No, seriously…she’s popular for a reason. Just think – America has spent the last two weeks mourning a former child star who made the leap to serious adult artist. Of any of the current crop of musical teens, I think Hannah’s got the chops to make the leap. This album of songs from the TV show are cotton candy pop, but even cotton candy has its place. Trust me – seven years from now she’s going to be putting out music that’ll turn heads.

Listen to Hannah Montana “Let’s Do This”

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Parissa & Iman Vasiri, Levon Helm, Masada Quintet

2009-07-02T23:35:00.002-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

Special double feature!

June 26 & July 3, 2009

! Parissa & Iman Vasiri – Simplicity (world)

With pro-democracy demonstrations igniting across Iran, many Americans are getting a crash course in the history and politics of that country. Consider this disc extra credit. Even without knowing Farsi, you can still sense the sublime joy in Parissa’s interpretation of the poetry of Rumi. Iman Vasiri’s virtuosic playing of the tar, a plucked instrument that is a distant cousin to the Indian sitar, displays the best of the Persian classical tradition.

Listen to Parissa & Iman Vasiri "Chahar Mesrab, Avaz"

! Levon Helm – Electric Dirt (rock)

Helm manages to rediscover the exuberance for American roots music that defined his work with The Band, and 40 years later he’s produced an album that’s every bit as good as those classics. His folksy ballads and blues are almost giddy, lifted by a brace of musicians mixing electric guitar and organ with mandolin, harmonica, and vocal harmonies.

Listen to Levon Helm “Growing Trade”

! Masada Quintet – Stolas: The Book of Angels Volume 12 (jazz)

An energetic set of jazz impressions of Jewish themes. Saxophone giant Joe Lovano joins John Zorn in powering a superb ensemble. Spacious and introspective.

Listen to Masada Quintet “Haamiah”

* Naledge – Chicago Picasso (rap)

Score another exceptional album for the Chicago School of Hip Hop. The self-proclaimed “brainiac” unleashes a powerful lyrical flow that explores the micro-geography of the South Side. Like Kanye, Common, and Lupe, Nalege is smarter than the average bear, and dismisses gangsta posturing in favor of a self-consciously square but real vision of his world. Nalegedge won’t insult your intelligence – let’s hope that’s a trend that catches on.

Listen to Naledge "Blessed By God"(explicit)

Wilco - Wilco (rock)

For a band that’s earned a reputation for avant garde heartland rock, this album’s a crowdpleaser. Compelling melodies surrounded by sculpted sound – 31 flavors of guitar, keyboard, drums, vocals, and the occasional gong.

Listen to Wilco "Wilco (the song)"

Paulina Rubio – Gran City Pop (Latin)

If and when Latin music finally penetrates the American mainstream, I’m guessing Paulina Rubio’s voice will be one of the first you hear. She’s a Spanish-language Madonna, to the point that you assume she’s singing in English. And can you say infectious? There’s a reason the rest of the world can’t get enough of her.

Listen to Paulina Rubio “Causa y Efecto”

Rana Sahota – Khadke Glassy (world)

Sahota plays serious Bhangra, the Indian popular dance music that’s had a huge influence on everyone from club DJ’s to Bollywood composers. With crackling drums over a keyboard orchestra and urgent vocals, this is a modern masala that lingers on the palate.

Listen to Rana Sahota - "Don’t Say No"

Regina Spektor – Far (rock)

A satisfying set of quirky piano-pop from the artist that blazed the trail for the Lilly Allen’s and Katy Perry’s of the world.

Dinosaur Jr. – Farm (rock)

One of the most influential bands of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s still sounds great today. With a characteristic sound of heavy, fuzztone guitars and straightforward pop-rock tunes, Farm is an album built to last.

Listen to Dinosaur Jr. - "I Want You To Know"

Budos Band – The Budos Band EP (world)

Big Apple Afrobeat with a ‘70s retro vibe. Instrumental tracks dominated by a big horn section and electric organ. Super-groovy.

Listen to Budos Band “Mas o Menos”

Ben Weasel – The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (rock)

A glorious live punk album. Ben was the ringleader for many years of the Ramones-inspired Screeching Weasel, and his solo stuff keeps to 3-minute, 3-chord fast/loud gems.

Listen to Ben Weasel “Slogans” (explicit)

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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Casual Listening - Sarah Jarosz, Major Lazer, Cacique '97

2009-06-21T21:55:00.001-05:00

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

Note: Sorry about the delay on this one – I’ve been having medical issues this week, now behind me. Next week I’ll be on vacation, so there’ll be two weeks worth of reviews when I get back. Oh, and happy birthday Casual Listening, now two years running.

June 19, 2009

! Sarah Jarosz -- Song Up In Her Head (folk)

Jarosz is one of the most talented of the next generation of bluegrass-inspired stars. A full-throated singer, compelling songwriter, and formidable instrumentalist on both banjo and mandolin, she's got a boundless future in music; don't wait for it -- her work now is already amazing.

Listen to Sarah Jarosz "Tell Me True"

! Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do (electronic)

This is the album to out-cool all of your cool friends this summer. Inspired by Jamaican dancehall beats, Major Lazer uses an unbelievable range of samples (horses, cell phone rings, and of course plenty of lasers) to construct postmodern party music. The grooves are heavy, and sure to inspire nodding heads across the world.

Listen to Major Lazer "When You Hear the Bassline"

* Cacique '97 - Cacique '97 (world)

The Portuguese band Cacique '97 is further proof that the Nigerian jazz-funk style known as afrobeat has become a truly international phenomenon. A big horn section over a driving bassline and multi-layered vocals means Cacique '97 can hold their own among the best Afrobeat bands anywhere in the world. Besides, doesn't everything sound more laid-back in Portuguese?

Listen to Cacique '97 - "Eu Quero Tudo"

Rhonda Vincent - Destination Life (country)

Although Vincent is best known for classic bluegrass, she's got some countrypolitan ballads on this release that Dolly Parton herself would be proud to sing. A couple of Southern gospel tunes round out an exceptional set of roots music.

Listen to Rhonda Vincent "I Can Make Him Whisper I Love You"

Laura Izibor - Let the Truth Be Told (R&B)

Izibor has an enormous voice and a taste for retro-styled soul that set this album apart from the crowd. Hammond organ and horns evoke the Memphis sound, with a clear focus on the vocals.

Listen to Laura Izibor - "Shine"

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

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