Festivale de Football Day 32: USA

This is it, the big one. The motherload. I've skilfully put it last to give me some time to collect suggestions, but I can put it off no longer. The US of A is the daddy when it comes to the rockin' and the rollin' and the hippin' and the hoppin'... It's produced so much great music, and innovated in so many fields. I continue to press my point that British bands tend to do things better than their Stateside counterparts (cf. Morrissey - America Is Not The World), but it can't be denied that America is the Mover, the Shaker in pop. It has been pointed out to me that America has made three great innovations that can't be contributed to external influences (or at least wouldn't have happened without the melting pot stylings of the country), the three great American-invented music forms, if you will: jazz, rap and musical theatre, but I think there's so many more than that. Country? Soul/funk? Yer blues?


I tried to flag a ride/Didn't nobody seem to know me, babe, everybody pass me by

I think I shall therefore progress chronologically through my selections, and that brings us nicely to numero uno, yer blues, yer good old-fashioned delta blues. I'm going to include two selections, both of which have seen a myriad of covers, some good, some definitely not. Where one could easily point to Robert Johnson as the father of blues, it's not really true: Son House was a predecessor/contemporary of his, and many went before. But few picked up the shivering-spine, devil-took-my-woman, hunted and haunted spirit of the blues like these two, the religious fervour, the stark realism of the songs. These are two of the most evocative recordings you'll hear, redolent of the depressed dustbowl and the troubles of life. Brian from The Rant selected the track for three Reasons: 1) The Blues is an American-originated genre. 2) The song is about selling your soul to get what you want - what could be more corporate American than that? 3) It influenced just about everything ever made after it. All three-valid reasons, depending on your politics, especially the third - Wes Montgomery once said "everything comes from the blues," and he was not wrong.

Son House - John The Revelator
Robert Johnson - Cross Road Blues

Depeche Mode - John The Revelator (Tiefschwarz Dub)
Cream - Crossroads


"Jazz is a white term used to define Black people. My music is Black classical music."

The first lady on our list is also, arguably, the first lady of jazz. Actually, that's probably not true - ask a jazz afficionado and he'd probably select Ella Fitzgerald or Bille Holliday, but that's fair enough - Nina Simone crossed more over to the mainstream than these two, I guess. SAS Radio suggested Memphis In June as his archetypal American song, and I have to admit, it was a song I was unfamiliar with. To my detriment, it appears, as this is a beautifully evocative ballad, a paean to the deep south missing out all the tensions and problems of the era (the song was written in 1945), and focusing instead on traditional Americana: shady verandas, blueberry pie, sweet oleander. It reminds me of the opening to To Kill A Mockingbird describing the Alabama midday, and it captures beautifully the lazy, hazy weekend of the southern states. It was written (and performed in the film by) Hoagy Carmichael for the George Raft movie Johnny Angel, but it's the Nina Simone version which has captured peoples' imagination over the years.

Nina Simone - Memphis In June


(Photo by Bella Of Bacardi)
I got a hot-rod Ford and a two-dollar bill

Our next chap was, until recently, the official Coolest Man In The World. Walk The Line created a huge upswell in interest in Johnny Cash earlier this year, and rightly so: great as his American recordings are, it's the Sun stuff I'm going to focus on here, the raucous, innovative country rock'n'roll that cemented Cash's place in the pantheon of greats. The track I've chosen here covers two country bases - Johnny Cash performing Hank Williams' uber-classic Hey, Good Lookin'. I remember reading a textbook (incidentally, no help at all) when writing my undergrad dissertation which textually and musically analysed Hey, Good Lookin'. As you can imagine, it managed to condense a great song into a bunch of boring details and as with the massive majority of musical analysis, misses the point by miles, but that was my first acquaintance with this excellent song. The version is from Cash's Sun days, and while not the definitive recording of the song, or even a truly great Johnny Cash performance, it's still a million times better than most people who've tried it. Johnny Cash was suggested by Colin from Let's Kiss And Make Up..., along with a couple of ace others.

Johnny Cash - Hey, Good Lookin'


"I've changed music four or five times. What have you done of any importance?"

I've not posted any jazz up to now, really, but another contender for Coolest Man Alive That's Now Dead. The track I'm going to post is from, if not the biggest-selling jazz album (I believe that honour goes to Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters), but almost certainly the most influential, most respected jazz album (I can say that safely, given that you can't really quantify influence or respect...). They say Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue is the one jazz album that makes its way into every record collection, and by golly, it deserves to. When Davis recorded a record called The Birth Of The Cool, he wasn't kidding - Kind Of Blue is the absolute epitome of quiet sophistication, a subtle meld of beautiful melodies and awe-inspiring musicianship. Not only is Miles Davis a superb bandleader and trumpet-player, but the record also features two of jazz's greatest saxophonists (Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane), but also Jimmy Cobb, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers, each a master in their field, and each on top of their game here.
I don't know enough about jazz to really go into depth, and that ignorance leaves me at times slack-jawed in wonder. How improvised is improvised? Did that guy really just make that up on the spot? Did they really play off each other so perfectly? It's a stunning record in every sense. I've included here the alternate take of Flamenco Sketches (a precursor to Sketches Of Spain, which followed), which is only included on more recent pressings. Shawn from The Entroporium suggested that jazz was one of the major American musical accomplishments, so Shawn: voila.

Miles Davis - Flamenco Sketches (Alternate Take)


Yeah don't forget the Motor City (can't forget the Motor City)

Two covered, what's next? Let's try a little dancin'. No label associates with a city more than Tamla Motown does with Detroit, and to me the whole sound of Motown is encapsulated in the fantastically exciting Dancing In The Street by Martha & The Vandellas. When I heard Keiran Hebden was working with Steve Reid, I have to be honest, it didn't click. Then I saw his CV: Fela Kuti, instant credibility and cool; James Brown, instant muso respect; he played on Dancing In The Street, he what? How cool is that? This is such a seminal and historically important track, and more than that, it encapsulates (for me at least) the heatwave we've got right now - kids dancing in the street by fire hydrants, the burning heat of a city in summer... Beautiful.

Martha & The Vandellas - Dancing In The Street


"The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing"

Which leads us nicely from soul to funk. The Godfather of Soul is of course, also the absolute Daddy of Funk, James Brown. He's not one to cry out about his nation really, and although he dipped his foot into politics on occasion, it was usually at the behest of others. One of these occasions came when he was accused of not supporting sufficiently the black power/liberation movement. Rather than respond with a perfunctory, throwaway song to satisfy his accusers, James Brown goes and coins a phrase that's been used ever since. As the man in the suit on stage with him says, James Brown. He's The Man.

James Brown - Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)


"Mark Farner's wild, shirtless lyrics, the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher, the competent drum work of Don Brewer"

The next track I'm not so proud of, but as suggested by Kraigg (who also supplied a video link), it's worthy of inclusion. Early 70's American AOR is not my idea of a good time, but what do I know? Not as much as the American public apparently, as Grand Funk Railroad continue to be huge over the pond. We're An American Band succintly sums up why, "We're an American band/We're comin' to your town/We'll help you party it down." It's a less verbose, less esoteric, 70's frat version of the Eagles if you can imagine/stomach such a thing. It's not without it's charms I guess, but I have to confess I wouldn't have included it (or heard of it) had it not been suggested.

Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band


(photo by danocamera)
"I'm totally down with insurrection in the street. I've had a great time with that over the years."

Next up on our time line, we come to the late seventies, and to San Francisco. No longer do you wear flowers in your hair to come here, now you watch out for the burning cars on the front of Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Jello Biafra hectored the whole world from his surf-punk soapbox, and indeed the whole city when he ran for mayor of SF, and few political punk bands have been as effective/well-known/notorious as Dead Kennedys. To finish the job, they closed the record with a song as all-American as anything, one that celebrates the high-life and the low in one of the countries most famous locations, and did they nail it? This is such a great cover.

Dead Kennedys - Viva Las Vegas


"Son, don't you understand?"

According to my hasty calculations, the next big thing at this point was the New Dylan, The Boss himself, New Joiseys own Bruce Springsteen. If you listen to Born In The USA at the beginning, you could be forgiven for thinking he's not all that far from his NJ neighbour, By Jovi. Far from it, though, The Boss (while not the genius many think he is) is a talented guy, with a real knack for words. The song was hijacked as a Reagan campaign song, which does the guy a disservice - if big Ronnie had listened to the actual words, maybe he wouldn't have been so keen. It's a satirical and pretty biting tirade and once you see past the humungous synths and that drumbeat, a pretty telling account of a working class life. Sure, it's no Ken Loach film, but for a stadium-filling yank, it ain't bad. James from The Life Of Rilo suggested this'un.

Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA (live in the San Siro stadium, Milan 1985)


(photo by alana jonze)
"Real people do real things"

Next up, hop on over to Long Island for yet another political number. Carlton Douglas Ridenhour and William Jonathan Drayton, Jr. are not, as expected English gents, but are in fact better known as Chuck D and Flavor Flav respectively, together the vocal and visual front of the single greatest hip hop act there's even been - probably ever will be. If you've ever listened to hip hop from countries outside the States, you'll know the vast majority of it is a joke. It seems to be something only the Yanks can properly pull off. And no-one raps better than Chuck D, no-one spins wax like Terminator X (I'm quoting, I don't really speak like that).
Although their debut Yo! Bum Rush The Show was critically acclaimed, it was the following two records which cemented the group's importance. It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, featuring Don't Believe The Hype and the ace Bring The Noise, and Fear Of A Black Planet, with today's track (again a suggestion of Colin), Fight The Power - probably the group's anthem. It's a statement of intent and a call to arms, from "our freedom of speech is freedom or death" to "straight up racist that sucker was."
Lemme hear you say...

Public Enemy - Fight The Power
Korn ft. Xzibit - Fight The Power


"I recall that you were there/Golden smile and shining hair/I recall it wasn't fair"

Next up chronologically is Athens, Georgia's most famous sons. One of a number of American contenders for Hugest Band In The World recently, they've gone commendably and progressively kookier over recent times, Michael Stipe appearing to employ more and more face paint with each successive show. REM were always one of those bands that was always there, the kind where you forget how many great songs they wrote. I remember hearing In Time, their Best Of collection of songs '88-'03, and every single one's a winner, every one is known by everybody.
I've chosen a song (the band was recommend by kitten) from the Green album, REM's Warner debut (after signing for a rumoured $6million). As ever, it's wistful and insightful, nostalgic yet with it's feet firmly in the now (or the then, if you're going to get picky). It's not the most well-known track on an album featuring hit's like Stand or Orange Crush, or the beautiful You Are The Everything, but it's a great tune and sums up a lot of what REM are about to me, that nostalgia for days past mixed with regret and happiness and sadness and joy, and all put together with a very current, unique sound. There's no-one quite like REM...

REM - I Remember California


I stayed at home on the Fourth of July, and I pulled the shades so I didn't have to see the sky

Calling a genre slow-core is bound to throw up a few derisive sneers, and rightly so. As names go, I wouldn't want to be tagged with that one, heck no. When a band cites the Velvets, Jonathan Richman, Joy Division and Spacemen3 as their key influences, I guess you see where descriptions are coming from, but in Galaxie 500's case, I still don't think its appropriate. The band met at Harvard University, that great seat of learning, which covers at least one American archetype, and indeed their first drumkit was borrowed off Conan O'Brien, covering another; but what Colin suggested this track for was the name of one of their biggest singles - the weaving guitar and hazy vocals of Fourth Of July, from 1990's This Is Our Music album. It's a really pretty song, with it's slightly woozy vocals matching the Velvet-y guitar sounds and the lethargic, stay-in-bed-still-a-little-drunk lyrics.

Galaxie 500 - Fourth Of July


(Photo by riotonsunset)
No one sings like you anymore...

If there was one thing the US did better than anyone in the 1990's, it was The Rock. Now, I don't mean the Limp Bizkits or the Creeds of this world, but burning out of Seattle in the late 80's came roaring a college rock sound so ace that it pretty much took over the world. Factor in Metallica's early nineties heyday and a bunch of the more innovative bands and you have yourself a healthy scene.
Of course, the media latched onto a common location and lumped bands together that ordinarily wouldn't fit, and included some predecessors and some randoms in there, and went and had a field day. So you had the punk rock of Nirvana bordering Pearl Jam's classic rock, Soundgarden's metal and the slow grind of the Melvins with the slacker anthems of Dinosaur Jr. I remember the tail-end of grunge rather than it's heyday: I remember Black Hole Sun on Top Of The Pops, I remember hearing, but not really caring, that Kurt Cobain was dead. I remember Soundgarden splitting up a year or two later, and that affected me more. Soundgarden were full-on ace: the hirsute psychedelia of Kim Thayil's guitar, the pounding (more competent than Grand Funk's, even) and over and above it all, the soaring, rich tone of Chris Cornell's classic rock'n'roll vocals.
Supergroups are a funny business aren't they? They rarely work all that well. Take maybe the most important rock band of the nineties, Rage Against The Machine. Rage were frighteningly amazing: where Thayil's guitar was hirsutely psychedelic, Tom Morello's was all-over-the-place-inventive, a maelstrom of sounds previously unheard eminating from a fretboard. Where Cornell was an unabashed crooner, Zack De La Rocha spat righteous fury like literally no-one ever before had. So what do you get if you put one of the finest instrumental sections in American rock with one of its greatest singers? Audioslave, a disappointingly sedate and uninteresting amalgam. What should work like magic is simply a curiosity. Ah well. Here's how we should remember them: separately.

Rage Against The Machine - The Ghost Of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Soundgarden - Come Together (Beatles cover, obviously)
Paul Anka - Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden cover)


(Photo by alientologist)
Gonna drink my bean and walk out smoking on the Walt Whitman Bridge

That brings me pretty much to the end, of this fairly mammoth post (for me, at least) and for the series. I'll leave you with a band that ties together the shambolically joyous rock'n'roll of Johnny Cash, with the slide-driven blues of Robert Johnson, and the country stylings of modern-day heroes like Ryan Adams. Marah have burst out of Philedelphia in the last few years (West Philadelpia born and raised? Who can say) to universal acclaim. Although yet to match critical with commercial acclaim, the band are poised to do big things. From last year's If You Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry (their last album bar the Christmas release, A Christmas Kind Of Town), this is one of the record's (and the band's) high points. Hurrah for Marah, as they say: although he doesn't know it, this is Paul's choice.

Marah - Walt Whitman Bridge

Buy American music here
Buy Robert Johnson/Son House/Depeche Mode/Cream/Nina Simone/Johnny Cash/Miles Davis/Martha & The Vandellas/James Brown/Grand Funk Railroad/Dead Kennedys/Bruce Springsteen/Public Enemy/Korn/REM/Galaxie 500/Rage Against The Machine/Soundgarden/Marah

Tags: USA; America; World Cup; Robert Johnson; Son House; blues; Depeche Mode; Cream; Nina Simone; Johnny Cash; country; Miles Davis; Jazz; Martha & The Vandellas; Motown; James Brown; funk; Grand Funk Railroad; Dead Kennedys; punk; Bruce Springsteen; Public Enemy; hip hop; REM; Galaxie 500; Rage Against The Machine; Soundgarden; Audioslave; Marah;

CIA Factbook: United States Of America

Festivale de Football Day 31: Ukraine

There are two Ukrainian bands that are not quite from the Ukraine fighting for my attention today. Every time I decide to focus on one, the other one sticks up for itself, so I've plumped for double the value, double the bands.

The Ukrainians (the clue's in the name) were something of a John Peel-led side-project phenomenon. In one of the Wedding Present's numerous Peel sessions, they drafted in (at the behest of guitarist Peter Solowka) a friend, the Legendary Len who added some scratchy folk violin to a session they themed as Ukrainian. Out of this was born the Ukrainians. From a country that is possibly the most depressing in the world was born this raucous, joyous folk-pop, revelling in it's nationality and it's incongruity. The album, Ukrainski Vistupi V Johna Peela sold 70,000 copies and was recently released as part of a John Peel sessions boxset.
In typically understated fashion, the NME declared, on their first single release, "this is POP and it blows your trousers off!". Oi Divchino was Single Of The Week, then the logical next step followed: a Smiths covers EP.

Actually, it makes perfect sense. The Wedding Present were always something of a Smiths-with-rock kind of band, so why not go down the Smiths-with-Ukrainian route? It works really quite well, as you can tell by visiting their site for a number of ace downloads. The fun ones I'll post here though, these are the Smiths ones. check out the Prince EP as well for, you guessed it, Prince covers.

The Ukrainians - Koroleva Ne Pomerla (The Queen Is Dead)
The Ukrainians - Spivaye Solovey (What Difference Does It Make?)

The other act I've been meaning to post is the fantastic Gogol Bordello. These are led by the wonderfully-'tached Ukrainian Eugene Hütz, who moved with his parents to the US at age 14 to escape Chernobyl. The band describe themselves as gypsy-punk, a fantastically accurate assessment, mixing as they do frenetic, wild Eastern European gypsy music with it's flailing violins and unique vocal styles, with the pure rock'n'roll energy of punk rock, and more than that punk rock done in a far more punk manner than any of their contemporaries. Swingin' Utters, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys have all tried mixing folk influences with punk rock, with wildly varying degrees of success, but none have the gusto or delivery of Gogol Bordello. This is a band I'm dying to see live - all I've seen thus far is a wonderful Jools Holland performance (as follows) - as they look a whole barrelload of fun. These tracks are from their highly recommended album, Underdog World Strike: Gypsy Punk.



Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple
Gogol Bordello - Sally

Buy Ukrainian music here
Buy The Ukrainians/Gogol Bordello/Wedding Present

Tags: Ukraine; World Cup; Ukrainians; Wedding Present; Gogol Bordello;

CIA Factbook: Ukraine
Photo by Kay_O

Festivale de Football Day 30: Tunisia

There's a surprisingly wide variety of pretty decent music coming from Tunisia. You sort of assume that they're going to 'world music' really well, and a lot of ethno-hippies will be very happy smoking their shishas along to some random bazaar music. And when you get some enterprising soul (who's obviously on some sort of commission) attacking Wikipedia bigging up the local alt scene, a sceptical tendency can creep in.

But there's some good stuff on there. While the fan/scene sites are in French that I don't have the energy to translate on this hot, hot night, they look well-produced and engaging enough, obviously keen enough on a vibrant scene to put some serious effort into it. Check out the TuniZika blog, Tunizik.com, which is a supportive network for hosting and creating websites and promoting acts, and rock/metal fansites like HarDoos, SceneMetal and Zanzana.

There are three acts on said Wiki though, that are mentioned by name. Neshez I find fairly uninspiring, but ZeMeKen and checkpoint303 offer something a bit interesting.

ZeMeKen seem the more jovial of the pair - with a Tunisian world cup enthusiast on their front page, they offer up an acoustic pop-rock sound, but one which is very much rooted in it's Tunisian roots, with guitars jostling with the very percussive and expressive drum sound you'll find in raï music and the like. It's a very evocative sound, one which is familiar and yet new at the same time.

ZeMeKen - Jweb Fi Dabouza (a cover of Gordon Sting's Message In A Bottle, in the Tunisian Arabic dialect)
ZeMeKen - Cope Di Monde (World Cup song! It's almost too appropriate. It sounds achingly familiar but I can't place it, so if anyone wants to listen and help me out, please do...)

Checkpoint303 are an entirely more serious prospect, billing themselves as "new tunes from occupied territories," which strikes as somewhat over-exaggerating the point: Tunisia is still comparatively liberal compared to many of it's North African neighbours, and technically constitutionally-based, although the degree to which this is true might be debatable. The group is a duo consisting of Tunisian producer (or "sound cutter," if you will) SC MoCha and "sound catcher" (I know, awesome right?) SC Yosh from the wonderfully Little Donkey-ish Bethlehem.
It looks, therefore, as if when they say occupied territories, they're not referring to Tunisia at all - in fact, the Tunisian element, SC MoCha, is actually based in gay Paris, where he manipulates ("cuts," if you will) the found sound recorded in Palestine and Israel by Yosh.
You can download a number of checkpoint303 tracks on their website, with stories and details of the recordings - for example, Hawiya Dhay'a (which translates as "lost identity") was taken from a recording at a West Bank rally in 2005, using the megaphone announcement that an id card and drivers licence were reported as a metaphorical description of the event (there's a lost id, you see where this is going...). Rissala min Qalandia (letter from Qalandia) is a tape of the Arab poet Nizar Qabbani (who died in 1998) reading one of his most famous poems, interspersed with repetitive acoustic riffs and even subtly-processed feedback.

It's a very interesting concept, and one that throws up some interesting musical ideas as well. It's certainly palatable to Western ears, but the overt political overtones may well be their barrier to commercial success.

Checkpoint303 - Hawiya Dhay'a
Checkpoint303 - Rissala min Qalandia

Last but not least is one of Tunisia's bigger musical stars, MC Raï. Raï (from the arabic word for opinion) is a fairly old, specifically Algerian genre, but one which is still perpetuated by modern artists such as this one. It's biggest star was Cheb Khaled, who has now moved aside and allowed new artists to break through. MC Raï appears to be one of the most up-and-coming, and his album Raïvolution has just been released. It's an interesting, more traditionally North African sound (although tell that to the Islamic fundamentalists who have murdered at least one artist and threaten the others with death), and one certainly worth a mention.

MC Raï - Rana Ca Va

Buy Tunisian music here
Buy MC Rai/(it's difficult to find a link to buy Checkpoint303 or ZeMeKen music, but what's given away here is free on their website...)

Tags: Tunisia; World Cup; electronica; Sting; Checkpoint303; raï;

CIA Factbook: Tunisia
Photo from WorldCupBlog.org

Festivale de Football Day 29: Trinidad & Tobago

I was originally going to post about the Orange Sky, probably the biggest Trinidadian alt.rock band but I felt that while worthy enough, I shouldn't feel pressured into looking at music which isn't overly commercial. So, I went with the heart and chose soca.

Now, I don't know a lot about soca. I know that the original of Who Let The Dogs Out was a soca track, and I know one other song (by Superblue) from a compilation, and from that I can gather that whatever I'm doing, the people singing the songs are having far more fun than I am. It's a fun sound, redolent of carnival, and it has an interesting background as well.

It's pretty much acknowledged that the genre was started by one of it's enduring stars, Lord Shorty, who experimented with the lilting calypso style that was so popular. He added elements of the Indian music that was already a big hit on the islands in the 6o's, fusing the two into "solka", i.e. the true soul of calypso, aka "soca." This was, in effect, a fusion of a fusion taking in a large influence from chutney music, a mix of calypso and Hindi film music. It seems like T&T was kind of a melting pot at the time, with the Carribean mainstay of carnival acting as a catalyst. Soca took over from the calypso of Harry Belafonte, and remains hugely popular. It's put out several offshoots over the years, continuously influencing and being influenced by chutney music, combining with reggae to create ragga-soca and mixing with Trinidadian patois rap to create rapso. It all comes across like a less banal dancehall reggae, think Sean Paul without the ridiculous posturing, and with a bit more party atmosphere to it.

Harry Belafonte - Jamaica Farewell

Lord Shorty was an interesting character. Born Garfield Blackman in 1922, he pretty much invented soca with the song 'Indrani 'in 1973, and went on to be it's biggest star. In the 80's he became disillusioned with the scene, claiming it was only being used to "celebrate the female bottom, rather than uplift the spirits of the people." He went off into the hills and changed his name to Ras Shorty 1, and worked on a new sound, a fusion of reggae and gospel called jamoo. Sadly, I've not been able to acquire any musics, so you'll just have to guess what it sounds like...

As I mentioned, although Who Let The Dogs out is a very popped-up sort of sound, it's still soca at it's heart, and is as good a reference point as any for beginners (like me). Look out for Kevin Lyttle's Turn Me On, and the Soca Boys' Follow The Leader. But I have to recommend the earlier guys such as Lord Kitchener just from my brief explorations, and the hilarious Mighty Sparrow (this track refers to T&T's historic 1977 beauty pageant winner, Janelle Commissiong) as being the ones who've really been good to listen to. For contemporary soca, the better ones are Maximus Dan and Sugar Daddy (here with the pretty ace, Verve-sampling Sweet Soca Music). Also here is the carnival mix of another utterly ubiquitous soca classic, Arrow's Hot Hot Hot.

Mighty Sparrow - Miss Universe
Baha Men - Who Let The Dogs Out
Arrow - Hot, Hot, Hot (Carnival Short Mix)
Maximus Dan - Royal
Sugar Daddy - Sweet Soca Music

Buy Trinidadian music here
Buy soca/Mighty Sparrow/Baha Men/Maximus Dan/Sugar Daddy/Harry Belafonte

Tags: Trinidad & Tobago; World Cup; Harry Belafonte; Soca; Calypso; Mighty Sparrow; Baha Men; Maximus Dan; Sugar Daddy;

CIA Factbook: Trinidad & Tobago

Festivale de Football Day 28: Togo

Another toughie today, to some extent. Rather than look for something crazy and interesting today though, I think I'm going to head down the straightforward route and pick a well-known artist. Instead of Togo's biggest export (Bella Bellow) or the excellently named Jimi Hope (Joanna!), I'm going with maybe the third most well-known musical act in Togo, so maybe 'well-known' is stretching the definition a little... Saying this, I'm going to contradict myself again and say that King Mensah has received some serious international accolades over the last few years - variously described as being the "Golden Voice Of Togo" or, better yet, "the best singing voice of all time, King Mensah can today justly claim to be one of the biggest stars in African music.

And what do you know, turns out they're not over-rating his voice. If you were to imagine Youssou N'dour with a purer, even more confident style. It's high and sweet, but still has sufficient resonance to carry over the pretty acoustic backing of his band.

If you were to peruse Google and stumble across Mensah's ArtistDirect profile you would find him listed, curiously enough, as a reggae artist. There's little to connect Mensah with reggae however, and the sound is very much a francophone West African traditional/pop sound - a very smooth acoustic shuffle with djembes and flutes. From his beginnings performing in Abidjan theatres, he's progressed (via most of the rest of the world, it seems) to his fairly exalted status now and seems to have cemented a signature sound to match his unmistakable voice. So good on him.

King Mensah - Nana Benz
King Mensah - Amen

And just to add a little variety, the Lion Of Cameroon, Manu Dibango plays here with Bella Bellow, and you can also find Togo posts by Burning Oak, Benn Loxo Du Taccu and Call Me Mickey.

Manu Dibango & Bella Bellow - Dasiko

Buy Togolese music here
Buy King Mensah/Bella Bellow/Manu Dibango

Tags: Togo; World Cup; King Mensah; Manu Dibango; Bella Bellow

CIA Factbook: Togo

Festivale de Football Day 27: Switzerland

The first assignment I undertook as a sound engineering undergraduate student was to cut up and edit a set piece of music, on a standard two-track editor (Wavelab maybe?), into a new piece. Actually, there were three choices - firstly Apocalyptica's cello rendition of Metallica's Sad But True which, although worthy, doesn't really lend itself to the process. The second, and the one I chose, was Frank Zappa's ace Baby Snakes.

The third was what I now understand to be the biggest hit ever to come bursting out of Switzerland. So I've not chosen to focus on the patented 'death grunt' of Tom G Warrior's Celtic Frost; neither have I chosen one of the biggest Francophone hip hop acts, from Lausanne, Sens Unik. I've not even copped out and picked the Purple's Smoke On The Water, written as it was about a Zappa gig by Lake Geneva, and I've certainly not chosen to focus on the lovable Krokus.

The song I've picked pretty much summarises, for me at least, what I imagine 1985 to have been like. I was three, so I have little frame of reference except maybe The Secret Of My Success, or Ferris Bueller's Day Off, both of which featured the song. It's synth drums kick of a beautifully squelchy electro-bass until the sub-Barry White vocal enters with a lyric so cerebrally shallow as to put it's vacuous mid-eighties rivals to shame. It was a prototype of what was to come, an amalgamation of the decade's synth excesses with it's pop sensibilities, an archetype of everything about the era.

And yet it's an enduring piece, one not easily forgotten. For instance, its soundtrack use is by no means limited to those two films - among other Hollywood flicks (Soul Plane, anyone?), it's graced American Football coverage (football? try using your feet!) and Gran Turismo 4. It endures through a million and one different 80's compilations.

The band themselves are as sharp-suited as they are sharply-follicled. Elusive live, they've in the past compared the concept as like asking Matisse to repaint some of his masterworks, this time in front of a live audience. This, to me, shows a mild dose of the prima donna - hey, if Rolf Harris can do it - but I guess is mildly understandable, mostly because the question of who'd pay to see the band is yet to be comprehensively argued.

You need further clues? Well, join the Duff Man and I (tick-a-tick-aaaah): Duffman is thrusting in the direction of the problem! Oh yeah!

Yello - Oh Yeah


Buy Swiss music here
Buy Yello

Tags: Switzerland; World Cup; Yello; Sens Unik; Duff Man;

CIA Factbook: Switzerland

Festivale de Football Day 26: Sweden

I don't know about you, but when I think of Sweden and music, the first thought that comes to my mind is not the record-breaking Europop of Abba; it's not the progressive extreme metal of In Flames or Opeth; it's not even the glitchy electronica of Tape or Det Gamla Landet.

No, when I think of Sweden, only one thing comes to mind. It's rock'n'roll baby. For some reason, this nation seems to excel at good-humoured greasy rock'n'roll like none other. Whether it's the trucker-capped, long haired scuzz of the Hellacopters; the sharp-suited pizazz of the Hives; or the nose-studded, leopard print glam of the Backyard Babies, it's all good, and these are the bands the that epitomise Swedish rock'n'roll to me.



The Hellacopters were formed by Nicke Andersson, former drummer of the worrying metal combo Entombed. From the looks of things, he's moved towards something of a pork-pie hat look (great...), but I remember him as the Wayne Campbell-looking grease monkey that recorded Grande Rock and High Visibility, a distillation of all that was rocking. It seems like if Sweden can do anything, they may not intellectualise, and they may not innovate, but they can certainly capture an essence, and this is it.
Head on over to their website for tons of free samples, e.g...

The Hellacopters - Move Right Out Of Here
The Hellacopters - No Song Unheard




The Hives. What can be said about the Hives that hasn't already been said before? I saw them once, in their earlier stages, opening at Portsmouth's Wedgewood Rooms - third on a bill in a toilet venue surrounded by punks who couldn't care less, they rocked it. They absolutely nailed it, and had us eating out of Howlin' Pelle's hands. If only I'd had the presence of mind when he leaned over to ask me where we were, I could probably have got him to say "Hello Cleveland!" Not only a fantastic stage presence in their front man, not only a tight-as band, but more than that - great songs. I stand by pretty much every tune on Veni Vidi Vicious, it's really a great album.

The Hives - Find Another Girl
The Hives - Supply & Demand




The Backyard Babies, to me, were almost a new Wildhearts, coming as they did after the sad demise and subsequent half-hearted reunion of that band. They had not only some great chops and some wicked hair, but in guitarist Dregen, a personality so rock'n'roll the band could hardly contain him. Looking back though, it seems a little affected - one nose-ring too many, one woah-oh chorus too much. They certainly weren't the new Wildhearts I was looking for - charming in their own way circa Total 13, they powered their way through their songs with aplomb, they just left a little to be desired.

You can find some songs on their MySpace, or stream their new album from their website, for example People Like People Like People Like Us.

Buy Swedish music here
Buy Hellacopters/Hives/Backyard Babies

Tags: Sweden; World Cup; rock'n'roll; Hellacopters; Hives; Backyard Babies

CIA Factbook: Sweden

PS: If you want some Swedish music that's actually good, I recommend the Nosordo label and it's Famous For 15Mb podcast.

And Now For Something Completely Different

In a break from the football related madness, today sees the introduction of the inaugural You Can Call Me Betty podcast. You will truly be able to say you were here for the start of something special.

You Can Call Me Betty - the podcast (right-click, save as) ignore this, leftclick it like any sane person would do.

Please excuse all the um's and aah's - this was a challenge rather than an extension of my gift, I think... Also, the feed/subscriber-y thing hasn't yet worked out. That will be something to followed up on, I promise.

If you'd like to hear podcasts done better, wing on over to the following:
Pod Of Funk
Can You See The Sunset From The Southside?
The Late Greats
Short Attention Span Radio
The Podcast Brewery
and of course,
Podcast Nation


You Can Call Me Betty will be taking a week-long holiday starting today, so if you don't see anything here next week, that's why. I am setting homework though. I'm going to go nuts on the last post of Festivale de Football because its the good ol' US of A. Now, I'm looking for what you think is the archetypal American song - one that you think sums up America on tape. drop me an email or leave a comment, and hopefully I'll include them.

Until then: I've been Simone.

Festivale de Football Day 25: Spain

It always surprises how few movers and shakers in pop these days come from Spain. There's no major stars in pop, rock, hip hop, electronica, indie, you name it Sure, there are crossovers, but nothing major. It's not to say there's nothing good coming out of the country - far from it - but it was one of the catalysts in my choosing an act which is not wholly, 100% Spanish, as such, to feature today.

Many of you will be familiar with Scott Herren's glitch-hop, going under the moniker of Prefuse73. Working from his home in Atlanta, he's become one of the leading lights in the crossover electronic/hip hop sphere. This year's Security Screenings, and even more so, '03's One Word Extinguisher are great, great records, combining MC contributions cut up and warped (to the point where a number have publicly whinged about it), weird lo-fi and found sounds, and dirty, crunchy beats. However, Herren's not all about this kind of thing: check out his side-project Savath and Savalas, for instance.

Savath and Savalas was brought into being on an eighteen-month excursion to Barcelona, where Herren had gone to uncover his Spanish roots and learn a little of the culture he hadn't had when growing up. On this trip he met up with Eva Puyuelo Muns, a til then undiscovered singer/songwriter, and some sort of musical bond was formed. Shared interests like Brazilian psych of the 1970's, Spanish folk song and "Afro/Cuban/Puerto Rican/NYC fusions" led to an EP then a full album, Apropa't.

If you're only familiar with Herren, as is likely, as Prefuse73, then you'll be caught offguard by the melodies and production on Apropa't, in particular. The album features both artists singing and a number of traditional instruments, and creates a supremely evocative sound. It retains the slightly experimental edge in its structures and forms, but loses the glitches and hip hop of Prefuse, instead incorporating a more traditional sound in it's instrumentation and arrangements. That's not to say you'll have ever heard anything quite like it though, and it's not to say that it doesn't bring to mind a dusty, hot evening in Barcelona, with the breeze starting to pour in, maybe looking down from a roof terrace onto hustle and bustle below yet being utterly detached from it.

The enchanting album was released on Warp in 2004 after being mixed at Tortoise's studio and has subsequently received very little attention - it was unknown to me until I happened upon it looking for interesting Spanish music. Listening to it right now, I'd never believe I was listening to the man behind the two albums mentioned, or the Prefuse73 Reads The Books album - instead it's an altogether different experience: less beard-strokingly cerebral perhaps, but more organic, and just as listenable.

Savath & Savalas - Dejame
Savath & Savalas - Balcon Sin Flores

Buy Spanish music here
Buy Savath & Savalas/Prefuse73

Tags: Spain; World Cup; Prefuse73; Scott Herren; Savath & Savalas;

CIA Factbook: Spain

Festivale de Football Day 24: South Korea

K-pop. A stroke of genius. Apparently, the Korean Invasion across Asia paralleled the British Invasion in the sixties, but has made little to no impact in the west. Which, I guess is less surprising than with David Fonseca - k-pop ain't in no friendly English, but best of all it's refreshingly guileless, without the need for excessive cynicism or irony that is apparently a prerequisite these days.
In K-pop terms, there's perhaps no-one bigger than Seo Tai-Ji. And this is great, because here's a fella not content to stick within one style, kicking off in 1991 with his band the Boys dabbling in dance and rap, moving on to heavy metal, nu metal, hardcore, you name it. I'm finding it really tricky, given my non-existent grasp of Korean to give you any tracks to download, but you can find some via myplanet, which seems to be some sort of cosmically-themed MySpace variant. Try here and here for music from his albums Seotaiji & The Boys 1, and Seotaiji 5th, respectively.
It's worth checking out, if only for an interesting perspective on how a Far Eastern nation approaches Western fads.

The other k-pop sensation worth visiting is Lee Jung Hyun. With something of the elfin pop princess about her, she started off in movies at 16 before moving on. It's very much a commercial, Western pop sound, but a pretty sophisticated and sexy one. I was expecting k-pop to be like a tacky imitation in some ways, but where musical cues are certainly Britney Spears and Madonna, the music is equally the equal of those artists. The video is for Michyeo, a song about a girl who kills herself after her boyfriend cheats on her and she breaks her legs escaping from a fire. Fairly morbid, admittedly, but it's all set to a very friendly beat.



Buy Korean music here
Buy Seo Tai-Ji/Lee Jung Hyun

Tags: South Korea; World Cup; K-pop; Seo Tai-ji ; Lee Jung Hyun

CIA Factbook: South Korea

Festivale de Football Day 23: Serbia & Montenegro

Serbia & Montegro have the dubious honour of being the single worst team in the world cup this year, having gained exactly no points and being walloped six nil by an awesome looking Argentina. It was a close run thing, but they've avoided having the worst music in the world cup - although they do have a claim for most bizarre.

What does the term 'turbo-folk' bring to mind for you? When I heard the term first, I envisaged something like Gogol Bordello, a folk-punk band rollicking away on national language songs, generally having a whale of a time.
What I got was Rambo Amadeus. Remember when I said that oppression, discontent and trouble brought about the best music? Maybe I was a little hasty. Rambo Amadeus (aka Antonije Pušić) coined the term turbo-folk to describe his own music on his 1988 debut. Turbo-folk came to cover a whole variety of different performers, albeit none with Rambo's, um, unique sense of innovation. Tracks from his debut could contain snippets of anything from Sex'n'Drugs'n'Rock'n'Roll to Also Sprach Zarathustra, while the basis of the songs tended to coagulate around fairly overtly sexual lyrical themes, and a slightly horrific slap funk bass.

It's pretty hideous stuff, but formed the basis of what was to become the predominant sound of Serbia over the late eighties and nineties. As war raged around them, turbo-folk came to symbolise a moral decline as much as escapism from the troubles around, it's bawdy lyrics accompanied by leggy blondes stretched out on cars, a soundtrack to decadence if ever I heard one.

As his creation took over the Serbian airwaves, Rambo became involved in more political sentiments, famously lambasting a Belgrade for indulging in mindless fun while Tuzla and Dubrovnik were being bombed, in front of a live televised audience. His latter (post-war) material has seen him returning to the exhaustingly eclectic turbo-folk of his youth.
You can find tracks from Rambo's debut on MySpace, or check his website for newer downloads.
Rambo Amadeus - Komedija, Tragedija, Drama

Fortunately, it doesn't end there. Acts like Modern Quartet and Darkwood Dub are leading lights in Belgrade's renaissance into the hip destination it's becoming, and produce some excellent, folk-tinged electronica (folktronica? maybe Four Tet has kinsmen here...). I understand that there's been an underground punk scene for years, and this is the city flexing it's wings to take off into more exotic realms. Good on 'em, I say, especially if it moves people on from the frankly bizarre turbo-folk deal.

Darkwood Dub - Vrtlog Vira
Darkwood Dub - O Pustinji

Buy Serbian music/turbo-folk
Buy Rambo Amadeus/Darkwood Dub/Modern Quartet

tags: Serbia; Montenegro; World Cup; turbo folk; Rambo Amadeus; electronica

CIA Factbook: Serbia & Montenegro

PS: you must must must check out the Contrast Podcast this week. What are the odds on two Hullensian bands in a topic about cannibals?

Festivale de Football Day 22: Saudi Arabia

Be honest, if you were going to pick a genre that is beginning to proliferate amongst the Saudi underground, you wouldn't have expected doom metal. The Grieving Age count My Dying Bride and Anathema amongst their influences, so clearly this is a band who know their metal and have chosen specifically and intelligently. MDB and Anathema are very much at the thinking man's end of the goth/doom metal spectrum - less overtly prog than, say, Opeth, but definitely with more scope and grandeur than, say, Vader that we looked at recently.

Saudi Arabia is one the absolute toughest Islamic states in the world at the moment. Accusations of harbouring terrorists and the like aside, it isn't considered high on Dubya's Axis Of Evil, but still has one of the strictest interpretations of Islamic law, and under this music is very carefully monitored. Live music is generally restricted to weddings according to the great ubergirl87, and recorded music generally has to come under approval.

However, thanks to a really interesting piece in the Washington Post, I'm reliably informed that there are a number of bands of different styles, of which Grieving Age are just one. They peddle a pretty good brand of their doom-metal which, although pushing no boundaries, is certainly competent.

The Grieving Age - My Hopeless River (stream)

My other discovery was via the creepy/wonderful medium of MySpace: SA Metal has links to a bunch of MySpace profiles, including the impressively eclectic Sound Of Ruby. How very public spirited!

Sound Of Ruby - Get Me
Sound Of Ruby - Wannabe
Sound Of Ruby - Abuhadriah Road

Buy Saudi music here

Buy Sound Of Ruby/Grieving Age

Tags: Saudi Arabia; World Cup; metal; grunge; punk; Grieving Age; Sound Of Ruby

CIA Factbook: Saudi Arabia

Festivale de Football Day 21: Portugal

David Fonseca is something of a phenomenon in Portugal. He sold almost a quarter of a million copies of his debut album, Sing Me Something New, released in 2003 after going solo from his former band, Silence 4. These were Portugal's biggest band, by far, and they shocked a few people by quitting in 2001. Sing Me Something New though, was a smash hit - Fonseca wrote everything and played almost everything, a true solo record - and he's never looked back.

So what's so special about David Fonseca? What is it about him that so appeals to the Portuguese? He doesn't sing in his own language, for a start. I think it's a combination of things. For a start, there's the fact that he does play everything himself - that's not to be underestimated, as not only does it indicate some serious talent, but it shows a level of creative quality control that doesn't often occur in big pop bands. Then there's the fact that he was in a very successful band - now, we've seen how this guarantees nothing in so many cases, but this is a positive story.

But what does it most of all? It's got to be that huge, soaring, dramatically soulful voice. For a non-native English speaker, Fonseca has an incredible grasp of inflection and timing, and yet manages to add a continental lilt to it. Not only that, but the depth, clarity and richness of his singing tone is something to behold. Think Jeff Buckley at times, but with a little more realisation of his pop importance, a little more showmanship.

So - it's easy to see why he's a hit in Portugal, but why nowhere else? Why is there no crossover? This is a sound that would surely translate well - everybody loves a bit grandeur in a voice, and with these superbly constructed songs, now would seem to be the time to expand. But, nothing as yet - no wiki, nothing on Amazon.co.uk. Maybe time will tell.

David Fonseca - Playing Bowies With Me (this is an album track from Fonseca's debut, and was the track that first introduced me to the man, and impressed me straight off. Thanks must go to a lovely young lady named Rita)
David Fonseca - Who Are U? (lead single from last year's Our Hearts Will Beat As One. This can also be found on David's MySpace, along with a bunch of others)

Silence 4 - A Little Respect (Silence 4's first hit, an Erasure cover (obviously))


Buy Portuguese music here
Buy David Fonseca (go to your record shop and bug them for it - damned if I can find it on Amazon)/Silence 4

Tags: Portugal; World Cup; David Fonseca; Silence 4; Erasure;

CIA Factbook: Portugal

Festivale de Football Day 20: Poland

It's finally come to it. I have to post death metal. Actually, I don't have to, as Poland has a surprisingly rich variety of music. But rock is the thing, rock music outstrips pop in sales, charts and radio airtime, rock is where it's at.

And in a kind of a way, no band has made as much impact as Vader. Of course, in real terms - album sales within or outside Poland, chart positions etc. - then certainly there's more successful acts. But if we're talking critical acclaim or international impact relative to a scene, then Vader are huge.

To be honest, I picked the name from Wikipedia's list of Polish acts as the only one I'd heard of, which I guess is a fair indicator in itself. The name was familiar from my Kerrang!-reading days (don't scoff like you never went through your rock phase), so exploring I went.

Turns out Vader are a pretty big deal in the extreme metal world. Now, I'm not as familiar as I could be about the distinctions between different sub-genres of metal, but I'm going to stick with death metal - there's insufficient keyboard-soaked grandeur to be black metal, the vocals are too distinct to be grindcore... You see where I'm going, they tick all the boxes. Sound? tick. Looks? Long, coiffeured hair and uniform black: tick. Lyrical nonsense? tick.

The last is an interesting point. To what extent the band hold with some of the tenets in their own songs is not known, but they stick to the slightly satanic, archaic and ornate style of their peers - however, the word nonsense was not used indiscriminately. Check out their lyrics page:

"Across the city that keeps shifting
Spectral bicycles speed and ride
The fog devours and spits
New geography of the mind
Prostitution in memories
Secret desires without redemption
The past implodes on itself
The return to the womb begins"

Anyone? Me neither.

But anyhow, this is what death metal types do - to be fair, I've heard just as ridiculous lyrics in most genres you could care to name. Onto the music though: fairly fearful drum work, as you'd expect. If you've never seen someone doing blastbeats in person, then try and get a chance, it's positively frightening.

I'm going to post three tracks: Vicious Circle is from Vader's record-selling demo Morbid Reich and features their trademark extreme sound. Firebringer is from their last full album proper, The Beast. Raining Blood is, of course, a Slayer cover, this time in a live setting. I was going to post a corporation disclaimer, opinions reflected here do not neccessarily represent those of the author etc., but I find it so hard to take these people seriously, I don't think it's a problem...

Vader - Vicious Circle
Vader - Firebringer
Vader - Raining Blood

Buy Polish music here
Buy Vader

Tags: Poland; World Cup; metal; death metal; Vader; Slayer

CIA Factbook: Poland

Festivale de Football Day 19: Paraguay

Wow, is Paraguay ever a frustrating place. Have you ever looked for Paraguayan music? Go on, I dare you. What did you find? Some information but no actual music for Maximos Q'mbieros? Something about reggaeton? Me too. What's more, the one bit of music I did find excited me in it's description, but is equally frustrating.

Music.download.com has been very useful a number of times during this series, so when Wikipedia was no help, it was there I headed. And I found, under my favourite label of Electronic & Dance/Experimental, a collective known as Nada Infinitum, from the Paraguayan capital Asuncion, one whose purpose was to explore "genre, noise, beat, and psychological exploration." Curious. Furthermore, this is an act that moved from utilising solely synths and samplers towards incorporating found sound and cut-ups, and one for whom a mooted lyrical augmentation was rejected. My sort of guys, I think.

It bodes well, but fails to really deliver. There's ever such a slight industrial approach in the beast here, but it's not enough to carry the song into industrial territory. There's clock ticks which don't seem to propel the music sufficiently to add the required tension. There's paucity and space, but only very occasionally - in my mind, to add real tension, there needs to be more spaces. Pregnant pauses, if you like, but Nada Infinitum have a tendency to fill up all the space.

True, it builds well, and the synth sound is almost like a clever eighties Goth reference, but on the whole, such a promising remit is not met. Frustrating, like the rest of the country, on the football field and off it.

Nada Infinitum - Tilted Cross


Buy Paraguayan music here

Buy Nada Infinitum

Tags: Paraguay; World Cup; electronica; Nada Infinitum

CIA Factbook: Paraguay

Festivale de Football Day 18: Mexico

El Mariachi! Areba, andale andale! And so on. Mexico is home to a great deal of stereotypes and archetypes: the mariachi band serenading the senorita at dinner; the be-sombrero'd locals tending fields; the Zapatista-tached rebels; Speedy Gonzales. None of these apply to Murcof though - in fact, there's little that can be traced back to a Mexican lineage at all. You want post-rock mariachi though, you go to Calexico; you want sparse, slightly otherworldy electronica you take a trip to Tijuana.

For such is the hometown of Fernando Corona: home of Corona beer (I presume, I just made it up), Tijuana Brass and according to Krusty the clown, the funnest place on earth. Not that you'd know it from the stark, yet beguiling sounds of Remembranza, Corona's last album as Murcof. Formerly a member of the Nortec Collective, Murcof started as a solo concern five years ago, attempting to bridge (one of) the gap(s) between contemporary electronica and contemporary classical. Hence the minimalist approach taken from those emplying a serialist ethic; the glitchy electronic noise taken from those approaching machines with tools in order to make noise; the haunting string sections where the silence is just as important as the sound; the dull, clipped beat which seems to continue throughout the entire album.

I really enjoy listening to Murcof's album, although I couldn't tell you why for a minute. I think it holds the record for being in my 'to review' pile the longest of any album ever, mostly because I just can't sum it up in words. I certainly couldn't pin down what it is I enjoy listening to, and I couldn't pick out favourite tracks, as each blends seamlessly into each other, with, as I said, apparently the same beat. In an increasingly crowded marketplace, Murcof has managed to produce an immediately placeable sound, and although you wouldn't place that sound in Tijuana, you'd certainly ascribe it to Murcof.
You can visit Murcof's website and get more songs on MySpace. Check out the video for Rostro for a great example of contextualising a seemingly abstract motif. The beat is soporific when the protagonist wakes up, but the same beat fits in perfectly with both the surrealist touches and the wistful, poignant, chicken-mask moments. All on a low, low budget!

Murcof - Rostro (video)
Murcof - Rostro (audio)
Murcof - Recuerdos (audio)

The Nortec Collective, of which Murcof was a part, seems to simply be a loose-knit bunch of likeminded souls in Tijuana: mixing samples of more traditional Mexican music with hard-edged beats, then doing clever things with them (from what I understand). Goes to show, at the very least, that Mexico is certainly not as one-dimensional as casual observers may believe. Download some tracks from the website, or see Motel de Moka's Nortec selection.

Bonus track: Rodrigo y Gabriela aren't quite the stick-in-Mexico kind of characters like Corona - they're based in Dublin right now, where they're showcasing their frankly frightening brand of virtuoso (is this the right word when there's two of them?) Spanish guitar playing. This a great cover/medley, they're so hot right now.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - One/Take Five

Buy Mexican music here
Buy Murcof/Nortec/Rodrigo y Gabriela

Tags: Mexico; World Cup; Murcof; Nortec; Rodrigo y Gabriela;

CIA Factbook: Mexico

Festivale de Football Day 17: Japan

I've decided that, as holiday time gets in the way, I'm just not going to be able to finish this during the World Cup. It's a bummer, but it's so much work I just can't cope. Sigh. Oh well, on with the day...

I'd love to visit Japan. It's on my list. Not only does it look completely fascinating, but the people are ace as well. Perfect skin. It's a completely different culture, and this appeals to me. Sadly, the chances of a trip to Japan for me are currently as likely as a beach holiday on the moon, but you never know, one day.

Japan has one of those music cultures that is based on western ideas, but with a twist so unique - and so indefinable - that Japanese pop is completely, and instantly, recognisable. J-pop, they call it, or J-rock. The one that intrigues me most, though, is Japanoise. What a great name for a genre! Sums it all up in one. Saying that, my familiarity with this Japanoise is really not as much as I imagined - browsing the list on Wikipedia, I only recognized one name: Merzbow.

Now, the name was familiar, but little else. I had always assumed Merzbow was some sort of slightly Americana-y, folky singer-songwriter, but could I be further from the truth? Not much. Masami Akita has been releasing albums of vastly experimental noise on the very extreme edge of listenability since the mid '70s, basing his musical providence on his art school training in Kurt Schwitters' Merz art - that of compiling rubbish in to art. He was also a free/improvisational jazz drummer, something which has come to the fore in his more recent works which have seen more importance placed on beat.

So, that's the bio, what does the music sound like? Well, it's certainly the most frightening I've encountered in this series since Ecuador's Industria Masoquista, possibly more so: where IM is so intense as to make you worry about what other people listening are thinking, Merzbow is genuinely frightening. It's not just noise that grates at the edge of consciousness, although that's not in short supply; it's the sounds of fear, the children crying, the shrill, unnerving electronics. The fraught beats only add to the uncomfortability of it all. As noise goes, it's pretty fearful stuff yet so carefully, and purposefully constructed as to be very impressive indeed.

Merzbow - Tape Dada (from Rembrandt Assemblage, 1980)
Merzbow - Helga's Death Disco (from Pornoise Extra, 1984)
Merzbow - Minus Zero (from Red Magnesia Pink, 1995)
(Thanks to Clik And Lissen)

As far as other Japanese music worth listening to, there's plenty out there: check out Tujiko Noriko for an almost Bjork-styled, naive and innocent yet sharp and subtle, layered-electronica-meets-J-pop mixture.

Tujiko Noriko - Narita Made
Tujiko Noriko - Mugen Kyuukou
(from the Tomlab website, more on MySpace)

Alternatively, try your luck with Asobi Seksu, very popular in the blog world of late with their Japanese vocals (although strictly, this is an American band) and shoegaze/dreampop tendencies. It's pretty nice stuff, and shoegaze is coming back in a big way - about time, I've had it up to hear with ooh, Gang Of Four, ooh, spiky post-punk and laddish punk-pop. It's about time a bit of sophistication was popular again.

Asobi Seksu - I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me
Asobi Seksu - New Years

Buy Japanese music here
Buy Merzbow/Tujiko Noriko/Asobi Seksu

Tags: Japan; World Cup; Japanoise; Merzbow; Tujiko Noriko;
Asobi Seksu;

CIA Factbook: Japan

Festivale de Football Day 16: Ivory Coast

My boy Kolo Touré has come up with a few cheap fantasy football points this year: to me they've looked one of the hottest African teams in it, although they were in what was undoubtedly the group of death: Argentina and Holland? You have to be kidding me. However, for a team that play in bright orange they've got style, strength and loads of class.

It seems that as a nation, the Côte d'Ivoire have musical style, strength and class in bucketloads as well. The capital Abidjan is the hotbed of musical talent for the whole of West Africa, with most of the major recording studios. It leads the field, alongside Nigeria, in seriously funky Afrobeat, as well as traditional music and the more modern coupé-décalé and zouglou styles.

The forerunner of what's probably the most popular music in Abidjan these days is Didier Bilé, who pioneered what's now known as zouglou. Originally starting on the campus of the university of Abidjan, it's a dancey, slightly r'n'b-y but definitely West African style. There's plenty of traditional harmonies shining through, but the lyrics are in the street French prevalent in Abidjan. Now, my French is a touch better than my Italian, but don't get all expectant: I still don't know what they're banging on about. However, I'm reliably informed that its mostly social commentary, but put across with a humour and wit that's not normally found in it's Stateside hip hop counterpart - when a country's going wrong in the so-called 'developed world', we have a tendency to whinge about it rather than approach it with humour. So good on 'em.

Didier Bilé - Zizi (video)


Magic System are one of the biggest groups in the genre, especially in terms of crossing over to the French language market in France: they're as likely to employ as much reggae as anything else. And talk about dealing with issues: said album contains songs on abortion, paedophilia, ethnic division and juvenile delinquency. It's a really accomplished sound, even to a non-world-music-literate ear - diverse and eclectic, yet coherent and interesting to listen to. The band have become pretty much the biggest musical export from the country, reaching no.5 in the French singles chart, and being announced the top-selling African artists in French record stores.

Magic System - 1er Gaou
Magic System feat. Alpha Blondy - Tikilipo

Coupé Décalé is a newer still variant on the scene, and just like the history of zouglou can be traced alongside US rap, coupé-décalé is the gangsta equivalent, the get rich or die trying ethic of Fiddy Cent filtered through a rather sardonic look at their home turf. The genre's name, according to Frank Bessem, stems from coupé = get money (by whatever means), décalé = leave, flee to Abidjan). It seems to be one of those self-referential scenes, and a lot more bling than your standard African music.

That said, where US hip hop glorifies the violent side of getting the money as much as the glamorous, proponents of coupé-décalé have been known to just give out chunks of money in nightclubs. It seems to be a form of escapism rather than egotism, and doesn't seem quite as obnoxious.
Douk Saga is the biggest star of the field, undoubtedly. Not a little of this is due to his self-promotional tactics and claims to be the Daddy, if you like, of coupé-décalé, but where his American counterparts appear to be able to gain success through braggadocio and bling alone, Saga's music is an often fascinating mix, incorporating Congolese dance styles into zouglou and creating not just a music but a dance that's becoming increasingly popular.

Douk Saga - Sagacité

I find it difficult to relate to this sort of music though, really. Any hip hop that mentions money turns me off, so it's not really my cup of tea. I kind of like Magic System though, they're pretty fun, and at least these people are doing something to take their minds off the troubles of their home country, rather than just moan and whine.

Buy Ivorian music here
Buy Didier Bilé/Magic System/Douk Saga/Alpha Blondy

Tags: Ivory Coast; Côte d'Ivoire; World Cup; Zouglou; Coupé-Décalé; Magic System; Didier Bilé; Douk Saga

CIA Factbook: Ivory Coast