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Though taking an autumn stroll down a cobblestone lane in old world Europe may have been Cibelle Cavalli‘s inspiration for the song “London London” on her genre-bending album The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves, the song takes on a much larger life in its execution, weaving a delightful cacophony of electronic blips, bleeps, and whirs around a Brazilian acoustic guitar and the wonderful chemistry between Cibelle and Devendra Banhart.

Just when you’re settling into Cibelle’s sensuous bossa nova vocals, Banhart gently steps in with the sophisticated swagger of Johnny Depp meets Michael Bublé.  The playful song builds up with increasing echo delays and eventually disintegrates as if to say that not even this magical song can sustain such an idealized vision of city life longer than four minutes.

Cibelle obliquely asks: “Which is more alien in this song, the flying saucers in the sky or the urbanites hurrying by peacefully?”  If the extraterrestrials sing and write like Cibelle and Banhart, beam me up, por favor.

This post was originally published on blog.boyfriendacademy.com.

myspace | myspace.com/cibelleblackbird]]> http://www.indieshuffle.com/cibelle-the-shine-of-dried-electric-leaves/feed/ 2 http://www.indieshuffle.com/king-city-the-last-siesta/ http://www.indieshuffle.com/king-city-the-last-siesta/#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:36:12 +0000 Max Jacobs http://www.indieshuffle.com/?p=9658

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When I was in Junior High I remember seeing a movie about the punk band NOFX. They showed some footage from the lead singers’ wedding during which another band member played and sang a jazz tune on acoustic guitar. This blew my mind. “Wait, don’t’ punk musicians just want to thrash all the time? Does he know he’s being filmed?  Man, that is not hardcore at all…” It was difficult for me to grasp the idea that musicians just generally love music.

Since then, I have always been fascinated by artists who can skillfully play many styles of music. So when I heard that several Bay Area punk and metal musicians had formed an instrumental band heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt, my ears perked up. The band credentials for members of King City are impressive and numerous (among them are former and current members of R.K.L., Hammers of Misfortune, the Mad Caddies, the Dwarves, No Use for a name, Lagwagon, etc). The band started as a recording project a few years ago for guitarist Rich Morin, but began to play live shows in the Bay (their record release “tour” consisted of 8 shows in 10 days played at different venues only in San Francisco’s Mission District).

The 6-piece group utilizes guitars, upright bass, drums, and various odd and old world percussion devices on their debut record “The Last Siesta” to create sound one might call tango, ragtime, Latin, calypso, or spaghetti western. Oh, and the occasional trumpet squeaks in to remind you to add Dixieland to the genre list. In plainer terms, if you wanted to score a silent Benny Hill chase scene somewhere in the desert, you might turn to King City. Most tracks are upbeat (and dance-worthy, if one knows how to actually dance with a partner), lead by Latin-inspired quick strumming and finger picking guitar patterns, but King City also knows how to waltz (look to “Bottom of the Wall” and “Ennio” for something slower).

My knowledge of these musical styles is much less than that of sad men with guitars and beards, so “The Last Siesta” has been a refreshing reminder of the versatile music that can come from a traditional band format. What’s clear is that King City is talented and they are certainly having a ball. I can tip my cap to that.

myspace | myspace.com/http://www.myspace.com/kingcity]]> http://www.indieshuffle.com/king-city-the-last-siesta/feed/ 1 http://www.indieshuffle.com/major-lazer-la-roux-azerproof/ http://www.indieshuffle.com/major-lazer-la-roux-azerproof/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:20:28 +0000 Taylor Fife http://www.indieshuffle.com/?p=8769

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I typically shy away from posting about mixtapes here on Indie Shuffle (notable exception here), but the latest creation from Diplo and Switch deserves some mad love. ‘Lazerproof’ is a genius rework of nearly all of La Roux’s self-titled debut. The entire mixtape is entertaining, fun and hilarious in that very special Major Lazer way. Even though it seems Diplo and Switch didn’t do much writing or producing for the tape, it still shows off their eclectic taste and knowledge of various dance and island genres. Major Lazer splices La Roux’s catchy synth pop with elements of reggae, dancehall, dub, hip-hop, and even grime. The mix is dynamic and creative and the bouncy, wobbly, bass is bound to get you moving.

The guest drops are fantastic, especially when female rappers Candi Redd and Amanda Blank hop on the mic. Blank gets even more fantastically dirty than usual on the downright pornographic “rerub” of ‘Quicksand.’ As good as this is, I’m not going to bother jacking it off anymore since you simply don’t need to take my word for it. You can download the whole thing in high quality MP3 form FOR FREE over at Major Lazer’s Bandcamp page.

Bonus Track: Major Lazer – Pon De Floor (BeatauCue Remix)

Major Lazer & La Roux – Cover My Eyes (Costa Nostra Edit)

myspace | myspace.com/majorlazer]]> http://www.indieshuffle.com/major-lazer-la-roux-azerproof/feed/ 1 http://www.indieshuffle.com/madlib-madlib-medicine-show-no-3-beat-konducta-in-africa/ http://www.indieshuffle.com/madlib-madlib-medicine-show-no-3-beat-konducta-in-africa/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:40:50 +0000 J Meagher http://www.indieshuffle.com/?p=7026

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Sounds like: Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Ali Farka Toure

What’s so good?
I’ve been stuck on this review for weeks now. Madlib’s “Beat Konducta” moniker is one he uses to release mountains of themed hip-hop beats. Past installments include “Movie Scenes” (A film score for a Blaxploitation film existing solely in Madlib’s mind), “Beat Konducta in India”, and “A Tribute to…” (J Dilla). These releases seem completely targeted towards serious hip-hop and world music heads, and “Beat Konducta in Africa” is no different.

In fact, this is the first Madlib Medicine Show release that has seriously challenged me. Part of it is the 43 (!) tracks the album is divided into, part of it is the schizophrenic use of spoken word audio clips, but I can’t for the life of me get through this monster in one sitting. The music is interesting enough, using samples from popular African songs and coming from regional genres such as juju, highlife, afrobeat, and African flavored jazz and funk. Madlib provides his usual woozy production style with lots of fade ins/outs. If you listen to this with headphones you will likely loose your sense of equilibrium.

The most frustrating thing about this record is I can’t decide where someone would listen to it. First I thought it would be good background party music, but there is too much random talking in the album for that. Then I thought about while exercising, but the album doesn’t really maintain any sort of intensity that would work in that context. Driving? Like I mentioned earlier, the amount of spoken word stuff makes this seem like an NPR broadcast at times.

As soon as a song starts building towards something it cuts into something else, which can be frustrating if you’re looking for a more cohesive experience. Songs like “Blackfire” contain amazing polyrhythmic drumming and instrumentation but it takes over a minute of talking to get there. My favorite moments on the album are the closing “bonus” (they’re on every version of the album) songs titled A, F, R, I, C, and A (Amanaz) These tracks stick primarily to the music and are some of the longest pieces on the record.

What I come up with after giving this record chance after chance is this: Volume 3 of the Medicine Show is mostly for long time fans and for people looking for a different perspective on African music. Madlib releases an INSANE amount of music, you don’t have to love it all but why not at least give it a shot?

Elsewhere on the web:
myspace | myspace.com/madlib

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Sounds like:Os Mutantes, Dangerdoom, J Dilla, Talib Kweli

What’s so good?
So I’ve been crazy-sick the past few days, resulting in the overindulgence of over-the-counter crack, also known as Day/Nyquil. This has led to some interesting semi-conscious hours of music listening and conversing, and I’ve been thinking, what better time to put on Madlib’s latest international mind%$@# of a record titled, “Flight to Brazil”? This Brazilian, psychedelic tropicalia flavored mix tape is the result of Madlib pulling his favorite cuts from his enormous pile of vintage vinyl.

Anyone who wrote off the Madlib Medicine Show project, expecting it to be release after release of Madlib’s hip-hop work, will be shocked by the left turn Volume 2 takes from Volume 1. “Flight to Brazil” is about as far of a departure from Madlib and Guilty Simpson’s collab as you can get. But followers of Madlib’s career shouldn’t be surprised. I didn’t become a devout follower of Madlib’s work until I heard an amazing jazz remix album he did in 2003 called “Shades Of Blue: Madlib Invades Blue Note”.

This album really changed things for me in terms of appreciating and pursuing jazz music outside of Tribe Called Quest samples. He took sounds I was unfamiliar and uninterested in, and screwed them up in wonderful ways that made me want to listen over and over again (video for a track off this album will be included below). It’s safe to say that Madlib is NOT a one trick pony. From hip-hop, to jazz, funk, pyschedelia, and world music, Madlib has his thumb on everything.

The songs on this album however, are not influence in the same way that the jazz tracks on “Shades of Blue” are rearranged and reinforced by Madlib’s production. Besides the thoughtful sequencing and arranging of the different untitled tracks on the album, all of the work is left up to the unknowns performing these songs. This is good and bad for me. Madlib lets the tracks speak for themselves, and often that is a great thing.

On the second track Madlib begins with a cut based on an outlandishly funky bass line, with a nice sounding group of ladies chanting a few sweet yet incomprehensible lines (not speaking Portuguese bites me in the ass again). About halfway through the 7-minute track (an average length for this album) the tempo changes drastically into a different, poppy tropicalia recording…and then it changes again into a psychedelic 60’s rock workout…and then again into, well you get the point. The entire album is like this and that also my main complaint.

I’ve gotten used to Madlib taking obscure gems like these and turning them into his own monsters; that doesn’t happen on this album. Some of the tracks scream: “#@%$ with me! Make me weird and amazing!” But Madlib restrains himself, probably for the best, but I was still a little disappointed. There is fantastic news, however: I won’t have to wait very long for Madlib to drop his production style all over some international grooves. Madlib’s going on an African SAFARI!

Elsewhere on the web:
myspace | myspace.com/madlib

Click image to download full album

Sounds like: Amadou and Mariam, Manu Chao, Bela Fleck, The Givers

What’s so good?
Fool’s Gold, a collective out of Los Angeles, let the groove be their guide on their eponymous debut. The music is thoroughly African in style and if I had heard the album without any other information I would have pegged them as a North African or maybe Middle Eastern group rather than a gaggle of white L.A. hipster types. While the music is certainly accessible and poppy, Fool’s Gold is not an “afro-pop” group the way Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, or even paul simon and peter gabriel are. Instead of stealing a few foreign elements and forcing them into contrived western pop songs, Fool’s Gold is recording African pop jams for what they are. Being from L.A. it’s probably inaccurate to call them a strictly African group, but to say their sound is inspired by African music is an understatement.

Fool’s Gold belts out their compositions with confidence surprising and refreshing for a group taking on a borrowed aesthetic. The lead guitar soars over the percussion-heavy beats. The Hebrew and English vocals fit in amazingly—rather than leading the group they fall into the mix as just another one of the nine or so instruments jamming together. The songs don’t feel as if they were crafted, but instead as if they fell together naturally or developed slowly through jamming and collective input.

While remaining African at all times, Fool’s Gold, whether intentionally or not, branch out and bring the listener on a full whirlwind trip across the continent. Surprise Hotel, the stand-out track, comes on strong with a gusty Central /West African lead guitar riff. Much of the album takes elements of Ethiopian music, including Nadine, Poseidon, and Yam Lo Moshech. Ha Dvash has the group trying out the Touareg style, while the group also flirts with sounds from the Congo and Sahara. Throughout the album the lead guitar lilts back to a North African style that’s sure to get your feet stomping, hands clapping, and booty shaking.

elsewhere on the web:
myspace | myspace.com/foolsgold

download:
Fool’s Gold – Surprise Hotel (Micachu & The Shapes Remix).mp3

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Sounds like: Radioclit, Tinariwen, The Avalanches

What’s so good?
The Very Best is a collaboration between Malawian vocalist Esau Mwamwaya and London producers Radioclit, and in my very honest opinion, they aren’t worth the attention they’re getting. Last night The Very Best sold out Washington, D.C.’s DC9 Club, in part due to a whole lot of hype from websites such as Pitchfork, as well as a few shining reviews in DC’s local newspapers. While they undoubtedly perform with an original stage presence that gets the crowd dancing (I enjoyed myself thoroughly), the quality of music was simply sub-par.

I had tried listening to The Very Best when they dropped their album, Heart of Africa, but quickly decided it wasn’t for me. When a friend of mine who works with AV Club DC offered up a free ticket, I thought, “Hell, this could be fun!” I didn’t quite remember the music, but rather its essence–how could African music with a serious beat be bad live? And to be honest, I wasn’t wrong–this music is easy to get down to. Only problem is that it probably hurt many ears that appreciate good music. Perhaps my growing up in South Africa makes me biased on this one, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard African music done well (whether it be from the North or the South), and this isn’t done well.

1. Step one to having enjoyable music: sing in tune. Blew that one, didn’t ya?
2. –
3. Step two to having enjoyable music: turn the vocals down, especially if they’re bad.
4. –
5. Step three to having enjoyable music: don’t tease the audience with an encore, stay on stage, engage with them, and then not do a goddamn encore. I’ll totally admit to enjoying the dancing of the crowd, and none of us would have minded that continuing.

Here’s where The Very Best wins: originality. That’s all they’ve got going for them right now, and for a couple exceptions (the two African dancers who spent the entire show getting absolutely down), they’re just not executing it well.

Here’s a perfect example of baseless praise:

The Radioclit lads have tightened the bolts on traditionally sprawling African tribal music whilst still retaining the innate effervescence of the whole sound, and Mwamwaya’s vocals are so smooth and so assured as to make it irrelevant that I can’t fully understand Chichewa – 1 Song a Day

“Smooth” and “assured”?! The only thing smooth and assured is his stage presence and ability to get the crowd to boogie. You could pull an African off the streets of a South African township and they’d be able to sing better.

Criticism (and the irony of their name) aside, they put on a great live show, and I’m certain that this group is going to keep picking up steam as hipsters the world over flip out about how “cultured” they are. I’ll end with this quote:

You’d almost just have to hate nice things to have a problem with The Very Best. Sure, on paper, the collaboration might seem a little rangy: A Malawian singer living in London is discovered by a Franco-Swedish producer who buys a bicycle from his junk shop; musical confluence abounds. But the output of that chance meeting feels just as trouble-free and naïvely fruitful: Without a whiff of affectation, Esau Mwamwaya and producer-duo Radioclit wear their joy and influences on their Very Best sleeve to turn in one of the year’s most enjoyable records – AV Club

Looks like I hate nice things! )-:

elsewhere on the web:
myspace | myspace.com/theverybestmyspace
pretty much amazing album review | prettymuchamazing.com/

download:
The Very Best – Warm Heart of Africa (feat Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend).mp3

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Sounds like: Afrocelt, Extra Golden, Tinariwen, Ali Farka

What’s so good?
This unique quintet hails out of the rolling hills of Asheville, NC with a sound that might as well be coming from several thousand miles around the world. Although all five members grew up in and began their music careers on the appalachian trail, most of them spent considerable time learning music on Africa’s west coast. Think Mississippi Delta meets Mali; Santana meets Amadou andMariam.

In Toubab Krewe’s self-titled album, every song is an instrumental story rich in dialogue and emotion. Toubab does an exceptional job of mixing up rythms and chords as each song progresses. Perhaps the richest track on Toubab’s debut (2007) album is its last.  It is this song where you might get the best sense of the band’s repertoire of flavors and rhythms. Check it out for yourself!

“By not confining itself to one genre, Toubab Krewe has the potential to bring its worldly and unpredictable music to a mainstream audience.” – banning eyre, NPR

“Asheville, N.C., may not seem like a stronghold for African-rooted music, but Toubab Krewe has soaked up the patterns and rhythms of music from Mali, Zimbabwe, Congo, Brazil and the Caribbean and added a hint of Jerry Garcia’s legato guitar.” – John parales, NYtimes

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Sounds like: Elliott Smith, Seu Jorge, Badly Drawn Boy, Nick Drake

What’s so good?
“Yonlu” was a Brazilian teenager who killed himself in his bathroom. He left a note for his parents telling them to listen to his music whenever they missed him. This album is constructed mostly of songs his parents found on his computer after his death.

His music is a cut-and-paste indie pop and folk that’s influenced by his country’s Tropicalia movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s. If you’re listening to the track above, you’ve already figured out that this stuff is eerily reminiscent of “Elliott Smith”–and we all know how that one ended.

But before jump to conclusions, check out the track below:

It starts out slow and creepy, but you’ll find yourself totally thrown off when at 2:20, “Yonlu” twists himself into something along the lines of rap. From there on out, it’s free game. For a sixteen year old, this guy was no doubt ahead of his peers. It’s a pity he had to cut his life short–and an interesting life it was! Real name Vinicius Gageiro Marques, he grew up in France, moved to Brazil, learned English by watching TV, and became popular in an internet suicide forum.

His lyrics are poetical nonsense, his melodies melancholy, and his approach experimental. If you’re looking for a new twist on something perhaps familiar (“Elliott Smith”, in particular), I’d get your hands on this album.