New music for 2014

I would have thought my top 10 would be my last post for the year, but these lists always come so early. Everyone starts posting them like December 1, which makes me feel like I need to rush to post mine, then I get it up like halfway through the month, and then there's half a month left where I'm still listening to music but I feel weird posting again cause it just doesn't feel right. But screw it, I'm doing it. And this one feels ok, since it's about what I'm looking forward to in 2014, so it's fitting.

In the spirit of the New Year I guess I could discuss New Year's Resolutions, of which I have none. I've always found it kind of arbitrary to pick the year end to resolve to do something or change something in your lifestyle. It makes sense, what with the new year and all that, but I've always thought that if I want to change something or resolve to do something, then I can do it anytime I want. So I don't bother racking my brains trying to come up with something to change for the next year, and just go for things as they come to me. But there are things I'm excited about for 2014, so here's a list, in no particular order despite those numbers trying to fool you:

1. The big three zero
2. Australia
3. My sister's graduation and possible subsequent trip
4. Traveling in general (Germany has been good for that, 2014 will hopefully include weekends to Copenhagen, Paris, London, Slovenia and Georgia)
5. Beth Brash's wedding
6. (Hopefully) moving back to China
7. Food. Always food.
8. (Hopefully) becoming BFF with Haim

And then there is music which I'm looking forward to for 2014. Artists who I've found in 2013 that I really like, but who have yet to release an album. Or artists who are releasing new music in 2014. I always go to BBC's Sound of... series to see what they have to say, and there's some good ones this year. In fact one of mine is on there, as are a few others that I'm enjoying at the moment. I guess there's a lot of stuff I'm looking forward to, but there are two that come to mind when I try to think of stuff I'm looking forward to. But not to fear, there is a whole list at the bottom.

The first one, and the one that made it to the BBC's long list, is Banks. She's released a couple of EPs, and apparently has been described as Ellie Goulding covering The Weeknd, which is actually pretty close when I think about it. Better than anything I could think of. And she apparently toured with The Weeknd too. Not too bad for a little girl from Tarzana (disclaimer: I don't know how little she is, but I imagine she's like 18. That's little enough). My favourite track by her so far is This Is What It Feels Like, which I just learned was produced by Jamie Woon, which makes sense when I listen to it.




The next one that I'm looking forward to is SOHN. I don't know so much about him, but I think he's British. That's about it. And he's worked with some other amazing artists, like the aforementioned Banks and Kwabs. Sometimes it feels like these Brits are taking over my musical life. Like half of my top 10 this year was British. What can I say, I guess they  know what they're doing. Anyway, here's Bloodflows, my favourite SOHN track.




Of course there are others that I'm looking forward to, some new, some not so new (complete with links to older blog posts!). On the not so new artist side, there's new music from James Vincent McMorrow, Sabina Sciubba (of Brazilian Girls, and possibly even some from Brazilian Girls), Warpaint, Broken Bells, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Jezabels, and St. Vincent. And on the new artist side, aside from Banks and SOHN, there's Dan Croll, Kelela, Kwabs, Say Lou Lou, Bipolar Sunshine, and RY X.

And of course Jai Paul. Always Jai Paul. A boy can dream...

Top 10 Albums of 2013

I've spent the last couple of weeks going back over all the music I loved this year, and was pleasantly surprised. 2013 left me feeling like it wasn't an amazing year for music, but when I looked back at how many albums I loved this year, there were more than expected.

As always, it's hard to narrow it down to 10, but here we go. I have attempted to put them in some sort of order, though I make no guarantees that I might change my mind tomorrow. I leave it for you with no comment, but with links to previous blogs if they exist, and best of all, with a Spotify playlist of my favourite tracks from each album down at the bottom.


10. Local Natives - Hummingbird

As seen here.
















9. James Blake - Overgrown

















8. Haim - Days Are Gone

As seen here.
















7. Foals - Holy Fire

















6. Laura Mvula - Sing To the Moon

As seen here.

5. Daughter - If You Leave

As seen here.
















4. CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe

















3. Lucius - Wildewoman

As seen here and here.
















2. Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle

















1. Bonobo - The North Borders

As seen here.

And as promised, a playlist with my two favourite tracks from each album. Again, I make no guarantees that this will not change tomorrow. Not the list, I'm too lazy to update that, but my opinion about my favourites. And if you like it, I have other playlists on Spotify you can listen to.



All about Africa

I just got back to Asia after being gone for like 2 1/2 months. And as much as I don't love Singapore (it's fine, I don't dislike it or anything, but it's not the most exciting place), I actually could not wait to be back here. I think it was the food that did it. Food in rural Germany is not the most exciting thing, and there are not many options. And worst of all there is an utter lack of anything spicy. And if you know me, you know I rarely go a day without eating something spicy.

The point of the above paragraph was twofold: first to make sure you know how much I like spicy food, and second to inform you that I am jetlagged and my brain is not working properly, so I'm going to forgo the storytelling and my usual poor attempts at wittiness and just get on to the music. But not to worry, I will get slightly off topic below.

It's a bit of a medley this time. I've found a few African artists I really like lately (of course I would do this when I'm no longer living in Africa), so I thought I'd just share a song from each of them.

The first is Rokia Traoré,a Malian singer who sings mostly in Bambara and French. On her new album, Beautiful Africa, she sings in English a bit too, which sounds weird to me. But she's great, and Mali is a great country, at least based on the little bit of it that I've seen. I would actually really like to go back and properly visit sometime. Kouma is one of my favourites off said new album.




Then there's Bombino, a Nigerien singer. From Niger, not Nigeria. Unlike Mali, Niger is not a great country. Granted I was only there for like 24 hours, but what I saw was pretty barren. Then we were meant to stay in what we were told was the second nicest hotel in Niamey, but there were cockroaches in the beds. Not just in the rooms, but actually in the beds. Like on my pillow. We changed hotels.

Also getting into the country was really sketchy. Technically you need a visa in advance, but our contacts set it up so we could get visas on arrival. This involved the police taking my passport at the border, sending it to HQ in Niamey to process the visa, and giving it back to me about an hour before I flew out of the country. So basically I had no passport the entire time I was there and almost missed my flight to leave cause we were waiting for the visa. I guess it's better than when I went to Cote d'Ivoire. Same visa situation as Niger, but they didn't even bother to give me the visa when I landed in Abidjan. Instead, they just kept my passport at the airport and told me to pick it up on the way out of the country. So I actually have on record in my passport of ever having visited.

But I digress. Bombino also put out a new album this year, Nomad. It's pretty fantastic Tuareg rock, sung in Tamashek (I only know this because of Wikipedia). I think it makes great driving music. Actually I think most African music I like makes great driving music. Here's Amidinine, the opening track.




And last but not least comes John Wizards. This is a group, not a person, from Cape Town. Much like Mali, Cape Town is also great. In fact, I'd say it's one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And not just Cape Town, but the whole surrounding region. The singer is apparently from Rwanda, though, another wonderful African country. In fact Kigali is one of the 3 cities in Africa that I would actually be happy to live in (the others being Cape Town and Maputo). It's safe, beautiful, the people are nice, and they've done an excellent job of recovering from their history. It also seems to have a really vibrant, young expat community full of people doing interesting things, and there's lots of opportunity in that country. But again, I digress.

John Wizards self-titled debut album came out this year and it's kind of weird, but I kind of really like it. And the more I listen to it the more I like it. My favourite track is Muizenberg, which also happens to be a small surfer town just south of Cape Town.

So to summarize: Mali, Cape Town and Rwanda - good. Niger - not so good. But still better than Senegal. Senegal is horrible. It's probably my least favourite country not just in Africa, but in the world. And I've been 3 times. I hope I never have to go again. But to end on a positive note, at least Senegalese food is delicious. I'll take Yassa poullet and a bissap any day.