I'm getting ready to head to Germany tonight, but wanted to get in a bit of music for the week. Nothing to really tell you today. My week has been busy at work, as it always is when I'm trying finish stuff up before a business trip. Last week I was in Xiamen, which I wrote some stuff about. That was fun. Weekend was a good mix of being productive and being active and being a bit lazy but less than usual which felt nice.
Oh! Here's an exciting thing! I managed to get a Japanese book on my Kindle, after years of trying, and I got it with a Japanese English dictionary, which means when I don't know a word and I click it, I get the pronunciation and translation. It is amazing. It makes me so happy. I've wanted to do this for years and finally talked to a friend who does it, and got it to work. Basically, I needed to sign up for an amazon.co.jp account, which meant using a friend's address and phone number in Japan, and navigating the site in Japanese, and registering my Japanese account on my Kindle, not my English one. But it worked. So it's all good. And I'm so happy. And now I have a book I've started reading which a friend recommended, about a grasshopper researcher who goes to Mauritania to solve a grasshopper infestation which is leading to drought and famine. I honestly have no clue if it is fiction or non-fiction. Yet. I'll get back to you on that.
Anyway, so yeah, work is fine, week is fine, life is fine, and now I'm going to Germany for a couple weeks. But before that, music. International music. From 3 artists today.
First up is Jawhar. He put out a new album, Winrah Marah, in April, and it popped up somewhere. I don't know where. But I heard one of his songs, and it is fantastic. This guy is from Tunis, and makes Arab folk rock, which he sings all in Arabic. I have no idea what he's singing about, but I love it. Reminds me of Palatine, who I wrote about earlier this year, who I also have no idea what they're singing about. He actually has an older album also, which I should go listen to, but for now I've only heard Winrah Marah. It's a great album, all of which is worth listening to multiple times, but I'm going to leave you with Soutbouk today.
Now we're moving into some interesting cross-over territory with the next song, which comes courtesy of Angelique Kidjo. This woman is a legend in African music. She just might be on of the most famous African musicians on the planet. And generally, she's pretty great. But she's just put out this album called Remain in Light, and the entire album is a track for track cover of The Talking Heads' album Remain in Light from 1980, in Angelique Kidjo's West African style. Now already this is an interesting idea, so despite not being a massive Talking Heads fan, I really wanted to listen. And it is fun. And of course I was curious about the original, so I found a playlist which lines it up track by track. The interesting thing is that the original actually lends itself really well to West African music. I don't think I would have ever heard it if I just listened to the Talking Heads, but side by side, there's already some elements that seem to be influenced by African music. Pretty fascinating. And the best track, by far, is Once In A Lifetime. I'm sure you've heard the original, even if you don't know it, but once you hear the cover, you'll know what song it is. And you'll probably do what I do and listen over and over.
In a similar vein as Angelique Kidjo covering The Talking Heads, we have a track from Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly's new collaboration, an album titled Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music. I previously knew the name Nico Muhly, but not Thomas Bartlett, but the album was on a new releases playlist I follow and I was intrigued by the album name. So I looked it up, and was even more intrigued, and had to go listen. Basically, there was this guy Colin McPhee who was an ethnomusicologist and worked in Indonesia back in the 1930s. He brought back the traditional music he heard in Indonesia and started creating world music back in the US. Now, Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly were inspired by him and wrote some songs which incorporate his transcriptions of traditional Balinese ceremonial music. It will not be at all what you expect, but it is beautiful and super interesting. As an album, it's a bit boring by the end, but definitely worth a listen, and definitely worth making it on the blog. So I'll share Dominic with you as today's last track.
Oh! Here's an exciting thing! I managed to get a Japanese book on my Kindle, after years of trying, and I got it with a Japanese English dictionary, which means when I don't know a word and I click it, I get the pronunciation and translation. It is amazing. It makes me so happy. I've wanted to do this for years and finally talked to a friend who does it, and got it to work. Basically, I needed to sign up for an amazon.co.jp account, which meant using a friend's address and phone number in Japan, and navigating the site in Japanese, and registering my Japanese account on my Kindle, not my English one. But it worked. So it's all good. And I'm so happy. And now I have a book I've started reading which a friend recommended, about a grasshopper researcher who goes to Mauritania to solve a grasshopper infestation which is leading to drought and famine. I honestly have no clue if it is fiction or non-fiction. Yet. I'll get back to you on that.
Anyway, so yeah, work is fine, week is fine, life is fine, and now I'm going to Germany for a couple weeks. But before that, music. International music. From 3 artists today.
First up is Jawhar. He put out a new album, Winrah Marah, in April, and it popped up somewhere. I don't know where. But I heard one of his songs, and it is fantastic. This guy is from Tunis, and makes Arab folk rock, which he sings all in Arabic. I have no idea what he's singing about, but I love it. Reminds me of Palatine, who I wrote about earlier this year, who I also have no idea what they're singing about. He actually has an older album also, which I should go listen to, but for now I've only heard Winrah Marah. It's a great album, all of which is worth listening to multiple times, but I'm going to leave you with Soutbouk today.
Now we're moving into some interesting cross-over territory with the next song, which comes courtesy of Angelique Kidjo. This woman is a legend in African music. She just might be on of the most famous African musicians on the planet. And generally, she's pretty great. But she's just put out this album called Remain in Light, and the entire album is a track for track cover of The Talking Heads' album Remain in Light from 1980, in Angelique Kidjo's West African style. Now already this is an interesting idea, so despite not being a massive Talking Heads fan, I really wanted to listen. And it is fun. And of course I was curious about the original, so I found a playlist which lines it up track by track. The interesting thing is that the original actually lends itself really well to West African music. I don't think I would have ever heard it if I just listened to the Talking Heads, but side by side, there's already some elements that seem to be influenced by African music. Pretty fascinating. And the best track, by far, is Once In A Lifetime. I'm sure you've heard the original, even if you don't know it, but once you hear the cover, you'll know what song it is. And you'll probably do what I do and listen over and over.
In a similar vein as Angelique Kidjo covering The Talking Heads, we have a track from Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly's new collaboration, an album titled Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music. I previously knew the name Nico Muhly, but not Thomas Bartlett, but the album was on a new releases playlist I follow and I was intrigued by the album name. So I looked it up, and was even more intrigued, and had to go listen. Basically, there was this guy Colin McPhee who was an ethnomusicologist and worked in Indonesia back in the 1930s. He brought back the traditional music he heard in Indonesia and started creating world music back in the US. Now, Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly were inspired by him and wrote some songs which incorporate his transcriptions of traditional Balinese ceremonial music. It will not be at all what you expect, but it is beautiful and super interesting. As an album, it's a bit boring by the end, but definitely worth a listen, and definitely worth making it on the blog. So I'll share Dominic with you as today's last track.
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