Hello back for another sunday, these times out Bob’s as you sure have noticed. I got stuck in a Norwegian village very close to be the most beautiful place I’ve ever been at, and since there is no WiFi in our house, I have asked a couple of good friends and Sunday at Bob’s comrades if they would be willing to contribute so that the blog doesn’t die. To my greatest amazement not only the blog didn’t die but I saw myself becoming a fan and getting excited for each next post. I have to thank a thousand times Lena for the beautiful tour she gave us around her repertoire, Maisa for the deep ten emotional stages of a broken heart and finally Nabila and Nadimov for their insight into other confinment moments and what role music can play in these moments. I must say I got hooked on George Qormuz. One last thing before we start, I still don’t have WiFi while I am writing this, I shall go down to the village later on to post it on the main square, stealing the waves of the now closed public library. I say this because I can’t double check the facts I’d usually write about the music featured, therefore there might be a lot less. Here we go.
There are a lot of great things about not having WiFi in your everyday life and I’m not gonna start writing about that because I would never stop. However it did not come handy when I tried to build up a new playlist going through my hard drive and forbidding myself to pick musicians that had already been played here. Hence I did not. Hence also some choices have more to do with nostalgia of my first mp3 player (the ones that were USB stick with a jack entrance, 128mb if you may) than with the urge to share discoveries. When the time stops we have time to look behind, I guess that’s what I did. We heard Oscar Brown Jr. here before, who is forever in a special category with the greatest of the greatest for having written Rags and Old Irons, later on magnificently interpreted by Nina Simone. And this is typically a fact I would have googled to be sure before puting out there but let’s roll on. But I Was Cool appeared as a fun way to start a playlist yet most probably a bit itchy. An interesting song nonetheless that reminds me of Screaming Jay Hawkins’ Constipation Blues and movies like the one from Jim Jarmush with the word « train » in the title most likely. This post might become a demonstration of how I rely on the internet to write, especially if it turns out no Jim Jarmush movie title has the word « train » in it.
The second song is from one of my all times favourite albums and from an artist I really have trouble with. Abd Al Malik exploded in our faces with Gibraltar and, I mean, after an album like that what can you do? Well that’s the question teenage me was asking his self until Abd Al Malik answered. Everytime he released an album I was there, I listened to it from beggining to end but never felt the thrill and the sharpness of Gibraltar. I remember going through a lot of trouble with my friends to find everything he had made before with N.A.P for instance. Regardless, I will never run out of respect for him.
After that we have a masterpiece from a guitar master. I don’t think we need to introduce Paco de Lucía. A little story instead. Once at Bob’s great musicians were playing, guitar players, improvising. After a while they took a smoking break and as excited as I was by the sound of this magnificent instrument I played Entre Dos Aguas in the speakers, as an interlude you know like in the old days at the movies you could go pee or get some popcorn. Well one of the musicians came to me and told me he was afraid he’d sound like shit playing after Paco de Lucía. I won’t tell you what I played after that.
And the Maloya returns to Sunday at Bob’s once again! What a pleasure. I did not know Les Pythons de la Fournaise whose album I received from a good friend while in Norway and is probably the only new piece of music I listened to in two months. However I knew Maloya ton tisane which I hesitated many times to feature here. Their version of it is very cool, I recommend it, it’s probably on YouTube.
Then we have Paulo Diniz, I was sure we had heard him here before but apparently not. Or was it in the very first playlist? E Agore Jose is an album I played often at Bob’s one summer when we had a considerable amount of guests from Brazil. It is not the first time I mention my admiration for Brazil as a continent of music. These months at Bob’s were full of joy and I discovered quite a lot of Brazilian music thanks to wonderful people.
We go on with a song taken from a compilation called The Sound Of Siam Vol. 2 Molam & Luk Thung Isan From North-East Thailand 1970 - 1982. I got interested in music from this part of the world and this slice of the timeline when the movie Only God Forgives got out. You must start somewhere don’t you? Whithout any knowledge whatsoever of the language nor any acquaintance from there it was very difficult to find out more. This compilation might be the only remainings of those attempts already rather old in my hard drive. However I can’t get over the beauty of the words sung. Nowadays I could probably be more efficient, maybe I will try when I get back to civilization.
I don’t believe we heard the fascinating voice of Gabi Lunca here before. What a voice. She reminds me somehow of the most recent albums of Elza Soares, I don’t know why. Very powerful.
Oh and then there is the great Ghalia Benali. We heard her here for sure before. No need to say too much but this time we have a longer song (and more time, no?) to enjoy.
I have been waiting to bring Mélanie de Biasio to Sunday at Bob’s for a long time and didn’t really know how. I thought it could be interesting to have her right after Ghalia Benali since they are both from Belgium and have somekind of common smoothness. Here we have a song which I think achieves brilliantly the prouesse of being at the same time very deep, somehow dark and very funny. It is about men after sex I believe.
I know for sure it’s not the first time we host Trifle either and I think we can be glad to have them back. I reckon it was New Religion we heard last time. It is followed by an album I’ve listened to a lot as well in my younger years. I don’t know anything about Protomartyr, I don’t even know why I have this album on my hard drive but I quite like it.
The last song is a special song that talks very sharply about being from the first generation of immigrants and going back to the country to visit the family. I think it is a very special song because it takes an angle I’ve never heard anywhere else in French rap. It mentions the difficulties of defending artistic life choices in front of relatives living a life of everyday struggle. The lyrics are filled with humility and clear view that contrast with the upset and almost aggressive tone of Ekoué. I believe it is the first song he ever recorded in a studio. I listened to a radio show recently about poetry and one of the guests mentioned a belief that originally, all the words existed. Everything had a word to be referred to. And slowly, words that were considered useless or harmful to society were removed and forgotten. I wonder if there was ever a word for what Ekoué describes here.
That’s it for this week! I wish you all a great confinment and hope you are doing well.
Enjoy and don’t ever forget that the check out time is 10h30, ever.
The receptionist
Playlist:
1. Oscar Brown Jr. - But I Was Cool
2. Abd Al Malik - Gibraltar
3. Paco de Lucía - Entre Dos Aguas
4. Les Pythons de la Fournaise - Ah Pauline
5. Paulo Diniz - Bahia Comigo
6. Thepporn Petchubon - Fang Jai Viangjan
7. Gabi Lunca - Sus in deal pe poienita
8. Ghalia Benali - Rubaiyat
9. Mélanie De Biasio - Les hommes endormis
10. Trifle - Devil Comin'
11. Protomartyr - Bad Advice
12. La Rumeur - Blessé dans mon égo
No comments:
Post a Comment