Music for 5/30/24!!! Fanya Rai

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@@@ Fanya Rai: Una Ronde Mas (Microscope, 2024). I got to this Catalan folk music record via this week’s WRIR playlist email. My first impression is I love records that prominently feature accordion and I find the high levels of bass to be very propulsive to the record, the bass really moves your ass. It’s got a pretty jubilant energy without being cheesy at all, it’s got the feeling of a party punk record. The singer is not flashy but he’s got skills. Instrumentation is accordion, electric bass, guitar and percussion, I haven’t heard a drum kit yet. It’s a party record and pretty modern giving the folk formula, and though I have no clue what they’re singing about, it feels very humorous and fun, maybe I’m projecting. Check it out.

NY Gov. Hochul just found out black kids use computers and now she wants to take them away.

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From the Guardian:

New York governor to launch bill banning smartphones in schools

Exclusive: Kathy Hochul pushes online child safety, telling social media companies: ‘You’re not going to profit off the mental health of children’

Music for 5/29/24!!! Carlos Nino and Friends

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@@@ Carlos Nino and Friends: Placenta (International Anthem, 2024). Slotted as jazz on Apple Music but labelled as ambient on this week’s All Music notable release email, the idea of how jazz and ambient music goes together is interesting to me. This is a two song pre-release single one titled Love to all Doulas! and the other Birthworkers Magic and how we get hear which features Andre 3000 (probably doing his flute thing). I am not 100% on this but it sonds like a slow jazz jam that was slowed down further with the use of software. It’s interesting without fulling capturing the ambient vibes that I love. Onto the second track. It’s my blog and I have to make the call and I say this is ambient mellow jazz and doesn’t really integrate ambient music into jazz at the level I wanted to hear. Check for yourself.

Music for 5/28/24!!! Asmaa Hamzaoui and Bnat Timbouktou

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@@@ ASMAA HAMZAOUI AND BNAT TIMBOUKTOU | L’bnat (Ajabu, 2024) Two female African musicians tearing it up on a record I got to via the WRIR weekly playlist email. Okay I did a little investigating and it’s a Moroccan woman and Bnat Timbouktou is her band, so that’s where that’s at. It’s a woman and her band I like the singing but the string playing and the rhythms are heavy, really captivationg. I guess it’s a big deal to have a woman fronting a gnawa band so let’s applaud that and her voice changes the vibe of the recording. She’s got a power and a tenderness and I know a lot of the gents can go that way but her tenderness is more pronounced in my dumbass opinion. This could be the first banging African record of summer 2024. The musicianship here is very high, the singing as well, it’s a welcome break from the computerized music business that I enjoy as well as this. Check it out.

American billionaire uses fake #antisemitism to justify his support of #racist Donald Trump. #dystopia

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From CNN:

“The dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency. I share the concern of most Americans that our economic, immigration and foreign policies are taking the country in the wrong direction. For these reasons, I am planning to vote for change and support Donald Trump for President. In addition, I will be supporting Republican Senate candidates and other Republicans up and down the ticket.”

You can’t make this shit up, really you can’t, it’s impossible to make up.

Music for 5/24/24!!! Clancy

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@@@ Clancy: twenty one pilots (Fueled by Ramen, 2024) I would label this record as an updated Chemical Brothers type of recording with big frat boy beats, some electro garnish and some arena rock swirled in. This first track, Overcompensate, is I don’t really know what to say about it, I don’t think it’s designed to make a mental impression it’s like fast food — greasy, salty, maybe in the moment some folks could really groove on it but it super feels like a product. The second tune gets a bit more into the rock/pop punk neighborhood so it’s an amalgamation of a lot of styles, whatever spaghetti should be chucked at the wall. It’s really an expansive pop vision because all the things you hear on big records like whoa ho background vocals, drum fills, certain kinds of guitar grinds, it’s all here. The third tune, Backslide, hits the hip hop browser tab and I’m out. A little bit Taco Bell, a little bit McDonalds, a little bit Burger King, a little bit of Applebees.

Music for 5/23/24!!! Shannon and the Clams

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@@@ Shannon and the Clams: The Moon is in the Wrong Place (Easy Eye/Concord, 2024) I’ve had records by this outfit on my best of year lists so that earns an automatic peep for this record. They in the past have lived up to what I consider the real spirit of indie rock which unapologetically weird rock music. They continue to rock an off kilter rock flow, not particularly hard or soft, they don’t rock super hard but they do a Cali soft right thing at all. These guys are clearly a seasoned outfit, they have great cohesiveness as a band and their skill level is much higher than yer normal indie rock band. I like the singer, I like the playing, I’m not sure I’m super pumped by the tunes themselves. There are passages that I think are really ear catching and parts I like less. I give it a B+ and some other folks out there might really really like it.

#Biden’s speech at Morehouse college was a farewell, he looks set to get crushed.

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From CNN:

Younger Black voters see what their ancestors saw: a permanent state of hard times that require more than the blame games that Biden tried to play with the Supreme Court or Republicans.

Permanent state of hard times, remember that phrase.

Music for 5/22/24!!! Junior Boys, Morgan Guerin

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@@@ Junior Boys: Waiting Game (City Slang, 2022). Ambient music off a vintage All Music notable release email. The slight thread of r&b and soul flavors makes this ambient record different though I can’ say right at this moment whether I like it or not. Ah, after about 4 tunes I’ve decided this isn’t really for me, I don’t like the blend of r&b and ambient it feels clash-y, but that’s just me.

@@@ Morgan Guerin: Tales of the Facade (Candid, 2024). I see from the Youtube that this gent is a Brooklyn Roulette club performer type which means that his r&b is not gonna be straight ahead and there’s gonna be something larger at work. There’s a little bit of jazz fusion and whole bunch of prog rock in the second track ‘Delayed Green’. I like some of what’s going on here, but I wish it had pushed further into out-ness as I would have been more interested in hearing what that sounds like. Just one dude here, it’s my opinion, you can wipe your ass with it, check it for yourself.