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Sounds From the Outernational Hi-Fi
Sounds From the Outernational Hi-Fi
Around the turn of the Millennium, a handful of deejays and electronica artists began experimenting in remixing more exotic forms of music. The music was such a confluence of subgenres that many electronic music & techno fans didn't find what they're looking for in it. The music was electronic in that nearly everything was tweaked on a studio soundboard. However, the musical genres were wildly varied from jazz samba, to dub reggae, to Brazilian bossa nova, to Italian b-movie soundtracks from the Sixties, to West Indian socca, to Bollywood film soundtracks to French pop classics. For lack of a better category, these new electronica artists were usually shoe-horned into the trip hop subgenre of electronic music. An example of this new eclectic approach to remixing international music was Thievery Corporation's enticing remix of Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66's Chove Chuva, an old bossa nova tune. It appears on Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi a collection of Thievery Corporation remixes that was issued in 2001. I was stunned at how much better Chove Chuva sounded with Thievery Corporation's addition of an exotic sitar, enhanced percussion, and a jazzy piano solo. The remastering of the song added a crystalline sound quality that was absent from the original 1966 version of the song. Most amazingly, Thievery Corporation's remix of Chove Chuva didn't intrude upon the artistic quality of the original song. Sergio Mendes loved the Thievery Corporation remix of Chove Chuva and he designated the Thievery Corporation version as the official Brazil '66 version to be used in any future SM & Brazil '66 anthologies. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...e/cd-cover.jpg Sounds From the Verve Hi-Fi - The album that started it all. Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi began my own awareness of this new fusion of electronica with international music. Thievery Corporation coined the term Outernational music to describe these musical encounters between electronica artists and the wildly diverse subgenres of the world music. My purpose in this thread titled Sounds From the Outernational Hi-Fi is to provide the MB reader with an informal history of the outernational music movement and to provide some musical samples for those interested in this relatively new form of electronic music. |
Before Thievery
The flirtation between electronic music artists and world beat music goes further back than Thievery Corporation's trademark outernational sound. In the early 80's dub electronica artist Adrian Sherwood began recording a series of albums by African Head Charge, a shifting lineup of musicians led by percussionist Bongo I. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...2010-AP-14.jpg Bongo I of African Head Charge On the 1994 album In Pursuit of Shashamane Land producer Sherwood combined just the right elements of world music with a Western sensibility to earn a great deal of critical acclaim for African Head Charge. The opening cut on the album, Heading To Glory Sherwood's mastery of organic dub techniques made the song a tour de force performance of world beat music. ________________________________ http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...-Kei-001-1.jpg Public Image Ltd. The groundbreaking post-punk band Public Image Ltd. began experimenting with atonal Arabic music and combining it with dub music as early as the late 70's. The title song to PIL's 1981 album The Flowers of Romance is an intriguing fusion of Arabic music and dub. ____________________________________ After leaving Public Image Ltd., bassist Jah Wobble continued to play Middle Eastern music infused with dub music studio techniques. Betrayal is from Jah Wobble's first studio album, The Legend Lives On, issued late in 1981. ___________________________________ In reality, electronic music artists were experimenting with world music long before Thievery Corporation got into the game. The fusion of world music with electronica didn't begin with Thievery nor will it end with Theivery. |
Meanwhile Down In Mexico...
Mexican singer Julieta Venegas' breakout as electronic dance music/world music star in 2003 is one of the wonderous stories on the outernational music scene a decade ago. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...etavenagas.jpg Julieta Venegas Julieta embarked on her musical journey at a young age, studying piano from the age of eight. In addition to piano, she also studied musical theory, singing, cello, and violoncello at La Escuela de Música del Noroeste, while she also crossed the U.S. border to study at South Western College in San Diego -- all of this before she even graduated from high school. She plays several instruments in her onstage appearances including accordion, piano, and guitar. She spent most of the Nineties touring with various bands in her native Mexico and the Southwestern region of the United States. Her 2003 album Si was such a sunny and dance oriented affair that it alienated of many of her fans who liked her earlier complex and moody ethnic Latin music. Si won several Latin music awards and was one of the earliest recordings that combined Latin music and electronic dance music. Julieta performing her dancehall hit Donde Quiero Estar at the 2005 Festival de Viña. Miss Venegas really knows how to work a crowd.... she takes my breath away. |
A lot of interesting material here, Gavin B, and now I quite understand why you weren´t too sure where to put this thread!
I really like African Head Charge, so it´s interesting to see them put into the context of a movement or style. You chose a great track - do you know their Drums of Defiance album by any chance ? I also enjoyed the Public Image and Jah Wobble material - first time I´ve heard anything by either artist, so I need to do a little investigating... I look forward to seeing some more examples, to get clearer in my head what would make a song Outernational. I wonder, for instance, if these guys called Vox would count: Despite appearances to the contrary, they are a more-or-less German group who only use light electronic touches, with no dub or sampling going on at all. This track is particularly gentle and serves as a lead-in to an album of mediaeval Spanish material called From Spain To Spain :- |
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There's no reason why an electronic group like Vox shouldn't be within the outernational realm since they play a wide range of world music forms. Jazz musicians like Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Pharaoh Sanders and Herbie Mann also experimented with world music and it's really jazz musicians who first promoted an awareness of world music in the United States. I'm familiar with most of African Head Charge's studio albums. I know that Drums of Defiance appears on a 2006 collection of world music that Adrian Sherwood produced called Spirits of Africa. I've never heard the album but it has an awesome roster of outernational style artists like Nitin Sawhney, Terracotta, Lemongrass and Wax Poetic. A lot of these albums fall out of issue and I can't find it anywhere. |
New Wave Bossa Nova from Paris France
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...vellevague.jpg The most current edition of Nouvelle Vague Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux were producers and musicians on the Parisian trip-hop scene before founding Novelle Vague in 2003. Their concept was to resurrect classics from the punk & New Wave music era, and reinterpret them in the samba and bossa nova styles of Brazil. Collin and Libaux deliberately recruited both Brazilian and French singers who were completely unfamiliar with punk and new wave music to assure their vocal renditions had their own identity, uninfluenced by the original music. The lineup of singers varied from album to album but nearly every singer was a notable, well established vocalist who either sang Brazilian music or French pop. On the name Nouvelle Vague: Nouvelle Vague means "new wave" in English but in the Porteguese native tongue of Brazil, Nouvelle Vague means "bossa nova." In France, Nouvelle Vague is the name for the '60s new wave of cult French cinema. Here's Nouvelle Vague's cover version of the new wave classic I'll Melt With You, originally done by Modern English. Nouvelle Vague gained a reputation for their hilarious stage antics at live shows. In finale of their live shows, one or both of the sexy female singers ends up writhing on the floor in an over-the-top display of feigned ecstasy. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...vellevague.jpg Writing in ecstasy in concert Theatrics aside, there's still a lot to like about these clever rearrangements of new wave classics by Collin and Libaux. Their understated samba interpretation the XTC classic, Making Plans For Nigel induces more fear and loathing of a future Big Brother dystopian society than the original version. This live performance of Nigel is at the Bluebird Cafe in Denver Colorado. Please pardon the crowd noise. |
Europop from Barcelona
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...te/pinker2.jpg Mister Furia and Professor Manso of the Pinker Tones The Pinker Tones were founded in 2002 by a strange pair of musicians from Barcelona Spain who call themselves Mister Furia and Professor Manso. Apparently, they never appear in public without their sunglasses. The Pinker Tones play a wildly diverse selection of Europop, break beat, bossa nova, psychedelic, swing and lounge music. They have a sort of Devoesque sense of humor about the music they play. In “Pinkerland,” a tiny rooftop studio in the center of Barcelona, the Pinker Tones put together their first album, 'The Pink Connection', which was released in 2003. They've released eight albums in the past decade and remixed albums of several of their favorites artists including Astrud Gilberto and Italian soundtrack composer Alessandro Alessandroni. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...te/pinker3.jpg Pinker Tones in concert The embedded song Happy Everywhere from their 2008 album, Wild Animals really caught my ear and raised my curiosity about the Pinker Tones. The video for Happy Everywhere is one of my favorites. |
Electronica from Argentina
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...uanamolina.jpg Juana Molina Juana Molina was the daughter of internationally famous tango dancing parents who fled to Paris during one of the fascist military coups in her native Argentina. Juana returned to Argentina as an adult and became a prominent comedic actress. She didn't pursue a music career until she was well in her thirties and became instantly successful in South America. Ms. Molina uses traditional Argentine folk music as a framework but expands it with by using numerous electronic and psychedelic effects. She's particularly skillful at using a delay pedal which allows her to add vocal background singing and various electronic effects when she performs. She is often compared by critics to Björk, Beth Orton, and Lisa Germano. She usually writes, mixes tracks and performs on her own. Her second album, Segundo, was named Best World Music Album 2003 in Entertainment Weekly and was shortlisted for a Grammy Award nomination. Tres Cosas was placed in the Top Ten Records of 2004 by the New York Times. Since I understand very little Spanish I'm not sure about the meaning of her songs but I'm told that many of her lyrics reflect her pro-socialist political worldview. One of my favorite songs by Juana Molina is Rio Seco from her 2006 album Son. The song is awash with psychedelic production effects. |
British Downtempo Music with an International Flavor
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/lapeste/zero7.jpg Zero 7 in concert with Australian trip hop vocalist Sia Furler Fans of electronic music are probably well acquainted with the downtempo trip hop orientated sound of Zero 7. Since 2001 Zero 7 has had 4 best selling studio albums and have won several electronic and world music awards. The founders Henry Binns and Sam Hardarker were a pair of sound engineers at Mickey Most's RAK studios in London in the early 90s and they began recording their own music between sessions in the mid 1990s. The vocal duties are handled by a revolving cast of singers who already have successful careers as vocalists including Sia, Tina Dico, Mozez, José González, Sophie Barker & Martha Tilston. Pageant of the Bizarre is a song that has both acid jazz and Eastern European folk music influences. The song Swing is jazz in form but still has ethnic folk music influences. According to Wiki: Quote:
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Elizabeth Butterfly: The Parisian Club Scene Meets the Outernational Sound
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...asyparis-1.jpg French Deejay Elizabeth Butterfly In the summer 2002 I had my first encounter with the outernational club scene in Paris. I went to a rave style event that featured two deejays: Dimitri from Paris and Elizabeth Butterfly. Dimitri was pretty much a straight-up house deejay but Madame Butterfly was playing a wide range of music that included samba, bossa nova, 60's French pop, cool jazz and even some punk thrown in for good measure. I purchased her album of remixes titled Easy Paris and grew to love her eclectic musical taste. Saravah Samba was a frenzied remix of a bossa nova by Pierre Barouh with zany tape loops and pulsating drumbeats: Another remix, Aux Cyclades Electonique was a jazzy electronic song by French soundtrack artist Bertrand Bergalat. Easy Paris is far and away my favorite outernational album. The sad thing is I've never seen Easy Paris for sale anywhere in the United States and I have no idea of what happened to Elizabeth Butterfly following my 2002 trip to Paris. She obviously did not go onto international fame as a deejay or producer, and I know of no other albums by her...But we still have Paris in the summer of 2002. |
Balkan Music with Electronic Beats
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...ntel-splsh.jpg German deejay Shantel (on left) mixes the traditional music of Romania with techno rhythms Shantel (real name- Stefan Hantel) is a Frankfort based deejay and producer who has family roots in the Bukovina region of Romania. He originally gained notoriety for his work with gypsy brass bands, but began remixing traditional Balkan music with techno and house music beats. I Am Exactly What You're Looking For from his 1998 album Higher Than The Funk has a breezy downtempo sound of trip hop music. Tosca Session is reminiscent of the layered industrial beats used by artists like Bjork and Aphex Twin and the song is probably more ambient music than techno. Discography of Shantel Super Mandarine (1994) Club Guerilla (1995) Auto Jumps & Remixes (1997) EP (1997) No. 2 (1997) "II" EP (1998) Higher than the Funk (1998) Oh So Lovely EP (1998) Oh So Lovely Remixes (1998) Backwood (2001) Great Delay (2001) Inside (2001) Bucovina (2003) Disko (2003) Bucovina Club Vol. 2 (2005) Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers (2006) Disko Partizani (2007) Disko Partizani Remixes (2008) Planet Paprika (2009) Shantel was fairly prolific up until 2009 and I read somewhere that he's currently not recording and he's pursuing more traditional forms of Balkan and gypsy music. There's very little biographical and background information on Shantel and very few examples of his music on YouTube. I had to upload the featured songs in my journal entry myself because there was so little of his music on YouTube. |
Saint Etienne: Europop Meets House Music
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...62148828_n.jpg Saint Etienne vocalist Sarah Cracknell in concert Saint Etienne was one of the earliest British groups to experiment with indie pop electronica. The trio had the highly conceptual idea of fusing the pop music of Swinging London of the Sixties with contemporary club music rhythms. I befriended the band during their first American tour by writing a highly enthusiastic review of their live concert for an underground Boston weekly paper. I've managed to stay on their mailing list for over 20 years and I still get invited to their album release parties but I've never attended one because the cost of airfare to London is prohibitive. One of my favorite songs is one they recorded for the soundtrack of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's 2006 film Volver staring the lovely Penélope Cruz. It doesn't really have a Spanish musical flavor but it fits like a glove into the theme of Almodóvar's film. The title of the track is Good Thing. Earlier this year (2013) Saint Etienne released a four cd box set entitled Words and Music by Saint Etienne. The first cd was an all new album and the other 3 cds were remixes of many of Saint Etienne's classic hits. One remix, Soft Like Me was a pleasant surprise to me because I really didn't like the original version of the song when it appeared on their 2002 album Finisterre. East German deejay Paul Van Dyk is so obsessed with Saint Etienne's song Tell Me Why , he's done a dozen different remixes of it over the years. From my perspective, Tell Me Why is the most perfect pop song I've ever heard. The lyrics have the deceptive simplicity of a Zen koan and Van Dyk's angular minimalist remix underscores the moody and mysterious atmospherics of the song. St. Etienne Discography Foxbase Alpha (1991) So Tough (1993) Tiger Bay (1994) Good Humor (1998) Sound of Water (2000) Finisterre (2002) Tales from Turnpike House (2005) Words and Music by Saint Etienne (2012) |
I´m sorry to say that you´ve been proved right about the lack of attention this thread is receiving, Gavin :(
I´m still catching up with artists you´ve been posting, and I was pleased to recognize the name of Julietta Venegas, who has had quite a few pop-song hits here in Mexico, the biggest being Sal y limon(=salt and lemon). I like the way, with her voice and manner, she comes across as the girl next door rather than some mega-star, but I like her best of all when she´s playing the accordion:- ^ I guess this is an example of her pre-outernational style. Another name I´ve heard before is Juana Molina, because she was mentioned here some time ago:- http://www.musicbanter.com/country-f...ml#post1112615 Thanks for the reminder; I really like that combination of simple-but-strange in her music. |
Ahhh I so love Julieta also! My favorite song from her is "Te Voy A Mostrar." :) And Gavin, I'm following your thread! Don't give up. ^^;
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Thanks again for starting this thread, Gavin! BTW, I noticed in the Tosca Session song, the vocal part is counting in Japanese, forward, backward, and mixed up. How odd! I wonder where he got that idea.. |
Thanks for your kind comments Misspopart. I have no intention of dropping the thread... I was simply on holiday for the past week. I'm hoping to put together a new post by sometime tomorrow.
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You're welcome, bro! I'm looking forward to it. :)
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From Italy Comes the Nu-Jazz/Lounge/Trip Hop/Brazilian/Sitar Bossa Nova/Whatever Music of Bebo Best
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...hestrabebo.jpg Photo: Bebo Best Italy has a long and distinguished history of producing brilliant soundtrack composers dating back to Nino Rota who wrote the lush musical scores to Fellini's films. In the late Sixties, a syndicate of abundantly gifted Italian soundtrack composers like Ennino Morricone, Allasandro Allasandroni, Francis Lai, Piero Puccioni and Piero Ulimiani dominated the European film community. Then in the late 80s, the first generation son of an Italian American immigrant fish market owner in Brooklyn, Angelo Badalamenti, became internationally famous for his innovative soundtracks to the films of David Lynch. Italian nu-jazz savant, Bebo Best has carried on the Italian soundtrack and lounge tradition into the post Millennium era. As a longtime aficionado of Italian film soundtrack composers, I find it odd that Italians seem to lack the ambition to dominate any single musical genre, except for soundtrack and lounge music. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised because after building the Colosseum and conquering most of the known world, the Italians pretty much called it a day and decided to kick back and play soccer, design cool clothes and become masters the culinary arts. Being good at composing soundtracks seems to follow the Italian's post-Roman Empire tradition of being brilliant at doing a very narrow range of specialist endeavors and to hell with any other human aspirations. Actually it's a pretty good approach to living well, when you think about it. Bebo Best is not a soundtrack composer per se, but has written the scores to several films. His main creative energies go into conducting and playing in the Super Lounge Orchestra, a band that plays music that strongly resembles...well, you got it... Italian soundtrack music. Bebo Best has a talent for producing music that takes a wide array of genres and places them into Cuisinart blender to produce a mind-bending brew of music that defies musical categorization. Soronno On the Rocks is a musical tour de force that blends nu-jazz, bossa nova, film soundtrack, lounge and trip hop genres: On his album, Jazz for Imaginary Movies Bebo Best dedicated his song Paris A La Nuit to the legendary French film director Francois Truffaut. Indeed the song sounds like it would fit like a glove into the musical score of any number of Truffaut's film in the early Seventies. Best's cover of Soul Bossa Nova is his tribute to Quincy Jones, another great producer and film soundtrack composer. The Super Lounge Orchestra is a mix of French, Italian, Brazilian and British musicians who play with a bristling intensity that is quite unlike the ambient, background playing of many film soundtrack ensembles. After over 180 cds with personalities as David Torn and Gilberto Gil, and appearing in projects beside artists as Jon Hassel, Michael Nyman, Wim Mertens, Nitin Sawhney, Trilok Gurtu, Sinead O' Connor, Mario Biondi, Ruichy Sakamoto, Frank Zappa, Marisa Monte, Bebel Gilberto, Nicola Conte, Norah Jones, Fabrizio Bosso, many soundtracks for films and TV, Bebo Best has already gained a place of honor for himself on the European music scene for his wise and original use of electronics and ethnic music that distinguished his works. One word of advice to Mr. Best: hire a publicist in the United States... Nobody has heard of you in America... which is a lowdown shame. |
I love! It reminds me of a happy blend between Bonobo & Parov Stelar. Nu-jazz is shaping up to be one of my favorite genres. I am a background music whore. That is, I'll sell myself in order to have a collection of music that can be played in the background during meals, parties, and even work at the office. Bebo makes a great addition to that collection. So danceable, too!
Thanks Gav! :D |
Outernational Nu-Jazz from Berlin
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...8122-front.jpg Photo Above: Jazzanova The Jazzanova musical collective has been a fixture on the Berlin club scene since the mid-Nineties when six deejays, Alexander Barck, Claas Brieler, Roskow Kretschmann, Stefan Leisering, Axel Reinemer, and Jürgen von Knoblauch met while spinning at a club called Delicious Donuts. Their initial goal was to bring the underexposed jazz-funk genre to more listeners but since the Millennium they've expanded their musical territory into the unchartered regions of Nu-Jazz, Sountrack Music, Lounge Trip Hop, Acid Jazz, House & Broken Beat. Early on, Jazzanova made their musical reputation in Berlin's clubs as trip hop artists who remixed downtempo jazz songs. They spend seven years doing remixes exclusively before releasing their first album of original material in 2002. Le Jardin Secret is one of their remix songs from the period between 1995 and 2002. Last year's The Funkhaus Sessions was their most provocative musical statement to date and the album shows them at the peak of their powers as producers, arrangers and players. It's a musical collaboration between Jazzanova and the sublime Detroit based vocalist Paul Randolph (aka Randolph of Lonely Eden fame). A lot of the material is reminiscent of Seventies era funk-jazz ensembles like Roy Ayer's Ubiquity and Gil Scott Heron's Midnight Band. Let It Go is from The Funkhaus Session album. Much has been said by music critics about the stagnant state of the jazz scene but apparently those critics aren't listening to Jazzanova, the future of jazz. Discography Albums In Between (2002) Of All the Things (2008) Funkhaus Studio Sessions (2012) Compilations Belle et Fou (2007) Blue Note Trip: Scrambled/Mashed (2006) Broad Casting (2006) Paz e Futebol (2006) Boom Clicky Boom Clack (single) (2006) Glow and Glare / Dance the Dance / Let Your Heart Be Free (Ame and Atjazz remixes) (2005) The Remixes 2002-2005 (2005) Blue Note Trip: Lookin Back/Movin on (2005) Mixing (2004) Remixed (2003) Soon (2002) That Night (2002) The Remixes (1997-2000) |
Two Great French Cinema Sountracks
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/lapeste/LTIP.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...soundtrack.jpg Two groundbreaking French cinema soundtracks: Last Tango In Paris (1972) & Amelie (2001) The Last Tango In Paris Story Wasn't it just like Marlon Brando to make his middle aged acting comeback in a French produced film, directed by an Italian filmmaker (the magnificent Bernando Bertolucci), which created such a stir in America for it's taboo scenes of sexuality, it became the first mainstream movie to receive the dreaded "X" rating from the Motion Pictures of America film ratings board. Last Tango In Paris stormed America like barbarians at the gate and ushered in a new age of authenticity in filmmakers the gave us such great new realist film directors as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Cimino, Terrence Malick and John Cassavetes. After Last Tango there was no turning back to the old days of Hollywood formula movies. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...o-barbieri.jpg Photo above: Gato Barbieri One of the most distinctive features of Last Tango In Paris was a bracing film score that was composed and performed by a young Argentine saxophonist, Gato Barbieri. Barbieri fused elements of noir jazz, tango music and French musette music to write a soundtrack that bristled with sexual intensity. Who can ever forget Barbieri's tune Jeanne, which served as the theme music for Brando's sexual nemesis, the Parisian femme fatale, Maria Schneider? The main theme of Last Tango shimmered with a delicate beauty but it morphed into a primal anthem of musical seduction. ============================== The Amélie Story Amélie was an off kilter, quirky French romantic comedy that came out of nowhere to take the world by storm in 2001. Amélie's director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is a self-taught director who was very quickly interested by cinema, with a predilection for a fantastic cinema where form is as important as the subject. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...annTiersen.jpg Yann Tiersen L'enfant Terrible of French Pop Jenunet's choice of Yann Tiersen to compose the score to Amélie's was a stroke of genius. Tiersen was the L'enfant terrible of French pop who grew up playing the Sex Pistols and the Ramones until somebody discovered his genius at music composition and arrangement. Jenunet and Tiersen, these two rebellious iconoclasts of French cinema turned out to be a perfect cinematic pair. On the song Comptine d'un autre été: L'après-midi, Tiersen writes and performs a piano solo piece that strongly resembles the style of the great French classical minimalist Erik Satie: But the full range of Tiersen's brilliance is on full display on the majestic orchestral pieces he writes and performs for the Amélie musical score. In the song, Les Jours Tristes Tiersen has full orchestra parts and he plays assortment of odd musical instruments like a toy piano, a squeeze box, and a banjo to create a mysterious, other-worldly quality to the soundtrack. Did I tell you that Tiersen is also an instrumental prodigy who plays twenty different musical instruments with proficiency? Tiersen played most of the instruments on the Amélie soundtrack himself using overdub recording techniques. Some folks get all the talent... |
Bonus Post!- Yann Tiersen Live
I decided to expand my previous posting on French soundtrack composer Yann Tiersen by adding some videos of his live performances. Live @ Eurorock (2001) Live at Radio Station KCRW, Santa Barbara California (2012) |
Bebo Best:-
At first run-through, I really liked the songs that you posted, though I´m not quite as enthusiastic as Miss P - I feel like they are missing a bit of exploratory jazz workout in the middle of them, as if Bebo or someone kept too tight a reign on the song structure. Still that´s just a first impression, so I still have some listening to do. What I really enjoyed was reading about this obscure material that I´ve never heard of, and I was particularly impressed when you placed Bebo in the context of Italian culture since the Romans. That was very neatly done! :laughing: Quote:
http://img.songslyrics.us/images/bio...st_2116565.jpg |
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I think most of Mr. Best's songs are tightly arranged which is technically "fake" jazz; or what some music critics are calling "Nu-jazz" with the misspelling as a code to indicate the fakery of the musical form. But I'm not surprised because the entire outernational music movement is built upon the idea of electronic enhancement of the music of traditional musical forms. I can't find any live performances of the Super Lounge Orchestra on YouTube, which would allow me to assess their improvisational skills. However, I don't place that much of premium on improvisational skills in lounge and soundtrack music because nearly all of it is tightly arranged. I think of Bebo Best as being a counterpart to someone like Quincy Jones who definitely who wrote tight arrangements to his jazz big band compositions. |
Thanks for explaining that the term "Nu-Jazz" refers to more than just the date of manufacture - I didn´t realise that.
I´m still working my way though some of your selections, Gavin, and listened to Elizabeth Butterfly yesterday. They seemed nice, rather light to me, but I´m going to play them again as you recommend them so highly:- Quote:
BTW, watch out for a thread on BaBa ZuLa opening tomorrow, if you like African Head Charge, you may like them too. |
For those unacquainted with the musical term Nu Jazz, here's a couple of definitions.
From Wiki: Nu jazz is an umbrella term coined in the late 1990s to refer to music that blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, soul, electronic dance music, and free improvisation.[1] Also written nü-jazz or NuJazz, it is sometimes called electronic jazz, electro-jazz, electric jazz, e-jazz, jazztronica, jazz house, phusion, neo-jazz, future jazz or jazz-hop. Music critic Tony Brewer: “Nu Jazz is to (traditional) Jazz what punk or grunge was to Rock, of course. [...] The songs are the focus, not the individual prowess of the musicians. Nu Jazz instrumentation ranges from the traditional to the experimental, the melodies are fresh, and the rhythms new and alive. It makes Jazz fun again.” |
Despite GavinB' s explanations, I never really understood what outernational music was. Maybe this song, with elements of what ? cabaret ? folk ? would be considered outernational :-
Unfortunately, GavinB seems to have abandoned us, so we may never know. |
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