Gavin B.

Song of the Day



Samba 1000- Ursula 1000 Ursula 1000 is the musical project of musical provocateur Alex Gimeno who is a key artist on Theivery Corporation's ESL music label. You will find Alex's albums and many other delightful retrograde remixers at Eighteenth Street Lounge. I love the dancing and wacky special effects in this video rendition of Samba 1000. Alex's albums should be in the survival kit of every sound system selector.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


There Was A Time- Dueling Versions: Kenny Dope Remix vs. James Brown's Original Mix

There Was A Time (Kenny Dope remix) - James Brown The song still clocks in at the original mix's breakneck speed of 138 beats per minute and the breaks/beats remix master Kenny Dope subverts the original by reshaping it into jazzy Vegas/lounge version. The song doesn't started until 1:36 to play the selection to show the short selection of greatest performance of the song medley that the clever video editor used to construct the faked video performance of the song.

It's an interesting reworking of the song and it's been on my turntable quite a bit in the past year. Kenny D. shows a great deal of reverence for the original material and does offer a fresh perspective on a great song. This isn't just some by-the-numbers, template remix that a lot of beat/break artists pass off as brilliant.

As appealing as Mr. Dope's remix is, the gritty Augusta Georgia soul of JB's original is the hands down winner. Kenny Dope's version simply doesn't have the deep groove dance riddims because he replaces most of the drum lines with a drum machine and mutes most of the electric bass lines replacing it with an accoustic bass. Mixing down Charles Sherill's bass and Melvin Parker's drums takes a lot of the high voltage kick out of the song. There are some things you just can't improve on, no matter how hard you try.

The Remix: By Kenny Dope from the album Verve Unmixed (2008)



The Original: James Brown 7" single on King Records (1968)

Gavin B.

Song of the Day


French chantuese Françoiz Breut

Nébuleux Bonhomme - Françoiz Breut I'm not one to quote myself but I wrote that in 2002 upon the release of Mademoiselle Breut's first American released album Vingt a Trente Mille Jours. I stand by those words eight years later. Francoiz Breut's late December 2008 album release À laveuglette would be at top of every critic's notable 2009 album releases, if there was any justice in this world.

I've seen Francoiz in concert once and she has an alluring stage manner that induces something on the order of a hypnotic opium spell on her audience. Mlle. Bruet accomplishes this without wearing exotic bondage gear, engaging in ritualized reenactments of sex acts or otherwise humiliating herself to becoming the puerile fantasy object of every male misogynist to gain the attention the audience.

She remains an object of mystery and intrigue to both critics and fans and she stubbornly refuses to sing in anything other than her native French despite her fluent command of English. Silly girl Francoiz, French may be the language of love, but English is the language of commerce in pop music. Those goofy French... they won't even join Kabala, hire William Orbit as a producer or sing in English to get rich and famous.

Many critics have compared of Francoiz Breut to the first wave of female French pop singers of the Sixties like Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin and Francoise Hardy. Mlle has a more voluptuous and expressive voice than any of that trio who were all known for their breathlessly whispered vocals. Francois Hardy was and still is a first rate songwriter but Mlle Breut is her equal as lyricist and exceeds Mlle Hardy's talents as writer, arranger and producer of music.

My rough translation of the title "nébuleux bonhomme" can either mean "nebulous fellow" or "the nebulous nature of relationships" based on my five years of high school French and one year of actually living in Paris failing to communicate to Parisians with my own high school French limitations.

Gavin B.

Brazilian Girls Gone Wild


Sabina of Brazilian Girls

A Wild Concert at Summer Stage (2007)

Seeing Sabina Sciubba and the Brazilian Girls in concert has the same dangerous "anything can happen" feel of going to a Doors concert in the late Sixties.

This performance in the first video below is from a Brazilian Girls NYC Summer Stage performance in which they invited anyone to bring their musical instrument and jam on stage with the band. Much drinking, herb smoking and riotous fun occured as a result:



A Recent Profile of Brazilian Girls (2009)

Below is a recent profile of Sabina done by zoom-in.com. Sabina has been around the downtown Manhattan jazz/punk/worldbeat music scene for awhile now and in the Nineties she was part of the loosely formed NuBlu musical collective named after the East Village club where many of the collective members performed with their bands.

Bulldog

Another interesting bunch you've highlighted here. Particularly the old Françoiz Breut character. Although I've got quite a bit of colonial French music, I'm quite lacking in sounds that originate from France itself. Souad Massi's probably my current favourite, but I think I recall reading somewhere that she's Algerian? I dunno. Anyway, Breut seems like a good lass - a bit more rough-around-the-edges than most of what I've heard from the country, but polished at the same time with enough charisma to make it interesting.

That Brazilian Girls live vid you posted is quite something too - reminds me of my last day of 1st year uni

Anyway, keep up the good work with the thread.

Engine

Yeah man, it's a great video. God, I love New York.

Gavin B.

Song of the Day



Ibraham Ferrer of the BVSC

Chan Chan - The Buena Vista Social Club The spellbinding Cuban love song is the signature song of the BVSC. I love they way the congas play an off-time counter rhythm to the sepentine bass line of the song. The muted trumpet solo in the middle is just too cool and reminds of Miles Davis on Sketches of Spain. The plaintive vocal by Ibaham Ferrer is brilliant.

The pictures of Havana in the video make me wish the United States travel embargo against Cuba was lifted so I can visit this magnificent city was and still is the jewel of the Greater Antilles islands .

Havana is the last of the old provincial capital cities of the Caribbean that hasn't be touched by the tentacles of global capitalism. The scenes along of the topaz blue ocean at high tide crashing against the seawall in Havana are breathtaking.

The fact that every automobile in Cuba predates the 1959 trade embargo makes the Havana seem like a dreamy surreal city untouched by the passage of time. Note the city bus in the video is an old modified American designed bus shell that was mounted on the back of a large flat bed truck when the original engine of the bus finally gave out.




Chan Chan

by Buena Vista Social Club


De Alto Cerdo voy para Marcane
Luego a Cueto voy para Mayari.
El carino que te tengo
Yo no lo puedo negar
Se me sale la babita
Yo no puedo evitar.
Cuando Juanica y Chan Chan
En el mar cernian arena
Como sacudia el 'jibe'
A Chan Chan la daba pena.
Limpia el camino de paja
Que yo me quiero sentar
En aquel tronco que veo
Y asi no puedo llegar.
De Alto Cerdo voy para Marcane
Luego a Cueto voy para Mayari.
I'm going to Alto Cerdo to Marcane
Then from Cueto, I'm going to Mayari.

My Own Rough English Translation of the Lyrics

The love I have for you
I cannot deny
My mouth is watering
I just can't help myself.
When Juanika and Chan Chan
Sifted sand together on the beach
How her bottom shook and
Chan Chan was arroused.
Clean the dry sugar cane leaves
from the path
So I can get to that trunk
I want to sit down.
I'm going from Alto Cerdo to Marcane
Then from Cueto, I,m going to Mayari.

Bulldog

^ Das ist fantastiche! Superb song and one of the standouts from a superb album. Haven't listened to it in a long, long time but it's one that should be a staple of any music collection. Good job with the translation too.

music_phantom13

Brazilian Girls are fantastic. That concert looks ridiculously fun, and I enjoyed the profile. I also really enjoyed the breakbeat cover of James Brown, it was done very well. Of course, not as well as James Brown's initial version, but who could play any of his music better than he did? Personally I wasn't incredibly fond of the French band; it wasn't bad but there's no way it would even be close to my top 10 albums of this year. The Buena Vista Social Club song was wonderful; that's a band I've been meaning to check out. I believe you've inspired me to do just that.

Flower Child

Gavin B......yet again, our musical tastes coincide. I don't know if you realized this, but I also did a review over this very song a little while back. I absolutely loved reading your own take and description. I wish I had thought of "spellbinding", because that sums the whole song up perfectly, good job. Unlike you though, I never tried to translate the lyrics. Just not knowing what they were singing about left the song in a sense of mystery that I loved. But I gave in to temptation and had to read they were saying, and I have to say I'm a little dissapointed. I also find it so bizaar that you would love to visit Cuba, because that has been the one place I have always told everyone I would love to travel to one day. There's just something about it that draws me in.