Thanks to this December’s euphoria (turkey gravy, brownies and a week off) I think I finally get reggae. My lifelong loathing of Bob Marley’s music has dwindled into mellow appreciation. I can see what the fuss is all about. Laidback, organic music backed by the sound of a man who was once shot for trying to unite our species. The deliciously mellow High Tide Or Low Tide is that song that withered leaves would dream of falling down the stream to.
None but ourselves can free our minds – Bob Marley
Go to the light, Mr Turkey. You have done well this year.
*****
Nickelback is one of the worst rock acts ever. They make Puddle Of Mudd sound competent. Every album of theirs has borrowed heavily from alternative rock’s oldest formula, but with every conceivable verse, chorus, bridge and solo sodomized beyond recognition. The Nineties had seen bands like Toadies, 7 Mary 3, Candlebox and Catherine Wheel adopting the same formulae without sounding like retarded llamas in heat. Yet most of them faded away without a trace. Virginia hard rockers Seven Mary Three, for instance, once did the impossible but were never remembered for it. They stole a worthless Metallica intro and built a decent song around it. Take that, Chad fucking Kroeger.
*****
Electro jazz sextet Cinematic Orchestra is one of those bands that can give you goosebumps without claiming to understand your problems. This is very unlike the preciously emotive music that you watch/hear on TV/radio. “All That You Give” featuring soul starlet Fontella Bass is intoxicating. Your senses will get drunk on the ambience, I swear. Wiki-ians have described their sound better than I’d expect them to, calling it “a seamless combination of live jazz improvisation with electronica, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins.” Yup. Totally.
*****
Lupe Fiasco’s Daydream was heavily based on a sample from a Sixties’ pop rock anthem. Originally record recorded at Abbey Road Studios by the Belgian-based Wallace Collection, Daydream is supposedly is an adaptation ofTchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. A breezy psychedelic pop romp that felt a bit too urgent for the Sixties. No wonder Isaac Hayes dipped the strings of Ike’s Rap II in its gorgeousness. More recently, artists such as I Monster, Tricky and Portishead had lifted the song’s bassline to spark some of their finest moments. Most fittingly of all, German space age pop band Gunter Kallmann Choir also released a version of it in 1971. Uhmmm…super serious, self-professedly futuristic Germans had to go back three years in time to find a relevant sound. Now that’s what I fucking call music.
Download
Watch
Bob Marley & The Wailers – High Tide Or Low Tide
Seven Mary Three – Water’s Edge
Cinematic Orchestra & Fontella Bass – All That You Give
I, Monster – Day Dream In Blue
Tricky – Hell Is Around The Corner
Gunter Kallmann Choir – Daydream
Buy
Cinematic Orchestra’s Everyday
Odd Fellows Rest 