2/23 new arrivals
It’s Friday! Which means that the pickings might be slim on eMusic as far as new releases go. But if you thought today’s crop of newbies was lacking, check the following German country, Swedish psych, Balkan funk, Baile funk, and concept albums about Odin out. You might surprise yourself!
Fanfare Ciocarlia – Queens and Kings
The Queen and King of today’s downloads, Fanfare’s new album is awesome. Really. You may know this group as the one that A Hawk and a Hacksaw went to Romania to track down for his latest, but on Queens and Kings Fanfare went all over Europe to find their favorite musicians, bringing in flamenco guitars, Macdeonian accordions, and a whole host of amazing singers (“Duj Duj” and “Ibrahim” are good places to start). Yeah, we don’t have the Borat song, but if you give it a chance you won’t be disappointed with what we do have from this one. Highly recommended.
Baby Grandmothers – Baby Grandmothers
If you love Dungen, you may find something to love in these ultra-rare recordings from the short but sweet career of one of Sweden’s most psychedelic bands from ‘60s. The collection brings together their impossible-to-find single and some live recordings. Why do I say Dungen? Their guitarist, Reine Fiske, wrote the liner notes to the physical copy and helped track much of this material down.
DJ Sandrinho – Baile Funk Masters #1
Down with CSS? Yeah, I thought you were. Their tour buddies from last year, Bonde de Role, play a bit more electronic and crazed style of music called baile funk and one of that genre’s leading lights is found here popping off some lo-fi gems. You may not get much out of this if you’re merely listening from home, but if you’re having a feverish dance party coming up at your place, you could do a lot worse.
Blabbermouth sez: “Gods of War is MANOWAR’s first entry in a cycle of concept albums; each a tribute to a different war god….This album honors Odin — almighty father of the Norse gods — and details the history and exploits of this storied character.” Fair enough.
Mark Bender – Ein Haus am Meer
German country — featuring the future-classic, “Linedance-lady.”
Pär Lammers Trio – All die bunten Schafe
Dexterous and driving instrumental jazz trio.
Tola – Slit mig I stycken…jag är immune
Some nice bedroom indie from Sweden – nothing special, but worth the trouble of listening to the sound clips if you’re hankering for a band that makes songs called “The Piece of Pie With Rotten Apples.” (Aren’t we all?)
there are some additional titles that warrant consideration (these are listed in rank, btw):
Gene Vincent: This collection is totally legit, and encompasses all the major recordings. I had a serious Vincent stage in college, and I never got tired of reading the stories about how he would pull up his pants onstage to flash his mangled leg (from the Korean War I think, or maybe a motorcycle accident) to incite the crowd. Amazing rockabilly here.
David Nzomo: As yesterday’s Smithsonian gushing made clear, I am the choir when it comes to their output. But even for them, this is a true standout record. The record is just reverbed guitar and a sad, sad voice.
Ghetto Fabulous Gang: I think this is our third French hip-hop record in the past week, and I must say that I like the stuff. In terms of beats, there isn’t much of a differentiation between France and America, except that France sounds five years behind, thereby, in hip-hop terms, making them about six months ahead. The MCs are by no means the greatest, and there’s definitely a gimmick factor, but I still like it.
Hot Snakes: A live Hot Snakes record. Of course I am all over this.
Marnie Stern: People keep telling me to check this one out; I haven’t yet, but the Pitchfork review was fairly positive.
Eats Tapes: This Tigerbeat act is somewhere between DAT Politics and Kid 606, kinda kitschy and goofy but with some strong musical elements, too.
Hans Vonk: The boards have been all over Pentatone’s arrival, and this record seems like a good one.
Heartaches: Straight-forward trashpunkrock.
Somali Songs in Swahili: Tuneful and melodic, more studio than field recording.
Seu Jorge: The sound quality is good, anyway.
okay so “regrets” on the ghetto fabulous gang is the french kanye. totally badass.
hi joe – thanks for the recs! i’ve saved for later the first 3 albums you highlighted. very interesting.
yancey – i’ll check out the ghetto fabulous gang. the live seu jorge album piqued my interest, but i’m not into live recordings….