Anyways, I was meaning to use the rain thing as a sort of pseudo-segway into my fascination with music/place associations. I'm sure it's common knowledge that the human brain builds strong, emotionally and even physically stimulating reactions to certain songs/artists et cetera, and a particular geographic place. If I knew more of the social sciences I suppose I could elaborate on this more.
So yah... I was listening to one of my favorite album's lately, California beatsmith Metaform's, "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants", and had this intense place-association moment with a drive I did out to L.A last spring when I was living in Tucson. I remember I had been DJ'ing at the University of Arizona's KAMP radio, and had found Metaform's CD in the "freebie bin" of albums we usually had sitting around the studio.... don't know how/why on earth it ended up there, but anyways I took it and quickly fell in love with it on the drive out to L.A the next weekend. It must have been close to 2 AM as I cruised west across the Mohave Desert, past Palm Springs, and into the eastern burbs of L.A.... a very surreal experience when done for the first time, you literally are in one of hottest, driest, and most inhospitable places in the country, and then all of a sudden you crest this pass and there is the sprawl and excess and light pollution of L.A pushing all the way into the Pacific Ocean; very trippy.
This particular song came on right as I was heading into downtown L.A [of course, being me I missed the exit for the 101 north to Hollywood where my family lives]. The funny thing is I love this track and have listened to it untold times, but only know it as "track 10." Some hidden irony perhaps? Anyways, downtown L.A at night is a very surreal experience, it is literally a ghost town half-populated with homeless people and druggies, and the vertical expanse of the Bank of America tower, the tallest building west of the Mississippi, sort of overshadows everything else in an ominous way. I recall making a detour off the 405 through a slightly sketchy neighborhood and somehow winding my way up to Laurel Canyon Blvd. and to my relative's place; the smell of Hibiscus, Avacado trees, and eucalyptus in the air with the slightly wet, lush early morning fog blowing in off the Pacific; among this comically dense clustering of homes, every one unique, on the steep, eroding slopes of the Hollywood hills; what a place. This concentration of wealth and power and creative humanity equaled in so few other places, no wonder I have such a strong music association with my first trip there.
Another strong music/place association I have is this past summer, traveling up to the fishing village of Stonington on Deer Isle, Maine to lead an 8-day sailing trip for a group of 12-14 year old boys. I had just downloaded a couple remixes, the Linus Love's mix of Ladyhawke's "dusk till dawn" and the Cut Copy mix of her song "Paris is Burning", both rather anthemic indie-pop ballads, and I just remember driving down the island to the cove where we were putting the boats in, and somehow those 2 songs just fit perfectly with the puffy white cloud's in bright blue sky, greenish-teal water dotted with little pine-green islands, and little clusters of stoic New England houses here and there. Ok, I know, gag me with your corny, romanticized descriptions and Maine, but it really is a lovely place in the summer; and the next 8 days of Sailing were some of the best I've ever had; so why not associate a great song with a great experience? Exactly.
This brings me in a roundabout way to a list of "noteworthy stuff y'all should get on":
Alright, one two one two, here we go:
1.) Anoraak, College, and Valerie. These 3 electronic artist's from the illustrious Cote D'Azure in southern France have perfected the heady, rich, and slightly self-indulgent sound you would associate with a place known for Cannes and Monaco. Their synth arrangement's make Sebastian Tellier sound profoundly un-sexy.
2.) Mexican Institute of Sound! Woo! Becuase whop deosn't love a Mexican hipster who wear's chucks and blazers and makes music that sounds like if LCD soundsystem took a month-long soul retreat in a Mexico City barrio? The pairing of synth's, harsh monotone electronic chords, authentic Mexican mariachi sounds and lyrics, and anthemic guitar riffs is pretty freaking awesome. His new sophomore album comes highly recommended.
3.) Vancouver hip hop artist Moka Only's new album, "Airport 3" has some gems on it, most notably a collaboration with The Pharcyde's Bootie Brown on "Crazy", featuring a bangin Moka beat as usual. I know several pretty big hip hop heads who have told me they have been wary of Moka Only becuase he is just so damn prolific.... I mean this cat has released something like fifteen(!!) albums, and I don't mean like a single and a few fillers, like full-length, your getting your money's-worth records. Other noteworthy tracks on 'Airport 3' include "Gotta Wonder", and "Gimmee", Featuring Psy. I've been a huge Moka fan forever; it seems he really doesn't get the recognition he deserves outside of the Canadian hip hop scene.... which I must say is pretty baller, with artists like D.L Incognito and Toronto's K-OS. Moka's best album's "Flood", "The Desired Effect" [part's 1 & 2], and "Vermillion" are up there with most other big hip hop albums of the past decade in my opinion. His use of old-school analog beats and keyboards, drum loops, and well-placed jazz samples is superb as well. He also sell's beats, 16's, and does film scoring for you musical peoples out there.
4.) The Avalanche's "Since I left you". Ok, so this isn't exactly new per say, but I really think this is the 2nd best sample-based album of all time, after Dilla's "donuts". This Melbourne-based collective reportedly utilized over 3500(!!) different samples in constructing this album, ranging from old T.V commercials and radio jingles to obscure jazz pieces and soul bits. A real masterpiece of what can be done with a sampler, some creativity, and a LOT of time. much respect.
5.) Mark Farina's "Mushroom Jazz 5" is undoubtably the best of the Mushroom Jazz series.... so you can imagine my excitement when I scored this 21 track opus for $5.99 at Bart's Records earlier today in Boulder. Much love to Bart's for always having some great deals on classics. Cool people that werk there too. Anywayzz.... so yeah this album features instrumentals and rare b.sides by Strange Fruit Project, Thes One, J.Boogie's dubtronic science, People Under The Stairs, and The Jazz Liberatorz, to name a few. All overseen my Mark Farina's legendary production skills. Cop this album now people!!!
That's all for now.....Peace, Phil.
