March is proving to be a very interesting month so far. I turned 19! Big milestone all around but one that has left me in a state of contemplation over what it is I want to do with my life, what generally tends to occur at such times, I believe. It is not a bad thing, though, as I've recollected myself in most regards. I'm currently trying to learn French, for many reasons, which I think will find their articulation in a different essay sometime soon as that will be a point of interest in itself. Nevertheless, as always, much music! More, even, about as much as the first had.
Willie Colón & Héctor Lavoe - Vigilante
This is one of the greatest albums I've ever head, without doubt. There is so much here to marvel and gawk at in terms of composition, so much to love as far as the power of these songs goes.
Vigilante feels as though it's a love letter to the rebel, that character of society who transgresses and refuses to abide by conventional concepts of morality and does not swallow the hypocrisies thereof, one who sees the nascent hate therein for the libertine, that person who goes out on their own and makes something that can truly stand on its own feet beyond those structures of society aforementioned. The title track here really is the main thing that I'm in love with first and foremost because wow. The way it builds in the first few minutes slowly but surely before finally exploding out into the chorus, "hay que estar vigilante/quiero ser vigilante" echoing out with the power and love of all that makes music so worthwhile and beautiful and immense, and it makes me thin, fuck am I glad to be alive!
There's so many moments in this song in particular that wow me to no end. The massive guitar solo, a rarity in salsa music to my knowledge that nevertheless goes on for minutes, the absolutely gorgeous and giant strings beneath, the driving bass, the glorious saxophone solo that somehow manages to match the guitar solo in scope, and oh my lord, THE HORNS! THE GODDAMN HORN SECTION MAKES MY KNEES GO WEAK AND BOW TO THE LORD IN GRACIOUS LOVE THAT I WAS EVER-
Ahem. It's very good.
Jean Sasportes and Tetsu Saitoh - With Friends in Tokyo, May 2012
This sort of broke my brain. Tetsu Saitoh was a brilliant bassist and free improviser in Japan and much of his music has intrigued me over time, but I have found it difficult often times to entirely connect.. except in cases such as these where there is a video and he's paired with Sasportes, the brilliant dancer, as at that point the music transforms into being only one part of a bigger sort of abstract performance art piece that's incredibly evocative. The different songs on this occur on entirely different sets and all have very different atmospheres, but it's really the second one that's worth most of your attention.
Forty minutes of Saitoh, Sasportes and violinist Naoki Kita sculpting a terrifying monster of fear and trembling, one that becomes a greater source of horror as these three use everything in the environment to their benefit, moving around in this painfully quiet set as the ligthing around them shifts and what they do making it clear the root of the frantic spiritual terror therein, one that drives Sasportes in particular to deliver a really touching performance, as his expressions really make you feel horrifically sorry for him, the shot where he gets lined up against the wall by Saitoh's bass, seemingly almost suffocating under it's weight, is a powerful one that almost made me tear up. Highly recommend this if you have a lot of free time and are open for a very different sort of musical expression.
Jacques Brel - La Valse A Mille Temps
Jacques Brel was a brilliant musician in all regards and I think this is my favourite work of his I've heard yet. It has a specific sort of emotional power that I think is certainly latent across much of chanson and his own work, but something about this record really speaks to me in particular and I think it's how ornate and earnest the songwriting is. These songs jump around and go all in on their specific emotional moods, as is best exemplified by the two best tracks on here, polar opposites that they are.
The title track is a glorious cacophony of love that feels like a demented waltz, one that's so drunk on it's own joy that it's about to fall over at jsut about any second, and I love how Brel quite literally sounds like he's about to trip over his own words so often but never actually does, carrying across that frenetic energy all around. The opposite mood is communicated in Ne Me Quitte Pas, which has the most affecting lyrics of any song in the French language I think I've heard "oú l'amour sera roi, oú l'amour sera loi, oú tu seras reine.. ne me quitte pas, ne me quitte pas, ne me quitte pas, ne me quitte pas.."
Ive been trying to learn French lately and music like this makes it quite a lot easier to stomach the act of it. I'm sure I will get down to writing about that experience and what led me to it sooner rather than later, but that will come whenever it's due.
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Holy mother of fucking shit why did no one tell me this album is insane?
No but, really, this album is ridiculous. The production on hand, the rapping, the rawness, it exposed to me I think a great part of what had made older forms of hip-hop a bit harder for me to get into for a long time which is that I mostly just found them a bit boring in comparison. This is not boring in the slightest, no, it is intense and frenetic and wild and incredible all around that it feels as though the entire field has opened up to me a bit more. I deeply appreciate most of all how incredibly aggressive and in-your-face Public Enemy are, not shying away in the slightest from the endlessly relevant standpoints that they upheld in their music, really exemplifying hip-hop as an artistic form of rebellion on this album most of all in a way that connected with me. I mostly just really love those beats too.. the way they make them so dynamic and powerful and energetic, not the minimalistic boom bap of the time or the jazz rap (both of which are actually growing on me after this album) but instead something that sounds downright punk in intensity. The politics on display are exciting in how anti-establishment they are, this is Public Enemy after all. Real good stuff.
Tripical Midbooster - Les Rallizes Denudes
Takashi Mizutani strikes again. Of course I like LRD, I'm exactly the type of person their hypnosis appeals to. The sense in which all their music exists outside of time makes it such a standout every time to listen to, and Tripical Midbooster is no different, a four hour compilation of a few live souts that have a sound that is less decidedly chunky than what they often did, something a bit more groove-adjacent than anything. Mizutani shreds as one could expect, and there's a saxophonist present on here that I wish was more prevalent, but nevertheless this is exactly the sort of offering one could expect to enjoy from such a legendary band. I need to listen to more of them.
Various Artists - Ecstatic Music of the Jemaa El Fna
Music that really feels like home to me. It's probably the fact that they use bandirs for percussion here, an instrument that you can find present in just about every household where I live, not particularly from the Moroccan border. The lo-fi-ness of this recording really adds to its power, making it even more raw and exciting to listen to all around. I joked to a friend of mine that "they done did made black metal gnawa" and of course that's a bit stupid but the point more broadly is that the album really fucking rips and is worth a listen specifically for that reason.