(Treehugger's) Music of February

tree.hugger

Philadelphia, PA10406 Posts

February 28 2010 23:33 GMT

February music has a different flavor to it than January. I feel as though the music of this latest month is often more understated, contemplative, and perhaps a little less immediately accessible when compared with the month of music that proceeds it.

This is certainly borne out by a lot of the great music that came out of this last month. I cheated a little again, there is one album on this list that isn’t quite from February- but there’s a reason for that, and it’s a little change of pace from much of this list.

Enjoy, and please tell me what I missed! I love to miss things, because that usually means that the month was better than I originally thought it was.

***

Realism by The Magnetic Fields

This album actually came out on January 26th, and it took me at least a week to really listen to this album like I should’ve. I honestly owe The Magnetic Fields more respect, their albums are just fantastic and the 1999 release 69 Love Songs is seriously one of the most awesome albums ever put out there.

But the difficult thing about this band is that they take a long time to get into for me. Their music is so wonderfully simple at its heart, that sometimes getting lost in the music requires time and a different mindset. That said, once you love a Magnetic Fields song, you never grow tired of it. Their music is earnest and sweet in a way that not much else out there is.
+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gy-2UUA-c
This song is really fun, and with typically cute lyrics.

Black Noise by Pantha du Prince

I’ve read a lot of reviews of this album for entertainment, something about the quiet and spiritual quality of this album seems to call for imaginative purple prose. My favorite; Drowned in Sound says; “If the fluidity of Black Noise models itself on the secret movements of the Earth, the noise of tectonic shifts and brewing storms, then the apex is found in penultimate track 'Im Bann' and its almost shoegazey textures.”

Whatever.

But this is still a great album, the best ambient music I’ve heard in a long long time. I’ve heard different ideas about what the album is inspired by, (usually the forests, hills, streams, or mountains of Pantha du Prince’s native Germany) but I’m not sure if any of these explanations capture the scope of these songs. The entire work is just gorgeous.
+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqv0rvk_ah8

It’s so easy to get lost in this song - absolutely mesmerizing.

Ali and Toumani by Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté

I did mention this record as 'upcoming, pay attention, this is going to be awesome' in my last blog, and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. Although, how could it really?

It’s difficult to describe how amazing this album is, without even dwelling into the songs themselves. Two of the world’s most prodigious musicians working perfectly together on not one, but two (the other; In the Heart of the Moon came out in 2005) albums. Add into this that one of the musicians (Ali Farka Touré) is on his deathbed, and dies shortly after recording, and you have an improbable scenario which has produced simply stunning music.

Oh, and the songs? Stunning, otherworldly, sublime.
+ Show Spoiler +

I could recommend any song on this album, really, but I like how this song mixes the vocals and instrumentals, and I love how it begins.

Silent City by Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider

In keeping with this foreign/ethnic/string-y theme, one of my favorite albums of this month came from Kayhan Kalhor, a Kurdish-Iranian instrumentalist who plays the kamancheh, which I know next to nothing about but is apparently like a violin, and Brooklyn Rider, an awesome little string quartet from (You guessed it! Brooklyn!).

This album has only four songs, but one of them is nearly thirty minutes, and it weaves together wonderfully. A complete joy to listen to in every sense.
+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0g8cImsDzg&feature=related

This is the song that I first heard from this group, which came out in 2008, and has been re-released with this latest album.

The Golden Archipelago by Shearwater

I’ve loved Shearwater ever since their amazing 2008 album, Rooks came out, and I have been totally baffled since at why the whole world doesn’t know who they are. Perhaps that will change after yet another stellar release.

I saw Shearwater live at the All Points West festival in New York City, and they were a little underwhelming, having been delayed at the airport and having had to borrow a trumpet from The National. But I’m seeing them again when they come to the Twin Cities, and I’m excited, because Shearwater’s music is not 2pm afternoon music. It’s at times hauntingly beautiful, at times anthemic, and dramatic, with Jonathan Meiburg’s voice ringing out like an entire trumpet section. This album is full of fantastic songs, but I love how well they work with each other, a concept so strange nowadays, that when it occurs, it is instantly recognizable and mesmerizing.
+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEaAbpd7h40

I love too much from this record to say, but after a sweet and quiet opening; ‘Meridian’, it was this song- the second song on the album that really sold me. It‘s got this great urgency and energy.

***

It was also this month that I encountered one of the worst albums ever created; Lil’ Wayne’s ‘Rebirth’. Now that I’ve mentioned it, put it firmly out of your mind. Good god, what hath Lil’ Wayne wrought?

Catch up?
(Treehugger's) Music of January
(Treehugger's) Best Music of 2009

stanley_

United States816 Posts

February 28 2010 23:46 GMT

i will be listening. i like music bllogs.

ella_guru

Canada1741 Posts

March 01 2010 04:22 GMT

Cool!

Ty for sharin the love. I encourage this , and try and limit your blog to just great music (like you are!) any genre is fine, as long as it's great.

tyty

Deleted User 50491

721 Posts

March 01 2010 05:19 GMT

Wow I love Shearwater thank you!

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