A good friend of mine, who is also the drummer and bandleader of one the groups I play in, is a devout Prince head and managed to find a ton of great 80's and early 90's live Prince videos. Prince is famously vigilant about keeping his work from being streamed or pirated on the internet, so enjoy these videos quick before his team of inter-gallactic-transvestite-sex-lawyers comes to take me away.
In this interview Buzz Osborne, guitarist and frontman of the Melvins, and, in my eyes, the undisputed king of not blowing it, gives us an unapologetic lesson on longevity in music. I found this to be a really inspiring read, and if nothing else, it'll turn you on to some cool music you may never have heard before, like The Cows. How have I never heard this band?
---------------------------------
On the other end of the spectrum, I'd like to talk about a wine that isn't about longevity but is instead about instant gratification. Fleeting beauty. A place and a moment...
2013 Christian Ducroux Prologue
This wine is fucking awesome...
Beaujolais nouveau is a style of wine that is essentially barely fermented grape juice. It's from the Beaujolais region in France and it is made from the Gamay grape using a wine-making technique called carbonic maceration. Carbonic maceration is process in which unpressed grapes are put into a large fermentation vat which is filled with carbon dioxide and sealed. The carbon dioxide can either be pumped into the vat, or created naturally as the weight of the grapes in the top of the vat crush some of the grapes in the bottom starting a fermentation process that creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. In this oxygen deprived environment, the grape juice begins another intracellular fermentation process inside the skins of the berries. The grapes are then pressed and the juice usually undergoes another more traditional yeast fermentation after that.
This technique is used for a few reasons. The resulting wine is fresh, fruity, low in tannins, and very easy to drink. Another reason is that this style of wine can be made quickly, in some cases less than 6 weeks from the harvest. Every year there is a "Beaujolais Nouveau Day" celebration, right around Thanksgiving, when many of the big name wines are released. There are celebrations all over the world, and everyone enjoys their first taste of the new vintage. It looks something like this:
Critics of Beaujolais nouveau call it a marketing ploy, and dismiss the wine as being simple and not worthy of serious attention. One critic famously likened drinking Beaujolais nouveau to eating cookie dough.
I am not a Beaujolais nouveau-hater. I think easy drinking, fun, fresh wines have their place. Why should all wines have to be serious? Why shouldn't we eat cookie dough? But I understand the criticism. It is an overly commercialized aspect of the wine industry, and in addition, many of the wines are one-dimensional, candied and in some cases pretty gross.
But Ducroux's "Prologue" is leaps and bounds ahead of any other nouveau wine I've ever had. It is unbelievably layered and complex. It has the bright red strawberry and raspberry fruit you would expect but also layers upon layers of fascinating earthy, mineral, herbal components. It felt like every time I put my nose in the glass I smelled something new. And on top of all that, it is fresh, juicy, and vibrant on the palate with great mouth watering acidity. This is by no means a big, in your face wine, but if you're willing to give it some attention it is deeply complex and satisfying. And at $13 this is about as good a bargain as you're likely to find anywhere.
I imagine the reason for the outstanding quality of this wine is the winemaker's meticulous farming and his commitment to the nouveau style. He farms biodynamically, uses minimal sulfur, and plows by horse in order to promote soil health, all for extremely low yields. In an interview with Alice Feiring he expresses his belief that to make a wine of terroir, one should make a nouveau wine. I had never really considered this idea but it makes a lot of sense--it really is as close to the vine as a wine will ever be--but unlike many other nouveau efforts, this wine also tastes and smells like a wine of terroir, and with the layer of sediment on the bottom of the bottle you're reminded how close to the earth this wine really is.
It is hard to imagine a better wine to accompany a simple, hearty winter meal.
I drank a bottle with a dinner of sausages in shallot and red wine sauce with fingerling potatoes and green salad, and it was perfect. In fact, right now I'm having a hard time wanting to drink anything else with any meal I cook.
I bought a bottle at Chambers Street on a whim a few days ago, and after drinking it I immediately went back and bought 3 more. Go out now and buy a few bottles for yourself, otherwise I may buy all of them.
-----------------
Alice Feiring's great article about Christian Ducroux:
After singing the praises of Champagne as a food wine a few posts back, I figured I should put my money where my mouth is and put it to the test. And plus, you know, it's the holidays. If ever you're going to have a bottle of Champagne lying around it's this time of year.
For this "haphazard wine pairing" I thought I would tackle ramen. The obvious pairing choice, and the one that I imagine will be hard to beat, is beer. There really is nothing better than a piping hot bowl of ramen and with a good pilsener or lager. Beer does a perfect job of complementing the deeply savory, earthy and complex flavors of ramen without overwhelming the delicate subtle harmony of it. There's also the salt issue. I generally make the soy sauce based shoyu style broth, and with this salty broth, the thirst quenching quality of beer is hard to beat. But this isn't "a blog about beer and music," after all...
With all this in mind, I decided Champagne might be a good choice. It has bubbles like beer, it can have yeasty flavors like beer, and it can have savory umami type flavors which might nicely complement the savoriness of the soup. I'm definitely not the first person to come up with pairing Champagne with Japanese food, but I've never heard of anyone drinking it with Ramen, specifically.
Here's the wine I chose:
Jose Michel et Fils NV Champagne Brut Tradition
I had never had a predominantly Pinot Meunier based champagne, but I had read that Pinot Meunier imparts fruity flavors in a wine as well as some earthy components. With that in mind, I figured it might be a particularly food-friendly choice. Meunier based champagnes can also be great values which is important because even the most affordable Champagnes cost more than I can generally spend on a bottle of wine. At $35 this wine is expensive but a steal for good Champagne.
I've been trying to perfect my ramen for a while now. I don't stress too much about authenticity, and I've accepted that it will never taste like it does from a good ramen shop. Instead, I just try to make a noodle soup using the basic techniques and ingredients of ramen that is similarly delicious and complex. It takes a lot of time, but it is not particularly difficult and very rewarding.
I start by making a Dashi:
I soak kombu (a type of seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried and shaved bonito) in water for a few hours, then simmer the mixture for a few more hours, strain out the resulting broth and put it aside.
Meanwhile, I made the pork stock in a separate pot:
I simmered a piece of slab bacon in a pot of water with some green onions and crushed ginger at a very low temperature for a very long time (I think as a general rule, every element of making ramen making should take an absurd amount of time). Remove the pork, ginger and onions and put aside.
To make the broth, I mixed these two stocks along with some lamb stock I had made and frozen after another meal a few weeks before, seasoned with soy sauce and a dash of mirin and sesame oil.
For the toppings I used spinach, snow peas, thin slices of the pork from the broth, radish sprouts and a soft boiled egg. After making the broth the only cooking I did was frying slices of pork in a pan, parboiling the peas and spinach, and soft-boiling the egg.
When you're ready to assemble, get each of the broths piping hot and combine them in the bowl, add the cooked noodles and then arrange the toppings on top. Here's the result:
The soup turned out well and the wine was great, but sadly the pairing left something to be desired. There was nothing horrendous about it but the the wine failed to elevate the flavors of the meal and vice-versa. Instead they awkwardly spoke over each other, with the substantial acidity of the wine obliterating the complexity of the broth, and the rich flavors of the soup overshadowing the focused and surprisingly subtle and mineral flavors of the wine. The pairing worked best with the bites of pork, where the obvious, fatty bacon flavors found a counterpoint in the focused lean quality of the wine. But, on the whole, the pairing was nothing more than two delicious things next to each other on a table. And the saddest part of all this is that I'm not totally sure why it didn't work or what would have been a better option. I suspect that this is why wine generally isn't paired with ramen. But I'm not giving up quite yet, I think sherry might be the answer...
I finished the wine the next day and I don't think I've ever had an experience where a wine changed so dramatically one day after opening. On the first day the wine was mineral-y, lean and austere without much in the way of fruit at all, and on the second it was ripe and fruity and full of vibrant strawberry and apricot aromas while retaining a savory mineral core. I couldn't help but wonder if the ramen pairing would have worked better with the wine open a day beforehand, but, oh well. Instead I decided to try it with a makeshift carbonara using the leftover pork.
I cooked the bacon slowly at a low temp melting as much of the fat as I could (I know it's heresy to use bacon instead of guanciale in a carbonara but I didn't have any guanciale lying around and, you know, I'm a rebel), added the cooked spaghetti along with some of the cooking water, added a ton of cracked pepper some parmesan cheese, and the egg. I mixed it all together over extremely low heat, adding more of the pasta water and cheese until it reached the right level of creaminess.
I have to say the Champagne actually paired really well with this dish. Who knew? I think the main merit of this pairing is that the simplicity of flavor in the carbonara allowed the wine to take center stage, which was so open and expressive on day 2. And the fruitiness and acidity of the wine provided a nice contrast to the fatty richness of the carbonara, all with this umami sort of thing going on with the yeasty elements of the wine and the parmesan and bacon.
To be honest I'm a little perplexed that the carbonara pairing worked so much better than the ramen. The two dishes are both noodle based, and actually have somewhat similar flavor profiles. I wonder if it has to do with how differently the wine was showing on day 2, or if soups require different considerations, or if it's just that simpler foods make simpler pairings.
Anyway, for something different this holiday season, when the clock strikes midnight, make sure to have a nice plate of carbonara to accompany your champagne toast.
And if you're going to try and tackle some ramen make sure you have some entertainment. I recommend "7 Days of Funk" the new collaboration between Dam Funk and Snoop Dogg who is now calling himself "Snoopzilla."
Dam Funk's singing is unquestionably mediocre but I've always found its mediocrity kind of charming. Let's just say his singing and songwriting always played second fiddle to his production. But with this effort Dam Funk does what he does so well on the production side, and lets "Snoopzilla" take care of what Dam Funk doesn't do so well. The result is funky.
On January 12th Beyonce Knowles released an
unannounced “visual album” with 17 songs and 17 accompanying videos called
“BEYONCE”.It was released as an
iTunes exclusive and was only made available to other retailers on Dec. 18th.It costs $15.99 and sold over 800,000
copies in its first weekend.Pretty wild stuff.
Here’s what we already know about Beyonce: her music will
have high production value, she’s magnetic, she’s extremely attractive, she’s a
great dancer, and she can sing.In
all these respects she’s exceptional, and if this were the debut album of a new
artist I would definitely take notice.But Beyonce is someone I also believe has been behind really great,
innovative music, bucking trends and going her own way.In this respect—musically—I see this
album as a step backwards.
I imagine a meeting in a boardroom at Sony Music
Entertainment’s headquarters between a top record executive and a producer
coming up with the direction for the album.Let’s call the exec Fred and the producer Bob.I imagine the conversation going
something like this:
Fred: Gee whiz this video album is going to be
expensive!Not only will we have
to pay for musicians, studio time, and songwriting teams, but also for 17
different video shoots with crews, actors, and a ton of different hot shot
directors, not to mention the army of lawyers we’ll need to hire to keep the
whole thing a secret and make sure the album isn’t pirated once we do release
it.Somehow we need to guarantee
that we will sell enough records to recoup all these expenses…
Bob: How are we going to do that??
Fred: We’ll just take every musical and cultural phenomenon
of the past 3 years and copy them.That way the record is sure to be a hit!
Bob: Brilliant!
Fred: Who’s popular these days…?Lady Gaga’s popular right?All that macabre, highly sexualized stuff is brilliant!Wish we’d though of that.Oh well, we’ll just do it anyway.We’ll make a video set in a spooky hotel
with lots of deformed people, and people wearing crazy clothes licking each other
and humping and whatnot. We’ll call it “Haunted!”
Bob: Perfect!We’ll
put it all over a sort of brooding euro-techno thing, I hear the kids these
days love EDM…
Fred: “Get Lucky” and “Blurred Lines” were obviously monster
hits.How do we replicate that?
Bob: We’ll write a highly sexualized bubbly
retro-electro-disco sorta thing.Should take about five minutes to write the lyrics and then we’ll get
Pharell Williams to help us out with the track.We’ll call it “Blow.”But do you know what the biggest trend these days is?The newest fad all the kids are crazy
about?
Fred: What?
Bob: Civil unrest!It’s happening in the Ukraine.It’s happening in Syria.It’s happening all over!Remember all those kids who put up tents in Zucotti Park a couple years back?What was that called?Oh yeah, Occupy Wall Street!Imagine if all those kids protesting
all over the world bought a digital download of Beyonce’s new album, we’d recoup
those expenses in no time!
Fred: Perfect!We’ll make the video for “Superpower” about a futuristic/post-apocalyptic
protest!But, of course Beyonce
will still be half-naked and making out with dudes and stuff.Remember, everything has to be highly
sexualized.Ever since Miley
Cyrus’ performance at the VMA’s that’s what everybody’s doing.Over the top in your face sexuality is
really in right now!
I could go on:
The first verse in “Ghost” has the same recitative multi
tracked rapping thing that Kendrick Lamar does.
Beyonce’s sing song rapping on “Drunk in Love” sounds
weirdly like Drake.
The pseudo-carribean first verse of “Yonce” sounds a lot
like Rihanna, and has the same Elvis lip motif that Rihanna uses in her video
for “Rude Boy.”
“Partition” and “Jealous” have a recent Kanye minimalist
industrial kind of texture, and “Jealous” even has a yelping vocal sample that
sounds so strikingly similar to the one in Kanye’s “Mercy,” that I suspect it
may even be the same sample.
“Rocket” sounds exactly like D’angelo’s “How does it feel.”
“Flawless” has "trap" style production a-la Three Six Mafia, or 2 Chainz.
Despite all this, the record seems to be getting a ton of
critical acclaim.Am I crazy?Is anyone else noticing these
similarities?Does anyone else
care?
Let me clarify for a second, I don’t think the record is all
bad.There are a few tracks
towards the end I really like.While I suspect “Blow” will be the first single, I think “XO” is a much better candidate, or if that's too much of a ballad "Drunk in Love" could work too.All the ballads
are pretty good, “Flawless,” and “Superpower,” are both cool and “Grown Woman”
is my personal favorite track on the album (although it’s partly because of the
awesome bass playing in the end part).While there are a few gems, I just find it shocking how obviously
derivative most of these tracks are.I used to think of Beyonce as a tastemaker and an innovator, so to see
her bow so easily to current and most likely passing trends is
disheartening.
I understand the argument that the work is about the
cumulative effect of all the songs and videos together, and that the “video
album” concept is ambitious and of our time, but to me neither the videos nor
the music have the content to back up the concept.There isn’t really a narrative thread that goes through the
music or the videos that makes it feel like anything more than just 17 songs
with 17 ok videos (except maybe you could argue there's a feminist slant to most of the songs, and there's a recurring trophy image in a few of the videos).And as far as
music video multi media innovation goes, I think this project pales in
comparison to the incredibly simple, clever and powerful video for Bob Dylan’s
“Like a Rolling Stone” that came out a few weeks ago (http://video.bobdylan.com/desktop.html).It’s pretty amazing that Bob Dylan
after a 50+ year career is still one of the most innovative and vital artists
out there.And it’s actually kinda
sad that a 72 year old man does zeitgeist better than any member of my
generation I can think of.
We all love Beyonce, and maybe for most people her raw
talent and magnetism is worth the price of admission. I get that.But I always liked Beyonce because in addition to having raw
talent and magnetism she put out fun pop music that was innovative and of high
quality.She always masterfully
towed the line between entertainer and artist, and now with “BEYONCE” I see her
solidly planted in the entertainment camp.
Anyway, I guess my final word is that instead of buying
“BEYONCE”, you should spend your $15.99 on a bottle of Muscadet or a 375 ml bottle of Valdespino's "Inocente" sherry and drink it while watching “Like a Rolling Stone” 17 times in a row.Now that’s a high quality way to spend
an evening.
This weekend I went to the first of two “holiday Champagne
tastings” at Chambers Street.This
one focused on wines made from white grapes, and next week’s will focus on red
grapes.I don’t keep my cards very
close to my chest when talking about Chambers Street Wines.I love the place, and their tastings
are a big part of the reason why.
Champagne is a region I would like to learn more about.The wines fascinate me but they are out
of my price range for everyday drinking.As a result I have very limited tasting experience.So I jumped at the chance to try six back-to-back
champagnes which, curated by Chambers Street, were bound to be incredible.Sure enough, they were, and between
tasting the wines and talking to the Champagne buyer Sophie, I came out feeling
like I had a much better understanding of what the wines of Champagne are all
about.
Here are the wines from the tasting:
Jacques Lassaigne NV Champagne Blanc de Blancs Vignes de Montgeux, $47.99
Diebolt Vallois NV Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Cramant, $44.99
Agrapart et Fils NV Champagne Blanc de Blancs "7 Crus," $51.99
Laherte 2007 Champagne Extra Brut Les Empreintes $74.99
Piollot NV Extra Brut Polisot Pinot Blanc $61.99
Doquet 2002 Champagne Grand Cru Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs $82.99
(I’m pretty sure that was the order.4 and 5 might be switched though)
These tastings move pretty quickly and it can be difficult
to get a good impression of any one single wine.But I find them more valuable for getting a general sense of
a region or a style or a vineyard or a vintage or something like that.This tasting got me thinking a lot
about…well, champagne.
The first three wines struck me as being similar.They all had a purity and focus to
them, showing more lean fruit and minerality than any of the secondary,
oxidative, nutty type flavors you can find in Champagne (guess that’s probably
an age thing).I
appreciate this style of wine for its terroir-expressiveness.You can really taste that these are wines made from Chardonnay, they all had that great, cutting cool climate acidity,
and they all had pronounced mineral components.A couple of these wines struck me as being Chablis-like,
which I guess makes sense given the proximity of the two regions.
The two wines that I found most memorable, however, were the
Laherte and the Doquet.For my
palate, these wines were also the two richest and broadest of the six
wines.The Laherte had an
incredibly fascinating funky nose and was rich and creamy on the palate but
with great lively acidity.And the
Doquet felt grand and decadent with a warm savory, yeasty sort of profile. This is what I imagine great, classic
champagne tasting like when I read about it.
I only have one gripe about these wines and it’s an obvious
one: prices.By Champagne
standards these prices are actually great for such high quality wines, and I’ve
read in a few places recently about how Champagne is actually a great value in
the high-end wine market.But this
is precisely why the wines of Champagne have been relegated to the role of
special occasion wine.
If it were up to me, champagne would be an every day
wine.Very few wines have the versatility
that Champagne does—It’s incredibly delicious on it’s own, great as an aperitif
with light fare, and I also think it serves a great place on the table. There
are so many times I’ve cooked a meal, struggled to find the right wine and then
realized that Champagne would have been the perfect pairing.But why can’t anyone make a bottle of
Champagne for less than $30?
I understand that these wines come from some of the most
amazing and also difficult terroir in the world and that some of them are aged
upon release and that their prices reflect these factors.So here’s my question: is the price
difference between Champagne and other sparkling wines justified?I think it is, but more so at the
higher end.From my experience at
this tasting, I realized if I had the money I would spend it on the Doquet or
the Laherte before I would spend it on the more affordable NV wines.I found they offered
something in terms of complexity and intrigue that I haven’t found in sparkling
wines from other parts of the world.
I really loved the first three younger NV wines, the Lassaigne in
particular, and in some contexts, with an oyster for example, I would rather
drink the Lassaigne than the Doquet or the Laherte. And as I mentioned before, I really admire their purity and faithful
expression of terroir, but I couldn’t help but wonder: is a faithful expression
of Champagne terroir that much more valuable than a faithful expression of Jura
terroir? Or the Loire? Or Savoie? Or Alsace? Or Burgundy?All of which
are places you can find great wine makers making delicious, well made, and pure
sparkling wines for around $20.I suppose it’s a bit of a silly argument when all these wines are unique
and beautiful in their own ways, and in a perfect world I would just drink them
all but when you’re on a budget you have to make silly arguments with yourself
in justifying where to spend your hard-earned dollars…
Anyway, this Champagne stuff is fascinating. I know that a rapid-fire wine tasting is far from ideal way to evaluate a wine. I would love to buy each of these
bottles, and a number of other Champagnes for that matter, and drink them
slowly, each one over an evening, or a meal, or a few days and get to know each
wine a little better. But if I did that, I would slowly go broke and end up
destitute on the street drinking a bottle of Doquet out of a paper bag. Which
is why I’m so thankful for Chambers Street for putting on these great tastings
where I can try these wines for free.Thank you Chambers Street.
And in case you live a slightly more modest lifestyle than Ricky Rose, I highly recommend this wine:
Domaine de Montbourgeau NV Cremant du Jura Brut
Had this wine at thanksgiving with raw oysters and was blown away. Very lively on the palate, great champagne-like flavor profile. Pretty serious wine for $21.99.
Also, I would love to make posters of rappers holding bottles of geeky grower champagnes.
I feel bad about how long I've been going between posts lately, so
here's a quick update on what I've been drinking and listening to:
What I've been drinking:
2012 Yvon Metras Beaujolais
Just discovered an awesome new wine store, not too far from me in
Prospect Heights, called Passage de la Fleur. Apparently it's owned by
the same people who own the lower east side wine geek destination The Ten
Bells. They have a ton of really interesting direct import stuff, and
also a really impressive amount of large format bottles. They only stock
natural wines. I bought both this wine and the following wine there.
Yvon Metras is a culty producer I've read about a fair amount, but I had
never seen any of his wines in any of the stores I usually patronize. Major
props to PdlF for stocking this. The woman working there, I believe her
name was Emily, said she found the wine very "poulsard-like," and I
totally agree. In fact, tested blind, I would probably mistake it for
poulsard, with its light color, and rose petal and orange peel aromas. But
it did have that telltale "vin de soif" transparency on the palate
that makes good Beaujolais so lovable. Really awesome wine, improved for
days, great value at 20 bucks. I couldn't keep my nose out of the glass.
2011 Nicolas Carmarans L'Olto
Very interesting wine, also recommended to me by Emily at PdlF. This
wine is made by a producer I know nothing about, from a region I know very
little about, with a grape I've never heard of called Fer Servadou. The
wine was dominated by peppery/vegetal sort of flavors with a parsley/cilantro
bitter herb kind of thing going on. There was a subtle berried fruitiness
as well, but this was a far cry from anything I would call "fruity." Nice
and light on the palate with an interesting savory, almost cheesy kind of thing
on the finish. Honestly, the flavor profile was so bizarre I thought the
wine could have been flawed, but I still really liked it, and I don't have the
tasting experience to definitively say when a wine is flawed. Very
interesting wine, if a little scary.
2010 Domaine Gabriel Billard Cuvee
"Milliane"
Definitely an earth driven wine with nice minerality and a leathery
licorice sort of component on the nose that made the wine feel almost
nebbiolo-esque. Nice tart sour cherries on the palate. The grand
cru drinkers among you might fine this wine to be a bit "thin" but I
found it to be light and bright and unpretentiously drinkable. $24, for
me, is a lot to spend on a bottle of wine, but for great burgundy it's a steal.
2011 Huet Vouvray "Le
Haut-Lieu" Sec
I bought this wine because I wanted to try some good quality Loire
chenin blanc, and Huet seems to be a very esteemed domaine, but to be honest I
found this wine disappointing. It was very tight aromatically and just
generally austere (even after a decent decant). Definitely had a nice mineral
component and good acidity but if I'm going to shell out 30 bucks I want a
little more. I found myself wishing I were drinking a $15 Muscadet. Maybe
2011 was a weird year in Vouvray, or more likely this wine just needs 10 years
in the cellar. In any case, this wine just wasn't singing that night...
2012 Berhard Ott "Am Berg"
The wines of Bernhard Ott have already gotten a lot of hype and seem be
to selling like Miley Cyrus albums this holiday season, so I'll just add that I
too think this wine rocks. This is Ott's entry level Gruner Veltliner,
which at $15 would be uneconomical NOT to buy. This wine is delicious,
complex, very versatile with food, and working well above its pay-grade. Great
stocking stuffer.
What I've been listening to:
Jorge Ben-A Tabua De Esmerelda
I love Brazilian pop music. I love the grooves, I love the
sophistication, I love the singers, I love the songs, and most of all I love
the unpretentious joyfulness that is hard to find in our overly angst-driven American
cultural landscape. But, I will admit, I often struggle with the slick,
cheesy, elevator style production used on a lot of Brazilian music. In
some cases, I'm able to ignore the copious flutes and dated synthesizers and
enjoy the music for what it is, but other times I find it completely
unpalatable. However, with this record I don't need to compromise. I
love the production, the record has a ton of "vibe," and the music is
incredible. This record is a complete powerhouse in terms of vocal
performance. And yes there still are flutes.
Azealia Banks-"212"
I think I'm a bit late to the party on Azealia Banks, but my god she is
amazing. Just when you were starting to get dark on your city because all
these articles by David Byrne and Patti Smith and the like started floating
around talking about how New York City is on its way out as a place where the
arts can thrive, and you start thinking about moving to Detroit or Poughkeepsie
or Estonia, you hear something like this and your faith is completely restored. A friend was explaining to me how Banks writes the rhythms for her verses
first and then after the fact plugs in words whose syllables match those
rhythms. I don't know if that's true, but that would make sense to me
considering the incredible dizzying musicality of her lyrical phrasing. Azealia
Banks, you make me proud to live in the 212. WARNING: this track contains
some pretty unsavory language. My 13-and-under readership should seek
parental supervision before listening.
Jingo-"Fever"
Ismail Jingo came up singing covers of songs by American musicians like
Percy Sledge and James Brown in Kenyan night clubs. Supposedly he even
performed for the Godfather of Soul himself at the airport upon his arrival in
Nairobi and, as the story goes, was so good that Brown joined him onstage and
sang "Talking Loud and Saying Nothing" with him. "Fever"
was by far Jingo's biggest hit during his lifetime, and the track enjoyed a
resurgence of crossover success when it was featured in the soundtrack of the
2006 film "The Last King of Scotland."* This is one of those
tracks that is like candy for me. Whenever I don't know what to listen to
immediately I put it on, and I've listened to it on repeat. I have a
fever, and the only prescription is more "Fever."
Kanye West-Yeezus
That's right. I'll admit it. I love this record. When
I first listened to it I was blown away: the minimalist palate and the dark
industrial sort of textures were very striking. But I decided after that that I
had no desire to ever listen to it again. I thought it was another
example of high-concept, low-content music. But sure enough, this record
has crept its way back into my consciousness and back into my listening
rotation and, I have to say, I think it's really good. Does it seem a bit
half-baked lyrically? Sure. Is the overall aesthetic a bit grating
at times? A bit. Do I find some of the Justin Vernon stuff
unnecessary and annoying? Definitely. But I'll be damned if it
isn't one of the most adventurous and fearless hip-hop albums I've heard all year.
And by one of the most commercially successful artists in the world no
less. No one can deny the charisma and passion and intensity West puts
into his delivery, even if the words, at moments, miss their mark. And
the record has a fascinating patience to it—it's more about tension than
release. It completely upends the dynamic contours (or lack thereof) that have become the
status quo in modern hip-hop production. If nothing else, this record is
important because it has set a new standard for how experimental and
groundbreaking a commercial hip-hop record can and should be.
Anyway, I was given the job of curating the wines for Thanksgiving
dinner, so expect an update on how that went soon...
Happy Holidays!
*I got all this background info about Jingo from an amazing blog about
African music called "Afro7." Check it out! http://afro7.net/
.JPG)
