Popular Music
Best of Patron Requests: Music (January 2012 Edition)
This list is a monthly compilation of my own personal favorite patron requests for music. I hope you will check out some of the great music that Library users have suggested we acquire!
Provided are some great preview tracks for each. Just click on the titles to be taken to the catalog.
Bollywood Bloodbath by various
FIND OF THE MONTH! Various soundtrack gems from Bollywood B Movies? Need I go on? Traditional Indian music elements mixed with reggae dub synth punches, washed out video game sounds, and mildly western-influenced pop song structures, all produced to sound like it's coming out of a little transistor radio in your dad's garage. Now I have to see if we can get any of the movies these are from. The end results have such unique and beautiful textures, they will astound and delight!
(PREVIEW)
Forbidden Planets, Vol. 2: More Music From The Pioneers Of Electronic Sound by various
Another great find! This collection is full of wonderfully bizarre sounds, mostly from the 1950s. Two CDs, with lots of big names, as well as some lesser-knowns, all tinkering with the then-still-new technology of electronically produced sound. Anyone working on a science fiction action/adventure show would do well to comb these tracks for samples. This one is far out!
(PREVIEW)
Faces in the Rocks by Mariee Sioux
Just when I thought I had heard enough bamboo flute in the subway system to last me a lifetime, this record proves it can be perfectly haunting when done well. Mariee Sioux is a young singer-songwriter who is accompanied by a flute player and her dad on mandolin. Her dad? It's just too cute! But truthfully, the first time I heard the song "Wild Eyes," I listened to it about 50 times straight. Though she fits neatly into the folk tradition of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, there seems to me something very original here. The harmonies are laid in just so beautifully, and the poetry has a powerful and lyrical flow that indicates a real intuitive approach to combining words and music. And don't think her Native American flourishes are like going shopping for dream catchers and turquoise in Santa Fe. No, they are the exposed roots of her being. She takes you to the soul of the earth, where ancient spirits dance among the bones, weeping fire, "Trying to pull you back deep in their wooden womb of a hundred hearts hanging suspended, moth-eaten. Those muscles the size of your fist all floating around your head and throwing punches like we throw the stones to the bottom of river beds. Who knows who's next to watch from under the currents the rapids rapidly raging while we're rapidly blinking our wild wild eyes."
I'm listening again now — yes, it is still that good! I can't stop! Help! (PREVIEW)
Ancient Romans by Sun Araw
It's hallucinatory meditation for those not afraid to stare at the sun with their eyes open; the amplified sounds of bees making honey; the sonification of some far away orbital resonance; and a trip through time and space on a ship made entirely of effects pedals. Put all those together and you may just come close to this record. I could listen to this for hours!
(PREVIEW)
Weekend in America by Wolfgang Gartner
This is some solid electronic dance music here. If you like Deadmau5, or Plump DJs, you'll probably like this. Groovy and great!
(PREVIEW)
Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1 by Earth
Earth is back with their latest fair of twilight-sleep music that creeps along in what seems to be a row boat moving through the Dead Sea. Famous for their hypnotic drones, here they show they can dabble in slow grooves and melodies and still keep it as locked in as ever. I'm going to go to sleep to this tonight. I'll probably dream of being a Viking or something.
(PREVIEW)
Family of Love EP by Dom
Electro pop music for the kids! What makes this stand out for me is the way these synthy pop tunes build in to a veritable juggernaut of sound by the end. It's catchy yet massive.
(PREVIEW)
Book of David by DJ Quik
This is oooold school legit. Throws you back to that 70s funk sound ala early 90s Death Row Records. I think if George Clinton was a rapper, it would sound a little like this. Catchy catchy tunes.
(PREVIEW) (NSFW y'all, but neither were the 70s)
H-P1 by White Hills
OK, everyone make the sign of the horns, raise 'em to the sky, and crank this proto-metal sounding non-stop onslaught of bottom heavy riffs and rippin wah-pedal guitar solos. It reminds me of Hawkwind (seen here with Lemmy of Motorhead singing) with a little Sabbath thrown in. It's just an in-your-face kind of an album. I've got to keep my eyes out for these guys coming through on tour. Now that would be something to see!
(PREVIEW)
Welcome to Condale by Summer Camp
If seeing how much production you can possibly shove into a CD of 40 minutes or so, this is for you. That sounds bad I guess, but I love it! It's pop, but aggressively and unapologetically so. Beyond that something in the sound throws you back to around 1988. Good times!
(PREVIEW)
-TUNE IN NEXT MONTH-
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Comments
These look good
Submitted by Shawn Donohue on February 2, 2012 - 4:46pm