Just a short one. This is the sound of The Dø, French/Finnish duo who make some lovely sounds. Here is a song from their upcoming album (they've already had a number 1 album in France), titled Both Ways Open Jaws, set for worldwide release this November. Have a listen...
It's tribal electro dance glam weird chic, and I love it - the drums and the nonchalant, quasi-MIA-style vocals drive 'Slippery Slope' not down a slippery slope, but up a gnarly hill into a heatbox of noise and boogie. I can't wait to hear more from the album.
Spooky, eerie, strange, controversial, stupid, bad, not up to scratch, brilliant, wonderful, different, wreathed in mystique, fantastic - these are just a few of the words that the 200,000+ minds who have listened to M.I.A.'s new tribute track '27' might have thought of it. What do you think of it?
It is indeed a spooky sound, a thin beat applied like an exotic lotion throughout and speckled with crackles and fizzes that sound so ephemeral that MIA might have made this in some alternate dimension. The lyrics to this song are darkly honest, and pertain mainly to the whole 27 club thing, charting her friendship before a friend killed themselves at the age of 27 (whether this is analogous to an actual real event, I'm unsure). The stand-out line, for me, is the bleakly mundane, "I bought you coffee and a muffin, and you quoted me some Lenin", followed by the stark and pretty horrible closer: "When I left, you befriended a rope, and I saw you both were hanging."
Obviously this is a tribute to Amy Winehouse - whether or not it's actually about her, her death clearly sparked the making of this song. But how did she do it so quickly? Well, it's actually an unfinished demo that the superstar music-maker had made previously, and she said it was a dedication to "all my friends who died at 27", announcing this with a tweet that read: "I recorded this song B4 vickileekx and never put it out. It's a unfinished demo. R.I.P Amy".
Typically, The Daily Mail has reported this with some amount of contention - "However, it has been seen as not only being too soon after the singer's death, but in very bad taste as well." This is due to the subject matter, purportedly being too much about the tough times that people go through with addiction, plus romanticising the whole 27 thing. But what can be seen as harrowing can also be seen as the truth, and what can be seen as romanticising can equally be seen as a folly of youth.
Either way, in all fairness, it's a song and it was done as a tribute. It's controversial, but if people see it as negative, be that on their own thick, closed-minded heads. And it's a decent track too. Shut up.
Afrikan Boy, who got his first big break featuring on the MIA song 'Hussel', has received another leg-up into the mainstream with his next guest spot on new DJ Shadow song, 'I'm Excited'. Released digitally 31st July, the single comes ahead of the producer's newest album The Less You Know, the Better, set for release on 2nd September.
But far from being handed opportunities by artists bigger and more well known than him, the other side of the story perhaps isn't addressed. Could it be the case that DJ Shadow is just using Afrikan Boy (real name Olushola Ajose) to his advantage? Either way, the star of the track is clear - with his vocal stylings, the Woolwich-based Nigerian lends to the track his distinctive grime dish (themes of immigration resurfacing in lyrics like "I am an alien living in the ghetto"), served with Afrobeat flavours and urban swagger.
'I'm Excited'
Though I'm being unfair to DJ Shadow. He's definitely made an impact with this song. The variety of sounds within just the bare bones of the beat is a jumble of metals, beefed-up bongos, and woodblocks that cascade around Afrikan Boy's flow like sparks around a fire. The song is so strong in fact that it can rely wholly on its insane drum beat alone to get us from 0 to 2:50 without realising it's happened. More Afrobeat than grime, more dancehall than dance, 'I'm Excited' is a mix of styles that feels more dirty DIY than it probably is.
More than anything else, however, DJ Shadow - though pulling punches throughout the song - has managed to not divert attention away from Afrikan Boy whatsoever, it being a perfect collaboration and not just a 'feat' appearance from the 22-year-old rapper. With this in mind, could we ever expect a DJ Shadow-produced Afrikan Boy album? Probably not, but at least we have a little taster, a little answer to the 'what-if'. Who's next then?
I like Rainbow Arabia. Their remix featured on Health's Disco2 of 'Before Tigers' is an interesting one - not my favourite, but it spurred me on to have a look at Rainbow Arabia themselves. And I was happy with what I found.
They seem to be a source of contention, as you can see from these comments on YouTube - are they liked? Unliked? Seems pretty mixed to me. The sheer mix of comments is pretty fitting too; they're a mixed up duo with a mixed up sound. They're actually a married couple from Los Angeles, Danny and Tiffany Preston. I got the impression they were from Lebanon, because of a story about the inspiration behind the music, told by Danny - "It wasn’t until we ordered an Arabic Casio from a Lebanese website that Rainbow Arabia was formed."
So you see why I thought that. It's also because their sound is so un-LA, un-USA, and so much more world, ethnic, tribal. They sound a bit like MIA, though like MIA blended up with a more lo-fi, experimental sound. They're certainly brave in how they make their music, pioneering weird sounds in microtonal synths, Eastern beats, and conjuring soundscapes that transport you from wherever you are to somewhere mad, somewhere that might not even exist. The video below for 'OMAR K' is bizarre.
Starting with tribal drums that carry on throughout, a spooky, ska-like, melody bounces around over the top as Tiffany's echoing voice calls you up to dance like a Dervish, or more likely just move like crazy. The video, in which Tiffany and a little girl with a tomahawk transform into bloodthirsty monsters with beards and fangs, suits the song totally. This is Rainbow Arabia's sound; carefree, brash, and full of energy. The next song, 'Without You' - taken from Boys and Diamonds (released March 1st, 2011) shows off a more new-wave influence.
Touching sounds, and lyrics tinged with the fear of being "so lonely", are contrasted against the tribal beats which typify Rainbow Arabia. From the video you can see how much the Prestons enjoy the music they make. And this is the key behind the songs they make.
Their passion creates a kind of transcendental sound; you can feel their energy and love of music in every single song. If you're a fan of MIA (the only coherent comparison I can make) I would very much recommend this lovely band to you. Well, at least I hope they have brightened up this grey Sunday evening.
