Dr. Sabe Tudo
Emil Amos, Rich Hinman, Ana Frango Elétrico, Egyptian Suzanne Vega cover, María Dolores Pradera and more...
Howdy y’all!
It’s that time of the year again! Every year I set out to listen to less albums, and end up listening to even more. Once again there’s a wealth of amazing albums in every nook and cranny of the music spectrum and hopefully I’ll be making a coherent list asap!
IN HEAVY ROTATION
♩Steel pedal guitarist Rich Hinman's new one on Colorfield Records downright floored me. Is this the most creative use of pedal guitar? Rolling Americana, jazz, improv & experimental ambient music into vignettes? Collaborations with Mark Giuliana, Benny Bock and more. Listen in one go!
“I wanted the pieces to connect emotionally, and to create a mood. I once heard Nels Cline describe a record — an Ethiopian jazz record, I think — as ‘both somber and festive’. I think this gets pretty close to that.”
♩Ana Frango Elétrico’s 2023 album “Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua” features this track as an album closer. After having it stuck on me head for days in a row, I dug up the lyrics and realized this is a cover of a piece by one Rubinho Jacobina. It’s safe to say Ana Frango made this her own, with this “80’s montage-latin-nu disco-New Jack Swing cover that would have made Gloria Estefan proud.
É que eu sou o doutor sabe tudo / Discutindo o amor não me iludo / Pra que sustentar o amarelo / No sorriso tão pé de chinelo
♩ Emil Amos the sticks behind Grails, and the singer/songwriter for Holy Sons, has a new album to his name! Akin to his Lilacs & Champagne output; cut up samples, cinematics, late night beats.. Channeling the same moodiness of Holy Sons on top of noir images.
♩Killer ‘91 cover version of Suzanne Vega’s “Toms Diner” by Egyptian singer and actress Simone, unearthed and released by Sound Metaphors.
♩Punkrock History account over at Mastodon, delivers “pictures, facts, memories and emotions” of Punk daily. Below, pictures of Bad Brains!
♩I love this series by Drumeo, where generally a jazz musician hears a metal song for the first time, and tries to play it. Formerly Larnell Lewis playing Metallica and Dennis Chambers playing Tool.
♩I’ve chanced on some videos of the late María Dolores Pradera -”who is the epitome of singing in Spanish if you didn’t know”- looking for a possible live version of “Caballo Viejo”, which I’ve found here. Her channel has videos from many different eras of her life, where you can see and her accompaniment age, and play some wonderful music.
♩ Another pleasant watch is this series called “Making of Dance Classics” by (surprise!) DJ Mag where producers talk about their classic hits. Only watched these two yet by Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction and Stardust’s Music Sounds better with you, if you know these by heart, you’ll get some fun out of this.
UNDOMONDO DISCOVER WEEKLY
Don’t forget to listen to the Undomondo Discover Weekly, where there’s more handpicked music that I don’t have the time to write about individually. Starting with neofolk band ROME’s aptly titled intro, seguing into Cleo Sol’s cozy “Things will get better”, going through material by Biig Piig, Spanish act Y La Bamba, an old Ana Mazzotti song that I chanced upon, new material from Black Pumas, Alogte Oho, Habibi Funk’s Libyan Reggae reissue of Najib Alhoush, Polish jazz band EABS with Jaubi, UK nu jazz by The Circling Sun and the last bit a salute to the late Mr. Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, whom we lost last week.
On the last edition I featured some articles about issues at Spotify & Bandcamp. Now it’s Discogs time, it seems Internet is in full on enshittification mode.
♩The Discontent at Discogs (Rolling Stone)
"Discogs, once a vinyl collector's paradise, faces seller discontent. Fee hikes and new shipping charges erode profits, driving long-time users like Paul Terzulli away. The shift impacts small sellers globally, sparking debates over the future of this record-selling giant.”
Also these = Spotify Job Cuts. + Spotify Streaming Royalties fraud.
♩Sphere and Loathing in Las Vegas (The Atlantic) (non-paywalled)
I noticed that the structure’s great power was its ability to compel nearly every human who stood before it to grab their phone and point it directly at the massive screen; it seems to exist for the express purpose of summoning other screens."
That’s it for this week/fortnight/month!
Talk soon x