Tambour Vision
Minami Deutsch, OFF!, Bertrand Belin, TSHA, Joey Ramone & Lemmy, Yves Simon, Brian Eno, new Undomondo Discover Weekly playlist and more..
Hey all, long time no see!
The year is about to end and I’m preparing for the end of year list this year by listening to stuff a bit earlier than usual. Once again a fantastic year, if you can unentangle yourself from algorithms.
IN HEAVY ROTATION
Minami Deutsch
After drawing my attention with a 7” on Sweden’s Höga Nord label, Tokyo based minimalist krautrock 4 piece Minami Deutsch has a new LP called Fortune Goodies on Guru Guru Brain, and it’s fantastic!. Expect progressive/psychedelic influences and a lot of motorik!
OFF!
LA Hardcore juggernaut OFF! lead by the impeccable Keith Morris (Black Flag founder), I mean how can this guy function at this age and still stay relevant is beyond me. Intense hardcore punk that’s not a parody of themselves.
Bertrand Belin
I’ve only recently chanced upon this guy from a track from the Limiñanas / Laurent Garnier album, where he was featured. I guess he’s more famous than I thought? He’s been active since 20 years!. New album Tambour Vision on Wagram and this sounds like Mark Lanegan is doing Serge Gainsbourg songs? (in a good way).
TSHA
These days you know you’ve made it, if you have an album out on Ninja Tune. Now of course they’ve constantly been an important force since the early 90’s but the last couple of years, they have perfected the “stab-led festival main stage closer electronic pop music” (and I am not saying this in a derogatory way) from the likes of Flo Po, Bonobo, Bicep & Jordan Rakei.
The debut from relative newcomer TSHA “Capricorn Sun” - whom we first heard about on this tribal/bass heavy house set from the Lab - is once again a heavy contender for this year’s “stab-led festival main stage closer electronic pop music” (and no I’m not saying this in a derogatory way, either)
PALEO FOOTAGE
📣 What happened to this kind of content? It got snowed under internet era 7-24 trash content. Whoever paved the way to this by switching to reality show MTV content deserves to be strangled. RIP legends Lemmy & Joey.
📣 Legendary Flamenco sisters Fernarda & Bernarda de Utrera live on a TV show. Watch how the lead changes throughout the video, a healthy dose of sisterhood and rivalry.
📣 First time I see a live TV footage of this first wave Euro disco edit classic. Wholesome.
UNDOMONDO DISCOVER WEEKLY
New 20 song playlist by me, still end of summerish & mellow. Soulful stuff from Adrian Queseda, Jensine Benitez backed by Thee Sacred Souls, Yaya Bey world music infusion by Red Snapper, Akale Wube, Ibeyi spoken word from Roy Montgomery R&B from dance ditties from Marxist Love Disco Ensemble (what a name!), Jitwam, Euchan Chon, world reggae funk etc. from Mista Savona, Myrian Makenwa (covering Miriam Makeba’s Amampondo), electronic music from TSHA, Decius (w/Liam Saudi from Fat White Family), DJ Nature, Clara Luciani (of La Femme)… and more! Simply click and subscribe and let good/algorithm untouched music come to you.!
(and you can read why you should avoid Spotify algorithms on these two articles below)
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE NET
♩Streamers Use Playlists to Control the Music Industry: [Wired]
The more listeners automatically head to Spotify's ¡Viva Latino! or Baila Reggaeton or Rock Classics, the more streaming comes to mimic radio. The difference is that with radio there were thousands of DJs deciding what to play, including many that were passionate about breaking new local talent. With streaming, just one faceless global giant programs each channel.
♩The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety: [New Yorker]
Besieged by automated recommendations, we are left to guess exactly how they are influencing us, feeling in some moments misperceived or misled and in other moments clocked with eerie precision. At times, the computer sometimes seems more in control of our choices than we are.
♩A Lion Unleashed: The Enduring Legacy of Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”: [The Ringer]
In an excerpt from his new book, ‘Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation,’ author Steven Hyden looks at the band’s breakthrough video, how it helped reshape pop culture, and how it changed its creators in the process
♩The Unlikely Odds of Making it Big on TikTok: [Pudding Cool]
The story of platform-hopping isn’t new. Early YouTubers were trying to get TV-famous and, in turn, made content that was similar to what you’d see on TV. Sixty years earlier, a similar sequence played out with TV and movies. When it first emerged, acting on TV was just a stepping stone to appearing in film.
But getting YouTube-famous rarely transferred to TV stardom—not because YouTube videos were inferior, but rather the mediums were too different.
The same thing is happening on TikTok with music: it’s producing a new role for audio as part of our media diet.
♩How Brian Eno Created Ambient 1: Music for Airports: [Reverb Machine]
Bit geeky if you aren’t involved but wonderfully illustrated, detailing Eno’s methods of how he created Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
This means I won’t be able to perform at Flagey Brussels, Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, Supersonic Jazz in Amsterdam and Ronnie Scott’s in London. It is frustrating to see bureaucracy and references to very outdated and old legislation being the foundation of EU immigration to frustrate beautiful arts and music being performed at renown festivals.
♩Enough with the petty bureaucrats and paper work stopping musical artists. Music has no borders!
LIVES LIVED
Two important deaths in this newsletter’s absence Pharoah Sanders, Ramsey Lewis.
Kamasi Washington on Pharoah Sanders
Phaorah Sanders overcame obscurity and achieved immortality.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Stay safe, winter is coming! Talk soon, meanwhile check this account publishing the best 70s/80s/90s dance music archival content/memorabilia . Here’s a picture of Jellybean Benitez & Walter Gibbons at the Funhouse and a flyer from The Choice East Village NYC, 1990.
