FORGERY LEAGUE

Thursday 6 July 2006

the chart

The fever’s broken at last, musically speaking. Not quite burnt out on the New Pornographers, but they’ve finally been ousted from their stranglehold on my day-to-day playlist. By whom? Well, by the time I finally finish writing this, I’m sure it’ll have changed, but…

First, Neko Case. (Er… does that count?) Her latest, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, is lovely - I’m especially fond of the closer, “The Needle Has Landed”. (By an odd coincidence, my dad found a little button promoting the album in the parking lot of a restaurant where we’d happened to grab takeout. It’s now adorning the strap on my bass, along with a few of Spacing’s subway buttons.)

Second, dj BC’s Glassbreaks - an online-only album of mashups pitting Philip Glass against a diverse assortment of hip-hop and rap. It’s been taken down at the request of Glass’s publisher, but I think it’s still floating round the peer-to-peer networks. Faves: “Einstein On The Beast”, “For The Glasty” and “Stand Up Dance”, partly because of the choice of Glass bits, partly because of the texture of the voices. I think that’s what I like most about rap in all its myriad forms: low-key Q-Tip and growly Busta Rhymes, the speedy, way-glottal Dizzee Rascal. (Black East London accents sound marvelously exotic to my insulated, middle-class Canadian ears. Would I still find grime so interesting if that weren’t the case? I’m not sure. Man, I feel like such a tourist.)

Finally, Señor Coconut’s latest, Yellow Fever! Following up on his cha-cha tribute to Kraftwerk, Coco sets his sights on the next logical target, Japan’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, and it seems to me to work better. There’s more here musically to dig into, especially on their early electro-lounge (“Tong Poo”, “Simoon”)... but oddly I think it’s the spare, difficult stuff on their middle albums (“Pure Jam” and “Music Plans”) that comes off best. And of course there’s Martin Denny’s old exotica chestnut “Firecracker” which, after what seems like a dozen different remakes by YMO and their remixers, finally comes full circle. Neato.

(Speaking of Kraftwerk covers, “Europe Endless” is a bluegrass tune just waiting to get out and sing. Listen to it. Is that not a banjo arpeggio? And a fiddle line? And aren’t those vocoded vocals a natural for a big soaring tenor harmony?)