Music

It is impossible to tell the story of electronic music without examining the pioneering beats, grooves, and performance aesthetics of Dusseldorf’s Kraftwerk and its founding member, Florian Schneider. Formed in 1970, the band brought an experimental approach to pop music, resulting in some of the most innovative and commercially successful electronic albums of the mid-1970s into the 1980s: Autobahn, Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine, and Computer World. The Florian Schneider Collection is the first auction to feature a comprehensive collection of items from Florian’s personal life and career, providing a tantalizing glimpse at his and Kraftwerk’s often-enigmatic musical processes. The sale features over 450 lots of stage- and studio-played instruments and gear, clothing, artwork and furniture from Florian’s home and studios (as well as from Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang Studio), bicycles, Kraftwerk memorabilia, and Florian’s extensive collection of historic woodwind and brass instruments (flutes, clarinets, oboes, saxophones, horns, tubas, and one-of-a-kind oddities). ...

In 2001, The Cure released Greatest Hits, the compilation with which they ended their contract with Fiction Records. The first edition of the anthology was accompanied by Acoustic Hits, an acoustic reinterpretation of the band’s hits, including Boys Don’t Cry, Friday I’m in Love, A Forest, Just Like Heaven, Lullaby, and Lovesong, one of the simplest and greatest love songs of all time (just listen to the bass line). The bonus disc was not reissued until 2017 and has only recently landed on streaming platforms. ...

Calibro 35’s Exploration, their latest album that I have just purchased, supremely fits and redefines the instrumental jazz-funk genre, adding a firm pinch of “vintage futurism,” as they call it. We were born with our heads facing forward and our eyes looking backward toward the future and the past. We have always struggled more with the present. A review that makes them justice and includes a concise yet well-done listening guide is on Far Out. ...

Inspired by the historic Dahomey Amazons and founded by three of the biggest powerhouses in African music, Mamani Keïta, Mariam Doumbia, and Oumou Sangare, Les Amazones d’Afrique have been using their voices to advocate for women’s rights since their 2017 debut. The group has never shied away from mashing up tradition and technology. Still, on Musow Dance, with the endlessly inventive production of Jacknife Lee, they lean heavily into an almost entirely electronic sound, turning up the energy several notches with booming 808s, dramatic synth slides, and bursts of vintage disco. But none of these additions ever overshadow the true soul of the music, instead amplifying the already formidable voices of Les Amazones d’Afrique’s ever-evolving lineup (source). ...

Lately, I have become increasingly interested in sound. Of the short films I shoot while hiking, for example, I’ve noticed that I’m primarily interested in their sounds. Footsteps on the ground, birds singing, wind rustling through leaves, things like that. During my motorcycle ride across Europe, I caught myself recording a walk with the Memo app on my iPhone. Listening to it allows me to reconstruct a sharp and surprisingly clear memory of that early morning, just out of the tent at Shelsley Walsh. My interest in sounds is not new; I’ve written about the Field Recordings podcast for example, but lately, I’ve become more aware of the importance of sound memory. During my daily early morning walk, I happen to listen to audiobooks or podcasts with the AirPods Pro, but there is always a lot of friction; I have to force myself into putting them on and, usually, after half an hour or so it is a great relief to take them off and listen to the world around me again (the jury is still out on whether I should leave my AirPods at home or not.) ...

I have been following Cowboy Bebop on Netflix (the anime, not the spinoff TV series). The opening is a visual and musical marvel; I’m enthralled by it. The show’s soundtrack is a unique blend of jazz (big band hard bop, mainly), blues, and a bit of rock, which I’ve never seen before in anime and probably in movies. Even episode titles pay tribute to jazz, blues and rock tracks. We have “Valtz for Venus,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “My Funny Valentine,” and stuff like that. Adorable. Episodes may appear rambling and superficial at first glance, but they are far from that. They strike a perfect balance between comedy and thought-provoking, often philosophical themes. ...

Happy Easter, everyone. This morning, I completed the long-overdue move of all my ripped CDs from my old 2012 MacBook Pro to the new one and, then, to my iPhone. I’m using Doppler on both devices. I like Doppler, a simple yet elegant MP3 player app with few well-thought-out features. I am increasingly convinced that returning to purchased music is the way. I’ve been listening to streaming services for so long that I almost forgot the accomplishment of listening to music I own. This music was so significant when I first listened to it that it was worth buying and carrying along over the years. It’s tangible, too: it’s sitting right next to me, on my hard disk and my phone; I can look at it and, yes, touch and move it as I please, as I can with my original CDs. The same goes for the new music I buy on Bandcamp or elsewhere. ...

I recently bought Dirty Rat, the absolute banger from Orbital’s 2023 Optical Delusion. It couldn’t be anything different, given that it’s a collaboration between the seminal electronic duo that emerged from the rave era and one of my British favorites, Sleaford Mods. Sleaford Mods’ barbed lyrics perfectly augment Orbital’s concrete-heavy digitalism. Mods’ James Williamson lambasts the people, “blaming everyone in the hospital, everyone at the bottom of the English Channel, and everyone who doesn’t look like a fried animal.” ...

Thanks to Giovanni Ansaldo’s convincing review on yesterday’s issue of Il Mondo podcast, my first Bandcamp purchase1 is the recently released Astral Gold album by Dean McPhee, a British guitarist who combines folk with experimental music and jazz using his telecaster guitar to create endless landscapes. As the title suggests, McPhee’s latest album is a journey into outer space. The album consists of six instrumental pieces, all captivating, enjoyable, and cohesive; they all serve as each other’s natural continuation. Along with the sound of his guitar, the musician uses tape loops, small percussion sounds, and a few synthesizers here and there. The result is a hypnotic moonscape reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey2. ...

I’m growing sick and tired of Spotify’s music-consuming model. There are many compelling and sometimes conflicting reasons, most perfectly outlined in The day I canceled my Spotify subscription on Raed’s blog. I used to cherish music, I used to religiously collect, catalog and enjoy every album on my iPod. I could navigate the endless folders and find that exact song that I needed for that precise moment. Spotify killed that, I listen to what it suggests and just accept that it will go away when it decides to rotate it out. Spotify trained me not to look too hard, to let the flow be, and if that awesome song is gone or removed, don’t worry, we still have a million more. ...