Feb 17 2008
Today’s bookmarks:
Feb 17 2008
Today’s bookmarks:
Feb 14 2008
Tina Malia is a singer-songwriter from California who writes and performs beautiful songs at the nexus of folk, world music and new age. That may not sound terrifically appealing at first glance, but somehow she manages to circumvent cheesiness by a wide, safe margin. Instead, she dresses up her earnest (and sometimes touching) folk songs with incredibly skillful arrangements drawing on a variety of excellent acoustic musicians using traditional folk instrumentation augmented by instruments like djembes, didjeridoos and marimbas.
I can hear traces of Peter Gabriel’s world music production heyday in the title track, Sarah McLachlan in “Beholding,” a pan-Celtic sensibility in “All Roads,” and so on. While this is proudly derivative music in the sense that it acknowledges its roots and wears them honestly, I also think that Tina Malia’s songwriting and production skills are so highly developed that she more than stands on her own. For somebody this talented, it’s a conscious, intelligent choice to release her records on an independent label (best place to buy is either in Amazon’s MP3 store, link above, or at CD Baby). Those who still think major labels are the measure of quality should take a close listen and may realize this is better than much that’s come out of a major label in years.
On CDBaby, Tina is billed as a “tribal folk goddess,” which may be a good description, and her own website describes her background and history like this:
After studying sound engineering and classical vocal performance, she began her professional music career at age 18 as a producer, engineer and vocalist for a children’s music label out of Northern California. She then went on to produce two of her own recordings, and has just released her third “the Silent Awakening”. It features a rich, groove oriented, acoustic and electric feast […]
Some listeners may love the musical depth and beautiful singing and playing on this record but be skeptical about the ‘new age-y’ tone in the lyrics. There’s a Sanskrit chant (track 8, “In Sunlight”) and a lot of lyrics about love, freedom and nature (the CD booklet’s cover page says, “To those who serve beauty”). But there are also lyrics a-plenty that seem to allude to sensuality, sexuality and faith. I think there’s depth here that I’m sometimes willing to let in, and sometimes not. The overall effect is tasteful and I never feel like I’m being hit over the head with consciousness. I’ll admit that lyrics tend to be less important to me than music, though, so your mileage may vary. I’m recommending this for the music - it’s some of the best playing and production I’ve ever heard in an independently produced record.
Tina Malia’s website has more, and her albums are available at CDBaby.
Feb 13 2008
Today’s bookmarks:
Feb 12 2008
This is still the definitive greatest hits package by Queen. It first came out in 1981, which means it’s got everything you need to have heard: Queen before it started to use (a lot of) synthesizers; Queen playing excellent pop songs deeply rooted in British heavy metal, rock ‘n roll and music hall; Queen being outrageous and fey and yet satisfyingly rock ‘n roll all at once.
I remember first hearing this record at my friend Reinhard’s house. He was a year older and started his rock listening journey a little earlier than I did - and he had this fabulous Queen record that we listened to over and over (he also had Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again, and I gave him a copy of AC/DC’s For Those About To Rock for his birthday - or did I give him the Depeche Mode and he had the AC/DC?). I remember being awestruck by the gratifying rumble of Queen’s sound - I immediately loved Roger Taylor’s thunderous and precise, musical drums, and Brian May’s guitar remains to this day a unique, melodious, beautiful sound, his solos pitched a little lower than many other guitarists’.
The song list on this, the first of many Queen Greatest Hits discs, is essentially perfection. Sure, there are some later tracks that one secretly wishes had been around already in 1981 to be included here - ‘Hammer to Fall’ from 1984’s The Works would have blended in well - but this is as good as it gets short of actually listening to classic Queen albums. (Maybe this is a classic Queen album.)
‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ ‘Another One Bites The Dust,’ ‘Killer Queen,’ ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love,’ ‘Fat Bottomed Girls,’ ‘Bicycle Race’ - they’re all here. There are some lesser-known titles, too (lesser-known to North American ears), like ‘Save Me’ and ‘Don’t Stop Me Now.’
What’s great about this compilation is that it’s mostly cut from a single cloth of sound - Queen circa 1973-1980 were a consistent sounding band with a big, powerful sound. These recordings were laboured over in the studio, often painstakingly assembled (lore has it that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was overdubbed so much that the tape became transparent). What’s great about them is that unlike other 1970s studio bands, Queen did not end up making tedious fantasy music with 15-minute songs about fairies and fauns. They made perfect pop confections that have become part of the fabric of rock ‘n roll.
Feb 12 2008
Today’s bookmarks:
Feb 12 2008
Here’s some graffiti on a construction wall in Richmond Hill:
(Thanks for the quick drive-by shooting, Jen :)
Feb 11 2008
Leah Salomaa is a Toronto-based folk singer who has made two excellent CDs of folk songs for children. This is tastefully sung and played music that’s engaging for children and adults alike: it’s not saccharine like other children’s CDs I’ve heard. Leah’s voice has great clarity and beauty, and there’s an elegant simplicity to this music that’s made me listen to it again and again.
I went to see Leah Salomaa on the weekend at the Toronto Waldorf School, where she was performing a children’s concert. Leah sings and plays the bodhrán and piano while Chris Gartner accompanies her on guitar. This is done almost like a song circle, involving children and adults actively with gestures, movements and dance. Everyone gets to sing along, and Leah is excellent at getting even the most withdrawn to come out of their shells a little.
Back to the CDs, though. Both are exceptionally well recorded and sound great. The arrangements are simple and leave a lot of space for the songs to really shine. The music is a mix of Celtic, folk and bluegrass tunes, many adjusted lyrically to be more digestible for kids while not losing their charm for older listeners. For example, “Drunken Sailor” becomes “Bow Down Belinda” on I Like to Rise and Father Sun’s “Mary Mac” has lyrics that are a little less, well, bawdy than the Irish original (then again, there seem to be so many variations on the lyrics that saying anything is ‘the original’ version seems a little meaningless).
Speaking of “Mary Mac,” it’s a fabulous tune and beautifully executed here - definitely my favourite and, I think, deserving of a place in any Celtic music compilation. The verses are sung to only the beat of the bodhrán (she has fantastic pitch!) and are interspaced with superb pipes and accordion playing. It’s a toe-tapping reel for sure, and one that I’m finding myself listening to over and over again.
Leah Salomaa’s website has information about how to book her. Her latest CD, Father Sun and Mother Moon: Soulful Songs for Children (2007), is available through CDBaby. I can’t seem to find I Like to Rise (2004) anywhere online anymore (you’ll have to go to a concert to buy it). Finally, I see traces online that there was a third CD in 2000 called Celtic Trio (I’m assuming this was ‘for adults’) but nobody seems to have it for sale anymore.
Update: Leah Salomaa has since written to me to let me know that I Like to Rise is available at http://www.firetheimagination.ca (her distributor) and http://www.parentbooks.ca, a Toronto store that also sells online. The Celtic Trio album was in fact never released (the record label didn’t make it), which explains why it’s not for sale anywhere. And “Mary Mac” was in fact originally recorded for that album, so maybe that’s why it has a sound that’s more appealing to my grown-up ears :) What a treat to get mail from the artist herself!
Feb 10 2008
Bookmarks for the last few days:
Feb 10 2008
There’s a great article about a speech David Suzuki - environmentalist, scientist, activist - gave at McGill University in The McGill Daily.
He described speaking to children in Toronto who could not explain where water or food came from, only that it was supplied by the economy.
Our deep disconnection from the environment, and increasingly our inability to establish even theoretical connections between the soil, plants and animals in our food chain and ourselves, is maddening and sad. Especially urban children, in the developed and developing world, have no idea where food comes from.
Increasingly - as Michael Pollan elegantly argues - food also isn’t food anymore. Most items we buy from supermarkets are industrially assembled from component ingredients (most of which are based on corn), containing chemical compounds that we wouldn’t recognize as ‘food’ if we were to examine them individually.
So it’s understandable that children don’t understand where food comes from. Adults don’t either. We are deeply confused and uncertain about the world we live in:
Suzuki also underlined the interconnectedness of humans with their natural world – a point not often made by mainstream environment critics. “We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves,” he said.
