Out to Lunch

Hysteric Housewives with Kitchen Knives

Doesn't this look like a dancefloor... or am I going nuts?

Before you people out there, start to think that I must be disco crazy, dancing all day and all night, I’m posting something else right now. I like disco music but there’s something that I like even more and that’s classical music. Early renaissance, polyphonic, Baroque, the classics,… you name it, the works.
I heard an incredible powerful piece of music on the radio just the other day. It was Arvo Pärt’s Credo for piano, choir and orchestra. It’s from 1968 but it still sounds incredibly fresh. What struck me was that certain parts of it, the shock effects and contrasts between ‘Klankmassen’ sound like stuff Frank Zappa did in his orchestral works years later. Who would have thought that?

Hélène Grimaud on piano with The Swedish Radio Choir and The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the supervision of Esa-Pekka Salonen in Arvo Pärt’s Credo from 1968

I must say, I’ve been often pleasantly surprised by radio. Only yesterday I heard another breathtaking tune in Gilles Peterson’s World Wide radio show. If I understood it correctly it was a Ron Trent production with a former unknown rapper called Yaw. Only this tune wasn’t exactly hiphop. This rapper Yaw turned out to be an ace singer delivering the gospel in a very sincere and heartwarming soulful manner. An incredible performance. It was kinda creepy listening to it at such an untimely late hour. Judge for yourself.

By the way, he’s giving away this song for free at his myspace page.

Yaw – Where Will U Be

It was a while since I heard something from Ron Trent. I remember him best as one of the pioneers of house and techno. I should check out what he did all those years since his seminal classic Altered States.

Ron Trent – Altered States (original mix)

Gilles Peterson also had some pleasant news: a new Eryka Badu album! The first in 5 years I guess, although I seem to remember that there was a kind of bootleg last year called simply Badu, but I’m not sure. Something new from Eryka Badu is always great news certainly if it’s that good. I only have an illegal download for now to see what it’s like before they release it over here. The album is called New Amerykha and it’s about the state of affairs in the States right now so it’s highly political. If I’m right there’s going to be a second release because it’s called Part 1 so there has to be a part two as well. Maybe after the coming elections, which are turning into a kind of a bummer for Obama, if I’m correctly, after recent exposure of his godfather’s opinions on certain delicate state matters. Let’s all see how this turns out.

Erika Badu – Soldier
Erika Badu – Twinkle
Erika Badu – Telephone

There’s more fun coming this year. A new album from Jamie Lidell that is. This is the first really smashin’ single.

Jamie Lidell – figured Me Out