atypical boogie & a holiday premonition
atypical boogie & a holiday premonition
plus: André 3000's ambient flute LP leads me to revisit an earlier mixtape
# of Tracks: about 66 tracks
Length: 4 hours
Themes: a mix of obscurities (by Junie Morrison, Sun Ra, Peter Ivers) and classics (by War, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones) ~ mostly tunes of a pre-1980s vintage ~ a block of recordings by indigenous North Americans (Link Wray, Buffy Sainte-Marie,1 Redbone) ~ murky bayous, inherited wisdom & polyrhythms from tribal times
Link: spoti.fi (Spotify) — apple.co (Apple Music) — youtube.com (YouTube)
What is boogie? A Venn diagram would probably highlight the overlap of three circles: funk, the blues, dirty sounding grooves.2
My inspiration for this mix came from the great, quirky TV show Reservation Dogs whose fifth episode takes its name from “Come and Get Your Love”—an enduring 1970s classic by Redbone. It definitely boogies.3
However, it wasn’t just the band’s sound which inspired the playlist. Formed in Los Angeles, every member of Redbone’s classic line-up was of Native American or Mexican American descent, and they built their public identity around that fact. (“Redbone” is a Cajun term for a mixed-raced person.)
Similarly, while boogie has roots in African American communities, what I’m contemplating is how far that sound has travelled—from the extended jams of German avant-hippies in Can to the Australian post-punks who make up Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. What all these interpreters have in common, I think, is an interest in dancing through humanity’s darkness: from Black oppression, to country blues, all the way through Caucasian imitation.
Spotify version
Apple version
YouTube version
The playlist includes songs such as…
^ Redbone: “The Witch Queen of New Orleans”
^ Victoria Monet: “We Might Even Be Falling In Love”
^ JJ Cale: “Cajun Moon”
^ Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: “Red Right Hand”
Paying respect to André 3000 & revisiting an old post
Reflecting on the world’s horrors of late, my mind keeps returning to this picture—of André 3000 on a festival stage during Outkast’s reunion tour.
Not all famous artists use their perch in the thoughtful, impactful, weird way André does. For that, my respect for him is eternal and unquenchable.
Indeed, one of the bigger shocks in pop music this fall was New Blue Sun, his first proper album in 17 years. The surprise? It’s an ambient flute record with “no bars.”4
If, like me, you follow every aspect of his creativity with great interest,5 may I suggest revisiting the March edition of AHB’s Goodies. It’s built around my favorite ambient music, and features an interview with Mia Doi Todd, who made a small but significant contribution to André’s bold left turn. As she texted me a day before it was released:
“[T]he Andre record, we’ve been keeping it secret for over a year!!! It will be a big relief for it all to come out into [the] world. I think I sing on 2 tracks,6 only vocalist on the record. Singing like a theremin. Haven’t heard it yet!!!”
So, while the final recording was a mystery even to those who made it, in her public chat for my mixtape deliver service, Mia was already highlighting a few of her fellow contributors to New Blue Sun. Her friends Surya Botfasina, Carlos Nino, and Jesse Peterson are all part of a loose-knit but long-standing Los Angeles artistic community committed to music as a tool of spiritual ascension.
Where am I going with all this? Well, if André Benjamin wants to play a damn flute let him play the damn flute. He’s clearly a real one seeking out real ones.
Finally, if you want to go even deeper down the same rabbit hole he has, may I suggest three recent releases/reissues on similar themes. Left to right: Shabaka Hutchings’ Afrikan Culture ~ Pharoah Sanders’ Pharoah ~ Alabaster DePlume’s Come With Fierce Grace. (Those links will take you to free streams.)
Extra credit:
• The Ghost Of Blog Posts Yet To Come: I have a holiday post coming up which feels special enough it might not even have music in it. Hint: it’s the origin story of a very special, Manhattan-based Christmas tree.
• Two podcasts about talking & thinking about pop music today: These are for anyone who recalls a time when “finding new music” meant “reading an alt-weekly” rather than “scrolling through a short-form video app.”
PJ Vogt speaks to writer Kelefa Sanneh about music discovery for older folks; the NY Times critic Jon Caramanica elicits some strong takes from writer/musician Jamie Brooks about criticism’s dance with irrelevance in an age of ever-present, virtually free streaming.7
• three new instrumental LPs on Brassland: This fall my label released a trio of albums sans vocals. They’re abstract by nature, so I won’t try to describe them other than saying they’re…not boogie. The embeds are to Bandcamp and the linked titles lead to your preferred service—Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc. Take a listen.
^ JOHAN’S CHILDHOOD CHAMBER NOSTALGIA ALBUM (more context in this podcast)
^ LANZ & Kris Allen’s Ballard (more context in this podcast)
^ isomonstrosity instrumentals, a collaborative project from Johan Lenox, Yuga Cohler, and 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Reid
People Who Died: Norman Lear ~ Carla Bley ~ Geordie Walker
I’m saving one notable passing for a holiday-themed post later this month. For now, kudos to Lear—not a musician, but a great example of a media mogul who cared about more than just money. And to Bley’s hairstyle which, at the risk of doing a disservice to a great avant-gardist, displayed more commitment to idiosyncrasy than most artists’ entire creative output.
On this mixtape, I ended up using a different but equally great song by Redbone. It also boogies though you might argue this alternate live version shot in Paris actually rocks.
For the olds, a definition: “In hip-hop slang, bars refers to a rapper’s lyrics, especially when considered extremely good.” André is generally regarded as a top ten rapper of all-time, even higher if you’re filtering for uniqueness of flow and intonation.
Oddly enough, I’ve crossed paths a few times with Zach Baron, the GQ writer who conducted an extended interview with André about his flute record. It’s a great watch:
Among Brooks’ takes: we should be highly skeptical of any hipster scene that emerges with critical support but no real community or audience behind it—a take they more or less reiterate in this fresh post:
Brooks is a recommended follow if you still do TwiXXer.