World music – Page 11 – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Follakzoid – III (2015)

I’d heard of Chile’s psychedelic / shoegaze rockers Follakzoid years ago, but hadn’t picked up any of their material for reasons unknown to me. Lo and behold, they were on the lineup for the 2018 Levitation Music Festival in Austin, Texas, so I made sure to get tickets for their set (which did sell out). I’m glad I did because their set was one of my top three for the whole weekend, and I left determined to dive deep into their catalogue.

I’m starting with their last record, III, which is only four tracks, but the shortest is just over nine minutes long. It’s a mesmerizing, mostly instrumental mix of ambient synths, krautrock guitars, precision drumming, shoegaze fuzz, and misty psychedelic vocals.

“Electric” opens the album and lets you know that Follakzoid’s drummer is apparently a cyborg, because I don’t know how else he can keep up such a sharp beat for over eleven minutes. The song might be the closest I ever get to floating in zero gravity. The guitars range from hardly being there to surging toward you like a thunderstorm. “Earth” is a little jostling at first with the crunchy, jagged guitars but it grows into a tribal meditation with heart-pumping drums and drone synths. The song ends with weird bleeps, bloops, and what sound like synthesized animal and weather noises. “Piure” (named after a rare seafood in Chile) seems to melt like a candle over a skull over the course of nearly thirteen minutes. The last track, “Feuerzeug” (German for “lighter” or perhaps anything use to light a fire), has this mantra-like guitar riff that will float through your mind for days. Follakzoid stretched this nine-minute track into nearly twenty minutes when I saw them in Austin earlier this year, and it was amazing. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that it was mind-altering without the need for any kind of hallucinogens or even booze.

III isn’t so much an album as it is a sensory experience. It can carry you away if you’re not careful, which might not be a bad thing depending on the kind of day you’re having. This album would’ve been in my top 10 of 2015 if I’d heard it then.

Keep your mind open.

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Japanese post-punkers CHAI to reissue debut album on Burger Records.

INTRODUCING: CHAI

JAPANESE SENSATIONS TO PHYSICALLY REISSUE
DEBUT ALBUM PINK VIA BURGER RECORDS

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES SHOWS IN SEPTEMBER;
WATCH VIDEOS FOR “N.E.O.” AND MORE

Today marks a very special day. It is the day that a larger American audience is introduced to Japanese sensations CHAI. Fusing sonic elements of artists like Basement Jaxx, Gorillaz, CSS, and Tom Tom Club, with lyrics focused on self-empowerment and re-defining the definition of “kawaii,” or cute in Japanese, CHAI have amassed a devoted following in their home country. Those lucky enough to catch them on their all-too-brief visits to the US around SXSW understand what those on the other side of the globe already know: CHAI are incredibly special and should probably be the biggest band in the world.

On September 7th, Burger Records is pleased to physically reissue CHAI’s debut album, PINK, appearing in the US on vinyl, CD, and cassette for the first time. Additionally CHAI (identical twins Mana and Kana and former school classmate Yuna and Yuuki) will come to the US for their first-ever headlining show in New York and will return to Los Angeles later this year. Dates and venues are listed below; tickets go on sale Friday, June 22nd, at 10AM EST.

To give you an idea of what is in store, check out the amazing video for “N.E.O.” (which is well on its way to 2 million views), as well as an incredible live performance for a YouTube Music Session. Additionally, watch the videos for “Boyz Seco Men” and “I’m Me,” but be warned, this might spur a CHAI Youtube hole from which you may never extricate yourself.

WATCH “N.E.O.” OFFICIAL VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMGf3zyhG94

WATCH “N.E.O.” YOUTUBE MUSIC SESSION
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFSspQc2Tzw

WATCH “BOYZ SECO MEN” VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psHh6OsA-mU

WATCH “I’M ME” VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-aKOc5nN2c

STREAM PINK
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2t3dNKV | Apple Music: https://apple.co/2t0s0YV

CHAI TOUR DATES (US dates in bold)
Mon. Sept. 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo [tickets]
Wed. Sept. 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade [tickets]
Mon. Oct. 15 – Bristol, UK @ SWX w/ Superorganism
Tue. Oct. 16 – Liverpool, UK @ Arts Club w/ Superorganism
Wed. Oct. 17 – Belfast, NIR @ Limelight 1 w/ Superorganism
Thu. Oct. 18 – Dublin, IE @ The Academy w/ Superorganism
Sat. Oct. 20 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 w/ Superorganism
Sun. Oct. 21 – Sheffield, UK @ The Leadmill w/ Superorganism
Mon. Oct. 22 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus w/ Superorganism
Wed. Oct. 24 – London, UK @ 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire w/ Superorganism
Thu. Oct. 25 – Manchester, UK @ 02 Ritz w/ Superorganism
Fri. Oct. 26 – Cambridge, UK @ Cambridge Junction w/ Superorganism
Sat. Oct. 27 – Portsmouth, UK @ Pyramids Centre w/ Superorganism
Sun. Oct. 28 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 w/ Superorganism
Tue. Oct. 30 – Oxford, UK @ 02 Academy w/ Superorganism

PINK Album Art

PINK TRACKLISTING
1. Hi Hi Baby
2. N.E.O.
3. Boyz Seco Men
4. Horechatta
5. Fried
6. She Is Kitty
7. Gyaranboo
8. Kawaii Hito
9. Walking Star
10. Sayonara Complex
11. Flat Girl

PRE-ORDER PINK ON VINYL: http://burgerrecords.11spot.com/chai-pink.html

CHAI Online:
http://chai-band.com/
https://www.instagram.com/chai_official/
https://twitter.com/2525_chai
https://www.facebook.com/CHAIJAPAN/

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Bombay the Hard Way – Guns, Cars & Sitars (1998)

I’ve been looking for Bombay the Hardway – Guns, Cars & Sitars for years. Lo and behold, I found it at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas during my recent trip there, and in a used CD bin to boot. It’s a collection of “brownsploitation” music from 1970’s Bollywood action and crime films composed (often quickly and with all sorts of studio hiccups) by legendary Bollywood film music brothers Kalyanji and Anandji Shah and edited by Dan the Automator, who convinced Anandji to release these tracks from his vault. The result is a stunning, ultra-cool mix of funky jams, lounge music, and make-out tracks you need to hear.

“Bombay 405 Miles” opens the album with a nice sitar gliss and then turns into intense music suitable for a stakeout or sneaking into a palace to commit a jewel heist. “The Good, the Bad and the Chutney” brings in, no surprise, spaghetti western guitar touches to up the intrigue. “My Guru” has a lovely sitar groove throughout it, and the flute loop is icing on the cake (or chutney on the naan, if you prefer).

“Ganges A Go-Go” is 1970’s psychedelic garage rock filtered through a hookah, and it’s a crime if “The Great Gambler” wasn’t the opening song for a movie of the same name. It immediately throws you into a world of high stakes dice rolls, sexy people, exotic cars, and nefarious schemes. “Professor Pyarelal” is, by contrast, a lounge groove with between the sheets beats and sizzling synths. “Fists of Curry” doesn’t hit as hard as you’d expect with such a title, but it is slicker than Bruce Lee’s footwork.

The squeaky guitar and table-infused rhythms of “Punjabis, Pimps & Players” are a great combination, and you can just imagine “Inspector Jay from Delhi” going after them in his muscle car (with a case of $50,000 in the trunk) while his bad-ass, bass heavy theme song plays from its speakers. “Satchidananda” could be a love theme, or it could be the music for a leisurely journey on a Bond villain’s yacht. “Theme from Don” lets you know that Don is a bad cat who will probably punch your lights out as soon and then kiss your girl if you cross him, so don’t. The underlying synths on it convey menace, and those tabla drums and sitar riffs convey street smarts beyond belief.

“Fear of a Brown Planet” (a nice play on Public Enemy‘s record Fear of a Black Planet) has hints of John Barry’s James Bond theme in it, but it adds psychedelic spice to the mix. “Uptown Bollywood Nights” has fierce drumming and those tinny, weird, great synths you only seem to hear in bhangra and Bollywood music. The beats on “Kundans Hideout” are even wilder, as are the crazy vocal sounds (chants, whistles, and possibly a woman nearing orgasm). It’s the soundtrack of escaping from a madman’s lair and rescuing your latest fling along the way. The record ends with “Swami Safari,” which, as you might have guessed, combines surf rock guitar with Bollywood beats.

This record will stay in your head for days. It always sounds great. There’s a sequel out there that was released in 2001 that I now need to find. Find them both if you can.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Music Festival Recap Day Two: Scrambled eggs, scrambled brain

The second day of Levitation Austin was going to be a feast of bands from outside the U.S. The number of international acts that play the festival every year is one of my favorite things about it. I’ve discovered many great bands I wouldn’t have heard otherwise at Levitation Austin.

After a great brunch at the South Congress Cafe (which I couldn’t finish), the first of the six bands we’d see that day was Superfonicos – an Austin band of locals and Colombians who play a great mix of Afro / Colombian funk. They played to a crowd that seemed to grow larger with each track, as more and more people walking by the venue came in to hear who was dropping all that killer groove.

Following them were musicians all the way from Algeria – Imarhan. My wife and I have fallen in love with Tuareg music thanks to the Levitation festival, and this was our second time seeing Imarhan there. A lot more people were hyped to see them this time than when we saw them in 2016. It’s not that they were a bad band in 2016 – far from it. It’s that they’ve been working hard, touring a lot, and have a fine new album (Temet) that’s getting a lot of buzz. They had everyone moving and people behind me in the crowd were stunned by their bass player and lead guitarist.

Closing the night at Cheer Up Charlie’s were hometown heroes / aliens Golden Dawn Arkestra, who entered the venue through the crowd and billowing sage incense everywhere before they launched into a sun-worshipping funky freakout that had a packed crowd of dancing revelers all communing with other-dimensional beings. GDA never disappoint, and some people we met that night (one of whom was in a psychedelic band out of Chicago) who hadn’t seen them before thought the set was one of the coolest things they’d ever seen.

We then went over to Barracuda to see Chilean psychedelic rock outfit Vuelveteloca. Unfortunately, we missed the first half of their set, but what we did here was psych-rock as solid as the Andes.

NYC’s The Men followed, and they came out gunning. In the first two tracks I thought, “This might be the closest I ever get to an MC5 show.” They even played some Captain Beefheart-like stuff by the end. They were loud and brash, which made the next set even weirder.

The final act we saw the second night was another Chilean band – Follakzoid. I’d only heard a couple tracks by them before coming to Austin, and they were good ones that bordered somewhere between shoegaze and psychedelia. I didn’t know what to expect from a live show, but I can tell you it about melted my mind. They played two tracks and an encore. The two tracks during their main set were about twenty-five minutes each of droning, repetitive (in a good way) space rock that is hard to describe. Imagine synth bass and riffs combined with drumming from apparently a human metronome (considering how long he kept those beats going) and maybe five different notes played in different ways and with different effects and levels of distortion and reverb. Sound weird? It was – wonderfully so. Sound like it shouldn’t be good? You couldn’t be more wrong. It was one of the best sets I saw all weekend, easily in the top three.

Up next, my wife tries to figure out the big deal about Slowdive, we bump into more musicians, and a laptop keeps giving someone fits.

Keep your mind open.

Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Rishi Dhir

Primarily known for being the front man in Elephant Stone, Rishi Dhir is also now with the psych-rock outfit MIEN and has played bass and sitar for the Black Angels in the past. Dhir will be performing a solo set (probably all sitar) at Stubb’s BBQ on April 29th at 6:00pm at Levitation Austin. Don’t miss it. He’s a good joe and a heck of a sitar player.

Keep your mind open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNEZT3zKuRY

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Golden Dawn Arkestra

Austin, Texas’ psych-funk playing, sun worshipping Golden Dawn Arkestra will be closing out a night of exciting world music jams at Levitation Austin on April 27th at Cheer Ups. GDA put on a wild set when I saw them in 2016 that had the whole crowd bouncing. I’m sure it will be another funky ritual this year.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Imarhan

Tuareg music has been part of Levitation Austin for the last few years, and this will be Imarhan‘s second time playing the festival. They’re playing at Cheer Ups on April 27th at 7:30pm. They put on a great set the last time I saw them (in 2016), and they’ll be part of a fun night of world music. They’ll also be promoting their new record, Temet, which I’m eager to hear live.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Superfonicos

Afro-Colombian funk outfit Superfonicos will be opening a great night of funk and world music at Levitation Austin on April 27th at 6:30pm at Austin club Cheer Ups (otherwise known as Cheer Up Charlie’s). They play a great blend of funky psychedelia that mixes styles from around the globe. It’s sure to be a fun night.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation France announces first artists for 2018.

Levitation France is coming this September, tickets are already on sale (for great prices, I might add), and the first artists for this year’s lineup have been announced – the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spiritualized, Mdou Moctar, MIEN, Holy Wave, and La Luz.

Many more will be announced over the summer. I’m hoping for Zombie Zombie and Ladytron to be added to the list.

Keep your mind open.

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Good rest to you, David James – a local Irish music legend.

Many of you might not know who David James was, but I’ll try to sum up his amazing life in a blog post.

David James was well-known in the South Bend / Mishawaka (“Michiana”) area as a legend in the Irish music scene. He pretty much put South Bend on the map as a hotspot for Irish music, and he wasn’t even Irish. He loved the music, promoting it, and most of all playing it. He played banjo, fiddle, bass, harmonica, and probably half a dozen other instruments I’ve forgotten about as I write this. He was best known, however, for his mastery of the hammer dulcimer. David won multiple prestigious awards at Irish music festivals for his dulcimer skills.

He was a Notre Dame graduate with a degree in political science and he remained an avid advocate for social justice all through his life. He championed workers’ rights, LGBTQ and racial equality measures, education reform, and many other causes that sought to help the underdog.

The way David affected my life was that he co-founded Nocturne – the WSND program for which I DJ in the summer and winter – in 1968. David worked at WSND as the host of “Celtic Traditions” for many years, broadcasting Celtic music all over the world. He would often be there when I showed up for my Nocturne shows and tell me stories of playing grimy blues clubs with blues legends, Irish music festivals with hardcore hippies, and being in the middle of the politically charged 1960’s.

He was a lover of all kinds of music and often asked me about the music I spun on my show. He’d hang out for the first couple tunes I’d play while we chatted and sometimes stop in mid-conversation and ask, “Who is this?” I introduced him to Ancient River when I played one of their tunes and he said, “Sounds like someone’s been listening to a lot of Doors.” I also turned him on to Gary Wilson and Earthless one of the last times I saw him over the summer of 2017.

I’ll always think of him when I spin at WSND now, and I wish he could’ve seen the new station once the construction is done. I’m sure his spirit will slide into the booth now and then when he’s not kicking back a ghostly pint at the Fiddler’s Hearth in South Bend. I plan to play a tribute to him this summer on WSND with lots of psychedelic rock, blues, and his own music.

Oh yeah, as if his local legacy, national tours with multiple bands, and international awards weren’t enough, he released two albums – Tiompan Alley in 1992 and The Lone Man’s Path a decade later.

Good rest to you, sir.

Keep your mind open.