Soul
Gil Scott-Heron Is Back With A Vengeance
20 Feb 2010 04:14 PM / Filed in: Music
It has been 16 years. 16 years that Gil Scott-Heron, the legend who influenced a whole generation of hip-hop artists with his rather unique voice and proto-rap style, hasn't released a new album. And then I'm New Here hits the streets. And it hits them pretty hard.
It's not only the streets that it hits this hard but my ears too. I just dig the voice, the composition and the poetry! Actually, some of the tracks such as Me And The Devil, New York Is Killing Me or I'll Take Care of You make me speechless before this 59 years old man's art.
I got my copy of the album from eMusic.com. Some people criticize the short length of this very fine album, as if it was a scale against which quality can be measured. Unless they are led to believe that more is better, something that mind-tricking marketing has been pushing us to believe in order to rip us off yet another amount of bucks.
Either way, you can't listen to Gill Scott-Heron and stay neutral. Either you'd love it or you'd hate it. But let your ears be the judges, wouldn't you?
Gil Scott-Heron - Me & the Devil by Dubmission
If you are in Paris this spring, he is going to be on concert at the New Morning on May 10!
It's not only the streets that it hits this hard but my ears too. I just dig the voice, the composition and the poetry! Actually, some of the tracks such as Me And The Devil, New York Is Killing Me or I'll Take Care of You make me speechless before this 59 years old man's art.
I got my copy of the album from eMusic.com. Some people criticize the short length of this very fine album, as if it was a scale against which quality can be measured. Unless they are led to believe that more is better, something that mind-tricking marketing has been pushing us to believe in order to rip us off yet another amount of bucks.
Either way, you can't listen to Gill Scott-Heron and stay neutral. Either you'd love it or you'd hate it. But let your ears be the judges, wouldn't you?
Gil Scott-Heron - Me & the Devil by Dubmission
If you are in Paris this spring, he is going to be on concert at the New Morning on May 10!
Back In Time With Menahan Street Band
20 Feb 2010 01:06 AM / Filed in: Music
Hey, it's the week-end on this side of the planet. Right past midnight so it's technically Saturday and before hitting the bed, I thought I'd share with you yet another very nice band I found out about while reading the concerts section of Vibrations Magazine February issue a few days ago.
Take a collection of very good Soul/Funk bands who have the gist of a typically 70s sounding "Afro-Soul". Namely The Dap-Kings (yeah the guys who play with Sharon as in Sharon & The Dap-Kings), The Budos Band, and El Michels Affair. Get a musician from these bands here and there to make a beautiful cocktail and you get the Menahan Street Band who released an album in 2008 called Make The Road By Walking, a very fine piece of grooving soul.
When I received the CD yesterday, I carefully unwrapped it and put it in my CD player and hit the play button. Almost instantly, I was travelling back in time. And just by looking at the CD cover, you can tell to which epoch that might be. Right, to the 70s. While I was born in that decade, I have no recollection as a kid of what it means to be living in the 70s. But popular culture is plenty about that period. Make The Road By Walking sound like an OST of some awesome blacksploitation movie, one you'd want to watch over and over again. It's an amazing tour de force, hats off to Menahan Street Band for coming up with such record that can make you travel with leaving that comfy armchair of yours.
There is nothing to throw in this 10 tracks album (well there are 11 tracks but the last one doesn't appear on the official track list and it is only 9 seconds long so it can barely qualify as a track). I do have a preference though for Tired of Fighting and The Traitor.
Take a collection of very good Soul/Funk bands who have the gist of a typically 70s sounding "Afro-Soul". Namely The Dap-Kings (yeah the guys who play with Sharon as in Sharon & The Dap-Kings), The Budos Band, and El Michels Affair. Get a musician from these bands here and there to make a beautiful cocktail and you get the Menahan Street Band who released an album in 2008 called Make The Road By Walking, a very fine piece of grooving soul.
When I received the CD yesterday, I carefully unwrapped it and put it in my CD player and hit the play button. Almost instantly, I was travelling back in time. And just by looking at the CD cover, you can tell to which epoch that might be. Right, to the 70s. While I was born in that decade, I have no recollection as a kid of what it means to be living in the 70s. But popular culture is plenty about that period. Make The Road By Walking sound like an OST of some awesome blacksploitation movie, one you'd want to watch over and over again. It's an amazing tour de force, hats off to Menahan Street Band for coming up with such record that can make you travel with leaving that comfy armchair of yours.
There is nothing to throw in this 10 tracks album (well there are 11 tracks but the last one doesn't appear on the official track list and it is only 9 seconds long so it can barely qualify as a track). I do have a preference though for Tired of Fighting and The Traitor.