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More music to check out from faraway places
May 10, 2007
BIC RUNGA
BEAUTIFUL COLLISION
Yes, Bic Runga is a person. She's one of the top-selling recording
artists in New Zealand, which is to say she's big in Australia and the
UK—not so much here but that's just because we're dumb. Runga in person
is as lovely and disarming as her uniquely sweet voice; born to a
Chinese Malaysian lounge singer and a Maori soldier, she began
recording songs when she was four. In her early teens she already knew
how to play drums, guitar, keyboards and, impressively, jazz. Her first
solo album, Drive, debuted at
number one in the New Zealand charts—as has this, her second album.
Runga has written, arranged and produced all the songs on Beautiful Collision, a haunting, seductive immensely likeable album of soft, jazzy intelligent pop. —Sony Music 2002
JORGE DREXLER
12 SEGUNDOS DE OSCURIDAD
Above everything, Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler proves that music
transcends language barriers. You get the forlorn moods and quiet
reflection by the tone of his emotive crooning in Spanish, accompanied
by acoustic guitar, electronic ambience and random lighthouse sounds in
the CD's opener, which carry the melancholy through the rest of the
album. There are, unfortunately, beautiful lyrical moments you'll miss
if you don't understand Spanish, like in the slightly upbeat but still
soft-voiced and remorseful tune "Hermana Duda" (Sister Doubt): "I don't
have anyone to pray to/Asking for light/Groping my way through
space/Don't misunderstand me/I'm not complaining about it/I'm the
gardener of my own dilemmas." There is one song he sings in English—a
heartbreaking, acoustic cover of Radiohead's "High and Dry." But
regardless of language, you'll definitely glean the same feeling from
"Soledad," or fully, "Soledad, aqui estan mis credenciales (Loneliness,
Here Are My Credentials)" as Drexler sings (in Spanish, though
translated here): "I've already left tarnished/The illusion that to
live is painless/How strange that it's you/Loneliness, who keeps me
company/Me who never knew very well/How to be alone." —Warner Music
Latina 2006
EDITH PIAF
THE SOUVENIRS COLLECTION
In France, she's a national treasure—a tragic chanteuse of an icon,
akin to our Billie Holiday or Patsy Cline. Like those American
songstresses, Edith Piaf (1915-1963) specialized in deeply soulful,
dramatic, sometimes gloomy ballads. She is the progenitor of French
pop, cabaret and torch songs and this is a double-disc collection of
her hits. One disc features her live performance at Carnegie Hall in
'57 and includes her seminal hit, "La Vie en Rose." The other includes
songs from Paris Olympia. Her story is classic—you can't make this shit
up: She was born in poverty and abandoned by her parents, left with her
grandmother who ran a brothel, became blind for a short time then deaf
before having her senses "miraculously" and mysteriously restored, then
joined her father in his acrobatic street performances before branching
out on her own as a street singer, falling in love at age 16 and
birthing a child who died in infancy. A few years later, a nightclub
owner discovered Piaf, only to get murdered shortly thereafter.
Officials suspected Piaf of being an accessory, but nothing stuck. It
wasn't long before Piaf floated in famous circles, became very
successful and even assisted the French Resistance on occasion. Ah, but
the tragedy doesn't end there! She eventually fell in love with the
boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash. A few years later she
developed a morphine addiction after a car accident. She died of cancer
at the age of 47. But thankfully, her music swoons on. —Delta
Entertainment Corp. 2001
KRISHNA DAS
FLOW OF GRACE
It would be weird to call an album of Indian devotional chanting
"catchy." But that's what this latest release by the rockstar of
kirtan, Krishna Das, has achieved—catchy melodies backed by tabla,
harmonium, guitar, violin and African drums with his deep, rich
intonation of verses and a call-and-response chorus. This CD pays
homage to Hanuman the monkey god, or Hanuman Chalisa, with over an hour
of rhythmic recitation from "Sri Ram Chalisa," "Hallelujah Chalisa,"
"Good Ole Chalisa" and so on. There's a bonus CD, too, of "Hanuman
Chalisa" sung slow and then phrase by phrase so that those of us new to
the practice can adapt to the Hindu words and pronunciations a bit
easier. On the whole, I find the incantations and rhythms deeply
calming. This is yet another of KD's charismatic efforts, of course, to
make spirituality accessible and—not only "catchy"—but also, with me at
least, it's catching on. —Gemini Sun Records 2007
THE KNIFE
SILENT SHOUT
I am a child of the '80's. So while I don't find this synth-pop duo
from Sweden groundbreaking, I do very much appreciate their callback to
the times of Nu Wave and glamorized electro beats. I also appreciate
their artistic shtick—both members Karin Andersson and Olof Dreijer
wear black bodysuits and creepy masks on stage. There is a similarly
dark twist to their pop, too—an almost menacing feel on lingering songs
like "Marble House" and "Na Na Na" and the creepy club warp of
danceable openers "Silent Shout" and "Neverland." This CD is quickly
becoming as played as my worn-out copies of Massive Attack's Blue Lines and Radiohead's Kid A on those days I'm given to fits of shadow chasing and restless incandescence. —Mute 2006