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- Readers recommend: songs about repetition
This week's topic is all about little bits of history repeating
Another week, another Readers Recommend. Yet stalwart RR nominators don't have much truck with repetition. I was hauled over the coals a couple of weeks ago for including songs on the playlist that had previously been A-listed.
This week I'm not after songs that feature repetition – there are simply too many of them. Because repetition is a crucial part of music. Remember the 1994 Criminal Justice Bill, which tried to outlaw raves featuring music "wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats"?
But repetition is very much on musicians' minds. In making music, they recognise the pleasures of repetition. We can lose ourselves in it. And there is satisfaction in identifying a pattern.
And there are also songs that wearily recognise history repeating itself, placing a foot once again on life's treadmill.
Footnote: Bizarrely, RR regular Lambretinha suggested this topic mere moments after I'd finished writing a draft of this blurb.
The toolbox:
* This week's collaborative Spotify playlist
* The RR archive
* The Marconium (blog containing a wealth of data on RR)
* The 'Spill (blog for the RR community)
Please do:
* Post your nominations before midday on Tuesday if you wish them to be considered.
* Write a few lines advocating the merits of your choices.
But please don't:
* Post more than one third of the lyrics of any song.
* Dump lists of nominations. If you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
Newcomers to the blog may be puzzled at some of the words used by regular posters. Here's a guide to the RR lexicography:
* Dond: To second another reader's nomination. Here's how the word was coined.
* Zedded: The song has already been included in an A-list (and so convention dictates it cannot be included in another one)
Here are the results of last week's Readers recommend: foreign-language versions.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - In praise of the Asian Music awards
At long last, Asian artists are gaining the success – and sales figures – they deserve. So isn't it about time we celebrated the AMAs like we do the Brits and Mobos?
When they started 10 years ago, the UK Asian Music awards could have ended up being just another niche event. A decade later, and they've become a showcase for cutting-edge talent and a platform for artists such as Jay Sean and Rishi Rich.
The success of MIA and Jay Sean has shown that the UK has long been ready for an Asian invasion. Many Asian artists in the US and in the Indian subcontinent see breaking the UK as a sign of success and critical credibility.
It's ironic, then, that the US has been more open to British Asian talent than the UK. For example, Jay Sean, the most successful British Asian act of all-time, knocked the Black Eyed Peas off No 1 in America with his single Down in 2009. However, his success only came after he parted company with Virgin and set up his own label.
Part of the reason why the mainstream music industry has been slow on the uptake is because of its lack of awareness about sales figures. Before YouTube and MySpace, albums by artists such as Apache Indian exchanged hands in Asian video stores and markets, and were promoted largely through word of mouth and the (growing) Asian media.Though Apache Indian looked to have broken the glass ceiling with hits such as Boom Shack-A-Lak in the early-90s, the expected avalanche of new talent failed to materialise, and occasional hits such as Panjabi MC's Mundian to Bach Ke seemed to be exceptions that proved the rule. Bands including Asian Dub Foundation were critically acclaimed but never really gained mainstream traction. In an industry that deals in simple categorisations, British Asian music didn't fit snuggly into established genres, such as the one-size-fits-all world music category, as it is very much a British phenomenon from the streets of Southall and Leicester.
The creation of the BBC Asian Network in 2003 marked a turning point for the industry. It joined forces with the Official Charts Company to record downloads and chart sales in 25 key retailers. This year, for the first time, the AMAs have included an award for the bestselling single and nominees are expected to include Panjabi MC, Foji, JK, Panjabi By Nature and Sukshinder Shinda. Also, in the running is Jay Sean with his single Hit the Lights, featuring Lil Wayne.
While the AMAs has faced some of the criticism that the Mobos received about "ghettoising" Asian music, they have really served the purpose of drawing mainstream attention to underground genres, demonstrating that there is more to Asian music than Bollywood and bhangra. R&B singer Mumzy Stranger, who has been nominated in the best male and best album categories, says: "British Asian music is full of talent just like any other scene. It's taken such a long time because Asians have slowly become more diverse. The talent has always been there but the confidence and support has lacked."Also, while acts such as Jay Sean, with his brand of R&B have been accused of not being particularly representative of young British Asians' concerns, these accusations seem to come mainly from people who don't know what it's like to be young, British and Asian. For these acts, it's not just a case of semantics, it is about being accepted as musicians who are of Asian origin rather than Asian music acts.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Pyongyang goes pop: sex scandal on the socialist music scene
North Korea's pop stars may be cherry-picked by the Dear Leader and sing nothing but pro-revolutionary anthems, but they still know how to cause a stir ...
All pop music in North Korea is sanctioned by the state, so if you don't like songs about The Importance of Fertiliser or Uniting Happily Under the Powerful Juche Idea, then tough – go and listen to the frogs croaking down on the river bank instead. Of the bands permitted, two of North Korea's most famous are the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble and Wangjaesan Light Music Band, who have been churning out pro-socialist revolutionary singles for decades.
Wangjaesan were reportedly conceived by the ever-talented Kim Jong-il, who handpicked the group's members. He's not just a despotic dictator, you know – he has a reputation in his homeland as being quite the artisan. As well as his taste for fine light music, he's also a cultured film producer, as this monster movie he made in the 80s tastefully proves.
Pochonbo, meanwhile, have kept themselves busy as Wangjaesan's main contenders by clocking up 140 albums, some of them with specially created English-language cover art so they can be sold to tourists in the many gift shops Koreans insist on taking you to at every opportunity (only hard currency, Euros or fine imported cigars accepted).
There was mild controversy last year when a secret video featuring Wangjaesan's female dance troupe entered the public domain. The video was being privately circulated among the elite, but reached the North Korean public before making it over the border to China – and therefore the world. Normally seen in traditional, body-cloaking hangbok dresses as they perform polite folk numbers, this little clip revealed unprecedented levels of sexiness in Pyongyang, as the girls popped up in sparkly hot pants and did the splits. Western displays of decadence like this are illegal but, given Kim Jong-il's alleged love of pornography, perhaps he turned a blind eye to this one.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: Marques Toliver – Deep in My Heart
Plucked from obscurity by TV On the Radio's Kyp Malone, this singer and violinist is probably glad he took up busking
Twenty-four-year-old singer and violinist Marques Toliver seems to have a fortuitous backstory. Born in South Daytona, Toliver moved to New York where he started busking, earning roughly $80 for three hours' work. While performing he was approached by Kyp Malone from TV On the Radio who suggested he work with the band on some songs (he has also played with Grizzly Bear). Fellow TVOTR member Dave Sitek then introduced him to Holly Miranda, whose touring band he joined briefly before moving to London in 2009. Bet he's pleased he took up busking, eh? Since moving to the UK he's been signed by Bella Union, and his debut EP, Butterflies Are Not Free, is out on 25 April. So what does he sound like? Deep in My Heart sighs and soars, Toliver's lush singing reminiscent of both Marvin Gaye and Maxwell, while plucked violin and autoharp create a sometimes jagged, sometimes pillowy sound. The rest of the EP is just as good.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Josh Homme: 'Queens of the Stone Age play trance robot music for girls'
As they reissue their hard-to-find debut album, QOTSA frontman Josh Homme recalls the inspiration behind a cult classic
The first Queens record is iconic for us. Each album is a different marker on our path, but this is the one that started it all. It put the trance into the music.
I had just left the Screaming Trees and returned to California. I wasn't even sure whether I was going to continue with music. Then I had this idea of giant waves of sound sweeping over me. I had an image in my head from an old Warner Bros cartoon of big, staggering robots. And that, I suppose, was my idea for Queens of the Stone Age: broken, drunk robots.
I wasn't thinking long term. I was thinking about trying to create a new sound and I would figure the rest out later. I put a band together, and two days before we started the record I had another guy singing, a really talented guy, an amazing musician and an amazing player – but we just had a different vision. I could only realise mine if I stepped up and became the singer.
It made me scared, cautious and bold at the same time. I had things in my head and I really didn't know how to do them. So I went underground – stepped out of the spotlight and played on the underground scene. The thing about those underground guys is that they'll tell you if you suck, and I quickly learned how not to suck.
I like how I can hear on the first QOTSA record that I don't want to be the singer. I like the apprehension. There's almost like an "Oh, I hate my voice but I have to do this" thing going on. It's not a perfect record. I listen to the track Regular John and the vocals and the guitar are out ... but it has a thing to it. It has its own wicked way.
The album is an exercise in repetition. It's trance music in the way it pushes your buttons. And I wanted to do something for girls. The way I thought about it was trance robot music for girls. I wasn't interested in the guys at all. I wanted to make something that girls could dance to that really had a freedom that Kyuss didn't. By the end, Kyuss felt restrictive. I'd lived my whole life in Kyuss since I was a boy, and we had all these rules that were based on what you couldn't do. And I wanted a new set of rules based on what you could. I have a distaste for authority because it's all about what you can't do. Not to be reactionary, but if someone drops a gauntlet and says, "yes we can", then I will go out and do that.
This record helped push me away from Kyuss and start a new thing. I always thought it would take three albums to explain to everyone, "I'm gonna play whatever I want". You can't move too fast or you just lose everybody.
The album doesn't sound dated to me. It just sounds like a cool record from a different time. The only reason I'm putting it out again is that it isn't available. I had it licensed in different places and they all ran out, so we're getting it out everywhere with Domino Records. It's ridiculous in this day and age that you can't get hold of people's records. I think there's a lot of Queens fans who haven't even heard it.
The process of doing this has started getting us into re-examining the record so now we're gonna tour it. We're doing the first record in its entirety with some more stuff, and we'll be coming to Europe in May. And doing the rehearsals for the first record is really defining the new one. It's been turning the new record into something else. What we were doing was kind of bluesy and now it's turned into this trancey, broken thing. The robots are back!
Josh Homme was talking to Dan Martin. QOTSA debut album is reissued through Domino and available now.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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