Category Archives: World

acoustic, Classical, electronic, Groove, High Tempo, instrumental, magical, Music to write to, World

Charanjit Singh – Ten Ragas to a disco beat

Leave a comment

Charanjit Singh – Ten Ragas to a disco beat
Disco and ancient indian music. A strange mix that’s not for everyone, but perfect for others. With a late eighties disco electronica sound it’s been called early acid house trance before it’s time. Well, it wasn’t very successful at the time, but it has been rediscovered by a later generation.

The story goes session muso Charanjit Singh thought he’d do something a bit different. He mixes traditional Ragas with a disco beat, and the results are a trippy, trancey, disco pop eastern masterpiece, with all the hallmarks of the technology of the time.

Released
1982, re-released in 2002 and 2010

Lyrics
All instrumental with just a smidge of vocoder vocals.

Mood
Upbeat electronica, with endless Raga grooves. Put this on your mixtape and you’ll definitely spin out your friends.

Good to work to
This album has a frenetic pace and is designed to either send you mad or kick you into a higher gear. For me I love it. It works like a charm for getting my fingers skimming over the keyboard,

Like
Amongst the music I’ve written about you might think it shares most in common with Ravi Shankar’s, Three Ragas album, but I’m not so sure. It has elements of trance and electronica. I wouldn’t really compare it to any of the electronica on this site, it’s got to much of an eastern feel. If you like this you might find Kraftwerk and Lemon Jelly too bland.

For me this album has more in common with Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew than any of the albums on this site. The music has the same power to melt your head and completely go through you. With that said it takes me to another place where the worries of the day can’t touch me and I’m free in my head to put words down.

The Artist/s
Charanjit Singh was a session muso on Bollywood films and albums from the sixties through the eighties. This album first came out on cassette which was cutting edge in 1982.

Other works
You can try Experiments in Calypso his later record. I haven’t been able to find it so good luck with that. I could affiliate this with other world music, but I’m not sure it fits.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You can get this album on iTunes. I found the vinyl but expect to pay a premium if you want to get it on vinyl.

The Verdict
I love this, very trippy.

electronic, High Tempo, Music to write to, World

Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express

Leave a comment

A more relaxed symphonic album Kraftwerk album, than something like Man Machine. It’s easy to think it sounds too cheesy and early eighties before you think this all happened before any of the chewy eighties albums like Electric Dreams were even a sparkle in there creators eyes.

There is talk that their chief songwriters met with David Bowie and Iggy Pop in the midst of their Berlin period. Apparently they had an influence, sounds like the usual German electronica to me.

Released
1977

Lyrics
There are lyrics but they are minimal and in no way overpowering.

Mood
Anything by Kraftwerk is going to have that minimalist feel poeple have come to expect from Kraftwerk. It’s a light feeling with pace.

Good to work to
Definitely an album to write to. The pace isn’t too fast or overwhelming. And because the music doesn’t impose itself it pulls you along and gives you something extraif you’re pumping stuff out.

Like
Kraftwerk is like Kraftwerk. Other electronic music is great, but Kraftwerk are the godfathers.

The Artist/s
Kraftwerk are one of the most influential electronic bands in the world. Kraftwerk mean power station in german.
The Kraftwerk lineup on Trans Europe Express were
Ralf Hutter – album concept cover, keyboard, synthesiser, vocoder, voice etc
 Florian Schneider – album concept, electronics, synthesiser, vocoder
Karl Bartos – electronic drums
Wolfgang Flur – electronic percussion

Other works
There is a whole back catalogue of Kraftwerk albums that you can go for. Whether it’s my favourite Kraftwerk album Man Machine, or any of the others should keep you happy if you like Trans Europe Express.

There is a whole cannon of electronic classic albums. I think they are some of the most consistently great electronic albums to work to whether you fancy something like Chemical Brothers, the more chilled out sounds of Lemon Jelly, or something link LC soundsystem.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You can get this anywhere obviously on iTunes, but on vinyl this is one of the albums that is always in print.

The Verdict – Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express
Do it fool.

african, World

The Lidaju Sisters – Mother Africa

Leave a comment

The Lidaju Sisters transmit beauty of spirit, and quiet euphoria with this album. I couldn’t believe how cool Mother Africa was on first listen. The sound of the traditional African percussion is quite unique and grabbed me immediately. Laid over the top of this are some beautiful slow and tuneful African harmonies. I had only heard the first and last album by the sisters before this so expected something more up-tempo.

I like albums where I don’t understand the words, it helps me not get sucked in to listening to them. The Lidaju sisters sing from the heart, there is one track about their mother, story-telling, the moon, pleas for peace and understanding in the other tracks. One song is about the ‘two-faced people’ who had criticised Taiwo Lidaju for having had a relationship with a white man – otherwise known as Ginger Baker of fame from supergroup Cream.

The context of this album is a thriving male-dominated Nigerian music scene, where civil war in Biafra 1967-70 was still fresh. Usually over-shadowed by their cousin Fela Kuti, the sisters could hold their own and are experiencing a latter day renaissance amongst music fans. Have a listen, it won’t take more than ten seconds to tell if they’re your jam.

Released
1977, rereleased by Knitting Factory records in 2011

Lyrics
Yes but not abrasive so quite calming. Unless you are going to learn Yorubu it’s not going to be too distracting.

Mood
Very chilled out and soulful with lots of African traditional percussion.

Good to work to
A big thumbs up from me, a good one when you need to get back down to earth.

Like
They are most often talked of in light of their second cousin Fela Kuti and the other male artists of the seventies Nigerian heyday, but I would say they have their own thing going on.

They are different to the other African artist I feature on this site Ladysmith Black Mombazo. However there are some similarities as both albums are rooted in great vocals and earthiness, but they are still quite distinct. They might be worth giving a try though if you like this one..

The Artist/s
Kehinidi and Taiwo Lidaju are and were living in northern Nigeria when they recorded this album. They performed with many of the stars of their era in Nigeria including a touring Ginger Baker. After their seventies hey day they moved. In the eighties they moved to the United States where Kehinde fell down a set of stairs and suffered spinal injuries. The injuries took the wind out of their sails and I don’t know of any later releases from the sisters.

Kehinidi and Taiwo Lidaju – vocals
Biddy Wright – (arranger) guitars, talking drums, and shekere

Other works
The Lidaju Sisters recorded only four albums at this time, and I think they all have their own unique sound. Danger from 1976, Mother Africa in 1977, Sunshine in 1978, and Horizon Unlimited from 1979.

I only have Sunshine and Mother Africa and they are very different in style. Sunshine is more experimental, but not as good an album and definitely not one for everyone to work to. I have heard some tracks from Horizon Unlimited and Danger, but haven’t heard enough to say whether they are good to work to, but the tracks I heard sounded great.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You can get this on iTunes but for some reason I had to search for Mother Africa, instead of by the Lidaju Sisters to find it when I searched in iTunes, I assume it won’t take them long to fix this. This was re-released on vinyl in 2011 by Knitting Factory Records and you should be able to track it down on the web.

The Verdict
Yes, yes, yes. I think this album will work for most people as a work album. I love it.

Folk, World

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu – Gurrumul

Leave a comment

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu – Gurrumul

There is a depth and gentleness to this album that will put you into a good place to write. But, unless you are one of the handul of people who can speak Yolgnu or one of the other aboriginal languages the lyrics aren’t going to distract you.

There is a deep beauty and emotion put into the delivery of the lyrics and songs on this album that goes beyond words. You can get lost this set of songs, gentle lullabies with depth.

Released
2008

Lyrics
Yes but in a mixture of languages spoken by very few people that will not distract you.

Mood
Calming and perfect for meditative works.

Good to work to
Great to work when you need to be calmed.

Like
I can’t imagine what I could compare this to aside from indigenous lullabies.

If you like the idea of exploring Australian Indigenous music I can point you in a few directions. There is in my favourite aboriginal band, a black and white collaboration called the Warumpi Band from the early eighties, although it’s definitely not music to write to.

If you like that but want something less raw Christine Anu did a beautiful cover of one of their most famous songs my Island home.

MIA is a Sri Lankan Tamil Englishwoman, and she collaborated with some aboriginal kids in this great track “Mango Pickle Down River” from her earliest album

The Artist/s
Geoffrey “Gurrumul” Yunupingu a blind Yolgnu guy who plays a right hand strung guitar left handed, didgeridoo, drums and organ. He is a very shy bloke who can’t read braille, and speaks little English. He sings in Galpu, Gumatj, or Djanbarrpuyna languages. He was born and grew up in Arnhem land, and a remote area aborigin’d knocked around in bands such as Yothu Yindi. Despite the success of his youth he was plucked from obscurity in the remote Northern Territory of Australia, to release a breakout album in a mixture of English, Yolgnu, and other aboriginal dialects.

Other works
Gurrumul has released later albums but this is my favourite so far.

Before his breakout album Gurrumul, Geoffrey “Gurrumul” Yunupingu had already had a career in one of the biggest Australian aboriginal rock bands Yothu Yindi many years before. Yothu Yindi was the first band Gurrumul was in and a hugely successful one of the nineties with their song treaty, after the hoped for treaty between the aboriginal nations of Australia and the Australian government. This treaty has still not eventuated.

In Latter days Gurrumul has been a member of the Saltwater band.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
It has been re-released on vinyl as well. An absolute cracker of an album, and of course on itunes

The Verdict
Yes get it as soon as possible. It is calming, and will work for you.

Classical, magical, Music to write to, Native American, World

Moondog in Europe

Leave a comment

Moondog  In Europe
Moondog had lived and performed on the streets of New York for years before he was taken to Europe, lauded and given the freedom to make albums such as this one. It’s not his most eclectic album, but he has fairly high standards of eclecticism. If a modern day DJ mixed native american beats, classical arrangements and jazz they would be lauded. When Moondog mixed these styles sixty years ago, he was considered a talented Kook.

Moondog a.k.a Louis Hardin grew up and lived in the west of America. It is said that the seminal moment in his life was when his father took him to a Sun Dace of the Arapaho tribe. He is said to have sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom tom during the ceremony. Moondog can truly be seen as a product of times that will never come again. He was an unwitting pioneer of world music, influenced by jazz, and the classical music training available to him by chance after he was blinded in his youth.

I am quite verbose on many topics, but the music of Moondog speaks for itself. He has inspired countless people and thinkers. The first thing you don’t necessarily need to know but adds a little spice to the listen is, that it was all done by a giant blind man dressed as a viking who lived on the streets of New York. This might not be all you need to know, but hopefully it is enough to interest you. Moondog is in his own genre.

Released
       1978

Lyrics
                Not a one

Mood

The album is fairly eclectic, with the first half a bit of everything before moving into the second half which focuses on Church organ. I guess the first half is more eclectic and contains many of the standard Moondog sounds such as glockenspiel, native american drumming, as well as Church organ.

Good to work to

Absolutely fantastic to work to. Meets all the requirements, it takes you beyond and has few associations with anything of my brain to cling to and divert me with. While I learnt to love Moondog because of his diversity, this album has more steady motifs than most and is excellent for focus. I always like working to Moondog’s music, but I find the first half is great for shaking things up and removing my head from the day to day. The second half with it’s slower Church organ music that really gets me going and in the mood for writing.

Like

I can think of nothing like this album and artist. Don’t let it discourage you though. Moondog mixes classical, church, native american, and be-bop.

Other artists on this site he is similar to from the point of view of being consider a minimalist are Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Moondog is definitely on the experimental side of the coin though.
He also gets compared a lot to a guy called Harry Partch who was also a virtuoso who made his own instruments, but I think their musical sensibilities are not of the same ilk.

The Artist/s

Louis Hardin who later took the name of Moondog had a fascinating life. Brought up by his father near to an indian reservation. He was sent completely blind when he was sixteen. A blasting cap he was holding in his hands exploded. He was sent to blind school and received a musical education he said he could have afforded otherwise. Perhaps because of the loss of his sight, he became quite the amazing musician.
I lose track of the story when he moved to New York and decided to live on the streets dressed as a Viking. He had some amazing encounters with potential collaborators like Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Charlie Parker that all seemed to go wrong at one stage or another. After many years on the streets, with sporadic recording contracts, he eventually moved to Germany. The Germans recognised his genius and took him under their wing and allowed him to record a number of eclectic albums  such as this one, using Sax, Church organ, and many other instruments. Oh yeah, and he also invent various musical instruments.

Other works

Moondog had a long and eclectic recording career, from the New York, to latter day German eclectic renaissance. Other albums such as The Viking of Sixth Avenue, Moondog, Moondog2, Elpmas, H’art songs,  Moondogin Europe, Sax Pax for a Sax, and various other lesser known albums released from a random mix of countries in Europe and America. I would get everything if I was you, but maybe check whether you like this album first.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats

This is not always the easiest album to find in any format other than electronic, but thanks to iTunes it’s a pretty easy one to find these days.

The Verdict

Get out there and buy it as soon as you can.

High Tempo, magical, pop, World

Shugo Tokumaru – Port Entropy

Leave a comment

Shugo Tokumaru – Port Entropy
Port Entropy is the kind of magical album you don’t need to understand a word of. Boppy, fun, playful, and smart, by turns fast and slow. One of my first pick writing albums these days. You may not have ever heard of Shugo Tokumaru, but this album is great.

Tokumaru creates, records, mixes, and plays all the instruments on his recordings. He only records lyrics in Japanese and even though I can’t understand a word it still sounds great and evokes emotion. I wouldn’t call this world music, more like pure pop. Port Entropy was his most popular album in Japan, at the time making it to the Japanese top 40.

When he writes music he comes up with the melody and then uses the maximum amount of instruments he can to show the different aspects of his dreams. Apparently all of his lyrics, or at least the key ideas all come from his dream diary. His music reflects this approach as a lot of it is dreamy and magical.I like to listen to an album that is sonically challenging and curious. Port Entropy is full of delightful little surprises and musical references. An absolute delight of an album that goes beyond the gimickry you might expect of such an approach.

One of the best things about Port Entropy is the arrangements. He has cited the Beach Boys and a japanese artise Hachidai Nakamura as influences. I don’t know Nakamura, but the long standing love affair musicians have with the Beach Boys is because of their brilliant harmonies and song arrangements.

Released
2010

Lyrics
Lots of lyrics, but they’re all in Japanese, as a result I dont really find they distract me at all.  The lyrics are all inspired by dreams, so they may send you on an interesting tangent, but only if you speak Japanese.

Mood
Well the mood goes from upbeat and happy to introspective and sad, but generally it’s pretty upbeat.

Good to work to
This album is one of the records I put on high rotation when I’m writing. It never fails, it doesn’t distract ,but has some great highs and lows that I seem to need when I write. If the lyrics weren’t in Japanese I don’t know whether I’d like it as much, but it makes sense to me and I kind of like hering all of the different words.

Like
This album reminds me of an Australian artist, Jay Walker who records under the name Machine Translations. I’m not sure if Machine Translations is as good to write to but there are certainly some similarities in terms of density and quality. The specific album I’d compare it to is called Happy and is also densely arranged smart pop. Writing this will make me go back and have another listen.

It’s not consistently high tempo as there are some slower songs but definitely has elements, and the only reason I’d say it is world music as that is what non-english language music is labelled, but that is no easy fit. When I have some more pop here on this site I’ll link it to that.

The Artist/s
Shugo Tokumaru is from tokyo. He is in a Japanes band called Gellers made up of his old school friends. Involvement in the band was at the heart of his interest in multi instrumentation. After school he lived for a while in Los Angeles for a few years, joining a jazz band and starting his song-writing in earnest. His debut album came out in 2003 and he has been recording and performing ever since.

He has a website, shugotokumaru.com and I would keep an eye out for when he is coming your way, as it is not an everyday occurence.

Endearingly when he was learning to play guitar apparently he would only play songs by the Clash.

Other works
I have list to a few of his other albums such as 2007s exit, which was similarly inventive but which I didn’t connect with quite as much. I haven’t listened to any of his later albums. If any of them are of the level of this one they’re worth pursuing.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
Although it’s a little old now you can still track this album down on vinyl CD and of course the generic MP3.

The Verdict
I would definitely reccomend this as an album to write to. Maybe it is just because Port Entropy is in Japanese that lets me work through it. I certainly wouldn’t listen to many pop albums like this and expect to be able to continue to work. Even if you don’t want to write this is an absolutely delightful album.

Best music to write to lists, World

Top 6 albums to write to

Leave a comment

6  – Alice Coltrane – Journey In Satchidananda
Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda has a feel unlike any other album I know. Deep bass Jazz grooves are infused with world music flavoured harp and percussion.  A touch of India  is combined with the smell of the jazz cigarettes in clubs across Europe and the states.
Whether it’s all the cultural references in my head, or something else entirely, this album is otherworldly. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think this is completely different to anything they’ve ever heard before. I saw this album for years before I made the choice to buy it. The album with the crazy looking name was a hard sell, but once I got it I never regretted it.

5 – Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever ago
This is an album for those who like to listen to warm sounding music that takes you on a comfortable sad journey. This is an album that you will enjoy listening to, and can savour but never overpowers you. Warm vocal harmonies and relaxing sounds are the order of the day.

Bon Iver is apparently pronounced Bon ee -vare, thought you might like to know that. Bon Iver is a french expression meaning Good Winter. This album has a great story behind it that if anything enhances the listen.

4 – Ravi Shankar – Three Ragas
When Ravi Shankar put out this album in 1956, the world was a small place, and Rock n’Roll was still an infant. Ten years later and Ravi Shankar had taught George Harrison how to play sitar and you could hear it on Beatles and Rolling Stones albums across the world. Beatles tracks like Norwegian Wood and Within You Without You, certainly gave the western ear their first taste of the distinctive tones and made it cool. Earlier than that even Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had immortalised the ringing introductory sounds of Paint it Black.

A great album to put you into a trance, where your fingers fly across the keys and the next thing you know you have completed some words and are feeling better for it. This is one of the earliest and most famous Sitar albums and certainly one that will suck you in, if for nothing else, as an extremely effective tool to help you write.

3 – Janacek – Sinfionetta
Another great album if you want to shift your consciousness to a place where you can focus. From the opening bars of symphonic brass this album hooked me. It fluctuates and goes from peaceful, sweet, to confrontational and loud. I found that the somewhat erratic styles of this music for some reason don’t throw me at all. It is definitely not the kind of music I ever imagined liking.

It seems more like music that would be used on ads for the winter olympics than anything you would work to. After I wrote this I discovered it had indeed been used as a theme song in a seventies/eighties TV show, and was partly covered in a rock style by Emerson Lake and Palmer. The motifs and themes push me to write faster and then gives me some respite to slow down.

This album has garnered a lot of attention in light of it being mentioned throughout IQ84, a magical realist novel by popular Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. I have listened to a lot of the music name checked in Murakami’s novels, but this is the only one I use consistently to write to. It has the drama that if nothing else makes reading IQ84 a much more emotional experience. What Murakami is tapping into is the emotional journey that Janacek takes you on

 2 – Kraftwerk- Man Machine
Man Machine is classic Kraftwerk German electronica. From the opening track ‘We are the robots’ the tempo is set, it has lots of beeps and whistles, and seventies pseudo computer sounds as it goes along. Kraftwerk were unique at the time and even with the passage of time the quality of their work is not diminished. This is one of those great albums where even the artwork is laid out to  enhance the listening experience. The album cover as above is another reflection of the tracks on the album that pull you along with a thematic experience of the man machine.

This album grabs the iconography of extremes, super imposes the world of machines and industrialism, and isolation, to make a great cohesive album. It was massive at the time and will be one of those timeless album that is always around.

1 – Moondog – Viking of sixth avenue
Albeit a ‘best of’, if a modern day DJ mixed native american beats, classical arrangements and jazz this well they would be the next big thing. When Moondog mixed these styles sixty years ago, he was considered a talented Kook. After hearing this, if it doesn’t have you scouring the internet for his other releases you are wasting valuable time. A beautiful eclectic album all about the music, for it is the message.
I am quite verbose on many topics, but the music of Moondog speaks for itself. He has inspired countless people and thinkers. The Viking of Sixth Avenue is a compilation of his life and career. The first thing you don’t necessarily need to know but adds a little spice to the listen is, that it was all done by a giant blind man dressed as a viking who lived on the streets of New York. This might not be all you need to know, but hopefully it is enough to interest you. Moondog is in his own genre.

Classical, World

Ravi Shankar – Three Ragas

Leave a comment

Ravi Shankar – Three Ragas
When Ravi Shankar put out this album in 1956, the world was a small place, and Rock n’Roll was still an infant. Ten years later and Ravi Shankar had taught George Harrison how to play sitar and you could hear it on Beatles and Rolling Stones albums across the world. Beatles tracks like Norwegian Wood and Within You Without You, certainly gave the western ear their first taste of the distinctive tones and made it cool. Earlier than that even Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had immortalised the ringing introductory sounds of Paint it Black.

A great album to put you into a trance, where your fingers fly across the keys and the next thing you know you have completed some words and are feeling better for it. This is one of the earliest and most famous Sitar albums and certainly one that will suck you in, if for nothing else, as an extremely effective tool to help you write.

A raga comes from the Sanskrit for colour or passion. The raga is based on a scale or set of notes with a set of motifs to create a mood. The form of the Raga has specific themes and cultural associations such as with the time or season. The raga is typical associated with the sounds of the tabla and sitar that are associated as the classical music of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. As a non-musician despite these associations I can hear blues, jazz, and gamelan related themes.

Released
1956

Lyrics
No lyrics

Mood
I don’t know how to describe the mood. The three tracks can go from slow to frenetic often in the same track. I like this variation of place and it can get me onto a real roll of fast typing. I smell incense when I listen to this music and it definitely has its own mood.

Good to work to
These ragas put you into a trance of typing and word production. It is a meditative piece that will take you away from yourself. I find this music takes me away from the cultural references that I tie music to when I hear it. This taking away from the everyday and normal, is essential to my creative process. When I’m listening to this music it clears away some of the static in my head. It certainly blocks out the other distractions that can get in the way of the flow of words.

Like
Sitar music is pretty unique. With that said, I can only compare it to other Sitar music. He is an acknowledged master of the sitar so rest assured it’s not too shabby a recording. I did look online to look at all of the other classical artists of the genre, but I don’t know enough of their work to give any worthwhile recommendation.

The Artist/s
Ravi Shankar is world music royalty. John Coltrane named his son Ravi after him. He is the father of Norah Jones. After touring the world with his brothers dance group. In 1938 he commenced studying sitar under the tutelage of Allauddin Khan. Through the forties and fifties Shankar performed and gained acclaim in India. In 1956 he toured the world and  and recorded this album the three ragas.

Subsequently Shakar educated western audiences in Indian music. His most famous pupil was George Harrison of the Beatles who popularised the sitar for western audiences using it on multiple trances.

Born in 1920, Shankar died in 2012 after a long career winning multiple Grammys.

Other works
Shankar recorded many albums including Full Circle:Carnegie Hall 2000. I haven’t heard all of his music, but I can’t imagine that if you like this there won’t be much of his output you can’t get your hands on.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You should be able to find this in any format you want. Although you might have to search for a little while to find it on vinyl. You should have no problem finding it on CD or as an MP3 from the usual commercial suspects.

The Verdict
I give this album a big thumbs up. This may be what you’d call a gate way drug that could send you into a world of Classical Raga enjoyment.

african, World

Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Shaka Zulu

Leave a comment

Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Shaka Zulu
Shaka Zulu is an acapella aural sensation. I find it unlike anything else in my collection. There are a lot of percussive sounds in the acapella arrangements that give it a palpable depth. It could just be that I don’t understand a word of the vocals, as most of them aren’t in english, but I  find this album just floats along below the surface while I write. The steady rhythms and percussive nature of the different tracks, despite the lack of drums, that keeps me moving along.

There is something about the harmony between the many voices which is essential so the whole thing doesn’t fall apart that gives me energy to keep on going as I write. I don’t want to give the impression that I just blank out the music when I’m listening to this album, because in those moments where I need some respite from tapping, but I generally find this album enjoyable whether I need to write or not.

I have written about this in the past but one of the things about world music that works for me is that it is not in the familiar musical patterns of songs that I’m used to. I need something different that I can’t immediately grasp onto to set me free and immerse myself in my thoughts. The sounds are sweet and harmonious, so despite the cultural differences for a westerner like me I don’t find the sounds distracting in any way. On the contrary I find this to be an album that helps me set patterns that I integrate in my keystroke pattern. This sounds pretty good when I wrote it, but I don’t know whether Zulu QWERTY is a style of writing, but it is now.

Released
1987

Lyrics
Yes in multiple languages, some in english some in Zulu.

Mood
This album has a calm feeling. The deep resonance of the vocals is definitely calming. The songs which are all acapella have percussion inserted.

Good to work to
I find this is a relaxing album to work to. It creates a different atmosphere which creates space for you to zero in on whatever you are writing. The soulful deep basses and harmonies touch me, but let me keep working.

Like
It is soulful but I don’t find it to be specifically like anything else I can think of. If you were going to give it a label I’d say world music.

The Artist/s
Formed by Joseph Shabalala, Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a South African acapella group. They gained fame as a result of their earlier work with Paul Simon on the Graceland Album but were active in different incarnations since the mid 50s and as Ladysmith Black Mambazo from the mid sixties playing weddings etc. They did not record their first album until the 1973.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo came to prominence when Paul Simon came to South Africa in 1986 to record his Graceland album. This move was extremely controversial as there were sanctions against western artists performing in South Africa due to the apartheid policies of the white South African government. The collaboration was however highly successful. Graceland sold over 16 million copies but tarnished the populations of Simon. Ladysmith Black Mambazo benefited greatly from the exposure as did a suite of other African acts.

After Graceland Simon produced Shaka Zulu as Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s first American release album. The only shared track between the two albums is homeless a co-write between Simon and Shabalala. It was hugely successful and heralded a run of others and collaborations with other major US acts such as George Clinton. They have one multiple awards and Grammys over the length of their career.

Other works
Ladysmith Black Mambazo have released many albums, but I have not listened to enough of their other albums.

I know it has been overplayed but if you like this album I would recommend Graceland, but only as an enjoyment album not as a writing album.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You will be able to get copies of this I any format, although chances are it will be second hand.

The Verdict
This album is a good one. Great for working to and great for changing the mood of what you are doing. Not many other albums have this level of resonance and you need to make the decision whether this will be more distracting or helpful for you. For me I find this to be a meditative album. That and the fact that I feel like singing along even though I usually don’t know the words makes it a winner for me.

Classical, latin american, Native American, World

Philip Glass – Powaqqaatsi

Leave a comment

Powaqqaatsi is a Hopi Indian word that means life in transition. Powaqqaatsi is a classical/world music soundtrack to second film in the Qatsi trilogy of films. It was designed to follow the transitions from natural to industrial world, which makes perfect sense when you listen to it.

The format of the movie means that it is designed to tell a story. I can only compare it to other movies that of a similar vintage in a style that was popular that tell the same kind of thematic story without story or traditional storytelling. My old favourite was Baraka. I’ve never even seen the movie and it works on me.

There are some really great sound effects used throughout this album, from pan pipes, deep voices, full orchestra including Brass, whistles, percussion, and acapella choir. The different sounds and sound effects make it a very effective collage to paint the background to your working while you work.

This album rolls over you smoothly like a wave. The peaks drive you along, and the troughs always give you a chance to regather your thoughts and consolidate what you’ve written. The whole album has an organic feel which is at times infectious and driving. The reason why I like it so much is that it drives me. I personally like repetition and recurring motifs, something Glass is also a fan of.  I don’t want to have to concentrate on something all of the time. With that said there is also a lot of variety on this album, as the director takes the movie in different directions. This is an album that worked for me on first listen. It is not an overly intellectual album you have to listen to several times before you get it in any way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0k0aOtLe70

Released
1988, with the film of the same name Powaqqaatsi.

Lyrics
No lyrics, or not enough to really distract you.

Mood
Meditative uplifting, speedy.

Good to work to
Fantastic, makes you feel positively triumphant. I also like the emotional palate of this album. It is at times contemplative, and at others upbeat and happy sweeping you along. This may just be my particular internal rhythm, but I don’t move all at the same pace. I move by fits and starts.

It is the kind of music I would especially recommend if you only have a set amount of time to write to. It will push you along and by the end of the emotional journey you will feel like you’ve got somewhere.

Like
I can’t really describe anything this album is like. It has orchestral flourishes, percussive fiesta moments, middle eastern sounds, south american pan pipes and other things, spooky mystical moments.

The Artist/s
Philip Glass born in 1937 and still going strong. Some call him a minimalist, he prefers some other term which also means nothing to me. He is a contemporary of other musicians like Stepen Reich who went through the famous Juilliard musical store. He was also a well connected Fullbright scholar. He has experimented with other cultures and collaborated with people like Ravi Shankar, and exposed himself to other cultures most notably the Tibetans such as the Dalai Lama.

I have only seen Philip Glass once a few years ago in 2011, at the Sydney festival where he lead a quartet who provided the score onstage while an antique silent movie version of Dracula played to chuckles from the audience. At first it was hard not to keep staring at the quartet especially it contained the famous Philip Glass. After a while I along with most of the audience were engrossed with the movie only occasionally glancing at the quartet under the screen onstage as there music fitted seamlessly with the music.

Other works
A massive back catalogue of music. Philip Glass is a renowned soundtrack artist and composer. To be honest I haven’t explored his catalogue enough to be able to recommend anything else. I did buy his first album in this trilogy Koyaanisqatsi, but to my shame I have not given it enough a listen to have a firm opion.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
It’s old but you’ll be able to get it digitally, you may be pushing it to get it on vinyl.

The Verdict
Yes, oh Yes. Run out and get it straight away. I find this is a great energising album that definitely sweeps me away.