Best of the Rest of October

I have not been the most dependable blogger. I'll try to catch up by listing some of my favorite tracks from September and October with a few brief comments.

In alphabetical by Artist:

Anuhea - Barista - pop jem from Hawaii.

As Tall As Lions - Circles, Sixes and Sevens - Soaring guitar-pop. A little like Death Cab (when they rock out) or Helio Sequence. They sound like they must be from the Northwest.

David Guetta - When Love Takes Over, Sound of Letting Go - Hit the dance floor with these techno thumping anthems.

Jack Peñate - Be The One, Tonight's Today - - really good worldy/folky/dancy/tracks. Reminds me of Vampire Weekend a little bit.

KRS-One and Buckshot - The Way I Live, Clean Up Crew - dope rhymes and old-school beats. KRS-One is one of the all-time great MCs.

Mika - Blue Eyes, Good Gone Girl, Touches You, We Are Golden - If you like Scissor Scistors or similar throwback disco-pop, you'd like this guy.

Miss Li - Bourgeois Shangri-La, Dancing the Whole Way Home - Now that's some good English girl-pop right there. Or at least she sounds English to me. Lily Allen would be proud.

Nickodemus - Sun Children, 2 Sips & Magic - Great trip-hop, jazz, acid-jazz, latin-y stuff.

Phish - Joy - A solid album if you're a Phish fan. If you're not a fan, don't worry about it.

Slavic Soul Party! - Taketron, Baltika, Get It How You Live, Canaan Land - Best Slavic/Mexican/Latin Jazz/New Orleans style-brass band ever! Nothing like it anywhere.



Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (James Iha Remix) - Rockin'.

Yo La Tengo - Here To Fall - Guitar goodness.

Remember that you can listen to most of these tracks all the way through at least once on Lala.com. It's worth getting an account.

Quantic and his Group of Barbarians!

I don't know exactly what Will "Quantic" Holland does. I don't know if he writes, plays, produces or all three. All I know is that anything with the Quantic name is going to be interesting. A few years ago, he moved to Cali, Colombia and began soaking up the local sounds. This summer he released his latest project, Quantic and his Combo Barbaro's Tradition in Transition. It's a melange of latin jazz, soul and funk. All 13 tracks are worth a listen, but my favorites are:

The Dreaming Mind, Part I
Mas Pan
Linda Morena
Un Canto a Mi Tierra
I Just Fell in Love Again

The Dreaming Mind, Part 1 has an amazing string section and harp backing up a slow, breezy tune inspired by beaches and sunsets. It reminds me somewhat of Cinematic Orchestra.

Mas Pan is a Latin jazz jam. The expert horns blast a contrapuntal melody over a basic Latin jazz rhythm.

Linda Moreno is the centerpiece of the album. It's an eight minute epic of Afro-Cuban rhythms and traditional story-telling lyrics.

Un Canto a Mi Tierra is the "single". It's short and punchy. The female vocalist croons smoothly in Spanish backed by a salsa rhythm.

I Just Fell in Love Again shows Quantic's soul side. It sounds like a Sam and Dave song, complete with hot organs, plaintive soul vocals, doo-wop girls and those funky horns.