So it's mid year of 2005 and a friend uploads an album onto my computer. It is the now international recognized Arular album by M.I.A. I recognize a few tracks from it, specifically Bucky Done Gun, and Galang, as things I had heard on college radio and liked. I didn't make much of the whole thing until I left on a trip and had a few hours to really listen to the whole thing. The sounds were layered and rich, and I could tell that for a debut album Arular was pretty well produced. This is sort of that spider sense that one might get when listening to music that's about to go off. (I had a definite nerd crush on Sri Lankan born, London Raised M.I.A., that didn't hurt of course,) You could hear the wave rumbling in the distance.
Sure enough, Galang appears on a Honda commercial and I start hearing it all over the place.
I think to myself; "Gosh I like that sound quite a bit. I should look for more of that music." I then find Piracy Funds Terrorism, a sort of remix album of Arular by M.I.A., assorted artists, and producer Diplo. This blows me away, especially because it has samples of the crazy creepy Funk Baile, of which I had heard bits and pieces about on the NPR, and seen some videos of Brazilian butt shaking girls containing similar music. I wanted to know more about that. I guess I like music with girls shaking their butts. it's part of my white man heritage, I guess.
Anyway, I get more interested in Diplo's personal album Florida and Fabriclive 24, a mix set he did that has more Baile Funk sounds. These are intriguing to me and I enjoyed them a lot. I continue to look for more things, but I get pretty distracted preparing for having children in the house and focus less on music hunting.
Kala comes out by M.I.A, That's pretty amazing to me, and so I am kept sated for a bit longer, but get a bit overexposed to her sound as Paper Planes becomes super popular on the radio playlists.
Then recently Fellow P.O.T. contributor Bekah sends me a mix album of Santogold who I love, By Diplo called Top Ranking.. I really enjoy this sound, and I get all excited about music again. Then lo and behold, I see a flyer for Diplo not one week before he is scheduled to play in Hawaii. I freak out, and desperately try to convince myself to go see him play. Lucky for me, Fugu and Pony were both feeling like getting out of the house, and we all went to see him play.
Was it ground breaking, earthshaking music? It was earthshaking in the sense that the bass was out of control crazy awesome to be sure. Was it groundbreaking? Disappointingly no. I will say there were times where I felt like I was in Chicago in 1991, hearing house music for real as opposed to diluted bits you catch on the radio. But mainly it seemed like any other DJ doing their mix. I'm glad I went though, and that Pony and Fugu didn't really have any expectations. I'm glad they had fun.
I think I am one of those people who doesn't really need to see DJs play live.
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4 comments:
Great post, nicely sourced. Reading this, and hearing what I heard about Diplo last night, I kind of wish I'd gotten more out of the music. I am however, a musical idiot, so take that for what it's worth.
You spent some time on this post, eh?
Between the boys going to sleep at 5 am and waking up at 6 fifteen, yes. I had that slot. I was kind of still amped from the concert as well.
I just went on a long tangent about having children and the time they consume, and then I deleted it. It sounded negative, and you know what, guys? I've been too much of a negative nancy in the past couple months (6, really). So I'm sorry for that. And I'm going to try to start considering embarking upon a quest to ponder a possible change in attitude, maybe. Totally serious about this. Starting with CTRL-Xing my tangent on children time consuming.
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