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.
August Moon at The Contemporary Museum this Saturday is a benefit for the museum's children's education programs. Tickets are like, $75, but there's a wine tasting and food eating and stuff, so I don't know.
