Volume 12… I suppose The Musical Box is now one year old! Here are some fab tunes to celebrate.
Many thanks to Chris Dahlen for linking me to TV on the Radio‘s latest album Dear Science, because it’s one of the loudest, freshest, funkiest records I’ve heard this year. His review over at Pitchfork says it better than I ever could, but it you like to think and dance (possibly at the same time) I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out. You can stream high quality versions of the album’s singles on their website.
I’m likewise indebted to Chris Furniss for introducing me to the music of Shugo Tokumaru. Fortunately I made this discovery early enough in the month for me to catch his show at Pop Montreal last Friday. He’s a virtuoso guitarist, and managed to coax such a rich sound out of six strings that you could have sworn he had an entire band backing him up. His latest album EXIT has been on repeat at my place for the last few weeks, it falls delightfully somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and the Katamari Damacy soundtrack. Another unconditional recommendation, pick it up and tell your friends.
Earlier this month I was browsing through Talib Kweli‘s back albums on Sven’s recommendation and I stumbled upon this gem, a 1998 collaboration with Mos Def called Black Star. It has everything you’d expect from a great hip-hop album: biting social commentary, fat beats and tight flow. Sadly this is the only album they’ve ever collaborated on, so you’ll have to check out their respective discographies if you want more.
Now if you excuse me, I believe I hear Mega Man 9 calling my name.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I can’t extend the recommendations for MD and TK’s entire discography. Thus far, the only quality Mos Def record (aside from Black Star) is Black on Both Sides; the only essential Talib material beyond is Train of Thought and Quality. Might be worth mentioning that Mos and Talib actually toured together briefly back in 2005 as Black Star (saw them at Coachella, fantastic show), and there was quite a bit of discussion about a second record around that time; their respective output as of late doesn’t inspire much confidence in me that they can recapture the magic.
I definitely would recommend checking out the entire discography of Q-Tip, 1999’s Amplified and the unreleased trio of Kamaal/The Abstract, Open, and Live at the Renaissance are stupendous.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
@Alex: What a shame, I picked up Black on Both Sides too and was really enjoying it. I was hoping the rest of his and Kweli’s discographies would be equally excellent.
I love Q-Tip’s work with A Tribe Called Quest, but wasn’t aware that his solo career was good too. I’ll have to check that out ASAP, thanks for the tip.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hey Matthew – my pleasure! And the Tokumaru’s fantastic too – I’ve been enjoying his full catalog. There’s so much going on in those records yet he’s so serene about it, he never calls attention to the 50-100 instruments he’s using.
Wish I hadn’t missed Pop Montreal. I caught it in ’06, and it was a hoot.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
@Chris: I was amazed that he managed to recreate his album sound so faithfully with just his acoustic guitar. He layers his music incredibly subtly, I look forward to exploring his back catalogue.
Thanks again for the recommendation.