Nite Jewel: mighty real

One of my favourite new bands of the last couple of years is Nite Jewel, which is basically Ramona Gonzalez from Los Angeles. She’s the singer, songwriter, keyboardplayer and producer. Nite Jewel’s debut album was a little bit too lo-fi for my tastes, which is why I’m very happy with the sound of “Am I Real?”, #nowplaying on 22tracks’ pop playlist.

Nite Jewel’s album Good Evening (2008), and last year’s “Want You Back” single both had a disco pulse that is missing from Am I Real?, the new EP. That’s okay though, because Gonzalez has a way with chords and beats and melody that is invariaby mesmerising. She showed as much, in September of last year, when Nite Jewel (three people) played its first show in Amsterdam and I got really into it. The music is funky, and jazzy, and poppy but at the same time elusive, hazy and dreamy. “Am I Real?” definitely has some ’80s R&B in it. Watch Nite Jewel make a song with likemind Dâm-Funk late last year:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhlQYYDXwGg

Am I Real? contains a couple of revamped songs from the tour CD that I bought at Studio 80 last year. I hope to buy a copy of the new one whenever Nite Jewel returns to Holland. On it, Gonzalez collaborates with Cole M.G.N. (also guitarist in the wonderful Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti) and, on the title track, brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged of the similarly ’80s-inclined Teen Inc. The way things are going, I wouldn’t rule out a Toto collabo somewhere along the way, but for now you can listen to the current Nite Jewel record thanks to this handy widget:

Magnetic Men + Woman

So far, dubstep hasn’t lend itself very well to a pop translation. Where its musical predecessor, 2-step/garage, dominated the UK charts for a brief while around the turn of the century, dubstep has largely remained moody and instrumental. That doesn’t get you very far on daytime radio and music television. I have a feeling this is going to change. UK dubstep supertrio Magnetic Man (made up of producers Skream, Benga and Artwork) is about to release “I Need Air” and as far as I’m concerned, it has the words “crossover smash” written all over it. It is #nowplaying on 22tracks’ pop playlist (!), and you can hear Redlight‘s remix on the electro playlist.

If there’s an immediate predecessor for “I Need Air”, it’s Skream’s “Lets Get Ravey Remix” of “In For The Kill” (2009), a mix that is almost as well-known as La Roux‘s original version. Like “I Need Air”, it features a high-pitched female vocal and a foreboding beat:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynq_DcwIxQ4

Skream and Benga are two of the best know DJs and producers in dubstep, so let’s talk about the other people involved in the making of “I Need Air”. First, Artwork, AKA London producer Arthur Smith. His name may not ring a bell, but he is one of the originators of the sound. Teaming up with Skream and Benga is like the teacher joining his pupils. Back in the day, Smith used to work in the Big Apple record shop in South-London, and operate a studio on the second floor. There has only ever been one Artwork release (the Red EP from 2002), but Smith has been involved in several seminal garage releases by D’n'D (“Diamond Rings“, 1999) and Menta (“Sounds of da Future“, 2001, and “Ramp“, 2002), amongst others.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TIj8ECzQgk

The featured singer on “I Need Air” is Angela Hunte. You think you don’t know her, but you do. Everybody does. She co-wrote and co-produced “Empire State of Mind” for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Even though she is a New Yorker, Hunte has strong links with the UK music scene, thanks to her longtime association with hip-hop producer Salaam Remi. He was called in to produce UK garage sensation Ms Dynamite‘s debut album A Little Deeper (2002), and brought her along. She stayed. A year later, Angela Hunte sang on three tracks from DJ Zinc‘s album Faster. I guess word travels.

This summer, Magnetic Man are playing festivals in Japan, England, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vWQFHP3D0

This time, Johan Cruijff is playing

A lot of Dutch people (men over fifty years of age, usually) maintain that the Netherlands could have won the World Cup in 1978 if Johan Cruijff hadn’t declined to put on the orange jersey. Coulda woulda shoulda. We didn’t win, and didn’t reach another World Cup final for decades. But we’re playing one this Sunday. 22tracks is getting ready for the big match with a special Hup Holland Hup playlist. And guess what? This time, Johan Cruijff is #nowplaying.

Back in 1969, Cruijff (then 22 years old) was Holland’s greatest footballing sensation. In his fifth season at Amsterdam’s main club Ajax, he won the championship for the fourth consequetive time. The Netherlands had failed to qualify for Mexico 70, but in May, Ajax played the European Cup final against AC Milan. (And lost, although they would get it two, three and four years later). Anyway, back in 1969, it seemed like a good idea for Cruijff (who, at the time, for some reason, spelled his name as Cruyff) to record a single. His manager insisted on a flat fee instead of a royalty. No problem.

A song was written by Peter Koelewijn. If you look at it (very) charitably, you could call Koelewijn the Dutch Elvis. Or Cliff. In any case, he is responsible for the early Dutch rock ‘n’ roll hit: 1960′s “Kom van dat Dak af” (‘get off that roof’):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeQtREEaPOw

Koelewijn is from the PSV city of Eindhoven. Johan Cruijff’s “Oei Oei Oei (Dat Was Me Weer een Loei)” was written and recorded in the oom-pah style popular in the south of the Netherlands (like Eindhoven) and isn’t representative of Amsterdam folk songs at all. Nevertheless, Koelewijn’s production is highly musical and the lyrics are actually kind of funny (in a silly way, of course). Cruijff’s singing isn’t all that terrible, he really adds some flavour. That was not how the recording session started off, apparently.

On his website, Koelewijn recalls that Cruijff “could not sing, could not hold a note, had no sense of rhythm and was a pack of nerves”. A couple of rum ‘n cokes did the job, and the song got to number 21.

Five years later, after Cruijff got a transfer to FC Barcelona, the same record (in Dutch!) was released in Catalonia and sold more copies than it had done in Holland.

Here’s Cruijff’s 2-0 against Brazil from the 1974 World Cup:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCU1uExiplo

Whale spotting with Dirty Projectors and Björk

“Our home is all around us,” sings Björk in “On and Ever Onward”. She’s talking about the ocean, which makes more sense when you know she sings from the perspective of a whale. “On and Ever Onward” is one of seven songs written by Dirty Projectors‘ Dave Longstreth with both whales and a collaboration with Björk in mind. The singer and the band first performed Mount Wittenberg Orca last year, recorded it this spring and released it last week. “On and Ever Onward” is, very joyfully, #nowplaying on 22tracks’ pop playlist.

The Mount Wittenberg Orca project is explained on its website: while hiking on Northern California’s Mount Wittenberg, singer Amber Coffman from Dirty Projectors had spotted a family of whales off the coast. Around the same time, her band had been asked to collaborate with Icelandic megastar Björk for a benefit show in New York. They performed these Mount Wittenberg Orca songs. And almost a year later, finally and fortunately, found the time to record them. Björk doesn’t sing on all of the songs but as you can tell, the DP women know how to give a spectacular vocal performance as well (you can also hear them on the new Roots album, by the way).

“On and Ever Onward” starts at 3:42:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFdZH9R1n-4

Mount Wittenberg Orca is available as a download only. You can spend $100 on it, if you want. Or $7, or $25, or $50. Like the original performance, the proceeds go to a good cause, in this case a National Geographic Society project for “creating international marine protected areas”. In light of this, Björk’s contribution becomes a statement of sorts, seeing as the release date coincided with the start of Iceland’s 100 day whaling season.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lt0ZBdS4Mo

Both Breakbot and Aeroplane are yours

A nice little record on 22tracks’ disco playlist this past spring was “Baby I’m Yours” by Breakbot (pictured, four times!) featuring Irfane. Two Parisians: one producer, one singer. The song had soul, pop, sizzle and bounce and should have been a Top Ten song the world over. Jamiroquai had nothing on these guys. Listen, baby:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6okxuiiHx2w

That’s a brand new video (hand-painted by Irina Dakeva), so this record is not finished. It’s just that here at 22tracks, we are often a bit quick on the take. Irfane Khan-Acito is the singer in Outlines, who put out an album in 2007 and who have not been heard of lately. He is best know for his “Just a Little Lovin” record from 2003, which took two years to get a proper release. By which time it really was finished.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHWcVuIQ468

Breakbot, so far, has been establishing his (terrible!) name mainly as a remixer for the likes of Digitalism, Evil Nine, Yuksek, Röyksopp, Air and Kavinsky. He is signed to the infamous Ed Banger Records, who don’t seem to be doing too bad in trying to find a new identity in the post-electro era. Both Kavinsky’s “Night Call” and Breakbot’s “Baby I’m Yours” already are hit records in my personal parallel universe, anyway.

To force a crossover, you could do worse than hire disco maestros Aeroplane. Since finishing their debut album We Can’t Fly a few months ago (it’s out in September), time for remixes has become availabe again to the Belgian duo. They rework “Baby I’m Yours” into a glorious Italo disco smash without sacrificing Irfane’s fine vocal. The remix, as well as their own “We Can’t Fly” is #nowplaying on the disco playlist.

Fresh Beck

For someone who hasn’t released a new album in two years, Beck is pretty prolific. He can currently be found on four different songs #nowplaying on 22tracks, and that’s not even everything he’s got going on right now. It’s kind of been like that since his debut in 1993 and the amazing thing is that so much of his immense output is so great. Alright, I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a fan.

There’s two new Beck songs on the rock playlist. “Bad Blood” is taken from the second soundtrack of the US television series True Blood, which I haven’t seen. Judging by the album sleeve it has something to do with vampires. Or it could be werewolves (maybe both), as Beck is howling like one in “Bad Blood”, a scuzzy blues-rocker.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1FGBheLutA

It is followed directly in the playlist by “Fresh Hex”, a song on Tobacco‘s new album Maniac Meat. It’s one of two songs by the Black Moth Super Rainbow frontman featuring Beck, and this one has him freestyling with words starting with a K sound. If you can make sense of lines like “Cowboy kaleidoscope / Like a concrete cactus cracking in a colosseum” you’re smarter (or crazier) than me.

Another soundtrack contribution is “Let’s Get Lost”, over on the pop playlist. It’s a duet with UK singer Natasha Khan AKA Bat For Lashes. Like “Bad Blood”, this song was written with especially for the visual story, in this case the movie The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Again, I haven’t seen it (nor the previous two Twilight Saga films) and again, it’s all about vampires. And romance. There’s no video (yet) for this song but should it get made, I expect it to feature his ‘n’ hers fangs.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZxJzhIPTTg

The third Beck song on 22tracks isn’t really one, it’s Jamie Lidell‘s “I Wanna Be Your Telephone” (funk/jazz), which has Beck getting his groove on and playing guitar on it. I blogged about Jamie Lidell a few weeks ago, in case you missed that.

What else is there? There’s a beautiful new video for the Beck-written and produced Charlotte Gainsbourg single “Time of the Assassins”. And then there’s Beck’s Record Club, which sees him covering entire albums with a rotating line-up of musician-friends. It’s currently up to album number four, Kick by InXs (1987). You’ll remember “Never Tear Us Apart”, which is here sung by St. Vincent:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3rOjkSho0A

The singer who walks the runway: Karen Elson

While a pretty face has never hurt a pop career, it alone won’t get you very far on the radio, or, indeed, 22tracks. The fact that Karen Elson is a very famous fashion model, therefore, didn’t play much of role in her getting playlisted on our pop playlist. Nevertheless, “The Truth is in the Dirt” is #nowplaying just there.

The fact that Karen Elson is a very famous fashion model, however, did lead to her getting a part in The White Stripes‘ 2005 music video for “Blue Orchid” (below), which led to her and singer Jack White getting married, which led to Elson releasing her White-produced debut album, The Ghost Who Walks, getting released this week.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKntY8WkNYQ

“The Truth is in the Dirt” is my favourite song on the album. A line like “Here she comes, it’s killing time / Flames are burning behind her eyes” suggests that Ms Elson does not take kindly to any suggestion that she has not merited her musical acclaim. Watch her prove her chops in this concert footage. “The Truth…” is the second song.

There’s a rich tradition of singing fashion models in music, from Twiggy and Nico in the 1960s onwards. I think there are two categories of them: those, like Karen Elson, who are genuinely musical and wish to express another side of their personality, and those who simply see an opportunity to expand on their fame. I’ll stick to the first kind in this very incomplete round-up:

Christa Päffgen AKA Nico appeared in Vogue and Elle before becoming an actress (she’s in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita) and, in 1967, singing on one of my favourite albums of all time, The Velvet Underground & Nico:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjjDmX9Tkss

Like Nico, Grace Jones had been a Vogue and Elle cover model before setting New York’s nightlife alight in the 1970s, and recording some a couple of great records. Here’s an Italian TV performance from 1978:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Ub6gm0JZM

Italian Carla Bruni worked with most of the major fashion houses in the 1980s and ’90s. After marrying the French president, she is now the most famous singing ex-model in tout le monde.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1_fJj64W9A

Riot rhythms and infinity guitars: Sleigh Bells

I haven’t yet made up up my mind on how much I love Treats, the debut album from New York duo Sleigh Bells. I’m still trying to deal with the almost physical impact of the sounds it’s making. As with any record, there’s all kinds of influences to detect, sure, but moreover Treats sounds strikingly – confusingly – of the now. That in itself is a quality I can very much appreciate. I’m tempted to write something like: the 2010s start here!

But I guess, as Mike Barthel writes on his tumblr today, “the sound is ultimately so new (we can’t even agree what it’s a combination of yet, what its references are) that we don’t know if it’s going to slip comfortably into an aesthetic tradition or just be regarded as a sort of novelty record in a couple years’ time.”

Either way, “Tell ‘em” is #nowplaying on 22tracks’ pop playlist, and you can hear “Riot Rhythm” on the rock playlist. (I had “Infinity Guitars” on there late last year, for all you early adopters.) I realise the pop/rock divide is more arbitrary than usual with Sleigh Bells, as “Tell ‘em” comes out of gate rocking pretty hard, and Alexis Krauss’ vocals are as sweet on “Riot Rhythm” as anywhere else on Treats.

I first heard about Sleigh Bells in Sasha Frere-Jones’ Notebook column in The New Yorker, where he relates their origin story:

In 2008, Derek Miller was looking for a woman to sing the danceable songs he’d been writing since leaving the successful hardcore band Poison the Well. One night, while working at a Brazilian restaurant, he waited on a woman and her daughter. When the subject of Miller’s search for a vocalist came up, the mother nominated her daughter, Alexis Krauss, a schoolteacher who spent most of her teen years singing on pop records. A few weeks later, the two had become a duo called Sleigh Bells.

Since then, the band has been signed to M.I.A.’s record label N.E.E.T., with Miller also recruited to work on M.I.A.’s forthcoming album ///Y/. Sleigh Bells is currently on tour in Europe, where you can hopefully pick up a copy of Treats, as it hasn’t been released here otherwise yet.

Everybody is gushing about Sleigh Bells:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQrxpKK09xo

Getting a bearing from Jamie Lidell’s Compass

If the guys from the soul playlist are paying attention, surely it won’t be long before Jamie Lidell‘s new album Compass is stretched over four 22tracks playlists. As it stands, “I Wanna Be Your Telephone” is #nowplaying at funk/jazz, “You Are Waking” has been playing on the rock playlist for a few weeks, while the title track, another album highlight, is #nowplaying on the pop playlist. Should DJs Full Crate and FS Green be reading this, I’d recommend “It’s a Kiss”.

If, like me, you have been following Jamie Lidell’s music since he debuted with Super_Collider in the late 1990s, you too were probably a little bit surprised by the turn his career took in the mid-2000s. I think even he himself was. Here’s the “old” Jamie Lidell, in a video from 1999:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUgtLCdQyf4

It’s not that, until the release of “Multiply” (2005), Lidell’s talent as a singer was ever in any doubt. It’s that it had usually been shrouded in experimental, mostly electronic production not very fit for daytime programming. His one-man-shows, while nothing less than sensational, saw him tearing up the rulebook night after night.

A more conventional approach to arranging his songs widened Lidell’s audience big time, at least here in the Netherlands. Radio started playing his retro soul records. “Another Day” became an even bigger hit than “Multiply”. It’s a crossover that Lidell doesn’t seem to be aiming for anymore with Compass, though it may be his strongest collection of songs so far. The album is out next week, by the way.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Qa5rNAeEs

I don’t think the big pop stations have been playing “Compass” or “The Ring” as yet. I can sort of see why. The singer/producer has allowed some of his experimental streak back into his music. To a longtime fan like me, that’s good news. “I Wanna Be Your Telephone” is a seriously tough piece of Prince-like funk, while the folky “Compass” manages to shed a stunning new light on the artist.

Whichever Jamie Lidell you liked best doesn’t matter anymore. I wouldn’t rule out Man!e playlisting “She Needs Me” on his R&B playlist sometime soon.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nICEsQgWhNw

In a beautiful place on the Dom tower

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the DJ op de Dom playlist I concocted with legendary Utrecht DJ DNA. It was quite an eclectic selection, moving between Surinamese seventies funk and 21st century dubstep. That playlist is now gone, and replaced by another, equally adventurous compilation of tracks. DJ op de Dom is a party and a DJ and VJ contest, and part of an ongoing campaign to elect the city of Utrecht as European cultural capitol of 2018.

To promote DJ op de Dom, three of the finest Utrecht DJs working today have come up with twenty-two tracks ranging from gently flowing electronica to a solo piano work and some quirky electro-pop, slowly but surely building up to body-moving house and disco beats, before winding down to an acoustic lullaby. Using Boards Of Canada’s year 2000 classic “In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country” as their jump-off point, Pitto, Nuno dos Santos and the 030303 team set the bar pretty high from the start. The way everything flows from one song to the next like it was meant to be sounds so effortless that you can be sure that quite a bit of thought and effort must have gone into putting this together.

The winners of the DJ and VJ contest will perform on 628-year-old Dom, the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, with an expected 7,000 revellers joining in the fun down on the ground.