Back from NYC, and although I've got plenty of listening-related work to do, I don't have a lot to do it with: I made the mistake of flying with sinus issues and a residual cold, and consequently I've got temporarily impaired hearing on top of no sense of smell or taste. (There is a lime tree flowering a few feet away from me, and I can't smell it at all.)
So I'm spending a few days doing low-effort pleasure-listening only, which is convenient, because I'm swimming in stuff I don't have to hear but want to: the 1966 volume of The Complete Motown Singles, the Invictus Soul Box Set, and the CD I've been reaching for more than anything else this week, Gwigwi Mrwebi's Mbaqanga Songs, recorded in 1967, reissued by Honest Jon's this year, and just the kind of magisterially played dopey little groove instrumentals that I can listen to endlessly.
Portland's got a new radio format: uptempo pop-dance hits past and present on KVMX. Janet Jackson seems to be the format's patron saint; a half-hour drive today also encompassed "I Will Survive," "Into the Groove" and something or other by the Time. As it turns out, although the format is technically called "rhythmic adult contemporary," it is exactly the sort of thing the 20-month-old in the back seat digs. (Also see Alex Ross's priceless dig at radio advertisers' priorities today.)
A publicist sent me a reproducible link to the MP3 of Bossanova's excellent, gaudy eight-minute neo-drone-disco triple lutz of a song "Rare Brazil," so there you go. The album's called Hey Sugar and it's on Teenbeat. Not rare, not Brazilian, not bossa nova; a little closer to the literal bossa nova, new wave. Really, the part that does it most for me is that fluttering synth lead part that carries the instrumental final third of the song.
Posted by Douglas at December 8, 2006 10:18 PM | TrackBack