Abstract Index Playlist - March 24/10

Full marks to Jonny Dovercourt for pegging my taste so perfectly. Tzadik released the magnificent Afrikan Machinery in 1998, and I slept on it.

In truth, I haven't listened to this whole album yet. But I'm smitten: in a few hours I'm off to the Music Gallery to see Lukas Ligeti live.

This music is a beautiful marriage of marimba and electronics. Ligeti (son of Gyorgy) plays an instrument called the marimba lumina. It was invented by Don Buchla, whose interfaces for electronic instruments (i.e. something other than a piano keyboard) have always been creative and versatile. Once this interface is married to Ligeti's compositional digestion a wide range of African and European rhythmic strategies, the sky is the limit. These songs seem to continuously unspool new melodies and variations: "polyrhythmic" seems too tame a description. But it's no mere math exercise, Ligeti has a ear for good hooks too, as in the pervasive whistling that enlivens "Great Circle's Tune I". No doubt this will yield new delights live.

Podcast

balafon dance system - lukas ligeti (tzadik)
velvet paws - move d & benajamin brunn (smallville)
see mi yah - willi williams/rhythm & sound (basic channel)
charlie - cafe neon (station 55)
alon basela - avishai choen (emi)
helelyos - zia (finders keepers)
africa - amanaz (qdk media)
rejoice pt. 2 - souljazz orchestra (strut)
anything worse - gaslamp killer (brainfeeder)
goodmorning sun - qua, rmx by aoi (mush)
tanga pa katanga - joe cain (time)
shanty song - bruce peninsula (bruce trail)
the beginning of the end - chris corsano/mick flower (vhf)
a story told - professor fingers (5 1/4)
dark and lovely - sub oslo (sueno)
musically dub - irie invaders feat adubta (step 4i)
riddim culture - citizen sound feat. richard underhill (vx)
shreveport shuffle - john frum (jahtari)
squadron face - fredo (tru thoughts)
yard music - joe gibbs & the professionals (lighnting)
wall street - jackie mittoo (soul jazz)