Trolle//Siebenhaar - Couple Therapy 9/27-10/3

There’s the kind of relaxing music you play on low to help you focus on work, and then there’s the kind that makes you lean away from the computer, roll your chair back and forth, and smile a little at the thought of being somewhere far away. It’s necessary sometimes, and hard to come by.

Trolle//Siebenhaar is a Danish duo from Copenhagen consisting of Ane Trolle and Pato Siebenhaar. Trolle’s soft, playful vocals are enough to soothe your stress and sexy enough to keep you distracted while Siebenhaar layers reggae beats under sweet harmonies for a dreamy, upbeat quality. Some notable tracks to check out: Amelita, Sunday Song, Sweet Dog, and These Streets.

This whole album is one for a Sunday. Take a joyride or drag out an evening cooking dinner and washing dishes over a glass of wine. The work will still be there once you’ve finished and you’ll be in a better mindset to handle it anyway.

Note: I included an additional track in the playlist. It is not by Trolle//Siebenhaar but has a similar feel so you get a bonus.

Beruit - The Rip Tide - 9/19-9/26  

The number of images and memories this band name can evoke is literally infinite. From the sun-soaked peninsula of the Mediterranean Sea and sister city to Los Angeles, Baghdad, Tripoli, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Mexico City, Istanbul, Marseille, Cairo, Athens (...and it goes on, but basically, a city that rolls with only the most happening places on this floating marble we call Earth), to dank and grimy beer-soaked basements alive with yells and the tip-toe of ping-pong balls, that sometimes delicately land in foam to extra yelling. I now present another cerebral linkage in the form of a sextet hailing from Santa Fe, USA.

Beirut is world-American pop music and The Rip Tide is a glorious collection of brass, drum and voice, woven together in ear-to-ear smiling harmony. Tracks dance with different subjects, but include a story of a childhood city, Santa Fe, to a more abstract track in East Harlem, which abandons all logic and begs you to understand that "sound is a color [you] know." 

Crank up your speakers, wherever you are and especially if you're playing 'rut, and listen to what Zach Condon and his gang have to say. You won't be able to stop.

-pM

Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt - 9.14.11-9.21.11

I think we’ve all had the pleasure of mouthing the lyrics to a song in another language even if don’t understand the words one bit. From the second we were shuffled into a preschool or nursery school, we were fed Frere Jaques for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, polyglot or not. Well, this my friends, is your upgrade. Offering a variety of styles (I’d call some of them influences, cough, to be discussed?, cough), and rhythms, if you listen to this cd enough, there is guaranteed to be a song where you pretend to know at least a little Swedish.

Dungen is a four piece outfit based out of Stockholm, Sweden, but the soul really comes from the lead singer, song writer, and talented musician, Gustav Ejstes. Ta Det Lugnt, released in 2004, is their 4th album and most beloved. The cd provides some more gripping tracks than others including the gems I have previously pointed out: “Panda” and my favorite “Det Du Tanker Idag Ar Du Imorn” (I do not attempt to impress my Swedish friends with the pronunciation of that one); however, every track forces a look at what could superficially be perceived as a “one-trick-pony.” As a live experience, the band enjoys prolonging songs to infinity; some people call this jamming, I call it running on a treadmill. Their energy is indubitably there, and even a heartless snot like me can get immersed in the quality of the performance, maybe I’m just not in shape to keep running with everyone else.

Ta Det Lugnt carries me to my high school years where I was just wishing I existed in another, cooler era that I thought Dungen was taking me to. Hope you can sink in as easily as I did. Enjoy.

Love Mamolou