Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey 5.24.11-5.31.11

From Reality I Just Can't Drift: Exploring Reggae

This is the first of what will hopefully be many wanderings into the fog of assorted music genres.

In search of some of the most influential and highly regarded reggae albums of all time, Burning Spears' "Marcus Garvey" made appearances on nearly every top ten list. Burning Spear has been nominated for 12 Best Reggae Album of the Year Grammys, including 2 wins. Even though this album didn't win the award, it is regarded as Burning Spear's most influential album.

The album is named after famed Jamaican journalist and philosopher Marcus Garvey, founder of Garveyism. "The fundamental focus of Garveyism is the complete, total and never ending redemption of the continent of Africa by people of African ancestry, at home and abroad. It is rooted in one basic idea: 'whatsoever things common to man that man has done, man can do'. Therefore, Africa can become as glorious and profoundly advanced in the scientific and technological realm as any, when Africans will it to be." Sick.

The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt 5.16-5.22

I'd like to start by saying thank you to everyone that has uploaded stuff and to hopefully everyone is enjoying expanding their musical spectrum. This week I introduce a man from Sweden, Kristian Matsson with a band name of The Tallest Man on Earth. This album, The Wild Hunt, is his second album and in my limited experience with Bob Dylan, his voice immediately reminds me of him. There is some banjo and piano and a voice that is fairly astounding. For some reason, I find that the Swedish accent of English is fantastic. That's all I'm going to say about this.

Please, enjoy.

tUne-yArDs - WHOKILL 5.3.11 - 5.9.11

Before delving into WHOKILL, i apologize for uploading the album onto our main page, and not into the folder. hopefully some magical internet gnome fixes that.

anyway

tUne-yArDs!

Its power, rocks me, inside, like a lullaby. Roughly quoted from "Powa", I believe this line conveys what an intoxicating and invigorating listen this album is. The rhythms, tone, and energy supplied by these tracks have made it a daily listen for me since I got the album. The passion and depth of her voice creates a wonderfully full and lush sound. Although the instrumentation is somewhat simple, the mix of percussion, horns, and her voice create more than enough for a listener to latch on. It was almost a shock to find out that this was a white woman from New England (thanks Wikipedia), and not a group traversing the world spreading some type of afro-infused jazz pop (sidenote: for the Portland show she had her face painted and had brightly colored feathers in her hair. I think you can get a pretty good grasp on her influences through all this). Although some might think that is a derisive statement, it is really a testament to the thought, soul and energy put into every song; its difficult to not be singing and humming along, or at least tapping your foot along with the beat.

Equally amazing is who tune-yards( i'm done with that random capitalization) is. They are two people (who by the assessment of my roommate, "are probably dating"): a bass player and a lead singer who plays the ukelele while creating tracks on a loop machine. Together they also do their own percussion with drumsticks and cleaned out vegetable cans (at least in the performance I saw). They sometimes add horn players and additional percussionists (thank you youtube), but the result is always the same: a tight, bouncy, and refreshing. I hope everyone can enjoy this album as much as I am. Enjoy! U-S-A!