Some things I've been listening to lately:
Iron and Wine - "Such Great Heights": Iron and Wine does a lake-soft cover of the Postal Service track for the Such Great Heights EP. Suddenly, the song becomes astonishingly beautiful -- the chorus, excrutiatingly slow, is like an oyster that creaks open, the pearl revealed.
Kid Koala - Nufonia Must Fall: i haven't yet read the graphic novel for which this short CD was composed, but even on it's own, Nufonia Must Fall is special. Replacing Kid Koala's kooky sampling are slow pulses of wurlitzer, touches of piano, strings and trumpet. They are very short tracks, samey in their melancholy, but I think that Kid Koala may have recorded the single best record for falling asleep to, ever. this isn't a criticism but an enormous compliment - this music is a landscape for my dreams. Creatures coalesce out of the rain, wooden robots creak out from behind corners as Kid Koala throws in creaks, whirrs, and strange, abrupt noises. it's wonderful.
The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving: on my walkman, this record keeps oscillating from jesus-god-it's-brilliant (and I mean brilliant, as in the sounds are brilliant: distinct and golden, almost tangible beams that follow the lyrics, match guitarlines to the waving of newly-leafed trees, match drum patter with my footsteps) and boy-oh-boy-this-is-dull. when i first put it on at the end of last week, i thought i had found another record that my semi-swanky portapro headphones improved exponentially, but the next day everything i had heard that was extraordinary was no more. instead, blurred-together sounds and a voice that grated on my nerves. i don't know if i'm even up for another listen in the near future.
Montgolfier Brothers - The World is Flat: I've been trying to excavate the greatness that Alex heard in this record. When I first listened to it a year ago, I dismissed the album as boring. It's one that Alex writes about a lot, however - and the way he speaks about it, it sounds like it should match my love of good, sad music. So I'm listening again, working hard to find something more in it. And I have - but so far, only that it's good, not that it's great. The title track is wonderful - i'll try to write about it later - but the rest floats in a queer place that doesn't resonate for my in a big way. The World is Flat seems to speak to this strange purgatory following a relationship, after anguish and before resignation... and I just can't feel it right now.
Loo & Placido - "DJ Love Affair": My faith in mash-ups restored by this delight. Curtis Mayfield croons alongside bits of Daft Punk and a gleaming chorus intro by the Notwist. What's more, it sounds like a genuine song, not some hastily-glued-together mess. Guitar rock and soul ache. hooray! (download it)
So I'm officially obssessed with the song "Brazil". My friends and I got hooked after hearing the Arcade Fire do a cover, 18 months ago. Two days later and I had downloaded Geoff Muldaur's version that's used in Terry Gilliam's great film of the same name. I was familiar with the track, but had never really realized the magnitude of its awesomeness. The sky-sailing guitar track, the whistling, the muted latin drums... it's like a summer breeze, a multicoloured kite. Muldaur's vocals are overdramatic and silly, plump as a pompadour. The rolled r's are tropical birds, the guy who jumps in with "thrills" (?) is like a flying-fish that pops out of the ocean. The off-key, tuba-farting finale seals the deal, demands another listen.
See that? It's so amazing awesome that I'm comparing rolled r's to toucans.
Cornelius did a nice, chill version on Point - sort of a laptop interpretation - and I've also grabbed James Last's bland electric guitar version. Last's cover is instrumental, which was disappointing to me at the time... this past week, I finally scored a recording of the Xavier Cugat original, from which all other "Brazil"s followed. It's surprisingly mediocre - basically big band samba, but the groovy, ghostly choir definitely hints at the direction Muldaur takes it in. To my astonishment, though, it too is instrumental - I had always assumed the vocals had been passed down from the original, not that they were Muldaur innovations. Did he really make them up? Or did somebody in between add lyrics?
The newest addition to the "Brazil" collection is a Benny Goodman recording, with Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian (I think). The clarinet lead carries the melody really well, and the soloing's absolutely solid. Sooner or later, I'll be able to make a "Brazil" mix CD, and I will be able to commit seppuku a happy man.