Time for another installment of Monday Music – the only post where SOIWT deviates from its London-only focus:
Funkadelic – Maggot Brain
Last night a friend bullied me into going to the Michael Clark Company‘s Tate Modern performance, a contemporary dance show featuring professional ballerinas and hastily-trained, flawless amateurs pirouetting and prancing over a stark soundtrack (including this edgy George Clinton number). I had many thoughts about the show, from Gatsby parallels to Saturday Night Fever recollections to adoration of its punkish tribute to how it so marvellously tied classic dance to modern culture, and thus made it accessible - but two reactions dominated. The first was that it was, above everything else, just hugely fun. The second revelation was that Selina Jones, my friend and one of the volunteer dancers, is bloody great.
Las Robertas – V For You
I said to that same friend yesterday that I reckoned a well-regarded Estonian book I was reading was only well-regarded because it was Estonian; that is to say niche, esoteric, unusual. And yet here I now am recommending a fuzz-pop band from Costa Rica. That said, I’m pretty sure I’d love this just as dearly if Las Robertas hailed from Sevenoaks rather than San Jose.
Rusko – Everyday (mp3)
A perfect reach-for-the-lasers rouser from the Leeds producer, with just the right balance of euphoria and matter. Listening (loud is best), one floats along in the pleasant, dubsteppy drudge, and then, every so often, throws arms and face to the sky in impassioned fashion - a metaphor for life itself, perhaps.
Nowonder – Dream
When it’s my time to go, this is the sort of song I’d like to float away on – manna from keyboard heaven…
Alex Winston – Sister Wife (mp3)
Sure, this is pop done pretty perfectly: catchy without overdoing it. But then so is a lot of pop these days. What elevates Sister Wife is Michigan-hailing Winston’s voice: slightly cracked and caramelly, she sounds young and charming, yet somehow a little sarcastic and cynical with it.
