Music Video: Miraculous - ยังเสียใจ (Still Sad)

There's something that I always enjoy about really hip-hoppy/poppy reggae.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'd know that I love artists that combine upbeat melodies and hip-hop influenced vocals with syncopated Caribbean and African rhythms.  So, artists like Seeed, Afroreggae, Irie Révoltés, and Culcha Candela get a lot of play here.

Well, just because I am going all the way to Thailand today does not mean that I will break with this tradition.  In fact, if you replace the German and English of Seeed, or the French and German of Irie Révoltés, or the Spanish and German of Culcha Candela with the Thai and English of Miraculous - as you do on their song ยังเสียใจ (Still Sad) - you will not feel overwhelming culture shock.

Unfortunately, like much of the music that I find from Asia, I am having a difficult time finding information about Miraculous that I can actually translate.  Bing Translator does yeoman's work of attempting to translate the band's bio on Last.fm from Thai to English, but the result is largely an unreadable garble. This is made even more difficult because, like a frustrating number of bands from around the world, their name is neither terribly unique or easily searchable.  That having been said, if you know anything about Miraculous, please post to the comments.  I'd love to know more.

Bundesvision 2012: Bavaria

Despite my oppressively busy schedule these days, in the interest of preserving my sanity, I though I should finally kick off my preview of the 2012 Bundesvision Song Contest.

Today, we start out in Bavaria with a refreshing change of pace: Fiva & Das Phantom Orchester with Die Stadt gehört wieder mir.

Now let me preface this preview by saying that - overall - I like rap and hip-hop.  Put together some good, clever lyrics and a fresh beat, and it is tough not to like the genre.  Heck, I'll even go so far to say that the stereotypical "gangsta" attitude has its place in the genre, as long as it is an organic outgrowth of the social milieu from which the artist comes.  But I quickly run out of patience, and more importantly interest, when the music becomes all about trying to mimic this "gangsta" stereotype, and not about being honest and taking the music to a new level.  I think this problem becomes particularly egregious when you have non-American hip-hop artists trying to pretend that they come straight out of Compton, when they actually come straight out of Heidelberg (or Osaka, or Montreal, or you name it).

Climbing off of my rickety soapbox, I come back to Fiva & Das Phantom Orchester.  Fiva is a rapper who is comfortable in her European skin.  She doesn't try to pose as some tough inner city thug.  Instead, with her backing band made up of DJ, percussion, and a string section, Fiva lays down an infectious jazzy groove and some engaging vocals, while never forgetting who she is or where she comes from.  I would rather listen to this than to European "gangsta" rap any day of the week.

Prediction:  As evidenced by the past two years' experience, just because I like something doesn't mean that the voting German public will agree with me.  I think Fiva & Das Phantom Orchester will find it's niche audience, but it will not be much more than a niche.  I predict Die Stadt gehört wieder mir will land somewhere in the bottom half of the field.

Music Video: Samy Deluxe - Feuer, Verbrannt, Asche

I've probably mentioned this before, but I often find songs and artists that I like by spidering out from songs and artists that I already like.  It's kind of the six degrees of separation approach to music appreciation.

So, late last night, I was sitting at home minding my own business when I get an e-mail from Amazon.de telling me that one of my favorite German artists, Jan Delay, is coming out with a new live album/DVD set called "Hamburg brennt!!".  Excellent! I think, as I quickly log on to find out more about it.  Well, it turns out that this new album is being released to stores on May 11, 2012, and it features guest appearances from a long list of German hip-hop and rap artists.  While Amazon is the Borg of internet retail, and has - in cahoots with iTunes - absolutely decimated the traditional retail music business, one nice thing that they do is post relevant videos to many albums that they sell.  In this case, they posted a video of Jan Delay performing his classic song Füchse with artists Denyo and Samy Deluxe.

As often happens, this got me interested in what else Denyo and Samy Deluxe have done independently, which led me to Samy Deluxe's recent free promotional tune Feuer, Verbrannt, Asche.  Now, I was never a huge rap fan, although I can certainly see the artistry of the genre, but this tune blew me away.  Regardless of the language barrier, Samy Deluxe's verbal virtuosity is undeniable.  Set to the beat of another Jan Delay tune Feuer, Feuer, Verbrannt, Asche really only uses it as a launching pad for his own unique rhythm, thoroughly transcending the original.  Samy Deluxe has, for the past decade, been considered by critics and listeners alike as one of Germany's top rap artists.  It is not hard to see why.

Music Video: Deichkind - Leider Geil

There are a lot of bands out there that start out interesting, but that get boring after their first or second album.  There are other bands that start out slowly, but pick up speed as they go.  I would put the German hip-hop/techno collective Deichkind in this latter category.  Founded in 1999 in Hamburg, Deichkind started out as a decent, but otherwise non-noteworthy, German rap group in the same vein as Fettes Brot, Fantastischen Vier, or Blumentopf.  In this musical guise, Deichkind put out a couple of okay albums that helped them to develop a hardcore following.

Then, in 2005, things really went off the rails.  With the entry of Electric Super Dance Band in the 2005 Bundesvision Song Contest, Deichkind dove headfirst into a much more interesting and challenging relationship with techno and dance music.  Despite placing 14th out of 15 in Bundesvision, Deichkind had cast their lot, and I think for the better.  Not only were their songs becoming more challenging.  Their live shows were also demonstrating a real affinity for the dramatic, the absurd, and even the bizarre.

Now, on their newly released 5th studio album Befehl von ganz unten, Deichkind continues this experimentation in what they call "TechRap".  Perhaps this is best represented by their new single Leider Geil.  You may not like Deichkind, but they certainly won't leave you unchallenged. 

BTW, as an added bonus, if you really want to see what Deichkind is all about, check out this live version of their song Prost! from Rockpalast in 2011.

Music Video: Dendemann - Stumpf ist Trumpf 3.0

Sometimes I don't get kids.  Over her six years, my daughter has expressed a strong preference for music that is raucous, that has a beat that you can dance to, and that has a chorus that you can sing along to.  Oh yeah, and she prefers bands with female lead singers.  That's fine.  I get that.  But every once in a while she finds a song that she really likes that doesn't really check any of those boxes.

The other day, that song was German hip-hop artist Dendemann's song Stumpf ist Trumpf 3.0.  Don't get me wrong, I have always liked this song myself.  It is aggressive but smart.  Plus, as can be seen from the video and its wonderful parody of the old TV show MacGyver, Dendemann has a solid sense of humor.  But Dendemann's voice is, if nothing else, gratingly masculine, and his beat and lyrics can neither be easily danced to nor sung along with.  I guess that is the fun thing about music: you never know what you will ultimately find appealing.  The fun is in the searching.

Music Video: Irie Révoltés - Zeit ist Geld

A couple of months ago, I profiled four bands that play in French, but who come from elsewhere.  Today, I bring an unofficial fifth.  Irie Révoltés comes from Heidelberg, Germany, but for some reason they sing about 70% of their songs in French, with most of the rest in German.  To my own ear, it's an exciting mix because Irie Révoltés' music combines the Gallic tongue with decidedly Teutonic inspired reggae, ska, hip-hop, and electronic beats, with the music changing the feel of the language, and the language changing the feel of the music.

A good example of this mix is Irie Révoltés' song, Zeit ist Geld.  This is heavily electronic hip-hop, with some ska horns mixed in, and lyrics in both German and French.  As Irie Révoltés is an explicitly political band (thus the name of the band), this linguistic and musical internationalism merely adds further punch to their universal message of speaking to the common man.

Music Video: Xindl X - Dysgrafik

I always hate it when somebody says that a particular language doesn't "track well" for popular music - typically they say this when explaining why everybody wants to sing pop in English, and why non-English music is supposedly inferior.  I hate it. . . but then occasionally I hear music from a non-English speaking country, and I think to myself, "Wow, that language really doesn't track well."  Up until today, that is what I thought of music from the Czech Republic.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Czech people, and Czech art and literature is some of the most moving and complex in the world.  But their popular music has always sounded a little "off" to me.  But totally disproving this prejudice, along comes Xindl X.  His mix of hip-hop, reggae, jazz, funk, and myriad other influences just sounds good.  Listen to Dysgrafik, and I think you will agree.

Music Video: Die Antwoord - Enter the Ninja

Some days you just stumble accidentally over new (at least new to you) music that really makes you think.  Rapper/Performance artist Watkin Jones from South Africa has always produced music that challenges the listener, and none more so than the music he produces in his latest incarnation as Ninja of the band Die Antwoord.  Their hit Enter the Ninja is a pretty representative sampling of what Die Antwoord is all about.  It is confrontational, usually offensive, often ugly.  But at its best, their music compels the listener to really consider their commentary on the modern world from a multi-linqual, multi-cultural, and multi-racial South African perspective.

Music Video: Marteria - Sekundenschlaf

I am a huge fan of the German dancehall band Seeed (trust me, this is going somewhere), and have been biding my time while its various members follow their solo side projects before returning to record a new album in 2011.  Well, imagine my delirious joy when I saw on their website that they had just released a "remix" of German rapper Marteria's song Sekundenschlaf.  Well. . . it's actually not all that different from the original version, but it is enjoyable nevertheless.