Seven Song Spin, No English Allowed
After last week's burst of patriotism, I turn my ears out to the world for songs in languages other than inglés.
You can find this whole playlist here.
Retro Français: Featured in a prominent montage in the recent bit of Netflix eye candy, The Queen's Gambit, this 1965 track by the English actress Gillian Hills is a French version of the Lollipops single "Busy Signal," and indeed its title phrase "Tut, Tut, Tut, Tut" is meant to evoke that vestige of landline frustration.
Bollywood bop: From the delightful Luaka Bop collection Asia Classics 1: The South Indian Film Music of Vijaya Anand: Dance Raja Dance, this is the song I return with the most delight, "Naane Maharaja (I Am the Emperor)," which bubbles with manic, Carl Stalling-esque variety and vitality.
Vocoder choir: For me the music of the pop/flamenco star Rosalía is a wormhole, and I dove deep earlier this year (though not as deep as this guy). Her genius concept trap/flamenco album El Mal Querer is worth visiting in its entirety (as is its no-frills acoustic prelude, Los ángeles), but the exotic scales and intensity of this all-voice track, "Nana," makes her sound like a one-woman Bulgarian women's choir.
Snows of yesteryear: With her essential record The Unknown Kurt Weill, soprano Teresa Stratas effectively subverted that title and made this Brecht/Weill classic, "Nanna's Lied," into canon.
Ascolta da vicino: One of Sid Caesar's signature bits was his facility for faking foreign languages, which was as much about gesture and attitude as sound. (Here he is doing faux Italian.) Italian singer Adrian Celentano isn't quite doing the same in reverse, but close: His hilarious 1972 single "Prisencólinensináincıúsol" is gibberish English that sounds like an American talking, like some kind of demented sequel to the Chips' "Rubber Biscuit," intoned over a maddeningly catchy horn-and-drums loop. Don't miss the harmonica solo!
Trumpet choir: I was first exposed to Hugh Masekela on Paul Simon's Graceland tour, in which he strove to make up for breaking the apartheid embargo to make the record by touring with two of South Africa's greatest musicians, Miriam Makeba and Masekela. So I loved much of Masekela's next record, Tomorrow, including the rousing opener "Bring Him Back Home," about Nelson Mandela, and this blast of sunshine, "Ke Bale," whose words I can't find a translation for (though "Ke Bale" is apparently Shona for "let me read").
No semantic news: I was a big fan of N'ssi N'ssi, Algerian pop master Khaled's 1993 collection, which I used own on cassette. Though it was the jazzy "Alech Taadi" that got him Western airplay thanks to its placement in The Fifth Element, my favorite was always "Adieu," with its popping beat and saxophone blending effortlessly with his rai sound. ("No semantic news," incidentally, is how Google translates the lyric "la khbar dellali.")
You can find this whole playlist here.
Retro Français: Featured in a prominent montage in the recent bit of Netflix eye candy, The Queen's Gambit, this 1965 track by the English actress Gillian Hills is a French version of the Lollipops single "Busy Signal," and indeed its title phrase "Tut, Tut, Tut, Tut" is meant to evoke that vestige of landline frustration.
Bollywood bop: From the delightful Luaka Bop collection Asia Classics 1: The South Indian Film Music of Vijaya Anand: Dance Raja Dance, this is the song I return with the most delight, "Naane Maharaja (I Am the Emperor)," which bubbles with manic, Carl Stalling-esque variety and vitality.
Vocoder choir: For me the music of the pop/flamenco star Rosalía is a wormhole, and I dove deep earlier this year (though not as deep as this guy). Her genius concept trap/flamenco album El Mal Querer is worth visiting in its entirety (as is its no-frills acoustic prelude, Los ángeles), but the exotic scales and intensity of this all-voice track, "Nana," makes her sound like a one-woman Bulgarian women's choir.
Snows of yesteryear: With her essential record The Unknown Kurt Weill, soprano Teresa Stratas effectively subverted that title and made this Brecht/Weill classic, "Nanna's Lied," into canon.
Ascolta da vicino: One of Sid Caesar's signature bits was his facility for faking foreign languages, which was as much about gesture and attitude as sound. (Here he is doing faux Italian.) Italian singer Adrian Celentano isn't quite doing the same in reverse, but close: His hilarious 1972 single "Prisencólinensináincıúsol" is gibberish English that sounds like an American talking, like some kind of demented sequel to the Chips' "Rubber Biscuit," intoned over a maddeningly catchy horn-and-drums loop. Don't miss the harmonica solo!
Trumpet choir: I was first exposed to Hugh Masekela on Paul Simon's Graceland tour, in which he strove to make up for breaking the apartheid embargo to make the record by touring with two of South Africa's greatest musicians, Miriam Makeba and Masekela. So I loved much of Masekela's next record, Tomorrow, including the rousing opener "Bring Him Back Home," about Nelson Mandela, and this blast of sunshine, "Ke Bale," whose words I can't find a translation for (though "Ke Bale" is apparently Shona for "let me read").
No semantic news: I was a big fan of N'ssi N'ssi, Algerian pop master Khaled's 1993 collection, which I used own on cassette. Though it was the jazzy "Alech Taadi" that got him Western airplay thanks to its placement in The Fifth Element, my favorite was always "Adieu," with its popping beat and saxophone blending effortlessly with his rai sound. ("No semantic news," incidentally, is how Google translates the lyric "la khbar dellali.")
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