WEEK 4 - LINK TO PLAYLIST
monday
paulo 9 - fazer bem
noboru kirishima - akagi shigure
doris, kelley - you don’t have to
worry
roger webb - moonbird (heaven & hell)
esquivel! - lamento borincano
xavier cugat - siempre en mi corazón
tuesday
orchestre de la paillote - kadia blues
nino ferrer - looking for you
joey quinones, thee sinseers - it was only a dream
R-A-R trio - sa lumang simbahan
sylvia la torre - carinosa
shinichi mori - 命かれても*
africa - paint it black
wednesday
sai htee saing - a pyar yuang myat yay
shane - i belong to the wind
dick campbell - like the wind that’s free
luis paniagua - la verdad de lo pequeño
the seraphims - the consciousness of happening
rick hayward - light in the sky
thursday
alexander borodin - borodin - string quartet 2 in D major, notturno: andante
h hunt - go home
karol szymanowski: szymanowski: demeter, cantata for contralto and female chorus, op. 37b
sahan arzruni - manushaki
igor stravinsky - elegy for solo violin
friday
alexander scriabin - symphony no. 2 in C minor, op. 29 II: allegro
césar cui - 25 preludes, op. 64: no. 2 in E minor, moderato assai
jean sibelius - the swan of tuonela, op. 22 no. 3
franz liszt - un sospiro
heinrich kaminski - triptychon I: zarathustra: yasna 43
saturday
om alec khaoli - say you love me
kofi - didn’t i
alfie silas - put the freeze on
keke kassiry - kou douw
supersempfft - i see stars - mixed
arpeggio - the fighter
sunday
kayumanggi trio - silayan
mark fry - down narrow streets
hermine - blue angel
patti whip - it’s gone
bonnie dobson - good morning rain
voice actor - calculated reactive space
läuten der seele - das biotop em traum und in der wirklichkeit
welcome back to noise ordinance- it’s been a while. but i’m back, and i come bearing a seriously varied offering this week. this far into the project, i’ll make this much clear. i have no particular rhyme or reason to what i find on any given day. i list the songs in order of when i find them. sometimes i like a vibe so much that i’ll end up seeking it out a couple days in a row, or multiple times across a week, or in the case of week 3, for an entire week.
this week, my taste jumped all over the place. there’s folk, classical, kundiman, disco… it’s a pretty solid cross section of my interests. let’s go.
monday was pretty varied, with soul, jazz, a haunting xavier cugat track, but the general theme was a late night, “the only sound breaking through the silence and stillness” kind of theme. i’m a notorious insomniac, so it’s no surprise that my favorite music is what i classify as “late night music.”
noboru kirishima’s “akagi shigure” is a lo-fi, crackly jazz track from the 1940s that sounds like what you would hear playing over an old phonograph in an abandoned, certainly haunted house. it has that hair raising, lurking quality that makes you want to check over your shoulder.
tuesday opens with the dark, stalking “kadia blues”, going hand in hand with a track like “akagi shigure” as songs that would fit in perfectly in a horror soundtrack. the slow, hypnotic, simplistic drum beat, far away jazz chorus guitar that sounds as if it were recorded in another room altogether, and moaning trumpet converge to create an atmosphere that’s a little sinister, a little sultry.
a genre that i’ve fallen into recently and have found myself obsessed with is kundiman. this is a filipino genre of tagalog ballads, dating back centuries. some describe the lyricism of kundiman as romantic in nature, about the love for a partner. others say that the lyrics are patriotic, describing love for one’s country through the metaphor of love for a partner. both, it seems, are true. kundiman embodies the romantic, the patriotic, the passionate and devotional. it’s protest music, a soundtrack for falling in or out of love, it’s pleading, it’s reverant. it’s home to some of the most soulful, swooning ballads you’ll hear, with crooning, lamenting vocals and delicate, jazzy instrumentation.
R-A-R trio’s “sa lumang simbahan” is a twinkly, gentle melody, with choral grouped vocals and dreamy piano. the lyrics encompass the spirit of kundiman- a story of devoted, all consuming love, til death do we part. “if i should die first, i hope you will visit me in my grave” “if you hear the sound of the bell in the old church … you should kneel down and pray … your love dear”
wednesday was the first of several forays into folk music of the week. slow moving, country inspired tracks that would be best received through a crackly car radio that’s slipping in and out of transmission as you pass through the mountains, nothing but open road before and behind you. it’s tail light music, with an escapist quality. maybe that’s my projection. i’ve generally coped by running away, often packing things into my car at a moment’s notice and driving until i felt like i could breathe again. it’s on those drives that the south seems to get its hands on me, and i find myself nostalgic for hank williams, connie converse, ramblers and drifters.
then… two days of classical. at the time i was compiling week 4, i completed my first soundtrack comprised of entirely classical music. i dove into it headfirst, and renewed my obsession.
i’ll make time to sit down and write properly about karol szymanowski. for now, i’ll say that his opera and choral works should be enough to change even the most stubborn hardass’s opinions about opera. forget carmen, forget the flower duet. “demeter…” is a bone rattling, suspenseful piece that feels akin to being pulled beneath the surface of dark water. it’s a strong current, hardly allowing you a moment to breathe before it rises again. it’s like a storm over the ocean, swirling and feeding into itself.
saturday offered some mellow 80s pop and disco, bright and floaty “feel good” tracks that you can’t help but dance to. om alec khaoli’s “say you love me” is a celebratory, joyful track with choral vocals and perfectly 80s keyboards. and to dispel the idea that i hate all modern music, supersempfft’s “i see stars” is one of very, very few examples of modern 80s pop done right. it’s twinkly, synth driven, dancey in the way that 80s pop should be, with a raspy falsetto shining through. supersempfft has done their homework.
sunday was the second folk day of the week, beginning with hermine’s “blue angel”, a song that has embedded its claws into me and refuses to let go. [here is a playlist inspired by it, of songs with a spacey, atmospheric, “recording of a voicemail” kind of quality] “blue angel” feels like a dreamy, solemn mix of nico and molly drake, with a distant piano and hermine’s deep, thickly french accented voice crooning into what sounds like a phone receiver. it’s haunting. i haven’t been able to turn it off.
the rest of the selections were more typical folk, guitar driven and lilting, some more good tail light music. bonnie dobson’s “good morning rain” is more upbeat, with plucky guitars, a head-bobbing bass line, shaken percussives, and a tasteful amount of brass to add to it. bonnie’s bright, floaty soprano hovers above it all, tying it all together into a song that makes you want to dance down the sidewalk.
my favorites from this week:
shinichi mori - 命かれても [even if i’m killed]
this song is fascinating- it seems to be a japanese twist on fado, or at least is heavily influenced by it.
fado is a genre of portuguese folk music, usually comprised of a vocalist and folk guitar, usually involving themes of despair, lost love, betrayal, grief, heartbreak, and suffering, centered around the concept of saudade, a feeling of profound loss. the name “fado” itself comes from the latin fatum, fate. the genre originated among the impoverished and working class, describing a sense of fatalistic hopelessness.
“命かれても” tells the story of lost love taken to its most dramatic, soul shattering depths. “you don't understand the loneliness that can't be suppressed / it's harder than dying / i don't want comfort” “this time, i'll put my life on the line / i tried to fall in love with you, but it didn't work … i'm not asking you to give it back / i wanted you to love me until i died.” shinichi’s scraping, quivering voice is accompanied by distinctly portuguese influenced instrumentation, with a folksy guitar melody and woodblock percussives. while i would classify this as more of a twist on fado or a piece inspired by it, shinichi has certainly embodied the concept of fatalist suffering. it’s a gut wrenching, self indulgent kind of miserable song. the kind that would be sung in a smokey, dim lounge somewhere in porto.
alexander scriabin - symphony no. 2 in C minor, op. 29 II: allegro
this has taken root as one of my favorite allegro pieces of all time. it begins with a glitchy, brain scrambling procession at 3 seconds and 7 seconds in, a wrist breaker of a string pattern comprised of what looks, on paper, extremely simplistic. it’s a procession of three two-eighths notes, but the effect is immense.
the rest of the piece is pure controlled chaos. it swells, surging and crashing in a deluge. it offers little reprieve, the brass section striking and domineering. it is, for lack of a better word, a hell of a symphony. and it is hellish- frantic at times, enough to raise your pulse rate. it’s pure adrenaline.