TRACKS OF THE WEEK - 11/05/2013 - Editors, Balmorhea, Rachid Taha,Jay-Z and Kanye West, Kate Nash

Five tracks that Sir Alex wanted on his retirement playlist...

Old Pa's Corner:-
Jay-Z and Kanye West - No Church in the Wild (2012)

 

This is not normally my thang, But I checked out the Soundtrack of  the re-make of The Great Gatsby and was quite surprised at some of the tracks. This one hit me immediately. I have never heard it before, in my Spanish Isolation'  but it appears it is not a new track and was pretty popular last year. Well it is on a sountrack for 2013 and that is good enough for me and Bobby Davro.  

Shell Hunter:-

Editors - 'A Ton Of Love' (2013)

Could this new upbeat single divide die hard Editors fans? Well I don't care, I love it! It reminds me of two mega bands: U2 (in a good old school way) and Echo and the Bunnymen with elements of 'Bring On The Dancing Horses'. The band haven't had an album out since 2009, I can't believe its been so long. I've always loved their dark Joy Division-esque style and Tom Smith's smooth and dark as Colombian coffee vocals, but I can also welcome change. The long awaited album title was revealed last week as The Weight Of Your Love (suitable dark!) and will be released on July 1st. With rumours of being "more electronic but with a nod to their past", I think the new direction they seem to be pointing is going to be a great destination!

More info on their official site here...

SFW:- Balmorhea - Pyrakantha (2013)

  Balmorhea - Pyrakantha [official] from Colin Kennedy on Vimeo.
I've been listening to quite a bit of so called instrumental music recently and Balmorhea certainly hit the spot!  I call it instrumental, but it's really just musical medicine, they've perfected the way to create sonic landscapes that the listener applies. Pyrakantha features on their 2012 album Strangers.  The video was filmed by director Colin Kennedy, who spent many early evening shooting skateboarder Danny Garcia as he takes a journey through some of Kennedy's favorite parts of Los Angeles as the final moments of daylight ("the Magic Hour") gave way to night. It perfectly matches the mood of the music and gets me wanting to apply a serious dose of WD40 to my old skate bones!  What was our old saying? "Old Skate Dogs Never Die!"

Flycasual:-

Rachid Taha - 'Ana' (2013)

This is a fantastic Alt-Country-esque track which sounds as if it's from Nashville via Algiers. Amongst some great songs on this month's Songlines magazine CD sampler, Rachid Taha's 'Ana' stood out. Even before the Arab Spring had sprung, Rachid Taha has always been a controversial figure across North Africa for being politically outspoken and for his take on Punk Rock with an Algerian twist (he's even meant to have influenced the Clash's 'Rock The Casbah', going on the record the brilliant 'Rock El Casbah' Click to view)). Despite this, his music remains popular across the Arab world as well as the West and 'Ana' is taken from his latest album, Zoom, released last month.

Rachid Taha's official website...

London Scouser:-

Kate Nash - OMYGOD! (2013)

For me the jury has been out on Kate Nash, I've really liked a few of her tracks like 'Foundations' & 'Pumpkin Soup' but I considered her a bit too poppy for me. Her credibility went up when I saw she was going out with Ryan Jarman, lead singer of The Cribs. If she's good enough for him I thought, then I should give her another try. And then last week I found that Ms Nash was responsible for getting Scroobius Pip noticed by suggesting he sent in a demo CD to xFM's John Kennedy.

For him, the rest is history. For her, kudos is due.
I first heard this song at the beginning of the week and loved its summery happiness. At the time of writing, its 'rissing down with pain' but I'm still enjoying it. The start seems to remind me of The Cribs until the chorus comes in, or am I just trying to hear it ?? What do you think ??

Checkout previous Tracks of the week here

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