Beat Authority playlist: 1/22/10

Quantic drops a mambo straight.

Very very cool chart

Nothing like the combination of raw data and sleek graph design to give us a new way of looking at the world. Here's a graph of the most popular bands in 2009, according to listening habits on last.fm (which I've never used before - have you?).

To really appreciate it, click here to look up close. It compares listening habits in two trend-setting cities, New York and London, to those of the rest of the world. The accompanying article argues two things: cities have "edgier" listening habits than suburbs and "the rest of the world"; and non-pop bands, like, say, Animal Collective, can remain "obscure" in the general public yet sell out huge shows to their niche.

Delaney Flushboy argues that's a good thing:

Not sure if I agree with the author's final conclusion about Animal Collective and other extremely popular "obscure" bands. I've read other authors who make the same argument: that pop music has become boring because bands like Animal Collective can't break through in the internet age. I'm sure that Animal Collective would appreciate the extra money (and god knows they deserve it) but I actually think that the music world has gotten more diverse and more interesting in the past ten years for just this very reason. Many more bands can have success like Animal Collective's, and while they might not be "breaking through" like Nirvana did, they're doing well financially (at least making a decent, stable living I imagine) and thriving artistically. I'd rather see more artists have the opportunity to make a living as musicians while doing their own thing than everybody in the industry taking part in a crap-shoot to make it big or go broke trying.

Free mp3: Madagascar's Razia

Not a lot of music from Madagascar makes it to the U.S. Tarika and D'Gary are the only ones that come to mind.

Cumbancha is bringing another to light. Razia Said's album, Zebu Nation, is coming out next month. The press materials say it has a political bent:

Zebu Nation is the outcome of a personal journey that began in February 2007 when Razia returned to Madagascar to reconnect with the land she left as an eleven year-old child. For six weeks she traveled around the country in a van with a group of musicians and a film and audio recording crew. Along the way, she visited inspiring local musicians and saw firsthand the damage done to her homeland's forests and landscapes.

Until the full-length comes out, you can sample Razia's first single - and download it for free - here.

Beat Authority playlist: 1/15/10

Help out Haiti in the post below. Here's the playlist.

Haiti & Manze Dayila: help how you can

I was thinking about Manze Dayila yesterday. She's from Haiti, lives in New York City, and graced us here in Canton with a tremendous performance last winter at St. Lawrence University. I was thinking about her family and all the indescribable desvastation and pain people are experiencing in Haiti right now.

Dayila spoke yesterday to The World's Global Hit. She said she hasn't been able to get in touch with her family, including one of her children.

Our web guy, Dale Hobson, has compiled - and vetted - a list of charities where you can contribute to the recovery effort in Haiti. So has NPR.

Here's Manze Dayila...

Free mp3: Indian beats

I don't really know much about David Starfire, just that he's a beat producer who specializes in Indian music. We'll know more soon - he's releasing a new album on Six Degrees records this month.

Six Degrees is leaking a free single, which you can download here. And if you want to give it a listen first, this is it:

David Starfire - Sitarfire by SixDegreesRecords

RIP: Lhasa de Sela

Spellbound. That's how I was the first time I heard Lhasa's debut album, La Llorona, when it came out in 1998.

I was living in southern Colorado, working at NPR-affiliate, KRZA. Her story - born of Mexican and American parents in the Catskills town of Big Indian - connected my two worlds of Upstate New York (where I'm from) and greater Aztlan, the chicano world I was living in. She was just about my age, too.

Lhasa was a young, visionary artist with a poetic vocabulary and a haunting voice both strong and soft.

I hadn't heard the news that she died of breast cancer on New Year's Day until this morning. It's very sad to lose a true muse.

Beat Authority playlist: 1/8/10

I got the hunger.

Compression

The most viewed story on NPR's website - including all the political and cultural stuff and everything - is about Loudness.

I remember listening to CDs from the '80s in the 1990s and thinking how quiet they sounded compared to what was being released at the time. Primus' Frizzle Fry I recall being especially loud. And I admit I loved it (the CD and the loudness). It was annoying to have to turn up the volume every time an older CD came on, just to get blown away when the new A Tribe Called Quest nearly blew the speakers with the deep bass.

Now I listen to those "louder" CDs, and guess what? THEY sound quiet now, compared to today's new releases.

According to NPR's story, this is a great - and controversial - debate among sound engineers.

Do you think music is losing full range fidelity to the "loudness wars"? Then there's the lossy format conversion to MP3, a whole other debate that's even more controversial...

Loudness be damned, Frizzle Fry's "Harold of the Rocks" completely rocked my world. It's one of the funkiest hard rock songs there is, and it's the beat of the day...

Poirier, hold the Ghislain

Just heard yesterday that Montreal dance hall/soca/dubstep producer Ghislain Poirier (dig the AWESOME pic) has a new EP coming out this month called Low Ceiling. Sometimes his style is a little hard and electronic for my personal tastes, but he has a unique sound, the beats are mostly just right, and, he's from Montreal. Practically a local.

His distributor says he's going to be known simply as "Poirier" for the new EP, which is on the venerable Ninja Tune label. A shame, I say, 'cause the full name is just kick-ass to pronounce on the radio.

I recently found an awesome series of podcasted mix tapes by Poirier that you can download here.

Beat of the day goes to Ghislain, who manages to bring electronic dance hall and the Stanley Cup together at last, together forever...

Free mp3: Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars

Three pieces of good news on this first Monday morning of 2010:

1. the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars - a band with a truly amazing and compelling story - has a new album coming out in March.

2. the band has signed with Charlotte, VT-based label, Cumbancha records.

3. you can download a free MP3 of the new album's first single here.

The New Year's Day show...disappeared

A message for those of you who listen to the Beat Authority on the on-demand stream... The program that records the show live was set to expire at the end of 2009. So, desgraciadamente, the New Year's show is nothing but a playlist (and a show I liked a lot).

But fear not, if you're jonesin' for a Beat Authority fix, the current on-demand stream is this show.

If you don't know what I',m talking about, click the link to the right that says, "Listen to the latest edition of the Beat Authority now!" Magic! Listen to the Beat Authority whenever you like from your computer or portable device...

Happy 2010!

Beat Authority playlist: 1/1/10

Gott Nytt Ar!