who needs english? - yelle

it's not every day that i get scooped by the new york times. we both got to foals, but i was totally left in the dust about yelle, france's newest and coolest export. urbaneye gave us the heads-up about the smart-mouthed star in advance of her show on tuesday, her first on american soil, but too late for me. however, the "more than sold out" show seemed by be a writhing success, with as much pompadour as pomp for the wildly enthusiastic crowd.

if there is such a thing as a continental pop niche in the united states, yelle is definitely poised to dominate it. forget the fact that her debut album pop up has no stateside distribution. forget the fact that there are only one or two tracks on the hype machine or elbo.ws. a myspace phenom who has been steadily garnering acclaim for two full years, 2008 will be the year yelle takes over over here... maybe. sure, yelle's shows sell out across france and her hip-thrusting houseclash beats (produced by grandmarnier) are well-suited for her trash talk - at least i think they are, because i really don't know.

unlike previous who needs english? artists, yelle falls flat for the monolingual listener. it's no surprise that yelle has been invited to perform on lily allen's bbc show, since they play pretty much the same music. who would be a better fit on lily's show than a trash-talking strong woman made popular by myspace? don't get me wrong, i love lily, but i can't imagine enjoying "not big" if i couldn't understand what it was about, and that's my only hangup with pop up. yelle's english language version of her home page is imperfectly translated, though it's easy to get the gist of it: yelle sings dirty songs about boys, dildos, and the small penis of cuiziner, a member of parisian crew ttc. i'm sure her songs are funny, but this is one of the times when i can't overcome the language barrier. what good are dirty jokes if you don't know when to laugh?

"a cause des garçons" & "dans ta vraie vie"

download some live yelle from the smudge of ashen fluff.

who needs english? - el guincho

is it too early to start calling albums the person pitch of 2008? cuz if it ain't, alegranza is it, a whirling, joyful vortex of spiraled sounds and looped exuberance that doesn't quite nip at noah lennox's heels in terms of quality, but far surpasses him on the happiness front (for one thing, i'm pretty sure el guincho doesn't have lyric "i don't want us to take pills anymore," though the language barrier prevents me from asserting that). alegranza is the absolutely fantastic debut album from el guincho, a barcelona cum canary islands artist whose jungle rhythms and exotic, worldy sounds have been inspiring a mad dash of bloggerism worldwide. el guincho (his friends call him pablo díaz-reixa, or probably just pablo) has basically ridden a rocket to international fame, going from spanish-blog hype to english-blog HYPE in about three and half weeks (give or take). it's definitely been a good thing for him that alegranza was widely distributed (and promoted) across the internet for free/illegally, as alegranza has found a home in australia/new zealand on oh-my-god-so-cute mistletone records, and el guincho is about to play outside of spain for the first time at the end of march (though we americans still don't get either record-release or live-performance love). fortunately, everyone with an internet connection can, and should, enjoy alegranza, because it's just pretty much fantastic.

alegranza, recorded as a mixture of self-made beats and samples, is a light yet complex record, one that rewards repeated listens with a never-ending trove of sounds (i just heard the sounds of a block on album opener "palmitos park"), but also with an inherently global understanding. díaz-reixa, a canary islands native, is fiercely proud of his heritage, choosing both his performing name and album title from locations there (el guincho is a town on tenerife; alegranza is the northernmost canary island), and i'm willing to put dollars to donuts that his sound is also inspired by his home. all of el guincho's songs are exhilarating, animatedly drawing on african hand drums, budding bhangra, steel pans, schoolyard chanting, and the ever-popular assortment of beeps, boops, and whirrs. though it's probably just as computer-made as person pitch, alegranza's low fidelity and deliberate imperfection (díaz-reixa often sings startlingly off-key) gives it an authentic, organic feel - alegranza is a record better suited for soundtracking a beach party than hipster headphones.

so why doesn't el guincho need english? well, there's the obvious (he sings in spanish), the endemic (more and more non-english music is becoming mainstream), and the practical (thanks to the internet, alegranza can be heard anywhere), and those are some pretty fine reasons, if i do say so myself. if you need more reasons, you just need to sit down and listen to his album in all its colorful revelry - each element of alegranza is as vibrant as the hues in the photo to your left, its joy tangible. too-careful inspection of the album may leave you feeling a little cheated, especially on "antillas," a track that starts strong but ends tiredly, the same loop recycled for its 5 minute duration, but these lapses on díaz-reixa's part are rare. and, if el guincho does have a darker side (maybe he sings "i want us to keep taking pills"?), i don't speak a lick of spanish, so alegranza is just one big party for my ears.

"cuando maravilla fui" & "buenos matrimonios ahí afuera"

good luck finding alegranza on sale - rough trade had 25 copies, but who knows how many are left?

who needs english? - čechomor

the latest superstars to be featured in the appallingly irregular who needs english? series are čechomor, or, as they used to be known, českomoravská hudební společnost. say that three times fast, or once correctly. at least golem and peatbog faeries make some concessions to courting the english speakers in this world; čechomor are czech, and goddamn proud of it (try making head or tails of their website if you don't speak czech). facing with insurmountable language barriers, i have employed all of my cunning, memory, and google skills to write the best who needs english? about a band that clearly doesn't.

českomoravská hudební společnost (the czech-moravian recording company) formed in 1988, as a place for traditional czech musicians to gather and work together. the czech folk scene is a strong one, and frantačerný, frontman of the company, had no trouble organizing four other like-minded musicians into a band. čechomor is responsible one of the most dramatic sound shifts of any band i can think of, maturing from straight folk (1991's dověcnosti) to a pronounced world-fusion sound (2005's co sa stalo nove).

i was introduced to čechomor in 2002, when i studied in prague for several months and lived with a czech family. my czech brother immersed me in the local music scene, and, before long, i was listening to čechomor and other, far less popular czech bands. in 2001, čechomor released proměny, their most successful and well-received album that quickly went platinum. proměny was a breakthrough album for the band, in ways beyond the commercial. composer jaz coleman, best known for his work in killing joke, an enormously influential english industrial band, joined forces with čechomor for proměny, having switched his focus to classical music. proměny won three golden angels (the czech music award) the year it was released, netting "album of the year," "band of the year," and "song of the year." small wonder they are the most popular czech band in the world (and personal favorite of ex-president/revolutionary vaclav havel). the album features of mix of new and old songs, all orchestrated by coleman, with čechomor backed by the czech philharmonic orchestra. this unprecedented collaboration launched a new wave of interest in the band, including mine. i quickly went out and picked up all the čechomor albums i could find, and discovered a talented and engaging group (and learned to sing a little czech myself).

though their name has changed, čechomor maintains an overwhelming commitment to traditional czech music; co sa stalo nove, their most recent album, is the only one that contains original songs, all others being reworked traditional ones. songs occasionally repeat themselves in čechomor's catalog, especially favorites like "mezi horami" or "proměny," though čechomor does take pains to rework each rendition. i never got the chance to see čechomor perform, though, judging from čechomor live, the band is excellent in a live setting. čechomor has six albums, and they all have at least fifteen songs apiece (most many more), so i'm gonna pass on a list of their "best" songs, primarily because there are simply too many "best" ones. i've put up four mp3s below, from three albums, and i have no idea where you would be able to buy these outside of the czech republic. if you're a czech speaker, and can navigate www.cechomor.cz better than i, there is a link to buy their albums here.

čechomor - "hop he" from mezi horami
"pivnickova" from čechomor
"dobre ti je janku (happy janek)" and "vetricek (the breeze) (radiomix)" from proměny

who needs english? - peatbog faeries

well, seeing as i'm in scotland, what better time to do a post on such a quintessentially scottish band? sure, belle & sebastian nail the glaswegian moroseness very well, but you don't see them clad in kilts, do you? well, if you are lucky enough to see peatbog faeries in concert, you will. hailing from the isle of skye, the largest of the hebrides, peatbog faeries are one of the most popular contemporary celtic bands around. their website boasts of tours as far away as borneo and botswana, and to america, australia, and the rest of europe, and they habitually make the rounds at scottish festivals every year, like their appearance at the the hebridean celtic festival earlier this summer. scottish born and bred, the faeries have honed their sound over five albums, insistently assimilating trance, house, and drum n' bass elements into their scots sound. fronted by peter morrison, their piper and primary songwriter, the faeries defy tradition with the inclusion of the wayward boys (saxophone and trombone), and new inductee greame stafford on keyboards, all while manufacturing unmistakably celtic jams.

while the faeries take their heritage very seriously (morrison and bassist innes hutton both usually wear kilts during shows, and the few words they sing are in gaelic), their music is what has been christened "celtic fusion," the organic blending of indigenous international sounds with the traditional scottish one. almost exclusively instrumental, peatbog faeries rely on morrison and fiddler adam sutherland to create brisk melodies that the rest of the band flesh out into ceilidh tunes for the post-rave generation.

the faeries' sound has matured since their first record, 1996's mellowosity, which was dominated by looser jams, thick organ, and more of a folk sound, a genre they have noticeably strayed from. faerie stories, their second release, brought them a small measure of success and european recognition, with good reason - it remains their best album. faerie stories was a major turning point for the band, with its unprecedented reliance on a synthesizer, and a much more upbeat sound overall, which causes toes to tap about thirty seconds into its opening song, "martin roachfords / the oyster womans rant." released five years after their debut, faerie stories became the blueprint for the current peatbog sound, rejecting the pub session feel for articulated production and a denser overall composition. 2003's welcome to dun vegas (the faeries are a bunch of jokers: peter morrison lives in the town of dunvegan on the isle of skye) re-trod the steps faerie stories had taken, slimming the songs down to their dancingest essentials, showcasing a band happy and confident with their sound. on 2005's croftwork (didn't i tell you they were jokers?), the faeries made the decision to add a new layer to their sound - the wayward boys, sax and trombone, who had played with acts as diverse as sir elton john and kylie minogue. despite this, croftwork was a disappointing album with some of the faeries' best songs - it was the other eight tracks that left a listener wanting. the title track was heavier than anything peatbog faeries had written previously, and it quickly became a live fan favorite, along with "scots on the rocks" and "the anthropologist." perhaps signifying their own discomfort with the album, the faeries played only three or four songs from it, even for the croftwork tour. now, in 2007, they have just released their fifth album, what men deserve to lose (on their very own peatbog label), purported to be their danciest release yet. i haven't heard it, so i'm not one to judge, but, as their last three releases have proved, peatbog faeries are happy with their sound, and it's doubtful it has changed since.

i've had the good fortune to see peatbog faeries three times, each of which was well satisfying and loads of fun. they have a few upcoming gigs, two in england, one at the glasgow proms, and some random dates throughout the rest of the year, including what will no doubt be a bitching new years' eve in inverness.

peatbog faeries - "the folk police" from faerie stories and "croftwork" from croftwork

buy all the peatbog faeries merchandise your heart desires here.

who needs english? - golem

english is totally overrated. who gives a shit that over 600 million people speak it? it's totally unnecessary. who needs english? is yet another feature from the ever-fertile brain of mr. mammoth - a feature devoted to bands that do not perform in english. this includes artists who are not english speakers, sing in languages that are not english, or whose music is solely instrumental, and is not from an english-speaking heritage. who needs english? is not a feature about "world music" - personally, i really dislike the term, and think that's its far too overused/abused. who needs english? is a feature about bands i like that don't use english. end of story. on to golem.

the first time i heard of golem was when music. for-robots posted a list of their recommended mp3s from the sxsw 2007 lineup, which included "warsaw is khelm" by golem. i can't recall why i picked golem to download - maybe i liked the name, or i already knew they were opening for balkan beat box, and i wanted to get a flavor of their sound. either way, "warsaw is khelm" absolutely captivated me - honest to goodness klezmer, the kind that a christian who wished he had a jewish mother craves. and though "warsaw is khelm" is (mostly) in english, the fact that their songs are usually in yiddish, ladino, or other slavic tongues sweetens the pot (and guarantees them entry into the oh-so-scrupulously chosen "who needs english?" feature). you'll remember how taken i was with them after the bbb show, and i picked up a copy of their recent fresh off boat, afterwards. golem's website boasts that the album is "thirteen tracks in five languages," a serious feat for a sad uni-linguist like myself.

now for some background: golem is a blistering six-piece from brooklyn (where else?), who have the unique ability to boast that none of their instruments requires electricity. from frontwoman's annette ezekiel's accordion, to alicia jo rabins's violin, curtis hasselbring's trombone, taylor bergren-chrisman's standup bass, or frontman aaron diskin's tambourine/vodka drinking, golem can rock it anywhere (and they do). names like hasselbring or bergren-chrisman don't really instantly summon visions of shetls or yarmulkes, but their gentile heritage is no impediment to golem's pure and honest klezmer - they even have their own hora. watch out, though - this isn't your rabbi's klezmer.

fresh off boat is golem's fourth release and their third full-length, so they are no fly-by-night sensation. i have no had the pleasure of hearing any of their other releases (half of which are sold out, alas), but if they're anything like fresh off boat, they're fucking phenomenal. golem revitalizes what is already an active and exciting style of music, especially in songs like "bublichki," "the rent," or their ubiquitous hit, "warsaw is khelm." "bublichki" is my personal favorite for two reasons: first of all, it fucking rocks. rabins's bow races across the strings while hasselbring's trombone bleats behind it, a fierce chorus that alternates with a provocative and sensual increase in tempo, lead by diskin's rough and guttural yiddish verses. it is impossible not to have the rhythm get inside your body - "bublichki" was one of the crowd's dancingest songs in their set - no mean feat for a relatively unknown warmup band. my second favorite thing about "bublichki" is diskin's brief english interlude (i know, who needs it?, but at least i can get the jokes that way), where he laments the state of his family - his mother is a cleaning woman, his father a drunk, he sells bagels on cold street corners while his sister whores herself out nearby, though his little brother is probably the best off - "he picks the pockets of hipsters on the L train."

while golem's vigor and intensity in their songwriting is not constant, the high level of skill and ability is, and their multidimensionality is no small asset. every member of golem seems to be a fucking virtuoso, and it shows. the rhythms and melodies are complex and interwoven, often abruptly changing mid-song, but never faltering. golem plays dancing and drinking music, and the proper way to enjoy it is to do both.

they have a show in a few days in new york - an excellent lineup with the welsh sensations los campesinos!, deleon (who were the first opener at the bbb show) and nous non plus, and you can buy tickets here. i will obviously not be going, as i'm in scotland for the duration of the fringe festival, but you should.

golem - ">bublichki", "golem hora"

buy fresh off boat from the not-for-profit jdub records here.