2023-08-11 14:44:35
– Mario Balotelli now has his own song
A song was dedicated to the Sion kicker Mario Balotelli. Gölä receives an amazing honor. Plus: 150 wonderful new songs to help you get through the rest of the summer.
Posted today at 4:44 p.m
A woman not to be missed: singer, model, poet and painter Annahstasia.
Photo: PD
You should hear that
Kerala Dust: «Jacob’s Gun»
After all the festivals and discussions about the dark machinations in the pop business, it’s high time to listen again to the joyful new music that has been released into the world. One of the most beautiful recordings of the current year is the Kerala Dust group’s album «Violet Drive», which is no longer brand new. Anyone who likes the shadowy elegance of pop noir heroes like Warhaus or Balthazar will want to start a new side relationship with Kerala Dust. The trio, which was founded in London and is led by Brit Edmund Kenny, who grew up in Zurich, actually feels at home in the electronic music scene. But here you’ll find a band that seems much more inclined towards the urban blues than the machinations in a conventional electro dance club. In every song, an electric guitar waits for its solo entry, and when it’s allowed to, then it starts, like Marc Ribot once did when he was still under the thumb of Tom Waits.
Pedro Mizutani: «Better get used to it»
He’s only 21 years old and already sounds like an old master of bossa nova. Pedro Mizutani from Rio de Janeiro started his career the way people do it today: he posted videos on Tiktok and grew a hundred thousand fans. Now he has released the first regular songs, heralding a masterpiece in the tradition of Jõao Gilberto and Tom Jobim.
CTT Beats feat. Sho Madjozi: “They’re Balotelli”
Mario Balotelli’s sporting market value has shrunk from 32 million to a meager 1.5 million. It is questionable whether he will play for FC Sion again, or even if he will ever play again anywhere. But there is a small consolation for the Italian center forward: a song has been dedicated to him. And it’s better than anything he offered on the Valais green last season. CTT Beats, a collective consisting of producers from England and South Africa, hired the Vedette of South African dance music Gqom – Sho Madjozi – for this. This plays with the line «Why always me?» responded to an identical slogan that Balotelli printed on his undershirt in a derby to demonstrate his displeasure with his “bad boy” image.
Bai Kamara: «Star Angel»
It’s been a while since a new blues album sent us into shock infatuation. The man who last managed to do this is called Bai Kamara Jr, comes from Sierra Leone, has lived in Belgium for years and endlessly delighted us with his last work «Salone» in 2020. The successor is not quite as gloriously successful, but is at its strongest when Mr. Kamara reflects on his greatest quality: minimally instrumented blues numbers in the style of a young John Lee Hooker.
Break: “Olukeke”
The rapper Bryte was born in the Ghanaian capital Accra. There was no money for recordings, so you had to prepare your own music. And so the young man’s most formative musical memory comes from his grandfather, who sat in his chair all day and sang songs to himself. And when he wasn’t singing, he was sleeping. Whatever that grandfather was singing: Today this Bryte is one of the crispiest things that global club music has to offer. He raps word-playing to beautifully galloping electro beats about his dreams, most of which are about a better life, be it for himself or for his mother, who lives in Accra on a council flat. He stopped by the Colors studio recently and recorded this great bouncy track.
Annahstasia: «While You Are Sleeping»
Actually, I’m a bit embarrassed that I’ve only just come across this singer: Annahstasia from Los Angeles has been supplying the world with breathy, avant-garde soul music for several years, and is also a painter, poet and model – the latter for Nike or for the Swiss label On. And then there’s that vocals, which she mainly accompanies with acoustic guitar on the latest EP. Annahstasia’s voice is warm without being stoic. She wants to shape the music with her and not – as is so often the case – subject her voice to the music. Role model: Nina Simone. That sounds like a relationship that could last longer.
Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy: “La Ka Ba’s”
The Ghanaian singer Alogte Oho is said to have been in bad shape. After an accident, he was in a coma for a long time, and candles are said to have been lit for him. After the unexpected awakening came enlightenment. He, who had been a singer for years with mediocre success, wrote the song “Mam Yinne Wa”, which made it onto a Philophon label compilation and achieved the worldwide breakthrough with this charmingly intricate song. The singer’s second international album is now available, and it’s just as enjoyable as the name of his backing band implies: Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy indulge in music somewhere between reggae, soul and African Frafa gospel – and they’re enraptured with it the hottest clubs in the western hemisphere.
King Dude – «There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe»
It is not known exactly which devil has possessed the Gothic-Folk-Man King Dude this time, but the idea is brilliant: The man for the hours that are not counted by the sundial has grabbed a songbook with children’s songs and put them in brought into the darkest possible form. He found plenty of material for this in the originals, such as in this ominous little song with the lines: «There was an old woman / Who lived in a shoe / She had so many children / She didn’t know what to do.”
Automatic City: «Lament»
What soul can sound like if you strip it of the powdered sugar, if you play it with whimsical instruments and have a singer interpret it with fervor and a little madness: it’s all on the New York group’s highly recommended album Hum Drum Listen to Automatic City.
Alex Serra: «Trance Life (Acoustic)»
Would you like a song in between that tears your heart apart? Alex Serra from Barcelona wrote this English-Spanish meditation on love. Hear and enjoy!
The Allergies feat. Andy Cooper: «Tear the Place Up»
For those who think that the rhythmic chanting has lost its speed in the shuffling trap age, here is a counter-thesis: The Allergies from Bristol let a certain Andy Cooper as a rapper on the microphone on their song “Tear the Place Up”. And what he does there is breathtaking in every respect.
Baby Rose: «Go»
And while we’re on the subject of breathtaking voices: Baby Rose from Washington serves one. It’s a voice built close to the water, yet capable of bursting dams. Her latest album is called “Through and Through” and is almost completely interspersed with sophisticated and blissful soul.
MC Yallah: “Ukweli”
Two years ago they gave us one of the best concerts at Bad Bonn Kilbi: MC Yallah and Debmaster. She is one of the most influential African rappers of the present, he producer of the darkest and yet most danceable beats from the polyrhythmic department. MC Yallah spits out slogans against sexualised violence and for female emancipation – mostly in the Bantu language Luganda – and chooses a futuristic electro sound as messenger substance that burns the message into long-term memory like electric shocks. MC Yallah has hired different producers for her new album, but it still grooves best with Debmaster.
Flammer Dance Band: «Free»
The Flammer Dance Band recently accompanied the legendary Funky Rob through Europe. Now the Norwegian group, which has established itself as specialists in the field of recreating authentic 70s sounds, presents a new album. African-Norwegian hipster music with a lot of charm.
Jay-Jay Johanson: «Finally»
Even the saddest Swede in the world was busy again: Jay-Jay Johanson has released another new album, the spectrum ranges from the ballad, which Sade would also like, to the trip-hop song, which was probably once from the songbook of Chet Baker fell.
The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Project feat. Dave Gahan: «Mother of Earth»
Jeffrey Lee Pierce is credited with founding one of the most wonderful bands of the 1980s. The singer, who died early, mixed post-punk with blues under the name The Gun Club and was one of the most influential shadow men of the era. Since his death in 1996, musicians who have breathed his creative spirit have endeavored to erect a monument to him. The venture is called The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Project. Two of Pierce’s songs have just been reinterpreted: one by Depeche Mode singer David Gahan, the other by duo Nick Cave and Debbie Harry.
And Also the Trees: «The Seven Skies»
Let’s stay in the eighties: In England at that time, a band caused a sensation that actually did nothing else than set the British fog to music, with a guitar that reverberated that sounded like an enchanted mandolin, with songs full of pathos and melancholy. At the front microphone, a certain Simon Huw Jones was alienating himself and the world, more of a poet than a singer, clad in a frilly shirt and raincoat with the collar turned up. And Also the Trees was the name of the band that padded New Wave with British romance. They soon went on tour with The Cure, and to this day AATT are among the most wonderful that global shadow music has to offer. Simon Huw Jones has lived in Geneva for some time, but he has nevertheless chosen the skyline of Bern to decorate the latest album – but in a view that will not please the tourist office. It’s not the best AATT album. But a nice harbinger of autumn.
Die Playlist
The main attraction of this column is the accompanying playlist. This time over 150 carefully selected new songs have come together. There is news from Obongjayar, Baxter Dury, Tristan Brusch, Tricky, Rubel, Element of Crime, Dizzee Rascal, Susana Baca, Zuco 103, Little Dragon or Nik Waterhouse, among others, and much more worth discovering.
The Swiss window
Mister Milano: “Komodovarana”
My current favorite song is the first single of Mister Milano’s upcoming work. The band from the Puts Marie environment has packed about three stand-alone hits into this number, which begins wonderfully italo-pathetically, takes unexpected turns and then simply frays out instrumentally. A very special and wonderful piece of music.
Naïma: «The Sun»
So far, the Bernese singer Naïma has primarily attracted attention with earthy roots reggae. With “The Sun” she is now presenting a ballad-like wonder number that has what it takes to turn the world’s heads. You could call it jazz-schooled soul. You could call it a musical sigh of happiness. Or simply the most beautiful song that Switzerland has produced in the year to date.
Alva Leaves: «Currents»
There is also news of the birth of a brand new band from Bern: It’s called Alva Leaves, the best-known members are Gere Stäuble (ex Züri West), Luk Zimmermann (Lunik) and Wolfgang Zwiauer (Christy Doran). Two pleasant singers took over the front microphone: Finja Keogh and Sophie Grimes, who – so it is rumored – could easily have signed on to some of the more renowned Bernese bands. The first song sounds like the Cocteau Twins got lost in a spaghetti western setting. In short: it sounds promising.
Flex Fab & Ziller Bas: The best Swiss album of 2022 came from Neuchâtel – or rather from Kilifi in Kenya. There the Swiss producer Flex Fab and the Kenyan rapper Ziller Bas met and recorded an album with no less than 22 tracks. It blended global bass music with trap and polyrhythms. Now the second of the two is available – and pleases in equal measure.
It’s being talked about
Now it’s official: Gölä is the most successful solo artist in the history of the Swiss hit parade. What happened? His unfortunate new album «UFO» has shot to the top of the Swiss charts, which means he now leads the all-time list even more unchallenged than before with 15 number one long players. Celine Dion and Eros Ramazzotti take pride of place. Only the hard rock band Gotthard, which isn’t all that hard, has more album top spots in Switzerland than Gölä, namely their 18th album.
you are gone
So many musicians have left us in the last six months that it is time for a sad interim balance. No longer with us – and we only pick out those who have not yet received the major obituaries: the jazz legends Wayne Shorter and Ahmad Jamal, the pop avant-gardists Mark Stewart and Ryuichi Sakamoto or the Brazilian superstars Jõao Donato and Astrud Gilberto and Rita Lee. The funeral song, however, is left to Tommi Stumpff, who also died: a punk and electronic body music pioneer from Düsseldorf.
more musicAne Hebeisen is a music editor and has been writing about pop and related music from all over the world since 1996.More info
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