Laini Tani. Nadah El Shazly

Nadah El Shazly integreert op haar album Laini Tani op fascinerende en echt bijzonder mooie wijze twee totaal verschillende muzikale werelden en creëert een nieuw geluid dat afwisselend intrigeert en betovert.

Het nieuwe album van de van oorsprong Egyptische muzikante Nadah El Shazly kon in juli rekenen op vrijwel uitsluitend zeer lovende recensies. Dat is best bijzonder, want ze maakt muziek waar je best even aan moet wennen. Het is muziek die zich heeft laten beïnvloeden door de muziek waarmee Nadah El Shazly in Cairo opgroeide, maar ook de eigenzinnige muziekscene van haar huidige woonplaats Montreal drukt een stempel op dit bijzondere album. Laini Tani klinkt hierdoor anders dan alle andere albums van het moment, maar weet al snel de juiste snaar te raken.

Het in juli verschenen Laini Tani van de van oorsprong Egyptische muzikante Nadah El Shazly heb ik in eerste instantie heel vluchtig beluisterd, om vervolgens al snel te concluderen dat haar muziek net wat te ver buiten mijn muzikale comfort zone lag. Die conclusie heb ik helaas wat te snel getrokken, want aangemoedigd door flink wat hele lovende recensies heb ik het opnieuw geprobeerd met het album en ben ik alsnog gevallen voor de bijzondere muziek van Nadah El Shazly. 

De in het Egyptische Cairo geboren muzikante woont en werkt inmiddels al een aantal jaren vanuit het Canadese Montreal, maar is haar Egyptische wortels zeker niet vergeten. Nadah El Shazly heeft al een aantal albums op haar naam staan, waaronder een filmsoundtrack en een album dat ze samen maakte met Elvin Brandhi, maar Laini Tani is mijn eerste kennismaking met haar bijzondere muziek. 

Het is muziek die deels is geworteld in de experimentele muziekscene van Montreal, maar Nadah El Shazly dompelt je ook flink onder in de Egyptische muziek waarmee ze opgroeide. Het levert een fascinerend album op, dat in eerste instantie misschien weinig houvast biedt, maar dat al snel verandert in een hele bijzondere luistertrip, die van alles met je doet. 

De Egyptische wortels van Nadah El Shazly hoor je vooral in de zang, maar ook in de muziek duiken hier en daar accenten op die je niet hoort in de popmuziek die in Europa of de Verenigde Staten wordt gemaakt. In veel songs op het album maakt Nadah El Shazly muziek die zich vooral in een laag tempo voortsleept. Het is een tempo dat wordt aangeven door wat lome en orientaals aandoende ritmes, die de muziek een bijzondere impuls geven. 

De songs van de Egyptische muzikante worden verder gevuld met organische klanken, waaronder een harp, maar Nadah El Shazly grijpt ook met enige regelmaat naar bijzondere elektronica. Zeker wanneer de elektronica domineert kan Laini Tani behoorlijk experimenteel of zelfs vervreemdend klinken, maar het album klinkt net zo makkelijk zonnig en zorgeloos of juist stemmig en beeldend. 

Ik moet toegeven dat ik een zwaar experimentele track als Enti Fi Neama maar moeilijk trek, maar wanneer Nadah El Shazly de krochten van de underground scene van Montreal weer even verruild voor een bazaar in Cairo ben ik direct weer bij de les. Het is knap hoe de Egyptische muzikante je continu heen en weer slingert tussen avontuurlijke elektronica en muziek uit het land waarin ze geboren werd met hier en daar nog een vleugje neoklassiek. 

Laini Tani is door het experiment en het continue schakelen tussen twee totaal verschillende werelden zeker geen makkelijk te doorgronden album, al heb ik zelf ervaren dat het album zich bij de tweede keer horen al veel makkelijker opdringt. Laini Tani van Nadah El Shazly doet me af en toe wel wat denken aan de muziek die Arooj Aftab maakt, al gebruikt de Pakistaanse muzikante voor een belangrijk deel andere ingrediënten als Nadah El Shazly en laten de twee zich beïnvloeden door verschillende genres. Wat de muziek van Arooj Aftab en Nadah El Shazly gemeen hebben is het wat mysterieuze en zeker ook bezwerende karakter. 

De zeer lovende recensies over Laini Tani van Nadah El Shazly hebben me niet alleen aangezet tot het met volledige aandacht beluisteren van het album, maar ik begrijp ze inmiddels ook helemaal. Wat een mooi en fascinerend album.

Erwin Zijleman 

 

Je kunt Laini Tani hier luisteren en bestellen:

https://nadahelshazly.bandcamp.com/album/laini-tani 

Moisterizer. Wet Leg

In Oor, a Dutch music magazine, I read today that Moisterizer "is everything I secretly hoped for". Having listen to Wet Leg's new album several times now, I can only agree, wholeheartedly so.

For some reason I had the idea that touring around the world multiple times would have soured Wet Leg's front ladies, making a bigger impact then they'd expected and that this would reflect on their music(al perspective). 'Wet Leg' was an optimistic affair, bordering on naivete. An album that puts a smile on my face every time I put it on, and that was a lot of times in the past few years. It's close to becoming an all time favourite.

My reception of the first single 'CPR' underscored my expectation. In hindsight it tells me more about my state of mind at the time. It was a very busy time. A holiday cleared my head and ears and 'CPR', the opening song of Moisterizer, now lands just like a new Wet Leg song should: like a great party in full swing.

In fact, that party just does not stop until the very last note is played out. The first thing that is obvious is that Wet Leg grew from a duo with studio help into a full band. The sound is fuller and bigger, without losing that typical Wet Leg elements that are so irresistible and exciting. I'm still working out which song will become my 'Chaise Longue' and 'Wet Dream' of Moisterizer. The candidates are there in abundance.

Wet Leg is not totally on an island of its own. It is somewhere where I would have expected (in 2020) Wolf Alice to be in 2025. I can divulge that that band's new album, out on 29 August, takes a totally different turn. Yet, there are some elements that do come together in the way Rhian Teasdale is also able to sing, with a soft female voice, like e.g. in 'Don't Speak', while in 'Pond Song' and a part of 'Pokemon' Wet Leg even has that dreamy quality. In '11.21' there are even hints at Portishead, casting open the musical palet even wider. Just like (the ex-?) Porridge Radio can be mentioned as well.

It's clear Ms. Teasdale was in love when she wrote the lyrics for this album. Hopefully for her she still is, as these songs will remain with her for some time. The weirdness or sexual honesty, the other way to look at it, comes by in 'Pillow Talk', where Doris Day references are rife. 'Pillow Talk' and 'Calamity Jane' come by in a context that may have shocked the 1950s filmstar and singer, but like 'Wet Dream' address sex from a very personal angle.

Having just returned from my vacation, I can quite openly state that Moisterizer is the first album I'm buying next. The only conclusion is, it is a must have album. There's only one point of critique possible. The cover art is one of the most hideous ones I've ever seen. A female devil incarnate or something like it. As I'm bound to play the album a lot, I will also have to look at it a lot. Aarghh!, but as one of my once flatmates said: "Het leven is geen krentenbol". I'll leave it to you to find an adequate translation in your own language. She was wrong though. With an album like Wet Leg's Moisterizer life is a krentenbol adorned with the best salted butter and cheese to boot.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Moisterizer here:

https://wetleg.bandcamp.com/album/moisturizer 

In Memoriam: George, Ozzy, Flaco

During my holiday several well known and less well known musicians like Terry Reid and Bobby Whitlock, have passed away.

George Kooymans

For me the most appreciated one is George Kooymans, guitarist, singer and composer of Dutch rockers Golden Earring(s). He passed away after having been severely ill for some years, forcing him to end his career prematurely and as an effect Golden Earring's, as the band always worked from the premise that if one falls the institution falls.

For most of the world Golden Earring is at best a two hit wonder, 'Radar Love' and 'Twilight Zone'. The former is a song that can be heard all over the world and must have been a constant stream of income for the band. For us Dutchies the band is the best and best known rock band of our nation and I'm fairly certain that there will never be a band like it again. Times have changed. From the first hit single 'Please Go' early in 1965, the band has scored hits into the early 2000s, including five number one hits, all written by Kooymans. Usually the music, at times the lyrics, sometimes as lead vocalist. Songs like the one next to this post, 'She Flies On Strange Wings', 'Holy Holy Life', 'Back Home', 'Going To The Run', 'Weekend Love', 'When The Lady Smiles' are all songs anyone in the world ought to be familiar with.

When Kooymans' illness was announced I wrote a sort of obituary, which I refer to (https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/search?q=golden+earring). After his illness he finalised the final album of Vreemde Kostgangers (strange lodgers) of which Henny Vrienten died even faster, and another duo album with Frank Carillo.

Ozzy

Ozzy Osbourne became more and more a phenomenon than a singer. I was never a Black Sabbath fan, but that one single from 1970 is one for the ages. 'Paranoid' is a fantastic hardrock song that I will always love to hear, but it never led me to wanting to hear more by the band. This one song is simply enough. It's like a slap in the face to help one focus. His farewell show in June or early July even made it to the 20 hour news here, as an important event, as Black Sabbath played its farewell show in public. This single fact shows how big a phenomenon Osbourne had become. In no other way would the farewell aspect have made the news. The show was very much on time, as Osbourne passed away just a few weeks later.

Flaco Jimenez

The Tex-Mex accordionist passed away at the age of 86. It never really was my kind of music. It fitted more with the taste of my ex-wife. However, on Ry Cooder's album 'Chicken Skin Music' things sort of fell in line for me. Cooder, always more a music historian than an original musician, dug his heels into the Tex-Mex genre and delivered my personal favourite of his oeuvre. With a great role for Jimenez, who gave the music a part of its origins and authenticity. From here he was able to start a career that brought him more into the limelight, solo and in supergroups like Texas Tornados and Los Super Seven. In The Netherlands he played with Rowwen Heze and The Cats.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

P.S. In the past few months the members of the golden Feyenoord of 1970 (at the time Feijenoord) are dying at a fast pace. That were my first live matches on radio and tv.

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and Let's Dance. David Bowie

Yes, I am a long time fan of David Bowie. First, because of that fantastic single 'Space Oddity', a few years later I bought 'John, I'm Only Dancing' and from 1976 onwards I was sold for years. After the single 'Blue Jean' things became more wobbly though.

Where albums are concerned after 1976 only 'Blackstar' went down for 100%. Most of the singles were above par though. Despite that I bought all his albums until the mid-1990s, there are simply not many that I like as a whole. And they are all found in the 1971-1976 time frame.

Before 1978, I did not have money to spare to buy a lot of albums. I did have 'David Live' at a discount, first with two identical albums in the sleeves! That album brought me my first glimpses of Bowie's albums and still sounds exciting when I play it. In 1976 I went to my first real rock show, David Bowie played Ahoy in Rotterdam and despite not knowing most songs at the time, I felt like something had altered in my life. Experiencing live music is fantastic. But, not to stray, this post is about two of Bowie's albums from the early 1980s.

Let's Dance 

For some reason 'Let's Dance' entered my head earlier this week and had me singing out loud. The song comes by regularly in one way or another, but I realised I hadn't played the single for years and years. Let alone the album. My memory told me 'great singles, a less good version of 'Cat People' and fillers'. Playing the album, I was proven right. Sure I can listen to the tracks on side 2, what I heard was not a man leading the pack, but someone who tried to incorporate some Duran Duran and disco into songs, that sounded strained. On side 1 there are four singles, three that made the Dutch charts and one that didn't. 'Modern Love' is still a great song, with an enormous drive. 'China Girl' assisted in filling Iggy Pop's bank account but is so much better that the original on Iggy's 'The Idiot'. I like the song better than the number 1 hitsingle 'Let's Dance' that has an extended album version, which is a lesser version than the single edit. The surprise was 'Without You', a song I never really noticed after all the excitement preceding it. For some reason it hit home immediately. The overall view is that my opinion of Let's Dance only varied slightly from what I remembered from the 1980s.

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 

Bowie's album preceding 'Let's Dance' is Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). My experience told me exactly the same. Great singles, all filler. I decided to give a try also. My memory was proven wrong. Also here the division was great A-side, filler B-side, so I thought.

The A-side is fantastic. There is no other word for it. It contains the song that contends for best song by Bowie, 'Ashes To Ashes'. The song is so fantastically subtle and mysterious. Lyrically a follow up to my introduction to Bowie, 'Space Oddity'. Musically a world apart. Even after 45 years it is still possible to hear a subtle extra hidden somewhere in the music.

The album kicks off with a blast and in Japanese as well. First some weird noises and then a rhythm that seems to drag through sucking mud and Bowie singing in answer to Michi Hirota's like his life was depending on it. If anything, it is Bowie's response to punk, postpunk, new wave and is utterly superior to anything else produced at the time. The backing vocals, led by Bowie himself, are fantastic and that guitar work with Robert Fripp in his totally frippy way is the cherry on a delicious musical cake.

'Up The Hill Backwards' is an okay song. It is the title song and third single of the album that marks the second highlight of the album. If ever a nightmare was set to music in a way that makes one feel what it is like, it is this song. The darkness is everywhere, that feeling of being chased by something unknown is all over the song. The pace is in the acoustic guitar, the scariness in Fripp's lead guitar. The man really lets it rip here, perhaps released from the straightjacket King Crimson could be for him. Just straight ahead and steady as she goes and out comes a fabulous guitar part and solo. Next comes the second single 'Fashion' which I liked a lot better than I did at the time, so I noticed. The song swings in a very peculiar way but wants to make me move and does.

It is the quality of side B that surprised me. It is too early to go into much detail, as I need more time to familiarise myself more with the songs. What I noticed, is me going into each of the songs in a way that 'Station To Station', what I call my personal first Bowie album, and 'Ziggy Stardust' never fail to do. To all appearances Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) may get to the same level and that is worthwhile mentioning 45 years after the album's release.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght 

Five By Five. The Rolling Stones

Five by Five is an EP released by The Rolling Stones in 1964 and contains five songs the band recorded in the legendary Chess Studio in 1964 during its first tour of the U.S. A hommage to its musical heroes. The sleeve picture shows five young men with already longish hair, a bit defiant in a we against the world pose. Jagger in a striped shirt he was often seen in at the time.

As I already wrote some years ago, my father was a merchant marine, see the Louis Armstrong/Wonosobo post. In 1978 he sailed from Rotterdam to London twice in a few months and I took the opportunity to sail along on the Mississippi Lloyd. The second time was the ship's final voyage, as it was sold to another firm. Symbolically, the trip went from to New Orleans, sailing up the Mississippi river, as my dad told us later to the sound of Pussycat's number one hitsingle of 1975, 'Mississippi'.

In London I sought out the local record shops for unique records. In one, in some street we just happened to pass, and for the life of me have no clue where it was located, they had this bunch of The Rolling Stones' early singles, that I'd never seen before. 'Got Live If You Want It', is the other EP I bought. The singles were in blue and white Decca sleeves. They must have been reprints, but welcome nonetheless.

Why Five By Five on the blog today? With my band Sweetwood we are playing 'Around And Around' for years, as did my previous band, Flopsband, that will celebrate its 50th anniversary in January. It is one of the most exciting rock and roll songs I know. Everything The Rolling Stones were at the time seems to come together in this song. Wild, exciting, defiant and the willingness to explore the outer edges of a genre. 'Around And Round' rocks, big time.

I remember playing the EP at home for the first time that I was utterly disappointed with the A-side. The B-side starting with 'Confessing The Blues' and ending with 'Around And Around' was my favourite alright. Now I never was much of a fan of The Stones' early albums, as in pre-1968. That has not fully changed over the years. For most singles from the 1963 - 1967 era that is totally different though.

Yesterday, my wife and singer of Sweetwood, started singing 'Around And Around' and I decided to get out the old EP. Starting of course with the B-side. As always, it was instantly pleasing. That nice blues rendition followed by some good old rock and roll never fails to work. My surprise was in turning the single over and hearing 'If you Need Me', followed by 'Empty Heart'. I really loved hearing the songs and what one of my favourite bands of all time did with them. (O.k., the 2120 etc. song is a bit of a filler.) The Stones managed to capture the excitement they caused by playing live on tape, that much is certain. The band was on fire recording these songs, perhaps fully inspired by the environment they were recording in.

What remains to write are two things. 1) The anecdote Keith Richard told about the painter in the studio being Muddy Waters. Waters has always denied ever having painted the Chess studio at any time. So either a) Keith's story is a fantasy, b) Muddy was too ashamed to admit having to paint to earn money, or c) someone pulled Keith's leg. Whatever it was, it is a nice anecdote. The music remains what is for ever. Five By Five is a great EP. 2) The EP should have been called Five By Six, as Ian Stewart's keyboard and boogie-woogie piano contributions are such an integral part of the band's sound here. He must have been one of the most gracious men ever, the way he was kicked out of the band, yet remained as a sidekick for the rest of his far too short life.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght