butterscotch brazilnut
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Tom Ze - "Ave Dor Maria". A revelation of production, a marvel of sound - one song can't do Estudando O Pagode justice. But even in these scant few minutes you'll hear alligators and bikini straps, tobacco roll-ups and clothes-lines, operatic choirs and fenced-in neighbours. At more than 70 years old, Ze is proving he has more ideas in one Brazilian finger than Sufjan Stevens has in his whole rosewater brain. Ze out-Gueros Beck; out-squeaks Psapp; borrows Final Fantasy on strings; and teaches yours truly to dance.

[buy]

--

Loki - "Across the Room". The best artists are the ones who leave you swinging round with your finger, trying to track the influences, name the predecessors. The important part is: trying. The best artists are the ones who slip through your fingers, fish for whom you brought the wrong nets.

Loki is an MC from Glasgow. He doesn't camouflage his accent, nor does he inflate it like some parade float for him to ride in on. It's casual, dry, sharp as a straight razor. He sounds like The Street sometimes - Mike Skinner's humanity but never his awkwardness. He sounds like Nas, leaning upside-down into his subjects. And there's even a touch of Aidan Moffatt, of Arab Strap's plain work-a-day melancholy: the tragedy of plain old real life. It's all here.

Although I live here I'm not really fit to say whether this is Scotland's first great MC. I've not been listening. But I love this. I love the mournful circling of piano; I love the plain drumkit beat; I love the way Loki scampers from horny to bored to melancholy, like all these things are beads on the same length of twine. (They are.) I love the way this song keeps lifting itself up and putting itself back down, a raincloud hiding behind chimneys, a sad song that lurks in a playground swagger. And oh, friends, listen to those closing lines. Insufficient, truncated, true.

[info / more info / buy]

--

Nothing But Green Lights is the relaunched mp3blog by Mike from Take Your Medicine. It's UK based and excellent, posting only the things that his heart is set on. Mike's also continuing the take your medicine podcast, and the June mix is superb. Beirut, Herman Dune, Robin Allender, my favourite Psapp track - and more.

Marathonpacks' new podcast playlist thing is also v. good if you're looking for 60 minutes of song. Dig the Lupe Fiasco.

Brian says a few interesting words on Live's "Lightning Crashes".

This week's Contrast Podcast is on the theme "I'm the only one who likes this". And so I chose to talk about the Barenaked Ladies' Gordon. This is the ILM thread I refer to, sadly, between snuffles of tears.

Posted by Sean at June 13, 2006 12:00 PM
Comments

Well, I guess if I can like Live then you can like Barenaked Ladies. And, oh, this Loki is terrific!

Posted by brian at June 13, 2006 1:38 PM

The loki track is awesome

Posted by ru at June 13, 2006 5:01 PM

thanks for posting that Loki track - it's absolutely fantastic. Have you heard Astronautalis? Good chance you'd like him... http://www.modelcitizens.org

Ocean Walk is my favourite.

Posted by Say Anything Syndrome at June 13, 2006 8:58 PM

That BNL track haunted me all the way home until I put on loud Coltrane last night. It has magical powers! Thanks and damn you in equal measure ;) Tim

Posted by Tim Young at June 14, 2006 7:34 AM

i love them both!

Posted by tim+ at June 14, 2006 10:41 AM

The new Tome Ze album is simply amazing!!! Might knock out Silent Shout fom its pedestal for the year....

Posted by Jorge at June 14, 2006 1:22 PM

Post a comment







(Please be patient, it can be slow.)
about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

To hear a song in your browser, click the and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'

All songs are removed within a few weeks of posting.

Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.

If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
Montreal, Canada: Sean
Toronto, Canada: Emma
Montreal, Canada: Jeff
Montreal, Canada: Mitz

Please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets like soundcloud: Said the Gramophone posts are always accompanied by MP3s.

If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. Please do not direct link to any of these tracks. Please love and wonder.

"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
our patrons
Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
watch StG's wonderful video contest winners
search


Archives
elsewhere
our favourite blogs
(◊ means they write about music)

Back to the World
La Blogothèque
Weird Canada
Destination: Out
Endless Banquet
A Grammar (Nitsuh Abebe)
Ill Doctrine
A London Salmagundi
Dau.pe
Words and Music
Petites planétes
Gorilla vs Bear
Herohill
Silent Shout
Clouds of Evil
The Dolby Apposition
Awesome Tapes from Africa
Molars
Daytrotter
Matana Roberts
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews
i like you [podcast]
Musicophilia
Anagramatron
Nicola Meighan
Fluxblog
radiolab [podcast]
CKUT Music
plethoric pundrigrions
Wattled Smoky Honeyeater
The Clear-Minded Creative
Torture Garden
LPWTF?
Passion of the Weiss
Juan and Only
Horses Think
White Hotel
Then Play Long (Marcello Carlin)
Uno Moralez
Coming Up For Air (Matt Forsythe)
ftrain
my love for you is a stampede of horses
It's Nice That
Marathonpacks
Song, by Toad
In Focus
AMASS BLOG
Inventory
Waxy
WTF [podcast]
Masalacism
The Rest is Noise (Alex Ross)
Goldkicks
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend
The Hood Internet

things we like in Montreal
eat:
st-viateur bagel
café olimpico
Euro-Deli Batory
le pick up
lawrence
kem coba
le couteau
au pied de cochon
mamie clafoutis
tourtière australienne
chez boris
ripples
alati caserta
vices & versa
+ paltoquet, cocoa locale, idée fixe, patati patata, the sparrow, pho tay ho, qin hua dumplings, caffé italia, hung phat banh mi, caffé san simeon, meu-meu, pho lien, romodos, patisserie guillaume, patisserie rhubarbe, kazu, lallouz, maison du nord, cuisine szechuan &c

shop:
phonopolis
drawn + quarterly
+ bottines &c

shows:
casa + sala + the hotel
blue skies turn black
montreal improv theatre
passovah productions
le cagibi
cinema du parc
pop pmontreal
yoga teacher Thea Metcalfe


(maga)zines
Cult Montreal
The Believer
The Morning News
McSweeney's
State
The Skinny

community
ILX