don't bother just whispering
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.


 

Ann Sexton - "You've Been Gone Too Long". Funny how sometimes it's not the centre of the song that keeps your attention. Here's Ann singing in a coffeecream voice, just the right amount of nicotine burr, but me I'm looking somewhere else. She's in the spotlight, the others are falling in love, but I'm just staring dumbly at the electric guitar. Listening to the golden over-and-over; the persistent hope; the shaking free. I feel like a dope, standing there. This is soul music! A dusky voice, bedroom eyes, noNOnos and yesYESyeses of horns! So why do I keep being drawn away, like a man chasing through a wood for his sweetheart? I dunno, I dunno. All I know with certainty is that the song's got to fade out. Because it can't end. (Thanks, Milo.)

[Buy the Ann Sexton Anthology]


Felix Lajkó es Bandaja - "Untitled". Felix Lajkó aka Lajkó Felix is a part-gypsy violinist who was born in the former Yugoslavia but has since established himself as one of the biggest forces in contemporary Hungarian folk music. One of my favourite pieces of instrumental music is his "Etno Camp", in which Lajkó seems to fiddle Rome to the ground, his band wearing their shoes out as they dance behind. But tonight I don't have the tenacity for that fourteen minute epic, that glorious and furious thing. Instead tonight I turn to the final track on Játszanak - two minutes long, more mood than song, a piece that falls away like a scene you might see from inside a bus. You drive by and then it's out of sight; it's gone.

An old woman sings in Hungarian, each phrase a tentative hop. Piano, fiddle and other stringy things set the yellow glass blowing. And it's like she's calling down a storm, inviting it quietly so that we can laugh when it doesn't arrive. Ha ha ha? (This was actually and truly recorded in a forest.)

(Let me know if you'd like to hear "Etno Camp".)

[more info / buy]

---

You really oughta grab the Pineapples song at Green Pea-ness so you can italo-disco till the sun come up.

If anyone missed the message about the Said the Gramophone chalet at All Tomorrow's Parties...

Posted by Sean at January 12, 2006 3:00 AM
Comments

Please lay 14 minutes of contemporary Hungarian folk on us. No, seriously. Do it.

Posted by Malacca at January 12, 2006 10:59 AM

Indeed.

Posted by Chris at January 12, 2006 12:26 PM

Please please please...14 minutes of furious gypsy crazy dancing!!!

Posted by Jenny at January 12, 2006 4:52 PM

Count one more vote for the longer track.

Posted by caleb at January 12, 2006 9:54 PM

Rock me with the 14 minutes of Hungarian music. PLEASE

Posted by michael at January 13, 2006 4:02 AM

I'm down for the 14. The atmosphere on the 2 was insane.

-A

Posted by Akio at January 13, 2006 5:58 AM

Fourteen whole minutes of wild Hungarian folk? Yes please!

Posted by Robin at January 13, 2006 10:30 AM

That Ann Sexton is great. She's terribly unappreciated.

Posted by AK at January 13, 2006 6:58 PM

I think we need this and im ready for the journey

Posted by adam at January 13, 2006 7:50 PM

ok ok - will do next week!

Posted by Sean at January 14, 2006 11:16 AM

Yess!!! I'm counting down until Etno...

Posted by Michael at January 16, 2006 7:13 PM

this is such a cool track.... but i have the nagging feeling that it's a cover of something i should know... does it sound familiar to anyone else? isn't there a song by the police or bjork that goes like this?

Posted by dwayne at January 18, 2006 11:13 PM

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(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.

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"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.
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