When I was thinking about some of my favorite music, Thievery Corporation automatically came to my mind. I have Justin to thank for introducing me to Thievery Corporation. It was probably around the time I started getting into jazz when he told me about this group that he thought I might be interested in. Since I am a fan of any music that can take me from being in an awful mood, to being at peace with myself, this group is right up my alley. Typically you can hear their type of music in the background of movies when they are trying to set some sort of atmosphere. Whether it be discovering love, or showing someone’s pain and anguish. Most of the time words are not needed and you can just take in the music and create your own thoughts. It is not only emotional but it is also the fact that it can take you to far away lands. There may be quite a few instances this week where you will feel like you need an interpreter, but I think it is unique of Thievery to introduce you to voices and sounds you may never hear otherwise.It may also be interesting to know that Thievery Corporation is an American Group. Formed out of Washington D.C., the duo made up of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton took their interests in all different forms of music from all over the world and fused it with the likes of jazz, techno, and all other forms of music to create their own unique sound. They also have been known to use their music to make political statements.
While listening this week I really just want you to take in the music and see where it takes your mind, or how it makes you feel. My overall goal is to see what other people think of the music I enjoy, and what (if anything) they get out of it.I am changing up the album list to only four albums this week. Instead of rushing to try and get through the albums and really not enjoying them, I would rather cut back on my list so that way you can spend more time getting acquainted with the artist.
Albums:
Richest Man in Babylon (2002)
Cosmic Game (2005)
Versions (2006)
Radio Retaliation (2008)
This is an awesome choice for our blog, because of the worldly sounds that accompany Thievery. It is true, I introduced Beth to these guys when I was really exploring down-tempo atrists such as: Blockhead, Bonobo, and Nightmares on Wax. Thievery incorporates so may genres of music that I love, icluding hip hop and jazz. This music is perfect as background music for parties or cranked up for summer gatherings.
ReplyDeleteRichest Man in Babylon is the second Thievery album that I ever bought, Outernational Sound being the first and glaringly omitted from our listening this week! This is pretty much polar opposite of our last artist the Decemberists, in the fact that you do not need to follow any lyrical storyline. This is "chill" music, if you will, and they excel at it. The female voice that accompanies the music may draw immediate comparisons to Bjork, which would be accurate as she is also from Iceland and her voice is mesmerizing. The opening track has a very Zero-7 feel and eases us into the rest of our musical journey. "Facing East" is a great name for the next track as I get the feeling of being in an open-air market somewhere in Bangladesh. There are splashes of reggae, house, and r&b all over the place, which you'd think would make the album lack coherence, but it makes for a anticipatory and lively listening experience. "All That We Perceive" is a favorite of mine that segues nicley into "Un Simple Histoire" that I swear I've heard in a DiSaranno Amaretto commercial. "Exilo" drips with latin soul and reminds me of Beuna Vista Social Club, very sensual. The title track is so good that it made me buy the Dub-version of this whole album, which is also a great listen. The catchiness of the dancehall banger "The State of the Union" warrants repeat listenings. I haven't picked up this album in quite some time and I would like to thank Beth for reminding me of how much I love this music.
I would like to make a correction on my part for this week's listening. When I was going through my album list for the week, I deleted the wrong album. If like Justin you have already listened to "Versions," then by all means go ahead and do your write up on that album. However, if you have not done your listening for the week, I highly suggest listening to "The Outernational Sound" rather then "Versions." Hopefully everyone will love this band so much they will go ahead and listen to both! Thank you Justin for helping me fix my error.
ReplyDeleteBeth, I didn't think about this before, but if you change an album or delete one make sure you let me know to change the calendar so that it says the same as the post. You'll be hearing from me tonight and tomorrow :)
ReplyDeleteSince I didn't notice my mistake til so late in the week, I was just going to leave it as is! I will remember for furture reference though.
ReplyDeleteVersions is a good album but I’m glad I have the option of listening to the album that got me hooked on Thievery. The Outernational Sound isn’t even original music from these guys, just a hypnotic and well mixed collection of some of Thievery’s favorite and obscure bossa-nova, funk, and electronic artists. “Troublemakers” has so much soul and a good beat that I could totally see Kanye, back in his early Roc-a-fella days, flipping this and turning it into a classic beat for Jay or Beanie Sigel. Once again, with the varying genres, Rob and Eric have an ear for music blending that is amazing. “Slow Hot Wind” puts me in an Aston-Martin, a la James Bond, with a gorgeous blonde riding shotgun as we slalom through hilly California coastline. “Lagos Communique” is the lone original work from Thievery on this album and has their signature horns and funky groove. This is one of those albums you put in and people automatically go “who is this?” “Cramp Your Style” is a step into the talented world of Breakestra who is a group known for playing classic break-beats live, if you like Breakestra you can also check out Orgone and Connie Price and the Keystones who I both saw back-up rappers Raekwon and Buckshot in concert. “Re-return to the Original Artform” could easily be a set on DJ Hero, which is fun as hell. The album is slowed to almost a complete halt with the sitar-heavy “Within You Without You” , the Indian sound is given a beat on the next song but it really doesn’t follow the groove that the album has maintained throughout. The end of the album kind of falls apart but is redeemed with the ending reggae jam that serves as the “end of the party” track that informs everybody that they don’t have to go home but they gotta get the hell out.
ReplyDeleteI bought The Cosmic Game the first week it came out and wasn’t sure what to think about it, upon first listen. I honestly haven’t listened to it more than a handful of times since, so it should be nice to revisit it and get a fresh perspective. The opening track is very unassuming with our good buddy Wayne Coyne on the vocals, don’t get me wrong I love the song, but the track feels a little out of place starting us off. Following the subdued opener we get the thumping dancehall “Warning Shots” which should have opened the album, but who am I to argue with these guys. This album showcases the level of popularity they had reached to this point, recruiting guys like Wayne and Perry Farrell of Janes Addiction to guest vocal; it’s no secret Perry has dipped his toes into the electronic scene and his voice compliments the beats very well. Perry runs Lollapalooza and has a DJ tent specifically set up for guys like Thievery to play, along with himself. The title track is pure down-tempo bliss. “Amerimacka” is a very nice reggae groove with Notch, who sounds a lot like a mellower Junior Reid. They are not re-inventing themselves on this album, only slightly tweaking their grooves and bringing new voices into the fold, and for this kind of music that is just fine for me. David Byrne makes all kinds of sense to work with Thievery as he has explored world music while in Talking Heads and his solo material, “The Hearts a Lonely Hunter” is not as adventurous as I’d like it to be but it provides a good argument for a future collaboration with all parties involved. “The Time We Lost Our Way” could easily be mistaken for a Lovage song, which if you like this track, you should definitely check out the strangely sexual project from Dan the Automator (Gorillaz) and Mike Patton (Faith No More). I really enjoyed this album more than upon initial listen.
ReplyDeleteRadio Retaliation is the only album I was not familiar with in our listening, Beth told me it was good but this is my first time with their newest album. “Sound The Alarm” is a solid dub-hit that would do well on a action movie soundtrack. “Mandala” is their best use of the sitar to date, a very up-tempo beat compliments it and really helps me to appreciate it’s sound, if that makes sense. If you know me, you know my love of Fela Kuti, his son Femi continues his legacy of educating through music the plight of Africa in the afro-beat influenced “Vampires”. Femi’s voice is not as powerful as his fathers but keeping alive his fathers legacy is necessary and Thievery gets major points for enlisting Femi for help on this album. As with The Cosmic Game, the guest vocalists are on point, with another one of my favorites Seu Jorge, who you know the best as the crew member from Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou who sang David Bowie songs in Portuguese. “Hare Krisna” is Seu oozing his charm and personality all over this track, that I wish was at least 5 minutes longer. Women singing in French are sexy, case in point “La Femme Parallel”. Apparently this is the groovy-lounge portion of the program, which almost begs you to get up and make a stiff cocktail as we samba through “Retaliation Suite”, swingin’. There is a militant, aggressive theme coursing through this album which is slyly delivered. This album is a great sampling of everything that Thievery has accomplished on previous efforts with a slight deviation on newer tracks. I continue to love these guys and the guest vocalists they bring along with every new album; I feel like I almost get 2 weeks in a row of my artists because I would have surely picked Thievery if Beth didn’t.
ReplyDeleteI will start by saying that Thievery Corporation is a bit outside of my comfort zone. There is quite a wide range of sounds that appear on these 4 albums, so from track to track it is hit or miss for me. For me, this group does not really alter my mood, perhaps just sustains it. The Riches Man in Babylon was tied for being my favorite album of the group. This is a good album to throw in on a car ride or a social event where I want pleasant background noise, but nothing that I have to pay attention to. I typically prefer the tracks in this genre that have very few lyrics and lack that hip-hop dimension. This type of album reminds me of the cool background music in Ocean’s 11 and paints a picture of a European café or something. With all of the variety and various styles, I feel like there is something for everyone on this. My favorite tracks were Facing East, All That We Perceive, A Simple Story, and The State of the Union, while I really didn’t dislike any of them.
ReplyDeleteDespite all of the lyrics on The Cosmic Game, I actually enjoyed it as well. This was another one that was very easy to listen to from beginning to end. Despite all of the guest appearances on this from various genres, I was surprised at how well they were able to tie the whole album together. Thievery is able to take you all over the globe on this album with the reggae, African, and European sounds. My favorite tracks were Holographic Universe, Amerimacka, and Revolution Solution. I also thought that A Gentle Dissolve was the perfect closing track. Warning Shots kind of bugs me, but it is catchy as sin.
Beth didn’t handed me The Outernationalist at the beginning of the week and did not inform me of the change until Wednesday, so I went forward with The Outernationalist. I felt that this album was a bit of a step backwards. This had all of the elements that I typically look for, however, the tracks were all quite short and all over the place. The tempo definitely picked up on this, and none of the tracks really stood out. I have a hard time picturing myself relaxing to this. This album quite simply lacked the variety, originality, and creativity of the prior efforts. 3 Play it Cool and Sea Groove were probably my favorites. Upon reading Justin’s post, I now realize why I probably did not enjoy this as much.
ReplyDeleteRadio Retaliation got right back on track for me. Beth has played the other albums around me before, but I had never heard this album prior to this week. I was pleasantly surprised as this is the album that is tied for my favorite. This album was the first that I actually heard the political views that Beth mentioned and I felt that I got lost into these tracks more than any others. My favorite track of Thievery’s is The Shining Path. When I am sitting in my cube, sometimes I would rather be anywhere but there. This track takes me places, and I these places change everytime I listen to it. I also very much liked The Forgotten People.
I feel that this is a hard group not to like as they have many different sounds and styles. I would like to thank Justin for introducing Thievery to Beth so that she could select them this week. As Justin said, this is “chill” music at its finest. Their creativity and originality are elements that any inspiring artist should take notes from.
Thievery Corporation is the perfect name for this group, as they simply "steal" sounds from every imaginable culture on earth. The greatest aspect of the band to me is to introduce it to a relative newcomer into the true world of music, as Thievery allows them to experience all that the rest of the world outside of our typical rock, hip-hop and r&b domain has to offer. However, sometimes this can be to the groups detriment, as the styles can be so all over the place that at times it's like they're trying to force as much into one album as possible. Some of these sounds are better to my ears than others, but overall I think that they're all at least decent.
ReplyDelete'The Richest Man in Babylon' was one of the two albums on our list that I'd at least heard some of prior to this week, and is a pretty solid album from front to back. My favorite songs by the group generally feature either female vocals or African based music, so my typical favorite songs from each album will usually fall into one category or the other. This album is no exception, as I love the three song section from "Omid" to "Une Simple Histoire". "Omid" especially is at times breathtakingly beautiful, and strongly reminds me of a Stereolab song, which is a great thing. My favorite track on the album though was "Liberation Front".....I'm just a sucker for the African horns. Overall this is most likely my favorite album by Thievery Corporation, and is great for a day spent just lounging around (like today).
I know it wasn't a part of our listening, but I have been listening to the song "Lebanese Blonde" from the Garden State Soundtrack a lot this week. The song was released in 1998 as a single, then added to the band's 2000 album "The Mirror Conspiracy." It was the only Thievery song I knew about before this week - a great example of everything people are saying on here about world sounds underlined by an amazingly smooth baseline. Needless to say, it set the bar pretty high going into required listening. Starting with "The Richest Man in Babylon," which came about in 2002, I wasn't very impressed. The only song that stuck out for me was "Omid (Hope)." I did start to get a feel for what Thievery Corporation was all about, however, and for a moment thought I could have been at Bonnaroo walking by a tent, though I don't think I would have stopped in unless I wanted to take a break from all the other action. The energy and emotional connection I had made with the song "Lebanese Blonde" were lost in translation here.
ReplyDelete2005's "The Cosmic Game" was a giant leap forward for me right away, but Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips deserves some of that credit. I was listening on Grooveshark, and thought at first that it was the wrong song, until I read into it and saw "Featuring the Flaming Lips." I think this album appeals to my senses more than the first because of an emphasis on psychedelic themes. "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" brought back that smooth beat and Middle Eastern sound I really liked on "Lebanese," so I immediately felt a stronger connection with the music here. I couldn't shake the feeling that this album, would make for great yoga music. The spacy feeling on "Cosmic Game" is a really good one for meditation. For some really I was drawn to "Holographic Universe" as the other track that stood out to me on the album.
ReplyDelete'The Cosmic Game' doesn't exactly steal a sound from another culture for it's opening track, but it does steal a sound (and a vocalist) from one of the great American bands (which we've already covered), The Flaming Lips. Even without Wayne Coyne's guest vocals, this track has Lips marks all over it, with it's synthesized orchestra sounds....and it's great. It's hugely jarring, however (and shows one of the problems with the groups sequencing), to get "Warning Shots" next, as it's definitely too hard to follow such a beautiful track. Next on the big time alt-rock cavalcade of stars is Perry Farrell, and he works as well as Coyne on the track "Revolution Solution". The title track has a wonderfully spacey sound, I just only wish that it were a bit longer, as it's something that I could really just zone out to for a great length of time. "The Hearts a Lonely Hunter" is a track that I first heard around the time this album came out (and was my first introduction to Thievery Corporation), and as such has a nostalgic reason for being my favorite song by the group. David Byrne is a perfect fit for this type of music, as his former band Talking Heads dabbled with African sounds, and his solo work has definitely done so. In all, this too is a pretty decent album, with some major highlights, but at points I wasn't able to connect with the music as well as on the previous album.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize until too late in the game that we had the opportunity to swap out 'Versions' with another album, so for me, 'Versions' it is. This album is interesting, as it's just a collection of remixes of other artists' work, but to me it still just sounds like your typical Thievery Corporation set. I really enjoyed "This Is Not a Love Song", a Nouvelle Vague remix, as I really enjoy Nouvelle Vague in general....they're really a perfect combination. My favorite track on the album was definitely "Who Needs Forever", with it's Astrud Gilberto remix. If any of you haven't heard her before, Astrud Gilberto is one of the great singers of all time, and it was definitely a pleasant surprise to hear her magical voice popping up on this set. It was also "strange" to hear The Doors "Strange Days" on the album, but I didn't particularly like the remix of the song too much. Overall this was another hit or miss album, with the hits being superb.
'Radio Retaliation' was the other TC album I'd heard prior to this week, but wasn't one that I'd enjoyed as much as 'The Richest Man in Babylon'. "Vampires" is a fantastic Femi Kuti song, and "Hare Krsna" is another wonderful song by the great Seu Jorge, but in all this album just didn't stick with me at all on my first listen a couple of years ago. Parts of the album, like "Le Femme Parallel" just drag on, and while I can see myself being in the mood for this stuff on occasion, I'm just not really at the present moment which makes it a little hard to enjoy. "Sweet Tides" closes the album out on a great note, however, and reminds me a bit of a mix between a song by the band Stars with a bit of U2 guitars thrown into the mix.....it's a great track, and makes the album worth listening to again just to get to.
ReplyDeleteThievery Corporation is a group that I have to be in a certain mood to listen to from front to back, but at times a few of their creations just come to the forefront and are magical. I strongly suggest listening to this as a gateway into artists that are more fully into one genre of music, but this is a good primer, as I said previously, for anyone unfamiliar with music from different cultures.
I was confused at first, listening to "The Outernational Sound" because it's not an album - it's meant to be a DJ compilation from what I'm reading. I probably would have liked it more if I had done some reading before going in, but that isn't the case here. I kind of liked the track "Shall We Dance," although the sound I liked started to get pretty old by the end of the first minute. I was basically appalled by the track "Within You Without You," which is supposed to be a redux of a great, great Beatles song (sitar heavy = George Harrison)off the Sgt. Pepper's album, but comes off as a drowned out version that doesn't sound all that different outside of the absence of Harrison's voice). Though it's not that different, the subtle changes made here don't bring something new to the track for me - the new beat laid over the original sitar sound doesn't completely eradicate the dreaminess of the original track but drowns out some of what made it great in the first place for a result that's a little bland for me. "The Expo in Tokyo" takes a step away from Middle Eastern sound and manages an interesting take on that line from that Vapor's song, "Turning Japanese." One thing that I can say for this album is it really is a trip around the world - good for bringing ethnic sounds to the ears of Americans, who generally don't know much about the world outside of the North American continent. I think I'd forgo this kind of album for their more ambient stuff, the kind that serves as background chill music or the setting in a movie.
ReplyDelete"Radio Retaliation" was actually the first album I listened to, and the one best suited for running, which I found out at Metro Sports earlier this week. It's high energy and the smooth but heavy beat coming in on "Sound the Alarm" was definitely a warm welcome to this album. I think they've achieved their best album of the four here on one that seems a good mix of the positive aspects of "Richest Man" and "Cosmic Game." It's smooth and beat heavy, yet ethnic and spacey all at once. If I had to pick between the four, this is the one I could see playing in the background at one of our barbecues or chill parties. I liked the change in the feel of "Vampires" as well as the singer's voice, and "Hare Krsna" was another of my favorite tracks on the album. "Forgotten People" starts out like a song Borat might be into, haha.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I'd have to say I liked "Radio Retaliation" the best, seconded by "Cosmic Game" but wasn't impressed by the other two albums. I can see where this stuff would make great mood setting or background music, and how it could introduce closed-minded Americans to the music of the world, but this is not my kind of thing. Apart from heartily disliking "The Outernational Sound," I do want to thank Beth for choosing these guys this week. I have always wanted to explore them a little more since I liked "Lebanese Blonde" so much, although this is not the type of music I am likely to stumble on by myself. I might have to check out that first album and listen again to "Versions," just to be sure I'm not missing anything.
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