Bob Marley and The Stranglers

My only complaint about "Hey Sparrow" from Peaking Lights is that it's too damn short. There's nothing more disappointing than hearing a song, deciding you like it a couple of minutes in, and then seeing that there's only another minute or so left before it's over. It's the musical equivalent of pouring yourself a heaping bowl of delicious cereal only to lift the milk carton and discover - gasp - it's too light! With its entrancingly subtle dub rhythms, delicate keys, and "groove-wave" guitar, "Hey Sparrow" puts the jam on your breakfast toast and will leave you wanting seconds.

Peaking Lights - Hey Sparrow

After considerable thought, I can best describe this track as Bob Marley's "Natural Mystic" crossed with "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers. In my musical world, that is a serious compliment. Peaking Lights have been called "post-reggae," and other tracks on their new record 936 do indeed show a heavy dubstep influence. Combining an uncanny number of instrumental tracks for a two-person outfit, they spin a multilayered musical web that sneaks up on the listener and, before you know it, ensnares you utterly. 

I got tipped off to this excellent record by a pretty glowing review on Altered Zones; they have a couple of other tracks from 936 up on their site as well. Leave it to a married couple from Wisconsin, recording out of Los Angeles, to put together the first great record of spring 2011 (morning temperature in Cambridge today: 26 degrees). With superior instrumentation and some beautiful vocals, Peaking Lights are warming things up for all of us with a sound that defies easy classification, but definitely deserves to be in the rotation this spring training. 

Le Chanson Fait La Force

Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti this week from exile in the Central African Republic and South Africa accompanied by a number of political and entertainment figures from around the world. While I have no interest in getting into questions of Haitian politics, I do think it's pretty hilarious that traveling in the company of Danny Glover, an actor known best for playing crotchety veteran Murtough in the Lethal Weapon series 25 years ago, is considered a mark of distinction in the developing world.

Another Aristide supporter is of greater interest to me at the moment though: legendary Haitian singer/songwriter Manno Charlemagne. He's been called "the Bob Marley of Haiti" and any of a number of other superlatives. It's pretty hard to compete with this snippet from Manno's MySpace biography, so just give this a read and you'll get a sense of the esteem in which the artist is held by his fans:

"A soulful yet brazen balladeer, Manno for decades used his acoustic guitar and tender baritone voice as weapons against the brutal Duvalier regime and civilized indifference of Haiti's insulated upper class. A skinny, poor rebel from the slums, he was the little black fly in a cold glass of milk.

Born in 1948, he slipped out of his mother's womb with a clenched fist thrust up in the air; his birthsong was defiance. He picked up his first guitar as a teenager and has been playing, singing and writing songs ever since. In the classic troubadour tradition, he is a teller of truth who disguises his profoundly political messages by placing them inside hauntingly beautiful melodies. Similar to the storytelling traditions of the African griots who passed their history down through the generations from mouth to ear, Manno's protest songs with their caustic lyrics and gentle rhythms documented centuries of abuse suffered by the peasant class in Haiti, and captured the rawness of life in this black republic."

I caught a riveting program on CCTV documenting Aristide's return to Port-au-Prince, and the rabid passion with which his supporters greeted him bordered on the frightening. Part of the broadcast was set to Manno, a longtime Aristide backer and himself the Mayor of the capital city during Aristide's second term. I was moved to share some of his beautiful playing, and it is strictly for the aesthetic value of the music, and with no political implications one way or another, that I offer it up for your listening pleasure. My French Creole isn't really up to par these days anyway, so I can't make out much of what he's saying - though it has clearly not pleased any number of rulers in Haiti's troubled history.

In a country where two of the leading candidates for President were singers (Wyclef and Michel Martelly), listening to Manno and others is a reminder of the power of music to move people and hearkens back to a political tradition in music that has been sadly on the decline in our own country. Au fin en Haïti, peut-être que ça n'est pas l'union qui fait la force - c'est le chanson.

Manno Charlemagne - La Fimen (The Smoke)

Good Morning Vietnam

Check out this surprisingly uplifting track from Saigon's long-delayed and highly anticipated debut (!) studio album. It's hard to believe that the rapper who was introduced to much of the listening public through Turtle on Entourage back in 2005 has only now gotten his act together enough to release this much-hyped record. "Clap" is the first track I've heard off the album, which came out just after Valentine's Day, and I've been digging its triumphantly bouncy beat, perhaps a reflection of the artist's own joy at finally getting his music out there for the world to hear.

The song was produced by Just Blaze, who delivers a solid track. Of course, he's working with some great source material: Lamont Dozier's 1976 baby-making anthem "Let Me Make Love to You" is heavily sampled. The swelling strings and keys are also reminiscent of some more recent hip-hop offerings: Young Jeezy's "Go Crazy" (prod. by DJ Cannon) and Kanye's "Touch the Sky," both of which are themselves built around '70s samples from soul god Curtis Mayfield.

Obviously the use of a '70s sample and a showy R&B chorus isn't exactly uncharted territory in hip-hop production. That said, having the Notorious B.I.G.'s widow Faith Evans sing your choruses is a pretty legit way for a Brooklyn rapper to establish his street cred (Saigon is not actually from Ho Chi Minh City, but from a war zone of a different sort known as Brownsville). Gospel influences shine throughout (the singer's name is Faith, after all), and I'm pretty sure I even heard a "hallelujah" in there somewhere.

Saigon - Clap


I haven't heard the whole album, but my sense is that the positivity found on "Clap" isn't necessarily the record's dominant theme - not that surprising for a guy whose album release was delayed for 6 years by a variety of incidents including weapons charges (a knife) and getting stabbed in the head (gotta watch out for those knives). Still, this is a great track to lead with, if for nothing more than the catharsis it expresses at the release of an album that was a long time coming. Dig it.