The Weekly Chart ending October 21st

As you can see, this week I was very impressed with the new Younger Brother release on Twisted Records titled, The Last Days of Gravity, which I reviewed recently. LDG showed a progression towards making beautiful melodic music rather than depending on dominating the soundscape with beats to pound the dancefloor. Picking a favorite track will demand much more scrutiny, but I will stay away burning myself out with over-listening.

I will be spinning at an anti-war rally this weekend and have been digging up some old Dead Prez albums in search of something lyrically meaningful with a punch of aggression to stir up the event. I am outside my comfort zone since I don't really spin Hip-Hop, but I get though it and have a good time to boot. I have a couple other tracks up my sleeve from times long ago when I used to be a huge underground Hip-Hop fan (way back in high school). The pseudo-rebellious mood also led to a couple spoken word musings by philosopher/biologist/super atheist Richard Dawkins, whose ideas often invade conversations with my more reading inclined friends. I am a big fan on his work on memes, concepts that I happily use in heated arguments.

I took a trip to Africa (a mental and musical one) with two old favorites of mine, Fela Kuti and Ali Farka Touré, the Afrobeat king and Malian Bluesy singer respectively. There is so much passion in their music, a perpetual inspiration to keep my chin up. I often wonder how powerful the impressions these two men would have left on me if I was old enough to have seen them live.

I also had my share of chilled lazy beats as I longed for a feeling of relaxation (long week). Wagon Christ, Nightmares on Wax, Tripswitch, and Portishead, and Younger Brother of course were the main ingredients I chose to chill with as I wrote articles for my other job. I don't really remember which albums specifically, but some good ol' shuffle did the trick.

My top ten list culminates with Super Flu, a relatively new (to me of course) Minimal Techno act I have become quite fond of with driving basslines and almost always a spacey melodic second half, in a style that makes minimal still bearable to listen to, stripped down beats but with a sense of depth and melody. Next week, I have no idea what I will get off on.