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Swift and inventive, Farewell Milwaukee’s sound is informed by artists from the 60s and 70s but is never beholden to them. Instead Farewell Milwaukee bend those influences into new shapes and sounds. On Can’t Please, You Can’t Please Me they work hard to make it look easy, establishing a casual country-rock majesty on the album’s very first notes.
Fênix seems a particularly appropriate title for Azymuth‘s first release in five years. The Brazilian fusion masters lost their keyboardist Jose Bertrami in 2012, but Fenix sees the trio — comprised of Ivan Conti, Alex Malheiros and new keyboardist Kiko Continentino — reaffirming themselves with the balmy, self-described ‘Samba Doido’ (Crazy Samba) that they’ve perfected for over the past 40 years.
“Villa Mariana” and “Orange Clouds” are two polished, easygoing confections that meander a bit (both surpass the five-minute mark) but cleverly avoid any “smooth jazz” clichés thanks to some inspired interplay and lush vocals, with enough bottom to avoid the soporific. Even if none of the ten tracks are truly “crazy,” the more rhythmically potent dance floor grooves of the title track,…
…with its slap bass intro, cosmic synths and infectious hand claps, the space-y disco of “Batucada Em Marte” (which begs for a re-mix from former Conti collaborator Madlib) and the deeply percussive “Corumba” are the perfect antidotes to oncoming winter blahs.
Fenix is another fine slice of refined jazz-funk from true veterans.
Location: Rajawana, Purbalingga, Central Java
Sound: Braen
In the cool highlands of Purbalingga in Central Java, not far from the looming volcanic cone of Mt. Slamet, a spiritual and musical tradition has been quietly passed down from mother to daughter throughout the centuries. Locals call it braen, an enigmatic name which seems to draw links just as it obscures them.
My fascination with braen started with that strangely familiar name. On one of my typical YouTube trawls, I chanced upon some videos labeled “braen” and was surprised by its similarity to another Javanese art form called brai. I had just finished reading a fascinating article by Matthew Isaac Cohen called “Brai in Performance: Religious Ecstasy and Art in Java” which describes and examines brai, an “oral art […] as well as a devotional practice” which is “performed by groups of male and female mystics who sing in Arabic and Javanese, accompanying themselves with spirited clapping and percussion.” This art form, Cohen goes on to explain, is centered around the cultural nexus of Cirebon on Java’s northwestern coast. With a name that literally means “passion” or “ecstasy”, sometimes in the sexual sense, brai is a living link to a rich, somewhat obscure history of mystical Islam in Java.
Queue that YouTube discovery: a cell phone video labeled “braen” of women singing in Arabic and Javanese and accompanying themselves on percussion. A quick Googling revealed that these women were in Purbalingga, more than 150 kilometers from the surviving brai practitioners in Cirebon: in Java, this may as well be a whole other world! Google revealed little else: if I wanted to find the link between brai and braen, I'd have to go to Purbalingga myself.
In the village of Rajawana I met Mbah Salihah, the elderly custodian of the braen tradition. Despite being a tiny, jilbabed woman in her seventies, Salihah was an intimidating presence with, it seemed, a kind of intense seriously about her. She speaks only Javanese, but through family and members of her group, I could begin to grasp at the fascinating yet murky history of this hyperlocal devotional tradition.
Salihah, local wisdom says, is the thirteenth in a long line of descendants of Sheikh Machdum Kusen, a pangeran wali (literally “saint prince”) revered for spreading Islam in this corner of Java. To this day Javanese Islam looks towards such saints (especially the Wali Sanga, or nine saints) with veneration, and their tombs, sprinkled about the island, are still popular sites for religious pilgrimage. The area around Rajawana is sprinkled with such tombs (as is Cirebon, land of brai), and Mbah Salihah's groups often performs braen at these sites, especially that of Sheikh Machdum Kusen.
Salihah’s family line is traced matrilineally - that is, from mother to daughter. Salihah and the women who came before her are called Rubiyah, a name supposedly taken from Sheikh Husen’s wife. As Rubiyah, Salihah is the leader of the all-female group of singers that make up Rajawana’s braen group. This may be surprising at first glance: Islam (and Javanese culture in general) can be intensely patriarchal, but art forms like braen and the related brai have deep roots in Sufism, a mystical style of Islam with a greater history of embracing feminine power (the title Rubiyah may actually have roots in the Indonesian name for Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya, a historical female Muslim saint and mystic still revered by modern Sufis.)
The Rubiyah is the only member of the braen group to play an instrument, a large terbang frame drum with a conical body made of heavy jackfruit wood and a head made of goatskin. While the skin has been changed a few times throughout the years, Salihah and her family consider the terbang to be a relic that stretches back even to the time of Sheikh Husen.
Through much of Muslim Indonesia, the terbang or rebana is considered to have religious significance for its role in the early spread of Islam, but local lore gives it and braen in general even greater powers. Local historian Trio Atmo tells a fantastic origin story: In 1527, he says, Rajawana was threatened with invasion as soldiers from the Pajajaran kingdom of West Java skirmished with the Sultanate of Demak in Central Java. As Rajawana’s leader, Sheikh Kusen called upon a group of women (led, according to some, by the original Rubiyah) from the local pesantren (a kind of Islamic boarding school) to sing and play terbang. As the music rang out, a huge swarm of wasps appeared, as if summoned, and attacked the Pajajaran soldiers, prompting a quick retreat. The elements of braen’s mythology are laid bare in this simple story, with a kind of mystical power divided between Sheikh Kusen (and the implied might of Central Javanese kingdoms!), the female musicians, and the music itself.
While all-female groups featuring Islamic devotional songs with frame drum accompaniment are common throughout Muslim Indonesia in the form of qasidah, braen is distinguished not only by its history but by its syncretic stylings. Just as with Cirebonese brai, braen is set apart by its Java-ness: the lyrics feature Arabic mixed with Javanese (and, the musicians claimed, Sundanese and Malay) while the melodies use the ubiquitous Javanese salendro and pelog tunings. Unlike brai, however, the braen music I heard was not exactly fevered and ecstatic. Rather, it has a kind of deliberate, unadorned slowness about it that reminds me of the mystical Sundanese gembyung music I’ve heard in West Java.
Every piece begins with the Rubiyah: as she starts to sing and beat the drum with a dum-tak-dum-rest rhythm, a group of a dozen or so women follow, singing in unison. Salihah has described the central theme as panyuwunan, a Javanese word roughly meaning supplication or invocation. In other words, braen is a musical expression of devotion, a calling out to god. Every piece ends, just like a prayer, with "Astaghfirullah", an Arabic expression meaning "I seek forgiveness from Allah."
Unsurprisingly, the performance of braen is thick with ritual. Before the music is played, an assortment of offerings must be laid out before the musicians, from rice and bananas to household items like soap and mirrors. Without these, folks swear, the drum will not sound. There is also an order to the sung pieces, with the tune “Awang Uwung” always leading the set. The song tells of the time before there was life on earth, with an essential message of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” With such somber material, it's not surprising that braen is often performed for rituals such as nyewu, the memorializing of a family member a thousand days after their death. It is also tied to important dates in the Islamic calendar, with rituals performed in the months of Muharam, Rajab, and Dzulhijah.
I came to Rajawana hoping to find a clear link between the brai tradition of Cirebon and the braen of Purbalingga, but I left with this relationship even more unclear. Brai has unabashedly Sufi roots, and its practitioners, male and female, are said to have mystical powers. However, when I asked the braen singers about Sufism, they claimed ignorance. When asked if they knew about the brai tradition of Cirebon, I got another negative. Finally, when I asked if Mbah Salihah has any kind of mystical powers, I was met with hearty laughter. She’s no mystic, they said. She’s just a Rubiyah.
What to make of this? Braen surely has the same Sufi roots as brai, and it is undoubtedly marked by these roots. But the musicians themselves seemed to feel completely divorced from this original context. This, I realized, is understandable: in his essay on brai, Cohen mentions how brai practitioners in 19th century Java were often seen more or less as cultish sinners, with much of the disdain stemming from accounts of brai rituals ending in massive orgies. Were the women (or their foremothers) ashamed of these ecstatic, mystical roots? One local musician friend expressed skepticism that braen ever had deep mystical roots to begin with. The name braen, he offered, could come from braian, with “-an” acting as a kind of modifier that softens the action. “Playing at brai”, you could say, or “in the style of brai.” In other words, not brai in its most authentic form. Whatever the case, braen is a fascinating little genre with a deep history that I’ve only just begun to explore.
Context:
Despite the best efforts of my poncho, I was soaking wet by the time I got to Rajawana. We had ridden through the rain for nearly an hour led by Mas Bowo, a filmmaker from Purbalingga who’d already made a short film about braen and had agreed to help me with my own research.
It was a lucky connection, as I’d visited the town the previous night to seek out Mbah Solihah and found a rather stern woman who spoke no Indonesian - a friendly connection would hopefully smooth things over.
I had humbly asked for a simple demonstration for documentary purposes, but it was clear when we arrived that the music and its ritual was a complete package. What had been a sitting room the night before had been transformed into a ritual space, the fraying sofas replaced by offerings of fruit and incense. Ten women were kneeling on a woven mat in the center of the room. Wearing matching white headscarves, batik shirts, and olive green skirts, the women were arranged in two rows with Mbah Solihah in the middle. As I set up my gear, Solihah and another woman meticulously passed the terbang over a burning bowl of coconut fiber, warming the goatskin and imbuing it with an unseen power.
The ritual began in earnest with a lengthy prayer, the women holding their hands in front of their faces and praying in Arabic as the sounds of rain and a nearby mosque loudspeaker leaked in through the windows. With the performance formally commenced, Solihah began her slow and steady dum-tak-dum-rest, leading the group in a chant-like rendition of “Awang Uwung.” The women’s voices were purposefully plain, it seemed, with sing-song melodies resembling lagu dolanan or Javanese children’s songs. Clearly, though, it meant something to them, as some closed their eyes in reverie as they sang.
After a handful of pieces had passed, I felt I’d heard a decent sampling, and shyly told the group that if they were tired, that was enough. I’d been surprised by the ritual formality of it all: I often explicitly commission performances, but this time I found myself thinking: you’re doing all this for me? Maybe it was the sacred vibe of the music, but suddenly I felt that in coming and asking for them to play, I’d been a bit flippant, not realizing the gravity of the artform and its presentation. I was surprised, though, to hear the women answer that they couldn’t stop just yet: the performance had a kind of minimum length. We’ll have to play for another hour and a half, they said.
And so they did, song after song of dum-tak-dum-rest and those minimalist Javanese melodies, some of them repeated throughout the set. As the women sang, my eyes wandered towards the offerings: a LUX brand bar of soap was nestled in with a green banana, a pack of cigarettes mingling with a comb and a mirror. There was such a depth of meaning here, from the offerings to the lyrics to the ritual, but in that moment it was almost all lost on me, the foreigner with the camera in the corner. It seemed to be lost on the younger generation too, as a handful of kids played right outside, occasionally peeking through the windows in curiosity, tapping the glass as their grandmas shooed them away. The youngest singer, I later learned, was nearly forty, with the oldest reaching ninety. Whatever meaning was there, whatever deep history and knowledge is locked in this music, it is shared by this small group of women and few others. Whether their daughters or nieces will continue this five hundred year old tradition remains to be seen. The next Rubiyah, it seems, has yet to be chosen.
Nashville-based indie pop/rock band Colony House announces today that their second studio album ONLY THE LONELY will be released on January 13th on Descendant/RCA Records. Producer Peter Katis known for his work with Interpol, The National, Frightened Rabbit, and more worked with the band on many of the album tracks, as well as notable mixer Vance Powell (Jack White, Elle King, Beck).
Tracklist:
01. Repay The Saviour 02:12
02. Light Of Gold 03:35
03. All My Days 04:32
04. How To Fly 03:15
05. Clear My Mind 03:02
06. Hold On 04:30
07. Medicine 03:16
08. Feet First 05:23
09. Head Home 02:00
10. The Point Of No Return 06:28
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The post Skye & Ross – Skye & Ross (2016) HDtracks appeared first on MusDL.
Tracklist:
01. Famous In The Last Century (01:05)
(Andrew Bown)
02. Old Time Rock And Roll (02:58)
(Jackson/Jones)
03. Way Down (02:52)
(Martine)
04. Rave On (02:52)
(Petty/Tilghman/West)
05. Roll Over Beethoven (03:08)
(Berry)
06. When I'm Dead And Gone (03:12)
(Gallagher/Lyle)
07. Memphis Tennessee (02:31)
(Berry)
08. Sweet Home Chicago (02:44)
(R. Johnson)
09. Crawling From The Wreckage (02:43)
(G. Parker)
10. Good Golly Miss Molly (02:05)
(Blackwell/Marascalco)
11. Claudette (02:01)
(Orbison)
12. Rock N Me (02:47)
(Miller)
13. Hound Dog (02:19)
(Leiber/Stoller)
14. Runaround Sue (02:29)
(Dimicci/Maresca)
15. Once Bitten Twice Shy (03:41)
(I. Hunter)
16. Mony Mony (02:59)
(Bloom/Gentry/James/Cordell)
17. Famous In The Last Century (Reprise) (01:16)
(Andrew Bown)
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The post Status Quo – Famous In The Last Century (2000) appeared first on MusDL.
Tracklist:
01. Colour Of Water (4:57)
02. Strange Warnings (3:49)
03. Stellular (3:53)
04. Closer (3:11)
05. Take Yourself With You (4:01)
06. All At Once (3:30)
07. Answer Me (3:51)
08. Dive (3:57)
09. Poison Ivy (3:00)
10. Hell And Back (4:18)
11. Space To Be (4:41)
12. Wanderer (4:51)
Rough Trade Bonus CD:
01. All At Once (Tom Furse Extrapolation) (8:41)
02. Before We're Strangers (Demo Version) (2:50)
03. Suspended (Demo Version) (4:13)
04. All At Once (Martin Dubka Remix) (7:20)
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Tracklist:
CD1
01. Ch'io mi scordi di te Non temer, amato bene, K. 505: Ch'io mi scordi di te Non temer, amato bene
02. Ah, lo previdi, K. 272, Recitative: Ah, lo previdi! – Aria: Ah, t'invola
03. Idomeneo re di Creta, K. 366, Act III: Oh smania! D'Oreste, d'Alace
04. No. 1. Der Engel (The Angel)
05. 5 Gedichte fr eine Frauenstimme, WWV 91 "Wesendonck-Lieder": No. 2. Stehe still (Stand Still)
06. No. 3. Im Treibhaus (In the Hothouse)
07. No. 4. Schmerzen (Pain)
08. 5 Gedichte fr eine Frauenstimme, WWV 91 "Wesendonck-Lieder": No. 5. Trume (Dreams)
09. No. 1. Frhling (Spring)
10. 4 Letzte Lieder, TrV 296: No. 2. September
11. 4 Letzte Lieder, TrV 296: No. 3. Beim Schlafengehen (At Bedtime)
12. No. 4. Im Abendrot (In the Evening Glow)
CD2
01. Tannhuser, Act II: Dich, teure Halle
02. Act II: Ecco l'orrido campo
03. Un ballo in maschera: Act II: Ma dall'arido stelo
04. Un ballo in maschera: Act III: Morr, ma prima in grazia
05. Otello: Act IV: Mi parea
06. Otello: Act IV: Piangea cantando nell'erma landa
07. Otello: Act IV: Ave Maria
08. La forza del destino, Act IV: Pace, pace, mio Dio!
09. La Wally, Act I: Ebben Ne andr lontana
10. Cavalleria rusticana: Voi lo sapete, o mamma
11. Act I: Ecco rispero appena Io son l'umile ancella
12. Adriana Lecouvreur: Act IV: Poveri fiori
13. Mefistofele, Act III: L'altra notte in fondo al mar
14. Faust, Act II: Je voudrais bien savoir – Il tait un roi de Thul – Ah! Je ris de me voir
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The post Sylvia Sass – Sylvia Sass Anniversary Edition (2017) appeared first on MusDL.
John Craigie’s new album No Rain, No Rose will be released January 27, 2017, but Portlanders got a very special treat on December 15 when he performed the new tunes in a once-in-a-lifetime concert at the Doug Fir Lounge with a bevy of local legends who were collaborators on the album. Tears were shed, hugs were shared, and the advance vinyl was available for one night only. The show sold out, of course – a statement about how locals value local music done with love. No Rain, No Rose was conceived, written and recorded in Portland – a first and joyful experience for Craigie, who tends to roam continually, intentionally, and always find his way back here. Craigie and his family of musicians wanted to offer the album to our city first, and with great impact – out of gratitude and love for our supportive and inspiring community.
The new album features such local power players such as Gregory Alan Isakov, Tyler Thompson and Jay Cobb Anderson from Fruition, Kat Fountain, The Shook Twins, Bevin Foley from Trout Steak Revival, Brad Parsons, Niko Daoussis, Justin Landis, Bart Budwig and John Nuhn. Craigie’s excellent partnerships have resulted in a decadent presentation of folk music, where every musical phrase complements the rest. Lyrically, Craigie’s message resonates and communicates universally. I had a chance to speak with him about his inspiration for writing, and what it feels like to be such a purposeful wanderer, sharing music with the world.
![Select Mix Quick Trax Vol 06 [Country Edition] (2017)](http://i.imgur.com/xc3yMqm.png "Select Mix Quick Trax Vol 06 [Country Edition] (2017)")
