motel de moka

Shalabi effect - bright guilty world
(pink abyss, 2004)
Holly Golightly - tell me now so i know
(broken flowers ost, 2005)
Ten Kens - refined
(ten kens, 2006)
Pram - play of the waves
(The museum of imaginary animals, 2005)
Movietone - the ocean song
(the sand and the stars, 2003)

Siempre ha habido algo sobre las monosílabas que me punza. Los gritos, los ecos difusos, la lucidez cambiante, la indiferencia, la ignorancia y los sentidos obtusos. Todos se cimbran y se suspenden de simples monosílabos, como breves notas monocordes de almas en pena. Son voz machacada, rasgada, parecida a una lanza. Y estar bajo esta lanza es aceptar un sacrificio, hacer y deshacer cualquier pequeño bloque de sentido, detener el pensamiento y leer las sensaciones monosilábicas que no encuentran donde detenerse. Y en mi caso, quedarme como una bestia atada con los ojos fijos en cualquier parte. Con las ganas de subirme a un banquito y morderme los parpados.

Imagén: un tremendo artista, Kenichi Hoshine.

And when the pleasure is done
why don’t I want to know it all
And when the measurings done
Somehow I already know it all
-Luscious Jackson, Stardust

Note: A list following Ensemble’s ‘Disown‘ track, primarily exploring voice phrasing in slower tempo jazz. Me’shell’s near speech delivery, Merrill’s slow rendition of Summertime and my fav. Cassandra Wilson’s intrpretation of classic blues work. She very well could be this generation most neglected singer and jazz/blues interpreter. What is interesting on slow works, all texture and singers craftmanship shows up like detail in a close up macro pictures. Every single syllabels and breath count and reveal intentions. etc. enjoy.

“Such Purity is Essential”

01. Ensemble - Disown, Delete (Feat. Cat Power)
02. Me’shell NdegeOcello - Untitled
03. Helen Merrill - Summertime
04. Cassandra Wilson - Hellhound on My Trail
05. Luscious Jackson - Stardust
06. Neneh Cherry - Red Paint

see also: Ensemble guest post
image: Spamily

[Hello! Moka here. Following in the tradition of saidthegramophonists and La Blogotheque I am really excited to tell you that for the following weeks (and hopefully months to come) MdM is launching an ambitious guestblogging series with some fantastic musicians and graphic artists writing about music that they love. Currently there are some great people on board and we will be hopefully getting positive responses from many more to come. Yey!

As a follower of his work, I'm delighted to start things off with a post from Olivier Alary, the electronic wizard behind the Ensemble Moniker. After his stunning debut "Sketch Proposals" and his writing, remixing and programming collaborations with Björk on the best song on Medulla (desired constellations) and Vespertine's singles, Olivier has finally released his first major work for five years, a beautiful self-titled LP on Fatcat Records, counting with the collaboration of monolithic figures of the experimental pop frontstage, Lou Barlow and Chan Marshall, for a remarkable, high-class, organic integration of static folk and subdued electronica. Today Olivier is here to tell us about some of his favorite tunes with us. Please give him a very, very warm welcome.]

- Can - vitamin C (from Ege Bamyasi)

“I discovered Can when I was pretty young, right after my punk/no wave days, ege bamyasi is still pretty important to me.
I have a weird love/hate relationship with this song. I really love the groove, the rhythmical relationship between the instrumentation, the melody, and the vibe, but the lyrics are absolutely terrible, which makes the song even more special.It makes it even more human. ”

- Arvo Part - Silentium: Senza moto (from Tabula Rasa)

“There’s a beautiful german word “weltschmerz”, which means “world sorrow”, you can apply this adjective to art and music, and I feel that Part’s work has this quality; a direct emotional and mystical force.
I cannot listen to his work very often, but everytime I do so, I always experience profound emotions.
I love the use of prepared piano in this song and the clarity of the orchestral textures, it’s simple but very deep.”

- Pharoah Sanders - Red, black and green (from Thembi)

“Gorgeous and immersive wall of sound, Pharoah Sanders is the master of beautiful and sensual cacophony.
I love the fact that I always lose track of time when I listen to his work, how it can be pretty harsh but then soothing.
There’s a fine balance between noise and melody but I find that he always manages to figure out when to take you somewhere else right before you’re too lost in his grandiose musical mess”

- Brigitte Fontaine - il se passe des choses (from Brigitte Fontaine est folle)

“A very elegant and decadent song, amazing lyrics.
The song is about her and how she would rather stay in bed drinking whisky than to live some sort of life outside, or hear about what’s happening beyond her apartment.
Brigitte Fontaine is one of the most talented french singers of the sixties, she has an edge that no one else had. Her lyrics are always very well written, funny, clever, surreal and bleak at the same time. Very rare.
The orchestration of this song is amazing, very flowing, metaphoric but not too obvious. ”

- Simon Diaz - Tonada de luna llena (from Tonadas)

“A traditional tonada from the Venezuelan and Colombian savannas.
I discovered this song a couple of years ago on French radio, as soon as I heard it, I thought that it was extremely precious, it’s a pure jewel of a song.
I love the simplicity of the lyrics and chord progression, the melody is simply stunning.Simon Diaz’s performance is fragile and deep, there’s an incredible but beautiful tension in this song.”

“Request: Sin with Sebastian”

01. Sin with Sebastian - Shut Up (And Sleep With Me)
02. Ambassador of Funk - Supermarioland
03. Zoran - Hook on You
04. Outrage - That Piano Track
05. Dee Patten - Who’s the bad man

Note: This is a request list for a track previously posted by Kahlo, Sin with Sebastian. A short techno list with bunch of pretty popular in mid 90’s pieces. Go ask Kahlo what’s hot in the club these days, she is the dance floor expert.

see also: techno (wiki)
image: Kahlo

Querido Miguel Conde,

Perdon por haberme retrasado tanto en tu playlist… pero he tenido una serie de contratiempos que no me habian dejado postear con calma, lo siento.

Este playlist esta dedicado a ti, porque gracias a lectores generosos como tu pudimos crear este nuevo y maravilloso Motel de Moka!

Espero que las siguientes canciones sean de tu agrado, las escogi personalmente una por una pensando que te podria agradar, asi que espero que este playlist este al nivel de tus expectativas.

Este es un playlist bastante eclectico, tiene un poco de todo, un poco de jazz, un poco de indie, algo de blues, algo de drum ‘n’ bass, en fin, tiene algo de todo! Que lo Disfrutes!

Playlist

Bonobo - Transmission94 (Part 1 & 2)
Parov Stelar - Room Service
Jesca Hoop - Silver Screen Demos
Gabriel Rios - Bones bugalu (.m4a)
Le Volume Courbe - Papillon de Nuit
Mulatu Astatke - Munaye Soup
Dengue Fever - Ethanopium (.m4a)
Ilhan Ersahin - Oriental Wind
Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark
First Floor Power - Scissors, Bag or a Stone
Squarepusher - Squarepusher Theme
Piers Faccini - If I

This in turn is our thanksgiving post to one of our kind donators, Greg Cruikshank, for helping give life to this little corner of ours. I hope you enjoy the playlist, Greg, it’s broken up basically into warm pastoral mood, some rockers, some upbeat jazz and funk songs and was compilled by squashed with a little bit of my help - may you all have a great holiday in company of your friends and family.

-Moka

Image : “Ours to fight for–Freedom From Want,” by Norman Rockwell.

The Connection Machine - Molly is autowarping
(Bitflower 12″, 1994)
Autechre - Rae
(Lp 5, 1998)
FSOL - slider
(ISDN, 1995)
Amon tobin - deo
(supermodified, 2000)
Mike Ink - polka trax 3 (Wechsel Garland mix)
(WARP10+3 Remixes CD2, 1999)
The parallax corporation - atomic nation
(atomic nation ep, 2000)
Boards of canada - aquarius
(Music has the right to children, 1998)

After finishing my junior high studies, I spent the following high school years strangely out of touch with music in general. I could hear a few things that I liked, but nothing that made me feel the way I’d loved to feel with the bands I listened back when I was 13-15 year old (sonic youth, my bloody valentine, pixies, slowdive, radiohead, massive attack pretty much bands popular under the “alternative” category in the 90’s and also loads of emblematic 60’s and 70’s rock records that an uncle gave to me which I still treasure and listen very often). I remember at the time Napster was at it’s peak and the internet had just about started for me. I had a shitty dial-up connection that took 5 to 10 minutes to load any pages and about 2 hours to download a 5 mb file, so I had to become very selective with my downloads. This was also my first opportunity at discovering records through actual choice rather than through friends’ or acquaintances’ recommendations (it’s a great way to discover records, but is of course limited by what your friends know or like).

This is when and I discovered “electronic music” as well as lots of other genres that had been hidden from me so far, I started out with about everything on the Warp Label (Autechre’s “LP5″, Boards of Canada’s “music has the right to children”, Kenny Larkin, Aphex Twin), as well as early Amon Tobin, Pole’s “1″ and “2″, and stuff like that. The effect electronic music had on my musical taste was pretty intense and, amazingly, those early steps in electronic music are still some I go back to most. The above tracks all come from an old mix cd I found today which is around 4 years old, hope you enjoy them as much as I did back then.

Here’s a little plus:

Acid Pauli with Johnny Cash- I see a dark(er)ness
(I see a darkerness, 2004)

This track by Acid Pauli (also former member of the Notwist, Console) takes Cash’s cover of “I see a darkness” for a ride into acid techno territory - I’m sure it sounds like a terrible idea but it really works well. You can almost imagine a queer resurrected version of Johnny Cash making the kids dance behind the 303 roland synthetizer and the strobe lights. Steer clear away if you’ve always had and itch about that detroit techno sound.

Image: 12 kisses graphical experiment by Kahlo :)