Amadou And Mariam | dailybeatz

Posts tagged with amadou and mariam

12/15/2010

Amadou & Mariam – Sabali (Miike Snow Remix)

Let me count the ways that this remix got me real excited. First off, we all know that I am among the biggest Miike Snow fans in town and that I love their remixes just as much as their original tunes, so a new Miike Snow remix was smile worthy on its own. But Amadou & Mariam are another act that hold a special place in my musical memory, as their 2009 Bonnaroo performance was near the bottom of my list as I had no idea who they were but turned out to be one of the most fun, most energetic and overall most enjoyable sets of the 4 day festival. And as Miike Snow has been known to do lately (see this La Roux cover for more evidence), they took the road sometimes less traveled and didn’t blow this one out of the park but instead spoke with their subtlety. In fact, I posted this song earlier this summer (right here) but to be honest hadn’t really listened to it since, so I had to pay pretty close attention to even hear the Miike Snow influences, but then they became crystal clear. The consistent beat of this song works perfectly into the trademarked Miike Snow chords that rhytmically find their way into so many of their tunes. The other good part is that this puts Miike Snow within two degrees of Damon Albarn, the hit social connection game that is taking over the internet.

Let’s play an example round. Let’s pick someone at random. How about….Fred Savage – star of the hit family drama “The Wonder Years”. Fred Savage was in The Wizard with Jenny Lewis. Jenny Lewis was in Rilo Kiley. Rilo Kiley performed on “Later…With Jools Holland” with Jack Penate. Jack Penate toured with Miike Snow in the fall of 2009. Miike Snow remixed “Sabali” by Amadou & Mariam, which was produced by, you guessed it, Damon Albarn! With the 30+ people the Gorillaz are touring with right now, the connections are growing exponentially.

That was fun. Anyway, this track is one of three “Sabali” remixes from a full album of remixes aptly named Amadou & Mariam Remixes due out in January.

Amadou & Mariam – Sabali (Miike Snow Remix)

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07/29/2010

Amadou & Mariam – Sabali

My first exposure to the African dance sounds of Amadou & Mariam was at last summer’s Bonnaroo festival. On day 2, there was an entire tent devoted to the music of Africa and even though I didn’t want to go see the husband and wife duo from Mali, who are both blind and met at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind, my friends dragged me along, and boy am I glad they did. It was by far one of my favorite shows of the whole festival, and perhaps the most high-energy performance I saw that weekend. They do a great job of incorporating traditional Mali sounds with a modern dance beat and “Sabali”, the opening track from their album Welcome to Mali is a perfect example. It starts out with the more traditional sound but soon erupts into a great modern dance tune that grows and spreads as it goes on. When you find out that this track was produced by Damon Albarn, it makes even more sense. Make sure to catch this duo live if you ever have the chance.

Amadou & Mariam – Sabali

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08/25/2009

fools gold – surprise hotel

fools gold live

todays track is “surprise hotel” by LA band fools gold. well at least im pretty sure theyre from LA. im pretty sure i first heard this track several weeks ago on an aquarium drunkard edition of sirius xmu blog radio (the bestest daily radio show out there) and it immediately made the dailybeatz list of upcoming songs. i couldnt really find out a whole bunch about them other than that the band includes members of foreign born and glasser. and im somewhat familiar with foreign born but i dont really know who glasser is. but in the end, it doesnt really matter because theyve definitely got a little something going on here that i think most people will like quite a bit.

its nearly impossible to listen to this track and not want to dance a little bit. it sounds a little bit african-infused and a little bit not. and the lyrics are, i believe, in hebrew, so i have no idea what they say, but it dont matter to me cuz its all about the beat here. if the beginning melodies arent enough to get you moving, just wait until about halfway into the song when it speeds up even more. it kind of reminds me a tiny bit of something that could have been heard during an amadou and mariam breakdown in the middle of one of their songs to get the whole crowd moving. “nadine”, another track you can find on their myspace page is equally enjoyable, but in a less makes you want to get out of your chair and dance kind of way. i like these guys and am pretty sure they would be a blast to see live too.

worst post ever. i should have just stuck with what i wanted to write, which was, “i really like this song.”

fools gold – surprise hotel

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06/17/2009

these modern socks – no one’s gonna miss me

these modern socks

now that im finally back to some sense of normalcy after a weekend of insanity and sleeplessness, its time to present this years bonnaroo lineup with some awards:

best show of the weekend – tie between wilco and phishs second performance

sweatiest performer with tightest clothing – bruce springsteen

best performance i didnt want to go to that turned out to be awesome – amadou and mariam

performance that was as eerie and unique as i hoped for and lived up to all my expectations – yeasayer

biggest disappointment – mgmt. im sure the show was great in the tent but we were so far back and there was some malfunction with the second set of speakers so we couldnt hear any bass. all the people in the tent looked like they were having fun and i heard it sounded great in there.

favorite bar of the weekend – the fruit bar. we subsisted mostly on bars for the weekend. granola bars, fruit bars, all bran bars, etc. but the fruit bar is ridiculously good. its basically a really soft fruit roll up thats about an inch thick. i need to find out if its available in america.

best footwear for the weekend – sanuks – wore them all 3 days with no problems whatsoever.

favorite vendor food – the chicken kabobs from the areppa stands.

shows i most wanted to see but missed because of exhaustion/conflicts – band of horses, phoenix, crystal castles, paul oakenfold, yeah yeah yeahs, grizzly bear.

any other categories youre curious about?

so that about sums it up. the rain was pretty bad on the drive down on thursday but after that it didnt rain again the whole weekend and the mud was minimal and very avoidable which made things about a zillion times better than they would have been. now that bonnaroo is over, you can get excited to hear me talk nonstop about my next getaway to pitchfork festival in chicago for my second year there.

back to the music. todays track is no ones gonna miss me by minneapolis band these modern socks. this group is pretty much electro-pop goodness. i especially like the spaceyness (fake word alert), the the unassuming drumbeat, and the bass explosion near the end of the song. its kind of a pretty sad song, both pretty and sad. kind of like my return home after bonnaroo. pretty because i get to take showers and sleep in beds now, but sad because the excitement is over and im going back to work tomorrow.

these modern socks – no ones gonna miss me

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