February 15th, 2007 1:35pm
You Touched My Very Soul
Alton Ellis “You Make Me Happy” – Studio 1 reggae from the 60s and 70s is easily some of the most perfectly recorded music in history, most especially in the way that it sounds so loose and easy, and every sound is transformed from a representation of a performance to something more sublime and abstract. For example, can music possibly sound more comforting than the bass line in this song? It’s not just the notes or the phrase, it’s this ideal texture, tone, and mix that makes it all sound as though you’re hearing it from within a womb. Everything in the track feels like bliss, but that bass brings us back to the greatest peace we’ll ever know. (Click here to buy it from Soul Jazz Records.)
Feist “My Moon, My Man” – Snap, thump, snap, thump — it’s a glam beat, and more or less on the same wavelength as Goldfrapp on their last two albums, but whereas their sound is dominating, mechanical and aloof, Feist’s song is submissive, muted, and colored by soft washes of blue moonlight. The lead guitar on the break is especially lovely, and sounds as though it just wandered in from some hopelessly romantic 80s UK alt-rock tune that we’ve never heard before. (Click here for the Feist MySpace page.)
Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site with mp3s from Photocall, Jay Reatard, and the Marcia Blaine School For Girls.