New Music Thorsday

I thought with the news as it has been of late, people might enjoy a bit of a break. So without further delay, I bring you our first official New Music Thorsday!

First on our list is a vintage musical genre new to me called Exotica, who's Wikipedia entry is as follows.

Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania (Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Southeast Asia, and especially Hawaii).[1] Denny described the musical style as "a combination of the South Pacific and the Orient...what a lot of people imagined the islands to be like...it's pure fantasy though."[2] While the South Seas forms the core region, exotica reflects the "musical impressions" of every place from standard travel destinations to the mythical "shangri-las" dreamt of by armchair safari-ers.[1]



Next up is British Artist by the name of James Blake who I was introduced to by a co-worker.

From his Rolling Stone write-up:

U.K. dance music subgenres don't usually produce soulful singer-songwriters – there was no Marvin Gaye of grime, no Bill Withers of Balearic house. But in James Blake, the squish-grooved London club throb called dubstep just got its very own emotive song stylist. Blake uses neosoul keyboards, blip beats and layered snips of his heart-starved warbling to create softly roiling slow jams. Like Radiohead, Blake's sonic empty spaces highlight ­human distance: His cover of Feist's "Limit to Your Love" dangles lyrics about a dying relationship above trip-hop fizz, and when he does inch toward happiness on "Wilhelm Scream," he makes finding true love sound like entering a void. "All that I know is I'm falling," he sings over a swirl of black digitalia. Yep, falling right into the mystic.



Moving on to a more familiar name - Seal, who is back with what I would consider his best piece of work since Seal IV. Below is my favorite song from this album, a love song written for his wife (Heidi Klume) The video itself is beautifully done and their obvious love for each other always brings a tear to my eye. It's a shmaltzy song, but there's something in the video for you guys, Heidi is nearly naked ;-)



Finishing up is at long last new music from one of my favorite singer/songwriter George Michael. An interpretation of True Faith, a song by 80's band New Order. I may be one of the few people who likes what he's done with the song, but I ask that you give it a try. Please note that although it may sound like it's heavily autotuned, what you are hearing is something called a digital harmonizer, George's voice is clearly discernible as the mid-tone.