Weekly Music Roundup: Galya Bisengalieva, Run the Jewels, and Mike Block's Global Crew
Week of Aug 3: This week, music for an ecological catastrophe by Galya Bisengalieva; a global cast joins cellist Mike Block; and Run The Jewels return a favor.
PREMIERE: Environmental Disaster Spurs Galya Bisengalieva’s New Work
Because one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters has taken place in Central Asia, it’s practically unknown in the West. This does not sit well with violinist and composer Galya Bisengalieva. She was born and raised in Kazakhstan, and although she lives and works in London, she has made an entire album of ambient, electroacoustic music about the shrinking of the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The record is called Aralkum, which is the name of the vast desert that now exists where the Aral Sea used to be. Once the four largest lake on Earth, the Aral Sea lost approximately 90% of its area after Soviet irrigation projects began in the 1960s, leaving behind four separate small lakes and a huge ecological and economic disaster area. So Bisengalieva’s electronics don’t offer soaring majesties or relaxing soundscapes – instead they rumble ominously, at times reminiscent of the drone of an airplane’s engines, and lost amid the dark swirl you can occasionally glimpse something acoustic – a violin, or what might be processed vocals. It might be the soundtrack to a horror movie, and in a sense, it is. “Kantubek” is the name of the track and the video that we are premiering; it features drone footage that is quite striking – and sobering, as you realize that we shouldn’t be able to see any of this land: it should all have been underwater.
Bisengalieva, who has worked on albums by Radiohead and Frank Ocean, seems to have a knack for music that suggests impending doom: she worked on Thom Yorke’s soundtrack to the upcoming remake of Suspiria. Her album, Aralkum, comes out on September 4 on Björk’s One Little Independent record label.
PREMIERE: A Globe-trotting Album By Cellist Mike Block And A World Of Friends
The last time we heard from cellist Mike Block was his recent duo album with the South African guitarist Derek Gripper. Now, Block is about to release an album called Guzo – an Amharic (Ethiopian) word that means “journey.” The record includes music and musicians from Ethiopia, Mali, Syria, India, Nigeria, China and Iran. Now, the idea of a cellist making music that draws connections between many parts of the world is not new: Yo Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble have been doing just that for over twenty years. In fact, Block has been a member of that group since 2005, and Ma has called him “the ideal musician of the 21st century.” Today, we are premiering a track called “Ifrah Web-Tisem” (“Rejoice and Smile”), a collaboration with the Omani-American oud player and singer Amal Waqar. The song is driven by plenty of hand percussion, and sports a catchy chorus in which everyone sings – even the non-Arabic speaking Block. Mike tells us, “Amal created lyrics that were repetitive enough that I could learn to sing them: Yo dan illi dana - There’s no direct translation for this, but dan and dana are common phrases used in Omani music, and essentially mean You go!, in a supportive, friendly manner.” By the way, it is still notable in the world of Arab music to hear the oud played by a master who happens to be a woman.
Mike Block’s Guzo comes out on August 21.
Africa + Trinidad + Brooklyn + Japan = Miyamoto Is Black Enough
The NY-based quartet called Miyamoto Is Black Enough is built around the compositions of Andy Akiho, who plays the steel drum – or more properly, the steel pan – and the poetry of Roger Bonair-Agard. The band’s name refers to Ariana Miyamoto, whose victory in the 2015 Miss Universe Japan competition caused great controversy: Miyamoto is half African-American, and critics complained she was “not Japanese enough.” The band, which also includes Jeffrey Zeigler on cello and drummer Sean Dixon, looks at issues of identity, gentrification, cultural appropriation, and stereotyping. Bonair-Agard, who is from Trinidad but is based in Brooklyn, bookends the album with two pieces called “Panifesto,” which calls back to the African roots of the Trinidadian people and their invention, the steel pan. Akiho’s music blends slow funk, an occasional Caribbean beat, and jazzy outbursts into a composed, almost chamber music-style format, although this quartet, led by the steel pan, is unlike any chamber music ensemble you’ve heard before. This track, called “Revolver,” has a genial reggae shuffle, while Bonair-Agard quietly dismantles the stereotypical image of a black man: yes, he knows how to load a pistol, and he knows Biggie Smalls, but he also knows Mozart and gardening.
Travis Barker and Run The Jewels Release New Single
Drummer and reality TV star Travis Barker has been hanging out with the rap duo Run The Jewels lately, doing live performances back when that was a thing, and appearing on the brilliant and bracing RTJ4. Now Run The Jewels are returning the favor on Barker’s new single, “Forever.” This is song that doesn’t go for the stripped-down sound of rap styles like trap or drill, but instead aims for the big sound of Golden Age hip hop. “Forever” has a steady rock groove (unsurprisingly), with Killer Mike taking the first verse and El-P the second; but its signature sound might be its cycling sequence of big organ chords. Both rappers share a theme: social inequality will come back to haunt the ones on top who are keeping everyone else down. But the song itself doesn’t end – it fades away, as if those chords (and the struggle?) might go on forever.
Dizzy Brings The Sun From Up North
Canadian singer and songwriter Katie Munshaw and the three brothers Charlie, Alex and Mackenzie Spencer are the indie pop band Dizzy, who won a Juno Award (the Canadian Grammys) for their debut album back in 2018. Now they’re releasing their new effort called The Sun And Her Scorch, full of small, intimate moments set in big, often technicolor arrangements. Munshaw begins the song “Good and Right” with the line “How do you think you’ll die/I ask you point blank on a Tuesday night.” Her ability to drill into the everyday minutiae of life and recognize its importance makes for a multilayered experience: the songs are often anthemic, inviting singalongs, while probing the ways we all tend to put obstacles in our own way. The track “Sunflower” is a good example. Munshaw drops lines like “I know that I’m asleep when all my teeth come falling out” en route to a grand chorus that bursts forth like a New Pornographers song, or Moby at his most extroverted.
