ListenUp
Dave Harrington’s disco dub of Hall & Oates, Joanna Newsom’s live harp skills, new Sleigh Bells and more in this week’s music
Joanna Newsom: Leaving the City
Oftentimes, a live performance not only reveals the true wonders of a musician’s talent but also affirms their creative prowess with evidence of the hand (or voice). With her televised performance of “Leaving the City,” songstress Joanna Newsom demonstrates her sheer versatility. From vocals sailing through the ether—somewhere between Bjork and Kate Bush—to lyrics delivered with emotional resonance and a melody from her signature harp, witnessing the song’s execution is eerie but empowered.
Hall & Oates: She’s Gone (Dave Harrington Disco Dub)
Dave Harrington (of duo Darkside) offers a musical advent calendar for the holidays: 12 days of remixes and edits that he’s been playing in DJ sets. For the 11th day, Harrington has uploaded his edit of “She’s Gone” that will have you dancing your heartache away. He speeds up that sweet, jazzy and classic Hall & Oates sound (delightfully corny factor complete with sax solo) into a disco blowout. Check out the remixes he’s released so far—from Beyoncé, SBTRKT and Empress Of to electronic music legends Laurie Anderson and Steve Reich. For more merriment, check out the The 2nd Annual Dave Harrington & Friends Holiday Spectacular benefit concert taking place tonight at Le Poisson Rouge.
Reginald Omas Mamode IV: Havana Cool Out
As we start bundling up in more and more layers before heading out the door this wintry season, dream of a sunnier, carefree place where “the drum goes deep” with this track “Havana Cool Out.” It’s a remix by the soulful London producer Reginald Omas Mamode IV of Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura Band that highlights some beautiful vocal improvisation in Spanish. For the past six years, Peterson has been promoting Cuba’s underground and exploring new music through his Havana Cultura project. “Havana Cool Out” is just a taste of what’s to come: a feature-length documentary exploring the roots of Cuban rumba and its influences on today’s dance music is set to be released in 2016 along with a compilation of remixes.
Sleigh Bells: Champions of Unrestricted Beauty
It’s the season for Sleigh Bells and the Brooklyn-based duo, though still working on finishing their new album, offers a new track from it today. “Champions of Unrestricted Beauty” forgoes their trademark distorted filters and aggressive guitars, bringing Alexis Krauss’ powerful vocals front and center for their poppiest song yet. What the rest of the yet-to-be-named album will sound like still remains a mystery, but we’re excited to see Sleigh Bells develop and experiment.
ListenUp is a Cool Hunting series published every Sunday that rounds up the music we tweeted throughout the week, also found in Listen. Hear the year so far via Cool Hunting Spotify.
