Very specific moments of songs that have been on repeat—part II in a highly-sporadic series.
Sometimes all it takes to send you into a state of euphoria is a 3-note snare fill. In this case, it’s from Gilberto Gil’s ‘Palco’ (1981). Who knew mid-career Gil sounded so much like Earth Wind & Fire (or perhaps vice versa)? As Youtube commenter Melissa notes, “purest groove. greetings from france”.
Perhaps the best day I spent in calendar year 2018 was made up of a solitary walk around Prague in crisp October air. I walked and walked; in fact, walk is pretty much all I did (I have the health app data to back it up). The soundtrack of the day was Khruangbin’s excellent record Con Todo El Mundo, from which I had previously enjoyed a few tracks but hadn’t granted a complete listen. Somewhere in the late morning, having just squeezed my way through Old Town Square, the song ‘Friday Morning’ came on. It starts slowly, but results in an addictive, empowering outro, which crept onto my headphones just as I rounded a sunlit corner overlooking the Vltava River.
For a while, I had the immense luxury of being able to walk to the gym—living in Ho Chi Minh City, it’s pretty rare to be able to walk anywhere. It only took a few minutes to cross an inexplicably green-colored canal and dodge through a hectic street to get there, so I only had time for a song or two. More often than not, though, I found myself rewinding to this moment of perfectly-reverbed synth (1:50-2:20) in ‘Come Be Me’ by Helado Negro.
I don’t do well with heat, but have nevertheless lived in a tropical climate for nearly a year. As such, there are certain artists whose music is absolutely necessary for me to find some moments of peace while I, both metaphorically and physically, cool down. Pretty often this is Mocky—lately, more specifically, it has been this break (that’s Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on strings for those keeping track at home).