My playlist for the evening will be a tribute to that most mountainous of letters, your favourite bilabial consonant and mine… the letter M.
This memorable musical montage will range throughout the last century, from Memphis to Mumbai, from Mali to Manilla. It will melt and merge many genres: merry jazz, mesmerizing blues, mellifluous indie rock, marvellous electro, melodious world music, and much much more…
The Playlist
1) Larry Miranda – “Marupok Na Sumpa” from the album “Lumang Simbahan.” Larry is a crooner in the Kundiman style from the Philipines. I love it for its old school suaveness and faintly Mexican feel.
2) Mahmoud Ahmed – “Balomi Benna” from ““Ethiopiques Vol 7.” Mahmoud is a former shoe-shiner from Addis Ababa. He’s got the meanest “R” rolling technique I’ve ever heard. This song was released in 1975 and is a catchy concoction of soul and Ethiopian shuffle.
3) Mamani Keita & Marc Minelli – “Nani” from “Electro Bamako.” Mamani is from Mali. This track combines her deep lullaby of a voice with some nu jazz shenanigans.
4) Mugison – “Mugiboogie” from the album of the same name. All the spikiness of a capital M is here in this flamboyant industrial blues track (how’s that for the coining of a new genre?) from my favorite bearded Icelander.
5) Moving Units – “Going for Adds” from “Dangerous Dreams.” Californian dance-punk to make you bounce.
6) Mathieu Chedid – “Onde Sensuelle” from “Je Dis Aime.” This artist often records under the stage name “M” and I think we need to reward him for his dedication to the letter M with a place on my list. This track is a sassy little pop number with a chorus that’s fun to hummmm along to.
7) Jurassic 5 – “Modern Times.” Jurassic 5 is my favorite Tribe-Called-Quest-style hip-hop group. This brilliant track features a sample of the score of the 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie “Modern Times.”
8) Mukesh – “Suno Haal Meri Zindagi Ka” from “The Legend: Mukesh.” I’m obsessed with Hindi music, doubly obsessed with old-school Hindi music, and triply obsessed & mango-chutney-on-top with old-school Hindi songs that have the kind of kick-ass violin interludes that this one does.
9) Squirrel Nut Zippers – “Meant to Be.” This North Carolinian Delta blues / gypsy jazz / swing band has long been one of my favorites. The whole 1996 album “Hot” is infectious. The band's name comes the term “Nut Zippers" a southern term for a variety of old bootleg moonshine, and from a newspaper account which related the story of a highly intoxicated man who climbed a tree one night, refusing to come down even after authorities arrived. The article's headline read: "Squirrel Nut Zipper."
10) Memphis Minnie – “I Got to Make a Change Blues”. Minnie was one of the most influential and pioneering female blues musicians and guitarists of all time. She ran away from home in Louisiana at the age of 13 and began playing the guitar in nightclubs and on the street. She recorded actively from the ‘20s to the ‘50s and penned several songs which were later made famous by other artists, including “When the Levee Breaks.”
11) The Magnetic Fields – “The Luckiest Guy on the Lower-East Side” from “69 Love Songs.” This song from the Boston-based indie pop group is about the pleasures of joy-riding around Manhattan on a spring day with a hottie in the passenger seat.
12) Monty Python – “I Like Chinese.” I’m glad to finally live in a place where there are people around me who don’t need an explanation of who Monty Python are. I grew up in suburban Pennsylvania, watching bootleg VHS copies of the Flying Circus. I spent my childhood making references to empty halves of coconuts and no one would laugh. It was sad.
13) Crash Test Dummies – “Mmmm mmm mmm” from “God Shuffled His Feet.” Would any playlist devoted to M be complete without this one? I don’t think so.
14) Blockhead – “Music by Cavelight” from the album of the same name. My marvelous husband introduced me to this solo album by the American hip-hop producer also known for producing Aesop Rock, my favorite white hip-hopper. I’m pretty sure that this track samples a super-sped-up clip of the Hungarian song from the soundtrack to the English Patient.
15) Ms. John Soda – “Hiding/Fading” from “No P. or D.” This is a relatively obscure German ‘glitch-pop’ group from the famous Morr Music label. I saw them in a peanut-sized club in Boston in the early 2000s and have been hooked ever since.
16) Metric – “Blindness” from “Fantasies.” Metric is my favorite band, whom – by chance – I first encountered in that same peanut-sized club. Emily Haines’ voice just melts me. This track is from their latest album.
17) The Memory Tapes – “Green Knight” from “Seek Magic.” This one is hot off the presses from New Jersey. It’s got to be the most mellifluous use of a basketball court in the history of pop music.
18) Martyn Bennett – “Blackbird” from “Grit.” Caledonian techno-folkie Martyn was an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist who died of cancer at the age of 33. I love every track on each of his 5 albums. This one is from his last album, recorded during his final struggle with cancer, and it fearlessly brings together majestic orchestration, synth beats, and what I think is a vocal sample from the Gaeltachd traditions of the Hebrides.
Honorable Mentions [highly commmmendable but not able to fit into my mix]:
- Donovan – “There Is A Mountain.” This is my favorite track by the 60s folk icon. I love the part about halfway through where he is singing “oh Juanita, oh Juanita, I call your name…” and someone (presumably Juanita) responds with a dwarfish cry of “wyAAH!”
- Feist – “Mushaboom” and “My Moon My Man.” Both very merry and delightfully catchy.
- M83 – “You, Appearing.” Music to listen to while dissolving into the universe.
- Mariza – sweet, sexy Portuguese music for an afternoon by the pool.
- Marvin Gaye – “Here, My Dear.” This track sounds like Prince imitating Isaac Hayes imitating Marvin Gaye. Delightfully kitsch.
- Múm – “If I Were A Fish.” In this track, from their latest album, you can hear what Múm sounds like when they sing in regular voices instead of channeling the spirit of Icelandic icicles.
- Tom Jones – “Motherless Child (feat Portishead).” Melodramatic, but so loveable.
About the letter M:
M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (pronounced /ˈɛm/) is spelled “em” and is an acceptable play according to the standard rules of Scrabble.
The letter M derives its shape from the ancient Phoenician Mem. In binary code, capital M is binary 01001101 and lowercase m is 01101101.
About the DJ:
DJ Dr. Eva the Cupcake Diva likes moist macaroons, meditation, medieval history, maple syrup, mash-ups, mashed potatoes, mailmen, meerkats, and alliteration.
She dedicates this playlist to all the m’s in her life: her brother, father, late mother, two sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law and, of course, the biggest m of all, her movie-making-maestro husband, Mahmoud.
