This month the decision for album of the month was very difficult, At the begining of the month I discovered this album by Gilles Peterson - Worldwide Exclusives wich is an extraordinary selection of eclectic music and fine tracks, Gilles Peterson is not exactly a musician, but his excellent taste in music make each of his albums a sort of masterpiece. Anyway, at the end of the month, I listened an album which is titled Timeless and it is a kind of tribute to Sergio Mendes and it includes colaborations of several artists such as: The Black Eyed Peas, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, India Arie, Justin Timberlake, etc. As you can see the styles of these artists could be considered as radically contrasted, but imagine some of their styles fusioned with the unique compositions of Sergio Mendes, The result is a great and propositive album full of energy and bossa nova, as you see this month you have the chance to choose between:

Timeless or Worldwide Exclusives

i don’t want to influence your vote, but you can listen this interview with Sergio Mendes
If you wish post as a comment with your vote.

Why Japan will always be the first to propose new concepts and ideas, I mean they make a difference for the rest of the world.
Today I am impressed with this relovutionary breakbeat album Mild Fantasy Violence, which was created by Himuro, this one is a really good example of what you can do with lots of imagination and freedom, maybe this kind of freedom could be one of the reasons of why Japan is constantly changing parameters in music and everything they do.

Nevertheless there’s something that I can’t understand, Why are they so tight?, They only think about themselves, and they can’t always open their frontiers to share their genious. An example of this is that in most cases you can’t buy their music if you don’t live within Japan…

…Anyway listen to one of the tracks of Mild Fantasy Violence
Or buy this album at Warpmart (UK)

This is an uncommon instrument that doesn’t actually require physical contact in order to produce its eerie sound, invented in 1919 in Russia by Léon Theremin. It is one of the first completely electronic instruments, it consists of circuits in a box and two antennas. It produces its sound by standing in front of it and moving the hands near the two metal antennas, one of which is commonly circular.

The distance from the hands and the antennas determine the frequency and the amplitude.

Do you have an extra $95? Then make your own theremin with this kit.

Yeah, yeah… but what does it sound like? Download a sample here.

This amazing book is about music, but with a scientific point of view, according to the author’s theory all music has it own mathematical algorithm, this one is a good example to show these facts, it is a good theory, but in most cases on the examples, it can be compared with compositions created by human beings since it only fulfills the requeriments for the genre.

I always think about this intersting issue, but I have developed my own theory and it goes in other direction, I mean, we can understand the algorithm created by music but my question would be: How can human beings assimilate and codify music, depending on what basis or influences?

I think if you add more complexity on a melody or a rhythm, people can’t assimilate or codify it as good as a simplier one, and obviously they can’t easily enjoy it.

Am I right? Please post your opinion about this.

Since 2002 the English trio Saint Etienne had remained quiet, their last album Finisterre is a great one but this January they’ve released Tales from Turnpike House and it is forged by a perfect selection of commercial and not commercial tracks, like other Saint Etienne releases it has their elegant trademark, if you’ve liked any other work by Saint Etienne I’m sure that you’re going to really enjoy this one, mostly every track in the disc has a pop sound, but the arrangements, programming and orchestration are accurately done, this combination of items is a good example of how an album could be both commercial and full of high-quality music.

Without a doubt you must own Tales from Turnpike House not only for the outstanding music, the artwork of the CD is pretty cool as well, all of this facts turn out this selection to be our February album of the month.