Music Review No. 4

Cymande - The Message
I love any song whose lead vocals are, first off, sung in octaves, and second off, totally awesome. I listened to this song growing up, and every time I hear it I want to dance in a way that makes my head stay perfectly still while my body gyrates around and around.

The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Choir - Kalimankou Denkou
This traditional piece, as performed by this world famous ensemble, was all the rage in the international world music scenes in the latter half of the 20th century. I had never heard it until the other day, when Karina showed it to me. I was sitting on my black swiveling chair, and over the course of the piece I found myself sinking lower and lower down, until I had slid off the chair completely. I lay on my floor until the piece was over, and when it was done I looked up at Karina, who was sitting on the bed a few feet away, and I said "now I can pretty much die." Then I mentioned that I had heard a thing by Yoko Kanno, the esteemed Anime composer, which had very blatantly ripped off Bulgarian choral music, but that it had never occured to me until right then that this was her source. Anyway, later that day we went out for bagels and while we were standing in line I did my best to sing all of the 24 parts at once, much to the chagrin of everybody in the line, but I didn't really care because right then I knew about something truly beautiful.