Dec 17, 2013

New Music Goal and Bombino

As part of my 30 before 30 I wanted to spent more time this year immersing myself in music, specifically new to me music. I hope to post a few of my findings here for you. I'm not music reviewer so don't expect any titillating review or anything. 

In my youth I spent a great deal of time listening to music, exploring new music, and cultivating a decent collection of tunes. Since getting married I haven't had the time, energy or resources at hand to devote to this hobby. I've spent the last year and a half building up a solid reading habit and so I decided not to create another reading goal for myself, but to make a music goal. The goal being to listen to new music each week. To spend just a little time, even just an hour, over the week to listen to music and learn about an artist.

For the last couple of years I've developed a long list of music I want to listen to. Picked up from random places I usually can not remember where I heard about an artist. But just starting this project I have at least 20 names to start with. That should keep me busy for a while.

To start I listened to Bombino's album Nomad. I can't remember where I first heard of him, but I've since seen this album listed on several best of 2013 lists. While none of the music is in English, that doesn't stop me. Bryan always jokes with me about my ability to listen to music without even comprehending the lyrics.

Sidenote: isn't it fascinating how people can listen to things differently? I listen to the instruments and rhythm primarily and Bryan listens to the words.

I haven't listened to Bombino's previous album (yet), but you can tell Dan Auerbach's influence on several songs. Bluesy and country twangs work it's way into his traditional sounds. It's beautiful and kinda mesmerizing at the same time. This would be a great album to have on at work when you are just trying to knock things out but still want to listen to something good.

When to listen to this album: just chillaxing, when you need to be in the "zone"

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