Afro Habesha

Last night I went out to Collingwood, definitely one of my favourite parts of Melbourne, to an Ethiopia restaurant/live music venue called "The Horn." Great place, the menu looked really good and the beers were excellent!

Afro Habesha were the act of the night, playing in the courtyard of the horn which is another great space with a bit of a dancefloor and then a lounge-type area to the back.



Last night, they were a 6 piece ensemble, comprising sax, bass, keys, drumkit, bongos and the lead singer. I have heard they have other players and dancers at times.

The music is amazing, entrancing and impossible to stand still to. Ranging from funk to jazz to pop and blues, it's all tinged with beautiful Ethiopian rhythms and Amharic lyrics. Seble, the singer, has some great dance moves, and was very keen to move out to the dance floor. The two drum types complemented each other well, with one usually playing a jazz beat while the other coloured the rhythm with African beats.

I was sucked in by the Ethiopian scales and incredibly tight performance the band had. The driving bass line complemented by the great drums and keyboards, filled in with sax solos and Seble's singing created an amazing overall spectacle.

There were probably about 40 people watching this performance, but this band would do well if they were to perform at any of Australia's folk festivals.

Sufjan Stevens

Turning now to the international, I recently read this brilliant article in the Guardian Online about Sufjan Stevens (pronounced SOOF-YAN). Sufjan's latest album was on the Best of 2010 lists of many blogs and mags, and deservedly so.

Sufjan is from Michigan, and while his music is sometimes called "Folk", I think this is only applicable in the sense that folk like his music. His music is expansive, expressive, deep, full of both orchestral splendour and sparsity. He plays a bit of banjo, guitar, drums, oboe and the lovely English horn.

The article can be read here. This dives into the mind of a creative genius, putting the rest of us not-so-genius masses to shame. Maybe all I needed was eccentric hippy parents who gave me toothbrushes made from recycled newspapers for Christmas.

One of my favourites off "The Age of Adz" (2010)

Husky

Keeping with a vague theme of local amazing bands, introducing Husky. And it seems yes, that is his real name.

If beautiful, melodious, easygoing, folky music is your thing, check out http://www.huskysongs.com/

My favourite is Dark Sea, and has been at the top of my most played charts for about a year. But you can download 3 songs here and suss it out for yourself.
http://www.triplejunearthed.com/HUSKY

He's been around for at least a year, and has just recorded his debut album with producer Noah Georgeson (of Joanna Newson and Devendra Banhart fame.) This is due to be released in July.

Interestingly, he's performing a couple of shows with John Butler Trio over the next month or so. Hopefully the exposure does good things, and you can tell all your friends you first heard about him here.

The Beginnings + Mojo Juju and the Snake Oil Merchants

Hi all.

this is the beginnings of a Melbourne-based music blog. The music I'll be focusing on will be coming from a wide range of areas, but will be generally (though not always) local, with a focus on alternative music genres.

To get an idea of my musical taste, you can check out my last.fm - http://www.last.fm/user/lifesaverdan

More substantial posts to follow!

For now, I'll leave you with a song from a Newcastle/Melbourne band, Mojo Juju and the Snake Oil Merchants. These guys are definitely one of the best bands to see live. While they've broken up recently, you can still catch Mojo Juju live every now and again.