Artist: Various Artists
Album: Indigenous S.O.S.
Label: Random
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Review:
Fall is a good time of year. I am pretty sure that I mention something along these lines every fall. It is great. The rain washes the scum away. Plants and animals nestle up and hibernate throughout the cold. Faeries get some much needed rest after a spring and summer of making magic happen and the things that linger do so with a longer wavelength. It’s a great time to catch up on music too.
Over the past few years I have been witnessing a new trend in our musical legacy and it is actually a really awesome trend. While a lot of the movement within the music world is depressing (RIAA, death of radio, overproduced auto-tuned top40, death of the Album, pirating lawsuits, over-genre’fied sub-genres of specificity, dubstep, ticketmaster fees, etc…), one thing has caught my eye. The Benefit Compilation. There have been tons lately and, you know, that is cool.
In a world of Me Me Me, even if these albums don’t raise tons of money or awareness, or if they are even nothing more than a way to market an album, I can think of numerous things that are worse than this. Any money or awareness raised is good and if everyone is always doing positive things, maybe life itself would become a bit more positive. It’s fairly simple actually and it is also rather easy when you also get some great new music.
The Indigenous S.O.S. compilation has something for everybody. It has 3 discs chock full of great music. I think. Okay, so here is another great thing about this compilation, with even a 2/3s success rate, it is still a massive Win. The three discs of this comp are organized as follows: Downtempo/Freestyle/Chillout; Suomi/Finnish/Freeform; Banging/Dark/Forest/ThatStuff. Some of you may know this about me, some may not, but I pretty much can’t stand listening to the heavy dark fast music. It is boring to me. It isn’t engaging to my sensibilities of music. It is frustrating. The constant drilling of the Hammer is painful. It isn’t “scary” and it doesn’t do “trippy unpredictable” stuff. It is just not my style. Sorry. With this knowledge intact, I am sure it is no surprise that I am just not able to connect with the third disc of this compilation, but that is a-okay!
The more laid back and chilled out disc is a great little selection of tunes from all over the globe. Great for a variety of sets and moods and containing a nice organic hippie element as well. The uptempo Freeform disc is banging and psychedelic. Wicked bass lines, slinked out strings and stretched out noises. Rhythms that engage with solid 4/4 repetition layered on top of snappy breaks and melodic pianos. With two solid discs of music (possibly three for some) and proceeds going to help various indigenous communities throughout the globe, I give this album my complete support. Good music, good cause, and keeping a good idea afloat. Being caring and good people.
Sure life sucks sometimes and is hard. Yeah, the world is ripe with inequality and inequity too. So let’s just do some simple little things to make a few more people smile, which will in turn make more people smile, therefore making our miserable span existence on this planet just a touch more bearable (lol). We can dance to some good music, relax to some good music, and do some good things. Good is good; that’s why they called it that.
xoxox
-A’damn