lhasa on the living road

a little something for my travels....

lhasa de sela is a montreal-based wandering soul who grew up traveling with her family between the us and mexico in a converted schoolbus, listening to everything from eastern european folk tunes to traditional arabic odes and old mexican standards.

anything but ordinary, lhasa sings in no less than three languages: english, spanish and french. she took time from her music to tour with her sisters and perform circus acts. and then there's her music... everything from marimbas to ukulele and accordion.

her voice and style are anything but typical too. long, drawn out syllables, a unique lyrical poetry and throaty, breathless crooning make for an interesting combination.

just when you think everything has already been done, along comes lhasa.

the living road is a beautiful album to soundtrack the more reflective moments of driving through the mexican countryside... perfect for a train through las barrancas del cobre - mexico`s deepest and most striking canyon system.

lhasa - con toda palabra:


lhasa - para el fin del mundo o el ano nuevo:


related or unrelated to this:

• up, bustle and out - all out king
  
• andre désilets - mission apollo
  
• amadou + miriam feat manu chao - senegal fast food

get this at amazon

footnote on my return from mexico - i was saddened to hear while in was in the yucatan that the beautiful lhasa lost her battle with breast cancer. she lives on in our heads and hearts...

all out king

being halloween i'm posting something to represent.

no worries, i'm not about to lay down "thriller", "the monster mash" or "ghostbusters" theme song...

rather, i'd like to ride the wave of the masquerade. to celebrate the night before the day of the dead, i used to outfit myself as the dead (nefertiti, cleopatra...) but recently i've had more of a musical bent in my masquerade, preferring madonna and sade. this year i went out on a limb and dressed as radio-active raggedy ann.

can you picture it?
what, no?

i was a vision in a slim fitting floor length bright purple and multicoloured patterned gown and radioactive coloured hair extensions to match, along with a pink floor length fur lined overcoat. i emerged from a store on bloor street before heading to a halloween art party saturday night, and a woman stuck her head out the side of a slow moving black SUV and yelled, "OH MY GOD!! THAT IS NUTS!!". she was pointing at me.

so in the spirit of the masquerade, i'm bringing out up, bustle and out. UBO are a duo from bristol, england. but you would never know by listening to their music. diverse doesn't come close to describing their 'style'. the first UBO album i picked up was rebel radio master sessons 1, followed by master sessions 2 calle 23. both were recorded in havana, cuba, by flautist richard egues and have an unmistakable cuban sound. but their one colour just reflects another is more diverse, featuring a house track called "an african friendship", complete with french vocals and live recordings from the streets in huancayo, peru. their compared to what relase is pure classical indian music fused with trip hop. and then there's the upcoming istanbul's secrets, with floating eastern vibes.

tonight's track is a party song called "all out king", taken from UBO's latest release, mexican sessions. this track itself is a hybrid, mixing romanowski's "yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah" emcee commentary, dub, heavy bass, bongo mania and of course a lot of mexican flavours. it's the kind of track you play at a house party and people start clearing the furniture. or dancing on it.

so in the spirit of the masquerade, i bring to you
up, bustle & out- all out king:


get this at upbustleandout.co.uk