SOUNDTRACK: TROKER-Tiny Desk Concert #621 May 19, 2017).
Troker has instantly jumped to being my favorite jazz band. And why is that? because they have a turntablist and he is outstanding. He adds sound effects, solos and all kinds of great additions to their jazzy fare and elevates it to someplace exciting.
Which is not to stay that their jazz is poor, because it’s not at all. There’s a groovy keyboard sound, a sax, a trumpet and a fantastic bassist
“Principe Charro” begins with some fun keys (from Christian Jimenez) and a high bass line (from Samo Gonzalez) before the band enter the main horn riffs (all with a groovy bass line underneath). But it’s those turntables (from DJ Sonicko) that really stand out. I feel like in many songs you can’t always tell when a turntable is active, but it’s really apparent in this set. Check out around the 1:15 mark while there’s a solo and the turntable is doing a solo of its own–or adding effects to the end of the solos. And there’s a great moment around 2:30 where the turntable and trumpeter (Chay Flores) have a duel–all with a very cool, deep bassline underneath. There’s a sensational break with a great cheer before the song starts again–with the crowd fully behind them now.
“One Thousand Million Eyes” is normally an instrumental song (as most of their songs are), but they have a vocalist Solange Prat to sing lyrics. It’s interesting that the lyrics are in English since the band is from Guadalajara, Mexico and they speak only in Spanish (with subtitles!). There’s some outstanding turntable effects on this song–cool spacey sounds and what not. I like Prat’s voice, but I’m digging the instrumental side more.
I love the way the music starts out with some cool sounds from the turntable. And that thumping bass.
“Chapala Blues” is about a lake that’s near where they live. It’s got a great bass riff to open–slow and loping-with some great atmospheric sounds from the turntable. There’s even whale songs. The middle of the song has a great drum “solo” (from Frankie Mares) which isn’t really a solo, just the drummer having a ball while the horns are playing quieter music. Midway through, it gets very atmospheric with some cool synth sounds and a lone sax (from Chay Flores).
“Tequila Death” begins with some ticking clock sounds and a somewhat menacing, but then funky, bass line with a cool fuzzy effect on it). Like the other songs it is fun and dancabale. During the breaks they sample (on the turntable) the “one, two, tres, quatro” from “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs. It’s a great set and I really hope I can see them live sometime.
[READ: April 3, 2017] “Signal”
I enjoyed Lanchester’s previous story which was also about a very rich person in London. In this story it’s not the protagonist who is rich, rather it is his old, dear friend. Although, “Michael wasn’t my oldest friend and he wasn’t my closest friend, but he was older than any of the ones who were closer and closer than any of the ones who were older, so he had a special status, as part of the furniture of my life, the kind of friend who when you’re asked how you met you have to think for a while to remember.” I love that.
But the crux was that Michael was his richest friend–by a long shot. The story begins with the narrator telling his children “You aren’t allowed to ask for the Wi-Fi password before you say hello,” The kids point out that Uncle Mike is nice and won’t care. And the dad says, “that that is true, it’s just not what you do.” “You chat for a bit, and then you ask for the Wi-Fi password. It’s just one of the rules.”
I love also that the narrator doesn’t exactly seem to know why Michael is so rich. “He’d drifted through Cambridge doing something scientific–engineering or maths, I think it was.” And then after “going off to try something a bit different…he had ascended to some new stratosphere of international wealth.”
And, since he and his family were genuine friends of Michael, they reaped the rewards of that lifestyle whenever they hung out.
He loved Michael although he knew that Michael had an “all-purpose omnidirectional vagueness. It was a well-meaning vagueness, but it could also be highly irritating.” Especially when it came to his social life.
They are on the way to Michael’s “little place” for the Christmas holidays. The little place was several thousand acres. “The driveway of Michael’s house was so long that even after we got there it took a while to get there.”
When they arrive at the house they see a tall man looking at a device and searching for a signal. Toby, the son, says “very nice to meet you. My name is Toby. How do you do? Also, would you mind awfully telling me the Wi-Fi password?” The man more or less ignores them. But soon from the other wing of the hall comes Michael and some servants.
The next several pages detail this amazing house–created by the previous owners: a video-game room, a retro gaming room, a home cinema, a bouncy castle in a heated and covered area outdoors. It had every amenity you could ask for. Except for decent internet. There was broadband but the thick walls and metal frame played havoc with the signal. The parents actually found this to be quite nice–a legitimate excuse to turn off from the world. And the kids didn’t actually mind because there was so much else to do.
Then we meet the guests–a hodgepodge of business people, old friends, and other people–most of whom don’t know each other. Things are kind of awkward, although there is plenty of places to avoid them. But Michael has an outing planned–an outing to shoot pheasants.
They don’t see their kids all that much. There is plenty for them to do and plenty of people to look after them. But when the kids tell their parents that the weird tall guy from the first day has shown them how to do things–open the curtain, use the remote–they find that odd. But when they tell their parents that he also showed them to the swimming pool, and that he was constantly on his phone, the parents get spooked –was he filming their children?
He talks to Michael about the man, but Michael vouches for him. I love that Michael mistakes who the narrator is talking about. When the narrator describes the man as tall, Michael introduces him to a man who is several centimeters taller than average height for his nationality.
So they wonder–is there possibly a guest in the house that Michael doesn’t know about? He says there is no way.
And suddenly this light, fun story about an eccentric man and his holiday party gets a little more sinister. The confusion between parties only makes things even more so.
The ending came as a total surprise, one which I appreciated, although I didn’t need the story to do that for me to enjoy it. But I’m certainly interested in reading more from Lancaster.
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