SOUNDTRACK: A-WA-Tiny Desk Concert #8876 (September 3, 2019).
I knew of A-WA and had seen them in a South X Lullaby this year. But that song was performed quietly, with just a guitarist. This session is full band with all kinds of dancey accouterments.
Liron, Tair, and Tagel Haim [left to right] are behind my desk with a full band of keyboards, bass, guitar and drums, singing more forlorn tunes in their unique three-part harmony. Their songs mix Yemenite and Arabic traditions with splashes of reggae and hip-hop.
These songs also have the lyrics translated at the bottom of the screen. Since Bob says the songs are sad, I haven’t been reading too much, just enjoying the melodies [I’ll let Bob talk about the song in brackets]
The first song is “Habib Galbi” (“Love of My Heart”), [a heartbreaking song that went viral for A-WA in 2016].
I don’t know much of anything in the languages they are singing, but back in 1988 Israeli singer Ofra Haza released an album that I really liked and one of the great songs was “Galbi.” So here it is again and it means “mt heart.”
‘Habib Galbi” opens with Middle Eastern melodies played on a synth (by Noam Havkin)–it’s a cool combination of traditional and modern almost futuristic. It even has some electronic percussion (from Tal Cohen) and some great bass from Nitzan Eisenberg. I love that there’s an occasional “Woo!” and lots of hand claps. It is so dancey, how can it be heartbreaking?
A-WA have recently released a second album, Bayti Fi Rasi (in Yemenite it means My Home is in My Head). The record tells the story of their grandmother traveling from Yemen to Israel. The final two songs come from that recent album.
The second song “Al Asad” (“The Lion”) has the reggae feel in with the staccato guitar and a cool guitar solo from Yiftach Shachaf. It “is a metaphorical tale of facing down a lion in your path.”
Once again, their movements and tone belie the story, as they move so almost sensually to the music as they sing (in fairness, it’s hard not to).
The last song “Hana Mash Hu Al Yaman,” (“Here is Not Yemen”) features some amazing rolling of r’s as they sing–I’m thinking it’s the word for “wheat.” Once again, despite the music, this song
paints the struggles of coming to a new land, learning the language, finding work, a place to live and making it a home.
Although this song starts out more somber, as the song moves on it picks up a more danceable beat with more interesting synthy sounds.
I couldn’t help but be interested in the lyrics for this one with the way they sang “wheat” I had to find out what the rolled r word was. This led me to see “Land of wheat and barely, grape and olive / fig, pomegranate date and home.”
And then further on:
Where will I stake a home? (You have a tent for now)
Or at least a small shack (along with four other families)
And here I will raise a family (Don’t let them take your daughter)
I’ll find myself a job with an income (either in cleaning or working the earth)
And I will learn the language (Lose the accent)
With time I’ll feel like I belong (Here is not Yemen).
Dang, draw me in with fun music and beautiful voices and then wow me with powerful lyrics. Well done, A-WA.
[READ: September 3, 2019] Herbert’s Wormhole
We listened to this book on our summer road trip. When I saw that it was a novel “in cartoons,” I decided to check out the print to see if it was any different as a story.
The cartoons certainly add to it. The drawings are done in a very stylized way (by Rohitash Rao). The cartoons are indeed very cartoony but that befits a story about squid aliens who wear fake mustaches and toupees.
I’m glad I listened to the audio first because it was fun having the experience of hearing the Australian accents in my head while reading the text. I’m sure I could have imagined the accents myself, but since Jonathan Davis did such a good job, it was nice having them in place.
The other interesting thing is how much I evidently missed during the listening (if you’re driving you have to pay attention to the world around you as well). So the book version filled in some details that I clearly missed and a few things made a bit more sense.
The opening is fairly simple: Alex Filby is 11 years old and loves video games. He is just about to defeat all the aliens in Alien Slayer 2 which is pretty great,. Except he promised his parents that when he beat the game, he would stop playing video games for the summer and start playing outside. So when he destroys the final alien, his parents tell him that they have set up a play date with the weird kid next store: Herbert Slewg. (more…)
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I didn’t know anything about Lady Lamb before this show. Normally I look up a band before seeing them, but for some reason, I didn’t really investigate her at all.
