#merill garbus

[thefirstagreement]

Quelle Chris & Chris Keys - MIRAGE (feat. Earl Sweatshirt, Denmark Vessey, Merrill Garbus & Big Sen)

[homonymph]

re-listening to tune-yards and remembering how good their first three albums were. finally listening to sketchy too and digging it so far. it's sad they kind of fell off the radar and that their audience fell off (myself included) after i can feel you creep into my private life.

i do agree with the pitchfork article about how conversations of cultural appropriation needed to be brought forward and releasing an album (especially in 2018) centered on white guilt was awkward and off-putting. but it also doesn't sit well with me that the author, laura snapes, is a white woman complaining about how uncomfortable it is to talk about white guilt. white people need to talk to white people about their own accountability no matter how uncomfortable it is. i think it comes down to the audience. i think tune-yards were aiming for their white, liberal, hipster audience but it ended up coming off as "woe is me, evil white woman" esp. with "colonizer"

idk it's not my place to say what's right or wrong in this conversation about the appropriation of afrobeat but execution aside, i think what tune-yards wrote and sang about, be it bringing awareness to oppressive systems or white guilt, are still important discussions that need to be had. and as others have pointed out, it has to be noted that other (mostly male) musicians who have strong african and afro-beat influences (i.e. vampire weekend, paul simon, etc.) are subjected to much less public scrutiny.

regardless, i'm happy they're still make music and have even moved to scoring with boots riley on sorry to bother you and i'm a virgo.

[whiteteethteens]

my favorite releases of 2018 » tune-yards - i can feel you creep into my private life [7/?]

Garbus’ voice sounds bigger than ever as she wrestles with political and social issues like race and intersectional feminism, and many of the melodies on i can feel you rank among her best. Above all, it’s an album preoccupied with freedom—political, mental, and physical—and committed to examining and subverting assumptions, and it walks the walk in pursuing both fronts.

[matte--finish-blog]

Song of the Day || 1.29.2015 "Powa" by tUnE-yArDs

Just listen to this woman's voice. Listen to it. My god. How does she even do that. I don't even want to end that statement with a question mark because it's something that cannot be answered.

The amount of talent in this live rendition of "Powa" is even more impressive than the recorded version, which I didn't even think was possible. You know when you hear songs and the vocalist does something insane and you're like, "Well, it sounds good here...but I doubt they can do it live." Like Adele's "Someone Like You" — when she sings it live, she has to adjust it so she can actually hit the notes.

Merrill Garbus (the wonderfully talented woman in this video) slays it here. She hits every note with an incredible amount of tone and control and makes it seem so simple. The bass line, provided by Nate Brenner, adds so much substance to her drum clicks and ukulele strums. 

I've always liked tUnE-yArDs, but this video has given me even more reasons to be a fan of them. This performance is super genuine and down-to-earth, while also being breathtaking. After watching this, I yelled out, "HOW??" as I sat on my floor with my mouth wide open. I hope it has a similar effect on you guys.

[corradoiv]

LISTENING TO: tUnE-yArDs - Powa

Merill Garbus

Nate Brenner

Video by Andrew Gill & Robin Amer

Audio by Mary Gaffney

[varickglobalindustries]

Merill Garbus from tUnE-yArDs

[quietersmallervoices]

tUnE-YaRdS new album Nikki Nack is the album that has introduced me to the work of Merill Garbus. It is fresh, poppy, infused with electronic elements and full to the brim with African influence (or as full as western music gets without being derivative or imitative).

The rhythms are strong, jumping, industrial at times, and full of fun. This is music that you have to dance to, that brings movement to your limbs and life to your head.

Every track is exciting and new, with sounds that surprise and excite. Some tracks, like Sink-O, are full of electronic synthesised sounds, whereas others have very real sounds. It's very quantised, though that doesn't feel restrictive to me.

The track Why Do We Dine On The Tots? brings an experimental spoken-word element, with many silly and odd voices, delays, reverbs, and layers, that seems a tad ridiculous and forced to me. It has some amazing harpsichord-style dancing scales in the mix, however, that give it some great feeling, and it lends it an amazing atmosphere. The story, in the form of a debate over why a group would eat the young, is haunting and amusing, though doesn't lend a moral or meaning to me.

[relation to Garbus' other work]

The album is well worth a listen, and is an exciting and strange little LP that is sure to fascinate if you lend it an open mind.

[undetectedsound]

Visit Original Link

Water Fountain // Tune-Yards

iTunes. Amazon. 4ad.