Traveling Cargopants » Music

Crossing into Utah

Hargobind — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:37:53 +0000

How about a nice acoustic song while you read today’s post…
Fire & Rain by James Taylor, cover by Alex de Grassi

Here’s a few beautiful pictures near sunset as we drove from Ouray along Highway 90 into Utah. These pictures were mainly taken between the towns of Naturita and Paradox in the Paradox Valley. You can kind of see how we were entering a massive canyon/basin, and then finally climbed up the side to reach the plateau above. The moon was rising to the northeast, and the skies were shaded in the most incredible hues of colors. The final picture is (I think) the San Juan mountain range. I had stopped at the edge of one of the canyon switchbacks to take pictures of nature’s dusky light show and the beautiful valley below us. When I looked back and saw that mountain range, I let out a deep sigh — this was our last view of the majestic mountains of Colorado, and it felt like I was saying goodbye to a dear friend for a long time to come…

[View Slideshow]

Life in Motion + Thrice

Hargobind — Sat, 22 May 2010 00:10:20 +0000

A friend sent me to a link of some incredible still-motion videos (including one of the volcano in Iceland). This guy has a really cool technique where his camera seems to crawl across the ground while capturing still-motion frames. Based on how clear the pictures are, I’m fairly certain he runs his film through some sort processing tool that renders the frames using something like the HDR technique which allows you to see all ranges of lighting and color side by side in a photograph or film (normal cameras usually tend to focus on either the light or dark objects but not both).

The soundtrack to one of his videos contained two songs by a band named Thrice who I’m totally digging on right now. One thing I really respect about them is that they have such variety in their music — everything from chill and melodic to alt rock to metal. Since they live somewhere in California, I’m definitely going to make it a point to see them in concert while I’m traveling the west coast.

I’m still listening to their stuff, but so far here are a few of my favorites. These songs are from the albums The Alchemy Index Vol. 1 & 2 and Vheissu.

Ben Sage – Just a Minute (Subsonik VIP Mix)

Hargobind — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:45:49 +0000

While listening to some internet radio the other day, I found this mesmerizing drum & bass song that has beautiful vocals, ambient melodies, and is just sweet as sugar. The artist is Ben Sage and vocals are by Savvy. You can find a few more tracks of his to listen to at Last.fm and FilesTube.com.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan + Gaudi = Dub Qawwali

Hargobind — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:45:44 +0000

Much like Tupac, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s talent has gained him a highly memorable place in history and in the ears and hearts of generations of listeners around the world. Also like Tupac, his music has long outlasted his physical presence on this earth as previously unheard of songs and beloved classics continue to be released into the public airwaves, sometimes with new flavors and spins. Such an example is the album Dub Qawwali released in 2007 by a world famous global music producer named Gaudi.

Gaudi was one of six producers who were initially offered a single Nusrat track to remix by the Lemon Group — owners of the song publishing of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s works from 1968-1974, in association with Khan’s original Pakistani label Rehmat Gramophone. The company loved what Gaudi had done with the material and offered him complete access to the recording sessions from 35 years ago, including rare and unreleased vocal parts. The original studio reels where sent to Gaudi’s studio in London in 2005 and work began.

After two years of work, Gaudi released a first album, Dub Qawwali. This album blends organic and digital dub stylings with original vocals from Pakistan’s beloved Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The result is a moving body of work that respectfully brings Khan’s Qawwali songs together with Jamaican dub via superb 21st century studio techniques. Dub Qawwali is a celebration of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s life and was released on Six Degrees Records in August 2007, marking the 10-year anniversary of his death. The followup album, Dub Qawwali Remixes was released a year later.

To get a taste of these albums (and buy them), click over to https://www.beatport.com/, then type “Dub Qawwali” into the search box. When the results window below changes, click on “Releases” on the left to see both albums. You can play a preview of the albums directly, or simply add them to the playlist in the player at the top of the window.

~ Enjoy.