Thievery Corporation - The Richest Man In Babylon
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Thievery CorporationEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-10-01
Music Label: Eighteenth Street
Soundtracks:
- Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes
- Facing East
- The Outernationalist
- Interlude
- Omid (Hope)
- All That We Perceive
- Simple Histoire (A Simple Story)
- Meu Destino (My Destiny)
- Exilio (Exile)
- From Creation
- The Richest Man In Babylon
- Liberation Front
- The State Of The Union
- Until The Morning
- Resolution
Free Music Notes for The Richest Man In Babylon
Free Music Review: transcendence
Hit: 5 Stars
I'd always understood that music (and possibly sex) was all about transcendence: trying to rise above the everyday and feel the "spiritual". This is why a particular piece of music can hit us in just the right place to move our body and our soul; why we can forget ourselves and our environment, why our bodies feel compelled to dance during a song that speaks to us in just the right way.
I'd never been a fan of "downbeat" or "electronica" or however you would describe the genre that the boys from Thievery Corporation turn out: not through active dislike, more through ignorance than anything else. I was given this disc, recently, and I'm hooked.
Eclectic is maybe the best word to describe this album: whether it's the collection of startling vocalists, each of whom could sustain an album in their own right, or the heavenly mishmash of musical styles and rhythms, or indeed the languages that float out to you over this CD's 57 minutes (English, French, Farsi, Spanish, and I suspect, Portuguese): vocalists, styles and languages collected from around the world.
Maybe this album's greatest strength is the perfect matching of infectious, killer-dancefloor rhythms to soaring melodic line (the rhythm to move your body, the melody to move your soul).
I realise now, that even though I love this album, for those who are not familiar with the work of TC, maybe this doesn't tell you anything concrete. Because I am not very knowledgable in this genre, I find it hard to describe influences. However, the CD speaks to me in a way that Bjork can speak to me (the appearance of fellow-Icelander Emiliana Torrini on two of the tracks may help this); in a way that the best world music can speak to me (with the compelling force of Algerian and Latin instrumentation, melody and beats); in a way that the best Britpop (think Radiohead and the Charlatans) can infect my being, can get me up and dancing, as well as lying, introspective and comatose, on the couch.
My favourite track would be hard to pick: maybe "Meu Destino", which mixes pure pop hooks with Latin beats, and a voice of heavenly fluidity from Patrik de Santos. But every track is a polished and shining gem: each is multi-layered, and it's clear that the boys have spent many hours getting the mix (in the broadest sense) just right.
I'm not sure how helpful this review is, but I felt compelled to share my feelings about the first CD in years to actually have me dancing around my lounge (like some kind of private rave).
Some journalist wag wrote of Cocteau Twins' accomplished and ethereal blend of post-punk and imcomprehensible Scottish babbling "Blue Bell Knoll" album from 1988: "When you die, if you open your eyes and you're not listening to this music, you're heading to the wrong place". It is the same with "The Richest Man in Babylon": music to take you (yes, even this atheist) to heaven.
The Richest Man In Babylon Poster
Rob Garza and Eric Hilton consider it their most introspective work to date. Existing somewhere between rock, dub, psychedelic, Latin, and electronic music, this 2002 album finds the duo elevating their signature sound with more contemplative and thought-provoking songwriter. The jewel case is housed in a slipcase along with a 40-page black & white photo booklet. Eighteenth Street Lounge. 2002.Thievery Corporation's Eric Hilton and Rob Garza have always treated the line between acoustic and electronic music as a drunken sailor might, unpredictably falling on one side or the other with equal frequency. By this measure, The Richest Man in Babylon is their soberest effort to date, striding confidently into jazz, soul, world beat, and other styles with a direct, reverential approach. The band's last record, Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi, featured a set of classic jazz tunes unadorned with remixes or reinterpretation. But the songs on Babylon are originals, incorporating not just jazz but Afro-beat, Brazilian dance, Persian and Indian music, reggae, and psychedelia, all while making expert use of new and old collaborators like Sleepy Wonder, Lou Lou, and Shinehead. Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini makes an instant impression on the first track, "Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes," her voice freeing the song's melody and structure with just a few hypnotic bars. It's hard to call this an electronic record at all; even their dub-influenced tracks miss a certain studio sheen, as if Hilton and Garza simply waded into a sweltering Jamaican beach party and hit record. But while it misses the ambient, ethereal edge that made The Mirror Conspiracy a downtempo classic, Babylon satisfies with organic energy and tasteful eclecticism. --Matthew Cooke
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