Pick a Piper – All Her Colours
Pick a Piper have been making some serious waves lately with their excellent debut self-titler out yesterday on Mint. Spin, MTV, Exclaim, they’re all singing its praises. There’s no question that “All Her Colours” is one of our favourite tracks of the year. This, coupled with the fact that founding members Brad Weber is also the drummer for Caribou made us think that he would be perfect for our ongoing Silent Shoutout series, where we ask some of our favourite artists to choose their recent favourites. His picks are wonderful no-brainers for this percussive-minded world-music aficionado. It is of course tailored to the Silent Shout listening public, so there are a few dark electro gems in the mix as well.

The album’s available from Mint now. Pick A Piper is on tour in Ontario and Quebec throughout April, check the tour dates on the concert calendar.

Xavier Leon is a dude from Montreal who writes pretty manic, left-field type tracks. They can be pretty dark but some have a lot of brightness to them as well. This one I feel meets halfway in the middle.

I LOVE this track. Youngteam is a new producer/guitarist from NYC who I think will go on to do really great things. He’s had tons of attention already through electronic blogs like Dipped and Dollars and I’m curious about what he’ll do next. He also makes me excited about guitar again.

LLLL – Oddness

Nods to Japan’s LLLL for this moody track fronted by high-register breathy female vocals. Even throws in a really unexpected super-pitched up free jazz sax bit in the middle.

Their description works best! “London-based producer DrumTalk flips the Asiko rhythms of Ghana’s Mpese Mpese Band – bridging the gap between Hackney and Accra. The original track came out in Nigeria in 1986.”
From the incredible Sofrito label.

Chancha Via Circuito is an Argentinian producer who seems pretty well known to me, but then again I’m always surprised how few people actually seem to know his music. The genre is called “cumbia digital” but I don’t feel like that description does his music any justice compared to the rest of the new cumbia artists out there. Again, someone else’s write-up seems to explain it well: “dreamy, neo-primitive mix of chopped-up pan flutes, folk guitar, Coke-bottle percussion, and booming, electronically treated drums– an almost shamanistic sound that carries its own landscape: underbrush, riverbanks, campfires.” His arrangements are incredibly sparse for the most part, but you never feel like anything is missing. It feels like each element is very carefully crafted to its fullest extent. This isn’t necessarily my favourite track, it’s hard to choose. So I’d recommend listening to this entire EP (all on soundcloud) to get a better idea.

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