Album: The Cosmic Game
Artist: Thievery Corporation
Born: 18th Street Lounge, Washington, D.C.
Released: February 2005
Genre: Downtempo
Thievery Corporation provided the soundtrack to my time in many backpacker hostel bars while I was travelling the globe in 2005/06 and that's probably why I have such a soft spot for their music. There's something very international about their sound, in the way it mixes different genres and musical styles from around the world to create a highly listenable form of lounge music. I had a particular weakness for "chill out" electronic music in my 20s, and would often play records by Groove Armada and Nightmares On Wax at parties, though I now find their music is not really substantial enough to be listened to attentively. The Cosmic Game achieves what few records in this genre have managed (Air's Moon Safari and Nitin Sawhney's Beyond Skin being two exceptions), which is to reward both passive and active listening. While most lounge or chill out music is often associated with partygoers looking to zone out, Thievery Corporation have always sought to raise awareness of various political issues, from American foreign policy to the role of the IMF in imposing austerity. Rob Garza and Eric Hilton (the duo at the core of the group) regularly team up with left-wing musicians, like Manu Chao, to get their message across and on The Cosmic Game they brought in some high-profiles collaborators to achieve their vision.
Reggae singer Notch performs on one of the album's best tracks, Amerimacka, which the group also performed live on California radio station KCRW (see video above) in 2011 with Sleepy Wonder and Ras Puma, who also appear on tracks like Overstand and False Flag Dub on the groups Culture of Fear LP. Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips features on The Cosmic Game's opening track, Marching The Hate Machines (Into The Sun), which like other album tracks (notably Holographic Universe) mixes psychedelic space rock with downtempo beats. This is one of several anti-war songs on the record ("so let's start by / making it clear / who's the enemy here"), many of which are concentrated in the first half of the LP, including Warning Shots, Amerimacka and Revolution Solution. The latter features a brilliant vocal performance by Perry Farrell (frontman of Jane's Addiction), whose singing I normally find mannered and irritating, but here his reggae style and anti-capitalist lyrics ("the toil of the many goes to the fortunate few") are convincing. David Byrne also appears on The Heart's A Lonely Hunter (the title of a wonderful Carson McCullers novel), which is set to African rhythms. In addition, Thievery Corporation take the listener on excursions to India (the spaced-out Indian singing of Gunjan on The Supreme Illusion is especially memorable) and Latin America, fusing trip hop, bossa nova and dub in a blissed out finale.
Thievery Corporation provided the soundtrack to my time in many backpacker hostel bars while I was travelling the globe in 2005/06 and that's probably why I have such a soft spot for their music. There's something very international about their sound, in the way it mixes different genres and musical styles from around the world to create a highly listenable form of lounge music. I had a particular weakness for "chill out" electronic music in my 20s, and would often play records by Groove Armada and Nightmares On Wax at parties, though I now find their music is not really substantial enough to be listened to attentively. The Cosmic Game achieves what few records in this genre have managed (Air's Moon Safari and Nitin Sawhney's Beyond Skin being two exceptions), which is to reward both passive and active listening. While most lounge or chill out music is often associated with partygoers looking to zone out, Thievery Corporation have always sought to raise awareness of various political issues, from American foreign policy to the role of the IMF in imposing austerity. Rob Garza and Eric Hilton (the duo at the core of the group) regularly team up with left-wing musicians, like Manu Chao, to get their message across and on The Cosmic Game they brought in some high-profiles collaborators to achieve their vision.
Reggae singer Notch performs on one of the album's best tracks, Amerimacka, which the group also performed live on California radio station KCRW (see video above) in 2011 with Sleepy Wonder and Ras Puma, who also appear on tracks like Overstand and False Flag Dub on the groups Culture of Fear LP. Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips features on The Cosmic Game's opening track, Marching The Hate Machines (Into The Sun), which like other album tracks (notably Holographic Universe) mixes psychedelic space rock with downtempo beats. This is one of several anti-war songs on the record ("so let's start by / making it clear / who's the enemy here"), many of which are concentrated in the first half of the LP, including Warning Shots, Amerimacka and Revolution Solution. The latter features a brilliant vocal performance by Perry Farrell (frontman of Jane's Addiction), whose singing I normally find mannered and irritating, but here his reggae style and anti-capitalist lyrics ("the toil of the many goes to the fortunate few") are convincing. David Byrne also appears on The Heart's A Lonely Hunter (the title of a wonderful Carson McCullers novel), which is set to African rhythms. In addition, Thievery Corporation take the listener on excursions to India (the spaced-out Indian singing of Gunjan on The Supreme Illusion is especially memorable) and Latin America, fusing trip hop, bossa nova and dub in a blissed out finale.
Comments