“Smooth Day” by The Elements
Wednesday september 30th, 25 degrees Celsius…the sun is smiling down on gorgeous Sydney. The type of day that makes you want to loosen up your tie, escape from work and go mingle with the group of cute Sicilian tourists you ran into a few minutes ago while on your lunch break….
The track was originally composed for a television commercial for Clorox’s Brita brand of water filters in which people literally float through their days. The song was composed by Leonard Ian Dalsemer & Jason Paul Bonilla, also known as ‘The Elements’.
When the commercial aired in 2005, there was immediate interest in the song everyone was referring to as “the Brita song”. However, there was no publicly available information on the artists or the availability of the music. The online music community was buzzing for over a year with requests about the song.
Eventually people began to write letters to the Clorox company (which owns the Brita brand) asking about the song. The level of interest grew to such an extent that Clorox decided to use all the music from their commercials to produce a compilation album: “The Blue Sky Project”. Proceeds from the album went to various charities and inner city music programs in the San Franciso Bay Area.
A pulsating baseline, violins and some epic guitar riffs make this an incredibly uplifting song. Definitely one of my favorite compositions.
Here’s to everyone having a ‘Smooth Day’……L’Chaim!
Title: Smooth Day
Artist: The Elements
Album: The Blue Sky Project
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“Voce Vai Ver” by Joao Gilberto
Bossa is often described as music that “fills the heart”. On Voce Vai Ver, Joao Gilberto is able to undertake this task armed with just his voice and his guitar.
In fact he does so on the entire Voz e Violao album, although this is by no means a surprising feat for an artist with a catalog that’s littered with “classics”.
You don’t need to understand a single word of Portuguese to figure out that this song is about heartbreak. The pain is apparent in Joao’s tone and expressed through every guitar lick. The lyrics tell a tale of passion, unrequited love and eventually deep regret: the classic romantic tragedy. Sunset music at its finest….
Title: Voce Vai Ver
Artist: Joao Gilberto
Album: Joao Voz e Violao, 2000
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“Hell Is Around The Corner” by Tricky
Tricky’s 1995 debut, Maxinquaye was considered an instant Trip-Hop classic at a time when the genre was gaining a lot of momentum on the European scene with groups like Massive Attack.
Layered beats, dark soundscapes, unconventional vocals and another classic sample from Isaac Hayes (Ike’s Rap II) = “Hell is around the corner”.
Tricky’s originality is what makes him so ill. He navigates between rap, poetry and sometimes simply ‘talks’ on his records. The beauty stems from the fact that it’s all so effortless. I’ve always pictured him waking up in his home studio still half-drunk from the night before and stumbling into the recording booth to say the first thing that come to his mind…..somehow it all manages to make sense.
Let me take you down the corridors of my life.
And when you walk, do you walk to your preference
No need to answer ’till…
I take further evidence.
I seem to need a reference to get residence
A reference to your preference to say,
I’m a good neighbour, I trudge,
So judge me for my labour,
The bond on me ensures my good behavior…
Pretty clever way to address a class discrimination issue…did you catch that?
Martine Topley-Bird’s cool, detached vocals work perfectly with the music. She almost seems disinterested in the song: content with just throwing in an occasional ad-lib whenever ‘she feels like it’. She oozes confidence and seems aware that we are hanging on to her every word…but she keeps us waiting and doesn’t deliver a full line until about 2 minutes into the song…….…. what a tease…..but truth be told, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Title: Hell is around the corner
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Artist: Tricky
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Album: Maxinquaye, 1995
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“Underwater Love” by Smoke City
Smoke city began to develop somewhat of a cult following after “Underwater love” was featured in a ‘Levi’s Jeans’ tv commercial in 1997, a few months before the group released its first album “Flying Away”.
I really like the analogy used in the title of the song to draw a parallel between the overwhelming feeling of newfound love and the all consuming physical sensation of being well…..under water.
“This must be underwater love
The way I feel it slipping all over me”
“This is it, Underwater love
It is so deep, So beautifully liquid”
I find it really difficult to categorize or place a stylistic label on this song. The tempo is typical of trip-hop, the drums elements (shakers, brushes) of brazilian samba, the sound effects of electronica and there is a hiphop verse in there just for good measure. All this from a British band with a brazilian lead singer !!???! Nina Miranda is equally fluent in English and Portuguese and she navigates between the two almost playfully on this song.
Underwater love has been in every playlist I’ve created since the first time I heard it. I’ve never been able to resist the positive vibes emanating from the song….It always takes me somewhere happy…even sunny.
Title: Underwater Love
Artist: Smoke City
Album: Flying Away, 1997
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Ssidy is what my friends call me. I was born in Senegal of Malian parents (hence my Mali nationality). I grew up all over the place…Bamako, London, Accra, Cape Town, before I went to college in Miami and finally got a job in Sydney where I’ve been living since August 2008.
When I’m not working on The Timbuktu Project, or as a financial analyst (full-time), you can usually catch me somewhere on a football pitch or involved in anything music related. Music is everything to me. Whatever mood I am in, there is always a song that captures the moment perfectly. Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes around me will probably attest to this: I listen to all types of stuff.....possibly because no single genre holds enough songs to quench that musical thirst of mine... 