Album Review: Hoka by Nahko + Medicine for the People

Album Name - Hoka

Artist - Nahko + Medicine for the People

Label - SideOneDummy Records

Year - 2016

Genre – Indie Rock, Fusion

Preference Rating (1- Hate, 2-Dislike, 3-Okay, 4-Like, 5-Love) – 3.7

Production Quality (1-Noise, 2-Home, 3-Standard 4-Profesional) - 4

Music Quality (1-Bad, 2-Novice, 3-Amature, 3- Professional, 5-Great) – 4

Hoka is the latest of the three studio albums from Nahko and Medicine for the People.  The album’s title comes from the Lakota expression, “Hoka Hey.” The popular understanding of the expression is, “today is a good day to die.” This is attributed to Crazy Horse before going in to battle, though some Lakota speakers say the expression really just means, “Let’s go”. Either way the expression has taken on the connotation of the Crazy Horse quote.  Nahko and Medicine for the People are an unusually eccentric Indie Rock-Fusion Band. If you listened to the music on Hoka without paying attention to the lyrics you would think you were listening to great new indie rock with varying flavors of reggae, Ska, world, hip-hop, R&B, and Native American music. Nahko and Medicine for the People see the band as agents of change in the world, as well as muses and up lifters to people. There is kind of a Mother Earth and Native American motif that runs through their music and makes them stand out from other Indie Rock and/or Fusion bands. The opening track ‘Grandfather’ sets the scene by leading the listener through a native influenced Earth ceremony. Then we have different voices bring us messages until the end of the album. The album is well put together and worth listening to if you enjoy any of the themes, or the kind of music, mentioned above.

Ressources:

• Nahko + Medicine for the People (http://nahko.com/) Artist website

Instrument of the Week! Theremin!

 

Ever want to play music without touching you instrument? If you have, at the moment the Theremin is pretty much your option. The Theremin was created by a Russian Physicist around 1919. His name was Lev Sergeyevich Termen. He moved to America and here was known as Léon Theremin. He patented his invention in 1928. It was used heavily in old SciFi and horror films to create some of those stereotypical eerie sounds. It was also used in the beach boys single “"Good Vibrations.” It has been used by musicians all over the world for playing instrumental, popular, and film music. There was a documentary about the Theremin and its inventor in 1995 called “Theremin An Electronic Odyssey.” The instrument is still popular and pops up all over the place, sometimes even on sitcoms like “The Big Bang Theory.” The instrument is made of a box like structure with two antennas. The straight and usually vertical antenna controls frequency (pitch). AS a hand gets closer to it, the pitch increases. The horizontal and usually hooped antenna controls amplitude (volume). The volume decreases when a hand is moved closer to that antenna. The sound is made by manipulating the distance between your hands and these antennas. The Theremin creates one sound at a time. Moog is in no small part responsible for the popularity of the Theremin. The Theremin was one of the very early electronic instruments. Moog was inspired by the Theremin in constructing their synthesizers and has sold both build your own Theremin kits as well as premade Theremins throughout their existence. Today Moog remains one of the most popular sources for Theremins, though there are many others. Some of these are Theremaniacs, PAiA Electronics, and Jaycar. Today the Theremin is used for all types of music and sound effects. Even though synthesizers can imitate the sounds created by the Theremin, the uniqueness and novelty is still wining plenty of converts.

Resources:

• Theremin Ted Talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/pamelia_kurstin_plays_the_theremin) Some songs on the Therein and talk to explained its use!
• Theremin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin) The Wikipedia page! Yeah yeah, I know…but hay its distilled knowledge. If it still bothers you just look at the resources they site.
• Theremin World (http://www.thereminworld.com/) Kind of a community and resources for the Theremin.
• Hoge Theremin (http://www.hoge-theremin.com/salon/hoge-what-is-a-theremin.html) A good introductory article.

 

 

 

The Internet Lies to You! And/or Ska Strikes Back?

I am mainly trying to talk about Ska in this article, but there is something important enough to mention from the title. The internet will and does lie to you constantly. Here are two quick examples, from Ska music, then I will continue to talk about Ska. First is you look at sites like bandcamp (http://bandcamp.com/) or music genre list (http://www.musicgenreslist.com/) you will gain the knowledge that Ska is a sub-genre of Reggae. This is the furthest thing from the truth. Reggae actually comes from Ska. With that said, Reggae is its own thing and Ska is its own thing. They should be on the same level. They got rocksteady and other genres wrong too. Now you may be trying to tell me they just put Ska under reggae because not as many people listen to Ska, and the Ska people might look for it there. Even if this is the case, it shows and ignorance of the history and cultures associated with the music, and makes the people who do it look uninformed. It also spreads around bad concepts about music. If you are going to be a music website get it right. Don’t misread me I understand people make mistakes out of ignorance, I am sympathetic to this as I most undoubtedly will do the same. But bandcamp at least is huge and enough people go to that site and have music on that site, that it’s inexcusable. It’s not like there is only one guy writing something down. The music genre list website has the same problem as Wikipedia they probably get bad information from the public. They are still not helping the problem. The second example comes from the Christian Ska band Five Iron Frenzy. There was an internet rumor started that their trumpet player Brad had died. Now Brad was alive and well. The band thought it was fitting to write a song for their, not so departed, trumpet player. The song is titled ‘The Untimely Death of Brad.’ It goes without saying that trumpet on that song is played by none other than Brad. The reason that I am regaling with this story is not to punish band camp or music genre list. It is also not to praise Five Iron frenzy for their superb use of sarcasm. The purpose is to bring it to your attention that not everything on the internet is true, even things from trusted sources. We all do our best, and fail from time to time. So don’t take anything from one person, explore multiple points of view for yourself and keep an open mind. After all no one is wrong (or right) all the time

Now Ska mind you is a style of music that originated in Jamaica sometime around the end of the 1950’s. “It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat.” The walking baseline is quite often used in baroque music and jazz, both of which influenced Ska. Ska also was influenced and arose out of other styles of music like Caribbean mento, calypso, and rhythm and blues. Ska is often unique for its inclusion of a horn section (most often trumpet, saxophone, and trombone) in addition to regular pop instruments. Ska is usually divided into waves. There are currently three waves of Ska. Although, some people talk about, anticipate, and pray for forth and fifth waves of Ska. The First wave of Ska is that early Ska that came out of Jamaica in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Groups like The Skatalites, Derrick Morgan, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, and Prince Buster are good examples of First Wave Ska. The Second wave of Ska is often called ‘English 2 Tone’ or just ‘2 Tone’ Ska. It developed in Britain in the 1970’s. 2 Tone Ska combined Punk with Jamaican Ska rhythms. It was faster and harder than first wave Ska. Bands who are examples of 2 Tone/Second Wave Ska are The English Beat (or The Beat), Madness, Specials, and the Selecter. Third Wave Ska came mostly of the United States. Third Wave came out of the American Punk scene in the 1980’s. The genre really came to its own and enjoyed commercial success in the 1990’s. Third wave Ska continued the trend with harder and faster music than its two earlier waves. Bands typical of third wave Ska are Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, The Aquabats, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, and Goldfinger. There hasn’t been a lot of development with Ska since the 1990’s. Though many Third Wave Ska bands are still together and making music. One sizable development was that towards the end of the 1990’s there was a fairly huge explosion of Christian Ska music. For the most part this was Third Wave Ska with Christian themes and band members. Strangely enough many of them were quite good. Some bands worth mentioning in this movement are Five Iron Frenzy, The O.C. Supertones, and BUCK Enterprises.

Fast-forward till almost today. There are still a lot of third wave band keeping Ska alive. There are even some new smaller acts creeping up here and there. I have heard unverified rumors from several different people that Ska is starting to make a comeback. I know there is a lot of Nostalgia out there. A Nerdcore artist named MC Lars wrote a great song called “This Gigantic Robot Kills.” The Track and the video are filled with Ska and 90’s nostalgia. I certainly don’t know if Ska is making a comeback or not. What I do know is I have discovered at least one new good Ska band. The Anchorage is from Salt Lake City, UT. The sound like Queens of the Stone Age if they were to become a Ska band. On top of that they have a killer horn section! 

Just so some of you don’t kill me. I have not mentioned all there is to know about Ska. I have left out thousands of bands. I have left out the subcultures who have developed around this music. And for the most part I have left out Ska’s connections to other musical Styles. If I have left out your favorite element of Ska music please post in the comments below. And let us all keep an ear out for the next wave of Ska!

Resources:

• Ska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ska)The Wikipedia page! Yeah yeah, I know…but hay its distilled knowledge. If it still bothers you just look at the resources they site.
• Origins of Ska (http://jamaicansmusic.com/learn/origins/ska) History overview
• History of Ska (http://thereggaskas.com/useful-information/history-of-ska/) History Overview #2
• The Origins of Ska, Reggae and Dub Music (http://www.potentbrew.com/skaregdu.html) History Overview #3
• The History of Ska (http://sonic.net/~raj/disciples/history.html) History Overview #4