Deeper Into Music Blog

Cumbia Beat Vol 1

I discovered this one while randomly searching through some new releases at an online retailer of mp3s.  It struck me immediately as a fetching, welcomed addition to the history of Western guitar-centric rock rhythms filtered though Peruvian tastes, sensibilities and musical flair. It’s a collision of cultures – shocking at the time, but now seen as an important catalyst.

In 1968 a few select folk-oriented bands began introducing electric guitars and effects: wah-wahs, delays, over-driven fuzz-tones into what was until then a primarily acoustic Southern hemisphere tradition: Cumbia, drum-based with folk guitars, sometimes an accordion and other percussive instruments. It must have been like Dylan plugging in at Newport.

Cumbia, according to Wikipedia, “ is a Colombian musical style and folk dance that is considered to be representative of Colombia, along with Vallenato. Cumbia originated from the Caribbean coast of eastern Colombia, with folkloric variants in Panama.”  It conjures tropical jungles and ritual celebrations in its intricate poly-rhythms.

Tunes by Los Beta 5, Los Mirlos, Los Orientales de Paramonga, Los Sander’s de Ñaña, and Los Wembler’s de Iquitos, recorded between 1968 and 1976, were added to the Deeper Into Music playlist and will pop up throughout the regular playlist.  This is trilling, pulsating music that even 40 years after its recording still throbs with life and passion.

The example below begins with La danza de la tortuga by Los Beta 5, a rather conventional entry, followed by the more psychedelic Lobos al escape by Los Orientales de Paramonga.

Cumbia Examples

What do you think?  Should Deeper feature more “world music”?

I’ve spent some time recently tweaking both the website and the sound of Deeper Into Music. Here’s a brief overview of some of the major changes.

First, I’ve upgraded the encoders and that seems to have cleaned up the sound (to my ears at least) quite a bit on the mp3 streams.  Can you tell a difference?  Leave a comment.

I’ve also upgraded the Song Information pages quite a bit.  They now contain information about all albums from the selected artists as well as a listing of all tunes featured on Deeper Into Music by that same artist.  You get to the song information pages by clicking on the info icon presented in several places across the main Deeper site pertain to songs and artists.  Here’s the symbol that indicates there’s a Song Information paged linked: .

On the front page I’ve added some day-specific content.  There’s additional information about Vintage Deep Cuts, Sunday Spice Rack, and Request Tuesdays, for example – on specific days. Request Tuesdays is a new Deeper Into Music feature where request limits are relaxed allowing you to request more songs more frequently on Tuesdays.

For the techie server curious, I’ve added gzip compression to more items served and added more caching to static pages or content that’s infrequently updated.  This is becoming increasing important to organic search returns as Google is reported to now place a high premium on page load speed in their new indexing routines.

The Divine Comedy - New album coming in June 2010

I haven’t been neglecting the new music adds to Deeper; you can always find these music additions listed on the main site. One tune I’m particularly fond of is “At the Indie Disco” by The Divine Comedy.  Catchy and smile-inducing.  A new Divine Comedy album is slated for June 2010.

Finally, found via the Last 8 section, you can now display the entire playlist history for the last six months.  I plan to make these history pages feel better integrated into the site, but these down and dirty get the job the done.

It’s a pleasure to create this content for you and make it useful and entertaining.  I hope it is and I hope you’ll use the resources on the main site from time to time.

As always, I’m thrilled to hear your suggestions about how to make Deeper Into Music better.  Leave a comment below and leave one in the Guestbook.

Every week I add about 20-40 new tunes to Deeper Into Music.  Here’s a look at some of the more recent ones added towards the end of May 2010.

Nina Nastasia - On Leaving

First, Nina Nastasia’s “On Leaving” .  She’s a Los Angeles based minimalist singer-songwriter with an urgent direct voice that gives an unmistakable shape to her songs of longing, lost, transition and failed redemption.

The late UK DJ John Peel was a fan of Nina’s, booking no fewer than six live in-studio sessions with her.  That’s more than her current recording output.  New material appears from Nina a little too infrequently.  However, what does make appearance is of such high quality and is so well crafted that it’s worth the wait.  “On Leaving” was released in 2006.

This release is stripped bare, sparse and naked of adornments.  Joining Nina on this session is Jim White from Dirty Three on the tracks with drums.

Next, it’s the new single from Neil Hannon as the Divine Comedy.  Titled “At the Indie Disco,” it’s a light tease and wink to clubbers who flock to discos to hear 80s tunes by New Order or  .  One reviewer called it “a heady blast of nightclub nostalgia.” It’s from the forthcoming CD “Bang Goes The Knighthood”.  Catchy, infectious and immediately memorable, it’s a strum-along delight.

“I Was Made For Sunny Days” is the new offering from The Weepies.  There’s really nothing weepy about The Weepies beyond their name.  This US husband and wife duo of Deb Talan & Steve Tannen forge some amazing pop folk rock that’s intelligent and noteworthy.  Definitely intoxicating.

The above is from Weepies rehearsal and recording sessions.

See even more new adds to Deeper Into Music on the adds page (where else?)