Africa vol. 1

http://8tracks.com/delaroche/africa-vol-1

Not much to say about this one except that I suggest you break out your lighters for it. It's going to be a ride.

http://8tracks.com/delaroche/africa-vol-1

Tracklisting:

Upper Internationals - Dankasa
Apagya Show Band - Ma Nserew Me
Boy Ge Mendes - Cumbia Ietu
Vieux Farka Toure - Slow Jam (live at The Thornbury Theatre)
Angelique Kidjo - Out of Africa
Nana Matias - Pays Sol
Etran Finitawa - Ndiiren
Cesaria Evora - Pe Di Boi
Ambabutho - Sikelela

No one can serve two masters

http://8tracks.com/delaroche/no-man-can-serve-two-masters

Delight and I once had a conversation about whether or not it was possible to love more than one person at a time. To be in love. I was on the side that you can. She wasn't. I can't remember what out points were. Mine especially. I probably didn't have a firm stance. It was just something that although I couldn't put concretely into words it wasn't something I could go along with.

I hadn't thought about it since. Until tonight. I had just finished putting together the previous post and I needed to release that excess stress. Scouring my collection, then sitting hunched over an extended period of time is hard. The writing especially. The words just don't come that effortlessly. I have to sit at the muse's feet and wait, and wait, and wait.

So when that all comes to pass I like to stand, stretch, and listen to silence. I went out the back and sat on our new old wicker chair under a dim light and stared out at the street as no cars passed by. I was at a certain silence. I was at that point where I could feel not being either happy or sad. Just empty. And light. And it hit me. I knew why I believed that we can be in love with more than one person at a time.

Love is boundless. It's not simply one thing. Any person we claim to give love to isn't the same love we claim to give another person. We understand this in the way we love friends, family, and a significant other. Especially the love we have for family compared to a partner. Of course, I did say at the beginning of this that it was about the being in love type of love. But that's the point. There are varying degrees of love, like color. But it's easier to distinguish yellow from red than it is brick from burgundy.

When thinking about past lovers it'd be pretty hard to say that you loved anyone of them exactly the same. I would even say that if you said you loved each of them the same that it would be insulting to their person. As if you didn't look at each of them individually. As if you loved them as the culmination of the same experiences, thoughts, feelings and ideas.

Being in love with that person is not being in love with this person.

The biggest problem is monogamy. This isn't an argument against monogamy. In fact, if you say you're in a monogamous relationship then that's what you should be doing. Some people reading this might think this could be used as an excuse to cheat. Especially considering that we live in a very monogamous society. Any idea of loving another in such a way conjures up fears of losing that partner or being cheated on. But that's a different matter altogether. That isn't love. That is possession. But you can't own another person's memories and their feelings. You can only share some of their moments. And monogamy is the moment by moment choice of sharing moments with that one person.

This is about love and how infinite it is. And how infinite people are.

And this is about how we want to love each other. That never stops. But just as there are different ways of feeling love, there are different ways of showing that love. Know what love to show.

Show that love.

http://8tracks.com/delaroche/no-man-can-serve-two-masters

Tracklisting:

Agent Ribbons - Buries with You
Sandwitches - Marry Me
Best Coast - Boyfriend
Jordan O'Jordan - Little Finger
Bare Wires - I Love You Tonight
Unwed Teenage Mothers - Do You Wanna Be My Girl
The Manhattans - That New Girl
Ty Karim - You Really Made It Good To Me
Jill Scott - He Loves Me
Nat King Cole - Brazilian Love Song ft. Bebel Gilberto
Eric Lau - Don't Let Them ft. Tosin
J*Davey - Everybody Touch It

Japan vol. 1

http://8tracks.com/delaroche/japan-vol-1

The start of a series of series highlighting music not just from Japan but anywhere music is played. I started with Japan because it was the first I'd delved into, it's what I'm most comfortable with, and I've got loads of it lying around my room. But it was KDVS's library that showed me just how widespread good music really is (geographically in this case). Not that I wasn't aware of the concept by the time I'd arrived at KDVS. In fact, I'd like to think I'd become fairly open thanks to my MD fam. But a friend once told me, "Anyone that listens to music passively hasn't heard music." And in my case reading about a red flower and knowing it is red is different from going out and looking at that same red flower and knowing it is red.

I'd understood the concept but I never actively sought something like Nigerian Afro-Beat from the 70's. I didn't actually know the world I'd be thrown into until that fateful day of my simply taking a chance. Honestly, I just judged the book by its cover. In fact that's my biggest secret. People have told me that they liked the music I'd played but really I'm shallow and judgemental and looked at the cool covers to decide whether it was worth giving a listen. Apparently it works; for others and myself.

The biggest surprise was that the music I was hearing wasn't all that different from what was played here in the US. Folks were funking it up all over the globe. They were rapping. They were making electronic music. They were distorting their guitars. They were doing it all. The changes were small. They added traditional elements and it was a wrap. And a world of difference it was by adding a rythmic chant. Or instead of creating a break beat with a drum bass and snare the sound of slapping water is used. Simply singing in a different language was all it took as I'm forced to think of the vocal only as an instruement and when I'm not thinking about the meaning behind the words, I can really think about the meaning behind the words. My imagination isn't bound by the rule that when a singer says tree I think of a rooted plant extending from the earth. Instead I hear the utterences and wonder is that pain for happiness they are expressing?

It was my story to create. The artists just asked me to step a little to the left and see the view from there.

So take a seat with me over here and let us see what we see as the series moves along.

http://8tracks.com/delaroche/japan-vol-1

Tracklisting:

Sparta Locals - Boku no Poppa
School Food Punishment - Snap
Emi Meyer - Teien
Midori - Chiharu no Koi
Tsushimamire - Ii Tempo Desu
GO!GO!7188 - Mayakashi no Sekai
METALCHICKS - Girls School
Akiko Hamada - Tsuki no Shizuku
Yuu Nakashima - Tenjyaki