Music Monday: Orchestre National de Barbès, Shining, Yazoo & More…

More music picks for your Monday, co-curated by Rob & Widge. If you like what you hear, use the links provided to snag it for yourself from Amazon. Doing so through us gives us kickbacks, and those help pay for stuff like more bandwidth. And also so we can buy more music.

Just note: any prices we quote are accurate as of when this post goes up.

First up, a band I heard in some WOMAD coverage from 2010–World of Music Arts & Dance, Peter Gabriel‘s world music festival that tried to tour here and nobody “got it”–it’s Orchestre National de Barbès, which gives you the biggest gumbo of musical styles you’ve heard in a while, I would guess. They are based out of France. This is a live acoustic performance of “Chorfa”:

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That’s taken from their 2010 album, Rendez-vous Barbès. It’s, naturally, an import. But excellent news: it’s an MP3 bundle for just $9. Lovely.

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Next from the realm of Widge’s iPod, where things magically materialize and make him say “WTF was that?”…it’s Shining. They’re a Norwegian band that are probably as far removed from L’Orchestre above as you can get. And, according to Wikipedia (which is always right)–they started off as an acoustic jazz quartet? I’m…wait, what? If you don’t know, you will in a moment. This is a song with one of my favorite titles in recent memory, “In The Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster.” It’s not from their album of the same name, but from the album after that, Grindstone. Of course it is.

The album is available only as an MP3 bundle and that’s just $9. A small price to pay for that much sonic insanity.

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And now here’s Rob with something completely different. It’s Yazoo and the opening track, “Don’t Go,” from their 1982 debut album Upstairs at Eric’s. As Rob says, “A great pop dance throwdown from the 80s!” Indeed. This is on YouTube as “Rare Live,” so I can’t speak to that. Not really sure the source either, but it wasn’t last week, that’s for certain.

You can buy the album on CD–the 2008 remaster–for less than $7 and less than the MP3 bundle. Go figure.

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We stick with Rob and the new album from John Cale, Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood. As Rob says, “A great melodic record from the former Velvet Underground member.” Here’s the music video for “Face to the Sky.”

The difference in price between CD and MP3 is negligible, so go however the spirit moves you.

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And these last two, Rob has the first one of those as well. He throws your way The Soft Pack. “A nice outfit form San Diego. They used to be called The Muslims. They make wonderful dreamy indie sounds.” This is “Saratoga,” the opening track to their new album, Strapped.

Following that, there’s Seven Lions, about whom I know little to nothing. I think his track “Below Us” pounced on me while I was browsing Spotify…and now I see he has a self-titled EP coming out this week. This is the track from that EP, “She Was,” featuring Birds of Paradise.

And if you’re interested in Strapped by The Soft Pack, you save $2 by going for the CD option.