The Official Chart for October 11
I hear grime has been having something of a revival recently, but I haven’t been paying a huge amount of attention to it, at least not compared to 2004/5. I remember back then hearing Logan Sama on the radio playing a track featuring Shola Ama and saying something like “Shola Ama on a grime track? This music must be getting respectable.” I guess if Sama’s doing a mix for Fabric, then grime must be getting respectable again. It’s a good mix, too, ominous beats and energetic MCing. It’s maybe, though, a little bit one-note? Perhaps I’m just romanticizing the grime of ten years ago, but what I remember making it so exciting was its omnivorous influences.
Another genre I don’t really keep up with is contemporary jazz. Jazz has developed to the point where most of its top practitioners are pursuing the development of increasingly fine nuances; not a bad thing, but a genuine challenge to keep track of. So I can’t pretend to say anything about the contribution John Law’s New Congregation is making to the development of jazz with These Skies in Which We Rust, or indeed why I happened to listen to it. It’s melodic charms are obvious, though.
When I thought it would be funny to take over the old Radio 1 chart’s 4pm Sunday slot for these regular music posts, I didn’t take into account the reason why the official charts have moved, namely, that the music industry has switched to releasing new music on Fridays. This means that when I write these posts there’s usually new music out that I haven’t listened to yet, or at least not in sufficient detail to write anything interesting about. Case in point this week, there’s a whole Selena Gomez album I haven’t heard. I would be astounded if I didn’t write about it next week, though.