My new podcast : Gentlemen, Scotch and Song
I just started a new podcast with my good friend Jared Gallardo who I also worked with on Jellyfish 12000 project. The show is called “Gentlemen, Scotch and Song”. We talk about music, wear smoking jackets and generally behave like fine gentlemen while sharing music that we have dug up.
Go listen and let me know what you think :
Malajube – Labyrinthes
Malajube - Labyrinthes. Great music continues to come out of Montreal. Vive la belle province!
Over the last several weeks, I have been obsessing more than a bit over the album from Montreal artists Malajube. Their 2006 album Trompe-l’oeil was my favorite album of the year so I’ve been looking forward to their new release Labyrinthes.
This record is not quite as accessible as Trompe-l’oeil but has longer song forms with complicated, twisting elements. Several of the songs deal with religion. The province of Quebec is about 83% Catholic and Malajube do not seem to be big fans of organized religion. When I lived in Montreal I met countless people who were not happy to see a church on their frozen horizon that was built from the money and effort of “saints” who they felt were manipulated into increasing the size of the empire. The song I’m going to share is bien a propos.
Statue of St. Ursula (Ursule en francais)
Julien Mineau is the main chanteur of the group and comes from Ste-Ursule in Quebec. It is from this saint (Ursula in english language) that we get the name of the track I’m going to share. I, along with Julien, find the fascination in Quebec (and much of the Catholic world) with the saints to be strange. The first half of the song is structured melodically almost like a hymn or a recitation of a prayer. Then the chorus tears itself loose into a strong melodic line which delivers home Julien’s message of saints and religion.
Cold, cold Ste-Ursule. This is one reason I'm glad I don't live in Quebec anymore.
This track is in French, but don’t be afraid. Listen to it first and then down below you can read my English translation. I have wanted to do more translation in 2009 and even though this is small, is it something. At least I put to practice a bit of the great material on translation from Hofstadter’s Le Ton Beau de Marot.
Here’s the opening track “Ursuline”. If you like it, please go buy the record.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ydmyufe3zmyOr follow this link to save it (don’t right-click): http://www.mediafire.com/file/ydmyufe3zmy/01-malajube-ursuline.mp3
Ursuline (en francais) :
Donne-moi la force d’affronter
Le mal et les sorts
Mon squelette et ma chair
Ensevelis sous la terre
J’ai souffert, tu souffriras
Ne laisse pas tomber les bras
Je serai toujours avec toi
Aucun homme, ni aucune religion
Ne viendront sous ma robe x2
Pour brûler en enfer
Ursuline (english)
Give me the strength to confront
Evil and the fates
My skeleton and my flesh
Buried under the ground
I have suffered, you will suffer
Don’t allow your arms to drop
I will always be with you
No man, nor any religion
Will come under my clothes x2
To burn in hell
Burgersmoke 