Thievery Corporation

My wife listens to a lot of ambient music — stuff you’d hear on Big Sonic Chill — and it’s kind of rubbed off on me over the years. I tune in to Groove Salad a lot during the day while I’m writing. Most of the music is soothing without being vapid and provides a nice backdrop for contemplation.

Lately I’ve been listening to Thievery Corporation (link is to Wikipedia because, unlike every music web site on the planet, it doesn’t have an annoying Flash intro), specifically, 2005’s The Cosmic Game. It draws from many different influences and features some surprising guest appearances. Most notable among these are vocal contributions by Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), Perry Farrell, and David Byrne. The Farrell piece is particularly impressive. His voice is dripping in reverb and, as always, he’s struggling to stay in key, but Farrell delivers a subtle performance that fits the song beautifully.

The other guest on this album that I’m familiar with is Frank Orrall, the leader of Poi Dog Pondering, a once-excellent band out of Hawai’i (then Austin) that over the past decade has relocated to Chicago and transformed itself into something that I find completely inaccessible. Orrall is the lead singer for Poi Dog, but before that, he played drums in a band called Hat Makes the Man that my wife used to see occasionally around Honolulu back in the day. Imagine my surprise, then, when I leafed through the Thievery Corporation CD booklet and discovered that Orrall contributes not vocals, but percussion work.

Orrall is an extremely talented musician. It’s good to hear his work again in a format that I don’t find unbearable. Reminds me just how much I miss the old Poi Dog…

On this day…

• 2007: What, Me Stubborn? — Although I confess, I could get used to the title “Heavenly Master.”

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