Please talk about: "Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/nylpm/2005_05_01_nylpm_archive.html#111581074311602649

too bad her dad's dead.

I think it's a pose with arms-crossed and tanding aloof.

LOVE this song, it's one of my top ten favourites of the 80's.

Buffalo Stance Lyrics
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Buffalo Stance Lyrics

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Who's that gigolo on the street
With his hands in his pockets and his crocadile feet
Hanging off the curb, looking all disturbed
At the boys from home. They all came running
They were making noise, manhandling toys
That's the girls on the block with the nasty curls
Wearing padded bras sucking beers through straws
Dropping down their drawers, where did you get yours?

Gigolo, Huh, sukka?
Gigolo. Gigolo, Huh, sukka?

Chorus 1:

Who's looking good today?
Who's looking good in every way?
No style rookie
You better watch don't mess with me

Chorus 2:

No moneyman can win my love
It's sweetness that I'm thinking of.
We always hang in a Buffalo Stance
We do the dive every time we dance
I'll give you love baby not romance
I'll make a move nothing left to chance
So don't you get fresh with me

Get funky. Yeah Timmy.
Tell it like it is. Check out this DJ.

So you say you wanted money but you know it's never funny
When your shoes worn through and there's a rumble in your tummy
But you had to have style get a gold tooth smile
Put a girl on the corner so you can make a pile
Committed a crime and went inside
It was coming your way but you had to survive
When you lost your babe, you lost the race
Now you're looking at me to take her place.

Chorus 1

Smokin.' Not cokin.' Get funky sax.
Looking good, hanging with the wild bunch.
Looking good in a Buffalo Stance.
Looking good when it comes to the crunch
Looking good's a state of mind
State of mind don't look behind you
State of mind or you'll be dead
State of mind may I remind you
Bomb the Bass...rock this place!
What is he like? What's he like anway?
Yo' man what do you expect the guy's a gigolo man
You know I mean?

Chorus 2 (twice)

Wind on my face, sound in my ears
Water from my eyes, and you on my mind
As I sink, diving down deep...deeper into your soul.

Chorus 2 ...

*cocks an eye towards a looming Norwegian-derived storm*

Send Neneh Cherry polyphonic ringtone to your cell phone

Couldn't I just send her to my pants instead?

Thanks for posting the lyrics, I never could make out that "no style rookie" line.

http://img.textbookx.com/images/large/1X/157687091X.jpg

http://www.showstudio.com/projects/mgn/mgn_movies.html

and the song is Classic, Klassic and any other way you wanna spell it, always makes me smile and ppl dance when I play it

and Alex in NYC is right in saying Neneh generally is brilliant

btw, has anyone actually come out hating the song yet?

Geoff Barrow (Portishead) did a couple of tracks on Homebrew too.

And being Neneh has done stuff with The Slits, and Gangstarr was featured on Homebrew also, we really could do a six degrees of Neneh thing.

This is sort of creepy, because I got both of these songs from the iTunes store at the same time a couple of months ago - I had both of them stuck in my head and hadn't head either in years.

I think of Buffalo Stance as a urban hippie-esque dance song based mostly around samples that tried to cross over to the Hip-Hop crowd, but came off as a more black version of Groove is in the Heart.

I also differentiate greatly between mid 80's and late 80's urban music thanks to the invention of Emu's sp1200.

Oran "Juice" Jones had the crazy gansterrific persona. I think my favorite part of The Rain might be ad libs at the end. "You're just a squirrel looking for nut!"

He produced (or co?) the first Sugababes record, no?

I was obsessed with Neneh during my teenage years. OBSESSED. I would gawk at the cd booklet for an hour while listening to the record...

then "7 seconds " was brilliant.
wasn't "trout "with michael (REM) stipe ?

It takes some courage to do a blank-verse rap like the "Smokin', no cokin'" section, then going all Tracy Ullman with the imitation cockney accents.

makes me yearn for a nostalgic look back into the early 90's.
cross colors.
fades.
an urban youth i didn't have.
and i STILL love this song...

-- hstencil (hstenc!...), May 19th, 2005 11:42 AM. (hstencil) (link)

Read: I am aware that her dad is a notable jazz musician and would like to show off this fact.

In the summer of '89 this, "Me, Myself & I," and all those wonderful Fine Young Cannibals seemed to herald a real Daisy Age. I don't hear the song enough to get tired of it. The synth squiggle-hook is marvelous, and so is the bit about the gigolo, and almost everything about the chorus. So, ok, I'll say classic.

The followup, "Kisses On the Wind," is not as memorable but for some reason is a better song, if that makes sense.

"Wot is 'ee loike!"

Nenah retreated from music when she contracted Lyme disease...I think Daryl Hall also had lyme disease...I don't think John Oates did...

the phrase "Raw Like Sushi" was borrowed from Big Daddy Kane...

Benjamin Diamond covered "The Rain", sans the end rap (which really makes the original: "my first thought was to pull a Rambo on ya..but instead, I chilled...yeah, that's right...I chilled")

I was in Canada and was hanging out with them.

Stepdad!

'In the summer of '89 this, "Me, Myself & I," and all those wonderful Fine Young Cannibals seemed to herald a real Daisy Age.'

Yes, when you look at a year end list for '89, Neneh and FYC stand out as sort of a last great vintage 80s pop which i can't think of an equivalent of in the early 90s. They are "so '89" in the best way!

Oran also had a deal with Def Jam. He was part of Russel Simmon's plan to diversify the DJ roster. IOW his cross over success was directly based on the efforts of DJ's promo engine...

I'd love to hear an album singularly focused on the notes in this song, and mixed by a pizza inspired Arthur Baker.

The video is proto-Adobe/Happy-Birthday-MySpace-greeting-gif-from-obscure-high-school-acquaintance-vibes to the fullest.

Major poultry flourishes with its McLaren and Miami passages.

I THINK WE ALL AGREE THIS IS CLASSIC AMIRITE ELSE I'LL START A POLL WITH SALT N PEPA'S PUSH IT AND IT WON'T BE PRETTY

Okay, Geir don't spoil it this time, thanx. Really, please.

Gigalo!

WAAAAGH! wik-wik-WAAAAGH!

whatever happened to neneh cherry? i don't even remember an attempt at a follow-up song.

she had several other good tunes iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymIprE2AXdg

oh yeah! okay, i do remember kisses on the wind.

and who among us can forget "manchild"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U7_19kWuDs

Would this be called proto-trip hop? I love the Raw Like Sushi album, I only discovered it after the fact but I do remember the Buffalo Stance video as a child. "Kisses on the Wind" is also the best madonna song not sung by madonna I have ever heard. Is that why people called Neneh the "Black Madonna?" I always thought it was Jody Watley.

Anyway I do like Neneh's later stuff. Even the stuff with Tricky.

people called neneh cherry the "black madonna"?!?

From a fan page:

Madonna
When releasing Raw like Sushi the media crowned Neneh as Black Madonna. Today at the question whether this title has been adequate she answers: "I don't think so, she is more ambitious and a harder worker than I am...and she's got a lot more money than me as well (laughs)..."

But Kisses on the Wind sounds like "True Blue/Who's That Girl" madonna as far as the instrumental is concern.

I went through a phase in 2006 when my metabolism required one daily dose of "Kisses On the Wind."

Has it been sampled much? That guitar line and squiggly bit are so iconic

Would this be called proto-trip hop?

she was lookin' good, hangin' with the wild bunch (aka massive attack), so yes.

"Kisses on the Wind" was so my jam, man

also: rowr

massive attack, smith & mighty remixes of 'manchild':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqEFi35vSo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKXuVzPWLlk

(s&m mix includes a k-disturbing moment halfway in where 'freestyler' by bomfunk mcs is foretold btw.)

this song is absolutely terrible. i thought revisiting it after 20 years would bring back pleasant memories, but jesus christ this is embarrassing on every level and completely irredeemable.

OUT

I remember when Buffalo Stance came out, I was listening to Rick Dees who said Buffalo Stance was the name of a haircut her friend invented.

huh, sucka?

her song with Youssou N'Dour, "7 Seconds", was basically a huge hit everywhere except the US in 1994.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMZ4SBYpeZw

"Buffalo Stance" owns, of course.

The best part of the song is the fadeout -- that delicious B-52-esque guitar riff going on and on while the keyboard hook pops in intermittently.

It's so obviously from when it's from, and some parts of it really haven't aged well, but this is hands down a classic.

I really don't understand this "aged well" concept. Music is a product of its time and technology. It's like expecting a NES game to blow you away graphic wise like a PS3 game. if you are going to listen to something that is from a different decade you should know what to expect. I'm not knocking you j-rock but I'm just talking in general.

yeah, but some shit from a certain decade makes you sick to your stomach, and other shit sounds good. "Aged well" basically means that it is tolerable to listen to in this day and age. It's like how you don't wear parachute pants (1990s) when you go out but you might wear blue jeans (1850s).

I've been doing something wrong then?

this song sounds good tho... it has done the whole time. it's never not been a 100% banger. the only bit that approaches embarrassment is the "the guy's a gigalo man..." bit, but that always was embarrassing too.

Yeah, but she giggles after she delivers the line -- classic.

o_0 at the idea that there are people, anywhere, who could possibly dislike this

all three neneh albums are worth owning imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prMXw5xKXtM

http://www.last.fm/music/Neneh+Cherry/Homebrew/Somedays <= co-written with geoff "portishead" barrow iirc
http://www.last.fm/music/Neneh+Cherry/Homebrew/Move+With+Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrKQDP927Ns

http://www.last.fm/music/Neneh+Cherry/_/hornbeam <= only a 30-sec clip and it's not on youtube but "hornbeam" is seriously great

and of course the absolutely CLASSIC 4EVA 2-step refix of "buddy x"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDnoZh37uWg

ROMEOOO

whatever happened to neneh cherry? i don't even remember an attempt at a follow-up song.

Didn't she also release some kind of a feminist response song to "It's Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown back in the mid-90s that was a moderate hit? I remember seeing the video a lot on MTV back then.

But yeah, I guess "Buffalo Stance" and "7 Seconds" are the songs most people remember her for.

Oh yeah, this is it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0W212af1uk

wow that Dreem Teem cover is great!

Hated "Buffalo Stance" when it came out, and had the same reaction putting it on just now: It's timelessly corny, awkward, and pandering. But "7 Seconds" makes up for it.

MMM! WOO, Yeah yeah! UNH! Deejay!

GIGOLO

Neneh & kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N686iE2cQU

I love the synthesizer flourish in this, so . much.

Xposts: Hey! You didn't introduce the hit hat or the tambourine yet!

Oh how thoughtless of me!! I'd like to introduce:

http://www.tocapercussion.com/product/drum_addons/images/HiHatHitZoneTamb.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWsRz3TJDEY

Holy crap is this video awesome!

I heard this for the 1st time 4 days ago after checking out songs from the ILM 20th century list that I'd never heard before.. it's pretty great. Love the "$200 video" also.

WOT IS HE LIKE?

My man right here.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u120/kingkonggodzilla/BuffaloStance.png

My co-worker sang this at our karaoke x-mas party last night. I haven't heard this song in years and it's suddenly popping up everywhere.

What's he like anyway?

The guy's a gigolo, man.

I just got into an intense wine-fix a couple nights ago. Needless to say, Neneh Cherry's Raw Like Sushi, became my soundtrack of the evening. The whole Buffalo Stance track is splendid and shakes around the atmospheric. I don't understand all the Madonna comparisons though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcUPhHLoHG0

This T-Rex remix by Phiiliip makes great use of the keyboard riff from "Buffalo Stance".

xpost Needless to say!

wtf is that shit

I wonder what Neneh's stance on the buffalo is now, all these years later. I think she'll be indifferent towards them. Not as bothered as she used to be.

― Johnny Jarvis, Friday, May 12, 2006 5:50 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark
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A+

wait, does she start by saying "harmolodic"?

I finally got Raw Like Sushi! This thing defines "vibrant."

I can't believe I've only known this song for the past year... It's like, life-changing.

Holy crap. Only now? tHis record really defined my teenage years. Not only do I love her music, but her style was just plain awesome in my opinion. I loved it and still do. She was my idol and hence why I checked out everything around her (rip rig and panic, portishead, massive attack,.........)

that has got to be the most in-your-face video ever...wowzer!

Love the synth pads!

http://i.imgur.com/lD6gI.jpg

http://www.smalltownsupersound.com/2012/03/21/neneh-cherry-cherry-album-june/

Neneh Cherry & The Thing “The Cherry Thing” out 18th of June on CD, LP and download

Neneh Cherry and jazz trio The Thing met for the first time at a recording session in London in the fall of 2010. It clicked right away as they all shared an open, free approach to the music. The high energy of The Thing’s playing found a fitting counterpart in Neneh’s intense style. After a performance at Strand, Stockholm in March 2011, they decided to continue the collaboration resulting in their forthcoming, self-titled album, The Cherry Thing, out June 19 on Smalltown Supersound. Apart from their own compositions, the album features the music of such diverse artists as Ornette Coleman, Suicide, Don Cherry, Martina Topley-Bird, The Stooges, and MF Doom.

I was sold till "MF Doom"

whoa

I was sold till "MF Doom"

prob means jazzers playing Dilla, not Neneh fabricating Dumile flow

incredible!!!! more than i hoped for.

http://soundcloud.com/smalltownsupersound/neneh-cherry-the-thing-dream?secret_token=s-TtYIX

prob means jazzers playing Dilla, not Neneh fabricating Dumile flow

nope, it's the other way, and it works. really works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jovsxh8FeYo

This sounds good. Just bought tickets..

gigs? what, where??

They are playing London, Amsterdam, Berlin etc. Not many gigs. I think that will change though. I got tickets for the London gig in July.

cheers!

i'm really loving this album. from a position of near-total ignorance - love neneh long time obv, but hadn't even heard of the thing, and am only familiar with one of the originals. but the things she does with her voice these days are incredible and i love how spontaneous/controlled it all sounds.

this is a really incredible record isn't it? the thing haven't really toned down what they do that much and it still works which is quite an achievement, it's like the bad plus / wendy lewis record's cool older sister

i was sold till "bad plus"

This is a great record. An amazing first impression, and I expect to like it more as it gets more familiar.

this is all very well but I preferred it when The Thing were my little free jazz band that no-one had heard of

yeah totally, there's loads of little conversations going on here. neneh is fucking awesome on this. there was a nice piece in the metro on tuesday...

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/music/901487-neneh-cherry-brother-eagle-eye-wishes-dad-couldve-heard-this-album#ixzz1xgThpHB3

I bet The Thing is pretty happy that they are finally getting some attention. I'm happy for them. Still haven't heard this album but I've liked everything else they've done that I've heard.

i had never even heard OF the thing until this album

i've still only heard one of the originals

they're fairly big as free jazz power trios go to be sure, but yknow that's the kind of big that means occasionally getting an audience in the triple figures.

they've been playing to triple-figure audiences in Europe for years, but didn't get any notice in the UK until the Cafe Oto hipster crowd moved in.

welp that'll be me then.

xpost

if they didn't get any notice in the uk how did the 'cafe oto hipsters' hear abt them?

lol?

b/c Cafe Oto put on a couple of shows by them, I guess.

xp

you know that's balls, right?

not really... enlighten me

nah but they've been pretty high profile in the appropriate uk scenes for ages, haven't they? even as a v surface level dabbler i knew them in 2005 or so.

i saw mats play to a packed out wardrobe in leeds around 2005. they're certainly among the biggest names in improvised music, don't really know why we're talking this tho. or hipsters. i thought anagram was joking upthread... are you srsly butthurt that your litte free jazz band are getting a bit of press?

like, why have some of the free jazz shows i've seen at cafe oto been attended by three men and dog, but then suddenly these mythical free jazz hipsters turn out in their hundreds when the thing - a group that has received 'no notice' in the uk - play there?

sometimes when you're quite good people talk about you and then people that write about what people are talking about write about you and then the mythical free jazz hipster appears

like, why have some of the free jazz shows i've seen at cafe oto been attended by three men and dog, but then suddenly these mythical free jazz hipsters turn out in their hundreds when the thing - a group that has received 'no notice' in the uk - play there?

well that was kind of my point. why do the thing attract larger audiences than other free jazz bands? it's not because they're better. sadly, i think it's because they have this cachet of cool.

The Thing's versions of rock tunes, collabs with the Ex, Thurston etc, plus being on the jazz subsidiary of a prominent Swedish indie rock and electronica label hasn't done them in any harm in the popularity stakes. But it's not some cynical ploy on their behalf - they grew up loving jazz and rock, so it's natural for them. And thank the lord they're nothing like the novelty, hey we're a piano trio playing polite versions of Nirvana pish you get from the Bad Plus. They're one of the most exciting live acts I've seen in any genre and if they get rock fans checking out jazz then great.

Three men and a dog at Oto? I've seen great crowds there for Brotzmann, Joe McPhee and others, and I'm sure the likes of The Arkestra, David S Ware et al wouldn't play regular residencies there if they weren't getting crowds. A lot of European and British improv is quite quiet, fidgety and cerebral - which is fine - but The Thing stand out in the scene for having an energy and power you'd more readily associate with the Americans.

Anyway, the album with Neneh is great, particularly on the quieter pieces. Gustafsson's wild man image belies his subtlety and range. Paal Nilsson Love is on stunning form too: the Ethiopian rhythms coming in on Accordian and the pulse and roll stuff he does on the Ornette tune are particularly wonderful.

Anyone catching them on tour? I'll need to grab my tickets for London.

Going to the London gig. I bought a ticket for a friend who was very into Buffalo Style and Raw Like Sushi. Thinking should I let her know about the the new direction?

oh idk most people i know who were into those are into this

like, why have some of the free jazz shows i've seen at cafe oto been attended by three men and dog, but then suddenly these mythical free jazz hipsters turn out in their hundreds when the thing - a group that has received 'no notice' in the uk - play there?

good w.o.m. in dog circles obv

well that was kind of my point. why do the thing attract larger audiences than other free jazz bands? it's not because they're better. sadly, i think it's because they have this cachet of cool.

welllll, as stew suggests, they're more accessible than most free jazz because they have that more rock aspect to them. i don't think there needs to be a dalston conspiracy behind a band who are more accessible than other bands also being more popular than those other bands.

sadly, i think it's because they have this cachet of cool.

yaah no jazz musicians have ever had a 'cachet of cool' before

points taken, possibly a more interesting question then would be why it is that The Thing have only started being feted in the UK in the last couple of years when they have been playing all over mainland Europe since at least 2005

i just don't share yr perception that the thing went from being ignored in the uk to trendoid accessory in the last cpl of years. as crackle and stew have pointed out, gustaffson's name and reputation have always meant SOMETHING here, amongst the v v small number of ppl actually interested in this stuff, and I definitely remember the early albs getting gd reviews in the usual places (the wire, most obviously.) maybe the thing's popularity/visibility has grown in the last cpl of years (as you might expect after recording a rec w/ neneh cherry) but you cld also just put that down to them being a really really exciting group of performers who have, over time, generated great word of mouth and a slowly increasing following. w/out neneh cherry i'm p sure they'd still struggle to 'sell out' a venue much larger than Cafe Oto, because pop/rock cover version aside, they are still playing a p fierce and uncompromised form of music that has always alienated many more ppl than it has ever attracted. Personally I hope they have a number one album and sell out the 02 Arena.

Also, when did they first play live in the UK? My memory is that they didn't tour here for a while, and I only got to see them for the first time last year. i was living in London at the time of their first albs and am sure I would've gone to see them at the Vortex or wherever if they had played here then.

HOLY SHIT LOVE THE NEW ONE

Hey, people who like this might also like Mats Gustafsson's release with Kieran Hebden from last year Live at the South Bank
It's bananas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-xxzCurgR0

and pardon the omission, Steve Reid

man before i was excited for this in a "kinda weird/cool/interesting that this is happening" way, but this is fucking great

yep.

really surprised there hasn't been more talk about this album

I love this album to bits but it's the kind of release where I might say inadvertently stupid things if I talked about it in depth.

haha yeah trying to review it paralysed me a bit. best policy was transparency really, "i know nothing about the thing or free jazz or don cherry or any of the originals but here is why i like it"

and i DO know about neneh

I was listening to this at the end of my work day yesterday and all I kept thinking was "...baller!"

wait she covers Suicide and the Stooges on this? I need to check this out.

seriously this album is a uniter, not a divider. lots of different people will like it. (imo the thing turns everything to noisy gold)

On the few occasions i wrote about jazz it was always a case of "I am an interloper in this idiom but here's why I like it, and oh boy do I like it a lot" generally.

yeah it's really good - i'm not crazy about the madvillain song though, ends up sounding like slam poetry due to the jazz backing. dream baby dream is fantastic though.

Feel like the lone dissenter here that I just couldn't finish the album.

But my hatred of Free Jazz is longstanding and goes so deep I can't get over it, even for Neneh Cherry.

Not crazy about free jazz, but I love Neneh and the new album is pretty interesting. I'd buy it if I could find it for a good price somewhere.

On a slightly related note, I never realized how much Madvillian's album resembled ODB's debut...

that's what happens when it goes a leeetle too far (and the concept starts to kinda fall apart/become threadbare for me as soon as that happens)
most of these songs have interesting arrangements though, i think. there are times when i wish the vocals were not there, though but i realize that i am prob in the minority here

loooove the end of dream baby dream -- awesome freakouts are what free jazz is about for me. i do appreciate that this is making the words "free jazz" more accessible to people too.

oops that was xp to n/a

ha i'm also coming from the side of generally liking free jazz freakouts (though not being a free jazz expert) and knowing almost nothing about neneh cherry

i kind of want to hear them cover a load more songs in this manner

Yeah, well I'm coming from a couple of decades of being super annoyed at free jazz wig-outs ruining my dronerock and my spacerock so I don't want to hear it in the context of a musical area I thought was free jazz wig-out free.

Free Jazz Wig-Out Free.

Things I hate myself for typing.

tbh, given Nenah Cherry's lineage I am surprised more of her music hasn't incorporated free jazz wigouts

that's what i like -- free jazz wig outs in my space rock! how funny. to each her own, eh :)

i would like to recommend this video -- the thing and joe mcphee "sounds like a sandwich" http://vimeo.com/44342292

and i have a bunch more recommendations but i have to find this cover of pj harvey's "who the fuck" first -- it's GREAT.

They also do a version of "Whole Lotta Love" with the Cato Salsa Experience on Sounds Like a Sandwich that is REALLY good.

Ok here it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixgFavxutys

Sorry for ruining this Neneh Cherry thread :(

(I wonder if we can find a "you got free jazz in my dronerock/spacerock/postrock" thread to continue discussion on because this has long been a source of perplexment to me.)

free jazz + dronerock - different 'means' (sometimes), same ends (ecstatic transportation/communion)

In theory, yes. But in practice, it often doesn't seem work that way at all.

But this is not the thread. I'm aware that I'm doing in this thread what I shout at others for doing and don't want to continue it here.

Holy Fuck. Did anyone else see this??

see what?

Sorry that made little sense. Neneh & The Thing surpassed all expectations last night. Definitely one of the best live things I've been to in a while. Rare for me to go to a gig and just not want it to end..

sad I missed this ;_;

Neneh had such a huge stage presence. Literally stalking the stage. Dressed in customised Adidas. Everything sounded so tight, I half expected The Thing to dominate but she had such control. The noise! The encore was just brilliant.

oh man! Wish I could have seen that. Sadly, not even coming to my continent. Glad it was amazing.

so is Buffalo Stance where the title of that Style Rookie blog came from?

They were at Pfork, I think? (I didn't go) I've seen The Thing a couple of times and those players in other ensembles a bunch of times -- all of them were really interesting and I won't go so far as to say 100% ALWAYS SPELLBINDING but there's always a lot going on and a lot to pay attention to.

Basically, if I've enjoyed practically every show I've ever seen those guys perform (Nilsson-Love, Gustafsson, Haker-Flaten have all been in a lot of other bands) Add Neneh Cherry stalking the stage, and I think the wider audience potential skyrockets.

(For reference - afaik they all came through Chicago a lot b/c of the Vandermark connection, Haker-Flaten lived/lives here too.)

aah.

p4k wasn't listed on her Facebook page, but that doesn't really mean anything.

Maybe they weren't there -- maybe I'm misremembering that

Either way -- those people used to (and still do) play around Chicago a lot, but there seems to be a next generation brewing since the last time I was really paying attention. My point was that The Thing are totally awesome.

the cherry thing is amazing, really delivers on pretty much every level.

i finally caught up w/the cherry thing last week, found it underwhelming but will play it more. on a car trip this weekend we played homebrew, first time since the 90s and it held up v well. our 16 y.o. son was intrigued by the stylistic blend asking "what do you call this?" dunno. trip-hop pop?

man I actually forget exactly how much I love "Buffalo Stance" unless I play it

I love this song a lot.

for ages now the font on the front of the cherry thing was reminding me of something, and then it clicked today

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/7e01a08b8476fa6841214972f1c89668/21082.jpg

How did I not know until today that this song originated from this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcNxCyErog
which was a remix of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKJH_cbFm_0

I was reading the OED entry for "like" and at the bottom I was very tickled to see an attested use of "like" attributed to "N. Cherry et al, Buffalo Stance". Led me down the same path as MarkoP here, tracing the etymology of the song. Keep going! You have Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals" still to find!

Oh Buffalo Gals and its connection to that song is pretty well known. But my lack of familiarity with lower tier SAW singles, meant that I never knew about that.

which was a remix of this:

lol I tried to get that super corrected

Her new album is really really enjoyable. REALLY!
Wouldn't have expected or asked for or wanted an album like this from her, but...it's just about the best thing released this year wtf. :)

u+k (from a sometime (?) ilxor) - http://www.mtvhive.com/2012/06/20/neneh-cherry-malcolm-mclaren-elvis-costello-cras/

Her new album is really really enjoyable

It's not "her" new album, it's an album by The Thing with her as guest vocalist.

http://www.instantjazz.com/uploads/cds/cherrything.jpg

it's credited to both neneh and the thing equally

yeah I realize that, it just sounds like a Thing album with vocals to me

probably depends on whether you're more a fan of one vs. the other. sounds like a neneh cherry album with jazz backing to me.

It's not "her" new album, it's an album by The Thing with her as guest vocalist.

the aggressiveness of your ownership claim on their behalf (over "her") is weird tho

sounds like a neneh cherry album with jazz backing to me.

same, though i'm sure this is because i've been a neneh cherry fan for my entire life, pretty much, and had never heard of the thing before this year. but even so i can't see how you can't hear her personality stamped all over it.

THEIR new album then, anagram.

Either way, it's hot. :)

i am generally in favor of out music finding a way in. the thing is not really all that far out there, but i imagine that people think they are (or don't even want to give them a chance), and now that they've heard the thing as n cherry's backup band they might be more likely to consider listening to other stuff they've done.
good for the thing!

i've said this elsewhere but i'm really looking fwd to properly getting into jazz when i'm too old to go clubbing. and i LOVE what the thing do on this album, i love how their music and neneh's vocals mirror each other w/r/t the wildness/control tension.

i suspect la lechera intended to write "our" but i like the idea of "out" as an abbrev of "outré"

i always want to think that she's saying "harmolodics" at the beginning of buffalo stance.

no, i totally meant out music -- music that is not in! it's out there. :)

No, I'm sure she meant "out" as in "way out"

xxp!

i like that usage too!

http://dangerousminds.net/images/uploads/The_In_Sound_From_Way_Out.jpg

"Kisses on the Wind" is SO FUCKING GOOD!!!

I have never heard this before!!

I said on fb that the super bring piano reminds me of something you'd hear in a really euphoric 15 second outro, except it's all over the whole song.

I have never heard this before!!

― ICANN Tina Turner (Stevie D(eux))

can't really get my head around this!

The only other track better than "Kisses on the Wind" is "Heart" ("Buffalo Stance" is a world apart).

xp it was never that big over here! She's kinda regarded as a one-hit wonder for "Buffalo Stance". I only heard "Kisses" it when I took the time to listen to Raw Like Sushi on Spotify last night.

"Kisses" went top ten in America, but it's true I never hear it.

fcuking jamie oliver seems to have adopted this as his theme tune now, a delete from playlist moment if there ever was one...

fucking jamie oliver. What is he LIKE

The "Kisses on the Wind" single is worth getting if you like it. It has an extended version of the tune, a nice Latin house remix of it by David Morales, plus a semi-acoustic non-album B side.

Damn. Raw Like Sushi is magnificent. I don't think I've heard it for about 20 years but it sounds great this afternoon. I don't think its acknowledged as a "great album" (wtf is that/rockist etc?) but why not? All kinds of beautiful Madonna/psb/Public Enemy awesome all over it. Cherry is so charismatic and I love her. Very very much. Gonna check out Homebrew now - never heard it.

HEART. HEART. YOU CAN'T BREAK MY HEART.

https://soundcloud.com/neneh-cherry/neneh-cherry-afrika-baby-bam

new track produced by four tet, neneh in beat poet mode. Not sure what I think of it yet :-\

INTO THIS! https://soundcloud.com/neneh-cherry

this is really great stuff - seems to carry on where neneh left off with the cherry thing

four tet coming into his own as producer for other people, huh

way more RN9 than four tet imo

Up for hearing this, the cherry thing was my favourite album of last year

Love it. Reminding me of subdued Breakbeat Era vibes.

https://soundcloud.com/smalltownsupersound/neneh-cherry-out-of-the-6

at least some of neneh cherry's comeback album is streaming on npr now.

I love this new album. One of the best records I've heard in a while.

impressed on one listen, def picking up where the cherry thing left off...

the joe goddard remix of "out of the black" is amazing too

impressed on one listen, def picking up where the cherry thing left off...

― lex pretend, Friday, February 21, 2014

yeah, there's a jazzy quality to it. mostly i notice that it's almost all percussion. it's a great sounding album, and the tunes seem very strong.

a stunning new album. her voice is as expressive as ever. given that she is soon turning 50, that is absolutely not self-evident. here is a great video of her performing the title song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LesJtqP-x0

Got this in the mail yesterday, and it's pretty good. I'm not hearing much jazz in this though, the sound is more "rock" to me, perhaps a bit too rock with all the distorted sounds. The percussion is cool, yeah, but I still wish she'd just done a pure electronic album with the Four Tet dude. The Cherry Thing was a really cool "live instruments" kind of album, but it was carried by the strength of the band, and I don't think the backing band here (whoever this Rocketnumbernine people are, I'm not familiar with them) have the same intensity. Neneh's vocals are the biggest strength; I think her range has always been a bit narrow, but she's found a way to unique expressiveness and intensity within that range - I can't think of anyone who'd sing like this.

"Out of the Black" impressed me; she can still project quietude over ominous beats.

weird that Rocketnumbernine isn't even mentioned in some of these reviews (like pfork)...obviously Four Tet is the famous one, but seems like he's more or less just overseeing things here.

kind of a similar situation to the Omar Souleyman album where people were like "oh yeah, love Four Tet's production" when his stated aim was to be as hands off as possible. Whatever gets these things the publicity I guess

the two jobs are not comparable imo. from what i've read his work on the souleyman album involved sending files to and fro while he was fysically working together with neneh & rn9 for about a week on her album.

fair enough, but from the interviews I've read with Neneh she said his job was more taking away things than adding them. It's definitely more of a collaboration but surely rocketnumbernine should be getting most of the credit for the music on the album

Four Tet ‏@FourTet 3m
anyone writing about my production on the Neneh LP that doesn't acknowledge RocketNumberNine is an amateur.

wait there are still professional music writers?

fair enough, but from the interviews I've read with Neneh she said his job was more taking away things than adding them. It's definitely more of a collaboration but surely rocketnumbernine should be getting most of the credit for the music on the album

Or maybe, instead of arguing whether this or that dude should get the "most" credit for the album, that credit should go to Neneh Cherry? The liner notes only say that Four Tet produced the album and Rocketnumbernine played the instruments, but since the actual instrumentation on it is really sparse, who knows who made the biggest contribution to it? The fact that it doesn't sound too dissimilar from Cherry's previous music should maybe give us a hint?

Sorry if I'm sounding a bit sour here, but I don't really like the phenomenon that when a woman releases a solo album, music writers are often trying to find the man who's the "real" genius behind it. The same thing happened with the Barbara Panther album, some people were praising Matthew Herbert as if he was the main visionary, even though it seems the songs on it had already been written and demoed by Panther before Herbert even joined the project.

is the bias really based on gender, or on the idea of pop-acts (as opposed to, say, rock acts) not really being the driving-force behind the music?

go read the Warpaint thread, where discussion of the new album turned into a celebration of Flood and Chris Cunningham

Cool your jets Tuomas, I was in no way trying to take credit away from Neneh. The point that was raised is that RocketNumberNine are not mentioned once in the Pitchfork review, which considering they played all the music is fairly stupid

go read the Warpaint thread, where discussion of the new album turned into a celebration of Flood and Chris Cunningham

― sent as gassed to onto rt dominance (DJP), Monday, February 24, 2014 1:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's bullshit at least on my part i brought up flood because i was surprised the album worked IN SPITE of the high profile producers

idk who chris cunningham is.

no was was even saying that shit until k8 started in with her schtick...

this new neneh album is great

the thing album was great too!

here's the sum total of what was said abt cunningham for the record

i was reading the liner notes this morning and realized that one of them is married to chris cunningham, who took the photos used in the album art.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 10:03 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Gonna listen to Savages for the next hour now just to spite you all!

i was reading the liner notes this morning and realized that one of them is married to chris cunningham, who took the photos used in the album art.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 4:03 PM

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THIS OR BB GET VERY VERY VERY UPSET.

― ~Autotelic Fabulousity~ (Branwell Bell), Wednesday, February 19, 2014 10:04 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*doesn't go read the warpaint thread*

*continues happily in that vein till death*

rip wins :(

BB's post there is a joke about her own obsession with Chris Cunningham, not anything more.

I don't think he was saying it was "anything more", I think he was just quoting it as one of the 2 posts in that thread about chris cunningham who apparently the thread "turned into" a discussion of

anyway, psyched to hear this, I adored the cherry thing & her in general

been playing this all day

This is a great album. It is amazing how she manages to convey so much frustration and charisma using only her voice, some percussion and one bass tone, and it's amazing how for such a minimal-sounding production it has so many hooks and earworms. It makes sense that she hasn't released anything for such a long time as this sounds like so much pent-up anger being expelled.

i love this record

The frenetic almost-rapping she does on the last track sounds amazing! Though it kinda makes me wish she'd do some proper rap too, but I guess those days are far behind (IIRC there wasn't any rapping on Man either).

this record right here

I was listening to this with a hangover and really not prepared for the rasping scraping cackling noise she does on the last track.

Enjoyed this on first listen but there's a kind of bluntness to some of her lyrics (and willingness to fall back on well-worn turns of phrase) that jarred with me slightly.

The first song is amazing.

It makes sense that she hasn't released anything for such a long time as this sounds like so much pent-up anger being expelled.

it's only two years since the cherry thing, which was good preparation for the new one in lots of ways - the scratchy expressiveness of her voice in particularly

"spit three times" is amazing

and tuomas otm about how perhaps neneh's contribution to her own album was more significant than the producer dudes, especially as she's now made two albums within two years with completely different collaborators and styles that both nonetheless share a definite aesthetic

Four Tet's bee quite vocal on twitter about how Rocketnumber9 need a lot of the credit people are ascribing to him.

Yeah I'd heard there'd been Twitter buzz about this album

surely Twitter buzz is an onomatopeoic oxymoron?

Four tet's bee is half bird

It's not uncommon

The Buzzing of Summer Tweets

can we talk about "Everything" and "Weightless"?

Let's talk about the god damn awesome synth 'bit' 2:50 into the track with Robyn. Fuck me. So cool.

I like that song a lot but I don't really like Robyn on it, or she doesn't really add much

Yeah, her voice is perhaps too much like diet-Neneh to add much.

If every vocal on here was pitch-shifted, too cool for school Knife fans would be going nuts over this album.

Weightless is incredible

gets better every time i hear it

this is really good. the title track has that skittery intense feel of the thing album although the rest of the album is quite sparse.

Weightless is incredible

'tis

Neneh's youngest girl Mabel just premiered her first single today: http://www.thefader.com/2015/07/13/mabel-know-me-better

an early version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcNxCyErog

interesting

I love this song

that demo/early version doesn't really hang together does it? they made the different parts sound of a whole in the final version

loving the "whaaa is he liiiike" ad-libs

it's a weirdo throwaway remix of another song [the A-side], with one of the guys' girlfriend adding some vocals over the top, not really intended to "hang together" at that point!

aaah, I see

Man, had no idea about this. Amazing that something so great could come so casually from something so shite (the A-side). That B-side may not exactly hang together, but all the bits are there, and they wouldn't need much changing.

wow the A-side really is awful.

incidentally, anyone know where i might be able to get the stem samples from the Neneh version? I've been wanting to do a remix of the track for years but no idea where you get this sort of thing

According to wikipedia, the Buffalo Stance single was released on my tenth birthday. I can't find anything else confirming this though. Hope it's true.

I always thought Buffalo Stance was a weird-ass song so the fact that it started as a remix makes a lot of sense

nice review from maura

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/neneh-cherry-raw-like-sushi/

does anybody know who directed the Buffalo Stance music video? is it the same person who did this Sinead O'Connor/MC Lyte vid? are there other music videos from this era that are in this style?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W7u7g7oV68

yeah, same guy. he did loads of Sinead videos, from Troy for a decade or so onward. The No Clause 28 video is totally in the same style, as was Neneh's Kisses On The Wind, but in black & white.

the two videos from Jamie J Morgan's solo album might hit the spot for you, too.

(No Clause 28 is by Boy George, and Jamie J is the Morgan of Morgan / McVey.)

I was looking up the genesis of Lara Croft after seeing the new film and the Wikipedia entry mentions that Neneh Cherry was one of the models for her. Which seemed odd.

the links in the second and third paragraph of that review made me get a very late start on actual work today. Now I know tons of stuff about Ray Petri, Jamie Morgan, and The Face magazine.

so dont. you get fresh with me.

No style rookie
You better watch don’t mess with me

Don't remember this thread---great to see the love on here for The Cherry Thing as well as Raw Like Sushi. Saw collection of TCT remixes on discogs; anybody heard those?
I liked The Blank Project Deluxe, which does incl. mixes, though it's overall chilly (in the creepy Ballardian sense, incl. murky allusions verbal and aural) *and* tending to fairly lengthy tracks in medium tempo, that I've never really warmed up to it---overall, but for instance opener "Across The Water," which might be about her kid, got me right away.

I've still got Rip Rig & Panic's I Am Cold and Attitude somewhere---need to dig those up and get more RRP and related:
https://www.discogs.com/artist/27501-Rip-Rig-Panic

This review of Mark Springer's 2017 collection looks promising:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/13/mark-springer-circa-rip-rig-panic-review-fascinating-freeform-jazz-that-never-loses-its-way

new song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efTqhft8yCk

produced by Four Tet and 3D of Massive Attack

You can certainly hear 3D's input. Track would have fitted right in on Mezzanine.

new album broken politics out october 19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGrXaPLX0PU

and you may find yourself listening to "Shot Gun Shack"

Great news! Blank Project still one of my faves of the decade.

Out today! Get thee to a record store.

album rules. way more actively pretty than blank project which i'm into

I've got something longer going up soon but I gotta say it disappointed me compared to Blank Project, which now sounds like it didn't just presage this cultural moment but is OF this moment.

I agree with Alfred here. Blank seems more urgent to me and just generally better. I like the new one, just not as much.

I was half-listening to it the other day while reading and the sudden air horn cracked me up

"Natural Skin Deep"? That's one of the good ones. I blasted it this morning.

I like this a lot. Agree about the urgency, it feels altogether more worked over / less spontaneous than Blank Project, but in a way that the instruments (vibraphone!) require. The albums feel like opposites in many ways, or maybe complementary. I feel like something interesting would happen if you played them simultaneously.

It's quieter than Blank Project (and Brad is right about it being "actively pretty") - I was expecting from the pre-release leak tracks an artier version of Homebrew whereas it's more like an artier version of Man: perhaps that album if more of the Tricky collaborations and less of the MOR-gestures had made it on there. It's very dense and layered and involving.

Not enough chatter about this LP. OK, literally everyone good has put out something in the last 2 weeks. Even so.

"Slow Release" is, accidentally or not, a good summation of the whole.

i love “black monday” and “faster than the truth”

A few live tracks from her, at Le Guess Who festival in Holland:

- https://soundcloud.com/leguesswho/sets/neneh-cherry-live-at-le-guess-who-2018

nice, someone posted an aud recording of her in LA a couple months back to dime, i've had it in my "to listen" queue

Hope they record together:

Energized by Neneh Cherry's great set -- with guests Denardo Coleman and @angeltheoracle -- at @BlankForms' benefit. We want more more more pic.twitter.com/CeFS4vxXcv

— David Grubbs (@blackfaurest) November 19, 2021

I'm still trying to get my hands on the stems for this so I can do an hour long Prins Thomas-style extended remix of this song.

Just the outro looped for 15 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1foECnRUuyM

on first listen: completely superfluous but my goodwill toward robyn means it's at least not offensive? no idea why she thought slowing it down was a good idea. somehow this is the first time I realized the line was "no style rookie".

Slowing this down was a ruinous mistake.

Very superfluous. Totally not smokin’.

The only way slowing it down makes sense would be if it was slowed waaaaaaaaay down, like 4 times as slow and turning it into a drone poem

this would be a perfectly fine second b-side.

it's ok but no thanks. i've been caning the original lately. that guitar figure in the coda is one of my favorite things about it.

oh man...

well, i'm listening to the original now. which probably wouldn't have happened today otherwise.

yeah i was excited about this until I heard it.

No slow version could be my lover.

the original is unimprovable but they could've at least tried

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLb3AbgBTbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwbrJDGgu64

I've always loved that bonkers Swamp Thing album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r93bmuogf5s

This song would seem impossible to re-interpret, but then I would have said the same thing about "Accordion"

Cherry Thing was ten years ago!

The Versions, 10 covers, collaborative project of female artists, out June 10, according to Republic Records Media:
Tracklisting:
Buffalo Stance (Robyn feat. Mapei)
Manchild (feat. Sia)
Woman (feat. ANOHNI)
Buddy X (feat. Greentea Peng)
Kootchi (feat. Jamila Woods)
Sassy (feat. TYSON)
Heart (feat. Sudan Archives)
Kisses On The Wind (feat. Seinabo Sey)
Manchild (feat. Kelsey Lu)
Buddy X (Honey Dijon Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT1egmJkP0s

Was excited about the prospect of a new Neneh Cherry album, but I doubt I need this. The Robyn cover, as noted upthread, was meh.