The music this week is easy-listening, dance music — velvet curtain and a martini sounds. A lot of early editions of Dinner Music went heavy into disco and boogie, so this is an homage to the beginning days of DM. If you’re wondering what might be playing at the cool new natural wine bar down the street, this is it.
We begin lightly with Shira Small and her project The Line of Time and the Plane of Now, which was recorded as a senior project at small Quaker college in Pennsylvania. The album is dark and airy, with her wispy, yet raspy, voice drifting on about the Vietnam War, smoking weed, and growing up in Harlem. “My song is how life never stops, how big it is,” she said in an interview in 2006. This was her only album.
We shimmy into the New York disco scene with Cloud One, a project from a iconic producer Patrick Adams. The album Atmosphere Strut encapsulates what the era was about — disco, funk, early electronica, R&B. It’s sound is sweeping, with wide wah-wahs coming from a Minimoog to hearty, soulful piano chords that could’ve backed a Four Tops track from the decade prior. This album is an instant dance floor filler, complex enough to keep you listening and catchy enough to keep you dancing.
In Art Feynman’s album, we get a similar perspective nearly a half-century later. Half Price at 3:30 quilts together the sounds of our time — ambient synth, art pop, Nigerian hilife and global groove. Night Flower could be a Tame Impala track, while Not My Guy is fits squarely in with Kiki Gyan and Feli Kuti. Perhaps the name is a nod to these sounds, while they seem like they are everywhere, perhaps they are still under appreciated in the cultural zeitgeist. Either way, the album knits them together as an homage and as a blessing to the listener.
Speaking of under appreciated, we have Karen Carpenter’s self-titled solo disco album. The epitome of easy-listening, the album pairs her sweet, airy vocals with danceable and quintessential disco beats — a departure from the sound of The Carpenters. The album was recorded in the late 70s, though was not fully released until the mid-90s (we can thank Herb Alpert for that). Carpenter died in 1983 when she was thirty-two.
We end with Cleo Sol’s smooth, meditative album Heaven. The sound runs like daily mantras through your head — “save me from my self” into “loving yourself is free.” The album’s palette is muted and blended, like a fine wine or an enduring Kehinde Wiley portrait. If you’re looking for something to sweep you away, start here.
Enjoy.
The playlist is here.
Monday
The Line Of Time and The Plane Of Now - Shira Small (1974)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Atmosphere Strut - Cloud One (1976)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Half Price at 3:30 - Art Feynman (2020)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Karen Carpenter - Karen Carpenter (1979)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
Heaven - Cleo Sol (2023)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Soy grilled steak. I think it was too hot everywhere to grill nearly all summer, but now we’re hitting peak grill season! Get those steaks out!
Peach, cucumber and mozzarella salad. All the information you need for this salad is right in the title. Maybe add olive oil, salt, mint leaves, a dash of everything bagel seasoning.
Piak Rogue. Bobinet makes some of my favorite wines, especially the Piak! wines. “Piak” meaning the sound your mouth makes when you drink it. Fun AND delicious.
This little piece on photos taken by W.G. Sebald. “A picture, being visual information, can be contemplated, it does not have to be decoded in time. You can just sit and see it, and the ideal reader for me would be a reader who doesn’t read the text but sees it, who lifts it out of the perennial wasting which occurs in time.”
This gold necklace from Rixo. I’m (unfortunately) DEEP into Fall wedding guest planning, so I’ve been on Rixo’s website nearly everyday. It’s all so, so good. How does anyone choose? Is this dress good??
Thank you, thank you. Have a great week.