♫♪  LeBeha Men - “Garifuna Field Recordings”

“Twenty four minutes of haunting legitimacy”. That’s how we at the TMT offices described Stephen Molyneux’s previous endeavors into field recordings. In 2010, when Molyneux was working and living out in Thailand, he made excursions through Cambodia, picking up distant snippets of activity and music. The result was an enticing sort of half-engagement: the feeling of being a visitor in awe of the fleeting sounds of daily life, but without being able to be directly involved or to fully appreciate it.

This latest release has been described by No Kings as a “follow up of sorts,” yet I’m inclined to think of it differently. This year, Molyneux hopped over to Belize where he met the LeBeha Men and recorded the ensemble in single, uninterrupted takes. The LeBeha drumming centre is a project in Belize that teaches local kids traditional drumming skills and is patently successful at doing so, since their graduates were nominated for a Grammy in 2006. So, for me, both projects are intriguing in their own separate ways: one is an exercise in traditional field recording, tracking the messy and meandering sounds of life in a specific environment; the other is an intimate portrait of incredible talent.

• LeBeha Drumming Centre: http://lebeha.com
• No Kings: http://nokingsrecord.co

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

Most Read



Etc.