Various Artists – Luaka Bop 10th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job: #864 of best 1,000 albums ever!

Why is Luaka Bop 10^th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job on my best 1,000 albums ever list?

Legit excellent world music, alt rock, funk, and pop from an eclectic group of bands and musicians.

What does Luaka Bop 10^th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?

I’ve issued a number of Full Disclosures recently, and here’s another one: I’m not typically drawn to music that has the “world music” label slapped on it.

However, as with many “rules,” this is one where there are endless exceptions, and the music contained within Luaka Bop 10^th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job is absolutely one of them.

To take a step back, this album includes a good number of world music tracks, but its variety overall — spanning alternative rock, funk, and pop from an eclectic group of bands and musicians with all kinds of world-y (and American) influences — is its absolute strength.

(Maybe there’s some kind of more global lesson there given the very strange, strained, and disturbing political times we’re enduring at the moment? I’m not going to go there at the moment.)

A true highlight of the album, and by far my favorite song, is a Fatboy Slim remix of Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha.” Much as with Fatboy Slim’s remix of the Beastie Boy’s “Body Movin’,” off the Beastie’s Hello Nasty, I wound up preferring the Fatboy Slim version far more than the perfectly acceptable original.

The Fatboy Slim version has an incredible groove to it, perfectly complimenting Cornershop’s highly inventive mix of jangle pop guitar, hip hop, and South Asian-flavored sounds.

I’m pretty sure that this album introduced me to the band King Changó (also see: King Chango – The Return of El Santó: #923 of best 1,000 albums ever), and I immediately dug the upbeat Latin ska fun of “Confesión.”

“Ponta de Lanca Africano,” by Jorge Ben Jor, is a really cool mixture of blues rock and Brazilian musical influences.

Pop culture stuff that’s somehow related to Luaka Bop 10^th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job

I mentioned Fatboy Slim’s remix of the Beastie Boys’ “Body Movin’” above. Here’s the Fatboy Slim version.

And here’s the original.

See which you prefer.

Personal stuff that’s somehow related to Luaka Bop 10^th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job

This album reminds me a great deal of the era when my then girlfriend and now wife lived in our first apartment together in San Francisco’s East Bay. It was a great apartment in a fairly out of the way corner of the Bay Area (Richmond, to be specific). It had a lot of really cool perks, such as easy access to a boardwalk area with spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and islands on the north side of the bay. We also used to ride our bikes through a nature preserve to a local CostCo with huge backpacks to help haul their bulk-sized items home.

My wife particularly enjoys the song “Whoever You Are,” by Geggy Tah, because it’s catchy but mostly because of its theme of conscientious driving. Very few things driver her battier than brain dead drivers. She’s an excellent driver herself and would absolutely have enjoyed and likely excelled as a racecar driver (which is entirely a compliment, in case anyone is wondering!).

Completely different topic: I have a very vague memory of attending of attending some kind of very web 1.0 presentation (we’re talking 1990s) that mentioned what must have been one of the earliest versions of Luaka Bop’s website. The name Luaka Bop stuck with me because of unusual and interesting it sounded.