Sunday Music: DJ Shadow and Dan the Automator

This week's top five as tabulated by last.fm: De La Soul, Portishead, DJ Shadow (w/ Dan the Automator), Amy Winehouse, Belle and Sebastian.

I mentioned over at 52 Songs that US denizens have a tendency to avoid music from other cultures or containing lyrics in something other than English. There are a few exceptions. College undergrads majoring in a foreign language tend to obsess over one or two artists singing in that language. Anime-fans can get really into Japanese pop music. And a certain sort of geeky music lover stumbles onto Bollywood soundtracks. (In fact, I'm surprised the AV Club doesn't have a "Gateway to Geekery" feature on it.)

I was turned onto the Bollywood from a KCRW interview/guest DJ session with Danny Elfman where he played a few selections from Khal Nayak (which I have sitting here waiting for me to find the time to watch it). Along with the Asian Underground trend, a renewed interest in Bollywood soundtracks. I don't listen to as much proper Asian Underground anymore (and always preferred North African influenced music anyway), but the DJ Shadow / Dan the Automater tracks spun this week were from Bombay the Hard Way, which remains an albums that I frequently play when coding or doing data-entry. I'm not even sure what either producer contributed. Here's "Theme from Don", which sounds simultaneously like 1998 (the year Bombay was dropped) and Isaac Hayes style funk.