90s music

    We all love 90s music.
    Who doesn't remember the epic neverending recording sessions – every record was a "master", recorded on the spot – of pioneer G. W. Johnson's experimental black music?
    Who didn't watch the first censored music clip, featuring "Little Egypt", which still stands up as an early silent tribute to world music?
    Who could forget the beginnings of "Waltzing Matilda" and so many tunes that would become massive hits, such as "I've Been Working on the Railroad", "’O sole mio", and "Daisy Bell" – later covered by HAL in '2001: A Space Odissey' –? Just to name a few...

( Above, 1890s music poster featuring George W. Johnson, Thomas A. Edison, "Banjo" Paterson & Christina Macpherson, "Little Egypt", Eduardo di Capua & Giovanni Capurro, and HAL 9000. )

Kimbraholic

Kimbra performing "Settle Down", "Somebody Please" and "Limbo" at the Rolling Stone studio (May 2012).

“Let’s just use it like that"

On capturing Kimbra’s guest vocals for John Legend's "Made to Love":

"Dave [Tozer] and I wrote the vocals together for the main body of the song, and we happened to be working with Kimbra on another track for her project that day, so we played this one for her to see if she had any ideas. She went into the booth and beautifully scatted all over the track and we chopped it up and used her scats as a crucial part of the song."

("John Legend: Soul singer dishes on his style, his connection to '12 Years a Slave' and his new album", November 11, 2013, www.cleveland.com)

"Kimbra’s part came about in an interesting way: we were in the studio together and we played the song for her, and she had a melody idea that she wanted to just quickly record while it was in her head. It was intended that it would be developed and have lyrics written to it, but her scatting sounded so cool, I said, 'Let’s just use it like that, instead of developing it further.' So what you hear were the original spontaneous ideas that emerged when she first heard the song. It ended up being very cool."

("Inside John Legend’s “Love in the Future” – Track by Track with Executive Producer Dave Tozer", September 2, 2013, Sonic Scoop)