Trick or Beat? Goodbye summer.

Mariposa (f/ Carol C) - Nickodemus & Osiris
from 12" on Giant Steps (2001).

Another Lover (RJD2 Remix) - J-Walk f/ Pete Simpson
from 12" on Warner Music (2002).

Some travel for work and play has kept me off the interwebs the last two weeks, but here's to a fresh start. While out and about I realized that summer is over and in many places autumn is gone also leading to winter. As a last holla to the warm and sunny breezes up today is a "Mariposa" by Nickodemus and Osiris featuring the excellent Portuguese Spanish vocals of Carol C of Si-Se. A nice punchy beat beat augments the super familiar Latin piano lick. And whatever CC may be saying, it sounds great to me. It is always interesting when the word that describes something captures the aesthetic beauty of that thing (think "azure" or "Jean Seaborg") and even more interesting is when that word transcends translation. Butterfly in English, mariposa in Spanish, and papillon in French...all capture the beauty of the thing well as does this light summery track.

On the converse is the J-Walk track which has all the heartbreaking melancholy of a lonely, chilly day filled with brown leaves. RJD2 delivers a very signature sounding remix with almost scary "The Horror" sounding organ and little string touches to go with a steady soul beat. So what if RJ wants to produce the next Coldplay album or whatever, he's had the Midas touch when making this soft hearted stuff from way back. Happy Halloween.