Thievery Corporation - Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi
A review of Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi, Thievery Corporation’s 1996 debut… and a pillar of the Monkey Radio rotation, with 17 tracks on the station.
Artist: Thievery Corporation · Year: 1996 · Rating: ★★★★★
This is a mandatory album for a Monkey Radio collector, featuring 16 tracks from the 2006 digital reissue, AND Mañha, a track exclusive to the original pressing of the album; this album represents a huge part of the station’s grooving, sexy beats (especially early on).
As you might expect, the album is more or less devoid of bad tracks, and many have become staples of Thievery Corporation’s repertoire that even casual listeners likely recognize these days. The album is replete with influences, most notably dub and world-beat sounds. The vast majority of tracks feature two-chord structures, rich reverb, and complicated drum loops that anchor the music; dub and rasta sampling are omnipresent, but far from the only inspiration: listeners will hear triphop, funk, and more across the span (or even across a track).
The album launches with “A Warning - Dub” which is exactly what it sounds like on the tin: a chill beat with a reverb-heavy dub sample pronouncing “Thievery Corporation” a few times. It’s a nice intro for a block of music that leans heavily on samples and influences from Jamaican and Brazilian sources. The next few tracks establish the breadth of sampling by rolling in hiphop cuts (“One two, check-check one, two!”) before moving into a fairly consistent chill out vibe that persists over most of the album. TC leans on long, rolling “ahhhhhh” sung samples in lieu of adding additional synths in some cases, and skillfully weaves reverbs and delays to create heavily textured sound. Many of the tracks are fundamentally simple two-chord songs over complex textures of instruments and samples.
.38.45
“Thirty Eight, forty five, will people remember the Corporation.” This is a particularly well-known early Thievery track. Per an interview with Balkan Rock the numbers came from Eighteenth Street Lounge mainstays See-I, and were a tribute to Toots and the Maytals - 54-46. That said, I can only assume that the numbers might have had something to do with calibers, especially given the rest of the song’s lyrics focus on burning down a nation and rebuilding it (and burning cannabis, of course.)
Variations
The last two tracks were added for the digital pressing (found on other singles, if need be). “Sun, Moon, and Stars” is a reggae beat on the synth and four on the floor, with a few conga-like drum accents. A little over halfway through some rasta samples are incorporated. This is a good track but doesn’t add much that the rest of the album hasn’t already. Sleeper Car, however, gently closes the album out with a much more minimalist take on the album’s relaxed sound. Long string synths provide tension on the background, and strong sidestick snare hits accompany a tight shaker beat. The track doesn’t move much, but serves as a punctuation for the album’s fade-to-black.
“Mañha” was originally on the CD pressing in the middle of the album, and the effort is a little lesser for its lack on the digital reissue. Like Sleeper Car it’s a more minimalist effort than other works on the album, in this case using swelling synths instead of strings for texture. The lyrics (“Manhã, tão bonita manhã”, “Morning, what a beautiful morning”) are famously the opening line of Luiz Bonfá’s Manhã de Carnaval, a bossa nova standard from the 1959 French-Brazilian film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) (though it doesn’t sound like it’s a direct sample of the original recording to my ear unless they did some slicing). Regardless, it’s a beautiful piece of music if you can get your hands on it.
As a side note, if I had to guess I’d say the original station was likely spinning the 1996 CD, and pulled “Sun, Moon And Stars” from ESL’s Covert Operations compilation (1998).
Verdict
If you’re only going to own one Thievery Corporation album, this is the one to get. There’s not a bad track on the album, even if some of them are so chill as to start to blend together if you’re not paying attention. Despite that nitpick, this is an easy 5/5 stars.
Monkey Radio Tracks: 17/18
Everything but Sleeper Car made the rotation: Monkey Radio played the 2006 reissue’s other 16 tracks, plus the original pressing’s Mañha:
- Thievery Corporation - A Warning (Dub)
- Thievery Corporation - 2001 Spliff Odyssey
- Thievery Corporation - Shaolin Satellite
- Thievery Corporation - Transcendence
- Thievery Corporation - Universal Highness
- Thievery Corporation - Mañha
- Thievery Corporation - The Glass Bead Game
- Thievery Corporation - The Foundation
- Thievery Corporation - Interlude
- Thievery Corporation - The Oscillator
- Thievery Corporation - .38.45 (A Thievery Number)
- Thievery Corporation - Incident At Gate 7
- Thievery Corporation - Scene At The Open Air Market
- Thievery Corporation - One
- Thievery Corporation - Assault On Babylon
- Thievery Corporation - Encounter In Bahia
- Thievery Corporation - Sun, Moon and Stars
