Possibly the most powerful thing about music is its unifying ability. Now, to what purpose that power is used for and how, is independent of the music itself, but the undeniable fact remains that where all else fails, music can succeed.
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Several years ago I used to participate in a message board (bbs, if you will), on a fairly regular basis and, as a result, got to "know" the regular participants from their writing styles and posts and opinions. I like to think that I am pretty laid back about cyber relationships, engagements and exchanges (of any kind) and I'm pretty sure I've done well at maintaining a very level head about not ever getting emotionally involved--definitely nowhere near how I tend to be in real life. There was, however, one person on this board who I really, really, really disliked, and who managed to irk me in a very real way. I privately thought of him as 'that oaf Y' and use to feel almost a physical desire to reach through the screen and bitchslap him, so annoyed I was by him and everything about him.
It so happened that we both participated in a CD mix exchange proposed in a discussion, and that we both ended up in the same group of people exchanging, which is why I found myself listening to a CD made someone whose words I sometimes could not bear to even read. I was fully prepared to hate his CD, expecting it to be a complete extension of his pompous, pigheaded, narrow-visioned self.
I was completely blown away. To this day, it is one of the best mixes I have ever received from anyone and there isn't a single song on there that I didn't immediately click with. (Like you didn't see that coming!)
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Because he was from a different, non-English speaking country, his mix included several non-English tracks, much to my delight. Even better, one of those tracks was a gorgeous a capella song by a female group I had never heard of before. I knew, long before the song ended and I hit repeat several times to listen to it again, though, that I would definitely try to hunt down and get some more information on them. Even if it meant asking the oaf Y himself. Hah.
***
Here is the first song I ever heard by Lais, followed by another one I really enjoyed off their debut album. I haven't looked into getting any of their other albums, yet--to be honest, back then, they did not have a website and youtube was not around to sample any of their other albums, and just to get the debut one took close to 6 months; I had too much going on to invest that much time into keeping up with a musical group. It looks like it is much easier to do so, now, so hopefully I can get a feel for some of the newer stuff. (It looks like their lineup has stayed the same, so that's nice.)
Der Wereld Vergaat - Lais
The liner notes in the mix CD said that this is a song about the world ending, which probably explains the choice of pictures accompanying the tune in the video.
't Smidje - Lais
