1001 Other Albums<p><strong>Gratien Midonet – Fô Ou Tchimbi – Decision (1989, Martinique)</strong></p><p>As randomly chosen by survey[1] on Mastodon, our next spotlight is on number 718 on <a href="https://1001otheralbums.com/the-list/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The List</a>, submitted by myself (buffyleigh).</p><p>At the beginning of this project, after we had amassed a few hundred album titles for The List and started to see where there were gaps, a few of us went searching around for gems that we maybe weren’t all that familiar with, but knew had to be included. This was one such artist I stumbled on, our only artist representing the Caribbean island of Martinique (in the French West Indies/Antilles).</p><p>I had a hard time deciding which of Midonet’s four albums to include, and still think maybe I should have picked his first, <em><a href="https://gratien-midonet.bandcamp.com/album/ven-en-lev" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ven en Lévé</a></em> (1979). The title track of that one seems to have been an anthem of sorts for Martinique’s independence movement, and was apparently banned from French radio for 2 years. But then the second and third albums – <em><a href="https://gratien-midonet.bandcamp.com/album/linit" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">L’Inité</a></em> (1980) and <em><a href="https://gratien-midonet.bandcamp.com/album/bourg-la-folie" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bourg La Folie</a></em> (1984; a soundtrack to a since lost film by Antillean director Benjamin Jules Rosette) – as well as this one are all excellent, all highlight Midonet’s Creole lyricism, and all have their particular charms. And so, I simply went with the one that I thought would perhaps entice people to go back and check out the rest of the discography.</p><p>Anyway, if descriptions like “tropical acid folk”, “cosmic reggae jazz”, “transcendental fusion”, and “psychedelic dance” pique your interest, I would suggest you take a listen through them all. A <a href="https://gratien-midonet.bandcamp.com/album/a-cosmic-poet-from-martinique-1979-1989" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">compilation</a> is also available, for a quick survey. Whichever you choose, it’s a good decision.</p><p>Happy listening.</p><ul><li><a href="https://gratien-midonet.bandcamp.com/album/fo-ou-tchimbi-decision" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bandcamp: Gratien Midonet – <em>Fô Ou Tchimbi – Decision</em></a></li><li><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3534233-Gratien-Midonet-Fo-Ou-Tchimbi-Decision" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Discogs: Gratien Midonet – <em>Fô Ou Tchimbi – Decision</em></a><em> </em></li></ul><ol><li>The survey choices that initially led to this spotlight were “He flows like the big muddy, but that’s okay”, “Pour him over ice cream”, and “for a nice parfait”, following the earlier surveys that had “Well, I don’t want no Abba Zabba”/“Don’t want no Almond Joy”/“There ain’t nothing better”/“Suitable for this boy”, “Well, it’s the only thing that can pick me up”/“Better than a cup of gold”/“See only a chocolate Jesus”/“Can satisfy my soul”, and “When the weather gets rough”/“And it’s whiskey in the shade”/“It’s best to wrap your savior”/“Up in cellophane”. The second option was the winning selection, and the survey result was translated as picking an album in The List that contained a word in the phrase – in this case, “him”, hidden in the word “Tchimbi”. ↩︎</li></ol><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/1001otheralbums/" target="_blank">#1001OtherAlbums</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/1980s/" target="_blank">#1980s</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/acid-folk/" target="_blank">#acidFolk</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/antilles/" target="_blank">#Antilles</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/creole/" target="_blank">#Creole</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/creole-soul/" target="_blank">#CreoleSoul</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/funk/" target="_blank">#funk</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/gratien-midonet/" target="_blank">#GratienMidonet</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/listen-to-this/" target="_blank">#ListenToThis</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/martinique/" target="_blank">#Martinique</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/music/" target="_blank">#music</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/music-discovery/" target="_blank">#musicDiscovery</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/musodon-2/" target="_blank">#Musodon</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://1001otheralbums.com/tag/west-indies/" target="_blank">#WestIndies</a></p>