Crate Digging: Isaac McMorrow, Pitch & Sync

Crate Digging is a music discovery platform where contributors take home and discuss two records from across Concord Recorded Music’s active and historical labels.

Isaac McMorrow, music supervisor at Pitch & Sync, discusses his top two finds.

My Frontline find is Action Bronson’s ‘Cocodrillo Turbo’

There’s a running joke in our office: 

“Have you seen the latest edition of Concord’s Crate Digging series?” 

“Not yet… Which Action Bronson record did the supervisor pick?” 

But, I’m comfortable with being a cliché. Some clichés are clichés because they’re good. In some ways we (music supervisors) are the arbiters of what is good (lol) and because Action Bronson is f*cking excellent, it is no surprise that I am joining the Concord carved Mount Rushmore of music supervisors who have selected a cut by Bam Bam Bronson. 

Bronson sits at the centre of the ‘Crocodrillo’ universe. His gravity pulling into orbit arcane samples, all fuzz and mystery, madcap soul loops and his trademark raw power bars. It’s a ten-track crocodile death roll and I’ve been locked in its jaws since release.

My Catalogue find is Tinariwen’s ‘Aman Iman’

After being banished from their home country, Mali, in the wake of a bitter civil war and extreme political repression, Tinariwen formed in a Libyan refugee camp at some point in the 1980s. Some members went on to fight in a Tuareg rebellion back in Mali before returning to music in the ’90s. 

I first saw them perform around a cauldron of bubbling stew on a Saturday afternoon at WOMAD. I can’t remember which year – but I remember half the group getting busy dicing vegetables and hacking at a roasted goat while the other half performed stripped-back versions of their classics. 

I haven’t been able to find evidence that this occurred, but I know what I saw.

At the time I was unaware of their past. Their music sounds as old as the hills. A track like ‘Matadjem Yinmixan’ could well have been uncovered, hiding under a rock in the North African tundra. And when a music has 'that' quality, whatever 'that' is, it runs deep - it is forged in the fires of rebellion and resistance to oppression. They’re clearly telling the stories of something far greater and far deeper than I am qualified to speak about. But they’re not just chinstrokey blazing guitars and serious bluesmanship, (which, by the way, they have in abundance if that's your bag).

What’s truly great about Tinariwen is they’re f*cking groovy with it. 

Dance is inexorably linked to resistance in all its forms and this record, and every performance they give, is testimony to that. They’re the greatest live act there is and I for one am happy to die on that hill. I’ll be enjoying a delicious goat stew and looking down on you all being wrong.

If you’d like to know more, or you’re keen to discover more of our repertoire, please contact: tom.frank@concord.com.