Discover music that moves you, not algorithmic noise. Hand-picked, authentic, and sometimes messy, just like life. Zola 2026-11-14T00:00:00+00:00 https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/genre/surf-rock/atom.xml 2026-11-14T00:00:00+00:00 2026-11-14T00:00:00+00:00 korczis https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/melissa-laveaux-kouzen/ <h2 id="genre-and-mood">Genre and Mood</h2> <p><strong>Mélissa Laveaux</strong>’s “Kouzen” is a traditional Haitian song played as folk with a surf-rock guitar: energetic, groovy and over almost before it has begun.</p> <h2 id="song-summary">Song Summary</h2> <p>The song is credited as traditional, and Laveaux’s label traces it to its earliest recordings in the 1920s. She recorded it for Radyo Siwèl, an album of Haitian songs she arranged with the production trio A.L.B.E.R.T. The label calls her reading surf rock, Exclaim! hears a “guitar-driven ride”, and Drowned in Sound singles out the track’s “rhythmical guitar”. It lasts two minutes and twenty-one seconds.</p> <h2 id="musical-breakdown">Musical Breakdown</h2> <p>No source describes Kouzen section by section, so this breakdown follows the players the album credits and what the reviews say about them.</p> <h3 id="the-guitar">The Guitar</h3> <p>Laveaux plays electric guitar throughout the album, and here it is the engine: the reviewers hear a rhythmical, driving part at the centre of the track.</p> <h3 id="the-cuatro-and-the-band">The Cuatro and the Band</h3> <p>Drew Gonsalves, leader of the Trinidadian band Kobo Town, adds the cuatro, a small four-string guitar; Vincent Taurelle plays keyboards, Ludovic Bruni bass and Vincent Taeger drums.</p> <h3 id="the-voices">The Voices</h3> <p>Laveaux sings lead with background vocals from herself and Gonsalves. Drowned in Sound writes that next to the guitar of Kouzen, her voice proves as pliable as her playing.</p> <h2 id="concepts-in-focus">Concepts in Focus</h2> <p>Kouzen is a <a href="https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/cover-version/" class="concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400" data-concept="cover-version" title="A new recording of a song by an artist other than the original. A cover can be faithful or transform the song's genre and meaning.">cover version</a> of a song older than any one performer. Traditional songs have no original to be faithful to, only earlier recordings, so each new version is free to change the setting; a surf-rock guitar is a long way from a 1920s record. Compare <a href="https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/melissa-laveaux-needle-in-the-hay/" class="font-medium text-primary-700 hover:underline dark:text-primary-400" data-track-link="melissa-laveaux-needle-in-the-hay.md">Mélissa Laveaux – Needle in the Hay</a>, where she reworks a songwriter’s song the same way.</p> <p>The <a href="https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/riff/" class="concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400" data-concept="riff" title="A short, repeated melodic or rhythmic figure, usually played by an instrument, that anchors a song. Rock riffs are often guitar figures; in electronic music the same role falls to a synth or bass line.">riff</a> is the backbone of surf rock, a short guitar figure that repeats and carries a song. The reviews describe Kouzen’s guitar as rhythmical and driving rather than notating it, so listen for the figure yourself.</p> <h2 id="artistic-context">Artistic Context</h2> <p>Laveaux, born in Montreal in 1985 to Haitian parents, went back to Haiti for the first time since she was twelve and built Radyo Siwèl from traditional and vodou songs. The album looks at the American occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934; its title nods to the troubadour orchestras whose songs kept a record of the people’s history and resistance. It was recorded in Pantin in April 2017 and released on No Format! in 2018.</p> <h2 id="impact-and-reception">Impact and Reception</h2> <p>Radyo Siwèl was long-listed for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize, and in 2024, for No Format!’s twentieth anniversary, Melanie Charles remixed Kouzen into a jazzy jungle version. Turn it up; it will not take long.</p>