Artist:

Blondes, the duo of Sam Haar and Zach Steinman, release their self-titled debut album for RVNG Intl. Haar and Steinman met at Oberlin College in 2003, where they studied electroacoustic composition and studio art respectively, and became collaborators in a smattering of short-lived experimental outfits. After graduation and stints apart in Oakland and NYC, Haar and Steinman regrouped in Berlin where Blondes was born, eventually settling on Brooklyn for home base.

Blondes quickly evolved from a home studio project to a live experience built around a tactile assemblage of synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines. The basement and warehouse venues that curiously welcomed Blondes’ syrupy, space-case dance music provided a reactive environment for the duo to develop their sound and work ethic. But as they started playing at nightclubs renowned for their sound systems and ecstatic dance floors, Haar and Steinman realized a potential for their music to resonate at a higher fidelity and deeper frequency, both sonically and spiritually. Blondes’ heart aligned with house music in its most liquid form.

Hit the skip for more on Blondes and a video…

Initiated in 2011 to document Blondes’ evolution, the album is comprised of pairs of tracks that explore the concept of duality through a personal lens intensely focused on moving the body. Lover / Hater is centered upon a Meredith Monk sample, a primal scream signaling Blondes’ rebirth. Business / Pleasure confronts the struggle of sustaining individuality in a sinister commercial world and stylistically references Blondes’ time spent in the UK. And Wine / Water swings on pendulum between excess and restraint while exhibiting the duo’s most melodic and mature work thus far. Gold and Amber are almost entirely improvised and recorded in single takes. Gold and Amber are inspired by complexity and purity, which manifests in the manic energy and bliss of the parallel tracks.

Blondes journey of musical discovery is reflected in eleven remixes by friends, peers, and heroes including JD Twitch of Optimo, Dungeon Acid, SFV Acid, John Roberts, Andy Stott, Teengirl Fantasy, Bicep, Traxx, Laurel Halo, Rene Hell, and Robert Miles.

Blondes – “Haters”

Soulful vocalist Ruthie Foster’s latest work is a deeply intimate recording: a smoky mix of original songs coupled with inventive interpretations of an unexpected collection of covers – ranging from Adele to Los Lobos, and from The Black Keys to Johnny Cash. Recorded in New Orleans at the legendary Piety Street Studio, with a small group of A-List musicians that includes George Porter Jr. of the legendary Meters, Ruthie takes the listener on the most personal visit yet with her deeply moving vocals. She is supported along the way by some very special guests – gospel legends The Blind Boys of Alabama and Stax Records soul man William Bell (on a re-invention of his classic ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water.’)

Check out the making of Let It Burn…

“Petoskey Stone”

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Dana Falconberry’s newest release, Though I Didn’t Call It Came, celebrates, explores, and at times laments the vast landscapes in which the songs are set. Touching on themes of childhood curiosity, mortality, and the aching beauty of solitude, the EP’s songs interweave the human experience with the world surrounding it. She guides her listeners down moonlit paths and sandy shores until they are standing right alongside her under the birches, wide-eyed and wondering at the eagles circling overhead.

A Michigan native, Falconberry has thrived musically in Austin, TX, hailed by the Austin Chronicle as one of the city’s “most promising singer-songwriters” and “most arresting female vocalists.” She has captivated audiences with her powerful live shows and haunting recordings, receiving acclaim far beyond the reaches of her hometown. The past few years have found her touring extensively through the US, Europe, and Japan. In 2011, she starred in the critically-lauded music documentary on the Austin music scene, Echotone, which was awarded a New York Times Critics’ Pick.

Recorded in an old church in Austin, TX, Though I Didn’t Call It Came is an energetic leap forward for Dana Falconberry. It is a prelude to a full-length release recorded during the same session, which will be released later in 2012. While her past records have emphasized the sparse and delicate, these songs are lushly orchestrated with a full six-piece band, a string quartet and harpist, rich four part harmonies, and a host of unexpected accents from torn paper to prepared piano.

The thing that you have to keep in mind, while listening to Dana Falconberry sing, is that she is really a real person, really. She is not something that you’re imagining up with a vivid set of notions and ideals. She is not that pretty voice that you’ve always been dreaming about, hoping that you could bring it out from behind those lacy curtains, out from behind the fog and into a real existence. She’s here. Or, she was, and she can be again. Falconberry, of Austin, Texas, can knock you out with one push of a breath and just the introductory notes of a song that will continue to flutter and flit all the way to its high perches. She emits this lonesomeness that seems to stem from an inferiority complex that’s directed at that great big world out there and how puny and ugly most everything tends to feel lined up next to it. She questions what this has all done to her – these considerations of the immensity of the sky and water and the diminutive proportion of one girl of the flesh. She looks toward these mystical, but very touchable and largely measurable things – air and water – and sees in them formidable opponents that we tend to never pick fights with. We just look and curse them from afar, the same as we do with fires and most other people.

Falconberry looks at these aspects of the everyday as allies and foes, knowing that they can’t be stopped or contained, but also getting drunk on the very idea that they cannot be stopped or contained. Some may see it as a burden, but not her. She’s going to enjoy herself – she’s going to enjoy being in well over her head though she will never think of it that way. She uses a soft and cooing voice – one that is halfway between that of a Joanna Newsom and that of a mother hen humming to herself, under her breath, while cooking some homemade deserts in the kitchen on a warm day. She’s going to offer those deserts. She’s going to dish them out and she’ll hand you a fork, ask if you’d like one or two scoops of vanilla ice cream on the side and than watch as you take that first bite in, expecting that you’ll instinctually pull your eyes closed and let out of a satisfied moan.

Artist:

Depending on whom you ask, Matthew Dear is a DJ, a dance-music producer, an experimental pop artist, a bandleader. He co-founded both Ghostly International and its dance floor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He’s had remixes commissioned by The XX, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Spoon, Hot Chip, The Postal Service, and Chemical Brothers; he’s made mixes for the Fabric mix series and Get Physical’s Body Language. He maintains four aliases (Audion, False, Jabberjaw, and Matthew Dear), each with its own style and distinct visual identity. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none—and he’s just hitting his stride.

Matthew Dear’s EP, Headcage, stands as a testament to the New Yorker’s work as a relentless songwriter, producer and in a new light, collaborator. Working with other producers and vocalists as well as mixing/tracking at Nicolas Vernhes’ famed Rare Book Room studio has lent Headcage an openness and poise to the four songs presented here.

Hit the jump for more on Dear, a free promo track and a video.

Dear’s 2003 full-length Ghostly debut, Leave Luck to Heaven, is a suite of sparse, wickedly funky house laced with Dear’s deep, distinctive vocals, and includes the much-loved single “Dog Days” (voted one of Pitchfork’s Top 100 Songs of the Decade). The record was met with rapturous acclaim from both the dance-music establishment and the critical press, including a four-star review in Rolling Stone. Dear’s 2007 follow-up, Asa Breed, was a considerable departure from Heaven’s dance floor excursions, incorporating the polyrhythms of Afrobeat, the irreverent pop sensibilities of Brian Eno, and the austere beauty of Krautrock. More four-stars reviews followed (Q and Mojo magazines), and Dear subsequently began touring with a live three-piece band, Matthew Dear’s Big Hands, in which he acted as front man, commanding the stage with a Bryan Ferry-like swagger and a gentleman’s grace. After over a decade of exploring pop’s outer limits, Matthew Dear now inhabits a rarefied corner of the musical universe: no longer tethered to any one genre, respected by his peers, and blessed with a bottomless well of creative energy. Now is Matthew Dear’s moment, and it sounds like nothing else.

“Headcage” leads with a dense, mutating cluster of breaths, whispers and assorted technicolor sounds until it coalesces into a hearty chug. The song gets an added aural heft from co-producers Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid, a Swedish partnership notable for work on albums like Blonde Redhead’s Penny Sparkle, Glasser’s Ring and Fever Ray’s self-titled record. The unabashed melodic thrust of the lead vocals by Jonny Pierce (of Brooklyn outfit The Drums) makes “In the Middle (I Met You There)” one of Dear’s most perfect—and unique—pop creations. The first duet in Dear’s decade-long career, the dopamine flies when Dear’s baritone kicks in. “Street Song” forgoes percussion and propulsion for a drifting, intoxicated reverie of an exotic melodic phrase, bubbling bass and Dear’s falsetto. Something perhaps culled from a late night reverie heard from a window, or an imagined city long gone. “Around a Fountain” offers a dubby low end and claustrophobic atmosphere, but Dear’s voice leavens the darkness, rounding out the EP with hymn-like whisper.

Matthew Dear
“I Can’t Feel” (mp3)
from “Black City”
(Ghostly International)

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Matthew Dear – ” Headcage”

“O Holy Night”

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Happy Holiday’s from IODA! To wrap up the season we bring you Nicole Henry’s superb live Christmas album Set for the Season: Live In Japan.

Set for the Season was recorded over four nights of performances at the Cotton Club in Tokyo, Japan (2009) during Nicole’s ninth tour of the country since 2005 (after being awarded HMV’s Best new Jazz Artist and Best Vocal Jazz award for her first two albums, The Nearness of You and The Very Thought of You). The recording features Pete Wallace (Piano), James McCoy (Bass) and Dave Chiverton (Drums). Set For the Season includes holiday classics in addition to an amazing bonus performance of “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water” – a highly requested audience favorite.

Find out more about Nicole Henry after the jump!

A graduate of the University of Miami with a degree in Communications and Theatre, Henry got her first recording experience with dance music DJ/producer Noel Sanger. After “Miracle,” a Sanger track featuring Henry, reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s dance chart, she toured the U.S. with Sanger, which was followed by a stint with RCA recording artist Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise. Then, in 2001, Henry’s magnetic personality and theatrical background helped her to launch a successful acting career, appearing in film and television roles as well as a series of commercials and voice-over assignments. But she continued to maintain focus on her budding singing career, winning a large regional following around South Florida with her live performances and being named 2002′s Best Local Solo Musician by Miami New Times. The same year, Henry had the opportunity to sing with a jazz trio for the first time, and immediately recognized the musical freedom and storytelling potential that jazz offered.

Henry’s enthusiastic embrace of jazz accelerated her creative development, leading to the 2004 release of her debut CD, The Nearness of You, on her own Banister label. That album won considerable attention from audiences and critics both in the U.S. and in Japan, with HMV Japan naming Henry the Best New Jazz Artist of 2004. The album climbed to #2 on HMV Japan’s jazz chart and remained in the top 10 for three months. Back home, Henry won rave reviews and received significant airplay on jazz radio, and was the subject of features in Billboard, JazzTimes and Downbeat. Her second album, Teach Me Tonight, on which she was backed by the Eddie Higgins Trio, reached #1 in Japan and was named HMV Japan’s Best Vocal Jazz Album of 2005.

Henry’s 2008 album, The Very Thought of You, found her continuing to explore the Great American Songbook while broadening her repertoire to include original material and contemporary songs. The album substantially expanded her American audience, reaching #7 on Billboard’s jazz chart. Its international popularity spurred her to step up her performance schedule with successful tours of Japan (where she’s toured nine times), Europe and Russia. Henry also remained a favorite in New York City where she’s made high-profile appearances at such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and Feinstein’s at the Regency. Throughout 2009 and 2010, her monthly performances in front of sold-out crowds at Chelsea’s Metropolitan Room led to winning the 2010 BISTRO Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist.

“Lay Your Cards Out”

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After collaborating in the studio and live on their most recent project (GAYNGS), it became apparent to vocalist Channy Leaneach (formerly Casselle) and producer Ryan Olson that they should form a collective of their own. Olson’s pop sensibilities and electronic adventurism would prove to be the perfect vehicle for Channy’s recent evolution from a roots-folk band vocalist to a R&B-bred performer. Thus, POLIÇA was born.

In June of 2011 the two began writing the songs that make up POLIÇA’s debut, Give You The Ghost. Initially the tracks were arranged with Olson’s beats and sequences, leaving room for Channy to apply her dynamic experimentation. Playing with vocal processing and synthesized textures, her additions fit perfectly into the lush, electronic sound-scape of Olson’s arrangements.

Hit the jump for more including a live video of POLIÇA performing “Wandering Star”!

By July, the pair had completed 11 songs and enlisted the talents of drummers Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson, and bass player Chris Bierdan. With these key additions they headed into the studio, bringing Mike Noyce (Bon Iver) to add his vocals on “Lay Your Cards Out” and “Wandering Star”. To round it all out, the album was brought to Austin, TX where it was mixed by Jim Eno (Spoon).

Give You The Ghost is now complete and ready to be heard by the world. With it’s sultry R&B rhythms and intensely electro, goth-pop vibes, it could bot be more perfect for a late December digital release.

POLIÇA – “Wandering Star”

Artist:

yU is back with his sophomore project The Earn a progression that is as fluid, lyrical, and thought provoking as his critically acclaimed debut. The Earn, is a timely meditation on the struggle to advance, set afire by yU’s potent wordplay.

“With The Earn, yU succeeds at crafting an inspired record with deep introspection, poignant rhymes, and smooth production delivering some of the most striking Hip Hop I’ve heard all year” – Jeff Leon at Kevin Nottingham

His first real shine came with a spot on 2003′s The Antidote: The Healing Pt. 2 compilation from Urban Ave 31. The project featured singer Raheem DeVaughn and yU’s crew the Remainz, with a buzz spreading to Europe and introducing the budding lyricist to an overseas audience. At home, a new generation of talent was bubbling in the Washington D.C./Md./Va. area, which led to the formation of the Diamond District, a group consisting of yU, producer/MC Oddissee, MC X.O., and named after the geographical region in which they all came of age. He then continued to garner success with his solo debut Before Taxes which was named to the Best of 2010 List by HipHopDX, Al Lindstrom, and Above Ground Mag.. yU sharpened his skills through performances on a European tour and appearances at CMJ, SXSW, A3C, and the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival.

Grab the free track from yU’s first album here:

yU
“Close (feat. The 1978ers)” (mp3)
from “Before Taxes”
(Mello Music Group)

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Artist:

CYNE returns. On the heels of the rush of Water For Mars and the resplendence of 2008′s Pretty Dark Things, Cise Star, Enoch, and Speck tell a new story in classic mixtape form. Nearly an hour of brand new vocal tracks, seriously addictive beat vignettes, evolved samples, and the story of Laserteeth Killmore. There’s Earth, there’s Space, and then there’s CYNE.  Featuring art by Justin Lovato.

CYNE (Cultivating Your New Experience) formed in the summer of 2001, in the swamps of Gainesville, Florida. CYNE is: emcees Akin and Cise Star, and producers Speck and Enoch — four distinct people, with the common goal of creating sincere and honest music.

Their often politically-charged, culturally-introspective, and motivational lyrics find influence rooted in the early works of Nas, Public Enemy, Outkast and Common Sense. The production could be described as warm, soulful and organic — born out of the school of producers that cite the likes of RZA, Pete Rock, Jay Dee, and DJ Premier. CYNE’s ‘sound’ is impacted by everything from Bad Brains to Krautrock, from Camp Lo to Kate Bush, from Venezuelan Gaita to West African Highlife — it’s a hybrid of emotional, historical, and challenging influences.

Tiago Iorc is a Brazilian musician, singer-songwriter and recording artist. His debut album Let Yourself In was released in 2008 and the track “Nothing But a Song” reached a nation-wide audience as it was featured on a popular Brazilian soap opera. The song peaked at number 11 on Billboard Japan’s Hot 100 Chart. The album has also been released in Japan by JVC Records, in South Korea by Kang & Music and in the Philippines by Universal Records.

Tiago’s second release Umbilical, represents a different side of him. He had the freedom to experiment artistically without necessarily having to fit to any pre-established expectations and gradually evolve as an artist. He spent little over five months in his apartment gathering thoughts and musical ideas until teaming up with New York-based Andy Chase for the production of Umbilical.

Check out a live acoustic version of “Story Of A Man” the lead single on Umbilical:

Notable producer, Chris Brann, responsible for the ground breaking king-of-their-time productions of Wamdue Project, Wamdue Kids, and Ananda Project, comes to the electronic front line once again with another album by his brain stepchild, P’Taah. This is the fourth P’Taah album with the last one being released in 2004. It gained wide acceptance in many different crossover Jazz scenes, with his albums maintaining the consistency to sell through over long periods of time. This is not your typical mainstream, trendy, flash in the pan project, but one that’s set alongside musical genre bending, innovation and musical creativity, never being stamped with an expiration date.

P’Taah now returns to Street King with a brilliant inspiration filled with Future Chill, House, Fusion Neo Jazz, Downtempo, BreakBeat, Drum n’ Bass, which could quite possibly be reminiscent of old 4Hero but with a 21st Century appeal. Featured tracks with special vocalists include: “The Cosmic Laws” feat. Monday Michiru, “Tears And Light” feat. Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, “Fade Away” feat. Tiombe Lockhart, of the Platinum Pied Pipers, also offered as a bonus cut with the boogie down roller disco Silver City remix. Other stand out previously released singles, “Everything Is Naturally Free”, “Sun’s Departure and “This Is Imaginary” also offered with a Gramophonedzie Club Bonus Remix bringing some extra musical synergy to the collection. It’s so hard to be truly original these days but if you are able to come up with unconditional concepts, melding of styles, stripped down vocals, put together and put together well, there’s no telling what brilliance will come to light. Maybe an album like this one? We’ll let you decide.

Check out the trippy video for the title track: