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Posts Tagged ‘Music Video’

New Japancakes Single and Video Featuring Orenda Fink

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

275562 72 New Japancakes Single and Video Featuring Orenda FinkArtist: Japancakes
Title: Behind the Mountain
Label: Sleepy Strange
Genre: Indie : Alternative
Release Date: 7/28/09
UPC: 844185076531
Territories: World ex-China

Japancakes are releasing the single, “Behind The Mountains” next week featuring Azure Ray’s Orenda Fink on vocals.  Japancakes have been layering melodic instrumental music together for years. While this Athens, GA band has mentioned the idea of introducing vocals to their music through the years, it has never quite happened until now. Japancakes has never recorded in the usual method, and this project is no different. In fact, the band has spread out further across the map and worked on this project from many parts of the world. From Athens, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Taiwan, Japancakes have put together three versions of this single. With the comforting airy vocals from Orenda Fink(Azure Ray), on the English version, accompanying Japancakes soundtrack style, some beautiful and simplistic visuals are drawn.

These visuals come to life in the first ever video from Japancakes, directed by Ryan Berg. Stunning and simple, this video captures a glimpse of the beauty that comes to mind when thinking of all involved in the project. Even more so, another beautiful vocal version is available. With lyrics written and performed in Mandarin Chinese, by Moon(Miss Stocking), this unique version is equally beautiful in all areas. And keeping with Japancakes true instrumental roots, an instrumental version is also available. This project is truly unique with each version being well worth the attention.

Featured Artist: Brooklyn Funk Essentials

Monday, July 20th, 2009

featured release big Featured Artist: Brooklyn Funk Essentials

Brooklyn Funk Essentials Featured Artist: Brooklyn Funk EssentialsArtist: Brooklyn Funk Essentials
Title: Watcha Playin’
Label: Peace Bisquit / Black Plastic Magick
Genre: World : Funk
Release Date: 7/28/09
UPC: 844185085182
Territory: Worldwide (Ex. Turkey, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland)

Following an 8 year hiatus, the globally acclaimed collective Brooklyn Funk Essentials triumphantly return with a new studio album Watchya Playin’. Immaculately produced by founder Lati Kronlund, this blistering set marks the legendary multicultural collective’s 15th anniversary and is their first new studio offering since 2000′s Make ‘Em Like It. The album is the forth studio release from the group who was born out of New York’s buzzing hip-hop-jazz and slam poetry scenes in the early 90’s. Featuring the original players, the new record reunites the classic line-up of Kronlund (bass, beats, guitar, keyboards and turntables), vocalists Hanifah Walidah, Papa Dee and Everton Sylvester, and Yancy Drew (drums & vocals) alongside Desmond Foster (vocals & guitar), Iwan van Hetten (trumpet, keys & vocals), and Philippe Monrose (percussion). BFE also drafts an impressive cast of notable guest contributors including Turkish super-star clarinet player Hüsnü Senlendirici, Tunisian Ra Diva Amina Annabi (lead vocals), Awa Manneh and Stephanie McKay (background vocals) and from Bebel Gilberto’s band Masa Shimizu (guitars).

Watchya Playin’ finds the enduring outfit dispensing radiant sonic nirvana with masterful arrangements, eloquent lyrical narratives and exhilarating melodies. Written and road-tested during the band’s 2007 reunion tour, the explosive set was recorded in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Istanbul and Stockholm injecting a distinctive cosmopolitan flair vividly constructed around smooth textures and jubilant rhythms, which have become the band’s signature (along with their impeccable live performances). Throughout the 12-track opus, BFE brilliantly showcase their dexterity mining an eclectic musical terrain anchored in full-bodied urban dance grooves, stylized pop, sweltering 70s funk, irrepressible disco nostalgia, dance-hall-infected reggae/hip-hop jams, and flavorful poly-ethnic dub. Overall, BFE weave a cohesive widescreen collection where the energy is infectious, the instrumentation superlative and the songs dynamic – carefully balancing political fire and ruminative societal critiques with transcendent elegies and euphoric party jams.

The new record is a tour-de-force that harkens back to the spicy swagger of their landmark 1994 debut Cool and Steady and Easy (which featured their funky reggae-inspired reworking of Pharoah Sanders’ classic “The Creator Has A Master Plan”), the vibrant traditional Turkish folk mosaics of 1998′s Grammy-nominated In The Buzz Bag and the refined pop mélange of 2000′s Make ‘Em Like It. Brooklyn Funk Essentials is back with more of their eclectic and original sound to make you move. A great way to get a dance party going at your boring pot-luck.

Here’s a sample of their fantastic live show: this video is of their encore at 2 A.M. after playing for 2 hours straight, but they impressively loose none of their flair or energy. Enjoy:

Electro Hip-Hop Alchemists ApSci Harbor More Great Press

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Apsci Electro Hip Hop Alchemists ApSci Harbor More Great PressArtist: ApSci
Title: Best Crisis Ever
Label: Quannum Projects
Genre: Electronic : Dance
Release Date: 8/11/09
UPC: 681940008921
Territory: Worldwide

Best Crisis Ever, the new album from trans-continental ApSci (pronounced APP-sigh), was begun in a Brooklyn apartment overlooking a coffee factory in 2006, and finished in a Sydney apartment by the beach in 2008. While 2005’s Thanks for Asking was a collabo-rich hip-hop-electro diary with guests spanning from indie-rap pinch hitters Mr. Lif and Pigeon John to the bandleaders of TV On The Radio and Antibalas, the new record has been executed almost entirely by the duo, Australian-Filipina Dana Diaz-Tutaan and the Irish-Italian, Bronx-born Raphael LaMotta. It’s a louder, catchier and more expansive take on ApSci’s unique combination of electro, hip-hop and quirky pop, relying heavier on songwriting and a combination of vintage drum machine sounds, synths and guitars. It’s equal parts New York bravado and Australian charm, reflecting the respective hometowns of each, and how the duo, despite the nearly opposite lifestyle and pace of the cities, have managed to comfortably straddle both for nearly a decade.

In 2006, Diaz-Tutaan was asked to play the lead role of Imelda Marcos in Here Lies Love, a musical collaboration with David Byrne & Fat Boy Slim. Diaz-Tutaan performed alongside Byrne at the premier of the musical in the Adelaide Festival. Also, in the spring of 2009, shortly before the release of Best Crisis Ever, chose ApSci for their “Next 100″ issue, and the duo’s infectious new album standout, “Crazy Crazy Insane,” is currently being featured on a national television ad for Time Warner Cable. Check out the duo that JamBase.com claims is “fixing to be [a] major player in the future of hip-hop.”

Here’s some more friendly press for ApSci:
“Kick ass musicianship and a strong label will get you everywhere in this business as will constantly looking to innovate.” – Deeperbeats

“Excited and energetic and absolutely inventive as ever” –MP3.com

A mixture of “Eminem and Bjork,” –Spin.com

“The real deal.”-XLR8R

“Stands tall under the label of ‘experimental hip-hop.’”-Pitchfork.

Also, check out this awesome video they made for their previous single, “Under Control” using only an iPhone, a portable printer, and a webcam!  Now that’s resourcefulness:

Featured Artist: We Were Promised Jetpacks

Monday, June 29th, 2009

featured release big Featured Artist: We Were Promised Jetpacks

By: Cory Deines

jetpacks album Featured Artist: We Were Promised JetpacksArtist: We Were Promised Jetpacks
Title: These Four Walls
Label: Fat Cat Records
Genre: Rock : Indie
Release Date: 7/7/09
UPC: 600116997227
Territory: World Minus Europe, Japan, Taiwan

Who doesn’t like Scotland? They’ve got kilts, Scotch whisky, fried food, and oh yeah…really solid indie bands like We Were Promised Jetpacks.  While these kids may be young (twenty-one being the average age), they sure sound like indie rock veterans.  The four-piece ensemble saw their first gig at their high school Battle of the Bands – which they won — and since then they’ve been quite busy playing lots of gigs and touring with fellow indie-Scotts, Frightened Rabbits.  Jetpacks released a three-track demo, and were quickly picked up by FatCat Records.

The more I listen to Jetpack’s debut album, “These Four Walls”, the more addicted I get.  There’s just something about the lyrics and fierce melodies that really seem to ring true.  You won’t be able to resist the bright, clear-cut guitar riffs and the super-tight drums that seem to hold everything together.  The single “Quiet Little Voices” has already created quite a bit of buzz, and took a whole forty five seconds before it got me hooked and was consequently stuck in my head for some time.  I could easily see “Quiet Little Voices” being a big summer anthem.  Another track that really drew me in was the acoustic track, “An Almighty Thud”.  The guitar plays so warmly and Thompson’s voice cuts so clearly above it that it kinda gives you goosebumps.  You’ll understand what I mean when you hear it.  Overall, “These Four Walls” is strikingly solid debut album and seems a perfect introduction to We Were Promised Jetpacks.

Here’s a video of them playing their newest single at our annual IODA SXSW Showcase:

And here’s the official video for “Roll Up Your Sleeves”:

Check them out on tour this Fall with Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit!

Review: Steve Lehman Octet

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

262916 72 Review: Steve Lehman OctetSteve Lehman Octet
download icon Review: Steve Lehman Octet “Echoes” (mp3)
from “Travail, Transformation, and Flow”
(Pi Recordings)
icon landing page Review: Steve Lehman Octet More On This Album

Review: Steve Lehman Octet
Named a Rising Star on the alto saxophone in 2006, 2007, and 2008 by the Downbeat Magazine International Critics Poll, Steve Lehman is an undeniable talent whose work as a player and composer resides on the frontiers of contemporary music. His new album, Travail, Transformation, and Flow, is a wholly original take on jazz and spectral music, where “attack, decay, and timbre provide the source material for orchestration and musical form.” This fantastic release is sure to be marked as significant in the history of Jazz for its unique creation and content. Don’t just take our word for it, here’s a small sampling of the enthusiastic press pouring out daily for Lehman’s new record:

“When a passage of intricate written lines and improv come together in a unison cadence, Lehman elicits the familiar response to his jazz-as-magic-act: “How did they do that?” – Jon Garelick, The Boston Phoenix

“Mr. Lehman composed most of the music on the album with clinical attention to frequency and overtone: his harmonies were devised with the help of spectrum analysis and programming software. So in one sense this is computer music, though it’s also the product of a nimbly improvising octet.” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times

“At just over forty minutes, the recording is short by today’s super-sized standards, but contains more ideas than many twice its length. Here’s hoping Lehman revisits his octal ideas in the near future.” -Mark F. Turner, AllAboutJazz.com

“The track, ‘Echoes’, does the trick of sounding at once very contemporary and modern, especially in the way the horns and bass riff and in Tyshawn Sorey’s hip-hop influenced drumming, while at the same time echoing (right!) the works of past masters.” -Chris Monsen, Perfect Sounds

“’Echoes’ showcases his interest in spectral music, but you don’t need to know anything about microtonal harmonies to appreciate the shimmering textures, cutting solo, and bold mix of stasis and motion.”  –Destination: Out

“If you listen more than once — and you should try — the brainy music of Lehman constantly reveals layer after layer of fresh and inventive progressive sounds that should turn any sensibilities about face. This CD comes highly recommended, especially as a prime example of new, innovative music.” –Michael G. Nastos, AllMusic.com

As a bonus, here’s a great video of Steve explaining his creative process and a sampling of his octet’s remarkable improv-based live performance. Listen for the beat from GZA’s “Living in the World Today” off of his legendary Liquid Swords album. Word is bond, God:

Rodriguez Serenades the Streets of Paris

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Check out two recent Rodriguez videos, beautifully captured live and acoustic on the streets of Paris earlier this month – “Inner City Blues” and “Crucify Your Mind”- for Paris’ L’Express.fr. Detroit’s resident  singer-songwriter prophet just finished up tour dates abroad and is on his way to charm us on US soil.  Tour dates and PromoTracks after the jump.


Sixto Rodriguez / Crucify Your Mind (Street Session)
by LEXPRESS


Sixto Rodriguez / Inner City Blues
by LEXPRESS

(more…)

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