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By: Mike Madavi

Deastro
“Parallelogram” (mp3)
from “Moondagger”
(Ghostly International)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

Release Date: 6/2/09
UPC: 804297908502
Territories: North America

Deastro is the brain child of Randolph Chabot, a 22 year old Detroit native with a passion for synth-powered, energetic pop songs and science fiction. By the time he turned 17, Chabot had already written hundreds of dream and sci-fi inspired songs, recorded on home studio equipment, by himself, in his parent’s house; impressive to say the least. These numerous recordings yielded Keepers, his first release on Ghostly International (School of Seven Bells, Mathew Dear), which was a collection of the very best of all those songs he wrote. The record, eclectic and energetic, found great success through support from eMusic and Ghostly’s televisual brother Adult Swim, propelling the young visionary to extensive touring and memorable live performances (including IODA’s own annual SXSW Showcase).

Deastro returns with Moondagger, his next step forward towards intergalactic musical dominance. As always the album features a self-created cover and Chabot’s wonderful, unique musical style. The new tunes are more fully rounded as he has recruited a full band and produced the record in studio. Chabot’s true skill as a musician lies within his ability to manipulate the sounds on his records. Warping and bending, pulling and compressing, panning and shifting, Moondagger is a real headphone treat as Deastro plays with the audio canvas between your ears. “Tone Avengers #3″ begins with a fantastic warping drum machine and transforms into one of his patented space journeys. The first single “Parallelogram” is synth heavy, danceable, and definitely feels triumphant in a fairy-tale-ending way. There are tracks for those who want to trip out, dance, or just N3rD out to some electronica.

Dare I say it, this even tastes like Animal Collective at times (**Pitchfork’s ears perk upright**); the album’s centerpiece is an epic number with an even more epic name, “Daniel Johnston Was Stabbed in the Heart with the Moondagger by the King of Darkness and His Ghost Is Writing this Song as a Warning to All of Us,” that features vocals and killer melodies reminiscent of AC’s Feels album (especially the bridge) while still remaining distinctly Deastro with a synth-saturated, reverb-a-plenty chorus. The record’s title track stays true to his dream-inspired concept for the album of a battle between a protagonist prince yielding a legendary weapon entitled the Moondagger to do battle with an evil king of darkness; the track’s chorus definitely sounds like some sort of epic, impassioned struggle against the vile and corrupting. Overall the record is a positive move forward from Keepers, Deastro’s home-recorded opus from 2008, ensuring that his talent will not be limited to electro-pop dance records as it features a variety of moods and sounds, all of which are original, elaborate, and well produced.

In 1990 Luaka Bop’s Brazilian compilations had brought in enough attention that Byrne decided to hire Icon Records’ Yale Evelev to run his budding label. The pair launched the label into the previously unexposed world of Cuban music, and began signing individual artists from all over, starting with Tom Zè and including such greats as Zap Mama, Cornershop, Os Mutantes, Susana Baca,  Jim White and Geggy Tah.

Originally a part of Byrne’s broader deal with Warner Bros. Records, Luaka Bop also passed through the hands of Virgin Records and V2 before becoming it’s own entity officially in 2007. How fitting that as these major labels merge and crumble Luaka Bop continues to blaze new paths and bring us eclectic sounds from around the globe.

“I believe the artists on Luaka Bop are completely in touch with exactly what is happening in the world today. The world is gloriously impure, and yet each of their mixtures has its own strong flavor and sense of itself as unique. There is no danger, from our folks, of an impending global mush, of a cultural watering down.” — David Byrne

“Now 21 years and many distribution deals later the indie music world has moved more towards what Luaka Bop does. So what a great time in the early part of the 21st Century to celebrate the 21 years of this label.” — Tom Zè

Jorge Ben
“Ponta de lança africano – Umbabarauma” (mp3)

Moussa Doumbia
“Keleya” (mp3)

from “Twenty First Century Twenty First Year”
(Luaka Bop)

Buy at Napster
More On This Album

Màrcio Local
“Soul Do Samba” (mp3)
from “Màrcio Local Says Don Day Don Dree Don Don”
(Luaka Bop)

Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody

Jim White
“Crash Into the Sun” (mp3)
from “Transnormal Skiperoo”
(Luaka Bop)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3

Yonlu
“The Boy and the Tiger” (mp3)
from “A Society in Which No Tear Is Shed…”
(Luaka Bop)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody

Here’s a fun little widget explaining the Luaka Bop story:

CunninLynguists
“Never Come Down (The Brownie Song)” (mp3)
from “Strange Journey Volume One”
(QN5, Inc.)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

Mikey Dread
“Pound a Weed” (mp3)
from “Life is a Stage”
(Dread at the Controls)

Buy at Rhapsody
More On This Album

Kottonmouth Kings
“Ridin’ High” (mp3)
from “Cloud Nine”
(Suburban Noize Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

Lee “Scratch” Perry
“Having a Party” (mp3)
from “Scratch Came, Scratch Saw, Scratch Conquered”
(Megawave)

Buy at Amazon – Lee Scratch Perry
More On This Album

Bob Marley & The Wailers
“Soul Shakedown Party” (mp3)
from “Roots, Rock, Remixed”
(rockr / Quango / Tuff Gong)

Buy at Quango
More On This Album

Dengue Fever
“Sni Bong” (mp3)
from “Escape From Dragon House”
(M80)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

Okay, maybe that last song has nothing to do with smoking, reggae or  420,  but if you’ve been “celebrating” enough all day, “Sni Bong” starts to sound like “That’s My Bong” and what true stoner wouldn’t love putting a Dengue Fever tune about their bong on repeat?

If  you’d prefer just to rock out to reggae and dub, check out last summer’s IODAcast Reggae Spotlight here.

IODA does not encourage the use of illegal substances. We do, however, encourage the enjoyment of heady rock, rap and reggae.

Happy 420!

There is no question that music is a powerful force in people’s lives; many of us feel we simply could never survive without music. With the growing popularity of blogs and podcasts on the internet, a new era for music lovers has begun, in the form of sharing mp3s.

Many bloggers and podcasters post mp3s on their sites, with the idea that the people following their sites can listen to a track or two and then purchase the remainder of an album if they like the music.

Unfortunately, many of these bloggers and podcasters are posting tracks that they don’t necessarily have the rights to give away. There was a time when this went largely unnoticed by the RIAA and, while it was still very much illegal, nothing was done about it.

We are now seeing this slowly come to an end. Not only are many of the blog and podcast hosting sites shutting down blogs and podcasts with illegally posted music, they are also not allowing them to post any mp3s at all, whether they have confirmed information that the mp3s are legal or not. Another issue we are seeing is companies that allow non-cleared music to be posted up are simply being shut down, like in the case of Muxtape. Muxtape was a site that allowed music lovers to upload playlists of mp3s for other music fans to enjoy and discover music. Unfortunately, nearly all of the music on Muxtape was not legally cleared by the Rightsholders of the music, and so on August 18^th, 2008, only 5 months after it was created, the RIAA shut down Muxtape.

This is a terrible solution to such a widespread problem. If you shut down the tastemakers, you are losing a huge source of free promotion for your releases.

And in this age where people are so used to getting everything they want for free, very few people are willing to pay for an album they know nothing about. It’s like many other consumer goods out there. Would anyone in their right mind purchase a car before giving it a test run? Of course not. In this economy? Would you purchase a pair of sunglasses before trying them on and seeing how they look? No, of course you wouldn’t. Because they would almost certainly look really terrible on you and then you just wasted $15 on a pair of sunglasses that make you look dumb…

*ahem* The point here is, the almighty dollar just doesn’t go very far anymore. People are more careful about what they spend their money on, and this includes music. Luckily, this is where Promonet comes in.

Not only do you have an expansive site filled to the brim with any kind of music you can imagine, but these releases also have PromoTracks flagged, which means that the bloggers and podcasters, as well as digital music services, who use Promonet can find your track and feature it on their site. Their site has may have 100 followers passionate about music who give a listen to your track and fall in love. Now they have to have it! But where can they get it? Why, in the buylink that’s posted up with the track, of course, courtesy of IODAPromonet and our code generator (learn how to use this tool here).

So, do yourself a favor and flag a PromoTrack or two. Let them have a taste. They’ll come crawling back for more.