Eastern Europe asserts itself in this week's show. Even the picture
is looking east. It's Aldeburgh again I'm afraid, looking out to a
rather grey North Sea towards Netherlands/Nederland, over on the
mainland - a way of putting it that is guarenteed to upset the
political right, racists and Little Englanders. :-)
Deutsches Essen In Russland - Ivan
Ivanovich & The Kreml Krauts (Trier, Germany)
The site is all in German so here's the Babel translation: "A
Fetzen Ska, a fragment Russia and a puddle from buried Punk flow
from electrical guitar basses, horn, saxophone and over Schlagzeug,
accordion and violin. Whereupon Ivan Ivanovich and the Kremlin of
herb dance. Bass and guitar maintain your legs."
24 Jul 2009 Das Bett, Frankfurt
25 July 2009 Polka Ska Gypsy Sound Vol IV at Club Kuckucksei in
Nürtingen, Baden-Württemberg
A small foretaste on a Kremlin herb concert is at:
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=v43b5jUY9GI
www.kreml-krauts.de
Piece of you - Annabelle
Chvostek (Montreal, Canada)
Great show at The Winelight Club on Friday, where I picked up her
new album
Resiliance -
along with the OK to play you a few tracks. Recorded in New York
and Montreal with Grammy-nominated Canadian record producer Roma
Baran and her producing partner Vivian Stoll, Resilience has been
described as, "a sublime, spare, and profoundly reflective album
that Chvostek describes as "a big complicated hug." I like hugs in
general, and this one in particular.
One of those magical instrument players who seem to make virtually
no movement and yet the most amazing complex sounds come out.
Couple that with her beautiful strong and passionate voice and
exceptionally well crafted songs and you have something pretty
special. My thanks to The Canada Council for subsidising her trip
over from Montreal to play just a couple of dates in the UK. She is
back in Canada now with appearances at the Eaglewood Festival
coming up in August.
www.annabelle.org/
www.myspace.com/annabellechvostek
Creative Deconstruction's Refe Tuma has been in a briefing this
morning on music royalty rates which he describes as "a great way
to start the morning on the wrong foot!" We know that big labels
are keen to extract as much of the artists earnings as possible
before the artist gets their cut but some of this stuff beggars
belief. Refe points out, in particular
"New technology deductions?" -
maybe when CDs actually cost anything to manufacture. "New tech" is
what has made music FREE to distribute.
"Packaging deductions" - most major labels still take the same
percentage for digital downloads. Um, there's no packaging on
downloads."
I'm sure it will make it onto the creative deconstruction pages
soon. If you are a musician, you might want to check out the site
at
www.creativedeconstruction.com
Who's going to save the poor - CSharp Band (Kingston,
Jamaica)
C-Sharp Band comprises five young men: Aeion Hoilett- Bass
guitarist (singer) Chevaughn Clayton - Lead vocalist Lamont Savory
- Guitarist (singer) Dwain Campbell - Keyboard player (singer) and
Randevon Patrick - Drummer.
All were students of Edna Manley college of Visual and Performing
Arts. The group started in 2001 while they were student. Since then
they have opened for many great Jamaica artist. They have graced
stages all over Europe, China, Africa, USA.
I was put onto the C-Sharp Band by Pete Cogle who suggested that
the track
Nurse might be
appropriate for me. Cheeky.
www.myspace.com/csharpband
www.csharpmusic.net (was not working this morning)
A statistic for you: Out of the 105,575 albums that were released
in 2008 just 110 artists sold more than 250K. - Ariel
Photograph - Secret Ocean
(Nagoya, Japan)
From their album Kokoro No Furyoku.
Hiroumi Takatsuka: vocal, guitar, harmonica (blood type A)
Tome: drums, percussion and chorus (blood type B)
www.secretocean.com
www.myspace.com/secretoceanmusic
Forest - Staraya Derevnya
(Haifa, Israel & London, UK)
Comment on Jamendo: "I found it profounding but only if you like
that kind of music. Very experemintal but can open your
mind!!!"
Some may think of this as Ethnic Russian Deep House Metal Shoegaze
but as you well know, that would make it very unlikely to get
played on SnC. No, Frankly I see it more as Israeli Russian
experimental psychofolk freakout punk - one of my favourite styles.
From the album Ячаща (I'm thicket) one of three varied offerings on
Jamendo.
www.jamendo.com/en/album/26605
www.starayaderevnya.co.uk/
Letter from
Martin
Byrom
Keep on Movin' - Kat Dancer
(Edmonton, Canada)
From her excellent album
Somethin' Familiar from which I've
played a few tracks over recent months.
You'll find those other tracks on SnC 156, 160 and 168
Her 'Swamp Blues' style is steeped in early roots and blues
traditions and delivered by her deep, resonant vocals and the
soulful sound of her Weissenborn lap slide guitar. Much like
a long stretching railroad track, Danser draws a direct line from
the Canadian prairie to the Mississippi Delta. She is one
part backwoods juke joint, one part plow puller and two parts dusty
ol' canvas tent revival. Kat Danser delivers a refreshing
approach to roots, blues, and gospel music for the 21st
Century.
A multi-instrumentalist, Danser plays the Weissenborn Hawaiian lap
slide guitar, a vintage acoustic Gibson, National steel resophonic
slide guitar, a tack head banjo and the Zydeco scrubboard.
You can order CDs from Kat's site.
www.katdanser.com
www.myspace.com/katdanser
Serve them well - Swimming in
Speakers (NY, USA)
From their first meeting in October 2008, multi-instrumentalist
Chris Clarke and lead vocalist Meadow Eliz knew they wanted to
write music together. The snowy, subzero climate of Saranac Lake,
New York, lent itself well to winter days spent creating and
recording in Chrisʼs home studio, where they crafted the "Swimming
in Speakers" demo armed with a Casio, a laptop and a hodge-podge of
analog equipment. Jo Sorrell (cello) and Justin Grizzoffi
(percussion and guitars) add nuance to the tracks, and local NPR
station NCPR granted access to their brand new studio for
additional recording and mixing.
They seem to be getting healthy doses of attention - at least among
the podcast community.
Breaking news: there is a free download of their tiny track
Uh Oh on Last FM at
http://bit.ly/4FYdal
www.myspace.com/swimminginspeakers
I know how to handle my liquor & God Move
/Bad Move - Pc Muñoz (San Francisco, CA, USA)
I first played Pc Muñoz on SnC 035 back in October 2006. He has
certainly been on the move since then with some really interesting
work along the way. At heart he is San Francisco-based recording
artist and producer known for genre-defying projects which stretch
the boundaries of funk and the avant-garde.
Free new album out now:
What
Happened?!, pc muñoz's "mash-note to hip-hop" jam-packed
with remixes, Grab Bag bonus tracks, special guests, scrumptious
beats, and other treats is out and available for free. It really is
an interesting album. I may well have to play another track next
week. Meanwhile you can get it from:
www.threcords.com/?product=3
www.myspace.com/pcmunoz
http://pcmunoz.com/
My Radio - Lola Dutronic
(France)
Richard from the band sent great summer sound this early this
morning, so it is certainly fresh. They were going to release this
track in the autumn but it seems to have taken off of its own
accord. They also have a fan-made video of the track at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v?=EHDLB1_zD5M
OLA DEE - Voice, RICHARD CITROEN - Music
Brigitte Bardot is from the new 3rd album,
LOLA DUTRONIC IN BERLIN recorded over
a 3 week period in an abandoned Berlin apartment, and mixed in
Toronto. it also features the legendary Mike Garson (of David
Bowie's Aladdin Sane fame) on piano.
"We divide our time between Berlin and Toronto. We've put out three
albums so far: T
he World Of Lola
Dutronic, the Grammy Award nominated
The Love Parade and our newest album,
Lola Dutronic In Berlin.
We've also appeared on several compilation albums and repackages in
Asia and Europe.
Available on iTunes and on CDBaby at:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/ldutronic
www.myspace.com/loladutronic