Fine music this week from Nashville, Copenhagen, New York, Norway,
Kansas City, Nancy and Paris in France, Hungary and, of course, a
couple of artists from Brooklyn.
It barely got light here in Suffolk, UK today so I'll have to
resort to another Barcelona picture, much as it pains me ;) Not
that it was a lot warmer when I was there a couple of weeks
ago.
Air Conditioned Heart -
Hollands (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
Hollands is multi-instrumentalist John-Paul Norpoth and violinist
Jannina Barefield. Together, they formed in February 2008 in
Washington Heights, New York. Norpoth, formerly the co-lead of
NYC-based Butane Variations, is the son of a classical flautist
while Barefield is the daughter of Detroit based avant-garde jazz
guitarist Spencer Barefield. Together, they combine fuzzy Flaming
Lips guitars with Martin-esque orchestral arrangements and
traditional folk nods to the Paul Simon's and the Grateful Dead's
of years past
At times, Hollands sounds like a simple folk duo, plaintive and
gentle, soft and free. At others, the band performs as a loud,
brash, orchestral rock ensemble; employing cello, organs,
synthesizers, electric and acoustic violins. In other words,
they'll explore any means necessary to realize the most honest
atmosphere and capture the diversity of each song.
www.hollandsss.com
www.myspace.com/hollandsss
"As of '09, bands have an official
life span of about nine months dating from the launch of their
MySpace pages, thanks to the comically accelerated, DSL-enhanced
hype cycle. Faster than you can tweet "Serena Maneesh," entire
genres of music are "discovered" by attention-starved writers;
bloggers engage in hilarious slap-fights about who was there first;
magazines feel pressured into writing clueless, hackazoid,
late-pass trend pieces; bands get elevated to a critical mass of
attention they can't possibly handle; and the phenomenon is
promptly abandoned once we find a newer, shinier toy to play
with."
- Christopher R. Weingarten, Village Voice
I'll forget you - Peter Bradley
Adams (Brooklyn, NY/Nashville, TN)
Peter Bradley Adams was one half of the duo "eastmountainsouth"
signed by Robbie Robertson (of The Band) to Dreamworks Records in
2002. He has released two solo records (
Gather Up and
Leavetaking - from which
I'll forget you is taken) and released
his third,
Traces in
September on Sarathan Records. You can buy it at Amazon here:
http://tinyurl.com/Traces-Amazon2
www.myspace.com/peterbradleyadams
We all have our shortcomings -
Alcoholic Faith Mission (Copenhagen, Denmark)
The Alcoholic Faith Mission started in Brooklyn, New York '06. The
apprentices of dejection Thorben Seierø Jensen and Sune Sølund were
wandering around in the raw wintery-streets, shooting the breeze,
brushing on alcoholism and close family members wet deroute.
Suddenly before them was a big neon cross. This was a holy
congregation called Apostolic Faith Mission - and this was just
like booze is to the alcoholic, they thought. A true mission to
withstand an empty existence; an Alcoholic Faith Mission.
Three months later the duo"s underplayed and dogmatic debut Misery
Loves Company was ready. Dogma's for the album, which was recorded
in a small bedroom in Copenhagen, was that recordings had to take
place a night, lit by only candles and always under the influence
of alcohol.
The critics said sweet things about the album. José Gonzales and
Iron and Wine-ry they said. Shortly after, the duo turned into a
collective for all their friends to join. Especially Laurids
Smedegaard, Kristine Permild and Gustav Rasmussen turned out to be
the two guys most important assets.
Two years later they went back to Brooklyn to seclude themselves in
an old factory loft at 421 Wythe Avenue. They tried on a selection
of straightjackets for the inspiration. Everything used to make the
music, had to be found within the loft"s four walls. For an
example, dictionaries beat each other to become an electronically
muted bass drum. This way of working turned into their second
album; named after the street where they lived on - 421 Wythe
Avenue.
www.myspace.com/alcoholicfaithmission
http://ponyrec.com/artist_alcoholicfaithmission.html
Fancy Beer - Two Man Gentleman
Band (NY, NY, USA)
That The Two Man Gentlemen Band is amongst the United States' most
learned, sophisticated, and musically able two-man bands is
commonly understood. That they throw one heck of a party has been a
rather well-kept secret until now.
The Two Man Gentlemen Band: Live
in New York! is an unparalleled achievement. Using only four
hands, two mouths, a bit of erudition, and a strong helping of the
drink, the gents whip themselves and their New York City audience
into an unmitigated frenzy of joy. Listeners to this recording will
likely find themselves in a similarly frenzied, sweat-riddled
state.
Digital release date: Jan 12, 2010 on Serious Business but if you
want a CD, you can get it right now from
www.seriousbusinessrecords.com/
www.two-man-gentlemen-band.com
www.myspace.com/twomangentlemenband
Appetite - Proviant Audio
(Norway)
Mathias Stubø gives you some really interesting jazz tunes. These
are his unreleased works between 2005 and 2007. The five tracks
from the EP
Mushrooms
combine glitchy, broken beats with funny, smooth and melodic jazz
samples. The EP is available free from SoJus Records at
www.sojusrecords.com
Proviant Audio is 17 year old Mathias Stubø from Norway, producing
electronic music influenced by jazz and soul.
Mathias is known as a child prodigy
in Norway. The NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) has already
named him Artist of The Week (which is the most prestigious prize
for unsigned artists in Norway) twice (first time when he was 14
years old). He is reviewed as a musical genious and Norway's
biggest producer talent by the people in NRK P3.
The last years he has been playing at some of Norways greatest
music festivals with his liveband including ten men on brass, reed,
rhodes, percussion, drums, bass and more. Now Proviant Audio with
full live band is ready to play at by: Larm 2010 which is
Scandinavia's biggest festival for music industry.
www.myspace.com/proviantaudio
72 musicians -
the movie
Twenty bands from Kansas City and Lawrence, KS performed live at
the recordBar during the filming of
72 musicians.
There are very, very few bands (or
artists of any medium, for that matter) that would allow themselves
to be preserved for judgement in such a raw, naked state. ONE TAKE.
No overdubs. In front of a paying audience. And with no control
over the front of house mix, or approval of the recorded mix that
you'll hear in the film. I don"t care who you are, that takes
balls. This kind of exposure would fucking wilt most bands.
And never mind that the film contains no info about the names of
the bands, the names of the musicians, or the cities they hail
from. That's on purpose, because our film isn"t about music… it's
about the people who make music.
Enjoy the music. And be sure to download the soundtrack album. It's
free. Please share it.
There should have been a trailer here in the shownotes but it was
too wide. Go to the
72
musicians site to view it. No really, do.
http://72musicians.com
Conscious Rasta (Version) -
Guitoud (Nancy, France)
I heard this on Pete Cogle's Dub Zone then Gabor played it on AMPed
209 a couple of weeks ago. Quite a long track but certainly
interesting.
Find the track on Reggaedubwise at
http://cluster1.reggaedubwise.com/Guitoud/
www.myspace.com/guitoud
In the Paris
of the Neitherlands (Parizs remix) - Ez a Divat (Budapest, Hungary )
Es A divat translates as
This is Fashion. A fusion
of live jazz with electronics. From the Budapest netlabel bringing
you the freshest sounds of Hungary.
The new Ez a divat maxi,
Must be the Neitherlands,
includes a heavyweight original and 3 mind-blowing remixes. Ez a
divat's own version is an astounding alchemy of jazz, funk, electro
and vocoder vocals melting into a discerning pop song. The fat
fender + bass foundations are seasoned with the usual catchy female
vocals and band's trademark groovy brass section.
The man Párizs has made this funk-fuelled electro version of the
song.
Get it at:
www.budabeats.com/bube006.htm
www.myspace.com/ezadivat
Creative
Commons non-profit fund-raising campaign. Target $500,000 by
Dec 31 (tomorrow) total raised is now at $427,180. We probably know
them best for the Creative Commons licenses on music related
content such as this show which has a Creative Commons license so
that anyone can share, what I produce with attribution and not for
profit, but they also create environments where other content such
as science and learning resources can be shared. In the music
realm, it allows artists to make material available for legal
sharing whilst not giving the rights away to anyone. That makes
such a difference.
If you would like to support the work they do in helping people
share content across this wonderfully connected world, quite
legally and for all our sakes, visit
https://support.creativecommons.org/donate
Dragons - Caravan Palace
(Paris, France)
A second track in as many weeks.
The excellent Caravan Palace musicians, who are of course "gadjos"
(non-gypsies), have breathed fresh air into the timeless swing
scene without coming across as preachers. As well as listeners with
curious ears, the Caravan also has its own following, a horde of
fans totally into the electro vibe, who turn up at each of their
concerts. Caravan Palace's reputation has rippled beyond the
frontiers too, with Europe eager to check them out.
www.myspace.com/caravanpalace