Music this week from London, Minneapolis, Cairo, Paris, Tiblisi,
somewhere else in France, California and Toronto.
The world around the barn seems to have become a black and white
movie in the past few weeks but at least I didn't waste money on
colour film for this weeks picture taken from the back window of
the barn. The pond is very frozen, indeed there were rabbit
footprints in the snow on top of the ice this morning!
(Hey You) The Rocksteady Crew - The
Voodoo Trombone Quartet (London)
The Voodoo Trombone Quartet are a cult 8-piece band from London
whose unique sound skillfully blends the influence of old ska 45s,
exotica and a 60's feel with contemporary beat-driven production
and a wry lyrical humor.
The band were conceived in 2004 by
producer, record collector and multi instrumentalist Paul Thorpe.
The first tracks were made freely available on the internet by
their creator as supposedly 'rediscovered' originals. The joke
backfired however when the tracks became immensely popular in their
own right and each one clocked up thousands of downloads. Newly
formed independent Freshly Squeezed Music duly took note and signed
Paul for the bands eponymous debut in 2005. A live band was put
together and festival dates through 2006 culminated in near
disaster when the single Medium Wave almost blew the bands cult
credentials by entering the fringes of the UK Download Chart.
Fortunately it was a near miss and the band retain their
underground status to this day.
The VTQ can now be heard sound
tracking numerous TV shows including
Ugly Betty, feature on many CDs
including the festival tribute
Lost Vagueness (RIP) compilation and
as the theme tune to several BBC Radio 4 comedy sketch shows.
Medium Wave was also
chosen as the theme tune to MTV's recent series
The Paper.
The Voodoo Trombone
Quartet
"(Hey You) The
Rocksteady Crew" (mp3)
from "The Voodoo Trombone Quartet ...Again"
(Freshly Squeezed Music)
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album
Dark Horse - Bella Ruse
(Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)
Kay Gillette and Joseph Barker are Bella Ruse.
Based in Minneapolis they tour extensively and, having produced an
EP do six songs recorded in their home studio in north Minneapolis.
Now they are working on a full album and planning a tour.
Thanks to Joseph for loading a couple of songs onto the
Suffolk'n'Cool Drop box.
www.bellaruse.com
www.myspace.com/bellaruse
Cigarettes - Digla (Cairo,
Egypt)
Originally formed as a cover band, it was not long before Digla
realized the qualities of their own material through their growing
fan base in Cairo after their first few gigs. This was
encapsulated when they became the first band to perform a sold out
concert at the Sawy Cultural Center in Cairo. Since then, the
band has been interviewed and performed an acoustic set on Egypt's
number one hit music station 104.2 and have released their debut
album
Free Your Mind which
is available on iTunes and a number of other musical outlets.
Keep an eye on their website for more gig dates soon to be
announced.
www.diglamusic.com
www.myspace.com/diglamusic
Oriental Blues - Garth Knox
(Paris, France)
Garth Knox now lives in Paris playing recitals, concertos and
chamber music concerts all over Europe, the USA and Japan. His
recently released solo CD with works from Ligeti, Dusapin, Berio,
Kurtág and others (MO 782082) won the coveted Deutsche Schallplaten
Preis in Germany, and his latest CD
Spectral Viola (edition zeitklang) has
been highly acclaimed. He is currently professor of viola at
Musikene in San Sebastian.
www.garthknox.org/
The viola d'amore has multiple strings and an infinite number of
possible sound worlds. I was happy to explore some of there here,
in a mixture of pre-meditated scenarios and free
improvisations.
On this track, tuning the third and fourth strings to the same note
and using them together gives a nice doubling feeling to the sound
and suggests something little oriental, Gently strumming the
sympathetic strings when they're in a bluesy tuning takes us
somewhere else. A litle musical journey from one set of strings to
the other set.
The SHSK'H Netlabel was created in 2007 in New York by the
musicians Jody Pou and Igor Ballereau with the purpose of promoting
their work through exclusive recordings to be found on the site,
shskh.com.
SHSK'H is also an audio-gallery of diverse music. They promote the
work of other musicians by commissioning new pieces from composers
and by producing personal recording projects by selected musicians
of many different styles. These works, again, are exclusive to
shskh.com and are not distributed anywhere in disc format.
All music on shskh.com is free. You do, however, have the
opportunity to participate in the development of these projects by
choosing to pay the sum of your choice for the works that you
download, if you so desire.
Would you cry? - Buddhuza
(Tbilisi, Georgia) SNC drop
Buddhuza [but'huza] is a Georgian, English-singing musician and
song-writer. His music is a mixture of indie rock, alternative and
world, and is much influenced by the music of the sixties.
Buddhuza quit his music class after three years of torture, when he
was 9. Since then he rarely touched any musical instrument, until
his father brought him a guitar that completely changed his life.
Now the major reason for skipping school became guitar
practice.
Buddhuza and brother Lexo soon started to write songs and formed a
duo called Fire Bricks. Their music was pretty much a reflection of
their record collection and interesting period of time and place
they lived in. The first ones to hear them perform their songs were
neighbors and close friends.
In 2004, soon after he moved to Tbilisi, Buddhuza started a home
studio, where most of his music is recorded.
www.buddhuza.com
The Seals - No More Babylon
(France)
From the album
Roots
Meeting on IODA.
This album of NO MORE BABYLON & FRIENDS includes 10 featurings
: EARL 16, Ken BOOTHE, Josie MEL, Brother MARCUS, Maryse CHASTAN,
Kenny KNOTS, Jah MARNYAH, U BROWN. The digital release of the album
offers full length versions and some bonus tracks, featuring MADU
and Brinsley FORDE.
www.nomorebabylon.com/
www.myspace.com/nomorebabylon
No More Babylon
"The
Seals" (mp3)
from "Roots Meeting"
(A la Folie Music)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album
Three fingers - Buckethead
(California, USA)
Buckethead's work has spanned many musical genres, including drum
and bass, funk, thrash metal, ambient and minimalist music.
Although a capable multi-instrumentalist (also able to play bass
guitar, banjo and piano), he is best known for his virtuosic
electric guitar playing, characterized by blinding speed, advanced
harmony and idiosyncratic lead lines.
He has recorded several solo albums, as well as collaborative
albums with Les Claypool, Bootsy Collins, System of a Down's Serj
Tankian and perhaps most notably with a great many Bill
Laswell-directed projects. The Buckethead backstory begins with a
kid named Brian Carroll growing up in a Southern California suburb
not far from Disneyland. He's a shy kid and spends a lot of time in
his room, which is filled with comic books, video games,
martial-arts movie memorabilia, slasher-flick stuff, all the usual
youth-culture detritus. He also spends a whole lot of time at
Disneyland. As a teenager, Brian takes up the guitar, plonking away
under the sway of such metal masters as Angus Young of AC/DC; the
late Randy Rhoads, of the Ozzy Osbourne band; and Swedish overdrive
virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen.
What makes
Enter The
Chicken unique among all other Buckethead albums is the
contribution of different singers throughout the body of work. Both
producer and guitarist recruited some of today"s brightest musical
talents to lend their voice including Saul Williams, Efrem Schulz
(Death By Stereo), Maura Davis (Denali, Bella Lea), Azam Ali (Vas,
Niyaz), Bad Acid Trip, Maximum Bob (Deli Creeps), Gigi, Shana
Halligan and Ani Maldjian. Even Tankian himself lends his vocals on
the album. When all was said and done, a total of 11 different
vocalists specializing in musical styles ranging from opera, metal,
rap, indie rock, grindcore, world and everything in between found
their way onto
Enter The
Chicken.
Do check out the website if you fancy a quick flip out of mundane
reality
http://bucketheadland.com
Buckethead &
Friends
"Three
Fingers" (mp3)
from "Enter The Chicken"
(Serjical Strike
Records)
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album
Buckle Up - NLX (NYC /
Toronto)
BITCH GET FIT is the much
anticipated, first full-length offering from NLX, but to call it a
debut would be somewhat misleading. It's taken two years of
preparation, collaboration and one tiny lawsuit to make this
masterpiece. Recorded in both NYC and Toronto, NLX joined forces
again with acclaimed producer/composer Byron Kent Wong to create an
extraordinarily distinct, vibrant and compelling album. In a time
of one hit wonders and copycat artists, NLX stands alone.
Raised in the icy shadows of Canada"s steel city smoke stacks, NLX
hails from the proud tradition of BS-free northern songwriting
women. She continues to carry the electronically edged dark pop
torch with
BITCH GET FIT …
16 tracks of blow your mind and open your heart lyrical and musical
smack. It is "fists in the air, tears on the floor, don't look back
but close the door" kind of music.
www.nlxmusic.com
www.myspace.com/nlxmusic