March is coming to an end and I believe it is time for another one of my roundups.
2009 continues to be a very nice year in music releases. The ones listed here include PJ Harvey, Diana Krall, Mr. Oizo, etc. My favorites though are Fischerspooner’s Entertainment, Royksopp’s Junior and Junior Boys’ Begone Dull Care. Go for those if you don’t know them.
Happy listening! Read More
A month went by since I posted my last mp3 roundup.
I’m not one to make excuses so I’ll skip to the interesting part.
The first quarter of 2009 is proving to be quite rewarding when it comes to music releases. I won’t bother with the specifics, though. It’s music, and a lot of it.
Releases include Stereotyp, Sebastien Tellier, The Whitest Boy Alive, etc..
Happy listening!
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Hello, readers. I’m back from a well-deserved two weeks vacation. For those of you that missed my daily posts I have prepared a nice selection of releases I picked up from the period I was off. Over twenty releases, for each day I wasn’t available for posting. I payed some attention to the date of the releases to check they all came up on that interval from December 22nd. until today. So much for the reviews but trust me on these ones!
Stuff includes Gui Boratto, Jazzanova, Ben Anders, Trüby Trio, Snow Patrol, among some others…
Happy listening!
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First off, Disco Deviance is not an artist. It’s actually a label that’s been releasing some fine re-edits since 2004 and throwing amazing parties to promote them. Artists editing for this imprint include Greg Wilson, Dicky Trisco, Eddie Tour, Ashley Beedle, Pete Herbert, etc.
This is the sixth installment for their series, this time by the hands of Boogie Corporation. Quoting from their MySpace: “Boogie Corporation is a project that’s all about creating new music that is inspired by leftfield disco, electrofunk and alien abductions [...] taking the music where no electrofunk and dub disco has ever been before.”
You might identify some elements on this tracks, being that the originals are both pretty well known. On the A side we have an edit of The Clash’s “Magnificent Dance” and the B side plays Aretha Franklin’s “Jump”. Both mashed up to a point of almost impossible recognition. Both major dance floor hits. Enjoy!
Due to the music industry constant evolution more and more often we see bands emerge without a characteristic type of sonority. These so called hybrid bands struggle to find a target group and sometimes end up being smashed by the critics.
The Ting Tings are one of the exceptions. Without having a well defined musical niche they still prosper and are very well acclaimed by the public and critics.
They are singer-guitarist Katie White and drummer Jules De Martino, and were formerly known as Dear Eskimo. Both descendant of teen pop acts they’ve matured to become a decent indie pop duo and have been on the top of the world’s music charts throughout the whole year of 2008.
Although not being something I traditionally like, their debut album “We Started Nothing” has some pretty good songs and is somewhat pretty enjoyable.
For this particular release you get the single “Fruit Machine” and some remixes for it. The remixes are garbage, but that’s as good as it gets for Dave Spoon and Bimbo Jones.
Give the original “Fruit Machine” version a go and if you really like it, try the full album. By the way, you might know the song “That’s Not My Name” but do not be fooled, it’s probably their worst one.
Being from one of the most accomplished female jazz vocalists of her time, I think a release like this one is worth a mention here in ZeroSec. Also this might qualify as a decent enough Christmas present so I think some of you might be interested.
Here is a brief biography: “Billie Holiday was a true artist of her day and rose as a social phenomenon in the 1950s. Her soulful, unique singing voice and her ability to boldly turn any material that she confronted into her own music made her a superstar of her time. Today, Holiday is remembered for her masterpieces, creativity and vivacity, as many of Holiday’s songs are as well known today as they were decades ago. Holiday’s poignant voice is still considered to be one of the greatest jazz voices of all time.”
Be sure to check this one out and if you really like it look for the rest of the “Beautiful Ballads And Love Songs” series. Peace!
Not much to say about this either. I guess Christmas is the best time of the year for labels to roll out compilations. Something about people giving out presents to each other. I wouldn’t know.. I have no friends.
From Wikipedia: “Franz Ferdinand are a rock band that formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 2002. Named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the band comprises Alex Kapranos (lead vocalsand guitar), Bob Hardy (bass guitar), Nick McCarthy (rhythm guitar, keyboards and backing vocals), and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion and backing vocals).
The band first experienced chart success when their second single “Take Me Out” reached #3 in the UK Charts, followed by their debut album Franz Ferdinand which debuted on the UK album chart at #3. The band went on to win the 2004 Mercury Music Prize and two BRIT Awards in 2005 for Best British Group and Best British Rock Act. NME named Franz Ferdinand as their Album of the Year. From the album, three top-ten singles were released, “Take Me Out”, “The Dark of the Matinée” and “This Fire”.”
Another album after that and before the new one, coming up in 2009 you get to appreciate their bestsellers once again with this Singles compilation. You also get access to the new single “Ulysses” and two exclusive (or so they say) remixes by Justice and Erol Alkan.
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This mofo was a hard find but I did it. While he is listed on Beatport as Yukio he’s past work has been done under Yuki:o.
Here’s the bio: “Yuki:o a.k.a Yukio Kanai was born 1977 in Sapporo, Japan. At the age of 20, he first started organizing parties in his hometown Sapporo. In 2002 he started composing own tracks and established, together with his friends, their own label Nordform which is based in Sapporo and also in Tokyo. He then organized with the local art magazine named Shift the “Dotsoso”, a party in Sapporo which took place once a month and where he used to play together with artists like Mixmaster Morris, Jonah Sharp and Waki. In 2003 he also had a gig at the club named Zuck at the Artfestival Gigei in Singapore. Two of his tracks were released on the Nordform 2004 compilation cd. In the same year, he threw a party called Cafetronik where he played together with Jeff Milligan, Deadbeat and others. In 2005, he moved to Cologne, Germany to experience the German techno sound. In 2006 he teamed up with Takeshi and formed the duo named Decadan. In 2007, he played live at the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival. This year, he will be coming up with new suprising releases and gigs.In 2008, he moved to Sihanoukville, Cambodia to experience minimal sound cafe Ecodia at beach!”
Get this one if you like to shake your booty! Read More.
For the second one I have a little surprise for you all. Yet another layer of my wide music taste unravels. Jazzman’s latest compilation “Welcome To The Party…” is definitely a must-have. Latin Jazz, Funk, Blues, a little bit of Bugaloo and there you go.
For a little introduction on the Jazzman label allow me to quote their own words: “Here at Jazzman we are all about rescuing esoteric, forgotten and obscure auditory delights from yesteryear, and we unleash them onto a world that’s starved for a musical alternative to popular dross. So many millions of songs, some good and many bad, have been recorded these past 50 years, yet so many of the amazing ones have slipped through the net, never to be heard of again…”
And trust me when I tell you, they’ve fetched one hell of a record collection.
Tracks from Little Beaver, Al Escobar, Bobby Williams and (get this) The Natural Yoghurt Band are amongst this exquisite selection worth a very attentive hearing.
Get that jive on!
I’m back! I missed my daily music post yesterday because I went on a little trip with a friend. Therefor I thought I’d make it up to you by posting twice for today.
I’ll start with a small one. But still, a pretty good one. “Solomon’s Alive” is a single EP from Recloose, from the full album “Perfect Timing”.
Broken Beat, Nu Jazz, call it what you may, but I’ll say this: It’s Sonar Kollektiv. If you don’t know what I’m talking about check my previous post here. When they release something you better believe it’s good.
Now you might think I’m repeating myself, specially if you noticed that “Catch A Leaf” is already on that other release. But this EP is not about that song (even if it is a different version), it’s about “Solomon’s Alive”. As for that track, I must say I totally love it, it’s a freaking mess technically very well put together. The beat, the bass, the children, the screaming guy, the guitar, the sax.. If this doesn’t make you want to hear the full album, then I don’t know what does.
Give it a try!
There’s not much left to say about these guys, is there?
Everyone knows “Killer Queen”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “We Will Rock You”, “We Are The Champions”, etc. This are all timeless songs that make this release a timeless collection and a must-have for anyone.
Queen: The Singles Collection, a project 35 years in the making has begun, in the first of four limited edition boxes of individual CDs, facsimiles of the original vinyl singles. The tracks span more than 20 years and are drawn from sixteen studio albums, beginning with the debut LP, Queen, in 1973, and ending in Made In Heaven in 1995.
Volume 1: the first box contains 13 CD singles, dating from the beginnings of the band’s recording career in 1973, to Don’t Stop Me Now in 1979. Box 2 will continue the story into the mid 1980s, and so on. Ultimately, the four boxes will offer every one of Queen’s singles to have made the upper reaches of the charts anywhere in the world.
The Singles Collection also includes rare non-album B-sides, including some live tracks, and some seldom-heard alternative mixes. It will trace the band through four decades, and many musical styles; every top 40 Queen single heard on the radio anywhere across the world will be found in these collections.
Enjoy.
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Ok. This one’s been around since early this morning (Dec. 14th, that is). I waited and waited but nothing better came along, which wasn’t so easy after all. So here we have it, my daily (nightly?) music release with Moodymanc.
“The third outing from Dubble D under his Moodymanc guise is a superb vinyl doublepack of stunning deep house music.
After the success of the previous two Moodymanc releases Danny Dubble D has found his deep, groovy house music in the sets of the likes of Luciano, Locodice, Charles Webster, Jimpster, Francois Kevorkian, Steve Bug, Llorca, Nick Curly, Will Saul and many many more. Its been really well received in Germany with both Dessous and Connoisseur asking Danny for productions and remixes.
Danny is no stranger to accolades for his music, his Dubble D albums on 2020Vision ‘Reachin Out’ and ‘Playin Out’ were both met with glowing reviews and are something of jazzy downtempo classics.
The lead track from the EP, Word! was inspired by a recent trip to New York and harks back to the classic deep house sound which 2020Vision are synonymous with, and provides the basis for the Moodymanc sound on this doublepack
If you like your house music, deep, percussive, musical and impeccably produced then you have come to the right place, and there will definitely be something here for you amongst the seven tracks.”
Enjoy.
Sure enough all of you readers have heard “Connected”, one of the major hits from this UK Trip-Hop/Hip-Hop group (If you can’t remember, hear it on their MySpace).
They’ve been around since 1989 and were one of the pioneer Hip-Hop groups in the United Kingdom to receive major acceptance from the public. Though they went silent around 1992, after their hit album “Connected” reached huge sale numbers (#52 on Q Magazine’2 100 Greatest British Albums Ever), in 2001 they had a full comeback with “Deep Down And Dirty”, followed by “Paradise” in 2005. The year 2008 has seen what I recall hearing someone consider “Their best work since 1992’s Connected”, named “Double Bubble”.
Released in April (and now ripped by DV8) this is the first of two EP’s retrieved from “Double Bubble”.
Enjoy it.
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The weekend is coming up so I thought I’d get you warmed up for some clubbing. These are some crazy tracks. Not much I can tell you about these guys, though, so I’ll just quote their bio:
“Oleg Slepak and Shay Raban (aka DJ Earthian) are Animaltek, Producer/DJ duo from NYC, that explores the wide range of sound and rhythmic possibilities for dance floor theory and practice. Hitting to the center of the heat in the early fall of 2007 with a debut EP ‘Karmik loops’ on WIR, both sides of the which on numerous occasions reached air play from some of the World’s Top DJ’s such as John Digweed, Sasha, Satoshi Tomie, Anthony Pappa, among others, Shay and Oleg followed with a few strong releases in 2008 on both Cologne legends like Treibstoff and WIR and Canadian Thoughtless music, to a massive rave reviews from DE:BUG, the french TSUGI and ‘Progressive-Sounds’, and appearing in the charts of Mathias Schafhauser and DJ Hell and other well known DJ’s. After a recent bombarding of live performances in London, Leipzig and at the Treibstoff’s 11th year anniversary party in Cologne’s infamous club Odonien, where the stage was shared with Masters of techno like Gabriel Ananda, Robert Babic, Italoboyz and Marcel Janovsky, those American wonder tweakers made a serious buzz among party goers and music analyzers, representing the underground New York sound and vibe.”
Read more for details.
One of the first CDs I had was this guy’s DJ Kicks Compilation. Quite an awesome one too!
Also know as DJ Ease, George Evelyn is a Leeds based musician and DJ with works in the Trip-Hop, Downtempo and Hip-Hop genres. Although most of his work flies under the international radar, some of you might know De La Soul’s comeback EP “The Sound Of N.O.W.”. Evelyn’s helped make that happen and is somewhat responsible for bringing De La Soul back to the public eye, in the year 2000.
As for this release, you get four pretty decent remixes for the tracks “Da Feelin” and “Calling” and the original versions too. Maybe these will work as an appetizer for the readers that don’t know the “Thought So” album which I consider an essential one for 2008.
I hope you enjoy this. Read more for more detailed info.
