“Face the Future” came like a glass of water in the middle of the desert. In a world preoccupied to be the loudest, the fastest, the most distorted and the most contorted, where everybody is in such a hurry and nobody actually care about anything and anybody, Cats Park disconnected me for several minutes from this whole madness. Although songs like “Time To Quit” have their own flavor of (urban) madness. But generally speaking, this made me feel easy, easy like a Sunday morning. 🙂 “Face the Future” was my little getaway from the present. Read more Cats Park – Face the Future, EP (2012)
Life and Living
downtempo
Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune (2012)
Based on two popular novels of the time, Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon” and H. G. Wells’ “The First Men in the Moon”, Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston, wrote and directed in 1902, the black-and-white silent science fiction film “Le Voyage dans la lune” (A Trip to the Moon). It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice, ranking at #84.
The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second and is the first science fiction film which uses innovative animation and special effects, including the well-known image of the spaceship landing in the Moon’s eye.
“Le Voyage dans la lune” is the seventh studio album by French electronic music duo Air and the album takes its inspiration from the classic film. Read more Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune (2012)
Sneaker Pimps – Becoming X (1996)
23 consecutive weeks on the US Billboard 200, “Becoming X”, the debut effort by the project Sneaker Pimps released on August 19, 1996, still, after 15 years, sounds fresh and percussive. Hits like “6 Underground”, “Spin Spin Sugar” or “Tesko Suicide” have some particular charm, their vibe still breathing. Chris Corner and Liam Howe find a particular blending of Downtempo and Dub, Trip-Hop and Electronica, mysterious textures and bursting Rock explosions, combined hard beats and glitching samples with cutting Rock guitars, smooth Jazz pianos and floating girl vocals. Sometimes Gothic, other times gloomy, slow, but alive and dynamic, quite hypnotic, but striking, Sneaker Pimps and their debut album is another mandatory piece to collect. This is a trip, take care who you’ll become. Read more Sneaker Pimps – Becoming X (1996)
DJ Mitsu the Beats – Midnight Roses (2011)
Sleazy, easy and smooth, this might be the perfect background music / soundtrack for some nighttime action, or as the Juno Records PRs put it in different words “the best pulling pants and head off” (music).
DJ Mitsu The Beats is widely regarded as one of Japan’s finest mixing wizards, he’s still largely unheralded in Europe outside the nu-jazz and downtempo hip-hop scenes. Mainly instrumental, but also incorporated pieces cuts from Ceefax, Tony Hart’s Gallery and Barry White, this is a nice, soft and quite refreshing melt-down into the smooth universe of slow-dance, soft-focus jazz-funk, nu-jazz and downtempo, still very classy and subtle, “Midnight Roses” is a joyful trip – preferable for two. 😀 Read more DJ Mitsu the Beats – Midnight Roses (2011)
Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear (2011)
While Brits have Massive Attack, Americans have Thievery Corporation. In 1996 Thievery Corporation released “Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi”, their debut album, and with it they defined an entire genre of music and crystallized their distinct “outernational sound” aesthetic. Thievery Corporation was formed in the summer of 1995 at Washington D.C.’s Eighteenth Street Lounge by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. Over the next 14 years the duo would write and record four more critically acclaimed studio albums (“The Mirror Conspiracy” – 2000, “The Richest Man in Babylon” – 2002, “The Cosmic Game” – 2005, and “Radio Retaliation” – 2008), three remix albums (“Abductions and Reconstructions” – 1999, “Babylon Rewound” – 2004, and “Versions” – 2006), and various DJ mixes and film soundtracks (“The Outernational Sound” – 2004, and the recent Babylon Central Film Soundtrack). On the album “The Cosmic Game” featured high-profile guest singers including Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction, David Byrne, and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.
In 2006, the band also recorded “Sol Tapado” for the AIDS benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin Redux produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 2006 they toured around the United States, playing at Lollapalooza and they were the opening act on August 1, 2009 for Sir Paul McCartney at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. Read more Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear (2011)
Anitek – Mind Express (2011)
Flowing and glowing, Anitek brings to the surface a smooth and colorful mixture of jazz, trip hop, downtempo where classy sounds and modern textures are overlapping and completed each other. Dave Nunez aka Anitek is a Trip Hop Producer from Morristown, New Jersey. He has been playing piano for 15 years, along with cello, clarinet, guitar, bass, drums and is also a scratch DJ. His main influences are Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, Medeski Martin, DJ Krush, Bonobo, Amon Tobin, DJ Shadow, Rjd2, Bonobo, Photek, Danny Elfman, John Williams and Fat Jon. He often incoperates genres such as Orchestral, jazz, funk, Electronica, Lounge, Ambient, and Underground Hip hop into his music, creating a lush, melodic Soundtrack for either lyricists, commercials or film, but also writes classic music as well. Read more Anitek – Mind Express (2011)
Echofikibausik – Addicts of chillout (2011)
Echofikibausik comes from Kraków, Poland and mixing dubstep, dub, downtempo, raggae, jazz, chillout, trip-hop, ambient and nu-jazz into an exciting sonar cocktail. You can grab for free his latest release from his Bandcamp page for free, this smooth and groovy five track album entitled “Addicts of chillout”.
I didn’t manage to dig out any background information about Echofikibausik, but the music is quite enough. “Addicts of chillout” is a slow glowing, sparking material with smooth jazz perfume and nice electro and ambiental textures. Read more Echofikibausik – Addicts of chillout (2011)
Kaya Project – Desert Phase (2010)
Kaya Project este rezultatul colaborării dintre Seb Taylor şi Natasha Chamberlain, iar acest „Desert Phase” este al patrulea lor album după „Walking Through” (2004), „Elixir” (2005) şi „And So It Goes” (2008). Taylor este un compozitor/producător activ, dar şi un multi-instrumentist, cântă la chitară, bas, zheng, silofon, tzoura, banjoud, flaut, darbouka, muzicuţă şi face programare, foloseşte cu îndemânare samplere şi clape. Taylor a fost ocupat în ultimul an cu producţia şi compunerea unor reclame TV şi coloane sonore, „Buddha, Bees & the Giant Hornet Queen” coloana sonoră pentru un documentar despre natură realizat pentru BBC a şi câştigat un premiu.
Pe lângă Taylor şi solista Natasha la proiectele Kaya contribuie şi un şir lung de invitaţi: Irina Mikhailova, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Shahin Badar, Deeyah, Johnny Kalsi, Randolph Matthews, etc.
Muzica este un amestec de Ambiental cu World Music predominant cu inflexiuni orientale, infuzii Trip Hop, Downtempo şi Nu Jazz.
O călătorie relaxantă, într-o lume cu sonorităţi fine şi ritmuri şerpuitoare, hipnotice, instrumentele exotice piperează temele, dau un şarm şi un farmec aparte proiectului.
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Cele 15 piese noi au acelaşi şarm, poartă aceeaşi amprentă „trip”, sunt Read more Kaya Project – Desert Phase (2010)
THE Q4 – Sound Surroundings (2010)
Cei trei olandezi zburători au fost patru, dar din lipsă de timp unul a dezertat, însă numele proiectului inspirat şi de unul din primele sisteme sourround din anii ’70, în fapt o distribuire a sunetului stereo în 4 boxe, a rămas neschimbat.
Membrii THE Q4 sunt producători, DJi, muzicieni, s-au confruntat în 2005 în cadrul unor „beats battles”-ul via internet şi s-au decis să-şi unifice efortul şi abordările diferite într-un proiect şi-n 2006 pun cap la cap 6 piese pentru EP-ul „Sound Surroundings’ însă nu se găseşte nici o companie de disc dispusă să investească, să producă materialul.
Cei trei membrii rămaşi lucrează individual, Sense construieşte muzică pe bază de samplere şi loop-uri, dar lucrează şi ca producător pentru formaţii Hip-Hop; Arts the Beatdoctor mixează intens predominant materiale instrumentale şi a scos o serie de albume solo iar SWT a cântat ca chitarist într-o serie de trupe de Rock Alternativ, dar a devenit cunoscut mai ales pentru ritmurile şi mixurile sale Hip Hop.
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Împreună cei trei Read more THE Q4 – Sound Surroundings (2010)
Sashird Lao – Open the Box (2010)
Unii o preferă fierbinte, alţii iubesc Jazz-ul, sunt şi cei care le vor pe ambele şi ceilalţi care nu vor nimic. Sashird Leo sunt un trio din Franţa care ne propun o muzică extrem de colorată şi vie, amestecă Jazz tradiţional cu ritmuri moderne, muzică World, secvenţe orientale, construcţii acapella rafinate şi faze Downtempo colorate cu saxofoane, flaut şi trombon, au în arsenal percuţii darbuka, în două-trei vorbe, dacă deschizi cutia (open the box), vei descoperii o lume extrem de colorată şi pulsantă.
Jazz-ul dansant cu aromă de anii ’40 transpus în ritmuri exotice şi susţinute de trei voci extraordinare, instrumentaţiile aerisite, rafinate, infuziile Orientale şi World Music, percuţiile sau inserturile Downtempo transformă totul într-un dinamic cocktail revigorant, vechiul şi noul se contopesc organic şi rezultatul este un meniu muzical absolut reconfortant şi captivant.
Sashird Leo au ajuns în finala competiţiei National Jazz Music de la Paris în 2006 şi un an mai târziu au câştigat Premiul Juriului la International Jazz Festival of Juan Les Pins.
Cei trei: Yona Yacoub – Voce/Saxofon/Percuţii; Fred Luzignant – Voce/Trombon/Percuţii şi David Amar – Voce/Saxofon/Flaut/Percuţii – oferă un spectacol unic, deosebit.
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„Open the Box” este cel de-al treilea lor album Read more Sashird Lao – Open the Box (2010)
