Gathering together brilliant artists including Baaba Maal, Keb Mo, Sandra de Sá, Taj Mahal, Tinariwen, Carlos Vives, Roger Ridley, Grandpa Elliot, Stephen Marley, Mermans Kenkosenki, Char and Toumani Diabate, this second release by Playing for Change, “Songs Around the World” is a refreshing collection of covers reinterpreted in a key of exotic mixture of raggae, dub, African drums, blues and soul.
“Playing For Change” is a multimedia music project created by the American producer and sound engineer Mark Johnson with his Timeless Media Group, that seeks to bring together musicians from around the world. Read more Playing For Change – PFC 2 – Songs Around the World (2011)
Monthly Archives: June 2011
Black Cat Zoot – Mutable Transformer Act (2011)
Shamelessly fresh and sparking pop music mixed up smoothly with swing, funk, ska, big beat, and everything you can name it which brings pulse, balance and danceable, but charming feel-good attitude.
Lisa Milla on vocals, Bambucci on saxophone, Florian Reindl and Marc Schemmer on guitars, Bernhard Hiergeist on keyboards, Alex Trier on bass and Daniel Treimer on drums are seven musicians from Munich, Germany and they put the band together back in 2005 and made a deal with Chicago´s record label “Jump Up Records”. The band cranked out clubs and prestigious festival performances and “Mutable Transformer Act” was accomplished in 2010 in Fraknfurt´s Hazelwood Studios with the assistance of the notorious producers dyad Two Horses and Kaneoka One. Read more Black Cat Zoot – Mutable Transformer Act (2011)
Yuji Ohno and Lupintic Five – Let’s Dance (2011)
For more than 30 years, Ohno puts his stamp on jazz standards, classics, pop songs and contemporary hits, full of energy, up-tempo pumping and mixtures of bop, jazz rock, funk and pop, he has become a pioneer in fusion of the Japanese scene. Yuji Ohno on piano and with the support of Yoshihito Eto on drums, Masayuki Tawarayama on bass, Keiji Matsushima on trumpet, Hisatsugu Suzuki on saxophone and Satoshi Izumi on guitar, Yuji Ohno & Lupintic Five delivering a nice cocktail of fresh, pulsing, danceable jazz music. Shifting easily between genres and approaches from big band sound to jazz rock explosion, from funky tunes to smooth bar jazz sparkling, Yuji Ohno & Lupintic Five build their themes on excellent grooves and perfect performances. Read more Yuji Ohno and Lupintic Five – Let’s Dance (2011)
Michael Monroe – Sensory Overdrive (2011)
While the most influential glam punk band has been the New York Dolls in the 70s, the 80s had the Finnish Hanoi Rocks which were formed in 1979 and had a major influence Poison, L.A. Guns, Ratt and Guns N’ Roses, as well as Manic Street Preachers, Murderdolls, Skid Row and the Foo Fighters have admitted being Hanoi Rocks fans and they open the way to the success for other Finish bands such HIM. Drummer Rezzel death’s in 1984 – caused by a car crash for which responsible was Mötley Crüe’s lead singer Vince Neil – had a big impact on the band and they broke up next year. Considered a “rebirth”, not a reformation of Hanoi Rocks, Michael Monroe and guitarist Andy McCoy rejoined in 2001 and released three more albums, but split once again in 2007. Michael Monroe sung on eight Hanoi Rocks albums, one Jerusalem Slim and one Demolition 23. album and “Sensory Overdrive” is his eight studio album. Read more Michael Monroe – Sensory Overdrive (2011)
Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment Then I Was Gone (2011)
I’m not quite a big fan of instrumental rock music, perhaps because I get into rock music and I spent over a decade spiting into the microphone, but this “I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone”, the third album by Maybeshewill, band from Leicester, U.K. formed in 2005, it’s quite impressive. They play a sort of post-rock, pretty gloomy themes, but in a quite charming way, and they using programmed and sampled electronic elements alongside acoustic and electronic instruments. Maybeshewill has seen a number of musicians come and go, but core members Robin Southby on guitar, John Helps on guitar and James Collins on drums have been with the band since their first tour and album. On bass currently is Jamie Ward.
They might be compared by some with Mogwai, but Maybeshewill’s music is more intense, powerful, in a particular way more rock oriented, but also much more colorful, I would say deeper. Comparisons have also been made with Sigur Rós, but once again, Maybeshewill sounds much heavier I think, they have stronger rock roots and their music is not that spacy, soundscape and soundtrack/cinematic like. Read more Maybeshewill – I Was Here For A Moment Then I Was Gone (2011)
KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
When I saw the cover and read that is an “experimental” labeled product, I admit, I was pretty scared that I stumbled into another dark and twisted noisy “sick something”, connected to S & M, bondage and god knows what else. Well, I was absolutely misleaded, this is quite a nice, pulsing, even sunny trip into the pop flavored, electro-dance-funk area with charming trance filtered moments, groovy pop punk like turns and tempos, catchy themes and “feel good” spices. KYNAN is a young musician from San Diego, CA, and “High Heals” was digitally release on 31 March 2011 via the Absent Fever label on their Bandcamp page from where you can downloaded for the symbolic price of $1. 10 tracks, extremely pleasant listening, a nice mixture of indie pop and electro-acid, chill moments and quite danceable explosions in a fluid flow of sparking sounds. Read more KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
In an interview in June 99 they said: “We never say what we think, and we never believe what we say, and if we tell the truth by accident, we hide it under so many lies that it is difficult to find out”. They were talking bout them self, but it’s quite true generally speaking. From the moment when information is overflowing and filtered, truth stops existing and I believe, that was the end of democracy as once Greece defined it. “Genocide Organ have provoked reaction from listeners – be those extremists who perceive the group have certain sympathies that align with their own, or vocal detractors labeling the group as racist, fascist, or more crudely – hate mongers. likewise for those listeners intelligent enough or otherwise uninterested in making such simplistic and polarized views of Genocide Organ, merely the extremity of sound can likewise provoke reactions from revulsion through to pure pleasure, the pleasures received in pain is an amply adage here.”
Formed back in 1986, Genocide Organ explore the borders of industrial and power electronics, sometimes reminds me of the 80s militarist Laibach, the pioneering Slovenian band which majorly influenced the German electro/industrial scene and being the source of inspiration for the so-called Neue Deutsche Härte fulminating by the outbreak of bands such as Rammstain, but as well, Genocide Organ reminds me of some experimental moments of the Chicago based Martin Atkins’s Pigface. Read more Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
The Rodeo Idiot Engine – Fools Will Crush The Crown (2011)
Extreme metal, pretty psychotic, chaotic grindings and technical, contorted moments follows like a hurricane and tiring everything apart.
The team from Throatruiner Records continue to bring up to the surface extreme and experimental metal bands, maintain their fan-friendly approach, once again, you can download this material even for free (“give us what you want, even 0!”) from their Bandcamp page.
Jerom – vocals, Allian and Txomin – guitars, Thomas – bass and Mikel – drums reveals a chaotic and insane world, their furious hardcore collide with loud and emotional metalcore and the result, as the bend defined it, it’s “blackened mathcore”, kind of sick and full of energy extreme, modern metal with roots back both to hardcore and black/death metal and the outfit of now days mathcore, emocore. It’s not an easy piece to swallow, but fans of brutal massacres and intense, energy full metal will spit their longs out bloody screaming on it. Read more The Rodeo Idiot Engine – Fools Will Crush The Crown (2011)
Project Bob Dylan – celebrates Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday and more!
There are probably million different point of views, different perceptions of America. All of them are simultaneously right and wrong and that might be the “secret” of “the land of hope” and that’s why nobody is indifferent about America. On the other hand, I believe we don’t actually know enough about America as we actually do not know enough about each other generally speaking. Just for example, probably most of the people may thought that the official language of America is English while the truth is that America have none official language at federal level and English is only de facto national language. Everyone identify America by something, most of us by some products such as Coca-Cola, Marlboro or McDonald’s, others might think about country music or blues… In one way or the other, all these are icons. And speaking ’bout blues, Bob Dylan is one of the most respected and loved icons. And Dylan is not only a singer-songwriter and musician, but also poet and painter as well.
As a huge Laibach fan I read about this project of the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana on their web site and I didn’t hesitate to write an e-mail to obtain my free copy of the CD: [email protected]. One week later – this morning 🙂 – I received the CD and a beautiful 78 pages booklet. Read more Project Bob Dylan – celebrates Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday and more!
Channel Zero – Feed Em With A Brick (2011)
Often referred to them as “the Belgian Metallica”, “Feed Em With A Brick”, the band’s fifth studio album comes after “Black Fuel” released 14 years ago, engineered and produced by Attie Bauw, a Dutch producer who worked previously with Fight (Rob Halford). Channel Zero split in August 1997.
Singer Franky De Smet Van Damme, drummer Phil Baheux and bassist Tino De Martino are back with full force while original guitarist Xavier Carion due to a traumatized ear will be replaced by Mikey Doling (ex-Soulfly). And “Feed Em With A Brick” is another classy, powerful and groovy metal album, fans will be delighted. Read more Channel Zero – Feed Em With A Brick (2011)
