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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Honey Bee


Zee Avi, a Malaysian-born singer, was discovered via YouTube and MySpace. Check out her light and candid performance on All Songs Considered from NPR.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Hot Blue

Photo courtesy of SomiMusic.com


Somi is an artist of the New African Jazz style of music. Beautiful voice with an irresistible groove. Born in Africa, and raised in Illinois (USA), Somi blends sweet jazzy melodies with African rhythm. Check out her new album, released October 2009, If The Rain Comes First.



Download songs below courtesy of
Music Provided by IODA Promonet

If The Rains Come FirstSomi
"Hot Blue" (mp3)
from "If The Rains Come First"
(ObliqSound)
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
More On This Album



If The Rains Come FirstSomi
"Wallflower Blues" (mp3)
from "If The Rains Come First"
(ObliqSound)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Call

Photo Courtesy of Bossanostra.


Gogol Bordello's Tommy T arrives with this Ethiopian inspired journey. The mixture of dub, reggae, funk, and jazz makes this an excellent record.



Album Notes

"The legend of Prester John captivated European imagination during the Middle Ages. The search for his realm aided in the exploration of lands and cultures beyond, what was then, the known world. Prester John was reputed to be a wise and generous king with enormous wealth. Countless explorations had the goal of finding his kingdom and rescuing it from surrounding infidels. It certainly didn’t hurt the Europeans' motivation that it was rumored to have the Fountain of Youth and rivers filled with gold. Early theories put the location in Asia. By the 1300s, it was commonly believed that this was incorrect. Ethiopia was considered one of the “Three Indias,” and since legend claimed Prester John was ruler of these, the search then focused on Ethiopia. The kingdom was never officially found. Similarly, Ethiopian music has remained a mystery to the West, much like Prester John and his realm. The spirit of this mysterious king lends this record its name, as this album provides a musical road map through the many treasures of Ethiopia. Echoing the tales of Prester John, who was a Christian king in non-Western lands, Tommy T adds elements of dub, funk, jazz and other Western musical approaches to a musical foundation built firmly upon Ethiopian soil."


Free downloads below courtesy of
Music Provided by IODA Promonet

The Prester John SessionsTommy T
"The Call" (mp3)
from "The Prester John Sessions"
(Easy Star Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album


The Prester John SessionsTommy T
"The Response (featuring Gigi)" (mp3)
from "The Prester John Sessions"
(Easy Star Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Tamil Tigress


M.I.A. is a Sri Lankan artist. Born in the U.K. Her hip-hop, dancehall, and ragga beats are infectious. Here latest album, Kala, is non-stop, in-your-face beats with political overtones. Excellent find that will influence emerging artists. Check out some samples below.



"Bucky Done Gun" (Remix) from Arular

Untrue


From the edge of the world comes this album from the UK outfit, Burial. This has been in my rotation for a while now. Imagine no gravity. No boundaries. Rich meditations with a steady backbeat. This album is highly addictive.



Album Notes
Burial returns with ‘Untrue’, a new record of weird soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. The album continues with the debut’s crackle-drenched yearning and bustling syncopations, haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy. Kicking off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal science of ‘Archangel’, ‘Near Dark’ and ‘Ghost Hardware’, before long it descends into a space of radiant divas and ambience. Where ‘Burial’ first was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, ‘Untrue’ is less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic, underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines. Unlike the overpoweringly melancholic prevailing mood of before, Burial’s sound is now better defined as a downcast euphoria typified by the epic, muted optimism of the album’s last track ‘Raver’. Forget central heating… the radioactivity of this album is all that you’ll need to keep you warm this winter.
Music Provided by IODA Promonet

Download the track for free courtesy of Ioda Promonet.

UntrueBurial
"Ghost Hardware" (mp3)
from "Untrue"
(Hyperdub)

Buy at Cargo Records
Buy at Boomkat
Buy at Rough Trade
Buy at eMusic
Buy at mTraks Download
Buy at Beet

More On This Album