cubikmusik

Hypnotic

Came across the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble this morning and this tune has been on repeat all day as I drove around Austin getting all of my Saturday bits and pieces done. Amazingly powerful sounds.

Hailing from Chicago but reaching out around the world Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are made up of the eight memebrs of which 7 are  brothers and they are the sons of legendary jazzer Phil Cohran (Sun Ra Arkestra, Artistic Heritage Ensemble, AACM). What a sound that these guys conjure up; energetic, passionate, and moving (emotionally and physically). "Music Medicine". Big time; this is why I love music.

Heres a New York times video with the tune and some info. on the ensemble.

Heres a clip of the tune live, with Mos Def on stage.

Check out theirspace, their discography (courtesy of Djouls), and the blog to get some free live tunes with Mos Def recorded at the Apollo.

Download balicky_bon.mp3

Another Story

A massive track tonight that I dedicate to Chris over at Another Night On Earth who consistently delivers on choice tunes. I think he'll appreciate this.

This is Lee Douglas coming at you from Brooklyn, NY and my gosh has he delivered a track that can only be described as an anthem. Coming in at just over 9 mins. 'New York Story' has low organ sounds that are reminiscent of Rattatat with a beautiful disco bassline, a solid beat, church bells,  and cosmic synths that will put your hair on end.

Would've loved to have heard this while out and about and dancing back in the day-the crowd would be going crazy!

Lost in Music was the alternative title for this post 'cos no matter what you say there are few feelings as good as being in that state and this tune certainly gets me there.

Cheers,

Cubik

Download 01_new_york_story.mp3

Buy: US Download/ UK Download/ Euro Vinyl/ US Vinyl

Habit

I'm not the biggest fan of singing in most cases. Well, I take that back. I've got to be in the right mood as such. Last night I got an email from an artist talking about her music. Now usually, and I think other mp3 bloggers can attest to this, these emails are just sent out to all blogs without someone checking out what sounds it is that we are into.  However, I do check out each email and listen to everyone's music.
So last night I hear from Nyasha and the combination of her achingly beautiful voice, sharp beats and tightly produced sounds captured my attention. This isn't something that I would listen to all the time but theres a story being told in these songs and I guess that's what some would say as being the appeal of singing over instrumentals. And no matter what, I love the stories in music and the ones behind those that make it.

Nyasha was kind enough to send me a tune to post along with her bio so I will post both now:

In a a small townhouse in Baltimore, Maryland a three-year old girl climbed atop her living room table and commanded attention. Over a decade later, she still hasn’t let go of the spotlight. But you haven't seen an artist like this. Intelligent. Beautiful. Talented. Sexy- with a silhouette that will make your mouth water. Intrigued at first sight, but then she starts to sing. With the sass of Whitney, the grit of Nina, the soulfulness of Lauryn, and the sex appeal Ms Jackson, Nyasha is the complete package. If knowing your history defines your future, then Nyasha Shani will be remembered among the greats. “I have so many inspirations, musically.  I love the jazz era for its musicality and innovation; and I love the birth of R&B for continuing the trend of black music, but I can’t deny that I was raised on the Quiet Storm,” she smirks with her East Coast-Midwest mélange accent, “Nothing else can set the mood for me better than a good love song. So I use all those inspirations when I write and when I sing.”

Since belting out Lionel Richie’s famed “Sela” at the tender age of three, to performing in her own shows, Nyasha Shani has come a long way in her career. Since culminating her studies at the most prominent creative music University in the country with Honors, Nyasha Shani has returned to her notebook to begin work on her first album.  As a songwriter, she has a strong command of the pen; with the ability to captivate real-life situations through genuine emotion and the cleverness of her lyrics. As a singer, she can belt with the best or engage you with a deep and tranquil low, embodying all the sultriness of her silhouette.

Intriguing eh?

Download Habit.mp3

Legends

Thanks to my mate Neil for letting me know about this.

"Ever wondered what your heroes would play if they had their own show on Radio 1? Between now and September 28th you can hear special programmes hosted by Radio 1 Legends each week night at 9pm (GMT)
Week 1 featured some of biggest names from Radio 1's 40 years on-air, including Sir Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Debbie Harry, Paul Weller and Paul Oakenfold. Listen again to their shows now.  Week 2 kicks off with Noel Gallagher on Monday night talking about Jo Whiley's choice of footwear, all night partying with Kasabian and going to the World Cup with Chris Moyles."

Ship Song

Many years ago, back in Ireland, I had the great pleasure of hanging out with one of the Bad Seeds while working at the Chameleon restaurant in Dublin. It happened that one of the managers, Annie, was buddies with them back in Australia and they came to visit Ireland. It was a great experience as we got to hang out and chat about life, love, music, etc. (while partying like rock stars.) and tonight I came across this tune in my collection and was reminded of it all.
I also remember making a cross country trip (Dublin to Cork) with my mate Brian after a hectic night out. We wanted to get to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play at a charity gig and so we set out (after about 6 hours sleep) and hitchhiked a 4 hour journey in about 8 hours! Eventually we got there and managed to buy tickets outside the show and got in just in time to see them come on stage. Much to our despair they only played about 3 songs. Needless to say it was a great disappointment but in hindsight its not necessarily the music you get to hear but the experience that you go through to hear that song.

This is one of the greatest love songs ever written.

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around

Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around

We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything comes tumbling down

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around

Your face has fallen sad now
For you know the time is nigh
When I must remove your wings
And you, you must try to fly

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around

Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around

Enough said.
Download 01_the_ship_song.mp3

Buy:
Single US/ UK

Love is all around me

Kinda keeping with a little bit of a soul/ funk here as I am finding gems scattered all around and they're so hard to resist.
This is such a cracker of a tune and one that can close out any party with lots of dancing, smiling and hugging. So-whether your sun is coming up, going down or you're in the middle of your day-enjoy this blissful tune.
Lack of Afro' album, Press On, takes its cues from the heavy funk and soul of the 70s, and giving them something of an updated twist. Signed to the super label Freestyle Records and playing most of the instruments himself, Adam Gibbons has created a contemporary classic that we can expect to be held as one of the great funk albums.

Download 04_touch_my_soul.mp3 

Cheers
Cubik 

Buy:
Download UK
CD: US / UK
Vinyl: UK/ US (delayed)

If I Ever

I'm in a slowed down kinda mood tonight. Maybe its the red wine or the busy day. Or maybe I was just meant to find this tune. The preview is all slow and full of R&B (the old R&B-not that newfangled stuff) and thats why I bought it. Then as you start going through the tune it starts to go into a great soul driven segway and back again.Its hard to describe these kinds of tunes, especailly for one like me who's not into writing too much. :-)

Perhaps, to borrow from the artist's way of describing what he sounds like is "a box of old records falling down the stairs then landing on a record player, some in key, some not."
A good description but doesn't do the amazing sounds of this album enough justice.

Aldo Vanucci has been around for a while now, after having put out releases on the mighty Catskils label he landed with Good Living Records and has released the album that this track is taken from, Straight Lift. The album covers everything you could expect to hear from Plymouths 14th Best DJ "a bit of soul, a suggestion of funk, some party style hip hop, a cheeky cover version and some firing jazz"

Download 05_i_love_you_baby.mp3

Buy
Download  US / UK         
CD: US / UK

Cheers,
Cubik

I want my kids to grow up to be....

Thanks to my favourite Mogger, LadyC for sharing this today.

Love To Hate You

I so rarely go out to hear/see live music, despite the fact that I live in the Live Music Capital of the World (allegedly).
I don't know what it is about live music that just doesn't get me going. I guess maybe because I think it is hard to recreate good music well on stage. Or maybe I am just closed minded and don't want to change?

Anyways, maybe I will change my mind. After last weekend I am consciously going to try and go out and see live shows more. I got tickets for the LCD Soundsystem ACL aftershow that was going on at Red7 on Friday and so we wandered down around 10.30pm. I was excited to check out LCD Soundsystem and actually hadn't checked out who else was playing.
After the DJ on the outside stage finished up I was somewhat surprised to see two girls to get on stage in front of a laptop and some keyboards. Now, I'm not being sexist here but the reality (in my mind) is that it is rare to see females make electronic music. In my experience over the last 15 years or so I really don't recall seeing a female act or DJ.
When I say surprised I mean pleasantly surprised as it is great to see people going against the norm as it were. I would like to point out that really Austin has a very small electronic scene considering its size and musical inclinations and to so to hear good electronic that is home produced is a thrill. Now picture this, this act is not from Austin, but Wimberley, which has a population of (don't quote me on this) well below 10,000. In Texas. Not exactly renowned for electronic music. :-)

They are Lady Pterodactyl and they have kindly provided a tune to check out. Lady Pterodactyl have only been around since Feb. 2007 but have developed a style that is uniquely theirs to own but with some nice room to grow still. I had such a cool time listening to watching them play as their sounds are simplistically beautiful while being energetic with the show filled with genuine fun and passion.

So-thanks to Faiith and Sydnie for letting me post about them today.  hope you check them out, let them know on theirspace (or with comments here) if you are into their sounds.
I sure am.

Download love_to_hate_you.mp3

Cheers

Soulslap

Got a nice little treat this week from Kidda. He's got a new tune out that is really good.

The tune is VIP and features a Psycho Les (Beatnuts) collab. Kidda lays down some heavy Dj Premier style beats for Les to flow over, on the flip (if your vinyly inclined) Puma Strut’s Beathoven adds to the package with his own version adding extra breaks. Big with all of ya'll B-boys!
Can't post the tune here unfortunately but you can hear it here or buy it download / vinyl.

Kidda sends his regards with this mix of some top tunes for a night out. This is a sweet mix for your next party. Brings all kinds of great sounds to get everyone in the mood.

Get the tracklisting (or download directly from Kidda's site here.

Download soulslap.mp3

Lonely Eden

So, my mate Younglee from Ok_Ma is one busy guy. What with making top tunes, remixing for the likes of Arch-Typ and Jonny Miller and DJing around Europe I don't know where he finds the time to do anything else.
But he does.
And when someone like him brings something to me I sit up and pay attention.
So, Younglee emails me a few weeks ago about Randolph, released on Still Music (voted as one of the 10 best up and coming labels by XLR8R in August 2007), I sat up and literally listened. The album, "Lonely Eden", features tracks with Waajeed, Amp Fiddler, Stephanie Mckay and DJ Dez (Slum Village).
My favourite tune from the album has got to be  Leanin'  with its killer bassline.

Randolph hails from Detroit and "Lonely Eden" is the follow up to his first album released on Moodymann's Mahogani label.
The album crosses the paths of many styles but sits on none as indicated by Randoplh himself:
“I’ve never been happy staying in one place, if my style is diverse its coming from a lot of different places.”  And so, we invited him to talk about his influences, of which there are many. So many in fact that we won't be posting songs of these influences.

Unfortunately we can't post any tunes (yet) from the album but perhaps StillMusic/ Randolph will let us slip something on here for a week or so.

In the meantime check out hisspace for some sounds or go to XLR8R for a free tune or buy the album.

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There have been some many Artist/Songs?Albums that have influenced me I fear it would take up far
more typing and reading time than humanly feasible.  With that I will attempt to give you the condensed version:

1. Jimi Hendrix "A Band Of Gypsies"
2. Led Zepplin "Black Dog" (Hear it)
3. Earth Wind and Fire "Spirit"
4. Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix "LIVE"
5. David Bowie "Heros"
6. Mahavishnu Orchestra "The Inner Mounting Flame"
7. YMO
8. Brand X
9. Rufus
9. Bill Withers "LIVE"
10. Elise Regina and Tom ? "Elise e Tom
11. Sly "Fresh"
12. Thomas Dolby "Field Work", "Flat Earth"
13. R.L. Burnside (all his works)
14. Stevie Wonder "Talking Book"
15. Ry Cooder
16. Roberta Flack
17. XTC "English Settlement"
18. Brenda Russell (her first solo album)
19. Joni Mitchell
20. Joan Armertrading (anything)
21. Miles Davis "Sketches of Spain"
22. Motown
23. Staxx
24. Gino Vannelli "Brother 2 Brother"
25. P-Funk
26. James Brown
27.Sam and Dave
28. Weather Report
29. Hank Williams Sr.
30.. Ohio
Players.......................

..............................thats enough!
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Cheers

Floorshaker

It sure has been a while since I posted. Didn't realize it was that long.
Anyways-got this tune tonight and I can't think of a better tune to come back with.

A few weeks ago I played at the Austin Sound Off and had such a great time. Overall I guess I played for about 2-2 1/2 hours covering all kinds of stuff some of which I have posted here. The best reaction I got was to my set with lots of funk and soul sounds booming out of the speakers. It was a lovely sunny day so the mood was just right for such fine tunes as So Fine, No Groove Where I Come From and THE top tune in my speakers right now Beggin (pilooski edit) (can't remember who sent me this tune but whoever it was..cheers).

So, onto tonight's pleasure. This goes out to my Swiss mate who was at the show. I have no doubt that he will love this tune and will be dancing around with his two kids to this one.
Casino are signed to the superb label Corsair Records. This is just a monster track that is filled with Northern Soul magic for all you old schoolers and new coolers out there. (Yep-totally cheesy right?). ;-)

Update: September 16th, 2007. Track taken down after limited time at the request of record label.
Thanks to Jenny over at Corsair for letting us keep it up until now.

 

Update 2:

Just to let you know that Casino are live in session on Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show tomorrow (Sept. 22nd)  afternoon (4.30pm-6.30pm GMT) playing new single 'Floorshaker', plus a special Casino cover version and interview.

You can catch it online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/dermot/

Try and tune in if you get the chance.

Buy it: Download/ Vinyl