music monday
Taj Weekes and Adowa, though adored by their reggae fans, refuse to fit into a specific genre. Though their songs are heavily influenced by the classic country and calypso Weekes grew up listening to on the island of St. Lucia, their music incorporates sounds of roots rock, funk and West… Read the rest
Pistolera is a New York City-based band that’s rooted in traditional Mexican sounds. Their third album, however, El Desierto y La Ciudad, comes with an element of contemporary style that’s beautifully infused into the sound Pistolera has come to be known for.
According to the band’s Amazon biography, El Desierto … Read the rest
[The track 'Turkish Spice' from 22 Degrees of Beatitude]
Tarun Nayar is a Vancouver-based recording artist (and DJ/producer) who is perhaps most well-known for his part in the band Delhi 2 Dublin. But for his latest musical endeavor, Nayar went solo–producing a noteworthy album called 22 Degrees of Beatitude.… Read the rest
The
His name, Vieux Farka Touré, may be hard to pronounce, but the music on his newly released album is smooth, subtle and powerfully easy to listen to. Each track on The Secret… Read the rest reaches my ear with a sense of familiarity, as if I’ve heard the song before… though I know
The Jackalope Saints are a Portland-based string band that plays folk-bluegrass music rooted in tradition with an updated style. The Saints’ bio explains the group as follows:
Adding a twist of soul and stirring the pot a new sound surfaces: Navy Bluegrass River Rock. It is the howling sound of … Read the rest
Try not tapping your foot or slapping your knee.
The man in the video–the harmonica guru–is Tom Walbank, born in England, living in Tuscon. A blues musician and the most amazing harmonica player we’ve ever heard. This video is from 2007, but we’re pretty sure even if you’ve already seen… Read the rest
The rhythmic movement that accompanies music–otherwise known as dance–is what inspired this album, Room of Wonders, pioneered by banjo player Jayme Stone. It’s conception came about one night while Stone cooked dinner; listening to French Suites … Read the restby Bach, Stone felt the inexorable need to dance. “It was an epiphany moment,”
It’s not often that you hear new old school R & B, which is part of why we chose, today, to feature the artist Raphael Saadiq, who makes music in 2011that sounds different than anything else out there. His new album, Stone Rollin’… Read the rest, embodies old school R & B
Is this week’s Music Monday post more about the video or the music? You decide. Either way, we believe art, music and film go together beautifully to make a meaningful final product–the way vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream come together to make the perfect base for a banana split.… Read the rest
It’s not often that you listen to an album that aims to take the listener from Africa to New York, from start to finish. This one, Hammock House: Africa Caribe… Read the rest promises to do just that, in its two-disc set mixed by DJ and Producer Joaquin “Joe” Claussell.
The record itself
Boy Without God‘s album, God Bless the Hunger… Read the rest, sounds at once classic and strikingly fresh. Behind the pseudonym, Boy Without God, is Boston native, New York-based, singer-songwriter Gabriel Birnbaum, a young man with a powerful, soothing baritone of a voice. Beneath Boy Without God’s voice is a range of
La Cherga is a crew of talented musical folk based out of Austria. For their album, Revolve, … Read the restthey have created a compilation of tracks that are completely out of the ordinary. Their sound is a melding of Austrian dub, Gypsy brass and funk that’s peppered with reggae and pop.
La
Río Arriba… Read the rest is Latin club music rooted in traditional Argentine rhythm and beats. It is the melding together of urban electronica and Argentine folkloristic music. It is the work of artist Chancha Via Circuito, who comes from a town outside of Buenos Aires and produces music unlike that of anything
As the front man for the Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós, Jónsi wrote many of the group’s song lyrics, and, over the years, amassed a large amount of written songs that had yet to be recorded or played for an audience. Out of this “pool” of songs came Jónsi’s first… Read the rest
The above music video, which accompanies 24-year-old South African musician Spoek Mathambo’s track, ‘Control’, is undeniably bizarre, eery and striking. That’s part of why we like it. The other part is Mathambo’s raw talent.
Mathambo uses his lulling voice to accompany electronic music and form “electro-rap” songs that have been… Read the rest
