Archive for January, 2010
Follow this link to get a free sampler from digital record store Stompy.com. The 2010 sampler is a selection of house music, deep, tech, funky, soulful… it is all here. While you’re there, make sure to shop around- they have exclusives from all our favorite labels: Salted, Om, Lazy Days, Random Soul, Lost my Dog, and Afterhours. Get It Here.
Big weekend for house music in South Florida this weekend.. Funkagenda will be bringing his huge, techy, big room sound to the Gryphon Hard Rock tonight. We saw his last year at WMC, and he blew us all away. Follow this link to add your name to the guestlist for discounted admission and free drink tickets
Mark Farina will be playing at the Eden Terrace at Nocturnal in Miami on Saturday night. This man is basically responsible for making downtempo and house music what it is today. Listen to one of his very special live sets here. Get tickets here, and read on for his bio:
“Shortly after Mark befriended Derrick Carter in 1988 at a record store in Chicago, his passion for House music, and sharing it with the world, exploded. Mark experimented with a deeper style, dropping De La Soul, disco classics and other stuff that wasn’t being played in the main rooms of nightclubs. While exploring his love for the purist forms of House Music, Mark developed his trademark style: Mushroom Jazz; acid jazz infused with the West Coast’s jazzy, organic productions combined with urban beats.”
“Fans embraced Mark’s downtempo style so much that he started a weekly Mushroom Jazz club night in San Francisco with Patty Ryan. In 3 short years, the club established a fanatical, cult-like following for Farina and the Mushroom Jazz sound. When the doors closed, Farina continued the tradition by releasing a series of Cds on OM Records: simply titled, “Mushroom Jazz. Since then, Mark has been traveling the globe performing 100s of shows, to over one million club goers, every year. His House sets take fans on journeys to the jazzy side of Chicago House mixed San Fran style.”
Finally, we get a new preview of Gorillaz track, which features Mos Def and Bobby Womack. As usual, this song is a mix of many styles, from dub, electronic, and soul to hip hop and pop. Work it out.
Click here for our first preview of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s new project, feauring a videp and a free mp3. This one, like Slim’s last project, features many well known vocallists and contributors, such as Steve Earle, Cindy Lauper, Alice Russel, Sharon Jones, and Santigold.
“Here Lies Love – A Song Cycle deals with the life of Imelda Marcos, co-ruler of the Philippines in the 70s and 80s, as well as the life of Estrella Cumpas, the woman who raised her.”
“Through a series of songs written by David Byrne, with musical contributions from Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook), Here Lies Love – A Song Cycle presents Imelda Marcos meditating on events in her life, from her childhood spent in poverty and her rise to power to her ultimate departure from the palace. In particular, the production looks at the relationship between Imelda and a servant from her childhood, Estrella Cumpas, who appeared at key moments in Imelda’s life.”
“The story I am interested in is about asking what drives a powerful person—what makes them tick? How do they make and then remake themselves? I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if—as this piece would be principally composed of clubby dance music—one could experience it in a club setting? Could one bring a ‘story’ and a kind of theater to the disco? Was that possible? If so, wouldn’t that be amazing!”
—DB, from the introduction
Quick post today- just wanted to share where my head is at… bumping this track on repeat and channeling the blues.. the truth and sadness of disaster and tragedy…
Where are we at? Where are we headed?
I love finding a label that I can trust. They take all of the work out of finding tracks for me- I can just follow their releases, artists, podcasts, and remixers and know that I’ll always be able to find some great new music.
Urbantorque is definately one of these labels- I am a huge fan of their roster, which includes deep/tech, and downtempo heavyweights like Scope, Tom Middleton, Relation, and Seva K. Today I wanted to share with you all this mixtape from their new artist Eat More Cake. Follow this link to bump this atmospheric mix of hip hop, soul, and downtempo.
This week we welcome local artist Steve Baum back to Samba Lounge to show his work. I wanted to post a couple of samples so you could all see what we have in store for you this week…
Check this Free MIxtape from Blockhead, the NYC downtempo/hip hop producer who just released his new album on Ninja Tune Records. Need some more info? Read on below…
“Blockhead grew up in downtown New York City. The son of an artist, early on he found his passion was for music. A fan of a whole range of sounds, especially hip-hop, Blockhead steadily built a tremendous collection of tapes and later CDs from innumerable artists. After a brief stint as a rapper, he realized his calling was behind the boards and not on the mic, and from there he began to produce beats.”
“Since making that decision, he’s been kept pretty busy. Blockhead produced 9 tracks on Aesop Rock’s critically acclaimed album Labor Days. Additionally he produced half the tracks on Aesop’s follow up EP, Daylight. Blockhead has also been working with other indie giants such as Slug of Atmosphere, Murs, Mike Ladd and SA Smash. And what was the other thing? Oh yeah, exquisite, emotional instrumental hip hop on the one and only Ninja Tune…”
Stanton Moore and Galactic will be bringing their brand on New Orleans funk to the Revolution in downtown Fort Lauderdale saturday night. You know where I’ll be. Check this review of their upcoming album, and be sure to grab this track featuring Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 fame.
“It’s shaping up to be a stellar year for celebrated New Orleans outfit GALACTIC. On February 9th the band will release their groundbreaking new album YA-KA-MAY a visionary mix, intertwining New Orleans sounds from jazz to brass band to funk and far beyond. With this release, the five-man group comprised of drummer Stanton Moore, bassist Robert Mercurio, saxophonist/harmonica player Ben Ellman, keyboardist Richard Vogel, and guitarist Jeff Raines – reaffirms their status as the quintessential modern day New Orleans band and one of the funkiest outfits in the known universe.”
“Ya-Ka-May features all-new material generated by the band in collaboration with a stellar series of New Orleans guests, who range from iconic figures of the 1960s to the younger veterans to the underground. These invitees appear here outside their normal contexts and away from the sound you might typically associate with them, like putting a picture in a different frame. Guaranteed you know some of their names, but it’s unlikely that you know them all, even if you live in New Orleans. At first listen you’re bound to discover scorching talents from the worlds of music you know – jazz, brass bands, r&b, gospel, rock – and one you may not have encountered before: bounce.”
This is absolutely my most anticipated album of 2010, from my favorite band(?) of all time. Word is that they may also be headlining Coachella.
“Damon Alborn says that the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach, is nearly finished. According to a Guardian interview, it’s the “most pop record [he's] ever made” and features guest turns from Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Barry Gibb, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, and the Horrors.” (De La Soul are on there too.) (Via Pitchfork)
“In a recent interview for the BBC, Mos Def revealed that he will be a new character in the Gorillaz universe and what his role will be on the album. He revealed in an interview on the show Hip Hop with Semtex on BBC 1Xtra (you can download and listen to the entire interview here) that he will be appearing on three songs on the new album “Plastic Beach” and will be featured on the album as a character named Sun Moon Stars, who is a vendor on Plastic Beach.”
Mos Def: We’ll I’m involved at this present time on the album as a vocalist but also as a character.
Interviewer: So you’re going to be one of the animated.. [characters], you’ll be like what, the 5th or 6th Gorilla?
Mos Def: Yeah I think so. I’ll probably be the 5th or 6th. How many do they have now? I think it’s 4. I’m a Gorillaz cameo. I think my character’s name is Sun Moon Stars.
