Great new music from independent labels and artists all around the world

Eastern Europe asserts itself in this week’s show. Even the picture is looking east. It’s Aldeburgh again I’m afraid, looking out to a rather grey North Sea towards Netherlands/Nederland, over on the mainland – a way of putting it that is guarenteed to upset the political right, racists and Little Englanders. :-)Deutsches Essen In Russland – Ivan Ivanovich & The Kreml Krauts (Trier, Germany)The site is all in German so here’s the Babel translation: "A Fetzen Ska, a fragment Russia and a puddle from buried Punk flow from electrical guitar basses, horn, saxophone and over Schlagzeug, accordion and violin. Whereupon Ivan Ivanovich and the Kremlin of herb dance. Bass and guitar maintain your legs."24 Jul 2009 Das Bett, Frankfurt25 July 2009 Polka Ska Gypsy Sound Vol IV at Club Kuckucksei in Nürtingen, Baden-WürttembergA small foretaste on a Kremlin herb concert is at:http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=v43b5jUY9GI www.kreml-krauts.dePiece of you – Annabelle Chvostek (Montreal, Canada)Great show at The Winelight Club on Friday, where I picked up her new album Resiliance – along with the OK to play you a few tracks. Recorded in New York and Montreal with Grammy-nominated Canadian record producer Roma Baran and her producing partner Vivian Stoll, Resilience has been described as, "a sublime, spare, and profoundly reflective album that Chvostek describes as "a big complicated hug." I like hugs in general, and this one in particular.One of those magical instrument players who seem to make virtually no movement and yet the most amazing complex sounds come out. Couple that with her beautiful strong and passionate voice and exceptionally well crafted songs and you have something pretty special. My thanks to The Canada Council for subsidising her trip over from Montreal to play just a couple of dates in the UK. She is back in Canada now with appearances at the Eaglewood Festival coming up in August.www.annabelle.org/www.myspace.com/annabellechvostekCreative Deconstruction’s Refe Tuma has been in a briefing this morning on music royalty rates which he describes as "a great way to start the morning on the wrong foot!" We know that big labels are keen to extract as much of the artists earnings as possible before the artist gets their cut but some of this stuff beggars belief. Refe points out, in particular "New technology deductions?" – maybe when CDs actually cost anything to manufacture. "New tech" is what has made music FREE to distribute."Packaging deductions" – most major labels still take the same percentage for digital downloads. Um, there’s no packaging on downloads."I’m sure it will make it onto the creative deconstruction pages soon. If you are a musician, you might want to check out the site at www.creativedeconstruction.comWho’s going to save the poor – CSharp Band (Kingston, Jamaica)C-Sharp Band comprises five young men: Aeion Hoilett- Bass guitarist (singer) Chevaughn Clayton – Lead vocalist Lamont Savory – Guitarist (singer) Dwain Campbell – Keyboard player (singer) and Randevon Patrick – Drummer. All were students of Edna Manley college of Visual and Performing Arts. The group started in 2001 while they were student. Since then they have opened for many great Jamaica artist. They have graced stages all over Europe, China, Africa, USA.I was put onto the C-Sharp Band by Pete Cogle who suggested that the track Nurse might be appropriate for me. Cheeky.www.myspace.com/csharpbandwww.csharpmusic.net (was not working this morning)A statistic for you: Out of the 105,575 albums that were released in 2008 just 110 artists sold more than 250K. – ArielPhotograph – Secret Ocean (Nagoya, Japan)From their album Kokoro No Furyoku.Hiroumi Takatsuka: vocal, guitar, harmonica (blood type A)Tome: drums, percussion and chorus (blood type B)www.secretocean.comwww.myspace.com/secretoceanmusicForest – Staraya Derevnya (Haifa, Israel & London, UK)Comment on Jamendo: "I found it profounding but only if you like that kind of music. Very experemintal but can open your mind!!!" Some may think of this as Ethnic Russian Deep House Metal Shoegaze but as you well know, that would make it very unlikely to get played on SnC. No, Frankly I see it more as Israeli Russian experimental psychofolk freakout punk – one of my favourite styles.  From the album Ячаща (I’m thicket) one of three varied offerings on Jamendo.www.jamendo.com/en/album/26605www.starayaderevnya.co.uk/Letter from Martin ByromKeep on Movin’ – Kat Dancer (Edmonton, Canada)From her excellent album Somethin’ Familiar from which I’ve played a few tracks over recent months.You’ll find those other tracks on SnC 156, 160 and 168Her ‘Swamp Blues’ style is steeped in early roots and blues traditions and delivered by her deep, resonant vocals and the soulful sound of her Weissenborn lap slide guitar.  Much like a long stretching railroad track, Danser draws a direct line from the Canadian prairie to the Mississippi Delta.  She is one part backwoods juke joint, one part plow puller and two parts dusty ol’ canvas tent revival.  Kat Danser delivers a refreshing approach to roots, blues, and gospel music for the 21st Century.A multi-instrumentalist, Danser plays the Weissenborn Hawaiian lap slide guitar, a vintage acoustic Gibson, National steel resophonic slide guitar, a tack head banjo and the Zydeco scrubboard.You can order CDs from Kat’s site. www.katdanser.comwww.myspace.com/katdanserServe them well – Swimming in Speakers (NY, USA)From their first meeting in October 2008, multi-instrumentalist Chris Clarke and lead vocalist Meadow Eliz knew they wanted to write music together. The snowy, subzero climate of Saranac Lake, New York, lent itself well to winter days spent creating and recording in Chrisʼs home studio, where they crafted the "Swimming in Speakers" demo armed with a Casio, a laptop and a hodge-podge of analog equipment. Jo Sorrell (cello) and Justin Grizzoffi (percussion and guitars) add nuance to the tracks, and local NPR station NCPR granted access to their brand new studio for additional recording and mixing.They seem to be getting healthy doses of attention – at least among the podcast community.Breaking news: there is a free download of their tiny track Uh Oh on Last FM at http://bit.ly/4FYdalwww.myspace.com/swimminginspeakersI know how to handle my liquor & God Move /Bad Move – Pc Muñoz (San Francisco, CA, USA)I first played Pc Muñoz on SnC 035 back in October 2006. He has certainly been on the move since then with some really interesting work along the way. At heart he is San Francisco-based recording artist and producer known for genre-defying projects which stretch the boundaries of funk and the avant-garde. Free new album out now: What Happened?!, pc muñoz’s "mash-note to hip-hop" jam-packed with remixes, Grab Bag bonus tracks, special guests, scrumptious beats, and other treats is out and available for free. It really is an interesting album. I may well have to play another track next week. Meanwhile you can get it from: www.threcords.com/?product=3www.myspace.com/pcmunozhttp://pcmunoz.com/My Radio – Lola Dutronic (France)Richard from the band sent great summer sound this early this morning, so it is certainly fresh. They were going to release this track in the autumn but it seems to have taken off of its own accord. They also have a fan-made video of the track at: www.youtube.com/watch?v?=EHDLB1_zD5MOLA DEE – Voice, RICHARD CITROEN – MusicBrigitte Bardot is from the new 3rd album, LOLA DUTRONIC IN BERLIN recorded over a 3 week period in an abandoned Berlin apartment, and mixed in Toronto. it also features the legendary Mike Garson (of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane fame) on piano. "We divide our time between Berlin and Toronto. We’ve put out three albums so far: The World Of Lola Dutronic, the Grammy Award nominated The Love Parade and our newest album, Lola Dutronic In Berlin. We’ve also appeared on several compilation albums and repackages in Asia and Europe.Available on iTunes and on CDBaby at:http://cdbaby.com/cd/ldutronicwww.myspace.com/loladutronic