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

Fine and interesting new tunes for you on Suffolk’n’Cool 189. This week from Indianna, Missouri, Japan, New York City, Salt Lake City, Holland and the most easterly place in the UK, Lowestoft, here in Suffolk. Pic: I think that’s the last we’ll see of the sun today.What I wouldn’t do – She swings, she sways (Ottumwa, IA, USA)She Swings, She Sways coalesced in the only apartment building in downtown Ottumwa, Southeast Iowa’s post-industrial wasteland, when an acoustic duo (John Gordon & Cory Canny) met long-time drums and bullfiddle rhythm section (Jason Bolinger & Troy Morgan). Drawing on over 30 years of combined experience, the band began writing, recording, and performing in 2005. The band added two new players later – Jimmie Dalton (electric guitar) and Diana Garles (keys, vocals, trumpet).www.sheswingsshesways.comwww.myspace.com/sheswingsshesways  Abandon Ship – Beth Bombara (St Loius, MO, USA)While Beth Bombara so far has largely focused on Beth Orton/Bon Iver-esque, downtempo, melodious folk-pop, her recent project, Beth Bombara and the Robotic Foundation, pulls her into the orbit of the Breeders and, at times, Bettie Serveert. Her clear and warm alto makes her confessions believable, while the rhythmic instincts of her band are always sharp. Bombara’s recent songs come tailor-made for a long, late-night drive through a dense forest, where shadows emerge, shiver and linger in the memory.October 17, 2009 – 9pmOff BroadwaySt. Louis, MO 63118Info: 314-773-3363$10www.bethbombara.comwww.myspace.com/bethbombaraSunset Disco – Kyota Sugai (Japan)"Sunset Disco" is funny, original blues.
This music cannot be compared to existing music, but, if I must compare it, it emits a bewitching brightness, like old striptease music.
It sounds like a voice that is possessed by the singing devil. The lyrics make fun of the listener, but the people cannot laugh. Very unique and slow arrangement, a melody that appeals to the soul directly.
But, what wants to be expressed by this Japanese blueser?You come to this joint, I thought
Because you said, you wanna go
You come to this joint, yes, I thought
Because you said, you wanna go
Did you know, he fell into the sea again
So come to the "Sunset Disco"You love the music, it’s called "Moonrise"
Because you said, you love it much
You love the music, it’s called "Moonrise"
Because you said, you love it much
Did you know, she rose from the sea again
So come to the "Sunset Disco"And then, the lady swingin’ there
Just like shakin’
The lady swingin’ there
She’s like shakin’
Babe, feel like you shake on this floor now
at the "Sunset Disco"www.myspace.com/kyotasugai1984 – Kirsten DeHaan (NYC, NY, USA)Kirsten DeHaan is a true jack of all musical trades. Not only is she a talented singer/songwriter and guitarist, she promotes her music via her label SirLady Records, does various philanthropic work for American soldiers in the Middle East, and is a big proponent of the New York indie music scene. Her latest offering, a five song EP dubbed "Thorns On A Crown" is by far her most mature work to date and is set to hit the streets later this summer.A native German/Indianan (her mother emigrated from Germany to Indiana), Kirsten graduated from college in Texas and moved to New York just six weeks before the 9/11 attacks. Having composed music most of her life, DeHaan says she writes based on two tenets: to deliver goose bumps and to question the status quo. Luckily for us, her music succeeds in doing both.www.kirstendehaan.comwww.myspace.com/kirstendehaanThe spirit of the times – John Ward (Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK)On November the 15th John and Mario will be playing at The Cut in Haslesworth, Suffolk. All profits will go to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and The James Paget Palliative Care centre. This is the 3rd annual charity concert they’ve put together at The Cut. It’s a great venue which serves some food as well as being a gallery and a general arts centre. It will start at 7.30 and tickets are £8.00 and £6.00. 0845 6732123 www.newcut.org  I hope you can make it and support these two very worthwhile charities."With its face full set to the blustering North Sea in the East and its back warmed in the wheat and sugarbeet fields of Suffolk in the West, Lowestoft, like its neighbour, Great Yarmouth, holds an odd mixture of life and is a sore thumb contradiction to the prosperous rest of East Anglia.It’s an end of the line town and not one that is travelled through on the way to anywhere else (being the most Easterly town in the British Isles, it couldn’t be otherwise). People have a tendency to arrive here, either by birth or the A12, and stick, rather like flies to poison paper, for one reason or another. Many travelling characters in town, having seen the world in all its Himalayan Heights and Grand Canyon depths, seem to have chosen to finally root down here, happy to drink beer, perpetually walk into the wind, moan and talk about getting out,or wait for something to happen."www.johnward.org.ukBiya Bare Safar Bandim (Let’s Be on Our Way) – Monika Jalili (Salt Lake City, UT, USA)30 years ago, in 1979, the Iranian revolution put an effective stop to the artistic lives of a great number of poets, composers, and singers in Iran. We will never know what could have been.Iran is again poised for change.Since a serendipitous introduction in 2003, American/Dutch vocalist, Monika Jalili has worked tirelessly to revive the touching works of these Iranian artists, some of whom are no longer with us, and most of whom have lived the past 30 years into their old age unable to express themselves as they once could. It is their songs that Monika sings with passion, appreciation, care and love.Monika is playing in London on Saturday at The Union Chapel 020 7226 3750 www.unionchapel.org.ukwww.monikajalili.comwww.myspace.com/monikajaliliApril – Mo Rooneh (Netherlands/Holland)Yes, I played Mo Rooneh a few weeks ago on 186, and I make no apologies for playing another track this week from the Cinematographic album from Monochrome. Lots of percussive notes in here including bait of glockenspiel for Codger.Mo Rooneh is a minimalist and avantgarde composer, working with repetition and noise as basic elements.The philosophy behind the use of those elements in a composition, which in itself is mostly fictional, is to reinstate a sense of reality.Repetition as a referral to time and noise as the reflection of incoherence and disturbance that characterises our daily life.Starting out, some twenty-five years ago, as a singer in several bands, Rooneh explored the popular music spectrum.After a small decade he concluded the pop scene didn’t bring that much fulfllment, music wise, as he had hoped for.Taking a break from performing for almost fifteen years, he explored numerous art disciplines. Several musical and non-musical styles inspired Rooneh and led to a reinvention of the self.Encountering ‘new music’ from artists like John Cage, La Monte Young and Steve Reich made him realise that the way of the experiment was the right basis for his compositions.In 2009 he recorded three albums, ‘Songs that might be’, ‘Micro’ and ‘Cinematographic’.

Mo Rooneh "April" (mp3) from "Cinematographic" (Monochrome) Buy at iTunes Music Store Stream from Rhapsody More On This Album

www.mrooneh.comwww.myspace.com/moroonehFur Turban – Michael Bellar and the AS-IS Ensemble (New York, NY, USA)The AS-IS Ensemble is the musical home of musician/producer Michael Bellar. They are a highly excitable, improvisationally eclectic, alt-jazz group that has opened for John Scofield, Tea Leaf Green, Medeski Martin Wood, JFJO and just released it’s third full length CD “Turned On Turned Up,” on Left3/MRI/RED.They have performed at such venues as Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and the JVC and Bell Atlantic Jazz Festivals and were formerly the house band at the world-famous Blue Note jazz club in New York City.You can find out more about Michael Bellar/the AS-IS Ensemble at www.michaelbellar.com/