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Fine music this week from Nashville, Copenhagen, New York, Norway, Kansas City, Nancy and Paris in France, Hungary and, of course, a couple of artists from Brooklyn. It barely got light here in Suffolk, UK today so I’ll have to resort to another Barcelona picture, much as it pains me 😉 Not that it was a lot warmer when I was there a couple of weeks ago.Air Conditioned Heart – Hollands (Brooklyn, NY, USA) Hollands is multi-instrumentalist John-Paul Norpoth and violinist Jannina Barefield. Together, they formed in February 2008 in Washington Heights, New York. Norpoth, formerly the co-lead of NYC-based Butane Variations, is the son of a classical flautist while Barefield is the daughter of Detroit based avant-garde jazz guitarist Spencer Barefield. Together, they combine fuzzy Flaming Lips guitars with Martin-esque orchestral arrangements and traditional folk nods to the Paul Simon’s and the Grateful Dead’s of years pastAt times, Hollands sounds like a simple folk duo, plaintive and gentle, soft and free. At others, the band performs as a loud, brash, orchestral rock ensemble; employing cello, organs, synthesizers, electric and acoustic violins. In other words, they’ll explore any means necessary to realize the most honest atmosphere and capture the diversity of each song.www.hollandsss.comwww.myspace.com/hollandsss"As of ’09, bands have an official life span of about nine months dating from the launch of their MySpace pages, thanks to the comically accelerated, DSL-enhanced hype cycle. Faster than you can tweet "Serena Maneesh," entire genres of music are "discovered" by attention-starved writers; bloggers engage in hilarious slap-fights about who was there first; magazines feel pressured into writing clueless, hackazoid, late-pass trend pieces; bands get elevated to a critical mass of attention they can’t possibly handle; and the phenomenon is promptly abandoned once we find a newer, shinier toy to play with."- Christopher R. Weingarten, Village VoiceI’ll forget you – Peter Bradley Adams (Brooklyn, NY/Nashville, TN) Peter Bradley Adams was one half of the duo "eastmountainsouth" signed by Robbie Robertson (of The Band) to Dreamworks Records in 2002. He has released two solo records (Gather Up and Leavetaking – from which I’ll forget you is taken) and released his third, Traces in September on Sarathan Records. You can buy it at Amazon here: http://tinyurl.com/Traces-Amazon2www.myspace.com/peterbradleyadams We all have our shortcomings – Alcoholic Faith Mission (Copenhagen, Denmark)The Alcoholic Faith Mission started in Brooklyn, New York ’06. The apprentices of dejection Thorben Seierø Jensen and Sune Sølund were wandering around in the raw wintery-streets, shooting the breeze, brushing on alcoholism and close family members wet deroute. Suddenly before them was a big neon cross. This was a holy congregation called Apostolic Faith Mission – and this was just like booze is to the alcoholic, they thought. A true mission to withstand an empty existence; an Alcoholic Faith Mission. Three months later the duo"s underplayed and dogmatic debut Misery Loves Company was ready. Dogma’s for the album, which was recorded in a small bedroom in Copenhagen, was that recordings had to take place a night, lit by only candles and always under the influence of alcohol. The critics said sweet things about the album. José Gonzales and Iron and Wine-ry they said. Shortly after, the duo turned into a collective for all their friends to join. Especially Laurids Smedegaard, Kristine Permild and Gustav Rasmussen turned out to be the two guys most important assets. Two years later they went back to Brooklyn to seclude themselves in an old factory loft at 421 Wythe Avenue. They tried on a selection of straightjackets for the inspiration. Everything used to make the music, had to be found within the loft"s four walls. For an example, dictionaries beat each other to become an electronically muted bass drum. This way of working turned into their second album; named after the street where they lived on – 421 Wythe Avenue. www.myspace.com/alcoholicfaithmission http://ponyrec.com/artist_alcoholicfaithmission.htmlFancy Beer – Two Man Gentleman Band (NY, NY, USA) That The Two Man Gentlemen Band is amongst the United States’ most learned, sophisticated, and musically able two-man bands is commonly understood. That they throw one heck of a party has been a rather well-kept secret until now.The Two Man Gentlemen Band: Live in New York! is an unparalleled achievement. Using only four hands, two mouths, a bit of erudition, and a strong helping of the drink, the gents whip themselves and their New York City audience into an unmitigated frenzy of joy. Listeners to this recording will likely find themselves in a similarly frenzied, sweat-riddled state.Digital release date: Jan 12, 2010 on Serious Business but if you want a CD, you can get it right now from www.seriousbusinessrecords.com/www.two-man-gentlemen-band.comwww.myspace.com/twomangentlemenbandAppetite – Proviant Audio (Norway)Mathias Stubø gives you some really interesting jazz tunes. These are his unreleased works between 2005 and 2007. The five tracks from the EP Mushrooms combine glitchy, broken beats with funny, smooth and melodic jazz samples. The EP is available free from SoJus Records at www.sojusrecords.comProviant Audio is 17 year old Mathias Stubø from Norway, producing electronic music influenced by jazz and soul.Mathias is known as a child prodigy in Norway. The NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) has already named him Artist of The Week (which is the most prestigious prize for unsigned artists in Norway) twice (first time when he was 14 years old). He is reviewed as a musical genious and Norway’s biggest producer talent by the people in NRK P3.The last years he has been playing at some of Norways greatest music festivals with his liveband including ten men on brass, reed, rhodes, percussion, drums, bass and more. Now Proviant Audio with full live band is ready to play at by: Larm 2010 which is Scandinavia’s biggest festival for music industry.www.myspace.com/proviantaudio72 musicians – the movieTwenty bands from Kansas City and Lawrence, KS performed live at the recordBar during the filming of 72 musicians. There are very, very few bands (or artists of any medium, for that matter) that would allow themselves to be preserved for judgement in such a raw, naked state. ONE TAKE. No overdubs. In front of a paying audience. And with no control over the front of house mix, or approval of the recorded mix that you’ll hear in the film. I don"t care who you are, that takes balls. This kind of exposure would fucking wilt most bands.And never mind that the film contains no info about the names of the bands, the names of the musicians, or the cities they hail from. That’s on purpose, because our film isn"t about music… it’s about the people who make music.Enjoy the music. And be sure to download the soundtrack album. It’s free. Please share it.There should have been a trailer here in the shownotes but it was too wide. Go to the 72 musicians site to view it. No really, do.http://72musicians.com
Conscious Rasta (Version) – Guitoud (Nancy, France)I heard this on Pete Cogle’s Dub Zone then Gabor played it on AMPed 209 a couple of weeks ago. Quite a long track but certainly interesting.Find the track on Reggaedubwise at http://cluster1.reggaedubwise.com/Guitoud/www.myspace.com/guitoudIn the Paris of the Neitherlands (Parizs remix) – Ez a Divat (Budapest, Hungary )Es A divat translates as This is Fashion. A fusion of live jazz with electronics. From the Budapest netlabel bringing you the freshest sounds of Hungary. The new Ez a divat maxi, Must be the Neitherlands, includes a heavyweight original and 3 mind-blowing remixes. Ez a divat’s own version is an astounding alchemy of jazz, funk, electro and vocoder vocals melting into a discerning pop song. The fat fender + bass foundations are seasoned with the usual catchy female vocals and band’s trademark groovy brass section.The man Párizs has made this funk-fuelled electro version of the song.Get it at: www.budabeats.com/bube006.htmwww.myspace.com/ezadivatCreative Commons non-profit fund-raising campaign. Target $500,000 by Dec 31 (tomorrow) total raised is now at $427,180. We probably know them best for the Creative Commons licenses on music related content such as this show which has a Creative Commons license so that anyone can share, what I produce with attribution and not for profit, but they also create environments where other content such as science and learning resources can be shared. In the music realm, it allows artists to make material available for legal sharing whilst not giving the rights away to anyone. That makes such a difference.If you would like to support the work they do in helping people share content across this wonderfully connected world, quite legally and for all our sakes, visit https://support.creativecommons.org/donateDragons – Caravan Palace (Paris, France)A second track in as many weeks.The excellent Caravan Palace musicians, who are of course "gadjos" (non-gypsies), have breathed fresh air into the timeless swing scene without coming across as preachers. As well as listeners with curious ears, the Caravan also has its own following, a horde of fans totally into the electro vibe, who turn up at each of their concerts. Caravan Palace’s reputation has rippled beyond the frontiers too, with Europe eager to check them out. www.myspace.com/caravanpalace
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