Month: July 2011

The Shaolin Afronauts Return to 1970’s Heavy African Grooves

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The mysterious afro-soul of The Shaolin Afronauts first echoed across the dance floors of Australia in late 2008. Heavily inspired by the sounds of 1970’s West Africa, Ethiopia and the pioneering avant-garde jazz artists of the same period, The Shaolin Afronauts draw on the this highly innovative and sometimes volatile era in music, using it as inspiration to create music with the same fire and intensity. Though there is something refreshing and original about the Afronauts, their music could be described as somewhere in between the heavy Afrobeat of Fela Kuti and the Ethio-Jazz of Mulatu Astatke. The key to the Shaolin Afronauts unique sound is the line-up, which comprises of a three piece horn section, 5 piece rhythm section and three percussionists, and this polyrhythmic approach layers the groups sound with a mesmerizing and hypnotic texture.

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The Return of Banda Black Rio – New Studio Album ‘Super Nova Samba Funk’

William Magalhães with members of Banda Black Rio (Photo by Júnior “Samba Rock Na Veia”)

William Magalhães forms a modern-day Banda Black Rio epitomising the spirit of his father Oberdan’s original ’70s Brazilian samba soul and funk group. BBR defined the Black Rio movement now enjoying a revival headed by Magalhães’ incarnation with the passion of soul and funk again linking Rio and New York for a feel-good blast that also takes in hip-hop, samba, pop and bossa. Brazilian icons Seu Jorge, Marcio Local and Elza Soares feature alongside bossa pioneers Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil as well as Flame Killer and GOD PT3 from the famed NYC Mobb Deep crew. Super Nova Samba Funk brings Rio’s black music cultures together to embody the ecstatic revival of Brazil and the Black Rio movement.

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Ikebe Shakedown Serve Up a Salsa Picante of Boogaloo-Afro-Funk With a Dash of Disco

Ikebe Shakedown, the self-titled album from the Brooklyn-based band, plays with elements of Cinematic Soul, Afro-funk, Deep Disco, and Boogaloo in all the right ways. After spending a few years together the group, named after a favorite Nigerian boogie record (and pronounced “ee-KAY-bay,”) delivers a driving set of tunes featuring a mighty horn section anchored by tight, deep-pocketed grooves.

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The Ikebe debut for Ubiquity Records sees the band push their globally-informed sound and eclectic approach to tune-writing into new territory, “Self-titling the album is a way to introduce the audience to the many facets of the band — to provide a more complete understanding of what we do,” bassist Vince Chiarito says. “Our sound has grown to incorporate our influences without overtly representing any one in particular. It just sounds like us,” he adds.

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Brownswood Electr*c Plots the Blips & Beeps of the Underground

 

Listen to the full compilation at AOL Music

In June of 2010, Gilles Peterson’s mighty Brownswood collective (specifically Peterson’s assistant Alex Stevenson) hand-picked artists to form a compilation that represented the multi-dimensional, kaledescopic landscape of the label’s musical interests. A tight, bright roundup of bass music at that sliver of time, ‘Brownswood Electr*c’ bred a new wave of producers and paved the way for a new sound, capturing the beats and personalities of then-up-and-comers (now game-changers) George Fitzgerald, Mount Kimbie, Mosca, Rockwell and Pearson Sound, among many others. The collection found fans in DJ Mag (nominating it for their ‘Best of British’ Awards that year), Martyn and Hemlock’s Untold, who aptly summed it up: “It’s a really spot-on snapshot of the grey area of “dance” music that keeps getting messier.”

Messy or delightful chaos (your choice), the grey area hidden between the frayed splinterings of microgenres is perhaps where the most unexpected colours form. It’s where imaginations are freed, and artistic expression lies abound: no confines, no uncomfortable boxes to tick nor adjectives to hold on to. Taking in the relentlessly malleable state of electronic music of late, what’s considered ‘future’ today may very well be tagged ‘post’ within a handful of months. The naysayers and genre-enthusiasts may argue otherwise, but to Mr. Peterson and his Brownswood family, the music world couldn’t be in a more fruitful and exciting place as a result.

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Creole Choir of Cuba Coming to North America

When one thinks “Cuba” the idea of creole culture doesn’t often come to mind, but the island shares a long and intertwined history with Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A million Cubans speak creole, a fusion of African, French and other tongues. The islands have a shared history: many Haitians fled to Cuba after the revolution of 1790, others during the oppressive regime of Duvalier.

In the 1800s more than 30,000 Haitians emigrated to eastern Cuba with another wave occurring from 1920 – 1940 and yet another in the 1980s. Today, estimates of the Haitian population in Cuba range from 300, 000 on up to 1 million. Each wave of immigrants had its own distinct characteristics and brought with them the strong musical and dance traditions, their religion, customs, rituals and cultural habits on their journey from Haiti to Cuba.

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