Karsh Kale (pronounced Kursh Kah-lay) is widely regarded as a pioneer of global fusion and electronica as his music has inspired and defined the worldwide club phenomenon known as “Asian Massive” or “Asian Underground” in the early part of the decade. Today Karsh’s music has travelled far past the underground club scene and has been featured on stages from Lincoln Center to the Burning Man Festival, and from the Barbican Center to the Hollywood Bowl. Karsh’s diverse musical talents – whether as a world-class tabla player/drummer, producer, composer, songwriter, remixer or DJ – have led him to working with some of the world’s leading artists such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Sting, Zakir Hussain, Herbie Hancock, Lenny Kravitz, Anoushka Shankar, Yoko Ono. Bill Laswell, DJ Spooky, Shujaat Khan, Vijay Iyer, Chaka Khan, Paul Oakenfold and many others. As if his existing list of accomplishments and talents were not enough, Karsh has established himself as a cutting edge film composer in India’s fast paced “Bollywood” film industry while continuing to score independent and crossover films in the West. Kale and his production partners (MPKK) have also recently composed original music for a musical directed by Academy Award nominated director Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”). In the past ten years, Karsh released 4 critically acclaimed solo albums and has toured the world with various ensembles including Cinema Live, Timeline, Realize Live, Tabla Beat Science (w Zakir Hussain), Breathing Under Water (w/ Anoushka Shankar) and live with the Midival Punditz. Describing the effect of having so many platforms at his disposal, Karsh states, “Having many outlets for my sound has opened up the possibilities of what that sound can actually be for me. I often find myself moving quickly between a live set with my band to composing strings for a film to DJing a dirty dance set to writing an acoustic song within a short period of time. My sound comes from finding inspiration from those moments in between all of that madness.”

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With Bomba Éstereo, The Spam All-Stars, Mr. Pauer, Antibalas, CéU and more. At the Beachfront Heineken TransAtlantic Festival, April 2011

The Heineken TransAtlantic Festival (April 14-30, 2011) grabs a fearless hold on the punk travels and dubbed-out grace of a generation of new musicians from Mexico to Brazil, from Brooklyn to Nigeria. Then it transports them to Miami Beach’s best kept secret: A swooping mid-century bandshell right on the beach, in the heart of the city’s North Beach historic district. It’s an oceanfront portal into the funky, club-friendly sound of Miami, the northern capital of Latin America and a burgeoning hotbed of cross-cultural creativity.

Classic Fania salsa tracks are reworked by legendary New York producer and DJ Joe Claussell. The stunning and modern two disc album contains Claussell’s reworkings of songs by Lou Perez, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, Celia Cruz and others. Out May 17.

Photographs of Giant Step’s release party for Hammock House in New York City at Le Bain at The Standard:

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New York, NY – Fania Records announced today the release of a deluxe 2-disc set entitled, Hammock House ‘Africa Caribe’ produced and mixed by the legendary Joaquin “Joe” Claussell, with a worldwide release date of May 17, 2011. The project is a perfect marriage between old and new, a fresh take on classic sounds from the Fania archives. Late last year, Fania Records hand
delivered the original multi-tracks (recording tapes) in a battered cardboard box to Joe Claussell’s NYC studio. Inside was a round metal reel wrapped with many feet of rolled magnetic tape, and a crumbling “Track Report” sheet from some matter-of-fact day in the 1970s. As Joe ecstatically explained, “When
the carrier came to my place with all these boxes, I had an Indiana Jones moment, like when he opens the treasure chest and the glow of gold light shines up on his face. It was miraculous that they were still around, and the history of this stuff is just amazing.”

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/11793271″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ width=”100%” height=”81″ ] Track Listing 1. Nostalgia 77 “Beautiful Lie” (Tru Thoughts), 2. Peña “El […]

Kode9 Speaks on the release of “Black Sun”

BY JOHN C. TRIPP

It’s been 5 years since South London based duo Kode9 & the Spaceape’s debut album. On this new disc, named after Kode9’s influential 2009 single Black Sun, the intensity and themes of their debut Memories of the future remain, but the delivery is clearer and more rapid, the beats more jagged and restless. Starting as a dense onslaught, Black Sun proceeds to expand and contract its galaxy, sucking you into its orbit, and daring you to come and bathe in the warmth of its toxic glow.

Kode9 and the Spaceape explore an accelerated sonic fiction with this album. Spaceape verbally conjures up world under a Black Sun; his lyrics intimate an unknown time, that resonates strongly with the present, after an unclassified radioactive event has transformed the planet, much of which is now on fire. Spaceape sends radio transmissions from this irradiated, scorched zone. His demeanor has changed. Kode9 has tuned into him on a different frequency.

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Half-Mauritian singer-percussionist Mo Kolours steps forward with his debut release, EP1: Drum Talking. This beguiling, otherworldly record sees him drawing heavily on the ‘sega’ music of his ancestral island homeland and uniting it with dub, soul and various electronic styles to create intriguing new combinations.

[slideshow] www.stephencardinale.com

Two legends of the Berlin dance & soul music scene — Christian Prommer & Alex Barck — have collaborated to release a full length record that reflects their many influences and long history as DJs and artists.  “Alex And The Grizzly” will be released mid-April on their newly formed label, Derwin Recordings. The label’s administration will be handled by their long-term partners and friends at Compost.

No need to explain too much, the songs on “Alex & The Grizzly” are  the lifelong and concentrated passion, their quest for finer music and the fantastic tiny details of deep tunes.

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The band’s first new album in over 20 years, recorded in Paris Orchestre Poly-Rythmo are national institutions in […]

COLLABORATIONS 1 on Friday April 1st brings together seven experimental musicians including Dawid Szczesny, Anna Zaradny and Z’ev […]