Funk & Disco

The Heard is a funk machine venerated for its deep pocket, authentic grooves, and reverence for legendary funk.In The Heard’s hometown of Chicago, the group cut its teeth delivering hard hitting performances at some of the city’s top venues – the beloved aliveOne, Metro Chicago, Lincoln Hall, Concord Music Hall, and Congress Theater. The band has backed hip hop artist Lyrics Born, former Galactic vocalist Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet, and has shared stages across the U.S. with The New Mastersounds, Lettuce, The Nth Power, Dumpstaphunk, Orgone, The Motet, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Slightly Stoopid, The Funky Meters, and George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. The Heard’s music features powerful horn melodies delivered with precision and swagger by Parris Fleming (trumpet), Bryant Smith (trombone) and Lucas Ellman (saxophone), the driving rhythm guitar playing of Taras Horalewskyj, tasteful keyboard work and soulful vocals by Cole DeGenova, and a slamming foundation provided by drummer PJ Howard and bassist Mike Starr.

World Beat

Andi Otto is a composer and performer of electronic music from Hamburg, Germany. He has released three Electronica records as Springintgut on international labels and performs live with a combination of cello, computer and sensors which he calls Fello. The Fello development has been supported by STEIM in Amsterdam, a studio and research institute dedicated to the instrumental in electronic live music. Andi Otto currently writes his PhD on the history of STEIM’s electronic musical instruments since 1969. In autumn 2011 he received the Villa Kamogawa scholarship from the Goethe Institut in Kyoto, Japan and tours internationally, often as duo with a DJ.

https://soundcloud.com/rutabaga/sets/andi-otto

Jam Bands/Trippy Beats, Jazz

Darkside drum machine jazz from Berceuse Heroique, Nous and Bedouin regular Healing Force Project. Sounding like early 23 Skidoo replayed on drum machines and samplers, there’s much to admire about the hectic rhythms, foreboding textures and dusty samples at the heart of Gravitational Lensing. It’s all pretty out there, paranoid and intense, with the fizzing drums, mangled horns and metallic percussion hits of “Random Walks” just edging out the experimental jungle-jazz madness of “Apophenia” in the “top tracks” stakes. It might take a few plays to really sink in, but there’s no doubt it’s worth the effort-(Juno Records Review)

 

Hip-Hop,

Introducing Intalekt, the south East London based producer & songwriter with the first single from his debut EP IIWII , “It Is What It Is”. ‘Get By’ sees Intalekt’s soulful instrumental blend effortlessly with good friend and fellow artist Jay Prince’s story-telling style of lyrical flow, a refreshing stance on UK underground Hip-Hop. The resulting composure ultimately speaks of urban survival, combining funk-infused summer themes layering over a down to earth narrative which sets a consistent theme for the entire IIWII project

Video, World Beat

The Very Best features Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio, Vaccines guitarist Freddie Cowan, and EDM newcomer Jutty Ranx. On ‘Makes a King’ they move away from the  Afro dance pop of their last effort for something that feels much closer to the earth.

House, World Beat,

The Alma Negra collective consists with four Swiss based friends and musical kindred spirits. Crossing many musical traditions their eclectic sound is perhaps a result of their varied and cross cultural backgrounds. The Figuiera Brothers Dersu & Diego who have their roots in Cape Verde, Dario is half Italian, half Portuguese and finally Mario who has has Spanish roots. Collectively the foursome’s influences and skills are wide ranging, bringing of course DJing and production prowess and pooling a vast musical knowledge from jazz to African and Latin-music, Donald Byrd to Fela Kuti to Theo Parrish to name a few respected musicians.

Dub/Reggae, Fresh Sheet,

This is an incredible female vocal led dub/reggae version of a King Crimson song. Little touches like the country twang at :45 seconds and some nice atmospheric bass really make this brilliant. and those soft drops at 1:36 and 1:52 just give me goosebumps. the reggae chords remind a bit of Supertramps ‘Dreamer’ the way they are played.

One eye goes laughing
One eye goes crying
Through the trials
And trying of one life

One hand is tied
One step gets behind
In one breath we’re dying

I’ve been waiting for the sun to come up
Waiting for the showers to stop
Waiting for the penny to drop
One time

And I’ve been standing in a cloud of plans
Standing on the shifting sands
Hoping for an open hand
One time

World Beat, ,

A musical meeting between musicians from Morocco, France, Algeria and England. This is about the traditional music of the Gnawa brotherhood of Morocco.

Mogador is the ancient name given to Essaouira. This mythical town of south Morocco was compared to the Tombouctou harbour. That is why most of the Gnawa people are living in this town. The Gnawa people come from the Guinea empire (today Senegal, Guinea, Mali). In the 16th century, they have been deported in North Africa as slaves of rich sultans and integrated this new culture and religion into their own. Just like the Haitian voodoo or the Brazilian candomblé, they use to express themselves playing music, singing, dancing, and by rituals of possession which induce the trance.

At the origin of the group Mogador was the meeting between Ali (addicted to the Moroccan band Nass el Ghriwane) and Julian (strongly influenced by Hendrix) in a bus to Essaouira. In this town, they learned Gnawa music with Hassan a member of the Gnawa brotherhood. He introduces them to the traditional instrument of the Gnawa called sintir : three strings stretched over a camel skin that produces an infra-bass sound which leads the dancers into the trance.

Back to France, they create the group Mogador with Sihem and Yves. After a serie of gigs in the North of France, they start a collaboration with Peter and Ben from London to create a cross cultural music where the traditional music of the Gnawa meets jazz, groove and world music.

Julien Raout – Sintir, djembe, electric guitar, backing vocals
Abdul Mohamed – Lead vocals, qarqabu, sintir
Sihem Merad – Lead vocals, backing vocals
Peter Dry – Drums, keyboards, bass
Benoit Viellefon – Electric, acoustic & classical guitars, derbouka
Luc Viellefon – Soprano saxophone
Yves Leguilcher – Derbouka

 

Beats

Sam Fergusson known to many as Frenic is a fast emerging UK talent garnering an international reputation for producing music which shows his inspiration from many forms of dance and hip hop whilst hinting at deeper musical influence. Frenic first started making beats for hip hop MC’s after becoming inspired by listening to rap heavyweights Wu-Tang Clan, DJ Premier, and Pete Rock. Having bought a pair of turntables began his quest into understanding scratching and turntableism which then lead him to forming a live act called Lost Project. Popular on the U.K hip hop scene, they played many lives sets to great response, even supporting hip hop royalty like The Pharcyde, The Beatnuts, Task Force and Afrika Bambaataa.

https://soundcloud.com/rutabaga/sets/frenic

Ambient

A New York City native, and founder/label manager for the Anticipate and Microcosm labels, Ezekiel Honig concentrates on his idiosyncratic brand of emotively warm electronic-acoustic music. Using the loop as more of a tool than a rule, Honig paints outside the lines, nestling into a comfortable, shared space between muted techno, ambient and slowmotion house – using them as reference points from which to stray, rather than as steadfast frameworks. Drawing on the rich history of musique concrete, Honig looks to incorporate a material nature into his music by imbuing it with a host of field recording/found-sound sources in the search for a balance between digital software innovation and the physicality of the world around us. His music is one of contrast and contradiction, combining minimal, abstract tendencies with a core of timeless harmonics – pairing inviting, fuzzy chords with clunky and dirty “mishaps.”