"Junk Notes"

Jazzanova’s I Human is song of the day on KCRW...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 14:29:10 -0400

Jazzanova’s I Human is song of the day on KCRW today!

Grab that free download, 1 day only!

New Jazzanova record, Funkhaus Studio Sessions, featured in...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:06:48 -0400

New Jazzanova record, Funkhaus Studio Sessions, featured in Magnetic Magazine!

Exclusive Free Download of Empresarios ’Negrita...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:07:24 -0400

Exclusive Free Download of Empresarios ’Negrita Linda” brand new remix by K. Sabroso on Sounds and Colours Magazine today!!!!! HOT!

The infamous Paris DJs have shot and edited some great...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:30:51 -0400

The infamous Paris DJs have shot and edited some great interviews and live footage of New Zealand dub/soul maestro’s The Black Seeds from their recent European tour.

Kudos to All Good Funk Alliance for this fine review...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:20:35 -0400

Kudos to All Good Funk Alliance for this fine review from Magnetic Magazine also features a premiere of a killer new mix! Enjoy!

Maga Bo review in the New York Times

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:32:00 -0400

The New York Times has this to say about Maga Bo’s brand new album “Hand-played percussion and hard-nosed voices are the rocket fuel for Maga Bo’s “Quilombo do Futuro” (Post World Industries), a cultural manifesto riding on rhythm. Make that rhythms. Maga Bo, a widely traveled American D.J. and producer who relocated to Rio de Janeiro in 1999, uses kinetic Afro-Brazilian beats as the album’s foundation and superstructure. But his tracks also mix in drum-machine sounds, stray ricocheting electronics, Brazilian guitars and glimmers of soundsystem bass music like Jamaican dancehall as well as Brazilian baile funk. Atop them — rapping, chanting and singing their own lyrics — are voices that can keep pace with the syncopations or sail above them. In Portuguese and occasionally English, Maga Bo’s collaborators often praise culture as survival mechanism and resistance tactic, while the beats constantly prove them right.”

Jazzanova drop a killer funky batch of tunes today with the...

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:25:41 -0400

Jazzanova drop a killer funky batch of tunes today with the brand new record “The Funkhaus Studio Sessions” check the video!

PRI’s The World did a great piece on Rupa and the April...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:50:21 -0400

PRI’s The World did a great piece on Rupa and the April Fishes bicycle powered tour!

Maga Bo’s new video and a free MP3 are featured on...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:44:19 -0400

Maga Bo’s new video and a free MP3 are featured on Remezcla today!

Killer review of the new Congo Sanchez EP Vol. 1. on Freegan...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:10:39 -0400

Killer review of the new Congo Sanchez EP Vol. 1. on Freegan Kolektiva

Funk-Reggae Band The Black Seeds from New Zealand on PRI The...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:23:00 -0400

Funk-Reggae Band The Black Seeds from New Zealand on PRI The World

The Touré-Raichel Collective on NPR The Toure-Raichel...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:09:41 -0400

The Touré-Raichel Collective on NPR

The Toure-Raichel Collective: A Collaboration By Accident

Idan Raichel is one of Israel’s top-selling pop musicians. Vieux Farka Toure is a virtuoso guitarist from Mali. The two met by chance in a German airport, and when Toure played a concert in Tel Aviv, Raichel sat in. He enjoyed himself so much that he invited Toure and two other musicians to come to a studio the next day and jam. The music they created is now an album called The Tel Aviv Session.

Novalima on Tiny Desk Concert Something about tradition inspires...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:02:21 -0400

Novalima on Tiny Desk Concert

Something about tradition inspires reverence and creativity. Throughout Latin America and parts of the U.S., musicians are exhuming centuries-old musical cultures and infusing them with new life to create songs that sound both familiar and new. Peru’s Novalima is doing just that with Afro-Peruvian music.

Over the course of three superb albums, the group has addressed the legacy of slavery in Peru in the form of the traditional lando, a dance rhythm with roots in West Africa. The slow, deliberate beats are played out on a variety of traditional instruments — most notably the cajon, a big rectangular box that drummers hit before drawing sounds out with their palms and fingers. The result can be as deep as a bass drum, but can also hit the high-pitched pops of finely tuned bongos or Middle Eastern dumbeks.

Novalima also adds electronic sounds to those beats and arrangements. Initially, the group’s core members crafted their songs by trading files over the Internet, layering their own ideas over traditional rhythms. It’s now a full-time working band, and while the electronica persists, it’s not layered over samples, but over the work of two talented percussionists. In fact, the playing zigzags between Afro-Peruvian grooves and more familiar Afro-Cuban rhythms associated with salsa.

For this Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR Music offices, Novalima played in a lean, mean, funky configuration. The beats are pounded out by hand — not with sticks — and the singing recalls tradition while feeling here and now. Before too long, Novalima had the room grooving, and made many of us reluctant to get back to our cubicles.

Set List:

“Karimba”
“Guayabo”
“Festejo”

Credits:

Producer: Felix Contreras; Editor and Videographer: Michael Katzif; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; photo by Doriane Raiman/NPR

you can’t skate like this! dig the new Congo Sanchez...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:52:17 -0400

you can’t skate like this!

dig the new Congo Sanchez video for his brand new joint “Ghost Dance”

The Black Seeds upcoming album, ‘Dust and Dirt’ is...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:29:06 -0400

The Black Seeds upcoming album, ‘Dust and Dirt’ is streaming today on Spinner.

Black Seeds on Paris DJs Soundsystem Mixtape - This is Kiwi Music - Pacific Sounds from New Zealand

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:31:00 -0400

New mix From The Paris DJs featuring the Black Seeds and other dubwise artists from NZ.

“The world stares at New Zealand as the Rugby World Cup begins on September 9th. The All Blacks try again to win a trophy they miss since the first edition of the Cup in 1987. But Aotearoa (‘The Long White Cloud’, New Zealand in Māori) is not only a great country for rugby, it’s also a great country for music, especially its first-class electronica-reggae-dub scene located in Wellington (Trinity Roots, Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Yoots, Benny Tones,The Black Seeds…). Funny-and-folk duo Flight Of The Conchords is famous worldwide with its HBO series, while the NZ diaspora is represented by young psychedelic-pop Connan Mockasin and The Bamboos’ producer and guitarist Lance Ferguson (Lanu). Lanu’s grandfather (Bill Wolfgramm, an hawaiian-style guitarist) became the first NZ musician to release a vinyl-format album in New Zealand in the 50’s. Here is a fine selection that captures the essence of the smooth, inspired, original and peaceful kiwi music.”

The Touré-Raichel Collective on okayafrica

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:48:26 -0400

The Touré-Raichel Collective on okayafrica

This song is called “Alta Farra”: Juan Data gets on...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:34:12 -0500

This song is called “Alta Farra”: Juan Data gets on the mic and delivers three verses plus the chorus using exclusively words with the letter A. There are no E’s, I’s, O’s or U’s on this rap song interpreted over an Andean-folk background provided by Gabriel Navia. An extreme exercise in verbal acrobatics that will drive the attentive listener crazy while trying to decipher the slang-filled rhymes.

2tuff: FREE DOWNLOAD of “One World Sovereignty” by Nappy...

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:40:52 -0500

2tuff:

FREE DOWNLOAD of “One World Sovereignty” by Nappy Riddem:

2tuff: Dubstep, Then & Now:

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:20:46 -0500

2tuff:

Dubstep, Then & Now: