Labelle - Ensemble 2013

Resolutely syncretic, the world unites Labelle Maloya (Réunion traditional music) and electronics, colorful Indian and African touches, to give birth to a new form flirting with universality. Labelle, on stage, his live music lives and invites the public to meditative depth, dance or even trance. A cool audio landscape, give it a try.

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Frank Zappa - Jazz From Hell 1986

While Frank Zappa had ostensibly been "on his own" since the dissolution of the Mothers of Inventionin 1969, never before had he used the term "solo artist" as literally as he does on the Grammy Award winning (in the "Best Rock Instrumental Performance by an orchestra, group or soloist" category) Jazz from Hell (1986). After two decades of depending on the skills, virtuosity, and temperament of other musicians, Zappa all but abandoned the human element in favor of the flexibility of what he could produce with his Synclavier Digital Music System. With the exception of the stunning closer "St. Etienne" -- which is a guitar solo taken from a live performance of "Drowning Witch" at the Palais des Sports in St. Etienne, France on May 28, 1982 -- the remaining seven selections were composed, created, and executed by Zappa with help from his concurrent computer assistant Bob Rice and recording engineer Bob Stone. Far from being simply a synthesizer, the Synclavier combined the ability to sample and manipulate sounds before assigning them to the various notes on a piano-type keyboard. At the time of its release, many enthusiasts considered it a slick, emotionless effort. In retrospect, their conclusions seem to have been a gut reaction to the methodology, rather than the music itself. In fact, evidence to the contrary is apparent as it brims throughout the optimistic bounding melody and tricky time-signatures of "Night School." All the more affective is the frenetic sonic trajectory coursing through "G-Spot Tornado. Incidentally, Zappa would revisit the latter -- during one of his final projects -- when the Ensemble Modern worked up Ali N. Askin's arrangement for the Yellow Shark(1993). Another cut with a bit of history to it is "While You Were Art II," which is Zappa's Synclavier-rendered version of the Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1982) entry "While You Were Out." Speaking of guitar solos, as mentioned briefly above, "St. Etienne" is the only song on Jazz from Hell to feature a band and is a treat specifically for listeners craving a sampling of Zappa's inimitable fretwork. The six-plus minute instrumental also boats support from Steve Vai (rhythm guitar), Ray White (rhythm guitar),Tommy Mars (keyboards), Bobby Martin (keyboards), Ed Mann (percussion), as well as the prominent rhythm section of Scott Thunes (bass) and Chad Wackerman (drums). Zappa-philes should similarly note that excellent (albeit) amateur-shot footage of the number was included by Zappa on the companion Video from Hell (1987) home video. AMG.

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Flying White Dots - Staring At The Sky 2006

Flying White Dots is a guy called Bryan who has some sixteen years DJing experience and started to make bootleg mashups in 2005 and branched out into cosmic disco re edits in 2010.

After being taught a few tricks by Eric Kleptone, Flying White Dots started to experiment in 2006 with mixing MOR vocals with psychedelic music of various forms. Six months later, the finished article, an album called Staring At The Sky, was released and created a massive buzz in the underground scene. With such unlikely combinations such as Carole King with the Flaming Lips and Nathan Fake with the Rolling Stones and lots of sound effects to boot, this was something entirely different from anything else that was happening at the time.
Having made Eddy Temple Morris's Bombs of the Year in 2006, 2007 saw Bryan get his first airplay on Radio One, thanks to Rob da Bank, who later described Flying White Dots as his favourite bootleg mashup type band. The follow up album Into The Great Unknown followed in October that year and it was agreed by many that this was better than the first one, with much attention given to Walking On Clouds, a recreation of the Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds, and Your Poetry, a track that blended the vocal of Elton John's Your Song over a beautiful downtempo track by Squarepusher.
2008 saw Flying White Dots warm up for the Orb with a spectacular audio visual extravaganza and this was followed later in the year with 3D, the third album, which was darker, deeper and more textured than the previous two. This was followed in 2009 with an appearance on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square for Anthony Gormley's OneAndOther project and the fourth album CMYK, probably the happiest album he had made to date.
After playing an extremely well received uptempo set of cosmic disco, electro, techno and rock at Brighton's Concorde 2 for Halloween 2009, Bryan suffered a major setback in November 2009 with a horrific hand injury in Cambodia which left him unable to fully bend his middle finger.
That didn't stop him though. A triumphant set in the Wishing Tree on Sunday night at Bestival 2010 saw a hedonistic crowd grooving, smiling, swaying their arms and singing along at the top of their voices to every word of his unique interpretations of Your Song, Rocketman, You're So Vain and Hotel California.
This was followed in 2011 with a new residency in the Ambient Forest at Bestival and a truly epic cosmic disco set in the Wishing Tree, which continued in 2012. This time also saw FWD go back to the studio and start gathering ideas for the fifth full length album as well as dabbling in remixing - including the mighty Tangerine Dream and a hugely popular remix of Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon.
Finally in 2013 the album was finished and entitled Barracuda.

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Isao Suzuki & His New Family - Bamboo Dance 1980

Japanese jazz bassist, composer, arranger and bandleader. Born in Tokyo on January 2, 1933. Was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the early 1970s. Known in Japan as the 'Jazz Godfather'. Another discover thanks to MFP/LRR.

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Hjaltalin - Sleepdrunk Seasons 2009

Thanks to MFP/LRR! Hjaltalín is an Icelandic group that was founded in 2004, when a handful of high school students decided to take part in a songwriting competition. After the success of the song Goodbye July/Margt að ugga on the Icelandic radio, the group went to the studio and recorded their debut album, Sleepdrunk Seasons. Its release in late 2007 sparked nationwide attention and awards. At the same time, the group began to play abroad and the year of 2009 was largely spent on tours all around Europe.
In the summer of 2009, the band began recording their second album, Terminal, which features the current members of Hjaltalín, Axel, Guðmundur, Hjörtur, Högni, Rebekka, Sigríður and Viktor. The album was chosen as the album of the year and featured, amongst other things, a large orchestra, and expanded the sound of the group substantially. In June 2010, Hjaltalín and the Icelandic Symphony orchestra played 3 sold out concerts in Reykjavík, later released as the cd/dvd package Alpanon. In the autumn of 2012, the group made the score to the silent movie Days of Grey, which will receive its international premiere in 2013.
Hjaltalín has now completed their third album, Enter 4, which was released in Iceland in December, 2012. The album was praised by both the media and fans in Iceland, receiving a ten out of ten review from the Icelandic National Radio, and an Album of the year award from The Reykjavík Grapevine, which stated that "not only have they made the best Icelandic album of 2012 by a country mile, they’ve gone and  created a record that’s probably one of the most searingly bleak and honest record from an Icelandic group in what feels like...forever?" The album is set for an imminent worldwide release in September, 2013.

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Irene Schweizer & Louis Moholo - Irene Schweizer & Louis Moholo 1986

The recorded pairing in 1987 of pianist Irene Schweizer and African drummer Louis Moholo at the Zurich International Jazz Festival is one of the high points in both artists' careers. Though the set is just a shade under 40 minutes, the communication and sheer magic that exists between these two percussionists (Schweizer often plays the piano the way it was designed) is almost unparalleled in the music on disc or vinyl. Consisting of three collective improvisations -- including "Exile," a long, three-part suite that closes the set, and a heartbreakingly beautiful rendition of the late Dudu Pakwana's "Angel" -- the music here bears more of Moholo's melodic African origins than Schweizer's European free improv magic, though it is undoubtedly present. From the opening ninths in "Free Mandela!" Schweizer seems bent on exploring harmonic territory that is, for her at least, not conventional in that it resembles conventional Western harmonic interplay. There is a twist, however: the figures introduced by her own influences -- Abdullah Ibrahim, bassist Johnny Dyani, to whom the opening movement of "Exile" is dedicated, and Pakwana -- are everywhere present in the architecture of her solos and "singing" lines, as well as her chordal and tonal inquiry. Timbral notions are all left in the wind here, as the idea of song is what seems to transfix both Moholo with his shifting rolls, cymbal trills, and waterfall left handed tom-tomming, ever falling like water for the benefit of Schweizer's cascading skeins of large chords immediately followed by brief runs of 16ths and even 32nd notes on their tail. In fact, as chords and right hand runs move against each other in a kind of organic counterpoint, it's Moholo who bridges the harmonics and equals out the dynamic range. The emotions here run so high, one can feel the exhaustion level begin to equal the exuberance at the particularly knotty and strident tempo in the last part of "Exile," "We Will Win the War." Indeed, if they had only known how decisively and powerfully they did, they may have recorded another series of duets. Heavenly. AMG.

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Luke Doucet and The White Falcon - Steel City Trawler 2010

On Steel City Trawler, Luke Doucet turns to classic themes of place, love and the existential labyrinths of human understanding. With a tendency for total candor in both the personal and political, Luke navigates everyday life with finely honed senses of irony and skepticism. On Steel City Trawler, this signature grain-of-salt-seasoned songwriting comes to the fore. Mixed with atmospheric rock ballads, Manchester-esque melancholy, tender revelations and even more tender accusations, from start to finish the album is Luke's idea of a rock and roll record, pure and simple.

With first-time producer Andrew Scott (Sloan) at the helm, Steel City Trawler emerges as a cleverly assembled balance of Luke's courageously straightforward assessments with the essential components of classic rock and roll. Luke's observation-driven commentaries are found in songs such as "Thinking People", an homage to blue collars, "The Ballad of Ian Curtis," an examination of suicide and creative legacy, and "Dusted", which takes direct aim at metaphysical answers to earth-bound questions. Not one to rest on his guitar playing laurels, Steel City Trawler is as much about the song as the strum.

Hamiltonm ON's own Harvey Pekar, David Collier, brings a Being John Malkovich style approach to Luke's biography, with a kind of "inhabitation" of Luke's world and experience. Alternately free from irony and at the same time somehow tongue-in-cheek, Collier's work is an original comic book interpretation of lyrics from the new songs, Hamilton’s geography and history, as well as Luke's own life, past and present.

A new behind-the-scenes video offers insight into the record, from Luke's take on why Hamilton is such an attractive place to settle (hint: it has everything to do with Winnipeg), interviews with Andrew Scott and David Collier, and intimate acoustic snippets of songs. Hear Some of You Folks, which Luke describes as an experiment in "shared uncomfortable intimacy," Hey Now, which tells a story of unease with announcing one's intentions to the world, and Magpie, a post Elliot Smith acoustic ballad a la Dust in the Wind, a song that lets the sounds of a city in to create a sense of solid ground in its otherwise atmospheric feel.

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Greg Brown - Freak Flag 2011

Greg Brown's best music has always had a loose, casual feel; he reveals more of himself when he sounds like he's not forcing the music than in those rare moments when he's genuinely concentrating on his muse, and he's let his breezy side take the wheel on his 27th album, 2011's Freak Flag. According to Brown, he was well into the recording of Freak Flag when the Minneapolis studio he was using was struck by lightning; Brown and his producer and guitarist Bo Ramsey were using a Pro-Tools digital setup, and the electric surge wiped away nearly all the tracks they'd laid down. Brown's response was to head down to Memphis and start over, where he saved one tune from the previous sessions, and replaced the rest with brand new songs. Freak Flag's title tune, the one holdover from the initial sessions, seems to be a bit more carefully crafted than the eight other Brown originals on board, but overall, the material doesn't seem especially different; these songs find him very much in his element, marrying sly but heartfelt vocals to slinky melodies that split the difference between folky simplicity and bluesy grit (the latter aided considerably by Ramsey's raw, funky guitar work), and telling his tales with wit, intelligence, and a touch of Midwestern zen. Brown and his band cut a comfortable but potent groove when Freak Flag locks in on tunes like "Where Are You Going When You're Gone" and "I Don't Know Anybody in This Town." It's the gentler numbers on Freak Flag that prove problematic; while Brown's voice has always been craggy, on these sessions his register has dropped noticeably, and he tends to wobble uncomfortably while trying to hold a note, and the froggy murk of his vocals rob "Flat Stuff" and "Tenderhearted Child" of much of their power. No one has ever expected Brown to sound like Pavarotti, but here his vocals aren't as strong a vehicle for his songs as they once were. It doesn't seem as if Brown is the least bit worried about this, but Freak Flag is one album where his take-it-or-leave-it attitude starts to fail him, at least as far as his voice is concerned. AMG.

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Frank Zappa - Broadway the Hard Way 1988

The first live album compiled from various performances on Frank Zappa's 1988 world tour (his final outing), Broadway the Hard Way is composed mostly of new, vocal-oriented material. The tone throughout is highly political, with Zappa taking potshots at such targets as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson and other televangelists, Jesse Jackson, C. Everett Koop, and so on. Despite Zappa's well-deserved reputation as an acute satirist, his sarcasm is often surprisingly humorless here, leaning toward didacticism; his choice to name names and address his subjects explicitly, rather than through metaphor, also renders the album instantly dated, almost like a late-'80s standup comedy routine. Despite these flaws, many of Zappa's political observations hit the mark, as do some of the jokes, easily making Broadway the Hard Way one of his best and most intellectually stimulating post-'60s political efforts. The CD features a memorable guest appearance from Sting, singing his Jimmy Swaggart-condemned Police tune "Murder by Numbers." AMG.

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Ian Hunter - Welcome to the Club Live 1980

This double-live album, taken from a 1979 stint at the Roxy in Los Angeles, is an effective snapshot of a high point in Ian Hunter's always-interesting solo career. Hunter was riding high on the critical success of his recent album You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, and this recording finds him and his band pouring out that enthusiasm for a group of devoted fans. The result is a generous feast of straightforward rock & roll that is likely to please true believers. The band delivers a strong, full-blooded sound throughout as they plow through a song list that covers Hunter's solo career plus several Mott the Hoople classics and even a few covers. Most of the arrangements play it straight, but make up for their lack of surprises with a consistent level of commitment to creating powerful rock & roll: songs like "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and "Just Another Night" take on a new level of energy in the sweaty club environment. The electric atmosphere is completed by the fans, who flesh out the background of the soundscape with their hoots and cheers. Even the ballads benefit from this highly charged live atmosphere; most notably, "Irene Wilde" takes on a new veneer of emotional power thanks to the interjected cheers of the crowd. In addition to this concert material, Welcome to the Clubalso throws in a few studio tunes. While none of these studio outings hits the heights of the live classics, a few of them are quite tuneful: "Silver Needles" is a solid ballad that effectively pits a mellow melody against Hunter's gritty vocals, and "We Gotta Get Out of Here" is a rocker that crossbreeds glam rock melodrama with new wave arrangement touches. AMG.

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Luiz Melodia – Retrato do Artista Quando Coisa 2001

An outsider to the recording industry, Luís Melodia is a talented composer and interpreter who has paid the price of his independence with an erratic discography. His songs, several of which are classics of MPB (like "Juventude Transviada," "Pérola Negra," "Magrelinha," "Dores de Amores," "Vale Quanto Pesa," "Pra Aquietar," "Ébano," "Presente Cotidiano," "Estácio, Holly Estácio," and "Farrapo Humano") were recorded by several artists such as Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia, and Zezé Motta. Son of Osvaldo Melodia, sambista of the traditional samba enclave of Estácio (in Rio), Luís Carlos dos Santos was involved in music from childhood. He left high school in his teens and formed the group Instantâneos, devoted to renditions of jovem guarda and bossa nova hits. In the ‘70s, his blend of traditional samba and pop music caught the attention of poets Waly Salomão and Torquato Neto. Salomão introduced Melodia to Gal Costa, who recorded his song "Pérola Negra" for her album Gal a Todo Vapor (1972). In the same year, Maria Bethânia recorded "Estácio, Holly Estácio" for her album Drama -- Anjo Exterminado. It was then that he adopted the stage name Luís Melodia. Melodia recorded his first LP in 1973, Pérola Negra. From his next album, the classic tune Maravilhas Contemporâneas (1976) was chosen as the theme for the soap opera Pecado Capital. In 1975 Melodia reached the finals of the Abertura Festival (TV Globo) with "Ébano." In 1980 he recorded Nós, featuring his trendy interpretation of "Negro Gato" (Getúlio Cortes). After a long period of ostracism, during which he continued to record, Melodia returned to the hit parades with his rendition of "Codinome Beija-Flor" (Cazuza). In 2001, a documentary directed by Karla Sabah portrayed his life. AMG.

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Hushpuppies - Silence is Golden 2007

Thanks to MFP/LRR. Energetic French indie rock combo Hushpuppies originally started out as Likyds, a locally known group that bandmembers Olivier Jourdan (vocals), Cyrille Sudreaud(guitars, backing vocals), Wilfried Jourdan (keyboards), andJean Pompidor (drums) formed in their native town of Perpignan. In the early 2000s the kids moved to Paris, where they were joined by an old friend, Guillame Le Guen, who the band referred to as "the best bass player in Bordeaux" -- and thus Hushpuppies were born. Equally fascinated by the wild unpredictability of punk rock, angular melancholy of post-punk, hypnotic precision of Krautrock, and plain good old noise-making of rock music in general, Hushpuppies allied themselves with singer and musicianBenjamin Diamond (best known as the performer of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You," a big European dance hit of 1998), who was also conveniently the owner of the independent label Diamondtraxx. The label issued their debut record, The Trap, in 2005; it was released in more then 20 countries and became an independent hit in France, selling more than 20,000 copies. In support of the record, Hushpuppies played more than 100 gigs all across Europe, as well as in Russia and Japan. Their sophomore record, Silence Is Golden, recorded with producer Peter Deimel (known for his work with the Kills and dEUS), was released in 2007 and preceded by the single "I Want My Kate Moss."
This French five-piece likes to classify its music as garage rock, but the clean modern rock on SILENCE IS GOLDEN has a sophisticated sheen usually absent in that genre. The radio-friendly pop of Maroon 5 would be a better touchpoint than the MC5. Peppy organ playing buoys tracks like "A Trip to Vienna" and the first single, "Down Down Down," and "Love Bandits" has an appealing lightness. AMG.

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Eli Mardock - Everything Happens for the First Time 2013

One of the most critically admired Indie songwriters of the last decade, Eli Mardock and his band, Eagle Seagull, were cult favorites in the 00's indie scene before breaking up in 2010. Mardock's distinct, stylish croon, dark and witty lyrics, and dramatic, dream-like songs established his place in the club of great songwriters.
Mardock was born in Omaha, NE and raised in both a Sufi commune in North Carolina and isolated cowboy towns in Nebraska. He began playing the piano at any early age and showed much promise as a classical pianist. He took his early songwriting inspiration from '60's folk holy man Leonard Cohen, but an obsession with British rock followed in his teenage years. After moving to Lincoln, NE to attend college, Mardock picked up the guitar and began to make a mark on the city's music scene as a regular performer at a biker bar.
In 2005, Mardock formed Eagle Seagull with some college friends. With their art-house image and epic, atmospheric sound, Eagle Seagull became an almost overnight success in the mid 00's underground scene. Over the next five years, Eagle Seagull would continue to grow an intense cult following, their records reaching the Top 10 of various European indie charts as well as the Top 100 CMJ (US).
Yet, despite almost universal critical acclaim and a number of celebrities stating their adoration (even Florence Welch declared herself a fan), the band's breakup was both inevitable and controversial. Their much anticipated sophomore album, "The Year of the How-To Book," languished in major label limbo for more than two years before the band was able to escape their contractual prison and release it. Fueled by Mardock's idiosyncrasies, Eagle Seagull developed a reputation for sensational and sometimes terrifically unpredictable shows - becoming, as one plaudit put it, "the Brian Jonestown Massacre of Nebraska." Inter-band relationships began to suffer, and the band split bitterly in 2010 after releasing two critically lauded albums.
Mardock recorded and produced "Everything Happens for the First Time", his first solo effort, in various homes in Boston, Seattle, Omaha, and Lincoln. Mixed by Justin Gerrish (Vampire Weekend, The Strokes), the album makes it clear that Mardock's songwriting prowess continues to grow. This is a record that won't collect any dust on your shelf, as each listen reveals undiscovered details and subtleties. It is seeped in nuance and will reward those who hunger for expressive, cathartic, and truly unique music. Set for release in May 2013, "Everything Happens for the First Time" marks a new beginning for Mardock and promises to be one of the musical highlights of 2013.

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Myra Melford - Life Carries Me This Way 2013

Released after a quarter century of recordings as a bandleader or collaborator, 2013's Life Carries Me This Way is Myra Melford's first solo piano album. In a sense, the album presents Melford's artistry in its boldest relief to date, with her pianism unmediated by other musicians -- yet there is another presence here, that of Sacramento artist Don Reich, a kindred spirit who passed away in 2010.Melford pays homage to her friend Reich by interpreting 11 of his drawings, abstract pieces that resonated deeply with her and evoked a range of compositional approaches, from conventional notation to graphic scoring. The music is most fully appreciated in tandem with the reproductions ofReich's works gracing the pages of the CD booklet, as Melford offers up her own unique perspective on the visuals. Opener "Park Mechanics" launches from a lovely, ringing ostinato into an instantly appealing melodic and chordal motif over her strong left-hand walking line. Infectiously rhythmic, this is earworm material that shades the pianist's more free-form explorations as she works her way through modal transitions and blues-tinged forays back toward the theme; her near rollick on the keys may lead some to imagine Reich's bold cubist lines as the machinery of life pulsing beneath surfaces of green (or, out in the open air, enthusiastic kids on playground equipment). The album continues with interpretations of Reich pieces ranging from completely nonrepresentational to landscapes and a "Disassembled Still Life," as Melford clearly reveals why she has found a devoted audience among listeners whose tastes run from post-Cecil Taylor free jazz to Keith Jarrett-flavored lyricism to the rhythmic drive of one of her mentors, Don Pullen -- and yet, while listeners may hear parallels betweenMelford and other creative jazz pianists, her artistic persona is utterly singular.
"Red Beach" is ruminative, elegant, and spacious music for ocean sunset viewing, while Melford's beautiful chording and single-note runs unfold against a swayingly rhythmic backdrop on the rather similarly contemplative "Red Land." Deep rumbling notes and chords introduce the flurried angularities and sharp jabs of "Piano Music" and form emerges gradually and delicately, surrounded by silence, in "Japanese Music," while Melford finds quirky and off-kilter places to store her theme's phrases in "Attic." One might hear echoes of another Melford mentor -- Henry Threadgill -- in "Curtain," if only in the piece's steady (yes, curtain-like) rise, as her block chords expand ever upward and outward before finally dissipating into ethereality. "Barcelona" and "Sagrada Familia" are, appropriately, companion drawings by Reich that Melford approaches in markedly different yet similarly abstract and complementary fashion, skittering around the upper-register keys in the former (suggesting a music-box improvisation on Monk's "Brilliant Corners") and ranging more widely across the keys on the latter (while flirting with "Misterioso"). Concluding with the aforementioned "Still Life," one of the pianist's loveliest melodies, Life Carries Me This Way adds new and welcome facets toMyra Melford's artistry, and new dimensions to the works of Don Reich as well. AMG.

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