» Publishers, Monetize your RSS feeds with FeedShow: More infos (Show/Hide Ads)
Be it a geniuniely new release or a “remix”, it’s always good news whenever there’s a new Madlib release. The prolific beatmaker who never leaves his studio has just released a rework of his collaboration with the secretive no-chorus rapper MF Doom.
2004 classic “Madvillainy” is given a treatment by the man here with new beats and arrangements. He’s ridiculously good at making beats, I wonder if he ever tires of making ‘em.
Stones Throw has called this one “Like visiting with a friend who you haven’t seen in years and remembering why you were friends to begin with” and while it’s not a new album if you’re a Madlib enthusiast like me, it will quench your thirst for some time, and if you’ve missed it the first time, you can start from here as well.
There will be a saliva inducing limited edition box of this release with a cassette, 7″, a t-shirt and a comic book and there are yet two more releases on the Stones Throw camp, Madlib Beat Konducta Vol.5 and Madlib’s WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip which I’ll be yapping about as soon as I get my greasy hands on them.
I’m sure you all know how stale the contemporary jazz scene can be sometimes (like all music scenes I hear you say). Thank God there’s always some fresh talent waiting to take it to the next level. One such beam of freshness is Brooklyn based pianist Aaron Parks, who recently had a Blue Note debut named Invisible Cinema.
At just 24 years old it’s astonishing to have a debut at the Blue Note juggernaut, yet creating something as full-fledged as this is prodigious. He’s made a name playing as a sideman for the trumpetist Terence Blanchard before he secured the Blue Note card and sidemen for his quartet are guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland, a fellow friend from Blanchard’s band.
As the title “Invisible Cinema” suggests, his compositions are wonderfully cinematic. It’s experimental in a good sense, not the pointless experimentalism for experiment’s sake that we are prone to seeing, yet at the same time it’s highly structured as well. There’s another balance between solo piano pieces and jazz. Then there’s the rock energy coming mostly from Moreno’s guitar, this album shall easily apply to post-rock listeners and those who want challenging jazz/rock fusions.
The hauntingly beautiful “Harvesting Dance” takes cinematic composition to epic proportions with Moreno’s guitar playing middle-eastern melodies a la Rashanim and Harland’s berserk drumming at the last 2 minutes makes this easily one of the best compositions I’ve heard this year. Invisible cinema is a cerebral, emotional and powerful debut, don’t miss!
Aaron Parks on Myspace
Invisible Cinema review on Allaboutjazz
#62 is a sweet mix of creepy electronics, jazzy beats, easy listening, dub and soul. I wonder if mixing reggae with Merzbow works or am I making a mistake. Now it’s your call !
Stream from archive.org
Wobbly - Dental Horse Floater
Geoff Love & His Orchestra - Hawaii Five-O
DJ Mitsu the Beats - Untitled no. 9
Sweet Talks - Keep the same old feeling
Andy Bey - Celestial Blues
Zru Vogue - Kyoomyelonimbes
Benito Bernardo Group - Main Attraction
Piero Umiliani - Tidal Stream
Sweet Talks - Devil in Disguise
Alric Forbes - Warn the Nation
Merzbow - Ropes in Tears
Milton Henry - Who do you think I am?
Ruff Francis - Give me Mercy
Raphael Saadiq - Love that Girl (So sweet and tender)
Peter Brown - The Singer’s become a Dancer
Santogold - Creator
Illusion of Safety - Fade-N-Die
Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane
Chopping Channel - Music Consummation
Dr Rubberfunk - Part of me feat Sitzka
Sawako - O R G
A selection of tracks & mixes, including folktronica by Kettel courtesy of kracfive, electrodub from Sardinia Bass Legalize, free download on A Quiet Bump netlabel, electro acoustic guitar processing from Mark Templeton, soundscapes from Tauchsieder (free download album from their own website), a space electronica mix from The Deuce Project, done after Mort Garson passed away. Finally collage/plunderphonics/mashup from Frenchman Chenard Walker. Here’s his back catalogue of over 50 free download albums on Free sample zone, very impressive!
Uwe Schmidt (Atom Tm, Senor Coconut, Flanger, Erik Satin, Lisa Carbon and more) tribute by our friend Cenk Akyol. Divshare The Deuce Project - Space Walking with Mort. Flying Lotus on BBC Radio 1Terminal Epsilonia mix on the Terminal Beach show, a healthy dose of noise, drone and ambient feat. William Basinski, Charalambides, Holger Czukay, Death Ambient.No. 13 on the Ghostly International Podcast is Eric Cloutier, mixing quality deep minimal house.
TUNES:
Kettel - Prairieplant 2
Kettel - Twinkle Twinkle that is you
Chenard Walker - In the Rain Alone
Chenard Walker - Old Man River
Sardinia Bass Legalize - Actinidia
Mark Templeton - Spring Breakup
Tauchsieder - Ceremonial
Barry Brown - Cool pon your corner via dream chimney
Haven’t been doing reblogging for a while, sorting through them is a good excuse to being lazy on this rrraging hot Istanbul afternoon. Mixes and tracks coming in another post!.
- Viva Flexipop shares all of the iconic flexipop disks. Cheap electro, NDW, synthpop, post punk, you name it, via the lovely A Million Keys, a recently find.
- I’ve talked about Amral’s Trinidad Cavaliers before on the calypso post, here’s a cover of Tito Puente/Santana’s Oye Como Va from this steel drum orchestra on I’m Learning to Share!
- Cosmic Disco Charts for July, also a guide to the nuances between Italo/Cosmic/Nu-Balearic styles of disco by The Guardian
Wobbly, Porest and Peter Conheim & Don Joyce from Negativland get together as Chopping Channel to make a collage/plunderphonics mix for Negativland’s majestic “Over the Edge” radio program. Free download the tracks here. You can get more OTE here
Stream pieces from James Blackshaw’s Litany of Echoes while reading his own words about them. More James Blackshaw on undomondo.
A new blog on our blogroll, oro has a wide range of hard to find traditional African music from voodoo brass to afro rock and everything in between. Check out some of voodoo stuff from Amikpon.
Aretha Franklin singing the classical opera piece Nessun Dorma via Friday Afternoon in the Universe.
MP3 Blogs vs. Music Blogs: Different Purposes?
The flirting between dubstep and minimal techno explained.
5 Lies Indie Musicians Tell Themselves
Strut Records the !K7 sublabel who gave us the Nigeria 70 compilation a few months ago is back with a new compilation from the same time period in a new setting : Calypsoul 70: Caribbean Soul 1969-1979.
Not much to dissect about the compilation, as we’re basically worthless with our elementary calypso knowledge, however as we love most of the stuff that comes from the Caribbean except cheap dancehall and knowing a few of the tracks on it; one from Lancelot Layne that has already been on undomondo before and another from the the steel drums orchestra Amral’s Trinidad Cavaliers, it’s safe to say that Calypsoul 70 is a hot fuzz of tasty calypso, latin and soul. Out on September 2 but till then can stream the rest from the minisite!
Just heard the news that Skatalites original Johnny “Dizzy” Moore has passed away at the age of 70. So this post is a small tribute to what he’s given to us together with the inspirational Skatalites. 4 more calypso and ska pieces one from Dizzy himself.
Sambo - Woman Lancelot Layne - Yo tink it sorf Lord Beginner - Fed-a-ray Harold Richardson - Healing in the Balmyard Count Owen - Take her to Jamaica Johnny ”Dizzy” Moore - Sudden Destruction
Oy! Back from what seems to be the last vacation of this summer. Let’s end the one week drought with one of the best albums of 2008, from the powerhouse sextet of the downtown scene (which I’ve been holding back since April). The second Masada songbook releases this year were impressive with fab albums from Bar Kokhba, Secret Chiefs 3 and finally Medeski Martin and Wood!
There’s not much to say about Bar Kokhba; with an unsurpassed line up from the downtown contemporary jazz circle: the foundation of the original Masada line-up Greg Cohen on bass and Joey Baron on drums, the iconic Marc Ribot on guitar, Mark Feldman on violin, Erik Friedlander on cello and the percussion wiz Cyro Baptista, who cements the Bar Kokhba sound.
Lucifer Book of Angels, the 10th installment of the second Masada series and their first album in 12 years (if you don’t count the 3CD live) has similarities with The Dreamers and 2001’s The Gift; traditional Sephardic music meets, surf music meets jazz meets cinema. I’m such a fool for this sound and I’m confident that the world will be a better place if everyone listened to this, yet I think it might be out of touch with the young indie crowd who happen to frequent here time and time again.
This is a mature album (perhaps a bit too much with Mr. John Zorn seemingly leaving all the edgy bits out for this one) as expected from a 6 piece chamber trio + a composer who’re all past 50 years of age. Yet it’s timeless and as opposed to other Zorn stuff pretty easy to get into at the same time (yes even for your elderly neighbour) and if you don’t have a disdain against non-western musical scales, you might be marveling at the otherworldly blend of romantic melodies and cinematic ambience - which I feel I have to stress once again, comes singlehandedly from the brilliant Cyro Baptista.
Lovely photo of a young John Zorn playing sax by A23H
Undomondo’s taking another break for a week or so, mainly because I need to work on my MA thesis and the net’s being a black hole of distraction. In the meantime there are two muxtape’s that you can check both by our colleague Darita from Istanbul, the first is his own, and one for dugumkume a blog he co-writes. Both have in his words “selected obscure electronic, disco music from 1978-1986″, some great gems here and there.
Anyways, I’m a huge fan of Michigan’s Nomo, No.7 on my last.fm after a total of ~110K listens, which means something. I’ve been listening to their new one Ghost Rock for a month or so and it’s simply another amazing album under their belt. I first heard the term Post Fela Afrobeat while reading reviews of their previous album “New Tones” on the net. I’ve never thought of deconstructing the link between Fela and afrobeat and how we take his form for granted. Now I love Fela and his afrobeat, I even love his clones, but Nomo is a different beast altogether.
The 8 piece Ann Arbor orchestra tested me with their innovations on the first two tracks, which wasn’t remotely what I was expecting, seems I was content with the “post-Fela” on “New Tones” while the band was hell bent on destroying any traces of it. (Not in a bad/unrespectful way though).
They’ve found a habitable space where it seems to be some kind of a big band afrofunk but at the same time it’s dark and psychedelic, severing its ties with the traditional African music and incorporating contemporary ideas & methods.
What I’ve chosen for you to listen is two songs which are more in vein with the previous album, Rings with its majestic horn riff on galloping beats, and the title track Ghost Rock with an equally infectious horn section and rocking beat, although these still sound very very fresh. I don’t know if the horns are composed by one person or the whole band, but I’ve yet to see a band as successful as Nomo that can come up with tunes as complex and memorable as these.
Out on Ubiquity,a serious contender for top 10 of 2008 and thankfully equally felt by Pitchfork with a whopping 8.3. Don’t miss the album and the remaining dates on their US tour!
Swims
A few weeks ago I’ve been contacted by Pierrick from Distile Records, an up and coming Paris/NY label focusing on instrumental/noise/math rock. I listened to one of their bands,SWIMS and right away the amazing Claypoolesque bass-tapping hit me. After listening to most of the label back-catalogue, I’m amazed with the quality of their roster.
Planets
Sacramento’s SWIMS is a twopiece with the bass sensation Paul Slack, who also plays for another amazing duo Planets once again on Distile. In fact Planets has just finished an east coast tour with one of my fave bands Ahleuchatistas and that was the reason I got contacted initially but fuckin’ failed to report in time as always.
Anyways at least we had the chance to check out the other bands on the Distile roster like French duo 37500 Yens, Geneva power trio Commodor who’ve just released a new album called Driving out of Focus, and Sacramento’s O! the joy, Looking for John G., Neptune, Sincabeza and One Second Riot.
Distile seems to have found their niche in no-bullshit rock music with fast, technical and noisy bands which will make mature listeners with a special taste in engaging music, salivate right away.
Commodor - Liquid Fire
SWIMS - Pegasus Planets - O People Looking for John G. - Derrabas Commodor - Don Starsky O! the joy - Under the Radar 37500 Yens - Canard Boiteux
Here we are with #61 of our weekly (and sometimes bi-weekly) installments of our radio show. This is loosely based on the muxtape I did after our summer vacation. Starts off with ambient sounds by Pepe Bradock and a spoken horror sketch by Boris Karloff on top of it, a Japanese koto piece by Chieko Mori, and then a short trip through Africa. The second part begins with my current favourite old composer the late Piero Umiliani, we stroll through some roots reggae and dub, with Prince Buster, Burning Spear, Roland Alphonso of Skatalites. Two proto-electronic songs off Roger Roger & Nino Nardini’s Informatic 2000 LP from 1982 and JJ Perrey’s Moog Sensations, then some rare funk from The Meters and Alan Hawkshaw. The show ends with Coming Home Babe, now whoever listens to this knows this tune, but no one remembers from where. If any of you actually read my babblings about shows and know this song, please comment cos it’s been on the tip of our tongues for ages, but we it’s still not coming out. (Tip : I’m positive it’s a tv ad/theme)
Stream from archive.org
Pepe Bradock – Intriguing Feathered Creatures AK Pella Mix
Boris Karloff – The deadly dress
Chieko Mori – Spiral Wave
Hallelujah Chicken Run Band – Alikulla
Beyene Habte – Embi Ila
Mulatu Astatke – Yekermo Sew
Piero Umiliani – Mahe
Piero Umiliani – Cinque Bambole Rosa (Organo E Ritmi)
Sven Libaek – Start Growing Up Now
Roland Alphonso – Born to be Loved
Burning Spear – Invasion
Roger Roger & Nino Nardini – Expectation
Jean-Jacques Perrey – Ballet Intersideral
Holger Czukay & Jah Wobble & Jaki Liebezeit – Twilight World
Prince Buster – Saladin
Gaylads – Portland Rock Love in Action
The Meters – Cissy Strut
Alan Hawkshaw – Speed Run
Le London All Star - Coming Home Babe
Undomondo is going on a vacation for a week to the place you see above! We might have the time/connection to make some new entries or we might have no activity here, either way we’ll be around soon with reviews of Nomo, Marc Ribot’s new Ceramic Dog album, new releases from the Book of Angels series on Tzadik, as well as stuff from Sawako, Erik Levander, con_cetta and more…
I’ve setup a tumblr blog thanks to a tutorial by Joe Lazarus, involving last.fm, yahoo pipes, seeqpod and tumblr, which basically takes music I listen casually everyday searches them on seeqpod and publishes free mp3s of the songs it has found on tumblr. So if you wanna check it out, go to YOK YOK YOK but beware my daily listening habit might not be as enjoyable for you as it is to me.
So before leaving here are two mp3s YOK YOK YOK found in its first day + free mp3s on last.fm under the “holophonic poetry” tag which kinda intrigued me. Awesome stuff by Cheer, Marsen Jules, Kiyo etc. Enjoy and hope to meet you all here next week!
NomeansNo - Now Vampire Weekend - Boston Cheer - Broken but still working Cheer - Music for a Wooden Stage Play Marsen Jules - Couer Saignant Kiyo - REM365
My sixth sense (Google Analytics) told me that one of the most popular posts on undomondo this year has been the Dubstep Essentials one. Here’s a few more dubstep/grime, a hard dancefloor bouncer from Cotti on Souljazz, sinister wobbly bass from Untold, a melodic one from Ramadanman, lo-fi vocal one from Cult of the 13th Hour similar to the dark vocal poetry of Spaceape, and a jump up grime tune from 6blocc, the only artist not from UK!
BONUS: The Bug’s new album preview mixed by Kode9, courtesy of Fader Magazine, and a dubstep/dub selection on Motel de Moka
Ramadanman - Carla 6blocc - Never Scared Cult of the 13th Hour - Wickedness Cotti - The Search Untold - Kingdom
Another journey through exotica filled skies by error101, the red baroness of dusty cabinets, old gems, vintage jazz, saudade and then straight into some latin party mood, not the cheesy latin party with the chicks from the latin dance class though! A real latin party in heaven with El Rey.
Erik Levander – Sekund
80 Drums around the world – Caravan
Quincy-Mancini – Charade
Les Baxter – Voodoo Dreams
Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band – Egypt Strut
Dorothy Ashby – The Moving Finger
Bola Johnson – Lagos Special
The Originals – The Whip
Purple Shadows – The Joker
Kyoko Okada – Donnafuni
Bob Brookmeyer – Felicidade
Toki and Samba Friends – Aquarela Do Brasil
Tito Puente & His Orchestra – Chino
Gato Barbieri – El Sublime
Suanga T Experience - Versiliana Samba (The Five Corners Quintet Remix)
In hindsight, the first thing that attracted me to this fine gentleman was his pseudonym. A frenchman singing acoustic folk songs in English, trying to represents among what, like ten thousand folk bands from the US?
Yet somehow after a few months of coming back to this album, it’s July and I should say this album has solidified its place in my heart now. Benjamin Morali is a good songwriter, it’s not that the songs are groundbreaking in their composition or sound, like so many psych-folk bands are trying to achieve without writing actual songs. Kinda like directors shooting avantmovies with no stories. Not that it’s bad hey, but sometimes you just want to listen to a good old song, with some identifiable melody and a verse/chorus format. I know his songs are more emotional than I could normally tolerate but don’t worry I’m not going emo, I might be slightly aging, though. Because Music
Last week I got a msg from two DJ friends, Muzo B. and Fuchs from our home radio Dinamo. You might remember Fuchs from his Quiet Village review. Both famed DJs/producers, here they are with a versatile mix of dub, dubstep and minimal house. Quality start with Planet Caravan and an excellent mix of different moods and riddims. Much better than the way they play PES2008! Enjoy.
Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan
Realistic Crew – Inevitable
Bloc Party – Where Is Home? (Burial Remix)
Rhythm & Sound w/Cornell Campbell - King In My Empire
Marianne Faithful w/ Sly & Robbie – Lola R. For Ever
Stereotyp w/ Al’Haca – Synthesis
Pulshar – KMS (Pablo Bolivar Space Edit)
Pablo Bolivar – Across The City (Beat Pharmacy Dub)
G.A.M.M. – Sweet Exorcist
Quantec – Amanita Muscaria
Mumbojumbo - Dubbing it Deep 
* The Dodos - Jodi : On EAR FARM’s Top Albums of 2008 so far list. (indie/folk)
* Ponytail - Celebrate the Body Electric : On Paperthinwalls, a mixture of high energy mathrock&no wave
* Kindisch Megamix June 2008 - One hour minimal house mix from Kindisch Records sister label of Get Physical. via Fader
* Top Tunes on Motel de Moka, as always. Sly & The Family Stone’s “Everyday People“, and Augustus Pablo’s “Cassava Piece” among other gems. So on and so on and scooby dooby doo!
* The Daily Fix interviews the Swedish soulster, Kissey Asplund, watch it on Current.TV
* and if you think you can handle something heavy today, try Noxagt’s “Soft Sugar” on cowsarejustfood
The collaboration between Kapotte Muziek & Goem’s Frans de Waard with fellow dutchman Freek Kinkelaar, Beequeen is a very prolific duo, with over 40 releases since their inception in 1989. Out on the pivotal Important Records which is also home to artists like the late Muslimgauze, The Hafler Trio, Merzbow, Rameses III and Grails, “Sandancing” leans more on the pop side unlike De Waard’s acoustic noise/musique concrete releases in Kapotte Muziek. Although when I say pop I mean things like, drony and repetitive children’s songs such as “The Maypole Song” which has amazing vocals by Olga Wallis over recordings of running children in a dreamy field trip, or the short title sequence “Sandancing” with a funny vocal sample from a clumsy professor over rattling snares and a simple organ melody. Experimental dreampop meets folktronica anyone?
Another review on Tiny Mix Tapes
Interview with Beequeen
Frans de Waard’s Vital Weekly Magazine
Beequeen - The Maypole Song Beequeen - Sandancing Beequeen - The Edie Three Step Beequeen - Live in Arnhem 
I first learnt about the great Italian soundtrack composer the late Piero Umiliani with the “Musicaelettronica” compilations featuring his proto-electronique synth music. That posthumous compilation was so-so yet it was enough to spark interest in hunting down one of his best soundtrack work, “Cinque Bambole.” A hell of a composer on the seminal Right Tempo/Easy Tempo recordings from Italy, he is most famous for “Mahna Mahna” the famed The Muppet Show piece, but it’s kind of a disrespect to his other work which spans more than 100 lps and 45s and the soundtracks for more than 200 italian movies.
I can’t say how much I love the leitmotif melody which Umiliani takes through a plethora of styles with ease. Today the rehashed 70’s Italian lounge sound can be heard on many lacklustre chillout compilations, but after hearing this you’ll agree with me that none capture the timbre and creativity of the authentic sound. This album will take you back to days of straight-haired, miniskirted women spies and car chases in European streets.
All Umiliani titles at Dustygroove
Easy Tempo records on Myspace
70’s cinema
Image taken from Cinerama set on flickr
Buy titles from Amazon
Buy 5 Bambole Per La Luna D’Agosto from 7Digital
Piero Umiliani - Cinque Bambole (Version Coro) Piero Umiliani - Danza Primitiva Piero Umiliani - Danza Jazz Piero Umiliani - Fantoccio Grottesco Piero Umiliani - Cinque Bambole Rosa (Organo E Ritmi) Piero Umiliani - La Volta Stellare
#58 is a mix of jazzy latin beats, hiphop and with hints of afropop and disco. Tracks jointly selected by error101 and me. An easygoing and cheerful mix compared to some previous ones. Make sure you get the cumbia song from bumrocks if you like it, and also the Wanda song is available on beatelectric
Stream from Archive.org
Oneness of Juju – Follow me
Owusu & Hannibal – Monster
Rhytmagic Orchestra – Afrodesia
Cymande – Willy’s Headache
Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Emil Richards – Journey to Bliss – Maharimba
La Cumbia Moderna De Soledad - Crees que soy sexy
Outlines – Listen to the Drums
Jamie Lidell – Figured me out
Universal Robot Band – Barely breaking even
Wanda - I must be dreaming
Paul Simon – You can call me Al
Oneness of Juju - Sabi
After the break with Island, Scratch moved to Amsterdam where a short-lived label, Black Art, was set up. In 1982 he fronted some U.S. dates with an American reggae band called the Terrorists. Residents living near one show’s promoter called the police at 6 AM to report a half-naked man with a machete jogging through the neighborhood. It was Scratch. Said Lee about the band, “They are the Terrorists and I am Dr. Sea bat here to bless the good and to curse the evil.” Lee Scratch Perry
Lee “Scratch” Perry & The Upsetters - Jungle Lion (Compilation-2002) Horace Andy - You are my Angel (1973) Jackie Paris - Make me smile (Compilation-2007) The In Crowd - Marcus Garvey’s back in town (1979) Burning Spear - Invasion (1975) Don Drummond - Burning Torch (1964) Rhyhtm & Sound - Poor People must work (w/Bobbo Shanti) (2005)