you really captured his story with this song

Love the slow growing feel and the several instruments. Thank you!

This song is so moving. I loved it when i 1st heard it. And the story is even more moving. This is good art!🎧🙏🏼💖

delirious face

Shooting Star from the Richard In Your Mind album 'Ponderosa'

Shooting Star

循環帯

Floating Points - Elaenia from the album Elaenia out now via Pluto.
Hugh Cornwell - Hot Can On A Tin Roof from the album The Fall And Rise Of Hugh Cornwell out now via Invisible Hands.
Robot Koch - Care (ft. Julien Marchal) from the album Hypermoment out now via Monkeytown.
Sopwith Camel - Fozon from the album YAORcht Rock out now via Festival.
Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint - Fast (Movement 3) from the album AOR Breaks out now via Festival.

SOPWITH CAMEL- Fozon

Late last year my mum told me about a project she'd heard about at her work — she's a family tracing co-ordinator for the British Red Cross. The Long Road is a collaboration between musicians and refugees, who have told us their stories in their own words. In each case, the artist's task was to try and capture some of the urgency, or reality of those events and histories and put it to music. I met Ayman, who is originally from Syria, in London, and we spoke for several hours about the last few years of his life, and what it's meant for him and his family, some of whom are still living in Syria, and coping with life surrounded by an ongoing daily conflict.

In short, as the first wave of pro-democracy protests were happening in Syria in 2011, Ayman and his friends believed they had an obligation to be present, and to document the uprising as it happened. In doing so, Ayman and his friends became targets for the government, and were now hiding from the police. It's telling that under certain circumstances, picking up a digital camera can be as provocative as any weapon. Ayman was providing footage on the ground to certain global news outlets, such as Al Jazeera.

His eventual escape from Damascus, and that he found himself living alone in Glasgow without his wife and two baby boys, are stories too long and nuanced to capture here, but there were a few small personal moments from his story that have really stayed with me. Ayman's freezing on the plane at Heathrow, unable to process the idea he'd made it to safety. His boys, who remember nothing of their lives in Damascus, who now speak with Glaswegian accents. His wife, unable to process the pain of seeing images of their flat, now left in disarray by the police, their wedding albums trampled underfoot...I hope that projects like these, using the strength and power of a story sourced directly from the individual, become more common. Thanks to Ayman and his family for sharing their story with me.

Buy the EP here

A Retelling

Vinyl: http://smarturl.it/MariaUsbeckVinyl
Spotify: http://smarturl.it/MoaiYYoSpotify
Apple: http://smarturl.it/AmparoApple
___

Maria Usbeck's solo debut, Amparo, is a collection of songs written and recorded across the span of three years in Ecuador, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Barcelona, Lisbon, Easter Island, Costa Rica, Florida, L.A. and her home in Brooklyn. Though the songs were composed electronically, Amparo called for an acoustic treatment, so Usbeck spent a winter in the studio recording the arrangements live with producer Caroline Polachek and mixer & engineer Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. Fleshed out in full sonic color on the marimba, xylophone, quena flute, piano, and harp, the album stretched into something hi-fi and expressive, meditative but not meandering.

Amparo stems from Usbeck's desire to compose in Spanish, her native language. Growing up in Quito, Usbeck was immersed in salsa, merengue, bachata, and Andean music, but was more attracted to German and American culture than to her own, and moved to America by herself at 17. After five years of fronting new wave outfit Selebrities and writing songs in English, Usbeck experienced a delayed-onset homesickness and knew it was time to "let the mother tongue speak." The impulse manifested itself directly: Amparo takes its title from Usbeck's middle name and her mother's name, and translates roughly as "to guide, protect, and embrace." Usbeck wields her Spanish lyrics cleverly while folding in snippets of several other far-flung tongues: Rapa Nui from Easter Island, Quichua from Ecuador, Bribri from Costa Rica, and Catalan. Because these lyrics were composed while visiting the countries from which they originate, their usage is more impressionistic than literal, like a mockingbird imitating fragments of other bird calls. Similarly, Usbeck reinterprets the Ecuadorian music that she grew up with as a newcomer, returning home with fresh ears, and as such the sounds are very much her own.

The backbone of Amparo is percussion, vibrating throughout with timbales, tumbas, a talking drum, bongos, shakers, and an Indian flat drum, with the gaps filled in by her field recordings of birds, beaches, and jungles. The songs were written and recorded chronologically, with the exception of the closing track, a cover of Colourbox’s “Tarantula” reimagined in Usbeck’s Spanish translation. Amparo is a reflection of the textures of Usbeck's childhood. It is also a distinctly grown-up pop record – a travel diary, music made by a visiting outsider to tap into a shared core of human expression. Emotively, Usbeck is her most powerful on piano ballads "Uno De Tus Ojos" and "Jungla Inquieta," but is a magnetic narrator throughout, moving between whispers, chants, and lullabies. Amparo pulses with many stories in many voices, but they flow together seamlessly like water, leaving behind a wordless hum.

Amparo is released May 27 via Cascine in North America, Labrador in Euope and Rallye in Japan.
___

Cascine on FB: http://bit.ly/1QTpyHQ 

Maria Usbeck - Moai Y Yo

Doomhound - Yum Yum Watercourse

design: Gianluca Lonigro


Doomhound - Yum Yum Watercourse

From the 'Extraordinary Renditions' compilation. 

Produced & performed by Gwilym Gold.

smarturl.it/DEEK-ExRenditions
smarturl.it/DEEK-ExRenditions-iT
smarturl.it/DEEK-ExRenditions-BC

Gwilym Gold - The Root (D'Angelo cover)

Fold – Something Gives
Released September 12, 2016
CD & digital download

If you like this track and you're on Spotify please give us a follow:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3lOmv1v5gfdtBwvRufzjtr

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having included this track among his favourites of 2016 on the last day of the year Huey Morgan also provided the UK national radio debut on BBC 6 Music followed by a hat trick of spins from Gideon Coe. Kara Manning broadcasted the US radio premiere courtesy of WFUV, New York.

Something Gives is a timely vehicle for the keen eloquence of James Baldwin whose voice, along with that of the wonderful Alice Walker, is the basis of the track.

We've been feeling urgently compelled to respond somehow to the heavy sociopolitical escalations of late on both sides of the pond. This release is our way of bridging the distances & expressing universal solidarity as human beings. Musically the tune bears similarities to A Tribe Called Quest's jazzy hip hop vibes and Arthur Verocai's Brazilian way of joy and despair all at once.

All music written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced & mixed by Seth Mowshowitz apart from tenor saxophone arranged and performed by Emma Johnson.
http://www.johnsonmusic.co.uk/

Mastered by Erik Aldrey
http://www.erikaldrey.com/

LYRICS
----------
[James Baldwin]

[REFRAIN]
I'm terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country.

These people have deluded themselves for so long they really don't think I'm human. I base this on their conduct, not on what they say, and this means that they have become in themselves moral monsters.

It doesn't matter any longer what you do to me: you can put me in jail, you can kill me. By the time I was 17 you'd done everything that you could do to me. The problem now is: how you gonna save yourselves?

How you gonna save yourselves?

[REFRAIN]
I'm terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country.

There are days, one of them, when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it. How precisely are you going to reconcile yourself to your situation here, and how you're going to communicate that you are here?

The country has arrived at a place where it can no longer contain revolt. Human beings are not by nature non-violent, you know? You can only survive so many beatings, so much humiliation, so much despair, so many broken promises before something gives.

Before something gives.

[REFRAIN]
I'm terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart…

[Alice Walker]
We are being killed by people who don't feel – if we get down to that, that is the problem.

[James Baldwin]
I'm terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart…

[Alice Walker]
If you don't feel it you kill it because you think it doesn't feel either…

[REFRAIN]
I'm terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country.

[Alice Walker]
So away with that, we don't want that.

[James Baldwin]
I'm aware that something terrible has happened, which is very hard to describe.

Something Gives

Buy on iTunes

from the upcoming album 'Digging A Tunnel' March 10th 2017

sir Was - In The Midst

AMO AMO is Love, Omar, Shane, Alex and Justin 
Produced by Jim James 
Mixed by Kevin Ratterman 
Recorded by Alex Krispin and Jeff Fettig in Los Olivos CA 
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering 
Photo by Wyndham Garnett

Closer To You

Deployed is the new single from Joel Wästberg a.k.a sir Was and features a vocal from Little Dragon's Yukimi.  It's taken from upcoming new album "Holding On To A Dream" out 20 September. 

"Holding on To a Dream”, is a mesmerising twisting of genres - from classic soul and old-school hip-hop, to beautifully fresh pop structures. The new record is dense with ideas and adventurous, a sonic-leap forth. “I was interested in having a lusher sound, more rich,” Wästberg says. “With the first record I had this idea that I wanted it to sound like an old vinyl record. I wanted this lo-fi, old-school sound. When I realized that I was actually making another album, I felt a bit scared of the whole thing, but it didn’t take me that long to realise that the only thing I could do was to make something that felt really right in my body and soul. I’ve realised that there’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m ready to explore so much more.”

The sense of exploration resonates throughout the record and can be defined by its start and end points. Opening track ‘Fly Away’ begins the expedition, a gleaming reflection of past insecurities as a jump-off point for the next chapter, all subtle beats and stark bursts of guitars that leap out of the mix.  Elsewhere, ‘No Giving Up’ is a tender recollection of a past relationship, set to an equally affectionate composition, a glowing example of Wästberg’s growing songwriting skills, while ‘The Sun Will Shine’ showcases another side of Joel’s skillset, a playful production full of inspired ideas and nuances; a Les Fleurseque mellow breeze in the heat of the summer.

The record’s boldest moment is reserved for ‘Deployed’, a collaboration with Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano. “Me and Little Dragon go way back. I’ve been hanging out with them for many years, and they were very supportive with my first album,” Wästberg explains. “I remember that Yukimi was always asking me if I was making my own music. One day I was working in my small studio room, and Little Dragon were one floor up. Yukimi knocked on the door and asked if she could listen. I played her some of my songs and she said, “This is great, go out and talk to the world!”. That was before my first album. So having Little Dragon as a feature here makes so much sense.”  Beautifully bright and sincere, ’Deployed’ is a perhaps the most vivid pop song that sir Was has released to-date.

A heartfelt accounting of relationships, of knowing when to let go and when to fight for them, ‘Holding On To A Dream’, is a dreamy, groovy treat of a record.

Holding On To A Dream

Deployed (feat Little Dragon)

sir Was - Deployed (feat Little Dragon)

“The days were long at the cabin we stayed in for the summer. Daring to touch an electric fence for the first time. Having to escape cows on your way to the beach...

When you already finished the magazine you brought in the first couple of days, you turned to the books that were available. Jack London. Jules Verne. Always classics in those kinds of shelves. I read some of them. Never read Don Quijote, though. 

One day, I will (it's in my shelf now).”

Hot, quiet and long childhood summer days with nothing to do – we've all been there. Feelings of boredom and restlessness in the most cheerful way. It's memories like these that sets the scene for Orions Belte's new, sundazed EP "Slim".

Orions Belte first displayed their exotic flair on 2018 debut album "Mint". As the perfect soundtrack for lazy, summery days, the album opened people's eyes to the Norwegian psychedelic trio. Carefully arranged by the band, "Slim" contains song by artists they strongly admire – and contains ingenious reworkings of Ghostface Killah and Milton Nascimento, as well as a Robert Maxwell original paying tribute to Norwegian beat group The Pussycats and the late Mac Miller.

Orions Belte - Cherchez La Ghost

https://losporcos.bandcamp.com/album/jesus-luvs-u-baby

A Retelling

Kindness

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