Mellow List

NOCTURNAL is out now on Verve Records
Order on iTunes: http://smarturl.it/NocturnalDlxiTunes

YUNA SET TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM “NOCTURNAL” ON VERVE RECORDS ON OCTOBER 29

www.facebook.com/yunamusic (Over 1.5 Million Facebook Fans)
twitter.com/yunamusic (Over 900K Twitter Followers)

Los Angeles, Ca -- Breakthrough singer/songwriter Yuna is set to release her forthcoming new album “Nocturnal” on Verve Records on October 29.  The new album marks Yuna’s first full-length follow-up to her critically acclaimed self-titled debut from last year. “Nocturnal” features Yuna’s distinctive blend of organic pop, R&B soul and acoustic folk while also “digging deeper into her huge bag of pop star potential” (okayplayer.com).  The album marks a new chapter for the Malaysian-born artist who is earning plenty of comparisons to female vocalists such as Feist, Adele and Norah Jones. 
 
“Nocturnal” is a collection of eleven infectious new songs featuring the intoxicating single “Falling” produced by Robin Hannibal of the soul-pop group Rhye as well as the effervescent and uplifting track “Rescue” produced by Chris Braide.  Other album highlights include “I Wanna Go” produced by Michael Einziger of Incubus as well as the breezy “Come Back.”
 
Already recognized worldwide, 2012 served as YUNA’s breakout year in North America.  With her debut, Rolling Stone championed her as having, “certified indie cred and massive pop potential,” Complex Magazine called her “a deeply refreshing addition to America’s musical landscape” and The New York Times described her music as “gorgeous.” Yuna performed on national television, was a finalist for MTV Iggy’s “Best New Band In The World,” has had multiple songs featured in movies and on soundtracks, and played both Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.  She recently appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” where she performed her duet with multi-platinum recording artist OWL CITY, “Shine Your Way.” 
 
North American tour dates will be announced shortly. 

Nocturnal

Falling

Mayer Hawthorne & The County covers Lorde "Royals" as part of VEVO's Unexpected Covers.

Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/mtcR4BBet3k

Mayer Hawthorne - Vocals
Quentin Joseph - Drums
Joe Abrams - Bass
Quincy McCrary - Keys
Christian Wunderlich - Guitar

Royals

Royals - Madilyn Bailey and Megan Nicole ( Lorde )
we can be royals. :D

Royals - Madilyn Bailey and Megan Nicole ( Lorde )

Getaway - Never Wanna See You Again

From the album "Codes and Keys". Buy it here: http://atlr.ec/p3fEqS 

Codes and Keys

Stay Young, Go Dancing

Worst Case - Whole Again

Available Now - http://bit.ly/xOJlhw
www.lanadelrey.com/
facebook.com/lanadelrey
twitter.com/lanadelrey

Lana Del Rey - Dark Paradise

Kendra Morris "Concrete Waves"

Lianne La Havas - Don't Wake Me Up

Showing some love to Frank Ocean. Absolutely loved Channel Orange. Recorded live at my place.

Thinkin Bout You (Frank Ocean cover)

Pacific Festival: The Dunes will be taking place at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort & Marina on Sunday, September 2, 2012 on Labor Day Weekend.

More details: http://pacificfestival.com 

Mayer Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out

Alex Clare - Hummingbird (Live Unplugged)

Terra Naomi - Vicodin

Thanks to Jean de la Fontaine, everybody now knows the difference between the oak and the reed. One boasts a certain virile majesty, a welcoming shade, an apparent strength and solidity. The other is seemingly so fragile, yet of a suppleness that allows it to bend without ever breaking. 

A symbol of the ability to endure everything and anything, of being able to stand fast during even the toughest of times, Roseaux (Reeds) is a musical project that is understated, yet impassioned and utterly compelling, born amidst the stormiest times yet seen in the annals of the recorded music industry. Roseaux is a collective that brings together a radio music scheduler (who’s also a DJ) and various musicians, artfully blending the skills of a guardian of musical knowledge and all the artistic feeling that characterizes a group of musicians who have each taken many different paths in the pursuit of their passion.

Roseaux began with Emile Omar, a music-lover with tastes as diverse as they are insatiable who sniffs out sounds without regard for the dictates of musical convention and genre. Some ten years ago his musical inquisitiveness led him to take on the management of Radio Nova’s record collection and then to play his part in finding the musical ingredients for the station’s celebrated ‘Grand Mix’ of innovative sounds. This gave him the opportunity to create Nova Tunes compilations and box sets – an eclectic essence of rare refinement drawn from a selection of new sounds and past musical wonders. Ever since his teenage years, Emile has also been adept at getting people on the dance floor – so adept, in fact, that he now DJs at themed evenings, delving into a repertoire of  classic soul, house, reggae, disco and tropical music. In this way Roseaux’s roots are firmly anchored in a cultural subsoil that comes straight from the racks of record dealers who specialize in a very unusual type of music – that which is able to delight the body and fire the soul at the same time. 

About 5 years ago Emile developed the desire to venture where it seemed that his status as a non-musician must surely bar him: the field of making music. 
Ever since Brian Eno knocked the ivory-tower idea of the existence of such a thing as musical legitimacy on the head, ever since Lee Perry, King Tubby and Tom Moulton turned the mixing table into an integral part of the creative process, ever since hip hop and electro DJs were able to demonstrate that creativity could be channelled through turntables and samplers in a kind of musical collage, the definition of what it is to be a musician has radically changed. 
He contacted 2 musician friends (musicians in the traditional sense of the word), cellist Clément Petit and multi-instrumentalist Alex Finkin, to ask them if they wanted to join with him in creating an album that would be based on the arrangement of ten or so of his favourite songs taken from a whole range of different genres.
The three got down to work, with Emile discovering Aloe Blacc, long before the American singer made the headlines with the hit I Need A Dollar. 
Although Aloe Blacc had little singing experience at the time, he launched himself into Emile’s project with enthusiasm and open-mindedness in equal measure.
Roseaux is therefore the product of a meeting of minds and hearts between an enlightened amateur and a group of musicians whose talent and adaptability made this project possible and gave it its artistic unity. 

The same lack of musical dogmatism as evinced by Emile’s choice of music for the Radio Nova playlist and his evenings on the turntables is on display here in the shape of such little-known gems as Strange Things by the Jamaican John Holt, Indifference by grunge band Pearl Jam, Patti Labelle’s More Than Material, Try Me by Esther Phillips and Clarao da Lua by Brazil’s Nazaré Peirera. The most famous track is undoubtedly Walking On The Moon by The Police. A world away from ‘carbon copy’ style cover versions,  each of the ‘guest tracks’ gets its own special treatment whereby it metamorphoses into something completely different (in the eyes of anyone who is familiar with the original version) and utterly enchanting. These are not covers in the narrow, generally accepted meaning of the word – they can best be classified as reinterpretations or even complete rewritings of songs. So, the Jamaican feel of Rad Bryan’s Girl you rock my soul gives way to polished folk guitar arrangements and string instruments, the swaying rhythm of Walking On The Moon falls into line with the jazzy footsteps of Nina Simone, John Holt’s rocksteady Strange Things takes the road to Rio, Missing You, the 90s underground house hit from Kim English is transformed into a soul ballad, before dropping into a long, cross-fade on the Fender Rhodes electric piano, Bill Evans style.

Could it be this way of gently bending these songs to their will that was the inspiration behind the name ‘Roseaux’? Or perhaps it’s the air of elegance that emanates from the album as a whole, a melancholy tide of post-soul and nocturnal jazz lapping against the shores of this scattering of songs through which the gentle, caressing tones of Aloe Blacc wend their way? One thing is certain, with Roseaux, Emile Omar and his partners have succeeded in investing this project with more than just a certain unity, more even than an identity – they have given it a soul. 


Roseaux  feat. Aloe Blacc - "More than material"

Try Again

Only One I Need is the fourth single to be released from Chris Hurn's debut album Too Busy Dreamin'.

Chris Hurn is a twenty-two year old folk-pop singer/songwriter from Lower Hutt, New Zealand. After playing in various local bands, including Play it Strange 2007 national competition winners The Lunch Box Boys, a 60’s style indie-pop band, he discovered a love for folk music and decided to go solo in late 2009.

Inspired by the likes of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen he began to write a collection of songs that would soon become his first album. Although heavily influenced by his folk heroes, he draws upon a wide range of genres and styles of music. As well as having a soft spot for modern pop and rock, Chris has spent a considerable amount of time soaking up 60′s pop groups, notably The Mamas and the Papas, The Beatles and the Kinks.

Coming from a multi-instrumental background, Chris commenced his musical endeavours at a young age with the piano and a cheap plastic recorder. His first album is heavily based around the acoustic guitar but whistles, clicks, claps, harmonica and harmonies also play a big part in the sound. Astonishingly, Chris plays all the instruments on his debut as well as mixing and producing it himself. His lyric-writing reveals a world-wise maturity beyond his years and coupled with his knack for writing highly catchy melodies, he seems sure to secure himself a place amongst a rising new generation of young singer/songwriters.

Too Busy Dreamin’ was recorded in 2010 in his Lower Hutt home studio, and mastered by Dave Cooley (Serge Gainsbourg, Polyphonic Spree) in LA.

When not playing folk music, Chris works as a composer writing orchestral based scores for video games and films.


REVIEW

While owing a clear debt to Paul Simon, the young Dylan, early Donovan and others in the acoustic singer-songwriter category, this young guy from Lower Hutt just north of Wellington, New Zealand brings a pop sensibility to his writing (the openers here Whatcha Got and Only One I Need hook you immediately) and often a deliberately light touch (whistles, handclaps). Maybe that is in part due to his background: He played in a pop-rock band The Lunch Box Boys which won the Play It Strange award in 2007 (which means he must have been about 17 at the time). Since then he discovered folk and that lineage of singer-songwriters and has struck out on his own. What is attractive about Hurn is that rather than indulging in melancholy miserablism which the idiom so often invites from a young and emotionally anxious performer, he has a sharp ear for a melodic hook and that he keeps each song distinctive. He also has an inviting, warm and believable voice which is persuasive when he get reflective (All I Really Want) or urgent (An Honest Man) as much as taking you along for a ride when the musical mood gets more breezy (Love and Silly Little Things with ukulele, whistling and la-la-la backing vocals). The closer is an ambitious, eight minute-plus Thank You and Goodnight which might also be his built-in encore... you will be hearing more of him, that's for sure. - Graham Reid, Elsewhere


Buy album on Bandcamp

Only One I Need

Distant Dreams and Morning Stars is from Inkadies, the latest solo album by dream-pop folk artist John White. As a follow up to Balloon Adventure (2000) and Mogwash (2003), The Inkadies might be described as the third instalment of tales from a delicate otherland where little creatures called Inkadies come to save the day.

The album was recorded in Madison, Wisconsin by friend and fellow singer/songwriter, Tom Hanson. Gathering guest musician’s from Madison’s lush music scene, the album boasts chiming harmonies and dripping Synth accompaniments underneath John’s dreamily relaxed vocals and gently strummed acoustic guitar

John White is also the frontman for seminal Dunedin fuzz-pop band Mëstar and shoegazing, distorted pop band The Blueness.

REVIEW

“The Inkadies” is the soundtrack to that glorious half-asleep period that we get before sleep - full of strange imaginations and warmth. Beautiful stuff, and an oh-so-welcome return from the talented Mr White."
- Cheese on Toast

Listen to album

Distant Dreams and Morning Stars

Shoot the Moon is a personal and intimate song written in a state of digesting lost love and is the second single to be released from The Major Pins debut album Roundabout.

"Composing music can be a wonderful healthy and cleansing process," states The Major Pins' singer and songwriter Katharina Garden.

Put together by songwriter and film editor Jonas Dahl with whom she also performs in a duo this old footage from 1953 was taken from the film "Catwomen of the Moon" and shows a strong and feministic world relating very well to the content of the song. In the end love wins over sanity - almost always like in real life!

Check out the retro sci-fi music video here: http://youtu.be/aTc9wqXLxi4

Shoot the Moon

A tender ballad from 22 year old New Zealand-based singer/songwriter Chris Hurn as featured on his debut album, Too Busy Dreamin': http://tinyurl.com/p8pdlt7.




Buy album

All I Really Want

Anita Clark and Brooke Singer moved to Wellington, New Zealand with the intention of becoming pirates. But after realising it was quite fashionable at the time they decided that they would prefer to be SERIOUS musicians. So they pawned their wooden legs and eyepatches in for a fiddle and an electric piano.

After many years singing sea shanty's and drinking whiskey, Anita developed quite a lovely voice. Brookes many life threatening experiences at sea gave her an insight into life's beautiful complexities which she expresses through melodically written lyrics that flow like the tide...

The Ragamuffin Children released two albums of whimsical alt folk, Werecat Lullabies (2007) and The Seahorse Emporium (2009), before disbanding to pursue other musical projects. Sea Shanty also appeared on the Monkey Magic II compilation.



Sea Shanty

The problem with having an open mind for music is of course, the things people consider music. I hope you enjoy the music I've shared and liked through my rummaging in this vast archive. 

Mellow List

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