Get Ready!

The "Definition Sickness" album is available now at: http://tinyurl.com/DefinitionSickness 

Stand outs in the indie-rap haven of Minnesota, No Bird Sing combines the talents of emcee Joe Horton, drummer/producer Graham O'Brien, and guitarist/producer Robert Mulrennan. With Definition Sickness, the trio has maintained the integrity of their live-band roots while exploring a more produced sound that ranges from stark minimalism to lush expansiveness. 

The first single, “DON’T THINK”, is a brooding track where Horton shares vocal duties with SFR label head SAGE FRANCIS. Other guests on the album include FIX cohorts Crescent Moon (Kill the Vultures) and Kristoff Krane, as well as Sadistik, Chastity Brown, James Diers (Halloween, Alaska), Aby Wolf, Adam Svec and Molly Dean.

NBS released their eponymous debut to critical acclaim in 2009. Their 2011 follow-up, "Theft of the Commons", along with the US tour dates that followed, served to expand their loyal, burgeoning fanbase across the Midwest and beyond. 

Their SFR debut,  Definition Sickness, offers a meditative commentary on modern life, owing much to leftist political theorists like Howard Zinn as well as Eastern-leaning philosophers like Alan Watts and Lao Tzu. Musically the dark, transcendent instrumentation of the record creates a rich and varied soundscape that will immediately entice fans of multiple genres. Repeat listeners will be rewarded by both the layered lyrical themes and the ear candy that’s provided by the nuanced sonic compositions. 

"If you took away the vocals, you'd never know it was hip hop," admits drummer/producer Graham O'Brien. "We're just investigating the relationship between hip hop and other genres—taking the spoken, rhythmic word and putting it in other places."  

"That's what creativity is," vocalist Horton says. "It's coming to this point where you don't know exactly what you're doing and having to figure out what to do. The second you're not doing that, you're just rehashing old shit."
http://StrangeFamousRecords.com

the FULL ALBUM is HERE

"Don't Think" - NO BIRD SING feat. SAGE FRANCIS

Video: https://youtu.be/QrJU1h0_x6w
SICK TO D(EAT)H is the newest edition to SAGE FRANCIS'  "Sick of" mixtape series: http://tinyurl.com/SickToDeathSFR
Available on MP3, CD and cassette. It features contributions by Atmosphere, B. Dolan, Buck 65, Buddy Peace, Cecil Otter, DJ EQ, Kurtis SP, Lord Grunge, No Bird Sing, Prolyphic, Reanimator, Scroobius Pip and many more. The full tracklist and breakdown of each track, along with some additional updates from Mr. Francis, available here: http://www.strangefamousrecords.com/blogs/sage-francis-blog/sick-to-death
Follow for now:
http://Facebook.com/SageFrancis
http://twitter.com/SageFrancis
http://instagram/SageFrancisSFR
http://StrangeFamousRecords.com

Sick to D(eat)h

SICK TO DEATH mixtape

"YOU CAN'T WIN" - EPIC BEARD MEN (Sage Francis + B. Dolan)

Search and Destroy

Check out the video HERE: http://youtu.be/6LVMSDPNObE
BLUE is the second leak from Sage Francis' SICK TO D(EAT)H mixtape which is available now at http://tinyurl.com/SickToDeathSFR
Beat produced by Reanimator. Scratches by Buddy Peace. Single artwork image by Trait Cross. The full track list for #SickToDeath and a breakdown of each track, along with some additional updates from Sage Francis available here: http://www.strangefamousrecords.com/blogs/sage-francis-blog/sick-to-death
"True enough."

"BLUE" - Sage Francis (2013)

When I first heard Which Side Are You On it really hit home to me. Being part of the LGBT community, specifically the trans part, the story behind the track really stuck with me. The injustices that we suffer at the hands of other people and society in general, especially my Brothers & Sisters of colour, cut to the deepest parts of my heart. Cece McDonald is finally out of the prison which she should never have been in, its a small step in the right direction and sometimes we can only celebrate the small victories. B.Dolan was kind enough to let me remix this track after I spoke to him about how much it meant to me. His choice to stand in solidarity and support of those on the right side of history is yet another reason I have so much love and respect for him as an artist and a decent human being. 

More B.Dolan (which you should listen to)
http://bdolan.net/house-of-bees-vol-2-is-here-track-by-track-breakdown/
https://www.facebook.com/bdolanSFR

Support Cece
http://supportcece.wordpress.com/

please share, post, distribute as much as you want

<3 Alice xX

B.Dolan - Which Side Are You On (Alexis K) - Download & Share <3

A down tempo remix of A Perfect Circle when the levee breaks by dj teleport
orbit 9 productions 2014

A Perfect Circle - When the Levee Breaks (Dj Teleport's Slowmo) UNMASTERED

Buy "Boxed Out" now! -> https://damswindle.bandcamp.com/album/boxed-out

Detroit Swindle | Boxed Out | The Debut Album

Out 24 March 2014

01 B.Y.O.
02 64 Ways feat. Mayer Hawthorne
03 Me, Myself & You
04 Thoughts of She
05 Monkey Wrench
06 Shotgun
07 Center of Gravity feat. Sandra Amarie 
08 For the Love of...
09 The Fat Rat
10 He’s Just This Guy, You Know?
11 Huh, What!
12 F6
13 You, Me, Here, Now

The Debut Album by Detroit Swindle. It has everything you would expect from the Swindles, some slow burners with a hint of disco, some deep house, some banging club monsters and hey, even some leftfield hip hop jams.

The album opens with "B.Y.O.", a track that balances nicely between the DS shuffle and an old school New York style block party. The track is a taste of things to come for the rest of the album, hinting towards a big party vibe, but mellow enough to make it a really interesting listen.

The one thing Detroit Swindle are known for best is their knack for picking the right vocals. For Boxed Out, they came up with some perfect partnerships. They recorded "64 Ways" with none other than one of America's finest soul singers: Mayer Hawthorne. Being a fan of their sound he proposed to do a track together in return for a remix on one of his album originals to be released in 2014. "64 Ways" has a lazy shuffle, a bunch of catchy rhodes chords and few well placed layers of synths that give this track a hint of "Detroit Experiment", wrapped up in an almost poppy house jam.

One of the other vocal tracks is "Thoughts of She", that effortlessly samples the voice of UK soul singer Alice Russel from the track "Pushin' on" by "The Quantic Soul Orchestra". There's also the gorgeous track "Center of Gravity" that has Berlin based, Ghanese-Canadian soul singer Sandra Amarie on vocals. It's particularly this track that reflects the true spirit of Detroit Swindle's music, a mixture of soul and UK garage meets Detroit house slowed down to a sexy groove with some of their trademark pads and stabs.

They pushed themselves to explore different tempos as well, which not only resulted on some slow house burners, but also in 2 hip hop tracks. "For the Love of..." is a homage to the old school sounds of "J. Dilla", "A tribe called Quest" and "The Pharcyde", combining off-beat shuffles, a gritty bass line and a warm cut-up soul sample. "You, Me, Here, Now" is almost a love song, disguised in a s(w)ing-a-long down tempo type of track. It's one of those "one more tune" kinda tunes.

So there's hip hop, there's soulful vocals, but It just wouldn't be a Detroit Swindle album without a few bangers on it. "Huh, What!", "Shotgun", "The Fat Rat" and "He's Just This Guy, You Know?" are all relentless dance floor monsters, pushing the tempo to match old school Chicago and New York house cuts from the late 80's and early 90's.

With these tracks "Boxed Out" has a great combination of gritty percussions, hot vocals and catchy chords and it is exactly this recipe that has become the much-loved trademark of Detroit Swindle's house universe. The album has a little bit of everything in exactly the right dose, making it both a good listen, and an extremely infectious club album.

64 Ways

64 Ways (Original Mix) [feat. Mayer Hawthorne]

Sage Francis - Gimme dat

Download this song at: http://tinyurl.com/SageFrancisUbuntu
Name your own price. Proceeds will go toward helping the children who are addressed in this song. 
VIDEO: http://youtu.be/rIH0EnsnADo
LYRICS AND MORE AT: http://tinyurl.com/SageFrancisUbuntu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND STORY:
As it is World AIDS Days and I have thought about these children every single day since being acquainted with them almost two years ago, I decided that I can no longer sit on this song. In January of 2011 I visited Durban, South Africa to help mentor and provide care for HIV-infected children. For me, it was a crash course education on their situation, culture, history, and various forms of treatment (or lack there of.) With a reported 5.6 million people living with HIV, South Africa has the highest HIV infection rate in the world. That is mainly due to misinformation propagated by the government as well as the people's lack of access to education and proper medical care. With so many people dying of AIDS in this area, many children are often left to fend for themselves in overcrowded "orphanages", many of which have no electricity or running water according to what I witnessed. 

My trip to Durban and the surrounding rural areas was organized by people who were filming a documentary on a community of people who were receiving alternative treatment along with their normal ARV (anti-retroviral) treatment. I joined a group of national and international poets whose task it was to make a connection with the children and communicate their story to the world. Toward the end of my stay I wrote a song called UBUNTU (Water Into Wine) which I was initially hoping to release as a companion piece to the film. The documentary will probably do a much better job of explaining the vast array of emotions we all went through, but as it still isn't completed I figured it might be best to just release the song now. 

The artwork for UBUNTU is a portrait of Nonoti, one of the younger girls who made a deep and everlasting impression on everyone she met. We lost Nonoti to HIV-related complications earlier this year, so along with the children I name in this song, and all the great people I met during my stay in Durban, a special dedication goes out to her (R.I.P.) 
If you're ever given the opportunity to visit Africa and provide a helping hand, I highly recommend it. You will learn more than you could ever imagine about yourself, humanity and the world in general. You can view pictures of my trip to South Africa and the children this song is about here:  http://tinyurl.com/SageSouthAfrica2011

Much love and many thanks to everyone involved!
-Sage Francis
http://SageFrancis.net
http://StrangeFamousRecords.com
FB: http://facebook.com/SageFrancis
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/SageFrancis

DOWNLOAD THE SONG HERE

*NEW* Sage Francis - UBUNTU (Water Into Wine)

From our album <em>Exhibitionists</em> out now on <a href="http://www.innovativeleisure.net/shop/exhibitionists/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Innovative Leisure</a>.

Get Ready!

sassamadoo