THIS USER IS ALSO KNOWN as : THE BADOULA aka
 DJ LO DOWN LORETTA BROWN aka SHE ILL aka 
MANUELA MARIA MEXICO aka BADOULA OBLINGADA aka 
SARAH BELLUM aka ANALOUGE GIRL {IN A DGITAL WORLD } 
aka MARY MAGNUM aka MIGHTY AFRO DIGHTY aka ANNIE the EL aka APPLES aka MAMA GUNS aka YOUNG MID WIFE

Some vocalists sing the sweet melodies of folk in haunting melodic tones. Some singers belt the blues with gravel and rage, and some cascade fountains of smooth jazz onto their audience. Susana Silva comes under an entirely different set of performers, in that her style is totally indefinable. Why? Because when she raises the microphone stand and opens her mouth, everybody is too distracted by the sheer scale of her talent to really notice what “box” she fits into. I can think of only one catergory, which can be described as “that goose-bump, hair-standing-one-end type of singer”.

Naturally she has influences; if you listen hard you will certainly hear powerful blues, with accents of jazz and soul beats, along with the odd delightful funk lick. She is keen on Etta James, Alanis Morisette and Stevie Wonder (to name but a few), which would not surprise the listener. However, the impact of her live performance really does leave little in the mind of listener, because she communicates instead with the heart. This can only come from the fact that she exceeds the role of an entertainer – she is rather the embodiment of an astounding story. 

Susana arrived into London under tough circumstances. She had nothing but a bridge for a roof. Miraculously, the gift of a two string guitar, along with her extraordinary talent, saved her life. She began to perform on the South bank, which quickly built her a fan base and provided her with the funds to invest in better and better equipment (as well as a six string guitar). She has now found her home in this city, and is rapidly becoming a recognised name in the music scene. So what do we fundamentally get from her performance?

We get the first-hand experience of a survivor that fought against the odds. We get a woman who sings from a place of authenticity and love, rather than ego. We get an abundance of breath-taking talent, with an equal measure of modesty. Most of all, beneath the love that she purposefully spreads through music, we feel inspired to follow our own dreams with the same gratitude and compassion.

Keep Smiling

Sounds and noises, recorded spatial sequences of space, produced by the environment, generated by instruments, are combined by Cheraleen and transformed into self-composed samples and beats - for example, with keyboard, her voice or flute - creating images in the mind. Which is why you sometimes want to talk about dance or house, but sometimes also the jazz and the classic shine through, electronica and simple pop one for intellectual reasons tears ... pet, www.cheraleen.com

German:
Töne und Geräusche, aufgenommene urbane Raumsequenzen, von der Umwelt produziert, von Instrumenten erzeugt, bündelt Cheraleen und verwandelt alles in eigenkomponierte Samples und Beats – beispielsweise mit Keyboard, ihrer Stimme oder Querflöte – und kreiert so Bilder im Kopf. Weshalb man durchaus manchmal von Dance oder House sprechen möchte, bisweilen aber auch der Jazz und die Klassik durchscheint, Elektronica und simpler Pop einen aus intellektuellen Überlegungen reißt... pet, www.cheraleen.com

Sound & Color – the follow-up to Alabama Shakes’ Gold-certified debut album, Boys & Girls, which earned the group three GRAMMY® nominations, including a nod for Best New Artist – will be released in North America on April 21 by ATO Records. Rough Trade will release the album in the UK/Europe on April 20. 

Sound & Color demonstrates the tremendous strides made by Alabama Shakes since the release of 2012’s Boys & Girls. From the gently swaying, chiming title song to the garage-rock freak-out on “The Greatest” to the psychedelic space jam “Gemini,” Alabama Shakes build on the soulful blues-rock base and map a surprising, innovative new direction. 

“We took our time to write this record, and I’m really glad we did,” says lead singer/guitarist Brittany Howard. “We were able to sit down and think about what’s exciting to us. This record is full of genre-bending songs.”

Sound & Color was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium studio. The band co-produced the album with Blake Mills—a young guitar wizard who has helmed sessions by Sara Watkins and Sky Ferreira, and played alongside everyone from Norah Jones and the Dixie Chicks to Lana Del Ray and Kid Rock. 

The success of Boys & Girls paved the way for Alabama Shakes – comprising lead singer/guitarist Brittany Howard, guitarist Heath Fogg, bassist Zac Cockrell, drummer Steve Johnson, and touring keyboard players Ben Tanner and Paul Horton – to become one of the most celebrated live acts in the world, as they delivered unforgettable performances everywhere from “Saturday Night Live” to the main stages of festivals like Bonnaroo and Glastonbury. Boys & Girls charted in the Top 10 in both the U.S. and the U.K. and "Hold On," the Gold-certified lead single, was voted the #1 Best Song of 2012 by Rolling Stone.


AMI - PART OF ME

Amis voice is something special. Because it sounds like so many different voices: rough and soft, strong and fragile. Untrained, but perfect. 

Ami Warning has just turned 18. If you meet her, the first thing you see is a young girl experiencing the world. A new grown-up, full of ideas and expectations. If you listen to her songs, you can feel that strong depth some people never reach in their whole life. Ami writes about her feelings. Her inspiration comes from her experiences, from snapshots and flashes of thought. This, for itself, is not unusual. But her performance is. 

This young woman is communicating because she has to. Because all those words and thoughts  have to be expressed. You can feel this urge: Amis music is mandatory. You cannot withdraw from it. 
And you can feel that there are many things in this 18-year-old’s intellectual world that have touched each of us, more or less intensive. 
It is not important to feel the same thing that she does, Ami says. But it is important to feel something. And it is, in fact, impossible not to do so. 

Ami Warning has grown up in a musical family. But her first real passion was writing. She started at age 14: poems. Short stories. She wanted to articulate what was going on in her thoughts. To put her world into words. 
Music was at her side, every day. Her father, Wally, well-known in Germanys Roots-Reggae-Scene, always had his daughter with him. In her mother’s belly at his concerts, next to the stage as a toddler or sleeping backstage. Finally as a bass player and singer in his band. Ami never had that one special moment, standing on the stage for the first time and deciding to never let go again. That moment was always around her. The stage was her childhood’s living room. Making music? A natural thing. 

Some bass lessons followed, and then: the guitar. Her father taught her some chords and showed her the right handling. She started picking out songs and sounds from youtube-videos, playing everything she liked. She composed melodies for the lyrics she already had and started experimenting with new tones. Back and forth: those few notes she kept on repeating were joined by new words. Sometimes in English, sometimes in German – depending on where she could express her feelings the best way. 
Sometimes she sings her father’s old songs. With that voice, strong, but fragile, and the intensity of her appearance, she makes them so much her own that everybody seems to forget what they sounded before. Still, and more and more: her songs. Which amaze. How can such a young human being articulate what is going on in each of us – with such intensity?

Ami does not have a concept. She works spontaneously. Her songs, her lyrics, her melodies find her and do not follow any scheme. A genre? Not necessary. Her little band – guitar, bass, drums, sometimes a saxophone – does not urge her to decide. Ami just sounds like herself. 

Tour dates at www.blankomusik.de 

www.amiwarning.de 


Suzanne D. is following