320 kbps | 142 MB | LINKS
Dr. John’s Voodoo-inspired Gris Gris sounds meet Fats Domino. American ROOTS music at its uptown best! A blend of New Orleans-inspired original R&B, trad jazz and gospel performed by one of the East Coast’s hardest-working bands.
VBR~235 kbps | 63 MB | LINKS
If you distilled the late-’70s explosion of punk rock into a single mixtape that incorporated the pop side, the garage side, and the experimental noise side, Freak Genes would be that mixtape made flesh.
Freak Genes is the child of Andrew Anderson and Charlie Murphy, brought into this world to make fun music. Charlie has survived bands like Red Cords, Holiday Ghost and M.Rutt, while Andrew is a veteran of Proto Idiot, the Marble Vanity and the Hipshakes.
The idea behind Freak Genes is to take all the weird ideas deemed too dysfunctional for their other outlets and create something interesting. Their original inspiration was the Raincoats LP Odyshape. So far, they sound nothing like that.
In 2017 Freak Genes released their first 12” LP Playtime on Alien Snatch records. That album has 16 tracks, and throws together all kinds of garage rock crappola to make quick, catchy songs. Live shows followed in the UK and Mainland Europe, featuring an all-star band of best pals from the Black Tambourines, the Hipshakes and the Be Positives.
Since then, Charlie and Andrew have discovered synthesisers and drum machines. The result is Qwak Qwak, a bumper collection of 17 songs, which, if we’ve done our maths right, makes it 6.25% better than their debut. Its angrier and more awkward but still has hooks.
320 kbps | 106 MB | LINKS
Unexpected Tribute album to our lost hero Tom Petty by Sydney based producer/singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Carpenter and Bathurst based duo Smith & Jones.
Tracks:
1.Listen To Her Heart 03:26
2.Runnin’ Down A Dream 05:29
3.Don’t Come Around Here No More 04:01
4.Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around 04:42
5.Walls 03:08
6.Insider 04:45
7.You Got Lucky 02:49
8.Learning To Fly 04:10
9.The Best Of Everything 04:26
10.Free Fallin’ 04:12
11.End Of The Line 03:31
Maarten Altena Ensemble
Quotl
(hat ART, 1989)
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Mike McGinnis
Singular Awakening
(Sunnyside Records, 2018)
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This strong debut from Senegalese singer Cheikh Lô is a healthy hybrid of African and Cuban rhythms. Produced by Youssou N’Dour at his Xippi studios in Dakar, the domestic cassette of Cheikh Lô’s Ne La Thiass set Senegal alight in the 90s.
Now, over 20 years later, the legendary cassette mixes have been found and mastered and are made available for the first time outside Africa alongside the original cover artwork. Cheikh Lô has created an inspired and sensual acoustic/electric mix which embraces double bass, acoustic guitars, talking drum, flute and a hint of electric bass and keyboards. Rare mbalax rhythms infuse this exuberant album with rippling tides of energy but the mood is strikingly Latin the spiritual soundtrack to the summer.
Mbalax, the intricate dance music of Senegal, has been made more accessible to Western listeners by Cheikh Lô (born Cheikh N’Digel Lô). Softening the hard edges of mbalax and incorporating elements of salsa, Zairian/Congolese rhumba, folk, and jazz, Lô has created an infectious, hook-laden style of pop music. While Roots World described Lô’s musical approach by writing “complemented by the acoustic guitar, exploding tama, and free-falling electric bass, Lô’s voice has a rounded sweetness with poetic hills and valleys,” Real Groove Magazine explained, “with its enigmatic complexity and so non 4/4 beat, mbalax has had difficulty outside West Africa. Where even N’Dour’s overdone attempts to counter this problem have failed, [Lô] has succeeded. His acoustic approach gives a magic mbalax music that my friends can appreciate.” Cora Correction, also with a similar view, wrote, “West Africa has produced the continent’s most powerful singers and Lô easily earns a high position in the pantheon.”
The son of a successful jeweler, Lô was born in Bobo-Dioulasso, a small village near Senegal’s border with Mali. He grew up speaking Bambara, Wolof, and French. As a youngster, he became fascinated with music and taught himself to play drums and guitar. In 1976, he accepted an invitation to join a local group, Orchestra Volta Jazz, as a percussionist. He remained with the band until moving to the capital city of Dakar in 1980.
Lô quickly became involved with the music scene of Dakar. After a three-year stint as drummer for progressive vocalist Ouza, he joined the house band at the Hotel Savana in 1984. Although he performed with the group for a little over a year, the experience exposed him to a global range of pop influences.
Emigrating to France in 1985, Lô found work as a session drummer in Paris. Soon afterward, he purchased his first guitar and began writing songs. Although he formed a band with Ivoirean and French musicians and began working on an album in 1987, the group separated before its completion. Lô’s debut solo album, Doxandeme (Immigrants), was released as a cassette in 1990. Despite receiving a Nouveau Talent award, the album fell short of Lô’s artistic expectations. Although he began working on a second album, he became disenchanted and canceled the project. For the next four years, he maintained a low profile.
In 1995, Lô convinced Youssou N’Dour, whom he met in 1989 while playing on an album by traditional Wolof griot singer N’diaga M’baye, to produce an album for him. The resulting album, Ne La Thiass, was released on N’Dour’s label, Jololi, shortly before Lô joined the multi-artist Jololi Revue tour in November 1996. Lô continued to promote the album during a European tour with his own eight-piece band, N’Diguel, in April 1997. The same year, Lô received Best Newcomer and Kora All-American awards in South Africa. Lô continued to expand his following to the United States as a featured performer with Africa Fete in 1998. The following year, he received the Ordre National de Merite de Leon from the president of Senegal. In 2000, he returned to recording with the release of Bambay Gueej. The title means “bamba, ocean of peace,” and was co-produced by Nick Gold and Youssou N’Dour. Lamp Fall appeared in 2006 from Nonesuch Records.
320 kbps | 84 MB | LINKS
“…diverse in tone, tempo, and production sensibilities, ranging from lush to evocatively sparse…beautiful and honest singing…uninhibited lyrical authenticity….these ten tracks show the spirit and promise of a growing musical partnership and a vision to play the long game and see where the music takes them.”
320 kbps | 82 MB | LINKS
Blood On The Tracks is hook laden post punk. Fugazi with White Album sensibilities. Or maybe it’s more White Album with Fugazi sensibilities. Lawn blurs the line between pop and post punk that at times it doesn’t always feel like the same band. But other times they combine the two so flawlessly that you see the band’s vision clearly.
The first three songs on the record really showcase and highlight Lawn’s versatility and vision. The album opener, 2000 Boy, is pure pop perfection. A perfect summer time playlist song. It’s a song fit for mass-produced Spotify playlists and public radio themed playlists (I’m looking at you Rosewave). Just as the pop induced coma sets in, Lawn hits you with the Pixies esque Rat. Rat hits you with groove heavy guitar and bass lines, striking quick hits, punctuating the melody. And of the two first tracks on the album, Rat has the more memorable hook. But the band puts it all together for the title track, Blood on the Tracks. It instantly reminded me of Fugazi songs like Recap Modotti and Sweet and Low. It’s a punk song infused with pop to drive home a point. Again, it’s not pop in any conventional sense of the word but you will find yourself singing the chorus days later.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Pop songs like Making Friends, Vinnie, Clank, and Jackson are interspersed between great punk tracks like My Boy, Restless and Tired (on of my favorites on the album), Hips, and Diets. Lawn gives you the full range of what they do all at once. Which makes me wonder if they should have gone the Modern Baseball route and cut the album differently. With a cassette release the ability to have the pop tracks on one side and punk on the other makes sense.
On the other hand, I appreciate Lawn crafting a record that keeps you on your toes and is giving you the whole range of the band top to bottom. This isn’t a record you can preview 30 seconds of and decide if you love or hate it. You have to sit and digest the songs. You get to be surprised by what comes next.
Between the gritty punk spirit and the beautifully crafted pop tunes, Blood on the Tracks is a must listen, but you have to listen! Or you might miss a hidden gem!
