Emel Mathlouthi is a Tunisian singer/songwriter living in New York, where she recently relocated from Paris, where she moved in 2008 after her music was banned in Tunisia during the rule of Ben Ali “because she sang about liberty and corruption.”
Her international debut, 2012’s Kelmti Horra (My Word is Free), played like industrial folk — bearing out influences of the East and West ranging from political Egyptian composer Sheikh Imam to Dylan to Björk, earning comparisons to austere Arab pop legend Fairuz. On Ensen, she’s merged to a style that’s even more uniquely her own, combining organic and electronic sounds to produce a record that will appeal to any lover of innovative and heartfelt music. The album was recorded across seven countries and two continents, and it was…
…produced with Valgeir Sigurðsson (Sigur Rós, Feist), frequent collaborator French/Tunisian producer Amine Metani, and more.
Citing influences ranging from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters to Nordic singer-songwriter Susanne, Emel insists first on her right to be a creative artist and not a political soapbox.
She talked to Pitchfork in a ‘Rising’ feature about why she chose an indie record label like Partisan over a “world music” label for her new album: “I started approaching labels when I finished [recording the album]. It was really hard. I didn’t want to go to the world music scene. I got tired of always having that stamp. But the problem is that, as soon as the indie and electronic labels hear Arabic singing, they say: “Oh OK, world music.” At the same time, world music labels are like: “Oh my god, this is too different.”
320 kbps | 102 MB | UL | OB | TB | DF
Brenton Wood’s charmingly unpredictable phrasing and his infectious sense of good times made the smooth uptown soul of “The Oogum Boogum Song” and “Gimme Little Sign” into hits in 1967. Despite his skill as a pop-soul vocalist, Wood was never able to match such heights again, yet those two songs became genuine R&B classics of their era. Born Alfred Jesse Smith in Shreveport, LA, Brenton Wood moved west to San Pedro, CA, as a child. After learning how to play piano, he began forming vocal groups, inspired by Sam Cooke and Jesse Belvin. One of these groups, Little Freddie & the Rockets, recorded a single in 1958. While he was studying at Compton College, he assumed the name Brenton Wood, naming himself after his home county. Wood formed the Quotations during college, but soon after graduation he became a solo act. Signing with Double Shot Records, Wood had a hit single in the spring of 1967 with “The Oogum Boogum Song,” which reached number 19 on the R&B charts and number 34 pop. It was quickly followed by “Gimme Little Sign,” which climbed to number nine pop and matched its predecessor’s R&B position. It was a promising start to a career, but Wood wasn’t able to follow it through. “Baby You Got It” stalled in the bottom reaches of the pop and R&B Top 40 in early 1968 and “Some Got It, Some Don’t” failed to make the pop charts later that year. Wood continued to perform and even recorded a duet with Shirley Goodman, but he wasn’t able to reach the charts again until 1977, when “Come Softly to Me” registered in the lower reaches of the R&B Top 100. Following its release, Wood became part of the oldies soul circuit. In 2001, he finally returned with an album of new material, This Love Is for Real.
Tracklist:
01. The Oogum Boogum Song
02. Gimme Little Sign
03. I Like the Way You Love Me
04. Baby, You Got It
05. A Change Is Gonna Come
06. I Think You’ve Got Your Fools Mixed Up
07. Great Big Bundle of Love
08. Me and You
09. Take a Chance
10. Darlin’
11. I’m the One Who Knows
12. Catch You On the Rebound
13. Two Time Loser
14. Best Thing I Ever had
15. Where Were You
16. Diamonds
320 kbps | 102 MB | UL | OB | TB | DF
After the sudden departure of the frontman, THE BLACK MARBLE SELECTION headed for a new creative direction. On this LP the band’s raw underground rhythm & blues style is transformed to a more mature and varied sound in which instruments such as the theremin and recorder merge with guitar and organ. The psychedelic melodies and guitarlines on ‘Greener Than The Other Side’ will take you back to the days of ’60s heroes à la The Zombies, The Beach Boys and The Kinks.
While Joel Plaskett has made a name for himself as one of Canada’s great songwriters, his dad Bill is an accomplished musician in his own right.
Growing up, Joel heard his dad playing tunes at home, took that inspiration and ran with it. “In a child’s desire for attention from his father, he’d come up and put his hands on my strings,” Bill recalls, of Joel’s interest in his guitar playing. “So I made him a cutout guitar with a string that went around his neck so while I played, he could play too.”
In all those years, Joel has never collaborated with his dad — until now. They’ve come together on a new album called, fittingly enough, Solidarity (out Feb. 17).
Release Date: February 24, 2017
Label: OSTINATO RECORDS
Artist: Various Artist
![[Image: 9KGiXCt.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/9KGiXCt.jpg)
