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FEATURED: Portishead and Kling Klang and the SEEN RCRD LBL blog
Like every self-respecting music fan in the world, the SEEN RCRD LBL blog is going completely crazy with anticipation for the new Portishead record, Third, and their upcoming headline set at Coachella this weekend. The band haven’t been to America in nearly a decade, so obviously this is a big deal. We’re kind of dismayed (read: totally devastated) that there aren’t any NYC Portishead dates as of yet, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Always on top of it, SEEN also posted an MP3 from Kling Klang, who opened for Portishead for their recent European dates. Check it out:
Portishead and Kling Klang at the SEEN RCRD LBL blog
Download: Kling Klang - Nexus (Live)
DVD: Robert Mugge's New Orleans Music In Exile
Robert Mugge is a name you have probably never heard. It’s likely though, that if you like Jazz, Blues, Reggae. Zydeco, or Bluegrass (work with us here), you have seen one or more of his incredible music documentaries. Beginning in 1976 with George Crumb: Voice of the Whale, which featured a performance of Crumb’s Pulitzer prize winning piece, "Vox Balaenae for Three Masked Players”, Mugge has made close to 30 films that have examined music through people, place, and time. His subjects have included Sonny Rollins, Al Green, Gil Scott-Heron, Robert Johnson, and Irma Thomas, to name a few. Although it’s difficult to pin down an exact style, Mugge’s films are characterized by his willingness to allow the music and musicians to speak for themselves. Always well researched and informed, Mugge has an uncanny ability to make genuine connections with his subjects, ultimately leading to more candid interviews and deeper meaning in his work.
For Mugge, “music is a leaping off place for discussion of social issues, cultural issues, political issues, (and) even religious issues.” This ethos might explain why Mugge was so drawn to post-Katrina New Orleans. Having worked with many of the musicians of New Orleans in some of his earlier films, Mugge sought to side-step the emotionally charged issues of government response and racism in the wake of Katrina, and focus on the storm’s devastating impact within the New Orleans music community. Where did the musicians go? Were they planning on coming back?
STREAM: Carla Bruni - Those Dancing Days Are Gone
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Carla Bruni has been making headlines recently as that First Lady of France (for real) but let us not forget that her primary scene is music, not world politics... And totally laid-back, jazzy, sultry, amazing music at that. “Those Dancing Days Are Gone”, from Carla’s first English-speaking album No Promises, sounds like her fellow countrywoman Charlotte Gainsbourg’s loungy jazz-pop: soft, sweet vocals, insightful lyrics. The best part is the soothing harmonies in the second verse—wait for it. Chills.
Stream “Those Dancing Days Are Gone” at Carla’s RCRD LBL page, and make sure to keep your ear peeled for more awesome music from her and Downtown Records…
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: Birigwa - Njabala
Yes. This is absolutely 100% as rad as it looks. And let's get it said right away, before the sweaty histrionics get underway, that you'd be a fool to pass up this deep slice of pristinely soulful African folk jazz. Also, come to think of it, let's skip the histrionics. Because even when this ultimate, nylon-plucked smoothness devolves temporarily into frenzied screams and crosswalk whistle-blowing, histrionics are ill-suited for the float away ease of its effortless grooviness.
Birigwa, at the time of "Njabala," was a 23-year-old studying jazz at the New England Conservatory. The self-titled stunner that resulted from his time at the conservatory stands up tall and hustles as sweet as any Veloso, Joao or Jobim. Brazilian bossa nova at its honey-thickest and mellow-yellowest, informed by the energy and rhythm of African folk. Total treasure. Definitely pick up the full-length, reissued on Porter Records.
DOWNLOAD: Airwaves - Sock It To 'Em
Airwaves, a.k.a. Madrid-based producer Jonny Spencer, is not unlike the Avalanches or Sonny Jim, in that he samples pop and jazz tunes from the ‘60s and crafts them into dance-y instrumentals for the ‘00s, which is something we find quite commendable. Today we are featuring “Sock It To ‘Em”, a song that would seems as welcome on a Herbie Hancock record as it would on one by the Go! Team.
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