Debbie Nunn: "Always in my Heart" Video
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London Club Dj/Producer,DJ Carousel teams up with Debbie Nunn for this first single "Sunrise," taken from the new 11 track studio album "Life on the Magic Roundabout." Visit : www.myspace.com/djcarousel For more info:
The fine young ladies of Azure Ray enjoy a scooter ride in this Sam Jones-directed video.
Matt Ralph: "Waiting for the Country"
This is my debut clip. It is very simple but meaningful to me, and maybe for you too. This song is from my album, Under the Treehouse. You can download the complete album, song by song, at download.com/mattralph
Pop Levi has led what one might describe as a melodic life. From childhood his life has been steeped in music. He took up piano at age 3, joined a gospel choir at 7, and started record collecting at 9 just prior to writing his first song. It was a precocious start for an artist who has proved to be a prodigious talent. This English born, LA based multi-instrumentalist was a founder member of avant-garde rock collective Super Numeri before embarking on a global roller coaster ride as bassist with electro pioneers Ladytron. All the while he?s been perfecting his modern spin on rock and soul, releasing two singles on the ?Trons Invicta Hi-Fi label', and carefully crafting his debut solo album. August 2006 sees the release of his first EP on Counter Records. Drawing inspiration from such luminaries as Van Dyke Parks, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye and Syd Barrett, Levi creates his own brand of gloriously funky alt-rock, meticulously piecing together his kaleidoscopic sound from recordings he?s compiled over a ten-year period. The roar of a motorcycle and the Bolan-esque swagger of title track Blue Honey, kicks off this five track EP. Track 2 (A Style Called) Crying Chic sees Levi pay tribute to the sun drenched sounds of 60's west coast America before he struts his stuff on the Zeppelin-heavy guitar riffs of Mournin Light. Penultimate song Baby Again (Midnight Version) has a looser, more experimental feel, prior to more close-vocal harmonising and finger clicking beats from Levi on an alternate recording of album track Skip Ghetto (Echo Park version). The album, The Return To Form Black Magick Party, described by Levi as a truly bizarre whirlwind of classic sounds has been mixed by Thom Monahan, Devendra Banhart's producer, and produced by Pop Levi himself. It is due for release in the New Year. Meanwhile Levi and his band have been astounding audiences with their soulful vocals and guitar pyrotechnics both at home and here in the UK and plan a return trip to the UK in August for a clutch of dates to be announced shortly.
The record, the second long player by Swedish octet The Concretes, is very aptly entitled "In Colour." Although previously and persistently described as making some kind of European glacial pop, "In Colour" sees the band painting their musical canvass with a full rainbow palette. Whereas the eponymously titled debut album was "The Ronettes" lit only by the Northern Lights, "In Colour" makes the leap into glorious widescreen. Recorded in Stockholm and Omaha with Nebraskan producer Mike Mogis, "In Colour" is classic Americana and Southern Soul rerouted via Northern Europe. Evocative of a line of records that veers between Dusty in Memphis and Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" through to Cat Power's "The Greatest" and Bright Eyes' "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning," The Concretes have effortlessly become one of the most unique and beautiful pop groups in the world, a Swedish national treasure.
Jose Gonzalez: "Down the Line"
With his crystal-clear singing voice and vibrant, classically-inspired playing, Jos? Gonz?lez is one of today’s most remarkable artists – testament to the irrefutable power of one man and a guitar. His debut album 'Veneer' captured his magical sound in its purest state, simply beautiful and beautifully simple. Touching on a remarkable array of influences, from folk to classic pop to a dazzling spectrum of world music, 'Veneer' touched audiences across the globe. Originally released in Sweden on Imperial Recordings in 2003 and on Hidden Agenda in North America in 2005, 'Veneer' was re-issued in the US on Mute Records in 2006. In September 2007 Gonz?lez will release his sophomore album, the highly anticipated 'In Our Nature' (released in the US on Mute). 'In Our Nature' sees Gonz?lez coming into his own as a songwriter – with songs that are as instantly accessible as they are brimming with darkness and brooding intensity.
"One of Britain's most hotly tipped musicians . . ." -- The Guardian (UK) This young woman has built her way up from nothing, from dropping out of school, from selling donuts and double-glazed windows to making a slew of world tastemakers (from production collaborators Basement Jaxx to Missy Elliot and Jay-Z) take note of a random, cheeky, and undeniably charismatic talent. Now it's time for America to make way for the Ess-Oh-Vee, otherwise known as Lady Sovereign. Lady Sovereign expresses a unique perspective of youth culture that's previously been a hidden voice. An MC, lyricist, and producer, she's the alternative microphone vandal with lyrics that hit like left and right hooks, whether subjects are light or weighty. "Vertically Challenged" finds Lady Sovereign definitely doing her own thing as well, showcasing her incredibly varied flow and animated voice across a multivariance of bottom-heavy beats that could only emerge from the UK urban underground.
Hanne Hukkelberg: "Cheater's Armoury"
Following mainstream praise for her debut release Little Things, Norwegian singer Hanne Hukkelberg is set to release her sophomore album "Rykestrasse 68" in early March. Rykestrasse 68 is a collaboration of songs inspired by Hukkelberg's 6-month stint in Berlin where she wrote and recorded an eclectic masterpiece of ambitious lyrics and soulful sounds. With an early release to iTunes, Rykestrasse 68 has been received exceptionally well from the indie scene and is of The Wire's top 50 records of 2007. Hanne Hukkelberg has earned comparison to the great Billie Holiday and is sure to become a household name in itself with the release of Rykestrasse 68.
Country legend Charlie Louvin (of classic country duo the Louvin Brothers) pays tribute to his late brother Ira in this beautiful ballad from Charlie's 2007 self-titled solo album.
SILK'S "ALWAYS AND FOREVER" CD TAKES "BABY-MAKING MUSIC" TO THE NEXT LEVEL "Always And Forever" is not a phrase usually associated with a fickle music business, especially in recent times when one-hit wonders and manufactured artists have been especially prevalent. But for Silk, one of the few vocal groups to breakthrough in the hip-hop era, the phrase applies not only to their own longevity--seventeen years and counting with the current line-up featuring the four original members who have been together throughout--but also to the quality of their music which features finely crafted harmony singing and lyrics that deal with timeless issues of love, romance and sex. With the release of their seventh album "Always And Forever", their debut release on Shanachie Entertainment on October 17th, Silk brings their vocal artistry to a hand-picked selection of songs that have inspired them as simultaneous homage to artists who they respect and musical statement of the ultimate quality of Silk's music. "It all comes full circle on this album," relates Gary Glenn. "A lot of these songs were ones we were already familiar with so it was easy for us to step in and emulate people we have a lot of respect for. It's a chance to show off our own artistry. If someone has the audacity to do a Michael Jackson number or a Prince tune and do it well, or to really do justice to"The Secret Garden" , then they walk away with respect from the audience. That's what we want." The album, which features Silk's interpretations of major hits by Blue Magic, Switch, Shalamar, Prince, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Heatwave and others, simply builds on something Silk had already been doing. ""We've done a re-make on almost every album anyway so it was like time to do this--a full serving of what we've been doing throughout. Like (Blue Magic's classic) "Sideshow", we've been doing that in our shows and people love it. We were doing (Switch's) "There'll Never Be" at shows and people start to "step" when we do it...and it's a beautiful thing. It even happened in Aurora, Colorado, which is the last place I thought people would be steppin'!" The young men who formed Silk grew up in Atlanta. Three of them met each other in the late Eighties in the course of working at a particular McDonald's. Soon --Gary "Big G" Glenn, Jonathan "John John" Rasboro, Tim "Timzo" Cameron and Jimmy Gates (Tim and Jimmy were cousins)--got together around their mutual love of singing. They sang whenever and wherever they could ("I don't think there's a church in Atlanta we DIDN'T sing at," laughs Gary) at talent shows, clubs, churches and in the streets. Louise Ferguson, who is their manager today, was determined to get them a shot with Keith Sweat who didn't particularly want to audition the unknown wanna-be's. So when Keith came to a barbeque at Louise's house, she invited Silk to come over and they discreetly went down in the basement and started singing for the kids there. Keith heard them and liked what he heard enough to make Silk the first group signed to his Keia label in 1992 and they were featured on "two of Keith's tracks on his "Keep It Coming" album. Silk's first single, "Happy Days" was garnering radio play but then "Freak Me", another cut from their first album, starting generating radio play spontaneously and when released a single became a Number 1 R&B hit and Number 1 pop hit. It was quickly followed by two Top Ten R&B hits--"Lose Control" and "Girl U For Me, which grew into a string of hits throughout the Nineties including "Hooked On You", "I Can Go Deep", "If You ("Lovin' Me")and "Meeting In My Bedroom". Their signature sound was dubbed "baby-making music." "At the time we came up," Gary Glenn notes, "producers were putting groups together but when Keith met us we were already Silk. That may be part of the reason why we have been able to stand the test of time. We didn't just get together to get a deal; we got together to sing. We had to find our own niche. You had Boyz II Men with their harmonies and Jodeci with their "from the gut" sound, so we were kind of in the middle. We went from high school stages to arenas very quickly--that was due to Keith." Silk's audience has grown up along with them and some of the children who were the result of "baby-making music" are now teenagers. "People are always telling us," John adds, "I made my first child to your music." That's just a blessing! That someone created a child with our music. We know what people are looking for from our music so as long as we honor and respect that we can keep going in that vein, like The Isley Brothers and Keith Sweat." It's a difficult challenge for even a solo artist to survive in the cut-throat music industry and even more so for a group to stay together. Fourteen years together since the release of their first single, what's Silk's secret? "I think a lot of prayer, patience and understanding," says Gary Glenn. "We don't always realize how important our commitment to each other has been. It's like being in a marriage that you REFUSE to leave. It's like "I got this ring and I ain't going NOWHERE!" But we all bow down to what's important to Silk. And in the end, we just love singing together."
