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viewing 1 To 7 of 7 items
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BL 007LP
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Each new record by Domenico Lancellotti (1972, Brazil) must be celebrated as a little gift. The Rio de Janeiro-born in-demand drummer (regular musician for Gilberto Gil) and inspired contemporary songwriters, Domenico owns a short but stunning catalog, either solo or along with his pals Kassin and Moreno Veloso (+2). Raio means his comeback three years after the hailed The Good Is A Big God for Luaka Bop. A brilliant new collection of songs recorded from his new home in Lisbon, where Lancellotti's musical parameters continue the path of his rich musical universe, that is, his personal update on all the best music the MPB has provided, with Joao Donato or Milton Nascimento as main references, sailing always through seductive and playful trademark orchestrations. Domenico explains the reasons on Raio: "In 2018, Lúcia Koch invited me to set up an art installation for the Kansas City Biennial. We chose a vacant lot in the ancient black neighborhood, the same place where Charlie Parker was born, and the first black newspaper was founded in a building close to this lot full of weeds and trash. For this project I created six weeded and cleaned sound mushrooms that were buried in the ground. Each mushroom was made of five speakers set up in circles, with one of the bass speakers in the middle. In order to get an idea of the complete display of the musical themes, people should move around. Some of the tracks on this album were part of this installation which we called Dynamo! I moved to Portugal in 2019 and from here I kept recording. I was almost done with the record when the COVID-19 crisis arose, therefore I started working remotely, Nina Miranda sang two songs from his home in London, the Polish pianist Piotr Zabrodsky recorded piano and keys also from his home in Warsaw, Daniel Carvalho mixed and mastered the album at his studio in Rio de Janeiro. This record, called Raio, was developed since then. It is a record about permanent transformation. Everything needs to change, that is all."
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CD
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BL 006CD
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Never one to sit still, Carwyn Ellis is continuing his voyage into Latin Americana with the release of his second album with Rio 18, Mas. Like its predecessor, the acclaimed Joia! (BL 003CD/LP, 2019), this album is a collection of songs sung in Welsh combined with distinct pop and South American flavors drawn from bossa nova, cumbia, samba, and tropicalismo styles, recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Caernarfon, and London. Mas feels strangely right for our times: an album whose title means several things, as befits its global outlook. Mas means "out" in Welsh, "more" in Spanish, and "but" in Portuguese: these meanings filling that single syllable with promise, potential, but also the subtle edge of a warning. It's a mood that fits the more political tenor of Rio 18's second turn around the world, as Carwyn and his friends explore some substantial subjects: the drowning of villages, climate change, migration, and the rise of megacities. They do so not in sober, serious settings, but beautiful, uplifting songs. Other tracks also celebrate the vivid pleasures of love, nature and our essential humanity. Mas is a record of beautiful songs that says, wait, listen, delight, come together, then act.
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LP
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BL 006LP
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LP version. Never one to sit still, Carwyn Ellis is continuing his voyage into Latin Americana with the release of his second album with Rio 18, Mas. Like its predecessor, the acclaimed Joia! (BL 003CD/LP, 2019), this album is a collection of songs sung in Welsh combined with distinct pop and South American flavors drawn from bossa nova, cumbia, samba, and tropicalismo styles, recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Caernarfon, and London. Mas feels strangely right for our times: an album whose title means several things, as befits its global outlook. Mas means "out" in Welsh, "more" in Spanish, and "but" in Portuguese: these meanings filling that single syllable with promise, potential, but also the subtle edge of a warning. It's a mood that fits the more political tenor of Rio 18's second turn around the world, as Carwyn and his friends explore some substantial subjects: the drowning of villages, climate change, migration, and the rise of megacities. They do so not in sober, serious settings, but beautiful, uplifting songs. Other tracks also celebrate the vivid pleasures of love, nature and our essential humanity. Mas is a record of beautiful songs that says, wait, listen, delight, come together, then act.
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CD
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BL 004CD
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Kelley Stoltz enters his 20th year in the record business with the release of his tenth full-length album, My Regime. This will be his second release for the Spanish label Banana & Louie after prior albums on Castleface, Third Man Records, and Sub Pop. A long-time DIY, home recording multi-instrumentalist, Stoltz again engineers, mixes, and plays all the instruments on the album and his unique brand of '60s/'80s pop, garage-rock, and folk sounds seem to have gotten better with age. My Regime was recorded during an emotional year that saw him get engaged to marry, his father pass away, and his tenure as rhythm guitarist with longtime heroes Echo & the Bunnymen come to an end. Jovial and reflective moods ensued and were put to tape by Stoltz in his Electric Duck Studios at home in San Francisco. The first single "Turning Into You" ponders the delight and soul connections of love, while "2020" asks "have you got what you need to ride it out... I wish I could see peace in 2020", in reference to the chaotic politics at home. "Fire On Fire" was written with his Dad on his mind, and is a big beat slow burner reminiscent of The Church's Starfish years (1988).
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LP
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BL 004LP
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LP version. Kelley Stoltz enters his 20th year in the record business with the release of his tenth full-length album, My Regime. This will be his second release for the Spanish label Banana & Louie after prior albums on Castleface, Third Man Records, and Sub Pop. A long-time DIY, home recording multi-instrumentalist, Stoltz again engineers, mixes, and plays all the instruments on the album and his unique brand of '60s/'80s pop, garage-rock, and folk sounds seem to have gotten better with age. My Regime was recorded during an emotional year that saw him get engaged to marry, his father pass away, and his tenure as rhythm guitarist with longtime heroes Echo & the Bunnymen come to an end. Jovial and reflective moods ensued and were put to tape by Stoltz in his Electric Duck Studios at home in San Francisco. The first single "Turning Into You" ponders the delight and soul connections of love, while "2020" asks "have you got what you need to ride it out... I wish I could see peace in 2020", in reference to the chaotic politics at home. "Fire On Fire" was written with his Dad on his mind, and is a big beat slow burner reminiscent of The Church's Starfish years (1988).
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CD
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BL 003CD
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You might know Carwyn from other projects like Colorama, Bendith (Welsh dreamy folk), or Zarelli (hauntologic electronic). Or maybe you might be familiar with him because he collaborates with pop superstars and universal references like Edwyn Collins, The Pretenders, Oasis, or Saint Etienne. Or maybe you don't know him at all, so far, because Ellis is one of those musicians that does not feel self-important, that is not under the spotlight but that is praised by other musicians and everyone wants to collaborate with. His diverse personal projects are a sample of his passionate love for the music with no borders of any kind. He is hard to label, and transforms his skin in each new record. Almost in every song. He records the albums that he feels like doing whenever he feels like doing them, and with the sound and the people that stand out for him in that moment. Most of his songs are sung in Welsh, his mother language, but his music is timeless and universal. Carwyn always approaches the global by the local. It isn't a coincidence that precisely now he has decided to take the plunge and go to Rio de Janeiro to record, along with two distinguished crazy local artists like Domenico Lancellotti and Kassin, his most colorful record. Joia!, in which he presents his new band Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18, is a non-explicit plea against the Brexit. Against any Brexits taking place right now any way or another in this world shocked by the continuous transformations and fears that they lead to. Pretty sure that Lancellotti or Kassin might say that it is an anti-Bolsonaro record. However, Carwyn and his fellows in Rio 18 prefer to do a cheerful and positive record, like almost all the South American music it is inspired by, to celebrate that those changes, that definitely marks an era, boosts and eases the fact that a musician from Cardiff is able to record an album with musicians from the other side of the world, and make it halfway between Rio and London with the invaluable help from another top musician, like Shawn Lee.
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LP
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BL 003LP
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LP version. You might know Carwyn from other projects like Colorama, Bendith (Welsh dreamy folk), or Zarelli (hauntologic electronic). Or maybe you might be familiar with him because he collaborates with pop superstars and universal references like Edwyn Collins, The Pretenders, Oasis, or Saint Etienne. Or maybe you don't know him at all, so far, because Ellis is one of those musicians that does not feel self-important, that is not under the spotlight but that is praised by other musicians and everyone wants to collaborate with. His diverse personal projects are a sample of his passionate love for the music with no borders of any kind. He is hard to label, and transforms his skin in each new record. Almost in every song. He records the albums that he feels like doing whenever he feels like doing them, and with the sound and the people that stand out for him in that moment. Most of his songs are sung in Welsh, his mother language, but his music is timeless and universal. Carwyn always approaches the global by the local. It isn't a coincidence that precisely now he has decided to take the plunge and go to Rio de Janeiro to record, along with two distinguished crazy local artists like Domenico Lancellotti and Kassin, his most colorful record. Joia!, in which he presents his new band Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18, is a non-explicit plea against the Brexit. Against any Brexits taking place right now any way or another in this world shocked by the continuous transformations and fears that they lead to. Pretty sure that Lancellotti or Kassin might say that it is an anti-Bolsonaro record. However, Carwyn and his fellows in Rio 18 prefer to do a cheerful and positive record, like almost all the South American music it is inspired by, to celebrate that those changes, that definitely marks an era, boosts and eases the fact that a musician from Cardiff is able to record an album with musicians from the other side of the world, and make it halfway between Rio and London with the invaluable help from another top musician, like Shawn Lee.
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