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Dom La Nena: Tempo
by Chris M. Slawecki
Dom La Nena creates curiously beautiful music by building cello, piano and vocals into layers of electronic sound ranging from a vocal choir to percussion and beats. Most pieces on Tempo—they're more pieces than songs—come and go in a quicksilver two or three minutes and leave behind a sense of wonder. “My intention on this album was to explore new ways to use my instrument," La Nena explains. “So I have used lots of pedals, guitar amps, and effects to ...
read moreBossacucanova E Roberto Menescal: Bossa Got the Blues
by Chris M. Slawecki
Listening to Bossacucanova creates the impression that you're driving an exquisite Italian sportscar on a leisurely and sunny Sunday afternoon. You can hear the smooth purr of the engine powering your rhythm, soft but ferocious, a napping tiger, through the open window. Slicing through the breeze moderates its temperature so that it feels both warm and cool— simply perfect— on your skin. You turn to the left and the right and smile to return the greetings extended by the colorful ...
read moreBossacucanova: The Best of Bossacucanova
by Chris M. Slawecki
Few bands have built upon the legacy of their chosen field the way that Bossacucanova has advanced the music of their native Brazil. Their story begins about two decades ago, when three amigos--DJ Marcelinho DaLua, Alex Moreira and Marcio Menescal, son of bossa nova pioneer Roberto Menescal--began remixing classic 1960s bossa nova just for the fun of it. Five albums later, their Best of compilation presents “our best arrangements, most original beats, and top performances," Marcio explains, plus two new ...
read moreBallake Sissoko & Vincent Segal: Musique De Nuit
by James Nadal
Expanding on the adage that less is more, Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko and renowned French cellist Vincent Segal have taken an ascetic minimalistic approach on Musique De Nuit. This melding of primordial African intonations with Baroque inclinations, has yielded a stimulating and unique hybrid acoustic format, which they first experimented with in “Chamber Music," back in 2009. As with that production, this latest release is also recorded in Bamako, Mali, only this time half the record was done on ...
read moreVarious Artists: Six Degrees Records' Psychedelic Planet
by Chris M. Slawecki
Comprising new remixes of recent tunes from the label's catalog, Six Degrees Records' Psychedelic Planet colorfully spins and orbits around its electronic global beat. Psychedelic Planet seems to offer as many different styles and sounds as there are stars in the sky. Jef Stott's ethereal horn floats through the murky “White Tara (Vlastur Remix)" like the ghost of Christmas past famously hovering over Ebenezer Scrooge's bed. The dub instrumental style--stretched out and spaced out reggae--informs the shapes of ...
read moreBossaCucaNova: Our Kind of Bossa
by Chris M. Slawecki
Our Kind of Bossa celebrates fifteen fun years of BossaCucaNova, one of Brazil's most adventurous contemporary ensembles (and was also timed to coincide with Brazil hosting the 2014 soccer World Cup). These eleven tracks fuse the electro-bossa nova for which the group is best known with samba and other dance rhythms from their homeland, and celebrate the BossaCucaNova core quartet--Marcio Menescal (son of bossa nova pioneer Roberto Menescal) on bass, DJ Marcelinho DaLua, engineer/producer Alex Moreira doubling on keyboards, vocalist ...
read moreJef Stott: Arkana
by Chris M. Slawecki
Arkana is the tenth release by multi-instrumentalist and ethno-conceptualist Jef Stott, one of several artists forging new music through the merger of modern technology and electronic music with indigenous and historical music from around the world--in Stott's case, India and the surrounding region. And the world came very close to never hearing it: Thieves broke into and robbed Stott's apartment and all his computer equipment--including the hard drive with the finished Arkana--was stolen. “I just went back into the studio ...
read moreNatacha Atlas: Mounqaliba
by Chris M. Slawecki
Vocalist Natacha Atlas seems to embody the modern musical millennia: She was born in Brussels and raised in one of its Moroccan suburbs; her compositions and singing reach into and crisscross storied European and Arabic musical traditions. Primarily co-written and performed with multi-instrumentalist Samy Bishai along with pianist Zoe Rahman, a chamber orchestra and 20-piece Turkish ensemble, Mounqaliba is most likely the clearest representation of Atlas' ambitious vision so far. “What I hope I have achieved is to match the ...
read moreBallake Sissoko / Vincent Segal: Chamber Music
by Chris May
Until quite recently, the kora was a curiosity which generally required the bracketed explanation (a 16 or 21 string West African harp) when referred to in print. Today, with “world music" part of the cultural mainstream, the instrument is almost commonplace. More so, in jazz anyway, than the cello (a four string viol pitched above a double bass), which--despite a lengthy pedigree going back to Fred Katz's work in drummer Chico Hamilton's chamber group of the 1950s--remains on further shores. ...
read moreBrownout: Aguilas and Cobras
by Chris M. Slawecki
The best little R&B band in (Austin) Texas is the Latino little brother to Grupo Fantasma, which often backs up the miniature R&B tornado known as Prince. “It's funny because we can be rehearsing with Grupo Fantasma one night and then the next night the same group of guys can go back to the rehearsal room and rehearse as Brownout and the music is completely different," muses guitarist Adrian Quesada. For its second release in this Latin configuration, Brownout emerges ...
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