Olivera’s latest single “La Chusa” is a collaboration featuring Camilo Lara and Toy Selectah, which as Olivera explained to Univision in a recent interview, derives its title “from a South Texas Chicano folk story about this owl [in some Spanish speaking countries lechuza means owl] with the with the face of an old lady that stands on top of your house and scares kids into acting good. When I was a kid I was petrified of it!” Sonically though the song is comprised of a classic and beloved Columbian cumbia track, Los Hermanos Tuirán’s “La cumbia de la cordillera,” a track that’s not only about a bird on a mountain, and note even remotely related to El Dusty’s title, but it has also been used by sound systems and global bass DJs in Columbia and elsewhere. Interestingly, the track is a buoyant and swaggering track, full of tweeter and woofer rocking beats and bass paired with a joyous and mischievously anthemic hook that will make you get off your ass and move.
Category: World Music
Hector Mendoza is an Dominican Republic-born, Miami, FL-based DJ, electronic music, producer and artist, best known in urban sound system and bass music circles as Happy Colors, and along with El Dusty, Mendoza has been at the forefront of a swaggering and emerging bass music scene that draws from traditional and beloved sounds across Latino America, including merengue, cumbia, bachata, Caribbean moonbahtron and meshes those sounds with trap, drum ‘n’ bass, footwork and other electronic music genres. And as a result of hooking up with Diplo‘s Mad Decent crew, the Dominican Republic-born, Miami, FL-based DJ, electronic music producer and artist has seen a growing national and international reputation as he’s collaborated with the likes of renowned artists including the aforementioned El Dusty, as well as some of electronic music’s renowned artists and producers including Major Lazer, Jack U, DJ Blass, De La Ghetto, Lapiz Conciente and Los Rakas. Additionally, Mendoza has played EDC Mexico, SXSW, Life in Color and at the Sony Music Latin Grammy’s 2016 After Party.
Interestingly, this past year may arguably be Mendoza’s breakthrough year, as his collaboration with El Dusty, “Cumbia Anthem” is the first world bass music track to be nominated for a Latin Grammy — for “Best Urban/Fusion Performance.” Of course along with that, Mendoza has been pretty busy — he released his latest single “Mamaguevo” earlier this month and as you’ll hear, the Miami-based producer creates swaggering and anthemic productions consisting of chopped up vocal samples, explosive, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, twitchy synths and electronics. And while being as equally club-banging as El Dusty’s work, Mendoza’s sound seems to push the Latin bass music sound towards a mainstream-leaning direction.
New Video: Haunting Visuals and Sounds of Tinariwen’s “Tenere Taqqal” Captures a Rapidly Disappearing Way of Life
Interestingly, Tinariwen’s forthcoming full-length effort Elwan (which translates into English as The Elephants) is slated for a February 10, 2017 release, and the album thematically focuses both on the disappearing traditions of the Tuareg people and of being forced into exile — oddly enough as the members of the band were touring the world. And the album’s gorgeous first single “Tenere Taqqal” possesses an understated longing for a way of life and for a home, which as Thomas Wolfe wisely suggested they can never return to and will never get back. And yet there’s a tacit acknowledgment that life must continue onward and that they have a profoundly important duty of ensuring that something of the old traditions can be preserved and passed on to future generations. As a result, the single while being slow-burning and brooding also manages to possess an understated, quiet urgency — all while feeling older than time itself. Every time, I’ve listened to this track I can picture sitting among the Tuareg or the Bedouins at a campfire, as they tell tales of creation or of the great mystics and teachers, who have led flocks of faithful . .
The recently released animated video was directed by Axel Digoix and it vividly depicts the desert’s harshness, cruelty and beauty, and the profound spiritual and physical connection that the Tuareg people have towards it, while pointing out that their traditions and their world is being violently torn apart.
Comprised of founding members Kos Island, Greece-born, Athens, Greece-based Angelos Krallis (vocals, guitar, lute, tsambouna, and udu), Evangelos Aslanides (drums, percussion, djembe, darbuka and bendir) and Pantelis Karasevdas (drums, percussion, congas, djembe) and a rotating cast of friends and collaborations, Chickn is a Athens, Greece-based indie act, whose work has largely been influenced by Eastern Mediterranean music, psych rock, prog rock and jazz fusion. And since their formation in 2012, the band has developed a reputation for free flowing improvisation and a constantly morphing lineup that fits their particular needs at the time.
The band’s self-titled debut was written over the course of 2014-2014 in Athens and Valencia and was recorded from July 2015 to October 2015 at Sonic Playground Studio and at Iraklis Vlachakis’ Athens home, where it was co-produced by Chickn and Nikos Triantafyllou before being mastered by Alan Douches at New York’s West Side Studios. And interestingly enough, the album’s first single “Aleppo/Jam” will remind some listeners of Animals-era Pink Floyd, Drakkar Nowhere, Rush and several others as a persistent bass line is paired with shimmering synths, swirling electronics, a buzzing guitar solo and an anthemic hook — all while drawing from jazz fusion, sci fi and psych rock in a trippy yet loose arrangement that manages to emphasize some exceptional musicianship.
New Video: The Continued Psychedelic Sounds and Visuals of JOVM Mainstay GOAT
Building on the growing attention they’ve received internationally, GOAT will be releasing their highly-anticipated third, full-length effort Requiem on Friday. And from the album’s first single “Try My Robe,” the band continues on a similar path to the singles they’ve released earlier this year, as the song revealed an acoustic, psych folk sound that at times seems influenced by African and Middle Eastern music, which gives the song a mind-bending and mesmerizingly hypnotic quality. The album’s latest single “Union of Mind and Soul,” is based around a looping flute line, layers of jangling and propulsive bass and guitar chords, a buzzing and trippy guitar solo and howled lyrics focused on opening one’s mind towards greater understanding of themselves and the universe. And while sonically drawing from 60s folk and psych rock, the song may arguably be the most urgent and yet old-timey song they’ve released to date.
The recently released video is a fittingly psychedelic video that looks as though it could have been shot in the 1960s, thanks to the Instagram-like filters and the use of slow-motion and the use of rewound footage. And in some way, the video accurately captures small town Swedish life in all of its beauty, boredom and sameness.
New Video: The Lush and Trance Inducing Sounds and Visuals of Mauritana’s Noura Mint Seymali
Arbina’s latest single “Na Sane,” consists Seymali’s gorgeous, siren-like vocals, Chingaly’s shimmering and dexterous guitar work that will make you say to yourself “I’ve never heard guitars sound like that,” Toure’s muscular, driving bass grooves and Tinari’s precise, jazz and rock-inspired drumming, with the result is a song that possesses a lush, enveloping and hypnotic quality. And while being thoroughly modern, the song draws from something deeply timeless and unmistakably universal — an aching yearning to be immersed in the love and power of the infinite.
As the band’s drummer and producer Matthew Tinari explains of the recently released video “Essentially, we just threw an impromptu family barbecue. One of the dancers is Noura’s brother Baba; some of the younger boys are nephews of Jeiche. The girl dancer is a friend from the neighborhood. It was a family affair!” The video manages to captures Moorish traditions and daily life in a gorgeous and cinematic fashion.
New Video: The Lush and Boldly Colored, Primal Visuals for Y La Bamba’s “Libre”
Over the course of the band’s three albums and several lineup changes of collaborators, friends and musicians, the band’s material has gone through a variety of changes — but it’s the the band’s forth full-length effort Ojos Del Sol that may be arguably be the most radical turn in sonic direction, while returning to familiar themes of searching and personal discovery — themes that have come up a number of times in Mendoza’s own life, whether as the daughter of Mexican immigrants connecting with her ancestry and searching for spiritual meaning that goes much further than organized religion. In fact, as Mendoza explains in press notes, the material on the album thematically is a “cerebration of family and community” — but a community of shared humanity.
Interestingly, the album’s first single “Libre” finds Mendoza and company at their most self-assured but in one of the breeziest and pop-leaning songs as they pair an infectious and anthemic hook with an arrangement that includes what sounds like xylophone, a mischievous and sinuous bass line, a steady backbeat, Mendoza’s gorgeous vocals along three part harmonies in English and Spanish, a rolling, African folk music-like guitar line in a song that evokes a sense of almost childlike wonder and joy, while making a connection both to Mendoza’s ancestral homeland and Africa in a way that subtly channels Paul Simon’s Graceland.
The recently released video accompanying the song is a lush, cinematically shot video using impossibly verdant greens, bright reds, and a seemingly primal and ecstatic dance routine in the fields just featuring women wearing ancient-inspired costumes, masks and the like. And while being swoon worthy, the video manages to make a vital connection between the primal and ancient and the modern, between celebrating spring and summer and fertility, and a celebrating a community of strong like-minded women simultaneously.
Ipanema Cosmonauts is a Saransk, Russia-based dream pop/shoegaze duo, who have started to receive international attention for a lush an enveloping sound in which they blend ambient and shimmering guitar chords with pop-leading chord progressions and soaring, almost pop-star-like vocals as you’ll hear on “Kites,” the first single off the duo’s soon-to-be released Adrift EP. Interestingly, the band’s sound manages to nod at 4AD Records heyday, paired with deeply contemplative lyrics.
New Video: The Deep, Psychedelic Grooves and Visuals for Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta’s “Camino Infernal/Phantom Weight”
Led by founding member Alex Chavez and featuring Pete Vale, Daniel Villarreal-Carrillo, Jaime Garza and Nathan Karagianis, the members of Chicago, IL-based Latin music quintet Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta have storied careers in a diversity […]
New Video: The Mischievous, Genre Mashing Sounds of Orkestra Mendoza
“Caramelos,” featuring Salvador Duran is the first single off the band’s soon-to-be released album ¡Vamos A Guarachar! manages to possess a genre mashing style as you’ll hear the enormous tweeter and woofer rocking beats and synths of electronica, an impressive organ solo, the twangy pedal steel of country and western, a bit of mariachi here, a bit of mambo there, a bit of cumbia, a bit of of this and a bit of that in a playful and stomping song that doesn’t quite sound like anything you would have heard recently, and they do with a mischievous, swaggering, danceable song. It’s the sort of song that much like the work of El Dusty and others, should remind listeners that the music from the American/Mexican border may be some of the most sonically inventive and challenging music you’ll hear in contemporary music.
The recently released video was shot by Josh Harrison at Tuscon’s RBar and features the incredibly dapper dressed band performing the song in the bar behind an incredibly colorful backdrop.
Although they’re known as a mysterious and masked collective hailing from the tiny and extremely remote Northern Swedish village of Korpilombolo, over the past couple of years, the members of GOAT have become an internationally recognized act, as well as JOVM mainstays for an aesthetic, stage presentation and sound that draws from their tiny village’s unusual and lengthy history practicing voodoo, a tradition that according to an old Swedish legend can be traced back unabated to sometime before the Crusades. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of the past couple of years, the members of the Swedish collective signed to renowned indie label Sub Pop Records, who released the act’s sophomore full-length effort, Commune and a couple of 7 inches to widespread critical acclaim internationally.
Earlier this year, I wrote about “I Sing In Silence” off the “I Sing In Silence”/”The Snake of Addis Ababa” 7 inch that Sub Pop released a few months ago. That single revealed that the mysterious Swedish collective was relentlessly and continually expanding upon and experimenting with their sound — going completely acoustic as a gorgeous and fluttering flute line is paired with a shuffling and elastic guitar line, gently propulsive drumming and chanted vocals in a song that sounded as though it were indebted to early prog rock — in particular think of Yes’ “Roundabout“– and psych rock as the song possessed a trippy, mind-altering vibe.
Building on the growing attention they’ve received internationally, GOAT will be releasing their highly-anticipated third, full-length effort Requiem on October 7, 2016. And from the album’s first single “Try My Robe,” the band continues on a similar path to the singles they’ve released earlier this year, as the song reveals an acoustic, psych folk sound that at times seems influenced by African and Middle Eastern music — and as a result that particular single possessed a mind-bending and mesmerizingly hypnotic quality. The album’s latest single “Union of Mind and Soul,” is based around a looping flute line, layers of jangling and propulsive bass and guitar chords, a buzzing and trippy guitar solo and howled lyrics focused on opening one’s mind towards greater understanding of themselves and the universe. And while sonically drawing from 60s folk and psych rock, the song may arguably be the most urgent song they’ve released to date.
Inspired by The Cure, Tame Impala and others, Istanbul, Turkey-based quartet The Away Days have developed a reputation in their homeland for being at the forefront of a contemporary and extremely Western-inspired indie music scene — and interestingly enough, the How Did It Start? EP, the Turkish indie rock band was released to critical praise from internationally recognized media outlets including The Guardian, SPIN Magazine,Noisey and received airplay from renowned indie station KEXP. Adding to a growing international profile, the band has toured the UK, made appearances at two consecutive SXSW And with a growing international profile, the quartet went on a tour of the UK and made appearance at two consecutive SXSW Festivals and have opened for the likes of Portishead, Massive Attack, Belle and Sebastian and others.
Over the past couple of years, the Istanbul, Turkey-based quartet have released a batch of singles that have received attention across the blogosphere, including this site; however, the band has been working on the material which, will comprise their highly-anticipated full-length debut effort. Much like the album’s lush and atmospheric first single “Less Is More,” the album’s latest single “World Horizon” is a slow burning, moody and atmospheric ballad consisting of plaintive vocals paired with ethereal and shimmering synths, stuttering, four-on-the-floor drumming and equally shimmering guitars that’s largely inspired by the band members’ own lives in Istanbul, living in “never ending lies . . .” And as a result, the song possesses a mournful air, as the song’s recognizes a loss of innocence and belief in innocence and goodness.
New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Return with a Cinematic and Decidedly French Take on Psych Pop and Art Films
The Parisian collective’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort Mystere will officially drop today and you may recall that I’ve written about two album singles “Sphynx,” a track that manages to evoke a lingering fever dream — while cementing their growing reputation for boldly defying categorization, while the album’s second single “Ou va la mode” was a more stripped down, as though the Parisians were returning to the breezy and decidedly French take on surfer rock of Le Podium #1; but with warped, carnival from hell-sounding organs — and in some way it would force the listener to think that both songs would be heard as part of the soundtrack of a surrealistic French arthouse film. Now the album’s third and latest single “Septembre” continues along the same veins of the preceding single as the band pairs swirling and soaring organ chords, propulsive and steady drumming, whirring background noise and dreamily distracted vocals to craft a song that sounds deeply indebted to 60s psych rock and psych pop; but interestingly enough, just under the surface is a mournful and bittersweet air.
The recently released video was shot on old, grainy Super 8 film and features some of the members of the band broodingly walking on the beach — but spliced and superimposed over old home movies, which further emphasizes the song’s mournful and bittersweet air.
New Audio: JOVM Mainstays GOAT Returns with a Gorgeous and Cinematic, New Single
Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months you’d likely know that the mysterious Northern Swedish collective’s highly-anticipated, third, full-length effort Requiem is slated for an October 7, 2016 release and the album’s “Try My Robe” continues on a similar vein as “I Sing in Silence,” as the collective has gone for a stripped down, acoustic, psych rock vibe paired with chanted/shouted vocals, shimmering and dexterously looping guitar work, mischievously complex, handclap led percussion and a slow, shuffling bass line that manages to be deceptively propulsive in a song that sounds subtly influenced by African and Middle Eastern music. Requiem’s latest single “Alarms” is a gorgeous track consisting of African and Middle Eastern-like percussion, shimmering and gorgeous guitar lines and an ethereal melody that floats just above the instrumentation. Sonically, the song manages to sound both incredibly cinematic and as though it could have been released in 1966.