“Club Noir” is a very successful and balanced Lounge CD: There is more passion Chill Out, Down Beat with a French flair, a harmonious blend of slow electronic music. 16 plays wisely pieces that develop a calm, gentle flow. Speed & direction remain similar and create a harmonic density....
A near perfect combination of funk, R&B, trip-hop and jazz, Slow Train Soul meshes the smooth, chocolaty vocals of singer Lady Z. with multi-instrumentalist Morten Varano’s remarkably varied sounds. Somewhat like Morcheeba but with a greater emphasis on the bluesy, cool voice of Lady Z., the duo has hit a home run with their debut. Too upbeat to be chillout but not frantic enough for the club crowd, they find the middle ground between the two. Yet the album works because the songs — all co-written by both members — are immediately accessible. This isn’t just background music for Sunday mornings. ...
This is Amanda’s second recording -only via import-, and a very enjoyable one; great singing in English, Portugues and French (actually she’s got majors in French and Spanish)and great musicianship throughout the album.
Amanda is Eliane Elias’ and Randy Brecker’s daughter and she’s already making a name for herself, and a very notable one by the way, composing here 4 of the 13 tracks. ...
Pianist Marque Lowenthal (USA), bassist Robin Draganic (Canada) and German percussionist Torsten Zwingenberger had been playing together as a trio for several years when an extraordinary talent crossed their path in the form of singer Lyambiko.
Lyambiko, born in Thüringen to an amateur musician from Tanzania and a German mother, had begun to sing jazz only a year before the trio was formed. Now she takes the stage with her new accompanists and fascinates audiences with her own unique sound....
In the summer of 2009, Caro Emerald scored a big hit in The Netherlands with her debut single “Back It Up”. The catchy song just wouldn’t leave national radio. The huge success of follow up “A Night Like This” already proved Caro had more to offer than just one summer hit, and on January 29, 2010 Grandmono Records finally released her debut album “Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor”....
Its business as usual in The Smokey Bandits house: bass lines come and go, trumpets sitting lazy in the living room, accordions and trombones melting around, congas, maracas and bongos arguing about the last Tarantino’s film, flutes want to take the leadership, old-school Waltzes Tangos drinking a big bottle of champagne, guitars and Rhodes sitting comfortably in the sofa watching (one more time) Smokey And The Bandit (their favorite film). Everything?s so everyday cool that you might ask yourself if this is the normal for every house.If you take a look at the walls? corners you might discover the grooves dynamics sitting there quietly. Even their girlfriends don?t know that they are there. And all of a sudden you can imagine it: two Dark Knights walking in extremely dangerous neighborhoods of Gotham City alongside Almodovar, Guy Richie, Danny Boyle and Quentin Tarantino! It’s time to direct a film. But is this true or another fake dream.At least 20 years have passed from the first time that The Smokey Bandits have seen Chet Baker in television, singing and playing his trumpet. Since then they have believed that he has always had the golden touch.He had people eating music dreams from the palm of his hands. Those years Margaret Thatcher was still in power. Ronald Reagan was President of USA. Berlin Wall stood still. Nelson Mandela was in prison and apartheid was the king in South Africa. But things always change. A social and cultural revolution was ready to take the lead.There were hundreds of illegal warehouse parties all over the world mixing up music and people. ...
Italian producer Nicola Conte moves away from his trademark brand of cocktail-hour acid jazz on RITUALS in favor of a more organic, acoustic jazz sound. Featuring live instrumentation and vocalists, RITUALS oozes sophistication and class, with traces of Conte’s fascination with bossa nova and neo-soul woven carefully into the mix. With a clear debt to the blues-based jazz released on Blue Note in the 1960s, these tracks are both highbrow and cool-toned, proving Conte capable of taking his electronica influences down to the root in order to grow something new....
With his unmistakable sound-mix of Jazz- and Swing samples and electronic music, Parov Stelar has secured his own unique position in the world of music. His upcoming fourth album “Coco” is eagerly awaited. The double CD starts off where his successful LP’s “Rough Cuts”, “Seven And Storm” and “Shine” ended. On the other hand he is consequently developing his established jazzy sound, by adding new stylistic elements to his tunes. Also his dancefloor-productions, that up to now have only been published as singles, find a debut to a greater extent on his album. They meet with Stelar’s melancholic-melodious trademark-sound, which is well known from his earlier albums, but now is also spiced up with Hip-Hop beats and synth-pads. Parov Stelar manages to build bridges between his own worlds of sound with these extensive LP as well he as he does with listening- and dance-music in general. An electrifying album to fall for....
