Conch Records

Date

February 23 2010

Written By

3

Comments

0 Comments

Upcoming: Soil & Pimp - "6" CD/10" (Brownswood)

Written By 3 - February 23 2010

Released April 2010, for pre-order please contact us at info@conch.co.nz

Preceding the album release is a limited 10" "Popkorn / Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag", check the video for "Popkorn" below.

Japanese punk-jazz renegades SOIL&”PIMP”SESSIONS bust back in 2010 with their sixth studio album on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings imprint. The sextet’s roof-raising, festival-conquering live show (dubbed “Death Jazz” in a two-finger salute to ....Japan....’s polite, noodling, straight ahead jazz cognoscenti) has earned them new fans at every stop on their annual trailblazing European tours.

In response to their ‘Planet Pimp’ LP, Time Out hailed the group for “…thrashing and trashing jazz into a new century…” They are committed to the same spirit of invention as Coltrane, Shepp, Mingus, Ayler, Sun Ra and Ornette, although these quintessential avant garde jazz-men barely scrape the surface of the Pimps’ musical reference points. Pivotal to that essential Death Jazz mix are Cynic (one LP in ‘93…. these dudes are LARGE), Peter Brotzmann (crazy German horn player – check ‘Machine Gun’), Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’, NYC’s John Zorn and Original Silence – a kind of death-jazz supergroup, featuring the ubiquitous Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, alongside members of the Thing, Zu and Dutch experimental rockers the Ex. It’s all pretty wild shit and it’s just a starting point.

The cunningly titled ‘6’ is – yep, you guessed it - the sixth album by the sextet and alongside monstrous good time grooves like ‘Pop Korn’ and ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag’, the band incorporate two vocal-featured tracks for the first time. ‘MY FOOLISH HEART ～crazy on earth～’ features acclaimed Japanese alternative female singer Ringo Sheena on vocals whilst a cover of the club classic ‘Stolen Moments’ features Top UK jazzer Jamie Cullum who collaborated with the band for the BBC Electric Proms in 2008. Taking things into the electronic arena, renowned Japanese turntablist, DJKENTARO contributes the opening sound collage too.

‘6’ finds SOIL & “PIMP” SESSIONS in blazing hot form. The album highlights the band’s consistent progress in their misson to seek new sounds and push the envelope. Purists, anoraks and haters beware, the “PIMP”s are back and they ain’t leaving ‘til you show them the respect that they deserve. Tracklisting & Listening Clips:
01 Seven (Intro Sound Collage From DJKENTARO) clip
02 Keizoku clip
03 Papa's Got A Brandnew Pigbag clip
04 My Foolish Heart (Crazy On Earth) clip
05 Double Trouble clip
06 Pop Korn clip
07 Quartz And Chronometer clip
08 Paraiso clip
09 My Foolish Heart (Crazy On Earth) ft. Ringo Sheena clip
10 Mirror Boy clip
11 Stolen Moments ft. Jamie Cullum clip
12 After The Party clip
13 Satsuriku To Heiwa clip
Check Soil & Pimp Sessions live performance on the Jools Holland show:

Date

February 22 2010

Written By

3

Comments

0 Comments

BEAT TAPE: Christoph El Truento - Homemade Shit

Written By 3 - February 22 2010

Brand new beat tape from Christoph El Truento, get it here Also catch his weekly radio show on Base FM 'The Beat Collection' and weekly at 'The Circling Sun' every Wednesday night at Ponsonby Social Club

Date

February 20 2010

Written By

3

Comments

0 Comments

Upcoming: Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Steps Ahead 2LP/CD (STRUT)

Written By 3 - February 20 2010

Now available on 2LP here

Following his acclaimed collaboration on Strut with The Heliocentrics, the Father of Ethio jazz presents his brand new studio album, 'Mulatu Steps Ahead' for 2010. The album explores new directions in fusions of Western jazz with Ethiopian modes, moving forward the pioneering sound Mulatu developed during the '60s and '70s, showcased on the recent Strut compilation 'New York * Addis * London'. For the new album, tracks were recorded with members of Either/Orchestra in Boston, with contributions by traditional Ethiopian musicians in Addis, members of The Heliocentrics and some of the UK's leading jazz and African players during the final sessions in London in November 2009.

Each track on the album tells its own story. The reflective, meandering opener, Radcliffe, was composed specifically for the Radcliffe Institute during Mulatu's time lecturing at Harvard in Boston - the original score is now framed on the wall there. The Way To Nice was written and arranged on the tour bus during Mulatu's recent French dates - "with this track, you are travelling on a long journey, talking and thinking" explains Mulatu. "It was inspired by the many beautiful places on the coast road around Nice." Assosa adapts traditional music from the Assosa tribes in North-Western Ethiopia and Mulatu's Mood re-works a Mulatu jazz fusion composition from the early '90s into a new swinging Afro highlife arrangement. "I wanted to use West African styles within this version and try new ways of using the beautiful sound of the kora." Boogaloo and I Faram Gami I Faram reprise Mulatu classics with new, fuller scores and bonus digital track Derashe highlights the traditional diminishing scales of the Derashe people of Southern Ethiopia, a musical technique that would later feature in the classical compositions of Debussy and the jazz of Charlie Parker. "Many debate how this music developed but the Derashe have played these scales for centuries. It is an untold story."

Track-listing:
01 Radcliffe clip
02 Green Africa clip
03 The Way To Nice clip
04 Assosa clip
05 I Faram Gami I Faram clip
06 Mulatu's Mood clip
07 Ethio Blues clip
08 Boogaloo clip
09 Motherland clip
Related Releases:
Mulatu Astake - New York - Addis - London: The Story Of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975 CD / 2LP (Strut)
Mulatu Astatke / The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information CD / 2LP (Strut)

Date

February 20 2010

Written By

3

Comments

0 Comments

GIG: The Gaslamp Killer (US) at Bacco Room - Thurs 25th Feb

Written By 3 - February 20 2010

12271lg
The Gaslamp Killer
Thursday 25th Feb 2010
Bacco Room, 53 Nelson St, Auckland City
Tickets $20 + BF from Conch Records, Beats People Movement & iticket.co.nz
Releases:
Gaslamp Killer - My Troubled Mind 10"

Date

February 20 2010

Written By

1

Comments

0 Comments

Blockhead - The Music Scene 2LP (Ninja Tune)

Written By 1 - February 20 2010

Available on LP here at Conch New York hip hop producer Tony Simon aka Blockhead returns with his third and best instrumental album for Ninja Tune. Blockhead has long made beautiful, emotive music based around the hip hop template, but on "The Music Scene" he elevates his craft to another level. Tony puts it down to the use of Ableton, which means that rather than working from "one basic beat and building off it" (the standard hip hop model), he has begun stringing together multiple beats and weaving them together into increasingly complex, surprising and satisfying pieces of music. As he himself puts it, "I made each song a little more of a musical journey than anything I have ever done before." Blockhead's ambition to "tell stories without words" is evident from opener "It's Raining Clouds" onwards. The tune starts off as classic downtempo and ends up almost drum and bass, the music having changed and fallen away, echoing back through itself and feeding into previous themes at least three times. It's an epic in an album of epics. At the heart of the record is the remarkable "The Daily Routine" - an exploration of drug addiction (based around a found recording of drug addicts arguing), Blockhead says "it's pretty much the creepiest song I've ever made." "Four Walls," meanwhile aims a musical broadside at the current vogue for autotune. "Which One Of You Jerks Drank My Arnold Palmer" is huge ambient space rock hip hop. "The Prettiest Seaslug" is Bahia-beat on opium. "Tricky Turtle" begins as afro-blaxpoitation, turns into a voodoo orgy and ends somewherte in the Middle East. "Farewell Spaceman" starts off sounding like an outtake from "Bewitched" and ends as an ecstatic, chugging flight off into the stars. While "The Music Scene" represents a development in Blockhead's work, he still holds true to his basic beliefs about music and rhythm. When not working on his new album he has been providing production for Aesop Rock, DJ Signify, Joanna Erdos and many more, plus remixes for Yameen and Chin Chin, amonst others. Whereas the music scene is "a bastardized version of something that was already watered down," Blockhead's "The Music Scene," like his career as a whole, is "the opposite of that." By re-working, chopping and melding samples, by blending them together, Blockhead restores rather than dilutes their purity.
It's Raining Clouds clip
The Music Scene clip
Which One Of You Kerks Stole My Arnold Palmer clip
Attack The Doctor clip
The Prettiest Sea Slug clip
The Daily Routine clip
Tricky Turtle clip
Four Walls clip
Pity Party
clip
Farewell Spaceman
clip
CD only Track
clip
CD only Track clip

Recent Articles

Tags