PODCAST: The Greatest Show On Earth on George FM - Sunday 13th Dec
Greatest Show On Earth with Geezer Guy
George FM, Sundays 8pm - 10pm

Pins and Digits features guests spots from some of New Zealand’s most talented musicians including Jonathan Crayford, Paul Dyne, Lewis McCallum, Jeremy Toy (opensouls), John Bell, Isaac Aesili, Steph Brown and stand out tracks from the fresh vocal talents of Mara TK (Electric Wire Hustle) and Parks (Ladi6). The Waikato Times has described the album as staying “true to the funk, never losing the groove through brilliant down tempo compositions.†Pins & Digits is being released in Japan next month by Wonderful Noise featuring a stunning remix of “Falling Down†by DJ Mitsu the Beats.
Julien’s first release, the Phantom Limbo EP introduced Julien as a producer and served as a platform for him to showcase his sizable percussion and production skills. Lead single 'Maddingos' was nominated for a bnet award 2007, and remains a local anthem for DJs. Stylistically Pins and Digits combines the big bass, brass and beats aesthetic of the Phantom Limbo EP with futuristic keyboards and synthesised sounds.
Since his selection for the Red Bull Music Academy in Rome in 2004 Julien has been working with international artists and forging his own unique sound as a producer. Julien spent two weeks in Cologne in 2007 where he recorded, collaborated and co-produced with legendary musicians and producers including the Mizell brothers (Motown/ Jackson 5, Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey), Om'mas Keith (Sa- Ra), Steve Spacek, Mark Pritchard (Harmonic 313), Andreya Triana, Black Spade , Theo Parrish , Roman Rosic, Skymark and Sophie Loizou.
Tracklisting01 | Julien Dyne | Steel Legs 11 | clip | |||
02 | Julien Dyne | Layer (ft.Mara TK) | clip | |||
03 | Julien Dyne | Incredulous | clip | |||
04 | Julien Dyne | Deaky | clip | |||
05 | Julien Dyne | Stained Glass Fresh Frozen (ft.Mara TK) | clip | |||
06 | Julien Dyne | Conglomerates | clip | |||
07 | Julien Dyne | Fallin' Down (ft.Parks) | clip | |||
08 | Julien Dyne | Behind The Forage | clip |
Released February 2010 on CD and 2LP, check sound clips below. To pre-order please contact us at info@conch.co.nz
Slicing pop n’lock-friendly funk with gospel and gracious soul Georgia Anne Muldrow is shining as a true West Coast original. The seeds of early experimental releases are now blossoming as her trademark scattershot beats and adventurous deep jazz melodies have grown to become the backbone for fully crafted songs.
With aspirations to be a modern-day Quincy Jones, Muldrow is truly a renaissance musician. She is always looking to take her craft to a higher ground. She channels her unstoppable creativity into music that is commercially viable but does not lose sight of her essence as an artist who challenges the norm. She bears the enviably ability to play all her own instruments, and write and perform her own songs. Everything you hear on Kings Ballad is handcrafted and non-sample-based. She has been called a modern day Nina Simone, and fans of Chaka Khan and Betty Davies would feel at home with Kings Ballad, too.
In the midst of amazingly fruitful studio time, she cranked out several albums and compilations in 2009, on the back of recent collaborations with the mighty Mos Def (on his Ecstatic album), and Erykah Badu (on her New Amerykah album). Kings Ballad is the latest work and is all original and exclusive. On most Muldrow sings, on other she raps, sometimes both, always effortlessly. Perkins joins in on a couple of tracks, Medaphor lays down a quick rhyme, her son Nokware throws down the occasional rattle, but otherwise it’s pretty much Muldrow all the way.
This freeform collection of brand new joints is oozing with confidence and vision, it's obvious that Muldrow is more comfortable than ever and is pushing forwards as an artist. Jumping across boundaries from songs to raps, the album follows no rules with instrumental beat-driven sketches jumping-out between a barrage of vocals, and bouncing summer jams butting up next to lush ballads. Explaining her evolution from debut releases to present day she says, "My sound is more mature, more sure, more relevant and definitely much mo' fonky!"
Written and produced during transitional times, Kings Ballad was crafted against the backdrop of the early days of the Obama administration, the last days of the life of Michael Jackson (a family friend and big inspiration) and while her son grows towards his first birthday. She even moved studio spaces at the outset of recording. But distractions are not disruptive to the Muldrow music-making machine. In fact, motivation comes easily. "The driving force within me is my need for freedom of cultural expression," she explains. "And in my culture music always serves a divine purpose. Mine in particular is of a healing nature, so I get over my down days by being true to my warrior soul." 01. Indeed 02. Doobie Down 03. Simple Advice 04. Kings Ballad 05. R.I.P 06. Thrones 07. Summer Love 08. Shang-A-Lang 09. The Ooh Wee Show 10. Can't Stand Yo Love 11. To The Stage 12. March For Africa 13. Chocolate Reign 14. Baby Dee 15. Live 16. Room Punk! 17. Thatch 18. Industrial Bap 19. Morena Del RayEarthology is the latest album from The Whitefield Brothers, a loose line up of musicians centred on the siblings Jan ‘JJ’ and Max ‘Muggy’ Whitefield, formerly known as the founders of Munich’s legendary Poets Of Rhythm. Last heard from with their cult 2001 debut In The Raw (reissued this year on Now-Again Records), Earthology finds the brothers blending In The Raw’s rough funk – ‘raw soul’, in their terminology – with a broader eye on music from around the globe, sending them in a rich new direction with infinite possibilities.
Though most of the music were recorded in the last few years, some of it was even made up to 15 years ago, representing an incredibly long-ranging musical project. “The idea behind Earthology is multiplicity, a patchwork of sounds and ideas,†say the brothers.
That ‘patchwork’ involves a multitude of different guests from from far and wide, including vocalists Edan, Mr. Lif, Bajka, Percee P and MED, and musicians from the Antibalas, El Michels Affair, Quantic, Express Brass Band and the Dap-Kings. They joined the duo’s group in experimental sessions taking place in New York, Munich and Berlin.
To achieve the album’s unique sound, the brothers employed an incredible array of instruments and put in a huge amount of research. The whole album is rooted in soul music but they combined common instruments with unusual ones such as gongs and flutes from Asia (Alin), xylophones and string instruments from Africa (Safari Strut, Sem Yelesh) as well as central American percussion instruments (Ntu) to add new colours to their music. The use of African polyrhythms (Ntu) and Arabic rhythmical structures (Chich), African pentatonic scales (Sad Nile) and oriental modes (Pamukkale) set those instruments in the right context. They learned a lot about the serious integration of diverse musical traditions from the world-music pioneers Embryo, who are also based in their hometown Munich, and listened intensely to countless numbers of field recordings from all over the world to understand the different languages in their musical structures and inner meanings. Max went even to Burma to study the traditional Saing Waing music and joined, back in Berlin, the Gamelan group of Gutama Soegijo to deepen his skills in south-east Asian music.
In The Raw pre-dated today’s soul revival by nearly a decade, although it never saw great sales: the record quickly went out of print and the Soul-Fire label folded. Until the recent reissue The Whitefield Brothers’s debut album, regarded as a masterpiece by those lucky enough to have heard it, was a highly desired collectors item which provided an inspiring spark for today’s funk scene. The incredible and ambitious Earthology looks certain to set that record straight.
Track-listing & Music Clips:
01 | Whitefield Brothers | Joyful Exaltation (feat. Bajka) | clip | |||
02 | Whitefield Brothers | Safari Strut | clip | |||
03 | Whitefield Brothers | Reverse Pt.2 (feat. Percee P + MED) | clip | |||
04 | Whitefield Brothers | Tiasho | clip | |||
05 | Whitefield Brothers | Sad Nile | clip | |||
06 | Whitefield Brothers | The Gift (feat. Edan + Mr.Lif) | clip | |||
07 | Whitefield Brothers | NTU | clip | |||
08 | Whitefield Brothers | Pamukkale | clip | |||
09 | Whitefield Brothers | Alin | clip | |||
10 | Whitefield Brothers | Breakin Through (feat. El Michels Affair) | clip | |||
11 | Whitefield Brothers | Sem Yelesh | clip | |||
12 | Whitefield Brothers | Lullaby For Lagos (feat. Quantic) | clip | |||
13 | Whitefield Brothers | Chich | clip |
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