Ok, first up, I’m in the process of redesigning & adding functions to undomondo, i’ve been planning to do it for a few months (well, more than a few), but as I’m not really skilled in designing & busy most of the time, I couldn’t. This results in less frequent updates as well, because the burden of redesign is on my back, but I’m sure this time I’m gonna make it, hey!

Musetta from Milano is the nujazz/electropop duo of Matteo Curico and Marinella Mastrosimone. Their new album titled “Mice to Meet You!” is out on the fabulous Irma Records who’s single handedly shaped the Italian lounge scene for decades. Seductive jazz noir vocals from Marinella and nu-jazzish beats from Matteo make this a versatile album covering genres like downtempo/triphop/lounge and deep house. Nothing groundbreaking here really musically, but there’s more than 5 good songs, which marks it as a solid downtempo pop album for me.

Musetta - Red Star
Musetta - Underneath the Mango Tree
Musetta - Standing by my side

(Noone)

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Here’s the coolest lounge jazz album I’ve ever heard in a long time, from a little known sixties band The Stance Brothers. Teppo “Teddy Rok” Mäkynen the drummer of The Five Corners Quintet and its leader on stage and also sideman for Jukka Eskola and Timo Lassy is also an established producer. The awarded drummer is said to have found this little gem and changed its course from oblivion to Rick Tick records. However this is probably not the case as many media outlets have remarked that it’s a contemporary trio put together by Teddy himself.

Kind Soul Teddy is a lovely ride into dope beats, funk and jazz. The three piece features bass & drums and vibes, which is instrumental to the mellowness. The whole album is a playground for hip-hop beat makers with mucho breaks and warm melodies. It really does sound like an authentic 60’s beat album with a cleaner production (not losing the rawness in the sound though). It’s getting harder to find an easy listenable, encompassing and satisfying album as this, these days. Hopefully it gets some more praise!

The Stance Brothers - Prayer
The Stance Brothers - Dynamite

(Noone)

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Rewind!!

Here are some of the dead links from the past months, the Shackleton remix by Ricardo Villalobos has been getting mad clicks but it’s been dead for a while, so are the others. Enjoy!

UPDATE : realized that mp3space doesn’t let direct linking. Reupped to a new server. Bye bye mp3space, you looked promising..

Shackleton - Blood on my Hands (Ricardo Villalobos Apocalypso Now Mix Part 2)
La Mar Enfortuna - Ya Kalbi Khalli al Hal
Arve Henriksen - Leaf and Rock
Marc Ribot - Mufgar

(Noone)

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Here’s an older review by fistula_spume from MOG, which I forgot to publish. I was going to keep on writing a few more jazz/nujazz/beat stuff but I don’t have the time now, so enjoy this offtopic obscure synth gem…

I have played this album over and over again for a couple of weeks now. I can’t stop listening to it. It’s corny but it’s so honest. I can’t quite describe it. Victor Lams started this album in March of 2000. He recorded a song a week. From what I can tell he uses his computer and some synths. The music is so goofy and harmless. He’s a guy who really knows where his towel is. He has a ton of free music on the internet. You can find links on his website. I don’t like what I’ve heard as much as his love ode to robots. I found this album to be fun and refreshing. Yes it’s dorky and goobery but it’s got guts. It reminds me of listening to Dr. Demento as a child. The album isn’t trying to be a complete novelty album, though. You can tell Victor put a lot of his heart in it. I love that the album has an intermission. It works with the flow. You need an intermission with an album with 23 tracks. It’s an album where I didn’t find myself skipping through tracks. I just kept playing it over an over again. It’s cheeseball but Victor has got soul. White nerdy soul, but he’s got it. Check out some free tracks from this album on his site also.

Image credit : ZX Spectrum & Toshiba Laptop mashup

Victor Lams - (Life is) Salty
Victor Lams - Shelly

(1 votes)

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The Politik on Milan Records is the brainchild of the keyboard extraordinaire Mark de Clive-Lowe and his longtime vocal partner, Bémbé Ségué. If you’re into nu-jazz ala Compost or even into the Cafe del Mar series, chances are you have already heard of this guy as his tracks have graced more than 100 releases, be it compilations or remixes. A stalwart of London’s nu-jazz and broken beat scene he’s worked and remixed almost some big names like Lauryn Hill, Shirley Horn, Jill Scott, Lekan Babalola, Omar, Kenny Dope and more.

Bémbé on the other hand is the writing talent behind tunes by Bugz in the Attic, 4Hero and also of Mark himself. Now, I’ve never bean a brokenbeat fan, but I can tolerate it if you gimme this kind of futuresoul : jazz, bass, beat, funk and soul mixed together with a little emphasis on electronics. “Journey to the Light” on the other hand sees Mark playing more rhodes and acoustic piano, while session musicians like his long time colleague UK based saxophonist Jason Yarde and percussionist Sammy Figueroa support him. A bit more jazzy and similar to his past produce with a cosmic feel. Once again some lovely vocal melodies on “Another one save me” and some wild sax playing on the broken beat stormer “Peace be Central“. Soulful and versatile, quality urban music for your office parties.

The Politik - Sweet ft. Replife
The Politik - Turn the Light
Mark de Clive-Lowe - Another one save me
Mark de Clive-Lowe - Peace be Central

(1 votes)

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* I think the SXSW is over but if you haven’t already gone and watched the bands, here’s the Six word reviews of 763 SXSW Bands by The Morning News just in case you wanna get the official torrent. Not that I agree with some of the reviews, but it’s a valuable effort. Another SXSW related thread on Metafilter.

* The Stone Calendar. March Programme for John Zorn’s The Stone in NYC. Melvin Gibbs, Net Rothenberg, Bobby Previte, Masada String Trio, Reuben Radding, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Steve Beresford & Okkyung Lee and a John Zorn Improv Night with Jim Pugliese, Lukas Ligeti, Anthony Coleman etc.. The best club? You decide..

* MICO NONET‘S TOP 10 EARLY AMBIENT PIONEERS on the March issue of Textura.Don’t forget to check the reviews!

* Lit/Art/Music magazine Yeti has a lovely compilation featuring live tracks from Akron/Family, Deerhoof, A Hawk and a Hacksaw and other material from Marika Papagika, Radio Sumatra, Blind Willie Johnson etc. at issue #5

* The Ultimate Band Lineup thread on Rate your Music.

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