Generationals

The two men behind the creation of Generationals - Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer - don’t know what they’ve done. They couldn’t possibly have that sort of clairvoyance to perceive the effect that one of the songs they wrote has had on the few and will have on the many before the year is up.

The song in question - “When They Fight They Fight” - is a HIT recording the likes of which summers cream for, the likes of which makes everyone go a little woozy and a lot bananas. It’s the sunlight accentuated. It’s a pulsing, slow-drip of Motown bass and slinky guitar, melded with plenty of sing-a-long moments and the most perfect set of pop lyrics about fighting and what seems to be unconditional love through the thicks and thins.

But “Con Law,” the debut full-length from this New Orleans-based band doesn’t stop there. It’s a record that’s solid from front to back, serving up songs that are meant for unburdened afternoons meant for strolling, crawfish boils, lengthy and enjoyable conversations with dear friends, never-ending hugs, watermelons being sliced into pieces as thick as four plates and no hint of a sunset.

Joyner and Widmer were formerly of the band The Eames Era, which took its name from the furniture designed by Charles and Ray Eames, known for its sleek and simply beautiful formations. They’ve expanded those principles and that simplicity into their current musical offerings, packing Generationals songs with enough teeth and muscle so that they could never been heard as over-simplified, but giving them all the touch of effortless flight.

Source: lastfm

Song: When they fight they fight

Album: Con Law

Royal Bangs

Royal Bangs are an American music group from Knoxville, TN. Formed in 2005, the trio is composed of Chris Rusk (drums), Ryan Schaefer (keyboard, vocals, electronics), and Sam Stratton (guitar). Royal Bangs released their debut LP We Breed Champions in 2008 through Audio Eagle Records, an independent record label founded and run by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys. The following year, German label City Slang released the album in Europe where British music magazine Uncut described the record as “belting garage rock, quirky indie rock and bamboozling electronica, all served up in one smart and super-confident package, rather like a chirpier, younger, less navel-gazing Radiohead.”

They released Let It Beep in 2009, on Audio Eagle Records in the US and City Slang in Europe.

Source: lastfm

Song: My Car is Haunted
Album: Let It Beep

Washed Out

Perry, Georgia, USA (2009 – present)

Washed Out is Ernest Greene, a young guy from Perry, Georgia, USA who makes bedroom synthpop that sounds blurred and woozily evocative.

There’s a sense of longing and distance in Greene’s somber, filtered vocals, but it’s what he does compositionally that makes Washed Out stand out. Backed by gently pulsing, Balearic-tinged disco, Greene’s voice takes on a new dimension. Reminiscent of groups like The Glass and Chromatics, Washed Out is the music to end your night with, when the city is quiet and you’ve got a long walk home ahead of you.

Source: lastfm

Song: New Theory
Album: Life Of Leisure

Arturo

Arturo were a late 90’s indie band fronted by Finn Vine of White Rose Movement

They released two mildly succesful singles ‘’Flow’ & ‘Former’. The latter welcomed considerable airplay on Steve Lamacq’s BBC Radio 1 show ‘The Evening Session’ in 1999.

Source: lastfm

Song: Former

Album: Samples
 

Matta

British dubstep duo, they got a great music video for their track Release the Freq :

Parov Stelar

Linz, Austria (2004 – present)

Marcus Füreder a.k.a. Parov Stelar lives and works in Linz, Austria. The freedom of jazz combined with the groove of house and breakbeat describes the character of Parov Stelar. Parov’s productions address the DJ at the club as well as the listener in his easy chair.

After DJ-ing in clubs in the 1990’s Marcus started making music in 1998. He used his real name and the pseudonym Plasma. In 2004 he started producing under the name Parov Stelar. He founded his own record label Etage Noir Recordings the same year.

Source: lastfm

Track: The MojoRadio Gang

Album: Coco

Stephan Bodzin

Bremen, Germany (1969 – present)

Stephana Bodzin (born August 4,1969 in Bremen) is a german DJ, techno-producer und owner of a Label.
Stephan Bodzin soon started getting into music, mostly influenced by his father, an artist and musician himself, whose studio contained all the magic sound-machines like ARP2600, Memorymoog, Polysix and many others. No wonder Stephan was heavily fascinated by the idea of electronic music as a little kid and soon founded his own projects as a piano- and bass-player. After finding out, that none of his band-mates (including himself) were able to play as tight as the legendary Korg M1 sequencer, Stephan more and more came to the point where he preferred to substitute all real musicians with virtual musicians in his studio. At the tender age of 17 he bought his first Atari computer and the story began.

After moving to the big city of Bremen, where Stephan steadily continued improving & building up his studio set-up, he got in touch with the experimental theatre scene and began to find his own platform to express his artistic and musical visions in compositions for several plays (including works for the established Goethe Theatre in Bremen and the infamous Ikarus Dancing-Theatre from Austria).

But Bodzin never lost his love for pure analogue & electronic music. He put together his first club tracks, which directly got road-tested by his brother Oliver, who was a house DJ back then. Around that time he got to know Humate member Oliver Huntemann and a long term friendship and work relationship took off.

Source: lastfm

Track: Liebe ist...

Album: Liebe ist...

Orange Blossom

Orange Blossom is a French band that plays a mix of electronic and world music.

The band was formed in Nantes in 1993 with Pierre-Jean Chabot (known as PJ Chabot) on violin and Jean-Christophe Waechter (known as Jay C.) on percussions and vocals. In 1994, Éric Chauvière (organ) joined the band and a first audio tape was recorded in september. In 1995 the band stabilized with the arrival ofCarlos Robles Arenas on drums, djembé, and sampler, and the departure of Éric Chauvière. Their first disc, Orange Blossom, came out in 1997 on the Prikosnovénie label, selling 15,000 copies.

Before their second album came out, the group was influenced by ethnic and traditional music. They met and collaborated with several non-French artists, like Ivorian percussion group Yelemba d’Abidjan and Egyptian group Ganoub. They toured in Egypt, France, and Belgium. Vocalist Jay C. left the band in 2000 and created prajña. In 2002, percussionist Mathias Vaguenez and vocalist Leïla Bounous joined the group. The album Everything Must Change came out in 2005 on the Bonsaï Music label.

Carlos Robles Arenas is Mexican. Leïla Bounous is part Algerian, part Breton.

Source: lastfm

Song: Denya

Album: Everything Must Change

Gardens & Villa

Santa Barbara CA, United States
Gardens & Villa are an indie rock band from Santa Barbara, CA. They formed following the collapse of a noisier post-punk band and a hitch-hiking journey up the west coast. Members Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen, Levi Hayden, Shane McKillop began playing in earnest as Gardens & Villa in 2008. The name is pulled from the location of their house on Villa Street, and the property’s lovely garden to which they tend. The music they make is very much connected to coastal city they call home — the stoney bike rides, dance parties, a scene free of judgment. The band refers to this Santa Barbara feeling as “coco vibes.” For two weeks in the summer of 2010, the band camped behind visionary and now-labelmate Richard Swift’s Oregon studio. No shower, no kitchen, but all the magic you could ask for. After taking a band oath to always play all parts live — a la Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense — the band added member Dusty Ineman to supremely execute the live incarnation of the band. [c/o Secretly Canadian]

They are signed to Secretly Canadian records.

Musicians:
Chris Lynch: Guitar, Vocals, Flute
Levi Hayden: Drums
Adam Rasmussen: Piano, Synth, Vocals
Shane McKillop: Bass, Vocals
Dustin Ineman: Percussion, Synth, Keyboard

Source: lastfm

Song: Black Hills

Album: Gardens & Villa

Lêndi Vexer

This is a duo from Buenos Aires. Formed by a great singer and a talented musician, the band has been gigging at the most important clubs in Buenos Aires.
Always based on the reflexive aspect of the Down tempo and Trip Hop with a hypnotic and orchestral tint, minimal and rough at moments, clearly distanced by the soft skin of the chill-out.
The dirt and natural roughness of their sound is invoked with their old school equipment of triphop that they have gone on harvesting minutely from their beginnings.

This environment acoustic-vintage is seconded by the electronics and reinforced with the different abilities in both components, as the orchestrations and programmings of DG and the singular voice of Natalie Naveira. and their ability with the mystic Theremin.

Since the year 1995 both components of Lêndi Vexer, have navigate solitary in the cold waters of Trip hop trying to make the tide marry them so that they become one chemically compatible person.
That first work together was in the year 2000.

In that 5 year-old prologue, both were developing for different roads and ways their own vision of the trip hop that soon would compose together.

In those times end of century, DG was working on a project (Abduction Kirlian (r) with a musician friend who was the initial bond by means of a DJ friend between this last one and Natalie.

The first test with the recommended singer was surprising, she had a potential that supplemented exactly the project, a project that was then small when discovering its other gifts as multi-instrumentalist, since she arrived in a very humble way it has become a habit.

Source: lastfm

Song:The Process of Disillusion

Album: The Process of Disillusion

White Rose Movement

White Rose Movement were a post-punk/electro band from London, England. They mixed the post-punkstyle and attitude of early bands of the genre such as Joy Division and The Chameleons with a more new romantic image reminiscent of bands like Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and A Flock of Seagulls, as well as more modern electroclash and post-punk revival influences. Their first album Kick was released April 17, 2006, after a long period of media hype and critical acclaim from the British indie music press.

Early in 2006 the band toured with The Rakes. Later in 2006, they played at the Coachella festival in California and Festival Internacional de Benicàssim near Barcelona, as well as support slots with Placeboand other festivals. Keyboardist Taxxi (Erica MacArthur) left the band in January 2008 to be replaced with Poppy Corby-Tuech.

The band announced the end of White Rose Movement. They won’t be releasing a new album and the band gave their last concert on 16th April 2010 at Bilbao,Spain

Band members:

Finn Vine (vocals)
Jasper Milton (guitar)
Owen Dyke (bass)
Poppy Corby-Tuech (keys)
Edward Harper (drums)

Ex-members:

Erica MacArthur (keys)

Source: lastfm

Song: Alsatian
Album: Kick

Martina Topley Bird

Martina Topley-Bird is the daughter of well-known British direct marketing specialist, Drayton Bird, and her mother is Salvadoran, Seminole Indian and the rest is untraceable African American. Her first contact with public performance was as a choir singer at Clifton College. It was while she was a teenager at the school that she met trip hop pioneer Tricky, with whom she worked on his first album Maxinquaye. She continued her collaboration with Tricky on his follow-up albums Nearly God, Pre-Millennium Tension and Angels with Dirty Faces.She gave birth to Tricky's daughter around the release of Maxinquaye.

Following a falling-out of their professional and personal relationship in 1998, she began pursuing a solo career. It was not until 2003 that she released her debut album, Quixotic (Independiente Records), mainly produced by Topley-Bird and production team AMP9 (Alex McGowan, Steve Crittall, Nick Bird) at Space Eko Recording Studios London. Upon its release, it received positive reviews from critics and was a finalist for the 2003 Mercury Music Prize. The song "Sandpaper Kisses" from the album was featured in the video game, Fahrenheit (released in North America as Indigo Prophecy).

The album finally saw a limited release in the United States in July 2004 when the Palm Pictures label released a re-designed and re-sequenced version with a new title (Anything), a trimmed-down tracklisting and all-new cover art.

The following year she appeared on the Starbucks compilation album, Sweetheart 2005: Love Songs, which features contemporary musicians covering classic love songs. She sang "I Only Have Eyes for You", a song originally by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin.

Her second solo album, The Blue God, was released in May 2008. The track "Carnies" was released as the first single on 3 March 2008 and reached No.20 on the UK Indie Charts. "Poison" was released as the second single and reached No.9 on the Indie Charts.

In 2010, Topley-Bird appeared on the album Heligoland by Massive Attack, lending her voice on the tracks "Psyche" and "Babel". She also toured with Massive Attack as their support act and providing guest vocals. Topley-Bird's third album, Some Place Simple, was released in July 2010. It contained stripped-down versions of songs from her first two releases, along with four new songs.

Topley-Bird performed Maxinquaye live at the Sundance Festival, London, in April 2012.

Source: wikipedia

Song: Carnies

Album: The Blue God

The Seatbelts

The Seatbelts (シートベルツ, Seatbelts, Seat Belts) is a Japanese blues/jazz band led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno. Their style is very diverse and ranges from a straightforward big band jazz to more refined rock ‘n roll ballads.

Since the band is focused mostly on instrumental work, The Seatbelts have no lead singer. But Steve Conte (from The Contes and Crown Jewels) and Mai Yamane participate and sing in many of their songs.The lyrics of these songs are written mainly by Tim Jensen and Yoko Kanno herself. Singers Soichiro Otsuka and Gabriela Robin are responsible for the back vocals on songs such as “Blue”.

Source: lastfm

Track: Tank

Album: Cowboy Bebop

Mensch

Mensch a brand new band, formed in early 2010, is a duo composed of Vale Poher and Carine Di Vita.

With her 2005 solo project under her belt, Vale Poher produced two albums (Mute 2005 & Tauten 2008) and two EPs (Blue Time vs Suspense & 3×2) both of which met with critical acclaim.
Alongside this, she collaborated on a vast array of projects in a number of artistic fields: from theatrical productions with Vincent Roumagnac, to Fine Arts with Saâdane Afif (winner of the Marcel Duchamp Award in 2009) and a stint in the film industry with Vergine Keaton (award for best music at the Clermont Ferrand Festival for The Short Film in 2010). Vale Poher has also featured in the works of other musicians : Mansfield.Tya, Flore, Doctor Flake…
In 2008, she created the Vale Poher Group, through which she met the bassplayer Carine Di Vita, aka Marilou. As for Marilou (vocal/bass or guitar), she has worked with many bands : Spade & Archer,
Le Peuple de l’Herbe, Groom, and more recently, Rzatz.
After 2 years of collaboration, the lady musicians then decided to embark on a new rock project : the result was MENSCH.
Bass / Guitar / Keyboards and Beatboxes, aerial vocals and catchy tunes. The duo combines rock, kraut, pop, afrobeat & new wave, all of which make up the Mensch sound… somewhere between LCD Soundsystem and Blondie… let’s dance and die !

Source: Mensch

Song: Mystery Train (of Life)

Album: Dance and Die

Federico Aubele

Argentina

Federico Aubele is an Argentine singer and composer whose music blends Jamaican dub and reggae, American ambient and hip-hop, Mexican bolero, and Argentine tango. He describes his music as a synthesis of styles from throughout the Americas.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, he started playing music at 12, with his early musical influences coming from his mother, an amateur guitarist and a notary by profession. He moved to Berlin in 2001 during the Argentine economic crisis, where he lived for several years. After submitting a demo via email to Thievery Corporation’s Eighteenth Street Lounge Music, he was signed quickly to the label and in 2003 released his debut album Gran Hotel Buenos Aires , produced by Thievery Corporation. In 2006, he played at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. His song “Esta Noche” was featured in the 5th season of the TV series Alias. After Berlin, he moved to Barcelona where he began working on his next album, Panamericana, which was released on September 18, 2007, also produced by Thievery Corporation.

He now lives in Barcelona, Spain and he frequently returns to Buenos Aires.

Source: lastfm

Song: Postales
Album: Gran Hotel Buenos Aires

 

Karen Nielsen

Karen's music merges industrial electronic beats and cinematic orchestration with a voice that sounds like it comes from the bottom of her soul. She lures you into her sonic world. Once you are there, it is difficult to escape, though you may not want to. Her deep and layered arrangements create the atmosphere for her darkly poetic lyrics making each song feel like its own epic film noir. Her new album WOMAN debuted at #20 on the college electronic music charts (CMJ RPM) on February 5, 2013 after just one week.

Karen's music was born while she was attending medical school, which was an unusual place for her to end up after receiving her degree in theater. She didn’t quite fit the mold of a medical school applicant. 

Music may have saved her life during her medical training. Not literally, but it pulled her out of some very dark corners. She says, "When you are working 80-100 sleepless hours a week there is no room for expression. And you need it when surrounded by so much death and sadness". She sought solace in writing, arranging, and recording her own music.

Karen has come a long way from those days of medical training. And while she still writes and sings about the darker sides of our psyche, she has let go of a lot of the internal angst she experienced and wrote about on her first album, Animals in the Street. Her music is now an external lamentation and she approaches those darker topics with confidence and femininity. This can be heard on her new album WOMAN, which was released February 12, 2013.

Source: Karen Nielsen

Song: Ice

Album: Woman

Pond

POND is an Australian band made up of, Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, both of Tame Impala, Cam Avery of The Growl, Joe Ryan, and Jamie Terry. Pond is free spirited Psychedelic Garage-Glam of the highest order from some very young, very talented ‘Perth-onalities’. It all presents an opportunity for the members to change instruments more freely live experiment with recording. Pond is a hard band to pin down, not that you’ll want to. The West Oz trio are shaping up as yet another great unwashed export from the west, with a cavalier attitude and a sound that when unleashed live, is unhinged and on fire, mixing glam-era Bowie with Blue Cheer while bordering on the Zappa-esque at times. Frond is laden with hand-claps, fuzzy guitars, rich piano and catchy chorus lyrics, with elements of Folk, Epic Psych, Glam and Dance.

Source: lastfm

Song: Moth Wings

Album: Beard, Wives, Denim

Wild Belle

Elliot and Natalie Bergman are two of four children born to musician parents, who brought them up in a house full of music. Elliot, the older sibling, is a multi-instrumentalist studied at theUniversity of Michigan where he started an Afrobeat band called Nomo. His younger sister, Natalie, started performing with Nomo, playing tambourine and singing backing vocals when she was sixteen. Elliott and Natalie decided to branch off with their own project and chose the name, Wild Belle. Wild Belles's debut album, entitled Isles, was released on March 12th of 2013 on iTunes and Amazon digital download, as well as released in stores in online in physical format. Natalie and Elliot Bergman named their album Isles, due to every track resembling its own island, drawing in influences from reggae, soul, and jazz music. Wild Belle has gained recognition through touring with Toro y Moi in the past. Wild Belle will continue with their touring kick by appearing at music festivals across the United States, including Lollapalooza, Coachella, Forecastle Festival, and others.

Source: wikipedia

Song: Backslider

Album: Isles

EZ3kiel

Tours, France

Founded in 1994, EZ3kiel is a magnet-Dub band originating from Tours, France. In the beginning they had a singer, however there is no recorded material from that period.

Since 1999 they have worked as a trio:

Yann Nguema (bass guitar, visuals)
Joan Guillon (samples, effects, keyboard)
Matthieu Fays (percussion)

They released in 1999 the mini album ‘Equalize-it’. In 2000 they released the album ‘Handle with care’ (Jarring Effects/Pias), which featured many collaborations with big names of the French independent music scene (such as Yann Tiersen, Sylvestre from Dit Terzi and Sir Jean from Meï Teï Sho). That album intrigued the audience and confirmed the band’s eclectic style. During their live performances, they are known for creating a poetic universe with beautiful visuals and graphics, which are made by bass guitarist Yann N’Guema. He uses samples of various photographs, which in combination with the music creates a special audio-visual experience. Other French electro bands use visuals on their live performance, but EZ3kiel are really something special compared to them, their visuals are synchronized with the sound. In 2003 they released another album ‘Barb4Ry’ (Jarring Effects/Pias) which showed that the band’s mature period came.

Source: lastfm


Song: Obssd
Album: Barb4ry

David Lynch

Lynch has also been involved in a number of music projects, many of them related to his films. Most notably he produced and wrote lyrics for Julee Cruise's first two albums, Floating into the Night (1989) and The Voice of Love (1993), in collaboration with Angelo Badalamenti who composed the music and also produced. Lynch has also worked on the 1998 Jocelyn Montgomery albumLux Vivens. He has also composed bits of music for Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Mulholland Drive, and Rabbits. In 2001, he released BlueBob, a rock album performed by Lynch and John Neff. The album is notable for Lynch's unusual guitar playing style: he plays "upside down and backwards, like a lap guitar", and relies heavily on effects pedals. Most recently Lynch has composed several pieces for Inland Empire, including two songs, "Ghost of Love" and "Walkin' on the Sky", in which he makes his public debut as a singer. In 2009, his new book-CD set Dark Night of the Soul was released. In 2008, he started his own record label called David Lynch MC on which its first release Fox Bat Strategy: A Tribute to Dave Jaurequi was released in early 2009. In August 2009, it was announced that he was releasing Afghani/American singer Ariana Delawari's Lion of Panjshir album in conjunction with Manimal Vinyl Records in October 2009.

In November 2010, Lynch released two electro pop music singles, "Good Day Today" and "I Know", through the independent British label Sunday Best Recordings. Describing why he created them, he stated that "I was just sitting and these notes came and then I went down and started working with Dean [Hurley, his engineer] and then these few notes, 'I want to have a good day, today' came and the song was built around that". The singles were followed by an album, Crazy Clown Time, which was released in November 2011 and described as an "electronic blues album". The songs were sung by Lynch, with guest vocals on one track by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and composed and performed by Lynch and Dean Hurley.

On September 29, 2011, Lynch released This Train with vocalist and long-time musical collaborator Chrysta Bell on the La Rose Noire label. The 11-song album was produced by Lynch and co-written primarily by Lynch and Bell. It includes the song "Polish Poem" which is featured on the Inland Empire soundtrack.

Source: wikipedia

Song: Noah's Ark

Album: Crazy Clown Time

Astrid Monroe

Astrid Monroe is a hardly to define mysterious person. Musically she oscillates around trip-hop (despite the fact that she hates that definition) and performers like Portishead, Massive Attack. On “When I Was Young” she uses Genesis P-Orridge’s voice. He’s well known from his projects - Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, The Majesty. CD has been realesed in 2001 by SIRS in Europe. In 2004 Important Rec realesed it in USA. Astrid describes her project as a commercial gloominess…
Official site: http://www.myspace.com/astridmonroe
Source: lastfm

Song: The Mind is the Key
Album: When I Was Young

Minilogue

Malmö, Sweden (2008 – present)

Minilogue are a Swedish Progressive House/Tech-House/Minimal Techno music project of Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson. The name is a portmanteau of minimal (the musical style) and dialogue, which refers to music as a form of communication.

Beside their music production as Minilogue, they are both involved in the projects Son Kite and Trimatic, and Sebastian has the soloprojects Kooler, Filur and Ooze.

Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson came from opposing backgrounds.

Sebastian was trained as a classical musician playing the organ, piano and the violin among other instruments. He even became involved in teaching them until his coming of age at 18 when he formed a band and began experimenting with the sounds in a more contemporary way.

Marcus lived on a diet of Kraftwerk and the Human League until realising his true calling in the techno parties of the 90s. Through promoting parties he moved on to become one of the bigger DJs in Southern Sweden. It was in a party where they met and decided to combine Sebastian’s musician’s perspective and knowledge with Marcus´ DJ skills and experience from the scene.

They got together in 1996 and after 10 years in the music business under successful guises such as Son Kite and Trimatic, Marcus & Sebastian are now Minilogue - an animalistic music concept without the boundaries of genres.

Source: lastfm


Track: Cow, Crickets and Clay
Album: Animals

Sarah Blasko

Sydney, Australia (2002 – present)

Sarah Blasko (born September 23, 1976) is an ARIA Award winning Australian musician. She was born in Sydney soon after her family returned from French-speaking Réunion where her parents had been missionaries. An original and largely self-reliant musical artist, Blasko is known for her writing and production skills, as well as her unique voice and stage presence. Blasko was first heard in the mid-1990s fronting Sydney band, Acquiesce, after an initial tour of France with founding members Dave Hemmings, Paul Camilleri, and her sister Kate Halcrow. With material written by Blasko and Camilleri, they recorded a single and an EP with producer Hugh Wilson, receiving some local attention.

In 2002, Sarah decided to go solo. Material for the Prelusive EP - a result of initial explorative collaborations with Wilson but fully realised with Nick Schneider and Steve Francis - was originally recorded as demos. However, after becoming disillusioned with the indecisiveness and lack of solid commitment from the labels she met with, Blasko decided to release and promote the material independently. With the financial assistance of then-manager Craig New, she also produced a music video for the leading track, “Your Way”.

Source: lastfm

Song: God-Fearing
Album: I Awake

Fiji

Fiji, the most intriguing Electropop outfit to emerge from Switzerland in recent years, is known for their energetic, upbeat and stylish live shows, for their danceable and celebratory synth pop sometimes sung in English sometimes in French which makes you move, dream and feel good.
The duo couple Simon Schüttel (synthesizers) and Simone De Lorenzi (a multilingual vamp at the front who stands half way between Iggy Pop and Amanda Lear) is joined in their live by UK-Austrian bass player Philipp Moll.
Fiji is from Bern with a sound made for the world which enabled them to perform in renowned premises as the X-Tra in Zürich, as support of Goldfrapp, Vive la fête and Ebony Bones, at the Gurtenfestival, at the Muffathalle in München, the 4cento in Milan, at the Miles Davis Hall at the Montreux Jazz Festival together with Santigold and Madness ....
.....and Fiji continues to rouse madness on every stage from which they fire their sound bombshells. Want to party' Don't miss Fiji!

The new album Spell on me was released on the 21st of April 2012. Excerpt from the presstex of Lukas Vogelsang:

"...The music evokes the imagery and glamour of the 80ies and seamlessly continues where Generation X would have left off, rather than seeking to portray a mere retrospective of the decade: the concept is minimal, intelligent and soft with shades of sustained reverie and undeniable sexiness at its core. De Lorenzi’s seductive voice sends regular shivers down the listener’s spine. The stripped back yet buzzing arrangements avoid the use of any Pop clichés: the song Perfect Summer Night draws upon the sex appeal of an early Grace Jones and the jittery arpeggiations in Clouds Don’t Care wash over you like a warm morning shower. The powerful track Spell On Me stands out as a potentially timeless Electropop hymn, firmly restoring Fiji’s former stature as Swiss Electropop’s main protagonists. During further listening, the album’s subdued beats and overall dreaminess bring to mind artists such as Goldfrapp and Les Rita Mitsouko. This is music for the night, to be enjoyed most when dancing in a sleepy city, reminiscent of the movie La Bohème. All in all, Spell On Me is a warmly persuasive and glorious affair rather than an aggressive one and we can’t but hope that during their upcoming live shows Fiji will raise to meet the high expectations generated by this latest release. This is not to be missed!..."

Source: fijiband

Song: Spell On Me

Album: Spell On Me [Explicit]

Kaji Meiko

Tokyo, Japan (1965 – present)
Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子, Kaji Meiko, real name Ota Masako (太田 雅子), born March 24, 1947 in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese Enka singer and actress.

Meiko Kaji first began work in the film industry under the name Masako Ota at Nikkatsu studio in 1965. In 1970, with little success but extensive experience in the movie business, Meiko Kaji signed up with the Nikkatsu movie studio and was subsequently cast in more or less important roles in the Stray Cat Rock series. The films concern juvenile girl gang confrontations and, although inventive, they suffer from poor scripts throughout the series. In 1971 Nikkatsu started moving into the financially lucrative pink film business. To avoid this Kaji moved to Toei where she met director Shunya Ito and made four women in prison films in the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, which made her famous throughout Japan. The films were adapted from a well-known manga by Toru Shinohara. In the fourth installment Toei replaced director Shunya Ito with Yasuharu Hasebe, a decision that Kaji was unhappy about, and she subsequently left the series, which continued until 1998 with six new installments of markedly lesser quality.

In 1973 she took on the role of Yuki in the revenge-themed film Lady Snowblood, which later gained popularity as a cult film in the West. It was based on a manga by Kazuo Koike who also created the Crying Freeman and Lone Wolf and Cub manga series. The film was one of the inspirations for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films. It was followed by the sequel, Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance.

Source: lastfm

Song: Yadokari

Album: Zenkyokusyu

Tropics

Tropics is Chris Ward, a British producer and multi-instrumentalist in his early 20s who came to our attention last year. During the time we signed and released his first single ‘Soft Vision’, his early unreleased tracks and remixes were being given attention from the likes of Pitchfork and others, so we knew we were onto something special.

Since that time things have moved on. He’s released two singles and the synth-pop of his early tracks has evolved into a more substantial and personal sound on this, his debut album. ‘Parodia Flare’ features Chris as a multi-instrumental auteur, playing drums, guitar, and a range of synths and electronic boxes, as well as singing on these songs.

Coming from a family where music was always played, it made sense as a musician for Chris to act almost as a conduit by wiring the sounds he enjoyed growing up with into his own creations. The music he makes weaves vintage sounds, the Rhodes keyboard (an instrument associated with Jazz fusion sits central to the songs on this album), alongside banks of old synths, software and guitars, live drums and electric bass. Tropics is a suitable name for Chris’s music as each song is like a warm analogue jungle of sounds, drawn into focus by Chris’ naive singing voice and his knack for a lush melody. Given that the album was recorded in a walk-in wardrobe at his house, the steamy heat that the album gives off is a testament to his imagination.

Source: planet.mu

Song: Mouves

Album: Parodia Flare

Black Asteroid

Hailing from Minneapolis, Bryan Black began his career as a sound designer for Prince, forging his production scope and capabilities at the renowned Paisley Park Studios. In 2001 Black relocated to London to form Motor—a live fusion of techno and electro that saw the duo quickly signed to Novamute. The duo have since amassed a string of releases, including four albums ‘Klunk’, ‘Unhuman’, ‘Metal Machine’, and the most recent ‘Man Made Machine’. They have also shared stages with the likes of Daft Punk and Kraftwerk, and supported Depeche Mode in their 2009 worldwide tour.

Realising the duo had strayed far from its techno origins, in early 2011 Black set to work on a new project. The result—Black Asteroid—caught the attention of Chris Liebing, who proceeded to put out his debut effort ‘The Engine EP’ shortly after, to critical acclaim. In Black’s own words ‘The Engine EP’ “was all sweat and adrenaline”, which was followed up by an even higher octane rework of “Engine 1” by Dave Clarke and Mr. Jones. BLACKASTEROID is the next phase in the project. 

Taking cues from artists such as Panasonic, Aphex Twin and Speedy J, as well as the more experimental, ambient and avant-garde nodes of techno, BLACKASTEROID is a multi-referential project that will continue to evolve and redefine itself. ‘Black Acid’ is the forthcoming EP on Electric Deluxe, which will introduce another faucet to the BLACKASTEROID sound.

Source: facebook

Track: Black Acid

Album: Black Acid Remix EP