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