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Monday Musings: Exciting Times In Music & The Week’s News Roundup
It’s definitely an exciting time to be active in music, for a host of reasons. The industry is in flux, and it’s fascinating to watch its convulsions as the market works out what sort of distribution mechanisms it’s going to support. There are new technologies for musicians springing up on a daily basis that are… Read more
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The Scoobs – Is It Now? (world groove fusion)
self released SCOOBS001, 2009, CD album, 49m £5 http://www.thescoobs.co.uk/ It’s only a few weeks since I reviewed a Scoobs gig, and what they do live is very similar to what’s on this recording. I get the impression that all or most of these tunes have been honed and developed through many years of live performance. Read more
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Artificial Sun Project – 62204 (ambient/ electronica/ IDM)
self released, 2011, DD album, 68m 8s £name your price http://artificialsunproject.bandcamp.com/album/62204-2 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Artificial-Sun-Project/224311699231 ‘Ambient’ is a term that has carried many meanings in music. As originally coined by Brian Eno it referred to an approach which placed intentional sound in the habitable environment without necessarily making it the focus of attention: this sense drew on Read more
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BaianaSystem – BaianaSystem (Brazilian/ Guitarra Baiana)
Guitarra Baiana is both a Brazilian musical style and an instrument: the instrument is a small solidbody electric guitar, derived from the cavaquinho, whose origins predate the American inventions of Leo Fender and Les Paul (although not the solid bodied Hawaiian guitar). The musical style was a 1950s instrumental genre, that used these guitars to… Read more
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Simon Little – Mandala (ambient/ solo bass/ jazz)
One of the tracks on this album is titled ‘Ohm Is Where The Art Is’: it’s awfully tempting to run with that, and build a critical edifice around the idea of ‘ohm’ signifying a metaphorical sense of impedance or resistance, but to be honest, I’m pretty sure Simon Little’s artistic strategy is more straightforward than… Read more
