EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: Soft Circle - Drumbler
The last time we caught up with musician/artist Hisham Bharoocha aka Soft Circle, he was about to embark on a tour with his pals the Boredoms (Bharoocha served as the musical director of their epic 77BOADRUM event in NYC last year) and to celebrate, we released his first exclusive RCRD LBL single "Night Hike". People freaked, FADER posted a great video interview with Hisham and the world was all good in our eyes.
Over the past few months, Bharoocha has been busy with some fine art and photography projects but today, he's back with some brand new music, the epic drum/computer fusion (yeah, we just went there!) jammer "Drumbler". It's both meditative and driving and we think it's pretty damn ace.
Soft Circle has some shows coming up, including a performance at the Bicycle Film Fest in BK next week at Studio B and a special performance for the Joshua Light Show on May 31 with Invisible Conga People at Issue Project Room, so be sure to check out his live-ness—it is not to be missed.
Exclusive Download: Soft Circle - Drumbler
Exclusive Download: Soft Circle - Night Hike
VIDEO THRWBCK: Cutty Ranks (Live 1986)
Short and sweet—you really need a video of dancehall ruler Cutty Ranks busting wildly over the legendary "Sleng Teng" riddim at a 1986 People's National Party rally in your life right now. His delivery during the last 20 seconds is particularly devastating. Props to Gelo of Gelo Factory fame for the link up!
- Elliot Aronow
DOWNLOAD: Carmen Rizzo - Shadows Ramin Sakurai (SBL Remix)
We’ve never really come upon an ambient world record before, but as the man once said, there’s a first time for everything. Carmen Rizzo is all encompassing: songwriter, musician, producer, member of influential electronic world music trio Niyaz. Today we’re releasing the SBL remix of his solo track “Shadows Ramin Sakurai”, which is a soothing mix of light percussion, echoing samples and lush-yet-fragile female vocals reminiscent of Stina Nordenstam (remember her?). All things considered, not a bad way to start your week.
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: Soft Circle - Night Hike
Today, we are very proud to release an exclusive new single from Soft Circle, the solo project of ex-Black Dice drummer/visual artist and all-around man of flavor Hisham Bharoocha. This is Soft Circle's first release since 2007's acclaimed Full Bloom LP (see Pfork link at bottom) and represents a turn of sorts from the impressionistic, mellower vibes of his previous work. "Night Hike", available exclusively via RCRD LBL, is a driving, percussive track that recalls the electronic wizardry of his former tourmates Prefuse 73 and Battles and should serve as a great taste of what Bharoocha plans to cook up for his next full length. It was recorded by producer/musician Rusty Santos (Animal Collective, Panda Bear) and you hope you love it as much as we do.
Be sure to catch Soft Circle on tour with the Boredoms all this week (Bharoocha served as the musical director of their epic 77BOADRUM event in NYC last year) and watch this space later today for an exclusive video interview courtesy of our bros at the FADER.
Download: Soft Circle - Night Hike
Soft Circle Full Bloom review at Pfork
Upcoming Soft Circle Tour Dates
DOWNLOAD: Project Jenny, Project Jan - Train Track
Brooklyn electro duo Project Jenny, Project Jan have been the talk of the town for the past year, mostly because a) they’re super fun and b) they’re almost impossible to peg: it’s as if Devo were into every sort of music imaginable and only wrote songs from the safety of their bedrooms. We seriously recommend seeing this band live and trolling the internet for all of their songs, starting at RCRD LBL of course! “Train Track” is linked below for your downloading pleasure.
Download: Project Jenny, Project Jan - Train Track
Stream: Project Jenny, Project Jan - 320
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: Birigwa - Njabala
Yes. This is absolutely 100% as rad as it looks. And let's get it said right away, before the sweaty histrionics get underway, that you'd be a fool to pass up this deep slice of pristinely soulful African folk jazz. Also, come to think of it, let's skip the histrionics. Because even when this ultimate, nylon-plucked smoothness devolves temporarily into frenzied screams and crosswalk whistle-blowing, histrionics are ill-suited for the float away ease of its effortless grooviness.
Birigwa, at the time of "Njabala," was a 23-year-old studying jazz at the New England Conservatory. The self-titled stunner that resulted from his time at the conservatory stands up tall and hustles as sweet as any Veloso, Joao or Jobim. Brazilian bossa nova at its honey-thickest and mellow-yellowest, informed by the energy and rhythm of African folk. Total treasure. Definitely pick up the full-length, reissued on Porter Records.
EXCLUSIVE STREAM: White Rabbits - Cotillion Blues/DOWNLOAD - The Plot/INTERVIEW
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When we all came together to start RCRD LBL, the one band I knew we had to work with (before we had a BETA or even a name) was White Rabbits, who I heard shortly after they all moved to New York from Missouri in the summer of 2006. They won me over the first time I saw them play—something about the way their music thumped and swung and dangerously careened between being a perfect little soulful rock and roll maelstrom and falling apart under its own propulsive energy really got to me. They had that angry young man swagger of the Jam and Specials, matched with the pop precision of black American music from the ’60s. They also had great shoes—mostly Clarks desert boots and loafers. I guess you could say whatever image I had of a dudes being a "real band", they were it.
Since then, they've released a fantastic debut album Fort Nightly, played Letterman, toured non-stop and at some point, found time to record a new single that pays tasteful homage to the vibe of Bob Dylan's classic "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35"—you know that whole Salvation Army band sound. It's called "Cotillion Blues" and we're premiering it here exclusively on RCRD LBL today and for a little after that too.
Singer/guitarist Gregory Roberts was kind enough to take some time to chat with us about how the song came to be and fill us in on various other Rabbit-relevant things. You can read that after the jump and also download their hit, "the Plot" using the links below.
Also, the Rabbits are playing a FREE show at BAM in Brooklyn this Saturday. Info is linked below.
Thanks to the guys and their crew for hooking this up. We're glad to have you on board.
- Elliot Aronow
Premiere Stream: White Rabbits - Cotillion Blues
FEATURED: Beat the Devil play Brooklyn tomorrow
In classic intellectual fashion, RCRD LBL band Beat the Devil have posted an interestingly prosaic account of their touring life, culminating in the info that they are playing a show at Europa tomorrow and that you should go check them out—irrefutable advice, as we’ve seen them multiple times and have never been disappointed.
FEATURED: Broken Records at the DiS RCRD LBL blog
Edinburgh-based Broken Records are DiS’s latest Band Of The Day, are an enterprising bunch to say the least: a seven-member melee of gypsy-folk and inspired indie rock, their track "If Eilert Lovborg Wrote a Song, It Would Sound Like This" is a four-minute-long romp through about as many genres as one can muster with traditional instruments. Head over to the DiS RCRD LBL blog to check it out.
Download: Broken Records - If Eilert Lovborg Wrote a Song, It Would Sound Like This
FEATURED: Les Rita Mitsouko (R.I.P. Frédéric Chichin)
Les Rita Mitsouko were one of the best world-pop bands of all time: formed in Paris in 1979, they had a bevy of hits all across Europe (with their multi-lingual songs like "Marcia Baila" and "C'est Comme Ca"), and released their last album, Variéty, as recently as this year. Sadly, Les Rita Mitsuko guitarist and founder Frédéric Chichin was diagnosed with cancer as the record came out, and died this past week. WFMU's Beware of the Blog featured an extended version of "Marcia Baila" and a brief eulogy of Chichin, the mastermind behind the band. Check it out at the link below, and if you have never heard of Les Rita before, take this moment to do some research...
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