This Senegalese griot (master) percussionist, singer, & songwriter delivers masterfully crafted arrangements with guitar, sabar drums, occasional sax, kora & gentle vocals, all in a laid-back, sometimes plaintive West African style. World Music Net "Battle Of The Bands" winner. Exquisite.

Thoroughly authentic sampling of the diverse sounds and biggest hits of contemporary Morocco, ranging from desert blues to rockin' rai to Arabic hip hop, as well as more traditional Moroccan music.

CD Booklet with detailed info on tracks

Charlotte Gainsbourg has returned with Stage Whisper.  The album is split into two parts with eight unreleased tracks taken from the IRM recording sessions (her previous album produced by Beck) and eleven live tracks.  The music is as quirky as Gainsbourg herself, a mix of Electro Rock, French Dream Pop and Electro Pop all wrapped around Gainsbourg's alluring vocals.  While this sounds straight forward it's the delivery of the music that makes it sound slightly off kilter but in a good way.  The studio tracks are varied from the slow pace mellow "Out Of Touch" to the frenetic "Terrible Angels".  The live portion of the album is a little more stripped down compared to studio side but still slickly produced and the tracks are just as charming as Gainsbourg herself.  An excellent album.

Tracks: All Good

Phutureprimitive's second full length release is titled Kinetik.  The music is a diverse blend of downtempo and Dubstep with strong touches of Ambient and Tribal Techno.  This blend of genres generates fuzzy, wobbly bass lines with complex rhythms mixed with long mellow stretches of synths creating a potent yet dark sound that conjures up images of a thick dense jungle filled with exotic floral and fauna.  Of course Dubstep and Downtempo are not new gneres and it isn't novel to blend these two together.  However, Phutureprimitive has manages tp produce a sound that is dreamily lush and captivates the listener's attention and imagination.

Tracks: All Good

ROMANTIC DREAMY-POP DUO WITH PRETTY FEMALE VOCALS, BLISSED-OUT GUITARS, ORGANS, LULLABIES AND A FULL BAND SOUND.

PLAY: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 ALL

RIYL: BEACH HOUSE, STILL CORNERS

With Sunday Morning Airplay, Liftoff presents an enjoyable album featuring steady, melodic grooves centered on percussion and electronic sounds.  One song fades seamlessly into the next, creating an ambient sound that is content to sit in the background.  Because the album lacks up front pop sensibilities, I was tempted at first listen to describe it as forgettable.  And yet, I found myself coming back to the album.  It seems that I should have taken note of Liftoff’s suggested listening time – this really is music for Sunday morning.  What it lacks in directness it makes up for by being the perfect album to have playing in the background.  While this would be an insult to some bands, I believe this is exactly the effect Liftoff is trying to achieve.

RIYD: Thievery Corporation, The Flaming Lips

Tracks: 3, 4, 6, 9

FCC Clean

Something is a fitting title for Chairlift’s second album.  The former trio from Brooklyn, now a duo, has a sound that cannot be pinned down to one genre.  Some songs are catchy synth pop, others are ballads, and there are even hints of folk on “Frigid Spring.”  The construction of each song could be described in this way as well.  Instruments enter and exit at will – synths, drums, bass, distorted guitars.  All of this might seem to create a disjointed, jumpy sound.  But there is one constant presence in the form of Caroline Polachek’s voice.  At times sharp and in your face, occasionally distant and cold, Polachek ties the songs and the album together into a cohesive unit.  While Something has the potential to be scattered and unfocused, we instead have a superb and inventive album.

RIYD: La Roux, Phantogram

Tracks: 7, 8, 3, 2

FCC Clean