Kasai Allstars' music in the soundtrack of award-winning film
"Félicité" earned the Silver Bear Grand Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and features the band, off and onscreenInspired by the music of Kasai Allstars and by their vocalist Muambuyi (whose voice is heard in the soundtrack), director Alain Gomis created the main protagonist of his film, a proud woman named Félicité who works as a singer with the band, and sets out on a breakneck race through the streets of electric Kinshasa in order to save her son.
The movie just earned the Silver Bear Grand Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and the Golden Stallion at the FESPACO (Panafrican Film Festival).
The band wrote and performed most of the soundtrack, and appears onscreen playing their own part. Muambuyi's voice is omnipresent, and is being heard everytime Félicité (played by Congolese actress Vero Tshanda) sings in the bars of Kinshasa, backed by Kasai Allstars.
The "Around Félicité" album includes the film's main pieces, performed by Kasai Allstars and by the Kinshasa Symphonic Orchestra (who specially arranged three works by composer Arvo Pärt), alongside new tracks by Kasai Allstars, as well as interludes consisting of fragments of dialogues and sound bites taken from the soundtrack.
The album comes with a companion piece: "Félicité Remixes", a collection of 10 remixes of Kasai Allstars tracks by electronic music producers from Europe, North America and Africa, including reworks by Clap! Clap!, Daedelus and Africaine 808.
Aksak Maboul 'Revue'
Special shows feat. Laetitia Sadier, Aquaserge & Jaakko Eino KaleviTo celebrate the release of the "16 Visions of Ex-Futur" tribute album, Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul will be playing a series of special shows entitled Aksak Maboul ‘Revue’, for which they’ll be joined onstage by some of the album’s contributors, including Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Laetitia Sadier and Aquaserge, who will perform together some of their respective music.
20 Oct: Paris, Café de la Danse
22 Oct: Bruxelles, Botanique
23 Oct: Francfort, Mousonturm
5 Nov: London, Kings Place
New line-up + new shows...
+ remixes by SKIP&DIE !After an absence of several months, the fearless Staff Benda Bilili will be returning to play shows in Europe, with a revamped line-up. To celebrate their return, they've joined forces with wild, genre-blending South African/Dutch band SKIP&DIE, who have revisited two highlights from the Staff's latest album "Bouger le monde". SKIP&DIE's electrifying, dancefloor-friendly versions of Bilanga and Kuluna / Gangs will be coming out as a digital single in early July.
The band's new line up is:
Ricky Likabu Makodu : vocals, band founder & leader
Djunana Tanga Suele: vocals, dancing
Kabossé Kabamba Kasongo: vocals, "animation"
Roger Landu Satonge: satonge, vocals, guitar
Victor Mbaki Mambu: vocals, dancing
Cavalier Kiara Mayingi: bass, vocals, arranger
Amalphi Ketikila Massamba: lead guitar
Guelor Dianzenza Bakanadio: rhythm guitar
Dostin Mopoto Masebi: drums
Chico Makiedika Mbumba: percussion
Stephen Coates is "a disciple of Scott Walker & Jarvis Cocker"...
... write Les Inrockuptibles...
Congotronics vs Rockers voted #1 London gig of 2011
... by London-based live blog Londonears"Super-cross-continental-group featuring all 19 members of Deerhoof, Konono No. 1, Juana Molina, Kasai Allstars, Skeletons and Wildbirds & Peacedrums in this one off collaboration of tribal noise like no other. Only a few members of the crowd managed to refrain from dancing like your friend’s odd hippy mother might at Glastonbury"
http://www.londonears.com/blog.html
Vintage Videos
We've recently been digging in our vaults and have extracted 8 great vintage videos, which are now visible in the 'oldies' section of Crammed's YouTube Channel:
Hallucination Generation
by The Gruesome Twosome (1989),
Route Nationale 7, Decollage and Flat
by The Honeymoon Killers ('81 to '83),
Overstretchin' and Prophet & The Fool
by Juryman ('97 & 02),
Your Consciousness Goes Bip
by Snooze ('97),
and L'Oeil de la nuit
by Ramuntcho Matta ('93).
More coming soon...
Megafaun & Akron/Family EU tour footage
They came, they played, they conquered... and they most certainly didn't shave.Akron/Family and Megafaun, the two big American additions to Crammed's globe-spanning canon of artists, have both recently wound up hugely successful European tours. Below are examples of each of them in action - first Megafaun's hugely successful appearance at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands (in it's full multi-camera, high quality glory!), and then an interview with Seth from Akron/Family, interspersed with clips of the band's show at Point Ephemere in Paris. Both bands are planning to return to European shores in the spring... more news soon!
Happy Holiday Deals at the Crammed Shop
Buy one get one free !
A suggestion: you may want to use this opportunity to discover one of the numerous gems in our deep and rich back-catalogue...
Happy Holiday shopping!
Welcome Welcome To The New Crammed Site
So this is our new site
We've gone live, but there's still some glitches to fix and some info/sounds/pictures to add in various places, so please bear with us while we're fine-tuning.
We hope that you'll enjoy this new site, and that it will help some of you to explore the hidden gems in the far reaches of our extensive catalogue…
