STAFF BENDA BILILI Conquer Euro Crowds; receive Womex Award
The magnificent Staff Benda Bilili have been wowing French audiences on their first short tour outside of Kinshasa.3000 people gathered round the stage at Les Eurockéennes Festival in Belfort, France, for a phenomenally-received late afternoon set of their infectious rumba-rooted grooves...
Staff then moved on to Les Temps Chauds Festival in Bourg-en-Bresse, where before another great show they spent time with the young offenders who had helped build replicas of the customized tricycles the band's disabled members use to roam around Kinshasa. And finally, the crowning glory - a triumphant show at Cabaret Sauvage in Paris with fellow Crammed Congolese bands Konono No.1 & Kasai Allstars...
All this follows the news that that Staff have been awarded the WOMEX (World Music Expo) 2009 Artist Award, which will be presented to them at the event in Copenhagen at the end of October - when the band will embark on their much-anticipated full European tour, including a just-announced date at The Barbican Centre in London on Nov 10th...
Then there's the band's recent two-month residency at the top of the World Music Charts Europe, and their high positioning in the CMJ World Charts in the States... the sound of Staff Benda Bilili, already "Très Très Fort" (as the title of their wonderful debut album tells us), is getting louder and stronger by the day....
Hello MEGAFAUN!
We're delighted to welcome two great bands to our ever-morphing roster: the first one is Megafaun..."Megafaun don't just catalog American musical languages, they breed them", writes Pitchfork in a preview of the band's new album "Gather, Form & Fly".
Megafaun was built by brothers Brad and Phil Cook and fellow Eau Claire, Wisconsin native Joe Westerlund from the ashes of DeYarmond Edison, the group they had formed with longtime friend Justin "Bon Iver" Vernon.
Megafaun are part of that rare crop of young artists driven by an unquenchable thirst for a wide range of sounds and styles. While very much at ease with several strains of American folk music, they're masterfully reinventing tradition by infusing it with radically alien elements, inspired by anything from free jazz to 50s experimental electronics. They've performed over 250 shows in the US since '07, and have done live collaborations with new Crammed labelmates Akron/Family, with minimalist composer Arnold Dreyblatt & more.
Gather, Form & Fly can be described as an ode to death, love, musical history (from blues to musique concrète), community, tradition, melody and experimentation. Or, more simply, as a magnificent album of melodic folk music, strong and original.
And welcome to ZEEP!...
...aka the London-based duet of Nina Miranda & Chris Franck, who bring us a fresh, immediate pop album...... that dips its elegant toes into many musical pools:
Catchy escapades, space-age downtempo rock, reflective atmospheres, playful spaghetti western disco and cartoon-like narratives, this album is full of fun and surprises, an excursion into which we're irresistibly drawn by Nina's unique, seductive voice, supported by Chris' immaculate musicianship and production skills.
Also worth mentioning is Zeep's daring Brazilian folk rewiring of the Specials’ classic “Ghost Town”, which has already been given the enthusiastic backing of The Specials’ Jerry Dammers.
Nina and Chris were founding members of Smoke City and Da Lata, and have collaborated with artists such as Tony Allen, Baaba Maal, Ernest Ranglin, Sly and Robbie, Vieux Farka Touré, Nitin Sawhney, Jah Wobble, Femi Kuti, Bebel Gilberto and more.
Crammed meets AKRON/FAMILY
New Video HERE
Crammed Discs is proud to bring you news of our exciting marriage into the Akron/Family - a band creating an inimitable, kaleidoscopic brand of global psychedelic folk rock music. After building up a great, word-of-mouth reputation during the last four years, and gathering an ever-growing legion of obsessive fans, Akron/Family are on the verge of a major breakthrough with Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, their new album was released in Europe by Crammed on May 11th 2009.
STAFF BENDA BILILI acclaimed by the press
... and #3 in the World Music Charts Europe
MOCKY on Crammed
"Saskamodie" is Mocky's first release for Crammed DiscsHe is listed as playing drums, bass, rhodes, piano, guitar, percussion, bells, recorder, vocals, whistle, organ and toys as well as writing string arrangements. Taylor Savvy, Gonzales, Jamie Lidell, and Feist contribute additional instrumental and backing vocal performances that make this record sound more like a live performance than a studio creation.
CHICHA LIBRE #7 in the World Music Charts Europe
LONELY DRIFTER KAREN Video & Tour
A captivating voice, a fiery piano, a gentle acoustic guitar wandering into an expressionist cabaret, melodies, melodies and more melodies, words, emotion and magic: welcome to the unique world of Lonely Drifter Karen. Lonely Drifter Karen revolves around Tanja Frinta. Having been bewitched by the musicals she went to see as a child in the theatres and cinemas of her native Vienna, Tanja started writing her own songs after listening to a lot of folk, German cabaret music and punk rock.
