In his storied career, Damon Albarn has only done two official remixes, one for beloved Japanese futurist Cornelius, and one for trip-hop legends Massive Attack. So you gotta wonder what made the Blur/Gorillaz/a-million-other-projects front man lend his talent to this remix of Lana Del Rey’s “Born To Die.” Maybe he’s decided to throw the hotly-tipped chanteuse a life preserver after her difficult SNL performance last week. No matter the motivations, Damon makes good with his long and brooding version of Del Rey’s admittedly excellent single.
Damon Albarn might just be the most unfuckwitable musician of the past two decades? Wanna test this theory? For starters, dude just released the album by DRC, a project recorded this summer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Warp Records. The album features Damon Albarn, T-E-E-D, Dan The Automator, Jneiro Jarel, Richard Russell, Actress, Marc Antoine, Alwest, Rodaidh McDonald, Kwes and over 50 Congolese musicians. And unlike almost every collaborativ
The term “world music” has unfashionable in the past decade, but if one person can make it cool again, it’s Damon Albarn, the mastermind behind Blur, Gorillaz and dozens of other exceptionally cool music projects. Last month, Albarn headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Dan the Automator, (XL Recordings head) Richard Russell, Actress and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs to record music with Congalese musicians. The project was called DRC Music, and the album, now titled Kinshasha One Two, is intended for release on WARP Records to benefit Oxfam.
Now, you can hear the first results of the excursion to the central African nation with these three tunes posted onto Soundcloud. The tunes are significantly different from the sound found on Albarn’s 2002 album, Mali Music, which found him collaborating with musicians in Mali. This may speak to the changes in sound in style over the past decade, or could be equally attributed to the diverse nature of African music, one that is often loston Western ears.
You can pre-order the ful album at the DRC Music website. And check out the full album track list and watch a video clip of the recordings after the jump.
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble proudly present their new release titled “Bulletproof Brass,” a 6 song mini album showcasing this family band’s unrivaled musicianship and universal appeal.
Spring 2011 saw the group reform (like Voltron) in their native Chicago to record a selection of many new songs they have written over the past few years touring and recording. Mesmerizing melodies and pulsating rhythms that sound from another world are like a remedy or tonic to the listener in this digital age of over produced music. Bonafide, raw, and unadulterated; HBE’s music grips the listener and brings them on a trip to another world teaching the true value and meaning of music.
Bandleader Hudah explains:
“The EP ‘Bulletproof Brass’ is part of the next mission for HBE. The stage in our quest for completely …
When you have a catalog a large as Damon Albarn’s, a few gems are bound to be missed. Such is usually that case with his 2002 Mali Music, in which Albarn visited the African country to record with local musicians. The album represents one of the most seemless integrations of African and European music we’ve ever heard, and still sits near the top of our list of hidden gems.
A decade later and it appears that Albarn is trying to recapture some of that magic, in a more high-profile way, taking along Western musicians such as Dan the Automator, (XL Recordings head) Richard Russell, Actress and, as we learned at MELT! festival this weekend, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The project, entitled DRC Music, will be a benefit album for Oxfam to be released on Warp Records.
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