Tag: Dance Music

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Music

Bô’vel – Changes

I had no idea who Mancunian soul singer Bô’vel was until our esteemed friends over at Athens Of The North released this album of long-forgotten tracks recently.  Bô’vel was a darling of pirate radio during the mid-1990s, and judging by how soulful and funky these tracks are, she deserved a lot more exposure and due than what she received.  Kudos to AOTN for continually unearthing little gems like this.  For a deeper look at her story, consider going to the AOTN Bandcamp release site.

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Music

Jantra – Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground

This wonderfully weird album from a composer called Jantra is a bit of a challenge to describe.  Best to let the magnificent Ostinato Records lay out their case for this gem, as written on their Bandcamp site:

“Near the border of Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, a disputed area called Fashaga is home to one of the most raucous, hypnotic, addictive, and celestial dance musics being made anywhere in Africa, perhaps the least known to the wider world of them all. Far from the townships of South Africa or the cities of Nigeria, this sound belongs to people intimately tied to their land, deep in the rural areas of Sudan.”

…

Jantra has no songs. He simply freestyles a combination of his melodies incessantly for hours on end, acting as a live producer and DJ for emphatic crowds in compact spaces, where the energy of his 155-168 BPM music is known to inspire the odd gunslinger to raise his pistol in the middle of the dance floor, ready to fire away a few shots into the air when the build up reaches climax. “

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Music

The Utopia Strong – The Utopia Strong

The Utopia Strong are a band out of the United Kingdom which blew me away.  Praise to Chris Morley for alerting me to the band’s existence.  It sounds something like Krautrock or psychedelic rock which goes funky.  It’s almost as if you can dance to some of this material.  The musicianship is excellent, reminding me of Gong or groovier elements of bands like Embryo or even Neu!  It turns out that I was right to think this, as the pedigree of the band is impressive.

Personnel:

Kavus Torabi (Gong/Cardiacs/Knifeworld/Guapo)
Steve Davis and Michael J. York (Coil/Teleplasmiste/Guapo)

The Quietus Magazine also do a tremendous writeup on their latest release. You can check that out here.