Sound Check's Blog Posts Tagged 'Video' (42)

R&B and soul took a dark turn when synths got good enough to almost realistically replicate the sound of a full orchestra in the late 80's. A sound more or less defined by raw human emotion and lush (AKA expensive) arrangements traded a big chunk of it's human element in exchange for “sure that sounds enough like a violin and just saved us a few hundred bucks in session fees!” So it's encouraging to see the triumphant return of the orchestra in R&B. The latest in this…

There are some collaborations that seem like they'd make perfect sense on paper, and yet somehow fail to work. (I remember being so excited when I first heard that one of the 90's greatest singers - Chris Cornell - would be teaming up with the 90's greatest rhythm section - Rage Against the Machine - for what turned out to be the 2000's most meh band. No matter how good they may taste separately, nobody wants a peanut butter and goat cheese sandwich.) Then there are other…

Malian musician Bassekou Kouayte comes from a rich musical and storytelling history. He was born to a musician father Mustapha and mother Yagare Damba a praise singer, so it makes sense that he carries the unquestionable pedigree of African blues. He further explores the cultural shift and broadens its music as Kouyate rises among the Mali musicians alongside greats Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare and Toumani Diabate.



Review by Jon Jon…

Video + Free download: 'FACes', dope track by UK singer/songwriter/Mark Ronson & Cee Lo collaborator Tawiah. The video was shot in Accra, Ghana. "The track was released as a free download in support of International Day for Street Children and Street Child Africa." 'FACes', written and produced by Tawiah and Jodi Milliner, is from Tawiah's upcoming release 'FREEdom…

On a warm April afternoon, I walked over to the Daptone offices to meet soul singer Charles Bradley. Just a few blocks away from my apartment in northern Bed Stuy, the label office and studio are housed in an old Brooklyn brownstone. So unassuming, I nearly missed it. This is the famed Daptone records headquarters? I walked by three times before realizing where it was. Inside I met Charles. 64 and just getting started, the Screaming Eagle of Soul somehow matched the building. On…

Video + free download: Punk rock meets hip-hop: The White Mandingos (Murs, Darryl Jenifer, Sacha Jenkins SHR) - 'Rubbertracks Meltdown' (from the Converse Rubber Tracks series). This is the bonus track off their album "The Ghetto Is Tryna Kill Me".

Stream the finished track below and download it for free HERE.

+ Video: "Watch them lay down the vocals, discuss various recording…

Are you psyched for the new Baby Baby record? Of course you are. My informal poll of everyone sitting in front of my laptop, with a sample size of 1, showed that 100% of people are way into Baby Baby. (Eat your heart out, Nate Silver.) Their new record Big Boy Baller Club doesn't drop until this summer, but they just taped an acoustic session of the new track “Best Franz”as part of Blue Indians “Acoustic Alley” series.…

You hear a lot of artists say things like “If I don't make it by the time I'm 25/27/30 I'm going to hang it up.” It ends up being a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy standing on two faulty premises: 1. that artists have either “made it” or are starving, and 2. that creativity has an expiration date. The cult of 27 is strong in a lot of minds. (as I get closer to 30, I admit I feel kind of ridiculous for every minute of my life wasted comparing the timeline of my successes to…

So I was starting to write about 'We Are The Lucky Ones', the debut album from Electro-funk/neo-soul/Afro-pop/glitch/RnB singer Tecla and my opening line was going to be about how the only genre she doesn't touch on is French Cabaret, and then I got to the stunning ballad “Moi” and that went pretty much out the window. This is a preposterously ambitious debut from a preposterously talented woman. Her sound melds the electronic and organic into a captivating cyborg. Synths burble…

Laura Mvula's debut record Sing to the Moon is glorious. No two ways about it. A modern take on retro sounds, the onetime composition student has created a futuristic RnB symphony. Layering her voice into a choir on top of minimal accompaniment, the songs are deceptively simple. The depth comes in the way she uses a handful of instruments, mostly percussion, and her velvet voice to build songs up. And there's a lot of depth here.…

It's always fascinating seeing which songs and which musical movements get canonized by future generations. During the 90's alt-rock explosion, there seemed to be this consensus that the only acts that mattered from the 70's were Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Neil Young, Patty Smith, and the Ramones. If you didn't make that list, too bad. One of the biggest casualties of the moment was to brand AM Gold / smooth rock irrevocably “cheesy.” Kenny Loggins, Michael Macdonald, Lionel…

Parisian deathcore band As They Burn's latest record Will, Love, Life is a punishing piece of hardcore. The band marries quasi-progressive song structures to tried-and-true hardcore pummeling for a sound that owes a little bit to extreme metal luminaries Meshuggah. The band's first for Victory Records is less melodic than previous efforts (the lead guitar bits and occasional crooning of Aeon's War are all but gone) but the band's ability to completely kick your…

In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that anti-folk luminary Kimya Dawson and Aesop Rock would start a band. The two have collaborated often in recent years, with Aesop adding vocals to Kimya's most recent solo record Thunder Thighs, and Kimya returning the favor. So it was really only a matter of time before the unlikely duo made it official. The new band is called The Uncluded, and their debut record will be out in May.…

On the heels of presenting an award at last night's Grammys, Prince released a new video, but you have to pay to watch it on his website prince2013.com ($1.77).

What do you guys think? Is this a business model that can work? Or are those times over? Let us know in the…

No-one will ever criticize Kool AD of being unambitious. 2 months since leaving Das Racist, and less than a month before the release of his new band Party Animal's debut, he drops a double mixtape. 63/19 runs over 2 hours, and falls prey to the same unfiltered uncensored id that often typifies mixtapes of this ambition; in other words, it might a little too much of a good thing. But taken as a whole—as one 2 hour and 10 minute song—63/19 is a challenging, vibrant, and sometimes…

Baby Baby's new album Big Boy Baller Club (due out this summer) was already on our list of anticipated albums of 2013. The first single from that record “Keep On Dancin'” only stokes the fire. Catchy, fun, and totally chaotic, the song is canned optimism of the Andrew WK variety. They pushed out the track on MLK Day with the statement “Without Martin…

I'm a sucker for a killer bassline. And the new single from Yinka (from the forthcoming full-length A Hundred Hurricanes Coming Through) delivers that and a hell of a lot more. A catchy dance-punk track, “No Brakes” is the missing link between Prince, the Talking Heads, and Q and Not U. (It's also reminding me that I really need to get my brakes fixed. But that's not really relevant, is it?)…

It's been almost 2 months since Hurricane Sandy devastated the coastal areas of New York City, and there are still tens of thousands without power, heat, or adequate shelter. Some of the images that have come out of the hurricane are truly surreal, from stretches of Rockaway Park stripped of its trademark beaches to the pictures of a blacked out downtown Manhattan with only the Goldman Sachs building lit up (and if that's not a metaphor, I don't know what is...). Indie rapper…

Pretty much since 5 minutes after a bunch of clean-cut Liverpudlians made rock safe for TV in 1963, folks have been periodically declaring “real rock n roll” dead. And while a credible argument could be made that the moment represented the first death of “real rock n roll,” what's really true is that every generation has their rebirth and death of “real rock n roll.” That dangerous but soulful riffy shit that's a little rough around the edges, makes no apologies, and calls back…

Skye Edwards is one of the queens of trip-hop. The Morcheeba frontwoman's new solo album 'Back To Now' is out now. Did you check it out? It was produced in part by Stephen Fitzmaurice (Metronomy, Professor Green). It's available on iTunes. Let us know what you think. + Check out the new remix of 'Nowhere' by Dave Davis below.

Also, in case you missed the info here a few weeks ago, Morcheeba is currently working on an album for 2013!…