1. Dâm-Funk, “Invite the Light”Known as ‘the ambassador of boogie funk’, Los Angeles producer, DJ and musician Dâm-Funk, is gearing up to release a 20-track album “Invite the Light” on September 4. Although this is his first solo studio album in six years, since he debuted with “Toeachizown” in 2009, Dâm-Funk aka Damon Riddick has established his music cred in recent years through projects such as the popular Funkmosphere and collaborations with talented artists such as Snoop Dogg (“7 Days of Funk”), Steve Arrington from Slave, Nite Jewel, Animal Collective, Erykah Badu, and Ariel Pink.“Invite the Light” is a loosely autobiographical concept album inspired by the highs and lows of the artist’s personal and professional life over the last six years. Dâm-Funk describes this LP as his first fully realized effort and “a concise, beginning-to-end vision”. One of the most passionate champions of the genre of funk, Dâm has always insisted, “Funk is the underdog, the black sheep of black music… Funk is not just a Jheri Curl.”The album features collaborations with Snoop Dogg, rapper Q-Tip, pop surrealist producer Ariel Pink, the father-son duo of Leon Sylvers III and Leon Sylvers IV, singer-songwriter Nite Jewel, Chicago rapper Kid Sister, jazz and soul artist Jody Watley, and funk musician Junie Morrison of the Ohio Players.The video of funk anthem “We Continue”, directed by Jeff Broadway, was released earlier this month, followed by the single “Glyde 2Nyte” that features vocals by iconic producer Leon Sylvers III and his son Leon Sylvers IV. The collaboration on the latter is a nod to Dâm -Funk’s beginnings.Pre-order “Invite the Light” on iTunes and receive a free download for “We Continue” or pre-order vinyl via the Stones Throw website. Dam will embark on a string of West Coast tour dates with his full band in September.“Invite the Light” Tracklist:1. Junie’s Transmission Feat. Junie Morrison/ 2. We Continue/ 3. Somewhere, Someday/ 4. I’m Just Tryna’ Survive (In The Big City) Feat. Q-Tip/ 5. Surveillance Escape/ 6. Floating On Air/ 7. HowUGonFu*kAroundAndChooseABusta’?/ 8. The Hunt & Murder of Lucifer/ 9. It Didn’t Have To End This Way/ 10. Missung U/ 11. Acting Feat. Ariel Pink/ 12. O.B.E./ 13. Glyde 2nyte Feat. Leon Sylvers III & IV/ 14. Just Ease Your Mind From All Negativity Feat. Snoop Dogg/ 15. Virtuous Progression Feat. JimiJames, Kid Sister, Nite Jewel, Novena Carmel & Jody Watly/ 16. Scatin’ Toward The Light/ 17. Junie’s Re-Transmission Feat. Junie Morrison/ 18. I’m Just Tryna’ Survive (In The Big City) Party Version Feat. Q-Tip/ 19. ‘Kaint Let ‘Em Change Me/ 20. The Acceptance2. Micachu and The Shapes, “Good Sad Happy Bad”Micachu and The Shapes’ fourth album “Good Sad Happy Bad”, out on September 11, emerged out of an informal jam session in an East London studio. The British experimental pop trio comprising of vocalist Mica Levi, keyboardist Raisa Khan and drummer Marc Pell, who released their debut album “Jewellery” in 2009 to rave reviews, met to rehearse at a studio, when drummer Pell secretly recorded the entire session on an Edirol field recorder. On playing it back, they liked the artless, lo fi nature of the recordings and decided to turn them into a new album.London’s Guildhall School of Music alumnus and the force behind the band, Levi earned a BAFTA nomination and a European Film Award last year for her otherworldly soundtrack to the Scarlett Johansson-starring film “Under The Skin”, directed by Jonathan Glazer. Levi who studied composition and electronic music, and has been commissioned in the past to write an orchestral piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, exhibits a DIY approach to making music when with her avant-pop band, often creating her own musical instruments using ‘found object’ components.The 13 tracks on “Good Sad Happy Bad” retain the experimental pop sensibility, with raw, freeform vocals layered over single groove tunes. The band likes to think of these tracks as more than simply songs, and rather as collections of sonic ideas. An idea that is further illustrated if you see the track list, that has song titles such as “Relaxing”, “Dreaming”, Thinking”, “Crushed” and “Suffering”. Levi says of the album, “It’s the most free we have been.”Preorder the album now via iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and Rough Trade. Micachu and The Shapes will be performing in the US, UK and Europe starting September.“Good Sad Happy Bad” Tracklist:1. Sad/ 2. Relaxing/ 3. Dreaming/ 4. Sea Air/ 5. Thinking It/ 6. Crushed/ 7. Oh Baby/ 8. Waiting/ 9. Unity/ 10. Peach/ 11. LA Poison/ 12. Hazes/ 13. Suffering3. Mild High Club, “Timeline”The Los Angeles-based musical act of jazz artist Alexander Brettin originally from Chicago, Mild High Club, makes its debut with the album “Timeline” on September 18 via Circle Star Records. The 10-track album was recorded by Brettin with a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder, a MacBook, a 12-string electric guitar, a PortaSound keyboard, bass, drum machine, software instruments, “and whatever was lying around”.Over these last couple of years, the Mild High Club has evolved into a collective with a revolving door policy for musicians from all over the United States. Says Brettin, “The advantages to working alone are being selfish and taking all the time you want. The disadvantages to working alone are being selfish and taking all the time you want. When I wrote and recorded the bulk of “Timeline”, I just wanted to have a vinyl record. Two and a half years later, we’ve got the band and handfuls of other ‘club members’ around the country who occasionally get together for ‘club meetings’. The Mild High Club is just a vessel for our musical and comical curiosities.”Having already shared stage space with artists such as London’s seminal post-punk band Wire, Canadian singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco, Ariel Pink and American musician Mikal Cronin, this summer Brettin will tour alongside the seven-piece Australian psychedelic garage band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.The album can be pre-ordered via iTunes. Mild High Club will be performing August through October in the US, Canada, UK and Europe.“Timeline” Tracklist:1. Club Intro/ 2. Windowpane/ 3. Note To Self/ 4. You and Me/ 5. Undeniable/ 6. Timeline/ 7. Rollercoaster Baby/ 8. Elegy/ 9. Weeping Willow/ 10. The Chat Feat. Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood4. Blue Daisy, “Darker Than Blue”Experimental rapper Blue Daisy is set to release a new full-length album titled “Darker Than Blue” on September 25. Blue Daisy also known as Kwesi Darko is a North London-based vocalist, musician and producer with the widely respected label R&S Records, which boasts a roster featuring the likes of James Blake, Aphex Twin, Space Dimension Controller, Vondelpark, Lone, and others.While the artist refuses to conform to any one genre, he tends to traverse jazz, classical, electronica, rap, rock, blues and punk. “Darker Than Blue” is being toted as a jazz-grime fusion record that makes an intense emotional journey fueled by love, loss, religion, faith, and doubt. Blue Daisy draws from personal life experience to create a cinematic meditation on the clash of the forces of dark and light, yin and yang, good and evil.The video for the title track “Darker Than Blue”, directed by Kamil Dymek, uses sinister stripped down visuals; and the song graduates from a melancholic Oriental-meets-Classical space to a menacing instrumental frenzy layered with an outburst of spoken word. The blistering “Gravediggers” sounds somewhat like a Depeche Mode “I Feel You” (1993) redux, but with ominous rumblings. The soulful track “Alone” features the vibrato of guest singer Connie Constance alongside Darko’s. Blue Daisy comments on the album, “Darker Than Blue arisen from the sewage, rodent mentality, birthed to the gutter, raised up out of the ruins.”“Darker Than Blue” comes out September 25th on R&S Records with pre-order links on iTunes and Bandcamp. Fans receive instant downloads of “Alone feat. Connie Constance” and title track “Darker Than Blue” with pre-orders. The artist will be touring UK and Europe this year.“Darker Than Blue” Tracklist:1. My Heart/ 2. Daydreaming/ 3. Home/ 4. Alone Feat. Connie Constance/ 5. Darker Than Blue (Interlude)/ 6. Darker Than Blue/ 7. Six Days/ 8. Heroine/ 9. We’re All Gonna Die/ 10. Let’s Fly Tonight 11. Gravediggers 12. You and Me5. Julia Holter, “Have You in My Wilderness”Making her debut in 2011 with the album “Tragedy”, Julia Holter is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who will be releasing her fourth full-length album “Have You in My Wilderness” on September 25. On this collection of 10 eclectic ballads that explore the themes of love, trust and power in human relationships, Holter’s voice tinkles intimately over airy instrumentation.The album was recorded over 12 months with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Cole Greif-Neill, and a video for the song “Feel You” was released earlier this month.“Have You in My Wilderness” will be available on CD, Digital and LP. For a very limited period the vinyl LP will come with a photographic print signed by the artist, via Dom Mart only. The album is available to pre-order from Dom-Mart and iTunes. Julia Holter will be touring the UK and Europe throughout October and November, and possibly also Asia, Australia and the US later. “Have You in My Wilderness” Tracklist:1. Feel You/ 2. Silhouette/ 3. How Long?/ 4. Lucette Stranded on the Island/ 5. Sea Calls Me Home/ 6. Night Song/ 7. Everytime Boots/ 8. Betsy on the Roof/ 9. Vasquez/ 10. Have You in My Wilderness6. Girl Band, “Holding Hands with Jamie”Irish punk quartet Girl Band is an all-male group comprising of vocalist Dara Kiely, guitarist Alan Duggan, bassist Daniel Fox and drummer Adam Faulkner, who describe their sound as noise/ post-punk. Their nine-track debut album “Holding Hands with Jamie” releases on Rough Trade on September 25.The band that first got together in 2011 in Dublin Ireland, and went on to tour Europe extensively, left an indelible impression on critics and fans alike. Their the “France 98” EP in 2012, the eight-minute cover of Blawan’s “Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?” in 2013, and the 2014 single “Lawman” resonated with the audience and established their musical identity as a livewire act that produces a unique brand of abrasive pop. Subsequently they delivered breakout performances at festivals such as the SXSW in Texas, California’s Burgerama and Brooklyn’s Northside Festival. This year in April, they got together to record an album, and guitarist Duggan says of the experience, “It required a different mindset (from recording singles). It was way more challenging to stay focused – tricky to find a balance between keeping a distance from the songs for perspective but also to fully concentrate on them.”The band have also released a video for the album’s first single “Paul”, which is an example of the energy they bring to the table. Explaining the inspiration behind the video, Gallagher says, “While I was researching I watched a documentary about Big Bird and there’s a line in where Carol Spinney says that a woman was complimenting his performance but that she couldn’t see that inside the costume he was crying. It’s quite tragic. I think everyone has experiences of having to put on an outward expression, and feeling trapped so Paul’s costume is a visual extension of that. He’s inside the suit, at a distance from everybody around him, but wearing this absurd smile that’s totally false to what’s going on inside.”The album “Holding Hands with Jamie” can be pre-ordered from iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and Rough Trade. Girl Band will be touring the US in November and December.“Holding Hands with Jamie” Tracklist:1. Umbongo/ 2. Pears for Lunch/ 3. Baloo/ 4. In Plastic/ 5. Paul/ 6. The Last Riddler/ 7. Texting an Alien/ 8. Fucking Butter/ 9. The Witch Doctor7. Rizzla, “Iron Cages”Brooklyn-based artist and producer Rizzla launches his debut EP “Iron Cages” on Los Angeles record label Fade to Mind on September 25. Schooled in art history, sociology, and gender studies, Rizzla aka Brian Friedberg, is also a co-founder of KUNQ Collective, an alliance of queer DJs and artists originating in Boston. Influenced by Caribbean genres of ragga, soca, and dembow music, and Dutch-origin bubbling and hardstyle, Rizzla’s five-track EP, in his own words, is “about taking charge of abusive relationships, sexual or sociological, and the pleasure that ending pain causes.” The EP title is inspired by the works of political thinkers Max Weber and Ronald Takakai, and refers to entrapment; a feeling the artist associates with modern corporatized club culture.Themes of apocalypse and survival are explored through the various tracks – the dembow-heavy “Fucking Fascist” is described as a funeral march for a dictator; “Airlock” as an extra terrestrial horror story, the carnival music of a world plagued by the dead; “Twitch Queen” as a meth-fuelled human sacrifice at the club; and “Black Jacobins” that derives its title from the work of legendary Trinidadian writer C.L.R. James, tells a story of sacrifice amidst an uprising. The title track “Iron Cages” described as a story of defiance and heartbreak, features vocals by Montreal-based singer and producer Odile Myrtil, and Daniel Aged of the Los Angeles act Inc. on guitars.Rizzla will play an EP launch party at Trans Pecos in New York on Saturday, August 29, with Ma Nguzu and more. Tickets are available here. Pre-order Rizzla’s debut EP, Iron Cages, now via iTunes or Bleep for limited edition vinyl, and catch it September 25th via Fade to Mind.“Iron Cages” Tracklist:1. Iron Cages Feat. Odile Myrtil/ 2. Fucking Fascist/ 3. Airlock/ 4. Twitch Queen/ 5. Black JacobinsFollow @ARTINFOIndia
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