Incognito Joins Heads Up Label For 'Tales From The Beach'

From cfrb.com

British neo-soul and acid jazz group Incognito have signed a new recording contract with U.S. label Heads Up International. The group, led by guitarist and producer Bluey Maunick, will release their new CD, Tales From The Beach, on June 24th.

"I'm pleased to be part of a team that will let me do what I do best, and see my music for what it is," said Maunick. "Heads Up is a label that understands the worlds of jazz, soul and R&B, and how they all fit together."

While the Incognito lineup has changed over the years, the new album will once again feature the talents of drummer Richard Bailey, bassist Francis Hylton, keyboardist Matt Cooper, and vocalists Tony Momrelle, Joy Rose and Imaani.

The title of the new CD, Tales From The Beach, is drawn for Maunick's experiences growing up in on the African coastal island of Mauritius.

"When I was a kid, my first taste of music came from the beaches," he says. "I spent a lot of time listening to the hotel bands, or the bands playing around the bonfires and cookouts. It's a small island, so there were beaches everywhere. I was always watching live musicians play. So for inspiration for this album, I went back to various beaches around the world -- in Italy, Indonesia and elsewhere -- and just let the music flow."

Incognito's last CD release was 2006's Bees + Things + Flowers, which featured covers of four of their own past hits as well as versions of tunes by Earth, Wind & Fire, America, Roy Ayers, and others.

Chris Bangs Launches 2.0 Music

Here's something that has just blipped on my radar that may well be worth keeping an eye on. For those of you with a passion for Acid Jazz, the name Chris Bangs should ring a bell or two. Chris was one of the pioneers of the "genre", along with Gilles Peterson and Eddie Piller.

Chris Bangs has just teamed up with Mike Sefton to form a new music publishing & production company called 2.0 Music. Their blurb says

"We are a One-Stop music production and licensing solution for TV / Film / Sync / Sonic Recognition / Branding / Audio tags / Websites / Online ads and Viral marketing / Games etc. We own and/or control every right you will ever need .... Global and Solar System , Present and Future in the masters and publishing, so we can negotiate with our clients for super quick "Copyright Clean" usage. We can also create Bespoke music for special projects, ad campaigns, TV themes and Film."

The website has been launched today, not much happening there yet, but definitely something worth keeping an eye on.

New 2.0 Music Website
Chris Bangs Website
Mike Sefton's Website
2pointzero Music Blog

A New Discovery - Philip Clark

For anyone with a true love of music, I really can't stress enough how important it is to become a member of Last.FM and start interacting with the site, and the community that resides there. There is no better place to find new talent and like minded people. Every week I am stunned by a new artist I hadn't heard of before.

This week is no different, I was going through my weekly neighbours list (I like to do this on a weekly basis, Last.FM gives you a list of people who have listened to the same type of music as you over the previous week), and I came across a guy that calls himself DreamchildNYC. DreamchildNYC had spent the week listening to a fair amount of Prince and The Brand New Heavies, so I dropped by to say G'day. Turns out, DreamchildNYC is actually a multi talented musician by the name of Philip Clark. Of course, Philip had some music available on Last.FM, so I thought I'd have a quick listen. I spent the next hour trawling through all of his stuff, he is just that good.

Philip brought an album out in 2001 called "The State of Blue-Eyed Soul", and has played with the Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Groove Collective. He has currently working on his new album, Dreamchilde. Looking forward to it. Check out the links below for some more goodness...

Click play to listen to Philip Clark - Romeo & Juliet

powered by ODEO

Philip Clark performing "Free My Mind" at the Bitter End in New York.

Philip Clark's Website
Philip Clark's Artist Page @ Last.FM
Philip Clark's MySpace Page
Get Philip Clark - The State of Blue-Eyed Soul at Amazon

Brownswood Recordings Podcast

Brownswood Recordings has just put together a fantastic 1 hour podcast, showcasing an overview of the talent that the label is involved with, including the Heritage Orchestra, Ben Westbeech, Jose James (officially the smoothest cat on the planet), and the insanely jazzy Japanese mob, Soil & "PIMP" Sessions. Defintely worth an hour of your time. Go and check it out.

Gilles Peterson Worlwide Website Opens

It's official! gillespetersonworldwide.com has officially opened for business. This is promising to be a great site for fans of Gilles and his "search for the perfect beat".

He has already uploaded a heap of podcasts to get you started, and will be highlighting new music from his Brownswood Recordings label.

Also, check out the Moblog and Message Board section for more info on the music we all love.

Brownswood Recordings - New Label on the Block

Brownswood Recordings is a brand new indie label set up by Gilles Peterson (who has previously been responsible for Acid Jazz Records and Talking Loud) and Heavyweight. From their website...

We thought it was high time to open up the channels and start releasing some fresh new music. Brownswood is a low-key operation and a labour of love. We just want to put out great, soulful music, no matter where it's from or what the style.

Gilles is still flying around, dropping unexpected dancefloor gems on party people around the globe. And his Worldwide show on BBC Radio 1 is still a weekly staple for music heads tuning in for anything from moody techno to upfront soul to vintage folk. But there's more music out there than one man can play, andThumb Ben Weestbeech definitely more than a tiny label can release. Still, we plan to put out some choice gems for our collective listening pleasure.

Releases range from the explosive sounds of groundbreaking Japanese live act Soil & 'Pimp' Sessions - modern jazz, rough around the edges, adrenalin charged, unadulterated entertainment..... to the lush, beat laden orchestral sounds of The Heritage Orchestra. Then there's the much heralded Bristol based soul kid, Ben Westbeech, who dropped his highly anticipated debut single 'So Good Today', backed up by killer remixes from Domu and Osunlade. Oh yeah - and killer compilations like the soon to be released Brownswood Bubblers, the first in what will be a top shelf series of new music hand-picked by Gilles. This one is particularly soulful and delicious, we think you'll agree.

So thats Brownswood Recordings. It could go any way. The common thread is that we like all this stuff. A lot. And we hope you do too.....

You can also check out their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/brownswoodrecordings

Gilles Peterson Podcasts - Coming Soon

Gilles Peterson's bearing on popular culture cannot be overstated: his inexorable passion for untapped music - be it obscure jazz, global fusion, pioneering hip-hop, fiery Brazilliana or urban soul - has seen him rightly and universally deemed one of the most critical DJs and broadcasters in the world.

A former barrow boy, pirate radio pioneer, Talkin' Loud chief, and the man who spearheaded the UK house and acid-jazz scenes, Peterson's weekly BBC Radio 1 Worldwide show remains a critical touchstone for music lovers the globe over.

Gilles' fascination with, and championing of, Brazilian music and culture continues afoot with his new 'Back in Brazil' compilation - the follow-up to his vital 'In Brazil' release. To celebrate the launch of TrocaBrahma and his own ‘Back to Brazil’ compilation Gilles Peterson has created a series of six Brasilian podcasts, available throughout Summer 2006, exploring the culture and music of Brasil, downloadable from -> here <-.

Also, according to Gilles' blog, in a few weeks his website will be up and happening.

The idea is to create a space for my old and current radio shows to be available as pod casts. There'll be a bloggers section which will feature the likes of Karl Injex, Rainer Truby, DJ Debra and others.

Will keep you informed on when this goes live, in the meantime, you can check out Gilles most recent show at BBC.co.uk

Jamiroquai Go Back To Their Roots

Kiss 100 FM in London recently spoke to Jay from Jamiroquai prior to their gig at the Lovebox Festival. He is hinting at taking the band back to their roots after their split from Sony Records.

...two new tracks that we've written - they're going on the greatest hits, so there's 18 tracks on that... And then when we've done that I'm going to take some time off to regroup, because obviously I've finished my deal with Sony....I need to regroup, think about what I want to do. So, then I think what we'll do is start our Greatest Hits tour in October, but what I will be doing is, I'll be bringing 3 brass on as well, back to the old school in a way...3 brass, or even 5 brass, if I'm feeling flush - 5 brass, 3 girls, you know what I mean, and get the whole thing kind of working, back to the numbers we used to do as well.

Basically, what I'm going to do is going to say right, we're not allowed to do any of the numbers we have done in the past four years, to bring back the old songs - and that's really important - something to look forward to...

Listen to the full interview here.

Courtesy of funkin.com