This week was quite full of musical events. Here are some highlights.
1. The Leaf World EP – Produced by Yuvi Gerstein for Hello Hibernator ( Alex Jeffery) was finally released this week. It took roughly a year to make and only takes 17 min. to listen and £4 to buy and support. The four songs released were part of a longer album that is yet to be released. Read more about this album here
2. A Youtube insane drummer sensation
Oded Kafri is an incredible drummer based in London. I have the privilege in the past few months of working closely with him, producing his tracks using Ableton Live, as well as recording and producing his next EP coming out soon. Kafri has loads of videos from his popular street performances. One of those videos became so viral this week, gaining a quarter of a million views in only 12 days. Pretty crazy. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this video became viral more than any of his other (more produced) videos, but in any case it’s a great sign that the work we have done together has really paid off. We plan to produce a new show with percussion players and have a full summer of gigs and festivals coming up.
3. Coolooloosh record deal
Next week I’m off to Berlin with Ori Winokur to meet up with the new label G-records which my band Coolooloosh were just signed onto. Planning a tour in GAS (Germany, Austria Switzerland) for September 2012 and a release date for the album “Elements of sound” in Germany.
4. New music
I’ve praised Spotify here in the past and I have to say I’m still enjoying it and do not feel a need to buy physical CDs anymore. Still I love to listen to new music so my new thing is to pick up the Rough tradealbums of the month flyer every month and then go on Spotify and have a listen to them all. A cunning plan 🙂
Rough Trade albums of the month May 2012
5. New Album
I recommend listening to this cool new female band The Cornshed sisters
6. Robert Glasper experiment
This week I went to a concert by the funky/jazzy/groove pianist Robert Grlasper at the Barbican centre in London. It was a surprisingly good show with a rare successful fusion of Hip Hop soul and Jazz. Especially notable were the drummer and bass player (forgot their names) who held up the three hour (!) show with wonderful groove that seemed effortless.
The star of that show for me by far was actually Lahla Hathaway (Yes, Donny‘s daughter) who blew me away with her incredible voice range, dynamics and soul. She was so great. She’s performing this weekend at the Jazz Cafe in Camden. The only annoying thing about the show was the terrible vocoder, which was so over used by the saxophonist, flautist vocalist, that I got all the vocoded vocals I need for the next 10 years..
Check out Glasper’s Black Radio project and album:
