The month of August 2004 was incredibly rich in new music, as I heard from numerous artists who invited me to listen to their independent releases. I was knocked out by the overall high quality and many of these excellent tracks were incorporated into the BeatConscious mixes on mmRadio and the Live365 stream ... here's a short rundown on the new stuff:

The Modus Vivendi Music Collective. Their first CD sampler, "Vol. 1", is a solid collection of complex and absorbing tracks ... no fluff here, no moments when the mind wanders ... this is music to attract and hold your attention. Label-mates B.N. Loco, Sanchez Dub and Julian Brody all distinguish themselves, top tunes (to my ears) being B.N. Loco's "Buen Ambiente" (a slight return of Basco's "The Beat is Over" is audible in there), Brody's "Greensleeves" and "Soula" from Sanchez Dub -- gorgeous downtempo vibes goin' on here. More information available at ModusVivendi.com and the above-mentioned tracks soon to be featured on the BeatConscious streams.... In addition to the sampler, there is a Sanchez Dub EP, and trust me, ya gotta hear "DVDs (Through the Wind Mix)". Also part of the Collective is Plan B ...

Dr. Echo. Dub today with deep respect to the dub foundations of yesterday ... this all-organic set (live percussion, trumpet and vocals, no samples) looks back to the legacy of King Tubby and Lee Perry while creating timeless sonic imagery that is deeply sensual and strongly spiritual ... In addition to including the Dr. Echo tracks on upcoming dub sets for the BeatConscious streams, I eagerly anticipate the chance to see a live performance when Florida hosts them in December. You can check the web site: Dr. Echo for performance news and also for purchasing the Doctor Echo CD.

Luke Etyrnal. A solo artist spinning ethereal, deeply moving melodies, Luke sets the controls to GLIDE and invites you to join him for the ride. Do it ... your mind and your body will be delighted. In a jazzier vein, Luke's Brise de soiree d'ete opened a recent BeatConscious set (VooDoo Child's Slight Return) ... catch that one on mmRadio.

K. Remixes of extraordinary vision and originality ... not available commercially -- due, no doubt, to the difficulty of licensing all the elements used to create these amazing tracks ... simply a record of one musician's skill and devotion. Listen at K's web site or you can hear his JimE close out the above-mentioned VooDoo Child's Slight Return on mmRadio....

Afternoons in Stereo. Nom de musique of Greg Vickers (see below), an exceptional talent ... just about every set I've done this summer has included an AiS track (or two) because Greg's inventions are among the best: wickedly intelligent, solidly rhythmic, captivatingly melodic -- totally absorbing.

Tokyo Dawn (label). Not sent to me personally, but a regular update on their new releases is supplied to the downtempo.com list ... this label is shockingly hot ... Check out their freely-downloadable mix sets and ponder this: all selections used on these mixes are by Tokyo Dawn artists, and there's not a bad track in the pack. Hiphop, downtempo and basically any other style that catches their interest ... stellar production and a distinctively fine web site in support of it all -- this German label has the juice ... can't recommend them too highly. Because of their generous download policy, you will hear numerous tracks from the Tokyo Dawn catalog on the October 2004 BeatConscious set You Know Me Now ... a compendium of recent independent music featuring music from the artists in this review.

And that's just a sampling of the very fine music people have been sending my way this summer ...

Excellent reccomendations Madame....I've gone to the Tokyo Dawn website and started to snap up some free goods....eventually i'll be going out to buy the rest of their stuff...


And speaking of mister Vickers...he's dropped an independent album tittled Aural Pleasures...it's available at CD Baby. I've had the pleasure of hearing most of his stuff....and i'll be picking this bad little puppy up soon


Brilliant thread here MmFly...keep 'em coming .

TRR, I know you will not be disappointed at Tokyo Dawn ... and I do expect to have on-going additions to this page ...

Sub City

While searching recently for a a track that Pepehouse had mentioned, I found myself on the Besonic site -- they have been the European equivalent of mp3.com but without the drama (or if they've had a struggle to stay on the web, I haven't heard about it.) It was good to see that they are still offering a venue for new, independent artists to be discovered....

While there, I found new material by Sub City, a group from Vienna that I first heard about 3 or 4 years ago. They excel in moody, rainy-day trip hop tracks and the latest tunes available on their Besonic page were no exception ... just more polished than the work of 1999. Haven't yet discovered a personal web site for them, but will post the link here when I do....

One more new name: The Pulsated mix features a fine track entitled "Keep Your Soul" from NickNack, and you can read all about him and his music HERE (on the nav bar, click Artists, then select NickNack from the menu on the left.)

Add Clayton & Fulcrum to the Declaration ... in their own words:

quote:

---

We'd like to introduce ourselves. We're Clayton & Fulcrum, a funky
downtempo group from Philadelphia, PA, USA. You can dowload some free songs as well as check out our debut album, The Soul Purpose, at www.claytonandfulcrum.com .

---

Tokyo Dawn fans, please note: The Comfort Fit "Forget and Remember" release is available on the TD site for free download ... Comfort Fit is the group whose track "She Knows Me Now" was the inspiration for a BeatConscious set that's gotten some good reaction lately: You Know Me Now (I even remixed the title ) If you like their flava, check out the new release....

When I first started the Declaration of Independents thread, one of the musicians mentioned was K who contacted me about this time last year ... since that time, I have used a number of his tracks, downloaded from the digitalEvolution website. By this summer, most of these new tracks had been gathered together for release as KRYSALID which is available online as I write (details on digitalEvolution.)

What kind of music ... hmmmm, well ... the musician declines to accept a genre label, so the best I can say is: spacey, rhythmic, often gorgeous, often dark and very cinematic. But you can make up your own category ... the tracks are all available to be streamed from the website.

We've had a conversation or two about possible projects we might work on together ... those ideas are for sometime in the future. In the meantime, enjoy the set I've built around a handful of the Krysalid tracks ... it's streaming on the BeatConscious station as Backbone

Since I posted the last note about Krysalid, the album has had it's official release (e.g., available at more sources than just the artist's website) -- but there's a twist in this release ... here's how K puts it:

quote:

it is ironic that a die hard mac user who started this whole release process to get on itunes got on MSN first.

http://music.msn.com/search/all/?ss=krysalid

So, if you are a subscriber to the MSN music download service, you can check this album out for yourself ... and, eventually, the iTunes user can do the same.

I've uploaded a new mix for Thanksgiving ... thankful as I am for all the excellent independent music I've been hearing this year

Among the new discoveries this year has been the French group Shine whose One Day (lyrics in English, actually) is part of The Warm Up.

... here are some links:
Their website
and
their EP on iTunes.

One Day is a sweet downtempo tune, reminiscent of work by Bliss or something from Afterlife.

These folks have impeccable downtempo instincts ... you will hear more from them on future BeatConscious sets.

In 1995, I had been relocated to FLA for about five years and hadn't found a lot to like about the change in culture. I was buying mostly trivial music in the local stores with an occasional score based on a review in a national magazine ... but basically just marking time.

Then, on a vacation to Key West, I got turned around and turned out ... I heard my first acid jazz / electronic dance music in a restaurant where the bartender / DJ was spinning the Electric Hush album by Heights of Abraham ... we got to chat a little, he gave me a list of recommendations and I bought a couple hundred dollars worth of CDs before I left town ... I was off and running.

Shortly after that, I got my first home PC and an internet connection, and started finding out just how much great music there was in the world (not a lesson I could learn at the local stores.) From there, it was just step to building the BeatConscious site and becoming MadameFLY and then discovering MixMeister and internet radio.

As for that first great album, I did eventually find Electric Hush and the 2nd release from HoA entitled Humidity ... but then the trail went cold ... as far as I could tell, there wasn't going to be any more music from this group.

Fast forward 10 years ... 10 years almost to the day since that magic night in Key West ... and I receive an email from Sim Lister, sax player for HoA ... who had apparently discovered the BeatConscious site and my mention of their music. That in itself would have been utterly cool and a tribute to the power of the internet to make human connections happen ... but even better news was forthcoming: there would be a new release from the group in late 2005.

And so it was: the album Two Thousand and Six appeared in November, and you can hear my first pick from this set, As the Night Descended, on Melt, the latest mix to stream from the BeatConscious show ....

And you can learn more about Heights of Abraham and a few other excellent groups like Fila Brazillia and The Solid Doctor at the 23records website.

In the Long Overdue department, I realized I have used the Nick Malkiewicz ("NickNack") track "Keep Your Soul" yet again in a mix and have yet to post about this prolific artist in the Declaration of Indpendents section ... so here ya go

The website for Nick's imprint, Crowd Control Records offers music, art and photos plus info updates on the famous Austin TX music festival SXSW which is happening in mid-March this year ... check it all out, it's worth your time.

The mix for July 2006, Indie Summer features a full roster of independent artists and/or labels that merit your attention ... and most of these are easy to find, thanks to Myspace and the internet in general.

Nontourist is the musical persona of Andrew Kamm, who works in the audio/visual arts ... if you are a myspace person, you can check the Nontourist tunes out here also: http://www.myspace.com/nontourist
And his album is available on CDBaby.

Also worth checking out on myspace is the work of Jacques Peretti, who works under the nom du musique Compulsive Behavior ... find him here. The Compulsive Behavior music output is downtempo/brokenbeat/hip hop-oriented stuff, but on his website, I found Jacques also had some French language ballads, if that's your cuppa....

I have mentioned the good folks at 23Records before (see post from Dec. 30th, above, where you can also find a link to their site.) This time they are back with four advance tracks from J*S*T*A*R*S -- awesome jumpin' tunes that really had me rockin in my chair (no, it's not a rocking chair ). How does this kind of energy fit into a downtempo mix? Check out the Indie Summer set to find out Spansules made the cut this time, but the others will soon hit the airwaves, so stay tuned....

At the other end of the energy curve is Soma Sonic, the musical face of brothers Francois and Dominic Paterson, whose website offers the back story on this talented and highly professional duo and the singers on their albums. Their most recent release is Sim-pli-ci-ty a double-disc set full of gorgeous, highly cinematic music (no surprise, as the Patersons have done lots of film and commercial work.) Rien appears on the Indie Summer set, with more to follow....

Finally, big up to Brandon and his unbelieveably cool website, Properly Chilled -- your one-stop shopping spot for all things downtempo. He recently partnered with Mush Records in a 16-track release called Digging Down, from which I've pulled the Neutrino track There Is No Protection Here that closes out the Indie Summer set.

Now, mothers aren't supposed to have favorites, but I have to say that I'm really partial to the DJ Grey V track Swift DJ from the self-released album PhonoGraphic ... this one came to me via CDBaby's "if you bought that, then you'll probably like this, too" service ... and they were right, loved it! Sadly, the URL given on the CD cover comes back 404 so I can't hook you directly into a web site on this guy, but I'm sure you can still buy the disc at CDBaby....

In addition to these artists putting their stuff out there online for you directly, the set also owes respect to independent labels such as OM and ESL, home of Thievery Corporation, godfathers of the movement....

August 2006 delivers the second indie set of this summer ..Improving on Relaxation.. A few of the artists on this mix have already been covered in previous Declarations: NickNack, J*S*T*A*R*S (and also the remastered release of Fila Brazillia's best) from 23Records, DJ GreyV and Parov Stelar. Now please join me in welcoming these fine new names to the list:

ViceLounge: seriously strong underground soul tracks from this group stay on my mind and in the mix ... their website is a delight for the eye as well as the ear ... don't you sleep on this one.

Mudville was one of those recommendations from Amazon.com (I think) in the "people who bought that also bought this" category ... yet again, I followed the link and came away with a winner. These folks are working the Portishead groove and they don't disappoint ... Blown is a wicked wicked track ...

Digital Cutup Lounge came to me back in the earliest online music days, via a link from musician Toby Webb ... little did I recognize at the time the staying power these guys would have. When I pulled the tune Gone [sai remix] off an old CD of downloaded tracks, I had no idea I'd still be able to find them online today ... but here they are. These guys are working out on the experimental tip of downtempo ... yeah, we got one

Natalie Walker and Paul and Price came to my attention through the good works of Deanna at Elemental Consulting ... bless you, child! Let Deanna tell you about Paul and Price:

quote:

The sound of Paul & Price combines somatic beats with lush orchestration - often provocative and exotic, creating sexy downtempo and intoxicating electronica. Paul & Price is the music of the Virgin Airlines Upper First Class and has been featured on MTV, NBC and Fox... Sounds Like Sex 2 - After Midnight Music features guest vocalists and collaborators including Angela McCluskey, the voice behind Telepopmusik.

Sounds tasty, right? The Paul and Price tracks can be found on their myspace site AND their older album is available on emusic.com.

Natalie's track Quicksand comes in plain vanilla or the Thievery Corporation remix which is what you'll hear on BeatConscious.

Felix Laband has about 4 CDs worth of material available from emusic.com ... strange, amazing, inventive and addictive, he's one of the most original voices I've found there so far.

VenueConnection contacted me with the following notes:

quote:

My name is Javier del Aguila, and I represent the Spanish band venueconnection. Our music blends jazz, funk, soul and electronic, and has been classified by some critics as Acid Jazz, Lounge and Nu-Jazz. In 2005, we produced and released our debut album “Strawberry Swan Lake”, which is being distributed currently on the Internet

At the Yaffa's is from the Strawberry Swan Lake release ... an essential downtempo addition to the mix. Visit them here for more information.

Like DJ GreyV, Sonic Boutique was a recommendation from CDBaby during a transaction there ... and another winner. You can check out their very cool website here.

Dharma One was one of the loads of great tracks available from the Tokyo Dawn website, which is currently on some sort of hiatus ... but BeatConscious is keeping the vibe alive and hoping to welcome them back online soon....

Whoo ... did I miss anyone? If you have a question, hit me back here....

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MadameFLY,

May brings another indie-oriented set: I May Be Guilty is the title, and some of the featured artists (along with links to their online presence) are: