Sandra St. Victor – Presence (Prod. Mark de Clive-Lowe)

July 12, 2013 JUKEBOXDC Staff Music No Comments  

pres

From the forthcoming new SSV album ‘Oya’s Daughter’ produced by MdCL out September 24 on Shanachie.

Sandra St. Victor is one of the most revered vocalists among real singers of soul music. “Sandra St. Victor is one of those artists who is admired by other artists–she’s that good,” states Shanachie Entertainment General Manager Randall Grass. “She has an ability to move from Soul to Funk to Jazz to multicultural contexts and holds it all together with a spirit that can’t be denied. I think her new album is the best work of her career and will be one of the most impressive releases of 2013”. With a collaboration history that covers the likes of Chaka Khan, Prince and Curtis Mayfield, Sandra St. Victor already has the legends’ seals of approval.

Oya’s Daughter (September 2013 release) is produced by Mark de Clive-Lowe and mixed by Ty Macklin. “I’ve always sang my life in my songs. These most recent years, in relative silence, I’ve raised two beautiful daughters. This time was for me more creative observation at life and my place in it as an artist,” shares St.Victor. On Oya’s Daughter, these new stories and songs reflect this new sight. The singer and songwriter confesses, “Lyrically, I’m more blunt and still positive. I’m less concerned with opinions, more protective of my own preferences and realities.” “Why Oya?” explains St. Victor, “Oya is the Orisha of change, storms. She is the owner of the winds. Wind is symbolic of the power of thought. My daily movement asks Oya to lift the words of my songs into the breeze, on the air.”

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Jameszoo – Jheronimus (EP)

July 12, 2013 JUKEBOXDC Staff Music No Comments  

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Out now on iTunes (link below with stream).

Following the success of his Faaveelaa EP in 2012, which received support from the likes of The Gaslamp Killer and Mark Pritchard, young Dutch producer Jameszoo returns to Rwina with the Jheronimus EP. Once more he delivers a selection of productions that seem custom made to squeegee your third eye.

The inspiration for Jheronimus is hinted at in the title: the work of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (born Jheronimus FYI), a man known for his fantastical paintings the influence of which have lasted across the centuries. The music Jameszoo paints on Jheronimus is equally fantastical, while also managing to be so awkward and out there it’s irresistible.

Opener ‘Blue Flutebird’ is a short intro that combines singing and uplifting keys, enticing the listener into this fantastical world. ‘Owlowowlo’ starts off on a lullaby tip, all soft and gentle before the producer flips the mood on its head and drops you into his trademark neck-snapping groove, sparse drums colliding across distorted guitar stabs as piano hits and more fly around the spectrum. ‘Poek’ balances more gentle guitar melodies and a warm bass against a steady beat that never strays, giving the listener a rest before ‘The Clumtwins’ revisits the sort of percussive work that has made Jameszoo’s work to date so deliriously attractive. Effected vox, hard drums and a panoply of sounds are all deployed and swung out as far as is pleasant, resulting in broken funk of the highest order. The EP closes with ‘Kreem Kund’, a fuzzy gentler piece that shows the producer further experimenting with the core stylistic ideas that appear throughout Jheronimus. In the same way his voice started it off, it closes the trip into this fantastic land.

Jheronimus continues Jameszoo’s experimental work, fitting somewhere between broken hip hop, electronics and folk – a trip for the headphone listen that still has some, albeit strange, dancefloor potential. By further giving the young producer a platform from which to deliver his musical curveballs to the world Rwina is doing everyone a great service. Simply lay back and take a trip.

Tracklist:
01 Blue Flutebrid
02 Owlowowlo
03 Poek
04 The Clumtwins
05 Kreem Kund

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