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News From The Studios!

CIBELLE is putting the finishing touches to her second album, due for release in April 2006. The tracks were recorded mostly in São Paulo and London, and were coproduced by Cibelle, Apollo Nove and Mike Lindsay (from up and coming UK folktronica act Tunng). Final takes and mixes are taking place in Paris with engineer Yann Arnaud.

TARTIT: Crammed are about to start recording the new album by this Tuareg band who live in the Sahara (in northern Mali), and recently took part in the Desert Blues shows alongside Afel Bocoum & Habib Koité. The album will be recorded in the desert by (Congotronics man) Vincent Kenis on his mobile studio, and in collaboration with Michel Winter, who has been looking after the career of Tartit (with his management company Divano, which also takes care of Taraf de Haidouks, Mahala Rai Banda and Konono N°1 among others).

BEBEL GILBERTO has been writing and recording songs for her 3rd album.

TUXEDOMOON are working on a largely instrumental soundtrack album.

THINK OF ONE: the ebullient Belgian combo have just signed a recording agreement with Crammed, and are working on their new album, due out in late March 2006. Entitled « Chuva em pô 2 », the album was recorded with several musicians & vocalists from the Brazilian northeast, including legendary veteran singer Dona Cila do Côco. Their first « Chuva em pô » project had come out on their own, tiny label, yet had managed to obtain a BBC Award for World Music. Think Of One think of themselves as musical explorers, and have previously travelled around the globe to record with Moroccan and Inuit artists.

CONGOTRONICS 3 : watch this space for more news on the recording of the forthcoming volume in the series !

Congo Band Finds an International Voice in a Junkyard

Excellent article on Konono Nº1 in NYTimes.

Konono Nº1 nomination for BBC Awards

Konono Nº1 has been nominated for the BBC World Music Awards.

Exclusive video preview of «Congotronics 2 - Buzz'n'Rumble In The Urb'n'Jungle»

The KONONO N°1 album (Congotronics 1) has started giving worldwide exposure to the strange and spectacular electro-traditional mixtures which are being concocted in the suburbs of Kinshasa, Congo. World music, electronica and avant-rock aficionados have been equally amazed by this otherworldly music, which has driven the international press to come up with extremely surprising comparisons (from Can and Krautrock to Jimi Hendrix, Lee Perry and proto-techno !...).

Hot on the footsteps of Congotronics 1, here comes a fresh selection of even more amazing sounds, courtesy of no less than seven electro-traditional bands from Kinshasa, which have all been especially recorded and produced by Crammed’s Vincent Kenis

Included here are excerpts of videos by the following bands :

Basokin

Sobanza Mimanisa

Masanka Sankayi

Technorati tags: Congotronics Konono N°1

KONONO N°1 American Tour Dates

04/11 SEATTLE, WA EARSHOT JAZZ FESTIVAL
06/11 SAN FRANCISCO, CA SF JAZZ FESTIVAL
10/11 MINNEAPOLIS, MN CEDAR CULTURAL CENTRE
11/11 CHICAGO, IL LOGAN SQUARE AUDITORIUM
12/11 COLOMBUS, OH WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
13/11 DAYTON, OH BOLL THEATER
14/11 ANN ARBOR, MI THE ARK
15/11 PITTSBURGH, PA THE WARHOL MUSEUM
16/11 NEW YORK, NY JOE’S PUB
17/11 NEW YORK, NY S.O.B’S
18/11 SOMERVILLE, MA SOMERVILLE THEATER
20/11 PHILADELPHIA, PA WORLD LIVE CAFE

Check the images below fore some steaming live footage from their first European concert in Paris on Sunday, May 29, at a special event organized by daily paper Liberation. Video images by Césarine Bolya.

Congotronics on iTunes
(click here icon for direct Congotronics acces to the iTunes US store )

Technorati tags: Congotronics Konono N°1

CONGOTRONICS 2 - BUZZ'N'RUMBLE FROM THE URB'N'JUNGLE

After the explosive KONONO Nº1, the Congotronics series presents 6 other astounding bands from the suburbs of Kinshasa, including Kasai All Stars, Masanka Sankayi and Basokin. More heavily-distorted sounds, more DIY amplification… but also a whole array of different rhythms, buzzing drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons. A DVD will be included to show it all.

More info soon here on Crammedblog.

INDIAN SUMMER

While you’re still enjoying diving, climbing, walking, escaping and doing other exciting summer things, the little bees at Crammed are preparing a beautiful Indian Summer for you…

APOLLO NOVE, the amazing young producer/musician/singer from São Paulo, the man who produced Cibelle’s first record, has come up with an exquisite album: modern yet retro, electronic yet folk, and definitively Brazilian, groovy and sexy. He has invited some seductive voices to sing with him: Cibelle, Céu, Tita Lima and Seu Jorge. His album is called “Res Inexplicata Volans”.

We will also release THE NOW SOUND OF BRAZIL 2 , the new Ziriguiboom compilation. Great songs, unreleased tracks & exclusive mixes from our adored Brazilian artists incuding Cibelle, Zuco 103, Celso Fonseca, Bossacucanova, Bebel Gilberto, DJ Dolores and more… and last but not least the compilation will be sold at a nice price.

Ahhh! HUGO and his album "La nuit des balançoires" : if you don’t understand French, you will miss some of the content of his Twin-Peaks-meets-Conan-Doyle-on-a-surnatural-sarcastic-tip stories, but then again you’ll feel it simply by hearing the atmosphere of his arrangements (ranging from limpid to quirky), his high-pitched voice and his wonderful melodies....

TARAF DE HAÏDOUKS: you were probably wondering when we were going to make a DVD with our lovely honourable brigands? Well, it’s almost done! 2 young directors are working on it. It will include a program with the Tarafs in concert in the UK, when Neacsu was still alive, very touching, and Johnny Depp telling the world why he loves them so much, filmed by UK director Marc Allen. Also, a documentary about the Band of Gypsies playing in their country, Romania, for the first time on their 10th anniversary, shot by Elsa Dahmani. There will also be several bonuses, interviews, video postcards of the Tarafs playing around the world etc.

CONGOTRONICS 2: “BUZZ’N’RUMBLE FROM THE URB’N’JUNGLE” : after the explosive KONONO N°1, professor Vincent Kenis will present us 5 other stupendous electro-traditional bands from the suburbs of Kinshasa, including Kasai Allstars, Masanka Sankayi & Basokin. More heavily-distorted sounds, more DIY amplification… but also a whole array of different rhythms, buzzing drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons. A DVD will be included to show it all.

KONONO Nº1 at Scènes d'été 2005

Last chance also to see the Konono Nº1 band live this summer in France. They play among Mory Kanté, Maraca, Mercan Dede et Frédéric Galliano and the African Divas…, this sunday at Le Parc de la Villette at Scènes d’été 2005

Check also the excellent article on Konono Nº1 in Le Figaro (in French!).

More Tour Dates of Crammed artists at Crammed website.

Konono Nº1 & Swede Swede @ Bozar

Konono N°1 will be topping the bill of a free concert organised by BOZAR (Centre For Fine Arts) in parallel with the exhibition ‘Kinshasa, The Imaginary City’ which won a Golden Lion in Venice this year.

The concert takes place in Brussels on July 21st.

Also on stage: tradi-modern band Swede Swede whose album ‘Toleki Bango’, released by Crammed in 1991, can be considered as numero zero of the Congotronics series.

More KONONO tour dates can be found at Crammed website.

“Congotronics" CD on iTunes
(click iTunes icon for direct acces)

KONONO #1 this evening in Court Circuit

KONONO #1 will be live this evening with the infamous Luc JANSSEN in the Court Circuit program on VRT Studio Brussel radio. The show can be followed live from Studio Brussel website from 23.00 hrs. till 01.00 hrs.

Konono in NY Times

Referred to as “Post-Colonial Electronica", Konono keeps surprising. Read the article published yesterday in the New York Times by Andy Pemberton.

But what really makes “Congotronics” (Crammed Discs), the debut album by the African band Konono No. 1, one of the most startling of recent world-music releases - and drawn comparisons to the German electronic-music pioneers Kraftwerk and the reggae producer Lee Perry - is the amplification system the band has used for the last 30 years.

(...) “Congotronics” was recorded outdoors using an Apple laptop and a handful of microphones, and was mixed in Mr. Kenis’s hotel room with members of the band. It has sold 15,000 copies worldwide, a respectable number for such an esoteric record, and will be released in the United States on June 28; the band has embarked on its first tour of Europe, with the United States to follow in November.

“Congotronics" CD on iTunes
(click iTunes icon for direct acces)

KONONO N°1 LIVE! (Visas finally granted)

Konono N°1 aficionados across Europe had been holding their breath as the Congolese band waited to be granted their visas. The unexpected, additional 2-week delay unfortunately resulted in the cancellation of all their scheduled appearances alongside Tortoise, who had invited Konono N°1 to share the bill with them on a 10-date European tour.

After many vicissitudes, the visas were finally issued last Friday, and the band has played a steaming, first European concert in Paris on Sunday, May 29, at a special event organized by daily paper Liberation.

Check here fore some steaming live footage from that evening. Video images by Césarine Bolya.

Konono N° 1 are now proceeding with the scheduled summer tour which will take them through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy Portugal etc

For more details check the Live section on the Crammed website

KONONO Nº1 hits the Blogosphere

Last weeks Konono Nº1 took the blogosphere by storm. Just do a simple Konono search on Google and check for yourself. 

Some excellent blogs helped building the craze starting with ‘burb killa’ Christopher Porter.

Monday Christopher reported about some early recordings of Konono No. 1 from back in 1978. "Glad all of us finally got to catch up."

Another cool blog is the Can’t Stop Won’t Stop from Jeff Chang.

But most of all, Konono’s Congotronics kicks mad bass pressure. The effect is not far from say, the b-boy throb of “It’s Just Begun”. When on “Masikulu”, the bassline drops out, you take a deep breath, because you know it’s coming back. It’s like ducking a big wave on the inside while you’re paddling furiously back out to lineup and you know the big sets are still rolling in. Huge rollers of blissful noise. If Lubuaku was raw power, Congotronics is high drama. You won’t be able to remain motionless.

Videoclip Konono N°1

Watch the videoclip of the well acclaimed album of Konono N°1

Konono N°1 is the first volume of Crammed’s new series Congotronics, which is devoted to electrified traditional music from the Congo.

New Tour Dates added

Check for latest added tour dates and updates on Crammed LIVE website section.

New Tour dates added for DJ Dolores, Cibelle, Konono N°1, Zuco 103, Taraf de Haïdouks, Mahala Rai Banda and Koçani Orkestar