A volley of great new Crammed releases about to be fired !
While the new albums by DJ Dolores and Konono N°1 are barely out, Crammed are getting ready to fire a volley of important new releases:
1. “Rive Gauche Rio”, the new album by Celso Fonseca
The follow-up to the acclaimed “Natural” album is every bit as warm, inspired, elegant & sensual… Celso’s caressing voice and splendid guitar playing are in top form… contains a duet with Uruguayan singer/guitarist Jorge Drexler (who just won the Oscar for best song in a film soundtrack), and a cover of Damien Rice‘s “Delicate”. Out end of April.
2. “Whaa!”, the awaited 3rd ‘official’ album by Zuco 103
World/electronic/pop fusion pioneers Zuco 103 have included new ingredients in their multicultural blend. To the now-familiar jazz, Brazilian and electronic components of their music, Zuco 103 have added Afro-Cuban, Ethiopian, West-African and dub spicings, which makes Whaa! a potent, organic and delicious brew… dub/reggae legend Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry makes inspired, irresistible -and rare- appearances in two songs, and Dani Macaco, the lead singer with popular Spanish world fusion band Macaco appears in another. Out in May.
3. “About A Girl EP”, a DualDisc EP by Cibelle, featuring 4 new tracks and 4 videos.
Her debut album established her as one of the most original and seductive young artists to come out of Brazil. Cibelle is about to do a giant leap forward with the new album she’s now working on. This limited-edition EP points to the new directions she’s exploring (more folk, more microbeats, more sonic inventivity...). The CD side contains four new songs, including the title track, a cover of an early Nirvana song. The DVD side contains four videos made by young filmmaker Elsa Dahmani (Tony Gatlif’s daughter) and by Cibelle herself. Out in May.
4. “Bebel Gilberto Remixed", an album in which all the (predominantly acoustic) tracks from Bebel Gilberto‘s eponymously-titled second album are given new interpretations by a great cast of dance, hip hop and electronica remixers including DJ Spinna, Thievery Corporation, Yam Who?, Nuspirit Helsinki, Tom Middleton, Spiritual South, Dubstar’s Steve Hillier, Telefon Tel Aviv and more… The initial pressing will be a limited edition including a second CD with 6 additional remixes by John Beltran, Spiritual South, Tom Middleton, Nuspirit Helsinki, Yam Who? and Bombay Dub Orchestra. Out end of May.
5. Congotronics vol.2 : hot in the footsteps of the Konono N°1 album, this set will introduce five other amazing “tradi-modern” bands from the Congo… They’re all playing electrified traditional music, with distorted, amplified percussion, but some of them also use guitars… This will also be a DualDisc: a full audio album on one side, and a DVD (with footage filmed by Vincent Kenis while he recorded these bands in Kinshasa) on the other… the audio side will also contain a new Konono N°1 track, as well as remixes by Matthew Herbert and Tortoise’s John McEntire. Out in June.