You have to suscribe to these podcasts, wich are created by Mr. Scruff and James Holden, the music selection is really awsome, and what kind of music is it? Well, their podcasts have a little bit of everything, if you like the records from Ninja Tunes believe me you’re gonna love this podcasts.

Steal these podcasts, just copy and paste this url to your Itunes
feed://www.ninjatune.net/solidsteel/rss.xml

The story of this french DJ and producer began at the ultra trendy Hotel Costes in the heart of Paris, his debut as a DJ in the lounge area was so successful, that the people started going to the Cafè Costes just to listen to his extraordinary eclectic DJ sets, customers were always very interested in buying a recording from the night they went, so Jean-Louis Costes, the hotel owner, had a brilliant idea: What if we create a compilation with this innovating music? the idea turned out as a hit, the first compilation quickly beacame a global success, after that Stéphane continued the unstoppable production of these compilations, creating 8 volumes of Hotel Costes, all of them delicately selected. After those deliverings he was called for deejaying for important events like Gucci catwalks, Massive Attack’s bar, Cannes Film Festival, and many more.

But he didn’t want to get labeled as a “Lounge DJ”, he wanted more, so he started working in the production of his own tracks, in 2003 he released his first album ““Living On The Egde” in which he had great guests, like Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Clèmentine, Cathy Battistessa and many more, from that album I especially love the original Morenito song, which is incredibly well produced.

Finally I want to share with you his last effort “The Concorde Lounge - Super Sonic Jet Set Love” which also has original compositions by Stéphane Pompougnac, remixes and special guests. It was really hard to find, so please enjoy the listening.

I’ve always hated reissues, not because it is the right thing to do when it comes to improve an album, but because they make you spend your money again in an item you already have, but there are some unavoidable jewels that you just can’t let go, in the case of Björk - Surrounded is not a simple jewel, it is a metallic-pink chest stuffed with gold and diamonds. The content in this beautiful 7 dual disc boxset is simple: her full album catalogue, including music videos, all remastered in Dolby 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound, rated in just a word: wow!

I don’t know if you already know this video, but still I want to share it with you beacause is a good track, a nice animation and, in few words, a great idea, and of course a good Kid Koala tune.

We have to listen to a lot of albums from different genres and styles to select our now traditional album of the month, sometimes it is a very hard process to select just one, I think that one of the most important factors to consider is how this album going to strike the music scene and cause some shock to other artists, this is a very subjective issue beacuse some tracks could be greatly innovative, but we are evaluating the entire album.

Recently I’ve listened to 3 different albums which have a lot in common, the are:
Aqua Bassino - Rue De Paris
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Imaginations
Stereolab - Fab Four Suture
What have they in common? Aren’t they different in their own style? You may be asking these questions, The answer is yes, they are radically different, but the 3 of them follow the same pattern or the same formula than their previous releases, let’s talk about a little bit of each one:

Aqua Bassino - Rue De Paris
It’s a fantastic album for creating a lounge atmosphere because almost all of it is downtempo, just a few tracks are house music in 120 or 125 bpm, It could be said that is incredibly well done, the arregments, the vocals, but it’s the same Aqua Bassino’s formula, if you know
his past albums, you will find the similarities.
Register and listen this album here.

Fantastic Plastic Machine - Imaginations
This Japanese producer and DJ has a huge background exposing new ideas to renew the Japanese scene, Imaginations definitely is great for dancefloors, but I won’t compare it with Too (2003) in which every track has a story to tell and a renew way to edit a song, although he invited 3 incredible artists, like Tahiti 80 or Benjamin Diamond, in my own point of view is a quick-made album, therefore, with a lack of imagination, maybe I was expecting more about Fantastic Plastic Machine.
Register and listen this album here.

StereoLab-Fab Four Suture
This one is the most faithful example of how artists could reclycling formulas, aparently Stereolab extract all the essence of their previous releases and put it on Fab Four Suture, they have all the tools to renew themselves, I don’t know why they haven’t done it, but don’t misunderstand me, this album is very cool if you don’t know their past works or if you are a Stereolab fan, The formula they always use could be 40% of sweet vocals by Laetitia Sadier, 30% of 60’s pyschedelia and 30% of electronic arragments, et voilá: you have a Stereolab album.
Register and listen this album here.

Listen to the 3 of them and leave us a comment

This is a very large instrument mainly made by Honduras rosewood, it has 19 wavelength resonators and 5 cavity resonators under the 24 bars, to ensure an exceptionally low frequency sound. Created by Cris Forster in 1986 this powerful device is over 3.65 meters (12 feet) long and it is basically a low-toned marimba. Listen to a sample here.

After their first debut album “La revancha del tango” Gotan Project seeded new concepts and ideas for the rebirth of tango music, combining the melancholy, elegance and folklore of tango with electronic rhythms, to create an accurate combination they went back on time and brought out the huge heritage of Astor Piazolla, and Carlos Gardel which were two of the most important Argentinian composers of XX century.

We had to wait two years after Inspiración-Espiración (a remixes album) to recieve Lunático our May album of the month, this album, in comparison with their debut’s, is “diferente”, just like the name of the single, beacause Lunático explores the most hidden roots of tango music and even the traditional South American music, like candombe, which is an Uruguayan style created entirely for drums, influenced by Africans. Lunático dares to have more freedom and rhytm, in fact the single ‘Diferente’ is available on vinyl, ready for DJs pleasure; But this album is not entirely for dancefloors, Lunatico has a lot of flavors from rap & tango, to jazzy ballads and fast breakbeats, for doing this amazing fusion they had to be very creative and professional, Gotan Project are now more prepared to show the guidelines of the future, I actually can’t wait to listen to their next album.

Bart Hopkin, editor and founder of Experimental Musical Instruments, a journal dedicated to new and unusual musical instruments, published “Musical Instrument Design: Practical Information for Instrument Making” back in 1996, this is a great book that covers everything from patterns, timbre & overtones, resonance, oscillation, impedance, etc. The book basically explores the world of musical instrument design, it explains how common and new instruments can be made using simple tools, but this book is not a step-by-step guide for making every musical instrument from scratch, it is more about the phisics of sound making, about understanding why musical instruments are built the way they are.