Toy - Happy in the Hollow - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Toy, who released Happy In The Hollow, their fourth, and by far most acclaimed album to date, in January of this year on Tough Love Records, have announced details of Songs Of Consumption, an 8-song collection of unique interpretations of tracks which have inspired the band. The idea was originally birthed when the band recorded four covers for the bonus 7Inchs that came with the Dinked and Rough Trade versions of the last album. 3 of those songs feature here alongside 5 new recordings completed last month, which comprise tracks by Stooges, Amanda Lear, Nico, The Troggs, Serge Gainsborough, Soft Cell, John Barry and Pet Shop Boys/Elvis/Willy Nelson (depending on how you know the song). Talking about the album, Toy said Songs of Consumption sonically is a continuation and development of the themes conceived on Happy In The Hollow and it will show people where we are going towards musically. The DIY approach was explored further utilising more of the electronic elements that we touched upon before. Drum machines, stripped down arrangements and rudimentary production give a primitive sound that we thought suited the choice of songs. Some of the songs have very big sounding production, so we wanted to experiment with them by going in a different direction. Music is consumed voraciously now whereas these songs came from a time when the song was of the most important thing and that's what was appreciated. Stripping them back to the essence of what they are was also something we wanted to explore. Also, we wanted to make a covers record with songs by people that influenced us in the past few years and it's as much about the way they dealt with their ideas, and how they put themselves in uncomfortable situations in order to make something that in the end is simple. It's a homage to the spirit of these people, that helped us to untangle ourselves from our inherent complicated

As an artist, composer, producer, writer, and co-founder of Sooper Records, so much of NNAMDÏ's life is go/go/go, do/do/do, produce/produce/produce, with precious little time to stop. Take a Breath. Have a Seat. Please Have a Seat finds NNAMDÏ writing through those calmer moments as he's been able to capture them; to sit down, pause, and write twelve songs. If there is comfort here among the common themes, it's the comfort in finding wisdom and gaining confidence. Pausing, but also knowing there maybe is no real pause, that every moment is one to grow as a human, to reflect or learn. In fact, Please Have a Seat is bookended by two songs about running, about finding those moments in motion, getting out of go-brain and into something deeper, more elemental. That these are pop songs to NNAMDÏ is telling; the hooks are there, melodies and chorus lines that make Please Have a Seat warm and inviting. But the articulations are nonlinear, and NNAMDÏ's Please Have a Seat isn't a story or narrative collection so much as an incantation, a conjuring of elements with an almost synesthetic quality. Sounds, styles and themes crisscross into focus, giving a glimpse into NNAMDÏ's inspiration and inviting us to please have a seat ourselves, to make our own moment and our own meaning of it. With Please Have a Seat, NNAMDÏ doesn't so much tell a story as show us the power of it's requisite pieces.

The popularity of Brazilian song in the United States blossomed during the 1960s as the sounds of bossa nova and samba entered the spheres of jazz and popular music. The classic repertoire of Jobim, Gilberto, etc. Have remained iconic and are routinely revisited in standard arrangements. Vocalist/composer Catina DeLuna and pianist/composer/arranger Otmaro Ruíz have chosen a different path, one highlighting obscure Brazilian gems and offering vastly revised versions of well-known classics in performance and on record. Their new recording, Lado B Brazilian Project 2, provides a perfect example of their achievements. Originally from São Paulo, DeLuna moved to the States to get her Master's degree, eventually settling in Los Angeles. Her talent and expertise in Brazilian music gained DeLuna a following, including the legendary drummer, Peter Erskine. It was Erskine who introduced DeLuna to Ruíz, a brilliant Venezuelan pianist and composer who had long made Los Angeles his home and established himself in the jazz and world music scenes. DeLuna knew Ruíz's work and had hoped to work with him and, when he heard DeLuna's work, Ruíz knew that her command and artistic integrity would allow for a musical collaboration that could go anywhere artistically. After they were introduced, the couple's mutual appreciation grew deeper, leading from a musical relationship to a personal one. Their partnership became a marriage in music and in life. Having long worked with Brazilian artists, Ruíz had an instant connection to DeLuna's deep knowledge of Brazilian song, which came from her absorption of the music from family and friends as a youngster. The two began to perform the Brazilian canon regularly. But rather than stick to the tried-and-true classics of bossa nova and samba, they decided to dig deeper into the lado bB-side cuts from classic Brazilian albums, which may be just as music