Friday, April 2, 2010

Russell Young - Take A Picture


Russell Young - Take A Picture

Russell Young is an up and coming artist from Virginia. Nominated the best "Underground Rap Artist" in the south at the "Underground Music Awards Show" in 2008, Russell Young is now releasing his video debut, showcasing his versatility and songwriting skills.

His music is a well balanced mix, influenced by 50 Cent's warm beats which add a southern flavor to them. Young's music has been praised by GarageBand.com, with his tracks receiving both Track Of The Day and Track Of The Week awards. He has been featured on various magazines and websites, which is quite a feat considering that he began his career as a professional just 2 years ago.

Please visit for more www.myspace.com/russellyoungmusic

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Rachel McDonald Releases New Track "Funky"


Website: http://www.myspace.com/rachelmcdonaldsoul
Music: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/funky-mp3/id341315821?i=34131583[...]

Up-and-coming soul and R&B singer Rachel McDonald has released a new track from her debut record "The Return of Soul". In keeping with the album's theme, "Funky" is a dance tune featuring strong bass lines, catchy hooks and grooves that dare you not to shake it.


stand alone player
Quantcast
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_3024254

"Funky" features McDonald's vocal range and power. Full of flourishes and register changes, she proves here that she can hang. She sings about her love of funk and soul music and how she craves the release she feels when listening to and dancing to the music she loves. When you get down to it, it's just gotta be funky.

Lona Records Keeps The Experimental Flame in Hong Kong Alive


By Eric de Fontenay

Lona Records is a Hong Kong boutique indie label set up by Alok Leung in 2003. The label has attracted a very international and growing roster of acts focused on alternative and experimental music. I first discovered the label through four-piece rock outfit UNiXX that plies its trade in dark, shoegazing garage rock, flecked with overtones of The Horrors and circa-1993 Suede and is about to tour the mainland.

Alok is a self-taught guitarist and bassist who formed several bands in the 90s, including Pillow and Slow Tech Riddim, which combined electronic music with live instruments. He decided to go solo in 2001 and set up his own record label Lona Records the following year. Working as a producer, he released 5 albums and 5 CD singles from 2002 to 2009. He has played and participated in more than 50 shows and experimental events / projects in Hong Kong and across China.

How did you come to launch Lona Records in 2003 and how have you grown since?

At the beginning, I only set up Lona Records to release my own works. I subsequently met a number of recording artists that shared the same vision as myself. So from around early 2005, I started to release works of other artists from countries like the UK, US, Italy, Germany, Poland, Japan, Netherlands, mainland China and Hong Kong. We are also planning on releasing some works by artists from Denmark and Argentina etc.

Lona Records has also organized several concerts and exhibitions in recent years. We've gotten some very good feedback, but still there is not much room for survival here in Hong Kong.

Let me get straight to the point: how has a label focused on alternative/experimental music survived over the last 7 years in a market like Hong Kong?... no offense of course.

Every record label has to have its own direction. Experimental / alternative is my favorite music genre. Lona Records though has never looked at the Hong Kong market as a viable one - experimental music can't really survive here.

Tell me a little about the 3" CDR series you launched in 2005 "to explore the aesthetic boundaries of experimental sound."

After launching this series, I found that many people were interested in it. Personally, this idea is almost like the 7" vinyl. One shortcoming though is that Mac users cannot play these CDRs.

China is notorious for piracy. How has it affected Lona Records' business?

The problem of piracy does not really affect us a lot, because the quantities for each releases is still relatively small. I believe that the people who like our works are be willing to buy the originals. We are also planning to enter the digital download market.

I've become a huge a fan of UNiXX, which I've called one of my Hong Kong band's to watch in 2010. How do you choose which bands to add to Lona's roster?

The main directions of Lona Records include:
1) experimental, i.e. Avant-garde, Ambient, Minimal, Noise,...
2) Alternative, i.e. Alternative rock, Neo-Classical,....

With the latter, apart from UNiXX, we also have a Hong Kong band called The Yours and Jeffrey Butzer from the US. We always have an open-minded attitude when considering the demos received.

How do you see the growing independent music scene in the mainland affecting Hong Kong?

There are many excellent recording artists in mainland China. You'll notice that while these artists have been influenced by foreign cultures, they are still able to retain elements of traditional Chinese culture in their works. On the contrary, we don't have such a 'local' culture in Hong Kong. I might also explore the possibility of doing something in Beijing in the future.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

United Souls New Album Of Robert Lauri


Website: http://www.myspace.com/robertlauri

Think about it, taken from the album United Souls, is scheduled for airplay on several radio stations. It is difficult to hear this song with its catchy rhythm without wanting to dance.

Robert Lauri conceived the album United Souls as a melting pot where all musical cultures, a mixture of rap, soul, country and even gospel are brought together in a single album, even within a single track. The artiste has contributed his experience and his inexhaustible talent to the production of United Souls to create new worlds each time. The album is for dancing to and is aimed at both the young and the not so young.

Robert Lauri is certainly one of the most interesting artistes of the day. Offering a combination of hip hop, electronic music, pop and dance, Robert Lauri is a unique musician who does not represent any specific musical genre. The song "Bahia Dream" is an example of Robert Lauri's skill in composing a contemporary classic with multiple facets where traditional music meets hip hop.

In the album United Souls, Robert Lauri crosses various musical genres. It is unconventional music with innovative accents incorporating catchy rhythms, beautiful lyrics and superb melodies.

The maxi-single "United Souls" and the single "Last chance" are available from the major download stores and the audio-CD on Amazon.com. For discovering the songs :

http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/2492181


Koko Dozo New Electronic EP On ITunes, Amazon And EMusic


Website: http://www.kokodozo.com/
Music: http://www.myspace.com/kokodozo

"Douglas is a legitimate belter, with a big and soulful voice that could pass for a disco diva's; for another, Polarity/1's electro productions are strutting and stomping." Bruce Ttantum, TimeOut NY

"Tunes like "Lay That Body Down" and "Bastards in Bazbador" sound amazing on the pavement of the Lower East Side too" Peter Davis, Paper Magazine

New York-based electro disco duo Koko Dozo new electronic EP "Feel the Zuzz!" is now available through major online music retailers iTunes, Amazon and eMusic. The EP was released by Red Star Records, run by former New York Dolls manager, A&R/record producer Marty Thau (Suicide, The Real Kids, The Fleshtones).

Koko Dozo - "Feel the Zuzz!"
iTunes - eMusic - Amazon

Tracklisting
1. Spaceman - Koko Dozo - Feel the Zuzz - EP - Spaceman
2. Lay That Body Down - Koko Dozo - Feel the Zuzz - EP - Lay That Body Down
3. Gangsta - Koko Dozo - Feel the Zuzz - EP - Gangsta
4. Grab Ya - Koko Dozo - Feel the Zuzz - EP - Grab Ya
5. Bastards in Bazbador - Koko Dozo - Feel the Zuzz - EP - Bastards In Bazbador

Amy Douglas & Polarity/1 launched the Koko Dozo project on Feb. 23, 2008 when Nacotheque hosted the release party for their debut, Illegal Space Aliens on subTEKst Recordings.

Polarity/1, multi-instrumentalist/arranger/composer/producer, makes songs without borders and beats for curved dancefloors using REAL SPACE-AGE COMPUTERS! In his laboratory cave, he grinds shards of lost cultural artifacts, barks and growls of ghosts in machines and luminescent sarcastic spaghetti. Then a pinch or two of the house special surreal spice. P/1 has four cult classic CDs of both electro-folk songs and all-instrumental electronica on subTEKst including Audioplasm, a duo project with Rubio. He also composes for film and for performances by Battery Dance Company and Quorum Ballet of Lisbon.

Out of this smoking brew flies Inter-Galactic Empress Amy Douglas who vaporizes the earwax of her victims with four and half octaves worth of nuclear acid lung power. She's a punky songwriting funkette who sharpened her teeth on earth at downtown NYC legendary music haunts and has worked numerous legends from George Clinton to the late great Illinois Jacquet. Her most recent venture was Red Hot Mama, a Hard Rock Vaudeville Show which featured wild cabaret rendi-tions of hard rock, punk & heavy metal classics. From jazz to funk to punk, there is nothing her tongue hasn't touched.