Mr Bongo | Finn Rees - Looking Up (Official Video) @MrBongoRecords | Uploaded 6 months ago | Updated 1 day ago
STREAM / DOWNLOAD: https://bfan.link/looking-up-1
BUY: https://bfan.link/dawn-is-a-melody
Finn Rees, one of the key members of Melbourne’s bubbling music scene, announces his debut solo album, Dawn Is A Melody on Mr Bongo with the first single, ‘Looking Up’. As part of 30/70 and Close Counters his previous work has found form in its groove, Dawn Is A Melody instead places the piano and arrangements centre stage, embracing a timeless warmth infused with bittersweet melodies and saturated textures.
The lead single ‘Looking Up’ is a divine dose of uplifting, soul-rousing optimism that kicks off the album. A blank canvas for Finn and a whole host of Melbourne’s finest talent to fill with colour. Sitting between spiritual and cinematic, the track instantly envelops you in a swell of vintage hues, Lucky Pereira feathering the drums as Blakely McLean Davies riffs on the double bass. Finn’s fingers flow across the ‘70s Yamaha grand piano, delicately dancing around Siwei Wong’s stunning harp playing as the track builds and breaks. A sublime string section made up of Chloe Danger, Eunise Cheng, Nils Hobiger and McLean Davies, alongside shimmering vocal harmonies by 30/70 bandmate Allysha Joy, lift the track to limitless heights.
Finn’s layered synthwork on the Moog and Prophet provides a contemporary touch to proceedings, but one of the beauties of ‘Looking Up’ and the rest of the Dawn Is A Melody is its inability to be placed by age or era. A blend of inspirations from Arthur Verocai to Alice Coltrane, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson to Kamasi Washington, tied together with recording and mix engineer Henry Jenkin’s vintage recording setup warmth.
Just as the swell washed in at the start, the tide draws ‘Looking Up’ to a close, fading back out across the horizon as the sun sets another story.
Music & Concept - Finn Rees
Writer, Editor & Director - Eren Besiroglu
Cinematographer - Shaki Prasanna
Colourist - Niklas Malkin (Crayon)
Additional Cinematography - Will Joseph
Production Assistant - Ibrahim Shah Khan
Grand Piano and Prophet 6 - Finn Rees
Drums - Lucky Pereira
Double Bass - Blakely McLean Davies
Percussion - Dom Kirk
Strings - Chloe Danger, Eunise Cheng, Nils Hobiger & McLean Davies
Vocals - Allysha Joy
Harp - Siwei Wong
Mix Engineer - Henry Jenkins
Featuring:
Allan McConnell
Art Pitchford
Allysha Joy
Annalisa Fernandez & Caleb Williams
Blakely McLean Davies
Eliki Reade & Komang
Hilary & Moses Carr
Jay Jarome
Lucky Pereira
Matthew Hayes
Moses Carr & Hillary Goldsmith
Ray Pereira
Siwei Wong
Tash Devapura
Tiaryn Griggs
Follow Mr Bongo: instagram.com/mrbongoworldwide
Follow Finn Rees: instagram.com/finnrees
Visit The Website - http://www.mrbongo.com
Bandcamp - mrbongo.bandcamp.com
STREAM / DOWNLOAD: https://bfan.link/looking-up-1
BUY: https://bfan.link/dawn-is-a-melody
Finn Rees, one of the key members of Melbourne’s bubbling music scene, announces his debut solo album, Dawn Is A Melody on Mr Bongo with the first single, ‘Looking Up’. As part of 30/70 and Close Counters his previous work has found form in its groove, Dawn Is A Melody instead places the piano and arrangements centre stage, embracing a timeless warmth infused with bittersweet melodies and saturated textures.
The lead single ‘Looking Up’ is a divine dose of uplifting, soul-rousing optimism that kicks off the album. A blank canvas for Finn and a whole host of Melbourne’s finest talent to fill with colour. Sitting between spiritual and cinematic, the track instantly envelops you in a swell of vintage hues, Lucky Pereira feathering the drums as Blakely McLean Davies riffs on the double bass. Finn’s fingers flow across the ‘70s Yamaha grand piano, delicately dancing around Siwei Wong’s stunning harp playing as the track builds and breaks. A sublime string section made up of Chloe Danger, Eunise Cheng, Nils Hobiger and McLean Davies, alongside shimmering vocal harmonies by 30/70 bandmate Allysha Joy, lift the track to limitless heights.
Finn’s layered synthwork on the Moog and Prophet provides a contemporary touch to proceedings, but one of the beauties of ‘Looking Up’ and the rest of the Dawn Is A Melody is its inability to be placed by age or era. A blend of inspirations from Arthur Verocai to Alice Coltrane, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson to Kamasi Washington, tied together with recording and mix engineer Henry Jenkin’s vintage recording setup warmth.
Just as the swell washed in at the start, the tide draws ‘Looking Up’ to a close, fading back out across the horizon as the sun sets another story.
Music & Concept - Finn Rees
Writer, Editor & Director - Eren Besiroglu
Cinematographer - Shaki Prasanna
Colourist - Niklas Malkin (Crayon)
Additional Cinematography - Will Joseph
Production Assistant - Ibrahim Shah Khan
Grand Piano and Prophet 6 - Finn Rees
Drums - Lucky Pereira
Double Bass - Blakely McLean Davies
Percussion - Dom Kirk
Strings - Chloe Danger, Eunise Cheng, Nils Hobiger & McLean Davies
Vocals - Allysha Joy
Harp - Siwei Wong
Mix Engineer - Henry Jenkins
Featuring:
Allan McConnell
Art Pitchford
Allysha Joy
Annalisa Fernandez & Caleb Williams
Blakely McLean Davies
Eliki Reade & Komang
Hilary & Moses Carr
Jay Jarome
Lucky Pereira
Matthew Hayes
Moses Carr & Hillary Goldsmith
Ray Pereira
Siwei Wong
Tash Devapura
Tiaryn Griggs
Follow Mr Bongo: instagram.com/mrbongoworldwide
Follow Finn Rees: instagram.com/finnrees
Visit The Website - http://www.mrbongo.com
Bandcamp - mrbongo.bandcamp.com
![Marxist Love Disco Ensemble - MLDE [Full Album]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iNlckI3Cltw/hqdefault.jpg "Marxist Love Disco Ensemble - MLDE [Full Album]
ORDER Vinyl / CD / Digital: https://marxistlovediscoensemble.bandcamp.com/album/mlde
Tracklist:
0:00 - Dust
4:19 - Brumaire
9:27 - Material
13:31 - Manifesto
19:59 - 1905
25:36 - Hues of Red
30:10 - Hide and Seek
34:20 - Engineers
39:40 - Recapitulate (digital only)
42:35 - Communique (digital only)
Sounding simultaneously from the past, the present, and the future, the debut album MLDE by Marxist Love Disco Ensemble seeks to eradicate both the trite from disco and the sobriety from political music. Half poetic, half tongue-in-cheek, this stunning compact eight-track album is influenced by Eastern European and Mediterranean 70s disco records. In the words of band member Paolo, it was written in response to hearing I love America by Patrick Juvet. The song prompted the question: why does disco, a genre originally created by oppressed minorities, eventually become synonymous with Western capitalist excess? MLDE seeks to break this connection.
Merging disco, post-disco 80s pop, and boogie into the fold, MLDE was recorded using only analogue instruments, giving it warmth and space. Recorded on cassette, ½ inch tape, this gives moments of lo-fi abstraction between the beats of an aggressive, tight drum kit. Instruments used for this recording range from saxophone, trumpet, harpsichord, guitar, and rare analogue synthesisers. The bass sound is shaped by early 80s boogie records, whilst the influence of artists such as Hamlet Minassian can be heard in some of MLDEs more driving-disco outings, such as Hues of Red. In the tradition of Soviet vocal group records, which the band has studied, some songs are sung by a vocal quartet in homage to this tradition.
Tracks such as 1905 and Brumaire have a greater pop aesthetic, with Paolos vocal style on these more pop-driven songs evoking early 80s bands such as Orange Juice and Chas Jankel.
The format and message of pop and disco are commonly viewed just to entertain and move bodies around a dancefloor; however, lyrically, the subjects range from dialectical and historical materialism, class struggle, Marxist theory and praxis, as well as the concept of Marxist disco music.
Adding the icing to the cake, mastering don Joker aka Liam McLean dusted the album with his magic, giving the songs space where the room is needed, as well as the kick and punch demanded by the modern dancefloor.
Follow Mr Bongo - https://www.instagram.com/mrbongoworldwide/
Visit The Website - http://www.mrbongo.com/
Bandcamp - https://mrbongo.bandcamp.com/")
![SOYUZ (СОЮЗ) - Force of the Wind (Сила ветра) [Full Album]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jEoSMdahcOw/hqdefault.jpg "SOYUZ (СОЮЗ) - Force of the Wind (Сила ветра) [Full Album]
ORDER Vinyl / CD / Digital: https://gruppasoyuz.bandcamp.com/album/force-of-the-wind
Tracklist:
0:00 - Song With No Words (Песня без слов)
1:45 - Offscreen (За кадром)
5:13 - I Knew It — feat. Kate NV (Я так и знал)
9:19 - Glance (Мгновение)
13:04 - How Are You — feat. Sessa (Como é que vai você)
16:58 - Beige Days (Бежевые дни)
22:34 - Morning Moon (Lua da manhã)
24:09 - Force of the Wind (Сила ветра)
26:45 - Weather Report (Прогноз погоды)
Some records just stop you in your tracks. They resonate with you and feel instantly familiar like an old friend, even on the first listen. SOYUZs third album ‘Force of the Wind’ is one of those records. It holds all the trademarks, beauty, and eccentricities of classic Brazilian recordings, from the 60s and 70s, that we have come to love. Think artists such as Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier e Cartier, Arthur Verocai et al. But this record wasn’t made in Brazil and is in fact a brand-new release.
SOYUZ (which translates as union) is a creative collective from Minsk, Belarus, led by composer, arranger, and singer, Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist, Mikita Arlou, and drummer, Anton Nemahai. SOYUZs previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented, non-English-language pop music of the 20th century. For their third album, there is a stronger focus, and it is influenced by 70s Música popular Brasileira and building bridges from it to present-day Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first encountered Brazilian music, he found in it a kind of concentrated emotion that felt as if it were familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between the listener and musician echoes in the music, regardless of understanding of the language the album is recorded in.
‘Force of the Wind’ includes songs sung in Russian and Portuguese as well as instrumental compositions. Its musical palette is both acoustic and electroacoustic: rich warm Rhodes piano, soaring string arrangements, and a controlled drum swagger sounding both relaxed yet super tight. Alongside Alexs sublime vocals, that grace the majority of the tracks, the album features guest performances by multi-talented musician and vocalist Kate NV and rising Brazilian star, Sessa. Alex also recently arranged a number of tracks on Sessas highly praised 2022 album Estrela Acesa.
On the album, the trio is joined by a cast of friends; NY-based musician of Turkish origin percussionist, Cem Mısırlıoğlu, classically trained composer, Simon Hanes, who aided with string arrangements and conducting the string players, Netherlands-based Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, Gabriel Milliet, on flutes. With the collaboration of these friends SOYUZ have created nine songs/suites that are subtle and plenitude and like the best albums, leave you aching for more.
‘Force of the Wind’ is an enigma, Brazilian yet not Brazilian, vintage yet still contemporary, out of sync with modern culture yet completely relevant and necessary.
Follow Mr Bongo - https://www.instagram.com/mrbongoworldwide/
Visit The Website - http://www.mrbongo.com/
Bandcamp - https://mrbongo.bandcamp.com/")
