Music thoughts for the new Titanic

These days have been all centered on the story of the Costa ship sunk just a mile from Tuscany coast and the 4200 and more people that were on it. Apart from reports, controversies, polemics and news, there's the big wounded body of this new version of the Titanic, laying on a side in a wonderful piece of Tirrenian sea, there are deads, and survivors, heroes and bad guys and all the imaginarium that eventually comes along with such an event. I tried to find some music to talk about all this.


This album is about boats. There are many type of boats represented here, the little ones and the biggest, like the "Concordia". They're all here as they should be, sailing, traveling and building dreams for the sailing people. I liked the global sound of this album. Quiet, relaxing, like a calm navigation, with that touch of melancholy that comes with the cruise package.


Talking about melancholy, here's Mr Hiro's comment to the Costa Concordia accident. Music, noises, sounds that slowly sank in a dark, quiet water, living just silence, and floating debris.


This track made me shiver. When I heard it I immediately visualized the night on the sea around the sunk boat. The almost silence, the dark, the work of the search and the loss of people and things floating on the surface of the water. It seemed to me exactly the sound of the post-disaster. With that little light of hope.


Another electronic music comment to what happened. Like the day after with the sense of loss but also the light of the day, the noises, the talking, the rescue...
A beautiful track by Tiago da Silva, a guy that perfectly knows how to make music talk about things and facts.

Gescha what? Canada can rule.

There was a time when Canada could musically produce only pop-folk music and not much for exporting it. Every attempt of getting in the hip hop music scene with something really cool was kind of a flop. But... wind is changing on canadian artists. And this album is the living proof. Hip hop is a difficult territory to get into. We are into a genre where seems to be very little left to say and to experiment and where is extremely easy to fall into copycat and repetition. This band actually has something new to say. They have good rhythms, they work on music achieving original vibes, and lyrics are just perfectly balanced between interesting and fascinating. Are you looking for more? Gescha are fresh air in the hip-hop ground and I think we're gonna hear more of them.

Christmas preview

I know it's a little bit early. But tonight I was coming home from the hospital where I study and I realized that the streets were already decorated with christmas lights and stuff... By the way, I'm going out for a little travel next week, so when I'll come back it will be totally christmas pre-time. And I'll be totally unprepared, like every year. So I thought that it would be alright to take a first look for some good christmas music. And I found this:


A string quartet playing a nice folk and jazzy version of holiday music. Very well played, very enjoyable, very christmas time. It almost made me desire a snowy landscape, a fireplace, and a christmas tree... almost.

The Forces of Jazz

This is pretty much the beautiful surprise I was looking for at the end of a hard day. I was looking for something new to hear and I needed jazz,' cause jazz helps me to relax, to refresh my tired neurons and make space for new things in my crowded mind. And there they come out! This is what we could name a strange couple. An austrian saxophonist, Karolina Strassmayer, and an american drummer, Drori Mondlak, joining their forces in a very very successful union. Their music is fresh, somewhat intellectual but never too much introspective to be understood. They both are more than excellent musicians and the tracks of this album are one better than the other, telling stories and not just playing around a theme. Playing and writing with them, equally excellent guitar, Cary DeNigris, and bass, John Goldsby, make the quartet Klaro a group that no jazz lover should miss.

The Soul & the Fela

What do you think could happen if you mix the afrobeat of Fela Kuti with the soulness of De La Soul?
This happens:



This album is a joy for the ears. Is the demonstration that mashing up is not just a copy&paste job. Is about imagination and creating something new from something that has its own life. It's kind of magic.
Amerigo is very good in mashing things. And this album is free. Totally a download must. And you don't want to miss the previous albums.

De Montreal a la Habana

I found this album looking for some new music tagged Cuba. I stopped and listened. And I liked it. It's kind of a weird product, with this strange voice, a little too much melancholic, a little too much gentle. But there's the rough sound of the direct registration, the cuban percussion, so thick and contrasting, and a good bass, and that contrast between the foggy, cold environment of the tunes and the warm and velvety sound of the cuban band. I found it kind of magic.

In Bonny's soul

This album is surely a great finding. Miles Bonny has a talen that can't pass unnoticed. There's not a single tune in this work that I didn't like, and most of them are definetely excellent. There's not much more to say when you find the real music, and the real soul. Just listen to it and, if you fall in love with Miles notes, you may want to take the time to check the previous albums.

The Beast goes on Suite

I actually did not "digged" this album. I had a hint from a musician of one of the Salsa bands I talked about recently. He told me to take a look, I did, and here it is.
This Suite is a 12 tracks work very very heterogeneous that could vaguely go under the name of jazz. So many quotes and influences are mixedmashed in this album that it's totally useless to try and cathegorize it.
This is a case when I feel a little stupid talking about music. Listening tells it all.

Happy Birthday Mr.Dylan!

Some people just don't grow old. Think about Jagger, Sting... Dylan! Today mr Dylan turns 70, which is quite impressive because I always think of him as the man under a big hair-bush with an harmonica and a guitar, and not exactly as grandpa.
So I thought that celebrating such a personality is almost mandatory, and I decided to make it my way, diggin'out something that reminds of Dylan, but it's not Dylan.
Ok, I think you understand...

Capítulo 11: Covers para Dylan by Oloop on Mixcloud

This Mixtape is a mad collection of Dylan's covers. There's something for every taste. From the classic of the classics Hendrix version of All along the Watchtower to the delirious My Back Pages by Ramones. An hour and a half of Dylan-not-Dylan.

When I thought of remixing Dylan I just shook my head: impossible. Wrong:

Bob Dylan - Masters of War (scntfc remix) by scientificamerican
This is a very good remix of an extremely beautiful tune. It really works!

Bear McCreary - All Along the Watchtower {INRVISN RMX} by {INRVISN}
And this is a remix of a remix... If you saw Battlestar Galactica you must remember the psychedelic version of All along the Watchtower of the last episode. That one was a Bear McCreary creation. Simply great. This one is possibly better.

Natalie, jazzin' from NY to India

I love finding women that jump out from the cliché of the star-system babe, that are capable to demonstrate their value with the strenght of their abilities. I think I found one of them.
This young woman is beautiful, smart and extremely talented. Not only Natalie John has this velvety and versatile voice, but she also can write good and original jazz tunes. She started as a natural talent at age of 7 in California. But she chose to study and started her jazz carrier in NY in 2006. Now she not only performs and composes but she also teaches in a music Academy of Chennai state, in India. You can take a look at her site and blog to follow her in her travels and discoveries.

Zubatto, syndicating art&music

This album caught my attention first by the cover print: a sci-fi work of the italian artist Franco Brambilla, reknown for his futuristic work for Urania. Then, I listened to the music and I liked it too. I firstly like finding out that still exist music ensembles made up by more than four musicians. Big bands are so rare nowadays and good ones are even rarer. This is the case. Zubatto syndicate plays jazz in a singular way, mixing lot of different influences with different results, depending on your jazzy taste. And, they use visual art to combine with music in a very attractive way, take a look to the shop offers they have on their bandcamp.

Celebrating Mr. Marley

A special post to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the death of the king of reggae and the ambassador of the Rastafarian philosophy Bob Marley.
While the star system is releasing tribute albums, preparing big events and doin' his star system job, the independent music world is not far behind. Best said, is far ahead. I chose some works dedicated to this great figure, not caring about the anniversary, but just about the music.

The mixtape #3
Bob Marley & sons together in one compilation of 29 tracks, more than an hour of classics.

Bob Marley Masterpiece by Retro Reggae on Mixcloud

The albums


This actually is a tribute album , with no big names but very very cool and original versions of the most popular Marley tunes from an independent label based in Chicago.



This album is entirely made of mashups between Marley, Hendrix and Notorious BIG. Think it's crazy? Maybe it is, but sounds damn good!

The remix&mashups

So many tracks I found... but I made a choice and these are simply impossible to miss.

Bob Marley - Exodus (HavocNdeeD RemiX) by HavocNdeeDsounD

Bob Marley - Sun is shining (Red House remix) by Red House

Nas vs Bob Marley - One Love (DJ Wax On Remix) by djwaxon

Green or Blue? I'd say both.

These guys from New York City made a wonderful album. I simply fell in love with each track at the first listening. This work is dated almost a year ago but it's so fresh and brilliant you just have to go from beginning to the end.

Berliner Wunderbar Jazz

This album is quite old. It was released in 2007, but finding it was such a nice surprise that I couldn't help sharing it.
It's jazz of the best, with an amazing piano and a string quartet that has the fabulous hands of players of the Berlin Philhamonic Orchestra.
The themes are simply beautiful and sooo well played. Good jazz never gets too old to listen to it.

Celebs like Camp: Boris Larramendi

Maybe this is a name that doesn't ring any bell for a lot of you. But if you happen to have some relationship with Cuba, cuban music, cuban movies... maybe you remember the project Habana Abierta and the beautiful music that came out of it.
Well, the mind of most of Habana Abierta tracks was Boris.
Now he lives in Madrid and makes his own music, with the help of a lot of cuban stars, just to name two of them Horacio "el negro" Hernandez and Roberto Carcasses.


If you didn't know him, give this album a try and you'll know why he's a Celeb.

That's blues: Alecia.

This is a band with a great gift: Alecia. Her voice has something that comes from old time soul music. The group is kind of a family business, and seems to have a great music inheritance from Chakour father. But seems to have a great future too.

Outsiders: Jazz from Iceland

Sometimes it happens. You find music that doesn't fit in any category but good music.
That's the case.


An excellent piano player, a well mixed group. They come from Reykjavik, but could be anywhere, cause this music stands up for itself.

Day 1. Intensive BandCamping

This people come from Edinburgh. 14 tracks that fly between deep dub-techno, dubstep, drum and bass, future garage and more. And they fly high.


Paris is cool. Soooo cool. And Nicky Lars sounds Paris. Hip hop? Nu soul? You name it. And it's Free!


Where will the music revolution come from? I bet on Cuba. Waitin' for that, check this beat out. Particularly track8. Real fusion.