array(11) { ["results"]=> int(9) ["pages"]=> float(0) ["page"]=> float(0) ["previous"]=> NULL ["next"]=> NULL ["from"]=> int(0) ["to"]=> int(19) ["offset"]=> int(20) ["baseurl"]=> string(50) "http://www.theleaflabel.com/en/blog/archive/2009/1" ["urlpath"]=> string(62) "http://www.theleaflabel.com/en/blog/archive/2009/1/published/0" ["links"]=> array(0) { } } The Leaf Label: BLOG ARCHIVE FOR JANUARY 2009
BLOG ARCHIVE FOR JANUARY 2009
Efterklang's favourite records of 2008
Published 2 January 2009 by TM

1: Beach House "Devotion"
2: Department of Eagles "In Ear Park"
3: Bon Iver "For Emma, Forever Ago"
4: Paul Simon "Graceland"
5: TV on the Radio "Dear Science"
6: Sam Amidon "All is Well"
7: Peter Broderick "Home"
8: Dosh "Wolves and Wishes"
9: Wildbirds & Peacedrums "Heartcore"
10: Deerhunter "Micro Castle"
11: Deerhoof "Offend Maggie"
12: Johann Johannsson "Forlândia"
13: Erick Enockson "With its Dark tail curled round the Garage"
14: Yeasayer "All Hour Cymbals"
15: Tape "Illuminarium"

Sound Of Kuduro
Published 5 January 2009 by TM

I just found this fantastic video for Buraka Som Sistema's 'Sound Of Kuduro' on Youtube. It's pretty lofi, but the footage of the Angolan street dancers is amazing.

'Sound Of Kuduro

Kuduro is a fairly brutal style of dirty electronic dance music that seems to be wildly popular in former Portuguese colony Angola. Buraka are actually from Lisbon in Portugal, but they seem to be pushing this music internationally, which is great news. Fabric Records have signed up their debut album, from which this track is taken. Not sure about MIA's phoned-in contribution, but cares when it sounds like this much fun.

volcano!'s Sam Scranton's highlights of 2008
Published 5 January 2009 by TM

Best Album: Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III. simultaneously wildly ambitious and extremely lazy.
Best Video: Lil' Wayne - SNL performance of Lollipop. A terrible song and mostly really boring until the last 4 seconds when he begins to play the guitar previously slung around his back and lets loose on a boldly unprofessional solo - obviously unpracticed, no distortion, no masking device, it sounds as if plugged directly into the board. He should play guitar in the Stooges.
Best Live Performance: Icy Demons at the Bottom Lounge. Blue Hawaii talked loud into the mike, sang about fish sandwiches, and performed with crazy energy.
Best Song: "Chopped and Screwed" by T-Pain. Not about purple drank. i don't even know what its about, but the beat can't be topped.

A Hawk And A Hacksaw's Jeremy Barnes highlights of 2008
Published 6 January 2009 by TM

In Canada we did a collaborative workshop with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, from Morocco.
Listening to glen gould's recordings of bach's partitas.
Ferenc Kovacs' "Beli Buba" record.
Discovering the almost infinite magic of the nooks and crannies of Youtube. Cell phone camera videos of Romanian weddings, Tapan players in the streets of Macedonia, Bulgarian accordions playing in their living rooms, Manele recording studios in Bucarest, trumpet violin masters in Bihor.
Re-discovering Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Our concert in Seattle was a great time.
Playing on the streets of Lisbon, Portugal
Lichens' concert at All Tomorrow's Parties

Qu Junktions' highlights of 2008
Published 7 January 2009 by TM

Mark Slater (Qu Junktions/Leaf bookings):

New Brightblack Morning Light LP 'Motion to Rejoin'
Arnaud Rebotini - live at Motion Skate Park
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - live at Fiddlers
My Bloody Valentine - live at the Roundhouse
3 hairy reissues - Dennis Wilson 'Pacific Ocean Blue', The Doors 'Live in Pittsburg', Robert Wyatt
Zbicu 'Jocuri din Bihor' and Mustafa Kandirali - on repeat in Transylvania
Further Madlib productions - Beatkonducta series, Erykah Badu 'The Healer'
A Hawk and A Hacksaw - live on Dartmoor

Chiz Williams (Qu Junktions/Leaf bookings):

Pekko Kappi live at Men Diamler's double album launch night way back in Feb. Still go back there and sit on the stage.
'Marginal Consort' at Instal in Glasgow was live highlight. Eventually made it to Instal and Kill Yr Timid Notion. High class mind altering programmes that criss cross the senses. The Maximum Arousal (with the Cherry Blossoms and MV + EE and The Golden Road) front porch with blood shed and drunken pie also pushed the limits.
The outer/inner space 'Dimension X' album was a real 2 reel unexpected joy for long drives in the car. Defiantly the stereo version for me. B-movie dialogue + some real nice recorded guitar/bass discordance and drums – just seems to work. Worth a buy
Masturbation songs seem to always sound good. Why's 'Good Friday' from the 'Alopecia' album always put a smile on my face, as I came home from school. Plus 'Fungus Moth' live at Venn and at the Junction was just inspired and dangerous and seemed somehow masturbatory.
What stuck. Could not get enough pleasure out of the Soundway Nigerian compilations. The new releases from Arthur Russell and the film 'Wild Combination' were amazing. I can't be over saturated by Arthur's timeless music. Any new Skull Disco or Joker releases also riveted me to the floor.
Dev's 1Xtra morning show is the only way to get out of bed. Trevor Nelson sounds tired.
Songs or riffs, stoned or tanked I did not know what to expect from Harvey Milk live at Supersonic. Curveball epic pub rock 'n' roll or what. Discovery of 2008, should have been years earlier.
Scorces - 'I Turn Into You' DLP gave me the focus, when I needed it but the real find was sadly a old one. I randomly chanced upon (in Cherry Picked records) the Kath Bloom and Loren Connors double CD re-issue 'Sing The Children Over / Sand In My Shoe'. Have been hunting some of their records for years and there they where....magic.

Tony Morley's best of 2008
Published 12 January 2009 by TM

Tony Morley (The Leaf Label):
My selections seem to get more conventional every year. Slightly disingenuously, I put this down to the democratising effect of the internet - that great albums have a better chance to rise to the top as more people have the opportunity to hear more music - rather than the uncomfortable realisation that I'm getting older and generally less interested in 'new' music. In fact, I probably bought more music this year than ever before, it's just that most of what I pick up is 'old' music - specifically old vinyl - and my choices are far more informed than even a couple of years ago. The availability of music on the internet means far fewer purchases of hyped but ultimately disappointing music, leaving space for just the good stuff. There have been a number of truly great niche compilations of 'old' but largely unheard music this year that have blown the socks off most of the 'new' competition, and I've been playing catch-up on a lot of other compilations that pre-date 2008 too. We're in a golden age of well researched reissues of obscure and unusual music for all over the world, and pretty much anything on Honest Jon's, Soundway, Analog Africa, Strut and Mississippi is worth a try. Other stuff: predictably The Wire has to get a mention for turning my TV world upside down (mostly pre-2008 of course...) and Naomi Klein's brilliant 'The Shock Doctrine' (er, 2007). Charlie Brooker and Graham Linehan's output for a bit of levity. And lots and lots of cooking, for some reason.

Albums:
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
Portishead - Third
The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
The Bug - London Zoo
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
Wu Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams

Compilations:
various - African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds From 70s Benin & Togo
Kid Creole - Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1976-1983
various - Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria
various - Living Is Hard: West African Music in Britain 1927-1929

Ben Winbolt-Lewis' best of 2008
Published 12 January 2009 by BWL

Portishead - Third
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
The Present - World I See
Grails - Doomsdayer's Project
7 Hertz - Tender Almost Vulgar
Glissando - With Our Arms Wide Open We March Towards the Burning Sea
Grayson Gilmour - You Sleep We Creep
Portico Quartet - Knee Deep In The North Sea
Apse - Spirit

A Hawk And A Hacksaw filmed in Brooklyn
Published 12 January 2009 by BWL

A Hawk And A Hacksaw played a brace of shows in New York this January. One of these gigs, at Union Hall, was caught on camera by Ray Concepcion. As Jeremy and Heather decided to play the show in the crowd, the videos capture the audience's faces. See them here:


AHAAH In Lomography Store
Published 27 January 2009 by BWL

A Hawk And A Hacksaw played at the grand opening of the Lomography Gallery Store in Manhattan on Monday 26 January. The appearance was captured on camera and film, thanks to Brooklyn Vegan and Ray Concepion, who brought us the footage from AHAAH's Brooklyn show earlier in the month.

See all of the photos here:
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009/01/a_hawk_and_a_ha_4.html

And Ray's videos:


See all the other videos here:
http://www.vimeo.com/rayconcepcion/videos/search:hacksaw/sort:newest