Separate Sound

In honor of Earth Day…

Earthology Records. “Earthology Records, a not-for-profit environmental record label. Inserts are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with nontoxic soy-based ink, packaged in 100% reused salvaged jewel cases, shrink-wrapped with environmentally benign LDPE plastic, and shipped with recycled packaging. The CD scraps from manufacturing are recycled into milk cartons. Earthology is located on a geothermal wind-powered organic farm.”

Cloud Cult is one of the groups on the Earthology label. Their latest release, The Meaning of 8, came out on April 10th. You can find out more, hear a sample, and watch the video for “Chemicals Collide” at their site.

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Clocks made from recycled CDs by Acorn Studios. “Compact discs have been rescued from a life in the landfill and turned into functional art!”

earth day, earthology recods, cloud cult, music, acorn studios, recycling

Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund
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I have to agree with kezins that the “Go Mario (Super Mario Brothers)” sample from the upcoming The Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music doesn’t thrill me all that much.

But here is something (video game and music related) that does (thrill me, that is):

Super Madrigal Brothers. Oliver Cobol and Sir Fashion Flesh take the beloved sounds from games of yesteryear and mix them with musical styles of yore.* They’ve got sample songs, videos, and the interactive Super Minstrel Star - all on that crazy site of theirs.

If the phrase “Psychedelic Nintendo Classicism” makes your little ears perk up, check them out.

There’s a lot of other great video game-inspired music that we’ll get to later…

*…where “yesteryear” refers to the 1980s and “yore” refers to the 1500s.

super madrigal brothers, video games, video game music, music, 1pstart

Parfums ottomans (or Ottoman Fragrances) is the latest creation of The Al-Kindî Ensemble - a collaboration of musicians from Turkey, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Syria, and the United States led by zither virtuoso Julien Jâlâl Eddine Weiss.

This double-album set is a collection of Arab-Turkish Court Music dating back to the 17th century. There is something fascinating about listening to music that has been played and heard by so many people over so many years. And excellent instrumental skill and the passion of the artists brings this music fresh life.

Happily, The Al-Kindî Ensemble (or Ensemble Al-Kindî - you pick!) is offering us two audio samples and a performance video to whet our appetites.

al-kindi ensemble, ensemble al-kindi, ottoman frangrances, parfums ottomans, Julien Jâlâl Eddine Weiss, music, world music

Volta, Björk’s newest album, isn’t due out until May 7th in Europe and May 8th in the USA (insert picture of me waiting impatiently), but as of today a single, Earth Intruders, is available for download!

It’s as simple as visiting your country’s iTunes site and searching for the single. In the USA, the download costs just 99 cents, so it’s an inexpensive treat.

Volta is influenced by Björk’s January 2005 trip to Indonesia and the tsunami destruction she found there. Read more about the album, the single, and Björk’s vision of humans as one tribe in Pitchfork’s interview.

bjork, volta, earth intruders, music, digital download, itunes, pitchfork

Get Him Eat Him is an indie rock band with a new album coming out in June. To celebrate, they’re offering us free music!

Each week, GHEH is offering free downloads of their previously released tour EPs. This week’s album is do as i tell you.

“our second and most popular tour ep, released in january of 2006 by the venerable catbird records. we did drums and bass for this one at steinert recording studio in providence, and tracked guitars, vocals and keyboards at the gheh house. mixed by matt on his computer, and featuring gratuitous overuse of the hyperprism-dx compressor plugin. we wanted to try our hand at re-recording a track from geography cones, and a slower and more muscular version of “one word” seemed like a good plan.”

Go here to dowload the album, hear a track from their upcoming release, and to find out more about the band.

By the way, I heard about this on Questionable Content, which is a great webcomic!

get him eat him, do as i tell you, indie rock, rock, u.s., north america, music, free music, questional content

Enter to win a trip (with a friend) to Los Angeles to see Loreena McKennitt in concert or to win an iPod Shuffle. (Is it strange that they specify you would win a “new” iPod Shuffle?)

And perhaps you’d like to take a quick swing by Loreena’s site and sample some tracks from her newest album - An Ancient Muse.

Loreena McKennitt, contests, verve music group, an ancient muse, celtic, north america, canada, music

BBC Radio 3 has announced the winners of their Awards for World Music 2007. There are awards in 9 categories (and a 10th, Audience Award announced at the winners’ concert in May) and there are some great artists being recognized this year.

There’s Ghada Shbeir winning the Mid East & North Africa category with her Al-Muwashahat, which is both the title of her album and the over 10-century-old style of music she performs. Her music is very vocally-focussed and emotive. Ghada Shbeir performs both modern and traditional (and we’re talking 1,000-year-old-traditional, here) pieces. One of her goals is to keep alive this art form of muwashah and bring it to new audiences.

With a very different sound, Gogol Bordello won the Americas Award this year. They perform an imaginative style of punk that incorporates (amongst other elements) accordian, violin, a wild sense of humor, and a much-remarked-upon mustache. Fans say Gogol Bordello live shows are not to be missed.

Visit both Ghada Shbeir and Gogol Bordello’s sites for samples of the music they’re making.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To find out about the rest of the winners and the upcoming concert, visit BBC Radio 3.

bbc 3, radio 3 awards for world music 2007, world music, music, ghada shbeir, gogol bordello, lebanon, u.s, asia, western asia, north america, middle east, punk, gypsy punk, muwashah

National Geographic is not the first source I usually think of for music discoveries, but recently I read about a group on their site that sounds great.

Slavic Soul Party! — NG describes them as having a “funkified brass sound” and The New York Times says: “Fiery Gypsy brass, soulful Balkan anthems, and hip-grinding American funk: Slavic Soul Party! is just what it says.”

Anytime your band name has an exclamation point built right in - you’re off to a good start. Go to their site for samples of their music. Their new album, Teknochek, comes out April 3rd (tomorrow)!

slavic soul party, balkan soul gypsy funk, gyspy rock, abstract jazz, brass, U.S., national geographic, north america, music

…to Separate Sound! This blog is about all sorts of music from all over the place.

If you’ve ever experienced the brain overload that results from the question “What kind of music do you like?” you’ll probably be happy here. We’re going to roam far and wide and indulge in wild and diverse genres.

I’ll be your friendly blogger! Heard something great? Let me know!

Let’s get started…