Since we last spoke of our hope to see Brittish Singer, Songwriter, DJ, producer, and Soul man Fink in Australasia he has finally arrived, thanks to Niche Productions, and following some Sydney performances Fink will play 2 shows in Melbourne this week at:

The Corner Hotel in Richmond Thursday 28th Jan

The Hi-Fi with Madeski, Martin & Wood Friday 29th Jan

Fink – This is the Thing

The last post has a good introduction to who Fink is and where he came from for those who haven’t before heard of him. And the music says it all.

If you get the chance… you’ll want to check this guy out.

You can hear more of Fink at:

www.myspace.com/finkmusic

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Very Good things are happening now that the spring has arrived and everyone’s coming back out to play… 3 tours coming up over the next 3 months are definitely going to make for some great nights out, first up in November it’s Batucada Sound Machine visiting from New Zealand to drop their massive 13ish piece bands sound on your doorstep if your in Sydney, Melbourne, or Robe. BSM are partnering up with some other great live acts along the way, making for some pretty sweet lineups including King Tide,  LABJACD, Pataphysics, and heaps of wicked local and international artists at Melbournes AWME and Robe Festival, (dates and ticket info  at the end of article)

Dec 3rd will see the first friendly battle of Olmecha Supreme VS Pataphysics at Canberras ANU Bar. The tour will hit most cities in Australia before Olmecha Supreme carries on to play the Woodford Folk Festival Dec 30th. These two 5 piece multi genre heavyweights go head to head, as well as being joined along the way by some special appearances including Laneous and The Family Yah, Budspells, DJ JC and DJ Mike Who among others. You can get a feel for what will be going down from

Olmecha Supremes awesome live performance at the De La Soul Concert in Wellington.

As if this wasn’t enough, just confirmed in Sydneys world famous live venue The Basement, a performance from New Zealand’s incredible neo soul duo Oakley Grenell and Mark Vanilau. Stepping aside from their hectic solo and group projects, the duo will start in Sydney on January 14th and work their way around the east coast from there. This will be the first time that the duo have toured Australia together and with them will travel some of Australias finer jazz musicians and special guests.

Oakley Grenell and Mark Vanilau – Moving on live at Red Bull Studio New Zealand

Batucada Sound Machine plays:

Gaelic Club, Sydney – with King Tide Nov 19th – Get your tickets From Moshtix

AWME Black Box Melbourne Nov 20th – Get your tickets to AWME

Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave Nov 21st with Pataphysics – Get your tickets From Moshtix

East Brunswick Club Melbourne with LABJACD & Pataphysics Nov 26th- Get your tickets here

Robe Village Fair Robe Nov 27th and 28th – Get your tickets here

Olmecha Supreme VS Pataphysics plays:

ANU Bar Canberra – Dec 3rd, Beach Rd Bondi – Dec 4th, Gaelic Club Sydney – Dec 5th, The National Hotel Geelong – Dec 11th, First Floor Melbourne – Dec 12th, Hotel Great Northern Byron Bay – Dec 17th, Cooly Hotel Gold Coast – Dec 18th, Hi Fi Bar Brisbane – Dec 20th.

You can check out more from the artists in their artist profiles or at:

www.myspace.com/olmechasupreme Olmecha Supreme

www.myspace.com/brotherpataphysics Pataphysics

www.myspace.com/batucadasoundmachine Batucada Sound Machine

www.myspace.com/kingtidesydney

www.myspace.com/labjacd

Kia Ora people!

If you didn’t already know, Kia ora is the Maori (New Zealand native) greeting, like saying hello.

And if you didn’t already know, 2 cats from New Zealand; OG and Mark Vanilau have been raising the bar with a few projects they have teamed up for that are putting some soul back on the radio.  Kia ora Oakley and Mark.

I’m not suggesting that soul and blues music are not represented in Australasia, but it’s been some time since a pairing like this has come along. The first time I came accross this pairing of artists was when we interviewed Oakley not too long ago

The live video for ‘Moving On’ has a rawness and yet subtlety that just isn’t apparent in many artists work at this time. I guess only in a place like New Zealand could such a peaceful sound be created by a bunch of young fellas. mean

So a few months on, and Oakley Grenell is set to release his new album in October of 2009 “Departure Lounge in Session” with the first single again having the two paired. Perhaps the press release explains it best: “Once again Grenell joins forces with Mark Vanilau continuing on from the nu jazz soul liaison that started with last years ‘Moving On’. The achingly seductive  ‘Between The Sheets’ gives a nod to the lust and passion reminiscent of D’Angelo’s ‘Voodoo’ album and aims to evoke similar stirrings”.

Funnily enough, I had already made the D’angelo comment before reading this, as i’m sure many others have. Not a lot of people can be compared to D’angelo sitting so far ahead of the game in his area. Mark however has a certain softness and delicacy that sets him apart from others including D’angelo, that can only begin to be described in my mind as the sound innocence and selflessness would have if they were audible.

‘Between the Sheets’ (streaming at the top of the article) is a real fusion of styles and genres which hints at Oakleys incredibly diverse career so far. A patchwork quilt of blues, funk, soul, rock, hip hop, jazz, & ragga, with incredibly simplistic and pre-mediated musicianship, tied together by Marks innocence and realness.

“Once again Grenell has collected some of Christchurch’s most talented and accomplished musicians to make up the
Departure Lounge band – the stalwarts – Johnny Lawrence (Bass), Cameron Pearce (Trumpet), Chris Burke (Sax), Nick Gaffaney (Drums), Sum Suraweera and Kurt Dyer (Percussion), guest vocalists Mara TK (Electric Wire Hustle, Fly My Pretties), MC KP (Sunshine Soundsystem) and the exceptional soulful talent Mark Vanilau alongside new additions Darren Pickering on keys and guest vocalist Roz Langdon.”

Kia ora boys and girls… Kia ora.

You can check out more from Oakley and his band at:

www.myspace.com/centralrecords

www.centralrecords.co.nz

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Fisherking, are who we caught up with this week from Sydney, to find out a little bit about where this sweet new sound is coming from, and where it’s going…

I came across your music on Triple J’s ‘Unearthed’ sight and it took me as a standout group amongst all of the newcomers to Australia’s music scene. Are you guys newcomers?

We’ve been together as FisherKing since about March 2008 so I’m not sure if that qualifies us as new comers or not! We all feel really comfy on a stage now, but we definitely feel pretty new when it comes to being in front of a video camera. We started work on our first music vid a few weeks ago and ended up with a truckload of footage of us looking especially awkward. But these last six months since winning the Triple J ‘Unearthed’ ‘FUSE Festival’ comp have been such an amazing experience for us and things have moved along so quickly, we’re always trying to keep up with it.

So who makes up FisherKing, and how did you come to be together in Sydney?

FisherKing is Sam Stephenson (vocals and guitar), Paul Hanna (guitar and BVs) Josh Leong (Bass and BVs) and Luke Robertson (drums). We’ve all grown up in Sydney’s south and known each other for most of those years. Josh and I used to get together and play music and we would work on songs and FisherKing just grew from there. It was a pretty organic experience; Paul and Luke were quickly added to the mix to make FisherKing.

Fisherking EP Release Video

How would you describe your music to people who haven’t heard it… and where does the name FisherKing come into that description?

The name FisherKing has some meaning, it comes from the old Arthurian legend of the Fisher King or the wounded king who was the keeper of the Holy Grail. But really the name just sounds fresh and coastal in itself which kind of captures the feel of what we do. I usually tell people that our music has the rootsy-ness of Ben Harper with the rock of Coldplay, and that generally makes the most sense.

Where do you find inspiration in the Australian and New Zealand music scene at the moment? anyone or anything stand out?

I’ve always looked up to Lior as a song writer so he’s a definite stand out to me and I’ve loved Empire of the Sun and Van She too. But our good mates from Bonjah (from Melbourne) have been a huge inspiration and help to us over the last year. They’ve lent us a hand negotiating our way along our journey- and they’re also an amazing band.

Your music is very suited to summer days… What’s the plan for you guys this summer?

We’re playing at a few festivals over summer and the New Year and we’re really excited about that. But after we come home from our East Oz tour over July & August, we’ll be jumping back into the studio with Genevieve Maynard (who recorded and produced our EP) to record our first album. So come summer, we’ll have a whole bunch of fresh songs to share with everyone.

What’s it been like trying to bust onto the scene in Australia so far?

It’s been hard work so far but we’ve loved every second of it! We feel we’ve been really lucky to make it as far as we have and we think things could’ve been a lot harder for us. We’re so stoked on the support we’ve been given from all over the place, including Triple J Unearthed but especially from our fans. We’re looking forward to people hearing our new tracks because we’re all so excited about them!

It’d be great to see you guys live with the spread of styles you cover… I imagine you would take the crowd from a slow waltz to bouncing. What can we expect from your live show, and when can we expect to see it go around Australia next?

Yeah, we do have the variety in our show, we love it that way! We really try to balance out the softer ones with the higher energy stuff. Plus, we’ll taking it around Oz this month! Our East coast tour starts in Newcastle on the 17th of July. We go as far north as Brisbane and then back down to coast through Sydney & head down to Melbourne and Adelaide by the middle of August. You can see all the dates and towns we’ll be playing in on our website (fisherking.com.au). We can’t get to the west this time, but we’re definitely gonna get there really soon.

You can check out more of Fisherking at:

www.fisherking.com.au

…bs

Woah!!!!!!!

I have seen a few interesting remix competitions over the years and I am usually not too surprised or interested when I hear about them nowadays, but I think this one has the potential to be truly awesome. There are not many artists on the scene today who grab me like K-OS (a.k.a. Knowledge of Self) I like the way he sings, I like the way he raps, I like the way he innovates instead of reproducing other peoples ideas, and now I like the way he has decided to get his community involved in his upcoming album ‘Yes!’ by releasing a bonus cd with 11 remixes from fans who decide to download the audio from his website and arrange them to their own liking.

The 11 remixes will be judged by K-os and two label representatives from ‘Universal’ and ‘Indaba music’ and released as a bonus album to ‘YES!’ which is due in the Canadian Spring of 2009. This competition is sure to bring some fresh talents out of the woodwork which I am really looking forward to hearing, if you want to get involved and submit a remix of your own, ten of the eleven tracks are ready to download at this address

So get into it, and have some fun!

and if you haven’t yet heard K-os check out the following track for a taste of his genius…

K-os – The Love Song

and you can check out more of K-os at:

www.myspace.com/kos

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You might remember Bobby McFerrin from his smash hit in 1988 ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’, or maybe from one of the TEN Grammy awards that he has received over his career, but like me you may not have given him much thought lately. From a musical family with his father Robert Sr Mcferrin being the first African American to be a regular in the New York Symphony Orchestra, it is no surprise that Bobby embarked on a musical pathway, the result of his exploration however cannot be understood by any influence or guidance he may have had, creating new realms of possibilty for artists to follow. On Saturday evening I was introduced to a video of a 2005 performance ‘Live in Montreal’ he held showing off his amazing talent for creating vocal pieces of art that defy logic and possibilty. His ability to fluctuate between four vocal ranges, combine accapella sounds with the beat he creates tapping on his chest, and the use of polyphonic sounds in which he creates 2 and 3 part harmonies from one vocal box are just extroadinary, and as for the musical pieces that he creates with these talents – they are just breathtaking…

Check it out:

Bobby McFerrin – Drive

As if his vocal talents aren’t enough, in 1994 Bobby Mcferrin was appointed creative chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and has made regular tours as the conductor for symphony orchestra including those from San Fransisco, New York, Philladelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and London.

Not much needs to be said when you have seen his performances, so I will leave those of you who are as inspired as I am can check out more of Bobby at:

www.bobbymcferrin.com

…bs

Nice…

That’s what I thought when I checked out the Soundlounge website to see if there was anything worth seeing while i’m working on Australia’s Gold Coast for two weeks. If you’ve spent any time on the Gold Coast of Australia before, you may be well aware that the place is starved of any identifiable culture (with the exception of surf culture), alternative entertainment, and unfortunately decent venues or clubs to enjoy a night out seeing a live artist or band in a comfortable environment. (it is worth noting that you have The Cooly Hotel in Coolangatta, an hour drive to Byron Bay NSW to The Great Northern Hotel, or an hour the other way to a few places in Brisbane).

Nice, because there was an Australian artist that I hadn’t yet heard, who I was immediately feeling, and yet unable to pigeon whole into a style, or compare to an artist gone by.

It turns out the fact that I hadn’t heard of Andy Bull is more indicative of my level of interest in mainstream media then his success as of late. Andy has been receiving plenty of attention from radio and television recently, mostly for his catchy, tidy, and even poppy (for once in a good way) little track that his current tour is named after “Small Town Girl”, and he is even signed to Universal, which just trips me out given their usual artist roster. Check it out:

Andy Bull – Small Town Girl

Andy began his musical life as a young child, playing on the parlour piano and pump organ his keyboard enthusiast father had collected through his travels in the 1970s. At just 24 today the singer, songwriter and piano player has gone from playing club shows to his hometown crowd in Sydney, to signing to ‘Island Records’ Australia, recording at New York’s legendary ‘Electric Lady Studios’ and Sydney’s ‘301 Studios’, as well as touring the country with Little Red and The Holidays. With such a variety of genres involved in the pieces I have heard thus far including folk, soul, jazz, pop, rock, blues, and even touches of hip hop, it’s going to be interesting to see the direction his career takes over the next few years as he further developes his already funky, definitive sound

If your in NSW, unfortunately this time you have already missed that leg of his tour, however for those of you who are not, the following dates are set to play over the next 2 weeks, which I will be fortunate enough to enjoy on the sunny Gold Coast Thursday at ‘Soundlounge’ (thanks guys), before returning to culture rich, beachless and rainforestless Melbourne (there’s always a trade off).

Thu Oct 23rd          Soundlounge, Gold Coast

Fri Oct 24th            Solbar, Sunshine Coast

Sat Oct 25th           The Troubador, Brisbane

Wed Oct 29th         Toff in town, Melbourne

Thu Oct 30th          Karova Lounge, Ballarat

Fri Oct 31st            Jive Bar, Adelaide

You can check out more of Andy Bull at:

www.andybull.com.au

www.myspace.com/andybull

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If you’ve not already heard of Fink then it is about time you were reading this article. It would have come to you a lot sooner except the interview that we had scheduled with him three months ago is still yet to occur. Easily the best thing to come out of the UK music scene since Roots Manuva, Fink, originally from Brighton, now tours the furthest corners of the world playing his inventive mix of Folk, Blues and Dub. Words carry little weight in expressing an artist as unique as this, so check out his live performance below of Biscuits

Fink - Biscuits

Recently touring the US, Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, and most of Europe with some amazing artists like  Massive attack, and Zero 7, Fink told us he was ”desperate to increase my love down under so i can get down there”… well we hope he can get here soon too and we encourage any fans in Australasia to show that love at www.myspace.com/finkmusic

Unsurprisingly the son of a folk musician and music manager, Fink worked as a club promoter in London throughout the time of his own musical exploration helping him to further understand the industry he would be so involved in. Playing such an eclectic mixture of styles, Fink unbelievably didn’t even feature his vocals on earlier releases he made which were based around acid jazz remixes, DJ sets, and electronic hip hop. Fink has also used his production skills for several major artists including Amy Winehouse.

Fink – This is The Thing

You can check out more of Fink at:

www.finkworld.co.uk

www.myspace.com/finkmusic

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