The Very Good Agency

How open is your soul?

It’s not always easy to be a funk/soul band in New Zealand, if you can’t get your songs onto the filthy commercial stations, you are likely be ignored by the mainstream. Then you either have to slum it playing as a backing band on a kids TV show, or alternatively do the hard yards touring to build up a fan base the old fashioned way. Many artists have to go overseas to be taken seriously at home. Some of the true pioneers and innovators make it through either by sheer luck or through dogged determination, but many others are never fully recognised for their musical talents. Hopefully NZ collective Opensouls is a band that can reach their full musical potential and get the recognition they deserve both domestically and internationally. As the band bio on their website states: “Opensouls have been steadily rising through the ranks of the New Zealand music scene since beginning their musical journey in 2001. Comprised of 2 vocalists, M.C. Bjorn and singer Tyra Hammond, and a live band including Jeremey Toy a.k.a Ota (guitar/MPC), Julien Dyne (drums), Chip Mathews (bass), Stephine Brown (keys), Scott Towers (saxophone), Issac Aesili (trumpet/vocals) and Harlin Davey a.k.a Buttafingers (turntables/mpc), the collective possesses an abundance of musical flair and experience which they have used to great effect on their critically acclaimed debut album.”

Opensouls
Rise Up

With that many members in the crew OpenSouls should once again be in the running for “New Zealand’s Most Populated Band ” award with the only real competition coming from Solaa , but as some of the artists are in both outfits (e.g the mulit-talented Isaac Aesili), special judicial deliberation may be necessary. All jokes aside though these guys are straight up musical bliss, and should appeal to fans of funk, soul and basically groovy as shit! Their song “Turn It Up” has been doing the rounds on NZ student radio for some time now, helping to spread the love and build a following for this original kiwi group. Also well worth checking out, their track “Rise Up”… If you haven’t heard them yet, you best check them out. Then go buy their album “Kaleidoscope”, sweet sounds with lyrics you can relate to.

You can check out more from Opensouls at:

www.opensouls.co.nz

www.myspace.com/opensoulsspace

…Yossarian

Tags: Funk, hip hop, Jazz, New Zealand Artists

How much do you love Hip Hop – Rock The Bells kicks off

CHECKITOUT!!!!!!!! Rock the Bells 2008 has kicked off in style in the USA and Canada with new additions to the already incredible line up including MF Doom, Sage Francis, Blue Scholars and B-Real. Considering the artists roster already consisted of A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Mos Def, Methodman & Redman, De LA Soul, Rakim, Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, Murs, Jedi Mind Tricks as well as a whole consortium of both new and old skool’s finest. With artists like these being added to the bill, it’s really no surprise that they have been able to draw the amazing crowds pictured above, with ticket sales still going as the mammoth tour continues.

Rock The Bells Toronto (Amateur cam – for the fans who can’t be there a.k.a. me)

So It might be time to bring Rock the Bells to Australia and New Zealand.

You can start the campaign for Rock The Bells coming to Australasia by posting whingeing comments at:

www.myspace.com/rockthebells

www.guerillaunion.com/rockthebells

and maybe cross your fingers really hard

… bs

Tags: Festival, hip hop, Old School

Pataphysics

With few Australian artists entering the scene in underground hip hop as of late (at least of any quality), it’s all good when you happen to come across a group as interesting and talented as Pataphysics. Based in Melbourne, Patrick Marks, a.k.a. Brother Pat, The Brown Militant, Pat Malone is self described as an “Australian/Sri Lankan(Tamil/Singhalese). MC/Trumpet player, rhythmic soundshapa, revolutionary poet, multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, arranger, teacher” – and I’m glad that he has put this together as it would be hard to describe what you experience when you are lucky enough to stumble across he, and his collective of musicians that are Pataphysics.

Finding a vocalist who can sound this good while delivering his own unique conscious thoughts is rare which was made pretty obvious by the crowds acceptance and involvement in the performance.

All too often when you are lucky enough to find a vocalist compelling, you find the musicians and P.A. aren’t up to the challenge… in this case, the P.A. was the only thing lacking with an incredible group of musicians in support. Pataphysics Avanipaala as a collective, deal with issues from local/international politics, Indigenous resistance, dreaming, eastern philosophy, life, existence and even spirituality, and the live show draws on elements of Sri Lankan Culture that bring a certain energy.

While The group are ever-changing they are currently based around the present line up of Rhymes, Beats, Percussion, Double Bass, Flute, and Guitar (with what I think was an electronic tabla) plus guest vocalists and a host of other friends from the Melbourne music community. The performance is captivating in a way that is not often seen live, on this particular night especially with a puppet show, random soliloquys, and freestyles incorporating all sorts of funky props. Tie these all in together and you have a truly enjoyable evening of awakening music, tie these all in together and you have… Pataphysics

You can check out more of Pataphysics at:

www.myspace.com/brotherpataphysics

www.pataphysics.com.au

be sure to check him out during his residency at ‘The Evelyn’ in Melbourne, Australia in September…

Tags: Australian Artists, Funk, hip hop, Jazz

Pete Philly and Perquisite release Mystery Repeats video

Pete Philly and Perquisite this week released the new video for their second albums title track ‘Mystery Repeats’. The video was directed by Amsterdam creative duo KGB and features dutch hiphopacts La Melodia, Blaxtar, Spacekees and Cmon & Kypski. Enjoy!

Tags: hip hop, Jazz, Music video

Ya Heard? The Mighty Underdogs

Welcome back y’all to the second installment of Ya Heard? This week we’re going to take a look at a new release that may have slipped under the hip hop radar for you: The Prelude EP from The MIghty Underdogs, a new supergroup consisting of Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), Lateef the Truthspeaker (Latyrx), and Headnodic (bassist/producer Crown City Rockers).

The Prelude EP is a six-song taste of things to come from these guys, and if its anything to go by, their full album (entitled “Dropping Science Fiction”, slated for release in October) will be straight heat. The EP is full of talented features also, with appearances from underground king MF Doom, DJ Shadow, Ladybug Mecca (of Digable Planets and The Dino 5) and Raashan Ahmad (Crown City Rockers).

The chemistry between these three artists is noticable from the first track, “UFC” aka “United Flow Champions”, which features characteristic scratching and samples from DJ Shadow. The banging Hednodic beat and Gab’s tight flow sets the scene for the rest of the album. The EP then blasts into “Gunfight”, where MF Doom emerges from the wilderness to add his trademark style to the infectious Wild West-themed track, which incorporates a catchy guitar loop and a spooky, slow whistling trill (think tumbleweeds and western showdowns). Check out the video for this track below.

Gift of Gab is really on point on this EP, bringing back memories of the “Melodica” and “Blazing Arrow” days, no more obvious than on”Get out of my life” and “Status Symbol”. “Love Life” is a nice slow headnodding beat, featuring a solid showing from Ladybug Mecca.

The EP finishes off in style with “Bring Me Back”; a shout to the old skool, and a true Bay Area beat. In my mind, certainly the best track. Hednodic’s production skills are something to take real notice of, as is the ridiculous verse dropped by Raashan Ahmad. The track just has this funky party vibe that makes you want to listen to it all day.

The new album, “Droppin Science Fiction” (out October 14th), will surely be an anticiated release after this small taster. A full tracklisting, which features additional album guests such as Lyircs Born, Juliam and Damian Marley, Mr Lif and Chali 2na, can be found on the Def Jux website where you can also pre-order and listen to short clips of each track.

Tags: Collaborations, hip hop