The Very Good Agency

3 months, 3 Very Good Australian tours.

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.

[youtube]1wg3Vw38kSI[/youtube]

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

[youtube]-WbrvesxNlo[/youtube]

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

Tags: Australian Artists, Blues, Collaborations, Funk, gigs, hip hop, Jazz, New Zealand Artists, Soul

Isaac Aesili and Electric Wire Hustle Album(s) Release Tour

Press Release:

Isaac Aesili & The Vision and Electric Wire Hustle Dual Album Release Tour!

After branching out with their individual projects the two founding fathers of Christchurch Hip Hop Soul Collective Solaa – Isaac Aesili (pictured) and Dave Wright – are releasing their respective albums on the same day, 9 September 2009!

For Isaac it is his solo album Eye See and for Dave the album with his new band Electric Wire Hustle alongside Mara TK (vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and Myele Manzanza (drums).

“It seemed natural to want to celebrate the release of both of our albums together. Both projects have their own spin but are formed from a similar grounding.” Says Dave

Isaac Aesili and The Vision band and Electric Wire Hustle will be celebrating all their hard work by touring a multi-media, multi-sensational show in 5 centres – Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, Queenstown and Christchurch in early September.

Pre – sale tickets are available from Cosmic Corner stores nationwide for $12 or for bFm, Active card, RDUnited and 1 Card holders $10.

See Isaac Aesili & The Vision and Electric Wire Hustle live at:

11 Sept – Khuja, Auckland, with support from Recloose
12 Sept – San Fran Bathhouse, Wellington
17 Sept – ReFuel, Dunedin
18 Sept – SubCulture, Queenstown
19 Sept – Double Happy, Christchurch

.

.

Isaac Aesili feat. Aaradhna ‘With You In My Bed’

…Yossarian

Tags: Funk, gigs, hip hop, New Zealand Artists, News, Soul

Electric Wire Hustle drop some thoughts

(Aotearoarepresent)

Miss P and bs caught up with Electric Wire Hustle‘s Taay and Myele recently in the lead up to the release of their self titled debut album.

Released on EWH‘s independent label ‘Every Waking Hour’ 9.9.09 in NZ, we wanted to know what the plan is now…

What’s in a name like Electric Wire Hustle?
T – A glimpse into what’s to come, a glimpse of what we want to achieve through our music.

So what is typical of EWH? and how do you feel that you contribute to the NZ music scene?
T – Our own take on soul music and how it can be expressed through the myriad of different influences we have collectively. Hopefully for NZ our own voice offers something different.

Your sound goes from very sultry and seductive D’Angelo styles to electro funk Kanye style. Is this intentional to create a new flavour for NZ or does it just flow naturally?
T – We’re just following what comes naturally to us now. There will always be influences that form the basis of what we create but hopefully it will continue to progress as we do.

Electric Wire Hustle – SHOWREEL

Are there any artists in Australian or Aotearoa music scene would you guys want to collaborate with? or maybe you are already?
T – In time more collaborations will happen. We’ve got a lot to explore between the 3 of us  – although we have started to scratch the surface having the opportunity to work with one of our local heroes Warren Maxwell – stay tuned.

Your Myspace currently has 2 tracks on it…less is more? or busy little boys?
M – We’re finishing our album – more tunes are coming! there are 3 now. Don’t you love the anticipation!?

What’s on the horizon for EWH? When can we expect you down under in Australia again?
T- soon. We’ve been honing our craft in the studio post summer and now that’s set for release it’s back to honing the live show for the real.

Your music kind of has the feel of one of hip hops best albums “Do You Want More” from The Roots released back in ’93. Would you say that you guys are more representative of the old school styles?
T – Thank you. I think we can only hope to make music that is timeless.

M – Dizzy Gillespie said you always gotta have one foot in the past, one in the present and the other in the future.

O.G. told us to look out for you guys in an interview he did a while back… so how bout we pay it forward… who are you telling us to keep an eye out for in Australasia next?

T-Julien Dyne. His music is reaching, next level ish that you should be plugged into!!!

nice one guys… can’t wait to hear the 4th track on myspace… and 5th, and the 6th…

Aotearoa Represent!

You can check out more of Electric Wire Hustle at:

www.myspace.com/electricwirehustle

miss P

&

…bs

Tags: hip hop, New Zealand Artists, Soul

Batucada Sound Machine – Auckland and beyond

Yeeeeeah! New Zealand’s 13ish piece super group Batucada Sound Machine are putting on a very special show for Auckland on September 4th at ‘4:20’. For this special performance they bring along the infamous King Kapisi, Cherie Mahieson, Miho Wada and DJ Bobby Brazuka. If you haven’t seen Batucada Sound Machine play before, the energy of this massive group sets them apart from most live shows these days, with almost as many people on stage as in the crowd. The incredible musicianship and talent of the individuals involved in the group, forming a Brzilian style afro beat bigband will set any night off, so with the addition of more talent to a night from BSM, it’s sure to make for an epic evening out.
Batucada Sound Machine featuring Che-Fu – Smoke

With MC Hazaduz (right hand man to Che-Fu) and King Kapisi both on the mic, Auckland will get to enjoy two of New Zealands finer MC’s, and potentially from memories of performances when I was still at high school, one of the best beatboxers Australasia has to offer in King Kapisi.

King Kapisi – Reverse Thoughts

Following this performance, BSM will be hitting the ‘Brisbane Arts Festival’, back to NZ for the ‘Nelson Arts Festival’, and then back to Australia for another run of concerts and festivals in November. Keep an eye on their myspace for additions to the tour run as they confirm them, and be sure to check out the performance in your hood if you get a chance.

And the three amigos in the horn section in their Adidas track suits look cool man…

You can check out more from Batucada Sound Machine at:

www.myspace.com/batucadasoundmachine

…bs

Tags: Funk, gigs, hip hop, New Zealand Artists, Reggae

Oakley Grenell – Between the sheets

[audio:og-featuring-mark-vanilau_between-the-sheets.mp3]

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

…bs

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