The Very Good Agency

Pete Philly and Perquisite update

Yes yes y’all, it’s been too long since we’ve last hit you up. We wanted to send you this earlier but in light of our hero passing away last month we did some proper soul searching and MJ listening sessions first.
So here goes:

Stuff we’ve been doing:

– We’ve played at a couple of European festivals last month. We were at ‘Flow.Er’ in Catania, Sicily on June 27th. Next came ‘Rheinkultur’, Germany’s biggest free open air festival, which was great. Check out the short video on our website. The week after we’ve played at ‘Frauenfeld Open Air’ in Switzerland alongside The Game, 50 cent, Gentleman, N.E.R.D, Sammy Deluxe and many others.

– Perq has been composing the score for Dutch movie “Carmen van het Noorden” which will see it’s theatrical release this autumn. The movie which features Tygo Gernandt and Sanguita Akkrum in the lead rolls will have it’s premiere on September 24th at the Dutch Film Festival. The soundtrack, which will entirely be produced by Perquisite, features the cream of the crop of Dutch hip hop including GMB, Typhoon, Sticks, Jiggy Djé, Turk and Duvel and will be released the same day through ‘Unexpected Records’. For more news on this check out www.myspace.com/perquisite.

– Pete produced the remix for and featured on Jiggy Djé’s song “Ik heb je”. A video has been shot last week to accompany the single. Check out the song over here.

– Pete also featured on Candy Dulfer’s new album “My Funk” and The Kindred Spirits Ensemble’s song “Shining Liberation feat. Pete Philly”.

– Perq has made remixes for De Staat, Voicst and Kim Hoorweg. Check them out by clicking on the links:

De Staat – Wait For Evolution (Perquisite remix) (free download)

Voicst – A Year and a Bit (Perquisite remix)

Kim Hoorweg – The Moment I Open My Eyes (Perquisite remix)

– Pete has been playing the lead in the play “Man From Nowhere” and is currently writing new songs. Follow him on twitter to know what’s up:  www.twitter.com/petephilly

– Perq has won the prestigious ‘Duiveltje’ award for best producer of The Netherlands.

Pete Philly and Perquisite – Empire

Stuff we’re gonna do:

– After this summer, we’ll be doing our last tour for an undefined period, which we’ve called the ‘Final Celebration Tour’. It’ll be a reprise of the theater tour that we tried out last year. In this tour we will present our material in the most musical and intimate way possible. We’ve enlarged our live-formation to 13 people including a horn section, a drummer and a string quartet and we will play songs that we usually don’t perfrom in our normal live setup, like ‘Believer’, ‘Amazed’, ‘Mellow’ and ‘Grateful’. This tour will be a celebration of all that we, as a group, have accomplished in the last 5 years. Check our website for the dates. Don’t miss out on this one!

And an announcement:

– After 3 years of touring with us, a couple of months ago our saxophone player Remco Keijzer has decided to leave our live formation to pursue his other musical ambitions and move to Australia. We’ve enjoyed playing with Remco a lot and wish him lot’s of luck with his solo career! Keep an eye out for Remco‘s quintet! At the same time we welcome Floris van der Vlugt as our new saxophone player. Check out his website right here.

Stay blessed and stay safe,
… Pete & Perq

Tags: hip hop, Jazz, Soul, World Music

N.A.S.A

N.A.S.A – Spirit of Apollo. ‘Houston, we don’t have a problem here’
I’ll be honest; there hasn’t been a lot in the world of hip hop that has grabbed my attention lately. I’ve listened to plenty of albums, some good, some not so good, but none that have really made me want to listen again and again. Then came ‘The Spirit of Apollo’, the innovative and funky debut effort from two creative producers who call themselves N.A.S.A. Comprised of Sam Spiegel (aka Squeak E. Clean, brother of Spike Jonze) and Ze Gonzalez (aka DJ Zegon), N.A.S.A first attracted my attention with their almost bizarre collection of collaborations; the prospect of Talking Heads frontman David Byrne trading verses with the likes of Chuck D, Chali 2na and Gift of Gab, The RZA sharing a track with John Frusciante, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard rhyming with the taunting Karen O of trendy Yeah Yeah Yeah’s fame, was obviously intriguing, and certainly refreshing  in what has become a slightly stale game.

A common love of Brazilian funk (N.A.S.A. is an acronym for North America/South America) led to Spiegel and Gonzalez forming the joint venture and starting work on what is one of the trendiest and most innovative releases for some time.  Think Handsome Boy Modelling School, but with a bit of South American flair, complete with its own solid collection of impressive names from across the hip hop playground, and a few from outside it even! And the Duo has their fingers on the pulse, the pairing of production to MC’s is spot on; from the poppy electro-tinged “Gifted”, featuring Kanye West and Santogold, to the dark drums and gritty electric guitar loop on RZA’s track (not to mention the eerie wailing of Barbie Hatch), N.A.S.A appear to have set out to create the perfect beats for the artists on each track. Even the odd combinations are enjoyable; this is none more evident than in “Spacious Thoughts”, which sees abstract verbal warfare from Kool Keith paired off against the bizarre growl of Tom Waits on the chorus.

N.A.S.A – Way Down feat. The RZA, Barbie Hatch and John Frusciante

Before N.A.S.A came along, Santogold and Spankrock were among the last two discoveries that had sparked my interest with any significance. Pleasingly, both appear on this album! Diverse artists as far as hip hop goes, their combination on the upbeat electro-hip hop banger “Whatchadoin?” will have you dancing for sure.  Spank Rock bounces through his verses with M.I.A and Santogold chanting the catchy sing-a-long chorus together; easily one of my favourite tracks. Santogold also appears on “Gifted” with Kanye, one of the other standouts on the album, although soon to be a radio nuisance I’m sure. Love him or hate him though, this is a very catchy track, perfect for Mr West’s style. Ol’ Dirty Bastard shouts out to N.A.S.A from the grave in one of my other favourites, “Strange Enough”.  Apparently the last track he recorded (uh… heard that before…), Spiegel and Gonzalez have done Dirt Dog proud with a huge head-nodder to go with his trademark  killer rhyme style, with strong support from Fatlip and Karen O on the hook. Chali 2na pops up twice, and although he’s possibly getting a bit stale (and I’m a big fan of his!), produces a great party track with the legendary George Clinton, who was apparently in an ‘altered state of mind’ (are we surprised?….).

N.A.S.A – Gifted feat. Kanye West, Santogold and Lykke Li

I could go on all night here; track with Method Man worth mentioning, Ghostface kicks it with The Cool Kids, Del is back in funky style joined by DJ Q-Bert, and the two tracks with David Byrne from Talking Heads are again really strong tracks. This production combination has definitely got it down right here, tight tracks with the perfect rappers, singers and musicians on them; this album, having taking 5 years to complete, was obviously a labour of love that has paid dividends for the Duo. In addition to the album, the group intends to release a full-length documentary film of the making of the album including interviews with the guest who featured on the album, and  behind-the-scenes footage from the studio sessions, check a sneak-peek here for a bit more of an insight into this amazing project:

N.A.S.A. – Spirit of Apollo trailer

This is a very clever album from N.A.S.A., just when hip hop was losing its grip a little bit (well, for me anyway) comes an album that will appeal to hip hop fans from across the entire genre, and no doubt a few on the edge as well (we’ve all got friends who ‘don’t listen to hip hop’…);  infamous well proven hip hop artists like Del, KRS-One, some Wu-Tang royalty and Pharcyde fam mix it up with modern musical heavyweights Kanye West, Santogold and Karen O, not to forget legends outside the hip hop realm such as George Clinton, David Byrne and Tom Waits. Without straying too far from their love of Brazilian funk, N.A.S.A combine indie, hip hop, funk an d rock with ease, and overwhelmingly succeed in their debut mission of bringing artists from across the musical spectrum together to create something fresh and different.

And the good news continues, with N.A.S.A having recently announced an Australian tour this June! Given the impressive array of names on their album, one will wait in anticipation until phrase ‘international guests to be announced’ is fulfilled. Complete with orange spacesuits, four turntables and an impressive visual display as well, N.A.S.A’s live show has a big reputation so it’s sure to be one to catch!

N.A.S.A tour dates:
Thursday 4th June: SYDNEY, Oxford Arts Factory
Friday 5th June: MELBOURNE, The Esplanade Hotel
Saturday 6th June: PERTH, Shape Nightclub
Sunday 7th June: CANBERRA, Winter Warehouse Festival

Catch more of N.A.S.A at:

www.myspace.com/nasa

…Crack

Tags: Collaborations, Funk, gigs, hip hop, World Music

What About Me – 1 Giant Leap

The first post I am making for 2009, (oh yeah, Happy New Year people!) is a documentary series comprising of a TV series, film and album, created by two visionary filmmakers. Duncan Bridgeman and Jamie Catto travel the world with the goal of creating the biggest global music jam in history in ‘What About Me’.

The movie(s) tells of their journey travelling through 50 locations to create a universal piece of music, while interviewing some of the world’s leading actors, musicians, and activists. Departing from the typical Hollywood model, the two filmakers also take the time to interview some of the world’s unsung heroes they met along the way, “weaving original musical collaborations with soul-searching conversations and stunning imagery.”

‘Collective insanity’ is one commonality these film-makers have touched upon as they interact with people from all walks of life. That although we as communities have different music, lifestyle, opinions, and cultures, we are all instinctively drawn towards the same emotional, practical, and spiritual needs, in order to survive and co-operate as societies.

‘What About Me’ – Series Trailer

The DVD is an album of 11 short films each featuring a piece of music and a theme and a twelfth feature-length film that plays the films continuously. The double DVD will also contain the seven TV episodes as a companion to the short film. With artists such as Michael Stipe, Will Young, Brother Speech of Arrested Developement, Carlos Santana, Maxi Jazz, Alanis Morissette and K D Lang among many others, this art work is sure to be worth a watch for appreciators of music and humanity, if that’s not too broad.

You can check the series out for yourself at:

www.whataboutme.tv

and for those of you in Australia at the moment, ‘What About Me’ will be airing on ABC during January and February.

Special thanks to www.ilikemusic.com for the interesting review they posted on this series.

…bs

Tags: Documentary, Political, World Music