Elemental Consulting

Street Date ::: 4/17/07

Brooklyn-based CrystalTop Music reached out to its extended network and brought together eleven beautiful gems from eleven different artists for CrystalTop Music Presents. But drawing a line through the sounds collected under the banner of CrystalTop Music is an exercise that’s more likely to result in beautiful scribbles and loops than in a legible graph. “Diverse” barely begins to sketch the range. In fact, the common element shared by these artists may be the absence of a stylistic bag that can comfortably hold them; all the songs seem to reach for some sound that doesn't fit into easy black and white categories.

This is partly an act of curation, so that Pyeng Threadgill’s soul-jazz take on Bill Withers and The Dang-it Bobbys' country-rock joint, “Say Goodbye” talk to each other in ways they might not if you encountered them separately. But mostly it’s something that happens within the songs themselves. The heart of “Say Goodbye” is a soaring southern rock chorus worthy of The Allman Brothers, yet restless enough to wander off into Stevie Wonder-ish chord changes that speak of doo-wop. “Foreign Country” is the lyrical conceit of Christina Courtin’s sharp but melancholy love song — but also a subliminal self-description of grass a slightly different shade of blue, a moody ballad that finds its down-home abroad. Even the afrobeat of Martín Perna’s Ocote Soul Sounds has a Deep Purple heaviness, and elsewhere on this collection the spirits of Norah Jones, Pink Floyd, Carlos Santana and Radiohead are all channeled in unexpected ways.

Some of this is the natural eclecticism of well-crafted music, the ease with which serious players have always traded licks in spite of genre boundaries. But if phrases and ideas seem to jump more freely, over greater divides, on CTM Presents it’s because CrystalTop is not a studio-generated fiction but a clique of artists sharing six degrees of connection on stage and on record — in some cases the spokes on this wheel have known each other from school days, maybe even ran together as graffiti artists hitting up crystal-top buses. The music they make with each other reflects a generation who have come up with the self-segregated logic of rap and rock and ultimately rejected or outgrown it. It’s a new approach, but also a throwback in some ways to a certain moment of 70s utopianism, not because it’s self-consciously "retro," but because it’s the sound of a generation of 70s harmony babies and 80s zebraheads coming of age with a boom. The result is a brand new bag.
The label on the side reads: Can’t we all just get it on?
-- Edwin STATS Houghton February, 2007

TRACKLISTING:
01 - Momma's Boy (Elizabeth & The Catapult) :: jazzy bluegrass-rock-funk
02 - Blind (Mega Bass) :: electronically-altered indie-rock
03 - Harmony (Ryan Scott) :: soulful rock
04 - Foreign Country (Christina Courtin's Running Kicks) :: bluesy-soul-rock
05 - Let's Make When Right Now (Oddlogik) :: sweet organic soul
06 - Cariño (Ocote Soul Sounds) :: cosmopolitan, jazz-infused afrobeat
07 - Say Goodbye (The Dang-It Bobbys) :: country-rock
08 - Late Night With Christina (Aidan Hawken) :: stripped-down storyteller
09 - Can We Pretend (Pyeng Threadgill) :: folk-soul-funk
10 - El Buena Gente (Los Electrics) :: latin-funk
11 - Tabaco Y Ron (Luz Mob) :: caliente cumbia

www.crystaltop.com/presents
www.myspace.com/crystaltop

Labels: album, crystaltop, electronic, pop, rock, soul

Labels: audio, dance, electronic, made records, pop

Made Gold Part 1- Various (Made Records) 3/27/07
2006 found Made Records taking the dance and club worlds by storm with an array of releases that captured listeners with multiplehits from the legendary iio as well as the unique creations of Jimmy James. Now as a tribute to the DJ's that helped deliver these hits to the masses comes MADE GOLD, a release stacked with the 12" versions of these hit records that have never before been available on CD. Included here is the sought after Starkillers Made Club Edit of the #1 Billboard club smash from iio "Is It Love" as well as the Bailey's E-Card DUB version of "Kissing A Fraud" from Jimmy James. As an added bonus, MADE delivers amazing mixes of tracks from their next clubland conquerors NYMPH. All in all, MADE GOLD is the perfect look back at Made Records influence over the past year with an exciting peek into the future of this dynamic pop/dance label.
artwork: http://elemental.imeem.com/photo/4x8KO_IF/6tsDXaE1pKKi_/

Regress Classics Part 1 - Various (Made Records) 03/13/07
Aptly named Regress Records—for their uncanny ability to bring the underground back to its roots-- finally deliversthe album that the DJ and club community demanded with REGRESS CLASSICS PART ONE, a double CD packed with over140 heart pumping minutes of underground club classics from the cult label that has delivered cutting edge underground dancemusic to the devoted masses. With 12" versions that have never before been available on CD, this set delivers beneath the surfacetracks that fly in the face of everything conventional about today's club scene. Featured are underground heroes such as Jimmy Van M—whose behind the scenes influence on American underground dance culture is second to none—and the superunique talents of Nema, Papa/Gilbey, Flatline, Mavi and more. All deliver an underground experience that has helped makeRegress Records one of the most respected and revered sources of true producer driven club creations.
artwork: http://elemental.imeem.com/photo/4x8KO_IF/wD2M8KucezHaC/

Geek Pop Star - Nymph (Made Records) 03/27/07
Have you ever met someone for the first time, yet you felt as if you've been close to them for years? Wait, scratch that. Let’s try again. Have you ever heard a record for the first time, yet felt like it was music you had been listening to your whole life? Ah, now we’re on to something. Say hello to NYMPH. With grating and thumping beats that taste crystallized, yet bittersweet soul melodies that bring a musical warmth, NYMPH has created an electronic palette of different genres ranging from jazz to jungle. The result is a rainbow of pop art that comprises their debut release “Geek Pop Star”. Led by the distinctive vocals of singer/songwriter Shari, “Geek Pop Star” pays tribute to the vivacious NYC electronic scene with a bark AND a bite that grips the listener upon pressing play. With obvious yet understated influences that include hiphop, rock, house and classical music, Shari exuberates herself as a soulful Bjork /Gwen Stefani with the pop sense of a Madonna. “Geek Pop Star” is a labyrinth of words, sounds and colors that gets into your soul and stays there. An additional bonus is the standout production skills of the very hot and talented Markus Moser who recently created the Billboard Club #1 worldwide smash “Is It Love” from iio, a record that not only has scorched clubland but is still a current Dance Radio hit and reached #1 sales status on the DJ driven portal beatport.com. Markus delivers the goods like only he can setting the tone for a record that is incomparable to anything on today’s predictable electronic/pop scene
artwork: http://elemental.imeem.com/photo/4x8KO_IF/8Pfwd6YH6VAYi/

Labels: club, dance, dj, electronic, iio, jimmy james, made, pop, release