Highlife Records: CDs & VINYL

Tired of overly auto-tuned music? Let us remind you of the great old natural-singing souls with this footage of Leadbelly. Apparently the only known film of him. Stop by the store to listen to more of the greats.

Just in, Cal Koat from World Beat International has reviewed “The Captive Road”:

…The Captive Road remains an extremely personal and intimate album. Finseth delivers the tales up front in a fragile voice teetering on collapse, held in play by his piano-based accompaniment. The ladies complement these tender moments with delicate, ethereal harmonies of their own. The Captive Road is an incomparable offering which, for someone who has made a career out of filing new sounds in old bins, must have been extremely challenging even for Kevin to describe. The moniker that seems to have stuck is “Ambient folk hymns … opium noir” which, I guess, is as good a place as any to start your journey down The Captive Road. Standout tracks include the opening air, Fall Away, The Reader, the exotic grooviness of Cairo April 1983 and some tasty guitar dueling on The Passenger…

Read the full review here (with a live music video).

A heads-up on some very cool sounds from  ”Systema Solar“.

From  World Music Network:

Colombia is fast becoming a musical powerhouse of South America, bubbling under with new talent. One group to watch out for among this creative frenzy is Systema Solar from the Caribbean coast who played WOMEX. A cooperative of musicians equally at home in traditional forms such as cumbia, porro and champeta as they are in techno, house and break beat, Systema Solar are a force of nature. Look out for them at the summer festivals in 2012.

For our musician / producer friends, indeed anyone interested in DIY and the new music business. Here’s a lecture from Gabriel Roth – head of Daptone Records discussing their great releases and how they do it. He keeps it simple and real.

Beautiful.

From the Guardian:

Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara visits the Guardian studio to enchant us with an exclusive live version of the song Clandestin from her album Fatou on World Circuit records. Her music blends the Wassalou tradition of southern Mali with external influences to create a warm, friendly and sensual sound whether performing solo or in a group.

Here it is!

Download your copy here. (2mb)

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