A few weeks ago I visited the "official" Phoenix Blog/Journal looking for some answers. But what I found was an abandoned virtual space, with plenty dated content from their enthusiastic Blogging days. Scavenging I started finding remixes here and there. Some of them so nice I decided to compile a Wolfgang Amadeus Remix album with some of my favorites. Hell, I even decided to make my own and added it to this compilation. See if you can spot it.
Genres range from clichéd Electro to Jamaican Roots Reggae, and it features contributions from Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, Ivan Beck, The Soft Pack and many more. Enjoy it... this one is really free!

Download Wolfgang Amadeus Remix

I was recently asked to feature on the 5th issue of Africa24 Magazine. The contribution was quite painless, and all I had to do was write about Maputo and it's standout spots. I tried not going too "underground" and kept it nice and touristy. Gotta keep some of those special places in the dark alleys they naturally belong to. Now it's pouring outside my Johannesburg window and all I wanna do is eat a real Pastel de Nata and watch that chaotic Maputo traffic.

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Maputo_vu_par.pdf (243 KB)

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Maputo_vu_par.pdf (243 KB)

I've realized I hardly ever post stuff I actually work on. This hardly ever being more like never! I mostly post other people's music and it turns out I make my own music. A shocking surprise, so this year I'll put some real effort behind trying to post stuff I've worked on, or am currently working on.
I start with a little Phoenix meets 340ml mash-up. In fact I'm thinking of doing a Phoenix trilogy post. So this would be Part One. It's been a while since they've released anything and they were in studio last year working on the follow-up to that glorious Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix… but still we wait.
OK, you bunch of talented French bastards, rise from the ashes!

Things_Get_Better_(Phoenix_meets_340ml).mp3

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Things_Get_Better_(Phoenix_meets_340ml).mp3 (7.16 MB)

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La_Tête_Savante_(Blog_Version).mov (34.58 MB)

A kind of official Video for the first track on Tumi and the Volume's Pick A Dream album. Myself and Khalid, from Tuba Films, decided to turn the wonderful Illustration work Hippolyte crafted for the album cover and booklet into an animation and bring it to life. Easier said than done! But as they say, the proof is in the pudding. Well, hoping the lyrics below help savor this pudding.

He woke up restless and distressed feeling wretched
The perspiration filled his vest full of sweat
Missed a step, quickly checks, “What the F?!?”, he is the headless
Light headed? no, actually headless
Checks under the mattress and on the headrest
Good heavens this mess here, Needs a detective
He lived on a hill with his house on the edge of it
Far from the world to pretend his a president
But when heads roll, his a peasant again
He’s not special, just a resident
With no head though, so the searches commence
To his friend’s door, but he seems worst than him

They vow to assist each other in this mission brother
Fellowship, to find the tower where they brain power is
Main culture lives, heritage,
The way name our kids,
Bury our kin, pray away our sins,
Until the day it ends… on they went
Through the desert, through venomous temperatures
Searching for references, relics and evidence, something incredible
And there in the distance, they find their heads again,
They rejoice, celebrate the gathering,
Spend their whole lives, happy in this marriage.

I’ve seen stars and rode them. Up these narrow podiums. The challenge of another journey could break me in half if I wasn’t as open.
I rewrite the modus. To guide me up the motions. Follow in a shadow shower of a power stronger and larger than all this.

This is me at my most biased pseudo review. Well, scratch review and add portrait of someone who exhales at portraying.
Filipe Branquinho is one of my favorite photographers. Not even because he hails from the same city as me, and we were born in the same year and pretty much grazed in the same pastures, but because his pictures are truly worth a thousand words. His attention to detail and work ethos instinctively filter into his work, making his images easy to absorb and relate to. Oh, speaking of images, Filipe is also an accomplished Illustrator
Ocupações (Occupations) is something he's been working on for quite sometime. I guess it's a visual depiction of Maputo, done through it's inhabitants and the various things they have to do to afford living in such an african hub. Below are some of my favorite portraits this collection has to offer.

Car Repair Shop (Guard)

Fisherman

Francisco Manianga High School (Security)

On A Motorcycle (Guard)

Josina Machel High School (Students)

Mr. Julião (Building Supervisor)

Mrs. Sara (Housemaid, Student and Mother)

Sebastião (Soccer Coach)

Sergio (Hospital Employee)

Mr. Lisboa (Hawker)

Student Residence (Employee)

Woman With A Balloon (Prostitute)

Mammal.mp3

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Mammal.mp3 (4.98 MB)

Or maybe the other way round. Well, whatever it is it made one Mozambican lady very upset. Hahaha... Irate accusations were flying around. Last year in Marseille, we (340ml) played with these Californians with "Tel Avivian" roots. They're called Fool's Gold, and some of them are actual African Music students. Sounds like Marrabenta was included in this years curriculum. Pretty sweet song from their new album called Leave No Trace.

And so a few posts ago I wondered what Mr. Gonzalez was up. Nope, none of those Gonzalez, the French Gonzalez... Anthony Gonzalez. Mr. M83... And from now on Mr. Synth God, Emperor of all heavenly Drum rolls. He's actually been pretty busy and he's about to release a seriously wonderful album called Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. Correction! A double album with 23 new songs. Midnight City is a bomb of a single and it's been out for awhile. So where have you been?

Midnight_City.mp3

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Midnight_City.mp3 (4.63 MB)

Due for release towards the end of July, Legendary Weapons is the Wu's latest collection of tracks. It stars all the usual suspects plus a gang of features. In fact, great features, specially the verses by AZ and Termanology.
It's the RZA all over the production, with all the Wu gimmicks we've learn to love since the 36 Chambers. Well, truth be told, it's not Enter The Wu-Tang, but the world has long resigned to the fact that it's pretty impossible to go beyond those 36 Chambers.
I still think it's pretty awesome and it has many timeless and classic moments. But what do I know, I'm not a purist, in fact I'm a bit of an impostor. I do wish it featured a bit more of Raekwon, but that's why solo careers exist outside the clan. On the upstroke, the RZA and Ghostface are, as they say, all over this bitch.

Laced_Cheeba.mp3

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Laced_Cheeba.mp3 (4.74 MB)

Legendary_Weapons.mp3

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Legendary_Weapons.mp3 (4.63 MB)

Here's a copy for look/see and download of the Newspaper originally released with Radiohead's King Of Limbs. This is why the album was gloriously tagged as the world's first Newspaper album. And like all things Print coming out of the Radiohead factory it's Mr. Stanley Donwood all over it. I'm guessing in the 'pirate world' of today most of us got the songs but didn't even see the artwork. This Newspaper was, in many ways, conceived as a hopeful 'last breath' of Print media.

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Universal_Sigh.pdf (4.99 MB)

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Universal_Sigh.pdf (4.99 MB)

And why the hell not? Also from the King Of Limbs kitchen but previously unreleased, here's Staircase. Recorded live for a From The Basement session.

Staircase.mp3

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Staircase.mp3 (6.27 MB)

This is the latest Tumi and the volume offering and, trying hard not to be biased, I gotta say, it's something else. It plays out like a dysfunctional musical, revolving around an episode as told by a girl named Akona. Her testimonial is nerve recking and that's what instigated Tumi to put together a bunch of folks to help him build this project. Easier said than done, but here it is.
It's important to add that this whole endeavor was made to support the POWA initiative.
I'm not even going to put a listening sample here and I'm not going to spend time describing it. Get it!
You can download it with all the tracks and testimonial mixed together into a 44 minute marathon or you can download the actual album featuring 21 individual tracks.

Download POWA Mixtape Uncut

Download POWA Mixtape Split into 21 tracks

There's also a Video that was made for the Mixtape. You can watch it on youTube

Let me know if any of the links stop working.