News

Crammed Discs are delighted and honoured to release the new album by the one and only LULA PENA.

Crammed Discs are delighted and honoured to release the new album by the one and only LULA PENA.

With only 2 albums released since 1998, the reclusive Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and poet has achieved a rare feat: gathering a stream of devoted followers worldwide, a kind of international secret society whose ranks grow with each of her too rare appearances.
Lula Pena follows her own rules, not only in her career but in her very music. Her voice is haunting and moving, her guitar style unique, her approach deeply emotional yet also conceptual. She has a quasi-shamanic way of becoming one with her instrument when performing these long, rambling pieces, during which wood, string, words, human body, breath and voice all merge into a single, supernatural, fabulous beast.

Lula Pena's music is a living organism. Her inspired lyrics effortlessly shift between several languages as she sails on a strange ocean, bordered by continents called folk blues, flamenco, French chanson, phado (that's how she likes to spell it), bossa nova and others, grazing them all and leaving none intact. 

Entitled 'Archivo Pittoresco', Lula Pena's new album will be released in May 2016

ACID ARAB JOINS CRAMMED DISCS

ACID ARAB JOINS CRAMMED DISCS

Crammed Discs are thrilled to announce the signing of mighty Parisian electronic music crew ACID ARAB...
Crammed Discs are thrilled to announce the signing of mighty Parisian electronic music crew ACID ARAB, whose intoxicating blend of sharp Western electronic music with Eastern sounds & vocals has been putting European festival and club audiences under a spell for the last couple of years.

After releasing several EPs on excellent electronic music label Versatile, ACID ARAB are now preparing their debut album, due for release on Crammed in October.
Meanwhile, the band will be performing at Sonar (ES), Melt (DE), Villette Sonique (FR), Nuits Botanique (BE) and more dates to be announced soon.

IN COCERTS:

10.03
Caen @Le Cargo, dj set (fr)
11.03
Berlin@Urban Spree, dj set (de) CONF
17.03 Paris @Gibus, dj set (fr) CONF
24.04 Jérusalem@David Tower, dj set (il) CONF
25.03 Bern@Dachstock, live (ch) CONF
26.03 Villars@Lillars Music fest, dj set (ch) CONF
09.04 La défense@Chorus, live (fr) CONF
28.04 Rezé@Soufflerie, dj set (fr) CONF
19.05 Rome@Spring Attitude festival, live (it) CONF
22.05 Bruxelles @Nuits Botanique, live (be) CONF
28.05 Paris@Villettes Soniques, live (fr) CONF
03.06 Réunion@Sakifo, dj set (re) CONF
11.06 Haarlem@Edit Fest, dj set (nl) CONF
16.06 Barcelone@Sonar, dj set (esp) CONF
23.06 Lisbonne@Lux, live (pt) CONF
24.06 Poleymieux@Mont D'Or festival, dj set (fr) CONF
26.06 Amsterdam@Beyond fest, dj set (nl) CONF


Acid Arab joins Crammed Discs

Acid Arab joins Crammed Discs

Crammed Discs are thrilled to announce the signing of mighty Parisian electronic music crew ACID ARAB
AKSAK MABOUL ANNOUNCE THEIR NEW ALBUM WITH A HYPNOTIC VIDEO AND SINGLE

AKSAK MABOUL ANNOUNCE THEIR NEW ALBUM WITH A HYPNOTIC VIDEO AND SINGLE

"Tout a une fin / Blaue Bleistift” - the 2-track single heralds the release of Aksak Maboul's new double LP 'Figures' (out May 15, 2020), which will be the legendary experimental pop band’s first real new album in decades. These two tracks are reworks, which won’t appear as such on the album. Tout a une fin (short version) (‘Everything ends’) A tight 3-minute track including a song part (in which Véronique Vincent’s voice performs sinuous variations around the words in the title) and a section featuring electronic, rock and orchestral instrumentation rising to a wild, crescendo finale. Blaue Bleistift Unveiling some of the more electronic and experimental aspects of the new LP, with its criss-crossing keyboard lines and sound collages. Kind of a mysterious, ambient cousin of Aksak Maboul’s Saure Gurke? Tout a une fin also comes out on Feb 26 in the shape of a dizzying music video directed by young animator/collagist Yoann Stehr (whose recent work includes short films for fashion designer Paul Smith). Just like the Figures album, this single was written and produced by Marc Hollander & Véronique Vincent (respectively founder of Aksak Maboul & Crammed Discs, and former vocalist with The Honeymoon Killers).




Kasai Allstars' music in the soundtrack of award-winning film

Kasai Allstars' music in the soundtrack of award-winning film

"Félicité" earned the Silver Bear Grand Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and features the band, off and onscreen
Inspired by the music of Kasai Allstars and by their vocalist Muambuyi (whose voice is heard in the soundtrack), director Alain Gomis created the main protagonist of his film, a proud woman named Félicité who works as a singer with the band, and sets out on a breakneck race through the streets of electric Kinshasa in order to save her son.

The movie just earned the Silver Bear Grand Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and the Golden Stallion at the FESPACO (Panafrican Film Festival).

The band wrote and performed most of the soundtrack, and appears onscreen playing their own part. Muambuyi's voice is omnipresent, and is being heard everytime Félicité (played by Congolese actress Vero Tshanda) sings in the bars of Kinshasa, backed by Kasai Allstars.

The "Around Félicité" album includes the film's main pieces, performed by Kasai Allstars and by the Kinshasa Symphonic Orchestra (who specially arranged three works by composer Arvo Pärt), alongside new tracks by Kasai Allstars, as well as interludes consisting of fragments of dialogues and sound bites taken from the soundtrack.

The album comes with a companion piece: "Félicité Remixes", a collection of 10 remixes of Kasai Allstars tracks by electronic music producers from Europe, North America and Africa, including reworks by Clap! Clap!, Daedelus and Africaine 808.

Watch OY's latest, trippy video

Watch OY's latest, trippy video

"Space Diaspora" was directed by Moritz Reichartz




Aksak Maboul 'Revue'

Aksak Maboul 'Revue'

Special shows feat. Laetitia Sadier, Aquaserge & Jaakko Eino Kalevi
To celebrate the release of the "16 Visions of Ex-Futur" tribute album, Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul will be playing a series of special shows entitled Aksak Maboul ‘Revue’, for which they’ll be joined onstage by some of the album’s contributors, including Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Laetitia Sadier and Aquaserge, who will perform together some of their respective music.

20 Oct: Paris, Café de la Danse
22 Oct: Bruxelles, Botanique
23 Oct: Francfort, Mousonturm
5 Nov: London, Kings Place 

New line-up + new shows...

New line-up + new shows...

+ remixes by SKIP&DIE !
After an absence of several months, the fearless Staff Benda Bilili will be returning to play shows in Europe, with a revamped line-up. To celebrate their return, they've joined forces with wild, genre-blending South African/Dutch band SKIP&DIE, who have revisited two highlights from the Staff's latest album "Bouger le monde". SKIP&DIE's electrifying, dancefloor-friendly versions of Bilanga and Kuluna / Gangs will be coming out as a digital single in early July.

The band's new line up is:

Ricky Likabu Makodu  : vocals, band founder & leader
Djunana Tanga Suele: vocals, dancing
Kabossé Kabamba Kasongo: vocals, "animation"
Roger Landu Satonge: satonge, vocals, guitar
Victor Mbaki Mambu: vocals, dancing
Cavalier Kiara Mayingi: bass, vocals, arranger
Amalphi Ketikila Massamba: lead guitar
Guelor Dianzenza Bakanadio: rhythm guitar
Dostin Mopoto Masebi: drums
Chico Makiedika Mbumba: percussion

Stephen Coates is

Stephen Coates is "a disciple of Scott Walker & Jarvis Cocker"...

... write Les Inrockuptibles...
Read their glowing 4-star review of THE REAL TUESDAY WELD's "The Last Werewolf" (which comes out in France on Jan 23)


Congotronics vs Rockers voted #1 London gig of 2011

Congotronics vs Rockers voted #1 London gig of 2011

... by London-based live blog Londonears

"Super-cross-continental-group featuring all 19 members of Deerhoof, Konono No. 1, Juana Molina, Kasai Allstars, Skeletons and Wildbirds & Peacedrums in this one off collaboration of tribal noise like no other. Only a few members of the crowd managed to refrain from dancing like your friend’s odd hippy mother might at Glastonbury"

http://www.londonears.com/blog.html

LATEST & FORTHCOMING

AQUASERGE - New Information Order EP
AQUASERGE
New Information Order EP
cram3214
AQUASERGE - La Fin de l'Economie
AQUASERGE
La Fin de l'Economie
cram321
AMATORSKI - Curves and Bends, Things Veer
AMATORSKI
Curves and Bends, Things Veer
cram320
NIHILOXICA - Source of Denial
NIHILOXICA
Source of Denial
cram
AKSAK MABOUL - Une aventure de VV (Songspiel) MTM Vol. 48
AKSAK MABOUL
Une aventure de VV (Songspiel) MTM Vol. 48
mtm48