Bacao Rhythm & Steel preview Expansions with "Raise It Up"

Listen to Bacao Rhythm & Steel's version of the Slum Village classic "Raise It Up" off their new Expansions LP. 

Here's the scoop...

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the mysterious steel pan outfit hailing from Hamburg, Germany have amassed a cult following around the globe. With a slew of classic 7”s and two critically acclaimed full length albums, they set a high bar for themselves, one they clearly intend on pushing even higher with this new offering. On their third album, aptly titled Expansions (out July 16), BRSB are back with more of the same, but more of the same with them is inherently different. Covering songs that span genres and range from mega hits to album cuts, they make them their own with their unique approach to the traditional steel pans of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Part of the allure of a new record from Bacao is finding out what covers they chose. However, die hard fans are also waiting to hear the original numbers like the stellar album opener “Tough Victory”. Its airtight rhythm section, brass arrangements, and layers of steel pan melodies make the term “cover band” a shoe that could never fit Bacao. Within the next three songs they go from Jazz (Galt MacDermot), to Hip Hop (Slum Village / J Dilla), to a dance floor classic (Grace Jones) taking them all on with their signature style, expanding on the originals. An easy crowd favorite is their gritty, gully, and neck snapping cover of the Timbaland produced Jay-Z club hit “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”. The infamous crushing Bacao drums start the show and the moment they start playing the top line on the pans, all bets are off. Sure to become a dance floor filler is their bottom heavy, four on the floor version of Sylvester’s classic “I Need Somebody To Love Tonight”. They venture into some gutbucket funk with Ike Turner’s “Getting Nasty” and bring the steel pans to Minnie Riperton’s Jazz classic “Les Fleurs”. Digging deeper in the modern canon and paying tribute to a tribute, they cover Erykah Badu’s homage to the late great J Dilla, “The Healer”. This is the type of thing to make Spice Adams jump on his kitchen counter and scream. From the second the beat drops they give the original Madlib production a run for its money, shaking subwoofers with the eerie tremolo bass while the pans play E. Badu’s vocal melodies. 

By the time the album is through Bacao has taken the listener on a journey that spans a myriad of energies, tempos, and moods while somehow managing to keep it all under one umbrella. For all that, these songs are alive, and they will be taken out of the context of this album and sewn into the fabric of DJ sets around the globe for many years to come. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band is breathing renewed life into the originals and continuing to push the boundaries of steel pan music, or, as the title suggests, expanding on it. 

You can pre-order a copy of Expansions via Bandcamp right here. Check out "Raise It Up," "My Jamaican Dub" and "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" followed by the track listing.  

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band - Expansions

1. Tough Victory

2. Space

3. Raise It Up 

4. My Jamaican Dub 

5. I Need Somebody To Love Tonight

6. Dirt Off Your Shoulder 

7. Getting Nasty

8. Blow Your Cover

9. Represent

10. The Healer 02:50

11. Les Fleurs

12. Squaring The Circles

CD bonus tracks: Juicy Fruit, Kaiso Noir, Look Out Baby (Here I Come)

Happy Birthday Sahib Shihab!

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Midweek Mixdown: Veronica Vasicka's Minimal Wave

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Veronica Vasicka presents a monthly 2-hour show on NTS Radio featuring the lost synth-wave treasures she has archived from the late 70s and early 80s, along with other iconic underground electronic music drawn from over four decades. Expect to hear exclusive tracks from releases on her seminal Minimal Wave and Cititrax labels plus cassette-only and private press rarities.

Featuring: Anne Clark, Conrad Schnitzler, Strafe, Vicious Pink, Skinny Puppy, Crash Course In Science, The Neon Judgement, A Split-Second, Nine Inch Nails, Das Ding, The Human League, Soft Cell, Gerry and the Holograms, Stephan Eicher, Deux, The Residents, Chris & Cosey, Propaganda.

Listen right here. 

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Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones release "Here To Tell The Tale" on Friday

Check out the title track and the rockin' "Let's Go!" from Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones' Here To Tell The Tale album available here. 

LINK

Barry On The Beat Lara Hope interview

Foo Fighters go disco as the Dee Gees with Hail Satin album

Dave Grohl and pals redo Foo songs disco style and add a few Bee Gees faves on Hail Satin out Record Store Day, July 17th. 

Here's the scoop from Sony Music Canada: 

It’s Record Store Day Night Fever as the Brothers Foo Gibb it to you good with HAIL SATIN, the high Travoltage debut album of Foo Fighters’ disco alter ego the DEE GEES.

Out July 17 as a limited edition vinyl album packaged era-appropriately in a dazzling rainbow mylar sleeve, HAIL SATIN is the bipolar party record of the summer. Side A features Grohl, Hawkins, Mendel, Smear, Shiflett and Jaffee lighting up the floor at Foo Fighters’ 606 studios with faithful renditions of five stone cold Brothers Gibb classics — Bee Gees bangers “You Should Be Dancing,” Night Fever,” “Tragedy” and “More Than A Woman” + Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing” — while side B literally rocks the party with live at 606 renditions of roughly half of Foo Fighters pandemic panacea album MEDICINE AT MIDNIGHT.

Check out the video for "You Should Be Dancing" followed by a couple of recent Dee Gees live appearances below. 

The Dee Gees – Hail Satin 

Side A

You Should Be Dancing

Night Fever

Tragedy

Shadow Dancing

More Than a Woman

Side B — LIVE at 606:

Making A Fire

Shame Shame

Waiting on a War

No Son of Mine

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