Music

Monk Turner: Love Story

Monk Turner’s Love Story is a fascinating concept album. It is a tale of romance that uses the Buddhist Tale of The Ten Bulls as its structure. Each track corresponds to the 10 parts of the classic Buddhist analogy so it will enhance your enjoyment of the album by first reading the tale. However Monk’s songs are entertaining enough on their own. They begin with a rap pastiche titled “Get up, Do Your Thing” which is a bit over-the-top but sweeter ballads like “Wave a White Flag (Surrender)” are on the mark and has a a bit of a Prince influence. My favorite track is the cute 50s tribute titled “We Do This All The Time”. This is a clever and fun album.

Voodoo Economics: if : then :: iminami

Voodoo Economics is a hard act to classify. There are traces of hip-hop, trip-hop, techno, industrial and even goth throughout the tracks on their album titled If: Then:: Iminami. Yet no one genre dominates. In various reviews, the word ‘quirky’ comes up often. The band’s fondness for fragmented riffs and odd time signatures certainly sounds quirky. While this may keep them off the commercial radar there is still plenty of intelligent music from this very professional sounding band for music lovers to admire.

Tim Fite: Change of Heart

Tim Fite is an American singer, song-writer from New Jersey living and working in Brooklyn. His past releases widely varied in style going between indie to alternative to country to hip hop. He received critical acclaim and won many new fans with a 2006 hip-hop album entitled "Over the Counter Culture" in which he criticized the modern culture of consumerist and greed. After multiple big publications named it among their Top 10 albums of 2007, Tim Fite decided to make a statement and not release the album commercially (= give it out for free). Now Tim Fite is out with his newest album, "Change of Heart".

Unsigned Artists Radio: The Best of Indie R&B Vol 1

This album is a compilation of tracks from new, unsigned & independent artists featured at UARADIO.NET. It's also the first (and it looks like one of many to come in different genres) legally distributed over P2P network under Creative Commons license. This compilation has 4 new, unreleased and never before heard tracks from Corey Clark, an American Idol finalist and some great tunes from Dramatiq, Carmen Liana Alexander Darryl, KDENCE & Fredrick Dare.

Amanda Palmer: Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer is a performer most recognized for being a lead singer, pianist & a songwirter of a cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls. Released in September 2008, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" is her first solo album. It was produced mainly in Nashville, TN by Ben Folds under the umbrella of Roadrunner Records (which is also the record label for The Dresden Dolls). The title of the album refers to the famous TV series "Twin Peaks" which revolves about the murder of a teenage girl named Laura Palmer.

The Kyoto Connection

The Kyoto Connection plays chilled out electro-pop mixed with a generous amount of Japanese sounds. Their 2008 release titled The Kyoto Connection II is now free and online. While the Japanese influence was not quite as dominant as I expected it to be, their music is still full of unexpected surprises in the engaging electronic arrangements.

Adam McHeffey: Let’s Kick Fire

Adam McHeffey is a young folk musician from Long Island, NY. He's been writing, composing and playing his music since middle school and developed a great ability to communicate with his audience and make them a part of the experience. He writes and sings from the heart drawing inspiration from the simple events and complex emotions of everyday life. "Let's Kick Fire" is Adam's debut album he recorded with the help of some of his friends over the last several months & mixed in his home studio. In the spirit of true community sharing the album is available free under a Creative Commons License.