Summer sounds that much closer after listening to Rene Lopez’s, Shing-a-ling Is What I Bring.   Has that old school Marvin Gaye summer time sound, but in the barrio.

Rene Lopez – Shing-a-ling Is What I Bring

Press Release:

Rene Lopez will be proving that February is the month of love with appearances at Nublu every Thursday during the month. He will additionally be appearing for a performance at Arlene’s Grocery on February 28^th. Rene will be playing old favorites as well as tracks off his latest album, ELS (released this past summer by Nat Geo Music). ELS stands for Electric Latin Soul, a term Rene has coined for the new style of music he has developed. A mixture of Latin soul and Boogaloo with elements of rock, hip-hop, and R&B – Rene’s sound is one that is distinctly Nuyorican. ELS features co-producers Mario Caldato Jr., a.k.a. Mario C (Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson, Bebel Gilberto) and Jason Lader (Julian Casablancas, Jenny Lewis), as well as special guests Joey Altruda, and Money Mark (John Butler Trio). The album as a whole is a nod to Rene’s Latin roots, with an eye on modern electronic music and good ol’ rock-and-roll.

Rene Lopez Tour Dates

02/02: New York, NY @ Nublu (9pm set time)

02/09: New York, NY @ Nublu (9pm set time)

02/16: New York, NY @ Nublu (9pm set time)

02/23: New York, NY @ Nublu (9pm set time)

02/28: New York, NY @ Arlene’s Grocery (10pm set time)

Smooth, relaxed and infused with a little 90′s New Jack sound for good measure.   Big fan of Newtimers after being introduced to them last year, so much so they made my top 50 of 2011.

Newtimers – January Love

Jamie brings a big bag of soul on this deep bass track.  This track just glows with warmth and sounds so good on those cold winter nights.

Jamie Woon – Night Air

Ahh, I love me some soul mixed with electronic and pop and that’s exactly the mix we have in this track from Newtimers.     Newtimers is a band and a songwriting/production-team consisting of Andreas Cavaco & Tim Lundblad.  This track is from their forth coming album titled, “Ego”.

Newtimers – Falling

As a Beatles fan, I typically cringe when an artist covers a Beatles track. They typically fall way short and come off as a bad karaoke singer. This is not the case when Andre 3000 took on the Beatles classic, “All Together Now”. On his cover version, Andre 3000 adds his special blend of funk, electronic, and soul takes this classic to new highest.

Andre 3000 – All Together Now (The Beatles Cover)

While we wait for Jessica to resurface with new material, I bring you the very first track I found back in 2008 that featured the tendered and soulful voice of Jessica Tonder.

Jessica Tonder – The Bee ft. Proton (Remix)

Some additional links to other collabs and remixes of Jessica Tonder:

Art of War

Detox Remix

Giving credit where it’s due, I just heard this on one of my favorite music blogs, Aurgasm.us.

Benjamin Duterde (aka Ben L’Oncle Soul (‘Ben the Soul Uncle’)), is a French nu-soul singer from the town of Tours.   His cover of White Stripe’s Seven Nation Army was included in his ep, “Soul Wash” EP, which was released in 2009.

Ben l’Oncle Soul – Seven Nation Army

Graffiti6- Stare Into The Sun

Graffiti6 – Annie You Saved Me

follow Graffiti6 on twitter

Oddly fun track taken from his 2009 release entitled, “Good City for Dreamers“.  A bit of soul, a bit of funk and of course as the name suggests, some solid electronics.

General Elektricks – Little Lady

BIO:
General Elektriks is the brainchild of RV Salters. A French national and keen vintage keyboard player, he initiated GE just before moving to San Francisco. Using a computer, his oldschool keys and a SM-57 mike, he started sewing together loops, Funky keyboard licks, ethereal melodies and digital tweaking. GE became a musical journal that followed RV through his move to Seattle, then back down to the Bay Area, Berkeley, where he currently resides. There, he started laying keys down for the Quannum crew. Quannums own Lateef The Truth Speaker and Chief Xcel returned the favor by guesting on GE. Consisting of 12 songs from the journal, Cliquety Kliqk was first released in France by Bleu Electric, then picked up by Compost for Europe and by Quannum for the US.

Instrumentation reminds me of Whitey, for those that follow this blog know I love Whitey’s sound, mixed in with a 60′s soul guitar play that could have easily found it’s way onto a Beatles track.

This track is taken from I AM OMNI‘s free EP titled, “IAMOMNI EP”, which can be downloaded from his site here.

I AM OMNI – Shez A Diva

Here are some of the many tracks I have found thesixtyone.com :

Kid A

KiD A – Smudge (CINEMAX)

Red Sky Lullaby

Down and dirty track with a killer chorus hook from Dasan Ahanu, “To Get To You”. The Rap style of Kalu James on this track reminds me of Del The Funky Homosapien from the Gorillaz. Great Track!

Red Sky Lullaby – Love Sick (ft. Dasan Ahanu and Kalu James)

FM Belfast

Produces wonderfully “old school” electronic music in the vein of Kraftwerk and earlier works of LadyTron. At times the music reminds me of Komputer but with a more playful bounce (think Tom Tom Club).

FM Belfast – Underwear

FM Belfast – VHS

Marry A Thief

Has Postal Service sentiments with Imogen Heap soundscapes, not a bad combo at all.
Marry A Thief – Honestly Bored

Anjulie

For those who enjoy Lilly Allen, like myself, will dig this track from Anjulie. Anjulie mixes 60′s soul, pop, and electronic elements for a swaying melchonly tune.
Anjulie – Addicted 2 Me

Passenger

Imaging an old smiths tune married to 60′s soul music and you’ll have Passenger.

Passenger – Walk You Home

Theresa is a one-woman band (see video below) this track from her channels the some old school soul, which i’m digging.

Theresa Andersson – Birds Fly Away

Taken from the forthcoming Fischerspooner album, “Entertainment”, this track keeps the electronic pop goodness of previous Fischerspooner releases with a dash of old soul.

Fischerspooner – The Best Revenge

Catchy as all hell with 60′s inspired northern soul groove.  From the get-go, this tune is pure fun and would fit nicely on a motion picture soundtrack me thinks.

From wiki:

The Bees (known in United States as A Band of Bees) are an English band from Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Although their sound is generally classified as indie rock or psychedelic music, the band have a colourful range of styles and influences, such as 1960s rock, country, reggae and jazz.

The Bees – Chicken Payback

This track has one of the sickest basslines I’ve ever heard on an electronica track.   It’s right up there for me with PJ Harvey’s bassline from “Down By The Water”

Super Collider is Jamie Lidell and Cristian Vogel that formed in 1998.  They released two critically-acclaimed albums – Head On in 1999, and Raw Digits in 2002 – before their growing solo careers pushed the project on hold for the foreseeable future.   This track is from their first release, “Head On”.

Super Collider – It Won’t Be Long  (aka Jamie Lidell & Cristian Vogel)

Here’s Jamie doing his thing live — ala beatbox and all:

Jamie Lidell at RFH in 2004 from Ewarwoowar on Vimeo.

As always, I just love Kathrin deBoer’s vocals on just about anything.  And to add to my collection of tracks which feature Kathrin’s voice, is her recently released album with her group Belleruche, “The Express”.  My favorite track from this release is, “Like 4 the Hard Way” which has a lazy jazzy feel to it.

Belleruche – Like 4 the Hard Way

Related Post:

Belleruche – Northen Girls

The Quantic Soul Orchestra with a little help from Alice Russell covers Nina Simone’s classic with elegance and grace.

The Quantic Soul Orchestra – Feeling Good

myspace

Former Fine Young Cannibals bass player, David Steele produces Fried (aka New Orleans native, Jonte Short).
“You’re with the Wrong One Baby” is a smooth soul track with R &B Vocals. The music reminds me of Gnarls Barkley.

Fried – You’re with the Wrong One Baby

myspace

Here’s the latest from Gnarls Barkley off their upcoming release titled, “The Odd Couple”, which is going to be released April 2008. Has a nice old school motown feel to it with very energetic vocals, and hand claps… I love me some hand claps!

Gnarls Barkley – Run [removed by request]