Muxtape

I have just discovered Muxtape... It's an amazing website where you can upload mp3's on a playlist, much as the way we used to create mixed tapes on cassettes. You can email the link to friends and loved ones, and other people can stumble upon your mixed music playlist. The downside is that you can't search the site to find music, you just refresh the homepage to get a new set of mixed playlists that you can click on. The idea is that you find new music that you haven't heard before. I've already found some pretty cool stuff... like jessicalouise's mix of 80's electropop and other eclectic sounds.

Expect the unexpected... enjoy some new adventures in music...

Najwajean - The less obvious music for rainy days

The island where I live has been sunk in water for the past few days because of a tropical storm, and it has created a mood of romantic uncertainty that I think Najwajean's music could help explain.

The spanish group is the birthchild of Najwa Nimri in voices, and Carlos Jean in sampling, who banded together in 1998 and have created what has become my favorite music in the album No Blood. Her sultry voice, that happens to be both upbeat and melancholic at the same time, is the perfect front for the strong rhythms of the music.

They haven't done anything together since their last original soundtrack for the movie Guerreros. Najwa Nimri has released, I think, two albums after this, and Carlos has been busy doing some commercial work, but the word is that they are working on new material for next year. I am anxiously awaiting the release.

Céu

São Paulo (Brazil) born singer songwriter Céu (Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças) is the epitome of malemolência, a beautiful and sexy 25 year old singer with a sophisticated, multi-layered sound. CéU is about innocence, beauty, putting a little rhythm and happiness into life, taking it easy, sunshine and, above all, malemolência. With her first album launching late summer in the UK, CéU presents a modern, innovative and internationally appealing take on samba, at the meeting point between global urban sounds and the Afro-Brazilian tradition. When CéU formed her band she was looking for young, fresh musicians from different musical backgrounds. She ended up selecting a group of musicians whose average age was just twenty-five. However their age is no reflection on the enormous combined talent of the group, whose charisma, energy and musical maturity is a perfect fit with CéUs exposition of Malemolência.

Their influences range from Fela Kuti to Miles Davis, from The Roots to Massive Attack, from M'shell Ndogeocello to Portishead, as well as Brazilian composers such as Tom Jobim, Baden-Powell, Egberto Gismonti among others.

From what I'vre heard of her work, she epitomizes what I love about music, the fusion of rhythms. For some reason I feel more in touch with my feelings as a citizen of the world. It takes us one step closer to being in harmony with one another. If we were like music, so that almost all cultures could coexist in one harmonious place...well... I'll stop the cheesiness here, and just enjoy Ceu's music. But also be sure to check out Chambao, and maybe a little bit of Ojos de Brujo. I'm sure that if you enjoy musical fusion, you'll enjoy these artists. By the way... Ceu means Sky in Portuguese.

Sources: Aurgasm, Last FM