Big Crown
News: Melbourne quintet Surprise Chef sign to Big Crown Records + make triumphant European debut with funk fuelled ‘Velodrome’: UK tour dates on sale now
Brand new to the Big Crown family but already proving to be a perfect fit, Melbourne’s self-proclaimed ‘cinematic soul journeymen’ Surprise Chef are serving up a special blend of jazz, soul and hip-hop, with a generous side of psyche, soundtrack and folk folded in. The delicious result is the pure groove of instrumental debut Velodrome. …
Track: NYC’s swoonsome The Shacks break out the tinsel on the double A, ‘Christmas Time Is Here’ / ‘Got To Be Christmas’
NEW YORK’S gorgeous psych-lite caressers The Shacks, the duo of guitarist-producer Max Shrager and singer-bassist Shannon Wise, who know a thing or two about Harpers Bizarre, The Free Design and that semi-mythical Valley of the Dolls, bring all their retro-pop chops – which, it should be noted, are considerable – to a double A release …
Track: Lady Wray pitches up with soul words of wisdom on her latest 7″, ‘Through It All’
SNARES crack and shuffle, a bass holds it tight with that characteristic Leon Michels melodicism; a backing chorus brings the timeless harmonies, and Lady Wray herself pitches up, lending a classy guitar soul nugget an otherworldly edge. When Leon meets the Lady, magic happens. It’s the new A drop from Virginia’s first lady of retro-modernist …
Track: Bobby Oroza – ‘Loving Body’: a waking lover’s dream of a soul nugget
RAISED in Helsinki’s east side by a Latin mother and a jazz guitarist father, the music seized Bobby Oroza from an early age; an excellent familial record collection included Motown, doo-wop, crooners and South American folk and set him on his path to a deal with the lovely Big Crown – a great dovetailing. And …
See: Holy Hive – ‘I Don’t Envy Yesterdays’; a cool summer breeze of a folk-soul number, new on Big Crown
FOLLOWING the retro-indie-soul loveliness of last year’s album for Big Crown, Float Back To You, Paul Spring is showing that breakout classic, seeming to draw on influences as disparate and perfectly married as Skinshape, Marvin Gaye and Terry Callier, was no accident – oh no! – ’twas absolute design; and can be shown by the …
Album review: El Michels Affair -‘Yeti Season’: Big Crown kingpin proves he’s a 10th dan at soundtrack funk magic
Yeti Season? Pretty stunning. Leon is a soundtrack music 10th dan; an absolute master of the craft. Slip Yeti Season onto the decks, you have the most diverse, exciting, retro-soundtrack waiting there for you; there maybe no one better at this kind of the thing in the world right now. One moment R.D. Burman with Piya his Lata Mangeshkar, another Lalo Schifrin, another Piero Piccioni; all are here, ten short films in themselves, these tracks, scenes from a film so ace you have to make it. In your head. Pick yourself up Adult Themes, grab a giant bucket of popcorn, make it a double bill. Absurdly brilliant. Buy.
Track: Brainstory -‘Bye Bye’: solid Sixties’ soul grooves from the April Big Crown 7″
BRAINSTORY came firing out of the San Bernadino Valley in California s in 2015 with a six-track, jazzy CD EP entitled A Natural Phantasm; and Big Crown over in Brooklyn properly liked what they heard, saw that it was good; quickly gathered Kevin, Tony, Eric into their welcoming arms. And Big Crown has been their …
TRACK: El Michels Affair to release new album of funk exotica; hear ‘Murkit Gem’, feat. Piya Malik
EL MICHELS AFFAIR are going all out with the most transporting global groove these days; witness the brilliance of “Dhuaan”, the Hindu funk exotica single drop from last summer, which seems to wizard into being the kind of 7″ you can only crate-dig in some 4am dream. Such a tune can’t really exist, right; can …
ALBUM REVIEW: Lee Fields & The Expressions – ‘Big Crown Vaults Vol.1 – Lee Fields & The Expressions’
BIG CROWN. Big. Crown. Roll that collocation of words around your mouth; if you’re a real music lover, you know these guys, Leon Michels and Danny Akalepse, are indeed proper royalty for the love, the care and the level of curation they bring to such a fine stable of artists: The Shacks, Lizette & Quevin, …
TRACK: Lady Wray shapes up for a new album with the stunning ‘Storms’
BIG CROWN’S first lady of modern soul, Virginian Lady Wray, is shaping up for her follow-up to 2016’s acclaimed Queen Alone with the gobsmackingly deep and heartfelt gospel-soul piano styles of “Storms”. Take a listen to a an absolute blast of a track, below. It looks forward and back; you can hear the church roots …