Archives: Alumnus

Brooklyn-based electronic indie band Balún self-identify as transnational. The quartet that broke out of the San Juan indie scene a decade ago has since undergone a formational odyssey through the industry, academia, and the stateside Puerto Rican experience. Balún’s long awaited sophomore album Prisma Tropical focuses an incredibly wide field of genres and influences into a revelatory sound that evokes both of the band’s homes and the distance between them. Heavy doses of tiple, bomba barrel drum, and dembow work alongside loops and layers of shimmering synths to accomplish something explicitly of the island, yet fluent in the language of global pop. Tied together around the magical realism of singer Angélica Negrón’s lyrics, Balún’s deep understanding of reggaeton’s Jamaican dancehall roots has transformed their shoegaze pop into “dreambow.” Balún’s new single El Espanto premiered on NPR’s Songs We Love and is the latest preview of Prisma Tropical, which is one of Noisey’s Most Anticipated Hispano-American Albums of 2018. La Nueva Ciudad, their previous single and one of Remezcla’s 10 Best Songs of 2016, was Spotify Latino’s Song of the Day and broke into the Viral Charts globally and in 8 countries including Spain, Mexico, Chile, & Argentina.

http://balunonline.com/

Kulton The Maker is a Singer Songwriter, Filmmaker, Audio engineer and a Brooklyn Native. The Maker is the founder of 518Films #Five18Films and has created videos for artists Such as “Young Paris” “Lady Moon & the Eclipse” and Mounanou Badila. Kulton is an Artist who has performed in Some of New Yorks most exclusive venues, and has been recently featured on @EpmMedia. Kulton’s music is sure to continue to inspire, Empower, and Entertain listeners for decades to Come.

https://youtu.be/_lY6tO8S8yg

https://youtu.be/DeQoienh9KM

https://m.soundcloud.com/kultonmaker

Driftwood Soldier plays gutter-folk music, a proprietary blend of bitter ballads, fallen gospel, and thumping blue rants on mandolin, bass guitar, and assorted junk foot-percussion.

It was 2013 when bassist Bobby Szafranski first lent his velvet touch to the back-handed poetry and full-throated ruckus of mandolin-wrestler Owen Lyman-Schmidt’s solo work. Since then the duo has been leapfrogging their way up and down the East coast bringing their unlikely sound to bars, living rooms, roof tops, and back alleys.

Scavenger’s Joy, Driftwood Soldier’s 2015 debut, established that musical range for audiences everywhere, with two thirds of the songs receiving radio play on dozens of radio stations around the country including WFUV, WNCW, and WXPN, where Bruce Warren called the duo “a bluesy version of Nick Cave with a nod to Tom Waits.”

In early 2017, they followed the breadth of Scavenger’s Joy with the focused intensity of Blessings & Blasphemy, a concept EP exploring the tension between spirituality and dogma by reinterpreting gospel traditionals alongside anti-religious originals.

This fall, Driftwood Soldier is bringing both records and their liver-shaking live show to some of their favorite spots up and down the East coast. Don’t miss the chance to hear this new beast howl!

www.DriftwoodSoldier.com

MORRICONE YOUTH was formed in NYC in 1999 with a mission statement to compose, re-interpret, perform and record “music written for the moving image.” The band has released eight LPs/EPs, toured the U.S. and had residencies at NY’s Knitting Factory, CBGB, Tonic and Nitehawk Cinema in addition to composing original re-scores to Hitchcock’s “The Lodger” performed on Halloween 2013 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and a multi-media piece for Philadelphia Museum of Art’s 2012 Marcel Duchamp exhibit involving chess masters, chance music, French soundtracks and live improvised video projections. MassMoCA invited the band to perform its score to Mad Max at their annual outdoor live score event in 2017. The Sydney Festival chose the band to headline two nights at Carriageworks live scoring “Night of the Living” and “Mad Max” (with 1979 cast members in attendance on Australia Day 2018). The band was supported Italian soundtrack/prog legends Goblin’s 2017 North American tour performing highlights from the ongoing live re-score vinyl series (distributed by Light in the Attic Records) of the anticipated 15 live re-scores performed in recent years. The first four (“NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD,” “THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED,” “MAD MAX” and Murnau’s “SUNRISE”) were released within the past two years with the fifth for “DANGER: DIABOLIK” due September 2018 and the sixth for “THE LODGER” in October 2018.

Founder Devon E. Levins also hosts weekly “film soundtrack” radio show MORRICONE ISLAND on WFMU 91.1 FM, started in 2007 at East Village Radio as MORRICONE YOUTH.

morriconeyouth.com

It’s not always easy being a chameleon. But it certainly makes for an interesting life. And, in the case of Mark Marshall, interesting music as well. Mark writes, sings, plays guitar, keys, bass, drums, and is also a web and print media designer/producer – and voiceover artist.

And like the other areas of Mark’s life, the music he makes is chameleon-like: wildly diverse, meticulously crafted songs that range from radio-ready pop to hard rock, piano-driven ballads to soundtrack-ish instrumentals, futuristic funk-jazz to clubby techno dance.

The Bottoms Up Dixieland Jazz Band made their ad hoc debut with a Fat Tuesday celebration in Carmel, NY. The band was a hit! The six former classmates hit it off like old times, and decided they had better keep a good thing going. Since that day, Bottoms Up has been bringing to life the energetic romps of 1920s New Orleans, á la Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory.
Featuring some fun modern twists and the occasional special guest, the band is happy to keep people singing, clapping, and dancing as long as they’re able

Willy Mason has been chasing his songs around the world since 2004, when a song he recorded at a friends house in high school was picked up and played regularly on Radio One in the UK while he was still burning discs at home in the US. Since then he has played stadiums and backyards around the world with all manner of accompaniments and collaborations, including a 300 piece choir, saw and trumpet, MIDI powered robot percussionist, swarmatron, and with a wide range of popular and working bands. All this touring as well as his work teaching and playing in the lively dance band bar scene at home has honed him into as much of a musician and singer as a songwriter, his first recognized talent. He is currently at work on a 4th album which is likely to exhibit a range of influences not yet captured on his earlier recordings; including the Mills Brothers, Steve Reich, and Snooks Eaglin.

The Pandemorium is a loose collection of collaborators in the arts and sciences creating environments of collective joy and illumination.

www.grandmasbasement.org

Treya Lam is a classically trained singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter whose cinematic songs and ethereal vocals are built on Nina Simone-inspired piano, meditative guitar and lush chamber arrangements.

Treya’s debut album, Good News, was recently released with a sold-out show at Joe’s Pub via Kaki King’s label, Short Stuff Records. Produced by Kaki (who plays multiple instruments throughout the album), the album was recorded with an array of talented female musicians, most notably Catherine Popper (Ryan Adams, Jack White, Norah Jones) on upright bass, and mixer Erin Tonkon (David Bowie, Esperanza Spalding). Mastered by Sarah Register, Good News is an instant classic, full of the kind of songwriting and raw talent that has never gone out of style, as well as a message of love and longing. Because as Treya says, “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”

Treya has shared stages with Yo-Yo Ma and the late jazz pianist Billy Taylor as well as her frequent collaborations with Kaki King.

www.treyamakesmusic.com

https://vimeo.com/274936711

www.soundcloud.com/treyalam

Elizabeth Le Fey, aka Globelamp, returns in 2018 with Romantic Cancer, her most stripped down album to date. In 2016 Wichita Records released The Orange Glow, her 2nd full length album. The Orange Glow was a certain concept to Le Fey, a deceptively alluring light along the lines of “all that glitters is not gold”.

This time Le Fey struck East to record a more direct third album focusing on healing. She accomplishes nothing less than reclaiming her own narrative.

Globelamp’s unique voice and sound has received wide ranging praise, from famed rock critic Everett True plugging her on his popular blog to Noisey calling The Orange Glow ,”…a Wuthering Heights narrative for the Haight Ashbury heyday.” Author Francesca Lia Block once wrote of Le Fey that ,”With a voice that can be either ethereal or savage, shimmery as California sunshine through the leaves of redwoods, or dark as a Washington rainstorm, but always haunting.”

For Romantic Cancer Le Fey headed to the Catskill Mountains to record near picturesque Woodstock, NY and get a break from some of the social artifice in the L.A. scene. Her newest collection of songs are a vibrant outburst of acoustic emo and even pop influences co-existing seamlessly
with the blend of indie, sixties and faerie vibes she is known for.

Romantic Cancer was recorded in December of 2017 at Bohemesphere Studios by engineer Jay Andersen and features contributions from James Felice (The Felice Brothers, Conor Oberst) and singer/writer Morgan Ywain Evans (Walking Bombs, Metalriot.com).

https://globelamp.bandcamp.com/

“Hailing from North Bronx NY, Denzil Porter is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Denzil Porter sounds like an artist fresh out of the golden era of Hip Hop. Adding substance to his witty lyrics, catchy hooks, quotes, and highly charismatic performances. What Denzil aims to achieve with his music is to allow its listeners to be inspired and to uplift them and others around them. Denzil may not be your typical conscientious rapper, he derives his lyrics from his experiences and allows his actions to tell his story rather than his words. The music captivates the mind and takes you into the world he envisions and you’ll always leave with ” -MTV

“When I get a feeling, or in a mood, or something that happened at that moment… a song is something that stamps that moment for me, and also stamps the moment for the listener who relates.”- Denzil Porter

denzilporter.com

https://youtu.be/mYZtymb1tcc