IndieGuild

One of the most exciting things about being involved, even non professionally, in the promotion of online independent music is stumbling upon a previously unheard band that really hits the spot. This can happen in a number of ways: listening to online radio, posts on social networks, other music sites and blogs, collaborations with other promoters, links getting passed around amongst friends. In the case of the Houka Monks it was thanks to a new collaboration with Gerald Patient's music and video promotion agency Independent Music Plugging who are currently promoting the group in their selective artist roster.

So just who are the Houka Monks? Well, there's not all that much information to be gleaned out there in Webworld. We know they're an enigmatic duo from the UK, that they have recently released a five track EP, and that their roots are sunk in funk. But there's more to them than this. What the Houka Monks have so ably succeeded in doing with their music is to drag Funk and his Soul sister out of their rut in the mainstream by the heels, feed them on large mugs of Indie Tea laced with carefully measured doses of Cynicism, Disquiet and Alienation and then get them to do things that they would never normally do in public. It's a well-worked sound with all the catchy syncopated guitar work, meaty bass and beats and smooth vocals that one would expect from a funk duo, but somehow a shade darker, a little more irreverent, vaguely misanthropic: the dark side of funk!

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ARTWORK: "Machinery Of The Stars" ~ alexiuss

MUSIC: "Cosmogony" ~ PieRreF

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A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure and honour of receiving in the post a copy of Corrado Rossi's latest musical offering: "The Wood of Kites". My immediate reaction was just how satisfying it still is in these days of digital download delights to receive, unwrap, and open a real CD, pop it out of its digipak, slide it gracefully into the stereo system and then sit back and let yourself be transported by the music.

This little "physical" pleasure apart, the music, obviously enough, remains the same whether it is from a CD or a digital download and I am delighted to say that Corrado's latest production offers the same wonderful combination of soul and skill that his followers have come to expect of him. Personally I have been following Corrado's musical career for a number of years now and he is one of a small handful of highly gifted pianists who have opened my ears and heart to the simple, delicate beauty of the piano as a solo instrument, for which I will be eternally grateful.

Corrado's personal comment on the inside cover of the album says much about the artist's source of inspiration: "There is a place in my soul where my thoughts and desires come to life and take flight like kites". In fact "The Wood of Kites" is an extraordinarily intimate, delicate and at the same time liberating album in which the thirteen tracks that make up the production almost seem to compete with each other as to which of them will reach deeper into the listener's soul, lift him more easily from his daily concerns and transport him to greater heights. It would be extremely difficult to choose any one track above the others as all are such intricate and essential parts of a much greater whole.

A deeper glimpse into the artist's soul is given by Davide Agazzi's perspicacious presentation of the album which I have translated here into English from the original Italian:

"It is a slender and delicate thread that links emotions and expression, like the thread that links a child to a kite playing in the wind. The skillful tightrope walker of musical notes, Corrado Rossi, allows his listeners to take to the air rather like a kite. Perhaps it is the composer himself who is "the kiteman", handing out colored paper, thread and bamboo sticks so that whoever listens to his notes can dress himself in lightness and free himself in the air, opening his heart to the heavens.

This album is an open invitation to live one's emotions to the full, to give room to one's heart, to believe that all it takes is a kite to send messages of hope to the heavens or love to one's dearest. A suggestion imbued with poetry in a time in which technology has sterilized with sophisticated filters the contact between people. An invitation that underlines the sensitivity and talent that Corrado Rossi hands out freely, heedless of time, place and quantity.

The slender thread that links the kite to the child is the same as that which links the man ~ suspended between earth and heaven ~ to life itself; links him, in the whim of the wind, to other kites, other people. "The Wood of Kites" is the soundtrack for that slender thread."

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ARTWORK: "Heaven and Hell" ~ jay-peg

MUSIC: "The Blue Place" ~ FD Project

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I have been a fan of The Wimshurst's Machine for several years now but before featuring their music as Spotlight Artist on IndieGuild, I thought it would be 'journalistically correct' to find out exactly what a Wimshurst Machine is. A quick click on Wikipedia told me that it is essentially an electrostatic device for generating high voltages. The technical explanation of how it actually works baffled me completely (not difficult to achieve) but the video of a small model in action provided me with all I needed to know: the Wimshurst Machine converts the mechanical energy required to turn a wheel into electrical energy in the form of a very impressive spark.

So what's that got to do with the band you may well be asking at this point. Well, created in the 1880s, the original Wimshurst Machine can be seen as symbolizing the vital passage in the history of man's development from mechanical to electrical energy with elements from both of these fascinating worlds. In a similar way The Wimshurst's Machine band ingeniously combine analogical and digital, acoustic and electronic, ancient and modern sounds to create their own spark: the TWM sound.

Far from being a straightforward band, The Wimshurst's machine is more of a small orchestra made up of eight Italian musicians all of whom have daytime jobs and very little time to physically get together and actually play live. As a consequence their music is in many ways the epitome of online musical collaboration in which first ideas and then individual tracks get spun around the internet from one band member to another until all the elements required for a final mixdown, the spark, have been assembled. The sound that emerges is a smooth, meditative, visionary, lounge cocktail, chilled to perfection and sweetly laced with a variety of instruments from saxophones and clarinets to flutes, dulcimers and mandolins, acoustic and electric guitars. It is a dreamy sound that eases the listener out of the cacophonic humdrum of the daily grind and floats him gently away through time and space.

The Wimshurst's Machine are quite a prolific band that already have a number of splendid concept albums to their name, last but not least of which is "Secret Gardens" released in 2009. The proceeds from all their album sales are largely devolved to charity ~ Partners in Health. The group has also won a number of well deserved online music awards including a recent nomination for the Hollywood Music in Media Award (HMMA) for the track "Return to Freedom".

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