Andre 2000 - Culture & Technology Blog » Los Angeles Music

Breakestra – Complete album added

Andre Shoumatoff — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:00:35 +0000

This afternoon as I’m banging away on a web project, I had Breakestra playing once again. There are quite a few more tracks than what I’d originally posted so I thought I would post them up on the old post. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE OLD POST ON THIS SITE. Click it to listen to these newly added tracks…

Yeah. .. that’s what I’m talking about. Check out the track with Charlie Tuna from J-5!

Delta Nove again – the albums. I take back what I said….

Andre Shoumatoff — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:52:50 +0000

In typical format I was just cruisin’ along the other day and low and behold Delta Nove’s latest album ‘the future is when’ comes on my iPod and it is just crankin.’ I’m not really sure why I remembered their album isn’t “polished” as these three songs just kill it. Track 1 is an intro for Track 2 which is just a killer song.. Track 3 sort of shows some of their diversity and ability to throw up some killer songs… And again, that Brazilian flair. You should hear the whole album. It is really, really Brazilian. Again for friends, I have a few extras copies of it from when they played at Club Suede a few years ago who’s website I managed before they were forced out of business by the Utah DABC for “excessive liquor violations” (hehem hehem loudly — the state of Utah put them out of business on purpose – it is really messed up).

Anyway, enjoy. These guys just rip…

The best band you’ll see live… (Delta Nove)

Andre Shoumatoff — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:41:18 +0000

I thought I’d do some recollection on a band we’ve seen a couple times now called Delta Nove from Long Beach, California. Live recording from 2006 (details below):

Mostly testament to the despicable music industry (as it really is sad – so many good artists and such utter crap on the radios most of the time), I’d bet, being that these guys are from Long Beach, that many a record label guy has seen them play live. When I first saw them, at 2006 Desert Rocks Music Festival in Moab, these guys just killed it.

According to me, of the 20-something bands that played that festival, they were definitely the best out of the whole damn festival. Fresh, diverse, basically looked like complete and utter rock stars. Some sick Brazilian Samba flair. That, and they are just killer live performing artists.

I have a couple of their albums but I hate to say it, the albums according to me sort of lack that ‘polished album flair” where maybe someone like Rick Rubin says, “play that rip 8 beats longer” and “turn down the distortion on this measure but come back harder next rif..” Things like that. So admittedly their (at least this album) “The Future is When?” recording is a little bland. What happens when you’re self produced. That said, I have maybe 3 or 4 extra copies of it brand new in the wrapper, if anyone local wants one (or shit, shoot me an email, I’ll mail it) let me know. And they’re still pretty good.

But because of this, I’m going to play a live recording of theirs from 2006 from sounds like their resident location off of archive.org called The Blue Cafe in Long Beach. This is a killer recording, probably one of many…

By the way, did I mention that archive.org rules? Here is the link to the recording if you want to download it (for free). Choose your format. FLAC is really high quality but a bitch to deal with (at least for me) over MP3 so I download MP3.

Enjoy!

By the way, this post goes out to all my children… (Really, I don’t think I have any children, except for maybe Rebecca, though she’s a couple years older than me)…

The Breakestra: Sick Modern Day Funk/Soul from Los Angeles

Andre Shoumatoff — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:09:11 +0000

My buddies the Williams brothers (two awesome, super down to earth white guys from Utah, who own about a dozen Hammond organs, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzers, Clavinets etc – even though they both play different instruments) turned me on to these guys. The Breakestra – who are one of my favorite bands, even though I’ve never even seen them in person. They really only have about one album (which you can listen/download in it’s entirety here). I took a few of my favorite tracks and posted them here for your enjoyment. I also particularly like the last song, which is an instrumental:

Make sure you turn it up!

Here is a snippet from there blurb/bio on their website:

The Los Angeles based ensemble is based in deep funk, soul, jazz fever and musical friendships. A Breakestra show is about dancing and swinging — eight men on stage getting loose, playing serious grooves. Think James Brown. Watching the Breakestra live is a tour de force. As Miles says, “What are the first three letters of FUNK?”

The Breakestra began as the house band for the legendary club called the Breaks. Egon from Stonesthrow Records further explains the etymology of their name: “Break. As in “breakbeat.” That ten second slice of percussive magic in the middle of a funk song that, when looped together by progressive South Bronx DJs in the 1970s, became the basis of the hip-hop movement. Arkestra. Out-there jazzer Sun Ra’s funkafied concept of the stuffy classical orchestra.” When we combine the two concepts, you have the Breakestra or in other words an orchestra that plays breaks. Back in 1999, Stonesthrow first introduced the world to the Breakestra with a few 12” releases and soon after the full-length album Live Mixtape Part Two.

“The Breakestra should become a class or a 4-year graduate program for funk musicians. Playing with the Breakestra is a great way to get a degree in funk,” says former longtime keyboardist Carlos Guaico. Indeed it is a way to get your degree in funk because the Breakestra have played an A to Z of funk classics. James Brown, Jimmy Smith, all the way to the endless breaks sampled by Gangstarr and A Tribe Called Quest. The Breakestra have played so many covers of the aforementioned grooves that the only way a musician could be in the group is if they really knew how to play.