According to Wired, Curumin is a Jedi descipile from Brazil who makes “laid back Sao Paulo funk” (Wikipedia calls it samba-funk).  Signed to Quannum (you know them as the home of DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, et al.), Curumin released his newest album, JapanPopShow, in May.  A fantastic blend of funk, dub, hip-hop, samba, rock, and who knows what else, the album is compelling in its diversity.  Check out two of its tracks below, and then buy it here.
Curumin – Kyoto (JapanPopShow, 2008)
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Curumin – Magrela Fever (JapanPopShow, …

Last night was the final evening of Victoria’s annual JazzFest.  As a way of thanking its volunteers, the Jazz Society allowed anyone with a volunteer badge into the festival’s final show, which featured a group I had never heard of before – Staten Island’s Budos Band.
Thanks to the magic of Google, I quickly learned what Budos Band is all about.  Signed to Daptone Records - home of Sharone Jones & The Dap-Kings - the band describes their sound as “Afro Soul,” a mix of Ethiopian music, soul, and “a little bit of …

El Chavo is a Spanish musician who focuses on hip hop and funk. As far as I can tell he’s a producer, but he makes some pretty dope beats.  Many are funk-focused, but a few begin to go down the road of chiller hip hop.
He’s on the Jakarta Records label, which only really seems to be a MySpace phenomena, but worth checking out since they host some pretty amazing artists.  They’re based in Germany and the biggest artist on their roster is probably Looptroop, if you’ve heard of them.
Just to …

Obviously the Soviet Union was famous for lots of things. Well, communism mainly, but I’m sure there’s other stuff. I hear they had wicked parades.
Anyways, the post I saw over at Metafilter illustrated a bunch of different instances of Soviet jazz. It’s a trip just to imagine it, because in my mind jazz requires huge amounts of creativity and innovating. Improvisational jazz can’t just be done by anyone (well, it could, but it would probably sound like a cat under a lawnmower).
While the jazz they highlighted …

They call her the Jimi Hendrix of the violin. A pretty bold statement, if you ask me.
Lili Haydn (or check her official website here) has gotten mad reviews from all the major players (Rolling Stone loves her). NPR says that “Haydn is a violinist who mixes classical influences with rock and funk.” It automatically sounds awesome.
For something that demonstrates her violin skills here’s “Maggot Brain”.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Below is a video of her performing with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic

Analog Giant pointed me towards a group called Chin Chin!, the newest group from Definitive Jux. This label has brought you some of the best hip hop in the last few years, artists like Aesop Rock, Murs, RJD2, Mr. Lif and many, many more. Apparently even Del the Funky Homosapien has joined their ranks.
And yet Chin Chin is very, very far from hip hop. They describe their music as a combination of funk and disco house.
It’s a tough concept to grasp, but one that seems to be …