Guide to the Week of Music: new playlists, sounds and visuals

Welcome to the Guide to the Week of Music, a round-up of music news, media and releases from the wide musical world. This week, the good folk from Electric Swing Circus bring us a playlist ‘electro swing bangers’, we check in with filmmaker Ian Campell about his Vieux Farka Toure documentary project and dive into in some new sounds and visuals from and featuring Saul Williams, Munir and others.

Vieux Farka Touré documentary achieves funding goal

Los Angeles-based Filmmaker Ian Campbell last week achieved $12,000 funding target to progress his documentary on the Malian guitarist and philanthropist, Vieux Farka Touré. He began shooting over twelve months ago and has established a narrative that will investigate the wider cultural impact of Vieux’s work, alongside his musical legacy and work in his home country.

‘These funds will enable me to complete principal filming of the documentary.’ Campbell explained to us in a recent interview. ‘I am traveling with Vieux on tour in Spain, the UK and Ireland…then I will travel to Mali to capture Vieux making music, interviews with various Malian musicians and more of his life in Mali. On top of that I have plans to interview some great musicians and experts on Malian music and culture.’

Vieux Farka Touré returns to Band on the Wall in October and you can find out more about Ian Campbell’s documentary via his Indiegogo page.

Electric Swing Circus share their ‘bangers’ playlist

Electric Swing Circus are among the finest proponents of the electro swing sound, now a staple of several British festivals. They play live at Band on the Wall tonight and yesterday surprised us with a fine pre-party playlist, featuring music by Tuxedo Junction, Caravan Palace and a few self-penned numbers. As their guitarist Tom Hyland explained, the band first came across the genre in 2009, “…with Caravan Palace coming to the UK to play at Secret Garden Party, Electro Swing Club launching in London and the compilation ‘White Mink Black Cotton’ from the label Freshly Squeezed in Brighton.” They’ve both witnessed and played a part in the genre’s rise in the country, programming as well as playing a number of influential events. Check out their playlist below and why not head down to their show this evening.

New sounds

Indonesian producer Munir, aka. Midnight Runners, released a beautiful new track entitled Room Service 303 via  Dopeness Galore records this week. The tune takes shape around a classic, mid-tempo breakbeat and choral pads, capturing the blissful qualities of Munir’s Grand Paradise Hotel while transporting us to a balearic rave that could well be going down on the shore visible from one of its balconies.

Leeds-based soul-jazz group The Lewis Express release their debut record with ATA today and shared the lead track, Love can turn a man, earlier this week. Fans of the Daptone sound and Italian library music should get where the band are coming from and appreciate the live recording approach taken on several album cuts.

New Visuals

Poet Saul Williams and cinematographers Andrew Gura and Jake Bianco released a beautiful short film entitled Kiss & Describe It, this week. The piece was premiered by Booooooom TV, who revealed that it contains previously unheard audio and visuals, as well as speaking to Bianco about how the shoot came together.

Snarky Puppy returned to the studio to begin work on a new record this week. Meanwhile, we can enjoy three members of that group: guitarist Mark Lettieri, drummer Robert “Sput” Searight and percussionist Nate Werth, performing the Ghost Note track Reduction live in the studio. The film was directed and edited by Andy Laviolette and features as part of their latest album and DVD set.

Finally, Manchester MC Dubbul O, who plays at Band on the Wall with The Mouse Outfit in December, dropped a new track and video with Cheech and Cutterz this week. Never Grow Old   is out via Room 2 records and hears the MC’s working with a gorgeous, soulful beat as the rhyme about the riots and austerity that have, ‘put fire to the touch paper.’