Hailing from Surabaya, the latest signings to Big Crown Records are Indonesian outfit Thee Marloes and they’re going large with debut 45 Midnight Hotline backed with Beri Cinta Waktu. The former is a midtempo dancefloor number turning on a funky rhythm layered with electric piano and plenty of horns while the sweet soul vocals of singer Natassya regale the listener with a
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Tag Archives: Big Crown Records
THEE MARLOES: Midnight Hotline b/w Beri Cinta Waktu (Vinyl 7″)
BACAO RHYTHM & STEEL BAND: Hotline Bling b/w Murkit Gem (Vinyl 7″)
Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band vastly improve Drake’s much-parodied 2016 mega-hit Hotline Bling on their new 45 by replacing a) Drake’s original topline with melodic 55 gallon drums and b) the original’s programmed drums with something a whole lot more organic. Yep, that’s right Drake, not just your girl but your whole song getting nasty for someone else. And although long
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SURPRISE CHEF: Education & Recreation LP
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Surprise Chef’s Education & Recreation LP was a while coming wasn’t it? Almost as long as this MB post on it, in fact, with time for new fewer than six single releases in a lead-up lasting six months. It was worth the wait though. And that’s despite the fact that the ‘cinematic soul’ genre has arguably never been more popular. Time was when the idea of
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SURPRISE CHEF: Iconoclasts
Aussie cinematic soul fiends Surprise Chef present another musical hors d’oeuvre before serving up the main course of their first LP on Big Crown, Education & Recreation in the form of new single Iconoclasts. A subdued affair, it almost evokes certain types of traditional Japanese music both in the arrangement and, at times, even the instrumentation. The sort of thing you’d have no
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SURPRISE CHEF: Suburban Breeze
Ok, so maybe the monkey was a bit slow on the uptake with previous Surprise Chef single Money Music, but there’s a lot less slacking with the new one since here’s a post about Suburban Breeze, which hove into view just as the bank holiday weekend began to kick off. On this one the band rock the bells in the mellowest manner possible with additional flute theatrics and a soporific drum
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SURPRISE CHEF: Money Music
Something that got missed in the holiday rush at MB Towers was the latest single by Surprise Chef in the run-up to the release of their Education & Recreation LP on Big Crown Records. That’ll be Money Music then, a mellow slice of soundtrack funk – as is the band’s modus operandi. It begins with an blaxploitation-esque drum break before the vibraphone and piano kick in and we suddenly
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BOBBY OROZA feat. COLD DIAMOND & MINK: My Place, My Time
Bobby Oroza’s new LP Get On The Otherside drops next week but before that, there’s just time for one more single and that’s this, My Place, My Time. A snarling black metal effort, it marks a significant departure from previous efforts and..ok, yes, the monkey is having a laugh, this is Bobby Oroza, after all so, you know damn straight you’re going to be getting wistful lowrider soul –
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EL MICHELS AFFAIR: Kahbi
Cinematic soul crew, El Michels Affair, return to the Turkish funk and Bollywood influenced territory of their Yeti Season LP with new one-off single Kahbi. Once again, the band get label mate Piya Malik of 79.5 on vocals and she supplies precisely the requisite amount of exotic promise you’d expect from such a drop. It would seem (at least currently) that this one is just a digital
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SURPRISE CHEF: Spring’s Theme (Vinyl 7″)
Actually the flip-side to the previously covered Velodrome on Surprise Chef’s forthcoming 45, Spring’s Theme is arguably the monkey’s preferred track of the two. That title Spring’s Theme though – an ode to the season of regeneration? Or is ‘Spring’ a character in a retro crime flick of the band’s imagining? It could pretty much function as both but either way – don’t
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SURPRISE CHEF: Velodrome
Melbourne’s Surprise Chef get on their soundtrack bikes for latest single Velodrome, laying down boom-bap drums over which they deploy mellow guitar and flute and keys. This one’s all about the synth lead though which’ll go round in your head like a bike with no brakes and no gears – in a good way, obviously. Velodrome is the band’s first cut for Big Crown Records, having previously
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