Aurgasm

acoustic folk // vocal harmony

The Staves, a trio of English sisters, by the charm of their vocal harmonies, could be easily mistaken for the Southern sirens in O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000). The three sisters’ acoustic vocal folk unites melancholic English folk, uplifting West Coast pop, and Southern blues. “Icarus”, taken from Mexico EP (2011), features delicate guitar, soaring vocal harmonies and heart-warming songwriting. The Staves will be releasing their debut album in October 2012.

Ethereal harmony-drenched folk.

The Staves – Icarus
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acoustic rock // singer-songwriter

Brit Tom McRae has a way with music. Critics lauded his 2001 self-titled release and it earned him a Mercury prize nomination. Many suggest comparisions to Nick Drake and early Dylan aren’t such a stretch. It’s his warm and homey while intimately gloomy mood that creates such a stir. His blisteringly bare vocals create a vocal line that slowly wraps around you like a smile. His quiet guitar strumming provides the pillow for your wondering head to crash down on.
It’s the soundtrack to your 3am drive away from that girl you can’t not like.

Tom McRae – Draw Down The Stars
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folk pop // vocal rock

Cerys, an intrepid Welsh musician has a lot in her favor: a quirky name, a past bout with fame as lead in the 90’s Welsh pop group Catatonia, and a cute renown-to-rehab-to-folk backstory. And the music? To be honest, I wasn’t really touched by her album, with the striking exception of the song below. Though it feels like it just jumped out of Pro-Tools, Cerys used a good amount of odd instrumentation and clever polyrhythms to complement your more traditional guitar and drums.

Listen, hold tight till 0:59, and release.
Cerys Matthews – Streets Of New York
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israeli acoustic indie reggae

Clapping my hands and swaying from side to side, I enjoy listening to the sunny sounds of Habanot Nechama. Warming and comforting, as Hebrew word nechama indicates to consolation, the trio of experienced Israeli singers combines soothing and joyful tones in their music. The nechama girls’ soulful vocals, minimalist arrangements of acoustic guitars and drums, carrying reggae infusions, and the overall vibe of optimism, deliver more than a lovely reminiscence of fading summer. (Thanks dirkhaim!)

Uplifts the spirit, and makes it summer anytime.
Habanot Nechama – Hakol Kashura (Everything’s Alright)
Habanot Nechama – So Far Lihiot (To Be)
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pop // soul

Last summer I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Stockholm, Sweden. The music scene is incredibly active there, but if you go expecting to see some DJs or global acts you know, you might be a bit surprised; the country produces so much music that it’s pretty self-sustaining. Amanda Jenssen emerged out of their Idol 2007 competition and just scored a #1 spot on the charts with this track, and yet, there’s hardly any coverage outside of Scandinavia. The chorus has an obvious pop sensibility, but her soul-driven vibe (think: Amy Winehouse) is showcased in the verses. (Thx, Christofer!)

Strong, soulful, and Swedish pop music.
Amanda Jenssen – Do You Love Me?

downtempo \\ polish jazz

If you like The Cinematic Orchestra, you’ll definitely like Skalpel. This pair of Polish DJs make a very similar sound: a deep, dark and jazzy solid groove. “Their aim is to resurrect the dusty & smoky spirit of 60s and 70s Polish jazz and then reimagine it for 21st century audiophiles.”[officialsite]
This music sets you back into a jazz bar in a back alley of Rotterdam. Inhale it.

Skalpel – Scuplture
MP3 remix competition of their single ‘Break In’
Videos (real media), full tracks, and an interview

soundtrack jazz // hard bop // film noir

To record this soundtrack, Miles Davis stood in front of a screen, watched the movie, and played in the moment, improvising his own musical impressions of the drama on-screen. The music of this film, Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud, helped define the sound of film noir–the slow-walking bass beats and muted, slithering horn lines miming the characters’ action and emotion. Perfect tunes for relaxing, studying, or just completely zoning out. [Thx Angad]

Nostalgia and suspicion from jazz’s finest.
Miles Davis – Nuit Sur Les Champs-Elysees (take 2)
Miles Davis – Final (take 1)
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brazilian fusion // urban // bossa

At Aurgasm we love warm Brazilian saudade quality in our music (and our drink). Seeing Brazilian CéU live in Seattle a couple of weeks ago only came as reaffirmation. CéU, along Bossa princess Bebel Gilberto and the funkier Cibelle, is a fine contemporary Brazilian artist. We featured CéU back in 2007 with her stunning take on Fela Kuti — Africa meets South America. Since then, the Brazilian songstress released a few EP’s, was featured in Starbucks’ Hear Music Debut series and was nominated to both Grammy and Latin Grammy awards. Her 2009 album Vagarosa is a beauty fusing everything from funky, cool rhythms to the slow and easy-going percussive grooves. So felt we need to tell you again about her, in case you missed last time.

Breezy vocals, soulful summery rhythms.
CéU – Bubuia
CéU – Cangote (Live Session iTunes Exclusive EP)
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Since Aurgasm’s launch over two years ago, I have been putting all of aurgasm’s mp3s in this folder called /tracks/. If you had pulled it up in your web browser, it was a directory listing of all the music I’ve posted for the past 6-8 months. What you may consider a treasure trove for you, the IFPI (essentially a worldwide RIAA) considered it a violation of the DMCA. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act is what the RIAA uses to sue dead grandmas without computers, claiming they’re sharing mp3s.

So what happened the other day?

Thursday, the IFPI contacted my webhost and had them remove all the mp3s on my site. No further legal action is being taken (that’s a good thing), but all of aurgasm’s music is gone for the moment.

…and thank you.

I appreciate the outpour of support everyone has given. Fellow bloggers have been educated by my mistakes and supportive of my plight. Aurgasm’s readers have eager to help; offering to document their purchases that came from this site and more. For the moment, be comfortable and sit tight. Things will hopefully return to normal quickly.

So what now?

Aurgasm will continue to feature your favorite music you’ve never heard, but we’ll be thorough in obtaining permission to share the music we need to share. Up to now, a good portion of the music on Aurgasm has been posted with artists’ (or their representatives’) consent, though not all. I am eager to put Aurgasm’s music back online, but need to first get legal consent from all artists to share their wares. I’m in the midst of communications with the IFPI to rectify the situation.

With sage advice from EJ of Loudersoft, I fired off this email to the IFPI this morning:

To Whom It May Concern:

1) I have permission from the record label, PR company or the artist directly for many of the tracks posted on my site. Additionally, some of them are not copyrighted whatsoever, therefore it’s unlawful to claim to represent the copyright for all of them.
2) If there are any specific examples of tracks that you consider to be in violation, you are required under U.S. jurisdiction to provide me with complete and full disclosure of the specific offending items.
3) If you fail to respond to this with the appropriate information on or before November 1st, 2006, I will assume that the IFPI is withdrawing their DMCA complaint, that it has no further merit, and that I am exempt from future action on this claim.

-Paul Irish
http://aurgasm.us

Stay tuned for more music and hopefully less drama. :)

electro-jazz // electronica

Viennese chanteuse and songwriter Madita musical debut came as she lent her soulful vocals to dZihan and Kamien’s critically acclaimed album Gran Riserva back in 2002. Produced and co-written by Vlado dZihan, Madita’s second album Too (2008) offers richly textured electro-jazz. Madita’s standout track “Because” delivers a mixture of eccentric piano-tingled beats, spectacular vocals and the glitter glamour of Goldfrapp, while the seductive quality and retro lounge vibe of “Deep Down” brings to mind the playful elegance of Bitter:Sweet.

Disarming charm.
Madita – Because
Madita – Deep Down
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