Intern Summer Roundup

Over the course of my summer internship with New Sounds I have had the opportunity to listen to hundreds of the CDs that have been mailed in to the show. Some have been passed on to host John Schaefer, while others don't get past the giveaway pile. The very worst I take home to laugh at, and the very best are added to my ‘Starred’ playlist on Spotify, so I can listen to them on repeat. Here are four of the songs on my playlist, for your listening pleasure.

1. NOVALIMA - Beto Kele

NOVALIMA is a group from Lima, Peru. They blend traditional Afro-Peruvian music with more Western-style dance beats, and were started as a musical movement in Peru to unite across countries and to close the divide between the various cultures within Peru. With driving Afrobeat rhythms and grooving Spanish vocals it is similar to past NOVALIMA albums, but still a fun summer album.

2.Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal- Passa Quatro

This kora and cello duo whom you might remember from this 2013 show:  have just created their second album, and the entire thing is beautiful. Reasonably titled "Musique De Nuit," ("Night Music,") the album is peaceful and delicate, but it is so much more than an album of lullabies. It's interesting, trance-inducing and has just been released on Six Degrees. 

3.Ben Zimmerman - String Trio 1 

The "String Trio 1" by Brooklyn-based electronic artist Ben Zimmerman is not played by strings. It is also not one of the tracks on the double-LP release “The Batilka Years,” but it is similarly constructed.

The entire album was made on a Tandy Deskmate computer, and much of it is hard to follow or even slightly painful to listen to. There is extensive sampling of people such as Meredith Monk, The Fat Boys, and his parents. He also plays the guitar, piano, bass, and drums on the record, but the samples of the instruments have been altered so that they are almost unrecognizable. Zimmerman's "String Trio 1" is much more melodic and was originally created to be played by a string trio, then re-imagined through his Tandy Deskmate.

4.Raquy Danziger - Secret Key 

Raquy Danziger has released an album called "Monkey Mind," featuring her teacher Bunyamin Olguncan. Their signature Turkish style split-hand drum technique can be seen very clearly in this video for “Secret Key.” Watching these master dumbek (a Middle Eastern goblet drum) players at work is awesome and inspiring, and likely to make you forget about the impending end of summer.

A few of you have already seen these picks and many more on Cymbal, a music sharing app for iPhones. If you haven't yet, follow us at wnyc_newsounds. (Almost) every day I've added a song, either from that night's show or from the stack of CDs we received that day. To hear more New Sounds music every day, download the app and follow us!  (Perhaps John & his staff will figure out how to do these posts when I go back to school...)