Kudu -- the best band in NYC

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dominic

Beast of Burden
I've been try to push Kudu for a while now. They're utterly poptastic and have wicked voodoo rhythms. Here's a link to their site, where you can hear soundbites: www.kudu2u.com

For anyone who might be interested, I write about Kudu on my new blog, which address is: sleepingonthefloor.blogspot.com

The piece is riddled through & through with SR-isms and K-Punk-isms. However, I make no pretense to originality when it comes to thinking about music.

Paragraphs 2 through 5 of the piece were published in this week's NY Press, although hacked to pieces with some embarrassing re-phrasing of what I actually wrote. (A different issue: if you're not a professional, don't expect to be treated like one.)

Forthcoming blog entries will be devoted to issues other than music. Truth be told, most of what I know about music I learn through people here.
 
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dominic

Beast of Burden
yeah, except this time i posted a link to their website and posted a link to my thoughts about them . . . .

judging by the paucity of comments, people must not like what they hear or what i say . . . .

obviously they've nothing to do with grime or uk garage or krunk or street beats (though i do think them influenced by jungle)

but believe me (or don't believe me!), kudu are going to be massive
 
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tate

Brown Sugar
I have a Kudu question for Dom or others. Wanted to make sure that I have this straight.

So there are (were) two Kudus, the broken beat outfit, and the NYC band. Fine. But both Kudus had releases on Velour records?

(1) Kudu. [Allmusic] Biography by Andy Kellman

Kudu was a collaborative three-piece featuring members from West London's broken beat massive. Dominic Stanton (Sonar Circle, Static Imprints, Domu), Paul Dolby (Seiji, Disorient, Opaque, Bugz in the Attic), and native New Zealander Mark de Clive-Lowe (primarily a keyboardist) teamed up to release a few productions in the early 2000s, including the "Space" 10" for Bitasweet and "I've Been Hit" for Velour. "Transit," the excellent B-side of the "Space" 10", made an appearance on Bitasweet's Phuturistic Dancin': Mission One compilation. Each producer's past involvements with the drum'n'bass movement played a major role in their beat-heavy work, which took on bits learned from jazz-funk, fusion, and Afro-beat.

(2) Kudu. [Allmusic] Biography by Erik Hage

Kudu is a group of musical innovators, including Sylvia Gordon (vocals, bass), Deantoni Parks (drums), Nick Kasper (keyboards), and Peter Stoltzman (keyboards), who blend jazz, soul, and electronica into a heady concoction of urban music. Parks' organic drumming often replicates digital beats and drum'n'bass technology, while a variety of textures and rhythms emanate from Kasper and Stoltzman's wall of keyboards. At the forefront is Gordon, whose lyrics and soulful pipes have become the group's hallmark. Kudu released its self-titled debut on Velour Recordings, a New York-based urban music label, in 2001. The group has generated favorable press and a following in the jam band universe, a genre that developed an increasingly catholic reach throughout the '90s.
 
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adruu

This Is It
pretty sure that's a typo on the nyc kudu (sylvia's)

off topic > if there was one nyc band i expected to see play up in montreal it was them. considering how 'electro-punk' crazy this place is, they could own a venue here for weeks.
 
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tate

Brown Sugar
adruu said:
pretty sure that's a typo on the nyc kudu (sylvia's)
Click to expand...
Thanks, adruu. However, I'm not so sure. The nyc/Sylvia Kudu definitely released an album in 2001 on Velour, and Velour's webpage still plays the song "Sugar," which is from that debut.
 
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dominic

Beast of Burden
the bio that says they're from west london is for the most part wrong (i.e., members names, etc). however, kudu did have a few releases on nyc-based velour label in early 2000s, including "i've been hit." this early material is more drum'n'bassy and nu jazzy than the material that established their name, which is in more of an electro pop vein, if you have to put tags on it
 
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tate

Brown Sugar
dominic said:
the bio that says they're from west london is for the most part wrong (i.e., members names, etc). however, kudu did have a few releases on nyc-based velour label in early 2000s, including "i've been hit."
Click to expand...

Thanks, Dominic, much appreciated.

Still, there are a couple of more things to say.

Getting the names wrong in the West London bio, as you suggest, would be odd. I mean, it's Domu, Seiji, and Mark de Clive-Lowe, the veritable backbone of the broken beat movement . . . and Andy Kellman, who wrote the bio, is a sharp fellow. Still, the error has been repeated at eMusic, where the west london/broken beat bio is put together with the nyc kudu's releases! (This is an error and someone should correct it.)

Apparently the moniker 'Kudu' is also used for one of Domu's many side projects, and completely independent of the nyc band Kudu:

(a) Here is evidence from the Goya webpage.

(b) From an interview with Domu/Dominic Stanton at Cyclic Defrost (I quote here from the penultimate paragraph of the interview):

“And the rest are just one-off names I make up because I’m doing something that doesn’t really feel like it’s Domu.” Among these are Yotoko’s deep broken techno (released on the Delsin label), Brazilian disco as the Star Wars inspired Bakura (Especial), the vocal broken beat of Rima (Compost, and a new album likely to drop on Sonar Kollektiv), Vaceo (Chillifunk), Zoltar (Sonar Kollektiv), Blue Monkeys (Spinning Wheel), Kudu (Bitasweet), Realsides (Sirkus) and Domu & Volcov (on Best Seven and Residual). "It’s very complicated,” says Stanton of his prodigious, even by electronic music standards, array of alter egos.
 
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Buick6

too punk to drunk
They souhnd alright. Looks like the Talking Heads/Cologne/Giggolo sound is still influential!

And I guess Goldfrapp are still influential too..
 
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