Genre b(l)ending: An introduction to eclectic world of Crammed Discs in 20 records

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Konono No.1
Congotronics
(2004)

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Another amazing story: after moving to a noisy city (Kinshasa, DRC), a band who play traditional thumb-piano music can’t make themselves heard amidst the urban racket, and go on to invent their own amplification system, which makes their music sound like an accidental cousin of electro/punk rock, except that this takes place back in the 60s. Several decades later, Crammed’s Vincent Kenis records their first album, and Konono become an absolute icon amongst US/UK indie rock bands and electronic musicians. One could maintain that, in all forms of art, there’s always a degree of misunderstanding between the emitter and the receiver. But some misunderstandings are more spectacular (and more productive) than others…


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Tuxedomoon
Cabin in the Sky
(2004)

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The legendary experimental band from San Francisco was formed in 1977, and we’ve worked with them ever since ’85, releasing their new albums and reissuing their previous ones. Although their body of work is monumental and highly-influential, they’re somewhat hard to pigeonhole (and similar to Crammed in that respect), because their music simultaneoulsy draws from post-punk, experimental rock, electronica, minimal music, classical, jazz, Gypsy music, pop. Recorded after a hiatus of 15 years, Cabin in the Sky is definitely one of my favourite Tuxedomoon albums. The band is now based between Mexico, Greece, the US and Belgium, and has recently resumed active touring around Europe.


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Cibelle
The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves
(2006)

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She was originally seen as part of the Brazilian electronic downntempo wave, but Cibelle’s boundless creativity helped her to rapidly transcend the genre to create this pristine, enchanting & very personal album, blending totally acoustic and totally electronic elements, and featuring collaborations with Devendra Banhart, Seu Jorge, Mike Lindsay from Tunng and CocoRosie collaborator Spleen. Cibelle recorded a total of four albums for Crammed, each of which being quite different from the previous one.


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Various Artists
Tradi-Mods vs Rockers: Alternative takes on Congotronics
(2010)

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Following the enthusiastic reactions to the music of Konono No.1 and Kasai Allstars in the indie rock and electronic music communities, we asked 26 artists from Europe, America and Japan to create original tracks, paying tribute to the inspiring music of these bands. Artists such as Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Andrew Bird, Mark Ernestus, Lonely Drifter Karen, Juana Molina, Shackleton, Micachu and many more came out with great, imaginative takes on Congotronics, with tracks going from cover versions to reworks, and everything in between. In the wake of this album, we went on to provoke a real-life encounter and assembled the Congotronics vs Rockers superband, with ten Congolese and ten indie rock musicians, who performed over 15 shows at major festivals around Europe and Japan in 2011.


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Skip & Die
Riots in the Jungle
(2012)

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Fronted by spectacular vocalist & visual artist Cata.Pirata, the sensational electronic/global bass band wrote the music for this debut album during a trip around South Africa (where Cata.Pirata originates from), collaborating along the way with some of SA’s most inspiring music makers on the rise. Since then, they’ve been driving festival crowds crazy, have put out a string of provocative, distinctive videos (al directed by Cata), and are now getting ready to release a second album.