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

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Sonoko
La Débutante
(1988)

Listen / Buy

This is almost like a study in inverted exoticism: fantasizing about distant shores isn’t our privilege. La Débutante is European culture as seen/dreamt by a young Japanese girl in the mid-eighties. Sonoko charmingly conjures up the spirit of Brigitte Bardot, Suicide, French cinema, Nino Rota, Catholic church music, Shakespeare and more. Co-produced by Colin Newman (from Wire, who also recorded 2 great albums for Crammed around that time) and Aksak Maboul.


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Tek 9
It’s Not What You Think It Is!!?!
(1996)

Listen / Buy

After releasing 4hero’s groundbreaking space drum’n’bass album Parallel Universe (which we put out outside of the UK), we worked with the band’s Dego McFarlane on this album, which became a milestone of abstract hip hop. I also still quite like the remix EP (with reworks by Nightmares on Wax and Carl Craig, who released an album with Crammed shortly thereafter).


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Juryman vs Spacer
Mail Order Justice
(1997)

Listen / Buy

The first of a trilogy of albums (on our SSR imprint) by Ian Simmonds aka Juryman, a man who, in my humble opinion, is the most soulful and moving of all electro/jazz artists who appeared around the mid-90s. I love his music, his vocals, his lyrics. This album is like a collection of deep, emotional snapshots, almost blues-like yet at the same time abstract and full of great textures and beats.


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Bebel Gilberto
Tanto Tempo
(2000)

Listen / Buy

The daughter of bossa nova co-inventor João Gilberto, niece of the great Chico Buarque, Bebel is practically part of Brazilian music’s royal family. Yet, amazingly enough, it took a small Brussels label to sign her and produce her debut album. Recorded with Serbian-born producer Suba (who sadly died before the LP’s completion), with help from Amon Tobin, Thievery Corporation and members of Smoke City, “Tanto Tempo” set a standard for a whole wave of Brazilian/electronic artists. It brilliantly encapsulated the spirit of the times (and, incidentally, went on to become the label’s alltime best-seller).


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Taraf de Haïdouks
Band of Gypsies
(2001)

Listen / Buy

This wild Romanian Gypsy band was ‘discovered’ by two friends from Brussels who, back in ’89, heard legends about a village where dozens of fantastic musicians lived, crossed Europe to find them, instantly fell in love and decided to become their managers (a job they’d never previously envisaged). Since that fateful encounter, the Taraf have recorded no less than 6 albums and a DVD (all for Crammed), played shows around the planet, acted in a film alongside Johnny Depp, served as catwalk models for Yohji Yamamoto, and seem to have remained as wild as they ever were, unaffected by all this attention.