MUSIC2 Licensing is pleased to announce the addition of UK singer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ Bishi to the roster. Her new sound references and revitalizes elements of IDM, Electro, Grime, Low Fi Punk and Digital Hardcore, giving them new relevance and purpose in a modern pop setting.

Hometown: London, England

UK artist Bishi is a Singer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ who started her own label Gryphon Records in 2007. Whether she’s playing Glastonbury with a rock band, underground clubs with a Grime collective or concert halls with The London Symphony Orchestra her popularity has grown in line with the respect she receives for her recorded and live work.

Described as the doyenne of hybrid music her critically acclaimed 1st album ‘Nights at the Circus’ seamlessly mixed electronic beats, English folk and Asian instruments with personality and lyrical melody.

The known highlights for 2012:

Ambassador of The Diana Award – UK based young persons charity launching Internationally – Bishi will dedicate an anthem to raise awareness of their launch.

London 2012 Olympic Festival – opening the Olympic music festival.

Thanks for your time, more from us soon!

Gerard Talbot and Caroline Hoste, MUSIC2 Licensing

Shot in and around South London and the Southbank, Bishi plays with the positive and negatives, and the prestige and performance of being constantly watched in a joyful yet sinister tone.The drum driven track also suggests celebration, aggravation and indigence. One Nation is inspired by a Banksy piece in central London – now painted over.

British born to a Bengali musical family, Bishi started singing when she was two years old. Her mother, an Indian Classical/Traditional singer enrolled her in a musical education. Trained in both Eastern and Western classical music, Bishi started piano and harmonium studies aged six and went on to learn guitar, bass & sitar in her teens. Her musical influences also include English folk and disco. Bishi began her musical career in The Sound Storm – an improvised electro acoustic performance art troupe led by London night club legend Matthew Glamorre and his long time collaborator Richard Torry. Bishi is also characterised by her glamorous and extravagant stage appearance.

Director : Matthew Hardern
Written by Bishi , Hardern
Music Produced by Matthew Hardern

OM Records releases Miguel Migs’ video for “Everybody” featuring disco legend, Evelyn “Champagne” King and invites you to join in on a fantastical retro-tastic soul tinged party reminiscent of the halcyon disco days gone by.

“Everybody” is the first single from Miguel Migs’, third studio album, “Outside The Skyline” out now on Om Records/Salted Music and features guest vocal appearances from Bebel Gilberto, Meshell Ndegeocello, Capelton, Half Pint, Freddie McGregor, Georg Levin and longtime collaborators, Aya and Lisa Shaw.

Video Credits:

Director: Alex Pelly

Producer: Eva Gunz

Director of Photography: Ernesto Lomeli

Editor: Alex Pelly

Choreographer: Marlon Pelayo

Production Designer: Douglas Wilmar

Dancers: Andy Acosta, Marlon Pelayo, Milan Raquel, Misty Rose

The seven piece Submotion Orchestra is one of the most interesting and original projects emerging from the UK in 2011

Always is a skittering mid tempo track which draws on their dubstep roots but also incorporates elements of scat singing and melodic keys. Vocalist Ruby Wood is as ever on supreme form, aided and abetted by Simon Beddoe’s atmospheric horn parts and Taz Modi’s shimmering keys, all performed over Dom’s electronics and the rock solid rhythms served up by Tommy, Danny and Fatty.

Salty Air by J. Viewz featuring the soulful vocals of Noa Lembersky is included in the album “Rivers and Homes.” which is released this week. If the song sounds familiar to you its probably because of its use in the recent Hale Berry TV commercial for Revlon

The video, directed by Shelly Carmel is an ode to the lazy days of summer and love.

Finally, This city shines above me,
A golden shine,
Kissing your burnt skin,
Kissing your burnt skin.

Quietly, This afternoon got endless.
It’s the sweetest sound – of you turning a
page beside me,
And then there is no story,
No, no.

Quite a way, till we found this pace.
The closer we are – the slower the dance.
Salty Air , and the wind wants back,

Time to be moving slower.
And when it shines – it shines,
And you’re around me,
You, turn me higher.

P 2010 Jonathan Dagan

Hometown: Reading, London
The lineup: James Girdler (guitar, vocals), Daniel Stargatt (bass), Daniel Webb (drums).

Giant Steps are a three-piece from Reading who ironically do straight, soul-inflected rock, with hooky melodies and “passionate” vocals where you can hear all the words. It’s not innovative or experimental and it’s not meant to be. It’s accessible, unpretentious and workmanlike in the sense of musicians toiling hard to achieve the effect they want, getting stuck in and going for it with gritty determination.

This is r’n'b – the 60s variety – meets the energy and bluster of rock’n'roll. The Jam did this sort of thing at the start and towards the end of their career. Giant Steps, like the Jam, have three members and, like a lot of those pub rock, punk and mod revival-era bands of the late 70s, they invoke great r’n'b artists – a lot – as though by doing so they’ll absorb some of the luster of great soul. They’re being touted as “Kings of Leon meet the Impressions” and “Stevie Wonder meets the Stones”. Those are pretty big steps.

Also impressive: they’ve just finished recording at the Motor Museum studio in Liverpool with producer Mike Crossey, whose CV includes work by Arctic Monkeys, Foals, Razorlight and the Kooks.

(Paul Lester, Guardian)

Together as Floetry, Natalie Stewart and Marsha Ambrosius burst on to the music scene in the mid-90s as coveted songwriters. The duo penned hits for Michael Jackson, Bilal, Jill Scott and more. But by the turn of the millennium, they debuted their own style of music, which they describe as “floetic” (also the name of their debut album). Their sound was described as neo-soul but there was no denying that their unique interplay between spoken word and soulful singing blended with jazz was something that the masses craved (they have the Grammy nominations to prove it).

Although their sophomore album, 2005’s Flo’Ology, reached top-3 upon release, Floetry split the following year. Natalie, the floacist, was more low key than her singing counterpart. After four years of taking a break from the spotlight Shanachie records have released her solo debut, Floetic Soul.

Let Me is the first video from the album. Directed by Nolan Weekes, who is her husband and the other beautiful body in the video!

Neu Chicago comes from Jet Set Siempre 1º, the first album from Clive Tanaka.

The ever elusive and previously Zoned In Clive Tanaka has a beautiful stop-motion, partial 3-D video for “Neu Chicago”. Made by Tall Corn label-mate Brandon Domer of Kilroy with clay, action figures, and those sponges stuffed in capsules that turn into dinosaurs, the video (and song) was inspired by the serial 1939 film “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”.

Offering some rare insight on his own work and creative process, Tanaka explains that, “Buck Rogers is an astronaut who’s life support systems aboard Ranger 3 accidentally froze him in orbit in 1987 and reawaken some 500 years later in 2491. Shortly after his freezing, Earth is all but destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Buck returns to the capital of Earth Defense Directorate in New Chicago, the domed inner part of Chicago that was rebuilt after the war. There, he meets Colonel Wilma Deering and they begin to fancy each other. Buck is lonely because everyone he knew and loved are long dead and Wilma, it seems, has been waiting for Buck her entire life… In the studio, people often have fun with song titles and changing labels. Someone in the orchestra thought it would be funny to label the reel Neu Chicago instead of New Chicago because it sounded nothing like Neu! I like the neu name so much that it stuck.” Ric Leichtung, Altered Zones

“Slick and stylish indie pop” — The Independent

“This is r’n'b – meets the energy and bluster of rock’n'roll.” — The Guardian

Giant Steps were formed in 2009 by three school friends who grew up together in Reading, England and had common musical tastes. The band are compromised of 22-year old James Girdler (vocals/guitar), Dan Stargatt (Bass) and Dan Webb (Drums), both aged 23. Their soul inflected rock sound was developed through their love of artists such as Stevie Wonder and The Impressions, with these bands having a lasting influence on Giant Steps refreshingly unique sound.

Debut single ‘Tolerate’, written about the 1930′s New York photographer WeeGee, is an instantly captivating song with a guitar-fuelled melodic chorus that is uplifting but has a dark intent at the same time. With its modern yet classic rhythm and blues sound, it has hit written all over it.

The inspiration for the song came from both WeeGee’s work as a photographer and the unusual techniques he used to capture his candid imagery, sometimes manipulating the scenario to create an image that told an entire story.

Giant Steps are currently working with producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, Foals) at Motor Museum Studios.

Featuring special guests ranging from African music legend Manu Dibango to indie soul icon Eric Roberson, South African pop stars Freshly Ground, Ghanian-American MC Blitz The Ambassador and Polish MC John Banzaï, Nü Revolution may be the most impressive representation of Les Nubians’ Afropean Soul to date. It embodies, both through music and lyrics, a true sense of world citizenship. “Liberte,” for instance, is inspired by the general shift signaled by Barack Obama’s election as President, and is dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King.

The bouncy video is of the first single released from the album and in celebration they decided to get their “Afrodance” on– Afro as in Angela Davis, not as in Fela Kuti, although there is a little thumb piano-sounding voice percolating along in this house-tempo track. The perfect theme music for primping your curls, tubes, plaits or corn-rows (but not weaves!) this would make a great soundtrack for a Hot Irons type documentary, especially the bit about Detroit to Paris, they pack the Afro-sheen, which is apparently (?) rapped by  pre-baldhead Busta Rhymes who stepped into a wormhole in 1998 and popped out in the middle of this video shoot.