Articles by David Dacks

Amalia

Art Slave

PUBLISHED Mar 4, 2011

For more than a decade, Amalia Townsend has pushed her vocal talents into bold new directions. On Art Slave, she comes up with the best sho...

Vijay Iyer Explains What It Means to Be "Jazz Famous"

PUBLISHED Feb 24, 2011

Judging by Twitter trends, the huge upset win by Esperanza Spalding in the Best New Artist category remains one of biggest stories from the...

A Hawk and a Hacksaw's Jeremy Barnes Talks His Label Ambitions

PUBLISHED Feb 23, 2011

Balkhemists A Hawk and a Hacksaw have shown a knack for going back to the future with their transformations of Eastern European folk music,...

Vijay Iyer

PUBLISHED Feb 23, 2011

Pianist Vijay Iyer calls himself "jazz famous." He's one of the genre's most prominent performers but not Bieber famous by any stretch. Iye...

Various

Cartagena!

PUBLISHED Feb 21, 2011

The latest chapter in Soundway Records' exploration of Colombian music travels to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. Early on, "Cumbia Del P...

A Hawk and A Hacksaw For the People

PUBLISHED Feb 20, 2011

"My take on folk music is that it's always evolving, it's not something to be put in a museum. We're rootless wanderers, we're affected by...

Nicolas Jaar

Space is Only Noise

PUBLISHED Feb 14, 2011

Is this nu-downtempo? Space is Only Noise is certainly chill, but it doesn't take long to unearth much more substance beneath its even temp...

James Blake

James Blake

PUBLISHED Feb 9, 2011

Minimal masterpiece or half-baked navel gazing? James Blake's highly anticipated debut album mostly tilts to the former. Having released EP...