GearCrave Week in Music: Jamie Lidell US Tour

(image courtesy: merlijn hoek)

We’ve got a new column this week– the “GearCrave Week in Music” which will come to you every Tuesday with music news, album releases, touring info and more. For our inaugural week, we’re featuring the music of Warp Records’ own Jamie Lidell. London-born, Berlin-based Jamie Lidell launched a US tour this week, promoting his latest album “Jim“. For those unfamiliar with Lidell music, what started in post-rave electronic experimentation has blossomed into full blown, easy going soul music that’s set to infect fans across the US. He’s a one-mand-band of sorts, a certifiable studio genius who weaves soulful, sunny ballads from a personality that could be described as the “best kind of schizophrenic”. You owe it to yourself to read on, watch the videos and check out his touring schedule to catch Jamie Lidell in your own town.

Jamie Lidell reached critical acclaim with his last album, 2005′s “Multiply“. Multiply was a turning point in Lidell’s career, where a style that had been mostly conceptual in his past was revised, polished and perfected. The inspiration he had in previous albums like Muddlin’ Gear had matured. Songs from Multiply found themselves reaching a US audience as many up-and-comers do, through advertising sync– Multiply‘s “A Little Bit More” became the voice of a wide reaching campaign for the US retailer Target. Multiply was a success, pleasing Lidells existing fans and growing his base with wider acceptance by new listeners. Here’s Jamie Lidell’s “Multiply” video, the song sharing the title with the album.

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For some early fans of Jamie Lidell, this new soulful focus was a surprise. Prior to this point, Lidell would put on wild sets of electronic wizardry– live recording and looping his voice with his own beatboxing, synth sequencing and knob twiddling. Fortunately, Lidell’s focus on hsi soul influences haven’t made him more serious or calmed him down. His live performances remain to be electrifying, Lidell’s personality makes for one hell of a show (as fans in Seattle, WA know all too well, watching Lidell light his speakers on fire mid-act). As we mentioned earlier, Lidell is the “best kind of schizophrenic”… This is well reflected in his latest videos for Jim. Here is “Another Day”.

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If Lidell’s sound is music to your ears, you can catch Jamie in the US during his tour which starts this week. He’ll be performing in San Francisco on May 27th and LA on the 28th, then across the US to end June 12th in Washington, DC. Chicago fans can catch Jamie twice, once on June 4th and again at Lollapalooza 2008. You can learn more about Jamie Lidell and his US tour from Jamie’s myspace page. You can buy and download Jamie’s music online from iTunes or at Bleep.com, and you can get Jim on CD from Amazon for $12.99. For now, we’ll leave you with our favorite album track from Jim, “Figured Me Out”.

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