Music in the City - The New Earth Group

The New Earth Group has been roaming the stages, streets, parkinglots and nooks of Rotterdam for some time now and released their sixth album on the Excelsior label last February: Eurafricarabia. A name that’s impossible to pronounce but one that pinpoints the bands’ sound exactly. Being one for difficult names, I remember frontman Choco Alcazaba living in a selfbuilt hut within a squat for years. Toying with exotic looking instruments and coocky sounds, he gathered a group of likeminded around him and got his groove deep and exotic.

 

Their first cd is built up of six long jazzy improvisations. Todays paper called them a: ‘fluently playing collective..a band that grabs you by the collar and shakes you about when you listen to them live’

 

Believing that music shouldn’t be talked about too much and listened to more, I tried to look up some groovy videos of The New Earth Group, but damnit! I can only find these obscure, homeshot videos, still a charming recording of some handsome men and their craftmanship though:
 

 

 

Their smashing record sleeve, designed by Rufus Ketting, and Suus Allewelt is on for the competition of best album artwork of 2010. Turns out that my previous favourite, Sir Ians' sleeve with artwork by Roos Mascini (mentioned earlier as an absolute winner here) was actually also designed by Rufus Ketting...Makes him a double winner, I guess.