PETROL RECORDS RINGS IN THE NEW YEAR WITH INNOVATIVE AND WORLDLY CD, DVD AND DIGITAL RELEASES
Petrol Presents… Liberacion: The Songs Of The New Cuban Underground, a DVD Documenting Cuba’s Most Vital and Cutting-Edge Music Scene
Hollywood, California – January 2, 2007 – Petrol Records founder Chris Murphy and his A&R adventurers regularly travel to locations far and wide in search of world’s hottest new sounds. In 2006, Petrol Records entered an exclusive global partnership with EMI Music to continue to carry Petrol’s musical and cultural message around the world through visionary new CD, DVD and digital releases.
After managing the rock band INXS to global superstardom, Petrol’s founder, Chris Murphy, launched the Australian-based record label in 2000 to share his global vision with music fans around the world. Murphy envisioned Petrol as a cultural beacon to shine on the world’s best music, delivered direct to fans to enjoy with no passport required. Since its inception, Petrol has been at the forefront of the digital music business around the world, with a record of consistent international iTunes chart successes and a focused ethos and mission that has evolved into a trusted Petrol brand signature.
2006 brought widespread coverage of Murphy and Petrol’s innovative approach and high-quality CD and digital releases from many leading media sources, including The New York Times, People magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Billboard, The Village Voice, and US Weekly. Petrol’s 15-CD “Greatest Songs Ever Series” earned highly-coveted inclusion in People magazine’s 2006 holiday gift guide and the label’s 6-CD series, “The Sex, The City, The Music,” received a rave from US Weekly.
2007 promises more cutting-edge, quality releases from Petrol/EMI, beginning with the February 6 release of Liberacion: The Songs Of The New Cuban Underground, a DVD that captures the artists leading Cuba’s most cutting-edge music scene. During a routine visit to Cuba, Murphy ended up off Cuba’s beaten paths to the impoverished coastal city of Santiago de Cuba. There, in the neglected city where Fidel Castro’s revolution was hatched, Murphy found a burgeoning reggaeton scene, driven by the city’s youth and influenced by Jamaican dancehall beats and rap filtered in from Miami radio stations across the sea.
“The sound was like nothing I had ever heard before,” says Murphy. ”After weeks of being presented with Latino pop versions of the Backstreet Boys in Havana, we found these kids on the streets of Santiago de Cuba creating the something entirely unique.
I had no idea what they were saying over the top of their infectious rhythms – all I knew was that it felt the same as when I heard reggae, punk, grunge, dance and other foreign sounds before they become mainstream… it made me move.”
Murphy and his team quickly immersed themselves in their new discovery, setting up a home recording studio to lay down tracks and document a movement and a powerful voice that until now has not been widely heard beyond Santiago de Cuba’s city line.
Murphy says, “It was amazing to see so many fantastic smiling faces. The people of Santiago de Cuba danced, sang, laughed and partied – their passion for life was uplifting and their hospitality was unrelenting, despite the fact that they have been forgotten about and their town is falling apart. But, this is probably why the town has formulated its own sound, its own unique voice.”
The new DVD features Cuba’s most popular break-out reggaeton stars Candyman and El Medico, as well as local heroes Lady Ragga and Cosa Nostra. Key tracks include “Children of the Revolucion,” an entirely new and fresh collaborative interpretation by Santiago de Cuba’s hottest scenemakers on the T. Rex classic “Children of the Revolution” and Lady Ragga’s “Come & Get It.”
Liberacion: The Songs Of The New Cuban Underground unveils Cuba’s new generation of revolutionaries, voicing their unique experiences and needs through music’s universal language. The performances captured for the new DVD were released in 2006 on CD and digitally by Petrol/EMI under the title Reggaeton: The Cuban Revolucion.
Petrol Records is an independent music company dedicated since 2001 to discovering seriously good music and bringing together the freshest sounds on the global music scene. Petrol and EMI Music have entered a long-term, global partnership to present Petrol’s border-hopping musical and cultural vision to a broader worldwide audience via EMI’s streamlined distribution and marketing channels.
For more information, visit Petrol’s official site: www.petrolrecords.com.
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