Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

The People's Lounge - The Turbans

/ By Freya Devlin
The People's Lounge - The Turbans
The Turbans

The Turbans is an international musical collective bringing together exciting music from traditional near-eastern and eastern-European styles and their own compositions. To create a modern and energetic performance with reverence for its ancient roots. Growing from the intertwining paths of many talented musicians travelling the world. This extraordinary project has grown in a few years from very humble beginnings, into a progressive name on the London music scene. You can catch The Turbans at the Global Bandstand Weekender presented by The People’s Lounge. At the Southsea Bandstand Portsmouth.

It's members have gathered from countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Israel, Italy, Greece and England to perform in concerts and festivals around the UK, Turkey, India and Europe. The Turbans is independent and run by the musicians themselves, bringing music to the public, young and old alike. Meanwhile mixing vibrant spontaneity and authenticity with multi-genre instrumental and vocal excellence. Drawing on the rich cultural heritage of the Levantine and Balkan regions and their roots in Turkey, Bulgaria, Iran, Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Morocco and London. To create a high energy blend of original music for the 21st century, inspired by ancient melodies.

Artists The Turbans are the type of creative talent that Jeeni supports on our platform. By creating showcases, supporting creative talent and promoting them to an audience on jeeni.com

In a politically divided time, it’s hard to imagine a band comprised of members from across Europe and the Levant as not being inherently progressive. However, transmitting a political message was not their initial impulse. It was simply music. As well as friendship, as it turns out. Oshan Mahony, the “seventh best guitar player in the band” says the core group is seven members — met violinist Darius Luke Thompson in Kathmandu. The two half-Iranian, half-British nomads immediately hit it off. They began busking throughout India, picking up musicians along their Journey.

The Turbans is rounded out by vocalist and guitarist Miroslav Morski, a former Bulgarian pop star who previously fronted the band. Django Ze, and has been described as a “musical tornado” with a broad range of musical styles; Greek folk music expert, vocalist Pavlos Mavromatakis; cajon player and flamenco guitarist Pablo Dominguez, whose father, Chano, is a well-known flamenco pianist; Israeli guitarist Moshe Zehavi, who parents are from Turkey and Tunisia; and oud player Maxim Shchedrovitzki, a native of Belarus. In addition to beyond the core group, the band is always playing with other musicians.

Seven years later The Turbans delivers to global audiences the same high-energy blend of Balkan, klezmer, Gypsy, and sundry other styles they’ve been bringing to venues around the world for years. In India, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and all throughout Europe and North America.

JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.
  • Firstly we give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services.
  • Secondly we empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.
  • Thirdly we promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.
  • Lastly and most importantly they keep 100% of everything they make.

Check out Flamingods showcase here on Jeeni: The Turbans | Showcase | JEENI. Along with other showcases to add to your playlist.

Also, you can find out more about their appearance at The Global BandStand Weekender. Presented by The People's Lounge, at the Southsea Bandstand Portsmouth. Sunday 1st August at 17:00

14
Jul

Ivy Eye – On My Mind - Single Review

Electronic duo, Ivy Eye makes a formidable case for the wellbeing of disco with their latest revival effort, ‘On My Mind’ In just a short period of electronic anthem creation, UK electronic act, Ivy Eye have steadily been building more and more traction with their disco revival endeavor. Joining the likes of Jessies Ware, Midnight Generation and Róisín Murphy, in the electronic rejuvenation of disco, Ivy Eye have an even more on-the-nose appreciation of the 70s club music. And ‘On My Mind’ is no exception. Consisting of Matthew Benham and Rory Sheppard, Ivy Eye continue to raise the bar of their dance/disco quality with their newest single. A swirling crescendo opens the track which is met with short, sharp strings, a four-to-the-floor kick-clap beat and a host of synth pads, all joined together as a glittery, shimmering entrance into this electric single. The introductory instrumental takes a rest as the vocals enter for the first verse. A restless synth bass bounces all over the simple, dependable dance beat as various guitar parts stab into the off-beats. Every component of Ivy Eye’s instrumental feels like it’s bursting with energy and personality, almost as though they’re all desperate to be a part of the fun. After a classic dance riser to elevate the impact and excitement, the first chorus erupts but only for a moment. Almost acting as a teaser for the true chorus, which the twosome still has up their sleeve. This half-chorus is a great way of whetting the listener’s appetite before the main course of funk-dance-disco. After another verse, the chorus enters in a similar way, except now, most of the instrumental leaves to let the vocals shine to begin with, a classic disco feature. Once the rest of the instruments join in with the celebration, Ivy Eye takes the brave step in picking up where Daft Punk left off with a little help from the vocoder. An iconic sound, made famous by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Peter Frampton and of course, Daft Punk, the vocoder (or similar device, talkbox) manipulates instruments with the help of the performer’s mouth to give the instrument a voice-like quality. This unique and undeniably funky effect is perfect for a song like ‘On My Mind’ The full chorus pay-off delivers in full as the track celebrates in the journey it’s had in the last three minutes. Hinting at the chorus earlier on the track instead of having two main choruses was a stroke of genius and really eases the listen of this disco banger. This perfectly produced track is a promising and exciting sign from an act like Ivy Eye who are so young in their path as artists. This single acts almost as a love letter to a whole group of styles and eras and Ivy Eye should be applauded for this celebratory triumph of a composition. Ivy Eye will be performing at Victorious festival this August (26th-28th) get your tickets now and check them out! How can Jeeni support artists like Ivy Eye?   JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.  • We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.  • We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.  • We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.  • Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team. 

25
Jan

Giack Bazz: Live at Bromley-by-Bow's 'The Beehive'

Headlining last Friday (21st, Jan) for an ‘Underground Sound’ event in Bromley-by-Bow's ‘The Beehive’ was Italian-British indie hero, ‘Giack Bazz’. Sudden mid-song interjections of Giack’s random thoughts, everyone sitting on the pub-venue floor and stunning displays of vocal talent are just a few things fans should expect from future Giack Bazz gigs.  Jeeni were invited to this special event after the first two Giack Bazz blogs were published to the Jeeni website. Jeeni feels honoured to have Giack a part of the team and we're thrilled to hear that he's been loving what Jeeni has been doing for him so far as well, "I'm overwhelmed by the continuing support from the Jeeni music blog". Giack opened his headlining spot the same way he opens his ‘Giack Bazz Is Not Famous’ album, with the drunk and jangly ‘Beetle’. The track was performed sleepily, roughly and loosely, in the best possible ways. Giack was not sleepy or low-energy at all, but the studio track is, and so he adopted a tired, melancholic delivery style despite his upbeat and jovial mood, because that's what the recipe called for.  His performance of ‘Morning’ was prefaced with a darkly humourous exclamation, “This song is about depression!”. Perhaps it says a lot about the audience when this proud announcement was met with uproarious applause and cheering. A theme across all of Giack’s projects is mental health and emotional transparency and ‘Morning’ is a prime example of his mature and weirdly reassuring expression of said themes.  The middle section of Giack’s set was spent with both, Giack and the audience sat down in an intimate and close commune, all connected by Giack’s compositions. This simple invitation of comfort and informality took Giack’s serenading to another level for the gentler and more sentimental tracks like the stunning rendition of the title-track of his debut album, ‘Childhood Dream’.  Considering the arsenal of instruments Giack typically uses to convey his vision, the emotive power that he communicated with just his voice, a guitar and a pedal board was astonishing. Giack’s singing at times came across as a therapeutic ‘Primal Scream’, but it was always perfectly in pitch and in stylistic accordance with his guitar work. He also displayed the mic etiquette of a seasoned performer as he gave varying distance between his mouth and his mic depending on the power and input of his voice.  I used to think that the vocal emotion and power in Giack’s studio projects were enhanced with production techniques and after-effects. However, the performative persona that Giack displayed in that tiny, humid box of a venue in East-London was an honest, primal and raw spectacle, unaided by double-tracking or artificial reverb; this made me realise that Giack has been enhancing the effects with his vocal power, not the other way around. We strongly suggest following Giack on socials to see when an opportunity to see this man live comes up again. Twitter: https://twitter.com/GiackBazz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giackbazz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Giack.Bazz Check out Giack’s showcase on Jeeni, now: https://jeeni.com/showcase/giack-bazz/ How can Jeeni support artists like Giack Bazz?   JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.   • We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.  • We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.  • We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.  • Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team. 

04
Jun

A $0.003 reward?! We’re Twitching at the thought!

Twitch has always been popular amongst the gaming community. It was created initially in 2011 as a platform for gamers to use in order to live stream as well as broadcast live Esports events and competitions and has since retained on average 15million daily users.  With so much more of our time spent online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Twitch has expanded in regard to what they broadcast and live stream: talk shows are growing in popularity as well as live streamed music to name but a couple.  As the date for the resumption of normality approaches and with it the reopening of concert halls and live shows, one can speculate as to what will happen to those artists that have decided to make use of these live streaming platforms as a source of income.  Twitch users reportedly spend three times as much time on the platform as on Sportify and YouTube so the potential for it to be a very lucrative platform for music makers and artists is what has been looked into by Will Page, an economist who runs Tarzan Economics. He worked alongside various teams in order to understand how live streaming and live music may co-exist in the future. “Live streaming won’t go away when live music returns.” -Will Page In 2002, one of the first music streaming services Rhapsody, offered a $9.99 monthly price which is the same as what we see today for similar music streaming services.  What is provided is also pretty much the same as what was offered in 2002; fans remain largely disconnected from their favourite artists, they are unable to offer direct compensation to creators, and ‘cross-usage’ occurs frequently as a listener is often subscribed to multiple platforms.  “None of the on-demand streaming services that have since sprung up enable immediate engagement, this is a relic of the music industry of old.” -Will Page User engagement is something that both Twitch and Jeeni offer, and not only does it allow the fans to be more involved with the artists they love, but it allows the artists to be fairly compensated, a huge issue which is now being petitioned against by the Broken Record Campaign. See our last blog post for more information and ways that you can support the campaign.  According to Will Page, the typical music streaming model has approached the way in which artist are compensated in one way:  “the platform aggregates all the streaming data and revenues from a specific market and product over a specific time period, divides an artist’s share by that sum, and allocates revenues proportionately. Get 1% of all the streams, and you’ll get 1% of all the money. This has spurred much debate within the industry, as heavy streamers are effectively subsidised by light streamers, or as Quartz controversially put it: Your Spotify and Apple Music subscriptions pay artists you never listen to.” In essence, the modelling simply just isn’t fair, and neither rewards the artists or their fans for supporting them.  The way in which Twitch brings in money, however, varies across three methods similar to Jeeni: Creator Channel Subscriptions, Bits allow users to support creators directly on the service, and advertising.  Will Page made a comparison between creator earnings on Twitch, which average at $0.15 per-hour-per-user, with that of global streaming services at which the rate per-stream is set at roughly $0.003.  By taking the $0.003 per stream and multiplying by 17 (assuming a song lasts 3 minutes this equates to an hour of listening time), then applying an average 20% royalty rate, this results in a creator’s “revenue-per-hour listened” at just $0.01.  My jaw dropped, did yours?  Twitch has proved it can monetise over 10 times better than music streaming, however this only applies to creators’ most loyal fans that tune in on a regular basis.  "If you keep the full $100 of each true fan, then you need only 1,000 of them to earn $100,000 per year." -Kevin Kelly, The Technium, 2008 Do you want to spend hours watching your favourite gamer and at the same time, fairly compensate and reward them for their time and effort? Well of course. What Twitch does for gamers, we want to do for music makers and artists here at Jeeni.  Look out Twitch, we’ll meet you at the finish line.