Cleo's Apartment
Des Moines, Iowa, United States | SELF
Music
Press
A new breed of hip-hop/acid jazz from Des Moines, Iowa, Cleo’s Apartment is the house party you never want to leave. With tenants on turntables, keyboards, vocals, live drums, and horns the Apartment takes cues from Public Enemy, Miles Davis, Portishead, The Roots and everything in between to produce a sound foreign to corn and sure to keep a crowd panting for more.
Listening to Cleo's is sort of analogous to stumbling upon a basement full of old vinyl. So many rich sounds are available to your ears, and every time you start idly browsing, you hear something you've never heard before. Combining elements of soul, hip hop, jazz, rock, and storytelling, Cleo's is a veritable bottomless pit of potential.
Within the first minute of any song, the listener knows they’ve found something intense and different. From track to track, Cleo’s Apartment sends sounds anywhere from sweat-inducing drum and bass grooves to the cool collapse of a Rhodes keyboard. From start to finish, Cleo’s will grab a crowd and not let go until the last record has been scratched.
Cleo’s has shared the stage with performers like Brother Ali, Rebirth Brass Band, Digable Planets, Mike Giles, Maxilla Blue, Martin Dosh, Colourmusic, and Tommy Doggett, to name a few on a substantial list of goods and greats.
- Misc.
Discography
Cleo's Apartment, Cleo's Apartment 2007
Cleo's Apartment, New Tennants E.P. 2008
Cleo's Apartment, Off at the Shoulders 2010
Photos
Bio
Within the first minute of any song, the listener knows they’ve found something intense and different. From track to track, Cleo’s Apartment sends sounds anywhere from sweat-inducing drum and bass grooves to the cool collapse of a Rhodes keyboard. From start to finish, Cleo’s will grab a crowd and not let go until the last record has been scratched.
The leased was signed on Cleo’s Apartment in 1998. Jeff and Mike to residence together in a small cold corner unit, from this they created some of the warmest, most sincere jazz/hip hop of the time, and then were evicted.
Over the last 10 years the group has refined it sound, polished it’s instruments, and found another fine unit to accommodate their needs. Adding two members from the original line up of Jeff on turntables and Mike on Keyboards has allowed them to evolve into a place you go for thanksgiving. The addition of Max on drums and Crystal on vocals has opened doors to larger units and more plush furniture. It is much more comfortable in the apartment now.
-Central Standard Records
Cleo’s has shared the stage with performers like Brother Ali,
Digable Planets, Eoto, Rebirth Brass Band, Mike Giles, Maxilla Blue, Roxi Copland, Martin Dosh, Colourmusic, Algernon, Small Sails, The Blend, and Tommy Doggett, to name a few on a substantial list of goods and greats.
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