sound is criminal

best of 2007

2008-01-13T14:20:00.000+00:00

Benga - “Emotions”
Kanye West - “Flashing Lights (Juke Jams remix)”
A Mountain of One - “Brown Piano (Studio remix)”
Bloc Party - “Where Is Home (Burial remix)”
Cibelle - “Green Grass (Mariposa remix)”

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - “War” / “Mercury”
Hot 8 Brass Band - “Sexual Healing”
Georgia Anne Muldrow - “Requiem for Leroy”
Morgan Zarate - “M.A.B.”
Paul White - “Dragon Fly” / “A Silent Cry”
Goth-Trad - “Law”
Kool DJ Dust - “We Call It Skweee”
Justice - †
Tony Allen - “Kilode (Carl Craig remix)”
Open House - “Seven Day Weekend (Brennan Green remix)”

Sooooo positive!

2007-09-07T19:40:00.001+01:00

Good vibes.
It just comes down to that sometimes... here's some shit that just makes me happy. I mean man it just puts a smile on my face.
Hearing the shameless new hit by Armand van Helden in a car stereo with summer outside like it was all 1987 all over again or sumtin - fact is, though, that he basically samples an original which must get the official label "slept on" amid all the day-glo, jheri-curl goo and legwarmers it's been buried under. The original singer had the impossible name Siedah Garrett so it never became a REAL hit fo'sho. Although it hella deserved it! As I said, this shit just puts a smile on my face no less no more! Freestyle records, man... That's the name of the game. Siedah's "Do You Want It Right Now" is just one in a long range of records with that eternal positivity about them; Joyce Sims "All And All", Gwen Guthrie "Nothin Goin On But the Rent" Aleem's "Confusion". Gold dust... or if not, at least silver lamé.
This brings me on to a suspicion that's been growing within me recently. We all know how it's like an all-out cliché these days to claim that the 00s are the new 80s; I mean the economy is goin through the roof, we've had our own neocon/klansman/Bushman Reagan covertly blowing up towelheads behind our back, while that nagging global warming concern is sort of postponed for the future (since hey I mean it will sort itself out won't it?) We've got yuppies and 80s kids with kids of their own, body poppin with carefree abandon. The only thing we haven't got (as much of, anyway) is crack cocaine.
But there truly is a new generation out there doing shit ra-a-w like the 80s all over again, completely careless and with no sense of tradition - just like it should be. As an example of this Imma gonna take the chance to highlight and give props to all-European cats like Hudson Mohawke, Tom Trago, Smoovth & Drums, Flogsta Danshall, Kissey Asplund, Cinnaman, Paul White old boy Mark Pritchard.

This shit is as positive as all those 80s freestyle things that Armands is ticking off. It really is as if that cliché of "the 00s being like the 80s all over" is true BUT on an even deeper level. Because this aint fashion or surface, I mean its not retro at all in the sense that it would be a rehash of sounds and looks (like that Armand tune is after all) but it is a throwback to simpler happier times in spirit, which by extension generates completely neck-breaking new looks and sounds in itself. And that's something else. That's real cool for a change.

Siedah Garrett: Do You Want It Right Now
Hudson Mohawke: Star of a Story
Hudson Mohawke: Free Mo

into 007

2007-01-17T09:44:00.000+00:00

Some good shit from last year:
Henrik Schwarz - Imagination No Limitation
Introspective acid house, if there is such a thing.
Arthur Russell - Springfield
Introspective italo disco, if there is such a thing.
The Field - Over the Ice
Extrovert IDM, if there is such a thing.
Ame - Rej
Pop-crossover tech-house, if there is such a thing.
Kelis - Trilogy
Hall & Oates covered by a cyborg.

Bonus tracks:
Kahil El'Zabar & Kemit Sources - Our Time Is Now (IG culture remix)
The funk is not located in off notes, it's in the straight ones...
Ghostface Killah - Alex (Stolen Script)
The best story telling rap in.... 5 years?
Chopp Master Flopp - Daisy Crazy
My idea of fun!

Diss list:
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Folks, you know I discovered: it's impossible to dance to this.
Amerie - Because I Love It EP
After the earth-shattering 1 Thing, this was nuttin' but a let down.

chillin with Tip

2006-08-11T20:07:00.000+01:00

Q-Tip is back with Live at the Renaissance (Universal)!
So, what's the album like then? It's essentially a mix between the most all-out, embracable Afro-American FM rock à la Lenny Kravitz (never thought I would write this but I mean it in a good way!), and an odd, almost inverted form of celebration of all-time, main course hip-hop staple fodder: "That's Sexy" (with Andre 3000) twists that old, worn LL Cool J-ish hip-hop hookline "something like a phenomenon" yet one more time; "Black Boy" is Pharoahe Monch's Godzilla anthem "Simon Says" turned inside out; "Shame on You" (with Stevie Wonder and Mario Winans) samples Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones" to great effect; "For the Nasty" is apex era ATCQ updated to the new millennium; "Official" is basically a live rendition of Pete Rock's gem "Once Upon a Time" from Slum Village's Fantastic vol II. And isn't "Lisa" a nod to "Mona Lisa" - both the Slick Rick version and that version were Wyclef Jean cuts butter with the Neville Brothers?
Where does the Lenny K equation come in then? Well, if Kamaal the Abstract was entirely set in the jazz club, on Live at the Renaissance Tip has sort of filtered all his hip-hop niceness through an FM radio filter instead - it's all electric guitar licks, black rock ephemera, music for transistors rather than dinner tables. And it's actually a great move - this is what Gwen Stephani's productions would have sounded like if they were targeting a more 'mature' audience, and had more of that playful grit funk attitude that we always expect from the Tip.
To sum up: This is classic Americana, painted with the widest brush, by the greatest charmer in hip-hop. Quite hard to resist, in other words. Q-tip wants to take your daughter to the drive-in, eat popcorns and giggle all night. And of course, it's friggin' impossible to refuse him that!

Q-Tip: I'm Not Gonna Have It
Q-Tip: Official

not your ordinary

2006-07-08T20:07:00.000+01:00

One of the albums of this year will be out any day now: Aloe Blacc's Shine Through (Stones Throw). After having pursued an MC career with rap group Emanon, Aloe made a slight career change to more seriously make use of his rare singing talent, hooked up with hip-hop producer Oh No, and struck a new path as a solo artist.
On "I'm Beautiful" and his much-hyped Spanish version of John Legend's (I need to give credit here also to Jon Lucien ) "Ordinary People", Aloe makes soul music which is, put simply, Larger Than Life.
Then — more interestingly — on the album, he does something which is like an inversion of that, but which comes out as even stronger, on its own merit: Check the official website for the video to negro spiritual "Busking", and realize how this is unaffected, unpretentional music but at the same time as bold a statement as you'd be able to think of these days. Surpassing playa bragadocio and sex-crazed closet-jumping through sheer modesty and soulfulness. Aloe don't need to boast, he be killing them anyway, cos they all children — and he's the daddy.
www.myspace.com/aloeblaccmusic
www.aloeblacc.com

Aloe Blacc: I'm Beautiful
Aloe Blacc: Ordinary People (Spanish version)

I can't stop!

2006-05-25T21:00:00.000+01:00

hehe.. one day I'm slagging off Baile Funk, the next one I'm milking the very same Cariocan titties myself!
Here's a wee mashup between (what is probably the best production by these guys ever) The Wiseguys' remix of West Street Mob's "I Can't Stop" and Bonde Do Role's "Melo Do Tabaco". Old skool in tha house!

Check Mad Decent for some other, wicked remixes.

West Street Mob meets Bonde Do Role: Wiseguys Can't Stop Smokin Tabaco (Jaa Liq mashup)

milkshake re-bottled

2006-05-22T10:52:00.000+01:00

A little mashup of MF Doom and Kelis for y'all... exclusively put together by the enigmatic Jaa Liq.

Kelis meets Special Herbs: Black Snake Root Milkshake (Jaa Liqs it up)

for you sample fanatics out there, also check
Boz Scaggs: Low Down

going east

2006-05-12T21:20:00.000+01:00

OK, folks, funk Carioca has been rinsed to death the last year or so, and doesn't it amount to a degree of colonialism when you get tanned Swedish brats with backslick haircuts dancing their Mastercard-toting, coke-fuelled Moet&Chandon strut to similarly coke-fuelled (hey, at least one link there!), gun-praising, bum sex-extolling, impoverished scruffy beats from the favelas?
Hey, rich European kids - try not to just hype one 'ethnic' style at a time, or be honest about it and admit that you just read about M.I.A in some fashion mag, and your DJ friends said "this is the coolest thing". The world is a big place, you know, and there are other parts of it out there!

So, here goes:
Balkan Beat Box: Bulgarian Chicks
featuring the "Bulgarian Chicks" Vlada Tomova and Kristin Espeland on vocals.
Taken from the Balkan Beat Box compilation on Essay Recordings. Check it out.

rare sh*, pt. 1

2006-05-08T20:44:00.000+01:00

Can we speak of such a thing as rare mp3 files?
For something which is so easily duplicated, isn't that a contradiction in terms?
However, these are some files that I found being only very temporarily available at the various places I found them... The internet is often not only about being in the right place - it's ever so often also about being in the right place at the right time.
So, for a limited period only, here goes:

Omar: It's So
Sought-after also as a (promo 12") record, this is London style broken soul at its best!
Sunshine Anderson: Heard It All Before (Quantic Soul Orchestra remix)
Great tune, a real classic - here in an unbeatable, live sounding funk version by QSO. Hard to find on vinyl these days, and a bit tricky to find even online...
Amerie: 1 Thing (Siik remix)
The Siik remix is siiick! This guy made this brilliant remix but only posted it for a short while on the wonderfully eclectic step off the frankfurter.

garden of delights

2006-05-03T10:34:00.000+01:00

Spring is in the air... New from Cut Chemist: "The Garden".
Shoutouts to 3hive audio blog!

eddie ken

2006-04-24T16:41:00.000+01:00

Eddie Kendricks: People...Hold On (Tamla Motown, 1972)
Is this one of the best soul albums ever? In a similar way to how Weldon Irvine is criminally overlooked in comparison to Stevie Wonder, Eddie Kendricks is criminally overlooked in comparison to Marvin Gaye.
I could have chosen perhaps the most obvious cut from this LP, which in Kendrick's catalogue stands equivalent to Gaye's What's Going On: the stormer track "Girl You Need a Change of Mind", or the irresistibly romantic "Day by Day" (which I'm actually quite sure Eric Clapton has been bitin'!).
But instead we're focusing here on the crushingly short "Date With the Rain", and the title tune, "My People...Hold On", which is a key milestone in Black music's celebration of consciousness, heritage and pride.

Eddie Kendricks: My People...Hold On
("My People...Hold On" can also be found on the Harmless compilation Stand Up and Be Counted)

Eddie Kendricks: Date With the Rain

trip to chicago

2006-04-17T22:30:00.000+01:00

Just came back from Chicago, heartland of funk & soul. Also went to Minneapolis - which used to host the purple premises of Prince (Paisley Park). Ironically, the latter city surprisingly turned out to be the better one of the two for record digging.
Too much / hype list: (for when Europeans go crazy on midwest sh*)
* carne asada burritos
* John Klemmer
* Mizell Bros
* "Bomb the Suburbs"
* Chicago suburban radio: it's all Toto & John Cougar Mellencamp (crackers in the area are all still stuck in the 1980s)
* Eddie Kendricks "People...hold on"
* Ahmad Jamal "Jamal plays Jamal"
* Grain Belt beer
* NCAA basketball (go Gators!!!)
* Four Tet vs. Steve Reid, "Exchange Sessions" live @ the Empty Bottle

always find a way

2006-02-13T18:19:00.000+00:00

J Dilla rest in peace.
One of the best hip-hop producers of a generation has passed away due to a long-term illness. James Yancey aka Jay Dee aka J Dilla released the album Donuts only a week ago — buy it at your local record store, or at turntablelab.com. Two other projects, The Shining and Jay Love Japan are completed, probably to be posthumously released.
This guy produced some of the best music there is:
* De La Soul: Stakes Is High
* The Pharcyde: Runnin'
* Nine Yards: Always Find A Way
* Q-Tip: Amplified (LP)
* Common: Like Water For Chocolate (LP)
* Phat Kat: Dedication To The Suckers (EP)
* Jay Dee: Welcome 2 Detroit (LP)
* Dwight Trible & The Life Force Trio: Antiquity
* Spacek: Dollar
* Amp Fiddler: Waltz Of A Ghetto Fly
...history will tell us what loss this truly was.

Download: Jay Dee "Ritmo Suave Bossa Nova"

http://www.stonesthrow.com/
http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=5355

some current hotness

2006-02-05T21:54:00.000+00:00

Current hotness 10:
Sylvia "Pillow Talk"
Amp Dog Knight "Over U"
Marc Mac "How About a Game of Chess"
Lowrell "Mellow Mellow Right On"
Theo Parrish "Dreamers Blues (in the Thick Mix)"
Syclops "Mom the Video Broke"
Liquid Dope "Krash"
Moondog "Bumbo"
Steely Dan "Peg"
DJ Eleven "Hip-hop on 22s"

the £ is stronger than the $

2006-02-05T21:46:00.000+00:00

"Sway, and I'm badder than Dennis the Menace
I went down to Queensbridge and saw Nas and his fellas
I'm trying to distract him: "Look, there's Roccafellas!"
While me and SAS is trying to get away with Kelis"
Sway: “Thief’s Theme Freestyle”

wilmot meets lord scruffage

2006-01-28T16:18:00.000+00:00

"Wilmot" (Sabres of Paradise, 1994) ties back to those things that make up indispensable parts of london's past. stretch via the melancholy of dub syndicate and on-u sound, to horace andy, eek-a-mouse, soundsystem culture in ladbroke grove and lewisham, to calypso out of broken transistors in council flat kitchens, and you've tapped the pulse on the heritage running through this city. "wilmot" is the summary, the logical conclusion – 70 years of music history merged into one track, older than your granddad! 1994 to posterity: "Wilmot" was, and is, the shit.
and, geesh, that track by Shantel - "Bucovina", when given the Haaksman & Haaksman Soca Bogle treatment, is rather nice too!

a glimpse of the future

2006-01-13T14:23:00.000+00:00

Vestito acutamente e un senso per melodia: Kalle J.
Kalle J is a music maker from Sweden. Buy his CD from www.hybrism.com/shop. Click here to listen.

original herbs

2006-01-07T20:57:00.000+00:00

MF Doom breaks mix for y'all, at Soul Sociedada. nice.

trancecrackers are stupid

2005-12-12T20:35:00.000+00:00

Remember kids: trance DJs rely solely on the ignorance of their fans to keep themselves employed.

wadayarekun?

2005-12-09T18:04:00.000+00:00

Me and you, your momma and your cousin too
Rollin' down the strip on vogues
Comin' up slammin' Cadillac doors...

Sleepy Brown: "Me, My Baby and My Cadillac"
+
Gnarls Barkley: "Crazy"
(yeah that last one is DJ Dangermouse featuring Cee-Lo Green)
hotness - ashes to ashes, funk to funky... you know the score

the beautiful country

2005-12-01T12:30:00.000+00:00

Bonobo "Pick Up (Four Tet remix)".
If Bonobo’s original mix of “Flutter” is Peter Sellers’ “The Party”, the Four Tet remix of “Pick Up” is Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven”. His remix unfolds and unfolds, to soon reach the epic proportions that earlier similar productions [like f.ex. some of DJ Shadow’s material on “Private Press” or the Freeform Five remix of Isolée’s “Beau Mot Plage”] have merely tapped upon......

remix is loveless...

2005-11-26T14:13:00.000+00:00

I don't know if this is good or bad: the Go!Team vs Kevin Shields remix, as streamed audio on myspace.com... A bit ladyflash and a bit huddle. For those who don't know, Kevin Shields is the moody producer bloke from My Bloody Valentine.

garry glitter death sentence special

2005-11-23T09:55:00.000+00:00

Former British rock star Gary Glitter is being held for child sex charges in Vietnam, a country where such crimes can ultimately lead to a death penalty. (note: can lead, I'm not saying the man is actually sentenced ...yet)
What can we learn from this?
Well, that paedophilia is bad (as in bad meaning bad not bad meaning good), and as the old saying goes: "all that glitters ain't gold".
Tune? "Behind This Door" by Robert Hood -- international theme tune for vice investigators in the Far East. Timpanis, sly nighttime moods and all!

kalabalik be good to me

2005-11-22T12:22:00.000+00:00

The Kalabalik guys on myspace.com - check out the sound streams!
Courtesy of DJ Asparagus tha Gentleman, Ron and Boj Lucki, these are some shit-hot cuts; a KDJ-style re-edit of SOS Band's "Just Be Good To Me" (or Beats International's "Dub Be Good To Me" if you prefer it that way), an Amerie vs Nas mashup, plus the exquisite spoken word drum'n'bass of "She Me" and the latin banger "Romambo's Theme"...
ch- ch- cheqq it out!!!

music is my sanctuary

2005-11-17T22:25:00.000+00:00

Some of the most righteous soul jazz ever recorded...dustygroove writes about this fella, Gary Bartz, an alto sax genius originally hailing from Baltimore, Maryland.
"Music is My Sanctuary" ranks up there among the best Mizell brothers productions, turning heads not only as a classic pop melody, but also as a deep, fluid rare groove side. Cop the reissue. Can also strongly recommend the cut "Carnaval De L'Esprit", also on this classic LP.
A good way to start a blog. A big musical inspiration.
oh, and the link.