It's nosis that's hip, see?
2007-09-18 12:12:00
A track from an out-o-print jazz record I picked up over at the amazing blog Orgy In Rhythm (named after an Art Blakey album, so don't get yer hopes up, pervos :P ), and just had to share this track with you...In my Jazz education, I haven't heard a whole lot about sax man Jackie McLean but I did read that he was hooked on the smack at one time, so of course he's got some game! This track here rides on a mesmerizing, subtly funk piano line and is just 11 minutes of sheer greatness... it really lives up to it's title...Jackie McLean - HipnosisHow has music like this been allowed to fall out of print when I can still readily purchase a Nickelback album just about anywhere? Because God is dead, that's why.(Just kidding to make a point there, God! Don't smite me, please!)
Kickin' it really, really old school
2007-09-17 11:19:00
Classic as all get-out...If you believe people like Eric Clapton (and yeah, I know that's a stretch, the dodgy cunt), then Robert Johnson is one of the most influential figures in the history of American music, laying the basis for what would become Rock 'n' Roll in some of the best blues songs ever. Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that according to legend he may or may not have sold his soul to the devil, and you can't get much more RAWK than that! Robert Johnson - Kindhearted Woman Blues So women drive you to drink Robert? No kiddin'! :P
It's all about me!!!
2007-09-15 16:36:00
It's ma birfday!!!The Sugarcubes - Birthday Gimme some love, dammit!!!:P
Short and strangely terse...
2007-09-14 11:02:00
Hey, here's a good one!dZihan & Kamien are from Austria. And they're fucking awesome at music. So just listen to it already!dZihan & Kamien - Sliding Back to being a real blogger next week. Promise!Have a fantastic weekend :)
Read more: Short
The Madness and Me
2007-09-13 11:50:00
So, does one half of Orbital sound half as good as Orbital?Longrange is the much-awaited, by me anyways, new project by Phil Hartnoll of Orbital and, um... some other guy. Now, Oribital is maybe my favorite electronic act ever, so the big question is... how does it stack up? The answer... decently. There is certainly a whole lot of the Orbital lushness in there, which is good... but it's kinda lacking an edge, which for me is not as good. A lot of the songs with vocals are getting a little close to pop, but since Phil was always the mincy one, I suppose that was to be expected. This one is my fave so far... kind of the "Belfast" of this album, if you will...Longrange - Lie Down So yeah, that's not too bad at all... waiting for Paul's project to drop now... whose will be better? Stay tuned!
Read more: Madness
The Man-Machines
2007-09-11 15:01:00
Hey folks...Finally done with the hell job... and I promised something good... now I deliver...Kraftwerk - Live at Coachella 2004Amazing show, fantastic sound quality for a bootleg... I was there... they played right after Radiohead... oh fuck yeah!Enjoy!
A short hiatus...
2007-09-05 21:37:00
Hi all,Due to the supremely fucked work schedule I'm on this week, I won't be blogging again until next Monday. But rest assured... lots of good stuff is coming your way next week.Peace,The Management
Laboring on Labor Day
2007-09-03 12:58:00
Happy Labor Day (to those here in the U.S.). Ironically, I am working today. So sucks to be me.Since it's sorta unofficially the last day of summer, here's a song that couldn't be more appropos... Puracane is one of those groups that fit the classic Trip-Hop template, i.e. cute girl in front singing, pasty dude in the back twiddlin' the knobs. They've only released one album thus far that I know of, but it's a really good one, right up there with the best work of Morcheeba and all that lot. How a group like that decided to cover Jane's Addiction I can't figure out, but damn if it doesn't work splendidly...Puracane - Summertime Rolls So, on this here job today, I just got to meet famed conservative blowhard Tucker Carlson, and although I certainly don't agree with the dude's politics, I must say, he's a terribly nice fellow. I'm sure he eats babies and stuff when he's not being all professional, though... positive of it. Remember when he got pwned!!1!! by Jon Stewar
Flying Dutchmen
2007-10-02 12:09:00
Some party music for ya today!Now, I'm quite sure that the 3 Dutch producers who go by the moniker Kraak & Smaak in no way meant for their name to be some kind of thinly veiled drug reference. Because you know they don't tolerate any kind of drug use whatsoever in the Netherlands. You can't just walk down to a corner cafe and get high there-- oh, wait, never mind. But I mean, drugs and dance music... there's absolutely no-- hmm... okay, maybe they did mean it. Well, despite this fact, which I absolutely cannot believe, their debut album Boogie Angst (awesome name) is a funky good time, along the lines of Crazy Penis (even awesomer name) with their disco-influenced house and breaks. There needs to be a lot more music like this. Why? Because the girls love it, and take it from a DJ, if the girls aren't loving the music, your club will suck. It'll just be a bunch of dorky white guys nodding their heads. Sound like fun? Didn't think so. Anyhoo, here's my favorite track f
Read more: Flying
Death Jazz!
2007-10-01 12:31:00
At least that's what the band calls it...The band being the bunch of Japanese Jazz lunatics known as Soil & "Pimp" Sessions. These guys are nuts. They play Jazz like it's Punk Rock. I swear, if ever there were to be a mosh pit at a Jazz show, this is where it would happen. Here's one of their less crazy jams...Soil & "Pimp" Sessions - Worldwide... that one doesn't even have the crazy Japanese shouting over the top. But as you can hear, these guys have serious Jazz chops, and yes, they have been championed by my man-crush Gilles Peterson. There's nothing wrong with a harmless man-crush, people... nothing! Um... that is all.
Download this!
2007-09-28 11:57:00
Let's end the week with a good one...New Sector Movements is a project from producer I.G. Culture, a close comrade of the mighty Bugz In The Attic crew, so you know what to expect... broken beat goodness! And since I'm having another one of those days when I seem to be short of pithy comments, I'll just tell you to heed the album title and Download
This right now! (See what I did there? Huh? Huh? I know, you'd punch me right in the face now me if you could)...New Sector Movements - Never Been CloserAnd with that, have an awesome weekend!
Can u dance to my beat?
2007-10-12 11:46:00
Friday means it's time for some house music, and here is maybe one of my top 10 tracks of all time, courtesy of Blaze..."As we dance to a beat that seems out of timeTo the one you feel in the metronome of your mindDoes it offend you that our rhythm looks strangeOr causes you thinking to be re-arrangedCould it be that you would understand this beat to which we danceMore clearly had you been given the chanceSo as you struggle to find the feel with your feetAsk yourself…………can you dance to my beatWatch us get down to this groove with a afro-funk feelWhile we get hiiiiigh to a rhythm with spiritual appealExpressions of freedom from the descendants of slavesGod gives us the strength for new horizons we must breatheFirst bondage than mental now financially oppressedWith this beat we dance we know we’ve passed the testSo as you struggle to catch the rhythm with your feetAsk yourself…………can you dance to my beatThe rhythm… rhythm… rhythm… is our power section.The freedo
In which I call Jazz writers some unflattering names
2007-10-11 12:02:00
A new take on an old standard today...I guess that would be called a cover version, no? But you never hear that term used in jazz, do ya? I suspect that is because people who write about jazz tend to be a bit fancy, read: snobbish twats. It's always a "reading" or an "interpretation" or some other such foofery. Look, this isn't a freshman poetry class, it's a record, ya ponce! A cover is a cover, and today, British act Two Banks Of Four delivers a ramped up, sorta Drum & Bass cover of the famous Mongo Santamaria composition - and I felt compelled to mention that because Mongo Santamaria might be the best name ever possessed by a human being - that was made most famous by Mr. Coltrane...Two Banks Of Four - Afro BlueDon't have the CD with me right now, or else I'd be able to be useful and tell you who those nice vocals are by... eh, pick up a copy and find out yerself! :P
I will ruin you with a slanderous mambo!
2007-10-10 12:25:00
First off, the new Radiohead is fucking amazing. They are just better at music than everybody else. So deal with it.But I'm not gonna give that to you today, like, oh... every other blog in the known universe. But I will give you a song by someone I'm pretty sure has opened for them a few times...... or maybe not. I'll have to verify that. Now, I'll give you that sometimes, Tito Puente's music can veer dangerously close to Ricky Ricardo territory...Lucy! Chew gotta lotta 'splainin' to do!... especially his excursions into Bossa Nova... not so great... But! Sometimes Tito just plain brings it with nothing but fierce percussion and blazing horn charts, and those are two things I know we can all get behind. Kinda like so...Tito Puente - Dance of the HeadhuntersPlus the guy did a cameo on The Simpsons, and that always scores you mucho bonus points in my book...Okay, now back to that Radiohead...
Read more: mambo
Downloading = bad, natch
2007-10-09 12:57:00
Short but sweet today, kinda like my laday...I'm sure most of you need no introduction to Zero 7, unless you of course live under rocks... which seems like a silly place to live, but hey, who am I to judge? I live in a peat bog. Anyhoo, at least I can be obscure with the song choice, because that's how us cool bloggers roll. So here's an instrumental track of their very first EP...Zero 7 - One Arm BreakYep, the signature sound was there right from the beginning. And no, you can't find yourself a copy of this, unless... ... but downloading music is wrong, and you will be sued, even if you are dead... so don't even try and do a Google Blog search, because that would help the terrorists win and make kittens explode.
Read more: Downloading
Columbus can bite me
2007-10-08 12:22:00
Mondays blow. Especially fake-ass holiday Mondays that you still have to work on. Yes, non-U.S. readers, today is Columbus
Day in the states, when we celebrate a dude that got lost trying to find India, but ended up discovering America totally by accident and generally ruined a bunch of Indians' days in the process... but not the Indians from India, but the Indians from America. Confusing, eh? Anyhoo, today's song has absolutely nothing to do with any of that...... because it is some smooth, African-influenced Neo-Soul from London-by-way-of-Lagos singer Siji. And yeah, that was a terrible sentence, grammatically speaking... but reading this blog for the grammar is like reading The Anarchist Cookbook for the cupcake recipes... you're not gonna get too far. So I'll just shut up now and get to the music...Siji - Watching You, Watching MeKinda like a Nigerian John Legend, eh? Maybe he should give Kanye a call... okay, maybe not.
Friday Funk
2007-10-05 12:41:00
I kind of like Friday
being House music day around here, so here's some hot wax straight off the 12"...Don't know anything much about this Joey Youngman fellow, except that his name is extremely nerdy and he makes some of the nicest in-the-pocket Deep House that I've heard in a while. Check out this jammy from the Refreaked EP...Joey Youngman - Funk 45Yup, that's the stuff that makes you a trainspotter right there. Pick it up at Juno. It's a 4-tracker and they're all hot. Then, after you do that, have a great weekend. Peace.
Teh Sexay!
2007-10-04 11:01:00
Hey all... like the sexay new look?Back to the iTunes on shuffle today, and we get this...Well, he certainly has a lot to live up to, what with his dad being a musical legend/borderline nutbag and all, but Femi Kuti has done all right for himself, putting out some very good albums. And he's got a couple things his dad didn't have, a Myspace page and a bangin' remix album! (Have there been any Fela remix albums? I can't say I've seen one... but Fela's music is pretty un-fuckwiddable, so it's probably no great loss) Shoki Remixed featured some heavy hitters on the versions (Ashley Beedle, Nuyorican Soul and Joe Clausell to name a few), but I think this downtempo rework by Francois K. may take the cake...Femi Kuti - Sorry Sorry (Francois K's Old School Afro Dub)That's almost as sexay as my new design, innit? And yes, I think I may have just torn a rotator cuff patting myself on the back. I'm like that.
The balcony is open
2007-10-03 12:28:00
Since I mentioned 'em yesterday...... , might as well give Crazy Penis (now known as Crazy P, sellouts!) some shine. These guys have been making super happy fun time house and breaks for a decade now, and even roll with a live band these days... come play in L.A. dammit! You can get the idea from the cover and title of their first album, A Nice Hot Bath With..., of the sense of humor that these guys bring to their music as well. You gotta love any song that samples Statler and Waldorf, the two grouchy hecklers in the balcony from The Muppet Show...Crazy Penis - A Little SomethingThis record is unfortunately out of print, but can be purchased in digital form from the awesome Paper Recordings online shop. Go get it...And here's a great YouTubes montage of Statler and Waldorf in action...Sure I'm dating myself, but I grew up on that shit! Classic!
Goodbye Summer!
2007-10-18 12:08:00
For post number 200 (Virgos love milestones), I have decided to inflict upon you another Tonegent original production (Virgos love self-promotion), just finished a couple of days ago... kind of a bouncy, jazzy downtempo sketch of a thing.Tonegent - Goodbye
Summer
(ysi)Please feel free to leave any comments you have on how much you love or hate it. BTW, You might notice that little link up there that says (ysi)... that's a Yousendit link. Now, I'm quite aware that Yousendit blows because you can't hear the track before you download and it only stays up for 7 days... so don't even bother. Click the song name like usual. The other link is just there so my posts will show up on Hype Machine (hopefully). Yes, Virgos love validation, too.
Now it's Dad's turn...
2007-10-17 12:56:00
Since I posted some Femi Kuti a while ago, why not some Fela?I shouldn't need to say anything... so I won't... :PFela Kuti - Who No Know Go KnowYep.
Italians do it better
2007-10-16 11:54:00
So it has occured to me that I missed the big Blogger Enviromental Dip-de-doo Day yesterday... hey, I talked about hippies in my post. Hippies love that enviroment shit. So close enough. Today's artist is no hippie, but he is Italian, which means he has some personal hygiene issues of his own. (I'm Italian so I can say that. You however... don't even try) Nicola Conte first showed up on Thievery Corporation's ESL music, but for this record, he went all the way to Blue Note so he could impress the ladies with his Jazz street cred. Chicks dig Blue Note. Anyhoo, Nicola went, as you might imagine, from more of an electronic bossa sound (on ESL? get outta here!) to a straight-ahead jazz vibe with real players (on Blue Note? get outta outta here!) and the results are quite nice...Nicola Conte - The In-BetweenYup, ol' Nicola's up to his ears in tail these days, I assure you. I even found some live footage... that's him on guitar...Arrivederci!
Read more: better
Dirty hippie music
2007-10-15 12:56:00
I hope it doesn't stink of patchouli in here too much this morning...Now, I hate hippie
s as much as the next guy, I promise... but despite that, here's what popped up on the shuffle this morning. Tranquility Bass was the nom de plume of one Michael Kandel, a large and well-bearded man whose album Let The Freak Flag Fly signaled both the beginning and end of the genre of Hippie-tronica. Now, as horrible as that sounds, it's an oddly compelling listen. It's very weird and psychedelic, of course, but-- you can in fact dance to it. Just do the hippie dance, ya know... spin around and shit...Tranquility Bass - Five Miles HighStrangely good, huh? But remember... hippies are not good. Hippies are dirty and smelly and will try to sell you beads for pot money. Then they'll sell the pot for tickets to a Phish show. But then they'll sell their Phish tickets for more pot. And trade some of that pot to another hippy for beads. Hippies are a very confused bunch...
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquariussssss!
2007-10-22 09:42:00
Funny memories of this song...Mark Mac and Dego, aka 4Hero have been innovators in D & B and Broken Beat for a long time, but this song here is a bit different. It starts off as sounding kind of like a Zero 7 song, all downtempo and acoustic like with the female vocal harmonies, but then in the chorus turns into this over the top "Age of Aquarius" freak-out. Like, a naked hippies running through a field in sychronized dance steps kinda thing. I guess a more flattering description would be to say it's a total '70s Soul Jazz choir kinda thing, but the "Age of Aquarius" joke never got old. To wit, a friend I used to DJ with would often play this song at cocktail loungey sort of gigs and forget how big and outrageous it got, only to remember too late, as folks started to give the DJ booth strange glances once the freak-out began. And he must have done this at like 10 straight gigs. Bizarre. Don't get me wrong though, it's a hell of a nice tune... just a bit, shall we say, big...
Some weekend preparation
2007-10-19 11:56:00
It's the return of House Music Friday... because House is weekend-riffic. I love making up words. Fuck Webster's. They're just tryin' to oppress a brother's vocabulary with their "rules"...As so many of the classic Deep House record labels have fallen off the map (Paper, Nuphonic, Guidance... the list goes on), luckily there have been new ones to take their place , and the UK's Freerange Records is easily one of the best of the newcomers. And the best place to start is with their "Colour Series" compilations. There are four of them out now, and they are all top quality. Here's a sample from the third. Now Switch are pretty well flogged in the blogs for their remix work, but not so much for their original jammies. Wassupwiddat? Tonegent to the rescue with a big, big tune right here...Switch - Just Bounce 2 This (ysi)I can only imagine the sigh of relief these guys will exhale, knowing that they have finally gotten this kind of exposure. I am also, of course, completel
Read more: preparation
It's still house music... if your house is in Spanish Harlem
2007-10-26 12:09:00
I know Friday has been proclaimed House music day around here, but since I already posted a House song this week...... let's roll into the weekend with some Latin Funk hotness, courtesy of the great percussionist and cool-name-havin' dude Willie Bobo... because this will make you move that butt, too, folks. Plus Willie gets extra cool points for his son playing drums with Cypress Hill's live band now, and the younger Bobo has been known to take a four-foot bong out on stage and blaze up whilst playing. Sweet. Anyhoo, here is the title track from Do What You Want To Do, from 1971 (yeah, like I didn't have to look that up :P )...Willie Bobo & The Bo-Gents - Do What You Want To Do (ysi)So take that, head out to Happy Hour for some chips and salsa and five or six Margaritas... hmmm, I suppose that would be more appropriate if I had posted some Mariachi music... whatevs, sue me... and have a great weekend!
Read more: Spanish
, Harlem
Super Duper Bonus Post!
2007-10-25 14:16:00
Two posts in one day?Whaaaaa?You heard me. Because I wanted to give a little blog love (the non-gay kind... not that there's anything wrong with that) to a good friend of mine, and he was kind enough to supply me with a couple of tunes to share with you...Delicate is Shawn Lyon, a talented multi-instrumentalist based in L.A. but originally from Idaho of all places. Yes, from the land of potatoes and blue football fields. And though you've probably never heard of him, you've heard his music on plenty of TV commercials... he's one of those guys. But you will hear of him soon. Like, in a couple of seconds when you click the link. The music is atmospheric and a bit brooding, and if you like M83 and that lot, you are gonna love this...Delicate - Re-Evolution Orange (ysi)See? I wouldn't steer you wrong, folks! That's not how I roll. And the man can remix, too...Bjork - Hidden Place (Delicate Remix) (ysi)So get yourself over to his Myspace and friend him up, so when he drop
Read more: Super
, Bonus
Welcome to the freak show
2007-10-25 11:50:00
Feels about time for some hip-hop today...Just about every write-up you'll ever read about Philly's The Goats' debut album Tricks Of The Shade describes it in exactly the same words. One of the best yet most slept-on Hip-Hop albums in, oh, maybe ever. And I'm not here to disagree with that! It's a weird one no doubt, a concept album in which America has become "Uncle Scam's Federally Funded Welfare and Freakshow", which 15 years later is still pretty damn spot-on. Hell, they were even making fun of a President named Bush... ha! We've come a long way, baby. Anyhoo, these guys have great flow, a wicked sense of humor, and the beats on this record, courtesy of Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo, are fantastic... this one has always been my favorite...The Goats - Hip-Hopola (ysi)Yep, remember when rap was good? Me, too... sorta. It's a bit hazy, but I have a faint recollection. Peace.
Read more: Welcome
Lemme take you to bloggerland...
2007-10-24 12:04:00
That post title will make sense in a minute. Trust me. In the meantime, I got a big fat epic track for ya today...Interfearence was a project of London-based producers Steve Tyrell and Paul Martin. Now, I'm the kind of guy who likes to write my blog myself, not just steal bios from elsewhere, but for some reason I love the write-up Tyrell has about Interfearence on his myspace..."Interfearence are/were Paul Martin (ex Talkin' Loud A&R supremo) and myself; we made two albums (Interfearence, ffrr 1999 and Take That Train, Ubiquity 2001) which received much critical acclaim and almost no sales. Oh well, it's better to be cool and unknown than a famous sell-out, isn't it? Isn't it?! Perhaps not then. Anyway, it was always about the music and I stand by it. Our single 'All Day' was included on the 'Human Traffic' soundtrack and can be heard in the background of the film during the scene in the kitchen at the after party when they're talking about Yoda and Darth Vader. Classic.
Africa Funk Double Dip
2007-10-23 11:29:00
Today, an old-school original vs. the new-school remix/remake, but we're not talking about that dreadful BBC covers compilation that just came out, so don't worry...So this Ethiopiques series is pretty darn good if you're into the Africa
n vibe... which, as you know, I am. My favorite one of the 3 or 4 I've picked up so far is this one, dedicated almost exclusively to the music of Mulatu Astatke, who was so hood he went to Berklee. I'll bet he's stoked the Sox came back and made the World Series. Anyhoo, the sound is a groovy combo of East and West, a little bit Africa, a little bit Jazz, a little bit funk. Those are three good things to be a little bit of in my book...Mulatu Astatke - Yegelle Tezeta (ysi) So yeah, that's pleasant... but then a couple of years ago, some guys who call themselves Nephews of Phela decided this would be a nice track to soup up for the dance floor...... and soup it up they did, using a lot of the original but adding on several layers of percuss
|
Recommend Site To A Friend
