September 24th, 2009
When I first heard Fool’s Gold in May of this year, I pigeonholed them as trend-hopping Echo Park poseurs who decided to play afro-pop following a weekend of smoking cotton candy kush, snorting Dexedrine, and listening to “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” on repeat. As you can see from the video above, they seemed too happy, too healthy, too Caucasian–particularly in contrast to the other bands playing that night at The Dub Club: Extra Golden, The Meditations, and Yousouppha Sidibe. As I am wont to do, I made a snap judgment and pledged that for all eternity when someone asked about Fool’s Gold, I’d make some snide remark involving pyrite, alchemy, and the great Rift Valley. It probably wouldn’t be funny.
So when Paul Tao, half of the pair behind IAMSOUND, told me his label had signed Fool’s Gold, I kept my mouth shut because no one really wants to be told, “sorry, you just invested in fool’s gold.” However, I downloaded the album and threw in into the vast churning miasma that is my hard drive, next to the hundreds of Gigabytes of African music I own made by actual Africans, ostensibly never to be heard. About a week later, with iTunes on shuffle, an absurdly funky slice of soukous guitars came on. I checked to see who it was by. Uh-huh.
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Posted in Fool's Gold, African Music | 1 Comment »
September 24th, 2009
The intent was to transcribe and post the entirety of my Q&A with BBC Radio One DJ, Mary Anne Hobbs. Unfortunately, it’s 1:00 a.m, I’m exhausted and as much as I like you guys, I enjoy sleep that much more. So, a link to my Times piece, the promise that I’ll do it sooner than later, and a few MP3’s from her debut compilation, Warrior Dubz.
Download:
MP3: Burial-”Versus”
MP3: Benga-”Music Box”
Posted in LA Times | No Comments »
September 23rd, 2009
I typically avoid posting on the same artist in consecutive weeks, but if Koushik is going to insist on giving away his entire catalog for free he’s forcing my hand. After one-upping the bootleggers by offering up his Bleep Tape for free download, he’s now insisting on offering the instrumentals from last year’s excellent Out My Window, with extra bonus beats. Fair enough. It’s only available gratis for the next several days, so in the words of Todd Shaw, “get it while the gettin’ is good. Get it while you can, you should.”
Download:
ZIP: Koushik-”Ghostless + Bonus Beats”
Posted in Koushik, Stones Throw | 1 Comment »
September 23rd, 2009
Back before Timbaland abandoned the pursuit of futuristic 33rd Century R&B for tepid Buck Rogers-lite, ray-gun rap (or as normal people refer to it, America’s most popular album two weeks running), he laced Missy protege/possible paramour/self-love advocate Tweet with one of the best beats he never slid towards Aaliyah. Hudson Mohawke–who you might remember from earlier this month–released a white label only remix of “Oops” earlier this year, re-working Timbaland’s twerked funk into a wobbly dubstep behemoth. On the B-Side, he flipped Ashanti’s “Still On It,” thus reclaiming her from past sins inflicted from Ja Rule collabos. Both tracks offer a unique vision for R&B, far removed from the majority of the sub T-Pain rhythm and bullshit that passes for soul these days. And by this, I mean not having to see that topless wastrel Ray J on everything from the New Boyz to the new Warren G jaunt.
MP3: Hudson Mohawke-”Oops”
MP3: Hudson Mohawke-”Still On It”
Posted in Dubstep | 4 Comments »
September 23rd, 2009
Disco Vietnam is a Twitter wunderkind.
Writing from his New Yorker blog, Sasha Frere Jones recently offered his praise to Norwegian wunderkind Sondre Lerche’s latest album Heartbeat Radio, citing the songwriter’s use of “fancy chords” as what most readily distinguishes him musically from his peers. Forgive me if I find this a bit reductive. While Frere-Jones rightly places Lerche firmly within the tradition of similar songwriters Elvis Costello and Andy Partridge (to say nothing of Glenn Tilbrook or a Paul McCartney), it isn’t so much that Lerche’s chords are “fancy” but rather that they are correct: each chord builds on the previous but only suggests what may follow. More than any other contemporary songwriter Lerche understands, both in performance and on record, how to musically incorporate the element of surprise and it’s in that respect Heartbeat Radio may be his finest work to date.
Lerche takes to the stage of the Troubadour Thursday in early support of Heartbeat Radio, his fifth album and follow-up to 2007’s more propulsive Phantom Punch. Heartbeat Radio is Lerche’s most mature record. It’s also his most musically direct, which has made Lerche’s solo performances this tour all the more enjoyable. Stripped to their essentials – guitar and voice - songs like “I Guess It’s Gonna Rain Today” and “Good Luck” reveal an even more efficient approach to melody than we have previously heard from Lerche. The songs are better for it. Nothing fancy about that.
MP3: Sondre Lerche-“I Guess It’s Gonna Rain Today” (Left-Click)
MP3: Sondre Lerche-“Almighty Moon” (Left-Click)
Posted in Disco Vietnam | No Comments »
September 22nd, 2009
Due to a combination of serendipitous circumstance and a Snake Plisskin need to escape from LA, I have decamped to San Francisco for the next six weeks. My mission is to prowl the Fillmore for the ghost of Andre Nickatina, uncover the secret location of Rappin’ 4-Tay’s Playaz Club across the water in the “Biggiddy Biggidy Bay,” and uncover why Messy Marv is in fact, so messy. In an auspicious omen, People Under the Stair’s “San Francisco Knights” came on my iPod shuffle right as I crossed the city limits last night. Hopefully, Thes and Double K’s premonition of blunts, broads, and beats will ring true.
Until I get acclimated to the fog and wind and survive a few looming deadlines, posting in these parts might be a bit lighter than usual. In the interim, here are a few songs that soundtracked my ride up. Any tips on restaurants, shows, and spots to cop the Ball St. Journal are warmly welcomed.
MP3: Andre Nickatina-”Ghost of Fillmoe”
MP3: People Under the Stairs-”San Francisco Knights”
MP3: DJ Quik-”I Don’t Want to Party With You”
MP3: Rappin 4-Tay-”Playaz Club”
Posted in News | 4 Comments »
September 21st, 2009
Off their new album, Imidiwan, another classic aptly described by guitarist and vocalist Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni as “a faithful record…a good rendition of our sound at its most natural and most ‘easy’…but a difficult album to make. We wanted to record in the desert because that’s where we feel most relaxed and happy. “But it’s also where we’re most distracted. We’re like a herd of animals in the desert, always wanting to go off left and right, each one to mind his or her business. Jean-Paul the producer always had to herd us back into the studio to make music.”
Thankfully, Jean-Paul did, making him the first Jean-Paul since Sartre to successfully corral a large group of people to do anything other than drink expensive coffee and smoke gaunt cigarettes. As I said in May, this is Malian gangsta’ rock: no-frills, warriors disguised as musicians, the type as likely to carry guns in their guitar cases, offering dirges to the desert and the dead bodies lost along the way. Gorgeous desolate noise. I’m patiently waiting on the Freddie Gibbs collabo.
Buy: Tinariwen-Imidiwan
Download:
MP3:Tinariwen-”Lulla”
MP3: Tinariwen-”Chegret”
Posted in African Music | No Comments »
September 21st, 2009
The Next Spot is a recurring series dedicated to the albums that could’ve, would’ve, should’ve made the Decade Top 50.
Michael Render first attracted attention with his guest appearances on Outkast’s “Snappin’ And Trappin’” and “The Whole World”, but he never sounded completely at ease over Dungeon Family space-funk. I Pledge Allegiance II is backed by a line-up of mostly unknown producers providing simple but effective bangers that perfectly conform to Mike’s fiery bark.
Channeling Tony Robbins on the intro, Mike explains that the album is meant to soundtrack your success. He’s less interested in telling listeners how much money he has and more about talking about how to get that Yet hustling is only one facet of the grind and Mike wears many masks over the album’s 17 tracks: motivational speaker, preacher, and yes, hustler. But like his personal hero (early) Ice Cube (who appears on the polemic “Pressure”), Mike embodies all of these characters without being contradictory.
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Posted in The Next Spot, Top 50 Rap Albums of the '00s, Aaron Matthews | 8 Comments »
September 20th, 2009
The story goes: “in 2002 some good folks who have the Trojan & Greensleeves catalog asked Madlib to make a mixtape of these classic reggae records. They sent him a huge box with every record they had. For about two months Madlib played these records, smoked trees, made hip-hop beats, and recorded with YNQ in his studio The Bomb Shelter. One night they called and said ‘hey where’s the music, it’s overdue.’ Next morning this mixtape emerged from the cave.”
One of my favorite Otis Jackson joints, essential for any fan of vintage reggae and/or the recent Wire cover boy. Ideal listening while the weather remains warm and the light still bright. Tracklist below the jump.
ZIP: Madlib-Blunted in the Bomb Shelter (Left-Click)
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Posted in Madlib, Stones Throw | 1 Comment »
September 19th, 2009
Words cannot describe how happy I am that this man is on the Lakers. There is so much here that there is nothing to say.
Posted in Videos | 7 Comments »
