March 9th, 2010
Madlib is releasing 18 albums this year. Maybe 19. Maybe more. No one really knows. Not me. Not Egon or Peanut Butter Wolf. Not Madlib himself. We know that there are a dozen Beat Konducta albums surveying Otis Jackson’s far-flung tastes. Reggae and Afro-Beat. Tropicalia and New Wave. Actual rap music for those down since the Lootpack era. Somewhere in the mix, there is the O.J. Simpson collabo with Guilty Simpson, the Stoney Jackson LP, another Quasimoto album, Madvillain 2, Madlib and the Young Jazz Rebels and his other jazz side project The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble. Monk Hughes, that withered and venerable jazz man, may make an appearance too, but he may not. Chances are you and I have given it more thought than Madlib. He doesn’t worry about these things. He’s too busy working.
Last month, I took a trip to the Bomb Shelter. There may have been blunts bandied about. There may not have been. For about the last two weeks, I’ve been wanting to shout “I Was There!” like it was the first Can show in Cologne, but in the interest of cannibalization, I’ll keep it cryptic. The story is forthcoming, when I’m capable of finding the time and rubber cement to piece together the fragments. In the interim, a few tracks from the Beat Konducta’s latest African sojourn have been unleashed to the world. Listening to them removed from the finished project is sort of like eating lox without a bagel or cream cheese. Still pretty good, but clearly incomplete and prone to make you feel salty. Volume 3 of the Medicine Show drops on March 23 and you can pre-order and stream a few tracks at the Stones Throw website, which ought to have a Madlib almanac to keep track of his movements. All lame stereotypes about lazy stoners are clearly obsolete.
Download:
MP3: Madlib - “The Frontline (Liberation)”
MP3: Madlib - “African Voodoo Queen (Drama)”
MP3: Guilty Simpson (prod. by Madlib) - “Before the Verdict”
Posted in Madlib, Stones Throw, African Music | 6 Comments »
March 2nd, 2010
With the recession lingering as a semi-permanent hangover, Aloe Blacc’s sentiments remain fresh, though he probably wrote this back when people still believed that the mere election of Obama would yield millions of green jobs, glazed doughnut candy canes, and free cable for all. Since my apartment lacks Home Box Office, I was previously unaware that “I Need a Dollar” is the theme song for Kid Cudi’s How To Buy Limited Edition Japanese-Only Pumas in America, though its cover feels far more Danny Duberstein.
An industry vet dating back to his rap days in Emanon with Exile, Blacc recharges his mitzvah by channeling the dusty 60s soul that Mayer Hawthorne so artfully mined last year. Recruiting some of the best in reanimation, Brooklyn’s Truth and Soul (on production) and The Expressions and El Michels Affair (the backing band), “I Need a Dollar” strikes a rare balance of timeliness and timelessness. Many contemporary recession songs have felt like shallow attempts at empathy or savvy image rehabilitations, but Blacc’s is imbued with world-weary sadness and subtle desperation. The music supplies the hope — a celestial hail of horns and plangent pianos –a haunting line nicking “Still Dre” and/or “Two Weeks.” The result is something along the lines of “Circulate,” “Brother, Can You a Spare a Dime, ” or “Minimum Wage Nanny.” Repeated listening may also help mitigate the sufferings of Groat’s Disease.
Download:
MP3: Aloe Blacc - “I Need a Dollar”
Posted in Aloe Blacc, Stones Throw | 5 Comments »
January 11th, 2010
Sach O forms like Old McDonald: E I O.
In Search of Stoney Jackson is Madlib’s 48 Hours. His Center of Attention. His Livin’ Proof. If those names don’t ring a bell, you’re probably not a fan of super producers giving away their best beats to seemingly undeserving rappers. That’s not a diss: I honestly doubt that anyone is picking up Stoney Jackson on the strength of Strong Arm Steady’s rapping same as Lil Dap didn’t move Group Home units. Madlib’s the selling point here and he delivers in spades with the kind of dusty, gonzo soul that’s become his trademark in recent years. Put your prejudice against Talib Kweli’s weed carriers aside however and Stoney Jackson’s vocal component reveals itself to be surprisingly robust: a potent reminder that West Coast Underground rap may well have been deserving of the hype a few years back.
There’s no avoiding the fact that this album is a throwback to a time when rap fans actually self-identified as backpackers. The production sounds EQed for the tape deck rather than the club and the rhymes are a mix of post-Wu Tang super-scientifical conspiracy theories and average-Joe battle raps that are miles away from Hip-Hop’s current trapstar-hipster dichotomy. Spitting stream of consciousness flows with a west coast twang, Krondon holds down the front man role, excitedly filling every nook and cranny of Madlib’s beats with a torrent of words. The guy’s clearly excited to be rapping over production this dope. Likwit also-ran Phil Da Agony on the other hand rarely raises his voice above a mumble, playing the back like a guest on his own album. Throw in a couple of SAS affiliates, Stones Throwers, and various underground cats and you’ve got all the fixings for a West Coast Soundbombing…10 years too late.
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Posted in Madlib, Stones Throw, Sach O | 6 Comments »
November 18th, 2009
A while back in the comment section, some semi-anonymous seer inveighed against my admiration for what Stones Throw is doing. I don’t get it. Unlike most of the now mostly moribund labels of the indie-rap boom, they’ve managed to keep quality control high, output steady, and craft a sensible and generous promotional policy for the digital age. Granted, the Atwater-based label isn’t above putting out the occasional dud, but they’ve been few and far between. And over the last two years, with the launch of Egon’s Now-Again spinoff, few imprints are able to match the impeccable excavation they’ve done in unearthing lost gems from all ends of the earth.
There is competition (Tompkins Square, Light in the Attic, Soundways, Strut, Subliminal Sounds), but Forge Your Own Chains provides unimpeachable evidence for Now-Again’s excellence in the field of excellence. The crate-digging equivalent of shale oil extraction. Compiling largely anonymous American, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern acts united by their love of lysergics and their skill at creating haunting and woozy one-offs, it’s one of the more essential compilations in a year with a lot of essential compilations. You probably haven’t heard any of these groups before, but you probably should have. To boot, the packaging comes with a 40 page book complete with extensive mini-bios about each group, it’s an impressive touch and a wise move to entice wary buyers. Doc Ellis would approve.
Download:
MP3: Damon-”Don’t You Feel Me”
MP3: Guilty Simpson & Oh No-”My Time to Shine”
Posted in Stones Throw | 8 Comments »
November 12th, 2009
Boycotting American radio might be the wisest decision. Satellite was supposed to be the great equalizer, but despite the promise of Bob Dylan waxing philosophical about catfish, I’m not willing to fork over $20 a month to hear Martha Stewart, Nascar and Oprah boosting Precious. And it’s not like Sirius has come running to me with offers to host blog radio either, or really at anyone willing to play non-Shade 45 approved rap (not to impugn the blog radio shows, some of which are excellent). KCRW is cool–they played The KLF’s “3 a.m. Eternal,” at 3 a.m. early Sunday morning, thus ensuring my eternal gratitude, but let’s be real, Jody Rosen wasn’t all that far off. Locally, Dublab are really the only ones holding it down.
Indeed, it’s particularly inexcusable why week-after-week, the BBC 1Xtra snares some of Los Angeles’ brightest talents to drop insane mixes studded with exclusive never-before-heard cuts. Two weeks ago, it was Dam-Funk and now it’s Detroit-born, LA-based producer/percussionist Karriem Riggins, lacing Benji B’s show with a slew of rarities: collabos with Madlib, Black Thought, his own material, and a cut from Ahmad Jamal for good measure. The interview also delves into his time spent working with J Dilla, Erykah Badu, and Common. The Benji B portion of the show is similarly excellent, including cuts from Raekwon, Hudson Mohawke, Marcus Belgrave, and Dam-Funk. I’m even willing to forgive the guy for playing Drake.
Download:
MP3: Soulful Beats with Benji B ft. Karriem Riggins (11/08/09) (Left-Click)
MP3: Madlib & Guilty Simpson-”The Paper”
Posted in Karriem Riggans, Benji B, Stones Throw | 1 Comment »
October 28th, 2009
During Dam-Funk’s takeover of Benji B’s BBC 1Xtra program this week, the latter told the Leimert Park -based funk pharaoh how much sense his music makes in Los Angeles, describing it as the ideal driving music–a simple but accurate observation. Dam’s slinky, swaying sunshine funk combines his 80s inspirations (Slave, Aurra, early Prince) with the 40’s and Four-Four grooves of West Coast gangsta rap. After all, this is a man who spent a sizable chunk of the 90s playing key boards on Westside Connection and MC Eiht records (on a tangentially related note, there is never a bad time to watch the “Straight Up Menace” video.)
In the midst of promoting the 2-CD release of the excellent Toeachizown, which finally dropped last Tuesday (the full 5-LP boxed set won’t hit stores until late December/Early January), Dam’s been busy, with his Benji B appearance essential for anyone interested in learning more about the man behind the funk (he was also apparently on the I Got the Hook-Up Soundtrack), plus the chance to hear some jams from his new record, some largely unheard CD-R cuts, and esoteric cuts from artists that no one other than Dam and Peanut Butter Wolf are probably familiar with. To add to the haul, Dam also just dropped a new free mixtape featuring tracks from Nite Jewel, Mono/Poly, and another array of obscure old-school funk and R&B jams. You want the funk, you need the funk, you gotta have the funk.
Download:
ZIP: Dam-Funk on Deviation/Soulful Beats with Benji B (10/25/09) (Left-Click)
MP3: Dam-Funk-Beautiful Music 4 Beautiful People Mixtape
MP3: Dam-Funk-”Hood Pass Intact”
MP3: Dam-Funk-”The Sky is Ours”
MP3: Dam-Funk-”Love is Here 2Nite”
Posted in Dam-Funk, Stones Throw | 11 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 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 15th, 2009
Last year, I was one of eight people obsessed with Koushik’s excellent Out My Window, an ethereal and pretty pairing of post-Dilla beats with 60s AM psych-pop. Sounds good, right. Where were you people, on dope? Now the Canadian-born, Vermont-based Stones Throw-signed beatmaker is back with the all-instrumental Beep Tape–30 songs, offered for free download for the remainder of the week, all of it eminently listenable and over by the time you’re finished watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory. On a related note, if a show can be described as “wacky,” it’s reasonably safe to say that I won’t like it.
ZIP: Koushik-Beep Tape (Left-Click)
Posted in Koushik, Stones Throw | 2 Comments »
September 13th, 2009
My ardor for Ethio-Jazz is well-documented, so it’s little surprise that I find Oh No’s latest sampledelic opus sensational. Not only is this preaching to the choir, it’s serving it kitfo, tej, and injera. Like his last album, Dr. No’s Oxperiment, the greatest Michael Jackson still standing excavates ultra-rare samples from the crates, in the vein of his older brother Otis. Fans of the Ethiopiques series will likely be enamored with Dr. No’s Ethiopium, but don’t expect any of the more well-worn Tlahoun Gessessee or Mulatu samples. Instead, Oh No digs deeper, unearthing deliriously funky grooves and breaks. Head-nodding basement blunt-lit banger after banger, heavy heavenly horns–31 minutes, 18 songs, ideal for the ADD age. Cop this, head to Merkato, make a night of it.
Download:
MP3: Oh No-”The Pain”
From Dr. No’s Oxperiment
MP3: Oh No-”Heavy”
Posted in Stones Throw, African Music | 3 Comments »
