March 12th, 2010
Sach O feels compelled to defend beat music with an undeserved bad rep and an aggressive streak. Wonder why.
In his excellent new piece for Don’t Panic, Joe Muggs contends that Dubstep’s impact has changed the game for every genre it’s come in contact with from D&B to Hip-Hop to Grime to House and Techno. He makes a strong case: our own coverage of the genre increased exponentially once it started infecting LA’s Dilla-inspired beats. Ditto for IDM aficionados once the music started influencing their own core interests. That an underdog mutt of a genre would organically develop around a dedicated community and eventually blow up isn’t surprising (or shouldn’t be). No, the odd thing about all of this is that while everybody wants a piece of Dubstep, many people seem vaguely uncomfortable with the actual genre and the listeners that love it.
“Mocked as boring music for boys & bloggers” reads the aforementioned story’s byline. “Dubstep gets a bad rep, mostly due to its popularity,” writes Tom Lea at Fact. “To describe Dubstep as all good would be misleading,” wrote veteran chronicler Martin “Blackdown” Clarke way back in 2007. And that’s from eminent writers who LOVE the music and have been around it from the beginning. From its troubled birth (too dark), to its unexpected success (too aggressive), there’s always been someone with something bad to say about it. Or rather, there’s always someone with something bad to say about its audience. Unsophisticated. Ravy. Not enough girls*. Once the figurative boogieman of Grime lost its danger; the sullen, aggressive, dubstep raver havin’ it became an ideal target: so unsophisticated, so damn ladish…why can’t they listen to something proper and take off those damn hoodies!
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Posted in Dubstep, Sach O | 10 Comments »
March 11th, 2010
Top 5 thoughts while watching the above two videos
1. How in the world did Stress’ director convince Monch and Prince Po to shoot a scene shirtless and a snow field? Lung-collapsing pneumonia.
2. Q-Tip’s mustache in Stressed Out: ill advised or a bad idea? Seriously though, someone needs to document the trend of razor-thin facial hair on Queens rappers circa 96-97. Nas and Nore are repeat offenders.
3. How slamming was Faith Evans? She makes Rhianna look like Kelis here.
4. Stress samples the bass line from the Beatles’ Come Together. Future Prince Po collaborator Dangermouse sampled The Beatles’ White album years later to remix Jay-Z’s Black album. Jay-Z is a member of the illuminati who was in State Property with Tim House who was featured in “In the Cut” with…Kevin Bacon.
5. Much love to Phife, but his rudebwoy interruption in the Stressed Out video really takes away from the song. Save it for the remix son.
The above are best enjoyed with East-Coast weather, a bad work situation and a pound of cess.
Posted in Old School | 4 Comments »
March 11th, 2010
Phaseone e-mailed last week to ask me if I knew the cut mixed in at the 28 minute mark of Teebs’ 2 a.m. wine mix. Before I could even respond, he already had the answer. Not bad. I presume it was Teebs’s “Humming Birds,” which made its way onto the St. Louis producer’s latest stellar mix, The Realest Shit I Ever Wrote. I relate the exchange not to boast (after all, the few e-mails we’ve swapped have revolved around Teebs being the Don — also, who cares?) but because the guy didn’t even apprise me that he was going to drop another heater. I had to read about it on Pitchfork like everyone else. What’s the point of blogging if you can’t cultivate shallow online acquaintances with musicians. I mean, that’s got to be why people continue to write for Coke Machine Glow, right?
Regardless, Andrew Jernigan’s latest mix continues his streak of seamless blends that synthesize a wide array of sounds (Talking Heads, Aphex Twin, Fleetwood Mac, Tricky, Dilla, Curren$y) and bend them to his will. What would be jarring dissonance in the hands of a lesser producer comes off like the free-floating feel of a great after-hours at 3 a.m. that specializes in beat music, foreign beers, and strong stimulants. The sort of spot that you need a password to enter and expect to meet people from Luxembourg who attempt to sell you an Portugese orphan and four sticks of hash for under $100. The only better deal you’ll get than that is this mix — free. Tracklist below the jump, so no one e-mails me with questions that I don’t have the answers to.
Download:
MP3: Phaseone - The Realest Shit I Ever I Wrote
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March 10th, 2010
Granted, the tribal hat, hirsute demeanor, and gluten-free physique do not lend credence to the idea of Javelin having anything to do with a song called “In Heat.” But do not believe your eyes and trust your ears. Listen to the bassline off Javelin’s reinvention of this track from HEALTH’s Get Color. It sounds like it could’ve been sampled from a Slave record. Add that to the ’80s movie montage-synths and washed out vocals and it helps explain why Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford strive for the middle ground between Donuts and the nostalgic chill-whatever stuff that ran the Tofurkey set last summer. If you haven’t already pirated it via murky Russian backchannels, the new Javelin album is spectacular, but there will be more on that later. In the meantime, I will try to resist some not-so-clever weather and/or NBA Jam-related pun about how it’s “heating up,” and just tell you to play this on repeat.
Download:
MP3: HEALTH - “In Heat” (Javelin Remix)”
Posted in Javelin | No Comments »
March 10th, 2010
A few days ago, the Caribou album leaked and I commented how it was only March and I could conceivably be comfortable with three albums (Pantha Du Prince, Four Tet, and Caribou) at the top of my year-end list. Then a friend chimed in, “you really think any of them have a chance at topping the Flying Lotus?” And at the risk of jumping the blunt, I could only shake my head. After all, Steven Ellison had “DMT!” as his Myspace caption for a few months at the end of last year, and according to my crude philosophies pertaining to visionary musicians and drug intake, it is bound to operate like Winstrol on Mark McGwire. Cosmogramma is surely a beast and Flying Lotus only confirmed those assumptions with a guest spot on Gilles P., dropping a pair of mixes, one of new material, one of random tunes from The Gorillaz to Jackie Wilson. Later on, he’s joined by fellow Brainfeeder brethren Tokimonsta, who explains how she came to get down with the label and the Low End. For those waiting patiently on the album to drop (or leak), this is essential listening. I can’t supply the DMT, but just go a Phish show — the hippies will take care of you.
Tracklist below the jump.
MP3: Flying Lotus Live in the Studio on Gilles Peterson (3/10/10)
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Posted in Gilles Peterson, Flying Lotus, Warp | No Comments »
March 10th, 2010
Rabbit foot clutched, I’ll assume the first video for the forever-delayed Sir Luscious Leadfoot means that we’re approaching resolution to one the most baffling sagas of the last few years. Normally, when a rapper can’t get an album in stores it means one of two things: no hit single and/or their buzz has dwindled to J-Kwon type torpor. But Big Boi has dropped four excellent singles and one that shall be never spoken of in mixed company. Whoever forced Antwan to record “Ringtone” at gunpoint certainly employs fuzzy logic, considering he’s half of the most popular rap group of all-time and thus, does not need to pander like he had a Yung in front of his name. In an era of rappers who can only pack message boards, Daddy Fat Sacks maintains one of the biggest off-Internet fan bases around. I’m sure he could go gold panning for it at Knott’s Berry Farm and in this dessicated climate, he seems like the closest thing to a sure bet.
The video for “Fo Yo Sorrows” doesn’t do the song complete justice, but I suppose spaceships and rent-a-aliens don’t fit into corporate budgets in 2010. However, it does serve to remind everyone that we’re lucky that George Clinton is still alive. How he outlasted DJ Am is beyond me, but chalk it up to his fulfilling the old adage of being “too weird to die.” I know few musicians that don’t have a “George Clinton invited me to join his band and all he offered me was this lousy crack sack” story. Props to Too Short for letting the salt and pepper creep into his goatee, teaching the youth that aging gracefully isn’t necessary mutually exclusive with one’s pimpery. Meanwhile, Big Boi is Big Boi and that’s all anyone ever wanted. Hopefully, this will come out before we’re able to purchase the other kind of pit bull.
Download:
MP3: Big Boi ft. George Clinton & Too Short - “Fo Yo Sorrows”
Posted in Videos | 2 Comments »
March 9th, 2010
Sometimes, I think that Canibus’ greatest contribution to the rap game was the line “the greatest rapper of all-time died on March 9.” Otherwise, no one would remember the exact date that B.I.G. passed. Were he wise, ‘Bus would go into business writing songs to help husbands remember anniversaries and their wives’ birthdays. There is surely more money in that industry that than the contemporary rap game. Because it is the anniversary of BIG’s death and a “fuck the world, don’t ask me for shit,” sort of day, I present a rarely seen video of “The What” featuring both Notorious and Meth. If you told me that these were the two greatest rappers of all-time, I would not argue with you. For completists, there is also the Ready to Die O.G. edition, with originals, demos, and unreleased cuts.
Tracklist below the jump.
Download: (Via Steady Bloggin)
ZIP: The Notorious BIG - Ready to Die (O.G. Version) (Left-Click)
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Posted in Notorious B.I.G., Method Man | 2 Comments »
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 9th, 2010
OK, first thing’s first: who the fuck is Son Raw?
That would be me, the artist/hack formerly known as DJ Sach. The story goes like this, many moons ago when I was a young pup getting behind my first pair of 1200s, I needed a DJ name. In the folly of youth, I thought about the matter for all of 3 seconds, chose an abridged version of my government and went on with my life. The name has served me well so far, probably because most of my bookings have been for local house parties and dive bars in South-East Asian countries that don’t use the roman alphabet anyways, but nowadays, it feels a bit limited and stifling. Besides, it’s a new decade, who still puts “DJ” in front of their name? Hence Son Raw: a combined tribute to Sun Ra (duh) and Son House that looks good on a flyer to boot.
Second: what the fuck is “All Your Bass are Belong to Us” aside from an old internet meme?
All Your Bass are Belong to Us is the first in an on-going series of Ableton mixes highlighting 140BPM bass music that’s fun, aggressive and equally indebted to UK dance and North-American Hip-Hop traditions. All tunes used in the mix are either available for purchase at Boomkat or Juno Records or were given out by individual artists over at the Dubstep forum. Questions and comments are appreciated as usual, either in the comment section below or via e-mail. Download at will and lemme know what you think.
Download/Stream: Soundcloud
Tracklist
1. Engine Earz - Kaliyuga/Matty G - The Scratch, The Bass
2. David Nada - Drummer’s Rock/Havocndeed - Im Nin’Alu (Ofra Haza)
3. David Nada - Drummer’s Rock/Debruit - Nigeria What!?
4. Debruit - Nigeria What?!/Ikonika - Smuck
5. Ikonika - Smuck/Taz Buckfaster - Half Man Half Trout
6. Taz Buckfaster - Half Man Half Trout/Royal T - Beat Fighter
7. Royal T - Beat Fighter/Actraiser - Sky Palace
8. Skream - No Future (intro)
9. Joker - City Hopper
10. Rox - No Going Back (Guido Remix)/Hyetal & Shortstuff - Ice Cream
11. Hyetal & Shortstuff - Ice Cream/LD - The King of Kong
12. LD - The King of Kong/Skream - Burning Up
13. Skream - Burning Up/James Blake - AIr & The Lack Thereof
14. James Blake - AIr & The Lack Thereof/Unknown CM3 Skank
15. Living~Stone - Flying Stones/LD - Derailment
16. LD - Derailment/ M.I.A - Boys (Dub & Run Remix)
17. RSD - Forward Youth/Invasion Vs Shackleton - Wizards of Dub Pt 1
18.Invasion Vs Shackleton - Wizards of Dub Pt 1/501 - The Beginning of the End
19. 501 - The Beginning of the End/Doctor P - Sweet Shop
20. Outkast - B.O.B (Stenchman Remix)
21. Flux Pavilion - Voscilate (intro)
22. Bobby Caldwell - What You won’t do for Love (DZ remix)
23. Four Tet - Pablo’s Heart (echoplex outro)
Posted in Son Raw, Dubstep, Sach O | 1 Comment »
March 8th, 2010
Somewhere, Jack White is smiling at the simile employed at the expense of his ex-girl, done by fellow Motor City marvel, the ever quotable Elzhi. Around these parts, “higher than the jeans on Urkel,” remains the preferred way to describe interactions with the Bubba Kush, and on “Deep,” Jason Powers re-emerges from his slumber to unleash visuals for the standout track from last year’s exceptional Leftovers Unmixed Tape. Should you like scratches, Black Milk’s ferocious drums, and sundry M.O.P. samples, you’ll enjoy. If not, there is always Wacka Flocka Flame and his wonderful world of roller rinks. Rap music in 2010: something for everyone and everyone gets a trophy.
In related Detroit news, Danny Brown has just released his latest mixtape, Detroit State of Mind Volume 4. Ignore the trite title and listen for the absurd flow, intricate patterns, Black Milk beats, weed talk and The Wizard samples. The only thing the tape lacks is a Royce Da 5′9 guest spot and a Tanooki Mario suit.
Download:
MP3: Elzhi - “Deep”
ZIP: Danny Brown - Detroit State of Mind Vol. 4
Posted in Elzhi | 1 Comment »
