Saturday, July 31, 2010

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, 31 July

War - Me and baby brother
Isaac Hayes - Zeke the freak - Todd Terje edit
Bonobo - Eyes down
Doug Cran  -Surital Ihklas - Fulgeance remix
Lightning head - NPG
Jo Jo Bennett - Canteloupe rock
Crabs corp and King Hammond - Bring down the birds - Flying High mix
Prince Jammy  -BQE dub
Prince Fari - African queen
Sly n Robbie  -Ballistic squeeze
Ninja man - Murder dem
Nardo Ranks - Burrrup
Mr Vegas  - Heads high
Ragga twins - 18" speaker
RSD - Corner dub
Dokkebi Q - Black vomit (hat tip to Stinky Jim and his Stink Inc blog for this mad bizznizz)
M.I.A. - It takes a muscle
Mophono's halftone society - Sinicism - Natural self remix
Cesaria Evora - Angloa   -Pepe Bradock dub
Joe Cuba - El pito
Quantic - Echate pa'lla
DL Jones and DJ 2nd Nature - Whoa Bobby
Prince - Bonus track #77
Freez - IOU
Bill Withers - You got the stuff
John Gibbs and the US steel orchestra - Steel funk
Chickenwing allstars - Celestial Dub
LA Vampires and Zola Jesus - No no no

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Lloyd Miller's jazz tales


Lloyd Miller talks about his musical journeys,  taking him from Los Angeles jazz clubs to residencies in Frankfurt, Stockholm, Paris, and Tehran, and even nearly to the stage at Woodstock. Watch below as Miller discusses his musical evolution, and look for his new collaboration with The Heliocentrics, out next week on Strut. The Heliocentrics previous collaboration with Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu was absolutely stunning.

Tangible meets digital


"... it’s all about tangible music meeting the digital age. We put out records on 7-inches and there’s a line out the door when we release them, special editions. We also put it out on iTunes and MP3 portable format too. We’re trying to get a new generation into the idea of holding a record in their hand.

"I think of it like, imagine if movie theaters didn’t exist, and you’re trying to entice a new generation to the beauty of watching a film in a theater with the lights turned off and the doors closed, what’s that like. It’s part of that. I want to be a part of that. Vinyl is the only segment of music that’s growing in sales and interest, and I want to be part of that."..

Jack White, interviewed  in the Detroit Free Press. Love his analogy about watching a film in a theatre. And his Third Man operation in Nashville sounds way cool.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Dear NZ hiphop haterzzz

Please read: "Kiwi pop stars sing with US twang" from NZ Herald (sourced:NZPA). Now, share the information...


Need a dollar?

I need a dollar by Aloe Blacc is Single Of The Week on iTunes NZ, and it's going for FREE. Get in there, great modern soul tune.Check the video below. Album out Sept 28, on Stonesthrow.

Chancha Via Circuito Mixtape


Spotted at Ghetto Bassquake - Chancha Via Circuito put out a fantastic album a wee while back, and he's got a new one - Rio Arriba - on the way thru Buenos Aries  label ZZK. Grab the mixtape here.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Sound System Scratch

Previously unreleased music from Lee Scratch Perry out Aug 30 on Pressure Sounds, preview it here.

"The exclusive mixes showcased on this release have never been heard before outside of sound system dances. Some will be familiar through their commercial incarnations such as ‘Bucky Skank’, ‘History’ and ‘Groovy Situation’ but here they have been pushed and pulled, coaxed and cajoled in hitherto unexplored and previously unimagined directions. This is music from a man coming to the end of his tether…

The album comes in a stark, striking black and white design with hitherto unseen photographs, archive material and an accompanying seven inch single ‘Dub Plate Pressure’. The version side, with the rhythm dubbed into oblivion, does not feature on the album and the single comes in its own heavyweight cardboard picture sleeve." More info over at Pressure Sounds.

Sherwood means dub


This mix from legendary On-U-Sound producer Adrian Sherwood (Prince Fari, Lee Scratch Perry, Primal Scream, Depeche Mode) is the bizznizz... hat tip to Bestiblog.net

RIP Melvin Bliss


Tirbutes to the man over at Soulsides and Fleamarket Funk (including a list of songs that sampled his tune Synthetic Substitution - think Public Enemy, De La Soul, Ultramagnetic MCs, Ice T, NWA, Moby, Primal scream, Naughty by Nature...).

Saturday, July 24, 2010

BaseFM Ring The Alarm playlist, July 24

20th century steel band - Land of a thousand dances
Quantic -Swing easy
Augustus Pablo - Cassava piece
Yami Bolo  -Whan a man's in love
Viceroys -Every day
The Wailers - Put it on
Shabba Ranks - The stopper
The Pioneers - Sweet inspiration  - Justin Robertson remix
Havana boys - Paul's dub
Romanowski - Train song - DJ Sureshot remix
Kormac feat Koaste - Saturday morning TV
Rakaa - CTD
Nona Hendryx - Transformation
Prince Charles and city beat band  - Cash (cash money)
Eru Dangerspiel - Chilli moules
P-bass expressway - Easyride - Downtown Brown remix
Kinky electric noise - Campesino urbano dub
Little dragon - Constant surprises
J-Wow and Sui Zhen - River song
Blundetto - Nautilus dub
Jahdan Blakkamore -The general - Ticklah remix
Albarosie - Sound killa
Richie Phoe - Eyes on the eprize dub
RSD - Love of jah light
Colman brothers - She who dares - lounge mix
Dusty - An exotic breed
Donald Fagen - Ruby ruby

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Timeless screening tonight



Timeless: Suite for Ma Dukes/ Mulatu / Arthur Verocai, live at the Hollywood Bowl. 

Screens Wednesday July 21 (tonight) at Khuja Lounge, 8pm, $5 entry, plus DJ set from Dan Paine.  More info at Thisculture.com. Check the clip below, looks amazing.


Various Assets – Not For Sale: RBMA London


Download a bunch of bent tuneage... watch out for kiwi lad Myele Manzanza (Electric Wire Hustle)... ""Red Bull Music Academy came to London earlier in the year, here’s the fruits from 5 weeks of musical exploration and education..." See Shook mag. (note: it's 2 CDs worth, a 320MB download)

Instrumental bizz from El-P

Some instrumental flavours off the new release from EL-P (Company Flow, Def Jux) - "Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3", out August 3rd. Physical copies of Volume 3 of the Megamixx series will include download links to the first two volumes, which were only available at live shows.



El-P- "Meanstreak" (In 3 Parts) (mediafire)
El-P- "Whores: The Movie" (mediafire)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Vinyl


At the weekend I went to Barcamp Auckland. It's an conference where the participants provide all the content  - put forward topics to give talks on, and then turn up and make it happen. The term for it is unconference, apparently. The participants drew mainly from web development and design, but came from other fields too. There was the University lecturer who talked about Wikipediaphobia among academics, for example.

It was the 4th one, but my first time at it. It was a very stimulating day, some fascinating ideas thrown around. I gave a talk on LP cover art, and how Steve Jobs nearly killed it off  with the minimalist thumbnail in iTunes (same as the one I gave at Design Assembly). Anyways, here's the slides from my presentation, lotsa pretty covers... enjoy!

SlideShare presentation : Vinyl Flashbacks http://slidesha.re/9PXRgb



And as a bonus - stumbled upon this great presentation on how to start a record collection, from Barcamp Vancouver.   
Spinning the Black Circle - Getting into Vinyl ... http://slidesha.re/1FwgUI
Hat tip to Rick Vugteveen, rickvug.com

Gilles and Louie

Free track off Havana Cultura Remixed, latest compilation from Mr Gilles Peterson. 
Tune is Roforofo Fight (Louie Vega remix). Other remixes from MJ Cole, 4hero, Carl Cox, Rainer Trüby, Gotan Project’s Philippe Cohen Solal, Seiji, Michel Cleis and Mocky.

"It was two years ago that Gilles visited Cuba for the first time on a reconnaissance mission to check out the new generation of Havana-based ... (more) artists. Suitably impressed, he was back within the year for a 5-day session at the legendary Egrem Studios with Roberto Fonseca and his superb band. Revelling in his role as executive producer, it was a hot, sweaty, intense session but a fruitful one nonetheless.

“I had a few covers as starters: one from Fela to capture that true Afro-Cuban fusion; a Blue Note joint as a 70th anniversary gift; and a couple of Cuban faves from my Ballroom days - 'Chekere Son' and some Juan Pablo Torres. The rest was pretty much controlled jamming, picking up the Rumba boys from the bar below, or convincing Mayra Valdes to hit it freestyle.”

Eru Dangerspiel live DVD out soon

Sneak preview clip below...



ERU DANGERSPIEL DVD/CD: out Monday 26 July

ERU DANGERSPIEL TOUR DATES 2010:
Auckland: Friday 8 Oct – Auckland Town Hall
Wellington: Saturday 9 Oct – Wellington Town Hall

Monday, July 19, 2010

Fame


I went to two films at the Film festival over the past two days - yesterday was Teenage Paprazzo, and tonight was Radiant Child: Jean Michel Basquiat. Both dealt with fame, in a way.

Teenage Paparazzo is directed by actor Adrian Grenier, who plays Vincent Chase in  tv show Entourage, which is all about an actor (Chase) and his mates from New York, who move out to Hollywood when their boy hits it big. Grenier discovered this 13 year old boy shooting his photo one night as he was coming out of a restaurant and cornered him and asked him what he was up to. Kid says "I'm just doing my job". Teenage Paprazzo is about Grenier getting to know this kid, Austin, and find out more about the world of the paparazzi.

Then Grenier decides to try being a paparazzi. He also talks to some famous people (Matt Damon, Eva Longoria, Paris Hilton) about fame and the paparazzi. He visits some of the magazines that publish these photos. As the film says, when these actors are on the way up, they need the paparazzi to get exposure. So the star's relationship with that media is rather complex, depending on where they are on the fame scale. The film evolves into a measured, thought-provoking  take on the celebrity culture we exist in.

In Radiant Child: Jean Michel Basquiat, one of Basquiat's friends, Fab Five Freddy, says that when they were coming up, they all wanted fame, but not like fame today, cos thats a complete mindfuck. Another friend, Julian Schnabel (who directed Basquiat, the feature film based on Basquiat's life) talked about the level of fame he had to deal with, and that Basquiat "did not have the tool to deal with that sea of shit."

Basquiat took part in a group show in Times Square in 1981 then got invited to be in a show at PS1 by Diego Cortez. Cortez invited anyone who wanted to exhibit along, as he was bored with conventional shows where, as he  says, there were "white walls, white people  and white wine".

Cortez invited gallery owner Anina Nosei out to see the show, and she held Basquiat's first solo show that same year. At the opening of that show, Basquiat sold $200,000 worth of paintings in one night. He was 20. He shot to fame in a short space of time, but didn't have a bank account (at first), he had piles of money lying round his studio, stuffed in books etc. He also found himself earning much more money than his friends which made him paranoid about people's motives. Add in drugs, that made him even more paranoid.

As highlighted in the film, he didn't feel accepted by the art world, especially as art writers tended to talk down to him - one example, an interviewer calls him  the black Picasso, which Basquiat responded to by saying "that's very flattering, but also demeaning".  In the main interview in the film, done with film maker and friend Tamra Davis (who directs this doco), she asks him about how critics and writers react to him and his work, and Basquiat says that they wouldnt write the same things if he were white, and that's racist.

It's a tough film to watch, as you know how it's going to end.  But it's also a fascinating glimpse into the New York scene in the late 70s/early 80s, which the crowd are labelled as the downtown 500. Fab Five Freddy talks about how back then, you could just say "I'm a film maker (or artist, or musician)", and then you'd make a film and people would turn up at your first screening and you were a film maker. And it was incredibly cheap to live - I recall reading a book called New York No Wave, where Lydia Lunch talks about renting an apartment for $100 a month, and that was considered expensive back then.





Recollections of Jean-Michel Basquiat by John Seed: Basquiat memoir by his former assistant during his time living in Venice, Los Angeles.

Fab Five Freddy talks about when he first met Basquiat.

Popcorn

Swedish Chef covers Gershon Kingsley's classic Moog tune Popcorn. Brilliant. And check the subtitles.


Sunday, July 18, 2010

money money money

The top bosses at RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have been attracting some heat recently, with stories on their massive legal bills and such like hitting the web.

Digital Daily News reports that RIAA "chief exec Mitch Bainwol pulled in more than US$2 million in salaries and bonuses....
... Major labels are picking up the tab on Bainwol’s salary even as their own revenues continue to drop. Other reported RIAA salaries during the same period include President Cary Sherman ($1.3m), EVP International Neil Turkewitz ($696k), EVP Government and Industry Relations Mitch Glazier ($566k) and EVP/General Counsel Steven Marks ($562k). In addition, there are seven other staffers with compensation ranging from $200k to $500k."

Sleeve face dance

Sleeve face dance video, very funny. Hat tip to Crate Kings



Thursday, July 15, 2010

Timeless film screening



Timeless: Suite for Ma Dukes/ Mulatu / Arthur Verocai, live at the Hollywood Bowl. 

Screens Wednesday July 21 at Khuja Lounge, 8pm, $5 entry, plus DJ set from Dan Paine.  More info at Thisculture.com. Check the clip below, looks amazing.


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Edits from Mr K


"... my whole life I knew people had leisure time, and were able to enjoy music in their leisure time. Now people have a shorter tolerance and patience so they tend to reach for gimmicks instead of music that grows on you. So much music I like now I didn't like at first. These days, you don't have the time for that and you might never like that song because you'll never give it time to grow on you.

"Places like The Loft - you had this twelve hour party every Saturday, with no mixing and long, obscure cuts. And people just absorbed the whole night. Now, it's every once-in-a-while. I don't know anyone that has the time and patience to stay for an entire evening. People are looking at their watches saying, "I don't like this song and if the next one isn't good, I'm gone." It's that kind of mentality...."

- DJ and re-edit king Danny Krivit, from 5 Magazine interview (photo from 5 Magazine also). He's responding to a question on music trends and cycles in music history.

Krivit got his start DJing in his Dad's restaurant, at 14. It was a steakhouse that was popular with musicians, but slowed down... "By the time I started there, the restaurant was beginning to fail and then it had its second life by implementing the disco. Prior to that, its big reputation came from folks like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Mingus and others. In the '70s there were some celebrities, but it was more of a happening spot as a disco. In the '60s it was completely straight, but just overnight it was completely gay..."


Danny Krivit - Edits by MR K Vol 2 coming Sept 14.

Tracks include in-demand Krivit rarities including his previously unreleased rework of Black Blood’s Afro-rock rarity ‘Chicano’, the revival of a soulful Patrice Rushen sleeper, ‘Music Of The Earth’ and an extended workout on the Chairmen Of The Board’s psychedelic soul classic, ‘Life & Death.’

 
 
1. PATRICE RUSHEN – MUSIC OF THE EARTH 8.12
2. MILTON HAMILTON – WE HAVE ALL THE TIME
3. MIDNIGHT MOVERS – FOLLOW THE WIND
4. BLACK BLOOD – CHICANO
5. RARE PLEASURE – LET ME DOWN EASY
6. BLUE MODERNE – THROUGH THE NIGHT
7. PHILADELPHIA ALL-STARS – LET’S CLEAN UP THE GHETTO
8. SOUND EXPERIENCE – DON’T YOU KNOW YOU’VE BROKEN MY HEART
9. THE FATBACK BAND – SPANISH HUSTLE
10. CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD – LIFE & DEATH

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Lloyd Miller



The Heliocentrics collaborated with Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke for the Inspiration Information series last year, and dropped one of the years finest recordings. The Heliocentrics return this year to work with  Lloyd Miller, described as "a true jazzman and ethnomusicologist with a vast knowledge of Persian and Eastern instruments." Free tune below, plus some cool video of Miller.
 
Lloyd Miller and The Heliocentrics- "Electricone" (mediafire) (soundcloud) 
From Lloyd Miller and The Heliocentrics (August 3rd, Strut)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Shelltoes

Peeped this over at Potholes in my blog, some very tasty jazzy hiphop from a producer named The Shelltoes, check out his his six-track remix EP, The Expired Dairy Gamble. Cool remixes of Erykah Badu, Grap Luva and Mobb Deep. Previews below.

<a href="http://shelltoes.bandcamp.com/album/the-expired-dairy-gamble">Love Of My Life (Shelltoes Remix) by The Shelltoes</a>

<a href="http://shelltoes.bandcamp.com/album/the-expired-dairy-gamble">Love Of My Life (Shelltoes Remix) by The Shelltoes</a>

Soccer


One last soccer post before the World Cup wraps up... From Pat Le Stache's excellent blog: "With the World Cup winding down to it's last couple of weeks, I thought I would share Soccer's 1979 disco gem "Come And Get It On". This funky track was just one of the many classic disco tracks produced by Tony Valor. This dancefloor friendly cut was originally released as a Salsoul Records twelve-inch single before making it's way onto the 1979 self-titled Soccer LP. I was lucky to find a used copy of the single a couple years ago, and I've continued to play the record out often ever since. Enjoy!"

Listen to it here (DL too)

RIP Sugar Minott

some of his classic jams... More on Sugar Minott here...





Saturday, July 10, 2010

Ring The Alarm - BaseFM - July 10

Shawn Lee and Bei Bei - Bei's Bossa
Aloe Blacc - I need a dollar inst
Bonobo - Eyes down
Lalo Schifrin - Bullit - Black dog remix
Malcolm X - No sellout
Kid Creole and the coconuts - Annie I'm not your daddy - Soul mechanik edit
Beat pharmacy - Sunshine
Ruts DC - Love & fire - Dreadzone remix
Roots radics - Babylon wrong
Tommy McCook & the supersonics - Beirut
Collie budz - Hustle
Mike Zoot feat Labba - Spread love
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam - hiphop mix
Warm excursion - Funk-i-tus
Pimps of joytime - PJTs high steppin
Jean Knight - Do me
Breakestra - Show me the way
Kashmere stage band - Superstrut pt 1 - Kenny Dope remix
Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - Window shopping
Kormac - Jubilee
Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte - DJ Kentaro remix
Rebel MC - Jahovia
Kion and Murda feat Junior Murvin - No 1 sound
Kalbata and Mixmaster feat Jah Thomas - Play music selecta
Bush chemists -Realise dub 1
Michael Rose - African girl
Manasseh - Dubbing the gorgon
Mos dub - History town

Friday, July 09, 2010

Looking at you, looking at me...

I was reading Andrew Tidball's  (Cheese On Toast) DJ blog, he has a great audio-biographical piece here on some records that have inspired and influenced him (he played at Real Groovy's Record Store Day - that was their brief to the guest DJs for the day),  - it runs from Blondie to the Mint Chicks via Eric B and Rakim, The Smiths and Roots Manuva, go have a read.... and that led me to a clip from a TV show Andrew made for Triangle TV called Something On TV - a great live video of the Mint Chicks playing Fuck the Golden Youth at Shanghai Lils for the album launch.



Then I ended up watching this live clip of them, playing at NZ Fashion Week in 2007.
They do a magnificent cover of Counting The Beat by the Swingers  - wait for the last 30 seconds when the chorus just explodes, it's fantastic. Gotta feel sorry for the band tho, playing to those fashion types, all doing the fashionista shuffle  -it's that peculiar dance step that says "we're moving to your music and want to show that we're vaguely enjoying it while still maintaining an air on nonchalance". Lame.




(Bonus videos - Mint chicks mash up Life will get better some day with A Milli, plus a live clip from Feb this year, at the Late At The Museum series, very good pics and audio, 17mins)

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Heatwave

Big tune alert. Via Ghettoquake  -"WARDANCE - new riddim from London's The Heatwave with Serocee on the Mic doing his damndest." Get it here.

Bonobo live

One of my favourite albums so far this year is the latest from Bonobo, called Black Sands. Featured vocalist on a number of cuts is the soulful Ms Andreya Triana. Heres a great clip of Bonobo playing live, from the Roundhouse, London (same venue as Fat Freddys recent live album).




Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Prince hates the internet


Prince is giving away his new album with a UK paper - again. Read the Daily Mirror's interview with His Purpleness. (Also check their story on how Prince turned his life around)

"The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

"The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you."

Bob Lefsetz talks about Prince's comments here ('Prince's nonsense'), noting that , "You build your career online today, it’s almost as if Prince were railing against record shops in the eighties, when he broke through.  If you weren’t in the shop, you don’t mean diddly squat, if you’re not online, you’re out of the discussion."

Welcome to the terrordome

"Copyright law, as it now stands in the US, is at a real crisis..." DJ Spooky.

Via Crate Kings: "Alex Kreit, Nancy Prager, Andre Smith, Benjamin Franzen (director, Copyright Criminals doco) and DJ Spooky discuss the curious case of how Girl Talk has successfully utilised over 300 uncleared samples and somehow managed to avoid being sued by the copyright holders. A really interesting discussion for anyone involved in the creation of sample based music."

Franzen says his film concludes that "we're in a remix culture, and the law has not caught up to that culture..."



Copyright Criminals trailer below, see PBS site for more (also out on DVD). Check the George Clinton quote - "I got sued for sampling my own music".  That is messed up.

Monday, July 05, 2010

Diego Bernal



Besides is the name of the album from Diego Bernal. out of San Antonio, Texas. Beautiful laidback jazzy beats. Check it out here at Bandcamp, some free downloads going too.

<a href="http://exponential.bandcamp.com/track/09-el-corrido-de-chico-b">09 El Corrido de Chico B by Exponential Records</a>

<a href="http://exponential.bandcamp.com/track/03-blue-neon">03 Blue Neon by Exponential Records</a>

Peanut Butter Wolf talks music videos

The following is taken from the latest issue of Wax Poetics, one of my favourite magazines in the world. Always great articles about music and musicians, and the stories behind many great records.

To read the rest of the article check out Wax Poetics #41. (Via Stonesthrow)

WOLF: About five years ago, I started “VJing” at my gigs using music video clips instead of records. I decided to go the video route during a tour I did with Madlib, DOOM, and J Dilla where I realized I was starting to DJ at more “performance-type” gigs than the dance-floor-oriented club ones I used to do. It was always something I wanted to do. Even going back to my childhood—decades before YouTube spoiled music fans around the world—I had to struggle to see the videos I wanted to see. As a child of the early ’80s and MTV during their “rock-only” era, I was always bummed that I wasn’t able to see videos from my favorite artists who were mainly doing soul, funk, and rap music. There was a Friday night show on the USA cable network called Night Flight that played cool stuff in the new wave/art rock genre and slipped in a few hip-hop videos here and there, probably thanks to Blondie and the Clash making it cool. On another local Bay Area show called Magic Number Video, I saw videos from the Whispers, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Pieces of a Dream, but it was a rare treat to see a UTFO or Whodini or Fearless Four video. I’ve always listened to hip-hop, but as a kid, never got to see it.



Yellow Magic Orchestra “Computer Game” (1979)
This was probably the first electronic song I bought on record back in 1980, but I had no idea they made a video for it until recently. I was always fascinated with electronic music since I heard [Gershon Kingsley’s] “Pop Corn” in the first grade. Movies like Star Wars and video games like Space Invaders and Asteroids probably helped the sci-fi encouragement for me as well. Watching it now, I’m impressed by the special effects and graphics that were more elaborate than even Michael Jackson, who later became not only the King of Pop, but also the king of video budgets. I’m guessing this video with its take on Activision’s Laser Blast started their involvement with scoring videos games. I bought the Xevious theme song by them on vinyl on my last trip to Japan. I think they composed Dig Dug too.



Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “For Kate I Wait” (2004)
I was in Paris doing an in-store for Lacoste, and their head designer, Christophe [Lemaire], is a huge music fan. He’s one of the only guys I’ve ever met in fashion who really knows his shit and turns me on to music I didn’t know about. No Zoolander stereotypes with Christophe! After my set, he asked me if I liked Ariel Pink, and I said I never heard of him. I live in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles, and he told me, “He’s from L.A., like you, and makes great music.” He showed me some stuff, and I was instantly converted. About three weeks later, back in L.A., I was walking to the bank from the Stones Throw office and saw someone wearing an Ariel Pink T-shirt. I yelled, “Hey, where’d you get that shirt?” He said, “I’m Ariel Pink!” I’ve bumped into him three times on that same street since then. I still need a shirt, though.



LL Cool J “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” (live on Soul Train 1986)
Watching Soul Train episodes from the mid-’80s, you notice that when there were singers on, the crowd would politely dance along, but when they had rappers, the place would erupt. Everyone would jump and scream like it was Beatlemania. I think that’s the “H.E.R.” that Common refers to [in “I Used to Love H.E.R.”].



Jonzun Crew “We Are the Jonzun Crew” (1983)
I’m always gonna go to bat for the Jonzun Crew. I can’t believe how cheap their used records go for these days, or how crowds hardly ever respond when I play their songs—or this video. But I made my own Jonzun Crew T-shirt, and whenever I wear it, I get at least one compliment. The Jonzun Crew were right up there with Kraftwerk in my book when I was a kid. There’s a nice “before they were stars” cameo in this video by a very young, pop-locking Bobby Brown, who the Jonzun Crew later produced.

Blitz The Ambassador


Some football madness from a gent called Blitz the Ambassador - the tune is called " Yɛ da mo ase (Ghana Black Stars)". Listen below, and download.  "Blitz is a Ghanaian-born independent Hip-Hop artist who now resides in Brooklyn, NYC." See more here, and Myspace.

<a href="http://blackstars.bandcamp.com/track/y-da-mo-ase-ghana-black-stars">Yɛ da mo ase (Ghana Black Stars) by BlackStarsAnthem</a>

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Stones rescued


Rolling Stones, Dance Pt 1 Moto edit - hot stuff via Analog Giant. " Classic Rolling Stones 'disco' track from their 1980 album Emotional Rescue. Edited and added some; check the synth-break at 3:58... Enjoy!" Listen here.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM 3 July

Blundetto - Nautilus dub
Quantic - Westbound train
Phyllis Dillion - Woman of the ghetto
Leroy Sibbles - Express yourself
Upsetters - Popcorn
Soul messengers - Do it til you're satisfied
Bob Marley - Mr Brown
Brentford Allstars - Greedy G
Reality Chant and Lutan Fyah - Break loose again
Rhythm and sound - Ruff way
Dub traffik control - Bongo dub
K-Naan - T.I.A.
Orange juice - Rip it up dub (Dicky trisco edit)
Nona Hendryx - Transformation
War - Me and baby brother
Colman brothers - She who dares (Lounge mix)
Kendra Lou and the miracles - Be kind to your mind feat Red Astaire
Daru Jones and Kissey Asplund - Rat race
Jazzmine Sullivan - Need u bad - Moody Boyz remix
Black seeds - Slingshot -Truth remix (free download here)
Hopeton Lindo - Rudeboy
Elephant man - One chapter a day
Richie Phoe - Electric boogie
Paul Murphy - Soul call
E's E - Scratches skank pt 2
Womack and Womack - Teardrops
Shannon - Let the music play
Doug Carn  - Suratal ihklas - Fulgeance remix
Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - She aint a child no more
Booker T and the MGs - Melting pot
Shirley Bassey - Light my fire - Kenny Dope remix

Friday, July 02, 2010