Archive for the 'Music Appreciation' Category

Waiting On You
Pointer Sisters (Official Site, Wikipedia, Twitter)
Having A Party, 1977
Blue Thumb/ABC
(CD, iTunes, Amazon)

Shout to Maggie Stein for putting me onto this, probably the most consistent Pointer Sisters album, back in the day. This is proof positive (one of many many examples) that the Pointer Sisters should be remembered for more than “Jump (For My Love)”/”I’m So Excited”/”Neutron Dance” et al.

Stevie Wonder is credited with playing keyboards and synthesizers on the album (along with two other people) and has a partial songwriting credit on “Bring Your Sweet Stuff Home To Me.” I’m not sure if he had anything to do with this song. It doesn’t “sound like him” as much as ‘Sweet Stuff’ does, but you never know. I’ve heard that he’s involved in far more records than album credits would suggest.

I love the tone of this song, it almost fits into my “inappropriately happy” category but not quite; it’s more an a chosen optimism in a bad situation.

I was going to say something about it being funny to think of the television networks also being in the music industry (this album was distributed by ABC which was bought by MCA in 1979) but as I was checking to see if there ever was an “NBC Records” (i don’t think so) and when Sony bought CBS Records (1988), I read that CBS Records is actually back from the dead. Who knew?

[To download, right-click (PC) or ctrl-click (mac) on song title above & choose “save linked file as” or similar.]

Never Can Say Goodbye (Beatnick & K-Salaam Remix)
The Jackson 5
Beatnick & K-Salaam: Never Can Say Goodbye, 2009
K-Salaam & Beatnick Bandcamp Site

My friend Needles sent me this mp3 last year after it was floating around on some blogs. I was kinda blown away at how well it worked as a song; there’s almost always some kind of disconnect between the past and present when I hear “current-sounding” remixes of soul classics.

I’ve been playing the song at gigs fairly regularly ever since. I played it a month or two back at Madame X and someone who works with the them came up to me (excited to hear the song) and wrote down their bandcamp address as a place to get more of their music. It took me a minute but I went to the site this week and there are a lot of good (free) tracks. This song is part of an 8-song remix EP (although it might be the best song on it). There’s also a 10 song Common remix EP and two other albums. Not everything is good (as is always the case) but there are some gems.

Bandcamp is my new favorite site for getting music (I encourage everyone giving away music to set up an account - you can sell music too) because I can download songs at CD quality (with lossless compression). The actually give you 8 different format options (mp3, aac, FLAC, ALAC…) for your download. I’ve developed a disdain for mp3s over the years (don’t get me started) and have stopped using them whenever possible so I get excited whenever I see someone has their stuff on bandcamp.

I have to air one beef about this project (and many, many other remix projects). I realize you are trying to get your name out there…but you are not the artist. Does your name really need to be in the song, artist, album and comment fields? This song was originally titled:

04. Michael Jackson - Never Can Say Goodbye Remix (Prod. by Beatnick & K-Salaam)
K-Salaam & Beatnick
Beatnick & K-Salaam Present - Never Can Say Goodbye

Seriously? I do realize that I’m more detail-oriented than most (ok, almost all) but the artist is The Jackson 5 (not Michael Jackson and definitely not you!). And please save the tracks number for the…uh, “track number” field…there actually seem to be a “trend” of people putting the track numbers in the song title recently…god knows why.

Ok, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Oh yeah, last thing; they need to decide who’s name goes first.

[To download, right-click (PC) or ctrl-click (mac) on song title above & choose “save linked file as” or similar.]

Far Side of Town
Arthur Lewis
If We Were - EP, 2008
Rxlngr

on iTunes

I love this song. My friend OP over at Suite903 put me onto Arthur a few months ago and he seemed perfect to have on the radio show. After bullsh&*#%n for a couple months I finally dug up his site, emailed him and he came by last night. At my request he picked songs to play for the rest of the show (after we played his EP) and they were appropriately all over the map (you’ll hear many influences when you hear the song).

We had a great time talking music. This is quote that I love from another interview he did, it encapsulates one of the reasons I’m excited about new music right now in a way that’s more concise than it is in my head:

There’s a certain narrative of success that says you have to compromise in order to reach a big audience. That you have to “sell out” your “art” in order to reach your cookie-cutter goals of fame and fortune. But things have changed a lot in the past few years, to the point where, outside of the major label-360 deal-recoup or die model, it’s almost the opposite. To distinguish yourself from the throngs of people making records in their bedrooms, you have to be unrelentingly yourself.

This is a track that he made available for free on his site.

Songs are available for two weeks.

Put Everything Together
Plus
Funk Mode (Compilation), 2004
Scenario
(not available on iTunes, amazon says “This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer.”)

This is a track I heard Freddie play back in the summer of ‘07 after a somewhat bizarre El Michels Affair show at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg. The band played a really short show and ended super abruptly; it was the kind of thing you really wouldn’t want to follow as a DJ. DJing after a band is bad enough as it is - people have an ingrained “the show is over - time to go” thing with bands, even if the band is part of a larger event with other artists. Freddie played his ass off for the people who stayed and was nice enough to let me take cell phone pictures of some of the stuff he played. This track blew me away. I love this guy’s voice - his really defined diction is reminiscent of Jon Lucien.

I can’t figure out much about this track. It shows up on two other compilations, one by Morcheeba and one possibly by Madlib. The subtitle for this compilation is “Undiscovered funk gems from the far corners of the globe” and the only credits inside say “Courtesy of Pink Elephant (Belgium) From the LP Plus. Catalogue Number PE8777.024-Y.” Anyone know anything about this artist/track?

Click for a larger view of the tray card.

Songs are available for two weeks.

Dawkins & Dawkins - Love pt2 inst.
Edge Of (Aischa & Coultrain)
Daru Jones
Spirit & Soul​-​Hop Sampler 09, 2009
Rusic

Daru Jones is back with another free album’s worth of material, this time with a very streamlined presentation, courtesy of Bandcamp - the site that seems to have become every producer’s favorite, overnight. This ’sampler’ features “songs produced by Daru…and remixes of songs recorded by local and international artists such as Muhsinah, Rena, Kissey Asplund, Eagle Nebula…”

These tracks have his signature heavy percussion vibe.

My favorites so far are:

Kissey Asplund - Rat Race “Up & Down”
Chef of Funkilinium feat. Ray Burton - Chef Love
Aischa feat. Black Spade - I Want U pt2 “Spirit Dilla”
Daru & Reggie B. - So Happy pt2

And the two tracks above. You can download the sampler for free here.

Songs are available for two weeks.

Heather
Billy Cobham (wikipedia)
Crosswinds, 1974
Atlantic Records

iTunes | amazon mp3s | CD

I played “93 ‘Til Infinity” a couple months back and my friend Jackie Sommer (of Analog Soul) came up to me and said that phrase I love to hear: ” You know what this samples right?” I didn’t and she told me it was Billy Cobham’s “Heather” which, of course, it turned out I already owned but hadn’t gotten around to listen to yet. I immediately went home and recorded it and then while catching up on the moovmnt blog last week, I came across this track from Black Spade (who I’ve featured before) which also uses “Heather” but in a mood much closer to the original.

The Black Spade track doesn’t hold together as a complete song (in my opinion) but I heart the first 1:10, especially:

it’s the history of our misery that’s keeping me from trying to succeed again, breathe again, love again, pray again, stay again, stay a friend.

The title track “Crosswind” was also sampled for a Golden Era hip hop track.

Songs are available for two weeks.

All The Way Around
Marvin Gaye (wikipedia)
I Want You, 1976
Tamla/Motown
iTunes | amazon mp3s | CD

Wow, how did I miss the song the first time(s) through? I was revisiting this album and this song just blew me away. I was more aggressive this month and played it as the last song of the night at I Love Vinyl.

Shouts to Leon Ware and Arthur ‘T-Boy’ Ross for writing this song, although I will say, for me this song is all about the music; the lyrics could be substituted with “da dee da” and I probably wouldn’t like it any less. My attention is always pulled to the sublime background harmonies in the left channel starting at :46. The interplay between the backgrounds and lead is really well done. The tough part about following the lyrics is that they are not only happening at different times, they are also (often) different words.

I just read the lyrics because I realized I didn’t really even know what the song is about. This one is a gem:

angel though you’re promiscuous i don’t mind a bit cause you’re still the greatest lay even when you’re miles away

Songs are available for two weeks.

Feather
Little Dragon
Machine Dreams, 2009
Peace Frog
iTunes | Amazon MP3s | CD

Gothenburg, Sweden based Little Dragon (who I’ve written about before) just played their second show at Le Poisson Rouge supporting their new Machine Drums album, released in September (the other show was in July, before it came out). I missed the first one but got to see this one and it was really good. “Feather” was a highlight. They really stretched the song out and I was hoping it wouldn’t end. They could have seriously played the song for a half hour and I would have been happy. The song really enveloped the room and the echo-ey wood clap sound (that first at happens at :25) was way more pronounced and so pleasing. Even though they inserted an extended instrumental section into the live performance, I could never quite predict exactly when the clap was going to happen.

I didn’t realize until right now (although it does ring bells, I’m sure someone told me) that Yukimi Nagano, Little Dragon’s lead singer sang vocals on several Koop songs, including “Bright Nights” (iTunes link), one of my favorites.

Bonus download: “Fortune (AFTA-1 Remix)” (you can probably find it here).

Songs are available for two weeks.

Ghost featuring Phase One
Probe DMS
Life Is A Movie, 2010
DMS Country Recordings

My friend Probe just posted a link on facebook to this great track from his new album. Downloading it is going to work a little different than usual. To download it you need to go his bandcamp site and enter your email address (you can preview it before entering your email address to be sent a download link). I assume you will then be added to his email list for updates. I could post the track on my server but I want him to get as much exposure as possible and he is someone you want to be updated on. He’s a great producer, MC and recording engineer (hit him up if you need some affordable studio time) and is also part of the CVees and Spymusic.

This song is hilarious to me, it’s that “I’m a star at the party” type of rap (like Ghostface on Mark Ronson’s “Ooh Wee”) but most of the references are his British electronic/broken beat producer friends.

“Headed to the bar I bumped into Vigo, oh shit this nigga threw on Kaidi & Dego”

“She the type to eat tofu and listen to Domu”

[You can download the song for free by going to this page.]

Creepin’ (In My Dreams)
Tamiko Jones
7″ Single, 1975
Arista Records

Another gem from the 45 vaults. This is Tamiko Jones’ sultry cover of the Stevie Wonder classic that came out the year before. I don’t know much about her, I’ve had her song “Let It Flow” (which came out a year after this record) on my shopping list for years.

Songs are available for two weeks.