Archive for the 'Music Appreciation' Category

Everything Good To You (Ain’t Always Good For You)
B.T. Express
Do It (’Til Your Satisfied), 1974

I’ve been meaning to do a post about bootleg vinyl breaks compilations for a while…and this isn’t really the post I was writing in my mind but that’s ok (as I can’t really remember it). I feel like I have to say that what write is inevitably going to be colored by DJ Premier’s tirade on breaks records on Gang Starr’s Moment of Truth album (text below).

That aside, I have to give respect, well, at least acknowledge that a lot of my early record shopping was fueled by the names and tracks found on those compilations. That said, the producers of these compilations take some serious liberties when preparing the tracks for release. This B.T. Express song is a great example. It appears on Strictly Breaks Vol. 5 which come out in 1998. Its listed, like the rest, with a subtitle that says who sampled it, in this case, “Used by DMX for ‘Get At Me Dog’” (it was also sampled on “Get The Bozack” by EPMD 9 years earlier). The Strictly Breaks folks knew that DJs would want to play it right before or after the DMX song which was getting a lot of attention at the time so they went ahead and decided it was ok to slow the song down from 117 beats per minute to…104 (i.e. a lot, making it much closer to tempo of the DMX song - 97) and repeat the first bar four times (creating a clumsy 11-bar intro).

To expect more integrity from a compilation who’s “copyright” line says “Warning: Unauthorized duplications of this joint will end you up with cement shoes at a river near you!!!” is perhaps foolish. But that it doesn’t say “Re-Edit” or “*Remix by Louis Flores” like the Ultimate Breaks and Beats series seems irresponsible. I guess the lesson is that if you are going to get your samples the “lazy” way then you are getting something on par with the amount of effort you are putting out but something about it still bothers me. I guess its that the state of affairs is only getting more sloppy in the internet age of “crate digging.” I haven’t been djing that long but I felt like a senior citizen when a young DJ recently asked me “where do you get all those samples? because they’re really hard to find at good quality [read: download at good quality], trust me I looked…do you [pause] dig?” with a tone that implied he expected me to laugh, say ‘hell no” and tell him the right place to look online.

…and one other thing, what’s the deal with you break record cats that’s putting out all the original records that we sample from, and snitchin’ by putting us on the back of it saying that we used stuff - you know how that go - stop doing that - ya’ll are violatin’, straight up and down! word up man, i’m sick on this sh-t; ya’ll motherf-ck-rs really don’t know what this hip hop’s all about; so while you keep on fakin’ the funk, we gonna keep on walking through the darkness, carrying our torches…

>> right-click –> here for 192 kbps version [4.2 MB] and here for the 320 kbps version [7.0 MB] of “Everything Good To You (Ain’t Always Good For You)”.

Community Service Announcement
Kylie Auldist
Just Say, 2008

The Australian soul singer that I was intrigued by on this song that I posted in November released her debut album May 26 on Tru Thoughts (the same label that released the Bamboos album that she guested on). Her album was produced Lance (aka Lanu) from the Bamboos and it has a fairly similar feel to the Bamboos vocal songs. This is the first single and what I would consider (so far) to be the best song on the album.

It also seems to be part of a larger move in the new soul “movement” to dial the sound back from 1973 to 1967. I think it’s cool that people are being creative and switching it up but that “everyone” seems to be doing at the same time (Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings “Tell Me” and the 100 Days, 100 Nights album is the best example I can think of) makes me think of this music as trendy and makes it a lot harder to idealize it as timeless (which I enjoy doing).

Thematically, this song bears a strong resemblance to Bill Wither’s “Lonely Town, Lonely Street.”

“Community Service Announcement” opening line:

Living in the jungle
Is same as living in the town
If your not living near your brothers
We all need someone around

“Lonely Town, Lonely Street” opening line:

You can live your life in a crowded city
You can walk along a crowded street
But the city really ain’t no bigger
Than the friendly people that you meet

I was really surprised to find a cover of the Jeff Buckley song I posted in March ‘07. I like to pretend that she was google-ing herself and found my site and decided to cover the song for me.

>> right-click –> here to download “Community Service Announcement” [10.3 MB].

Sunday and Sister Jones
Roberta Flack
Quiet Fire, 1971
wikipedia | official site

I came back across this album in my collection this week while recording a bunch of borrowed records and was aghast that I hadn’t recorded this song yet. I’ve shared my love of early Roberta Flack before but am glad to give another example of how her easy-listening reputation is unfortunate or at least not all there is (the duets with Peabo Bryson and Maxi Priest are hard to dispute).

This is her second sultry song about a preacher, not coincidentally both were written by Eugene McDaniels. “Reverend Lee” (the other song, some lyrics here) is intentionally lyrically provocative whereas the seduction of this song is all in the performance.

The basic plot of the song is that Reverend Jones is sick and his wife prays to the Lord for him to save him, saying “if you take him away i don’t want to live another day.” He dies and she dies the next day. I don’t know if they recorded this song at 4:00 a.m. or what but (tell me if I’m wrong) somewhere beween Roberta’s delivery of birth, death, kneeling, and “Life was crying (?) from her body / Like water from a drying well,” this song has a clear sexual vibe to it.

It was early Sunday evening
Just before the death of day
All the family friends were grieving
Reverend Jones just passed away
Sister Jones had seen it coming
She was familiar with the signs
Late one night I heard her hummin’
While strolling through the Georgia pines

She said, Lord if you take him away
I don’t want to live

It was early Sunday morning
Just before the birth of day
I can hear the rooster crowing
Sister Jones knelt down to pray
She said Lord he’s slipping through my fingers
Is death the master of us all?
She said Lord I’m humble here before you
Just grant this life and don’t let him fall
She said, Lord if you take him away
I don’t want to live another day

Later on that Sunday evening
Just before the midnight dawn (?)
Sister Jones was heavy breathin’
I still hear the mourning song
Life was crying from her body
Like water from a drying well
Well, I heard her whisper thank you Jesus
Just before midnight ___

Sister Jones was taken away
She didn’t live
Sister Jones was taken away
She didn’t live another day
Sister Jones was taken away
She didn’t live
Sister Jones was taken away
She didn’t live another day
Sister Jones…taken away
She didn’t live another day

Looks like Roberta Flack is selling the piano that she used to record her masterpiece debut First Take. Times must be tough…

Perry, thanks for this record.

>> right-click –> here to download the 192 kbps version [6.9 MB] or here for the 320 kbps version [11.5 MB].

Followed Path
Karl Hector & The Malcouns
Sahara Swing
Release Date: July 9, 2008

I recently started getting promos from Stones Throw which is exciting. This cd showed up last week and I’ve been stuck on this track since then. Sahara Swing is on Stones Throw’s “Now Again” subsidiary which I thought was solely dedicated to reissues. The cd is clearly marked with a 2008 release year but considering the sound, I was able to ignore it and assume it was the a new copyright year for the reissue. It wasn’t until just now that I went to Stones Throw site to get to the bottom of it, and apparently “Now-Again has taken more to new artist development and signings” and this is brand new music.

The horn harmonies that first appear at :57 seem so familiar without actually knowing them. It’s actually something I would have dreamed of playing back in my young alto saxophone playing days. Not so complex but oh so moody and cinematic.

I don’t know anything else about this group other than what the Now Again site says so I’ll just quote instead of pretending:

Now-Again Records follows up…with an album of Afro-tinged funk music originating from the Southern Sahara and recorded in Germany.

Karl Hector has, to date, only appeared on one 7-inch, from 1996, as the leader of the Funk Pilots. For this album, he has teamed up with Jay Whitefield (producer and guitarist for the Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers, and founder of the now defunct Hotpie & Candy Records) and Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija, founders of The Malcouns.

Alongside Bo Baral, other members of the Poets of Rhythm and crack Munich-based session musicians, Whitefield, Myland and Curlija have crafted nearly twenty tracks that follow the musical roads that Hector has travelled. The underlying groove that ties these ideas together, of course, is as rooted in James Brown as it is Fela Kuti. As informed by Mulatu Astatke of Ethiopia as it is by Jean-Claude Vannier and Can. This is an album of the world. Not “world music” – but that will appeal to any culture ever transfixed by rhythm on “the one.”

>> right-click –> here to download the 192 kbps version [6.6 MB] or here for the 320 kbps version [11.0 MB].

You and Me
Stevie Wonder
My Cherie Amour, 1969

I was putting the full court press on a lot of my friends to come to the WONDER-Full™ party this year and at the last minute (when I was eating a burrito across the street from the Hammerstein) I got nervous that I might be overselling it. I got there pretty early (9:30, doors opened at 9:00) and was surprised to find out that the event was in the actual ballroom (”Hammerstein Ballroom”) on the 7th floor, not in the concert venue on the first floor. I was quite a shift from last year’s all concrete warehouse setting. The ballroom featured carpeting and an expansive wedding-style wood cube dance floor that was placed in the middle for the occasion.

As usual Keistar/Spinna/Bobbito brought in their own sound which, in my estimation, has been really heavy on treble for the last two years. I brought 8 pairs of earplugs for friends after Ben was so kind as to save me the morning-after-ear-ringing last year.

There were maybe 100 people there when I got there and a quarter of them were already dancing (mostly alone on the huge almost empty dance floor) and I felt better about my campaign already, remember how serious the Wonder-Full crowd is about dancing. By 11:15, the entire dancefloor was full but the real treat came around 1:00 a.m. when Stevie showed up. There was a commotion as he (and his daughter Aisha and the rest of his entourage) walked along the side of the ballroom making there way to the front and very quickly, what had been a free-moving dance party turned into a uni-directional cell-phone-camera wielding semi-reverent mass.

That picture doesn’t do justice to the number of recording devices being used. As has been pointed out on other blogs, people seemed so consumed with trying to capture the moment that a lot of them seemed to forget to be in it. After endorsing Barack Obama and mentioning that the party was a month late (it’s traditionally been within a week of his birthday, May 13th) among other things, he sang “That Girl,” “Uptight (Everything’s All Right),” “Superstition,” and “Do I Do” more or less a capella with intense crowd participation.

He left the stage after that but came back 10 or 15 minutes later to just sit down and hang out. The funny thing was, people couldn’t handle it. Everyone rushed back up to the front and starting taking pictures…of Stevie sitting…and it went on for a while. It was a little silly. Someone asked me “why is he just sitting there?” to which I more or less replied “he’s hanging out, the real question is, why are we just standing here?” Just when people finally went back to dancing, Spinna played “Master Blaster” and Stevie got up and sang with it [insert rush-to-stage part 3]. Then talked about Syreeta (his first wife) who died in 2004. Then he left (for 15 seconds) and Spinna played “Isn’t She Lovely” (written for Aisha) which he came back and sang for her.

I thought I would post this song, one of my favorite Stevie album cuts, as a tribute to the party and his concert at Jones Beach which I saw last night. This song is also on my Music For My Funeral list. As it says on that page and it worth repeating, “You and Me” is not to be confused with the (also awesome) better known and more predictably sentimental “You and I” from Talking Book. “You and Me” instantly makes me picture sunshine and hills. It’s very much a “closing credits” song and therefore perfect for the list.

>> right-click –> here to download the 192 kbps version [3.7 MB] and here for the 320 kbps version [6.2 MB].

By Your Side (Cottonbelly Remix)
Sade
X Amounts of Niceness, 2004

Cottonbelly is an alias of Stuart Matthewman, the saxophone and guitar player for Sade (”Sade” the band), member of Sweetback and part-producer, part-songwriter, and musician for Maxwell’s three studio albums (among other things I’m sure).

Someone enthusiastically requested this song from me a couple years back and I didn’t have it/know it. Then he told me it was on Red Hot + Riot (see this post for info on the Red Hot series) which I owned and I almost wanted to tell him that he was wrong (I thought the whole album was Fela covers). Of course he was right and the song more than lived up to his effusive recommendation.

I don’t know the history of this mix; “By Your Side” came out in 2000 but I don’t see any mention of this mix until Red Hot + Riot in 2002. I wonder if he made it specifically for that compilation. This remix changes the vibe of the song more than I would have believed possible. The original is one of the most overly pleasant poppy things that Sade have ever done (and we all love them, but they are not the most musically complex to start with). He made the tempo a third faster and integrated the vocals perfectly with samples from Fela’s “Who No Know Go Know” and Tony Allen’s (wikipedia, myspace) “Jealousy.”

The version on Red Hot + Riot is 4:40 but I posted the version on this Cottobelly compilation I picked up at Amoeba during my last trip to San Francisco because apparently, at 7:16, it’s the full version that I didn’t know existed until just now.

This sounds nice at office-volume but is a whole other beast when played at body shaking-bass levels.

>> right-click –> here to download the 192 kbps version [5.2 MB] and here for the 320 kbps version.

I Ain’t Got Nothing
The Temptations
All Directions, 1972

This album was best known for “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” but there are some other great songs on it as well, including a cover of Isaac Hayes’
“Do You Thing” from the Shaft Soundtrack that came out a year before, and this song. This album also contains the surprising “Run Charlie Run” — as in “Run Charlie run, the niggas is comin’!” (snippet). I guess they felt like they needed to up the ante after their less incendiary 1969 song “Message From a Black Man.”

“I Ain’t Got Nothing” is one of those songs that is totally ridiculous and undermines itself at every turn, yet still somehow achieves the desired effect, in the case, being sad. It would be perfect for a Will Ferrell movie.

You know, every house has a door and every room has a floor
Every fence has a gate and every beast has a mate
Everybody, everybody’s got something but me…I ain’t got nothing

Every stove has a fire and every car has a tire
Every fish has a bowl and every shoe has a sole
Everybody, everybody’s got something but me…I ain’t got nothing

Now I don’t care about politics and things across the see
All I want, all I want to do is love, and have somebody love me

I need, I need somebody

Every lion has a den and every little pig has a its pen
Every road has a way and they tell me every dog has its day
Everybody, everybody’s got something but me

I ain’t got nothing
I ain’t got nothing
Oh no…

(repeat)

>> right-click –> here to download the 192 kbps version [5.2 MB] and here for the 320 kbps version [8.6 MB].

Volans (Parachute Dub)
Slouch
Travels: Rarities and Rereleases (Master Copies), 2008

I wanted to give a highlight to my friend Ian who recently released two EPs through his snocap myspace music store. This track is from “Travels: Rarities and Rereleases” (the top album image). The bottom image is of “Labor” the other EP.

I met Ian through myspace when he was first moving to NYC two summers ago. I never approve a friend request from an artist on myspace without making sure their music is at least decent. To this day, I think Ian is the only artist I’ve ever learned of directly through myspace that I makes me feel like being on myspace is worthwhile for that reason.

It was hard to pick which song to post, I’ve only gotten a chance to listen through the EPs once so far. I don’t know if it comes through from what I post on this blog but my musical taste often leans towards the cinematic and brooding and Ian is a master of cinematic and brooding. I know he samples a ton and I honestly don’t know how he is able to make his songs so cohesive with so many disparate layers.

He’ll be performing tonight at the Out of Sequence party at Karma Lounge and at the release party for these two EPs which will be on June 14 at the next installment of his monthly SyncTank party with DJ Kuma.

By the way, he’s also a great graphic designer, he did the covers himself (click to enlarge for detail).

>> right-click –> here to download “Volans (Parachute Dub)” [12.4 MB]

Bleeding Together (DJ Eli Remix)
Dissent
Wide Hive 12 Inch, 2003

I played a Barack Obama Fundraiser last night at this swanky new place called Hudson Terrace on the far west side. This was one of the songs I pulled to play but I didn’t get to it. It was actually hard to know what to play. It definitely didn’t have the “rally” vibe, it was more of a business attire fundraiser. I tried to avoid being sucked into the upscale vibe of the place and I ended playing everything from “Impeach the President” (Honeydrippers) to “Superstar” (Lupe Fiasco) to Pharoahe Monch’s version of “Welcome to the Terrordome” to “Let’s Get Blown” (Snoop Dogg) to “A Chance For Peace” (Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes) to the “Barack Obama” song by Cocoa Tea (thanks to RikRok for that one, if you haven’t heard it - check it out). I managed to make it all work.

The Ahn Trio and Mingus Dynasty also donated their services to the fundraiser and gave great performances. Recommended. The Ahn Trio’s website is really impressive.

This track isn’t overtly political but the line “we are all alone…together / not all-together alone” seemed to fit with Obama’s overall message. I’ve never heard the original version of this song but I have the feeling this quiet little remix kicks its ass.

>> right-click –> here to download the 192 kbps version [10.6 MB] and here for the 320 kbps version [17.5 MB]

We Are One
The Hot 8 Brass Band
Rock With the Hot 8 Brass Band, 2007

This song is a cover of a Maze featuring Frankie Beverly song from 1983. It’s an unlikely choice for a brass band but the harmonies sound so lovely with that instrumentation.

This album came out on Louisiana Red Hot Records 6 months before Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (with less appealing cover art). According to a poorly written press release on the Tru Thoughts website (the label that re-released the album), they were “inundated with thousands of enquiries about” the Hot 8’s version of “Sexual Healing.” These two sentence are particularly vexing:

After the hurricane the label never fully recovered and the track was pushed underground until it was brought to the attention of Tru Thoughts A&R Robert Luis when Quantic started dropping it in his DJ sets. People have been swapping CDRs and MP3s to get hold of the track ever since and it has received a remarkable response from DJs such as Gilles Peterson, Rob Da Bank and Coldcut getting in touch with Tru Thoughts eager to get hold of their own copy.

Wait, ever since what? It sounds like they are saying that these go from being underground to mainstream by merely entering the consciousness of Robert Luis. Tru Thoughts released “500 exclusive copies” of the single in October 2007 (although they can’t be that “exclusive” as the album came out two weeks later). I first heard this song in a Daz-I-Kue DJ set at Winter Music Conference in March of 2007 so it seems the swapping was in full effect many months before the Tru Thoughts release. I guess what is more likely is that he was leaking the mp3 to high profile djs but they should just say that.

Anyway, the music is great so who cares about everything else.

>> songs are available for two weeks [15.5 MB]