Archive for the 'Music Appreciation' Category

Anticipation
The Riches Instrumental
I’m From PG
Oddisee (Blog, Twitter, Bandcamp)
Odd Spring, 2010
Oddisee Music

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted an mp3 but as soon as I heard this, I knew I had to post it up and help spread the word. Prince George’s country (Maryland) never sounded so good. This is the last in a seasonal series of releases Oddisee has given away over the past year. I mentioned the first one when I posted the excellent Diamond District album last year. Like that album, the vocalists are (sometimes) a nice addition but the real draw is Oddisee’s production. I’m a sucker for organ and anything cinematic but he really seems to be zeroing in on the organ/synths/strings trifecta on this one. It’s hard to know where the samples end and the instruments begin. I would be interested to know what instruments he played and if there are any guest instrumentalists. The intro to “Anticipation” is the perfect example. The “you got to learn the tricks of the street or-” sample has an organ line in the back that sounds like its part of the sample but then continues for 4 bars after the sample cuts out. It’s met immediately by a low and fuzzy synth bass line and then met by a second high “summer madness”-like synth line four bars later. It’s not a combination that I’ve heard a lot but it sounds like a perfect (yet unlikely) match.

The more I listened to the Diamond District album and learned the different MC’s flows, the more I realized that every verse that I liked was Oddisee’s. This album is no different. I would say the only downfall of this album is, in fact, the (MC) guest talent. I don’t want to disrespect, I’m guessing these are cats from his area and friends of his but they definitely don’t shine on his tracks like he does. Generally their verses just glide by except for Kingpin Slim’s first verse that kinda ruins “Anticipation,” one of my favorite tracks. Which is really too bad because his first line is so witty (if he means it the way I hear it). After the “you got to learn the tricks of the streets or” soul sample gets abruptly cut off by the beat, it never comes back, as if to say “learn the tricks or…(it’s a wrap for you).” After a bar K.P.S. says “sounds about right” and I would like to think he’s referring to the aforementioned interpretation. After that it all goes downhill [commentary in italics].

I think they waitin’ for two niggas to just go in on the beat, knam sayin?
[thanks for defining the track title but actually we're pretty accustomed to an 8 bar intro]
Darker than the introspective of an introvert [grammatically and conceptually problematic]
…
Mind over matter, that’s a mental quirk
chirp, jump, mentally you like a twerp
you spit like a drool, i am like a burp / earl [please tell me he regrets making that simile]
me and odd star power like we are the world
we don’t need ya’ll referral
i’m a signature, singing to a whore in singapore
got her open like a single ??? [if she doesn't seem open off your b.s., she's not good at her job]
mi amour, furthermore, if you see me singin’ on a track
it ain’t whack, it’s the single ladies that i’m singing for
if you don’t like it, you don’t like girls [file under (middle school) response to "death of autotune"?]

These are all free releases. I highly encourage you to go to Oddisee’s bandcamp and download them in the digital format of your choosing. He is also going to release them as a vinyl boxset sometime this summer so be on the lookout for that too.

In other news, these are (320kbps) AAC (.m4a) files. As I was ranting earlier, I’ve stopped using mp3s whenever possible, mainly due to their disastrous tagging implementation (don’t ask) and and that includes here.

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

Air (Astronote Remix) featuring MF Doom
Dabrye
The Remixes Volume: One, 2009
A-Side Worldwide

Air featuring MF Doom
Dabrye
Two/Three, 2006
Ghostly International

I found this remix on Moovmnt right around the same time I got the original. I actually heard the remix first so I guess I’m not in an impartial position when I say that the remix seems to transcend the original. Or maybe its just that incredibly crisp snap/snare drum combo. It sounds like there are 5 different sounds smashed together on each 2 and 4.

I like the way Astronote handles the spot where the “Woo-Hah” sample is in the original. The dramatic pause and echo make me feel like I missed something really important and I should back.

Apparently Astronote is French. It’s funny, there’s not much to indicate it but the first time I heard the countdown at the beginning of the song (I assume it was sampled from a movie), I noticed that the number “seven” seemed to reveal a much stronger accent than the rest of the numbers; it’s almost “siven.” I couldn’t place the accent but French sounds right (I suppose I should also account for the possibility that if it were from a French movie, the counting would be in…French).

Is “Jabip” regional slang? (“Indeed he ripped scripts from here to Jabip”) I’ve managed to never hear that one before.

I suggest setting the start time of the Astronote Mix to “0:30.35″.

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

Feel Like featuring Mar
HomeMade
HomeMade EP, 2009? 2010?
Bacardi Visita (The site is in Dutch)

This is another example of the great blurring of lines that’s going on in “the music business” these days. These three Dutch producers (Full Crate, FS Green & Grand Jackson) teamed up to do an EP and a series of events for Bacardi Visita – what I guess is the Dutch Bacardi (?). I first read about this last August on Moovmnt, my favorite blog. The EP was to be released “during the upcoming three editions off the Visita event.” I’m not sure if that means that they were releasing it digitally, a couple songs at each event or whether they made CDs and were distributing them at all the events but either way, this goes against everything the entire music industry business model. There’s no solid release date, they got paid upfront for a short term mix of recording and performing and the money came directly from a non-music brand to the artists and not through a middle man. Even their name seemed to be a little somewhat in the air, on Moovmnt it was originally billed as “Visita Homemade” but by the time the cover art surfaced (I found this on Trees For Breakfast) the name was simply “HomeMade.”

I’m reminded of my rant about the RIAA president making a speech at the grammy’s in 2008 about “the music stopping” if we don’t keep buying music from the major labels. Well, here it is, one of my songs of the year last year, “pre-paid” by a non-music company from Amsterdam…and it’s better than 98% of what the major labels put out last year.

Photo by Aaron van Valen.

Songs are available for two weeks.
The full EP is available here. I’m not sure for how long.

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?

Songs are available for two weeks.

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.

Songs are available for two weeks.

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.