Believe it or not, one of our fave albums and all-time best sellers, Josh "DJ Shadow" Davis' seminal Endtroducing debut, currently only has a one-word review on our website. Certainly it deserves more than that. Although, at least the word we chose is "amazing". The album's original release on MoWax in 1996 (almost ten years ago!!) more or less predated our obsessive reviewing schedule, so like quite a few other classics it never got its multi-paragraph due on our new arrivals list. And chances are, we figured that listing it our our site with the simple "amazing" recommendation was enough, 'cause it's hard to imagine that everyone hadn't heard of/heard/bought a copy by now. But since, after all, we still sell it steadily, clearly there must be those as yet to discover it. Now, with the release of a double disc digipack "deluxe" edition in a plastic slipcase (a treatment afforded by the same label to the likes of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, by the way, making this something of an honor for DJ Shadow!), we have the perfect excuse to basically take a few hundred words to say "amazing" again! Shadow's masterpiece (disc one, "The Album") is a brillant example of hip hop DJ-as-composer, sample-based songwriting, a mostly instrumental suite of songs built entirely from sounds, hooks and grooves sourced from the depths of Shadow's extensive record collection. He didn't invent the idea, of course, but he did do it better than almost anyone before (or after!) him, garnering for himself worldwide fame and heaps of deserved critical praise.
And even if you scratch (heh) your head when we talk about turntablists and sampling, rest assured that, process aside, this is a great album that transcends genre tags and easy categorization. It's dark, dramatic, bright, hip-hop, soul, and jazz. It is very accessible. Shadow picked cool samples (like the Pugh Rogefeldt bit that helped us sell a ton of reissued cds by that particular Swedish '60s psych-folkster so recently) AND also turned these samples utterly into his own, new music. Music that's groovy and moody and challenging, never all that easy to figure out, and not at all about turntablist hi-jinx or trickery, just about careful listening and the love of all kinds of old LPs!! Cut Chemist, in the liner notes, is quoted as calling DJ Shadow "The King Of Digging" and vinyl collecting/crate digging for sure is celebrated by Endtroducing, from the famous cover shot of the racks in the vast Sacramento shop simply called Records to the grooves reborn within. As Shadow himself put it: "this album reflects a lifetime of vinyl culture". He never topped it (opinions here were mixed about his many-years-later follow-up The Private Press in 2002) and probably never will. Not that anyone else has either! So if you don't have it already, what the heck are you waiting for? And to further underscore the point that this a great and important album, we're told that there's a book in the 33 1/3 Series coming out about it soon too!
Then there's disc two, what (aside from the packaging, which includes a booket of photos, essays, and track notes from Shadow himself) makes this a "deluxe" reissue. Disc two, entitled "Excessive Ephemera", features a slew of Endtroducing-era cuts -- alternate takes, demos, remixes, and a live radio performance. In addition to a few tracks that made it out on now-out-of-print MoWax singles, a bunch of these are unheard-before, work-in-progress versions of tracks from the album, so as bonus material this is more about providing insight into the creation of Endtroducing and less about any long-lost tracks that shoulda been on the album. It is kind of a way to listen to Endtroducing again with new ears. And it's nice to have the "extended overhaul" of the all-too-brief album track "Organ Donor", a mix that Shadow created expressly for James Lavelle's DJ use. So, a lot of added value for all Shadow fans who want to pick this up again and re-enter the world of Entroducing.
Amazing.
Isn't it astounding that DJ Shadow is still milking the accolades of his stellar, career-highpoint debut from six years ago? And we don't mean to belabour the subject but... how's this for obnoxious? On the introduction to this new live cd/dvd, DJ Shadow gives a thorough 'shout-out' NOT to his fans and homies, but instead to all of his releases... including eps and comp tracks! Ack, unbelievable! Aah, 'tis such a love/hate relationship!
Alright, now that we've got that out of our system... In Tune And On Time is comprised of a 20-track cd documenting his 2002 performance at the London Brixton Academy and a dvd with that very same performance (expanded to include a couple extra tracks) as well as an additional invigorating performance in L.A. (which also stars his pals Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5), an interview and other candid footage. Good stuff. It always is. But how many times do you really need to hear the same old songs, especially live? They're not ever all that different, after all he's not a band, he's a DJ, playing records. But if you want more Shadow, this will have to suffice, at least until he gets around to making another record as good as Endtroducing.
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5 pieces, 3 of which are non-album. "The Number Song" is given a kickass remix by the Bay Area's own turntablist maestro the Cut Chemist. And if "Midnight in a Perfect World" is one of your favorite songs from the record, you'll want to hear the version here which includes more of Baraka's rousing sermon...
Collects Shadow's old singles (the great "What Does Your Soul Look Like" included) plus his recent import-only "High Noon" track.
Not our favorite outing by DJ Shadow. Though we do suspect there's a Magma sample in there somewhere, so that's cool! But also, maybe, Rage Against The Machine??
Not sure if the title of DJ Shadow's new production refers to himself or the listener, but there's no doubt there is something schizophrenically off-kilter here, and the jury is still out on whether this is a successful quality or merely a string of increasingly bad ideas. Chock full of guest appearances (mostly guest rappers-never a good sign!) including
local hyphy hip hop stars, Keak da Sneak and Turf Talk, Christina Carter from Charalambides and Chris James from Stateless doing his most earnest Chris Martin/Bono/Thom Yorke imitations. While the consensus from most of us here is that The Outsider as a whole is better than Shadow's last outing, The Private Press, what's missing here is that killer single track that makes the whole worthwhile. That said, we'll give Josh Davis the benefit of the doubt that The Outsider is definitely a grower with patient listeners reaping the most rewards from his erratic multiple personae.
DJ Shadow's second full length is finally here, and I do believe I (Windy) am the only AQ-er who likes it. Well, Jim thinks it's ok, but the general consensus 'twixt my colleagues is that the rest of the field has caught up to him, and he hasn't hitched up his britches to keep ahead of the herd. Hmm. I disagree. Certainly The Private Press is no Endtroducing (his acclaimed debut full length), but neither should it be. It's a lot more accessible and crowdpleasing than the debut, the layers aren't as impenetrably mysterious, and yeah, it requires less work to like it (i.e. not as challenging). But there's nuthin' wrong with that. He's keeping it interesting for himself. The Private Press is a likable, listenable (might we even say, at times lighthearted?) trip. It's got everything from the moody arpeggiated piano lines that're DJ Shadow's signature, soul divas, sad minor key laments, funny Cut Chemist / Kid Koala-style spoken bits, super epic percussive climaxes, and an all over hip hop flavor. And the heartbreakingly sincere audio letters that bracket the album are incredibly well chosen, framing the songs as an emotional musical narrative. *Very* well done.
And now for my co-workers to have their say:
We have to wonder, though, why he used that old "pure energy" sample. Why don't ya just throw in "I got the power!" too? Not to mention the overused tired, sad android voice (y'know just like the one Radiohead used).
Cup sez: We had a DJ Shadow 12" here a little while ago, and I thought one of its tracks sounded as if he'd just plugged in his Playstation 2 system and recorded the sounds of someone playing the game REZ. If you're at all familiar with the game you'll undoubtedly find the Shadow track ringing familiar too. REZ is basically a shooter game, but with an astounding combination of rave-ready sounds and gorgeously trippy visuals - both of which are manipulated by your performance. Oh yeah, and the level bosses are pretty spectacular. Stunningly beautiful and deluxe fun! Really, you could just project the game action on a wall, pump the sounds through a bad-ass sound system, and *POOF!* instant party. Anyways, that track is included here too. And it sticks out like a sore thumb which makes the REZ theory all the more plausible!
Not sure how much needs to be said about this. An awesome live film of Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow performing their legendary all-45 Brainfreeze set. Really fun and crazy and just a total blast. Also included are excerpts of the opening sets by Marvski, Dante, Nu-Mark and a really funny, amazingly dexterous set from Z-Trip. Extras include rehearsals, photo galleries and discographies. Not sure how long we're gonna have these so act fast! And for our international customers, it's all region!
By now you may be familiar with the all-45's sets performed worldwide by famed DJs Cut Chemist (Ozomatli) and DJ Shadow and their accompanying cd recordings (when we have them, which isn't often as they are quasi-legal!). Here's another installment of their funk-fueled, sweet soul hipswayin', rare groove-y, hip hop spirited sessions. While the first three tracks are underwhelming yet but welcome opening sets by NuMark (doing his cute "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" bit) and rockwrangler Z-Trip, on the body of the disc is where Shadow and Cut Chemist really shine. Consists of 6 practice tidbits and 10 lengthy live performance clips. Lots of happy "oh shit!"'s and frenzied speedracer scratching showstoppers. High energy and a ton (80 minutes!) of nonstop fun. If you've already got all the other Brainfreeze discs, you could *maybe* skip this one, but then again one always needs another play-it-all-night party disc...
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Culled from the Shiggerfraggar radio show records that've been lovingly reissued by Billy Jam on disc, this is a prime breaks record for all you turntablist DJs. Speaking of which, has everyone heard about the cool turntable festival happening in LA November 2002? Looks incredible! Everyone from Kid Koala to Philip Jeck. http://http://www.turnament.com/index2.html
DJ Disk brought this in the other day, a dvd (or dvd-r, we're pretty sure, it's blue on the playing side, whatever that means) version of this video document of the infamous Invisible Skratch Picklz, originally released on VHS ten years ago. Disk, Q-bert, Flare, Shortkut, and the devilish brown-bag masked Shiggar Fraggar himself skritch-skritch-scratch the hell out of a bunch of vinyl on an array of turntables, in a crazed DJ jam session. It's pretty amazing to see them do this live, even today. Indeed, it's what Time Magazine (TIME MAGAZINE!) called "the greatest turntable scratch show ever created". Frenzied fun showcasing mad skillz. For live visuals of classic "Turntablist Orchestrated Music" with a wacky sense of humor, look no further!
We haven't had a chance to review this yet but here is Bomb Hip Hop's opinion:
Don't sleep on this one. Shortee's debut solo release is the first ever female turntablist/DJ/producer full length album, making it a first of its kind! Prepare to be shocked, this girls got skills and she's not only hanging in there with the boys - she's kicking it with a fresh style like no other. Listen to this album and you're guaranteed to hear an assortment of funky beats with fat bass kicks, jazzy bass lines, pianos, trumpets, flutes, soulful scratches, tons of percussion and so much more... In addition to Shortee's DJ production skills, she has been a drummer/percussionist for 17 years.
Shortee takes her musicians experience and evenly balances it with her advanced DJ skills to create an extremely musical album with a variety of hooks, chorus, bridges and beats that are constantly changing up along with a creative story line, making you want to listen to it again and again. Each song symbolizes a dream and each dream is different - ranging in hip-hop, dub, drum 'n' bass, go-go and swing... Shortee has toured the world performing with her partner DJ Faust as part of the dynamic duo of Faust & Shortee along with other acts such as Prince Paul, Afrika Bambaataa, Shortkut, Babu and 1998 DMC Champion Craze."
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Excellent! SO GOOD it's hard to believe this happened in one 70-minute live set. Cut Chemist's crowd-pleasing dancefloor-aware set is perfectly complemented by judicious scratching courtesy The Invisible Skratch Picklz' Short Kut. That's right, they got 5 turntables spinning at once and it WORKS. It takes them about 15 minutes to find their stride but then it's all uphill; the crowd loved it so much you can hear them too (the needles picked up the roar!) Currently the best record of this rapidly-expanding genre. Locally grown.
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In the burgeoning new field (heh, not really) of hip-hop-destroys-rock-music mixes, as typified by DJs Z-Trip and Jester, local DJ Ted Shred breaks out with a totally weird and hilarious cd. He'll throw on P. Diddy next to Night Ranger, Biggie Smalls vs. Peter Gabriel, UTFO vs Paul Simon. Yes, this disc is as gimmicky as Jester and Z-Trip, but it is also kickass and ballsy. Ted Shred's own twist on the formula is that he is constantly shifting the speed of the records. Whether he's a really bad beatmatcher trying lamely to sync up his mixes, or if he's a brilliant prankster who loves changing speeds, melodies, and pitches to surreal effect, we're not sure (imagine something like DJ Z-Trip meets DJ Screw). But hey, his phone number is on the disc, so you can ask him yourself... or get him to spin at your next party. Love it!
Oh, and Allan wants you to know: the track "Van Halen vs. Van Halen" illustrates the obvious similarities between deft turntable scratching and fleet-fingered guitar wanking, as well as demonstrating the superiority of the latter. Volume two coming soon! Highly recommended!
In the burgeoning new field of hip-hop-destroys-rock-music mixes, as typified by DJs Z-Trip and Jester, local DJ Ted Shred breaks out with a second totally weird and hilarious cd. He'll throw on The Stanley Bros vs DJ Rectangle, Armenian music on top of Method
By the way we've got a few more copies of his debut cd too; this is the one that made into Art Forum and Tower Pulse magazine tops of the year 2001 lists!
The notorious DJ Ted Shred is back. SF's own local master of messed-up mash-up returns with a third volume (a cd-r this time) of his mix tape madness. Ted, if you haven't heard him, is an anything-goes DJ who likes to play hip hop not just next to but right on top of some classic rock...kinda like some of the stuff DJ Z-Trip does. But Ted's even more reckless, less concerned with careful beat-matching than with fitting square pegs into round holes for laffs...and he's got NO concern for 'musical correctness'. So, I guess this is a novelty record, but so much fun. Some examples: CCR vs. Da Beat Minerz, Don Henley vs. Puff Daddy, Whitesnake (and Toto!) vs. Nas, Johnny Cash vs. Arrested Development, Cory Hart vs. Run-DMC, Scorpions vs. Missy Elliott... and on and on. He also has a big collection of old children's records that get much play. You'll also hear the Lord Of The Rings theme, the Oompa Loompas, Dave Chappelle, Conan The Barbarian, and Def Leppard... Ted gets props for doing this stuff with live skillz rather that on a computer, like most of the 'mash-ups' that are all the rage these days. And he puts some thought into the segues, like answering Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking" (vs. Mos Def) with the Allman Brothers' "Rambling Man" (vs. Mix Master Mike). Good fun!
Skapel are two electronic musicans from Poland who do an incredible sample/cut/paste job with some obscure and anonymous (to us) '70 Eastern European jazz LPs being used for their sound sources. This duo is right on in their constructions built from mellow bass grooves, funky drum loops, glistening vibes, horn vamps, snatches of soulful female vox, etc., generating a head-nodding, smokey, noir-ish atmosphere of breakbeat jazz plunderphonica. Imagine an extremely jazz-oriented DJ Shadow and you'd be close... DJ Shadow meets '70s Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock maybe. Throw some of David Shire's the Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3 soundtrack in there too. As with Shadow, these tracks are built from other folks' records but stand on their own, the edits all flowing, the samples (including some record crackle to hint at their origin) integrated seamlessly, such that you might be fooled into thinking you were listening to the product of a real live band of musicans actually all playing together at the same time and place... though some electronic manipulation and looping will clue you otherwise. Still, there's no wip-wip-wap turntablism going on to get in the way of the music and mood. Really nice (though you've gotta like jazz of course). And it certainly makes us wish that the Skalpel guys would put together a compilation of Polish '70s fusion so we could check out the originals too!
The cd version of this comes with a bonus remix disc entitled 1958 Breaks, featuring remixes by Skalpel and others (Quantic, Dr. Rubberfunk, Backini, Paradowski, etc.) of stuff from Skalpel's first album. It has its moments but I won't be listening to it as much as the main disc 'cause the more techno/hiphop/whatever mixes tend to detract from the "I can't believe it's not real live jazz" authenticity that Konfusion does so well.
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A super limited single (only 700 were made!!!) from the Space Travelers which features DJ Quest (of Live Human) and Cue, whose title track "Black Hole" will appear on the upcoming Future Primitive compilation "Urban R(evolution)". The huge electro break is cast in a downtempo groove with flashy turntable tricks and elements of Missile Command-esque video game noise, horn flares, and funk bass snippets that almost resemble Tackhead. Z-Trip's "Further Explorations into the Black Hole" on the flip side fills out the minimalist electro funk of "Black Hole" with cut-up Sci-Fi narratives and a slightly different handclap driven break. Along with these two tracks, 'instrumental' versions of each respective track and bonus beats of the Z-Trip remix are also present.
G.E. Stinson and friends!
Hmmm. Don't know exactly what to make of this. It's a sorta sci-fi themed mish mash of frantic beats, scratches, spacey fx and heavy guitars credited to the odd pairing of uber-intellectual DJ Spooky and Slayer/Fantomas drummer Dave Lombardo, with such equally unlikely guests as Chuck D, Dalek, Meredith Monk, Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack Dangers and Living Colour's Vernon Reid. Maybe the only question to ask is: how come Buckethead's not on this too? ...or Bill Laswell? Or Anthrax?? There's something very early '90s about this, and the trio of updated, electro-metallized PE raps that Chuck D contributes -- "Brother's Gonna Work It Out (2005)", "B-Side Wins Again (2005)", "Public Enemy #1 (2005)"-- just add to the deja vu. We mainly ordered this in 'cause the last unlikey Dave Lombardo collaboration (the one where he plays Vivaldi!) we encountered was actually weirdly cool. But this... not sure why it exists, exactly. Some parts are all right in and of themselves, but it doesn't seem to add up to anything other than a demonstration of the range of Spooky's Rolodex.
Four versions of the title track, which can also be found on his solo album, plus three versions of "Do You Dance". Once again in budget-priced cd format.
DJ Rob Swift of NYC's amazing X-Men! You remember him from Return of the DJ Volume 1. His full-length debut utilizes his turntable skills on some great jazz-funk grooves, getting into soundtrack-y DJ Shadow territory at points.
Highly anticipated solo record by one of the X-Ecutioners NYC turntablist crew.
A live recording from a local outdoor performance. Tabla Beat Science pretty much typifies world beat music; emphasis on the 'world', emphasis on the 'beat'. Zakir Hussain on tabla, Bill Laswell on bass, former Skratch Pikl DJ Disk wielding turntables, plus personnel supplying sarangi, synths, vocals, etc.
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DJs! Here's an instrumental version on wax of the fab Shing02 album! 13 tracks of Japanese/American hiphop musick to cut up.
By now, most readers of the aQ list know just how much we love the turntable, and all the non musical sounds associated with it, hiss and crackle and pop, skips and scrapes, we've reviewed records featuring turntables without records, recordings of ONLY the surface noise of lps, we love it. So of course we love folks like Philip Jeck, Martin Tetreault and Strotter Inst., who have truly stretched the boundaries of turntable as instrument, but our first exposure to what could be done with a turntable, as was probably lots of folks', was via hip hop and DJs. aQ used to be the source for all things turntablism, Qbert, Invisbl Skratch Piklz, and especially Kid Koala, who had amazing DJ skills, but gave them his own distinct spin (remember the Charlie Brown "I gotta rock" jam?, Or the warbly record player horn solos?). For whatever reason, that stuff seemed to fade back into the underground, or the more under, underground, whatever happened, we hadn't heard a peep from Kid Koala in almost 3 years.
But what a return! Two masters of the turntable, both approaching it from different backgrounds and with different influences, a dizzying mash up of textures and beats, of loops and song fragments, a live multiple turntable jam session captured on tape, and holy shit is it good.
Scratchy old jazz records begin to skip before morphing into big booming low end rhythms, wild drum solos are looped and layered, strange voices surface and then fade away, scratches are transformed into bird calls, blurred streaks of melody, crackle everywhere like rainfall, gorgeous sheets of low end buzz underpin skittery squiggles and jagged shards of hiss, effects drenched scratching unfurls like wild spaced out psychedelic freakouts, groovy fractured funk assembled from strange voices, nature records, and who knows what else, left to drift through a sea of haunting rumbles and mysterious grinding noise, finishing off with a wild assemblage of manipulated voices, super minimal click and thump beats, deformed music box melodies, and a symphony of scrapes and scratches and pops and clicks. Really amazing stuff. Weird and dark and playful and wild. Turntable freaks will dig this big time.
We could think up better ways to market this record that what Table Of The Elements came up with. They *could* have shrouded this album in mystery, saying: "Truly hypnotic, vangarde turntablism and cut-up audio collage by unknown sound artist Ted Conrad, circa 1973- '74 -- predating Christian Marclay and Boyd Rice!" Or they could have said what is probably the truth: "Legendary minimalist Tony Conrad smoked a lot of pot in the early '70s while stuck in Ohio. Instead of making films or composing abrasive minimalist music, he made recordings of his young son playing around his toy Fisher-Price record player. Indeed, he probably was playing with the turntable himself."
But Table Of The Elements chose instead to present this album with such hyperbole as: "Is it fair to argue that a precocious Ted [Conrad -- Tony's at the time infant son], the once and future Thuunderboy, anticipated in these excursions of the early '70s everything from the rise of turntablism and hip-hop to the creative strategies of such disparate entertainers and / or conceptualists as Fatboy Slim, Christian Marclay, and that erstwhile Savior of Pop (circa 1997), Beck? Or, rather does it affirm some unerringly democratic quality inherent in the very act of scratching and spinning, that a toddler could create hypnotic loops and decontruct pop banalities into perversely humorous after-the-fact commentaries on the star-making machinery?"
Arghhhh. So lame. Rant aside, the Thuunderboy recordings -- regardless of whether it was Tony Conrad or the toddler Ted Conrad making these sounds -- is a pretty amazing album of locked grooves worn into Donny Osmond 45s, played back at the wrong speed. If anything, it should be appreciated for what it is, a humble peek into the lives of Tony Conrad -- the minimalist trying his hand at fatherhood -- and young Ted Conrad -- the two year old kid who put up with a dad who kept playing with all of his toys.
When this AQ-fave electronica artist makes music, he rarely disappoints, having released four stellar albums of music -- never boring, always innovative and instantly recognizable as his own. So it stands to reason that the same care and no-filler attitude would follow for any remixes or collaborations. And that's mostly true here, thank goodness.
Five brand new collaborative tracks (with Steinski, Kid Koala, Doubleclick, Bonobo, and P-Love) although with the exception of Kid Koala's, where plucked strings make one woozy with Koala's trademark seasick style of turntablism, none sound all that remarkably different from your normal high-quality Tobin tracks.
The four "Verbal" remixes fare a lot better ("Verbal" being the stellar, manic hip hop flavored second track on Tobin's recent full length Out From Out Where), each participant enhancing the track with their own sound. Prefuse 73 turns in an even more cut up, yet somehow surprisingly smoothed out, lounge-ified version -- very good. The Bay Area's own Kid606 exhibits great love for dancehall. And Philly producer Boom Bip somehow makes the track serene with the use of floaty Aphex-ambient-y chords.
Definitely worth your money if you're a big fan. But if you don't at least have a couple of Tobin's other full lengths, get those first.
This tireless veteran DJ is certainly no stranger to SF party-goers or regulars to his weekly Red Wine Social. The omnipresent DJ TophOne (psst, not to be confused with the other Bay Area Toph aka Gold Chains!) has released a mix cd-r so that you can take the good times home with you! How 'bout a peek at what he's spinning? It really runs the good time gamut from current locals such as Lyrics Born and Paradise Boys to classic rock Steely Dan, John Cougar Stevie Winwood, Eddie Money and Queen to a multitude of other tracks by other DJs such as DJ Zeph, DJ Shadow, DJ Marz, DJ Smash and Z-Trip. 33 tracks total.
Unagi has been one of the most solid forces in the Bay Area hip-hop scene over the last several years. With Reinventing The Eel he continues to display his great taste in vintage soul/funk inspired breaks and invites lots of guest MC's to join in, adding to the flow of these nicely layered tracks. Unagi is carrying on the hip hop tradition that folks like DJ Shadow and Hieroglyphics started a decade ago. We wouldn't be surprised if he ends up on Stones Throw one of these days as his beats and aesthetic would be a perfect fit.
This comp collects all those super limited, super fierce 7" released on the Broklyn Beats label over the last year or so. Features tracks from AQ fave DJ/Rupture, Godspeed side project 1-Speed Bike, as well as Doily, Criterion, Rotator, Broklyn Beast, I-Sound, and Donna Summer. All over the place and all of it great, from pummeling speaker shredding dancehall to sliced and diced collage-noise to big beats and beyond.
Ten years of groundbreaking hip hop releases celebrated in one package -- $28 for *four* discs, over 60 tracks spanning the entire Bomb Hip Hop catalog, and including unreleased stuff as well. This is the label run by SF's own David Paul, who with the Return of
Going back to the beginnings of the "illbient" movement, the blissed out drus soaked dub sounds that this series has chronicled over the years, this double-cd reissue of the first two volumes traces the early years of the mostly Brooklyn folks who were influenced heavily by dub and who then started to create electronic music with much of the aesthetics and pathos of their dub mentors. Heavy on the bass, leaving some space and keeping things down and dirty was the common bond between artists like Sub Dub, Him, Spectre, and the only known name at that time Bill Laswell. Looking back at this era '91-'94 it's nice to see who still sounds fresh and interesting (the above mentioned for sure) and yeah there are a few tracks that didn't really age too well, but the good for sure outweighs the not so hot. Nice for those times when you wanna go to outer space as much as u wanna be in Jamaica. Oh and check out the diss in the liner notes to DJ Spooky for taking all the glory from a scene that actually had many others doing more innovative and interesting stuff then he was.
WordSound's Crooklyn crew is back with an other comp of dark, low-slung beats and breaks. Just like the previous volumes, this is the illest of the "illbient", perfect for pumping on the stereo as you cruise in your car, headlights off, through the urban streets at night, looking for trouble. (We're not really suggesting you to do that, we're just trying to paint a picture here.) Usual suspects on board this time include: Spectre, Twilight Circus, Prince Charming, Bill Laswell, DJ/Rupture, Scotty Hard, Roots Control, Zion Train and others.
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Cue's, a hip hop retail shop on Mission Street in Daly City, has released this comp featuring many of the most happening names in local (and national!) turntablism and rap, including: the X-Ecutioners' Rob Swift, Rasco, Kut Masta Kurt, Beat Junkies' Roc Raida, Mr Dibbs, and 3 of the Skratch Piklz.
Wow - a double cd of turntablist/breakbeat/jungle/hiphop flavors, featuring a real who's who: the X-Men, DJ Wally, Prince Paul, Cut Chemist, Peanut Butter Wolf, members of the Beat Junkies, Mumbles, Lyrics Born & Lateef, and others! Plus, for the technologically advanced, there's a bonus Mac/Windows95 CD-ROM interactive sample sequencer for looping your own beats. Cool.
Third in this series of turntablist compilations (following Deep and Deeper--why isn't this Deepest?). Starring Craze, Radar, T-Rock & Faust, People Under the Stairs, Ming & FS, DJ Revolution, Space Travelers, Plagaiwrists and more! Pretty killer, expanding notions of turntablism in more fertile directions.
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A new compilation to follow the crowd pleasing "Deep Concentration" collection of turntablism and electronica with tracks from Mixmaster Mike, Rob Swift, DJ Spooky, Apollo & Fluid Motion, Beat Junkies, and many more! This is far more "hip hop" than the first volume. Also comes with MixMan program which you can stick in your computer and remix the sounds on the cd itself.
Groundbreaking ten-year old underground hip hop label releases a new 2-disc compilation for the nice price of one. Bomb Hip Hop was responsible for the Return of the DJ compilations which brought the label into worldwide spotlight, and they've been going strong ever since. The tracks on this comp are not throwaways, each one is a strong showpiece. The second disc is a cool contrast
The Numero Group's Eccentric Soul series has long unearthed some of the best obscure regional soul sides no one has ever heard before, many of them up there with being our most favorite soul compilations, so we were both excited and a bit dubious to discover that someone (the mysteriously monikered Shoes) had made a re-edit mix using nothing but samples from Numero's many soul reissues and released it on a label called "Numbero". Hmmm. Check out the cheesy late '80s/ early '90s throwback cover, a tongue and cheek tribute to those Ultimate Breaks and Beats compilations that always had skeletons blinged out in hip hop gear or a DJing octopus on the covers. This one features a skull-headed crate digger with a blinged out Numero label medallion swinging around his neck with various Eccentric Soul albums lined up on the back wall. While we had been questioning the possible legalities of such a release, we managed to get the story straight from Numero Group head honcho, Ken Shipley, who in a bizarre instance of synchronicity, happened to show up in the store one night just as we put this compilation on. Apparently, the record showed up at the Numero offices housed in an old saw blade sleeve. From the opening riff taken from The Home Schooled compilation, Shipley instantly recognized the sample, and the many hundreds following it (he says he has identified all the samples except for a few drum and percussion tracks that he couldn't be certain were from the original sources or added in). Using the manufacturing ID number on the vinyl (the same manufacturer Numero uses) he managed to locate the perpetrator and instead of trying to fight it legally, decided to release it himself. Smart move, because like Dilla, Oh No, Onra and Madlib, this is one of the best re-edit mixes we've heard, taking small snippets of various soul pieces (vocal snippets, horn riffs, rhythm guitars etc.) and weaving them seamlessly in something altogether new. And there is no DJ grandstanding, scratching or self-promotion you sometimes find in DJ mixes, just a killer fluid mix of sonic soul ear-candy from beginning to end. A glorious well thought through undertaking that you can instantly recognize as a labor of love! Note on the track listing: there are 13 titled songs but the cd only reads as two tracks and since the tracks are all woven together, it's hard to tell which part is called what, so we just made long excerpts for the sound samples. Awesome!!!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The local improv jazz label - Asian Improv - presents this benefit compilation of West Coast hip hop for the Asian Pacific Islander Student Alliance. Featuring Latyrx, Encome, Mista Sinsta, Mountain Brothers, DJ Rhettmatic, Medusa, KNT, Zion I, 427, Anomalies, DJ Vinroc, Visionaries, and more.
NYC underground hip hop label Fondle 'Em says goodbye with this collection of singles, featuring Kool Keith, El-P of Company Flow, M.F. Doom, The Arsonists, and more...Great!
Funky compilation of turntablism, hip hop, soul, and more, all to benefit music education in urban public schools. Featuring Cut Chemist, Jurassic 5, The Beat Junkies, Ozomatli, Black Eyed Peas, Divine Styler, Aceyalone, and others.
It's nice to see a compilation that pays tribute to and includes stuff from hip hop's past, as well as showcasing the vanguard of the future. The newest offering from HipHopSlam, the label run by local hiphop mainstay Billy Jam (he also did the Shiggerfragger
Crate-diggers have long looked to Library music (anonymously created music cues made available for use in film) for obscure hip-hop and funk breaks. Back in 2000, Strut Records released this survey on the KPM library originally intending to create a series dedicated to mining the archives of UK's foremost music libraries. It has now been reissued in a deluxe format that includes a bonus cd of a live reunion concert at London's Jazz Cafe with KPM's top performers, Alan Hawkshaw (The Mohawks), Keith Mansfield, and Alan Parker, dubbed The KPM All Stars. The album proper also includes tracks by John Cameron, Les Baxter and a host of others focusing on funk, soul, Latin, jazz, and disco with a gritty seventies urban vibe. Break beats are plentiful, but what is most stunning is the solid session player chops being presented especially on the live disc, not to mention the stunning vocals by Madeline Bell on "That's What Friends Are For" (not the Dionne Warwick song of the same name, thankfully!). Fans of Gilles Peterson, or rare soul and jazz groove. take note! There's also a gatefold double lp version that includes both cds with it as well.
