Over the last several years Jazzman has become one of our favorite labels, reissuing some of the richest deep grooves and finest obscure soul and spiritual jazz, stuff that never got the due it deserved in its day (Nathan Davis, Lloyd Miller, regional funk burners from Florida, the Carolinas, and more!), as well as putting out new sounds from modern day spiritual funk makers like The Natural Yogurt Band.
So there's no doubt that the music in the Jazzman vaults would be a crate digger and DJ's Shangri-la. That's exactly what J-Rocc got to do on this totally smoking, flowing and immaculate mix. Digging deep into those Jazzman archives, J-Rocc has created a nonstop soulfunk jazzjam that exquisitely brings the worlds of deep soul, spiritual jazz, funk and beyond into a seamless mix that keeps the tempo up but always holds on to the underlying core and soul of the songs. You can tell how much love and respect J-Rocc has for the artists he's bringing new life to, this is not one of those cheesy and offensive Verve remix like projects. J-Rocc proves that if you do have the skill, true love and respect for sounds of the past, you can inject a new energy into them without making them some flavor of the day, all 'hip' and 'modern' and ready for a slick Volvo commercial. J-Rocc has been around the block, with roots reaching back to the '80s Hip-Hop/Boogie scene and then his seminal work in The Beat Junkies as one of the pioneers of turntableism along side folks like Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow, Z-Trip and Q-Bert.
This is one of those mixes that anyone who has DJed just has to drop their jaw in appreciation and envy as this is a master showing how it's done. And whether you're a DJ or just want a stream of amazing sounds blasting through your speakers when you want the energy to be high, and soak up sounds full of soul then it just doesn't get any better than this!
Jadakiss is a member of the Ruff Ryders (along with Eve and DMX) and leader of the Lox. 'Kiss the Game Goodbye' is his first solo record and it's totally great. Dark and simple and stripped down. Big beats and rumbling bass. Hooks galore but still raw and vital. It's all about the delivery though, and Jadakiss sounds mean as shit when he's spitting out the rhymes, but somehow manages
Features production and guest appearances by Nas, DMX, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and more.
One of San Francisco's more popular artists in the Mission School scene along with Barry McGee and Chris Johanson is Jason Jagel, whose colorful sprawling paintings of disassociative word fragments and energetic stream-of-conscious drawings of copulation and urban detritus get a full monograph treatment here, a big beautiful oversized tome that perfectly suits Jagel's eye popping work. Having done many record covers for Madlib in his many sonic guises and collaborations such as Madvillian, MF Doom, and The Beat Konducta, this handsome, beautifully reproduced full color collection comes with an exclusive Madlib 10", featuring as of now, all unreleased tracks. The thing is HUGE, and heavy, so if you order just this, it'll have to ship at the three item rate, but it's worth it, this is the kind of book you can totally get lost in, and the record is pretty bad ass to boot!
Commercial hip hop deals another blow to the underground, by spitting out one of the best hip hop records of the year. Catchy and funky and funny and absolutely fucking perfect. Makes Puffy seem like the Young MC he really is.
We've all been going a little Jay-Z crazy around here, playing 'The Blueprint' to death in the store, and if you have MTV, you're probably sick to death seeing clips from Jay-Z's unplugged set. But it ranks up there as one of the better 'Unplugged's (the
Easily the best hip hop record so far this year! A completely amazing collaboration between Madlib (Lootpack, Quasimoto) who was responsible for the awesome Shades Of Blue Blue Note mix from a few lists back, and the Blunted In The Bomb Shelter Trojan mix found elsewhere on this list, and Jay Dee from Slum Village. Jay Dee and Madlib switch things up, splitting the beats/rhymes evenly between the two every other track, flipping back and forth between big and boisterous booming-beat barn burners to more contemplative slow groove hip hop jams ala EPMD. Features the Bollywood infused hit Champion Sound. With special guests Quasimoto, Talib Kweli, Guilty Simpson and more.
An awesome 2 disc reissue of what is easily one of the best hip hop records ever! A completely amazing and now legendary collaboration between Madlib (Lootpack, Quasimoto) and Jay Dee (J Dilla) Jay Dee and Madlib switch things up, splitting the beats/rhymes evenly between the two every other track, flipping back and forth between big and boisterous booming-beat barn burners to more contemplative slow groove hip hop jams a la EPMD. Features the Bollywood infused hit Champion Sound. With special guests Quasimoto, Talib Kweli, Guilty Simpson and more. Bonus disc features previously unreleased instrumentals. If you missed this the first time around, what are you waiting for? Hip Hop is unlikely to get any better, so don't sleep on this, fool!
19 trax that span over 82 minutes of wild beat chemistry, Technics Chainsaw Massacre chronicles the group's four year existance with cuts from their 3 UK albums of fantastic turntablism with a funky deck wrecking history of breaks'n'beats and intricate scratching.
A collection of beats and instrumental gems from DJ Jel of the mighty Anticon collective. Recorded between 1997 and 2000, dark and funky and fucked up and groovy, everything you've come to expect from Anticon. Includes a bunch of amazing instrumental versions
One of the problems with bands, and labels, who put out record after record, and we're talking a new record every week or month, even if they're all great, is it's tough to keep caring. That sort of happened to us with Anticon. When we first heard that twisted Anticon indie hip hop, we were blown away, we're still blown away actually, the bizarre loops, the totally skewed approach to hip hop and sampling, it was new and fresh, weird and wonderful. But, we needed to take a break. We'd get done reviewing a new Anticon record and there would be two or three more out. So we're back on track, just in time to review the newest from Jel. And as always it's a good 'un! Loping loopy samples, all sorts of strange sounds, and unfunky funkiness, some of the vocals are a little stilted and sound straight out of the eighties (Fresh Prince anyone?) but some are right on and perfectly compliment Jel's fuzzy blissed out beatscapes. Definitely dark and laid back, some of the more ambitious tracks sound like they could be Endtroducing outtakes which is high praise for sure.
Guests include Stefanie Bohm of Ms. John Soda, Wise Intelligent of Poor Righteous Teachers, Why?, Fog, Dosh, Pedestrian. And it's produced by Anticon stablemate Odd Nosdam.
The first few customers who order the new Jel will get a free Jel turntable slipmat with the album art on one side and the cool giant ant Anticon logo on the other!
Produced by DJ Premier and the Guru.
AQ-fave turntablist DJ Jester, the Filipino Fist out of Texas, has released a second dance party mix of hilarious and fun samples taken from records we all know and love -- Devo, Bjork, Cybotron, Carpenters, Suzanne Vega, JJ Fad, Bowie, Duran Duran, Blondie... the list is endless. Jester's appeal lies in his ability to make you go "Whoa, I never woulda thought to scratch *that*," which you end up thinking basically every coupla minutes with this record. Funky, happy, kinda inspiring, and just plain weird! Taken from a live performance on the amazing WFMU. You should hear what he does to WFMU's mascot song "Speeding Motorcycle" as performed by Yo La Tengo (hint, it's the second audio clip below.)
Not only does DJ Jester currently drive the East Coast Boca Burger-mobile (he applied for the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile but alas got the veggie version instead), he's also found time to make what is easily the best turntablist record we've come across since
Finally! Here it is, a new DJ Jester record! Those of you who have been following along at home, know that we at AQ dig pretty much everything Jester's done so far. And this new one is no different. Well, it's no different in that we totally dig it, but sonically it's WAY different. Jester's previous records have been fun and funny, playful and clever, a lot like Kid Koala, but Jester was also a master at deftly mixing Willie Nelson, Aerosmith, Charles Manson or even Pavement with hip hop beats, and of course crazy scratching. This one takes a whole other approach. According to the liner notes, Table For One is the soundtrack to the breakups and relationship problems of Jester and all his pals. And it sounds like it. Dark and mealancholy, minor key and sort of rainy day sounding. This is definitely way more of a rock record than any of his previous records, in fact Quad Rod is a friend of Jester's who crafts beautifully downer indie/post rock much in the same vein of bands like Bedhead, Low, The New Year and all that sort of mope rock we love. Jester adds some scratching, some turntable warble and some snippets of conversation, from movies, answering machines and the like. Very dark and pretty dour. It's a testament to Jester's skills that his input -seems- minimal, very tasteful and perfectly complimenting the downer mood rather than scratching all over the place. Jester fans will obviously dig this, but so might you indie mope-rockers. As long as you can handle a little scratching chocolate in your indierock peanut butter. Artwork by AQ pal Dale Flattum (Steel Pole Bathtub).
It's been a while since this 'Jester entertained the courtyard with his brand of turntable merriment, but he's back! The good time equation this time around is: DJ Jester + non-stop '80s-heavy guilty pleasures = Secret Love! A little more fluffy that 2004's Table For One, his gleeful turntable jugglin' act keeps aloft a bodacious array of pop culture touchstones from the past coupla decades. Chunks of tunes from Wang Chung, Prince, Foreigner, Neneh Cherry, and Yes bounce right out and bop you on the nose. The one criticism we have with Secret Love is that he often lets a piece of already over-milked music go on a bit long without any audible manipulation nor any augmentation. We've come to expect a bit more from the man than a 'riding of coattails' of the original song's greatness and/or kitsch factor. C'mon Mr. Jester, we REALLY didn't need to hear THAT MUCH of Foreigner's "Waiting For A Girl Like You". Nooooooo. Nonetheless, this is quite a truckload of fun... particularly if you're harboring a fondness for some kick ass '80s pop music!
DJ Spinna and MC Kriminul are together the duo Jigmastas, and they make a straight up deeply heavy style of hip hop with guests such as Sadat X from Brand Nubian and even Vernon Reid (Living Color) on guitar. This isn't strictly a super underground release since Spinna has worked with the likes of De La Soul and Mary J Blige, but nonetheless blink and you might miss this. Comes with a
Apparently MF Doom, now just Doom, was on tour in Europe, and got stranded, with visa problems, eventually finding his way back to the UK, where he was born, but hadn't lived for years, and being stuck decided to do what he does, and make a record, first hooking up with Jneiro Jarel, who produced all the tracks here and is the JJ in JJ Doom, and sorted out some surprising guests, Damon Albarn of Blur/Gorillaz and Beth Gibbons of Portishead. While much attention has been paid to the unlikely guests, and a fair bit of flak has been hurled at the record for being somewhat lackluster, we have to say we're pretty into it. The record opens with a strange psychedelic collage, all warped samples, pinball/gamelan melodies, field recordings, eventually wound around a stuttery handclap beat, before "Guv'nor" lurches into action, a woozy tangle of melted loops and a barrage of unlikely samples, musical and otherwise. "Banished" is a murky sprawl of soundtracky kung fu groove, "Bite The Thong" is all big beat hook heavy groove, Albarn's contribution a barely noticeable refrain, same with "GMO", Gibbons offering up a very Portishead-y style chorus, but hardly the most exciting part of the song, a dizzying assemblage of strummed acoustic guitars, and weird sound effects, streaks of electronics and dramatic strings. "Rhymin' Slang" is a killer slab of pulsating synthy stutter, the whole record is pretty fucking great, and to these ears the production, while dramatically different than Doom's past collabs with Madvillain and Danger Mouse, is really fucking cool and far out, Jarel definitely has his own twisted thing going on, and it suits Doom's weird flow for sure, a mush mouthed stream of consciousness that's as brilliant / baffling as ever. Been listening to this like crazy, and doesn't seem like we'll stop anytime soon.
Much like downtempo & drum n'bass working its way into various forms of pop music in the '90s, the same has been happening with dubstep in the last couple years, popping up on all sorts of mainstream records, most recently by Rihanna and even Britney Spears (keep it like a secret but Andee and Irwin love some of those tracks on the last Britney Spears record!), which have featured awesome moments of full on dubstep fused to their more radio pop dance music sound.
So it makes sense that someone would finally figure out a way to make a record that somehow bridges the gap between a more mainstream RnB/pop aesthetic and dubstep's street roots. Joker seems to understand the exciting possibility of this combination, and he's made a record that merges a more upfront production alongside galactic and bombastic post dubstep grooves. There are songs that sound like Pinch producing tracks by Justin Timberlake and Beyonce, while the instrumentals take on a really cinematic and spaced out vibe. Elsewhere there are more intergalactic moments that sound like Mouse On Mars remixing Boards Of Canada, and some jams that have grime-like outbursts that would be right at home on a Wiley or Dizzee Rascal record, and of course there's some really slick and assured soulful pop.
We're even reminded a bit of The Cinematic Orchestra, not so much sonically, but in how they tap into so many different sounds with a range of vocalists, and then take it those elements in a more exploratory and epic direction.
The Vision is a record that takes a few listens to really sink in, as you allow yourself to open up to a glossier sound then you're probably used to, but from start to finish there are so many interesting and pleasing things going on and actual SONGS that stick!
When's the last time you bought a goddamn CASSINGLE?? The nineties? The eighties? Well it's about time to make it right goddamn now, cuz this latest blast from Milwaukee rapper Juiceboxxx (yeah, he's added an X since last time) is a doozy. Now that's it's cold and grey, rainy and grim, this is THEE summer jam that will make the inside of your car feel like you're cruising down the coast, top down, sun shining, cracking 40's, smoking blunts, and scamming on the ladies (or the dudes). Total Beastie Boys style radness, hooky loops, big bouncy loops, and a whole mess of guests including local boy Antwon, who each contribute a verse, the sound slipping from bombastic boombox hip hop, to sample heavy summery electro-pop, with a main vocal hook that will stick in your head like crazy. And flip it over, and you get the a capella, which somehow is just as cool / even cooler. Pressed on a bright pink tape, housed in a full color cardboard cassingle style sleeve. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!
Jurassic 5 have cut a nice niche for themselves over the last decade or so for being a reliable source of feel good school yard sounding old skool hat tipping hip-hop. While they still haven't outdone their great debut 12" they've managed to put out some pretty good records each time out. Along with like-minded friends like Blackalicious Jurassic 5 helped launch an alternative to the gangsta-rap that so dominated most of mainstream rap in the mid-late 90's. Feedback finds J-5 doing what they've been doing (they aren't ones for big reinvention) over the years. PARTY!
Highly anticipated new album from SoCal's powerful hip hop crew -- Akil, Chali 2na, Zaakir(Soup), Marc 7, DJ Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist, with guests Nelly Furtado, Kool Keith, and more -- who've grooved SF's Future Primitive Soundsessions many times, and man, are they good live. Righteousness is the name of J5's game, with uplifting verses and a general good time, standing-on-the-corner-rhyming-in-turn vibe. Same smooth groove, nothing hard about 'em. Super clearly enunciated vocals (almost disconcertingly so), FLUTE!, some rather predictable space-the-final-frontier style movie samples, head-knodding hooks. Not challenging in terms of instrumental complexity, nor adventurously creepy -- but they're not trying for that anyway. When Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark cut loose without the vocalists, they come up with a track like "Acetate Prophets", which incorporates motor sounds, scratching, Asian-sounding percussion, jazz guitar -- so good but it's a pity the track is left til last!
The second disc is for your computer or DVD player, and contains live performance footage, but the best material is of Chali 2na visiting his grandma for breakfast, or Cut Chemist showing off his word-for-word reenactment of a segment of Star Wars Episode 1, showing off his Star Wars action figures, and some incredible footage of Nu-Mark tapping out all sorts of percussive goodness on drumpads and the backstage food containers. Must be seen to be believed.
Los Angeles' best-loved old school singalong hip hop outfit breaks out with a new album on a major label. (let's hope they get paid, not screwed, what with the major label deal and the crazy low price) Jurassic 5 blend righteous, funny rhymes with Cut Chemist's bright turntablist tricks. Not heavy, not gangsta, not fronting... these are down home guys keeping a positive outlook for the future. You've seen them play the Future Primitive Soundsession shows so many times, now here's your chance to hear them while taking a shower or something.
Two new songs plus various acapella and instrumental versions. Jurassic 5 signs themselves over to major labels and what do those creative boys do? They make music about it -- the WOE in the title stands for World Of Entertainment. Same sunny, vocals-led, sing-along hip hop that they've perfected.
Not sure what it is exactly, but just recently there seems to be a sudden onslaught of classic old school hip hop reissues, mind you we're not complaining, but it is a strange selection of 'classics' (Whodini, Sparky D, Kool Moe Dee, Unique & Dashan). One of our favorite of the bunch though is this, originally released in 1990, record number four from old school hardcore MC Just-Ice, one of the first hardcore rap MC's (whose hyphenated name always made us think of metal band Vio-lence), who has a pretty bad ass delivery, very reminiscent of Big Daddy Kane actually, and really seems like he must have been an influence for the character Charlie Murphy plays in CB4 (still some of the best hip hop parody ever, alongside Fear Of A Black Hat). And while Just-Ice definitely cut an imposing figure, buff and tattooed, with a gold grill and some serious attitude, much of this record's success is due to the music, which of course is provided by legendary DJ Grandmaster Flash, whose sound is absolute classic hip hop, minimal scratching, layered soul loops, snippets of horns, killer grooves, creepy ominous basslines, simple shuffling beats, a super distinctive sound that pretty much defined hip hop of that era, but few did it better that Grandmaster Flash, and when combined with Just-Ice's badass flow, it's pretty tough to beat.
The reigning king of the Cash Money family returns. Some of you may remeber Juvenile from the puerile, but ridiculously catchy 'Back That Azz Up' from a year or two back. On first listen, 'Project English' is a little less obviously Cash Money unlike most
Holy shit. This is so nuts it just might be the greatest thing you'll ever see. R. Kelly has singlehandedly gotten us to sing instead of speak even the most mundane things. We love him.
This is indeed the best of both worlds. Touted as the first ever superstar, hip hop/R+B collaboration, ok maybe, but whatever. The pont is, this shit is goooood and I am digging this record like crazy. Imagine any of the last two or three Jay-Z records (and we
The NY-based hiphop trio Dalek contributed rhymes to that excellent Techno Animal track "Dead Man's Curse", so it makes sense that Techno Anim's Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick introduced Dalek to our own local darling Kid606. Thus, this excellent collaboration. As I've enthused in other reviews, Dalek's epic, incantatory vocal stylings are pushed right up against apocalyptic, doom-laden instrumentation: high pitched squealing feedback that sounds like air raid sirens, abandoned machine bleeps, paranoid dub-heavy beats, crashing cymbals and other live drumming, shimmering guitar. They are an apt match with Kid 606 and his bad boy I'll-mess-with-anything-and-make-it-kick-yr-ass style.
So, as if the original "Ruin It" track that appears here isn't great enough -- all glitchy fuzzed out broken buried melody courtesy Kid606 -- then Dalek ups and makes it even more intense and dramatic and spooky. Really good, some of the best material from either artists I've heard yet. In addition to the two title tracks here, there's even a slow sort of My Bloody Valentine-ish slice of melancholia here, laden with murk and record static. That piece appears only on the cd ep, as does the closer track "satans hard drive" which Dalek constructed spontaneously from one of the Kid's busted hard disks. Yeah, it's noisy!
It's been ages since we last heard from turntablist Kid Koala, who by now is most definitely not a kid anymore, but whose early records were huge hits around aQ, heck, he even did an instore way back when that was incredible! Those Kid Koala records were/are fantastically fun, funky collaged mash ups of unlikely pop culture ephemera, deftly juggled into beats and grooves, and easily some of the most playful hip hop / turntablism we'd ever heard. One of Kid Koala's 'trademarks', was when he would play solos on the turntables, one turntable spinning some old blues record, while he would scratch out a crazy trumpet solo on the other, transforming this classic blues sound into something warped and woozy. So it only makes sense, that he would do a whole album of blues jams, and like those moments on past records and live shows, the result is pretty amazing. The samples seemingly all classic blues tracks, but all jumbled up, looped and layered. Even the simplest grooves, stutter and shimmy, the speeds constantly changing, the pitch too, sometimes mixing in some wild hip hop scratching, but more often, subtly manipulating the music, adding extra beats, wrapping layers of bass buzz around bluesy grooves, the best moments of course where he manipulates single elements, a vocal line that suddenly gets all tangled up, a warped wild croon, blasts of chaotic drum freakout, manipulated solos, woozy and warbly, it's really exactly what you'd want an all blues hip hop DJ set to sound like, that is if you had ever actually thought of someone making a hip hop DJ blues set, but it works, and is incredible.
Some of the tracks sound almost untouched, and only close listening reveals the subtle manipulations at play, others are all twisted up, some of the best moments though are the most subtle, like when things stripped way down, and slowed to a drowsy drag, infusing slo-mo blues dirges with subtle sonic flourishes, adding texture, rhythmic alterations, we almost wish the whole record had been made up of those dark moody drifts, haunting and totally gorgeous.
The packaging is totally over the top, with an actual cut out turntable you can build yourself, as well as a little mini flexi disc 'battle record'!!!
Yay! This is Kid Koala doing what Kid Koala does best, taking recognizable genre musics and just tweaking them enough to add a woozy modern effect, a li'l bit of scartching here, some pretty glitching there. This is a song taken from his forthcoming album, and is a New Orleans style jazz number made even more poignant and sweet with his signature touches AND it comes with a fantastic video you can play on your computer. The video, made by Monkmus, features an animated funeral procession that turns into an unlikely street celebration with a surprise ending. The other track, which presumably won't be on the album, is called "Vacation Island" and features the Kid doing that magic again, this time to an old Martin-Denny-ish tropical exotica, but with beats. So cute and nice. Not many left either...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Finally Montreal's Eric San releases his debut full length. You've probably all heard the story of how Kid Koala got signed to Ninjatune -- Eric picked up the Ninjatune guys for a Montreal show, played his legendary Scratchcratchratchatch tape in the van all sneaky-like, and everyone was blown away. (This tape, which Aquarius was the only store in the world to sell, is now long out of print but you can hear a similar set at betalounge.com.) Kid Koala is a turntablist with more than his share of storytelling, songwriting abilities, so the pieces are so much better than your everyday series of tricks. He and DJ Z-Trip are the ones who will be making the turntablist record that will bring the world together like a Coca Cola commerical. I'd like to teach the world to scratch. Or something. If you're already into turntablist stuff, you already know you should get this album, and if you're new to the genre, this is one of the best places to start. Honestly. The cd comes with a cd-rom video game (a vinyl version of Asteroids) and a supercute comic book. While supplies last, get a free Kid Koala sticker with purchase. Highly recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Finally on vinyl, this is the first track from Kid Koala's famous "Scratchcratchratchatch" tape (that will never be officially released due to all the presumably expensive samples.) Video game samples, music from David Byrne's soundtrack to the Last Emperor, an unerring sense of melody rarely found with turntablists, plus 3 non album tracks (in fact none of these tracks are from Kid K's recent full length Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) -- this 10" has got it all. If you've never heard Koala before, this is the place to start. You will be super happy with it!
Not one, but three DJ's spinning together live. And not just any DJ's but AQ faves Kid Koala and DJ Jester along with P-Love. 16 minutes of scratching and juggling as the trio scores a live soundtrack to animated short by Monkmus. Included on this disc from their set are "Stompin' At Le Savoi", "Page 275" (from the comic book), the always enjoyable "Drunk Trumpet", "Skanky Panky" and "Page 298". Recorded at Lock 17 in London in November of 2003. Also included is a DVD of video shot of Kid Koala performing live in concert.
A plaintive minor key melody runs throughout the 16 minute soundtrack to Nufonia Must Fall, a comic book written by Kid Koala. Emphasis on the "book", cos this is over 300 pages long! The story, written and drawn by the Kid, tells a love story between a lonely office girl and a robot. It's poignant and sorta sweetly heartbreaking, in the same way that the music is simple and unhurried. Don't expect a full on hip hop crazy quilt of sounds like Koala's past projects, though. This is much simpler sonically. A collector's item.
MPEG Download: "excerpt" [/audio/kidknufonia6.mp3]
