One of our fave turntable types, Canada's Kid Koala, is back with a new full-length: Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs. We dug the single that preceded it, the woozy New Orleans jazz based "Basin Street Blues" (the first track on here) and the rest of the disc is no disappointment. If you're hip to the Kid you know to expect a little whip-whip-whap scratchin', some boom-bap beats, a good ear for laid back grooves, scrambled samples, and some quirky humor. As with other recent releases from Kid Koala, his sheer adorableness extends into other media -- the cd comes with a game and both the cd and LP versions include a fat lil' comic book in the package.
If you've never heard Kid Koala before, be prepared for a seriously head spinning wild ride. Unlike most DJ's, Koala doesn't go for insane turntable pyrotechnics, or goofy classic rock / hip hop mash ups, instead he uses his nimble mixing skills to weave together elaborate journeys through sound, assembling new songs out of various scratchy vinyl fragments, or subtly tweaking old songs into warbly tripped out new ones. Rock riffs get skipped and stuttered into new groovier shapes, Koala accompanies himself on old jazz jams with various instruments "played" on another turntable, lots of soundtrack snippets and random voices get all tangled up into bizarre conversations, separate records get mixed into super psychedelic blowouts, blues jams are peppered with slippery turntable solos. The results are twisted and slightly off kilter, like viewing a turntable jam through a cracked funhouse mirror. Alternately super rocking, super groovy, crazy funky, or just chin scratchingly baffling.
The most amazing thing is that Koala does all this stuff with just turntables and a reel to reel. This isn't some nerd with a computer, meticulously piecing together bits and pieces, this is one guy, a bunch of turntables, and some seriously mad skillz.
First Wu Tang record in a while that hasn't completely sucked (not counting the Method Man/Redman genius collaboration). No GZA production this time, but it doesn't matter all that much since whoever they got seems to be doing his very best GZA impression, and all things considered, has sort of outdone the master. Simple stuttery beats over cinematic strings and tinkling pianos with KP'S smooth but damaged and unfunky flow. [/cat/hiphop13.html]
Fans of DJ Shadow, Boom Bip, that recent Unagi disc, QBert, Madlib, Ninjatune label, Dr Octagon and all Dan the Automator projects: you will looove this. It's my (Windy) new favorite record. Now, in another review this week I wasn't at all ashamed in admitting that I don't know the material of Peter Gabriel, but let's make it clear that I haven't heard any other MF Doom material, and now the excellence of this King Geedorah album is going to make me have to go backwards to hear Doom's Operation Doomsday and all the other stuff. Anyway, this is hip hop, some of the best I've heard in a long time. Each track has the de riguer single hook that loops throughout, which can sometimes threaten to bore, but only in lesser hands. With Doom the hooks -- often soundtrack-derived orchestral, swelling piano and string dramatics -- are delicious so sustaining them creates just the most luxurious comfortable groove. And he adds ample doses of applied audio grit -- sudden glitches, vinyl static, disjointed drums, vocal snippets interspersed with the skills of several guest MCs -- that just enhance the casually pulled together feel of the album. It's not messily done, mind you, just flows so well that it seems effortlessly catchy and kickass.
Skewed leftfield hip hoptronica from Germany, a cool hybrid of classic hip hop and tech step drum and bass. Think Ed Rush or anyone on No U-Turn stepping in for Timbaland, and turning bouncing, loping booming hip hop big beats, into skittering two step workouts with rumbling, woofer-blowing basslines. Add a couple pretty wicked MC's and you're in business. Cool stuff.
Our favorite new hip hop record for sure. The minute we first heard this, we knew we had to get a bunch for the store. We finally did, but then realized we were at a loss for words (who, us?), so we hit up the guy who turned us on to the record in the first place, AQ pal / gay gangsta Matt Wobensmith, who had this to say about Kirb And Chris:
Take your favorite '80s new wave and pop hits, chop them up, lace them with party rhymes and what do you have? "Niggaz and White Girlz," maybe one of the most brilliant hip hop albums in years. Concept album? 80s revival? Party record? Political statement? Shameless excuse to get laid? Oddly, all of the above.
Inspired by the San Francisco club scene -- where Kirb and Chris do most of their "new wave thuggin'" -- reworking '80s megahits comes effortlessly, as they give new life to the Cure's "Close To Me" ("Closer"), the Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" ("Doorstep, Girl"), and not one, but TWO Gary Numan joints, "Cars" and "Down in the Park." Round it out with Simple Minds, Talking Heads, the Human League, the Police, the B52's and others, and you've got quite a rich library to sample from. But does it work?
Absolutely.
As crate diggers constantly scrape the bins for new source material, it only makes sense that synth-driven new wave could be the next wave. Highly enjoyable, and we didn't even mention how hilarious this album's between-song skits are.
This album should totally be huge!
Combining the talents of Skam's push button objects and DMC world champion DJ Craze, Ko-Wreck Technique brings funky IDM abstraction and flashy turntable wizardry together. Plaid also does a remix.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
An 8-track mini-LP of sorts from this local DJ whose smooth production carries over into the nice hip hop breaks and scratching. Certainly a great scratching record to drop in one's set.
Totally smoking old school rap, back when that simply meant an MC and a DJ equipped with just turntables and a drum machine, none of that fancy modern bull. Kool G Rap and DJ Polo released two records together ('89 and '92) with producers Marley Marl and Eric B and left an indelible mark on hiphop. Specializing in street stories and raunchy sex tales, their 'Riker's Island' was covered by Noreaga, and their classic 'Streets of New York' will have you bobbing and weaving like you never heard hip hop before.
Here at Aquarius we are of the opinion that Kool Keith is at his very best on the classic Dr Octagon record, his scatalogical rapping perfectly complemented by the Automator's booming, kick ass hiphop instrumentation and by QBert's inimitable turntablist skills. Followup albums such as 'Sex Style' and Dr Dooom disappointed way more than they pleased, which we strongly think is due to the presence of Kut Masta Kurt, instead of the Automator, at the mixing board. (Perhaps this is a coastal thing -- we know many folks in NYC disagree with us... but they're all wrong!) That said, we are happy to report that Keith's new persona as the Black Elvis is a much more successful effort. Neither Kurt nor the Automator is represented here much, but whoever partnered with Keith this time knew to keep the beats mixed far below the rhymes. Keith's rapping is crystal clear and as full of headscratching nonsequiters as ever. Recommended! LP is not yet available (end of August).
Yet another new album of messed up rap from this Ultramagnetic MC alum (the man formerly known as Doctor Octagon). Though we were rolling on the floor by the end of the first song, the first time around, the joke has clearly begun to wear thin for Mr Keith (for those who didn't see the tarnished brass on his ass a few records back). I don't know, maybe he just needs a really good producer, or a shitload of coke, or maybe a shitload less coke, but whatever it is, he needs something to keep Senstional from stealing his 'most fucked rapper' crown.
Slowly but surely, Kool Keith is losing his charm. After three progressively bad post-Dr. Octagon records (plus the inexplicably horrible Analog Brothers), we're beginning to realize just how stale Keith really is without Dan the Automator. Sure, Dr. Dooom had its moments, and Black Elvis was a somewhat humorous dis record, and yes, Keith definitely has an awesome, unmatchable vocal
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
**LAST COPIES**
Anybody remember a Japanese hiphop artist named Shingo2? He was pretty rad, kind of in the DJ Shadow style. Shingo was based here in SF for a little while, that's how we encountered him, and probably how we ended up with these - we just discovered we had a bunch of copies of this cd-r, from 2005, documenting a live show by an instrumental, improvising band he was in called Kosmic Renaissance, which featured Shingo on mixer/sampler/synths (Vestax Faderboard, ARP Odyssey). The others in the KR trio were Sameer Gupta on drums & tabla, and David Boyce on saxophones, Microkorg, etc. It's pretty groovy, spaced-out stuff, heavy on the electronics and FX...
After a brief intro, they launch into the 25+ minute "Enter The Octagon" and get seriously deep and funky and out there - this is all improvised. "IO" and "Songs For Our Ancestors" follow in similarly sprawling, jammed out fashion. "IO" is nice and mellow, "Song For Our Ancestors" starts that way, then gets more intense, with some jittery digitally glitched-out Japanese vocal samples (?) towards the end. Pretty cool, spacey fusion improv with an Eastern inflection, presumably influenced by stuff like '70s Miles.
Production, mixes, and all scratches by G-squared. New on Bomb Hip Hop!
Krush, Japan's best known (Stateside) DJ, presents a DJ set featuring cuts by himself, DJ Cam, The 45 King, Old World Disorder w/ Eminem, the Orchestra & Choir of Bulgarian Radio, Jazzanova, and many others...a nearly 70 minute mix of some of his favorite stuff.
A name you can trust. You can always count on the tracks woven by this Japanese sonic craftsman to be of the highest caliber. Every sound is expertly chiseled and meticulously assembled. With its haunting high melodies from a shakuhachi (or perhaps another flute-type instrument), stuttery tactile breakbeats, deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep bass, and turntable scritchin', Jaku is no exception. Full, rich and enveloping but without extraneous clutter. This is a totally fitting soundtrack for high-end cocktail lounges and haute couture boutiques. With each album, Krush's overall sound has grown increasingly serene and smooth grooving, but on Jaku special guests such as Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock, and Japanese turntablist Tatsuki spice things up a bit.
Rumor has it that, Krush had misappropriated his sizable recording budget and instead released "some of the grimiest sub-audio committed to tape... with no vocals either." Guesting on the album are Shawn J, Mista Sinsiter (X-Ecutioners), A.S.A., DJ Sak, Jun Sawada, etc...
though it seemed doubtful that any A&R rep for Sony US would dare touch this record, and as such remain an expensive Japanese import, it has finally been released domestically for a much more reasonable price.
Japan's best DJ in his premiere American release.
Krush proudly boasts his jetsetting lifestyle in that he produced this album in four different cities (Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia - to be read like the bottom of Donna Karan ad). "Zen" is a downtempo hip-hop album designed as a soundtrack for drunk couples humping, with soulful guest vocal appearances from Black Thought, Zap Mama, Tunde Ayanyemi, Company
Kutmasta Kurt has been responsible for the production work for a bunch of the Kool Keith records, who does appear on "Masters of Illusion" and is sounding more like one of the guys in Cypress Hill. Kurt's production work tends towards setting up his breakbeats and samples along unwavering loop structures. Fortunately DJ Revolution, DJ Rhettmatic, and DJ Babu scratch their way through the production work, which would very boring without it.
Talib Kweli, who formally worked with Mos Def in Black Star, releases his latest album to critical acclaim. Featuring Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans and Common, Beautiful Struggle is very cool until about half way through, at "Around My Way". Whoah -- is that a riff from The Police? Umm, yeah. Huh? Couldn't one of his friends have told him that's just not cool, man? Well anyway, "We Got The Beat", featuring Res, leads the album back into goodness. Post-bling acts like Kweli are on the rise right now. "People buy my music not because I'm socially conscious but because it's dope," he says. "There's a lot of people who put out conscious music that doesn't sound good, and it's not interesting. The music has to come first, before the message." This recording and its production are tantamount to how delicious it can sound without shouting about banging and ho's.
Brooklynite rapper Talib Kweli's name literally means "seeker of truth" -- if his parents were that cool then you can imagine how conscious and smart he must be. After releasing highly regarded albums with Mos Def (Black Star) and Hi Tek, his newest album is a solo affair, although he certainly had plenty of help: Mos Def, DJ Quik, Pharoahe Monch, Black Thought, Cocoa Brovaz, RES, & more. And the record may feature a different producer on almost every track, but said producers prove themselves uniformly great, especially when they lend their smart ears to the choosing of sample material, all of which is unpredictable and not overused. There's driving rock guitar in the first song, emotional viola on several tracks, a killer Chi-lites sample on "Guerrilla Monsoon." Al Green, Black Sheep, Eddie Kendricks. "Get By" -- which might as well be considered a remix of one of Windy's favorite songs of all time, Nina Simone's epic version of "Sinnerman" -- makes excellent use of Simone's handclaps and the way she leaps all over the piano. Listen to that track for sure. Really nicely done and consistent. Recommended.
No doubt one of the best mc's hip-hop has to offer. His first two albums stand right up their as two of the finest hip-hop records of this decade. While his last release seemed to be a bit of a slip and reached for more commercial success Right About Now finds Kweli back to basics and what he does best. While filler and unfunny skits seem to haunt so many hip hop albums, Kweli keeps keen focus throughout the entire record. With the help of friends like Mos Def and MF Doom he's put together a super solid mix of songs that will remind you of why you fell in love with him in the first place.
As we mentioned in the last list, we just can't get enough Grime. We absolutely dug Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Virus Syndicate, and even M.I.A. who had a bit of grime going on. But over in the UK, grime is the shit, happening on loads of 12"s, in clubs, and on underground radio stations, but very little of it has made it over here, unfortunately, outside of a few comps. It makes perfect sense that Lady Soveriegn would be the one to follow Dizzee and M.I.A. from undergound hype to next big thing. EVERY time we play this in the store at least one person buys it, and usually half the people in the store come up to see what we're listening to. It's that catchy and funky and fucked up, and totally unlike anything else you've heard -- okay, other than M.I.A. maybe, but Lady Sovereign sounds so much more raw and gritty and weird, maybe like M.I.A.'s snotty, sexy little sister. The grooves are grime for sure, super stuttery and repetitive, with thick swaths of fuzzy synth and huge rolling basslines, but the arrangements are really damaged and complex, with plenty of start and stops, twisty and tangled, the tonguetwisting vocals careening at breakneck speed all over the place, riding a huge synth line, skipping nimbly over a spastic drum break, like a musical version of a Jackie Chan action sequence. Lady Sovereign is ducking and dodging and spitting madly over funky beats and all manner of samples. But no matter how crazy the tunes are, it's all about Lady Sov's flow. The sticker on the front of the disc describes her as "Eminem if he was an 18 year old female from South London" which makes for good copy but isn't entirely accurate. She's got a really unique voice, sometimes squeaky and feminine, but more often a bit scruffy and growly, and it's amazing how many syllables she can spit per minute, dizzying! And she can easily slip into some strange melodic vocalization for a song's chorus before slipping back into her Cockney growly snotty delivery. And her lyrics are really funny, plenty of shit talking of course, but lots of self deprecating references to her slight stature (5'1", hence the title) and her baggy clothes, and lots of other really silly randomness. Although sometimes the delivery is so rapid fire it's hard to catch anything but a word here and there. Hardly matters though, you'lll be too busy bouncing or dancing or whatever you do with these tunes blasting in the background.
Vertically Challenged may be an ep, but it's pretty long, eight tracks, 35 minutes, features a handful of remixes, one from the Beastie Boys' Adrock and one from Ghislain Poiror, and features guest vocal spots from UK grimies Shystie, Frost P., Zuz Rock.
Also includes a DVD with an interview, live footage, all the videos and other goodies.
So though an ep it's definitely all killer and no filler, unlike most hip hop records, and it definitely lays the groundwork for Lady Sovereign to blow up M.I.A. big in the not too distant future. And we're definitely psyched for that. The more GRIME the better, and we'd sure as hell rather hear Lady Sovereign on the radio and on MTV than J-Lo or Madonna or Ashlee Simpson!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Three projects fronted by Chris Leo on one limited cd. His solo work features sonic guitars, bizarre samples, and loops. As The Lapse, Chris joins former Blonde Redhead member Toko, and closes this four track cd by hooking up with hip hop beatmeister Dalek as Octalapse.
Madlib is one prolific producer, one of our favorites actually, but there is something refreshing to hear his fine production techniques with a live jazz ensemble. Miles Away plays special tribute to all the cosmic jazz and groove we love from artists in the sixties and seventies, from John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, The Tribe's Phil Ranelin, Fred Walker, Roy Ayers, Larry Young, Woody Shaw, and Harry Whitaker amongst others. Basically, all of the cats who have inspired hip-hop over the last few decades. Lots of tribal percussion, piano, vibes and flutes in airy compositions that are as contemplative as they are grooving. Beautiful! Nicely packaged in a miniature lp style sleeve, too.
A double-cd release of The Last Poets' first two albums! Their 1970 self-titled debut broke out and made its own scene, forging a way for hip hop with politically charged, African-American enlightenments in syncopated rhythm. Fans of Sun Ra will notice similarities in vocal stylings, emotion and lyrical content, though in The Last Poets this treatment is much more fierce and raw than mystical and cool. 1971's This Is Madness got them a spot on President Nixon's Counter-Intelligence Programming lists. These street poets' use of graphic language (including the 'N' word used, oh, about five million times) pounds out their frustrations in the racial and social state of the country and at the time helped to extend their messages to a broader audience by way of its pure and utter rawness. Nicely packaged in the albums' original artwork, these albums are fierce documents of the group's seminal contribution to that time and still stir up some of the same emotions today.
This amazing album was originally issued in 1997 but it sounds so incredibly fresh even today -- I readily admit that I didn't recognize its true brilliance until now. Most of the members of the now-famous Solesides crew pitched in on this self-titled debut statement from Latyrx (MCs Lateef and Lyrics Born), including DJ Shadow who produces four stunning tracks, Chief Xcel, and Blackalicious. The two MCs often let their rhymes flow forth right on top of each other, a cool textural effect is produced, as if the production efforts weren't interesting sounding enough -- overall you're hearing Mo'Wax-style groove, smart samples, and advanced apocalyptic scariness that today's El-P and Cannibal Ox have perfected. Recommended!
The space-age sounds of Lazer Sword make us here at aQuarius recOrds feel like we are living in the kind of future where everyone has mohawks and wears plastic dresses and there is no light but flashing neon-colored spotlights. But, hey, we've been waiting for this record for what seems like years now, so we ARE living in the future, albeit one (slightly) less Blade Runner-esque. You'd never know that, though from the cover of Lazer Sword's self-titled debut, which looks like something out of Tron, or maybe Voltron (!). Former aQ employee Antaeus Roy and collaborator Bryant Rutledge have given us a record filled with beats and synths that don't so much throwback to as reinvent the '80s by chopping the hell out of them and reassembling the parts. On the surface somewhat akin to Flying Lotus or Zomby (the one with the "y", not the proggier one with the "i"), Lazer Sword's sampling is a bit more frenetic, though, and leans toward hip-hop rather than dub.
After opening the record with three mostly instrumental tracks, Lazer Sword brings in a bit of help from Turf Talk on "I'm Gone." The strange rhythm samples provide a perfect background for the catchy pitch-shifted hook: "Pass me that control / I'm in a fucking zone / I'm on my spaceship / I'm outta here I'm gone!" Just when you think the track is going to stay hot the whole way through, Lazer Sword takes it down a notch and drops the drums, leaving you floating in space for a minute and a half. The four or so tracks where Lazer Sword bring in outside guests (including Myka 9) to do vocals stand out, but not as much as you'd think because of the way LS incorporates sampled vocals into the layers of sound. This is a record that definitely requires either a dancefloor, a blunt, or quite possibly both.
Lots of folks out there are no doubt familiar with Oakland's Lil B, the self proclaimed "Based God", he's got about a million Myspace pages, nearly as many albums, most floating around the web as free downloads, his sound confusional and WAY brilliant, warped beats, lots of twisted synths, and his flow, totally tweaked and twisted, like a less lethargic, less mumbly Sensational, but with rhymes that are equally baffling, but no knowledge of Lil B and his other jams could have prepared us for his Weird Forest debut. Gone are the beats, as in NO beats at all, gone is the twisted buzz, the warped samples, in their place, warm liquid shimmers, sun dappled and meditative, whirring tranquil synthscapes, a sort of Tangerine Dream style drift, all muted whirring blurs and stretched out layered synth drones, all underpinning Lil B's rhythmic next level flow. Strip those rhymes away, and what are you left with? Full on NEW AGE. Yep, this is some tripped out, weirdly psychedelic NEW AGE HIP HOP. It's a seriously polarizing listen, some of us are a little obsessed and can't stop listening to it, plenty of other folks are driven INSANE by this confusional collision of unlikely sonic bedfellows. Think Sensational rapping over Ray Lynch's Deep Breakfast, or a beatless WuTang record constructed entirely from Tangerine Dream samples, that should be enough for you to decide if this is your cup of acid laced tea or not. Check out the samples, decide for yourself, but we're pretty psyched on this bizarre chunk of new age spoken word synth hop for sure...
NB. there is a cd of this, but they went fast, hopefully we'll be able to get some more of that format soon...
Last year just about all of us who heard the song "Lip Gloss" were immediately smitten with what had to be one of the most fun and catchy bubble-gum-hip-hop songs ever recorded. It snapped and popped like a young Missy Elliott on the greatest high school cheerleading squad EVER. If you haven't heard it you must check it out! So undeniably catchy and irresistible! So we were almost afraid to check out this full length when it finally came out as we didn't want to find out that Lil Mama would turn out to be just another in a long line of one-hit wonders. Of course the record's first song is "Lip Gloss" and it's followed by the cleverly titled "One Hit Wonder" which is a total slammer in its own right and the next several songs prove that Lil Mama has actually got plenty of hits up in her sleeve. She really has lots of the potential to become a new Missy Elliott for the next generation. She can sound so self assured, confident and full of vibrant color. There are a handful of really great and catchy songs on here for sure. It does lose steam towards the end with some misses and a should-have-never-been bonus track featuring Avril Lavigne. But we were happy to find out that Lil Mama is not just a one-hit wonder and we'll definitely be keeping our ears open for what she does in the future.
We love twisted underground hip hop. As does our pal Jason who runs the Ormolycka tape label, which was the original home of Death Grips' Exmilitary tape (relisted elsewhere on this week's list). There's tons of weirdo hip hop on Ormolycka, including this tape, by Lil Ugly Mane, a Southern rapper, with a killer drawl and a ridiculous flow, who busts over looped jazziness, creepy horror movie clips, woozy off kilter slow-mo creeps, cinematic symphonic stabs and sped-up soul, this is the sort of shit that already sounds chopped and screwed, skittery, stuttery dopesmoke grooves, rife with saxophone (!), strings, clipped vox, all driven by some crunked out beats, but really it's all about LUM's flow, which is seriously bad ass, mush mouthed and WAY laid back, but surprisingly nimble, which manages to be the perfect match for the twisted music underneath!
More mutated musical manna from (mostly) tape label Ormolycka, after a recent barrage of cassettes. And it's an exciting one, the katest from cult rapper Lil Ugly Mane, who has somehow managed to stay deep underground, while making some of the craziest, home brewed, next level, mad scientist hip hop out there. How the world hasn't caught on yet, we'll never know. But here's yet another chance for the squares, two more sides of flipped out funkiness and kitchen sink sonic ingenuity, the A side starting out like the intro to a lo-fi 4-track Wu-Tang jam, the same sort of collaged cinematic vibe, looped vocal snippets, jazzy horns, stuttery breakbeats, the pitch constantly shifting, before slowing down to a crawl, and the song proper kicks in, a shimmering, poppy loop of ethereal female vocals and soft focus cascades of melodic glimmer, all wound around a crackly beat, a head nodding distorto-groove beneath LUM's laid back flow. The flipside is NOT more of the same, instead it's all reverb drenched rapid fire flow, murky and washed out, before the beat drops, a tinny electro groove, laced with woozy sci-fi squiggles, the sound noisy and off kilter, a little bit industrial, fractured and schizophrenic, lurching from noisy, grinding rhythmic blurts, to sprawling skeletal skitter, to weird eighties almost-electropop, the vox a distorted howl, music box melodies colliding with soundtrack synths and swaths of noisy near-psychedelia. We need a new full length BAD!
Housed in a heavy full color jacket, with a printed photocopied insert.
Cash Money releases another winner and No Limit falls farther and farther behind. Cash Money, originally an embrassing No Limit knockoff, has been spitting out hit after hit, and this one's no exception. Lil Wayne's new one 'Lights Out', is his third (fourth? Who knows? It's as hard to keep track of CM as it used to be with No Limit) and catchy as fuck, with slamming beats, amazing production and crazy flow. 'Get Off the Corner' is the best Cash Money single since 'Bling Bling'. Maybe if Master P would spend as much time working on records as he does on the stock market, and his line of clothing, and his sports management, No Limit would start to matter again.
