The southern California hip hop outfit known as Freestyle Fellowship (including Aceyalone, J. Sumbi, M.D. Himself, Mikah 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter) originally released this album in, like, 1993 or something, as a promo-only white label 12"! Then they got signed to a major and released several albums, but this one was never officially released (except for a rare version available for about 5 minutes years ago). Aceyalone's MC style is deft and hilarious, and this killer record is a must! The first track on the album may be Windy's favourite hip hop song ever, wherein "you're wack" gets rhymed with "succotash" and the punchline goes "Every rapper in the house, shut the funk up!"
*Why* did the amazing southern California hip hop outfit Freestyle Fellowship feel the need to remix their debut album To Whom It May Concern? The record is over nine years old at this point and still completely relevant, fresh, and perfect. It's one of my favorite hip hop albums of all time. Aceyalone's flow is super deft and deep -- he rhymes "wack" with "succotash". I love him.
*But* AQ highly recommends the first version of this album, To Whom It May Concern. We try to always have it in stock.
Following are two soundclips of the same track, the first from To Whom It May Concern, and the second from Version 2.0. It's pretty obvious which one is better.
Includes a live performance of "Killing Me Softly With His Song."
New Jersey trio do amazing groovy hip hop thing. The samples're somewhat too recognizable at times, nonetheless the version of "Killing Me Softly" is delicious & there's not a boring or less-than-wonderful track in the bunch. "Why you acting like Al Capone? I'll be Nina Simone, defecating on yr microphone."
Straight out of the Asian Underground; strong, driving Big Beats in line with Talvin Singh and Asian Dub Foundation--Post-Colonial politics on the dancefloor.
By now you're probably sick of hearing how much AQ adores DJ Jester -- the Filipino Fist, the Boca Burger Slingin' Travelling Turntablist. His bedroom turntablist debut River Walk Riots disc is still a bestseller here, a crazy and a super funky/funny ride through hip hop, classic rock, country, and just complete weirdness, where he incorporates samples of Richard Simmons, Iron Butterfly, the theme from S.W.A.T., Run DMC, Hank Williams, Black Sabbath, that Ofra Haza song, Aerosmith, James Brown... the list goes on.
Anyway, like Kid Koala did with Bullfrog, Jester has now released a disc with a band, Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine. It's loads of fun and a logical progression from the lo-fi River Walk Riots. Here the sound is much more hi-fi, the samples are fleshed out with upbeat and booty-shakin' rhythms, and the result is an honest to gosh party disc on the level of Milk Cult, Cat Five, and those Future Primitive live mixes. Yep it's that good. And I have to say the "Edgar" track with the sad sack Simpletext voice lamenting how lonely he is ("it sucks to be me") gets us every time! Very fun, worth a listen, say Windy and Andee.
Okay, there's no denying that We Can't Be Stopped is one of the all time classic rap records. From the cover photo, Bushwick Bill on a stretcher after being shot in the face, to the brutally realistic tales of gang violence, drugs and sex, to the weirdly poignant classic "Mind Playing Tricks On Me". Such a great record. So what happens if you take this classic and slow it waaaaayyyy doooowwwn. Well, it takes on a whole new vibe. DJ Screw (the originator of the screwed remix, essentially just slowing records down to a cough syrup like speed) may be gone, but his spirit lives on, as any number of remixers have taken to screwing and chopping classic albums. We Can't Be Stopped is still classic, but with its beats slowed to a lugubrious crawl, and the rapping turned into a slow motion slur, it's even creepier and more haunting than the original. Takes a while to get used to it (a bottle of cough syrup will definitely aid the process) but once you do, it's a dark, and dangerous (and very very slow) ride.
There's definitely a division in the clan, Wu-Tang that is. There's the upper tier, Method Man, Old Dirty Bastard, RZA, GZA, the ones whose solo records are as good, if not better than the proper Wu-Tang records, the ones who are too busy producing, filming
Featuring WuTang luminaries Raekwon and Cappadonna.
Wow, if only every song on this disc was as good as the single, we'd be making this record of the week, indie-rock cred be damned. As it is, a great urban r&b joint, as you would expect from a Timbaland production.
When we first heard of the strangely monikered Gnarls Barkley, they already had a number one hit in the UK and had the biggest downloaded single ever with the track "Crazy". Normally, we don't always pay much attention to popular hit singles, but something about the name made us curious. So we checked it out and need we say it, our minds were blown!! A stab of cool, infectious, minor key, soul-pop groove that conks you over the head with an anvil or a piano until you're seeing stars and little birdies, just like in the cartoons! Of course, when we found out Gnarls Barkley was in fact Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo (ex-Goodie Mob), it all made a bit more sense. But even with such talent, we assumed the single would be a one-off and heck, we'd be fine with that, cuz that track was just so perfect. Then, lo and behold, a full length CD shows up on our counter. Would it be just as exciting and mind blowing as the single? Hells Yes!!! St. Elsewhere is a strange and often silly pastiche of soul, pop, funk, hip hop, and gospel with nods to Wilson Pickett, Undisputed Truth, Marvin Gaye, and crazily enough Violent Femmes (they cover "Gone Daddy Gone"). But even with their influences showing bright and clear, they put it all together in their own unique crazy fun and groovy way. Less sleazy than Andre 3000's Love Below, but sipping from the same funky bottle. Expect to hear this one all summer long.
We're really getting tired of this new trend of reissuing a record after it's only been out for a few months. Drives us nuts. What's worse is that they seem to always have cool stuff that we totally want. Argh. If they could just include that stuff the first time around... Anyway, THE smash hit of the year, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo's Gnarls Barkley gets the deluxe reissue treatment and it's a doozy, so much so that we all find ourselves wanting to buy it all over again. New super swanky packaging, with a badass 3-D lenticular cover and a HUGE booklet, but more importantly, two live tracks, one from Top Of The Pops, the other from Later With Jools Holland, and 4 videos, two of which we've seen and are completely amazing. If you're a fan, it's probably sort of essential, and if you somehow managed to not buy this yet, now's the time to get it, with all the bells and whistles! In case, you've been living in a cave or under a rock, here's what we had to say about the ubiquitous St. Elsewhere:
When we first heard of the strangely monikered Gnarls Barkley, they already had a number one hit in the UK and had the biggest downloaded single ever with the track "Crazy". Normally, we don't always pay much attention to popular hit singles, but something about the name made us curious. So we checked it out and need we say it, our minds were blown!! A stab of cool, infectious, minor key, soul-pop groove that conks you over the head with an anvil or a piano until you're seeing stars and little birdies, just like in the cartoons! Of course, when we found out Gnarls Barkley was in fact Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo (ex-Goodie Mob), it all made a bit more sense. But even with such talent, we assumed the single would be a one-off and heck, we'd be fine with that, cuz that track was just so perfect. Then, lo and behold, a full length CD shows up on our counter. Would it be just as exciting and mind blowing as the single? Hells Yes!!! St. Elsewhere is a strange and often silly pastiche of soul, pop, funk, hip hop, and gospel with nods to Wilson Pickett, Undisputed Truth, Marvin Gaye, and crazily enough Violent Femmes (they cover "Gone Daddy Gone"). But even with their influences showing bright and clear, they put it all together in their own unique crazy fun and groovy way. Less sleazy than Andre 3000's Love Below, but sipping from the same funky bottle. Expect to hear this one all summer long (actually, you should probably expect to hear this one fooooooorrreeeeeeeevvvvvvveeeeeeer!).
Summer Jam lightning rarely strikes twice, and in the case of Gnarls Barkley fluke hit, "Crazy", they were lucky lightning struck at all. So instead of setting out for the impossible, they have made a more memorable full length without the erratic stylistic leaps and goofs of their debut. The tone is darker, but more soulful and while the upbeat jams are fewer, they have enough hooks to keep you listening and coming back. While St. Elsewhere was neurotic and bi-polar, The Odd Couple is addressing demons in a far more beguiling and groovy manner, one that gets better with each listen. Could this be therapy?
Okay, we listed this a while back. Sure we dug it, but then someone let us in on a little secret, which was that the vinyl version of The Odd Couple came with a second lp, which was the whole record IN REVERSE! BACKWARDS!!! Faithful readers of the aQ list know how much we love backwards music, so needless to say, the vinyl version of this is ESSENTIAL. So much so that since we got the lp we pretty much ONLY listen to the backwards disc. All dizzying and slippery and swoopy and trippy and, well, gloriously backwards! But be warned, we only have a couple copies, and have had trouble getting any more than that. We just wanted to give mailorder folks a chance to grab one of these
But just in case, some tripped out backwards Gnarls Barkley isn't enough for you, well, here's what we had to say about the UN-backwards side:
Summer Jam lightning rarely strikes twice, and in the case of Gnarls Barkley fluke hit, "Crazy", they were lucky lightning struck at all. So instead of setting out for the impossible, they have made a more memorable full length without the erratic stylistic leaps and goofs of their debut. The tone is darker, but more soulful and while the upbeat jams are fewer, they have enough hooks to keep you listening and coming back. While St. Elsewhere was neurotic and bi-polar, The Odd Couple is addressing demons in a far more beguiling and groovy manner, one that gets better with each listen. Could this be therapy?
Another special Record Store Day release, and another one we were truly excited about, two 12"s of remixes from former aQ Record Of The Weekers Goat, whose ROTW, World Music, was a dizzying collection of twisted and mysterious Swedish psychedelic space rock, heavy on the twisted grooviness, rhythmic and propulsive, and laced with cool double-dutch style vocals, wild percussion, we weren't the only ones who flipped for these guys (and gal).
So Rocket Recordings picked what seems to be most folks favorite track, and got some like minded sonic saboteurs to take a stab and remixing it and making it their own. A bunch of remixers we knew: High Wolf, Teeth Of The Sea, Gnod, Cherrystones, Hookworms and Tom Furse (of UK goth rockers the Horrors), but a bunch we didn't: Raikes Parade, Thought Forms, Redg Weeks, Cage & Aviary. While a lot of the remixers only slightly tweaked the originals, some went all out and pulled the song apart and reassembled the pieces into something entirely different.
The first volume starts off with Thought Forms, who are one of the groups who don't mix it up too much, and instead just does some looping and layering and rearranging, adding some sound effects here and there, dubbing out certain bits, and stripping away a lot of the guitar, letting the drums drive the proceedings. High Wolf also does some looping and layering, but the resulting sound is a lot different, much more tripped out, sounding a bit like Muslimgauze at 45rpm, rhythmic, groovy, the vocals relegated to the background, lots of buzzing sitar like sound, the whole thing dense and druggy, swirly and shimmery.
Redg Weeks gives the original a serious dub overhaul, the bass CRANKED, the drums heavily reverbed, the snare hits sent careening into the ether, the whole thing dirgey and hypnotic, dark and droney, some seriously mesmeric loping dub psych minimalism for sure. Tom Furse from the Horrors, hews a bit closer to the original, adding subtle synth swirls, and tonal colorations, adding textures and layers, the overall effect making the song a whole lot more spacey and trippy.
SUPER LIMITED!! Like most of the Record Store Day releases, while we have a bunch, it's very likely, we won't be able to get (many/any) more. Comes housed in an old school style big hole 12" sleep, decorated with the same sort of fractal design as the cover of the full length.
Another special Record Store Day release, and another one we were truly excited about, two 12"s of remixes from former aQ Record Of The Weekers Goat, whose ROTW, World Music, was a dizzying collection of twisted and mysterious Swedish psychedelic space rock, heavy on the twisted grooviness, rhythmic and propulsive, and laced with cool double-dutch style vocals, wild percussion, we weren't the only ones who flipped for these guys (and gal).
So Rocket Recordings picked what seems to be most folks favorite track, and got some like minded sonic saboteurs to take a stab and remixing it and making it their own. A bunch of remixers we knew: High Wolf, Teeth Of The Sea, Gnod, Cherrystones, Hookworms and Tom Furse (of UK goth rockers the Horrors), but a bunch we didn't: Raikes Parade, Thought Forms, Redg Weeks, Cage & Aviary. While a lot of the remixers only slightly tweaked the originals, some went all out and pulled the song apart and reassembled the pieces into something entirely different.
The second volume starts off with Gnod, who team up with the previously unknown to us Raikes Parade, for something a whole lot more minimal, that main riff, suspended in a haze of disembodied vox, tinkling chimes, fractured music box melodies and ominous synth squelch. Soon a stuttery beat surfaces, giving the song an almost dubstep vibe, the original elements of the song blurred into thick swirling clouds of atmospheric background sound. Cherrystones version transforms the more rocking original into a lurching creep, a hiccuping beat and some blorping synths, draped over the washed out remnants of the original, woozy melodies all tangled up in the proceedings, the feel very Eastern and exotic, this track too, dubbed out and a little bit Muslimgauze-y.
UK space rockers Hookworms, whose full length we'll be reviewing hopefully soon, turn the original into something way more laid back and washed out, employing mostly the drums and the bassline from the original, smearing all the other sounds into a druggy swirl, the perfect backdrop for some slowburn guitar, and spaced out psychedelic shimmer. Finally, Cage & Aviary strip Goat's sound WAY down, and craft some woozy, warbly, electro-house groovery, pulsing and loping, warped melodies draped over sheets of crumbling guitars, all faded into the background, the vox too, chopped up into weird little melodic blurts, all beneath woozy basslines, warped FX and that hypnotic relentless rhythm.
SUPER LIMITED!! Like most of the Record Store Day releases, while we have a bunch, it's very likely, we won't be able to get (many/any) more. Comes housed in an old school style big hole 12" sleep, decorated with the same sort of fractal design as the cover of the full length.
Presented for your party pleasure: this DVD compiles a performance by righteous party-monger Gold Chains at San Francisco's Beta Lounge, along with plenty of extra videos and live performances, including the awesome "I Come From San Francisco" video, shot on a BART train! Locals: look for yourself and your friends in the videos. Out-of towners: experience the magic of a Gold Chains show from the comfort of your living room. The live at Beta Lounge portion comes peppered by unfortunate amounts of clean-cut white girls in flygirl pose mode and art-school graduate ghetto parody, but Gold Chains himself puts on a helluva show as always, making the most uptight of booties shake and temporarily redeeming the white-boy indie-electronic hip-hop genre (at least until the next time I'm reminded of the existence of Cex). Although it's funny; I know I was pretty drunk that night, but I remember the show being totally crazy, like crowd surfing, buckets of sweat, jam-packed dance-your-ass-off crazy. Somehow, the video doesn't quite seem to convey the mayhem. Perhaps the filming would have benefitted from another approach, or maybe I was just more wasted than I realized. Hmmm.
Who rocks the parti? Local darling Gold Chains cracks the whip with five new dancefloor hotties giving a heads up to the Cologne and Berlin Schaffelfieber sound. Having travelled the world in his brief career as Gold Chains, Topher Lafata has absorbed the sounds of other lands to craft his own brand of electrosonic hiphop thunder. Following on his acclaimed debut for Orthlorng Musork, "Straight From Your Radio" is another brief encounter with the hard beat mystic nonmaterialistic witch doctor. Each track is very distinct from the next from the rubbery bass of the lead off track to the absurd cootchie song. So silly and repetitious, it lyrically reminded me of Snow's "The Informer" from '93. Continuing on, "Let's Make It" pumps out the big beats Sweet and Gary Glitter style. Y'know those thumpin' '70s enormo-party anthems! He even does a reworking of Samhain's "Human Pony Girl"! Come join the caravan...
Don't call Gold Chains a player, he's in love with you. And don't call him played out, 'cause this single is another evolutionary step for the genre twisting, scruffy-voiced laptop MC. Broken electric funk and tech-hop beats infuse one of Gold Chains catchiest, best-produced (and that's saying a lot) tracks to date. Features a hectic pitched-up remix by Kit Clayton, and a groovy house-ier mix by Luomo (aka Vladislav Delay).
Gold Chains' new abum is again a kick ass, completely weird hybrid of hip hop and bedroom electronics so over the top and colorful that it demands a lot of attention. Not as completely catchy as his selftitled debut, this is still exciting and a fun listen. And check out "Break or Be Broken", decidedly non hip hop love song with pretty rock chord progressions, a good direction for Gold Chains.
I can't believe that this record hasn't driven us mad. In the very near future, it very well may. But at the moment, Gold Chains certainly tickles our fancy for purposefully ridiculous, totally fun electronica/hip-hop. Gold Chains is the boisterous hip-hop
SF indie hip-hop artist Gold Chains brings it again! Rocking a more earnest and cynical parti... When The World Was Our Friend offers up more broken electric funk and tech-hop beats for fans of previous albums, though on a slightly darker and harder note. Congruent to its title, the album is less hoochies in thongs sippin champagne in the hot tub, and more holy shit man what the fuck is going on. More emphasized this time around is frequent collaborator Sue Cie, singing a generous amount of the tracks. When The World definitely pushes Gold Chains into a different realm. Looking forward to it being pushed even harder!
Some changes have taken place in the Gorillaz 'virtual band' ranks since their wildly popular, super vibrant and fun self-titled debut in 2000. That album was a wholly collaborative effort between Blur-man Damon Albarn, man-of-many-hats Dan The Automator, and cartoon illustrator Jamie Hewlett along with contributions from Miho Hatori, Ibrahim Ferrer and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. For one thing, Mr. Automator has left the clubhouse, leaving Albarn as the lone lord of the musical manor. An immediate clue-in to the contrast between 'old' and 'new' Gorillaz can be read in the album's title and seen in Hewlett's latest Gorillaz' illustrations. He continues to provide the visual representation of the group, but his former palette of playful cartoonish hues have been replaced by the darker tones found in the more mature subject matter of graphic novels -- a suitable match for the headier undertones of the music. On the cover characters' faces there's nothing but grimaces and suspicious scowls. When we heard that Danger Mouse was slipping into the production control seat formerly occupied by The Automator, we were expecting some manner of radical changes in the Gorillaz's actual sound -- perhaps a little wilder approach or sumthin'? -- but it's really not that drastic of a departure from their past recordings. No, the primary difference is in the album's moodier undercurrent. Whereas the conceptual and sonic effervescence of its predecessor offered a sense of escapism, once you delve beneath the shiny pop surface of Demon Days, things feel somewhat more claustrophobic, sinister and foreboding. Guests this time include Neneh Cherry, Martina Topley-Bird, Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder (!), London Community Gospel Choir, San Fernandez Youth Chorus and even Dennis Hopper! Dig it!
This appears to be dub versions of tracks from the Gorillaz record. Said outfit, you will recall, is a project of AQ-pal Dan the Automator (Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030) with main guests Damon Albarn (Blur), Miho Hatori etc. Bearing little resemblance to the original Gorillaz album, or indeed its other, first remix record spinoff, all vestiges of rock and hip hop are stripped away in order for the bass to get heavier, the vocals to get echo-ier, the pace to slow down. As dub, it's decent, if a trifle formulaic. Melodica, horns, organs, even a flute round out the sound. This is my favorite of the Gorillaz-related projects.
Import disc featuring Dan the Automator with guests Damon Albarn (Blur), Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto), Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club), and Del tha Funky Homosapien. Sounds exactly like you'd think it would (assuming you'd think it would sound mostly
Man, people have been dying for this, the first official release from Jean Grae, who has had the hip hop underground in a tizzy, popping up all over the place, stealing the show on other folks' songs and comps. This ep is short, especially for such a hotly anticipated debut, but it's made up for with a 45 minute bonus track megamix of unreleased cuts and freestyles. Grae has a wicked flow and a sharp tongue, spitting vitriol in all directions, sparing nobody. The beats and loops are spare and old school, but the flow is anything but. Check out the aptly titled Hater's Anthem to understand just how pissed, and how good, Grae really is. Guest spot by now defunct AQ faves Cannibal Ox.
All right, we're all probably familiar with Grandmaster Flash, the guy that invented scratching and turntablism, who was instrumental in laying down one of the foundations of hip hop -- he was THE DJ. In the voluminous, entertaining liner notes (it's
This is the third record from these masters of 'horrorcore' recorded while Gravediggaz mainman Poetic was struggling with colon cancer. He died before they finished the record, but his partner Frukwan finished putting it together and finally we get to hear the results. The sound has changed a bit since their last record 'The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel'. While it's still creepy and 'horrific', it sounds less manic and hysterical, more subtly sinister, and lyrically, Poetic started rhyming about being sick and his cancer, so the rhymes seem much more intense and personal. And no RZA this time, but their production hasn't suffered for it, lots of creepy scary loops, far away piano, ghostly female vocals, sick beats and amazing rhymes: Frukwan and Poetic had such amazing chemistry together. It's really sad to lose someone so talented and so young, but at least we're lucky to have one more record and one more chance to enjoy his amazing art.
Supergroup composed of Prince Paul, a guy from Stetsasonic, RZA of WuTang. We're thinking it's more ferocious and thus better than the recent much-hailed WuTang record!
Anticon main men Dose One and Why? take some time out from their ridiculously prolific release schedule as well as a break from their tripped out psychedelic big beat hip hop, and with the help of a shitload of guests come up with a record full of short, sharp and super abstract hip-hop-ish soundscapes. Bizarre and tripped out and as fucked and out-there as you've come to expect from the Anticon collective. Maybe more so. Features Mr. Dibbs, Slug, Sole, Moodswing9 and about a million others.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Guru has one of the greatest voices in rap. Ice Cube's or DMX's are great too, but more mean and scratchy. I mean, when I imagine the devil, he sounds like Ice Cube. But Guru is smooth and effortless and his voice is deep and warm, and his flow is so
A new installment in the popular hip hop and soul jazz crossover series created by Gangstarr's Guru. Featuring Macy Gray, Erykah Badu, Kelis, The Roots, Herbie Hancock, Les Nubians, and more.
