Clara Hill Clara Hill’s Folkwaves: Sideways
The latest effort by Berlin-based Clara Hill attempts to show a different side of her laid back, soulful repertoire: acoustic, folk-based orchestral sounds. While it does not diverge much from her usual blend of R&B-inspired tracks, there is plenty to dive into and discover. Her long-standing relationship with Jazzanova is stamped all over these 10 songs, for better and worse: The scratchy textures and crisp guitar on “Sad Girl” is a great modern throwback, while the lilting orchestra of “Everything” is simply too grandiose and presumptive to make an impact. Fortunately her voice is diverse and interesting enough to create a consistent and refreshing vibe to her new experiment in future folk.
Bobby Evans “Freak-A-Zoid Robotz (RMXXOLOGY Theme)”
Delicious Vinyl made its gold-spandexed and rhinestone-studded mark on music history a couple decades ago when, it released party-rockin’ classics from the likes of Tone Loc and early ’90s iconoclasts The Pharcyde. With the electro scene poised to enter a second golden era, Delicious RMXXOLOGY looks back to late ’80s Los Angeles through the eyes of some visionary current artists that include Peaches, Diplo, Spank Rock & Amanda Blank, and Hot Chip. Here, Bobby Evans offers an banging homage to the original Freak-A-Zoid outfit, Afrika Baambaataa. Wyatt Williams
Raashan Ahmad The Push
On his first solo venture, The Push, Raashan Ahmad uses his experience fronting the Crown City Rockers to return to the boom-bap basics of hip-hop. But it isn’t much of a departure from his work with that Bay Area-based live band. Keeping the same organic aesthetic and vibe, he employs his crewmates–along with DJ Vadim, Eligh, Descry and others–to produce an album that’s fun, personal, and, without being cheesy, true to hip-hop. The Push blends various influences, from the dancehall-inspired “City Feel Proud” to the retro soul of “The Crush.” Ahmad also gets personal on “Cancer,” rapping with so much despair about his mom’s passing that it sounds like he’s about to cry. This is what passion sounds like.
Don’t Stop the Rock: Part 3
Now that the wall between rock purism and the digital dancefloor has been reduced to mere rubble, a suite of newer, harder, brighter, faster bands are getting down to the business at hand: having a good time. Next up, silver capes and sampler-mashing straight from Castle Donington’s fresh-faced upstarts, Late of the Pier.
Yes, Late of the Pier is another weirdly named band of British 20-somethings, totally hyped though they don’t even have record out yet. Your first reaction might be just to ignore them. But praise from Digitalism, and Erol Alkan’s involvement in producing that yet-to-be-released album, might be enough to get you to one of their gigs. And that, my friend, may lead you to the center of a kaleidoscopic, psychedelic, noisy, stop-start dance-rock maelstrom, where you’ll find yourself surrounded by 18-year-olds and wearing a pair of band-distributed “rainbow trippy goggles.”
On stage, Late of the Pier has so much going on at the same time that it’s almost hard to describe: silver capes, metallic guitar riffs and screams, frenetic, MPC-triggered 8-bit effects, post-punk drums, distorted disco basslines, and layers and textures from synthesizers that have been carefully placed in golden foil-wrapped boxes. And all of these elements are neatly rolled into recent singles on their Zarcorp label, including “Bears Are Coming” and “Bathroom Gurgle” (a remix of which shows up on the latest taste-making Kitsuné compilation).
“I think a lot of people that hear us are interested because it just sounds a little odd; familiar but… just slightly odd,” explains bassist Andrew Faley. “That confuses them into listening to us a bit more. And that’s where we sink our musical claws into them.”
The foursome’s live set-up–guitar, bass, drums, two synths, and one MPC–came together naturally, says Faley. “We originally played just straight bass, drums, and guitar. We all listened to a lot of electronic music, from The Prodigy and Daft Punk to Lamb, Chris Clark, and Autechre, but never really thought about playing it as a band. Sam [Eastgate, the guitarist and lead vocalist] was sequencing, sampling, and producing electronic music himself and eventually the two collided.”
The Midlands-based band finally decided to add electronic elements into its sound after a group outing to Cut Copy’s first U.K. gig. “They were using an MPC-1000 sampler live. Next week, Sam bought one off eBay and [keyboardist Sam] Potter went from playing one key on a keyboard in one song to mashing a sampler [into] everything we do,” says Faley.
If it all falls apart, there is a plan B. “Ross [Dawson, the drummer], is going to be a gravedigger after LOTP, and Potter wants to be a glass blower,” explains Faley, who’s obviously been given the task of remembering the band’s retirement plans after some drunken night. “Sam’s going to collect glass that Potter’s blown. We’ll all still be connected though–I’ll make a film about Ross’ grave-digging, for which I’ll use special glass lenses in the camera. These I’ll buy off Sam, who’ll have collected them from Potter.” And the band played on…
Don’t Stop the Rock Part 1: Cut Copy
Don’t Stop the Rock Part 2: Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Don’t Stop the Rock Part 4: The Teenagers
Gray Sunset
K-Salaam Offers Album Preview Mixtape
As dancehall makes further inroads onto the American urban charts, a question has been circulating for some time: Which artist will finally bring both styles together without compromising the integrity of either? The answer may lie with a New York-based, Iranian-American producer named K-Salaam.
Born Kayvon Sarfehjooy in 1976, Salaam and production partner Beatnik will drop their album Whose World Is This July 29 on VP Records. The all-star album unites reggae and hip-hop legends Talib Kweli, Papoose, Dead Prez, and Rakaa from Dilated Peoples alongside Buju Banton, Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B, Luciano, Richie Spice, and more.
If that weren’t enough, as a preview, Salaam is circulating the NY Is Burningmixtape, which features old and new tracks, remixes and side productions. The duo’s music mixes classic East Coast hip-hop beats (think Pete Rock, Beatminerz, and Just Blaze) with modern dancehall vibes. The mixtape takes its inspiration from the reactions in New York and elsewhere to the acquittal of the three police officers in the Sean Bell homicide case.
Social justice and political consciousness are threads continued on the forthcoming album as well. As Salaam explains on his site: “The album represents the idea that all people who have had our freedom, our rights, and our land stolen from us must take back what is rightfully ours. In the making of this album, I wanted to create something that would serve as a voice for people who do not have one. We have to stand up for ourselves at all times, but even more important, we must stand up for those who have it worse off than us. Only then will we be free.”
Tracklisting
A. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present “NY Is Burning Intro”
B. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: “Buju Banton & Trey Songz “StreetLife”
C. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: “Dead Prez “Bigger Than Hip-Hop 2008”
D. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: “Mos Def & Sizzla “Victory”
E. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: “Young Buck “My Hood”
F. Collie Buddz “Come Around” (Beatnic & K-Salaam Homegrown Remix)
G. Richie Spice “Open The Door” (Beatnick & K-Salaam Open Mind Remix)
H. Richie Spice “Marijuana (Politics Remix)
I. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: Outlawz “We Want In”
J. Buju Banton “Sinsimilla Persecution” (Down & Out remix)
K. Bounty Killer “Fed Up” (If I Ruled The World Remix)
L. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: Junior Kelly “Freedom”
M. Capleton “Tour” (Jackin for Beats Remix)
N. Damian Marley “Jamrock” (High Grade Remix)
O. Dead Prez “Bigger Than Hip-Hop” (Jamrock Remix)
P. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: Outlawz “Only Life I Know”
Q. K-Salaam & Beatnick Present: Mos Def & Sizzla “Victory Rmx”
R. K-Salaam & Beatnick – NY Is Burning Outro
XLR8R TV: Flying Lotus – High Score
Flying Lotus is no stranger to the comforting blips and bleeps of the Nintendo generation. He name-checks Mortal Kombat 2 as an influence and credits the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim with giving him his first big break. In this 2008 episode of XLR8R TV, ‘FlyLo’ shows off his fluid style as he switches with ease between discussing musical legends in the family—great-aunt Alice Coltrane and cousin Ravi Coltrane—and kicking ass on Street Fighter.
T-woc “Warning feat. Brother Culture”
A new 45″ on Dublin, Ireland’s All City imprint finds producer T-woc teaming up with legendary dub MCBrother Culture for this rumbling, bass-heavy track that bumps along at a pleasantly casual pace. One-half of Irish electronic music collective The Alphabet Set, T-woc also throws parties in Dublin and hosts a weekly radio show. Culture, meanwhile, has MCed for over 25 years and collaborated with many of dub, reggae, and dancehall’s greats.
Pyramids Pyramids
Somewhere between My Bloody Valentine and Sunn O))) lies Pyramids, but where that is exactly remains to be seen. The Hydra Head rebels vacillate from waves of lush distortion on “Sleds” to angelic chorals and dark industrial stomps on “Igloo” and “End Resolve,” without serious injury or impact. Their cinematic epics are open-ended experiments that bury structure in exposition, which is to say they scored par for challenging music’s course. Yet even the gorgeous atmospherics of “The Echo of Something Lovely” tend to be broken down by machine-gun drums. In the end, Pyramids is in on everything, and you’re often left outside waiting to get in.
