Clothing and music meet once again, but this time in an unlikely destination. Jeff Mills and his longtime partner Yoko Uozumi have culled from the many fashions seen on their world travels and opened a high-end boutique in Chicago called the Gamma Player Shop.

You can buy anything from haute couture to blazers here, from European brands like Gilles Rosier (Paris), Firma (Berlin), and Bils (Turkey), and each season the clothing will change to reflect moving trends in fashion from those parts of the world. This season’s theme is titled The Universe By Night, and clothing will reflect the contrasting qualities of light and dark. There’s a reason the theme sounds more like the title of an album than a clothing trend: An accompanying compilation of the same name is available exclusively at the store, and features material from Mills previously unreleased in the U.S. See, even non-fashion enthusiasts have a reason to visit.

The Gamma Player Shop opens Thursday, March 15.

The Universe By Night Tracklisting
1. 14 Dreams
2. Gamma Player
3. The March
4. The Art of Barrier Breaking
5. Now Is The Time
6. The Nomads of Niger
7. Time Machine 3
8. Place De La Bastille
9. Gata
10. Moody
11. Dr. Ice
12. Man From Tomorrow
13. Micro Terra
14. Healing Channel
15. Time Machine 7
16. Sleeping Giant

By 2006, Swiss dub producer The Interruptor had placed multiple tracks on the popular UK electronic compilation series The Roots of Dub Funk, released a debut album, and recorded a single with Jamaican vocalist Andrew Robinson for his own Interruptor imprint. But when it came to producing music, he realized that he was not entirely self-taught. Instead, he acquired knowledge by listening to Jamaican recordings and working with fellow electronic music producers to reach new levels.

Rather than hoarding his own knowledge, he founded one of the web’s best resources for aspiring dub producers, TheInterruptor.ch, which hosts everything from a lively discussion board where producers swap tips, to a hearty collection of dubby VST plug-ins. And that’s but a single branch of this site’s tall tree of information. Click on The Dub Scrolls and you’ll get an excellent step-by-step tutorial on dub music production. The links page provides even more resources for those looking to get their reggae diploma from the University of Mouse Click. And it looks like Interruptor has company.

Dutch producer Messian Dread also aggregates an insane amount of musician and producer soundfile (WAV, MP3, SF2, MIDI) downloads. Messian is also a frequent contributor renowned dub portal Versionist. The online community, founded in 2002, allows aspiring producers to upload and share their audio and visual dub content, swap producer tools, and even host their own blogs. The site has grown to include over 1000 dub, reggae, and roots artists worldwide, hailing from France, the USA, and Africa, among other nations. Versionist is a tribute to the international connections that both reggae music and technology have provided. 

But don’t forget a site close to the XLR8R crew’s hearts; of course I’m talking about Dub.com. Programmer Stephen McGarrigle has worked tirelessly for years, creating a highly interactive portal for all things dub. And, of course, he was smart enough to reserve the domain years before the reggae community migrated online. It’s a sign that, just as Scientist, King Tubby, and others embraced new technologies that transformed the sound of Jamaican music in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, the tradition is being carried on by a new generation of reggae loving tech-heads around the globe.

Curmudgeons like me bemoan the slow, agonizing death of the album–which is being bludgeoned mercilessly by today’s short-attention-span theater of singles and individual downloads–for a lot of reasons. Like, remember when you couldn’t get over on a single, a remix, and a stupid video, but actually had to have a front-to-back solid album to be considered good? Remember concept albums that actually worked and didn’t get smothered by their own pretentiousness? Remember really cool covers? Liner notes that you couldn’t wait to read?

All of those are great, but for today’s Friday Five, we’re going to delve into yet another great by-product of the album era: the album cut. You know, the song that didn’t end up as a single because the label decided it wouldn’t hit the desired demographic, but was still an amazing song that made the album worth buying? Yeah those joints. There are, admittedly, a ton of great ones to choose from (every song on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back that wasn’t a single, for example), and I could do this list every week and come up with different songs every time, probably. But for right now, here are my picks for…

The Top Five Album Cuts

1. NWA “If It Ain’t Ruff”
It’s sort of strange this never was a single. It’s one of the few songs on Straight Outta Compton that requires no edits or bleeps to make it radio-playable. And it’s just a great song–classic Dre production, and MC Ren swings hard on the rhymes, giving a great vocal performance from front to back.

2. Stezo “Bring the Horns”
The singles released off this Connecticut prodigal son’s album really were a taste of what the full-length was about: terrific beats and solid mic skills. It’s tough to pick standout cuts from so many worthy contenders, but the hard-hitting drums of “Bring the Horns” always seem to require a repeat. And as a bonus, this LP is actually pressed loud enough to play in clubs!

3. King Sun “King Sun With the Sword”
There’s really nothing I don’t love about this song, except that it was never issued as a 12″ (the LP, like the Stezo album, can be played in the club, but I want the instrumental and the acapella!). Tony D comes through with one of the greatest chop jobs ever on “Funky Drummer,” perfectly spruces it up with some horns and guitars (he totally murdered that sample source, too), and Sun rides the hell out of the track. Just beautiful.

4. The Beatnuts “Are You Ready?”
It’s on, muthafucka, can’t you see that?!? That Bill Doggett loop will never get old, and the ‘Nuts come through with their usual inimitable ruckus, followed by a swinging-thru-the-studio cameo by Grand Puba(!), and topped off with vicious cuts by Mista Sinista. Can’t be fucked with, plain and simple.

5. Ice Cube “Bird in the Hand”
Death Certificate is just like Nation of Millions in the sense that pretty much any song that didn’t become a single is pretty much, by definition, one of the greatest album cuts of all time. I’m giving my nod to “Bird in the Hand” because Cube laid it down so perfectly on that track. No hook, just great storytelling and cultural commentary laid down over an awesome beat. To me, this is still one of Cube’s best songs.

Hamburg’s dirty, electro-punk duo Jens “Jence” Moelle and Ismail “Isi” Tuefekci are probably best known for that infections electro-punk anthem “Zdarlight,” which graced the turntables of Tiefschwarz, Soulwax, and dozens of other DJs in 2006. Those a little more in the know will also point to the duo’s remixes for acts like The Presets (“Down Down Down”) and the Klaxons (“Atlantis to Interzone”), and delight in the fact that Jence and Isi have announced a full-length, Idealism, slated for release on May 21, on France’s Kitsuné imprint. Those curious about the album can head to Jence and Isi’s MySpace page for a preview of the tracks. Make no mistake–this is an album meant to be played loud.

Meanwhile, the boys will head Stateside for a few rare appearances, including sets for WMC and Coachela.

Tour Dates
03/22 Montreal, QC: I Love Neon
03/23 Miami, FL: Studio A
03/23 Miami, FL: Ultra Music Festival
03/24 Chicago, IL: Smart Bar
04/27 Indio, CA: Coachella
04/28 San Francisco, CA: Mezzanine