The Left Coast has churned out a long list of quirky yet talented MCs. From Fatlip to Madlib/ Quasimoto to Del, colorful self-effacing rhyme spitters have called Cali home, as does ex-LA Symphony member Pigeon John. The difference between John and the previously listed dudes is that they‘ve succeeded in infusing their quirk with a sense of real personality where PJ has only a soft sheen of style. On …Sings The Blues, John gives a valiant effort over some pretty fluffy production, but the end result comes off a bit like a collection of Black Eyed Peas outtakes, albeit ones with significantly more wit than that gang could muster.
Various Artists Run the Road
The apocalyptic sound of streetwise London youth, grime is being lauded Stateside as the next logical progression for global hip-hop. Keep in mind, these are the same people who have turned The Office into a lame NBC sitcom. Even though this comp is supposed to act as an easy-to-swallow tablet for a vibrant subculture, the music is way too next to be so packaged. From the doomhall of Kano‘s “P‘s And Q‘s” to the blistering synth-step of No Lay‘s soundgirl-crushing “Unorthodox Daughter,” and the genre-framing of youngsta‘ Tinchy Stryder‘s irresistible “Move,” this is a surprisingly complete collection.
Moonbootica June
These guys are from Hamburg. I‘ve been playing this new cut for a month. It‘s a bit ravey in a way but it‘s on the edge and it never fails to fill the dancefloor wherever I play it. We asked them to do a remix for my project with Madrid De Los Austrias and they turned in a killer version of Valldemossa.
Beck Guero
This is the best album of the year so far. It‘s another Dust Brothers production and, like all of the albums they‘ve made, it‘s a great combination of beats and songwriting. My favorite track is “Black Tambourine.” [It‘s] also an album you can listen to all the way through without the need to press skip.
Jon Hassell Maarifa Street
This is the sort of thing we want to do. It‘s a complete listening album, ambient in a Brian Eno vein. The production is simply “off its head” music. Some people might consider it boring but I think it‘s exciting because it‘s not connected to any commercial style or locked into a genre.
The Autobots Seconds Out
Fantastic new one from The Autobots that has been ripping up dancefloors wherever we [play it]. It‘s all here: pounding drums, a splattering of funk stabs, and an earth-shaking bassline. Very much on the blokey “nu skool” tip, but hooky enough to appeal to the girls!
Madox Smells Like Naples
We were given this by Mr. Madox before Christmas and it‘s been one of the highlights of our set ever since. The track cleverly builds until all hell breaks loose in the form of a cheeky Lenny Kravitz sample, and before you know where you are, in comes the huge bassline again. A treat.
Baitercell & Schumacher Lay It Down (DJ Icey Rmx)
After years of waiting we finally had the chance to fly Icey over to play at our Eargasm night at Fabric whereupon he furnished us with this beauty. Skippy drums and a rude sub-bassline slap us into shape before a well cheeky bouncing bassline drops, and the drum time signature changes before you have a chance to breathe. Finally, your jaw gets broken by a right hook from a seriously fuzzy bassline. Game over.
Jeff Samuel: Swing in That Minimal Thing
The schaffel swing that has infected minimal techno first broke out in Germany, but you’ll also find it in the bouncing funk of Seattle’s Jeff Samuel, who brings a distinctly upbeat swing to minimal techno’s dour outlook. But he’s not just biting the latest style from Europe–back in his native Cleveland, Samuel hit the techno parties that shaped the sound he displays on numerous 12” singles and the new Poker Flat Volume Four compilation. “Dan Bell’s ‘Losing Control’ was still being played in ’95 when I started going to these parties,” says Samuel. “The whole minimal thing was just sweet. [Like] Morgan Geist, a lot of people don’t know his early stuff was super Detroit and still melodic.”
Samuel literally blends these influences on his mix for Poker Flat, skipping seamlessly from updated Detroit sounds from Patrick Chardronnet to his own melodic 8-bit bytes on the exclusive “Glurf.” If that track title sounds like a lost Colecovision banger, don’t be surprised. Before techno took hold, Samuel rocked the consoles, absorbing the chip music that later influenced his current gig as a videogame sound effect designer. “Videogames were a huge part of my life growing up,” he enthuses. “Commodore 64 all the way through [the first] Playstation, I was doing it nonstop. Some of those composers were super brilliant.”
While fellow Nintendo-raised techno producers usually bury their heads in mounds of tech gear, Samuel’s minimal ethos carries over to his production setup as well. “I’ve been using the same program all the way through–Fruity Loops, now FL studio,” he explains. “I have that, a MIDI controller, and a keyboard and that’s it. A lot of people don’t want to say that they use it because it has a stupid-ass name, and had gotten this reputation as a toy and not a serious program, but who cares? There are a lot of really established techno artists who are using it. I hear the kickdrum that’s in the blank template when you open up the program all the time.”
Between DJ gigs, Samuel is looking to train his Fruity-powered studio on the LP format next, but not without some reservation. “The techno album is still fairly virgin territory. There haven’t been a lot of albums that really do it for me. I grew up listening to albums all the way through, so I have too much of an expectation on myself to make it something I would want to listen to all the way through.”
Somewhere: Barcelona, Spain
A debate rages among flamenco purists over whether the flamenco hip-hop of Ojos de Brujo belongs on stage with more traditional artists such as Paco de Lucía or at indie music festivals like South by Southwest, where the group appeared this year. Ojos mixes an array of random styles that hardly seem to go together: traditional flamenco, rumba catalana (the more upbeat, danceable cousin of flamenco), hip-hop, funk, and even beatboxing and scratching. Put these sounds in a blender and what comes out is what the group generally refers to as Jip-Jop Flamenkillo. Ramón, guitarist for the Barcelona collective explains: “I’ve got records from [flamenco singer] Camarón, others from Metallica, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa–they might not have anything to do with each other but they all influence the music I make.”
Ojos de Brujo is not alone in their attempt to create something new out of the stray sounds and contrasting influences of Barcelona’s streets. The city’s vibrant música mestiza (mixed music) scene includes groups with innovative hybrid styles ranging from the bossa nova/samba/reggae of Brazuca Matraca to the rumba funk of Muchachito Bombo Infierno, whose latest release, Vamos Que Nos Vamos, just came out on the Músicas Nomadas label run by OdB. Although these artists might not share a particular musical formula, they do believe in bringing out Barcelona’s cultural diversity to create a sound that is not limited by genre classifications.
Perhaps the most archetypal example of this could be 08001, a local project started by Julián Urigoitia in the immigrant barrio of Raval. The idea was to bring together a group of musicians as diverse as the neighborhood itself and give them a place to hang out and record their ideas without limiting the outcome. “It’s a project that’s very much open and alive,” says Julián. 08001 fuses multilingual lyrics with everything from flamenco, reggae, rai, and dub with electronic music.
Ojos plans to expand horizons even further on their third album by incorporating tango into the mix. “We base ourselves on experimentation,” says Ramón. “For us, music has an identity apart from whatever genre you happen to be playing. It’s something that tells you ‘Here we are, and this is what’s happening here.’”
