Spaced out there

Out There

Released: September 2007

Now-Again

http://www.stonesthrow.com/nowagain/


The Heliocentrics - Sirius B


It’s about time I sat down and start writing about one of the wildest albums I’ve heard in the last few years instead of just listening to it over and over again and keeping it from the rest of civilisation. Whilst Battles’ Mirrored woke me up to 2007 math rock, The Heliocentrics’

2007 record Out There sent me to hyperspace without really knowing what genre of music I’m listening to.

Even through The Helios are signed to Stones Throw’s subsidiary funk label Now-Again, to call this album just plain funk would be like calling Miles Davis just a Jazz trumpeter. This instrumental album starts off with a voice sample of a stewardess introducing the listeners to the journey they’re about to take into a world far away. This world has an orgy of sounds and influences: Free jazz-check, fuzzed out funk-check, middle-eastern influences-check, African percussions-check, flower-power psychadelia-check, Javanese Gamelan-check (?!?) the list goes on and on. Malcom Catto - the drummer (Dj Shadow’s drummer amongst others) is noticeably the de facto leader of the group as his drums dominate the album without even playing one bore fest of a drum solo. The steady and highly funky beats he sets up are complemented perfectly by Jake Ferguson-bass & Thai guitar, Mike Burnham- modular synth & effects, Jack Yglesias- flutes, percussion & santur, Adrian Owusu- guitars, oud & percussion, James Arben- clarinet, tenor & baritone sax, Ray Careless- alto, tenor & baritone sax, Max Weissenfeldt- vibes & percussion as well as Khadijatou Silcott-Fraser- vocals (very occasionally).

Staying true to the Stones Throw tradition, The Helios are superb musicians producing superb pieces of work with almost no publicity. A quick Wikipedia search on ‘The Heliocentrics’ will give you 0 results. It’s a sad state of affairs so if a spaced out-jazzfunkrockpsychadelia happens to be your thing, go beg, steal, threat…anything really to get this album.

Side A:

1. Intro

2. Distant Star

3. Flight 583

4. Once Upon a Time

5. Beyond Repair

6. Sirius B7. Untitled

Side B:

8. They Are Among Us - Part 1

9. The Zero Hour

10. Joyride

11. The American Empire

Side C:

12. Before I Die

13. Intermission

14. Age of the Sun

15. They Are Among Us - Part 2

16. Winter Song

17. A World of Masks

Side D:

18. Sounds of the East

19. Somewhere Out There

20. Second Chance (K2’s Prayer)

21. Return Journey

22. Sirius A

23. Falling to Earth

24. Outro

Yèkatit - Mulatu & The Heliocentrics LIVE
by granjeros

Gettin’ down just for the funk of it!

One Nation Under a Groove

Released: September 23 1978

Warner Brothers

1978 was quite a wild year for popular music with disco, reggae, punk, new wave, rock and jazz-fusion dominating the radio waves. Abba’s ‘The Album’, Talking Head’s ‘Fear of Music’ and The Clash’s ‘ ‘Give ‘em enough rope’ amongst others were the chart toppers at the time who all reshaped the music scene for the next decade at least. The R&B world in the US was also going through a change where the sounds of funk and poetry of The Last Poets amongst others would later on form hip-hop. No-one really outside James Brown can be mentioned synonymously with funk except for George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic (P-Funk) and in ‘78 they released a bomb shell.

The P-Funk name had already existed for more than a decade before the release of One Nation Under a Groove where they pretty much re-wrote the rules of Rhythm & Blues by not only incorporating modern (late 60s – mid 70s) rock into their sound but also using blunted out and synthesized bass lines instead of drums and the wah-wah to create their rocky-funky sound. By the late seventies, George Clinton and his band, although by no means mainstream, were considered bedrock in African-American culture and music. In ’78 they released arguably their best album: One Nation Under a Groove which in short encapsulates all of their previous albums both as Parliament as well as Funkadelic.

Thirty years has passed since the release of ‘One nation…’ and George Clinton still plays a strong part in modern Afro-American music with his presence on rap albums (Blackalicious, Snoop Doggy Dog, Wu-Tang) and has truly put music fans under his groove. Why his name is not as a house-hold name as James Brown, Isaac Hayes and Quincy Jones I do not know.

Main LP:
"One nation under a groove" – 7:29
"Groovallegiance"– 7:00
"Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!" – 6:18
"Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo-Doo Chasers)"– 10:45
"Into you" – 5:41
"Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll!)"– 4:27


Bonus EP:
" Lunchmeatophobia (Think!...It Ain't Illegal Yet!)" – 4:12
"P.E. Squad/DooDoo Chasers ('Going All-The-Way Off' Instrumental)"– 4:18
"Maggot Brain" – 8:28

Amerykahn Soul

New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)

Released: February 26 2008

Universal Motown

Thank God for Erykah Badu in the age of The Pussycat Dolls we live in now. Her third studio album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) gives that hope back of the old-school soul diva managing to mix all sorts of afro-centric genres to create something to give you goose bumps. If you’re looking for 40 years of Afro-American culture rolled up nicely in 1 joint then you’ll be ecstatic with this album released late February 2008. P-Funk, break-beats, hip-hop, soul, nu-soul, old-skool R&B, weird yet deeply psychedelic chanting voices and samples of political orations to name just a few, is just as varied as the topics she deals with: anti-Iraq (Soldier), self confession (Me), philosophy (Master Teacher), hip-hop (The Healer), loss of a friend (Telephone), decline of society (Twinkle) and of course drugs (The Cell).

Side A:

"Amerykahn Promise" (E. Badu, W. Allen) – 4:16
"The Healer" (E. Badu, Madlib) – 3:59
"Me" (E. Badu, S. Husayn) – 5:36
"My People" (E. Badu, Madlib– 3:25

Side B:

"Soldier" (E. Badu, K. Riggins) – 5:04
"The Cell" (E. Badu, S. Husayn) – 4:21
"Twinkle" (E. Badu, S. Husayn, Sa-Ra) – 6:57

Side C:

"Master Teacher" (E. Badu, G.A. Muldrow, S. Husayn) – 6:48
"That Hump" (E. Badu, O. Keith) – 5:25

Side D:
"Telephone" (E. Badu, Questlove , J. Poyster) – 7:48
"Honey" (E. Badu, 9th Wonder) – 5:21

The Electric Reporter: Joe Zawinul (1932-2007)

A year has almost passed since the passing of one of Jazz’s great underrated innovators, Joe Zawinul in September 2007. Sadly I’ve only managed to read a single obituary on the man since his death so here’s my two penny’s worth of thoughts on the brains and main innovator behind Weather Report.

The Austrian might not sport a household name as a Jazz artist unlike his fellow contemporaries Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea yet besides Davis, there are few as innovative in bringing new sounds to this old genre and adding a certain crossover appeal to mainstream listeners. Having being educated in music from an early age, Zawinul quickly left his hometown Vienna to follow his love of Jazz to the US. It was in the US that he started to attract attention from the Jazz aficionados, amongst other was saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and swiftly earned Zawinul a spot on Miles Davis’ legendary Bitches Brew sessions along with future Weather Report collaborator Wayne Shorter.

To you cats who are familiar with Bitches Brew, you would probably have seen Zawinul’s Weather Report sound shaping up. Yet with WR he and Shorter added electronic sounds and synthesizers to their classical Jazz repertoire which was quite unheard of at the time and quite despised of by Jazz purists around. Yet Weather Report continued to shape and reshape the sounds of Jazz with a handful of superb albums notably Weather Report (’70), I Sing the Body Electric (‘72) and the two Jaco Pastorius featured albums Black Market (‘76) and Heavy Weather (‘77).

R.I.P Joe, a revolutionary musician who passed away before his time, much like the appreciation of his music.

It did take a nation of millions!

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Released: 28 June 1988

Def Jam

Now yours truly wasn't stuck to his boombox in 1988, but 20 years ago Public Enemy came up and shook us up with It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. It might be kinda hard to imagine a mainstream rap group releasing anything remotely conscious or political AND got heard by the common man in The Bronx, Camden or even Menteng but these cats did with a bang.

Rap groups like this don't exist no more: Chuck D was the voice, Flava Flav the annoying hype man and Terminator X speaks with his hands with the unruly Bomb Squad handling the production. Bring The Noise, Don’t Believe the Hype, Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos, Louder Than a Bomb and Rebel Without a Pause were outrageously fresh as they were influential. With hip-hop starting to polarise with the rise of NWA influenced G-funk it was one of the final ‘Golden Age’ records to address social issues without advising everyone to shoot everyone else they thought was at fault.

‘It Takes A Nation’ was loud, street smart, a thorn in the establishment, and sounded like a riot of beats and melody all in one record. Sadly for us it took another nation of millions to stop caring about social and political issues in rap thus buying much less of these records to push conscious rap mainly underground.

Boogie down Middle East

No, not block parties in Dubai nor battle rapping in Riyadh, but little-by-little the sounds of the Arab world and the Indian sub-continent have filtered through the sample options of the genres creative producers. Sounds of sitars and quirky Arabic strings indeed haven’t found their way through, say, Timbaland’s repertoire but further underground it is definitely having influence as could be heard in last year’s unique and engaging Dr. No’s Oxperiments’ Lebanese/Greek/Turkish mash-up or indeed his older brother Madlib’s Beat Konducta India (utilising dusty & ancient Bollywood soundtracks) where exotic sound bytes are layered on top of straight forward beats and loops. Think of a Turkish Jimi Hendrix jamming with James Brown or Ravi Shankar providing music for Rakim and you’ll get a vague idea of what I’m talking about.


Although moves like this can be seen as borderline pretentious, I see it as a step forward in this post 9/11 world as rap as a genre will always rely to some degree on sampling as its creative force and although the vinyl crates filled with funk and soul will always be available, sound samples from various parts of the world are and will further be exploited to enrich the sounds of this 20 year old genre. It’s also quite refreshing to see US artists embracing the culture and sounds of the unknown instead of running scared from it.

And say children...

...what does Marquevico mean?

...and you dont quit!

To all Marquevicians, have a taste of Marquevicolicious

And you dont stop...

Any rabid Marquevico fan would be dying to get their hands on this first ep

Sounds from Marquevico

Is good music coupled with bad mixing your thing? If so, The Ludovico together with The Marquee presents: Sounds from Marquevico

Yo! from Rio!

Brasilintime (Batucada Com Discos) Live from Paradiso Amsterdam 09 May 2008



Now depending on what you expect in a show called Brasilintime organised by indie rap’s premier label, you’re either going to leave feeling buzzing or feeling you couldn’t hear another beat for a good few weeks. I for one conjured up various images in my head of how the gig would pan out. Would it be Bossanova grooves over light scratching topped up with Gilberto or de Moraes samples or some samba induced funk rap?

Luckily for me the stage was occupied by 2 full drum sets flanking a bass drum/snare/ an orgy of percussion paraphernalia backing up 3 turntables and huge white organ/sampler (couldn’t make out) which gave me food for thought whilst idly waiting for Paradiso to fill up. DJ Nuts and Stones Throw’s house turntablist J Rocc shifted through smooth Bossanova funk (?!) whilst the screen in the centre of the stage played video cuts of Brasilintime the DVD, entertaining the hip-hop heads and casual hippies and making my girlfriend daydream of Latin American holidays, before the drummers entered.

If you’re familiar with Madlib’s Yesterday’s New Quintet moniker (y’know, the imaginary5piecejazzbandoccasionallyfeaturinginsaneguestdrummers one) then you got to see Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti of Jackson Conti; an Otis Jackson (Madlib’s passport name) and Ivan Conti colab. in the flesh. Mamão (acting as the on-stage percussion leader), another Brazillian percussionist João Parahyba and Fela Kuti’s Tony Allen shifted through hard samba whilst the two deejays and Madlib manned the wheels of steel. The variations of samba and South American variants of the funk rolled through the 3 percussionists were amazingly varied but the effects from the scratching were quite mind boggling. Yes the spliffs and booze helped but moving vinyl backward-and-forwards to create chanting like effects or light stormy sounds is best described as some Afrobeat meets Weather Report on speed. Samples from J Dilla’s Donuts and the obligatory James Brown amongst others atogether with sing-along’s from Mamão filter through and bring a sense of familiarity as well as some melody amongst the orgy of sound and crashing cymbals. I was transfixed and so were the crowd. One could sense the collective feeling of awe that 3 underappreciated deejays and 3 underappreciated drummers from the 70s could create something so cohesive, inventive, original and danceable.


After just under 2 hours of the show the musicians bid their farewells and left the floor to J Rocc who gave the poppers and the breakers their fix of 1990s rap with a healthy dose of Q-Tip and Wu-Tang, even finding a slot for Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ to naturally glide in after A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Can I Kick It?’. After the refreshing one hour closing session I left a little sad knowing that I will be one of very few people who will be covering this refreshing fusion gig. Now if 50 Cent or Coldplay were to try some samba…


All photos: Erick Wicaksono

Sorry couldn't find a relevant and clean video so here is a blurry one from 2006:


http://www.brasilintime.com/

Rappcats

Alappatt

The Stones Throw gig in Dec 2007 was hands down the best I've been to. One of the stars out of the posse of djs and musicians that night was Egon, the manager of ST who opened the gig with stuff like this:

Hmmmmore

Intro' to Stones Thro'

Return of The Lud

Yes, a long last I'm finally gathering up the will to relive The Ludovico. With my thesis finally under the belt and my will to live has returned, I've gathered up a luggage of gig reviews, record updates, and general mumblings to be told.

Nothing can really sum up the past 10 months than me transforming into an all out hip-hop head b-boy. With the occasional interruptions of genial rock albums like Battles’ Mirrored and reliving the precious moments of a Talking Heads album, the wheels of steel has been occupied by rap albums and its predecessors namely funk, soul, afrobeat, dub and jazz. For fucks sakes, I’ve even taken quite a liking to G-Funk and The Wu.

I can ramble on for hours picturing the various images floating in my head listening to these long players and ideas I have music wise as a result of these findings, but this is for another blog entry in the very near future. For now here are 10 albums, in no particular order, which have been inseparable from my ones-and-twos for the better part of last ten months.

Enter The 36 Chambers – The Wu Tang Clan

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde – The Pharcyde

Super Ape - Lee Scratch Perry

Is Victor Vaughan Vaudeville Villain? – MF DOOM

The Chronic – Dr Dre

Golden State Funk – Various artists

Holonic – DJ Krush

Shades of Blue –Madlib

Liquid Swords – The GZA

Almost anything released by Stones Throw. Yes, this counts as a separate, yet huge, entry. In fact, nothing has occupied my ears so much as material released by the LA based independent hip-hop/funk label Stones Throw that my next entry will be focused on cats like Peanut Butter Wolf, Madlib, Egon, Oh No and ill albums like The Funky 16 Corners I had the pleasure to spend hours listening to.

EL-Producto Melkweg.05.04.2007

Two weeks previously Big Daddy Kane rocked the Melkweg with his classic MCing skillz; constantly in touch with the crowd, barrage of name checks and tributes to rap's past, inviting the crowd to beatbox, breakdance and battle rap. I expected a concert but got a very good value for money old skool party.

Coincidentally, Definitive Jux, an independent New York hip hop label whose rap style was decidedly left-field have just been working its way through my playlist with an impressive rate. Company Flow started the interest with their only album released on seminal indie rap label Rawkus, with their 3 MC's; Big Juss, Mr.Len and El-P deliver tight knit rhymes play packed with political views, social injustices, graffiti writing and population control. EL-P's production isn't any less variative with essentially minimalist beat work accompanied with querky sound effect and spacey scratch pieces. Ever since Rawkus started going mainstream, EL-P started his own label, Def Jux which now stands as the benchmark for New York underground hip hop harbouring artists from RJd2, Aesop Rock, Mr.Lif and El-Producto himself. All that was good enough to convince me to wonder down to the Melkweg to see the man himself.

Supporting an orange prison uniform, El-P was flanked by Mighty Quin and his DJ whose name I can't remember. The 3 piece crew recited El-p's critically acclaimed I'll Sleep When You're Dead pretty much from cover to cover. Admitedly, the album is a hard one to digest as its theme is dark to say the least as El-p takes the listener through the paranoia of a 20 something living in the post 9-11 western world. It doesn't get any lighter performed live as the amps boom out ambient beats and trippy scratching by the annonymous DJ but certainly isn't danceable. Amusingly El-p still manages to make the crowd form a mini mosh pit smack bang in front of the Brooklyn cat.



His skits and instrumental interludes are quite different to any I've heard before as the DJ pumps out sampled cuts of old breaks mixed with El-p's characteristic electronic synth work not to mention hypnotic sitar samples. The 1 hour gig ended after the encore which feature mainy work from El-p's debut solo LP, Fantastic Damage and thus bringing a close to this ear opening gig and the man certainly justifies the hype surrounding the album he released only 3 weeks prevoiusly.

For an advert riddled video check out http://dl.aol.com/index.html?date=2007-04-20&video=1

Last plak- Rotterdam

Yeah!

kamikaze beemer-Rotterdam

Delft Station-on way to work

This tag is actually an ad for a furniture maker made by local grafitti artists in Delft.