I vill suck your blood!

Boo! Scare ya? Didn't think so. Anyhoo, it's October 31, so it must be time for the obligatory (somewhat) Halloween-related song selection...



So I got up this morning and turned the TV on to some special about the true origins of Dracula on The History Channel, and found my Halloween inspiration. Turns out Vikram the Vampire is Dracula's Hindu cousin, and he works at the 7-11 on Centinela and Venice. Ba-dump-bump! Seriously, though, it is an actual story, and the full text of it can be found here, if you're into that whole "reading" thing that the kids are all doing these days. I'd never heard of it before, but it must be popular, because British/Indian tabla-tronica master (and frequent Bjork-poker) Talvin Singh even wrote a song about it... a SCARY song...

Talvin Singh - Vikram The Vampire (ysi)

Muahahahahaha! Ah, never mind. Good track though. Have fun trick or treating tonight... but don't take any candy from the weird couple on the corner. It's full of rat poison... or was it nougat... either way, yuck.

X marks the Samba

It's not every day that you get to post a song that's title begins with the letter "x", so I'm pretty stoked today...



... yeah, I'm a dork like that. But sure enough, here's Brazilian percussion master Airto Moreira and an all-star group rocking a samba like all get out. Dope, dope percussion on this one of course, but Airto's one dope dude. He played with Miles and was sampled by Basement Jaxx, which is a pretty cool combo for starters... but that's just a couple things off a long, long list of steez...

Airto Moreira - Xibaba (ysi)

This one's strangely out of print, but you can get it if you know where to look... and I shouldn't have to tell you where that is by now... ;)

And here's a completely unrelated video that's pretty damn hilarious, especially if you are a cat owner... then it's the story of every morning of your life...



For real... friggin' cats...

Your Monday blog post

Just a cold, gloomy Monday morning, so here's some audio hot cocoa...



An ambient artist that I have become quite the fan of in the last few months is Mr. Jonas Munk, aka Manual, from Denmark. He's got a bunch of releases out, and this one, called Until Tomorrow is on the Morr Music label, which these days is certainly a stamp of quality if you're into the relaxed side of things. And who doesn't like to relax? The terrorists, that's who. They should just put this music on and maybe they won't be wanting to blow shit up all the time...

Manual - It'll Be Fine (ysi)

... see what I mean? I have no desire to strap on a vest of dynamite right this second. Thanks, Manual!

It's still house music... if your house is in Spanish Harlem

I know Friday has been proclaimed House music day around here, but since I already posted a House song this week...



... let's roll into the weekend with some Latin Funk hotness, courtesy of the great percussionist and cool-name-havin' dude Willie Bobo... because this will make you move that butt, too, folks. Plus Willie gets extra cool points for his son playing drums with Cypress Hill's live band now, and the younger Bobo has been known to take a four-foot bong out on stage and blaze up whilst playing. Sweet. Anyhoo, here is the title track from Do What You Want To Do, from 1971 (yeah, like I didn't have to look that up :P )...

Willie Bobo & The Bo-Gents - Do What You Want To Do (ysi)

So take that, head out to Happy Hour for some chips and salsa and five or six Margaritas... hmmm, I suppose that would be more appropriate if I had posted some Mariachi music... whatevs, sue me... and have a great weekend!

Super Duper Bonus Post!

Two posts in one day?


Whaaaaa?

You heard me. Because I wanted to give a little blog love (the non-gay kind... not that there's anything wrong with that) to a good friend of mine, and he was kind enough to supply me with a couple of tunes to share with you...



Delicate is Shawn Lyon, a talented multi-instrumentalist based in L.A. but originally from Idaho of all places. Yes, from the land of potatoes and blue football fields. And though you've probably never heard of him, you've heard his music on plenty of TV commercials... he's one of those guys. But you will hear of him soon. Like, in a couple of seconds when you click the link. The music is atmospheric and a bit brooding, and if you like M83 and that lot, you are gonna love this...

Delicate - Re-Evolution Orange (ysi)

See? I wouldn't steer you wrong, folks! That's not how I roll. And the man can remix, too...

Bjork - Hidden Place (Delicate Remix) (ysi)

So get yourself over to his Myspace and friend him up, so when he drops an album you can be the cool kid on the block and say you knew him before he was big. Oh, and if you tell him Tonegent sent you, he will bake you a pie. Any kind you want...

Welcome to the freak show

Feels about time for some hip-hop today...



Just about every write-up you'll ever read about Philly's The Goats' debut album Tricks Of The Shade describes it in exactly the same words. One of the best yet most slept-on Hip-Hop albums in, oh, maybe ever. And I'm not here to disagree with that! It's a weird one no doubt, a concept album in which America has become "Uncle Scam's Federally Funded Welfare and Freakshow", which 15 years later is still pretty damn spot-on. Hell, they were even making fun of a President named Bush... ha! We've come a long way, baby. Anyhoo, these guys have great flow, a wicked sense of humor, and the beats on this record, courtesy of Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo, are fantastic... this one has always been my favorite...

The Goats - Hip-Hopola (ysi)

Yep, remember when rap was good? Me, too... sorta. It's a bit hazy, but I have a faint recollection. Peace.

Lemme take you to bloggerland...

That post title will make sense in a minute. Trust me. In the meantime, I got a big fat epic track for ya today...



Interfearence was a project of London-based producers Steve Tyrell and Paul Martin. Now, I'm the kind of guy who likes to write my blog myself, not just steal bios from elsewhere, but for some reason I love the write-up Tyrell has about Interfearence on his myspace...

"Interfearence are/were Paul Martin (ex Talkin' Loud A&R supremo) and myself; we made two albums (Interfearence, ffrr 1999 and Take That Train, Ubiquity 2001) which received much critical acclaim and almost no sales. Oh well, it's better to be cool and unknown than a famous sell-out, isn't it? Isn't it?! Perhaps not then. Anyway, it was always about the music and I stand by it. Our single 'All Day' was included on the 'Human Traffic' soundtrack and can be heard in the background of the film during the scene in the kitchen at the after party when they're talking about Yoda and Darth Vader. Classic. We were also responsible for the theme song and background music for the TV show CD:UK which ran for over 7 years every Saturday morning on ITV in the UK. Believe it or not, I am the voice that whispered 'C...D...U...K...'. Not so 'classic'."

I dunno, just love the Brits' way with words sometimes. Anyhoo, Interfearence really specialized in atmospheric breaks, and I've really never heard anything else in that style quite up to the level of what these guys put out. This record is one of my all-time faves and it's hard as hell to find... so enjoy!

Interfearence - Wonderland (ysi)

Essential. Yes, even despite the lyrics. Don't think I don't realize. I just don't care much about lyrical content. I'm one of those people. :P

Africa Funk Double Dip

Today, an old-school original vs. the new-school remix/remake, but we're not talking about that dreadful BBC covers compilation that just came out, so don't worry...



So this Ethiopiques series is pretty darn good if you're into the African vibe... which, as you know, I am. My favorite one of the 3 or 4 I've picked up so far is this one, dedicated almost exclusively to the music of Mulatu Astatke, who was so hood he went to Berklee. I'll bet he's stoked the Sox came back and made the World Series. Anyhoo, the sound is a groovy combo of East and West, a little bit Africa, a little bit Jazz, a little bit funk. Those are three good things to be a little bit of in my book...

Mulatu Astatke - Yegelle Tezeta (ysi)

So yeah, that's pleasant... but then a couple of years ago, some guys who call themselves Nephews of Phela decided this would be a nice track to soup up for the dance floor...



... and soup it up they did, using a lot of the original but adding on several layers of percussion, effects and a trumpet line... and this track is deadly. Possibly a wee bit long at 12 minutes, but deadly nonetheless...

Nephews Of Phela - Mulah 2 (ysi)

Now I imagine I would be a bad dirty blogger if I didn't give credit where it's due, so I must tell you I picked this track up about a year ago at the great Captain's Crate, an essential blog if you like it funky. And I know you like it funky, so don't even front. You can actually still pick up the wax at Juno if you like it waxy. And I know you like it waxy, too... pervos. :P

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquariussssss!

Funny memories of this song...



Mark Mac and Dego, aka 4Hero have been innovators in D & B and Broken Beat for a long time, but this song here is a bit different. It starts off as sounding kind of like a Zero 7 song, all downtempo and acoustic like with the female vocal harmonies, but then in the chorus turns into this over the top "Age of Aquarius" freak-out. Like, a naked hippies running through a field in sychronized dance steps kinda thing. I guess a more flattering description would be to say it's a total '70s Soul Jazz choir kinda thing, but the "Age of Aquarius" joke never got old. To wit, a friend I used to DJ with would often play this song at cocktail loungey sort of gigs and forget how big and outrageous it got, only to remember too late, as folks started to give the DJ booth strange glances once the freak-out began. And he must have done this at like 10 straight gigs. Bizarre. Don't get me wrong though, it's a hell of a nice tune... just a bit, shall we say, big...

4Hero - Les Fleurs (ysi)

See what I mean? Love it!

Some weekend preparation

It's the return of House Music Friday... because House is weekend-riffic. I love making up words. Fuck Webster's. They're just tryin' to oppress a brother's vocabulary with their "rules"...



As so many of the classic Deep House record labels have fallen off the map (Paper, Nuphonic, Guidance... the list goes on), luckily there have been new ones to take their place , and the UK's Freerange Records is easily one of the best of the newcomers. And the best place to start is with their "Colour Series" compilations. There are four of them out now, and they are all top quality. Here's a sample from the third. Now Switch are pretty well flogged in the blogs for their remix work, but not so much for their original jammies. Wassupwiddat? Tonegent to the rescue with a big, big tune right here...

Switch - Just Bounce 2 This (ysi)

I can only imagine the sigh of relief these guys will exhale, knowing that they have finally gotten this kind of exposure. I am also, of course, completely full of shit, but that's beside the point. Put it on loud, down a cocktail or two, dance around a bit, then head out and have a great weekend.

Goodbye Summer!

For post number 200 (Virgos love milestones), I have decided to inflict upon you another Tonegent original production (Virgos love self-promotion), just finished a couple of days ago... kind of a bouncy, jazzy downtempo sketch of a thing.

Tonegent - Goodbye Summer (ysi)

Please feel free to leave any comments you have on how much you love or hate it.

BTW, You might notice that little link up there that says (ysi)... that's a Yousendit link. Now, I'm quite aware that Yousendit blows because you can't hear the track before you download and it only stays up for 7 days... so don't even bother. Click the song name like usual. The other link is just there so my posts will show up on Hype Machine (hopefully). Yes, Virgos love validation, too.

Now it's Dad's turn...

Since I posted some Femi Kuti a while ago, why not some Fela?



I shouldn't need to say anything... so I won't... :P

Fela Kuti - Who No Know Go Know

Yep.

Italians do it better

So it has occured to me that I missed the big Blogger Enviromental Dip-de-doo Day yesterday... hey, I talked about hippies in my post. Hippies love that enviroment shit. So close enough.



Today's artist is no hippie, but he is Italian, which means he has some personal hygiene issues of his own. (I'm Italian so I can say that. You however... don't even try) Nicola Conte first showed up on Thievery Corporation's ESL music, but for this record, he went all the way to Blue Note so he could impress the ladies with his Jazz street cred. Chicks dig Blue Note. Anyhoo, Nicola went, as you might imagine, from more of an electronic bossa sound (on ESL? get outta here!) to a straight-ahead jazz vibe with real players (on Blue Note? get outta outta here!) and the results are quite nice...

Nicola Conte - The In-Between

Yup, ol' Nicola's up to his ears in tail these days, I assure you. I even found some live footage... that's him on guitar...



Arrivederci!

Dirty hippie music

I hope it doesn't stink of patchouli in here too much this morning...



Now, I hate hippies as much as the next guy, I promise... but despite that, here's what popped up on the shuffle this morning. Tranquility Bass was the nom de plume of one Michael Kandel, a large and well-bearded man whose album Let The Freak Flag Fly signaled both the beginning and end of the genre of Hippie-tronica. Now, as horrible as that sounds, it's an oddly compelling listen. It's very weird and psychedelic, of course, but-- you can in fact dance to it. Just do the hippie dance, ya know... spin around and shit...

Tranquility Bass - Five Miles High

Strangely good, huh? But remember... hippies are not good. Hippies are dirty and smelly and will try to sell you beads for pot money. Then they'll sell the pot for tickets to a Phish show. But then they'll sell their Phish tickets for more pot. And trade some of that pot to another hippy for beads. Hippies are a very confused bunch...

Can u dance to my beat?

Friday means it's time for some house music, and here is maybe one of my top 10 tracks of all time, courtesy of Blaze...

"As we dance to a beat that seems out of time
To the one you feel in the metronome of your mind
Does it offend you that our rhythm looks strange
Or causes you thinking to be re-arranged
Could it be that you would understand this beat to which we dance
More clearly had you been given the chance
So as you struggle to find the feel with your feet

Ask yourself…………can you dance to my beat


Watch us get down to this groove with a afro-funk feel
While we get hiiiiigh to a rhythm with spiritual appeal
Expressions of freedom from the descendants of slaves
God gives us the strength for new horizons we must breathe
First bondage than mental now financially oppressed
With this beat we dance we know we’ve passed the test
So as you struggle to catch the rhythm with your feet

Ask yourself…………can you dance to my beat


The rhythm… rhythm… rhythm… is our power section.
The freedom we feel in our soul
We dance to learn those lessons,
As our story continues to unfold
Our beats, our words our melodies, our gifts
From the givers of those gifts,
We’re merely the terminals through which they have passed
So as you struggle to catch the rhythm with your feet,

Ask yourself, can you really dance to my beat"

Blaze - My Beat (Swag's Spiritual Mix)

Have a fantastic weekend, y'all!

In which I call Jazz writers some unflattering names

A new take on an old standard today...



I guess that would be called a cover version, no? But you never hear that term used in jazz, do ya? I suspect that is because people who write about jazz tend to be a bit fancy, read: snobbish twats. It's always a "reading" or an "interpretation" or some other such foofery. Look, this isn't a freshman poetry class, it's a record, ya ponce! A cover is a cover, and today, British act Two Banks Of Four delivers a ramped up, sorta Drum & Bass cover of the famous Mongo Santamaria composition - and I felt compelled to mention that because Mongo Santamaria might be the best name ever possessed by a human being - that was made most famous by Mr. Coltrane...

Two Banks Of Four - Afro Blue

Don't have the CD with me right now, or else I'd be able to be useful and tell you who those nice vocals are by... eh, pick up a copy and find out yerself! :P

I will ruin you with a slanderous mambo!

First off, the new Radiohead is fucking amazing. They are just better at music than everybody else. So deal with it.

But I'm not gonna give that to you today, like, oh... every other blog in the known universe. But I will give you a song by someone I'm pretty sure has opened for them a few times...



... or maybe not. I'll have to verify that. Now, I'll give you that sometimes, Tito Puente's music can veer dangerously close to Ricky Ricardo territory...



Lucy! Chew gotta lotta 'splainin' to do!


... especially his excursions into Bossa Nova... not so great... But! Sometimes Tito just plain brings it with nothing but fierce percussion and blazing horn charts, and those are two things I know we can all get behind. Kinda like so...

Tito Puente - Dance of the Headhunters

Plus the guy did a cameo on The Simpsons, and that always scores you mucho bonus points in my book...





Okay, now back to that Radiohead...

Downloading = bad, natch

Short but sweet today, kinda like my laday...



I'm sure most of you need no introduction to Zero 7, unless you of course live under rocks... which seems like a silly place to live, but hey, who am I to judge? I live in a peat bog. Anyhoo, at least I can be obscure with the song choice, because that's how us cool bloggers roll. So here's an instrumental track of their very first EP...

Zero 7 - One Arm Break

Yep, the signature sound was there right from the beginning. And no, you can't find yourself a copy of this, unless...

... but downloading music is wrong, and you will be sued, even if you are dead... so don't even try and do a Google Blog search, because that would help the terrorists win and make kittens explode.

Columbus can bite me

Mondays blow. Especially fake-ass holiday Mondays that you still have to work on. Yes, non-U.S. readers, today is Columbus Day in the states, when we celebrate a dude that got lost trying to find India, but ended up discovering America totally by accident and generally ruined a bunch of Indians' days in the process... but not the Indians from India, but the Indians from America. Confusing, eh? Anyhoo, today's song has absolutely nothing to do with any of that...



... because it is some smooth, African-influenced Neo-Soul from London-by-way-of-Lagos singer Siji. And yeah, that was a terrible sentence, grammatically speaking... but reading this blog for the grammar is like reading The Anarchist Cookbook for the cupcake recipes... you're not gonna get too far. So I'll just shut up now and get to the music...

Siji - Watching You, Watching Me

Kinda like a Nigerian John Legend, eh? Maybe he should give Kanye a call... okay, maybe not.

Friday Funk

I kind of like Friday being House music day around here, so here's some hot wax straight off the 12"...



Don't know anything much about this Joey Youngman fellow, except that his name is extremely nerdy and he makes some of the nicest in-the-pocket Deep House that I've heard in a while. Check out this jammy from the Refreaked EP...

Joey Youngman - Funk 45

Yup, that's the stuff that makes you a trainspotter right there. Pick it up at Juno. It's a 4-tracker and they're all hot. Then, after you do that, have a great weekend. Peace.

Teh Sexay!

Hey all... like the sexay new look?

Back to the iTunes on shuffle today, and we get this...



Well, he certainly has a lot to live up to, what with his dad being a musical legend/borderline nutbag and all, but Femi Kuti has done all right for himself, putting out some very good albums. And he's got a couple things his dad didn't have, a Myspace page and a bangin' remix album! (Have there been any Fela remix albums? I can't say I've seen one... but Fela's music is pretty un-fuckwiddable, so it's probably no great loss) Shoki Remixed featured some heavy hitters on the versions (Ashley Beedle, Nuyorican Soul and Joe Clausell to name a few), but I think this downtempo rework by Francois K. may take the cake...

Femi Kuti - Sorry Sorry (Francois K's Old School Afro Dub)

That's almost as sexay as my new design, innit? And yes, I think I may have just torn a rotator cuff patting myself on the back. I'm like that.

The balcony is open

Since I mentioned 'em yesterday...



... , might as well give Crazy Penis (now known as Crazy P, sellouts!) some shine. These guys have been making super happy fun time house and breaks for a decade now, and even roll with a live band these days... come play in L.A. dammit! You can get the idea from the cover and title of their first album, A Nice Hot Bath With..., of the sense of humor that these guys bring to their music as well. You gotta love any song that samples Statler and Waldorf, the two grouchy hecklers in the balcony from The Muppet Show...

Crazy Penis - A Little Something

This record is unfortunately out of print, but can be purchased in digital form from the awesome Paper Recordings online shop. Go get it...

And here's a great YouTubes montage of Statler and Waldorf in action...



Sure I'm dating myself, but I grew up on that shit! Classic!

Flying Dutchmen

Some party music for ya today!



Now, I'm quite sure that the 3 Dutch producers who go by the moniker Kraak & Smaak in no way meant for their name to be some kind of thinly veiled drug reference. Because you know they don't tolerate any kind of drug use whatsoever in the Netherlands. You can't just walk down to a corner cafe and get high there-- oh, wait, never mind. But I mean, drugs and dance music... there's absolutely no-- hmm... okay, maybe they did mean it. Well, despite this fact, which I absolutely cannot believe, their debut album Boogie Angst (awesome name) is a funky good time, along the lines of Crazy Penis (even awesomer name) with their disco-influenced house and breaks. There needs to be a lot more music like this. Why? Because the girls love it, and take it from a DJ, if the girls aren't loving the music, your club will suck. It'll just be a bunch of dorky white guys nodding their heads. Sound like fun? Didn't think so. Anyhoo, here's my favorite track from the record...

Kraak & Smaak - One Of These Days (ft. U-Gene)

Makes ya wanna swang your thang, dunnit? Play for the ladies, DJs!

Death Jazz!

At least that's what the band calls it...



The band being the bunch of Japanese Jazz lunatics known as Soil & "Pimp" Sessions. These guys are nuts. They play Jazz like it's Punk Rock. I swear, if ever there were to be a mosh pit at a Jazz show, this is where it would happen. Here's one of their less crazy jams...

Soil & "Pimp" Sessions - Worldwide

... that one doesn't even have the crazy Japanese shouting over the top. But as you can hear, these guys have serious Jazz chops, and yes, they have been championed by my man-crush Gilles Peterson. There's nothing wrong with a harmless man-crush, people... nothing! Um... that is all.