You had me at boobies.

Got another good one in the inbox over at the Facebook page (the home of fine bonus content since 2012). Drum & Bass with ethereal vocals from Joanna Syze. She produces (and DJs) as well as does the singing. Nice. For one, like me, who was big into Breakbeat Era, Baxter, Olive and all that lot, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this...



The other songs are her Soundcloud are pretty impressive, too. I mean, you should hear some of the crap I get sent. This gal is legit. But I'm not gonna lie to ya... what sold me on this one was the video...



Yep. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that either. Followed, liked, blogged. Hollaaaaa!

I Won't Wait

I've been watching many of the music awards shows lately, which means I've been seeing alot of Mumford & Sons...



So here's some wicked jump-up D&B biznezz from Ed Rush & Optical, because fuck Mumford & Sons...

Ed Rush & Optical - Temper (ysi)

I came upon the realization the other night that they're the Dexy's Midnight Runners of the Whole Foods set. I kill me sometimes...

Sparse, Sporadic and Spare...

Welcome back once again to the Tonegents "Weekly MP3 If You're Lucky" Revue. Shit still be CRAAAAAAAY....



But hey, quit yer bitchin' and enjoy this classic '98 Metalheadz gear courtesy of Mr. J Majik...

J Majik - Freefall (ysi)

I HAVE however, been posting a lot of very nice things on the Facebook page lately because I'm all multi-platform and shit. So there's that. Get on it...

RIP Whitney Houston

DJ SS - Black (ysi)

"Prolific" Is His Middle Name

Okay, actually it's Francis, but that's neither here nor there...



Plug is one of the many, many, many aliases of Mr. Luke Vibert, who's probably one of the all-time greats of the Electronica game. I hear he's pretty good at the game of Yahtzee, too, but that's also neither here and nor not there as well. Or something. Anyhoo, Plug was his name of choice for the Drum & Bass bizzeats... beats that are more for the head than the ass in this case, but nevertheless quite tasty...

Plug - I Freak Techniques (ysi)

And the great part with ol' Spac Hand Luke, ol' Amen Andrews, ol' Ace Of Clubs, ol' Kerrier District, ol' Wagon Christ... um, did I forget any? Oh right, ol' Luke Vibert!... is that if you like this, you have a solid 436 other releases awaiting for your listening pleasure. Dig in...

An announcement...

I hate to say this, but the sporadic nature of posting around here is likely to continue for a while. Changes in the job situation... good ones, mind you... mean less time to fuck around making dick jokes about '60s Jazz musicians and the like. Two to three posts a week is probably what we're looking at... I'll do my best to make up for the lack of quantity with a lack of quality. Wait, I think I got that wrong. Lack of quantity, lack of quality... nope, that sounds about right...



So, this Trumystic Sound System was some sort of posse of sorts from NYC and they put together this one off compilation and I got it for 99 cents once and it was quite worth the price. It led me to buy this guy Dr. Israel's solo record which is even more highly recommended. So why didn't I post that one? ASK THE SHUFFLE!

Dr. Israel - Junglist (ysi)

They should have put out more music. Pity wasting a perfectly good name like that...

Your Thursday Blog Post

Are you bored of the Dubstep posts yet? Well, I'm not even close, so here's another one...



Today, music from Mr. Paul Rose, aka Scuba (not to be confused with King Britt, who also used that alias for remixing), who also happens to be the head honcho at the very on-the-rise Hotflush label. This is one of those tracks that rides the line between Dubstep and Drum & Bass... but who cares what you call it, other than good shit? KNAWHADDIMEANYEAH?

Scuba - Eclipse (ysi)

And since it's Margarita Thursday, I will bid you good day...

Nice tune, but enough with the "bee" puns.

Quite excited to being going to Lakers/Celtics Game 1 tonight. I'll probably even post pics from the game on my Twitter, which maybe you'd like to follow? No? Fair enough. It's mostly dick jokes anyway. And now, a song that has nothing to do with basketball...



Every now and then I feel the need to remind myself that there are actually still folks out there making Drum & Bass. Because it is still out there, but it seems like you hardly ever hear about it... after all, there are far trendier sub-genres to blog about incessantly. But it was good ol' D & B that laid the groundwork for all the 2-Step, Dubstep, Monkeystep and Caslopusstep to come, so suck on that. The track is by the The Beekeepers, aka Boca45 and Parker, repping the very spicy Jalapeno Records (home of Kraak & Smaak and All Good Funk Alliance, so you know they likes it funky) with vocals by Emskee. Sick, sick bass biznezz...

The Beekeepers - Spelling Bee (Ft. Emskee) (ysi)

Stay tuned tomorrow for my exclusive courtside interview with Jack Nicholson...

... and his sidekick, Koran Boy!

Not a ton of time today, so...



Despite what the name may suggest, Ramadanman is not a Muslim superhero, but rather a British Dubstep producer. And, um... that's your joke. Pretty shitty. But the tunes aren't! (See what I did there? Writing!)...

Ramadanman - Don't Change For Me (ysi)

Love how Dubstep is expanding and co-mingling with the Drum & Bass now... these are good days if you love beats...

Big numbers

Which number is greater... the number of "trip-hop" albums released in the late '90s or the number of hoes in different area codes on the speed dial of Tiger Woods? Well, we can't be sure just yet, but here's what we know...



There were approximately 1,462,985 "trip-hop" albums released that followed the tried and true formula of girl singer + knob twiddler(s), and this is undoubtedly one of them. About 682,254 of these albums touched on Drum & Bass vibes and this is also one of those. I guess the point is there's a lot of this stuff out there, but how much of it holds up now? Certainly not all of it, but this Baxter record still sounds pretty good. The singing girl, Nina Ramsby, also had a pretty good little Indie Rock band called Salt, and although the knob-twiddling guys don't seem to have done much past this project, they did a pretty good job of keeping it not boring (although you'll hear a verrrry noticeable section here that sounds ripped directly from Hoovercheebahead). Now, every one of these types of albums had one track on it where the knob twiddlers got to step forward and show how tough they were when they didn't have to make sissy beats for girls to sing over... here is Baxter's...

Baxter - So Much I've Heard (ysi)

So, going back to our opening questions... Tiger's only at 9 now but give it some more time...



That could only have been better if they'd hired Nate Dogg...

Blog-achella 09: New (old) Forms

Hey, look... bonus post! Like a said, there's still a few people I need to cover before the big set-time announcement happens and I tell you exactly where to be and when, so let's keep pluggin'...

Roni Size Reprazent



Who they are: Mr. Roni Size and his assorted peeps. I don't know how many of the original Reprazenters are still reprazenting, though... no idea if Krust and Die are still with him...

What they sound like: If you think that Reprazents latest release, New Forms 2, sounds a lot like their classic, masterpiece, unfuckwiddable New Forms, well... that's because it's just a new version of New Forms where they made new versions the old songs. Oh there's a new song or two on there, but we won't talk about those... Wow, that was kind of confusing to read, eh?

Roni Size Reprazent - Brown Paper Bag (2008 Re-Edit) (ysi)

What I think: Wouldn't miss it, although the new show doesn't quite seem to bring the shock & awe that Reprazent, uh... brung to Coachella the last time they played as a full band...



... but hey, you gotta get your Drum & Bass fill from somewhere, right?

Just enough time for a quickie

No time for the jibber-jabber today, so...



... enjoy this classic bit of DubReggaeJungle from the amazing first album by Bristol's Smith & Mighty, with none other than Mr. Horace Andy on the vocal... I think... I'm reasonably sure...

Smith & Mighty - Down In Rwanda (ysi)

Sorry to rush, but I gotta go...

Lotsa Dick Jokes Today

As a matter of fact I'm going to apologize for this post and recommend you don't read it right off the top... just grab the music and skip to the bottom. Seriously, it's probably for the best...



Oh well, if you insist. So it turns out that Micko Westmoreland, who recorded as The Bowling Green did soundtracks for gay porn before he put this record out... which naturally led me to come up with gay porn names for current bands. Why, with just a glance at last year's Coachella poster, I was able to come up with such gems as Man-anal Collective, Tilly & My Balls and I'm From Barcelona And I Love Big Black Cock In The Ass... aaaaaaand I'll just stop there. You're welcome. Anyhoo, this one came out on Trent Reznor's Nothing label (Nine Inch (insert word of choice for "penis" here)), and kinda sounds like the Drum & Bass stylings of Squarepusher (never mind, I'll get in too much trouble) on this one...

The Bowling Green - Think What You're Doing (ysi)

For those of you wise enough to heed my opening warning, good work. Trust me, you didn't miss anything. For the others... hey, I warned you.

In which I take an educated guess as to the cause of something you don't care about...

Tonegents: Keeping you uninformed since 2007...



Here's a track from a compilation so old it's on Moonshine Music, the L.A. label that put out pretty much every electronic music compilation ever produced in the late '90s, but isn't around any more for reasons I cannot be arsed to research for you. Maybe the rise of Astralwerks killed 'em, maybe when the European labels finally got domestic distribution so you could get the good stuff without having to shell out 30 bones for an import killed 'em, maybe the fact that seemingly every artist they tried to culivate ended up in Bad Record Contract Hell killed 'em, but whatevs. Anyhoo, this little bad boy here may actually be one of the best things they put out... at least it's one of the few that I would still bother to listen to. A fine collection of early Jungle biznezz, and although most of it is the Ragga-style stuff that was so popular in the beginning, heres a much more atmospheric track by T-Power (most recently seen heading Digital Soundboy records) that you could say pre-sages the chilled out sound soon to be made huge by people like LTJ Bukem. Yes, you could say that... I have no idea if that's actually the case, but you could say it all you like... I won't stop ya...

T-Power - The Elemental (ysi)

So those are my guesses about stuff about this track. Tonegents: Where information is king!

Bonus Post: Jesus Is My Selectah

This is just too good not to post... an extremely amusing audio/video mash-up of some wikked Drum & Bass and some insane Jesus freaks who are... um... feelin' it, to say the least...



That works on so many levels. One the one hand, it's funny as hell, on the other hand it's scary to think these people are that caught up in their ol' time relijun... and they're the ones that support McCain & Palin. And Bush for that matter. You want these people in charge? Me neither! Vote Obama!

And since I can't just post without including a tune, here's a tune. I don't have my full library at my fingertips right now, or else I'd have some of that hard techstep biznezz for ya, so you'll just have to settle for an old-school Metalheadz roller by Dillinja with a vaguely appropriate title...

Dillinja - The Angels Fell (ysi)

REWIND!

Drum 'n' Bass 'n' Balls

Every now and then, I need to go back to the Bay Area...



I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you may not be able to name this record by it's cover, so I'll let you know that it is the album Kwno by San Francisco artist and apparent dyslexic Jhno. This was one of those CDs that I picked up at a dollar sale once strictly because I thought by looking at it that it may be some sort of electronica... at a dollar sale, you don't have to be terribly picky. Hell, a good set of coasters will cost you more than four bucks. But Kwno did not get used as a coaster, because the Ambient Drum & Bass contained therein is quite nice to listen to...

Jhno - Drum And Java (ysi)

This guy is actually quite a well-known software programmer as well, responsible for Pluggo and a bunch of other VSTs I can't figure out how to use...

Oh, and remember a couple of weeks ago when I told you how I went bowling with JJ from Good Times and a bunch of midgets and you thought I was full of shit? Well, here's the proof...



... told ya. Remember, you must always believe everything I tell you...

... unless of course I'm making some shit up...

The D'n'B 3

I've been up since 4 AM, so forgive me if I ramble...



So, way back in the wee days of Drum & Bass, there were three main guys whose tunes got me into it (all courtesy of Jason Bentley), and they were LTJ Bukem, Goldie and Alex Reece. Now, Alex seemingly had the shortest run of the three, which is odd because his tunes probably had the most pronounced Pop edge. But then it was that Pop edge that seemingly led Goldie to shun Reece from his Metalheadz label, and after putting out a few records under the name "Al's Records", that was all for Mr. Reece. And then Goldie went on to shag Bjork, have a cameo in Snatch, and then become just as irrelevant himself. LTJ, of course, remains the man. The point of all of this discourse? Fucked if I know, but here's Alex Reece's best one...

Alex Reece - Feel The Sunshine (ysi)

How's that for scattered and pointless? Oh well, good tune at least...

Blog-achella 08: Bring on the fat guy!

Get ready for the fat guy, but first...

Pendulum



Who they are: Aussies (yep, them... again...) Before the first act plays, everyone at Coachella will join together and lift up their voices in a rousing version of "Waltzing Matilda".

What they sound like: Drum & Bass! It seems like every year, by rule, there is exactly one Drum & Bass act. It's like affirmative action for fading dance music genres... these guys are hard, fast, and often Heavy Metal guitar-y...

Pendulum - Slam (ysi)

What I think: As far as D&B goes, I'm sorry to say I find these guys kinda "meh". The guitars (of which there's a lot in the live clips you can see on their website) are where they lose me. That said, the video for this song is genius...



Dancing Fat Guy = Comedy Gold, every damn time.

Ya don't say!

Had a request for some more Dub-style goodness, and I aims to please... although this isn't quite traditional dub...



Actually it's more of a jazzy dub/drum & bass combo deal thingy courtesy of France's Sayag Jazz Machine. I just got hipped to these guys and they have an interesting combo of beats, live horns, turntablism and such going on. I can't find out much more though, because all the info I can find on them is in French, which is all Greek to me. (Wow, that was a bad joke even by my standards.) The record's called No Me Digas, which means "Ya don't say!". I ran the song title through Babel Fish and got "Before it does not speak", which makes not much sense. I'm all about the translations this week...

Sayag Jazz Machine - Avant Qu'elle Ne Parle (ysi)

Nice stuff. These guys are also heavy into the video element. Check out this cool-ass "trailer" for their live show.



Yep, I think I'd like to see that!

Fighting off the darkness!

I don't know about y'all, but this switch to Standard Time is messin' with my brain. It's like pitch black at 5 PM these days... which makes it feel like 10, which makes me want to go to bed way too early. Or maybe I'm just an old man... anyhoo, I think we need to fight off the lethargy with a week full of uptempo tunes, and there's no more uptempo way to start than with some Drum 'n' Bass...



I can't be arsed to look back through my old posts, so if I've mentioned this before, oh well... but I was so into Drum 'n' Bass when it all started, but then kind of let it slip by the wayside when I got all into House. Haven't really been following it too closely for a few years, but turns out there's still some really good stuff being made, and a lot of the best new D'n'B comes out on Hospital Records, a label that's been around for quite a while now and is obviously still going strong. Perhaps their biggest act, Mr. Tony Colman, aka London Elektricity is a man who you gotta love, especially for the very funny title and album cover of Power Ballads. But hey, the music is no joke (aren't I clever)...

London Elektricity - Vapour Trails (ysi)

... me likey very much. And my man Tony scores extra points for touring this album with a live band. I loves me some live band D'n'B, and as you can see from this YouTubes video, they did it right...



Give me a stand-up bass and I'm ready to rock, folks! More lively fare on the way... stay up late!