Okie dokie, it's my blog on the interwebs

And now for something completely different...



... because goin' from salsa to techno is how I roll, suckaz!!! Ya know, I might get more readers if I just decided with one direction for the ol' blog musically, but screw that... because all kinds of music rule... even country... sometimes... sorta...

... anyhoo, The Orb hold several special places in my memory... from seeing them live at the best electronic show that's ever taken place on American soil (hint: 1996, Snow Valley Ski Resort, an event called Organic... look it up and cry for three days because you weren't there)... to the fact that I got my first date with my awesome girlfriend when I sent her a text from an Orb show at the Disney Concert Hall in L.A. (at like 5 A.M. whilst rolling balls... hey, it worked... who knew?). So yeah, Dr. Alex and his rotating band of cronies are among my all-time favorites. And their most recent record here definitely gets the cliched "return to form" tag. Best thing they've put out in years. Apparently Thomas Fehlmann was able to stop Alex from crawling too far up his own arse and the sounds hark back to the first couple Orb albums when the beats were of the straight-forward, kinda bumpin' variety... you know, the best ones!

The Orb - Ripples

And that is chock full of Orb-y Goodness right there. Groovy...

That salsa's made in New York City?!?!?

Remember those commercials? You know, for the cheapest, lamest salsa ever? Pace was crap! At least that's how I remember it... and therefore it is truth. But today's blog is not about the food salsa, but the music salsa, which they make very well in New York...

... and with that I dare... DARE... any blogger to come up with a worse segue! Double dog dare! Cuz' it can't be done...



Now, I can't claim to be an expert on the Salsa, but I sure does like it. A lot. I even took a Salsa dancing lesson one time... it was pretty fun, but damn, if they didn't go fast. In like 20 minutes they were expecting us to have this whole ridiculously long string of moves put together... apparently they didn't realize that I was white... anyhoo, here's an excellent Salsa jammy by one of the masters, Mr. Eddie Palmieri, straight-up Nuyorican style! It starts off a bit low-key, and just kind of keeps picking up intensity in the vocal harmonies and horn charts and ya know, I just can't get enough of this shit...

Eddie Palmieri - Lindo Yambu

This particular compilation is out of print, but it can be found... somewhere... ;)

So where's George and Brad?

Nowhere! And the Julia Roberts bit at the end of "Ocean's Twelve" was bloody horrible, guys, seriously... I'm almost holding out on seeing the new one because of it, that's how shit it was... what's this have to do with anything?



Here's what! I'm sure that most people, a.k.a. people who aren't hip enough to be down with the good music, a.k.a. folks who don't frequent the music blogs, a.k.a. boring people... may have heard of David Holmes only because of his work doing the scores for the "Ocean's 11/12/13" movies for his buddy Soderbergh (did I spell that right? ah, who gives a shit :P ). But we, the not-at-all-boring people, know that he's a much more accomplished dude than that, and we pat ourselves on the back for having such knowledge! Ha! But really, though, dude's been putting out fantastic music for the last decade, and here's a cut from "Bow Down To The Exit Sign", which is, um... one of his albums... featuring vocals from Martina Topley-Bird, who I'm sure if one more blogger refers to as "the girl who was on the Tricky albums" is going to cut someone with a big, sharp, serrated knife...

David Holmes - Outrun

Actually, I'm just informed that the Chinese acrobat guy played triangle on this song, so there's another connection...

"Smooth Jazz" can be cool! No, really! It can!

A seriously bad album cover for the first Monday of Summer...



... but a seriously good tune. Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard supposedly did a whole bunch of versions of the tune "Little Sunflower"... I've only heard a couple of 'em, but I'm sure there ain't a version out there that can top this one with Mr. Velvet-Voice-Sweet-Singin'-Brotha Al Jarreau on the vocals. Sure, I suppose you can call it "smooth jazz", but it's not nearly anywhere as wussy as that label implies. It's got an warm, soulful, latin vibe to it and it will sexy up any elevator just fine, you mark my word...

Freddie Hubbard w/ All Jarreau - Little Sunflower

Aww yeah... I don't care if they play it on the WAVE, it works for me! You might have noticed those strings at the beginning that have been sampled many times... see, it's been sampled! It can't be "smooth jazz" if it's been sampled, right?!?! This has got street cred, yo!

:P

2X Kwel-ity

A bit of a break in form today, but hey, variety blah blah, spice of life blah blah blah whatever...



So Talib Kweli has got a new one coming out, but that would be so cliche of me to post something from that, and trust me, the blog-o-sphere has got that one covered quite well... Nope, instead I'm going to give you my two favorite Kweli joints, two of my favorite hip-hop singles of the Oughts, if you must know...

Talib Kweli - I Try (ft. Mary J. Blige)

Talib Kweli - Get By

And thus ends another week. Seems I'm gonna have a little more free time in the near future, so I promise I'll make the posts a little more interesting starting next week. Peace, and have a great one!

So sophisticated...

Time for a change of pace today...



So, this one is pretty obscure here. Can't even tell you much of anything about it, except that it is some nice mellow Bossa Jazz I scored from Loronix, a site I don't think I have to tell you about again for the 100th time! Piano, bass, drums... smooth as silk. Play it at your next dinner party instead of that damn Hotel Costes CD all of your friends are sick of already :P

Le Trio Camara - Nascente

Love that cover, too... looks like those dudes are having some kind of Super Vulcan Bossa Nova Mind Meld action goin' on, eh? Or something...

"It's got some Labrador in it, too"

We just can't stay away from Ninja Tune for long around here, can we?



And today we have maybe my favorite of all the ninjas, Up, Bustle And Out, and their 3rd album, Light 'Em Up, Blow 'Em Out. These dudes kinda jump all around in style... Latin vibes, Asian vibes, Hip-Hop vibes... but it's all held together by funky beats. And that's really all ya really need, right? Well that and a million dollars. And some pizza. And Jessica Biel's phone number... anyhoo...

Up, Bustle & Out - Clandestine Operation

They definitely earn bonus points for using a Cheech & Chong sample. And if you don't think that let's me segue into some YouTube goodness, well... you must be new around here ;)



His name is "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaalph"... classic!

The knights who say "Wheeee!"

Let's hear from some House music masters...



The two dudes who make up Inland Knights must not get alot of sleep. Because all they do is put out house records. Record after record after record and wouldn't you know every single dang one of them just bumps. Yeah, one could say that they are a bit formulaic, fat 4/4 beat + bouncy bass line + catchy synth hook + clever sample = an Inland Knights record... but every beat is fat, every bassline bounces, the hooks are catchy as hell and damn do they have an ear for samples. You could play a whole set of nothing but their records and people would go off... trust me, I've more or less done it! They are just plain good at house music, and that's all there is to that. So here's the A side of one of their 50,000 (give or take) 12" releases...

Inland Knights - Find Yourself

Yup, these guys don't just know how to find the pocket, they live there... right next to the keys, the lint, and the crumpled up Del Taco receipt. Mmm... Del Scorcho sauce... droooool...

Are you aurally excited? Well, you should be.

You've never heard of him, but you've certainly heard his music...



Does the name Itaal Shur ring a bell? Probably not, eh? But this guy is one of the dopest songwriters of the last, oh, ten years or so. He was a founding member of Groove Collective, he co-wrote Maxwell's classic jam "Ascension" and Santana's "Smooth" (you know, the one with Rob Thomas... I know you're sick of hearing it 12 million times, but it's a good song!) for which he won a Song of the Year Grammy (yeah, yeah, the Grammys are bullshit and all that, but put down the Haterade) and a bunch of other tunes you have heard on your radio box. But he doesn't just write songs for other folks. Back a few years ago, he released his first solo album, Music From The Aural Exciter, under the name Big Muff... an essential dance record of the 90s. Not just a collection of danceable grooves, but a perfect example of superior songwriting steez brought to the world of electronica. That album spawned a remix collection as well, which is our featured record today. Here, UK downtempo/D&B supa-stars Smith & Mighty take one of Music...'s best songs and strip down the original's jazzy, organic vibes into more of a down and dirty groover for the head-noddin' crowd. But even so, the great melodies still shine through...

Big Muff - Feel What You Know (Smith & Mighty Remix)

That's a nice way to start the week off... after a weekend spent cruisin' the beach in my pimpin' new ride... that's how we roll in the MDR, baby!

Fly the funky skies

Let's end the week with a heavy hitter...



I really hate the term Acid Jazz, but this record falls squarely in the middle of said movement of the early 90s, although it's more in line soundwise with what the kids are calling Nu Jazz now... meaning it's not quite so dang cheesy. But whatever you call it, the Japanese crew United Future Organization are one of it's finest practitioners. And they're not even all kooky and weird like most Japanese artists. And I'll bet not one of their members has ever peed on anyone on a Japanese game show... Nope, all they do is make great dancefloor music, and this is one of their funkiest tracks ever, putting some Latin Piano riffing and scat singing over a tough little breakbeat... I love this track...

United Future Organization - United Future Airlines

If you can hunt down the CD maxi-single of this, it has some great remixes... but that shit is way out of print, super rare and commanding mucho dinero, so good luck with that ;)

And do you believe it's already time again to say "have a great weekend"? Well, it is. So do it, dammit!

Peace.