Ever since since I clapped my eyes’ on Eric Colman’s and Jeff Jank’s Blue Note riffing cover for MED’s Classic LP I’ve been wanting to know more. When I peeped lead single Blaxican it was obvious that this was a piece of work pitching to be classic in a holistic sense.
With the album just released MED (aka Medaphoar) took five to extol the virtues of the Classic things in his life. …Read More.
PUTTING IN ‘WERK
When hip-hop’s beats became untethered from the vocals in 1996, few could have predicted the implications. It levelled the playing field for producers from all over the world to concentrate on sonic rather than geographical landscapes. Beats became dislocated from the semantics of words and formed a new language as producers from Tokyo to Leeds set about crafting beats on MPCs and SPs or using their parents’ computers. Nowadays, a neck-snapper is as likely to come from Singapore or Melbourne as it is from one of the five boroughs. Freeing the producer from beats that work for MCs has also let it incorporate more disparate influences and evolve more quickly. …Read More.
News has recently been broken of an EP-length collaboration between Madlib and Freddie Gibbs. Still untitled, it will consist of six tracks, Thuggin’ and Deep being two, and be released through Madlib’s Madlib Invazion label at the start of 2012.
…Read More.
Stay+ are something of an enigma, and by all accounts they’re very keen to keep it that way, adopting a meme like course of action to do so…
Here’s what little we do know about the collective; this summer they were forced to change their name from the ludicrously funny Christian AIDS after the charity name-sake issued them with a rather uncharitable ‘trademark infringement notice’, they come from Manchester and released only their second physical release this week, the bewitching Fever, via a 12″ on Ramp. …Read More.
BLU – DOINNOTHIN’ FT. UGOD (PRODUCED BY FLYING LOTUS) from david m. helman on Vimeo.
Blu’s Doinnothin‘ is already a hypnotic beast of a track but David M. Helman and RUFFMERCY, with their graphic freshness (think Blue Note for the beat generation), have only gone and made the track even more of a cranium wrecker. Like a nekkid Alexa Chung rocking just a pair of Nike Vandals, this is some freaky sheeet!
The easy-on-the-eye artwork motivated me to give this new mini-mix by Manchester’s Mecca:83 a spin. A preview for his forthcoming Life Sketches Vol 1 and 2, this tasty piece of work showcases Mecca’s adroit ability to mix tasteful tunes. Listening to this took me back to Manchester’s own Golden Era of Fat City and Grand Central. Good times.
London based promoters Sound Crash have been pulling out all the stops with recent sell out shows including Flying Lotus, DOOM X Ghostface at the Roundhouse and next week’s screening of Beats Rhymes and Life, Michael Rapaport’s candid documentary on the legendary A Tribe Called Quest, followed by a performance from Phife Dawg (there are still a few tickets for the show at Cargo on Tuesday).
This Saturday night features a cast closer to home with a label takeover by our friends from the south, Tru Thoughts, pitching up at Koko. …Read More.
Love this new skit by the Modern Toss team for Channel 4′s Comedy Blaps series. A genetically enhanced, bastard child of Danger Mouse and Lord Alan Sugar that’s received a blood transfusion from Bob Hoskins (in The Long Good Friday mode) and Scarface, Business Mouse is not interested in type of cheese most mice get excited about and has business skills best described as lacking (m)nouse. “Show me the money!”
Ben Drury, legendary go-to man for anyone wanting street influenced graphic design that drips with innovation and freshness, has broken cover from his esoteric and sometime plain unfathomable The Silent Listener (or the Violent Whistler as it is now called) website and launched a more commercially minded space to showcase his far reaching and influential talents.
The new site show’s off everything from his record covers, promo direction and love of handcrafted typography. An inspiring insight into the work of a man best summed up as a ‘designers designer’.
“I started Feal Mor because I wanted to make a few sweaters and pea coats that existed only in my head.”
Good job JP Plunier did because Feal Mor make some high-quality kit. Checkout the shop for a mixture of Feal Mor produce, one-off vintage military pieces and a few interesting odds and ends. A curated shopping experience. As they say in the fashion press.
