Have a favourite LP that you’re prone to wax lyrical on for hours on end regardless of whether is listening or not? Consider your prose a deft mix of Lester Bangs wylin’ out copy, Theodor Adorno’s perceptiveness and George Orwell’s preciseness? Want to see your work published by one of the leading and authoratative independent publishers in the world (and I’m not talking Bonafide here)?
If the answer is yes, keep reading.
23 years after the first London show Erick Sermon and Parish Smith, AKA EPMD, return to the Big Smoke still making dollars and having fun, as Phillip Mylnar investigates.
With a funk-saturated sound formulated way out in Long Island, EPMD took their place up front as part of hip-hop’s fabled golden era back in 1987. Now nearly three decades deep in hip-hop history, rap innovators Erick Sermon and Parish Smith look back on the game-changing night they played London’s Brixton Academy, how the business of hip-hop taught them to break-up to make-up, and the lasting lesson the legendary Run-DMC taught them about always embracing rap’s new generation.
Love how agency Weareus have treated Wiley’s Boom Blast single. Shot against strong blocks of colour with equally bold typography and utlising gym users of various shapes, the vibe is retro, detached and abstract. Something that is amplified when it cuts to Wiley’s trademark intense delivery. Following on from their work on Wiley’s Numbers In Action single and much of the DELS promo, Weareus are creating a waves in the music promo world.
The Roots
Undun
Def Jam Records
The Roots’ tenth studio album, and second since their installation as Jimmy Fallon’s house band on the Late Show, is intended to be a cinematic narrative following the life and death of the fictional Redford Stevens.
It starts securely in concept album territory with opener ‘Dun’: a flat-lining heart monitor reversing back into life and straight into the booming ‘Sleep’. It’s a tremendously confident move, one that matches the stark beginning of 2008′s Rising Down for its eschewing of bombast in favour of low-level menace. …Read More.
Hot like Pepper Sauce.
Hip-hop and food have a long, and if you excuse the pun, fruitful relationships. Highlights include the Beastie Boys Finger Lickin’ Good, Organized Confusion’s Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken, Buck 65′s Square LP (which if memory serves includes a indulgent M+S style of delivery), Cut Chemist’s and DJ Shadow’s Brainfreeze… you get the idea, the list is pretty fruity.
Arriving at an opportune time to spice up a chilly January and giving the producers of Master Chef a chance to turn up the show’s aural heat, Inja’s Pepper Sauce is a joyous, bouncing track that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Taken from his forthcoming Bass Music/Escapism LP, Pepper Sauce is fittingly produced by DJ Edsik (Allouette Street Records) who hails from the home of crack sauciers, France.
Bullion has long since been cherished for his mash up album Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee and bassy floorfiller Get Familiar. His most recent release, You Drive Me To Plastic, released by Young Turks Records, is abeautifully sewn together 21 minute piece of music consisting of nine tracks drawing from leftfield disco, krautrock, exotica and afro inspired 70’s electronics that he preferred to call a ‘non-LP’. …Read More.
Kevin Munoz’s type-led Flying Lotus limited edition screenprint is a super nice piece of design. Printed using metalic ink on black paper, it is in the Cali native’s own words, “super nerdy and way blingy.” Coming in at a mere $20 it’s as kind on your wallet as it would be to your wall.
Munoz has worked for the likes of Paul Frank and Converse and counts joker Jack Black as a fan of his Juan t-shirt. Check his artwork which has that relaxed, idiosyncratic vibe that is peculiar to Californian visual culture. His blog and bio also raise a smile.
We don’t do end of year lists at Bonafide but if we did Dimlite’s Grimm Reality would we be well up there alongside Shabazz Palaces’ Black Up, Thundercat’s The Golden Age of Apocalypse and Stepkids self-titled debut as some of the strongest releases of 2011.
Andy Spragg described Grimm Realityas “Ducking the cliché of ‘being taken on a musical journey’, Grimm Reality is more akin to going from ‘in here’ to ‘out there’, a sudden collapse of constraint into dazzling inventiveness.” …Read More.
Really enjoyed exploring the Project Thirty-Three blog produced by Jive Time Records, a Seattle-based store specializing in used vinyl.
Project Thirty-Three is an archive of vintage album covers that share the fact that they convey their message with simple shapes (circle, rectangles, squares and triangles), bold typography and concise copy. A site that showcases a genuine love for music and a treasure trove of inspiration. Well worth a look.
To tie in with this years Record Store Day on 21 April 2012, Talenthouse are holding the Secret 7 Competition.
This, not-to-be-sniffed at opportunity, requires those with creative minds and fingers to submit artwork for a 7″ piece of vinyl housing music by the likes of DJ Shadow, CSS or Bombay Bicycle Club. The created artwork needs to be based on an intrepretation of a selected track by one of these artists. If your design is chosen it will be produced in a limited run, displayed and sold – with profits going to the Teenage Cancer Trust - at Idea Generation Gallery, London. Winners will also receive a signed copy of their artwork and, of course, the kind of kudos money can’t buy.
The competition closes 15 January 2012, check the Talenthouse website for full deets.
