DJ Mitsu the Beats, Grooveman Spot, Gagle

The Gagle crew make me feel so good.
so smmmmmoooooooooothhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......

They've got a new EP out, 'Hidden Value', you can hook yourself up from the HMV Japan link. I've only heard a little bit of the tracks from their My Space page, so can't say too much about the tracks. But I'm hoping it'll be great, i've been looking forward to their new releases.

http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/2793929

But for now, from their old stuff: Mitsu's 'My lament' feat Hanif Jamiyl and Grooveman Spot on 'Benzaiten Love' feat Count Bass D. Mitsu's done a remix of 'Benzaiten Love' which is on his page too. Both versions are just as good.

Old school Garage near Edgeware Road

I was walking back from Baker street to Edgeware road last night, on the huge fly over, cars lined up in a huge traffic jam...it was really beautiful, a late summer night in london town, i heard this familiar beat pulsating out of one of the houses to my right, i turned and saw a guy mixing on a set of decks and another guy choosing records, i had just passed a student halls of residence so assumed that these guys were students jamming... i stopped and listened and it was old school garage, i couldn't believe it, turned to my right saw the cars lined up in traffic, knew that i looked damn weird loitering near these peoples houses, and ambushed their house anyway.... haha.. they were nice guys, very gracious, i said i hadn't heard old school garage from proper decks (!!!) in a long long time and if they wouldn't mind playing me a few requests, and so they did... i was so happy. they thought i was high or drunk, i wasn't, strictly sober, but high on the music, and requested my all time favourite garage producer MJ Cole, and they played me crazy love. and then kept going with another 5 or 6 tracks after that. damn, I was taken way back. I was bouncing and jumping up and down everytime they dropped a new track. heeheeee....I had to leave pretty soon after, and left feeling high. but wish i could have just stayed there the whole night. So to the cool guys near edgeware road who made my night last night, this ones dedicated to you:

I can't get the original up from you tube as the embeddings been disabled, so i'll put the link up.


MJ Cole feat Elizabeth Troy: Crazy Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFLSHQahhPE


MJ Cole feat Elizabeth Troy: Be sincere

Killarmy

I miss old hiphop, when it was pure and the beats were raw and fresh, made your heart beat crazy fast and didn't sound too clean and clinical...when the lyrics had no mention of 'women' and you wanted to understand the meaning behind every word they were sharing...

I love this track, the beat drives me insane, i didnt really wanna put the video up cause of it's affiliation to sad things, but I couldn't find it anywhere with just the track and no video, i found the remix and it's cool but i prefer the original....

I haven't been writing much cause i don't have the time at the moment and also i think, i know, i don't have the flow of these rhymesters to make my writing go the way i want it, so i think it'll be easier to post videos rather than write

i didn't go to technique in the end, something didn't feel right so i bailed, but felt real sad about it.

Killarmy: The shootout

Goldie

You gotta love Goldie... he starred in the BBC's Maetsro this year and came in second place, turning his hand from drum n bass to....
conducting classical music,.. and he looks in his element.

Goldie conducting Beethoven's Fifth Symphony



Goldie: Breakin Glass

Bus-Error, Rezo, Harddisko, Immortal Technique London Coronet 2008

I still haven't got my ticket for this show, I'm not sure what's holding me back.. partly cause i'm not sure I want to go to this on my own- which I will have to if I go- as it's an all night event and I don't know if I can handle silence for the full night, I like the silence, I welcome it, that's usually why I go on my own, but every now and again I just wanna turn to someone next to me and be like "DAmn!"

But also, last time I saw him, as hyped as I was to catch the show finally- I'd missed his first, I think, ever performance at the Shepherds Bush Empire by 1 day in 2006 and I was troubled! badly, haaha... so yeah i was real happy to see him last time, but I don't know, when I go to see true hiphop, I'm forced to listen to the words and that messes with my head a lil....So that's why I haven't.

The last show I was a bit disappointed, and I was disappointed that I was disappointed. They were late, I remember standing there thinking: how can you start a revolution if our leaders gonna be late? I was hyped the whole day...but heck I don't know the details of why they were late, maybe they went down to Edgeware road for some sheesha, felafel and homous, then I take everything I just said back... can't hate the guy for wanting to experience a bit of that magic....

so yeah... i guess i'll have decided by tonight. There was one support act. an asian boy called Sam K, who i really enjoyed, I think he's won the Jump Off battle seven times in a row, but he was the only act who got a lot of support on the night. I was pretty surprised by the love from the London crowd...

The UK crowd is pretty tough to impress. I felt pretty bad for the performers. Even when Technique was on there was a weird atmosphere. He picked up on it and made a comment... The UK crowd are just so different to the Americans and other countries. Too much arrogance, maybe a little bit of fear to just be themselves. It definitely had an effect on the performances. I hope it won't be like this tomorrow night...,does this mean I'm going?? Yikes!

I found that Japanese ryhmer who I was talking about in the two previous posts. His beats are made by a guy called Rezo, and he goes under two names Bus-Error and Harddisko. The tracks on the Harddisko page are super hot. Particularly: Skylab, Sea of Math, 93-844, Sympathizer.... that would be all the tracks on the page, heeheee...

I just love the beats, and this guys rhyming style...the calm before the storm, controlled and then this crazy high intensity fast flow. I wish I could understand what he was saying. On the Bus-Error page, I'm loving Control04 mix, Cash, September07 Demo and the beats on S X 2 and anex....


Bus-Error: http://www.myspace.com/buserror
www.bus-error.net
Harddisko: http://www.myspace.com/harddisko
Rezo: http://www.myspace.com/hassrezo

Immortal Technique: London Coronet Theatre 20th September 2008

The man is back. Twice in the space of three months and he's covering Dublin and Belfast this time round too.

"Even Aborigines in Australia bump me".....



www.myspace.com/immortaltechnique

2007: Annex, W.Mezian, MusSck, Reveal, Grimelock

it was a weird year and there were two beats that really inspired me that year. one was a by a beat maker called annex and the track was called dooms day and the other by a beat maker called w.mezian and i cant remember the title of the track. it's not on either of their myspace pages now but these two beats were pretty deep. much later that year i came across burial which probably revolutionized my outlook on so many things. i also came across a glitch hop/ electro/ IDM beat maker called MusSck. He had an amazing track called time waits for no man, which got my pulse racing. he's constantly making new music so by the time i post this he'll have taken those tracks down, haha! but i hope not, as there are two beats of his which I'm really loving at the moment: a sign of weakness and whisper louder than the shadow

his beats sound so fresh and raw to me, they can be melancholically romantic... or not... he's always working it seems, and i have to admire him for that. when i first found out about him he had put up about 15 tracks on his page for free downloading, i thought that was pretty cool...

i dont have as much time these days to find new music, as much as id love to, it can become pretty addictive and can take over my whole day, these three beat makers in particular will be very special to me as i stumbled on them acciddently. there was another japanese hiphop beatmaker i came across in that year who's beats i loved but i cant remember his name, and have no idea how to find him, i'll try my best because i loved what he was doing...

there are two more people i have to mention, one was an iranian MC called 'Reveal' from the U.K., he's Persian but rhymes in english and the other are a belgium crew called grimelock... i heard their track 'glow' and it was all over... haha... i just checked their page and that track isn't up there anymore, but anyway i love these beats, real dirty grime/deephouse/dub/underground garage...

and for Reveal... the three tracks of his i liked which are still on his myspace page: 'shotta music', 'what estate r u from', 'welcome to tha uk jam rock'...

U.K. hiphop is pretty hit and miss for me and I can probably count on one hand the number of artists I really like so I was pretty happy when i came across this guy.. the beats on these three tracks are pretty tight, i hope he makes some new stuff this year... the video below is of Reveal with Hich Kas from inside Iran.

Hich Kas feat Reveal: Tirippe ma




Annex: http://www.myspace.com/annex1
W.Mezian: http://www.myspace.com/wmezian
MusSck: http://www.myspace.com/hypnoticmelodies
Reveal: http://www.myspace.com/revealpoison
Grimelock: http://www.myspace.com/grimelock

DJ Vadim

Miss Sarah Jones:
"Because the real revolution, that's right I said the real revolution
You know I'm talking about the revolution
When it comes, it's gonna be real
It's gonna be real
It's gonna be real
When it finally comes
When it finally comes
It's gonna be real, yeah yeah"


I'm not really sure what the direction of this blog is and where it's going...the last few posts have gone into old school stuff rather than new releases and new artists, but i'm okay with that, i'm just covering stuff that i happen to be listening to on that day and feel like talking about.

I want to give as much respect to the beatmakers as the MC's and singers who usually front the tracks and DJ Vadim the Russian born beat maker has produced some hardcore and mellow beats in his time. He's based in New York, and does a lot of touring in London which is kinda unusual for an American based artist but maybe it's because he used to live in the UK before he moved out...

Two tracks of his I gotta give a mention to are 'terrorist' feat Motion Man and 'Revolution' feat Sarah Jones (her take on the classic Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised).

The first track of Vadim's I ever heard was this one with Motion Man. I was hooked. Not only the beat but Motion Man's wild, uninhibited, free, (whats the right word??) style. I don't know much about the history of this track but what made me laugh was that when I tried to find the lyrics for it, the link to his lyrics were on Salt Confidential, an independant literary publisher in the UK who are 'members of The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses which serves one of the most active segments of American arts and culture: the independent publishers of exceptional fiction, poetry and prose.'

Just so random. I'm not sure why I'm surprised by this but I am. But gotta give them props for appreciating good music and rhymes.

Also the remix of this track by DJ Kentaro is wicked too. It'll be on you tube. I would put all these tracks up, but don't want to overload the page too much.



Sarah Jones is a spoken word poet, actress and activist, and i'm not sure whether the original make of 'Revolution' was meant to be put to music or not but you can see her performing this live without the music, the videos on you tube, its powerful both ways, but it's the mellowness of the DJ Vadim beat that lends a soft tone to what she's saying.

I found an interview with Miss Sarah Jones on the BBC page where she talks about the track:

"When I first heard The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, the fist thing I thought was, 'this is a poem, but it's also a lot like hip-hop rhymes.'

'It's obviously so brimming with all of the political passion of the time - it was a kind of post-civil rights-era. I think of the Black Panthers and all of the student organising movements, and all the people who were talking about civil rights and what was going on in the urban landscape in America.

Gil was saying we need to not accept the status quo: the revolution that everyone's talking about can't be co-opted, it can't be bought.

There's a lot of repetition in the song of this kind of concept - the revolution will not be televised - which is, by itself, a really unique phrase.

It's not just something that you hear and throw away, or that you listen to just because it's catchy.

There's a lot of meaning in that - the revolution is something real, in which we're all going to have to participate in.

So when I wrote my version, my tribute, I really had in mind the repetition of this idea. It's a potent idea - you want people to hear it. It bears repeating."




DJ Vadim: www.djvadim.com
www.myspace.com/djvadim
Motion Man: www.myspace.com/motionman
Sarah Jones: http://www.sarahjonesonline.com/

J Dilla Rest In Peace

Huge respect and admiration for this mans work and his passion for his music. He should have had the time on this earth to do so much more. One of the best producers and king of the beats. His track with his crew Slum Village 'Reunion' is an all time favourite and I also wanted to put a track that he performed on solely on his own. His younger brother Illa J plays him in this video for 'Won't do'. Jay Dee's body of work is extensive and it would take a few days to go through all of it.







J Dilla aka Jay Dee: http://www.myspace.com/jdilla

Grooveman Spot aka DJ Kou-G- Who's This (feat. Invincible)

Grooveman spot, a Japanese d.j/producer from the Jazzy Sport collective producing Jazzy soulful beats out of Japan and this fly MC called invincible. She's got a really good style and her lyrics are on point...

Jazzy Sport have been around a while now and are producing so much good music, the crew is made up of a seriously talented bunch of producers and d.j.s who work together and do their own individual thing, i'd love to see them live, there's so much more to say about them.... but for now:



Grooveman Spot: http://www.myspace.com/groovemanspotakadjkoug
Invincible: http://www.myspace.com/invincilana

Gomez

On Monday I was offered a free ticket to go and see Gomez. I'd been tired that week, really didn't have the energy to be standing up after work to watch a concert for a crew who's music I had no idea about, vaguely knew their name, but really with no knowledge of their work. Then I realised my madness, i love live music, regardless of what it is. i asked my friend where it was gonna be held and he said kentish town forum. i started laughing, hahaaahaaaa....fate was running up and punching me in the face. i work close to kentish town. it was meant to be. i said yes without skipping a beat. listened to a few of their tracks that wednesday morning on youtube- that man's voice!!- was getting a little excited, rocked up to work, told one of my colleagues about it, he couldn't stop talking about them, told me i was very lucky and to run with the ticket. this guy knows his music so by that point i was super hyped, he told me they were probably gonna play all the tracks off their first album 'Bring it on' , which was the album that had really put them on the map, released in 1998.

I had no expectations, was hoping i would just get a chance to listen to music i don't usually listen to and hear beautiful live music. we were the first few in the queue and they let us in pretty soon after, the crowd in the queue were super chill.

it has to have been one of the best concerts i've been to this year after saul williams at scala.... not only the music and the singing and the drummer, but the crowd!!! super super chill, no aggression, peaceful vibes, happy people, showing so much love to these performers, just like the crowd at saul williams...

i need to find out more about these guys but as far as i know they're from the UK, but they don't have a british feel to them, i can't even describe their music, in one single track the music veers off into other things, as if there's three tracks playing in one track, i thought it was pretty damn cool that three of the group sang, it wasn't just the 'gargel with gravel' voiced singer....

i couldn't stop smiling on my way home, what a night, and to think, to think i was gonna say no to that ticket....

Gomez: Tijuana Lady

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLB_whrVRA0&feature=related