“Many styles of music have made deep impressions on me,” says Oz producer Katalyst with a cavalier disregard for labouring a metaphor as he discusses his latest LP Deep Impressions which sports an image of a ‘deep impression’ in the form of what seems to be a meteor crater on its cover. Presumably, also, his intention was that this LP would make a ‘deep impression’ on
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Monthly Archives: October 2011
KATALYST: Deep Impressions (2011) + tracklist
PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS: Highlighter (2011)
Highlighter is People Under The Stairs’ eighth album in fourteen odd years which is going some, so they must be doing something right. For this career landmark they roped in busloads of L.A. session musicians to help out and they’re also possibly the first band to release an LP not only on vinyl (hurrah!) and cd (boo!) but 24 bit HD-AAC format (!) as well. In case you’re worried that such a forward thinking grasping of twenty-first century
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THE ONE & NINES: Tell Me/ Make It Easy (2011)
Here’s a sweet original rnb-styled 45 from New Jersey band The One & Nines that might be of interest to anyone who caught The Excitements self-titled release earlier in the year. And if you like G Love & Special Sauce too you’ll shit when you hear the A side. Guitarist Jeff Marino’s G-style vocals aside, the uptempo Tell Me also features some nifty James Burton style fretwork and a horn section. Nuff said
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OL’ DIRTY BASTARD: Return To The 36 Chambers (Deluxe Version) (2011) + tracklist
ODB’s magnum opus Return To The 36 Chambers gets a re-release on the self-proclaimed ‘world’s finest online music boutique’ label Get On Down Records in deluxe, collectable, free-gift ago-go format along the lines of this imprint’s previous Arthur Russell/ Dinosaur L drop. Where the latter was all about the limited edition screen prints, among the extras on offer here are a billfold wallet, for when you ‘got your money’
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DEEP STREET SOUL: ‘Look Out, Watch Out’ LP (2011) + tracklist + EPK video
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Look Out, Watch Out is the second LP from Oz band Deep Street Soul and – well – it’s pretty much the main shit when it comes to twenty-first century funk with the dirty soul of sixties grooves. It’s all about the grit see? And just as with the raw original rnb and northern soul of The Excitements LP in the spring and the chunky grooves of T Bird & The Breaks’ second album
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WACK 12: S.M.O.V. & Umbo/ S.M.O.V. & Suonho (2011)
Honestly – you wait ages for one and then two come at once – but that’s all that’s bus-like about Wack releases and this is no exception as Smoove follows the disco-themed Wack 11 with a tight jazz breaks/ ‘northern jazz’ type affair. Cumin Home sees Smoove’s alter ego S.M.O.V. assist rising Euro producer Umbo in providing a breakbeat rinsing to none other than ‘The Velvet Fog’, Mel Torme himself
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EVIDENCE: It Wasn’t Me (2011) video + ‘Cats & Dogs’ LP audio
Dilated Peoples’ rapper Evidence releases the video to It Wasn’t Me from his just released and long-awaited Cats And Dogs LP and as you might expect the lyrics find him engaged in some extended denial of responsibility. Texting other women besides the one he’s seeing? Tagging some building? Making slightly watered down versions of the sort of hip-hop he was doing ten years ago. He denies it all – oh wait – not the last one
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LOOPEZ & RENEGADES OF JAZZ: Jungle Haze EP (2011)
Jungle Haze? Yeah, I know all about that. I was in Sri Lanka once living on the beach by the jungle and the only haze there was the permanent cloud of pungent smoke outside the rooms of a group of Israeli surfers. And not even a strong onshore wind could shift that. Also permanent was the music that accompanied their smoking. It was mostly Bob Marley or Slightly Stoopid admittedly but if they’d heard this – they’d have been on it
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FREQNIK & WDRE: Gang Starr Mash Appeal Hip Hop Jazz Mix feat. Fishbelly Black (2011) – Free download
Mash Appeal? Yep. Nothing to do with pureed potato or a Korean War-based US sitcom charity effort and everything to do with the welding of the work of jazzbo Fishbelly Black and the late, great Guru of Gang Starr by NYC production team Freqnik and WDRE. Everyone knows the other half of Gang Starr, DJ Premier is a legendary beatsmith but I’m fairly confident he would approve of this. As for Guru there’s no question
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UGLY DUCKLING: Moving At Breakneck Speed (2011)
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Proof once again that three is the magic number as Long Beach trio Ugly Duckling return with their fifth studio album Moving At Breakneck Speed. In their eighteen-or-so year career Andy C, Dizzy Dustin and Young Einstein have outlasted peers like Jurassic 5 and latterly maintained a higher worldwide profile than other West Coast underground acts they came up with like
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