This Is Book’s Music

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it over and over, Blueprint is an MC who is still cinematic like Jet Li, and that was said from Printmatic himself.

As the man is about to hit the road with Atmosphere and release an all new set of music, Blueprint has put together a compilation that gathers what he feels is some of his best material in an album simply titled The Best Of Blueprint. He’s making it available for free, which you can download by right clicking this link (85.31mb).

If you’re finding it hard to wait for his next proper album, don’t worry. It will be titled Adventures in Counter-Culture and will be released through Rhymesayers. If you want to catch him on tour opening for Atmosphere, click here for tour dates to see when he’ll be dropping rhymes near you.

When Atmosphere goes on tour, they create music that you can purchase only at tour stops, and the group will be releasing two EP’s, To All My Friends and Blood Makes The Blade Holy. The To All My Friends tour will feature Blueprint, Grieves, Budo, and DJ Rare Groove, and will begin next week:

09.08 – Madison, WI @ Orpheum Theatre
09.09 – Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee Riverside Theater
09.10 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
09.11 – Covington, KY @ Madison Theater
09.12 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection
09.15 – Bozeman, MT @ Gallatin Co. Fairgrounds
09.16 – Missoula, MT @ Wilma Theater
09.17 – Missoula, MT @ Wilma Theater
09.18 – Spokane, WA @ The Knitting Factory
09.20 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
09.21 – Bend, OR @ Midtown
09.22 – Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theater
09.24 – Chico, CA @ Senator Theater
09.25 – Reno, NV @ Knitting Factory
09.27 – Arcata, CA @ Arcata Center
09.28 – Sacramento, CA @ Sacramento State University
09.29 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
10.01 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
10.02 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
10.04 – Rapid City, SD @ Dublin Square
10.05 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Sioux Empire Fair Expo Hall
10.06 – Des Moines, IA @ People’s Court
10.07 – Chicago, IL @ Congress Theater

Until then, here’s a brand new Atmosphere track, “Freefalling”, that you can download for free. Dig In (5.73mb).

Jamiroquai – White Knuckle Ride by Some Kind of Awesome

I had known of Jamiroquai in the early 90′s but really didn’t get into them until 1995, when they released “Space Cowboy”. When they were set on the speed of cheeba, I fell in love with what Jay Kay and friends were all about. The band have returned with what will be their eighth album, Rock Dust Light Star (due out in November), and you can listen to a preview of what’s to come with this free MP3 download, or stream by clicking the player above.

While he has been concentrating on a Hollywood career in recent years, with appearances in CSI:NY, Nelly is still doing his thing in the music business, in fact he has a new album due out very soon. This is a taste of it, in the form of “Tippin’ In Da Club”. Click here (4.71mb) for a listen.

Response song, “Tippin’ At Da Farm (Country Grammar Part II: Sip The Teets)”, is inevitable.

This was sent to me before the end of July, but have been spacing off as of late because of my book project and other non-important things, so I apologize for the delay in getting this on here. King Megatrip has posted his July 2010 installment of his series of mixes, A Year In The Soul Society. This one is focused on the sounds of Jamaica, which is always a plus in my book, so click the link below to find a track listing and link to download.
http://www.bmbx.org/2010/07/a-year-in-the-soul-society-07/

Even with the brand new release of Cut Chemist‘s Sound Of The Police (review forthcoming), he has come out with an all new morsel of audio goodness, this time touching on the sounds of disco. It seems with each passing generation, more are appreciating disco for what it was or is, since its spirit still lives on in a good amount (keyword “good”) of today’s dance sounds. Cut Chemist goes exploring in this mix which you can find by clicking to Cinespia.com. I also highly recommend the mixes by Dante Carfagna, Dâm-Funk and Peanut Butter Wolf, Carlos Niño and Nobody, although each of the mixes on the page are free, so no excuse but to download, listen, and enjoy.

21 years ago, De La Soul were originally a mere three feet high, but rising. Once they reached Mars, they told everyone “get on my level”. 21 years later, someone has finally taken the challenge.

30,000 Ft. High & Rising is a new mixtape-type situation by St. Joe Louis and as you can see by the cover, they’re away from Earth and headed to Mars. You can find out more about this album, and the link to download it, by heading to RefinedHype.com.

Scholar Man made this link available in a recent Tweet and I had to pass this along. It comes from today’s Washington Post in an article written by Monica Heese about a new phenomenon… well, a mini-phenomenon that will no doubt move a generation of youth to overdose on this “drug”. But it’s not a drug, but rather sound. Click the video.

The claim is that if you download audio and specific software from i-doser.com, you are able to have “binaural brain doses”. Unfortunately, it’s similar to Kanye West speeding up songs and making it into a brand new production technique. Truth is, speeding up sound to create “chipmunk funk” isn’t a technique, it goes back to the days when everyone had records and we wanted to play it from 33 to 45 or 78. As for this “audio high”, it’s nothing more than creating music in a fashion that sounds like it will take you on a mental trip, but it’s really a mixture of production techniques that have been done since the dawn of stereophonic audio.

Which leads me to this. Does this mean if today’s kids want an old school guy, they will raid thrift stores and find old stereo bongo albums from 1961? Or even better, will they discover the joys of quadraphonic or 5.1 surround sound and have audio orgies? Will people go to The Last Airbender with blindfolds, and just simply trip out on the sound? Think of the possibilities. Maybe this is the hook surround sound fans have been waiting for. Oh, if Frank Zappa lived long enough to see this.

i-dosing. Remember friends, if you don’t want to go overboard with your music, just take half a tab, or in this case, an 8-bit mono MP3 at 96kbps, thank you.

Looking at the cover makes me wish this was on vinyl, but it’s not. It’s a free MP3 download by DJ Dmadness mixing up tracks by Cee-Lo Green of Goodie Mob/Gnarls Barkley fame. Head to GoldenSoundscapes.com and get the link there.

(Link courtesy of DJ Zita.)

Lo-fi is the now-fi, which absolutely makes no sense until you see the video, which will lead you to say “what’s a now-fi?” In other words, lo-fi/low-budget is now the cool thing to do after years of seeing videos that were too professional looking, there are no rules. Quadron understand this and go out of their way to make “Slippin’” into something that isn’t slipping by any means.

Seattle’s KEXP 90.3 had Quadron do a live performance on the air on June 15th, and you can take a listen to their set in full (23.3mb), or stream the songs individually.