This Is Book’s Music

You may be hearing a bit from Fatima this year, especially with a new EP called Mindtravelin’ just released by Eglo Records. The EP features tracks produced by DâM-FunK, VeeBeeO, and FunkinEven, and should already be making an impact on dancefloors right now.

| |

The Seven Fields Of Aphelion had been known as a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow, playing keyboards. Branching out to explore her own unique worlds, she released her debut solo album called Periphery (Graveface). To me, it’s a dreamy album that doesn’t have that fierce intensity of the BMSR material, but if you’re a fan of Pink Floyd but alwyas wanted to hear Richard Wright’s songs, which moved you to explore his own solo albums, you can explore The Seven Fields of Aphelion’s work in the same manner. It has already become one of my favorite albums of 2010 so far.

A video has been made for “Michigan Icarus”, which has the same feeling as her photographs which she has featured on her Etsy page (those who purchase the vinyl version of the album also receive a random print of one of her photos.) If you haven’t been moved to hear The Seven Fields Of Aphelion, check out the video, then buy the album.

The Seven Fields of Aphelion ‘Michigan Icarus’ from graveface records on Vimeo.

Pressing start, “First Call” is the opening track to Ship Of Light by Husky Rescue and I’m getting ready for what I’m assuming would be a nice electronic masterpiece. Not even a minute over and it moves to song #2. Did I only get snippets for this album? No, for “Sound Of Love” is 4:14 in length. Now there’s vocals. It’s pretty pop, but what happened to what could have been something mindblowing. “First Call” is only an intro? That’s too bad.

Next song: “Fast Last”. Great intro, but then the beat and vocals kick in. Next.

“Wolf Trap Motel”, now this could be something cool, love the gentleness of the guitar, the bass, the beat that comes off like a heartbeat. I can relax to… nope, here’s the vocals.

Okay, vocalist Reeta-Leena Korhola has a great voice, a delicate whisper that reminds me of Leigh Nash and Miki Berenyi a bit. I also love the band and what they’re capable of doing. Yet somehow I’m wanting to hear either more of Korhola without the band, or Husky Rescue without her. Is that odd? I think the production side of my mind wishes these guys could embellish on the good parts that are cut short by Korhola’s vocals. The vocal side of my mind wants to hear her in a different context.

Following the release of Deru’s album Say Goodbye To Useless, he has released “Peanut Butter & Patience” (Mush) as a single, and the remixes on it are definitely worth buying and hearing.

The Lorn Remix kind of has it jumping into Depeche Mode/early Yaz territory, but with much more punch to the drums. If you don’t stay on track, you may catch yourself off of the beat. The Great Mundane Mix is indeed the former but far from the latter, and sounds like something Andre 3000 would probably find pleasure in rhyming over with that type of gallop funk he seems to love. Wrapping up with the Ginormous Mix, the breathy textures could help it become a part of a few episodes of CSIL NY.

Deru – Peanut Butter & Patience from Mush Records on Vimeo.

Madlib is at it again, and I’m not just talking with a new release. In a month, the man has released four albums. It’s like those old U.S. Army commercials where the voice-over stated that the people who enlist will do more before 9am than what most people do all day. What he has done, even in a year’s time, is more than a lot of artists have done in ten years. Granted, Madlib may not have the celebrated hits, and he may not have created the kind of earworms Hollywood tends to want to sponge out of anyone and everyone who is willing to spread their buttchecks, but what Madlib has is class, style, substance, and let’s be honest, a true “I-don’t-give-a-fuck” attitude that isn’t only an attribute to stoners, but a hip-hop attribute that has since been placed in storage.

Credited to the Young Jazz Rebels, Slave Riot (Stones Throw) is being pushed as a “free jazz” album. Anyone who has listened to the many projects he has released under the Yesterdays New Quintet/Yesterdays Universe umbrella knows that anything and everything can happen at any given time. Sometimes the “group” will get locked into a funk and it sounds brutal, rural, and incredible, and as they make their way towards the next song, they’re searching one another to find a common consciousness. With the Young Jazz Rebels, it’s about the search, you hear the examination of each others need to create and make sounds. The craft behind this album sounds as if someone brought Art Blakey, Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, John Gilmore, Lester Bowie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Derf Reklaw, and Miroslav Vitous into the studio, and said “let’s play until the 25 foot candle melts into the ground.

Within that process are songs, suites, mini-suites, everything is somehow linked together be it musically, sonically,and if you think deep enough, physically. Percussion instruments rattle off as if they are chains from distant ships long forgotten by some, but are always a means of resistance and tolerance for many. Some sounds come off as things fading away into the ocean, while others is the pain and frustration of making it in the concrete jungle, especially in tracks like “Hate/Love”, “The Sun”, and “The Legend Of Mankind”. Out of the blue (black), a human sensibility (i.e. melody) comes in within “Newear” and changes the soundscape all together. Things become musical, only for it to melt and dissolve into that ocean with unknown entities sinking slowly as it extends its hand, trying to survive or at least make it up for air once again.

To make that a bit more palpable, imagine all of the dramatic freak-outs one may hear on an albums mentioned in this interview. Introductions and interludes that help develop or lead the way towards the song. This is what the Young Jazz Rebels are about, freaks that are about the satisfaction of creating psychedelic moments that may or may not be influenced by hallucinogens. Maybe it’s natural, maybe it’s substantial, no one knows.

To bring things down to Earth, Madlib has definitely blurred the thin line between what may be real instrumentation and what could be samples from his record collection. When he moves towards this direction, he’s very much like Jan Jelinek where he’s making music out of the non-musical, or elements that are often discarded as just noise are turned into something very exciting. If you enjoyed what Monk Hughes & The Outer Realm did on their fantastic A Tribute To Brother Weldon, Slave Riot is not too far from that where songs, sounds, and stories bathe with each other as if Madlib is the pimp and the members of the “group” are his realized fantasies. It’s very orgiastic, and that’s the fun, to be a spectator and either go “this is fucking brilliant” or “I don’t know what the hell this is, but it’s definitely something I have to listen to again.” Will you find the next generation of breaks here, perhaps not. Will you find enough information worthy enough to sample, sure, but it’s the realization that Madlib is a producer who not only creates sample-based producer, but is also adding to the sample library not only for more adventurous producers, but himself. It’s as eclectic as Pink Floyd when they create music for art-house music, but it’s as Afrocentric as he makes it out to be, as if he’s calling back to those who came before him to continue the link between self and origin. This is the sound of hundreds of years of pain and suffering resurfacing and making itself known in a modern context, a Slave Riot if you will, an extension of Sly Stone’s There’s A Riot Going On. Judging from the sounds here, the riot never ended.

It is also possible that the Young Jazz Rebels is music from the mind of someone whose attitude is simply about placing himself into his music, removing the consequences some will place on music like this, created by sound enthusiasts like him.

(Slave Riot will be released on April 6th, but can be pre-ordered from Stones Throw through the appropriate formats listed below with each icon.)
| |

EMEK has returned to do the artwork for Erykah Badu’s return, Part 2 of the trilogy that she has promised. This new album is called New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh (MotownUniversal) and true to her nature, she has been hard at work on this album weeks before its deadline. She has been hyping up the fact that the new album would be released on 3/3/3, perhaps a slightly vinyl-centric way to say March 30, 2010 (because 2+0+1+0 = 3) or she’s revealing a bit of mathematics.

A few songs have already been heard through television appearances and gentle leaks of a song or two. As for the production and presentation of the album, we know Madlib is definitely involved. A track listing has been revealed, but little else. Gentle trickles again. I do know that Badu herself, through her Twitter account, did something most would have thought was once impossible: she wanted to release a song with a Paul McCartney sample and asked her close friends and associates to hook her up with the right people to speak to. One thing lead to another, and in about nine hours (perhaps the power of this 3+3+3 thing), the sample was approved. While I have not heard the Badu song in question, the sample that she seeked was Wings‘ “Arrow Through Me” from the 1979 album Back To The Egg. No word if it is an actual sample or an interpolation, but as soon as I know, I’ll let you know. While Beatles samples are (for now) off-limits, McCartney has always been open to experimentation in his own music for the last 45 years. In recent years he has opened his solo catalog to advertisers, so perhaps he’s opening the door for artists to legally sample his work. Emphasis is on “legally” since his songs have been “cleverly” borrowed a number of times over the years.

I haven’t heard his new album yet, but Hawai’is own Creed Chameleon is back with a new one and a video has been created for the song “Morning Blessing”. Watching this video shows the power of hip-hop and how it has transferred over to the middle of the Pacific to brew up acknowledgment of its roots with its own special blends and ingredaments, Auntie Marialani style. For me, watching this video only gets me homesick for the people and the land I will forever call my own. As my man Juando Reyes would say, I LIKE CRAI NOW. Hui Creed, we go eat.

(SIDENOTE: Spock the Maili Lunch Wagon. Much respect.)

Morning Blessing from DJ JIMMY TACO on Vimeo.

Tribute bands are getting more attention these days for being quality tributes. AC/DC fans have Hell’s Belles to deal with, and Led Zeppelin have Lez Zeppelin to deal with, but there’s also another band Zep fans have been enjoying, consider it a non-existent battle that is merely a celebration (Led Zeppelin III, track 3) of the riches Valhalla provides.

Zepparella are very good at what they do, and they just released their version of the Led Zep arrangement of Kansas Joe McCoy & Memphis Minnie’s “When The Levee Breaks”. Enjoy.

Australian hip-hop keeps getting on stronger, and in 2010 it’s about shining the light on Mantra, whose new album Power of the Spoken will be released by Obese Records on March 26th. The video was shot and directed by The Artifact.

The raunchy metal duo known as Jucifer are back with a new album to drop in April called Throned In Blood, to be released through their own label, Nomadic Fortress. The compact disc version is the only one available for pre-order as of March 16th, which you can do through Relapse. Vinyl version will be released through the good folks at Alternative Tentacles.

“Fleur de Lis” is from the new album, and displays that bitter crunch and intensity their fans dig.

Jucifer are currently on tour throughout the West and midwest before stopping in Pittsburgh, PA and then jumping to Europe. They head back to the homeland in late May when they play at the Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore. Full tour itinerary can be found on their MySpace page. No word on any shows after May 29th, but I’m sure more will be announced soon.