This Is Book’s Music

It’s About Time (self-released) is an incredible jazz album for fans who love their bop with a nice swing that will get you jumping with each and every note, from the intensity of playing in such songs as “Dancing Foo/Squatty Roo” to quieter moments as heard in “For All We Know”. The tropical feel of “Brigas Nunca Mais” will make people appreciate this Antonio Carlos Jobim even more, as leader Jacob Melchior (drums), bassist Jassan JJ Shakur and pianist Tadataka Unno dive deep into the song to explore its inner beauty and allow it to dance once again.

It’s About Time is an album that’s extremely well played, and that comes from a group of musicians, who call themselves Trio De Sum, who can read each other with their eyes closed, it’s about sound perception and reflection to the point where they become one entity. This is made perfectly clear in the laid back “The Lady Of My Life/My Baby”, and the openness of the song means that they could explore this song with other musicians to see where they’ll take each other (Roy Ayers would be a nice addition).

Plus, it’s a drummer’s album and I’m sold off of that alone. It’s laid back and mellow, but not to the point of being a numbing agent, it’s a great album to hear amongst friends and a fantastic album if it is used as a mood enhancer. It’s also perfect for audiophiles who will want to hear how well this was mixed and produced. A fantastic listen that will make this one of your jazz picks of 2010.

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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.

In the digital area, the fact that albums from anywhere are delayed or not heard in a timely manner seems silly. If you are a fan of hard rock, and more specifically stoner rock, you may have heard about the Swedish band Blowback and told all of your friends about it. Silly friends probably said “but the CD isn’t at Best Buy, and I cannot download them on iTunes.” Meanwhile, you’ve been rocking out with their album, making sure you play them each time you’re in your car or low rider bicycle. Now, your friends don’t have to wait any longer, as Eight Hundred Miles gets a domestic release.

These guys were heavily influenced by the best, taking that Black Sabbath-styled warble, mixing it in with that Allman Brothers Band twin guitar attack, and just bringing it home, perhaps better than some American bands who use a similar formula. Check it out for yourself.

Talking Book, depending on who you speak with, is either a part of Wonder’s golden era, a part of his holy trinity or quadrant (Music Of My Mind may not be as influential as his other albums in the 70′s, but many see it as a factor in the music he would create for the decade). It is an album known for its hits “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” and “Superstition,” both of which can be heard on pop radio to this day, but Wonder was branching out, especially in a genre of music that was always based on the maximum potential of the hit single. It was a time in music when artists were looking into creating music as events, and the full length album was the grandest way to do so. Entering his Talking Book was a need to want to know and hear more, and this album would help him become one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

This CD was made for the audiophile market, so the cost of this 24k gold CD is higher than normal CD’s. Of course, the music on the disc is for everyone, but if you have always wanted to buy this album on CD and wanted to know which was the best pressing to have in your collection, I will say without hesitation that it is this Audio Fidelity. The remaster was created by Kevin Gray, who has worked on a number of remasters over the years, including Steely Dan’s Aja and a number of rock and jazz titles. The original plan was for Audio Fidelity to receive the master tape directly from Stevie Wonder himself, an admitted audiophile. This is how Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) obtained the master tape for Innervisions when the label licensed and released an incredible version of the album in the 1990′s. Audio Fidelity were that close when Universal stepped in and said no, so the only tape Gray was allowed to have was a secondary master, or a master dub from the actual master tape. Even the secondary tape is good, and for the most part this is probably the best you will ever hear this album.

Hearing the 10 songs on this album from start to finish, you tend to want to focus on the instrumentation and recording techniques a bit more. There’s a certain crispness in what was captured on tape, and an airiness in the studio where you are able to feel the music a bit more, or at least the instruments sound vibrant, alive, almost as if they are breathing entities. When you hear the vocals in “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” come in, you can almost sense the anticipation of the couple singing to each other, then Wonder coming in to sing about being rescued into love. Ray Parker Jr.’s sweet guitar solo in “Maybe Your Baby,” mixed in with Wonder’s work on the ARP and his slightly sped up vocals, may move you to do the things Wonder sings about, and the Moog bass sounds so thick that it sounds as if they’re ready to spill out of your speakers. You also can’t think of “Tuesday Heartbreak” without singing along to the saxophone melody made by David Sanborn, and the way Wonder’s keyboard work pans back and forth in stereo sounds as fresh now as it did all those years ago.

While Wonder loved collaborating with others (guitarist Jeff Beck played on”Lookin’ For Another Pure Love”), his love of studio technology allowed him to explore and expand the boundaries of his music. In songs like “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” and “Big Brother,” what you’re hearing is Stevie backed by Stevie, who jams with Stevie, singing with Stevie. It was something that Paul McCartney had explored a year before Talking Book with his McCartney album, and something both Prince, Lenny Kravitz, and DâM-FunK would explore when they first started making their own sounds. That first spark of influence can be heard on this album. What was once considered groundbreaking has lead to it being celebrated as a sub-genre, as if being daring and bold are occupational risks. This new remaster of Talking Book is an example of music done without fear, and to hear it so close to the source is an incredible, mandatory experience. While audiophiles seem to be more focused on hearing rock, jazz, and classical, I do hope Gray and Audio Fidelity will be moved to cover more soul and funk albums. I think a remaster of D’Angelo’s Voodoo would be most welcome (hint hint).

Almost 30 years after they formed, Art Of Noise’s impact on music is still being felt, defined, and discussed. They were there when Malcolm McLaren wanted a hint of Afrika Bambaataa’s swagger, and arguably gave hip-hop, through sampling, its initial boom bap. Influence (ZTT) is a 2CD collection that explores the hit songs of a group that never intended to be embraced by radio, and unreleased artifacts from their library of sounds. It is comprehensive for old and new fans alike, but also doubles as a gift for devotees who have absorbed the known. This is the group supplying uncut crystals of the unknown.

Art Of Noise were very much experimentalists who combined a love for soul, funk, classical, and opera with the avant-garde, and musique concrete. While some artists had constructed songs that made attempts to give rhythm to the rhythmless (interpret as you wish), no one had quite done it the way Anne Dudley, Jonathan Jeczalik, and Gary Langan did, all of whom were overseen by producer Trevor Horn. Music journalist Paul Morley became their “voice” and initially the human persona of a group who originally were represented as masks, photographs, and wrenches. It was the unintentional funk of “Beat Box” that made legendary radio DJ Kool DJ Red Alert take notice one day, offering it to a community of listeners who seemed to be waiting for something more distorted and abrasive than the sounds supplied by Sugar Hill Records. It was “Close (To The Edit)” that made people hear the ignition of a car in a different way, but it was also “Moments In Love” that made people hear electronic music as something seductive with the use of only four words (the song title and the repetition of the word “now”).

When the group had internal struggles with their record label, they jumped ship to a new label (China), but it did not take away their heart. Fans will get a chance to “Legs,” “Peter Gunn,” “Paranoimia,” “Ode To Don Jose,” “Dragnet,” and their surprise hit with Tom Jones, their cover of Prince’s “Kiss.” It seemed as if the group made a conscious effort to create properly structured songs, perfect for radio, television, and motion pictures, a slight shift from what they originally started out as. Perhaps for AoN, in order to manipulate art, they in turn had to be artists too. Disc 1 features songs from their last album, The Seduction of Claude Debussy, which also doubled as their return to the ZTT empire.

Even if you have the 4 CD box set And What Have You Done With My Body God?, everything on Disc 2 of Influence will be new to you, as all of it is unreleased. The songs are a mixture of unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, rough demos, and variations of the familiar, not unlike classical music where one might here variations of a theme, or variations of the variation. Some spoken pieces heard in AoN songs are isolated so you’ll get a chance to hear what was recorded without instrumental interruption. Even what was discarded could be turned into new songs, but that will be for the diehard fans to create and mash-up.

Comedy and tragedy: symbols that have represented Art of Noise even when they might have had the last laugh. Influence is the audio story of a group who weren’t a group, but perhaps architects of buildings everyone would end up praising long after its creators went home. Yet within its construction were sounds of hope, fear, sarcasm, shame, and fame, intentional or not.

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).

In the early days of hip-hop, including the first few years after the release of “Rapper’s Delight”, no one ever talked about the music and its creative community with the word “science”. Dropping science and wanting to discuss said science didn’t come until later, it was all about fun, wanting to dance, hear good music, and being thrilled with an exchange of rhythmic wordplay. 30 years after “Rapper’s Delight”, Paul Edwards has come up with a book that discusses that rhythmic wordplay in a very comprehensive book called How To Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC (Chicago Review Press).

When I was growing up, I would often hear naysayers talking about how “it’s just talking” and “that crap isn’t going to last another year”, and even when it became a billion dollar industry, it seemed people were more in doubt that something as simple as talking over music became such a success. What How To Rap does is look at the vocal and lyrical aspects of hip-hop, specifically the role of the rapper, the MC in a way that has never been properly discussed or considered worthy of discussion. What Edwards does is look at some of the MC’s in hip-hop and ask them questions on everything from breathing techniques to songwriting structure, the art of understanding the mastering the recording studio, to taking your skills to the stage. These were things many rappers simply did from observing and listening, so to have a book like this with all of the trade secrets, which weren’t really secrets, but simply information no one thought was “scholarly”.

The section I enjoyed talked about the relationship between the MC and the producer, and how a rapper should have a role in how their song is sculptured from start to finish. As a producer and as someone who made failed attempts at rapping (and I did it because I wanted to share what I was writing, but in a musical fashion), that relationship between MC and producer is an important one because a lot of MC’s think that they can get thrown a beat or track and magic will happen. The producer, specifically a good or great producer, can turn an ordinary beat into that magic you’re looking for, understanding how a song is arranged and how to fully utilize your voice, along with understanding the recording studio and available technologies. It doesn’t get too deep into technical jargon, but you’ll go away understanding the role of the producer as more than just the guy who knows obscure funk or can play three chords on his Casio.

Depending on who you speak with, the current era of mainstream hip-hop is either devoid of music or devoid of hip-hop. How To Rap truly takes it back to the essence and finds meaning to what has never been accurately define, to read what was previously unwritten is something that is very much of value not only amongst hip-hop, but anyone who makes music and wants to know if the music is much more than rhyming “frog” with “log”. A lot of people think it’s that simple, and it may seem like a good portion of today’s music is based on that philosophy alone. A lot of people who call themselves MC’s should read this, so they’ll understand their craft a bit more and create better music. As a guidebook, it will not turn everyone into overnight Rakim‘s or Buckshot‘s, but it will be added ammunition for those who take to the music and honor it as an art form.

Last week Friday, a Twitter friend tells me that nine minutes before he sent his message, DJ Shadow made an announcement that he pressed up a limited edition of a 12″ single that would be a mere preview of what’s to come from his forthcoming album. To make it even more interesting, the 12″ single would be made available for free, with only one record for each customer. With nine minutes passed, there was no way I could score a copy, and when I visited Shadow’s website with the record offer, it stated all records were sold out. However, there was a statement which stated that some carts might be emptied, so there might be a chance to obtain a record. I primarily use the Firefox browser but it didn’t work, no matter how many times I refreshed. I switched browsers (Opera), and in a minute, a cart popped up and I clicked. Boom, copy obtained. An hour later, I was sent a receipt indicating the record would be shipped that day, which meant since Shadow HQ and I are on the same coast, I would get that record on Monday.

It’s (only) Monday…

My copy of the 12″ single arrived today, and the cover is a trip. It’s an illustrated cover, and I believe each of the 100 covers sent out were individually drawn. No credit to the artist, but my edition looks like a cross between the small white box on the bottom of the back cover of Led Zeppelin II

and a freaky, hairy testicle, along with a little mouse on the upper left that looks like it’s waving. The record itself is thick (180g perhaps) and on blue vinyl, spinning at 45rpm for optimum sound quality. Matrix reveals the record was mastered at Abbey Road. Nice.

This is super fresh footage of Lil’ Daggers from a performance they did last week Friday, shot by Chuck Livid.Li

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.