Audio Absinthe

I couldn’t find much info on Breakbot.  I think he’s French, but some people say he’s Australian.  All I know for sure is, I like the music this man makes.  From his own mellow, funky material to his high-energy dance floor remixes, all of Breakbot’s productions have given him a name in the blogosphere.  His debut EP on Ed Banger Records is set to be released on Valentine’s Day.

MP3: Breakbot – “Make You Mine”

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MP3: Pnau – “Baby (Breakbot Remix)”

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MP3: Data – “Aerius Light (Breakbot Remix)”

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If you’re in New York and you like what you’re hearing, you can check out Breakbot at Terminal 5 on Friday, February 12th.  Better bring your dancing shoes.

Stones Throw released the beautifully psychedelic, hip hop friendly instrumentals from Koushik’s Out My Window.  I think you can still get it for free (via Stones Throw).  Koushik’s downtempo, low-key style is experimental but hard hitting with a rich, full sound.  The instrumentals album is the perfect companion for any hung-over, lazy Sunday…

MP3: Koushik – “Be With”

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MP3: Koushik – “Lying In The Sun”

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Download the full instrumental album (here)

It took me a while but I finally got around to posting them all.  In no particular order, here are my favorites from 2009, so far…

Phoenix
MP3: “1901”
MP3: “Lisztomania”

Dan Auerbach
MP3: “When The Night Comes”

Grizzly Bear
MP3: “Two Weeks”

Wilco
MP3: “Solitaire”
MP3: “One Wing”
MP3: “I’ll Fight”

Quantic and His Combo Barbaro
Amazon: “The Dreaming Mind”

Andrew Bird
MP3: “Oh No”

Franz Ferdinand
MP3: “No You Girls”

Doves
MP3: “Jetstream”
MP3: “Kingdom of Rust”

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
MP3: “Hysteric”

Black Crowes
MP3: “I Ain’t Hiding”

White Rabbits
MP3: “Percussion Gun”

K’naan
MP3: “Take A Minute”

Manchester Orchestra
MP3: “I’ve Got Friends”

Mocky
MP3: “Birds Of A Feather”

Kutiman
http://thru-you.com/

Black Moth Super Rainbow
MP3: “Born On A Day The Sun Didn’t Rise”
MP3: “Twin Of Myself”
MP3: “Fields Are Breathing”

Animal Collective
MP3: “My Girls”

Matt and Kim
MP3: “Daylight”

Silversun Pickups
MP3: “Panic Switch”

Curumin
MP3: “Compacto”
MP3: “Salto No Vacuo Con Joelhada”

Emiliani Torrini
MP3: “Me and Armini”

Zion I
MP3: “Coastin”

Junior Boys
MP3: “Parallel Lines”

General Elektriks

MP3: “You Don’t Listen”

St Vincent
MP3: “Strangers”

Coconut Records
MP3: “Any Fun”

Matisyahu
“One Day”

Method Man and Redman
MP3: “A Yo”

Tosca
MP3 Link: “Joe Si Ha”
MP3: “Fondue”

The BPA
MP3: “Toe Jam”
MP3: “He’s Frank”

Bishop Allen
MP3: “The Ancient Commonsense of Things”

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Newer acts:

Band of Skulls
MP3 Link: “Death By Diamonds and Pearls”
MP3: “I Know What I Am”

Empire of the Sun
MP3: “Walking On A Dream”

One eskimO
Link to listen: “Given Up”
MP3: “Givin Up (Don Diablo remix)”

Nickel Eye
MP3: “Brandy of the Damned featuring Wale (Mark Ronson remix)”
MySpace link to listen: “Bonnie and Clyde”

Mayer Hawthorne
MP3: “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out”

Zee Avi
MP3: “Bitter Heart”
MP3: “The Story”

Passion Pit
MP3: “Moth’s Wings”
MP3 link: “The Reeling”
MP3: “Little Secrets”

Fight From Above
MP3: “Between The Curves”

Vosotros Presents: The Years
MP3 link: “Lose My Number”
MP3 link: “Heartbreaker”

Daniel Merriweather
MP3: “Change” featuring Wale

The Big Pink
MP3: “Velvet”

The Temper Trap
MP3: Sweet Disposition

Thenewno2
MP3 link: “Yomp”
MP3 link: “Give You Love”
MP3: “Crazy Tuesday”

Asa
MP3: “Jailer”
MP3: “Subway”

The Very Best
MP3: “Warm Heart of Africa”

St Motel
MP3: “Dear Dictator”

Danny Chaimson
MySpace link to listen: “This Is Life”

Hey Champ
MP3: “Cold Dust Girl”

Jaydiohead by Minty Fresh Productions
MP3: “Wrong Prayer”

Asher Roth feat. Busta Rhymes and New Kingdom
MP3: “Lion’s Roar” produced by Oren Yoel

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Mixtapes:

Wale & 9th Wonder - Back To The Feature

TiRon – Ketchup
Miguel featuring TiRon – “Go”

There are only a handful of albums I have ever really anticipated like Quantic’s upcoming album, Tradition In Transition, due July 14th.  This album could be truly amazing.  ”The Dreaming Mind” is the song in the video teaser for the album below and it’s featured on Quantic’s myspace page as well.  It might be one of my all time favorites.  Between the string arrangements and the funky percussion, it’s a cinematic-style masterpiece that just kills me.  If I like half of the songs on the album as much as I like “The Dreaming Mind” I might find the answer to the “if you were on an island and could only have one album” question.

Bonus MP3: Quantic and His Combo Bárbaro – New Morning
Bonus MP3: Quantic and His Combo Bárbaro – Arianita

More

Matisyahu’s new single “One Day” is the first release from his upcoming album, Light due in August.  I think it’s obvious when you listen to this song that it’s going to be a big hit.  Most people know Matisyahu for ”King Without A Crown” his first hit song.  ”One Day” might be bigger.  I’m not saying it’s better, but I do think it has the potential to reach a much larger audience and become more popular than “King Without A Crown” ever was.  For some reason, it makes me think of Pixar movies- like the song will be the musical equivalent of successful family films.  At least, I’m sure it will be used in films, TV, and commercials since it is such an uplifting anthem.

Listen to ‘One Day’

Spinner.com

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Vitamin String Quartet is great… and hilarious.  I’m always surprised at how much I like the covers they do.  I wouldn’t have thought string quartets covering popular contemporary music would come up with anything I was interested in, let alone a whole album.  Vitamin String Quartet performs In Rainbows was released June 2nd and it’s absolutely great.  Their version of Radiohead’s latest masterpiece is fun and highly enjoyable.  Just listen to “15 Steps” and you’ll see what I mean.  LaLa.com released the whole album online so we can check it all out.  Here it is:

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Two new artists for us all…

• The first is Will Dailey from Boston.  Someone who works with Will wrote and suggested I check him out.  Her favorite track, “Never Be Your Baby” is an upbeat, catchy and impressive track.  Dailey’s planning on releasing an EP every 3 months for the next year so it seems like he’s got a lot of material and I’m anxious to hear what he’s got in store.  Check out his myspace page here.
  MP3: Will Dailey – Never Be Your Baby (Live)

Will Dailey

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• The second is Kurty Durty.  The rapper from Bakersfield definitely has some serious skill.  I love the production on “You And Me” and Durty’s solid delivery was more than enough for me to decide to check more out.  You can get his mixtape here.
  Here’s a little history- Kurty Durty had “the opportunity to open for Ice Cube & WC in Bakersfield. Having performed so well at that show he was invited back to open up for Snoop Dogg later that year, performing on the same stage as [and finishing the tour with] Snoop, Warren G, DPG, The Twinz and Lady of Rage.” - DubCNN.com
  MP3: Kurty Durty – You And Me 

Kurty Durty backstage with Ice Cube

Here’s another pretty awesome music website that let’s you create playlists you can share with you friends.  It’s called GrooveShark.com and it’s got a pretty big library of music.  It allows you to upload your own songs so you can login from anywhere in the world and have all of your music.  It also allows you to search for and play full songs and albums.  The way this works reminds me very much of Napster (the original Napster) since it seems like the search results are based on what people have uploaded.  This is probably why GrooveShark has a very respectable library of music to find.  There were a bunch of songs I wanted to add to the playlist below that I couldn’t find in their library but it’s still got much more than I expected.  The site also has a great custom widget builder that allows you to embed songs and playlists on any website.  The one I made below is a poor example because I’m colorblind so you can’t really see how fancy you can make it look.  The playlist is based on a mix I made a couple of years ago called Beat Juice.

I really had this Pete Rock track on the mix instead of the one included above but GrooveShark didn’t have it.  And it’s too good not to link here…
MP3: Pete Rock – Pete’s Jazz

Copy and paste this into your browser if the link above isn’t working:
http://www.flexx.org/blog/pete%20rock%20-%20pete’s%20jazz.mp3

More

There are a lot of cool ways to share music with your friends.  I used to make a lot of mixes and I still have a lot of my old playlists.  The iLike Playlist Editor let’s you make and share your playlists with anyone.  You can send a link for your playlist to your friends or you can put your playlist on any website page like facebook and myspace or like I did below.  Unfortunately, you can only choose up to 8 tracks and you can only play 30 second samples of each song.  But it is a fun way to share mixes you’ve made.  The one I did below is 6 tracks from an old mix I used to fall asleep to, Epic Nightscapes.

MP3: Billy Cobham – Heather

I’ve probably posted too many cover songs, remixes, and mash ups already…

Pharcyde VS Led Zeppelin – Dyer Passin Me By (Fidelski) 
Pharcyde – Passin Me By (Hot Chip remix)

Here are a two different artists’ remixes of Radiohead’s “Nude” and ” two remixes of “Reckoner”.  Which do you like the most? 
Radiohead – Nude (SayCet remix) 
Radiohead – Nude (Three Leaves and a Head remix)

Radiohead – Reckoner (You You’re Awesome remix) 
Radiohead – Reckoner (Three Leaves and a Head remix)

Notorious BIG VS Peter Bjorn & John – Party & Bullshit with Nothing To Worry About (Dave Wrangler) 
 
Common VS Flying Lotus – Universal Mind Control with Parisian Goldfish (The Hood Internet) 

MGMT VS Kanye West – Testify with Electric Feel (Justice remix) (The Kickdrums) 

Beastie Boys VS M.O.P. – Intergalatic Planetary Ante Up (DJ BK)

The last song on The Black Keys’ Attack & Release is a mash up of all the songs on the album-
The Black Keys – Fight for Air (Mr. Dibbs)

Elliot Smith – Blackbird (The Beatles) 
Elliot Smith – My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)
Gareth Pearson - Time To Pretend (MGMT) 
James Eric – Time To Pretend (MGMT) 
Bryn Christopher – Sour Times (Portishead) 
William Barnes – Bombs Over Baghdad (Outkast) 

This one is great…
Ben Folds – Bitches Ain’t Shit (Dr Dre / Snoop Dogg) 
Nina Gordon – Straight Out Of Compton (NWA) 
The Gourds- Gin & Juice (Dr Dre / Snoop Dogg) 
Dynamite Hack – Boyz in the Hood (Eazy E / NWA)

Oren Yoel has always been talented.  No question.  It’s obvious when you hear his music.  He’s been perfecting his craft since he was 11 and his style spans a remarkable variety of genres.  He studied music theory and performance at USC but Oren is also a master of pretty much any music software and hardware you can name.  Oren’s performed all over LA- House of Blues, Viper Room, Knitting Factory, The Key Club, and many more.  His shows have always been events that his fans and friends never want to miss, whether it’s with his electro-rock group New Kingdom, or back in the day playing keys for friends Tunji of Inverse and TiRon.  Even if it’s just spinning records with his knowledgeable DJ/childhood friend Jordy J, there’s always something unique and great about the music Yoel is playing.  And Yoel is very prolific.  He has an impressive catalog of quality instrumentals reaching across a number of genres from hip hop, r&b, and neo-soul to electronic, rock, funk and even classical and cinematic music (listen to the track “Classic” below).  He is a forward thinking producer and even though Oren is more than capable of recreating already proven, successful styles, his real strength is his ability to create music that contributes something new and different to the bigger picture.

After producing 9 of the 12 tracks for Asher Roth’s highly anticipated upcoming debut album, Asleep In The Bread Aisle, Oren Yoel is now poised to have his name launched into an enormous audience and rapidly changing landscape of artists and producers.  His group New Kingdom is featured along side Busta Rhymes on “Lion’s Roar” (and this is an unbelievable track) on Asleep In The Bread Aisle.  Co-producing 3 of the tracks with Yoel is his long time friend and Appropriate Associates collaborator David Appleton, who Oren might introduce to you as “Snuff”.  With all the music out there these days, content is king and with Oren Yoel the music really speaks for itself.

Oren Yoel – The BadMan

Oren Yoel – Classic

Asher Roth – Lark On My Go-Kart (produced by Oren Yoel and David Appleton)

First song is “Fondue” by Tosca.  Tosca is comprised of Richard Dorfmeister (of Kruder & Dorfmeister fame) and Rupert Huber.  Their new album is called No Hassle and I haven’t been able to figure out if it’s already released or if it will be released in April of this year.  Tosca has mastered the chill out, electronic beats since the 90’s and it really shows with this new album.

Tosca – Fondue
Tosca – Mrs. Bongo (download here)

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Second song is Bishop Lamont’s “Grow Up” produced by Dr. Dre.  There’s been all sorts of stories and controversy with Bishop Lamont, Aftermath, and the rest of the hip hop world but the fact of the matter is, the guy’s got talent.  In the end, as far as the music is concerned, that’s all that matters.
Bishop Lamont – Grow Up 

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Third song is “Yomp” by Thenewno2.  I was introduced to them about a year ago by my friend Jon Sadoff who plays keyboard/guitar/vocals for the band.  I’ve written about them a couple of times before but now I found some links to songs you can play straight off the site.  The band is, according to the band’s myspace: Dhani Harrison: lead Vocals/Guitar, Oliver Hecks: Drums, Jon Sadoff: Keyboards/Guitar/Vocals, Jeremy Faccone: Guitar/vocals, Jason Hiller: Bass.  Dhani is George Harrison’s son and the similarities aren’t just limited to the fact that Dhani looks almost identical to George around the same age.  Their music also bears strong similarities.  I’ve compared Thenewno2’s sound to Portishead and Pink Floyd while others have added Massive Attack and Brian Eno.  They’re playing live on the Conan O’Brien show tomorrow night so make sure you check them out…

TheNewNo2 – Yomp

TheNewNo2 – Give You Love

TheNewNo2 – Back To You

TheNewNo2 – Another John Doe