When I heard about the upcoming collaboration album between Nas and Damian Marley, I wasn’t expecting much. They’re both great artists but I thought a collaboration between the two wouldn’t amount to anything substantial. I have to admit, “As We Enter,” the new track and first single from Distant Relatives, is kind of impressive. Nas and Damian sound good together, trading rhymes back and forth over an otherwise lackluster beat. In terms of lyrics and delivery, the two artists are on fire, but the music itself is a little bland. I’m still not expecting to be blown away by the album but it’s definitely worth checking out.
MP3: Nas & Damian Marley – “As We Enter”
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I went out to Coachella this weekend and, for the most part, I wasn’t really that impressed. A lot of acts just don’t know how to get the crowd going. One band that is the complete opposite of this is Dr. Dog. They were very impressive. It was my third time seeing them and I was blown away, again. They might be my favorite act out there right now. Even when they were having some sound problems with one of the guitars on stage, it was still an awesome set. I think their most recent album Fate is great, one of the best albums of 2008, but the songs sound so much better when they’re performed live (at least for me). The band’s touring experience is starting to show and it makes for a great live performance. ”Army of Ancients” is a perfect example of a song that is much better when it’s live (again, for me). I still can’t get it out of my head. ”The Ark” was another personal favorite of mine and also of a friend who hadn’t ever seen or heard of Dr Dog before. They opened with a slightly sped up version which made the crowd go completely nuts and set the pace for the rest of the show. Needless to say, my friend’s a fan now.
Asleep In The Bread Aisle hit stores today. ”Lion’s Roar” is definitely a stand out track for me. Asher Roth comes pretty hard on it but I don’t think Busta Rhymes has sounded this good since Leaders of the New School and his early solo career. With all the leaked tracks out there, by now you should know- if it’s a Oren Yoel production it’s gonna be dope. And the smooth hook from New Kingdom’s Noah King ties it all together and makes it a song you want to rap and sing along to. Oren Yoel’s also worked with another great up and coming hip hop artist in TiRon whose mixtape Ketchup is featured in the LA Times for the top ten best hip hop albums of the year.
Asher Roth ft Busta Rhymes and New Kingdom – Lion’s Roar (produced by Oren Yoel)
TiRon – Shine On (produced by Oren Yoel)
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An interesting Nas remix album was released last month called the Far East Project. From the name, it sounds like it’s a bunch of Nas tracks remixed by Asian DJ’s and producers. Because “Far East” could mean Asian, right? I’m not racist, I swear. Anyway, I haven’t heard of any of the guys who remixed the tracks but some of them are really well done.
Recently, I’ve had a couple of tracks sent to me via email and SoundCloud.com. Some of the songs were actually really good. I don’t know why I expected anything different but I was kind of surprised at how much I enjoyed these:
The first is “Folkie Song #2″ by Rosie and Me out of Curitiba, Brazil. It’s indie, acoustic, folk music but it’s got a rock kind of edge to it. And like all things Brazilian, I pretty much love everything about it. It’s a very cool track they got here. As if they didn’t even care when recording the song, you can even hear the microphone get bumped a couple of times, but it just makes the song sound cooler. I’m really digging this one. MP3: Rosie and Me – Folkie Song #2
The second is by The Unravelling from their album 13 Arcane Hymns. They’re a rock/progessive act out of Calgary and if you check out their myspace, you’ll hear some serious metal. ”In The Safe House” isn’t exactly metal though. It’s catchy and dark at the same time and it’s a really well arranged song. Their other songs on myspace are well written tracks too. These guys probably have awesome live shows with lots of energy and songs that build and really get crowds going. MP3: The Unravelling – In The Safe House
The last one is by a group called Pree. These guys are from D.C. and their music combines a lot of elements from different genres that I like a lot. Give the whole song a listen, it’s really impressive stuff. The quality isn’t amazing, but the track is a great one nonetheless. These guys have something very interesting going on and now I’m definitely paying attention. MP3: Pree – In The Parlor
SoundCloud is a website that allows people to share music on the web or through emails. The interface is very simple and easy to figure out. Getting an account is quick and doesn’t cost a thing. You can upload music to your profile, explore music on other peoples profiles, share with your friends and download to your computer, and you can even follow other users and get updates like a twitter account. You can control the music you upload- everything from who can play it, whether or not anyone can download it, and you can even customize the audio player and embed it on a website. I really think it’s great and the design is very clean and easy on the eyes. It’s kind of like Imeem meets Twitter but I’m sure the people at SoundCloud would think there’s a lot more to it than that, and I’m pretty sure they’d be right. Take a look- www.SoundCloud.com or check mine out at SoundCloud.com/audio-absinthe. But keep in mind I just started doing this so I don’t have that much yet…
Here are some great tracks I uploaded. The first is one of a million great beats by Oren Yoel called “This is Life”. The second is a great remix of Nas’s “Made You Look” by hometown homies Gamble & Bluff. And the last is from an earlier post, the interview with frequentscenes, it’s their beautiful song “English”. Enjoy…
First song is “No You Girls” by Franz Ferdinand. You’ve probably heard the song if you’ve seen those new iphone apps commercials. I want to know how those deals work. To advertise the iphone and it’s applications, Apple probably has to pay the people who own the apps and the people who own the rights to the songs in order to use them in the commercials. But the apps and the songs sell much more copies after the commercials come out. Everyone involved wins- Apple sells more phones, the app owners sell more apps, and the people who own the rights to the songs sell more music. Apple knows how to make itself look good. Most of the time. I think a lot of that is because someone from KCRW must be picking the music for those Apple commercials. They’re always playing the same songs on KCRW. Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls
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Second song is Knaan’s “Take A Minute”. I wrote about the Somalian born, Canadian MC K’Naan in the earlier post about Coachella. He’ll be playing on the Sunday. I don’t like all of his tracks, but there are a bunch that I like a lot. Here’s another one… (And check out other K’Naan tracks in the earlier post) Knaan – Take A Minute
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Third song was just leaked recently. It’s Dr Dre, Nas, and TI and it’s called “Topless”. I don’t even know if this is a final cut. The quality isn’t great but you can get an idea of what the end result might sound like. The beat is a little redundant but Nas still kills it. I wish he had the first verse on the track and maybe a third thrown in again after TI. If anyone knows what this track’s going to be on or what it’s from, let me know! Nas and TI with Dr Dre – Topless
First song is from one of my favorite albums of 2008, The Alchemist Manifesto. Adrian Quesada and OcoteSoul Sounds now have two amazing albums- the most recent and El Nino Y El Sol (2006). “The Grand Elixir” is the first track off of The Alchemist Manifesto.
Second track is from another one of my favorite albums of 2008. The song is “So He Won’t Break” from TheBlack Keys’Attack and Release. Dangermouse produced the album and definitely added something that worked very well with The Black Keys. In one of the past SOW emails, I think I sent either “Psychotic Girl” or “Strange Times” which are both great songs off the album. Check it out if you haven’t yet.
Third song is the Quantic Soul Orchestra’s remix of Nas’ “Get Down”. Not much too it, but that’s kind of what I like about it. Quantic Soul Orchestra is something I don’t really ignore, especially when I see that they’ve remix a good track by Nas, but I haven’t heard them do anything that spectacular. And this remix didn’t really wow me either, but with QSO is potential is definitely there. If you haven’t heard of QSO you might still want to check them out, even if you don’t like this one…
Fourth song is “Soleil” by the duo Fortin-Léveillé. This song is very relaxing and I have included it on many a sleep mix…
First song this week is by Lewis Taylor. It’s called “Stoned Part 1? and it comes from his 2004 album of the same name. I heard this song on the radio last week and that was the first I had heard of him. He’s a very talented neo-soul musician/singer. I read a little about him and heard some other songs of his and it’s obvious that he’s an extremely underappreciated artist… Check him out if you like this song.
Second song is old school… It’s the Dreamwarriors’ 1991 track “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style”. You’ll definitely recognize the samples from Quincy Jones’ “Soul Bossa Nova” that they use for the beat. I heard it again recently and I wanted to share this great, forgotten gem of old school hip hop…
Dreamwarriors – My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style (Click here to listen in Amazon)
And speaking of hip hop from 1991, and for the third song, I’m sending you all an old track from Main Source’s album Breaking Atoms called “Live at the Barbeque”. I’m really sending this as a tribute to Nas, who is featured on the track, and because, last night, he killed it at the Rock the Bells Festival with a great set of classic hip hop songs. I would have sent A Tribe Called Quest or a Pharcyde track, both of whom also played at the festival last night, but I’ve already sent songs by them in earlier emails. “Live at the Barbeque” has Nas spitting the first verse that foreshadows the impressive and unforgettable classic, Illmatic, which in my opinion is one of the top 3 hip hop albums of all time (maybe number 1). Nas’s verse in “Live at the Barbeque” makes it no wonder that Illmatic, which came out 3 years after Breaking Atoms, was produced by Pete Rock, Large Professor (from Main Source), and DJ Premier. Good shit, Nas…
Main Source featuring Nas – Live at the Barbeque(Click here to listen in Hype Machine)
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