One of our favorite Japanese labels, Wonderful Noise, has released it’s 31st release. And it’s a big one at that! Release no. 31 is Julien Dyne‘s third album “December”. The New Zealander has really outdone himself again this time and comes harder than a slab of concrete. Bangin’ beats with some vocal additions from Mara TK, Parks, She’s So Rad and Dalziel complete the circle. Watch for the imited 8-track EP and note that BBE will also release this one later this year. All in all…a definite cop!
Our buddy Mr. Speak was kind enough to get us hip to the collective known as Snarky Puppy. Check out a video of their song “Something” performed live with miss Lalah Hathaway.
Boy do we have something funky for you. Just feast your ears on Omega Supreme Records‘ first installment of it’s “Raw Silk” compilation. The first one features eight Modern Funk track from Bus Crates 16-bit Ensemble, K-Maxx, East Liberty Quarters, Benedek, Sasac, Turquoise Summers and our very own Dutch producer Henning! Get your digital freak on or just go old school and order yourself some limited edition vinyl or pop a cassette in your tapedeck.
As mentioned before, I met Rojai & E-Live during my visit to San Francisco earlier this month. Eli is a bit of a nutty professor, while Rojai is that smooth cat like Heathcliff. These Bay area funksters released their “Hardpressed” EP earlier this year and recently featured on the Tempo Dreams Vol. 2 compilation. Make sure you check out their project on iTunes as well as on limited edition 12-inch vinyl.
Today we invite you to take a listen to Reggie B‘s brand new album out on Tokyo Dawn Records. Take a whiff of his musical “DNA”, a personal testament of his unique funk. Now Reggie is not alone on this space odyssey and gets some backup from fellow funkateers such as B. Bravo, DJ Spinna, Kan Sano, Onra, Salva, 00genesis and more.
Multi-talent Mark de Clive-Lowe is currently raising funds to record and release his 11th (!) studio album “CHURCH”. Taking the concept from his popular clubnight by the same name, the album will find him collaborating with a variety of contemporary artists from jazz musicians to hip-hop greats.
To accompany the campaign, MdCL started a brand new video series of one take solo performances displaying the essence of his live process. I’m proud to premiere the latest in the series, in which Mark creates an uptempo broken beat influenced track from scratch. Make sure to check out the Kickstarter campaign which runs until Tuesday November 12th!
Black Milk has a new album out entitled “No Poison No Paradise”. We gave it a quick listen and found it rather enjoyable at times. With songs such as Chords and Parallels featuring Ab, Mr. Milk manages to create some neck snappage. The cherry on top accoring to us is “Sonny Jr. (Dreams)” featuring Robert Glasper & Dwele G, so get some Poison on iTunes.
On our L.A. trip we visited our friends from TruthSeekers and heard this one heavy beat playing in the background. It was Submerse‘s “Melonkoly” remixed by Elaquent out on Project Mooncircle. My advise is you give this EP a listen, because it has some more remixes on there from Deft, Daisuke Tanabe and RLP.
Spending all that time in Frisco made me realize that the Bay area has quite some talent. Rojai and E-Live are two guys I met on my trip and when they told me they had just released an album together, Their song “Hardpressed” is on the new “Tempo Dreams” Vol. 2 compilation brought to you by Teeko, B. Bravo and Bastard Jazz. Also look out for The Starship Connection’s “We Can Go All Night” on 7-inch vinyl or just cop the entire 2xLP while you’re at it.
Earlier this month we visited L.A. and had a blast. We arrived, bounced to the hotel and went straight to the KPFK studio to meet up with Santana from TruthSeekers radio. Much love for inviting me and B. Bravo to do a little guest mix on the show. We played some music and had a blast. Thought you might want to hear some of the gems we let loose that night. Oh and big up to the L.A. fam for holdin’ it down!