Cosmic Rock

R.I.P. Chilly B of Newcleus

2010-02-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

I don't intent to resume posting on a regular basis, but I just received these sad and tragic news as of today ... via Cozmo D:

"Chilly B Passes Away At Age 47

Newcleus co-founder, writer, rapper, singer, keyboardist and bass player Chilly B passed away today due to complications from a massive stroke that he suffered days ago. The stroke had left him brain dead and in a coma. Today the decision was made to remove him from life support and he passed on not long after.

He is survived by his wife Valerie and his sons Justin, Jason, Joshua and Isaiah."

Newcleus are probably my favorite hip hop group ... they were the funkiest of them all. And I guess there's noone of you reading this who doesn't remember Chilly B's sonorous rapping voice from classics like Jam on it and Computer Age.

"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Chilly B ..."

He will be missed ... by friends and family, and by the countless people all over the world who he touched with the exceptional music he created. R.I.P.

Farewell Transmission

2009-12-25T11:18:00.000-08:00

Your dedicated blogger on his suicide mission to entertain his audience

So this is it. A year ago I wrote my first post and this will be the last. What started out as a way of writing about and promoting my own music evolved into an electro/hip hop historiography of sorts, with stories and genealogies about the pivotal year of 1982. And even more surprising, I found myself writing about new releases and artists at least half the time. So what is electro's state of health? Despite the continued popularity of retro-minded 80s electronica (La Roux, Annie, Sally Shapiro, Little Boots, Zoot Woman, Cold Cave, ...), real electro music has still failed to be noticed by the general public this year. And though this is pretty much the only blog covering this kind of music, I'm still just getting a handful of views.

But I don't want to end this on a purely negative note. Despite the lack of mainstream recognition, 2009 has been an excellent year for electro. Here's a very subjective (and incomplete) recap:
- Freestyle made a comeback (the group, that is ... the genre has always been around ... kind of).
- The Egyptian Lover has been active doing some collaborations and releasing his strongest material in years (Freestyle, Debonaire, Jamie Jones).
- Some other pioneering artists that have reared their heads again: Newcleus, Donald D, MC Chill, Debonaire, Scratch D, John Robie, Mele Mel, Mic Murphy ...
- The legendary Street Sounds label is back and has already released 2 volumes of the "Nu Electro" series.
- Randy Barracuda and a bunch of other Scandinavians made a lot of noise (lit. and fig.) and put the sound of Skweee on the map.
- Dâm-Funk took everybody by surprise with his massive Toeachizown release.
- Dominance Electricity's "Global Surveyor III" compilation just came out before christmas.

I'll just leave you with my favorite tune of 2009 - may the funk be with you!

Trendwatch 09: African Music

2009-12-10T06:54:00.000-08:00

Well, the case could be made that this was already a trend of 2007 and 2008 with Indie rockers Vampire Weekend's commercial breakthrough and a site like awesometapesfromafrica gaining popularity. This year saw the rise of The Very Best, 2 DJ/producers who teamed up with a Malawi-born singer. And Fool's Gold. And folk singer Karl Blau's new album is supposed to have a lot of african elements in it, but I am not hearing any ... you might want to check it out yourself.

Here's a tune from The Very Best:

The Very Best's music is nothing groundbreaking, but it serves as a nice backdrop to Esau Mwamwaya's beautifully orchestrated vocals. This guy would sound great with ANY backing music. Guest appearances by M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend's singer (who both manage to pretty much ruin those songs) are telling for the discursive context that this music is now placed in. One is left to wonder when Diplo will pick up on the hype and put the final nail into the coffin.

Anyway, I wanted to get to something completely different. One artist that is mentioned in every review as inventor of that kind of Western/African crossover in a big World Music melting pot is Paul Simon. However, his 1986 album "Graceland" was predated a few years by an even bigger collage of styles and sounds: Malcolm McLaren's 1983 "Duck Rock". McLaren could be perceived as a Diplo of the 80s, scouting trends and watering them down for the general public. During a visit in New York he met Afrika Bambaataa and became fascinated by the nascent hip hop culture. He teamed up with New York radio DJs The World's Famous Supreme Team and Trevor Horn/Anne Dudley of Art of Noise fame to produce an electro hip hop album. At times the outcome is just plain awkward ("Double Dutch" which amounts to something like Soulja Boy Tell'em avant la lettre, or "Merengue" which is a failed attempt to throw some latin flavor in the mix), but other times McLaren's annoying persona stays in the background and Horn/Dudley and The Supreme Team rock the show.

Further reading:
- an earlier post about that album

Miscellany Vol. 4: Global Surveyor, Dâm-Funk, Egyptian Lover

2009-12-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

I've been on kind of a hiatus lately and this is probably going to be permanent. As Cosmic Rock is approaching its one year anniversary, my motivation is getting more and more affected by the lack of response and the general low turnout. So I think I will be shutting the whole thing down in a few weeks. Until then, here's a wrap-up of what happened in the past few weeks:

Dominance Electricity - Global Surveyor Phase III

East German label Dominance Electricity treats us with the third installment of their Global Surveyor series. This one is massive in scope, featuring an impressive number of 21 artists on two cds or three 12" records. The release date is set for December 18th.

I'm very excited about this cause 1) yours truly will be featured with one of his tracks and 2) this is exactly the kind of electro I want to listen to. Remember that Randy Barracuda interview where I complained about a lack of transcendence in modern electro? Well, this is the response. Just look at that marvellous space-kitsch cover art and you have the metaphysical side right before your eyes (and in the music of course). This is not about prosaic machine realities, this is about the big picture. Instead of reflecting a depleted world in depleted and soulless music, these tracks choose to accept the role of lost prophet and take the road less traveled. On their messianic quest for redemption, they recover lost emotional qualities and re-animate the machines. Not afraid of getting close to the edge of kitsch, the reward is great art.

Teaser:

* Weltwirtschaft - Amundsen Journey
* DJE - Defiler
* Global Surveyor feat. K1 & Gab.Gato - Global Surveyor (DBS Remix)
* Geoglyph - Face On Mars (Interlude)
* Middle Men - Space Quest
* LektroiD - Modular
* Keen K - Nozomi
* Gosub - Folding Time
* Kalson - Waiting In The Valley
* Audiogenetics - Cymatix
* Sbassship - Fall
* Evil Hectorr feat. Supreme.ja - Bass Wars (Original Version)
* Cosmic Rockers - The Wandering Of Humanity
* Varia - Night Drive
* Paul Blackford - Quasar (Sol_Dat Remix)
* Direct Control - Stars
* The Exaltics - No Time To Spend
* Dagobert - Fly 2 Night
* Mesak - Hustru
* Phundamental - Wheels Within Wheels
* CPU - Signals from the Dark

You can already order it at the Dominance webshop:
http://www.pay-for-us.de/music.php

Dâm Funk - Pitchfork review

Finally the hipsters over at pitchfork caught up to the hype and gave his album a very kind review. This echoes what I had written about it:

It's the secret weapon that underscores how seriously he takes this stuff, the catalyst that should provoke listeners to realize this music isn't just a fun update of a classic sound-- it's a work of real transcendence. This isn't a comedic tribute to talkboxes and widebrims; there's no Snoop Dogg descending a foggy staircase through a faded VHS haze here. Toeachizown is a deep, astute collection that feels like a natural resuscitation and progression of funk as it stood just before hip hop usurped it.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13634-toeachizown/

Jamie Jones ft. Egyptian Lover - Galactic Space Bar

This already came out a few months ago. At first listen, I wasn't that impressed by its techno/housey vibe, but it is definitely a grower. It has always been the Egyptian Lover's smartest move to openly exhibit his limitations and flaws and that way have them transformed into assets. "Galactic Space Bar" is a textbook example: If anybody else came up with that sketch of a track it would have just sounded crude and simplistic, but the Lover's Midas Touch turns it into a wonderfully stripped-down and abstract tune. And thanks to the warmth of the 808, the Egyptian Lover's version of minimal techno is a lighthearted and funky one - West Coast style.

And let's not forget about the video - it's like they made a list of awesome things and tried to fit as many of them into it:
- the Egyptian Lover sporting shades and kangol hat? Check.
- the Egyptian Lover riding through L.A. in what looks like a 1969 Pontiac firebird convertible? Check.
- the Egyptian Lover singing about a galactic space bar? Check.
- a guy in a business suit and briefcase doing the most outrageous-and-awkward-but-somehow-irresistibly-cool dance since Napoleon Dynamite? Check.
I think I made my point.

And in A***-T*** related news:

http://www.myspace.com/djspektralolympics

The Master of the 808

2009-11-22T03:29:00.000-08:00

In this video Tadao Kikumoto of Roland music talks about how he wasn't completely satisfied with his invention, the now legendary TR-808 drum machine. Especially the handclap sounded weak to him, like "breaking a bamboo stem". While the interviewer clearly can't hide his ardor, Kikumoto remains humble and keeps up his engineer / man of science habitus, a notion so old school that it seems touchingly nostalgic to us, white lab coat and all.

Here's another odd pop cultural find: a triptych featuring three pioneers of electronic music transformed into icons. Mr. Kikumoto can be found on the left with another invention of his, the TB-303. In the middle it is synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog and on the right we recognize Roger Linn, the man behind the LinnDrum machine and the MPC-60. In another dialectical turn, the triptych has apparently already been appropriated as a skateboard design.

Click for a larger picture

Anyway, back to topic. While Mr. Kikumoto's perfectionism demands our admiration, we are certainly glad that despite his reservations he did release the handclap after all. It became a staple of 80s (and beyond) music and it certainly is one of the most famous and recognizable sounds of electronic music.

When it comes to 808 handclaps there's nobody who pushed it as far as Chris "The Glove" Taylor. He had the trebliest, sharpest and most stinging 808 handclaps of them all. Listen to "Reckless", an early Ice-T song and witness The Glove going completely over the top. Occasional handclaps are duplicated again and again and again, bathed in delay until they become an amorphous cluster of sound hovering in midair like a giant swarm of birds or insects. (Extra geekiness: Another product of The Glove's aesthetics of hyperbole appears around the 1:44 mark - listen how the snare roll disintegrates into an early instance of glitch music, some 10 years before it became a popular genre.)

If you are interested in the triptych you might want to visit the artist's homepage where he is selling posters of it:
http://www.mitchwells.com/art/

New Music: Dam-Funk, Ryan Leslie, Le Le, Seymour Bits

2009-11-10T12:32:00.000-08:00

Dâm-Funk - Toeachizown

This surely is my biggest surprise this year - Dâm-Funks huge concept album "Toeachizown" has just been released (so far on mp3 format and as a 2xCD, later this year on 5 (!!!) vinyl lps). He is playing a mixture of old school synth funk and electro soul - think Prince, Loose Ends, SOS Band, Zapp ... all the good stuff, basically. This feels like it came from out of nowhere and it definitely is anachronistic - there is virtually NOTHING like that at the moment. But that is a huge compliment: It's been a long time since I heard music that is so funky and smooth, so warm and comforting, simply beautiful. I'm left speechless.

If you'd like to find out more, I highly recommend the following interview. Rarely have I seen such a humble, soft-spoken man who - at the same time - is so serious and dedicated about what he is doing. Quite a contrast to the overblown egoes of a lot of hip hoppers, here is a true artist driven by a love for music and THE FUNK.

The album is available via Stones Throw.

Ryan Leslie - Transition

Ryan Leslie's debut album which came out earlier this years has been one of the most underrated, slept-on records this year. And I am not talking about the microcosm of music that this blog is covering, I am talking about pop music: Why this hasn't become a mega-selling, chartbreaking album fails me. His sophomore record "Transition" has just been released a week ago, and while it might not have the epiphanic quality of the debut, it still contains a handful of great R&B tunes that put any other contemporary R&B to shame.

Check his myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/ryanleslie

Le Le - Marble

Le Le is a dutch electro pop outfit who are not afraid to throw some electro funk, italo disco* and a touch of that modern french sound into the mix (without sounding house-y). Light-hearted, lively, humorous and just incredibly catchy.

*italo disco the Dutch way = slightly distorted, acid-like. I'm blaming I-F.

Check their myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/lelemusique

Seymour Bits/Comtron

The Dutch scene seems to be booming at the moment. Hailing from the same city as Le Le, prolific keyboardist/producer Bas Bron is Seymour Bits aka Comtron aka Fatima Yamaha aka Bastien ... this guy has more aliases than DXJ. Seymour Bits and Comtron are his electro funk monikers and I am hearing a lot of old school synth funk in his style. And isn't it nice to see some electro performed with live instruments?

Check his myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/basbron

Randy Barracuda - New Album + Interview

2009-11-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

For some time now I have been trying to sell the music of Randy Barracuda (formerly part of Finnish electro duo Imatran Voima) to my folks at electroempire.com. Much to my surprise and chagrin, I mostly fell on deaf ears. It puzzled me cause his sound seemed so forceful, so compelling that I simply failed to understand how there could be ANY nonbelievers out there. But the electro heads called it too leftfield, too avantgarde. And you know what, they might be right (and wrong at the same time). When a lot of what today's electro has to offer is either retro-purism or new school techno-disguised-as-electro, Randy Barracuda's drunk funk surely must seem alien. Together with some fellow Scandinavian freaks he invented a wholly new and tremendously popular sound aptly titled skweee. Skweee is the bastard child of a mean funk foundation combined with a microeconomics of weird trebly electronics. It has gained quite a following all over the world in 09 so if this is all news to you, you better do your homework.

After a bunch of quality singles, Randy Barracuda has now finally released his first album - needless to say, the record is a monster. I'll promise you instant shivers as soon as the ambient sounds of the intro set in. And after that it's just the baddest and dirtiest grooves garnished with the sweetest, most soulful vocals you can imagine, plus bits and pieces of psychedelia, afro, cosmic, krautrock and old school synth funk dropping by to say hello.

The anthemic Skweee like a pig

There's a certain mystery about it, pointing to a hidden essence but denying it at the same time. The more I listened to it, the more enigmatic it got, until I finally decided to ask the man himself. So without further ado I present to you: Randy Barracuda. (Be warned though - the interview was conducted in a skweeee state of mind. Headaches and feelings of disorientation might occur.)

C.R.: I just listened to The Message again yesterday, and it now it felt like proto-skweee to me: the slow pace, the erratic, chopped up rhythm, the deep funk combined with weird electronic sounds. Has the whole world suddenly turned skweee or has it been around us all the time? What other songs/artists influenced the sound of skweee, and what artists were influential for your own sound?

Randy: Well, The Message was definitely one of those tracks that "did it" to me when I was a teenager. I remember getting high and listening to it over and over again. It also influenced "Duck Butter" for example. Other artists that were extremely influential for me: Parliament, Kraftwerk, Ramsey 2C-3D, Zapp, Airplay & Troy The Wonderboy, Whodini, Dr. Dre... Also synth pop, leftfield disco, modern R&B and Chicago acid played a big role. A lot of the tracks that now sound like proto-skweee (Ryuichi Sakamoto: Riot In Lagos, Pekka Airaksinen: Buddhas Of Golden Light...) I hadn't heard back then, so I can't really say that they influenced me.

C.R.:Your album seems like quite a departure from the hectic & aggressive sounds that dominated the last Imatran Voima record. Also, seeing how diverse the tunes are, is this rather a collection of songs you made over the years or is there an overarching concept behind it?

Randy: When I listen to the last Imatran Voima album now, I can't really recognize myself in it anymore. It’s definitely the soundrack for the years 2005 - 2007: angry, chaotic, distorted and paranoid. It wasn't the easiest time of my life: Speed, alcohol and despair were the keywords for that period. Or like me and Jaakko (Fresh-O-Lex) used to say: fear, self-loathing, hate and industrial alienation.

Imatran Voima - Welfare State of Mind

Last week I finished "Notes From Underground" by Dostoyevsky and just started giggling because it really reminded me of those days. Alone in the basement, frustrated and broke, stench of mold in my nostrils.

I'm very glad that you asked if the new album is just a compilation of tracks: It definitely is. After making two concept albums I wanted to let myself go and just make a straightforward record with no higher structure behind it. It's almost like an old library record (The electronic moods of Barracuda or some shit like that). Musicwise it's an homage to my psychedelic roots: Can, Harmonia, Kraftwerk (surprise, surprise), Tangerine Dream, La Düsseldorf, Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart and also modern soul with its rich and luscious synthesizer sounds and smooth soulful vocals...

C.R.: Haha, „The electronic moods of Barracuda“ - that would have been a great title! What about the psychedelia-turned-computer-age cover art? Is this visual skweee?

Randy: The cover art was done by the man behind Flogsta Danshall: Frans Carlqvist aka Pavan aka Afrika Bambaattaa of Skweee. It's also a part of the library theme. I wanted to have some spacey optical art and he provided it. I don't know if it's visual Skweee, but I think so since he single-handedly created the whole imagery of the label.

the album cover

C.R.: What is the challenge to creating a skweee tune? Compared to producing traditional electro, is it any different/harder? Why the slow pace? Do people still dance to this?

Randy: Well, of course first it wasn't hard because I just felt like I was funking to my own groove. I just started doing it because I felt I had nothing more to give to the contemporary electro scene. To be honest I even have no fuckin' idea what that is. (Fuck, there's a banner of a Dutch dating service blinking on the screen and the woman in the ad looks a bit like my old girlfriend. Very disturbing.) But yeah, making Skweee is great fun because it still is quite an open field and you can just throw in your own interpretation.

And yes, people dance to it. Last weekend I dj'd in a Stockholm club with Mesak from Mr Velcro Fastener. We mostly played 90-100 bpm Skweee and 400 people went loco. You just have to start dancing with your shoulders (think of R. Kelly, haha) and then move downwards, not the other way around.

performing Duck Butter live @Sonar festival 2008

C.R.: Sounds good to me! Now, one thing that I am still confused about is that Skweee seems to uphold an 8-bit/low tech aesthetic, but your music is rife with lush analogue sounds and an undeniable pop sensibility (in the same way that Roger Troutman wrote beautiful pop songs). How about that?

Randy: Don't be confused! When I was young and insecure I was ashamed of writing melodic songs. Now I'm old and I can do what the fuck I want! Ain't life grand?

The way I see it is that lot of Skweee is meant to sound two-dimensional, skeletal and dry and that's the absolute beauty in it. But since I am the starchild my shit is operating in all eleven different dimensions.

C.R.: I am still busy counting the dimensions ... but seriously though: In most of the songs, there is a palpable undercurrent of SOUL which I find remarkable cause it introduces a nonidentical, almost transcendent quality to your music that goes well beyond the immanence of your fellow skweeesters. Would you agree?

Randy: I think there is lots of soul in Skweee music. Just listen to tracks like "We Could Be Skweeeroes" by Eero Johannes, "People Die, Love Don't" by Daniel Savio, "Directors Musices" by Markis Sage or "Mouth Everest" by Beem and you'll see what I mean.

I also think that essentially it is the MOST soulful electronic music genre at the moment: Take a look at the Ibiza death camps of mass produced meaningless house and techno muzak floating in the blogosphere. Tracks made on monday and forgot on tuesday. And why? By popular demand? Where’s all the love and passion? I spoke to George Clinton two weeks ago and it really seems that his prophecy still holds: The Placebo Syndrome hasn’t gone anywhere. 2009 - enter the zone of zero funkativity.

Back to the start: I'm thrilled that you found transcendent qualities in my music, because that's the ultimate compliment I can get. I've always been quite a sentimental person and I think that's one of the reasons behind my output. I feel some sort of a bond with the German romantics of 19th century and their longing for distant realities. Maybe that's the transcendent undercurrent in my music.

And of course we can’t forget the singin’ caveman Michael Black Electro! Without him there wouldn't be 'nuff SOUL on the album. Rock on, brother!

C.R.: Damn inspiring words - thanks a lot for your time and may the funk be with you!

Randy Barracuda's album is available via Flogsta Danshall.

Electro Soul Satisfaction

2009-10-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

You might remember this little clip I posted a while back of Brenda Starr performing "Vicious Beat" in the 1984 movie Beat Street. It was taken from the audition scene where Brenda is entering the stage right after this band:

Singer Mic Murphy and keyboardist David Frank were known as "The System" and played ... well, not really electro, more like synth-based soul. But it was the 80s when boundaries were still a lot more permeable and it was possible to score a couple of major r&b hits and still appear in a movie about hip hop.

Fast forward to the year 2009 and we are witnessing not only a comeback of Mic Murphy but also a collaboration with none other than legendary rapper Melle Mel. All that can largely be credited to the efforts of UK based DJ and electro head Lloyd Harvey who got in contact with Murphy and convinced him to sing on a tune that fellow UK producer Diplomat had created. This tune is now released in a beautiful package with 5 incredible (re-)mixes.

The original mix by Lloyd Da Zoid and Diplomat could have been an unreleased System track, ca. 1985. This is pure electro soul bliss: The straight beat and driving bass create a reduced frame that gives the track a lot of room to breathe - which is perfectly complemented by Murphy's soulful vocals and some unobtrusive yet haunting synth tapestries:

EDMX keeps it old school as well, so does Funkmaster Ozone who is delivering his trademark West Coast influenced bounce. Sbassship's perfectly crafted piece of German engineering turns the song into a freestyle tune (with more than a hint of that 90s Euro sound). Every note, every sound and every detail is in place. The production is nothing less than flawless - lush and polished, modern and New School sounding (not in that dark & technoid New School way though):

Finally I have to give it up to Dutch funkateer Seymour Bits who might be the biggest surprise on this record. This is what The System might sound like if they were still releasing records in 2009: cutting-edge, but with a lot of mainstream crossover potential. The remix is huge in a literal way: a wall of sound, compressed and pumping and quite reminiscent of the contemporary French style (think Daft Punk, Justice, DJ Mehdi). With its 4-to-the-floor bass drum it might even pass for house, albeit a mean and funky version of it. Equipped with a dirty bass and at a slow pace, it is irresistibly crawling - or better yet steamrolling towards you:

Get the limited edition 12" vinyl directly from the electro avenue homepage:
http://www.electroavenue.com

A digital release is set to follow later this month.

Untold Stories: The Message

2009-10-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

Much has been said & written about how Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock came into being as an amalgamation of European electronic music and American funk traditions. In fact, you will find quite a few Planet Rock genealogies on this very blog. But how about that other seminal 1982 classic, Grandmaster Flash's "The Message"? With its origins far less documented, you could think this was a truly independent and self-contained creation on Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's part.

Not really - here's some fun facts.

Common knowledge:
- Grandmaster Flash didn't like the concept of The Message's gritty street realism. Neither did the Furious Five, except for Melle Mel. That's why he ended up doing most of the raps and being the only member of the group who appeared on the credits. And although it is Flash's first and most important record, Flash himself wasn't even part of it.

Untold story:
- Duke Bootee and Doug Wimbish of the Sugarhill house band wrote the music and part of the raps. Most of the experimental edge - the sampled and electronic noises and sounds - can be traced to the influence of Brian Eno's collage masterpiece "My life in the bush of ghosts".

Even lesser told story:
- Most of the music can be traced to the influence of another contemporary record: One Way's "Cutie Pie".

So although The Message has a completely different aesthetic - the slow pace, the street/social topics -, it's actually quite similar to Planet Rock: not only as an appropriation of other existing music, but more specifically as a clash of funk and experimental electronics.

Further reading/viewing:
- youtube clip on Duke Bootee's role in composing The Message
- interview with Doug Wimbish, co-composer of The Message

Link of the day: Hip Hop is dead (again)

2009-10-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hip Hop: alive & kicking in 2009

In a remarkable article for The New Yorker, Sasha Frere Jones talks about how much the new Jay-Z album sucks, how the new Raekwon album is actually pretty good and how Freddie Gibbs might be the best thing in hip hop right now. The article is spot on; he could have mentioned Lil B or Z-Ro instead of Freddie Gibbs, but I agree that the latter has the most commercial potential.

Jones' version of the much heard "hip hop = dead" lamentation rests on the assumption that hip hop is losing its paradigmadic status for pop music by accepting influences from other genres - most of all by adapting to 4-to-the-floor-beats of contemporary club music:

The tempos and sonics of disco’s various children — techno, rave, whatever your particular neighborhood made of a four-on-the-floor thump — are slowly replacing hip-hop’s blues-based swing. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the rudimentary digital sound of New Orleans bounce or the crusty samples of New York hip-hop: this music wants to swing and syncopate. On major commercial releases, this impulse is giving way to a European pulse, simpler and faster and more explicitly designed for clubs.

Two minor corrections:

1. Some of the earliest rap music was disco-based and had straight beats. Also, a lot of the P-Funk and Synth-Funk that influenced West Coast hip hop had a palpable touch of disco 4-to-the-floor beats. As of lately, there is a whole new wave of incredibly funky and modern sounding hip hop with a distinct 4-to-the-floor feel (and I am NOT talking about Baltimore) that is feeding on those old school funk influences instead of the techno/club music of today. I will be covering some of that in the near future.

2. You could also turn the argument around. It is a misconception that club music has to have a 4-to-the-floor thump. In 1982 the world was introduced to a form of syncopated dance music that has continued to be relevant and vibrant to this day: electro.

Street Sounds Nu Electro 2: A Sneak Peek

2009-10-17T15:16:00.001-07:00

Doesn't it look beautiful? I think I even prefer the cover art to that of SSNE1. All in all it's a bit more reduced and purist than the first installment. The "electro" logo has its 80s flatness back - and isn't it incredible how bright and blinding a simple white shape can be? Light certainly is a leitmotif here, and the colour scheme goes well with the airy, minimal aesthetic. The appearance of the large figure steadily changes between sign/number and abstract shape - it's like looking at a drawing and seeing through the illusion, seeing that at a fundamental level there is nothing but a line dividing a plane and defining space ... only this time, the line is even more immaterial as it is made of "neon light, shimmering neon light".

Cosmic Rockers - Ondoka II (The Wandering of Humanity)

2009-10-15T02:28:00.000-07:00

"The Wandering of Humanity" is part 2 of the Ondoka trilogy which explores the metaphor of nomadism as a material and psychological state of existence. Part 1 introduced the aspects of leaving and taking off, now part 2 is focused on the alienation and loneliness of being in transit.

I am really wearing my influences on my sleeve for this one:
- Newcleus: Why
- Newcleus: Programmed for Love
- Cybotron - Techno City
- DJ Quik (for the percussion)

"Street Art"

2009-10-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

Breaking news: graffiti now called "street art" ...

Street Sounds Nu Electro 1 - Cover Art

2009-10-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

A while back I stumbled upon a Flickr page that featured some preliminary concepts and sketches for the SSNE1 cover art. I was immediately stunned by a piece labelled "first draft" which not only looked truly beautiful but also seemed to capture the essence of what made the old Street Sounds artwork such a forceful piece of design (or may I even say "art"?): The flatness. The pastel colors. A clean and organized composition, but never too strict or sterile.

(First draft - click on the picture for a larger image)

So I dug out SSNE1 again and all of a sudden noticed a lot of details and subtle references that I had missed at my first and cursory look (I know, shame on me). As I realized the amount of consideration and work behind it, I thought it might be enlightening to get some first-hand information by the man in charge. So here's a little conversation with Andy of Plus2 Studio about the genesis and evolution of the Street Sounds Nu Electro 1 cover artwork.

C.R.: It was really interesting to see all the different concepts that didn't make it - I wouldn't have expected them to be so diverse. So I'd first like to talk about the way from the first drafts to the final version. How did you get involved in the project?

Andy: I first got in touch with Morgan when the press release announcing the release of the Nu Electro series was circulated. I am a massive fan of the music, and I’m slightly obsessive about the original packaging. It was the definitive piece of graphic design in the 80s that inspired me to become a designer. I rebuilt the original cover designs as a self initiated project some years ago. Many hours were spent researching, to find a perfect font match for the heavily elongated and condensed text. I eventually purchased it from a small font foundry in France.

(The famous condensed typeface of the Electro series)

C.R.: What guidelines did you get from Morgan for the first concepts? Did he want a specific look, or did he leave it up to you to surprise him?

Andy: He was pretty open to interpretation. For the first draft, I kept some of the original elements to make the link to the original releases: the background colour, the condensed electro typeface and the flat colour treatments. I liked the minimalist approach. The new elements I added were the use of a metallic gold and some quite contemporary looking numerals. Morgan had seen enough to indicate that I was the man for the job even though this initial design was not quite what he wanted. It was a bit too "warp" / "electronic" (see above for a picture of the first draft).

C.R. So what were your own guidelines when you worked on what became the final version? What were you trying to express and achieve?

Andy: I was trying to keep one foot in the past but also represent the futuristic sci-fi elements heavily linked with the music. I thought I really shouldn’t be trying reinvent the wheel here, so I went back to the original Electro 1.

My influences for creating the 3D number one were two things: The original number one from Electro 1 and an excellent website with loads of CGI spacecraft. There’s one in particular I drew inspiration from:

The body text typeface is from an excellent type typographer (http://www.neubauladen.com). This had just the the feel I was looking for. After a little bit of tinkering - there you have it. The spirit of the 80’s original and the sci-fi futurism of the now.

C.R.: That's interesting cause to me the 3D number and the typeface also have a slight retro feeling to them. The black background coupled with the sci-fi details give it a martial, muscular appearance that I alway tend to connect with early 90s American corporate design.The same probably goes for the typeface which looks like a 90s new school variant of the crude monospace pixel type seen on old computer screens. It seems that the current design paradigm is a return to reduced modernist aesthetics, so maybe the appeal to 3D phatness and computer symbolism can already be seen as old school in a way?

Andy: The number one was built using the exact outline of the "1" from the 80s original. It is I guess, retro/future. The type does echo the monospace type used on early VDUs but I think there is a definite futuristic feel to the type.

(The text typeface of Nu Electro 1)

C.R.: "Retro-futurist" describes it perfectly, thanks for the hint! One final question: Are there any artists, designers, schools or traditions that have influenced your work?

Andy: Loads ... I was particularly influenced by Neville Brody in the late 90's and also the work of Thirst, who I did a work placement with, before I started my studio. They did the design and art direction of i-D magazine. It was all PMT cameras and paste up, the traditional old school and very skilled way. Swifty is another influence, loved his work for Talkin Loud in the 90s.

(1988 Nike ad by Neville Brody)

I also like the work of Wim Crouwel, and Swiss minimalist typography. I love grids and structure and the use of space — anything that is considered and that has real craft. In terms of Electro AS1 Projects is doing some real good quality stuff stateside, with Monotone etc.

(Classic Wim Crouwel design from 1954)

Check out Andy's diverse portfolio at http://www.plustwo.co.uk.

Auto-Tune: Notable Exceptions

2009-09-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last post on the topic whose name shall not be mentioned. Here are 2 auto-tunes (...) approved by yours truly. First one is by the Black Eyed Peas ... just kidding.

Kool Keith - Executive Suites (2009)

First impression: This might be Kool Keith's most accessible and catchy song to date. On second thought, everything about it is so over the top (including the not-so-subtle integration of auto-tuned vocals) that I'm getting highly suspicious. With all its subtlety and ambiguity, it is a far more intelligent (and hilarious) comment on an auto-tuned world than Jay-Z's and KRS-One's banalities. As Hegel would have said, Kool Keith is on some determinate (as opposed to abstract) negation shit. Plus it's a dope song which leaves me with high expectations for the upcoming album scheduled for october 13th.

Newcleus - Programmed for Love (2009)

Electro pioneers Newcleus return with some surprisingly new school sounding material. Big pounding drums and a distorted bass provide the backdrop for a soulful tune full of ambient sounds and effects. The use of Auto-Tune is very subtle: not as a means in itself, a bland l'art-pour-l'art gesture, but as a way to enhance and underline the dreamy and meandering character of the vocals.

So can we please get back to talking about vocoders now?

Why I am glad Auto-Tune didn't exist in the 80s

2009-09-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

I really don't want to mention Auto-Tune. Ever. But it's like tourette, I can't help lashing out against it. So I'd better make it quick & painful: There is one more Auto-Tune related post coming up and then I'm done for good.

Death Of Auto-Tune (Bonus Beats): A Brief Guide To Robot Voices

2009-09-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

When KRS One and Buckshot dropped their anti Auto-Tune lamentation "Robot" a while back, they mentioned some pioneers of Auto-Tune that they exempted from their critique:

- Roger Troutman
- Afrika Bambaataa (Planet Rock)
- The Jonzun Crew (Pack Jam)
- Kraftwerk

One thing that these four have in common is: None of them has ever used Auto-Tune. So instead of lumping all robotic vocals together and calling them Auto-Tune, it might be instructive to have a look at the various types of voice modulation. Once you understand how they work it's actually not too hard to spot the differences (I am looking at you, KRS and Buckshot).

1. Auto-Tune

Auto-Tune is a device that tunes your voice. If used moderately - as in most of today's pop music - you won't even notice it's there. What you will notice though is the radical use of it as an effect to alter the sound of your voice. The human voice sings legato, meaning there is a smooth transition between notes of a different pitch. When you erase the transition and force the vocals to directly jump to the next note, the result will be an unnatural robot-like staccato effect that you know from too many bad songs. I will spare you the listening example.

How to recognize:
- flat and artificial sound of the voice
- sudden pitch shifts that create a stuttering effect

2. Talk box

A talk box involves two sound sources: your voice and a synth (or any other instrument). Or rather, the synth is the only sound source while the voice is only used as an effect. This is how it's done: First you play a sound or a melody on the synth. At the same time, the sound is sent into your mouth through a plastic tube. You use our mouth to shape the sound by "talking" without actually speaking - much like when you are at a concert or in a club and shape the surrounding noise by opening and closing your mouth, making "wah wah" without actually speaking.

It takes a lot of practice and articulation to get a good result, but when it's done correctly it produces a very distinct sound. Multiinstrumentalist and musical genius Roger Troutman was the master of the talk box, and I'd like to say DJ Quik is keeping his legacy alive. Posting the mandatory Roger Troutman video would be too obvious, so here is another one that I bet you all know (plus you can really see the talk box at work):

And here's a recent talk box tune that was definitely inspired by Roger Troutman:

And forget what I said before - here's the man himself:

How to recognize:
- metallic robot sound, often in the higher pitch/frequency area
- mostly monophonic (meaning there's only a single melody and no chords involved)
- can have vibrato and smooth transitions between pitches

3. Vocoder

This is basically the same principle: Two sound sources (voice and synth), one of which is used to shape the other. Technically it is a little different: First you speak into a microphone. The vocoder will analyze and filter your voice, pass it on to the synth and blend the two together to create the final sound. Vocoder voices can have a large variety of expressions, from deep and raspy to ethereal and dreamy sounds.

How to recognize:
- can have a full and polyphonic sound
- will generally sound clearer and more articulate, especially when consonants are involved

4. Speech Synthesis

Speech synthesis is the artificial creation of human speech: You type a text and the computer converts it into a sound that resembles the human voice ... or rather an artificial, robotic version of the human voice. Here's a beautiful example of speech synthesis (for the nerds: correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the 1981 Computerwelt uses a vocoder for the chorus while this one has speech synthesis throughout the whole song):

P.S. The time is 6:57 a.m.

How to recognize:
- some words might not sound right and odd pronounciations might occur
- often there is only one pitch, creating a monotonous intonation

Stop the Madness

2009-09-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

Graphic aural content - viewer discretion is advised:

...

And for further entertainment, here's some 80s throwback stuff. If you make it to 4:05, you will be rewarded with 10 seconds of maximum hilarity.

The Blueprint 3

2009-09-02T04:03:00.001-07:00

So Jay-Z's new album leaked a couple of days ago.

Fun Fact: While there is a song called "D.O.A." (Death Of Auto-Tune) on it, a lot of the hooks sound so sterile and polished that I am guessing there are at least a good 5 songs that actually use Auto-tune. One of the songs doesn't even try to hide it. Which is such a blatant disregard for consistency that I am almost tempted to read it as an ironic comment on hip hop's obsession with realness. But I guess it is quite unintentional (which makes it even more ironic).

The music is not that interesting, so I'd rather talk about the cover art. Here are two recent album covers which might have inspired it:

The idea of three horizontal bands of color representing the number 3 is especially compelling. Stripes have a long tradition in the history of modern art - Abstract Expressionism, Minimal and Concept Art have all utilized monochrome stripes on a light/white ground.

While Agnes Martin's (top left) grids of lines are so low contrast that they seem to blend into the background, always on the verge of disappearing, John McLaughlin (top right) used to paint deep black rectangles on white canvas - somewhat reminiscent of asian calligraphy, or at least: a reduced, geometric version of it. Daniel Buren (bottom left) is often referred to as the "stripe guy". Buren's all-over paintings only have vertical stripes, but his companion Michel Parmentier (bottom right) also turned them horizontal.

Of course, red stripes on a white surface can also be seen as a reference to another iconic piece of art. Take a guess:

(Click on the picture)

Miscellany Vol.3: Kraftwerk, Dynamix II, John Robie

2009-08-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

Kraftwerk announce 8 cd box set

Kraftwerk have announced the release of an 8 cd box set comprising their works from 1974 - 2003. The release was already planned for 2004, however it was postponed at the last minute. The new date is set for October 5th. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Included will be (digitally remastered, expanded artwork and whatnot):

Autobahn (1974)
Radio-Activity (1975)
Trans-Europe Express (1977)
The Man-Machine (1978)
Computer World (1981)
Electric Café (1986)
The Mix (1991)
Tour de France Soundtracks (2003)

Apparently there is also going to be a vinyl release of this.

And speaking of Kraftwerk, here's a completely unrelated video by Chicago rapper GLC. It's easily forgettable if it weren't for the first 35 seconds where Bun B of UGK makes a short introduction - check out the shirt he is wearing. Not too bad ...

Scratch D of Dynamix II vs. John Robie - They're coming

Electro bass pioneers Dynamix II (or rather, one half of Dynamix II) have teamed up with electro funk legend John Robie to create 3 mixes of a new tune "They're coming". Dynamix II are probably most known for their seminal "Just give the DJ a break" and can be credited as being one of the first groups to transform the traditional rap-based Miami bass sound into the new school: creating a dark and sparse version of electro bass, with extra low end, copious amounts of vocoderized vocals and even a hint of breaks influence.

I've always thought it's ironic that this tune which so perfectly embodies their heavy and sinister style is based on an early 80s New Wave song: The main break was sampled from Visage's "Pleasure Boys":

Keyboard wizard John Robie was the mastermind behind the earliest electro records. Together with producer Arthur Baker he created Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock", "Looking for the Perfect Beat", Planet Patrol's "Play at your own risk" and was also responsible for some of the earliest Freestyle records. It's no overstatement to say that he was the main force that defined the music and the sound of electro, and by that created a blueprint that artists are still copying today.

What really set him and those early electro tracks apart was the fact that he was a musician. That was a rare occasion in early 80s hip hop where the focus was usually on the beat, and the compositions were crude and raw (not that there was anything wrong with that). A similar constellation can be found in contemporary electro. My biggest qualm with a lot of new school electro is its lack of musicianship. Most artists are beatmakers - and it shows: Sometimes you're left wondering if they are going for that reduced and minimal sound on purpose or if it's due to their limited abilites. So it's a welcome surprise to hear some artistry in electro music again.

UPDATE 08/24: I just got the news that this is not even supposed to be released yet. Please check back - I will write a more detailed review as soon as the final versions hit the stores.

Going ExperiMANTAL

2009-08-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

[ ] Yes.

[ ] No.

Miscellany Vol.2

2009-08-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

An interesting article from Slate magazine on the rise of the "no homo" tag in hip hop and how it involuntarily serves to make everything a lot gayer after all:
Slate on the rise of no homo

Someone should tell Byron Crawford ...

New York magazine picked up the story but the entire point was lost somewhere along the way:
No Homo: Cause for Hope in Hip-Hop?

And on a lighter note: Harry Allen of Public Enemy (and nowadays: Media Assassin) fame likes the Russell Brothers!
Gettin' My "Russell Rush" On

I can only agree with him. This is a pretty rare records, so chances are you haven't heard it before .. and if so, it was probably on the "NY vs. LA beats" compilation from the Street Sounds series, perhaps my personal favorite of the whole series: The tracklist is incredible and the mixing is just perfect.

NY:
Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock
Hashim - Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)
Captain Rock - The Return of Captain Rock
Aleem - Release Yourself
Man Parrish - Hip Hop Be Bop (Don't Stop)
Pumpkin - King of the Beat
B-Boys - Two, Three Break
Russell Brothers - The Party Scene
Fresh 3 MC's - Fresh
Whodini - Freaks Come Out At Night
UTFO - Roxanne, Roxanne

L.A.:
L.A. Dream Team - Rockberry Jam
Unknown DJ - 808 Beats
D.E.F. feat. DJ Three D - D.E.F. Momentum
World Class Wreckin' Crew - Surgery
Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt
World Class Wreckin' Crew - Juice
Unknown DJ - Let's Jam
Egyptian Lover - Girls
Uncle Jamm's Army - Naughty Boy
Knights Of The Turntables - Techno Scratch
Knights Of The Turntables - We Are The Knights
Chris "The Glove" Taylor - Itchiban Scratch

DOWNLOAD it here (really, do!).
(via DEF Momentum)
Password: def-momentum.blogspot.com

Changes ... Vol.3: The Jungle Drum

2009-08-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Emiliana Torrini - Jungle Drum (2009)

When I saw this^ (#1 in the German pop charts for some weeks now), I had to think of that:

The Cool Kids - What Up Man (2008)

A long time ago, there was this:

Kraftwerk - Boing Boom Tschak (1986)

But even before that, there had been this:

George Kranz - Din Daa Daa (1983)

Honorable mentions: Italo Poppers Scotch with their Disco Band and MC Shy-D with the intro to "Gotta Be Tough". And "La Di Da Di" of course, but that's a whole different story.

Did I miss anything?

Wolfgang Riechmann - Wunderbar

2009-08-04T13:59:00.001-07:00

"If there is anyone today to whom we can pass on the responsibilities of the message, we bequeath it ... to the imaginary witness - lest it perish with us." (Theodor W. Adorno & Max Horkheimer)

(Our way today: from Düsseldorf (left) to Cologne (right))

Last week a precious message in a bottle finally found its way to the shore: Wolfgang Riechmann's 1979 album "Wunderbar" was re-released. Riechmann was a contemporary of Kraftwerk and part of the Düsseldorf electronic scene. His only album is one of the most slept on gems from this time, eclipsed by the artist's untimely demise and by the success of Kraftwerk's Man-Machine which was released around the same time. Unlike other kraut and electronic music of that time, "Wunderbar" has aged very well and still sounds exciting today.

Riechmann composed meandering, repetitive and ambient pieces of music that bear some resemblance to Kraftwerk and their contemporaries such as Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. His music had an inherent beauty; it wasn't as erratic and abstract as Schulze's, had more soul than Kraftwerk's and less kitsch than Tangerine Dream's. He showed proof that electronic music can possess warmth and humanity. A strong undercurrent of palpable nostalgia and haunting romanticism pervades every song, and this content produces a beautiful dialectic when it rivals the electronic form.

Check out the first song off the album; a wonderful song with a slight spaghetti western feel that always reminds me of the For A Few Dollars More theme (as used in Babe Ruth's "The Mexican" ... as used in Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock"). It's almost an instrumental piece - the only vocals are some onomatopoietic syllables and fragments that evoke a primordial language, a longing for lost security and happiness: (you might want to listen to the audio without watching the annoying video)

There is a sadness to it that becomes almost unbearable if you are aware of Riechmann's tragic fate. Only 2 weeks before the release of his album, he was brutally stabbed to death by two complete strangers while taking a walk with his girlfriend in the picturesque and peaceful old town of Düsseldorf. It was an act of utter senselessness, there was no motive and Riechmann was a random target.

DOWNLOAD "Wunderbar" from the web or order the re-released cd.

Talking about stabbings and knife attacks, this just in: Last week Bero Bass of Cologne gangsta rap group La Honda cut up a rival pretty bad. He is now incarcerated and facing charges of attempted manslaughter ... finally living the life he fantasized about in his lyrics. Here's my favorite La Honda tune. Fierce and aggressive, with simple yet effective raps over a 808/retro-flavored beat topped by a G-funk hook. You won't be able to understand the German lyrics, but the whole tune is basically just an extended chorus - incredibly catchy.

Raise it up

2009-08-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

2 great artists R.I.P.
Left: J Dilla (1974-2006)
Right: Baatin, who just passed away today.

J Dilla aka Jaydee and Baatin were two thirds of Slum Village. Here's the beautiful video to Slum Village's beautiful tune "Raise it up":

Fun fact: The quirky sample is lifted off a house tune, Thomas Bangalter's "Extra Dry". It starts off with the sample - a bit reminiscent of 8-bit/chiptune music - but gets increasingly noisy, distorted and abstract along the way:

Thomas Bangalter of course was one half of the influential French house duo Daft Punk. Their body of work was raw and innovative ... but at the same time incredibly club/mainstream friendly. It makes you wonder why they haven't been sampled more often. Sure, there's Kanye West's "Stronger" which is probably the obvious choice cause the original was a huge hit and has that nice memorable talk box chorus. Since it's Kanye it comes as no surprise though that his version is quite wack and pales in comparison to Mickey Factz' take on "Robot Rock". Good decision on Mickey's part to keep it simple and NOT to throw it in the neo (read: watered down r&b) hip hop blender, but straight loop the original and rap over it cause it ROCKS. Reminds you of the old days when hip hop was not afraid of appropriating contemporary dance and disco songs.

Check out his hyper-eclectic heaven's fallout mixtape where he samples everything and everyone from Bjork to The Prodigy to a Wes Anderson movie soundtrack back to Uffie to The Smiths to Daft Punk and Jamiroquai etc. etc. Hit and miss mostly but when it hits, it hits hard.

(What's up with Mickey Factz though? All that good stuff was from 07/08. This year so far: disappointing.)

Disorderly Conduct

2009-07-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

In light of recent events ...

I only found the dub version on the tube.

The Latin Rascals were the kings of edits: a style of remixing that chops up the original track in a stuttery, stop-and-go kind of way. Here's another sweet (pun intended) example of innovative editing ... Omar Santana's remix of Sweet Sensation's freestyle classic "Hooked On You":

I Should Tell Ya Momma On You

2009-07-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

Some incredible funk beatboxing by Red whose single dropped today ... and you can also download it via iTunes. Red rose to internet fame with a youtube video of him beatboxing in a backyard (check below). Even Justin Timberlake got caught up in the buzz and referenced him in a recent tweet. Add Mr. Timberlake to the steadily growing list of people who get confused about this auto-tune thing. Red's certainly not emulating any auto-tuned vocals - this is old-school talk box funk. Roger Troutman would have been proud.

If only DJ Quik had made that remix ...

(via Steady Bloggin)

Robot

2009-07-23T01:25:00.000-07:00

A while ago, Jay-Z proclaimed the Death of Auto-Tune, now hip hop's "grand oak" KRS One and Black Moon's Buckshot weigh in. The visuals are compelling, the beat is well-done but I cannot shake off the feeling that something is very wrong here. At first sight, it seems like another "the youth of today ..." lamentation - a story of generational conflict and the loss of authority on Jay-Z's and KRS One's side who have been left behind by a bunch of young and successful rappers. But there's more at stake here.

The general suspicion against the auto-tuning device rest on the bias against technological enhancement in music: the resentment that "we are being cheated". But can there be cheating in music? Only if you believe in the ideal of a true musician as master of his trade, working his ass off and shedding a lot of blood, sweat and tears for his art. Of course, this sounds much like the critique of "real" musicians when synthesizers and drum machines were introduced. Or even worse, a few years later when digital samplers became established. It's a bit unsettling to hear KRS One reproduce the same prejudice that hip hop had to face whose proliferating creativity was only made possible by new democratized technology.

He must have realized this, so we get a distinction between good and bad use of the technology. And as much as i like seeing Roger Troutman, Afrika Bambaataa, Kraftwerk and the Jonzun Crew mentioned (and even their cover art shown - good PR for some good music!), I cannot help but wonder: What do they have to do with Auto-Tune? Nothing of course - he is not only talking about Auto-Tune. A pitch correction via Auto-Tune is a very subtle effect and will go unnoticed in 99% of the cases. In today's Pop music, all vocalists use some sort of auto-tuning device. It is quite ironic that only the reflective, self-confident use of it draws critique: artists like T-Pain or Lil Wayne make no secret of the artificiality of their vocals.

KRS One's beef is not primarily with voice modulation. "Robot" is a metaphor for all that's wrong in today's hip hop: commercialization, selling out, going pop, fake rappers ... you name it. And that's a paradoxical situation: Hip Hop has always been haunted by the trope of realness. It cannot do without the appeal to authenticity, but the identification has alway been imaginary and fragile. Thus all the hyperbole, all the symbolic staging to conceal the nagging fear of the emptiness of the real. Pop music on the other hand doesn't know any authenticity, it embraces surface and dissolves any substance or essence. With hip hop's entrance into the pop canon the contradictions have only become more apparent - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, cause the resulting friction might convert into some great music.

The Third Rail

2009-07-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

This is the intro to L.S.D.'s 1991 album "Watch out for the Third Rail" which is probably the most important hip hop album to ever come out of Germany. L.S.D. were Germany's Bomb Squad, pioneers of the Golden Age, unleashing dense, layered and sonically overdetermined songs onto an unprepared audience. These 4 school kids were certainly not aiming for commercial success: their songs had no hooks, choruses or ANY radio friendly content. It was just tons of funk and jazz samples, fast rapping and a lot of scratching. There's an imminent sense of urgency about them, as if their creativity was literally overflowing and had to be crammed into each song chock-full of ideas.

Being a crew of four with just one mc, the beats and production was what really set the album apart. The competitive spirit which made this masterpiece possible is palpable, and it even prevailed inside the group - there are stories of members going on secret crate-digging missions, not even revealing names of records and sample sources to their fellow band members. Needless to say, they didn't score high on the charts, but they gained a lot of reputation in the underground and have been - to this day - admired by true hip hop lovers as the only German crew who was up to par with their American contemporaries. Last year, their legendary album was re-released ... you might want to check their myspace for details.

If you were to make a list of samples on that album, it would be longer than the infamous Paul's Boutique list. I couldn't even figure out all the samples from the 30-second intro ... well, here are the most obvious:

"Third Rail" is taken from Eric B and Rakim's "Follow the Leader".

The horn stabs are lifted from James Brown's "Cold Sweat" ... the snippet starts off with the horn stabs and proceeds with an excerpt of the James Brown tune.

Most obivously, the beginning "Watch out for the third rail, baby ..." is Fab 5 Freddy's voice from a scene in Wild Style.

Realness and selling out seem to have been major issues as early as 1983. Z-Roc - the white kid who is such a fervent advocate of staying underground - is actually played by Zephyr, himself a renowned graffiti artist.

Quite recently, Zephyr was mentioned in a song by New York folk singer Suzanne Vega. She describes meeting him and reminiscing about the old times - the late 70s when graffiti and hip hop were new and exciting for New York's youth.

It's a beautiful song, a brief impression translated into unpretentious yet lyrical prose. And there's even a subtle pro-graffiti message - which is a rare surprise, especially considering that it's coming from a middle-aged woman who is catering to an overwhelmingly white and bourgeois crowd. On top of it, it is probably the most poetic plea for graffiti I have ever heard:

The graffiti's gone and the walls complain
The flowers go but the earth must still remain

Changes & Subtleties in 25 years of Pop Music Vol. 2

2009-07-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

1977

1988

2001

Mandre's "Solar Flight" is a lot less known than the omnipresent Isaac Hayes sample from the last installment of our "Changes & Subtleties" series. Mandre was a persona invented by synthesizer pioneer Andre Lewis who concealed his true identity with a helmet. Was he the first in the long line of behelmeted pop (Jonzun Crew, Devo, The Residents, Daft Punk, ...)? That's open to debate, but French disco group Space are at least close contestants, as their 1977 video "Magic Fly" proves.

DJ Jazzy Jeff appropriated this weird, sinister and spaced out piece of jazz-funk for his "Rhythm Trax House Party Style". Imagine my surprise when I found out about a recent (well...) house tune that also used it (or rather: replayed) it. I won't be covering much house music on here, but you have to admit they flipped it quite well.

Hip Hop goes Pop Culture Part 3: Evian

2009-07-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

A while ago it was Cadbury, now it's Evian.
Seems like old school hip hop & the 4 elements are quite popular with the advertising folks at the moment. Prepare for another revival?

And a longer version:

Dan the Automator and some folks from Jurassic 5 are responsible for the new version of Rapper's Delight which they apparently put together exclusively for the Evian commercial. Just when you thought De La Soul's Nike album was the maximum of brand integration.

P.S. And Web 2.0 has now officially made it. At least it is the first corporate commerical I've seen that exploits the youtube esthetic.

P.P.S. The Rapper's Delight 2009 single will drop today. Check myspace.

Rap is not Pop

2009-07-05T03:38:00.000-07:00

"Rap is not pop, if you call it that then stop."

Well, I really don't know. I think we can all agree that Q-Tip's statement (which he made in 1991 as a diss against MC Hammer, btw) has been disproved by history: Rap IS pop. Most probably it has always been. And even if we don't read the quote as a positive, empirical desription but rather as a normative claim, I am still hesitant to agree that rap shouldn't be pop. I've always liked hip hop with a pop sensibility and I've always had a soft spot for truly cheezy, mainstream crossover hip hop. Think of: The Rocksteady Crew. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Skee-Lo. Hell, even MC Hammer.

So here's a little pop quiz (pun intended) for you: What were the first 3 rap songs / songs with rapping to reach the Billboard Charts' number 1 position?

Now If I was asked I'd probably say The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was tremendously successful. And "The Message" of course, as well as anything by Kurtis Blow. "Hey You" by the Rock Steady Crew was a major hit even if it didn't have much rapping. A few years later the crossover got even bigger with Run DMC scoring hits like "Walk this way" or "It's tricky". And finally, the one that inspired Q-Tip's "rap is not pop" sentiment: "U can't touch this".

In reality though, these were the first 3 rap songs at #1:

1981

1986

1990

Notice anything? I'm just saying ...

Moonwalking in Space

2009-06-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson R.I.P.
For a great personal account of the whole thing, I'd like to refer you to Combat Jack.

As you might (or might not) know, Michael Jackson learned most of his dancing from Jeffrey Daniel - including the legendary moonwalk. Jeffrey Daniel started his career as a dancer on the TV show Soul Train and later became became known as a member of the disco/dance group Shalamar. Here's Jeffrey Daniel performing Shalamar's biggest hit "A Night To Remember" on the British show Top of the Pops in 1982:

Check out the first appearance of the moonwalk on TV, at about 1:40 into the video. When it comes to breaking, I have always been a big fan of the West Coast styles: popping & locking & slides & glides, i.e. all that pantomime and robot stuff that you see Daniel performing. He was probably the first to bring that street style to popular attention.

Needless to say, it was up to Michael Jackson to perfect it ... but if you review his dancing you will be surprised how many breaking moves he actually incorporated. The moonwalk is taken from the legendary Bucharest performance:

Ironically, there is a second person who claims to have taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk: Michael Chambers aka Boogaloo Shrimp. While that claim might not be 100% true, Boogaloo Shrimp is possibly the only dancer who could hold up against Michael Jackson: His liquid style was just incredible. As an L.A. native, he was also influenced by West Coast popping & locking. After appearing in "Breaking & Entering", a documentary on early 80s L.A. breaking and hip hop, he had his commercial breakthrough starring in the 1984 Hollywood production "Breakin". Here are 2 of my favorite scenes:

Here's a fun fact about "Breakin": If you carefully watch the following scene and resist the temptation to only look at Lucinda Dickey, you will spot an extra in a black bodysuit, busting some of the wackest moves ever seen. Yes, it really IS Jean-Claude Van Damme:

P.S. As I am writing this (2 a.m.), somebody is blasting "Beat it" in the street. YEAH!

African Weeks on Cosmic Rock: N.E.P.A.

2009-06-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

If you are talking about African music you have to talk about afrobeat. Invented by Fela Kuti - charismatic Nigerian bandleader, lauded for his muscial creativity & political achievements, criticized for his misoginysm and homophobia -, afrobeat is a mixture of American funk & jazz with traditional African elements.

My favorite piece of afrobeat is Tony Allen's 1985 ep "N.E.P.A.". If you are following this blog and like the kind of music I am writing about, I am sure you will love this. Tony Allen was Fela Kuti's drummer and much of the beat in afrobeat is due to him. "N.E.P.A." is an acronym for "Nigerian Electrical Power Authority", the official Nigerian electrical supplier. Since that agency is notorious for its unreliability and somewhat erratic services, Allen flipped the meaning to "Never Expect Power Always". And of course, even if you don't know that background, it can still be understood as a political statement.

While Fela Kuti's songs can be 20 minute epics, Allen cut the fat and imposed a rigid framework on his music. He tightened up the songs' overflowing quality, reduced the jazzy improvisations and turned them into repetitive patterns that are very reminiscent of modern dance music. The sound is also quite modern: hard hitting drums and a fat, punchy bassline provide the backdrop, while occasional brass stabs slice through the mix. The African polyrhythm is still audible, but it has transformed into a real beat: kick and snare now assume a much bigger role than in traditional afrobeat where they were equal to all other percussion instruments.

The ep has two songs and their respective dub versions. There is one bonus track that wasn't featured on the original release but on the 2002 CD reissue which has also been out of print for some years now.

Tracklist:
1. N.E.P.A. (Never Expect Power Always)
2. N.E.P.A. Dance Dub
3. When One Road Close (Another One Go Open)
4. When One Road Close Dance Dub
5. Olokun

DOWNLOAD N.E.P.A.

Last but not least, some shameless self-promotion: I ~~stole~~ was inspired by the beat of "When One Road Close" for one of my own songs, the mystic "Ruwenzori (Mountains of the Moon)". You may decide for yourself if I succeeded in creating that deep spiritual vibe I was aiming at:

DOWNLOAD Ruwenzori

Miscellany

2009-06-14T04:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all my readers for the lower frequency of posts lately ... blame it on the summer. Here's some miscellaneous stuff before I return to substance.

- As you might have guessed from two of my previous posts (here and here), I have been a long-time fan of Glass Candy. I got to know them in an indie rock context and they seem to be mainly catering to that crowd, so it was great surprise to see that they made it into the latest issue of Wax Poetics.

- Also in that issue there's a long article about the legendary Roger Troutman of Zapp fame. It got me browsing through some talkbox videos on the tube where I found this gem:

- I've been spinning the new Lee Fields album a lot lately. I'm no expert in that genre but I like how Fields (and his backing band, The Expressions) channels the old school vibe of soul's glory days without sounding deliberately "retro":

- And last but not least, if you have a lot of time on your hands check out Phunkula's blog. This is my favorite site on the web when it comes to electro and old school hip hop mixes. Featuring many classic and sought after mixes and Phunkula's own wonderful "Boombox" series.

Changes & Subtleties in 35 years of Pop Music

2009-06-07T00:48:00.000-07:00

Isaac Hayes - Hung up on my Baby (1974)

Geto Boys - Mind playing Tricks on Me (1991)

2nd II None - If You Want It (1991)

Glass Candy - Geto Boys (2008)

P.S. Bad luck for 2nd II none that "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" flipped that sample a bit better and became the anthem of 1991 while they stayed largely unnoticed. Their 1991 debut album (produced by DJ Quik) is a soulful and funky piece of pre G-funk West Coast gangsta rap ... highly underrated. Check out the first single off that album which is sampling another classic ... Curtis Mayfield this time.

Glass Candy - Iko (Cosmic Rockers Remix)

2009-05-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

DOWNLOAD the song here

A bit of self-promotion ... this is a remix I recently made of Glass Candy's "Iko" (2005). Glass Candy, consisting of vocalist Ida No and beat programmer/musician Johnny Jewel, have impressed the world with hipness and retro-chic for about a decade now - not only in terms of fashion & visual aesthetics, but also in the way they have been appropriating and co-opting past musical styles. Questions of authenticity and originality have become obsolete in their postmodern pastiche, a simulation/simulacrum that is openly synthetic, a copied version of ... well, of other copies. Their work is chock-full of allusions and references, but these signifiers have long disconnected from reality and taken on a life of their own, not referring to anything but themselves any longer. And that's not necessarily a bad thing: At least it deflects the dated yet still all-too-familiar critique of fakeness (vs. an ideal of true musical expression).

When Glass Candy started out, they went for a somewhat half-baked post-punk meets no-wave sound. In recent years, they began embracing synthesizers, drum machines and 4/4 beats, becoming one of the first bands of the ongoing Cosmic/Italo revival trend. Their most interesting period was in between, around 2004/2005. Synthesizers and programmed beats had just started to creep into their songs which were getting incredibly funky. Based on a solid foundation of dry bass and organic percussions, these tracks still had an experimental edge: mostly in their approach towards structure, melody and in Ida No's eccentric vocals. "Iko" could almost be called a pop tune if it weren't for the minimalist feel and some odd synth tapestries.

I wanted to give the track an electro funk remodeling without losing its stripped-down quality. This was tough cause it meant I had to restrain myself from going all bazerk and adding layers over layers of synths ... what I would usually be doing.

I sampled the famous Jive Rhythm Trax 122bpm for the subtle percussive sounds in the background. The guitar sample is a chopped version of a guitar sample in "Contract on the World Love Jam", which is the intro to Public Enemy's 1990 album "Fear of a Black Planet". Imo one of Public Enemy's finest moments:

Some more notes on remixes

Picking up an older post, here are some remixing rules we hold to be self-evident:

#1: There are certain bands that are not to be messed with. (I already violated that one with the very first track I made)

#4080: If you are not sure you can do better than the original: Don't bother trying.

I am probably guilty of that one too cause the original "Iko" is such a great song in its own right. Compare for yourself:

Charles Hamilton - Un-Remixed

2009-05-24T03:50:00.000-07:00

Who could have guessed that yesterday's post would turn into quite an incident?
For those that missed it: 2 days ago a video appeared on the internets with Charles Hamilton getting punched by a girl after delivering a not-so-courteous freestyle about her. Check it out:

I couldn't resist making a little remix, mixing parts of his freestyle that lead to the punching incident with one of his hits, "Windows Media Player". Here's the audio I made:

I synced the audio to the video and uploaded it to youtube. Half a day later, the video was taken down and I got a warning from youtube. This is quite fitting, as one of my last posts was about this very subject: How grassroots creativity by bedroom djs and producers gets stifled by the music industry who are using copyright laws as their weapons of choice. Ever noticed how youtube got more and more restrictive over the past months and how a lot of videos have disappeared? Yeah. Strange thing is, my little remix wasn't tackling any major label big seller - it was just a 20 second video remix of an internet rapper and a newsflash by some neglectable internet hip hop site. As the Geto Boys said:

April = Egyptian Lover Month

2009-05-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

Somehow you couldn't help running across an Egyptian Lover feature or interview in April. I wasn't sure why cause he didn't seem to be promoting a new album or anything, but as Cozmo D said, "EL is always promoting something ... himself. Hustle is his middle name :)". I never cared too much about the Lover - the music always sounded a bit clumsy and simplistic to my ears. His contemporaries on the West Coast seemed to be far ahead of him - think of Chris "The Glove" Taylor's intricate beatwork or the World Class Wreckin' Cru's well-rounded wall-of-sound compositions. But at the end of the day (and 20 years down the line) you cannot deny that ... well, that it's THE EGYPTIAN LOVER.

In the interviews he comes across as a down-to earth and amicable guy, and I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he had to say. I really got the impression that after all these years he is still passionate about what he is doing and he is doing it for the love of music. I have nothing but respect for that. Plus he is funny as hell ... check out his words of advice to aspiring DJs:

So I'll just leave you with some reading material:

Interview on the Infinitestatemachine blog:
http://infinitestatemachine.com/2009/04/21/it-was-my-sound-an-interview-with-egyptian-lover/

Lengthy feature on Brandon Soderberg's blog:
http://brandonsoderberg.blogspot.com/2009/04/808s-jupiter-8s-egyptian-lover-electro.html

Artist highlight and interview on technobass.net:
http://network.technobass.net/page/artist-highlights

4-part interview in the German Juice magazine:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Radio interview on GlobalFunkRadio:
http://www.electrofunkology.org/OSRH/OSRH%20EGYPTIAN%20LOVER%20STORY%20PT.1.mp3

And finally, here's a video from 2008, Mr. Broussard visiting a record shop in Berlin and talking about vinyl, record digging and the analogue sound:

Street Sounds Nu Electro 1 - A Review

2009-05-16T04:11:00.000-07:00

The Street Sounds Nu Electro 1 compilation has been out for a few days now, and although it's too early to assess its relevance, I am not exaggerating when i say: This is probably the most important release of 2009.

Although electro music has been plundered by many recent pop and hip hop releases, there hasn't been a lot of media attention for the electro scene. This doesn't mean that electro is dead: A growing number of artists are working and producing tunes, but mostly in the underground and scattered across the globe. Being under the mainstream's radar isn't all bad though: It might allow creativity to flourish and develop freely without being seduced to conform to conventions of a popular style. What was missing in the last 10 years was a canonical form that subsumed all these different expressions and variations under a defining umbrella. The Street Sounds compilation might be just that: It showcases an incredibly wide range of styles and individual interpretations, but their peacefully sharing the space of the album reflects the willingness to acknowledge a common form - the label "(nu) electro". Which of course still has to be filled with content, so I can safely say I am already looking forward to future installments of the series.

The first of the two cds starts with a bang: A top choice of artists and tunes all mixed to perfection by Freddy Fresh. Legendary artists The B-Boys, Egyptian Lover and most of all Newcleus surprise us with shockingly modern-sounding tunes – these aren't washed out has-beens playing safe for their fans; they are really willing to experiment, to dare and bravely step into the unknown with no safety net attached. The already classic Aux 88 and newcomers Blastromen are featured with extremely soulful new school tunes that exhibit enough crossover sensibility to be accessible to narrow-minded retro purists like myself. And even bone-hard and technoid new school tracks like Dr. Schmidt's "Engines of God" and Signal Type's "In Abyss" grew on me after a few listens.

The second cd however can't reach the high mark set by the first. Most songs range from uninspired (Exzakt, who treat us with a third rate copy of Dopplereffekt) to crudely amateur (Invisible Rockers, Electronautas). The only standout track is Dynamik Bass System's mighty (pun intended) "Side by Side". I had always written them off as a gimmick band who were just emulating the west coast sound (that I don't even like that much), but boy was I wrong! There is some truth to the claim: If you listen to their great album "The Mighty Machine" you can't help but notice how close they stay to their role models – 808s, breathing vocals, arabian scales and whatever clichés the west coast had. Sometimes you can even name a specific Egyptian Lover / Unknown DJ / World Class Wreckin Cru track that they are copying. But "Side by Side" is a real banger with a crisp and detail-laden production, a BIG groove, great sense of melody and the sweetest vocoders I heard in a long time. Sounds to me like a synthesis of West Coast beats (The Glove anyone?), New York (the funk, the groove) and Miami sound (the vocoders) in a modern outfit. Here's a snippet:

All in all, the prevalent sound on Nu Electro 1 is not the funky, melodic electro of the 80s but rather the dark 90s new school electro. However there has been a mild but decisive reversal. The darkness and minimalism of new school electro was a musical dead end that left no room for further development except for: techno (consequently, an artist like Anthony Rother followed this path). At some point during the evolution of 90s electro, it would reach a border where quantity would transform into quality, where electro would finally be stripped of its very essence and turn into a different genre. In that respect, it was essential to reinject some soul and funk into the rusty machine to get it started again - and I would argue this is what you can witness on Nu Electro 1.

P.S.: A closing remark.
Did anybody else notice how the overwhelming number of artists on this album are white?
This is not a recent development of course, and the situation during the 90s was much worse. There is no single reason for this, but let me make some suggestions:

1) In the 90s, new school electro turned towards the european strain of electronic music, integrated techno but exorcized any remaining hip hop residues. And although I am running the risk of essentialist attributions, I am convinced: There is an audible lack of funk and soul in the whiteness of new electro.

2) But that's not the whole story. Much of the hip hop / electro divide can be attributed to hip hop itself which took sort of a macho turn in the late 80s. Homophobia is omnipresent in today's hip hop scene and it is a telling sign that electro is often ridiculed as music for gay european ravers (not that there would be anything wrong with that ... well, except for the rave part).

The Cool Kids - Gone Fishing

2009-05-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

If you have been following this blog you will have realized 1) I don't know shit about modern hip hop, 2) I'm somewhat suspicious of hipster rap (but willing to defend it against the resentments of the tight pants hating crowd), 3) I like the Cool Kids. How that computes? I have no idea.

Here's the Cool Kid's new mixtape which at first listen sounds even more solid than last (?) year's Bake Sale EP, plus it has a hilarious cover:

DOWNLOAD the mixtape directly from the Cool Kid's site.

And I know I'm at least a week late with this ... but I am about 20 years late with the rest of what I am posting, so who's going to complain?

Creativity in the Digital Age

2009-05-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

If you got 45 minutes of spare time (I know I'm asking a lot, but believe me it's worth it), I can only recommend watching this video. It is a talk held by Lawrence Lessig on the topic of creativity in the digital age, or more specific, on the way copyright laws threaten to prohibit creativity in the digital age. I feel that this is the single most relevant contribution to the debate about copyright that's been connected with the emergence of web 2.0.

If you're not convinced yet, let me post the tracklist of musical examples he is using in his talk:

Danger Mouse - The Grey Album
DJ Mystik - Edvard Grieg Techno remix
The Muppets - Mah Na Mah Na
Diana Ross and Lionel Richie - Endless Love
DJ Unk - 2 Step
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em - Crank Dat Soulja Boy
Girl Talk
will.i.am - Yes We Can
Kutiman-Thru-You - Mother of all Funk Chords

I hope that got you curious ...

Lessig's basic argument is that the 21st century witnesses an increase of creative output of such dimensions that you could speak of a cultural transformation (from a top-down model of creative consumption to a model of reciprocity and individual participation). This is largely due to a democratization of technology: As technology gets cheaper and cheaper, the means of creative production become widely available which enables individuals to reclaim creativity, to produce, interact and communicate. His global metaphor for this kind of new (amateur) individual creative production is "remix". For instance, think of cut&paste remixes of pop songs, mash-ups, youtube amateur music videos, etc.

However, there is a threat to this proliferating creativity, and this threat is of legal nature. The architecture of copyright laws (and this is a relict of the 20th century) has the unpleasant effect that their reach is drastically increasing in the digital age, and that most of today's amateur creative output is illegal by their definition. This is an unsettling fact that could potentially hinder, if not radically stifle cultural creativity.

Now what is the relevance for hip hop you might ask. Well, if you think of the beginnings of hip hop the parallels are quite obvious. Hip hop also meant a democratizing of the technological means of creative production. You might not be able to afford musical instruments - so what? You could create music by using other music, all you needed was "Two turntables and a mic (and I learned to rock like a dolomite"). At the very beginning, hip hop was nothing more than - in the words of the Sugarhill Gang - "rapping to the beat". And the beat of course were records of already existing music, so you were doing what Lessig would call "remixing".

By 1988 the sampler became the democratized technological mean of choice. This triggered an enormous explosion of creativity. Hip hop tunes became increasingly complex, turning into intricate patchworks, building layers upon layers of small pieces of recorded music. All this was threatened, however, when Biz Markie was taken to court in 1991 for unauthorized use of a sample. Subsequently producers and artists were refraining from using too many samples cause it would be too expensive to clear them all. The "golden age" of hip hop was literally brought to an end by legal matters.

In my mission of tracing some of hip hop's and electro's origins, I have mostly concentrated on internal aesthetic aspects - the way artists were influenced by other artists and songs refer to other songs. Truth is, there always are a lot more determinants at work, be it social, historical, political or - like in this case - legal. So my little aside has finally taken me back to the core of what I have been doing here all along.

P.S. Highly ironical fun fact: The video of Lessig's talk was taken down by youtube because Warner Music claimed a copyright violation of some short piece of music that Lessing used to illustrate his point about the omnipresence of copyright claims ...

Electro vs. Pop Culture Part 2 - Slap Chop

2009-05-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Remember the Cadbury commercial a while back? (No? Then just jump to my review about it.) Here is the sequel ... or rather, the whole thing turned on its head.

Is that Auto-Tune on the vocals? We are not amused.
The Electro orthodoxy of course decrees: vocoder good, autotune bad.

Am I even really a rapper anymore? Starring Lil B (of The Pack)

2009-04-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

The Pack are some Bay Area kids who have gained fame for rapping about such topics as vans shoes or skateboarding over bassy, minimal, hyphy kind of beats. Oh, and they seem to be wearing tight pants too. If by now I got you thinking "hipster rap", that was completely unintentional ...

The Pack frontman Lil B has been off on a strange tangent as of lately, launching well over 100 myspace pages each containing a handful of original songs. The pages are said to be numbered chronologically and listening to them feels like listening to a creative diary of sorts. It all starts out pretty conventional with beats that could as well appear on one of The Pack's albums, but somewhere into the second half you can witness an erosion of order with Lil B giving up conventional rhyming in favor of some kind of improvised free-form spoken word vocal style. The music is getting increasingly erratic too, ranging from low-fi rave assault to meditative and abstract synth ambience. You really can't help asking: Is he serious or is he losing it?

Then I stumbled upon this little video and I couldn't resist posting it here (nice synth work + the line "my face in outer space" = definitely cosmic rock material):

Am I even really a rapper anymore?

Am I even really a rapper anymore? Starring Lil B (Of The Pack) from Riveting Entertainment on Vimeo.

I like. And I couldn't care less if he is still a rapper or not. This could be the beginning of some wack Kanye type of overinflated ego rampage. On the other hand, he could be on to something great, expanding and testing the boundaries of what is possible in this age of internet/myspace hip hop.

P.S. Can anyone confirm if this is the Berkeley Pier in the video?

Lil B music page #2
Lil B music page #112

Yaz (We've got)

2009-04-26T01:32:00.000-07:00

Yazoo were a short-lived but highly successful British electro-pop duo consisting of Depeche Mode / Erasure mastermind Vince Clarke and singer Alison Moyet. In the US they were simply known as "Yaz" and had a couple of hits in the early 80s. "Situation" was released in 1981 and also appeared on their debut album "Upstairs at Eric's".

If I were to make a top 10 list of my favorite hip hop tunes, Newcleus' "Jam on it" would be at number one, and Man Parrish's "Boogie Down Bronx" would take third position. Quite interestingly, both songs were directly based on "Situation".

Once you compare the tunes, this becomes quite obvious. In Newcleus' case it is the prominent bassline – probably THE most famous bassline in all of hip hop – that is influenced by "Situation". "Boogie Down Bronx" borrows even more heavily from it.

Here's the breakdown part in the middle of "Situation":

And here's the beginning of "Jam on it".:

And finally, here's the beginning of "Boogie Down Bronx":

Actually, that's not the whole story. Check out "Situation" again and listen to the heavy, thunderous tom-tom rolls:

Is it a coincidence that another Man Parrish tune, "Hip Hop Be Bop" also has a lot of prominent tom-tom rolls? I don't think so ...
Listen to "Hip Hop Be Bop":

Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to a little percussive detail in the background of "Situation" - a sound that always seemed to me like water drops:

And once again, there's a hip hop tune (or rather a breaks record, but a very influential one) that uses a similar sound – I am talking about the Jive Rhythm Trax 122bpm:

The whole "Upstairs at Eric's" album is great, and you should definitely try to hunt it down. My favorite Yazoo song "Don't go" is also on that debut album. And I guess you won't be suprised when I present to you a hip hop tune that is influenced by it. When I say hip hop, it is in a very broad sense: I am talking about Planet Patrol's "Don't tell me". Planet Patrol was Arthur Baker's electro soul / r&b outfit. They sound like a soulful version of Afrika Bambaataa which comes as no surprise since Arthur Baker re-used a lot of his Bambaataa material when producing Planet Patrol. One detail I am interested in is the arpeggiated melody that's playing in the background of Yazoo's "Don't go" - here's an isolated excerpt:

And here's the beginning of Planet Patrol's "Don't tell me":

I always find it interesting to reconstruct the musical paths that led to the creation of hip hop and electro. In the early 80s, hip hop hadn't crystallized into a rigid form yet and influences were drawn from all kinds of music. There was no canon, and it was a period of openness that encouraged experiment and eclecticism. At its best, the resulting music was a cross-cultural rollercoaster ride where funk rhythms collided with pop or avantgarde music. Needless to say that today's state of hip hop is a step backwards in both musical and cultural terms: Flamboyant artist like Man Parrish would be considered gay and their music would stand no chance whatsoever.

The past that does not want to pass away

2009-04-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

I have to be honest: When I started this blog a few months ago, I thought I'd write about Electro music from the safe distance of the historicist who confidently disposes of his material, mapping out a clearly defined terrain. Somehow things didn't pan out that way, and more and more I am finding myself surprised by current events. It seems like the material itself is resisting the historian's totalizing grasp, insisting that it does not want to simply pass away (and that it actually never has). I like that.

Today saw the release of Freestyle's new EP "Invade the Party". Freestyle and their producer Pretty Tony were responsible for putting Miami on the map of electro music in the 80s, releasing genre-defining masterworks like "Don't stop the Rock" or "The Party's just begun". In addition to introducing the latin tinge of their native Miami into electro, they were most famous for their extensive and virtuoso use of the vocoder.

Freestyle are no longer working with Pretty Tony; instead they have teamed up with producer Debonaire who himself has left a mark on the world as a pioneer of Miami Bass music and who has also been in the business for a good twenty years now. The results of the cooperation are sounding very familiar – which is a great relief (if you have heard Pretty Tony's latest works, you'll know what I mean). "Invade the party" could have been Freestyle ca. 1986 ... well, only it is not as good as their classic material and the hooks are not on par with Freestyle's early hits.

But this would be an unfair comparison, and "Invade the party" is a good song after all. Debonaire is a true master of his craft, channeling enough Pretty Tony moments to satisfy old timers and invoke lots of early 80s flashbacks. There are the wonderful 808 tom-tom rolls from "Don't stop the Rock" (I'm a sucker for those), the congas, the floating bass sound and of course the sweet sweet vocoder. He injects just enough of his own trademark style to make it sound modern, resulting in a very balanced and rich production featuring lush – but never distracting – amounts of bass, some edits and the crystal clear sound of modern Miami. Again, he is channelling enough Debonaire moments to satisfy old timers – just listen to the carefully tuned 808 cowbells reminiscent of his classic Tricky D joint "Take it to the Max".

"Invade the party" is successfully fusing the melodic, funky and warm retro side of Freestyle with Debonaire's own, more technoid, dark and reduced sound. And it is an ironic twist that it might just be this modern aspect of the sound that is negating the tune's pop / crossover potential. In that respect, the virtual B-side comes as a great surprise.

"All these girls" featuring a guest appearance by the Egyptian Lover is a reinterpretation of Newcleus' "Computer Age" into a very modern and very catchy pop rap / r&b tune. You could argue that if "Invade the Party" mimicks a style, "All these girls" must be even more derivative cause it emulates a particular song – but you would be so wrong. The genius of Newcleus works as a catalyst that brings out the best potential in any of the elements, and suddenly everything falls into place. Is this the harbinger of a new style that can hold its own against the minimal electro productions that have dominated the r&b and pop world for the past years? Well, at the very least it is catchy as hell. And I'd argue it's the Egyptian Lover's best tune to date.

GET the new Freestyle EP directly from Debonaire's site.

Oh yeah, catch the Manu-Dibango-via-Michael-Jackson reference? They must have said to themselves, "If Rihanna can do it, we can too (and better)". Indeed: Mamase Mamasa Mamamakossa!

DJ Jaguarskills - 30 Years of Hip Hop Mix

2009-04-13T02:39:00.000-07:00

British DJ Jaguarskills played this mix on his BBC Radio 1 radio show just a few days ago. It features 500+ tracks, ordered by year, in just under an hour. Jaguarskills is notorious for taking up impossible projects like this one - in 2006 he already shocked the world with a similar undertaking, his "world record mix" of 800 tracks in 48 minutes.

With about 6 seconds per song it doesn't do the individual tracks much justice, but that's probably not what he was aiming at. It's more like a gigantic namedropping, with each tune being just a tease. That said, I don't have much to complain about it. It is mixed extremely well and with the resulting time-lapse view, it does a great job at showcasing the style changes over the range of 30 years.

Surprisingly, I didn't have as many "Why didn't he include X ?!" moments as I expected. Not sursprisingly, the quality takes a downturn during the second half. But you wouldn't have expected me to say otherwise, would you?

Take a look at the MASSIVE tracklist over at BBC.

DOWNLOAD the mix here.

Jaguarskills has his own blogspot address where he frequently posts his own mixes.

First Months Recap / Late Editorial

2009-04-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

thank you for your company during my first months of blogging experience! At first I had thought of the blog simply as a medium to promote my (Cosmic Rockers) tunes and provide a little background information. Instead, the whole project has turned into an extensive hip hop historiography of sorts. I will continue to shamelessly plug my own music from time to time, but the main focus will be on analyzing 80s (and some early 90s) hip hop and electro music ... with enough space dedicated to unrelated stuff I feel like covering.

I would like to encourage all readers (even if you just stumbled upon one of the posts by accident) to leave a comment! The feedback I got so far has been tremendously motivating for me ... it's good to know that there's actually someone out there who is reading this. Also, don't hesitate to correct me or disagree with me - much of what I write is either my own opinion or some dodgy theory that could use a bit of discussion.

Martin / Cosmic Rockers

Street Sounds - Nu Electro 1

2009-04-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

This news already has the underground buzzing with excitement: Morgan Khan is resurrecting his influential Electro series and will soon be releasing the first installment of a new "Nu Electro" series.

The original Electro compilations were crucial (pun intended) in bringing hip hop to Europe in the early 80s. This was a time when hip hop was still an underground phenomenon. Most of the early records were only released in limited quantities in the US and were impossible to find in Europe (if you ever heard of them at all). Instead of importing them, Morgan Khan licensed the tracks and compiled them on megamix-style records. For the first time, electro and hip hop were widely accessible and were able to cross over from underground to the mainstream in Europe – especially in the UK where the first Electro compilation even entered the pop charts at #18.

The series was probably the single most important contribution to Europe's perception of hip hop culture, creating a paradigm of its own which was somewhat different from its US blueprint. For us Europeans, the Electro compilations were the main source of information and therefore considered canonical. We didn't ask why those particular songs were selected – they had to be influential cause they were on the compilation, when it really was their being on the compilation that made them influential in the first place. That's why, among European listeners, there might be lenghty conversations about the merits of tunes like Star Raid, D.E.F. Momentum or Techno City while US hip hop heads don't even know these tunes. An even bigger source of controversy is the term "electro" coined by the series. This wasn't merely a question of taxonomy, of inventing a new name for an existing phenomenon. It meant the creation of a genre that didn't (and as many argue, still doesn't) exist in the US, giving rise to the sort of misunderstandings that two members of different language communities would be facing. Check out a stereotypical US (hip hop) vs. UK (electro) dialogue:

Picking favorites is an impossible task as each one of the compilations featured a number of great tracks. Electro 2 arguably has the best mix, starting out with raw and minimal rap by the B-Boys before exploding into colour with Xena's pre-freestyle "On the upside" and Hashim's mysterious "Al Naafiysh". Crucial Electro 1 probably has the most impressive tracklist. New York vs. LA beats was seminal cause it introduced the West Coast sound of electro to the world.

Later in the 80s, the Street Sounds label went bankrupt, largely due to Morgan Khan's ill-fated endeavors with his own Street Scene magazine. From today's perspective the downfall of the Electro series was only reflecting the downfall of electro music: By that time, hip hop had entered the Golden Age, and sampling had come to replace the 808- and synth-driven electronic tunes of the early 80s.

While electro was pretty much dead or at least hibernating by the end of the 80s, Miami bass and freestyle took over and carried the torch for some time. The rigid formal constraints of the genres prevented further evolution, which allowed freestyle and bass music to survive until today. But it also made them turn into clichés being caught in the respective ruts of car audio music or cheesy synth hooks over the same regurgitated planet rock beat.

The late 90s saw a resurgence of the electro sound. All of a sudden, the classics were being played again in clubs and the media picked up on the hype. At the same time, a wave of new producers invented what became known as New School Electro: a darker, technoid and sinister version of electro funk created by artists like Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, Anthony Rother or Aux 88. However, this was a short-lived phenomenon. By the year 2000 electro had once again faded into obscurity.

In the last couple of years though, it seems as if the table has turned again. Pop cultural references (Missy Elliot, Fergie ...), some pioneers' returns (Newcleus, Debonaire ...) and a number of new artists tapping the old school sound all point towards a renewed interest in electro.

It seems too early for any further judgement. As Hegel remarked, "the owl of minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk." Indeed, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Like any aesthetic phenomenon, musical style is time-bound. Even the most beautiful electro funk tune released in 2009 has close to zero historical relevance compared to the early 80s when the sound and the technical side of it were fresh, bold and exciting. The most it can be is good music. But then again, that is more than nothing. Facing the all-pervasive crisis of today's pop music, maybe we can only move forward by delivering tradition anew from the conformism which is overwhelming it, by setting alight the sparks of hope in the past. Only time will tell.

A review of Street Sounds Nu Electro 1 is going to follow as soon as it's out.

The Real Hip Hop - Bongo Barbershop

2009-03-25T01:22:00.001-07:00

"The Bronx is the home of hip hop", as the Infinity Rappers and Grandmixer DST once proclaimed. Watch how East African rapper Balozi walks into a Bronx barbershop on his quest to find the real hip hop. The barber turns out to be DJ EZ Mike and in the chair next to Balozi we find none other than Grandmaster Caz. Caz and Balozi spit some rhymes while shopsweeper DOA provides the human beatbox.

Charlie Ahearn (of Wild Style fame) directed this little short movie which can be found on the 25th anniversary edition of Wild Style.

P.S. Attentive readers of my blog will recognize the Rocket in the Pocket break right at the beginning of the movie and during Caz's first freestyle.

Hip Hop Genealogies - Rocket in the Pocket

2009-03-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

This is a little clip from a live concert by disco artist Cerrone in Paris, 1978. Cerrone (who is the guy behind the drums) had an international breakthrough hit in the 70s with the epic "Love in C Minor" and has continued to produce disco music to this day (here's a great song from 2002). If you ever come across one of those "The 10 sexiest/most controversial album covers" lists, you will probably find one of Cerrone's albums in there.

Anyway, back to the video: After an extended drum solo Cerrone goes into a super-heavy slow-motion breakdown part backed by weird guitar sliding noises and the chant "got a rock... rocket in the pocket" before he picks up the speed again and everything turns into a funky uptempo disco song. It will already sound familiar at this point ... just in case you're missing it, here's the break again speeded up to 45rpm:

The break became a staple in early hip hop, being played in many DJ sets and finding a way into quite a few songs. My guess would be that Afrika Bambaataa, known for his eclectic taste in obscure music, first introduced it. The Cold Crush Brothers also used it in their routines – check out this clip from the Cold Crush Brothers' MC battle against the Fantastic Five:

This was in 1981 - the first recorded use of the Rocket in the Pocket break as far as I know. The first time it was put to vinyl was in 1983, on the popular B-Boys track "Two, Three, Break":

One year later (1984) it was subtly appropriated for the intro of one of my all-time favorite tunes: Captain Rock's "Cosmic Blast" ... and I gotta admit the write-up about the break was just an excuse to post this song:

There are a lot more tunes that have sampled Rocket in the Pocket and I put some of them in a rar file:

DOWNLOAD THE ROCKET IN THE POCKET COMPILATION

Tracklist:
1.Cerrone – Rocket in the Pocket (live) (1978)
2.Cold Crush Brothers – live at Harlem World (1981)
3.The B-Boys – Two, Three, Break (1983)
4.Captain Rock – Cosmic Blast (1984)
5.Run DMC – Hit it Run (1986)
6.Original Concept – Can You Feel It? (1986)
7.Eazy E – Radio (1988)
8.Beastie Boys – 59 Chrystie Street (1989)
9.MC Lyte – Cha Cha Cha (1989)

Enjoy!

Trans Europe Express Revisited

2009-03-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

In my last post (which you might want to read as an introduction to this) I broke down the famous train sound pattern from Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express. For the sequel I put together an (incomplete) selection of tunes that all sample this particular sound. The diversity of the material is truly reflecting Kraftwerk's cross-genre appeal, with songs ranging from hip hop (old and new) to electro funk and even some krauty ambient stuff ... Keep an open mind!

DOWNLOAD the Trans Europe Express compilation

1. Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock (1982)
The most famous sampling of Trans Europe Express – not the beat though. An emulated version of the train sound is played in the background when the synth melody from Trans Europe Express sets in. Search the blog for more stories about this track.

2. Anthony Rother – Trans Europe Express (1998)
That's a no brainer ... outstanding remix and probably the only one that can hold up to the original. To quote myself: Rother „took the sluggish juggernaut steam engine and remodeled it to a REAL express train by increasing the bpm. The driving beat features prominently in the mix while the rest of the instrumentation is reduced to a sparse frame. Whereas the original version was still rooted in a long musical tradition - a symphony that went through several movements -, Rother's tightly composed Trans Europe Express has finally arrived in the Modern Age, thus realizing what was only hinted at but not unfolded by Kraftwerk.“

3. Kool G Rap – Rhymes I Express (1989)
Only samples the pattern in the chorus but it's such a dope song that I had to throw it in. Nice play on the double meaning of „trans“ and „express“.

4. Special Request – Salsa Smurph (1983)
Electro novelty track (what the hell is a salsa smurph anyway?) that was quite a hit back in the days. I have no idea why; it's just SO odd. I'd say it's the musical equivalent of what art historians call bad painting, an opposition to the canons of good taste. Weird sounds, lo-fi production, weird keyboard playing ... did I mention this is really weird (and fascinating)?

5. Kartoon Krew – Inspector Gadget (1984)
Nowhere near my favorites from the era but it still is a nice little tune, featuring some solid synth and vocoder work.

6. Sir Mix-A-Lot – Society's Creation (1990)
Heavy minimalistic beats and some unusual socio-political commentary from the Bumpasaurus. We are treated with a chopped up and barely recognizable version of the Kraftwerk sample. The 909 snare drum sounds a bit too technoid for my taste ... but then again even Mantronik used the 909 and he is the king of the beat, so who am I to complain?

7. Ras Kass – Ghetto Fabulous (1998)
That song is way past my usual timeframe, but it is a strong track and remarkable in its own right for slowing down the Kraftwerk sample to the point of disintegration. The relation to a train sound is completely lost, but it still retains its floating, ethereal character – „essence precedes existence“.

8. Professor Griff – Last Asiatic Disciples (1990)
PE's own conspiracy theorist/wingnut Professor Griff with a nice upbeat version of the sample which drops quite unexpectedly and is over before you know it. Well seasoned dosage of subsonic boom provided by Luke Skyywalker of 2 Live Crew fame.

9. Ultramagnetic MC's – Crush Kill Destroy (1984-1990)
Traveling at the speed of thought isn't the only Ultra song sampling Kraftwerk. I think I even prefer Crush Kill Destroy for its raw and unpolished minimalism ... even if the production is a bit on the „raw and unpolished“ side too. Call me biased but how can you not like Kool Keith's wacky space scientist lyrics?

10. De La Soul – Ghetto Thang (1989)
Very subtle use of the pattern and a great example of freeing a sample from its original context to create something completely different.

11. Wolfgang Riechmann – Wunderbar (1978)
Riechmann was a contemporary of Kraftwerk and part of the Düsseldorf electronic scene. His only album (also titled „Wunderbar“) is one of the most slept on gems from this time, eclipsed by the artist's untimely demise and by the success of Kraftwerk's Man-Machine which was released around the same time. It is not exactly the same pattern as in Trans Europe Express but you can clearly hear the similarity. This is a wonderful song with a slight spaghetti western feel that always reminds me of the For A Few Dollars More theme (as used in Babe Ruth's „The Mexican“ ... as used in Afrika Bambaataa's „Planet Rock“. And there we are, full circle.).

12. Cosmic Rockers – Exodus (2007)
I couldn't resist sneaking one of my own songs in. Probably the darkest and most Detroit sounding tune I ever made. The percussion pattern adds to the chilling and mechanical atmosphere. A little challenge (not too tough though): Can you ID the two vocal samples?

Guest Appearance on T.R.O.Y.

2009-03-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

I just finished the sequel of my last post about Trans Europe Express - it can be found on the T.R.O.Y. blog. I will repost it over here in a few days, but for the time being: click here.

Trans Europe Express - The Deconstruction of a Train Ride

2009-03-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

When Arthur Baker and Afrika Bambaataa „sampled“ Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express in 1982, they changed the sound of hip hop forever. The success of Planet Rock almost single-handedly put an end to what I'd like to call hip hop's infant stage: the early era of happy, feel-good party raps based on disco breaks. What was about to follow was a more mature sound: a wave of synth-laden tunes with heavy electronic drums, based on dark minor chords and sometimes exploring an unheard of lyrical realism of street topics (like Planet Rock's equally important counterpart The Message).

Much of this new signature style was due to the influence of Trans Europe Express which juxtaposed its cool and mechanical soundscape with an ominously haunting, almost romantic harmonic structure. This was no coincidence – Kraftwerk always sought to combine futuristic elements with a consciousness of tradition and a nostalgia for the past:

The album cover ironically features the four members in a classical pose and even the lettering alludes to a vintage Art Deco style of design. (And that's nothing compared to the hilarious inner sleeve)

The dominant concept of Trans Europe Express – the whole album - is the train metaphor. Most of the songs are built around the notion of a train ride. The title track also has one of Kraftwerk's more interesting beats - a very funky, layered and playful pattern with lots of fast 16th notes. Legend has it that one night while working on Trans Europe Express in the studio, Kraftwerk went over to the Düsseldorf train station to actually listen to the trains. It's not impossible that a beat can be inspired by the sound of a machine – after all, if a sound is repeated in a mechanical fashion, it will necessarily become rhythm. So let's see if there's any truth to the story. As you probably know, most train cars look like this:

I'm mostly interested in the wheels cause they are responsible for the train sound:

There are 2 wheels at each end of a train car. When multiple train cars are coupled this will result in a pattern of 2+2 followed by an empty space:

Any time the train crosses a rail joint, this pattern will produce a characteristic rhythm:

There are different possible ways to translate this into a percussion pattern. Let's treat the first train wheel of the 2+2 pattern as an upbeat, so the second wheel will become the first beat of the bar - sounding like this:

If we straighten this out just a tiny bit by adding a hit where the snare drum would usually be played, the resulting pattern will sound like this:

And voila, there's the famous percussion pattern of Trans Europe Express - a relentless motion against the backdrop of the kickdrum's sluggish thump.

Electro goes Pop Culture

2009-02-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

Been a bit busy lately and haven't found the time to write, so for now I'll just leave you with some fun stuff.

Every once in a while some electro reference will appear in the world of pop culture. I guess synths and vocoders are signifiers of choice when something is supposed to look retro/80s. Kind of sad in a way cause it goes to show that that part of hip hop has been irrevocably sidelined, or better yet: overrun by the merciless train of world history. General pessimism notwithstanding, it always puts a smile on my face when I stumble upon something like this recent ad for Cadbury (a chocolate company from the UK):

It heavily samples Freestyle's "Don't stop the rock", one of the most amazing vocoder electro tunes ever written. No wonder this came from the UK - it often seems the Brits are more determined than the rest us when it comes to preserving the electro legacy:

Here's another example ... a 2007 track by R&B singer Amerie:

I'm not too keen on modern reworkings of 80s tunes, but in this case I gotta admit the female vocals work well with the feel of the original track. It's not much of a reworking after all, just 2 loops lifted straight from Malcolm McLaren's "World's Famous" (beat & piano provided by Trevor Horn and Anne Dudley of Art of Noise fame, vocals by The World's Famous Supreme Team):

Hip Hop goes Art World - The [Abstract] Best

2009-02-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

This mixtape would be worth getting even if it was just a "Best of Q-Tip/Tribe" ... which it isn't. On top of that, it features an impressive roster of guest appearances, a whole lot of remixes, Tribe sample sources and even a bunch of interview-type interludes dropping science on Tribe history, Tip's production techniques et al., all mixed to perfection. Just have a look at the tracklist. If by now you don't feel the irresistible urge to listen to it, please get out and never visit this blog again. Seriously though, get it while it's hot! You can download it directly from J.Period's site.

The artwork is quite a ride, too. I like how the organic colors of Q-Tip's head hint at the trademark Tribe artworks of red/green figures on a deep black background, above all referring to the collage on Midnight Marauders (which in turn is an allusion to the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band").

Highly surreal/symbolistic in nature, the collage on "The [Abstract] Best" goes to show that by now it isn't only Hip Hop but a more general concept of black (music) history and identity that defines Q-Tip's persona. The camouflage pattern covering his face is reflected in the background which also consists of a decorative ornament: a reduced geometric black and gray shape. But wait, did I just say ornament? Even if it might look like a random pattern, it is indeed a sophisticated reference ... and it is no coincidence that the mixtape's title is "The [Abstract] Best":

Looks familiar? I thought so. This is a relatively unknown painting by one of 20th century art's most prominent figures: Piet Mondrian. Mondrian went on to become famous for his highly reduced abstract paintings consisting of rectangular, asymetric grids of black lines filled with red, yellow, blue or white color. He had a highly theoretical, almost ideological approach to art and he imposed rigorous constraints on himself: In later years, Mondrian completely banished diagonal lines from his works and even early on, he wouldn't have rectangular and diagonal lines in the same painting. As the story goes, he apparently went at great lengths to hide the above painting cause it contradicted his own theory.

As a proponent of avantgarde painting, Mondrian was strongly opposed to the decorative, ornamental and playful lines of Art Nouveau. He preferred a rational and geometric - some might even call it sterile - form of Abstractionism. If you trace the development of his art there is a logical progression leading from a short stint with Cubism to his own style of Neoplasticism. However - and this has been swept under the rug in art history -, that way necessarily passes through a geometric-ornamental period (as exemplified by this black and gray painting). Far from the restrained emptiness of his later works, it evokes the spiritual and transcendent qualities of islamic art ... entangled lines forming an infinite pattern ... a geometric arabesque. Fuse Green, who did the artwork for the mixtape, intuitively brought to light that hidden subtext which amounts to nothing less than the missing link in Mondrian's art.

On a lighter note, here's another Mondrian appropriation:

This would be more a case of "Art goes Pop Culture", though ...

Look out for the OVC, or: The Great Historical Divide

2009-02-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Jonzun Crew . Pack Jam [Show Tv.1983]

In late 1983 a strange, almost instrumental track dropped on the world like a monolith from outer space and subsequently enjoyed a surprising success in the pop charts. Surprising, because it couldn't be any farther from the feel-good pop of the times. It's a sparse and minimal track – a jam, as the title says. The only constant element is the trademark beat, the rest has an improvised feel. There are some space effects, a dominant and dark bass that chips in from time to time, and a short, menacing synth line that's slicing through the rest every now and then. On top of it there are some evil vocals which are completely vocoderized, kind of like Scorpio's evil twin.

So what's interesting about this track (apart from the fact that it is seriously dope, and apart from the fact that 2 french guys were clearly impressed by those space helmet outfits 15 years later)?

The Jonzun crew were a group of musicians fronted by the brothers Larry, Michael and Soni Johnson who had left their native Florida in the 1970s. In their new hometown of Boston, isolated from the subcultural revolutions that were taking place in New York at the same time, they invented their own version of electro funk, arriving at similar results as Afrika Bambaataa. While Bambaataa's approach consisted of an „Anything goes“ recklessness – the infusion of white German electronic music into a genuine black American tradition, creating an improbable cross-cultural hybrid -, the Jonzun brothers' electro funk emerged out of funk's own potentials. You could say they were standing on the shoulders of American pioneers that had already begun integrating electronic aspects into their music, namely the p-funk created and popularized by bands such as Parliament / Funkadelic or the electronic funk of bands like Zapp.

But that's not the whole story. Ironically there were 2 versions of Pack Jam and the genealogy of that jam is a textbook illustration of the great historical divide that the 1982 release of Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock meant for all of music. The first version was called Pak Man and it was released on a small Bostonian label in 1982, a few months before Planet Rock saw the light of day. Musically it is almost identical to the later version and it already featured the p-funk influenced „clappy“ beat with the spooky reversed-snare effect. The drums were played live – even on later records the Jonzun Crew still used live drums which might be seen as a refusal to completely disconnect from their older, pre-electronic musical roots:

For comparison, here's a contemporary funk track, The Dazz Band's „Let it whip“:

Pak Man was re-released as Pack Jam in 1983 on the newly founded Tommy Boy label, the same label that had unleashed Planet Rock. The 1983 version has a much fatter, in-your-face sound but apart from that it's almost identical to the former – with the exception of a slight yet decisive detail: an ominously ascending synth melody that wasn't part of the 1982 version but which is almost identical to a synth melody in Planet Rock. And as if that wasn't quite enough reference (or rather, reverence) they even put a little orch5-like orchestral stab at the end ... just like the famous orchestral hit in Planet Rock. Hearing Planet Rock, the Jonzun brothers must have immediately realized the connection to what they were doing and decided to change their song in order to place themselves in this tradition and context even more ostentatively. Here's Pack Jam:

And here is the breakdown towards the middle of Planet Rock with the prominent synth melody (which in turn was heavily inspired by the dark romanticist nostalgia of Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express):

So this is just an example how 1982 was a crucial point in time: New ideas tentatively surfaced at different places, branching out in an interdependent, rhizomatic way. Very quickly though, Planet Rock became the dominant paradigm that subsequentially absorbed and bundeled all other forces under its umbrella, creating a blueprint sound. Oh, and in case you are still wondering what the OVC was supposed to mean: It's the Outer Space Visual Communicator.

Fly Girls!

2009-02-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

Soul Jazz just put out an amazing compilation titled "Fly Girls! B-Boys Beware: The Revenge of the Super Female Rappers". There's a lot of classic material on it, plus some newer (read: 90s) stuff that I haven't heard yet:

JJ Fad — Ya Goin' Down*
Princess MC — Pump Up The Funk
Tanya Winley — Vicious Rap
Sweet Tee — I Got Da Feelin'*
Nikki Giovanni — Ego Tripping
MC Lyte — Cha Cha Cha
Two Sisters — B-Boys Beware
Cookie Crew — Secrets of Success
Sequence — Simon Says*
Bahamadia — Paper Thin
Sparky D — I Can't Stop
Queen Latifah Featuring Monie Love — Ladies First
Lady B — To The Beat Y'All
Camille Yarbrough — Take Yo' Praise
Missy Elliot — The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)*
Dimples D — Sucker DJ
She Rockers — Give It A Rest
Sarah Webster Fabio — Glimpses
The Kryptic Krew featuring Tina B — Jazzy Sensation*
Roxanne Shanté — Bite This

I won't give you any download links for this ... you can do a google search if you must, or you could also spend a few bucks and get the whole package with extensive liner notes and whatnot.

While you're waiting for the LPs or CDs to arrive you can pass the time with a little compilation I put together for you. This is by no means a competing effort ... I just threw in a few of my favorite female fronted hip hop tunes that I felt were missing on the Soul Jazz album. Enjoy!

01. L'Trimm - Cars with the Boom
02. JJ Fad - Supersonic
03. Anquette - Shake it, do the 61st
04. Bonnie & Clyde feat. Terminator X - Homey don't play dat *
05. Roxanne Shanté - Roxanne's Revenge
06. The Real Roxanne feat. Hitman Howie Tee - Bang Zoom
07. MC Lyte - Lyte as a Rock
08. Leonie J & Sweet Tee feat. Davy DMX - The DMX will rock *
09. Sexy Lady feat. MC Chief - Beef Box *
10. Chilltown - Rock the Beat
11. Sha Rock, Lisa Lee & Debbie Dee - Us Girls *
12. Menusha & the Girls - You Boys (Can Boogie Too)

(* Some names might appear in an unorthodox order ... nevermind, it's the same song)

Get it here

"Newborn infants detect the beat in music"

2009-01-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

This just in:

A group of psychologists discovered via experiments that newborn infants are able to detect the beat in music ... Well, what they did was measure electric brain responses to sounds. If confronted with 1) a standard beat and 2) the same beat with omitted downbeats ("the ones"), the brain will respond to the omission.

Does it prove that beat perception is an innate and universal ability? Or does it simply prove the brain will recognize when some kind of regular feature of a sound sequence is violated (aka the beat changes)? You may decide for yourself and read the full article here.

Talking about BEAT .. I'll leave you with a couple of tunes that are as minimal, raw and heavy on the beat as can get:

T La Rock - Breaking Bells

Sha-Quan - Don't Fess

Run DMC - Sucker MC's

(Look out for a young Vincent Gallo)

Cosmic Rockers - The Movement

2009-01-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

This is my second song ... and the first one that i wrote myself, also in late 2006.

Here's a quick breakdown:

As you can hear, I was still experimenting with the sound: Beat-wise I went for an 808 kit. The result came out a bit too sterile and trebly, so I put a lot of effort into building a nice warm, funky, organic and old school sounding groove for the bass as a counterpoint. Newcleus were an inspiration both to the groove and to the sound of the bass.

I was listening to a lot of kraut music then, and I was really impressed by Klaus Schulze's and Manuel Göttsching's approach to songwriting and their discarding the hierarchical structure of the pop/rock song. Don't let yourself be fooled, though: There still IS order in their tunes, just an order that isn't enforced by any transcendental principles. No ahistorical conditions of possibility, just internal conditions of existence. Emerging layers of ambient sound which are repetitive yet subtly changing, floating, meandering ... drifting in a Dérive kind of way.

Scape One was somewhat responsible for the idea of two melodies moving simultaneously in a fifth interval (first half of the song). Oh yeah, and the beat in the "breakdown" part was inspired by the "breakdown" beat of Planet Rock. In case you've never heard of that, stay tuned - one of the next posts is going to be THE definitive and comprehensive Planet Rock 101.

Title:
Ever heard of "DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT - THE MOVEMENT"?
I wouldn't think so ... it's an inside joke, really.

Influences:
- Newcleus: Why?
- Scape One: Retropolitan (Dusseldorf)
- Manuel Göttsching: E2E4
- Afrika Bambaataa: Planet Rock
- Kraftwerk: Tour de France
- Adorno: Dialectic of Enlightenment

Pick of the day: YMCK

2009-01-17T12:12:00.000-08:00

YMCK (check them out on myspace) is an 8-bit/chiptune pop outfit from Japan (no shit), consisting of 2 musicians/programmers and a female vocalist. The song is taken from their 2004 debut album "family music" and is representative of what they are about: a happy blend of pop and jazz with a latin tinge, built on intricate compositions with loads of chord changes and frantic solos, topped with breathy vocals (think: Astrud Gilberto on speed), all crammed into a hyperactive 2-minute-song, delivered at breakneck speed. Most songs are over before your mind can even begin to grasp what the hell is going on, leaving you with the feeling that you just got hit by a freight train. And whatever that was, you want it again, and more of it.

At first sight, the form, or rather: the aesthetic means of production (i.e. the bleepy, sawing sound) seem to dominate the content (i.e. the music itself). But after a few listens, you will witness a sea change in this dialectic, and the beautiful, virtuosic quality of the song will unfold and grow on you. (I promise!)
Check out the furious finale of "Does John Coltrane dream of a merry-go-round":

Not only are the driving chord changes similar to the progressions in Coltrane's famous "Giant Steps" - even the phrasing and the syncopation of the solo (when was the last time you heard something like that in a pop song?) are almost identical:

Granted, the 8-bit constraint implies quite a restriction: the sound is flat and cheap, lacking the full and rich timbre of a real instrument or the fatness of an analogue synth. YMCK more than make up for that with increased velocity, speed and force ... and polyphony. Besides, they seem to be quite content with the sound possiblilities at hand. After all, ANY music is based on restriction, and quality in music is a matter of simultaneously accepting and testing these boundaries, always pushing the envelope a little bit further.

This is postmodern music at its best. On the debut album alone, YMCK unsleash an impressive amount of pop cultural namedropping: tech talk (CMYK), video games (Tetris, Dragon Quest), musicians (John Coltrane), books (Do androids dream of electric sheep?), ...
It's cute, it's tongue-in-cheek, it's radically eclectic - but it would be bland and boring if it was JUST that, an ironic and empty regurgitating of cultural heritage. However, YMCK are too smart and too serious for that. They tackle their material with rare sincerity and an almost protestant work ethic that's objectified in the miniature songs, each of them being a complex composition.

So even if Marx was right and all history is to repeat itself, it seems appropriate to revise his claim that the tragedy will return as farce - in YMCK's book, it's more likely to be pastiche.

Slightly off-topic epilogue: If you share my musical taste (which you probably don't), then the dueling solos in the YMCK/Coltrane track might remind you of something only peripherally related to chiptune music: the lyric sheet of any Slayer album, always featuring the unforgettable line "Leads: Hannemann, King, Hannemann". Word.

The Rebirth of Cool

2009-01-11T04:11:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back, Byron Hurt leaked a short documentary titled "Barack & Curtis". This is of course referring to Barack Obama and 50 cent and is intended to instigate a debate on black masculinity - on the dominating black masculinity that Hurt sees represented by 50 cent and which is questioned by a possible new form of masculinity represented by Barack Obama.
The clip raises more questions than it answers, but it is well worth a view.

Byron Hurt is also responsible for an amazing hip hop documentary that is taking an unusual angle. "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes" examines misoginy and homophobia in hip hop and finds them rooted in hip hop's questionable ideal of masculinity.
Highly recommended, yet at times painful to watch.

Off on a little tangent ...
It was a clever move on Hurt's side to start the documentary with Nas' "Made You Look" - he already had me then. Some things worth mentioning about that track:

1. It features the immortal line "Do the smurf, do the wop, baseball bat ... rooftop like I'm bringing 88 back", later quoted by the Cool Kids in their incredible track "88".

2. It's arguably one of the best appropriations of the apache break. Quite exceptional use, I might add: It takes you a moment to realize that it's THAT break of all breaks. Here's apache:

And here it is, slowed down, as used by Nas:

Slowed down, it takes a life of its own, gaining an urgent and menacing quality, almost as if it had come back from the mists of time, haunting us and calling for what it was denied: redemption.
Or, in the words of Walter Benjamin: "In every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it. For the Messiah arrives not merely as the Redeemer; he also arrives as the vanquisher of the Anti-christ. The only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious." Word.

Hip Hop Genealogies - Planet Rock / White Noise

2009-01-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

Just got the news today that White Noise's 1969 LP "An electric storm" is being rereleased. White Noise were playing quite experimental electronic music and their 1969 debut album is considered groundbreaking and avant-garde for its use of synthesizers, audio samples and sound effects. Here's the first track off that LP:

Now, what does an old British prog band from the hippie era have to do with hip hop?
Just bear with me for a few seconds and I'll try to spell out a rather interesting genealogy.

Maybe the use of sampling techniques made them precursors to hip hop? I doubt it. First off, White Noise's albums were only known to an extremely limited audience and there was no influence on whoever was djing at block parties in the South Bronx 10 years later. More important, while hip hop's use of samples is constructive, White Noise tend to be deconstructive: Hip hop takes small bits and pieces of sound and uses them as the syntax in the creation of a pop song. White Noise start with a pop song and use audio samples as Trojan horses to question and eventually dismantle the song's integrity, stripping it until it dissolves into mere sound.
So where's the connection?

Enter David Vorhaus ...

Pictured above sporting the latest urban street fashion is David Vorhaus, member of the group White Noise and electronic music pioneer. The stick he is holding in his hand is called a Kaleidophon; something like a master keyboard - a device that controls a synthesizer. Only that it is not built after a piano but after a bass, making it more useful in controlling monophonic and voltage controlled synthesizers.

He invented and built the Kaleidophon himself, even winning him a first prize in an Austrian competition of electronic music instruments. He had to share the first prize with another nominee, though - Peter Vogel and his Fairlight CMI synthesizer. The two became friends and Vorhaus later helped to develop and further refine the Fairlight. Here's a picture of the Fairlight:

The Fairlight wasn't only a synthesizer, it also contained the first digital sampler of the world. Vorhaus himself created a number of samples for the Fairlight. One particularly famous soundbite was called "ORCH5". It is an orchestral hit that was sampled from an old recording of Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite". Listen to it here:

A Fairlight CMI was also present when keyboard player John Robie and producer Arthur baker recorded the music to the seminal Afrika Bambaataa track "Planet Rock". Robie stumbled upon the ORCH5 sample and decided to fatten it a little bit - making it into a minor chord by adding a 5th and a minor third. Here's what Robie probably played:

... and here's the final product (do you recognize the ORCH5 sample?):

And voilà, there is - in the words of Robert Fink - the classical ghost in the hip hop machine.

Holy Grails of Hip Hop - (Vicious) Beat Street

2009-01-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

Beat Street - the movie that exposed hip hop and all of the four elements to a worldwide audience. Altough everything about it is a bit too watered down, too mainstream-friendly, too cheezy ... it is still a nice movie. Just think of all the memorable scenes: The Us Girls performing at the house party. Afrika Bambaataa or Melle Mel performing live. And of course the two famous battles, representing some of the finest moments of breaking history ever transferred to celluloid, with the Rock Steady Crew and the New York City Breakers battling at The Roxy's and in the subway.

And let's not forget about the groundbreaking soundtrack, including a great cross section of hip hop, electro funk and even a hint of freestyle. Something seemed to be missing, though. Anyone remember the audition scene? Among others, there was a young and charming Brenda Starr singing this little tune:

It's a trademark Arthur Baker production called "Vicious Beat". Unfortunately, it never made it on the O.S.T. and it has never been released. You can hear that the vocals are still a bit raw ... bear in mind that Brenda Starr was only 18 at this point, a year before her solo career took off. But that's not saying anything against it - it has an immediate quality, an aura of youthful energy that some of her polished later output is lacking.

Vicious beat created quite a buzz among hip hop heads. It remains one of hip hop's unsolved mysteries and you still see people asking about it and trying to hunt it down. Most likely, it is still buried somewhere in Arthur Baker's vaults, and we can only hope that one day the World Spirit will correct this unforgiveable blunder and it will be unearthed to everyone's delight.

So while we're waiting till doomsday, here's a little surprise to pass the time:

It's a reconstruction of "Vicious Beat", done by some Swedish DJ whose name I cannot recall. Brenda Starr's vocals are missing of course and the sound cannot be compared to what Arthur Baker would have made of it ... still, it's a nice song worth checking out. Feel free to download it here.

Oh, and I should tell you I feel another remix/reconstruction of "Vicious Beat" coming in the near future ... by yours truly. Stay tuned!

Cosmic Rockers - More Fun To Compute

2008-12-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

This is my very first song ... it's basic cut'n'paste, no own material ... done late 2006 if I remember correctly.

The idea was to rework my favorite Kraftwerk song and add what's missing in this teutonic piece of engineering - the FUNK. I took the beat from Planet Rock which is - to this day - one of the heaviest beats I know. Of course, in 1982 when Arthur Baker and Afrika Bambaataa produced this masterpiece, the boom hadn't been invented yet ... that's why I added a shot of that extra low end. I wanted the first half to have more of a verse/chorus structure and make the second half an extended outro which retains the symphonic, repetitive quality of the Kraftwerk original.

You know that little conversation in the middle of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message"? I have always wanted to appropriate this bit. And since I had already used the famous "Don't push me" part, I thought I could throw that in as an intro.

Influences:
- Kraftwerk - It's more fun to compute
- Afrikaa Bambaataa - Planet Rock
- Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
- Kraftwerk - Home Computer

Funny thing is, just a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a brilliant remix of "The Message" by a British outfit called Datashat. They are using the exact same sample, and also right at the start of the song ... I guess Hegel would have called that "ruse of reason".
Check it out:

A note on Kraftwerk remixes

I do realize that probably the last thing the world needs is another Kraftwerk remix ... most of them range from unbearable to plain awful. A noteworthy exception is what Anthony Rother did to "Trans Europa Express". He took the sluggish juggernaut steam engine and remodeled it to a REAL express train by increasing the bpm. The driving beat features prominently in the mix, while the rest of the instrumentation is reduced to a sparse frame. While the original version was still rooted in a long musical tradition - a symphony that went through several movements -, Rother's tightly composed Trans Europe Express has finally arrived in the Modern Age, thus realizing what was only hinted at but not unfolded by Kraftwerk.

Just as beautiful as his version of "Trans Europa Express" is Rother's remix of "Nummern / Computerwelt 2": see here.