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Music Gallows: Old School Punk-Metal at Breakneck Speeds

August 5, 2010 - 10:25 am

With a band called Gallows — on a label like Epitaph, no less — one might not be expecting the most uplifting or positive musical vibes from a British quintet dressed like they’re ready to go to a funeral. Then again, if you’ve been to Britain during the winter, you might understand why the group might choose to dress that way (or look a bit on the glum side). And just to solidify their stance on society, their lyrics couldn’t be any more straightforward: “We have no fear, we have no pity/We hate you, we hate this city.” The boys were banned from playing the House of Blues by Disney, after all — and if you heard the first few seconds of the track “Misery”, which sounds a bit like a cross between a military march and a funeral dirge before it gallops into a full-blown, old school thrash/punk hybrid, it’s apparent the band is only being truthful with such a moniker. It gets better: the track ends with what sounds like a pig being slaughtered, or maybe in heat. But the boys get bonus points for saluting the British metal sounds of the late 70s and early 80s (check out their somewhat unfaithful but undeniably true-to-their-own-sound cover of Maiden’s “Wrathchild”). They’re coming to get you, OOOOO YEAH. Oh yeah, check out Red Bull Music Academy for more.

Music Cosmo Baker with Kon and Amir

by Shop Keeper

August 3, 2010 - 9:57 am

Two of the most elite names in DJing recently joined forces at The Sound Table for an exclusive live set on Red Bull Music Academy Radio. Mixing what sounds like 70s porno music with the very best of rhythm and funk that same decade had to offer, Cosmo Baker is already considered to be at the very forefront of his profession as a “world-renowned partymaker” — and a master of everything from electronica, disco, and someone whom other DJs have been quick to praise. Take DJ Jazzy Jeff, for instance, who was quick to point out that “when it comes to keeping the Philly Music tradition going, Cosmo has it locked. His knowledge is incredible and his Crates are deep and his passion and skills makes him one of my favs.”The man knows how to network to, having remixed everyone from Moby to Notorious B.I.G. Hailing from Philly, home of ?uestlove, King Britt, (and having been mentored by the latter), Cosmo Baker made enough of a name for himself to travel outside his hometown and meet up with two other industry legends. Kon and Amir, Cosmo’s current partners in crime, are clearly not ones to eschew their roots and origins in favor of current trends and flavor-of-the-week remixes; a philosophy that favors the old school over the new has earned them no fewer accolades than Baker himself: “Their compilations and mixtapes are classics and represent a style of Djing that’s true to the essence of Hip-Hop,” renowned DJing rag A-Trak states. See for yourself what all the hype is about below.

Music Jazztronauts: Heavenly Stuff

by Shop Keeper

July 30, 2010 - 9:18 am

It might be difficult for those jaded raver kiddies to know how to react when Jazztronauts, aka Jonathan Craft, take(s) the stage. Rest assured, the Belgian-born DJ has your best interests at heart : Taking the best of jazz throughout the past 30 or so years (but especially the last two decades or so) Jazztronauts revel in their adoration for the genre with a mix of dancy, techno dance beats — the proof is right in his ambitious remix of BLUE’s “Fall to the Stars”). So they know their roots but have the souls of ravers; they’ve obviously done their homework, studied their music history, and come a long way after a lot of hard work. “Gotta Beat It” sounds like a cross between Square Pusher and the bebop of John Coltrane, “Homefree” could be the surrealist soundtrack to a Bunuel movie, if they were blended with those similar jazz sounds of old…what’s more, the DJ’s life seems to be taking off even more since he started offering his services as a producer. Considering he got his start at the ripe old age of 21, he’s come a long way. Jazzaholics and electronica fans alike will find something to love now at Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Big Bad Leroy Burgess is the Unknown King of Soul

by Shop Keeper

July 29, 2010 - 10:31 am

Well, largely unknown until now, anyways. This week Red Bull Music Academy Radio highlights the work of Leroy Burgess, the founder of a late-sixties soul trio and a guy not only considered one of soul’s most renowned producers, but a pioneer of the sound known as boogie as well. Addition, he helped form the soul group Black Ivory. By the time Burgess was starting to get popular, the travesty known as disco exploded on the scene, and Burgess was simply unable to compete. Burgess stuck with his talents though, pouring energy into helping write hits for musicians/groups like Fonda Rae, Aleem, and Convertion, not to mention the one and only Rick James. And Burgess’ brainchild, Black Ivory, has earned countless accolades industry stalwart and hitherto-relatively unknown gem of soul/disco/R&B, having released a string of serious hits like “I’ll Find A Way (The Loneliest Man In Town)”, “Spinning Around”, “What Goes Around (Comes Around)” and “Will We Ever Come Together” — one of which you’ve almost certainly heard on one of countless jazz/R&B/classic soul stations on the radio. Right now though you can get a little taste of what you’ve been missing below.

Music Clipse: Straight Outta Virginia…Beach

by Shop Keeper

July 16, 2010 - 9:52 am

Not to sound too sentimental, but I’ve always been one of those saps that looks to music as among the most viable of creative outlets — something that author Aldous Huxley most succinctly labeled “after silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible” (thanks, Google). As humans, with emotions and feelings, we celebrate it, we need it, for many of us it’s the air we breathe. And while Virginia-based hip-hop group Clipse might scoff at such sappy cliches, the importance of imgaes and words is just as important. So be prepared: when Malice (one half of the Elektra Records duo, along with his brother Pusha T) cries out how “music is a self-made prison,” this is only the beginning of a torrent of lyrics that is somewhere between self-loathing and self-congratulatory. Lyrics that denote frustration, anger, and more frustration. Words that come from having lived in an environment where there’s little to do and less to think about. Clipse is from Virginia Beach. I grew up in plain old rural Virginia, but I’ve been to the beach there, and I can tell you that the only real difference between the two is in the ground you’re walking on and a really cold ocean with small waves. Surely, they’re not the only music group to sing about death and despair, but when you name your album The Funeral, and you live on a beach, maybe there’s something to be said for it. Just to hammer my point home: my English professor at college once said “if you’ve never been to Virginia, it doesn’t matter. Where I grew up, you could see nothing had really changed since the 1800s.” That said, Clipse hits home for me. Their lyrics aren’t even about Virginia, but their brutal honesty in rhyming, their talent for mixing and beat matching, are suddenly that much more poignant to me now. And anyways, in a world of P2P thievery and illegal downloading, when was the last time you heard about a hip-hop duo being signed to Elektra Records? They’re on Red Bull Music Academy Radio now.

Music Matthew Herbert is Harmless — Honest!

by Shop Keeper

July 14, 2010 - 3:38 pm

Matthew Herbert may not look like the kind of guy you’d wanna encounter walking through the woods or in an alleyway at night. But don’t let that fool you — the music’s the thing, and sonically, the somewhat balding, laid-back sounding music producer comes across as cheerful, benevolent, even blatantly and downright romantic. He’s somewhat of a schizophrenic beast as well, having honed his sound through years of McGuyver-like behavior involving normal household objects and using them as musical instruments. He’s come a long way from his youth, which consisted largely of using aerosol cans and aspirin bottles as beatmakers — only to discover, with the advent of synths and workstations, that there was a whole new way to slather his bevy of world-music sounds onto a sonic canvas. A lot of the magic here is just his plain strange concoction of beats and noises and cranks and grinds, that sound as though they came from anywhere to a factory to a toaster oven to some noisy industrial town somewhere in England. At one moment you’d swear you were in a gondolier being rowed through the canals of Venice, only to be whisked away to a random scene straight out of Boogie Nights. Whatever it may be, it’s working quite well for him: he’s been in charge of recording everyone from Bjork to rising jazz giant Dani Siciliano, and is already a critical darling, having earned several accolades from the likes of Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly. Widely considered a pioneer of microhouse, Matthew Herbert has paid his dues and then some. All right already — get a listen of the man’s eclectic genius right now on Red Bull Music Academy Radio, where Herbert also provides a great deal of insight as to the sounds and ideas that inspired him.

Music M83: Relive Your Teenage Years Unabashedly

by Shop Keeper

July 13, 2010 - 1:46 pm

The minute I heard M83 — I think it was on some Saturday night eclectic mix on KRCW — I was pretty much effing hooked. There’s actually just one guy behind it all, Anthony Gonzalez, who has spent the past 10 years or so masterfully compiling all his 80s and shoegaze and songwriting genius into one album after another. And every time I watch the video for “Kim and Jessie”, I can’t help but feel, as comedian Sam Kinison put it in one of his many moments of insight regarding the opposite sex, like I’m ‘watching tape from behind enemy lines’ and getting a peek into the brain of the female psyche through a pair of extremely cute yenta-looking, bi-curious roller skaters. Songs like this and “We Own the Sky” are obviously indebted to the decade hipsters were so quick to dismiss during the era of grunge and alt-rock, while “Skin of The Night” channels both the melodies of Duran Duran and Phil Collins’ drum set from No Jacket Required into something both should be envious of. Sure, with a title like Saturdays=Youth and Gonzalez’ own admittance that the title simply means that ‘Saturday is definitely the coolest day of the week for a teenager, and that’s the reason Saturday is in the title’, it’s obvious who Anthony is aiming for in his demographic. But unlike a lot of music crowding the youth market nowadays, M83 is a sound unto its own, nostalgic yet unpretentious in conjuring up the best the 80s (with the help of today’s programming standards). Step into the time warp on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music MoodyMann is Bringing Back the Dead

by Shop Keeper

July 8, 2010 - 12:25 pm

Disco seems to be experiencing a resurgence these days, which might please the virgin ears of newbies or boggle the minds of others who managed to live through it all. The brilliance of it all is: most of these artists never mad it quite as far as Andy Gibb or Donna Summer, but now they are being played by MoodyMann and sound infinitely better than it did originally, even when Travolta put on his leisure suit and struck a pose in Saturday Night Fever. You mean all that work obscure disco artists went to was basically for naught, and they struggled through obscurity for years, only to have to wait nearly 4 decades to really be heard?! If you were to hear MoodyMann, you’d probably believe it too. But it’s not all disco for dee mann, it’s actually a lot of the jazz and Motown that made his Michigan hometown famous. He’s developed a reputation for interaction with his crowds, as well as some more humorous samples from old Blaxploitation gems. Get a listen on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Ratatat : Rapid-Fire Guitars. And Samples

by Shop Keeper

June 30, 2010 - 2:11 pm

When I first heard Ratatat, I figured all they were was just another MGMT, but Ratatat injects that hackneyed formula of sample-laden laptop buggery and spinning with enough absurdest humor for those of us who like (need) some distraction with their electronica music. The New York City duo call to mind France’s The Young Gods — and a lot of the more sample-obsessed groups who utilize distorted guitars and bass lines, most of it at the press of a workstation button. Yes, Ratatat is hip enough to be loved by the elite know-it-alls of the industry, but tracks like ‘Lex’ and the single ‘Wildcat’ garnered them a lot of fans who were happy to know that sample-based electronic musicians could still play their instruments. Judging by their live shows, it’s a near-seamless blend of Gibson SGs and those aforementioned sampling techniques that make it such an entertaining show. Weird visuals that resemble detonating bombs and Hitchcock films floating on a screen behind them doesn’t hurt either. So stop reading about samples and get yourself some on Red Bull Music Academy Radio, haha.

Music The Bomb Squad Just Wants to Set You Off

by Shop Keeper

June 22, 2010 - 10:43 am

You don’t spend years working with one of the most talented groups in all of hip hop-dom– aka Public Enemy — without earning a reputation. One of the world’s most famous hip-hop and award-winning production teams, The Bomb Squad (as well as their musical brethren in PE) are indisputable proof that the way to make it in the industry is plain and simple the ability to get audience ass on the dance floor. And BS in particular have a penchant for spinning random reggae tracks (make that lots and lots of reggae), only to shoot them down in a hail of random experimental white noise, or just simply slowing down the record to a grinding halt unexpectedly. I’m not an aficionado of reggae by any means, but it’s hard not to at least bob your head to the music of The Wailers or Peter Tosh or even that “ZungaZunga” song by Yellowman. Hey, here’s a reason why musicians and non-musicians alike have Bob Marley bumper stickers and posters and window decals: something in reggae music speaks to people, on some level, when they hear it. And it’s kind of a welcome change when a catchy classic radio staple falls victim to what is little sounds like someone defaming the classics by stopping and starting the record as it spins. Maybe it’s antics like these which keep The Bomb Squad fun to listen to — and with their stellar production work behind the sound of such classic hip-hop staples as Ice Cube’s Ameirkkka’s Most Wanted, Bel Biv Devoe (remember “Poison”?), and Run D.M.C.’s landmark classic Land of the King – it’s easy how they’ve made it as far as they have. Do yourself a favor and tune in to some of their more recent work on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.