DJ Premier–The Love is Gone

DJ Premier–Jaz O and Immobilaire–The Love is Gone

One of the best DJ Premier tracks I’ve heard in awhile. From a Youtube playlist

Tracks in the playlist include:
M.O.P. – Follow Instructions
Screwball – F.A.Y.B.A.N
Guru – The Anthem
Jaz-O & The Immobilarie – 718
Jaz-O & The Immobilarie-The Love is Gone
snoop dogg-the one and only
Pitch Black – It’s all real (alternate version)
MOP – Bloody Murder

Big Daddy Kane – Any Type Of Way

AZ-The Come Up

Mary Mary–Walking

Now, none of us at the Trickledown listen to any gospel (mostly indie, prog metal, fusion, some hip hop) but one of us is on a downtempo and broken beat kick and heard this on the radio, pretty nice!

Mary Mary–Walking

Dorothy Ashby–Myself When Young, Soul Vibrations–Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop, Harp & Koto!

Dorothy Ashby, Detroit-born 70s jazz funk harp and koto player and singer extraordinaire. Here’s one of her great songs, Myself When Young, replete with flute, strings, koto, bass, drums, percussion, great vocals, etc. The first part is a killer break too.

Dorothy Ashby–Myself When Young

Dorothy Ashby–Soul Vibrations

Dorothy Ashby–Windmills of Your Mind

Jay-Z Blueprint 3 Review: It’s Awesome! (after a few listens)

Wow…what a surprise, Jay-Z came through and delivers an awesome album! I actually like this more than the Black Album (which I thought was kind of spotty) and way, way, way more than his last two forgettable albums, American Gangster and Kingdom Come. I actually was indifferent to/or hated much of Blueprint 3 on the first listen and a half. The next day, I started to really like it.

Jay-Z’s lyrics are as far-ranging, insightful, and wittier than ever (“I’m in the hall already, on the wall already, I’m a work of art, I’m a Warhol already”), and his delivery is better than ever. He sounded kind of half-assed and indifferent on his last few albums, he finally is rapping with much more obvious intent and effort, it really comes across. Very good lyrics.

Standouts tracks are What We Talkin’ About (could be a great Daft Punk song with all of its dramatic synths and disco/post-punk drum beat), Thank You (sounds very 1994 Tribe Called Quest/Pharcyde/Souls of Mischief), D.O.A. (awesome prog rock/jazz/fusion/psychadelic rock sample action), and Run This Town (more awesome prog rock/jazz/fusion/psychadelic rock sample action).

The only noticeable lack is…no Just Blaze beats!!! WTF??? Okay, time to start planning for Blueprint 3.5 or 4, with more Just Blaze on the boards. Luckily, Kanye West paried with No I.D. is an amazing production team, producing way better tracks together than on their own. None of the producers are letdowns on this album. Most significantly, the whole thing works as an album, it flows real well, it’s very cohesive, you can listen to the whole thing from start to finish, on repeat even, for a very, very good listen. Haven’t listened to an album from start to finish like this in a really long time. What a surprise and quite welcome, who would have thought? This sort of resets hip hop back to like 2002 or so when it was a much more viable art form than of the last few confused years…

Here’s Jay-Z on Kool Keith! One of the few to acknowledge Kool Keith’s ongoing (though obviously sporadic) genius:

Q: With a successful Blueprint 3, you could really make it cool to be a 40-year-old rapper. But, playing devil’s advocate, success could also encourage 40-year-old rappers who should hang it up to continue rhyming professionally, because Jay did it. Ever consider that possibility?…Understood, but you’re one of the few rappers whose movement is still followed by artists old and young. How conscious are you of that position?

A: I think that, as long as the heart is in it. Because even if you miss it, it’s art. Like, Kool Keith, he may not sell any records, ever. But I think his type of art is needed, and there are people who follow his music. I think, when it’s done… Larry Holmes in the ring for money, that type of thing, then I don’t want to see that. But, like I said, if the genre needs the game to be stretched out, ’cause you have those guys who are 35 years old trying to make the smiley face or whatever, competing with Soulja Boy.
http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=56297

Someone needs to make a Rather Good video of D.O.A. with cats playing all the instruments!!!

Check out some of the original samples, the prog rock/fusion/psychadelic tracks are incredible, such as by the 4 Levels of Existence (incredible guitar action and killer solo! and Janko Nilovic & Dave Sucky). Here are the original samples:
mp3s: Kevin Nottingham: Blueprint 3 original samples

*UPDATE: Just Blaze is set to produce 4-5 tracks on Eminem’s Remedy 2 album! I’ve never been an Eminem fan, but this is what Jay-z should have done, should have had 4-5 Just Blaze tracks on Blueprint 3!*

David Essex–Rock On: Crazy 1970s Minimalistic Psychadelic Funk Rock

David Essex–Rock On

Yo, what’s up with this song–David Essex. It’s crazy good–catchy, minimalistic, funky, psychadelic. It’s like a weird distillation of rock and roll without noticeable guitars or typical rock drums! It’s aggressive and full of rock swagger, with catchy rhyming lyrics almost like a precursor to rap or 90s/00s pop,yet super mellowly soulful and quietly funky at the same time. It’s clearly rock, classic rock, glam rock, but funk and soul too. I think JDilla samples it on Jay Stay Paid, I’ll have to check it out to make sure. But it sure sounds futuristic and hip hop worthy, maybe the best mixture of rock and soul and funk ever, as it’s so pure and distilled/minimalistic and futuristic for 1973. I hear Def Leppard covered it later, it’s an obvious influence for their rhyming, catchy lyrics on songs like “Rock of Ages.” Though obviously “Rock On” is way, way, way, way, way, way, way better, without all the cheese.

Def Leppard–Rock of Ages

The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is Based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh,” and The Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” is Based on The Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen” (See the videos!)

The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh” (video)

Okay, I’ve mentioned these before, that The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh” and that The Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” is based on The Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen”, but now you can watch these videos which demonstrate how–you can tell that the bands practiced their versions over these songs that they liked by the other bands. Check it out!

The Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” is based on The Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen” (video)

Here are the mp3s:
The Cure–Kool & the Gang-Fascination Street–Fresh (mix)(mp3)

The Sweet-The Dazz Band–Let it Whip–Love is Like Oxygen (mix)(mp3)

The videos and mixes were created by the L & S–check out the L & S’s new indie/postpunk album, in the instrumental vein of The Cure, Sonic Youth, Drive Like Jehu, and Voivod:
L &S –Random Sounds with Rhythm (mp3s)

New album: L &S-Random Sounds with Rhythm (mp3s)

Someone posting as “anything” has been writing about the Cure/Kool & the Gang connection, and influences of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance on the lyrics of Fascination Street at:
at http://www.cureconnections.com/new-20-years-of-disintegration/6266-fascination-street-is-based-on-kool-and-the-gangs-fresh-see-the-video.html

Also, fans of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” will surely love the first 12 seconds (and again later during the choruses) of Wire’s “Ex Lion Tamer” from 1977’s “Pink Flag” album.

Wire–Ex Lion Tamer

Here’s another great Wire song for good measure:

Wire–Mannequin
I think this song was covered by fIREHOSE in the 1990s…

J Dilla–Dillanthology Vol. 1 and J Dilla–Jay Stay Paid–New Favorite Music

I had always wondered what the big fuss was about J Dilla. I checked out Donuts at one point, and thought that while some of it was good (songs like Workinonit and Airworks), quite a lot of it was sketchy and uneven, including the handfuls of songs that basically just play some old soul tracks all the way through, not even really chopping them up or anything. However…

However, lucky for me, the powers that be just released two amazing J Dilla compilations, Dillanthology Vol 1 and Jay Stay Paid. Basically, the songs on these albums are like 1000 times better than on Donuts, and I can now see why people list J Dilla as like a top three producer. I think so too, he is now one of my favorite musicians ever.

The songs on Dillanthology Vol 1 and Jay Stay Paid will appeal to fans not just of hip hop but indie rock, electronic music, prog rock, psychadelic rock, etc (he loved the prog rock, psych rock, and moogy analog synth samples). The way he arranges his drums, samples, bass parts, synths, etc is totally creative and musically awesome–you can see what a far-reaching musician J Dilla really is/was, how many great ideas he had, his wide array of influences, how much he cared/how much work he put into his music. Really good stuff.

So, thanks record labels for giving J Dilla these great posthumous releases that give us a wide overview of the best of J Dilla’s vast creative output. They should put a footnote on albums like Donuts saying that they are just leftovers/filler/sketches (should have named it Ruff Draft 2?), and to look first to the real meat of his work on compilations like Dillanthology Vol 1
and Jay Stay Paid. Highly recommended.

J Dilla–Nothing Like This (off of the Ruff Draft album)

El Coco–Cocomotion

Disco for world peace…sounds like the awesome soundtrack to this one 1970s Galaxy Express 999 movie I have…also see the related 70s disco group Le Pamplemousse. It’s weird how the music industry works, this stuff is easily as good as Chic, Taste of Honey, etc, it’s weird how there’s always a media monopoly of just like two or three or ten bands in any one genre that you ever hear on the radio…payola probably.

El Coco-Cocomotion

Check out this 70s disco playlist on YouTube

Le Pamplemousse–Hot Disco Soul–Get Your Boom Boom Around the Room Room and Gimme What You Got

I can never believe how much good stuff keeps emerging from the 1970s…This kind of stuff just reminds me how much postpunk, indie, new wave and electronic music like the Talking Heads and Daft Punk and Duran Duran and Lindstrom and Prins Thomas comes out of early disco/funk, lots of hip hop too for that matter…

Le Pamplemousse–Get Your Boom Boom Around the Room Room

Le Pamplemousse–Gimme What You Got

Le Pamplemousse–Le Spank

Tarika Blue–Jimi–Awesome 70s Jazz Fusion/Prog; Deodato–Speak Low

Tarika Blue–Jimi

Awesome! This great jazz fusion band is from New York, the guitarist is Japanese, Ryo Kawasaki–what solos! Apparently the Tarika Blue song ““Dreamflower”, which has been sampled by Erykah Badu for a neo-soul, R&B hit (Grammy nominated), was also sampled by a drum ‘n’ bass group in the UK, the Underwolves,” according to the record label Downtown Sound.

Here’s some more awesome 70s jazz/jazz fusion:

Deodato-Speak Low
Deodato produced like all of the great 70s Kool and the Gang records as far as I know…