Reminiscing

Found this video from The Sonnets. It’s a good song but it’s more about the video for me. I have spent all my summers on that beach, I’ve been running, perfecting my tennis serve, smoking, kissing, barbecuing, laughing and drinking on that beach. You can find it here or in Halland, Sweden, a bit south of Halmstad. And you can find me there this summer.

What you got in that trunk?

I’m not the first one to blog about this song, but I just recently heard it again on a Kwali mixtape and I like it a lot. Strong Arm Steady (Phil Da Agony, Mitchy Slick, and Krondon), underground Hip Hop from California. Perhaps not so underground anymore collaborating with the Game, but who cares when the result is this. Their new album Arms & Hammers will be released later on this year.

I DO feel better

Although not exactly early with praising Hot Chip, I guess the proverbial "better late than never" is appropriate.
Latest album is def. worth a listen and the first couple of tracks are just ace.
Their latest single Feel Better comes with a couple of decent remixes and a kwasi-old-funny-foo fighters-video.


Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Hot Chip MySpace Music Videos

PS. worth checking out some old and gold remixes in this mu-si-col-o-gy exclusive Spotify Playlist.

CEO

One half of Tough Alliance is up to something. It’s a cool video I have to say. Another bloke who has done better by himself is Hortlax Cobra a.k.a. John from Peter, Bjorn and John. Below is the song Smoke from the EP Stop and Smell the Hortlax Cobra.



And while we’re at it with cool videos, Lemonade, a song by the wizard Erol Alkan and his fellow musician Boys Noize. The video is made by Ollie Murray and Rohan Wadham from Decoy. Turn your speakers up and the lights down, sit back and enjoy.

Tired?

Hyped Jay Electronica is back with yet another banger. This song is apparently inspired by a documentary about some guy who's trying to stay awake for 5 straight days. That doesn't sound like much fun, but it might be a movie worth checking out.

R.I.P Guru and R.I.P Gangstarr

Just as Bob pointed out, it's time for me to pay my respect to Guru. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my interest in rap started with Gangstarr, and more specifically with their classic album Hard to earn. I still remember exactly where I bought it and that I thought it was a banger from the first listening: Dwyck, Suckas need boudyguards, Speak ya clout and Comin' for datazz are just a few of the great tracks from this album. After that my journey into the world of hip hop had begun.



I can't say that I have lisened that much to Gangstarr outside of this album, but they truly have made some classic records (such as Full clip that became an immortal classic the second it dropped) and definentely were one of the most influential rap groups through out the whole 90's. Premier was one of the best producers back then with his trademark scratched hooks, and after being a bit out of the loop during the 00's, last year felt as a bit of a comeback for him with song like MVP by Ludacris and Watch how it go down with Termanology, and my prediction is that the scratched hooks soon will get a revival.

As for Guru he never made a big impact outside Gangstarr (even though his Jazzmatazz-series was quite good), but I've always liked his way of rapping and wonder a bit why he never featured other rappers songs. I've read some rumors of Guru and Premier didn't have a that good relationship in the end, but for me they will always be the group that opened the door to rap music for me. Thanks for that boys.

While waiting for DJ High School

Maybe it would be in place with a post about Guru today but I’m guessing that DJ High School is home sick from work these days compiling a list of great influential Guru/Gangstarr moments. While waiting for that list, I’ll give you some fine post punk; Tin Man by Future Islands, taken from their forthcoming (May 4th) album In the Evening Air.

So we dance

Apparently Stromae's beat driven hit has been around since 2009, it has however not hit my frequency yet. Sucker for the french lingo since first hearing All in my grill back in the days and they revived with all French electro lately.
Anywho - the little melodic cut by Stromae has been stuck on repeat at home. TEPR remix anyone?

Pocahontas

OK, once again I'm moving outside my safe rap-world. Just got home from a night out, and stumbled over this song by Neil Young, it's so fkn great - enjoy!

Red Cafe

Red Cafe is truly a strange name on a rapper (I guess it's a quite strange name for everything but a red cafe..), and he's been appearing on mixtapes and as a guest artist for a while now. Now he's here with a new song of his own, I'm ill, featured by Fabolous. The hook on this song isn't very good, but I like the verse and therefore thought it was blogworthy.

...

Well,boys and girls, it's friday again.

Polish connection

Thanks to my good man Zbysz (who's got the luxury of SXSW around the corner..) I was sent this absolute banger! It might not be suited for Fabric but I'd sure would like to hear it when getting into the groove( preferably outdoors with a Belvedere Tonic in my hand)
Just such an amazing build up (oozing of Discopolis and Make Love) followed by just plain magical Stevie lyrics.

Swedish sweet honey soul + LCD = feel good

As a newcomer I'll try hard to prove myself directly.. and go big with 2 tunes.

Let's start with Oskar Linnros (ex Snook, which could be hard to imagine), this tune has been on my mind for a while. Ok - the little part with some semi-rap could perhaps go, but otherwise it has so many elements which makes it into the current favourite to blast on your iPod heading home from the (after)party having the first rays of sun hitting your burger-remains coated face.

Anyhow - I've got a love/hate thing going with James Murphy et. al. but this one really hits the sweetspot (although characteristically long). Love the small cowbell like things as well as the monotonous vocals reminding me (for some strange reason) of Placebo - Pure Morning.

As always - let's see if he can intice some heavyweights (Erol !?) to give it a twist.

Gold

Gold Panda is one of my favourites from 2009 and one of BBC’s pick for “the Sound of 2010”. I’ve eagerly been anticipating new material from him after the amazing track Back home and the even better Quitter’s Raga. Now it’s here. You, is his new EP coming out in May on his own label. Below is the original and a remix by Seams who’s free album A Juvenile Rush also is worth checking out.

You


You - Seams remix

Video of the year?

Looking away from this corny video, I think Bronx rapper Kool Keith (a.k.a. Dr Octagon/Dr Doom/Black Elvis/mr Gerbik/and maaaany more) has a flow that few can match. His raps often circulates around either aliens or girls (I watched a documentary about him that made it quite clear that homemade porn is his main interest) and may not make that much sense, but it's good. Check out Dr. Octagonecologyst from 1996 and you'll see what I mean - it's a really dope album.

BTSTU

Jai Paul, unsigned but not for long I guess. BTSTU is an amazing song, best of 2010 so far!?! Get a 320 kbps version of it here.

A late summer night

The 2 Bears are Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) and Raf Rundall. Their new EP, Follow the Bears, is tough soulful house music at its best. There will be a lot of trendy outdoor clubs spinning these tracks this summer, not a bad soundtrack to an urban summer night though.

The Donut of the Heart

I’ve had this Dilla beat in my head all day, Time: The Donut of the Heart. Not the worst thing to have in your head because it’s absolutely brilliant, perhaps one of the best beats ever made, even though it samples this cheesy Jackson 5 song. Then I stumbled upon this video with Henry Moses Quartet and Mantis One, don’t know anything about these guys but they sure are making use of this beat in a good way.

A Sufi and a Killer

New material from psyche hop wizard Gonjasufi, the funky track Candylane is taken from his album A Sufi and A Killer, produced by Gaslamp Killer, Flying Lotus and Mainframe. Just open up all your senses and embrace it.

Money makes the world go round

Aloe Blacc has been dubbed “the indie R. Kelly”. His new album Good Things will be released later this year. I need a Dollar is also the theme song to the HBO series How To Make It In America, get a low quality (128 kbps) version of the song here.

Thief's theme

I'm a big fan of rap that got a dirty, rough and street narrow sound and lyrics about husltlin', grindin' and making it in the game in general - not in the Rick Ross-cocaine-baron-wannabe kinda' way, but in a more small scale way, just like the corner boys in HBO's the Wire (growing up in Sweden, it's obviosly a way of life I really can relate to...). I don't know if you're getting what I mean, but it hasn't got to do with scertain groups, rappers or labels - it is about the feel to the song; the combination of its beat, rap and sound. I label this type of rap thief's theme.

There are a couple of rappers who are making thief's themes more often than others. In an earlier post I mentioned Cassidy, and other examples are Clipse, Nas and Prodigy from Mobb Deep (listen to his 2008 album Product of the 80's - it's brilliant). But the one rapper I think is capturing this feeling the most is Chi-town naitive Twista. Songs like Kill us all, Holding down the game and Creep fast are all typical thief's themes, and below you can listen to perhaps the best of them all - Crook County.

Since it's hard to describe exactly what I mean, I'll give you a Spotify playlist with songs that have that thief-feeling to them. Link to it here.

Summer vibe

It's a nice sunny day and I got to think about 93 til' Infinity from Souls of Mischief - enjoy!

Who's the boss?

Slim Thug from Houston has been in heavy competition with Rick Ross the last few years. You might wonder what they are competing about? Well, simply who can use the word "boss" the most and thereby claim to be the ultimate boss (also Fabolous also made a short run but I guess he realised you just can't outdo these two). Suitably Slim released an album last year called Boss of all bosses, and you can't get any more boss than that right?

I started listening to Slim Thug on his Neptunes produced record Already platinum from 2005, and have been following him on mixtapes since then. Not the best lyricist, but he got a rough and slow type of rap I like, and if you want it even slower (on that purple?) almost everything he does get's screwed and chopped as well.

Last year

One of the best songs from 2009, Fuck buttons - Olympians, taken from the best album of 2009, Tarot Sport.