Quasimoto – Closer (feat. Madvillain)
From: Further Adventures of Lord Quas (Stones Throw, 2005)

When Madlib and MF Doom joined forced for last year’s Madvillainy, the resulting record got “more spins than the power plays” and “earned them a tower of praise,” as Doom himself puts it. If there was ever any doubt about the duo’s ability to follow up such a well-recieved album, this track (from the upcoming Quasimoto LP) puts it to rest, proving that the Loop Digga and the Supervillain could easily drop hot shit from 2003 ’til infinity. Doom’s odd quiet-voiced delivery, Madlib/Quasimoto’s blunted bar-trading, and a stunning sampled hook come together to create a song every bit as dope and original as anything they’ve done. Here’s to the future.

[As always, Ear Fuzz is about sharing good music, not disrespect. If anyone from Stones Throw wants this taken down, let us know and we will do so immediately.]

You can pre-order Further Adventures of Lord Quas here, here, or here.

Leo’s Sunshipp: “I’m Back For More” and “Madame Butterfly”
From We Need Each Other [Lyons, 1978]

Tragedy surrounds this soul group which was formed by singers Kenny Stover, Johnny Simon, and Allen Few, all of whom were born under the astrological sign of Leo. Kenny’s brother Elgie had ties with the music industry, and Kenny along with Simon at one point were backup singers for Marvin Gaye (you can hear them on his Hear My Dear album).

Both were involved with a number of groups like the Wallace Brothers and the Naturals, but Simon sought the spotlight. That’s when Stover and Simon met Allen Few and formed Leo’s Sunshipp and in 1977 they recorded four songs. Tragically, Stover became ill and soon died from cancer in his early thirties. Lyons Records eventually finished and released the album We Need Each Other, but four of the nine songs are alternate mixes, with “Leo’s Sunshipp” the only non-repeating track. “Give Me Sunshine” was a minor hit, but with Simon gone the group soon disbanded.

It’s unfortunate because Leo’s Sunshipp could have easily flourished through the 80’s. I’m not the biggest soul fan, but I really like the crisp and almost disco-esque vibe that characterized their music, which is why I say they could have easily evolved through the next decade. Nevertheless, We Need Each Other is a great album that’s pretty tough to find in the original, but fortunately it’s been reissued.

Photek: KJZ and Hidden Camera
From: The Hidden Camera E.P. (Astralwerks, 1996)

Back in my schooldays music appreciation was split into two very clearcut groups; you were either into rave or grunge. Sure, there was other music being played and you could put on a De La Soul album and everyone would nod their head but above it all lay these two clear cut groups.

I was most definitely a raver back then and used to shop every week for the latest jungle, and later drum n bass, vinyl, never returning home until I had an armful of headache inducing breakbeat monsters.

However, come the mid nineties, the music that at first seemed so different and challenging had begun to grow extremely stagnant, every week I’d go and hear the same old Amen breaks and warped basslines over samples from Scarface and Goodfellas and I began to loose love and interest in the scene. Then this album came along and simultaneously proved to me how great drum and bass could be while killing of all my interest in subsequent releases as I could see that the future of my music taste lay elsewhere.

Rupert Parke’s, AKA Photek, had already been on the scene a while when this EP was released and he must have been as sick of the stagnation of the scene as this album was a major step in the crossover between the electronic and organic in dance music.

Gone are the Amen beats of old and instead we suddenly have something more like freestyle jazz drumming. Take a listen to the first track I have up for you today, KJZ, it’s drums are more like something you’d hear on a Billy Cobham record than on a record by one of the up and coming drum and bass maestros as Photek samples his own staccato drumming to create a texture of breaks. Add to this the beautifully late nineties synth strings, the subtle electronic vocal harmonies and the plucked bassline and you have 7 and a half minutes of modern jazz genius.

The second track, Hidden Camera, is a slower number, full of whirling spookiness and ominous strings. While less groundbreaking than KJZ it proved once again that you could have tracks that worked as well on headphones as the dancefloor and that the Amen and Apache breakbeats really had had their day.

After releasing an album which was more compilation than new material Photek also started to distance himself from the drum and bass scene, dabbling in techno and house, before returning to the folds of drum and bass with his own label. However I’d really liked to have seen what he could do if he’d gone the more Matthew Herbert/Squarepusher route and let his imagination run free……..

You can read more about the man here.

Amon Tobin – Verbal (Boom Bip remix)
From: Verbal 12″ (Ninja Tune, 2003)
Boom Bip – Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boards of Canada remix)
From: From Left to Right EP (Lex, 2003)

Bryan Hollon (aka Boom Bip) is one of the several artists currently exploring the grey area that exists between hip-hop, indie rock, and electronic music. Like Sixtoo, Hollon has managed to shed the label of ‘Anticon beatmaker’ and move on to a successful solo career as a producer. His music sounds simultaneously huge and tiny; I’m never quite sure if I should be listening to it on speakers or headphones. Anyway, here are two of my favorite non-album cuts, showcasing Boom Bip as both remixer and remixed.

Nightmares on Wax: “Playtime (John McEntire remix)”
From Warp 10+3 (Warp, 1999)
The Pastels: “Remote Climbs (John McEntire remix)”
From Illuminati (Up, 1999)
John McEntire: “Quinn Goes to Town”
From Reach the Rock Soundtrack (Hefty, 1998)
Coldcut: “More Beats and pieces (John McEntire Tortoise mix)”
From More Beats and Pieces 12″ (Ninjatune, 1997)

A request for the John McEntire version of “More Beats and Pieces” got me thinking about the breadth of the Tortoise co-founder’s solo material. Reverb, lost-in-space bloops, and clipped drum samples abound. While not necessarily DJ friendly, these tracks avoid congruence for just long enough to make the eventual backbeat or consonant melody line snap you to attention. Somewhere between cocktail party background music and stoned headphone rhapsodies, these tracks don’t grab you by the neck so much as they seep into your skin.

Kid Koala: Tricks and Treats
From Scratch Happy Land 10″ (Ninjatune, 1996)
Coldcut: More Beats and Pieces (Kid Koala’s Obsessive Behavior Mix)
From More Beats and Pieces 12″ (Ninjatune, 1997)
Kid Koala: P. 42
From Nufonia Must Fall(Ninjatune, 2003)

Kid Koala is one of the most talented and engaging DJs around, bar none. Ask the Automator, who uses Koala’s cuts on just about every single project he does. The whole “turntablism” movement seems to have run its course, leaving most scratch DJs adopting a more traditional club rocking style, or lingering in obscurity. Kid Koala keeps wowing crowds for the simple fact that he’s a great entertainer. He’s the scratch DJ you can take your girlfriend, your music theory nerd friends, or your parents to go see without having to worry about whether they’ll get it.

Word is Koala first grabbed the attention of the Ninjatune massive with his homemade 4-track tape, Scratchcratchratchatch. This tape, along with Dibbs’ Turntable Scientifics pretty much set the standard for the whole anything-goes-scratch-tape thing. The tape later got edited down and released as Scratch Happy Land on Ninjatune. I posted the Charlie Brown routine, which never fails to get a smile.

Kid Koala has done several projects and remixes for his Ninjatune brethren, but this Coldcut one is by far my favorite. Maybe one of my favorite DJ tracks ever. Ridiculous.

These days Koala’s style focuses heavily on composition and melody. He’s one of the few DJs who creates fully orchestrated songs on the turntable. The results are pretty strange. Good, too. P. 42 comes from the soundtrack to his book, and really should be required listening for aspiring scratch DJs.

Oh, and the whole reason I thought to post all this was because he just released a live CD/DVD of his last tour. I was going to post the Drunk Trumpet routine, but it’s in my car right now, and besides, you really should SEE it too. Go cop that!

Picture taken from the KUSF Rock N’ Swap 4/3/05

Bola Sete: “Bettina”
From Workin’ On A Groovy Thing [Paramount, 1971]

Aswad: “Dub Fire”
From A New Chapter of Dub [Mango, 1982]

I found myself waking up at 4:30 this morning, which was technically 3:30 because of daylight savings, to go to the KUSF record swap, a record show that’s held every 3 months at the University of San Francisco. I haven’t been to one in over 6 months due to a combination of lack of finances and scheduling conflicts, but for those that have never been to a record show let me just say that they can be pretty intense. We’re talking about a room full of record collectors; obsessive compulsive people searching for hundreds, often thousands of records to file in their Ikea Expedits, all in hopes of slowly filling voids in their lives, and feeling better about themselves and their hobby. Yes I am one of these people and this is what we do.

Now I’ve only been to a handful of these things, and the last one I went to was absolutely no holds barred. The serious collectors will arrive at 5:30 in the morning and pay an extra $15 to get first dibs on the records. As dealers set up shop, dudes will stalk them ilke vultures waiting for the instant they open up their crates to the public when people make a mad dash, pushing and shoving their way to the front so they can get the pick of the litter. Nothing hurts more than watching somebody pull a killer record right before your eyes, and nothing feels better than finding that one you’ve been searching for for months, even years. In a way it’s kind of like survival of the fittest, if you catch my drift.

But this is what makes us who we are. We thrive on the thrill of the hunt; the idea that all of these records await us somewhere out there for us to find. It’s an epic game of cat and mouse. Road runner vs. coyote. We hope someday we’ll win, but deep down we wish the hunt never ends.

Here are the pieces I picked up today. Nothing major, but I’ve been looking for the Johnny Hammond and Curtis Mayfield for a bit. Scored a nice stack of hip hop as well. Apparently there were shows in Austin and Pasadena this weekend as well so the dealer turnout was only about 50% of usual, and the scene definitely wasn’t as chaotic as I’ve seen in the past. I’m still glad I went though, cause I love records.

Just a couple of random audio selections from my stack. Bola Sete’s “Bettina” which was sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, and Aswad’s “Dub Fire,” off their superb dub album A New Chapter Of Dub. Listen. Enjoy.

Curtis Mayfield: Curtis
Johnny Hammond: Gears
Bola Sete: Workin’ On A Groovy Thing”
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson: From South Africa to South Carolina
Aswad: A New Chapter In Dub
Clifton Chenier: Bogalusa Boogie

Grand Puba: Reel to Reel
Steady B: Let the Hustlers Play
Eightball & MJG: On Top Of The World
Showbiz & AG: Goodfellas (not really sure if this is an OG but it was $3 nonetheless)
DJ Quik: Rhythm-al-ism
De La Soul: “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa b/w Keepin’ the Faith”
Bad Azz: “We Be Puttin’ It Down”
Ghostface: “One b/w Saturday Night”
Group Home: “Tha Realness b/w Suspended in Time”
Pete Rock: “Tru Master”

Leon Haywood: “I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You”
From: The Best Of Leon Haywood

George McCrea: “I Get Lifted”
From: Rock Your Baby

Killermike’s recent post on a couple of G-Funk classics inspired me to trawl back through my collection for a couple of songs that Dre used back in the day when creating the classics The Chronic and Doggy Style.

First up we have the extroadinarily sleazy funk of Leon Haywood’s I Want’a Do Something To You. An artist who had various solo and collaborative hits in the sixties, Leon really took it to another level with this 1974 opus. I love the opening riff, so famously used in Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang, but also the Isaac Hayes style strings that lace the track and the Lil Louis style woman breathing erotically over the top. Ignore the absolute banality of the lyrics and focus on the layers of the production, with wailing guitar, falling strings, a chugging bassline and, of course the ultimately in sleazy orgasming backing vocals. You can find out more about Leon’s career here.

The second track for your listening enjoyment is George McCrae’s I Get Lifted. Still probably most famous for his cheap soul compilation classic Rock You Baby, George actually has a lot more strings to his bow including this little number from the album Rock You Baby. Used in Snoop Dogg’s Gin N Juice it’s got the kind of funk break begging to be sampled, and dear god has it been sampled, utilised for tracks by Snoop, Big Daddy Kane, Redhead Kingpin and, cough, Montell Jordan among others. It’s one of those superb tracks where less is more, a song built on a killer riff with George laying down some very seductive vocals over the top and a “cha cha” breathing sound complementing the chorus. You can read a full bio of the man at his website here.